How about so far?

I have been chugging along, doing stuff, and feeling as if I'm not going anywhere.
But, I really am moving forward, and I like that.

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. "
John Lennon

Progress? (The opposite of Congress)

• I wanted to take my scooter apart. I started to do it, but it was too cold in the garage. I will take my space heater out there before the weekend is up and try some more. I took the screws out of one side (the lower side) and the small leg faring was cracked and brittle. It fell apart in my hands, so I have to replace that. OEM parts are expensive (that small plastic thing is $54.00!), and I don't have any disposable income to replace it right now. The scooter is held together with lots of screws and I am keeping them in a bag so I don't lose them.
• I wanted to write. I haven't written. I have been taking care of my wife and the house. Yesterday while she was having her 2nd dose of chemo (a 4 hour process), I came home, vacuumed, dusted, and moved furniture in the living room to make things easier. I also put away the two Christmas decorations (really neat little fiber optic trees) so the cat would have somewhere to sleep again. They were blocking her from getting into the window sill.
• I wanted to walk. I haven't walked, although I have gone out of my way at the health campus when I took my wife over. She wasn't happy because I made her walk with me. She wants to sleep and lay around and I won't allow that when I know she needs to move. I'm nasty that way.
• I wanted to play my guitar. I haven't done that. I have thought about giving it up altogether, but decided to wait on that. I hate waiting.

I did manage to book a gig this Saturday for my DJ business. It's a freebee for the local kids who are bored. I will be playing for 2 hours over at the community building in the park. The music has been filtered and picked out, so all I have to do is show up with my equipment and push play. Then, my hands will be free to cover my ears for two hours.

I also got many other things done that weren't on my list. Lots of thinking and reconsidering.

Another Lennon quote:
Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

The week after Christmas

Tomorrow, we are heading over to the Oncologist for standard blood work, and approval for round two of my wife's chemotherapy on Tuesday. I spoke of this before.

I would like to go visit my Parent's graves, but I guess I won't get there this week.

So, now is the time to look back and see what I did the past year. I think I am looking forward at this point. I just finished reading what I wrote and that's the way it seems. I hope you don't mind.

I went from a triple X to a Medium. No big deal, right?

I can tie my shoes now.

I can see and cut my toenails.

I can walk for miles and miles, and not just think about it.

I can do more than one thing per day.

I can cut grass with or without a self propelled Mower.

I can rake leaves everyday without being too tired or sore.

I can climb around over, under, around, and through my Helix. I can ride it too.

I can actually get on the elliptical machine and travel round and round for 20 minutes at a time.

I can lift weights, carry boxes, sort through stuff, and climb the stairs as many times as I need in one day, and do it again tomorrow.

I can shovel the driveway (14 inches of snow) everyday for a week. Yes, I got sore from this one. But, I didn't die, or even feel like I was dying.

I can eat when I want, and still lose weight. I can control my eating and not eat something I'm not supposed to eat without too much guilt.

I now have more discipline than I have ever had before that I can remember.

I can fit behind the wheel of a subcompact.

I can sit at a booth in a restaurant. I can sit at a table too.

I can refuse water or any drink with my meal. I can ask for a container without having to explain myself.

I can feel "normal" most of the time, instead of having to ask for special help.

I don't cringe when I hear of something more that I have to do. I can do a little more if I have to.

Wow!

In the next year:

• I will attempt to lose the last 50 pounds.

• I will try to run. 5 or 10 miles, mostly cross country, rather than on the road. I might like to try some extreme running, such as running along over rocks and hills.

• I will try to do something I haven't done before. I am still thinking about skydiving.

• I want to write at least one book out of 3 that I have in my head.

• I want to start my own business so I can make money when I want. I don't want to work for someone else anymore. That's something I have wanted to do most of my married life (34 years). I still would like to go into business with someone else, so we can support each other as we climb the ladder. I hate working alone.
• I either want to finish my home or move somewhere else. I need to redo most of the home now that I have it emptied out. I need a new kitchen and bathroom. I need to add another bathroom. I need to finish the porch, heat the garage, oh Hell, I need to redo the whole place. The house will be around for another 100 years or so. It might as well be updated. I welcome any help and donations can be made too!
• I want to play my guitar onstage until I am good again. I was good once. Maybe I can do it again?

I have so many more things I want to do in the future. Let's see where I am this time next year....

A slight caffeine departure

I made the mistake of making high test coffee instead of decaf this morning, so forgive me if I am suddenly coherent. I make more sense when I am on a caffeine high. My ADHD....

Hey Barry, whatever happened to macros? I would love to have a series of keystrokes recorded instead of having to do all this repetitive stuff all the time. Am I missing something?

The Christmas photo is someones idea of overkill for the holiday. They live on the other side of east Pete. You should see the helicopter on the left side of the house.

I spent the last week working with my wife to make sure she is comfortable. I had both sets of grand kids here over two days, but had to make sure they didn't jump on my wife.

I have to say that I am off my game. I gained just a few pounds because of my sedentary nature these past few days. I want to go out, but my wife takes my time right now.

I went out to the garage yesterday to take the scooter apart, but it was way too cold to work for long. The cold cuts me to the bone. I had thought about taking one of the little space heaters out there, but didn't. I got a good look at my Helix, and started to take the millions of screws off in order to remove the body panels.
This scooter probably has more weight due to screws, nut and bolts, than it does for the plastic panels that cover it. You can't imagine how ugly this bike is without panels! But whoever designed it really had no idea of how to be frugal. They put screws in where there was no need. The neat thing about it is, each panel fits together just right. There is no need for all the screws.

So, I decided to treat myself and order the lower panels online instead of just painting them. The plastic is a bit brittle and worn. One of the pieces broke apart in my hands yesterday. Looking at the picture, this is just about the lower panels for now. They are the ones colored black. The upper panels are worn too, but much more expensive to replace right now. They do have 3 choices for upper body panels:

1. White
2. Black
3. unfinished

I will go for the white panels. I always liked white. This will make the scooter look brand new again. The lower panels will all be black or gray, I'm not sure which.
The biggest worry I have is that the panels were made for the Chinese clone of the Helix. Those parts are usually way below standard quality. The unfinished parts require me to have some skill in painting, and even with the spray cans, I am not that good.

So, what does all this have to do with Bariatric?

Well, I'll let you figure that out until the end of this post, and then I'll answer the question.

During the week, I wanted to write, but was too brain tired to do it, so I just did housework and prepared myself for the onslaught of kids.

My wife got her "buzz" haircut yesterday. I must say it was shocking at first. I am now married to Kojak, or Yul Brenner. She has a super nice wig, as well as some really great looking caps to cover up, and after the initial shock, I don't mind at all. She seems to be taking it well too. We expected her hair to fall out, and were ready for it. But, it still affected us.
I took her to Weis yesterday while she was wearing her wig, and she had no trouble talking with one of our neighbors there. They made no indication that they knew she was wearing a wig. It looks very natural. I won't post a picture here, but if you email me, I might send you a picture.

Oh, good coffee!

Looking at our finances, we are in trouble. I need to get a "real" job to cover for our losses, but with the want ads only 2 pages big (usually 20+ pages) things don't look good. I tried my hand at one of those online thingies, but they don't really work. I can't figure them out. I must be too dumb or something.
I also signed up for Upromise, which is a reward program to give my grand kids money for their future education, but it doesn't work for me. You see, with the new diet, I don't buy a lot of what they give discounts for. So far, I think I have 2 cents in savings. I'll check my lottery ticket this morning and if I win, I'll make sure they have enough for their future. If not, I'll just pray they do OK on their own.

I have some ideas for a book, but as listed above, I just didn't get to it yet. I'm gonna fix that soon.

So, I will write another blog entry about all of my accomplishments in the past year because of my Weight loss. And more important, what I want to do next year. It is a good feeling knowing that there is a good chance that I will achieve my goals.

Life is good!


Oh, by the way...... I would never have been able to complain about all of this if it wasn't for my Bariatric weight loss. That's worth a lot to me. I would probably have been dead now and my wife would have had to make her journey herself. At least, I am here to help her. As down as I feel right now, that is worth everything I have lived up to this point.