Today - I stepped on the scale at work. My first week attempt was to get that thing to show ANYTHING less than 200 pounds. I was up to 206, needled down to 204, 202, 200. Today? 199! I would like to ultimately get to around 185. Oh, the scale? A commercial grade platform scale that is very accurate with a maximum load of 1,000 pounds. I use that scale every time to make sure I’m not getting mixed readings. They use it for shipping purposes - you weigh whatever you’re sending and that’s what the rate for delivery is based on.
I have mostly just been cutting back on portion sizes at meals. I’m also only eating twice a day. I’m trying to stay outside and do some extra yard work when the sun starts to fade - and the temp starts coming down a bit. This isn’t anything fantastic in terms of a huge effort - I’m simply making small changes and it’s already paying off. I’m in no hurry, either, just want to get it done and not gain any more weight.
So - that’s week 1. I have no plans on blowing the diet - but tomorrow I am going to Joe’s Crab Shack - yes, it’s a real place, not a joke - but, it was at her invite. I may confine eating to that one restaurant trip and maybe a snack later on. I am not morbidly obese - in fact, I”m not obese at all. I’m overweight - but not even by that much. I just noticed that I was packing on the pounds at an alarming rate - at least for me - nip it in the bud before I have to start buying larger pants.
Michael - apologized profusely today. He is still moving out - but I was a little surprised that he actually apologized, on his own. His choice will result in the following: Living in a house with 15 other people. Food supplies sometimes abundant - sometimes non-existent. Electricity sometimes on, sometimes off. Water - same as electricity. No privacy. Limited use of a computer that is on dial up. LOTS of noise at night - he has already stated several times after going home that he can’t sleep for all the noise going on all night long. Lots of in-fighting with brothers and sisters. Ummm - the list? Goes on, and on, and on. I could think of 20 more things, at least. Those were probably the main things - though there are other things that occur over there as well. People getting into trouble - police visits frequently. People going to jail. Drugs and Marijuana. Much younger brothers and sisters that will destroy his things. Well, that’s enough.
I am going to attempt the water copper line install tomorrow morning. Presuming I get up early enough to beat the heat. Beat the heat? I think the overnight low is expected to be around 90 degrees. That’s just plain insanity. Well, anyway, I won’t have any choice but to finish the job once I cut into the main line - obviously.
I am still weighing what to do with Ken. Last weekend, he not only drank 48 or so beers in less than 2 days, he also apparently started propositioning Mimi, the only female tenant here - and a LOT of other reasons not necessary to go into here right now. Yes, a LOT of other reasons. A buddy at work asked me to day when I was going to evict him? Well, really, I haven’t quite gotten to that point yet, but - I’m getting there. His lifestyle simply doesn’t fit too well in this house.
So, I just asked Caleb a little while ago if he wanted to go to this new waterpark on Friday. I show him the website and the pics - the place looks awesome. Probably a lot of people there - but - I can deal with that for one day. He gets a look on his face: Well, I’ll be in school on Friday - I told him I was taking the day off. No son, you told me you don’t start until the second week of August. He gets this look on his face: Oh, YEAHHH, I’m there!
So, a little while ago, Kyle comes walking in. Kyle is going to make it in life - I do believe. The kid is a workaholic. He just got laid off from his newest job. Safeway apparently cut a LOT of jobs recently. At least in this area. I felt bad for him - he’s a hard worker and self-motivated. He started to get involved with drugs - but he got into a program that helped him deal with it before he got too far into it. I applaud that kid, I hope he continues on the path he is going right now. Life is tough at that age with all those temptations coming at you. Anyway, I invited him to go with us if he is available. He stated he would be over here on Friday morning (in the affirmative, obviously). This is my “vacation” for the year. A day at a cool looking waterpark. I don’t know what else to say - it’s better than nothing at all.
This weekend? Well, I’m going to get the drip system started - but probably not a lot of work done on that. It’s just plain HOT out there. It’s 5:30 pm and it’s still 107 degrees out there. The worst of summer has not passed yet, and won’t until after August is over. I’m going to try to motivate myself to get that system installed faster than longer - but I make myself no guarantees.
Some unbelievably strange news online this morning.
I had to start laughing when I started reading about Mexican authorities shutting down a portion of Cancun beach -because the hotel in front of that section was “stealing sand”. ROFL!!! Read the story - the fact that they actually shut the beach down - and making tourists mad, is rather out-of-this-worldish type of stuff.
Then I read about a tiger getting loose in Las Vegas. Lol!!
A kid takes his parent’s car on a “joy ride” so he won’t have to go to church! Police said his driving abilities were not very good, but they were amazed that he managed to not get into an accident.
THEN there’s the Connecticut lawmaker who’s cited for “reckless jogging”.
Lol. This is going to be an intersting day, I can feel it. Well, I dunno really what’s going to happen. I imagine Michael coming back into my house while I’m not there. He’s welcome to get his stuff out of there - but - not while I’m not there. I do not trust him very much at this point. His family has taught him a fine tradition of not taking responsibility for anything and never apologizing. No, friends, you should NEVER apologize for anything, just look at Obama and the guffaw with his now-infamous statements about the cop at Gates house (hey, folks, let’s all have brews and get drunk for the world to see - we must be the laughing stock of the entire world at this point).
I must be in one of those moods this morning. I get too many things going on and it must trip an overload switch in my brain. I dunno, but I only have 2 stops today - a trip to Casa Grande for a delivery, and then pick up a load of pipe at a pipe manufacturing plant down there, take it to the main branch in Phoenix and unless something else comes up, that should be the end of the day. I wonder if I could get off early?
Whatever the case, it’s 6:30 am and I must get to work!
Something I haven’t really written about on here that has been going on for the last few weeks is a situation with Michael.
It just happened one day maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago: he started going over to the black kids house. I banned all of the black brothers except the oldest - they were stealing from me amongst other things and I decided to have nothing to do with it.
His trips over there have been to the point of simply using my place as a crash house for all intents and purposes. It was starting to annoy me for several reasons. First, the grandmother who is raising those kids does not like - Mexicans. Michael is Mexican. She is old and sits in her kitchen mostly, so she doesn’t even know he’s over there. If she did find him in there, all hell would break loose. Second: Michael was doing things around here that I was getting upset with - rules I have established that I don’t take kindly to being broken. Keeping one of the tenants up at night making too much noise; making messes in the kitchen and not cleaning up after himself; spending ALL of his time over at those kids house. I thought that if he wants to do that, he can just move back with his family and do that stuff from there.
I am not biologically related to Michael in any way, shape or form. It’s a long story for those that don’t know the story, and it would just take far too long to go into all of that here for the reason he ended up living with me and Caleb.
Anyway, recently, he asked the tenants - all of them I guess - for money. He made up a lie that it was for a birthday present for Kyle - another kid that comes over but infrequently. It wasn’t Kyle’s birthday. I found out he also asked Ken to use his bicycle. I informed Ken that that allowing Michael to use the bicycle would inevitably end up in it’s loss. Michael would lose it somehow, somewhere - it would be stolen, whatever, Michael is not a very responsible kid. I confronted Michael with these issues and flatly informed him NOT to ask tenant’s for ANYTHING. Do not ask for money, do not use Ken’s bicycle, NO. If they OFFER you something, that’s one thing.
I made this crystal clear. In just 2 week’s time, his attitude has soured immensely. The same thing happend with Anthony - his older brother - when he was hanging out with those kids. I - will not tolerate a teenager mouthing off to me in my own home.
The thing that started today’s event started off with the black kids coming over here fully 3 times, ringing the doorbell, asking for Michael. The third - and last - time - Michael had JUST walked in the door. I have become suspect of Michael’s actions in recent days - what is he doing, what’s he up to. I know his family well, I have wondered if that particular bug hadn’t bitten him. Mimi informed me that after I go to bed, MIchael goes to Ken’s bedroom, knocks on the door and then they whisper in low tones. Everything around here happens after I go to bed.
Well, I can’t see out there from here - from my windows anyway - but I CAN see through video surveillance. Michael left - again - to go over there - again. I had video surveillance up after they had rang the doorbell and I wanted to see who was there - much easier than getting up and walking all the way out there. For me to do that, I have to walk south to the back door, go out, turn west, then go back north the entire length of the house to get to the gate.
I had put the situation out of my mind - but happened to look up at the computer and see the black kids still out there, riding around on their bicycles. I know these kids, they do not hang out here, something was going on. I went out there. Michael had just gotten done removing Ken’s bicycle from the other side of the house through that gate - I hadn’t locked it because I wasn’t done out there for the day.
What are you doing? I ask.
Ken said I could use his bike, it’s not YOUR bike and I can use it whenever I want to.
Remember I had already confronted him on this issue weeks ago.
PUT IT BACK, NOW.
He mouthed off again - this time telling me that I would have to put it back amongst other things.
This was enough. Enough is enough. I can’t handle punks talking crap to me. I invited him to leave, get your stuff and leave. He left - but only with his friends. I won’t have anyone talking to me like that in my own home. Michael has no rights to be asking tenants for anything. I have a 5-year history with him and his family, I KNOW what these people are all about.
Sigh. I have never really had any real teeth to be able to stand up to these kids excepting to take away priviledges or threaten to kick them out. I have done what I can and I am washing my hands of this entire situation.
I do have some things to worry about, though. There is certainly a real threat of retaliation. I can imagine what might happen - I won’t “voice” them here. There is a time that comes when a person has to do what a person must do. I am not kicking Michael out into the wild blue yonder - he was moving out anyway for the school year as dictated by his mother. He will be living with a multitude of people. He will have no privacy and he will be fighting with his sister and others for use of the computer - that doesn’t work that well - and whatever other things that are in the house.
You have to know that he has been living with me since he was 10 years old. Life has been pretty good for him compared to what his family is going through. That’s 5 full years of living here.
Well, I have my cellphone ready to call the police at any time at this point. Again, I know these people. He will make up a story and crap it on his family - they will become indignant - and who knows what might happen next.
The boss comes back to me today this afternoon with the bad news: Can’t do the vacation next week, 2 drivers already asked for days off and they coincide with the days I asked for off. But - I can take off Friday and whatever days next week.
So that’s what I’m going to do. I had given short thought about a day-trip to Six Flags- decided that was not in my best financial interests. Instead, the boys and I can go to a new water park they just built and check it out. I feel a little more comfortable swiming in a giant pool that contains millions upon millions of gallons of water as compared to a smaller pool that has - less to reddistributed the piss around.
I’m only going to take 2 days off plus the weekend making a 4-day off venture. Not great, not that bad: I am going to beat the other drivers to the next desired days off: Going for 5 days off during Labor Day weekend. It’s already a 3 day paradise, just add 2 more - maybe even 3 more - and call it a SIX day off venture. Come back to work on the Friday, another 2 days off.
This, of course, if I’m still employed there. Taking nothing for granted - my company is still laying off workers and there is no end in sight. Our local numbers are getting VERY lean, to say the least. If we get slammed - by some miracle -with a lot of work, we are going to be hurting for staff to do everything it takes to get it done. That would be a bridge, however, that I would be very happy to cross. As it stands, the numbers of people getting the pink slips again was a horrific tale to read about. How do we even have a glimpse of hope that the economy is going to recover when SO many people are getting axed? The freakin’ government, as far as I’m concerned, is currently making a FAR worse mess than Bush ever even came close to. I can’t tell you how unhappy I am with the government owning a car company and forking out trillions of dollars that we don’t even have to pay for - what - a bunch of bonuses for already overpaid workers?
Try not to get started on that stuff, there isn’t any point to it. I didn’t vote for them, that’s all I can say about it. If you’re an Obama lover, great, tell that to your grandkid’s grandkids who will STILL be paying for all of this - if this country even makes it that long in it’s present state.
I’m gonna tell you right now, without that 401k loan, I would have sunk. I’m quite serious. I don’t have anything left to bail me out now - after this loan, I WILL sink if anything else happens. I obviously hope that doesn’t happen - but I am always looking at all paths that lead in all directions. It would be so awesome if the economy suddenly came back to life, I got all my hours back at work and I wouldn’t even think about this stuff. But with the numbers of people that are still getting laid off from their employment, that is hardly a likely scenario anytime soon.
Not to mention that it will be an employer’s market, not a job-seeker’s market - for a long, long time. Companies could start hiring again - and there would still be millions and millions of people out of work.
Well, anyway. I start paying bills today, now that I can pay them. I dearly want to hang onto some of this money - but I have to do what I have to do. It won’t all disappear, but there will be precious little of it left after paying all this junk.
Michael apparently is going back to live with his family during the school year - coming over this way on the weekends, so I overheard anyway. I think it wonderful. Let his family pay his way. I doubt he’ll think it so grand to have to share a 2 bedroom house with - I’m guessing at least 15 people - but that’s not my problem. I’m really not interested in a repeat of last year: missing accumulated weeks and weeks worth of school. I couldn’t believe my ears last year when he blamed school for all of his absences. He was late most days getting to his first hour class, the school makes it abundantly, woefully, painstakingly clear that if you are even 1 minute late, it is counted as an ABSENCE, not a tardy. This is called learning discipline. I made my opinion on it well known - saying the same as the school - don’t blame the school because your mother didn’t get you there on time. Plus - he gets free bus passees - he could take the bus and get there on time as well. I hate listening to his very lame excuses - so I don’t anymore. Not on any of it. I just tell him I don’t want to hear it and do whatever he was supposed to do or make right that needs correction and please keep the excuses to yourself.
I’m still wondering what his final report card - well they’re not cards anymore - but what it shows. He has kept it from me because he knows how I will react. However, this year, we’re going to do something different. If he takes a day off of school for no more reason than he doesn’t want to go, that will be his business, but he won’t be taking it off over HERE. He can do that at home.
Ummmm - long delay. I was looking at the new waterpark - it looks AWESOME!!!! They finally built a world-class water park here! Geeeze. You’d think they would have done that 30 years ago. How can California have Hurricane Harbor but AZ only have places like sunsplash (small waterpark) or Big Surf - another small waterpark but with a huge wave pool.
A couple of days away from the 3rd - and final - worst month in terms of heat for the year. September is always still warm (though it didn’t used to be which doesn’t mean I blame global warming for it) - but nothing like June, July and August.
I’m just wondering how much more of this I can take before I - explode or something. The daily electric use is ranging from $12 to $16 - that’s per day. Pretty good chunk of change for electricity if I do say so myself. Another week and a few days and school will start- the kids won’t be around consuming electric related things all day long, that might save a couple of bucks per day anyway.
I continue to hear people saying that because June was rather mild in terms of heat, we’re going to pay for it later on. Like 110 in October. I say bunk to that noise - I ALREADY paid for it frikken’ 2 weeks ago in enduring what I consider to be the closest thing to hell I ever want to get. No, I predict a nice, cool October and not-so-bad September. August? Who knows. Next Friday is slated to be 114, so - not really all that great, thank you.
Finally, the 401k money is available. None-to-soon, either as - again - the electric use is off the wall and I have only enough left on my reader for another full day. I’m not-so-anxiously awaiting the determination of my lender’s decision in whether they will approve a loan mod or not. It didn’t sound so good when I last spoke to them - and if they don’t, I’m going to just have to fight my way out of this, as I have no desire to spend the entire 401k money on just getting caught up on mortgage. I’m hoping to find out some info on that either tomorrow or Monday, per their statements.
Which, of course, puts a lot on my mind and I don’t tend to be as “free” in my writing as I normally would in taking on other current-day issues that annoy me to no end - speaking in terms of world news. I just looked at a pic of some police officers in Nigeria standing next to a bunch of bodies that they had killed. The story says the slain were militant extremists - need say no more. There is hardly anything in the truck routing system for today, meaning - nothing really. I have some pickups and a return to do - maybe something will come up.
Anyway, I just realized it’s almost 6:30 and I need to get signed in and started on whatever for this work day.
I write some of these entries for people that are googling stuff - I assume this site is botted and crawled, though I don’t know that for sure.
What I am finding quite amazing is the heat wave going on in parts of the U.S. that don’t get the kind of heat they are experiencing. I mean, I would never think of Seattle having 102 degree heat - is that with accompanying high humidity as well?
Then you read in these articles that window AC units are sold out and fans are gone as well. What’s a person to do. Tell me about it. You know my ordeal 2 weekends ago enduring 114 degree heat without any kind of cooling system going - any Phoenician or Valley dweller that’s been here any length of time should be able to tell you how to survive such.
Well, when daytime temps are extreme and there are no fans or ac, I deal with it by simply keeping a large glass of water that has been filled with ice. You can pour water over your head periodically. Construction workers actually wear a LOT of clothing, not less. The idea is that your own sweat will keep you cooler if contained inside your clothing. Large brimmed hats are a must for anyone not used to dealing with this kind of heat.
And then there’s the almighty misting system. Cheap, easy to install - it’s a quick fix. I’m learning that many people have no clue about misting systems. They are very popular here at private residences and at commercial establishments as well. No, you don’t install a misting system in your house, you put it on your patio - or wherever you like to hang out outside. I’m telling you sitting under a misting system on a hot day has quite the cooling effect. You can find out about misting systems - how to install them online. basically you’re talking pvc pipe that can be hooked up to a hose bib if you don’t want a permanent install. The pipe has tee’s installed and then work your way up to the emitter that pumps out the water in the form of a mist.
Other ways people here deal with heat is to go to malls or other public places that are air conditioned. I spent the night in my car with the ac pumping out. Public pools - a thing I am learning to hate because of urination and defecation problems - but still, they can definitely keep a person cool in a situation that is not a normal situation - a temporary fix is what you’re looking for. If you are living in the desert - you better have AC or Evaporative cooling. I assume in most of these states that are experiencing this extreme heat that evap/swamp cooling probably isn’t an effective answer if the humidity and dew points are always high. In fact, they probably don’t even sell such things there. Evaporative cooling systems are the norm here - people that can’t afford AC and the high cost of electricity with it use evap cooling as an alternative - not the greatest alternative but it’s better than nothing. Though, I will attest that they work GREAT during certain parts of the year.
Anyone can survive extreme heat - but you have to be prepared. And no, it ain’t fun. Life is not roses and peaches when it’s well over 100 degrees and you have no way to cool yourself. I’m imaging even cars in those states probably don’t have AC in them for the majority versus the minority. I haven’t owned a car without AC in it in a long, long time.
The point is to avoid heat stroke. Get a cooler, fill it halfway with water and put ice in it the rest of the way. Put a bathroom towel in it, soak it with the ice cold water, wrap it around your neck and upper body. I’ve done all of these things and more. Mostly, at this point, a cup of ice cold water is all I need and I can weather it out when I’m working. But at home - different story. You gotta keep cool.
I feel for those people in those states that are burning up - I really do.
The days of utter brokeness are almost over. Tomorrow - allegedly - the 401k check becomes available for use. My dire need will be for the house payment - which they have told me to put off sending in until after their decision. Okay - but I ain’t waiting longer then the notice I received - if I do I have to make a payment and a half instead of just one payment.
Another “interesting” occurence today. A guy in a big pickup truck with a long trailer attached to it comes flying up from a side street out in a small town called Queen Creek. I was crusing 45 mph - the speed limit. Just beyond where this guy was, I had a light coming up - a green light.
This nutcase in the pickup? Pulls directly out in front of me, making a left turn to go the opposite direction I was coming in. How our 2 vehicles didn’t meet in an accelerated and - memorious/unforgettable - way, I’ll never know. I don’t know WHAT this guy was thinking. I read in an article yesterday that one of the biggest factors for truck drivers getting into accidents, however, is not idiot drivers, it’s TEXTING while DRIVING. That’s just plain wrong. It’s bad enough to see car drivers doing that crap, a truck driver doing that and getting into an accident could and probably will cause some serious harm.
I didn’t eat anything at work today - well I didn’t really eat until I got home here a few minutes ago. I’m trying to avoid eating junk food and calorie laden garbage, but really, I just didn’t have time to stop anywhere. I was driving all over the place trying to get all the deliveries done. We are near the end of month - Friday is the last business day of the month for us - we always try to get all the stuff out the door we can. Anyway, I am trying to lose, but not eating is not the way to go about it. I”m going to have to consider starting packing lunches so I can eat good food versus bad. Though, I really don’t consider a Subway salad bad food - the only thing really you can do to it to make it “bad” is using too much dressing. You have to tell them keep it “light” or they will just plaster the stuff on there. Well, I’m making a huge salad right now - with fresh chicken breast and a lot of veggies in it - should be quite good.
I put in for a short vacation today. 3 days off concurrent with a weekend to make it a 5-day stint. Either next week of the week after, don’t really care which. I was going to do a whole week off - but I think I’ll go ahead and ask for another 3 days off in the next month or 2 after this one. I mean, take the vacation while the taking’s good, ya know? If I get it next week, I’ll be off Wednesday through Sunday. Same if it’s the week after - but really, I would like to get the time off sooner rather than later.
Well - that’s enough. I haven’t had a chance to takalookit the news today excepting for one site - I want to peruse and see what’s going on out there.
I stopped at a McDonald’s yesterday on my way down to Casa Grande - not to get food, but to restrap a portion of the truck with bundles of plastic pipe. I hadn’t put a twist in the straps over the pipe and the wind was moving those staps pretty good. I re-strapped the pipe and decided to run into McD’s for a cup of coffee - they are still having a sale on drinks including coffee for a buck, that’s for the large size.
Hi, I’d like a large coffee with 5 creams.
Lahh cofi wit fi cree? Yes ma’am, a large C O F F E E with five creammmmms.
I give her what I thought was enough money to cover the purchase including tax.
Cree o’er dere - pointing to the self-service area. You don’t have a cream machine here? Ohh yahhh, yahh, oer dere. I don’t see a cream machine over there. Yahh, yahh, cree o’er dere. She obviously didn’t understand a word I was saying.
Woman gets a strange look on her face. It coss more dan diss. I tried to ask her about the sale. We no do dat ear. I’m getting tired of attempting to speak to someone whose english is right up there with about a 2 year old, maybe not even that much. Please get me someone over here that speaks ENGLISH, thanks.
Another woman comes over - apparently a manager. Yes sir, what is problem? spoken with an accent so thick it was hardly intelligible. I just gave up. I wasn’t going to pay more at this McDonald’s than what the rest of them are doing, I’m assuming this one is privately owned and the others I go to are company owned. I get my money back and leave.
It has never set well with me to go into any business around here and encounter alleged customer service reps whose english is so bad, you can’t understand them and they don’t have a clue what you are saying.
Concerning yesterday’s walk and seeing the police - a 69 year old man was killed yesterday afternoon - read that in the local news this morning. He and his 40 year old son got into an altercation - but that’s really all there is to the story so far. The Police mobile command unit and forensic experts are STILL there.
I have a long day ahead of me. I have to go downtown, then to 2 different stops in east Mesa, over to the Lost Dutchman’s park in Apache Junction, over to far east Queen Creek and then to Gilbert. I got six good hours of sleep last night and the rest was not so good, but I guess 6 will have to do.
Anyway - just had to throw that McD’s story in here. We undoubtedly see a disproportionate amount of this stuff in the Phoenix area.
So, I’m outside watering my plants - all of them. Can’t let it go more than a day in this heat, I am really doing it every day, though unless it rains. My Catahoula follows me religiously everywhere - she doesn’t care about the heat. I get the entire back portion of the property done - which now includes all of west; east and southern sides of the house.
I get to the front. Done with watering, I look at her and decide that if I’m going to get serious about weight loss, some kind of exercise is going to be involved with it. I stopped taking all of them for walks a while back - too hot for the Danes. They can’t handle anything but a very short walk and they’re done. The Catahoula, on the other hand, can handle as much as I will give her. Fortunately, the leashes are all in the trunk of my car, I didn’t have to go into the house to get them. Meaning, the Danes are in the house, laying on the floor, basking in the AC, if I got out one leash, they would go crazy.
I walk fully a block to be greeted by a Phoenix Police Mobile Command Unit set up on the side of the rather narrow street. Dozens of other police vehicles around it and down the intersecting side street, I counted fully 3 forensic vans. The street was blocked off. This was obviously a death, no getting around that - probably a homocide considering there were no ambulances or fire trucks there.
I was walking by with the Catahoula and felt a lot of eyes on me. I was not interested in hanging around, whatever happened is already over, nothing I can do about it. However, the feeling of being stared at is something I cannot ignore - I looked around and saw at least a dozen Phoenix Police officers glued to me and my dog walking by. The Catahoula is a nice-looking dog, but certainly nothing worth an over-extended stare. I was walking quite casually - I have done nothing wrong and last time I checked, it ain’t against the law to walk your dog - but I figured that criminals are known to return to the crime scene, I wondered if they were thinking I’m a potential suspect.
I did not increase my walking speed. I don’t really care what they think - they can do their job and if they want to question me, I’ll agree to it to a certain limitation. I was not stopped. It was a 25 minute walk. Even though it was still 112 degrees out there, it felt good to get moving again. Especially considering I have started to grow a gut. This is something I have dreaded my entire life. At the same time, the word diet is a killer. It has too much negative reverberance to it.
With that, I will not promise to do anything tomorrow. I’ll just do what I can for each day. Right now, I’m simply focused on not eating after 6:00 pm. Perhaps it doesn’t sound that bad to my mind, therefore, it is well received and I am having little problem with that part of it. I’m eating smaller portions - though when I get my Subway salad, I think nothing of loading it up with vegetables. I get tuna with it almost always. I have decreased significantly the amount of dressing I have put on the salad.
Small steps. That’s all I’m doing. Implement it into my lifestyle and over time, a little at a time, it is not so difficult. Mostly - the decrease in exercise is what’s doing me in as far as fat gain. It’s a 2-fold blow: work has slowed down since it’s glory days - physical exertion is a 1/3rd of what is was 2 years ago. I haven’t been working out - so that’s a total elimination of something very good for me and my body.
Honestly - if there was a gym less than 2 miles away, I would probably find a way to find money to join it. Anything over that distance from my house - has a very negative feel attached to it. That’s because I worked out for years and years and had to drive a considerable distance to any of those places. It became very undesirable to have to make a drive just to get to the gym. The only thing around here is for women only. Nope, I’m not going to put fake boobs under my shirt along with a bra, put on femine clothing and go to the gym. That’s - ridiculous.
Now, I’ve had a thought about riding a bike to work. I don’t want to ride that far to work - but - all the buses around here have racks on the front of them to put your bike on. It simply rides on the front of the bus. What if I could take the bus halfway to work and then ride a bike the rest of the way? I can tell you right now that bike riding is an excellent workout and will burn fat/calories. Gonna look into the bus schedule and see if it’s at all possible. However- I don’t even OWN a bicycle! lol.
Long break. I was talking - via IM - to my lady friend. That, my friends, has cashed my day and I’m going to bed.
I was kind of shocked and kind of a letdown, really, to find out Duke hadn’t made it to round 3 yesterday. I mean, with all these people voting for him, I figured he would at the very least make it to the final round. His pic was not up on round 3. I started looking at some of the dogs that DID make it to round 3, butt ugly. I mean, WHO is voting for THOSE dogs? Not all of them, of course, but definitely enough to make me wonder if something didn’t happen, such as possibly voting from more than one email account might have gotten him disqualified. I didn’t do that, but I don’t know that others might not have. I wrote the station an email asking if it was just lack of votes or if there was some other reason for Duke not advancing - no reply of course. Well, nothing I can do about it, but I do find it curious. Thanks everyone who voted, guess it just wasn’t meant to be.
Our store is going to hit over 200k this month - which is very good news for our store. That particular number - 200k - is the magical number for keeping a store open, allegedly anyway. Or, more like, the company wants to see a minimum of 100k per person working there. That number is WAY up from the past 4 or 5 months running. The S hitting the F is coming very soon - next week I’m guessing, maybe even over the weekend.
The boss invited me today to go ahead and put in for my vacation. Okay. That was this morning - I was out driving all day long today, by the time I got back to the shop, I had totally forgotten about it - until just now. I’m going to put in for an entire week off. I will be at maximum hours in 2 months - I HAVE to use some of it up, this coming month if I don’t, will affect the increase in any more hours. I just stops at 80 and you don’t get any more and for some reason, it’s a 2 month delayed reaction, so you just screw yourself out of vacation hours if you don’t use them.
So, I’ll put in for 2 different dates during August - the sooner the better. I am not GOING anywhere, it’s a stay at home vacation. And at this time of year - PERFECT time to do that. Just laze around in the air conditioned house, maybe do a few projects, I have a few ideas of a couple of in-state trips I could make including visiting my mother at her property and a lady friend up there in Flagstaff, maybe my dad - well I don’t want to get too carried away with travel plans, but you get the picture.
OH, my boss actually brought in his torch and related equipment today - totally out of the blue! I stopped asking him last week - seemed to be a futile thing. Good - I really didn’t want to have to buy all of that stuff, anyway. Just because my 401k loan hits the bank on Thursday does NOT mean I want to squander it away on stuff I can borrow from someone else or I just plain don’t need. I have pretty much put the loan mod out of my mind - there is no use fretting about something that you can do nothing about, I’ll just wait until Friday, if I don’t hear anything, I’ll either call Friday afternoon or Monday morning and see if a verdict has come through. I’m bracing myself for 2 particular words I don’t want to hear: NOT APPROVED. Just in case that happens, just nice to be mentally prepared for it.
Today, an “interesting” thing happened on the freeway. I was stuck behind a vehicle going much slower than I wanted to - so - I went around it. No vehicles at all in the lane I went into to pass this car. I got beside the car, accelerating, the car - after miles of going the same speed, suddenly was accelerating as well. I got to the speed I wanted to go and the car was now beside my truck - going 10 mph faster than it had been for all that time I was behind it. Well, my exit was coming up in a little over a mile, I wanted to get back over. If I had known this yodel was going to play this game, I would have just stayed behind it.
So, I accelerate even more, another 5mph. Car does the same thing. Since no vehicles were behind me, I hit the brakes hard in order to just slow down and get behind the car. Yup, car does the same thing. Well, I don’t take kindly to drivers of cars playing stupid games with semi-trucks, I put my turn signal on after this continued to occur and started to come over into the lane. I was not actually IN the line, I just made a slow movement towards it. This person apparently decided they didn’t want any part of that and floored it, getting ahead of the truck. But, there is NO WAY this person was doing this on accident. It was a willful, purposed game that I want no part of. Driving a truck is nothing like driving a car - if you’ve never driven one, then please trust me, it is NOT the same - at all. I have watched car drivers toying with semi’s for my entire life - I have never quite understood that, especially considering the fact that the truck driver has done NOTHING to warrant the driver of the car to act in such a dangerous and stupid manner.
If I had had my camera with me, I would have taken video of it and would have called highway patrol to see if they would do anything about this driver.
Countdown to the start of school. These boys NEED to get back into school - I just can’t stand seeing them sitting around here all day long doing nothing more than playing video games, getting on the computer and watching TV. I make them do something every day now. I don’t care if they don’t like it - sitting on your butt all day long with no more ambition than to “beat the next level” on a friggin’ video game gets old. If the economic times were “normal” - Caleb would definitely be working a job right now and this nonsense can go to the birds. He’s tried to find a job to no avail. I’m there with him - finding a decent, part-time job is next to impossible. I now find out that in going into trying to get a loan mod, getting a part time job is not a good idea. Lenders think that you will just pull yourself out of your delinquincy - eventually - so they aren’t willing to help you. Quite unbelievable to me. If you do whatever you can to help your situation out - you are actually putting yourself at the end of the line. If you do nothing - basically - you’re at the front of the line and they are all happy to help you out.
Reward nothingness?
Well, I’m going to take a nap and - eventually - go out and start watering stuff.
Ben B