Football Epilogue

Listen up you capitalist dogs! Your economy needs you! It's no time to be thinking about saving for the future! Real happiness comes from buying people things they don't need and will forget about within minutes! Let's not forget the real people who matter here, the shareholders. I'm not talking you and your pithy 401k nest egg. I'm talking the ultra-rich, the new-age aristocrats largely born into their privilege and taught nothing but "more is better at any cost". How can they buy their yachts, and more importantly maintain their political influence if you don't pony up? In the end their philanthropy, a mere midday shadow of their wealth, will save you. The pensions cut from their companies and their tax breaks have reached a limit, they must have more! They will remember you well as they curse you for not giving them enough. Remember, they are special among people and their spit has the value of gold as it rains on your grave. That hard fought nest e...

One of the big challenges in staying healthy, particularly for those of us who struggle with eating, is when the outside world "pivots" on us after we've established good habits under a certain set of conditions. By this I mean anything from a prolonged change in the weather to an injury or medical condition that might keep us from getting our steps. I started Noom in May. Living in Minnesota I've had the "fair weather" treatment up to now, literally. The days throughout the summer are long. Going for a run or walk at 8:30pm still has plenty of natural light and there's plenty of warmth for generating a good sweat. Also, in doing the math for me, there are fewer celebratory occasions and close-quartered social eating situations during those months. Enter the winter plunge. The days have gotten significantly shorter with twilight around 5pm. It's mostly dark when I get out of bed and mostly dark when I head home from work. The temperature hovers ar...

By now most of us are accustomed to having to work out someplace other than the gym. Here in MN gyms have been shut down for the last four weeks along with restaurant indoor dining, schools, etc. while we weather the second wave of Covid infections.  I was getting into a pretty good habit of going for a jog a few times a week and working out with my home gym equipment in the garage. I was also walking to lunch on a regular basis; a two mile loop up to the local service station for a banana and some manner of protein. The shop even stocks some hard boiled eggs so I don't have to get a roller dog each time. However, I must admit a cheddar-wurst is a bit of a treat for me (I skip on the bun as they're usually overly bready anyway). I only had one suspect occurrence with the juevos where it looked like they had a run in with a mushy banana and I opted to stay away for a little while. Fortunately, I caught the bum eggs before they gave me a bum...bum. Digressing, the onset of the pr...

A little post-Christmas catharsis. \m/

Halloween has passed. The colder weather is officially here. In doing the outdoor winter preparations I took the tomato wires out of my garden. Upon stacking them upside-down they looked a lot like a Christmas tree to me. So instead of shrugging it off and continuing on with the winter prepping, I decided to try my luck at converting the wire into a lighted spiral tree. This was totally silly and totally a diversion from being actually productive, but hey, it was fun. Here's the route I took: Flip over tomato wire (t-wire) and tape the legs together.   I used blue painter's tape out of convenience. I may pay for that later. My tree frame in my kitchen. Please ignore the mess. Life is messy and so am I...to a point. Get rigid steel wire and spiral it around the tomato wire.   I used roughly one turn between each rung on the t-wire. I used zip ties to hold the skeleton together. Tape would also work, but the ties allowed me to adjust the wire to get th...

I made it through Christmas. I've had a couple of slower-paced days letting the busy-ness of the season subside. I got a couple of good workouts in and was looking to a relaxing second half of the week. Then it happened. I woke up around midnight with a sniffle and some post-nasal drip feeling as though it were eroding my throat away. It seems whenever I get a little time to relax, my immune system finds a way to catch up with me. Upon doing some reading , I'm finding this is common and part of our body's response where our immune system seems to turn off during stressful times and catches up with us when we have a break.  Frankly, its lousy, but I can see where falling ill while being hunted by pre-historic predators would result in being eaten. Even today's predators know to pick off the weak and ill from the herd. Really, for me it's about accepting that I'm sick and will likely get sick after a high pressure/stressful time. I had high hopes for thi...

Yesterday was our holiday potluck at work. It's quite the spread. I usually go about the day with the intent of eating moderately. I usually fail, but at least I thought about trying, right?  I mean who can pass up rib roast, turkey and ham? And then everyone brings such wonderful sides ranging from salads to sushi to an enormous pan of mac and cheese. This pic was taken too soon and 2/3rds of the stuff isn't on the table yet. Essentially, my plate was made into a bed of sides that the meat rested comfortably on until devoured. We end up walking by the appetizer/dessert table for at least two days after the shindig is over. I did skip dinner yesterday evening, just having a banana and some other snack-type items. So the day did seem to balance out. Now I think it's time to go see how many cookies are left...or to find alternate routes around the building.

Just a song that got in my head while getting motivated to keep stride through the Holidays. Enjoy!