The Rollercoaster
2006-05-10, 10:21 a.m.

Day 625 If that was Tuesday, we must be at Cedar Point

Riding the roller coasters, of course. The one I�m on is called the Mind Warp. Man, what a ride.

Everybody is home. Well, those of us that are supposed to be adults. Kids are still at school, supposedly studying for finals and are blissfully unaware of the events that have taken place over the last 36+ hours. Finally talked to the docs early Tues. morning, went in and picked up Cindy a little after 8:00. She pretty much crashed when we got home. I answered emails & notes responses. I think I got to nearly everybody. Would like to thank everyone again for their comforting words and kind thoughts. Does a boy a world of good knowing there�s folks out there that care, even a little bit.

Sport � I do believe you�re prediction regarding the passive/aggressive nature of things is going to be right on the money. Alison � you have a unique perspective and are a fantastic touchstone for me. I really appreciate your take on the whole situation. Zuzus - thanks for the quick little slap upside the head � I kinda dodged that little point you made, didn�t I? And Serena, we are SO going to decompress next week. We�ll get the details figured out soon.

Things are going a little more smoothly than I thought. Which makes me wonder if she even got the point of the whole series of events. Maybe not. There are follow up appointments to go to. She made no effort to hide her hospital discharge papers and what was written on them. I�ll assume she wants me to know what�s there and what�s coming up. I�ll encourage her to go and be supportive, but at the same time I have to accept that I can�t force anything. No amount of MY will (as stubborn and German as it is) can fix a thing inside her head. All those people I mentioned in the previous paragraph can take some credit for managing to cram that into one of my 3 functioning brain cells.

Anyhow. Care Bears. I�m on to Mom-on-roof�s system for making the Care Bears appear. Holy Crapola! I had an entire pot of high octane coffee yesterday morning, all consumed between the hours of 5 and 8 am. We have an extra large 10+ cup coffee maker. I had all that, plus stopped at the local service station and bought ANOTHER cup on my way into the hospital to pick up Cindy. Until about noon, I was flying with the Care Bears.

Cindy had a previously scheduled Dentist appt to get a crown put in on Tuesday. This was the final fit/install, so no biggie really. I offered to let her crash till 45 minutes prior to the appt, then get her up and go with her. She accepted, civilly, on all points.

Stopped and picked up lunch on the way home. Ate & tried to crash some more. Man, those Care Bears were keeping me from getting in any quality napping. I�m sure I dozed off at a couple of points, cuz I actually heard myself snoring once or twice, but it wasn�t the real good, quality power nap that was needed.

Needless to say, it was an early evening � no aerobics class (bummer). Actually went to bed shortly after nine. Had to check on some info with son #1 (the stalk is on again � we�re going to try and unleash Serena on a barely aware son #1) So I got those little details & crashed. Guess the caffeine finally wore off. Slept pretty darn good.

Workout this morning was quite a struggle. Muddled through, did my 5 miles and weight work. Afterwards, doing the shower thing, on a lark I headed for the scales. Hadn�t been paying particular attention to my diet plan the last few days, in spite of the throw down with Sport and our silly little contest. I�ll tell you what � either her Care Bear coffee technique works really well, or stress is a fantastic burner of the calories. Scale wouldn�t balance out till I had the slider all the way down to 191 � and that was after a quart of water and breakfast. Still wondering if I�m not wickedly de-hydrated after all that coffee yesterday. We�ll see. I imagine the weight will creep back up a pound or more. Won�t take my official weigh down showdown reading till Saturday or Sunday.

Speaking of that silly little wager, Alison has also decided to officially take up the challenge with us � so the stakes are now either 33 or 50% higher. My head is too tired to figure out which it is. Either way, we ought to have fun and come out of it with looser pants, right?

5K race coming up Saturday. Making plans with son #2 for transport to and from. And no Serena, not likely you�ll be meeting this one soon. He�s getting his schooling over in Fredonia (southwest of Buffalo). Well, actually, his girlfriend is from Liverpool (NY, not England) � so there�s a possibility your paths may cross. One never knows.

Also got froggy and signed up for the JPMorganChase Corporate Challenge here in Rah-cha-cha. That�s a 3.5 mile race with literally thousands of participants held at one of my alma maters, RIT. That makes for 2 more work out t-shirts � my prime motivation for entering these races.

Better get to work and maintain the value of the old corporate unit. Can�t go selling a division that doesn�t make money ya know. The tempest appears to have settled down for the moment, but Cindy & I need to sit down and have a quiet, sane, heart to heart talk about where this is all headed. I plan on broaching that subject tonight, while things are still fresh in our minds and things at least appear to be calm.

Later folks � and thanks for all the support.

Updated stats:
Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight 193.75 on 5/5/06 (stress burns calories, right?) (191 on 5/10??)
Target: 180 by 7/1/06 (Start of swim suit season??)
Next �official� weigh in: 5/12/06

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 5/10/06: 346.23
Miles with cooldown: 381.35 (yesterdays stats were incorrect)
Target for 2006: 1000 miles

Might have to add a little something for the 5K training too.

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