Tag: Family

Ring

I’ve written about this before, but when it comes to weight loss and the after effects of weight loss surgery, my wedding ring sort of acts as a canary in a coalmine.

The day after the wedding, while at our first honeymoon stop at a bed and breakfast in Woodstock, VT, my wedding ring fell off in the shower. I had lost a little weight since the ring fitting and my hands were soapy and pow, the ring fell to the shower floor.

For the first few months of our marriage, I would take off the ring before getting into the shower, or doing anything that involved soap and a drain. After a few months I grew into it a little and no longer needed to take it off.

By the time we get to January 2022, when I couldn’t stand the weight and the yo-yo dieting and the fluctuations and the lack of energy and the back pain and the leg pain and the general misery that my weight caused me, I really couldn’t take the ring off anymore. It wasn’t painful, but it was pretty well stuck in place.

Now, post surgery and about a hundred pounds later, it’s been slipping lately. Only when I am washing up or showering or doing something that gets me all soapy and stuff. It hasn’t fallen off yet, but it’s been close.

Close enough that when I took a shower yesterday morning, I took it off. That’s the first time since the summer of 2009. I didn’t take it off today, but only because I was in a bit of a rush and forgot to. When lunch started I went upstairs and shaved. I took it off for that. I’m reaching the point where the idea of my ring falling into a sink or shower drain is becoming real. That’s a bad thing, of course, but from a weight loss perspective it’s a good thing. It’s weird, but true.

I don’t want to resize my wedding ring. I’ll probably put a piece of tape around the back side of it to tighten it. That will work for a while at least.

Okay, kids. Lunch break and story time is over now. Get back to work.

Nothing Going On Today

I have nothing on my mind today. It’s weird.

I did my 30 minute walking in place. I ate breakfast. In 33 minutes I’ll be able to drink water again. The work day has started. Everything is proceeding nominally. Weird.

I haven’t done any work on the summer song writing thing. I did some over the weekend, but I haven’t played any real instruments and I am only up to six songs in progress. I’ve wanted to work on it, but I’ve wanted to hang out with Jen and the kids doing nuttin’ in the living room more.

I haven’t done any film photography fun for a while. I have two rolls ready to develop. I was hoping to have at least three before I decided where to ship things off to. Not sure when any of that will happen.

I haven’t seen my parents in quite a while. I need to fix that. We had a little Covid-exposure scare at the end of last week so we locked ourselves down. I didn’t go anywhere until yesterday, after we declared ourselves in the clear. We had some dead car battery excitement yesterday. Bellana’s car hadn’t been driven since January. Jen had started it a few times, but yesterday it was as dead as dead can be. We had to have it towed. Hopefully it’s okay today. I’ll find out.

Bellana’s coming back here tomorrow. Harry’s coming back here on Friday. I can’t wait to see them both again and I can’t wait to have them both in the house. It makes it feel even more like home. I really love my family.

Rough Night Tonight – Half Day Tomorrow

It was a pretty quiet day around here. Harry stayed at his dad’s house last night. Bellana stayed here but left for dad’s at around noon. We missed them both but made the best of it. Jen was busy so I mostly just goofed off with the new film blog and Instagram. The Instagram already has more engagement in two days than my main account has had in however many years it’s been up. It’s nuts. I put a couple of film related tags on each post and people are coming from all around. I’m getting more notice than I usually get from Flickr, and I do all right (by my own personal, meager, non- viral, non-influencer standards) on Flickr.

The rough patch came at dinner. I took one bite that was way too big. I knew it was bad as I was chewing it, but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Nope. I got nice and sick. I felt queasy for a while and thought it was going to pass. Nope. My food tracking spread sheet has a column for nausea. On a scale of 1-10, that particular instance was a 10. The worst experience yet, by a long way.

I wanted to play guitar today but did not. I probably won’t tomorrow either. I took a half day in the morning because I thought I was bringing Bellana to the Registry of Motor Vehicles (or whatever New Hampshire calls it). Nope. Dad is bringing her. I am now on car inspection detail instead. I want to be out early enough to warm up the car and get to the garage before they open. If I can get in and out quick I might work on some song ideas before I punch in. Or maybe I’ll put that weight bench together. We’ll see.

Until then, g’night.

Gift

Bellana brought us gifts! How sweet is that? She was on a study abroad trip, trying to travel all over Europe, on a super tight budget, and she still brought us gifts. I’m so touched!

She got me a case for my glasses from Portugal. It’s made out of cork, which apparently is a big industry there, but it feels like leather. It’s really cool.

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Flight Update

Bellana’s flight is in the air. According to Flight Aware, she is currently West of Ireland which means she’s over the ocean. Is she technically outside of Europe yet? I’m not sure where the actual continental border is.

She had a delay before taking off, but not too bad. Only an hour or so. We are expecting her to be on the ground by 7:00ish. Jen and I will be there waiting for her.

I’m so excited!

Faux 5K

Yesterday I said I was thinking of upping my faux indoor walk game and shooting for a 5k simulated distance instead of just a 30 minute time. Welp, today that’s what I did. It took about 44 minutes to go 3.2 miles. Just about what I was expecting. My legs are beat. Not quite numb, but really tired. I’ll still try to do 15 minutes on the bike later if I can. I won’t stress if I can’t though.

Bellana made it to Germany while we were sleeping last night. Her flight home from there is still showing as on time. It should leave in about an hour. Every finger I have is crossed with every other finger I have in the hopes that she takes off and lands on time. Jen and I are going to the airport to pick her up. I don’t want to have to wait any longer. I want her home!

So television shows. I have started watching season four of Westworld on HBO Max. I’m a few weeks behind, but I’ll catch up. The funny thing here is, I’ve been trying to watch an episode a night while sitting up in bed. I’ve tried twice, and both times I have managed to fall asleep just before the episode ends. Nice, Robert. What are you, some kind of rookie? I started over this morning to make sure I didn’t actually miss anything. With this show, you sort of have to pay a lot of attention. The tiniest detail in episode two can turn out to be the thing the whole series hinges on, you know?

Okay. Going to make myself some scrambled eggs and then punch in to work. Bellana comes home today!

She’s Coming Home!

Bellana is coming home today!

WOOHOO!!!

Her first flight is scheduled to take off about an hour from now. I just searched for it on a flight tracker app and it’s showing as on time. She’ll be on that plane for about an hour, then she has a few hours worth of a layover followed by her second flight which takes her across the pond and home.

Fingers crossed for no delays or issues or weirdness so that we can see Bellana today!

Both kids will be here tonight! I can’t wait!