Fall is here...

Yesterday a cold front moved in. It is wonderful.

When I went to dinner last night, it was normal outside. When we left the restaurant to walk around downtown it was almost cold outside. This morning it is 52 degrees outside.

I get to wear a sweater to work today.

This is my favorite time of year.

The Weekend News

Okay...so now that that's out of the way...

Had a somewhat busy weekend. After the gym, Friday night was spent in my recliner watching the first four episodes of Rome. Love it! I'm very very impressed with the show...and James Purefoy as Marc Anthony...fuck!

Saturday morning was spent at the gym and running errands and the evening was all about work at the restaurant.

Sunday was hellish. Got up at 7:00 so I could go to the 8:30 service at church (something I'm reintroducing to my life) and then drove up to meet my parents.

You see, we've officially sold the house my grandmother lived in for the last 30 years. We now have only a few weeks to clear out 30 years worth of crap. And this woman has saved everything. It was a nice look into the future...we'll be doing the same thing for my mother's house when the time comes...

I even found, at one point, an entire box of used nylons. Why?

So, we're going through stuff, throwing away a fair amount and listening to my mother cry all day long.

See, my grandmother isn't dead. Her mind is just gone...and she's being moved into the Alzheimer's care unit at the nursing home next week. So, it's been a very difficult time for my mom.

But I found some wonderful things to keep. I got the old Radio console that has fascinated me since I was 3. I got the huge wood framed mirror that was hanging in the hall.

I got my grandmother's cutting board. I found a box of letters from my mother to my grandmother that span the first 10 years of my parents marriage. I found letters from my uncle to my grandmother from the like 12 days he spent in the Navy.

And I found a box, tied up in her closet, that is filled with every drawing card and letter that myself and my siblings gave to my grandmother. And each piece is labeled on the back with the name and the date the she received it.

So, emotionally drained, I got home just before 8:00...and completely forgetting that I had promised my friend Randall that I would watch it at his house, I crashed in my chair and watched desperate Housewives. After that I went through my DVR list and found the new episode of Rome and watched it while I had a glass of wine.

Barely made it to work yesterday morning on time...and was two hours late this morning.

But...I'm on week 4 of my gym project and have only missed one day. I'm starting to see real results in my arms...so I now have a visible motivation for going every day.

Anyway...I really should get back to work...

Seacrest Out!

I WANT MY FOUR YEARS BACK!!!

So, Saturday the 17th marked my fourth anniversary as an employee of the great state of Oklahoma.

It's official. I've been giving out food stamps for longer than I went to college.

How do I feel about this? Well, I really hate my job. I've hated it most every day since 09/17/01 when I started. I hate getting up in the morning and coming into the fucking office to be screamed and cursed at. I'm tired of trying to help people while just being accused of being lazy.

I'm sick of watching perfectly healthy adults sit on their ass and live off the system for years at a time simply because they had the means to reproduce.

I would love to get out of here and do something else. I would love to actually get back into school and finish my master's degree.

But this place has sapped me of my energy...as much as I hate it...I don't seem to mind it anymore. I come in...I do my work...it's all pretty brainless. It's convenient. It's easy. It's become routine.

But one day soon I'll snap...go berserk...and god help those around me when it happens...because heads will roll.

Corn Pads and Growing Older

Good Evening Sports Fans...

Today I finally had to take that leap into adulthood. I had to purchase a package of corn pads.

I'm officially old. Despite my age...I'm an old man with corns...or to be more precise, a corn...on one of my toes...

And it hurts like a motherfucker...

I hope to be rid of it soon...but as it't the third time it's reared it's ugly head...I'm not hopefu...
In other news...

The Pilot returns in two days...woo-hoo...I can hardly wait. Want to get to hear his voice on a non international call...

Well gotta run... 5:45 am is just a little bit away...need my sleep...

I'm out, sports fans...

Pat Robertson - King of Batshit

"This is the second time in a row that God has invoked a disaster shortly before lesbian Ellen Degeneres hosted the Emmy Awards," Robertson explained to his approximately one million viewers. "America is waiting for her to apologize for the death and destruction that her sexual deviance has brought onto this great nation."

Who knew that Ellen Degeneres' Vagina was so powerful.

We should all be afraid...very afraid...

Ellen obviously has it in her power to bring about the destruction of our entire world.

Hey Pat, maybe you should ask the goverment to assassinate her?



(okay...so he didn't really say this...it was an onion-like parody article...but it totally sounds like something he would say, doesn't it?)

Thunderstorms, Clocks and Old Houses

So, last night we had an awesome thunderstorm here in Oklahoma City...really it was most of the state that experienced the storm, but I only care about me. :-)

It was so nice. I sat out and read while it rained and thundered...it was beautiful.

However, sometime shortly after I retired to bed, the power went out for an unknown period of time. You know what that means?

That's right...Underling woke up about 30 minutes after he was supposed to be at work.

One of the tough things about living in a home that was built prior to WWI is that the wiring is old, and the power lines, rather than being protected like in new home, stretch right across the back yard to the pole in the alley...so if I sneeze in my driveway in the direction of the lines, my power will flicker.

And why is it that every other morning of the year I will wake up 30 minutes before my alarm goes off. But, the one day that my alarm doesn't sound...I sleep like a baby...

It was okay, really. I had nothing pressing at work...and it allowed me to be in my car driving to work when the Pilot called me from overseas to say hello. So that was good.

So, my day had begun...work is waiting...will go now...

Sleep Problems...

I've been an insomniac since my early teen years. I've been one of those guys who would lay awake for hours and hours really wanting to fall asleep but never quite able to get there. Then, right about the time I would need to get out of bed I'd start to drift off...

This is still a problem. It's probably the biggest contributor to why I like the drink so much. But, the drink is a part of the past for now...so I've been faced with a new challenge...how to fall asleep.

I talked it over with the head doctor last week and he suggested that the problem with sleeping can be solved as easily through change of routine and attitude as it can be with prescriptions/chemicals. So he made a few suggestions...and I'll be damned...he was right.

I gave myself a consistent bedtime. I have a new nightly regime I must accomplish before bedtime...and I have a cup of tea (green with chamomile) when I've finished. And finally, I get in bed when I truly start to feel sleepy. Then I can leave my lamp on and try to read a few pages...and I'm generally out...

But what sucks is that now I'm waking up even earlier.

This morning, I was up and eating breakfast when my alarm finally went off. I tried to lay in bed and wait for it...but I just felt like a slug laying there, so I finally got up and around. Now I'm sitting here with an hour to kill before I can even leave for my office.

I mean, I still have to shower and shave...but come on...on a slow day that only takes like 15 minutes for me...and I've got a lot of time to kill.

So, I need to find something more to do to fill up my mornings before work, or else I'll break down and buy cigarettes and chain smoke on my balcony...and no good can come of that.

So, I'll go and finish getting ready for the day...

I'm just afraid I'm turning into a morning person...and I really don't like morning people. :-)

Later...

Good Morning

So, another Saturday morning is upon us.

I woke up at 5:30 and laid in bed for about 15 minutes before drifting back to sleep.

When my alarm went off at 9:00 I was up and ready. I grabbed my bag and headed down the street to the gym. The gym I work out at, The OKC Downtown YMCA, is just 16 blocks south of my house. But of course, I still drive there. I'm not walking into downtown...that's just not happening.

So, I got there, relaxed in the sauna for about 10 minutes while it was totally deserted. Then I made my way out to the workout floor.

Apparently the sauna was deserted because, presumably, the entire population of Oklahoma City was on the workout floor waiting for equiptment. I logged into the system and set to work, one leg machine, one arm machine...back and forth through my sets. Until finally nearly 2 hours later I was finished with my workout.

A workout that's supposed to take 45 minutes...

So, I went to take a shower. I was enjoying the feel of the shower spray on my neck and back when I noticed that the old man across the shower room was taking a little too much care in washing his crotch. After he had soaped it up for something like the eighth time, I decided that was my cue to get the hell out of Dodge.

So, I changed into my normal clothes and headed back home where I made a real breakfast. I was starved by the time I got home, and having not had a cigarette today, felt the need to eat a lot. So, one bowl or grits with cheese, two eggs, six slices of bacon and two pieces of toast washed down with three cups of milk later, my appetite is satisfied and I can now retreat to my bedroom to read until time for work.

I'm trying to fill the day as much as possible so I won't have time to think about smoking. I seems to be working.

So, I'm going to go read some more. I've gotten about halfway through David Eggars "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius", and as this is my third attempt to complete the book, I am committed to finishing it before the weekend is over.

Well, Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm certainly enjoying mine so far.

Later, Sports Fans...

Good News...

Well, the hospital released my nephew today. He was doing much better. They decided early on that it wasn't an impaction, but still have no real diagnosis. At this point they feel like it is something viral that was attacking his stomach. But, they know not...fuckin' doctors...most of the time, they're as clueless as we are.

So, I'm very relieved.

Today after therapy I went to the gym to set up a new work out routine (one I'll hopefully stick to) with the trainer there. All went well and the set up only took about 30 minutes. After that I was able to complete my other two sets in about a half an hour...so I'm looking at about a 45 minute weight workout every day along with my 45 minutes of (walking) cardio.

I know it was a good workout because it hurts to type right now. I hit my arms really hard tonight...as that's one of the areas I want to focus on more...and knew they could take more weight, so I asked him if I could increase his recommendation by 10 lbs...and he allowed it.

I'm going to be doing the gym thing every day after work except for Thursdays and then on Saturday mornings. That'll give me 5 days a week to start.

So, I'm happy to finally have that set up and ready to go. It's one of those things I've been meaning to do for months and have just kept putting off...but with my walking recently and the massive reduction in smoking, I really felt like it was something I needed to incorporate now rather than put it off for a few more months.

Well, I need to soak in the tub for a while, and then I'm going to read in bed until I fall asleep. Anything it takes to not have a cigarette before bed. I've only had two today and I've been up since 5:30...so I really want to keep that count to two.

Anyway...all of you have a wonderful night and a wonderful day tomorrow...I'll be back in a few days...

Peace

More News from the Weary

My youngest nephew is back in the hospital. He's four. He was acting strangely last night and then was apparently was in quite a bit of pain this morning, clutching at his stomach.

The trouble with this particular four year old is that he cannot speak, and has a very limited vocabulary in sign language. So, he didn't have any way to explain what was wrong. My sister took him to the doctor, who in turn put them on an ambulance to Children's Hospital here in OKC (a three hour drive).

So, he's in the hospital now, and he's had a CT, and they're pretty sure it is yet another bowel obstruction. Which is not good. He's already had a bowel resection after the last obstruction ended up killing a god amount of tissue. So, he's down there with an IV in his little hand just waiting for the doctor's to figure out what the hell they're gonna do.

Luckily, Children's Hospital is less than a mile from my house, so as soon as I got a room number from my mom, I drove down there to see him. He was his normal sweet self, smiling and being calm, but it was clear he was in pain. Poor little guy.

So, now we wait. There's a possibility of surgery in the morning...we're not sure.

I'm sick of seeing and hearing about sick little kids. It shouldn't ever happen to any of us, but things like this should never happen to kids.

bahh...I'm going to do some ironing...stop thinking about it for a while.

Love for Alan Dershowitz

Read this

I love this guy!

Cracked

I cracked last night, under the strain. By 1:00 am I was feeling very sad and lonely and was trying to sleep, but this great huge snake inside me didn't want me to sleep.

So, I left the house and bought a pack. Smoked a few. Fell asleep, and now feel like total shit. It's like I just through away the entire weekend of not smoking, cause now that shit is back in my system...arrrgggh.

But I'm back on board, as of now.

Damn it...this is so hard...it's almost too hard.

Anyway...in other news, I went out for a walk again last night. The temperature has been so nice these past few days. So I walked for about an hour last night. Stopped and gawked at some of the houses...and generally had a good time. Came home, ate some dinner, watched Family Guy, and then sat up online for a bit.

Returned to the TV where I watched some Doctor Who, then came back in and chatted with Eric on yahoo. It was 11:00 at night for me, 10:00 in the morning for him.

It's weird talking to someone in another time zone. I'm trying to wrap my head around the time concept. Chatted with Poet this morning and had to make him tell me what time it was in England so I could have a reference point.

I know how it all works in theory and understand the difference in time zones, but when it comes down to it...there's something weird about talking to someone who's already living the next day.

Or maybe I'm just really weird.

Anyway...need to grad lunch out of the oven. Baked pasta with Chicken, Broccoli and alfredo sauce...mmmmm... Then I'm out to walk for the rest of the afternoon.

See you all later.

Eating everything in site..

I can't stop eating.

In a bid to keep my mouth occupied in the absence of smoking, I've been eating.

And eating. And eating...

I've had so much food today already...and I just made and ate a pan of brownies as well.

I'm going to gain so much weight.

Just ridiculous...

Okay, so there's been this guy for a few months who's been chatting with me on yahoo. He claimed months ago to know who I was and told me that he had been attracted to me for a while...but wanted to keep his identity a secret for the time being.

Well, that's turned into a few months of this. He claims that he wasn't trying to be mysterious and that he was just chatting with me, not trying to hide his identity.

So, hadn't heard from him in a while. Then this evening, when I got home from work, he sent me a message. In chatting I mentioned dealing with the craving for a ciagrette.

He told me he was a smoker and chose not to associate with non-smokers and since I was quitting, we shouldn't talk anymore.

I asked him if he was being serious. I told him that if he was it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard.

He then started a discussion about whether I was a dog or a cat person.

I went into my story of having had a dog that I have had to give up to my parents with various moves as I can't pay the pet deposits to keep a large dog indoors and I don't have a yard.

He asked me is the dog (now belonging to my parents) was an indoor or outdoor dog.

I stated that as it was no longer my dog, my parents, that it was now an outdoor dog.

He said "That's strik 2, 3 and 4. Good luck quitting smoking." (or something to that effect.)

I'd finally had enough and said "You know what...fuck off."

Jesus...I just can't help thinking...is this guy for real?

What a lunatic.