Exercise

I have been sitting in limbo with my wife's situation, and no that isn't the same as sitting "Shiva". :)
The problem is that I hit a plateau just before I found out she was sick and I have gained a few pounds because my focus has been on her and not me.
I have spent hours feeling bad, and not doing anything. I can do that because I am a bus driver and have the summer off.
But, I have also accomplished more than I ever thought I could by working to clean out the house and playing my guitar too.
The past few weeks, I have taken some time to just walk out the door here and go somewhere.
Anywhere but here.
I went out to eat a few times and that is not easy to do by myself, as well as being post WLS.
I have been reading an online book for a few years now. The book is an ongoing thing and has been posted since 2002, and still isn't finished. It is a great escape for me and I sometimes go back to the beginning and read it again, just to experience everything one more time.
In the book, the main character is a young man and the book starts out with him being around 12. It follows him and others through college, and that's where the author got stuck. He has been stuck for about a year now, preferring to do other things than finish the story.
The young man starts out as a typical kid, learning about life. He goes through the first book being that typical kid.
In the second book, he finds out about the wrestling team, and decides to try out for it. They take him through the patterns of working out to get into shape, and he comes to enjoy it.
Now this kid has trouble dealing with his emotions, so when he gets upset, he goes and works out. He lifts weights and alternates from upper body one day, to lower body the next. He also runs or uses the jump rope for aerobics.
Anyone who wasn't fat during puberty knows how much energy you had way back then. You could run until you dropped, take a 10 minute break and then go do it again! (I might have exaggerated here a bit, but you know what I mean!). This kid does just that. He goes until he drops. Oh, how I wish I could still do that.
I thought about what he was doing, and tried to adopt the attitude of exercising instead of sulking. I'm still working on it.
Whenever I am sad, as I am now, I just want to sit and hide from things. So to me, what a great improvement this would be if I could work out instead to get rid of the stress.
I've never been able to do that before and maintain it.
This past week, I was able to move an old laptop to the basement next to my totalgym and treadmill. It has all of my DJ music on it. I could play every song in my collection and literally never play the same song again for the rest of my life. I don't know how many thousands of hours I have of music. I am adding more all the time.
So, I picked up a small system from BJs wholesale for $39.00 that has two speakers and a subwoofer.
I got them lined up along with my USB turntable and tested them last night and they sound passable. I now have an area where I can record my old Vinyl albums and listen to them while walking on the treadmill, or working out on the totalgym. The nice thing here is that I was able to do that today and actually worked up a sweat!
I walk until I'm warmed up, and then go onto the totalgym for a few minutes. Then, I grab some dumbbells and go back onto the treadmill. I hold the dumbbells out horizontal to the floor while walking. This brings my heartbeat up faster. And, I get to listen to music while I'm doing it.
Since my laptop is hooked up to the wireless connection, I can log onto Pandora if I want to listen to something I don't have in my collection.
Windows media player overlaps the songs, sort of blending from one to the next, so there is never any break between songs. I can sing along if I want and since the house is empty, no one will complain.
Also, the humidity has been awful the past few weeks. So, with the AC on and the basement being rather cool to begin with, it's a perfect place to work up a sweat. I don't have to go outside and be uncomfortable.
Now, I usually take a bottle of liquid with me, as well as a towel and glucose tablets since my blood sugar has a nasty habit of dropping very fast. I haven't had to use them yet, but I don't want to take a chance.
On a side note, I have been getting the yard ready for mulch. I have a guy who took all of my bushes out from around the house. This makes it easy to run the mower since I don't have to dodge trees, bushes and all the nasty creatures they hide. A straight line and I'm done!
He will be doing the mulch soon, and I'm ready for him.
This Friday, I have a plumber coming over to install garden lines in both the North and South sides of the house. I have to go out and buy hose and nozzles. I will finally be able to wash my car. There is lots of green stuff on the brick walls and I will wash them with a bit of bleach to clean it off.
I was up in the attic this morning and found a whole set of luggage, and lots of other interesting stuff. But, in order to get up there, I had to move a ton of junk out of the closet where the access is. I plan to empty the closet this week, and then tackle the attic. I hope to find hidden treasure, but I ain't holdin' my breath!
If you are post WLS, please go down to the comments in previous posts. One of our fellow WLS people made some interesting comments and it would be good for you to read.

Fat, Fat, Go away!

Listening to the Beatles while doing other thing this morning.
I have their whole collection.
I believe my life has been directed by their music over the years.
The Beatles is the only band that I know of that was allowed to evolve. Every other band out there, especially today, has been restricted in their music. They weren't allowed to grow and change. They had to play the same style of music, even though they were eclectic.
If you listen to the beginning of the Beatles, and then listen to their competition back then, they are one and the same.
Herman's Hermits, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones, and the list goes on ... they all stayed the same. Their music never changed. It was good, but it never left the patterns they started out with.

The Beatles took every album they made and updated it. They added new sounds, new patterns, new ideas. They weren't afraid to add horns, violins or other "old style" classical instruments to their mix.
It is fascinating to hear some of their earlier takes and see how they came up with the final version of their songs.
Their subject matter is something else too. It takes on all subjects.

Lady Madonna
I'm only sleeping
Norwegian Wood
Yesterday
Why don't we do it in the road?
Rocky Raccoon

They had political commentary too, but most of it was satirical, rather than nasty.
They were told they couldn't cuss and the word "Bloody" was cussing in Great Britain, so they wrote a song called "Ob La Di, Oh Bla da. This put the silliness of the situation in proper perspective. (if you haven't figured it out yet, just pronounce the first 3 syllables of the song title out loud).
In Great Britain, the tax structure is insane. They tax the highest income people more than anyone else. Sometime, they are taxed at a 50% rate! Half of their money goes to taxes! So, they wrote "Taxman" to point it out. Most of the kids that were listening to their music had no idea what they were singing about. But, the Beatles were able to express their opinion in a satirical way, and the kids identified with it, no matter where they were.

So, when Garth Brook tried to break free from his country style, the whole world panned him. He wrote some great music, but no one would buy it.

Billy Joel does classical stuff too, but hardly anyone knows.

Elton John got alot of his music from the classics.

There are many others who have tried and failed. Whatever style they became famous for, is the style they were stuck with.

I went to see Alabama in York years ago. They did great job on their music. When they came back for an encore, they did a rock and roll set, along with some great blues. They were great, but people started leaving as soon as they heard it. I stayed.

So, when you hear people say "oh, I could never give up Mac and cheese, or pizza, or whatever" just think of where we would be if the Beatles weren't allowed to evolve.