Oh, Ya Big Baby

I was going to go out shooting some film this morning, but after I finished my morning faux joggin’ I completely wussed out. Why? I just don’t wanna go out in the cold. You big baby.

I did something to my shoulder today and I have no idea what. It hurts. Why? I didn’t do anything to deserve it, other than being 51 years old when stuff just randomly starts breaking down.

We’re supposed to get a huge storm sometime tomorrow, I think. I don’t know if it’s rain or snow or both. It might mess up some plans for the weekend, but I can’t tell one way or another yet. I hate snow. I really, really hate snow.

The kids are coming home this weekend. Bellana’s car is dead so we will be selling her (“selling”) one of ours. I want to get it tuned up for her. There’s a software recall and I have an appointment to get that done on Saturday. I want to get an oil change too, and have the tires checked. They should be fine but let’s make sure. The other car needs an oil change too and the wiper blades are falling off. So this weekend’s theme is kids and cars, to start with at least.

Did I mention that I’ve lost 200 pounds since January? I was on cloud nine all day long yesterday. I still am. I even went to the facebook to gloat a little. People are asking for before/after pics. I might give the people what they want. I gloated on post.news too. I was the first person on that network to use the hash tag #GastricBypass, but a few fellow surgical survivors said hello. That made me happy.

We are 20 days away from leaving for Florida. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to travel for the first time in almost three years. I can’t wait to spend two whole weeks with the kids. I can’t wait to experience Disney World with the love of my life once again. Did I ever mention that my original plan for proposing to Jen involved the World Showcase at Epcot? In the end I did it at home because I just couldn’t wait anymore, but we did reenact the proposal I had in mind when we took a trip there with Larry and Nawal a few weeks later. Also, and this is very important, I can’t wait to be warm. I know it is not going to be scorching, but it is going to be a whole hell of a lot warmer there than it is here.

I feel like I should have 100 other things to write about this morning, but I’m drawing blanks left and right. My shoulder is really bugging me. I think I pulled a muscle or something. It’s annoying the crap out of me. I’ll get over it, someday. Mostly I’m just really happy that I don’t have to drive into the office today. I am working from home for the rest of this week and the first three days next week. I have to go in next Thursday but hopefully that will only be for half of the day. Starting next month though (after I get back from Florida) we will be going into the office on Wednesdays. Every Wednesday for the foreseeable future. That’s seriously depressing, but I’ll rise above it, somehow.

Okay. I am going to finish my breakfast and then spend half an hour or so gazing longingly at my weight tracking spreadsheet. Specifically the Total Since the First Check In cell where the number is over 200. Ah, what a thing that is.

Nutritionist Recap

I met with a nutritionist yesterday and got to share my glee over dropping below 300 pounds for the first time in decades. She seemed like she was happy for me. I was happy for me too.

She approves of everything I am doing, which also made me happy. I had a few questions and she answered them all and gave some suggestions for things to fix the one or two small issues I’m having (artificial sweeteners do not cause dumping syndrome, hair loss isn’t a nutritional thing and it happens to everyone and it stops after a few months and it grows back, adding some sodium to my diet should help with the occasional moments of light headedness, if you’re eating a meal and it’s taking more than 45-60 minutes to finish just stop eating so you don’t develop a grazing habit).

This week is a screwy one, work wise. I only worked about two hours on Monday and then went out sick. I worked a full day Tuesday. I worked a half day Wednesday because of the nutritionist appointment. I am working a full day today. I have vacation days tomorrow and Monday. So that means today is the last day of my work week, and I follow it with a four day weekend. I didn’t have a reason to take two days off. My company has personal time off accrue monthly, and if you accrue too much you hit a cap and they stop adding time. If I didn’t take two days off this month I would have hit the cap. So I guess I take two days off, right?

We are planning a drive to Vermont this weekend. I think we’re shooting for Saturday, but the plans are still up in the air. I want to visit my mother as much as I can. Her birthday is Monday so I will be able to see her on her birthday. That makes me happy. I want to do as much camera nerding as humanly possible. The forecast is calling for rain on Sunday evening through Monday morning. Tomorrow and Saturday look clear, or at least clearish. I want to be in Boston by sunrise at least once and it looks like that is going to be tomorrow. Beacon Hill, Newbury Street, if the conditions are good maybe some reflections off the Hancock building, maybe a quick run into Harvard Square in Cambridge. We’ll see how it works out, but as of now I am totally making the trip. I just need to find an appropriate parking garage near Beacon Hill.

Speaking of rain. About an hour ago we had the loudest crack of thunder you’ve ever heard. It didn’t shake the house, but it was one of those monster booms. It’s pouring like the end days out there right now.

Not Tonight

The sun is about to set and folks are turning on the lights outside of their businesses. I, however, am not going to be joining them. No evening drive into the city for me. I feel a ton better than I did this morning, but I’m a little on the gun shy side as far as health is concerned so I am passing on the opportunity.

Also, Boston is about to get bitch slapped by some thunderstorms and I don’t want to deal with that. So I am staying home. I have decided that in the spirit of the new Amazon Prime series The Rings of Power, I would finally get around to watching The Hobbit, even though we all know it’s gonna kinda suck. We watched the first half of the first movie once, ages ago. Tonight I started over from the beginning. Let’s see how bad it can get.

We have a piece of furniture being delivered tomorrow afternoon. I have the living room ready for them. Everything is out of the way. For now though, we’ll just spend a little time in Middle Earth with the guy from the English version of The Office.

Stormy

We just got spanked by a thunderstorm. The noise shook the house, the rain was a total downpour, the lights flickered a couple of times, the Lightning lit up the whole neighborhood.

Harry went outside to watch the show and he saw an actual bolt of lightning.

It’s pretty much passed now. We can still hear it off in the distance, but the show is over.

It was pretty cool.

Forecast

I am not a superstitious person. I promise you that. Occasionally I talk about karma, but it’s always from the point of view of someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The reason for that is that I don’t believe in karma. Makes sense, right?

I don’t believe in any of that stuff. Why then, when I look at the long term weather forecast and see that it’s supposed to rain on the day of my surgery do I see it as a bad omen? Knock that shit off, red head. It’s not raining because it’s foretelling bad news. It’s raining because it’s Spring in New England.

You’re not that important, asshole.

Stormy

I knew it was supposed to be warm and raining today. Did we know it was supposed to be stormy? It’s like a hurricane out there. Our Poland Spring delivery is today so I put out our empty bottles. I have to believe that once the wind gets hold of them they are going to end up in Maine*. I’m glad I drove to work yesterday and not today. It’s nuts out there.

When I came home from work yesterday there was a new wireless Apple keyboard on my desk. Santa came early! The one I was using was old and well loved and whatever coating they put on the keys was long gone. This one actually feels knew under my fingers. Sweet. It also has a finger print scanner and that’s pretty cool too. Welcome to the 2020’s babie!

I’m hoping for a quiet day at work today. I doubt I’ll get it. One of our buildings has a power outage already. I think some of our Inhouse environments live in that building. It might be weird for a while. Hold on to your butts.

Happy Friday.

*I live in Massachusetts and the New Hampshire border is in the woods behind my house. I wrote Maine as an exaggeration. Had I said New Hampshire it would have been because it is a literal possibility.

Ark Time

It is raining so hard right now that it sounds like someone is playing drums against the side of the house. Wow.

Is it too late to start building that ark thing?

Also, it’s 57 degrees out at 11:52 pm on December 11th. Just FYI.

Umbrella Problems

Twice now I have had trouble opening up the patio umbrella. The boom arm thingie won’t slide into place correctly. Last time I was able to do it but today it didn’t quite open all the way.

Shit.

I was able to refill the line in the weed wacker, but it doesn’t quite auto-fill as it’s running. I can work around that, but still…

Shit.

The grass is 10 feet tall. Today is the only day I have to cut it. It looks like it poured rain last night and it’s starting to rain again.

Shit.

Tropical Storm Remnant

It’s been raining all day. I went to the cellar an hour ago to check on the water status. Lake Asshole is confined to the storage area, which is where I think the water is coming in though I can’t tell exactly where, and it was not out in the cellar proper. It’s there, but the water level is low enough to downgrade Lake Asshole to Pond Asshole.

I emptied the dehumidifier (in the tub upstairs. I can do that with the little dehumidifier, but not with the huge-ish wetvac) and started vacuuming up some of the pond. I stopped when the wetvac reached full. I was in the middle of the work day so I let the dehumidifier run and figured I’d dump the wetvac outside during lunch.

That’s when the tropical storm remnant that drown the state of North Carolina hit for real. It is pouring like the end of the world out there. I’m positive the dehumidifier won’t be able to keep up, and I am going to get drenched when I empty the vacuum because irony is clearly dead.

The upside here is that I don’t go to my parents until tomorrow night, so I can keep up with this after work and all day tomorrow. I’m optimistic that it won’t get too bad. I’m also convinced that this whole water in the basement thing is just the universe kicking me when I’m down and trying to bring me to new “heights” of massive depression.

Fuck you, rain.

The Never Ending Flood Story

There was a little bit of water on the cellar floor when I went to bed last night. We were in the midst of our first four consecutive rain-free days since April and it seemed like things might be on the mend down stairs.

Then it poured over night last night. Again. There was more water in the cellar this morning, though still not the worst it’s been. Clean up complete. Wet vac and dehumidifier emptied yet again, though unlike the last few times it is currently raining in Methuen, Massachusetts, though it’s just a drizzle.

Just add it to the growing list of things that are pissing me off these days.

I feel like a fucking yo-yo. I was optimistic three days ago, absolutely crushed two days ago, a little sort of bordering on optimistic yesterday, and just miserable again today.

Who would have imagined that I would look back over the recent past and see something other than 2020 as the low point of human existence. I am actually feeling a little nostalgic for the high point of the global pandemic that locked down the civilized world and killed millions of humans. Not really, but in a self centered way? Yeah, a little.

Fuck.