Moving Man

So....I have this friend who gets himself a new refrigerator and he asks me if I might want his old one. It's a bit larger than mine and several years newer so I sez "sure, why not?" My fridge is starting to see it's last days and when it kicks on, sounds like it's about to launch into space or something. The thing actually wakes me up in the middle of the night thinking that somebody is trying to break into my house.

Almost new refrigerator for nothing to replace my clunker? A no-brainer!

So....I went to the local U-haul it yerself place and rented a dolly. Then I went home and unloaded all the food from my fridge and crammed it into every ice chest and lunch cooler I could find. Strapped up the fridge and tried to find a door it would fit though.

Door to the garage...nope. Back door...not a chance. That left me with no choice but to push the thing through my living room and out the front door; after moving the sofa, then the TV, then the chairs, then the sofa again, then the TV, then the shelves of books, and the damn sofa again. I must also mention that when you unplug a fridge, it starts to leak really gross looking water that I managed to spread all over my living room carpet.

But that's okay because I finally have the fridge at the door with the delightful discovery that the frame is about 1/4 inch too small.

"Well shucks", I thought to myself (not really but my mom reads this blog), "it had to come into the house somehow". So I fiddled around and managed to take the door handles off the fridge, push it through the front door, drag it across my lawn, and put it in my garage for the time being. Hopped in my trusty pickup and drove across town to my friend's house, picked up his old fridge, loaded on my pickup, drove back home and wrestled it into my kitchen. My friend helped me with this last part and it was much easier. He also helped me load up my old fridge so that I could drive it over to a local charity to donate for somebody that may get some more use out of it. Driving slow because it was a bit wobbly in the pickup bed and the last thing I wanted to do was lose a Frigidaire on the freeway. Arrived at the charity warehouse and unloaded....five minutes before they were about to close.

This took ALL day. It was also a nice summer day of about 100 degrees with a humidity percentage not much less. The heat index was 107.

I definitely got my exercise in today.

Monday Cat Blogging

Father's Day

"Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name." ~William Wordsworth

One Year Anniversary

I really don't know how I deserve to be so blessed....but I'm grateful nonetheless. I think I fell in love with Vicki the moment I met her. After our first serious date I knew it for sure, and this was the song playing on the radio as I was driving home later that night.

Drive to Work

Monday Cat Blogging

You're Not Helping!

There's a controversy with several people I know that are dedicating a significant amount of time and energy into making changes in their lifestyles. If you have people around you that are not helpful in your goals or outright trying to sabotage your progress for whatever reason....are you better to rid these people from your life? Even family members? Even a spouse?

My view is that real friends really want other friends to succeed and be happy. I think that holds true with family members as well. It should with a spouse and...if not...then there is much more problems with that relationship than a lack of support for a diet plan.

What I really think is going on is that we sometimes use the attitudes and behaviors of other people as an excuse for our own. I'm very much guilty of that and have rationalized giving up on many things because I didn't feel as if I was being helped and encouraged by friends and family.

Support is nice....but if we depend upon outside forces to do the real work that needs to be done on the inside, it will fail. We can then blame that failure on the outside forces; but we really know who is at fault, don't we?

Can't Find a Cat Monday

I seem to have a lot more time in the morning when I don't sit around and smoke. Plenty of time to pack the three meals that I will need while I am at work today.

Plus a big thermos of coffee.

Ah....Springtime in Kansas

Right. I've spent most of the day clearing tree limbs and buying replacement appliances that were blown out when lightning hit my house last night. I finally settle down to salvage what is left of my weekend when the notice comes over the TV that we are under a tornado watch for the night.

Anyway, on the bright side....I feel really good! My sick bug is gone. I'm still not smoking. And I'm ready to hit the gym early tomorrow morning and finally get this BFL challenge on the road.

Last Smoke

Sitting here watching the ticker up top count down the last seconds while I finish what I hope is the last cigarette I ever put in my mouth for the rest of my life.

Such a simple thing to give up. After all, I know full well how bad it is for my health. I know that nothing...not one thing...I do toward my fitness goal will make any difference at all as long as I puff on cigarettes. I know. I know.

I counsel people about addictions, fer pete's sake....so I know!

Last seconds. One more puff. There it is....zero hour. Into the trash go the cigs.

No more.

Friday At Last!

I had doubts that Friday would ever arrive. What a loooooong week this has been.

I'll be gearing up to begin with Body for Life again on Monday. I feel good. My bout with being sick is mostly over. Lots of planning and shopping to do over the weekend. Plus, if you notice the little ticker at the top of this blog....I'll be doing another attempt at giving up the cigs at midnight tonight.

A great deal of changes in my professional life this week. Now it's time to do something about my personal life.

Workplace Snacking

I re-discovered a big disadvantage of working in my new location. The place where I use to have my office was a bit isolated. The only food available was whatever I brought myself. I tried to pack a bit of fruit for whenever I got the munchies and it was very easy to avoid sweets and chips....they just were not around.

However; the building that I now work in is full of people that love to eat. Donuts. Cakes. Cookies. Pot-luck lunches. Vending machines galore. You can't walk anywhere without unhealthy food popping up in front of your face. I tried to do my part to help mitigate this trend of shoveling sugar and fat in our mouths all day by leaving out a bunch of grapes and a container of strawberries for my fellow workers in our break room.

Two days later, I took them back to my office and ate it myself. Nobody had touched them. Surrounding the fruit were three empty boxes of donuts.

Will This Week Ever End?

Okay...it's Wednesday, which use to be my Monday. I was always pretty rested and ready to start my week on Wednesdays but now it's more like my Fridays; which I guess will feel pretty good now but seems an awful long time in the future.

Dang. This is worse than switching to daylight savings time.

Scheduling

With my new work hours comes a re-arrangement of my life. Though I worked long hours before the change, I only worked four days a week...and I had become use to having those three day week-ends to take care of everything.

Now, I have to plot out my weeks a bit differently. I can't go shopping for a week's worth of food on a Monday morning anymore. I can't hold off on going to the gym until afternoon on Tuesdays anymore. I'm going to have to get back to a set schedule of going to the gym every morning at 4 or 5 and shopping on the weekends.

I know this is piddly stuff....but these are the type of things that give us excuses to give up. Scheduling is all about the details.

And, of course, that's where the devil lies.

Monday Cat Blogging