Just Getting Started
2006-08-30, 11:58 a.m.

Day 738 Just Getting Started

There is a family brouhaha that has been festering for a while. Involves Cindy & her brother. Short story version is this: This has been simmering for months. I offered to jump in and play mediator way back at the beginning. I was asked (told is more like it) to not get involved. Fine. I stayed out of it. Now, Cindy is complaining to anyone within earshot (whether they�re listening or not) that I�m not doing anything to help her fix the situation. Pretty sweet, huh? Upshot is that Cindy & her brother aren�t talking. Anything involving their dad, Cindy�s brother calls me � on my cell phone, so she can�t intercept. Even though I was asked (ordered) to stay out of it, I�m being sucked in. It�s coming to a head, and soon.

Jill is headed home for a few days before her fall term starts. Think she�s going after dinner tonight. If Cindy is anywhere near sober, we need to have a chat very soon after Jill takes off about this whole situation with her brother. Poor Jill doesn�t need to be caught up in this one. I could initiate the same chat if Cindy were �under the weather� but it�s very frustrating trying to have an actual conversation with her when she�s in that condition. She tends to want to talk and not listen. Even when she isn�t talking, she still doesn�t listen to what is being said, she only looks for breaks in which to assert the same things, over and over and over . . .

Enough of that.

Finally get to go to the jewelry store tonight and pick up the anniversary ring and the old inherited ring that have both been re-sized. Maybe (maybe) pictures will be forthcoming. Depends on how deep in the doghouse I am. It�s conceivable that Cindy won�t even want me there when she picks them up. Man, I�m so glad I decided to spring for that ring.

No biking for me again last night. Cindy was getting caught up in this whole family feud thing, drinking like a fish to boot, and more or less left dinner up to me. Sort of. At 6:30 I was making a run to the grocery store for a missing ingredient (potatoes of all things). She was trying to �help� while I was out. Argh. Suffice it to say my tongue is sore from biting it. Glad it was only a stew we were making � kinda hard to screw it up so bad it�s not recoverable. Seasoning was sadly deficient (no garlic, pepper or herbs in the process) and I�d have handled the meat, onions & carrots differently (sweat the onions a bit with the meat, brown the carrots some too to enhance their sweetness), but at least it didn�t kill anybody.

UPS kinda sorts goofed on my knife order. They�re being shipped from New Jersey. Real far. Were supposed to be here today, the 30th. Sat in Secaucus all day yesterday. Lost in their facility. Bottom line, instead of getting the knives today, they�ll come tomorrow. I think I liked it better when you couldn�t track your individual shipments on the web. The vendor told you it�d be 2 weeks to ship something, you figured ok, maybe 3 weeks, Then when your package showed up in only a week and a half, it was a pleasant surprise. Now, you can find out where everything is at any point in time. Then you get all OCD on it, checking every hour to see if UPS has updated their progress. Very distracting.

Plus getting the knives tomorrow sucks because I�ll be at my Al Anon meeting till at least 7. That leaves little chance of me having to do any real cooking or chopping that night. May have to wait all the way till Friday before taking them out for a test drive. Bummer.

Coffee is distracting too. Oi. Had 16 oz of real caffeinated coffee this morning, chased by a 12 oz mug of decaf. Problem is, I�ve had to hit the bathroom multiple times already. Think I�ve eliminated close to twice what I�ve taken in. Now I�ll have to up the water consumption for the rest of the day to keep hydrated. I can already feel my lips getting a little parched. Not like I�m using them to kiss anything lately, but ya gotta keep the lips lubed, right? Never know when they�ll be pressed into service. Might run into a hoochie mama at lunch time and go for a little spin. Yeah, right, what are the odds of that?

Sport�s got me thinking about a little experiment to do. She�s been on this beet campaign, right? Well, we grew beets in our garden one year. Needless to say, we had a LOT of beets to eat. Know what I learned? If you eat about a cup, maybe a bit more, of beets at one sitting, you can pee purple later on. Well, it�s kinda red really, but that�s prolly from all the other pee ingredients messing with the beet pigment. If you like beets, you gotta try it. Freaked me out one time. Had a physical with Dr. B. Required to give up the requisite urine sample. Mine was loaded with beet pigment. Made for an topic of conversation with the doc. Good thing I didn�t have asparagus too. Whew. Can you imagine? Nasty, stanky, sulphury, purple pee sample? Bet that would have been worth an overnight in the hospital. Hee, next physical, I promise. It�d be worth trying, just to see their reactions.

Too bad I don�t know when my next physical is. Think I�m scheduled for some blood work in October to check my cholesterol, and do an official BP check, but nothing major. Maybe I�ll schedule a physical then. October will mark two years since my last one, and I�ve managed to do a little body work since then. Be interesting to see how it impacts the physical assessment. Plus, at my age, there�s the whole prostrate exam thingy. Oh boy. That�s the real reason I have a female doctor. Smaller fingers. Always thinking I tell ya!!

Ok, this has degraded far enough. Dry lips, purple pee and now rectal exams. How much worse can it get? Oh yeah � I could bitch & whine about my favorite drunk. Lets go back to the rectal exams, eh?

Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight: 185.0 on 8/21/06 #$*&^ scale pointer has helium in it!!
Next weigh in: 9/5/06 (first day the Y re-opens)

New target � Time to reevaluate.

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 8/25/06: 688.36
Miles with cool down: 756.97
Target for 2006: 1000 miles
Plus 68+ miles biking so far.

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