January Diary

 

Can’t believe January is over. Seems like it was only a few days ago I was posting a Happy New Year to all.

Anyway, it was a crazy, event-filled month. What happened?

Well, let me tell ya:

1) I fought off Covid for two weeks, documented in the previous entry.

2) A smell of gas permeated our garage the first weekend of the new year. We called out the gas company, and after their investigation they told us our hot water heater control valve was leaking gas. They shut off the gas to the hot water heater. We called our home warranty, who referred us to another plumber, who said that, well, better to replace the whole heater as it was nearing its sell-by date, than just the control valve. The home warranty said no. We said, screw that. We called another plumber and he replaced the whole thing for us for $1500 and gave us a 6-year warranty. After nearly five days we finally had hot water. But the most annoying thing is that I JUST REPLACED THE HOT WATER HEATER IN THE OLD HOUSE TO SELL IT BACK IN JULY! That’s two water heaters I’ve bought in six months. Hopefully no more for 15 years.

2) I saw the Stars beat the Panthers in NHL hockey, live at American Airlines arena in Dallas, and witnessed 12 goals in the process – a 5-5 tie that went into shoot-out OT. Very exciting and fun evening for me and the Mrs. We watched a half-dozen more games at night from home when the little ones were busy with school work and such at night.

3) My job was insane – we debuted a new payroll / accounting system January 1st and I also received a new boss. Both are welcome, but both involve a LOT of work. My company is international and has 27,000 employees, so it affects many, many facets of a job that I am still not a hundred percent comfortable and competent in.

4) I’m still making progress on the Grand Project. It’s fun and makes life worth living. Hint: It’s a book I’m writing.

5) I’ve been sluggish in my reading, slogged down by a trio of 600+ page books (one on World War II, one of conspiracy theories, one of Biblical exegesis). This thing kinda just happened. I have ten Sharpe books on deck that I’m dying to get to. As soon as I finish the World War II one I’m going to jump back in to Napoleonic Richard Sharpe and read two of those novels in a row.

6) I failed my New Years Resolution in that I’m not working out regularly, but I have worked out. Walked a bunch of times and lifted weights a bunch of time, just not all in a row.

7) Had a great date night with the Mrs – an outdoor restaurant with an open fire pit, live music, drinks, chips, and great Tex-Mex eating. Need to do this more often.

8) Visited a fifth college with Little One. So impressed and excited. Makes me wish it was 1985 again. O to have so many opportunities, so many open roads. This college actually sends its students to Rome to study for a semester sophomore year. As a corollary, we took Little One (and Patch) out to celebrate being accepted to all six schools she applied to at her favorite fanciest restaurant.

9) I’ve written three more songs for my imaginary band. This is now something like starting my fourth CD of tunes. Gotta find some old fathers out there who play and get an Old Man Band together. Or at least buy a Tascam multi-track recorder to put it all down for posterity..

Well, that’s all I can think of off the top of my head. It may not seem like much, but it really fills up the days, days that slide and blend and blur into one another. Is it the weekend already?! Monday, then Friday before you know it. It’s starting to get warmer down here which means 60 degree weather which means winter’s turned and spring is not too far away, which means before I know it I’ll be sweating in 100 degree heat during my summer walks. Life moves too quickly. Time slow down!

Hopefully more posts in February …

Hopper 1, Wu Flu 0

 

Something odd happened the first week in January.

Patch, our youngest at age 13, had been sick off and on for the past ten days. Nothing unusual or nothing to keep her out of school. Certainly nothing flu-like. Some sniffles, some clear mucus, some fatigue, but it would come and go.

Soon the same thing happened to Little One, age 17. But she felt a lot worse, and the wife took her to the local Care Now, thinking it might be strep (again). She was tested there, and the verdict was: COVID.

Well, here’s the great test, I thought. I remember the Great Fear of the Winter of 2020, wondering if I’d succumb to the Wu Flu. Well, despite several coworkers coming down with it (none fatally), I never got it. I casually stored that fear away in the spring and summer, and then pretty much filed it in the garbage can. Last winter, despite much renewed fear mongering from all the usual suspects, I wasn’t worried. In the spring the wife got the double vaccine. We moved down to Texas last July and, looking for work and seeing the writing on the wall (that I might have trouble finding employment being unvaccinated), I succumbed to the vaccine.

That was a not-so-great experience, to say the least, as I’ve documented here in these e-pages.

We kept Little One and Patch home from school for the week, per policy down here. Five days quarantine. And a day or two later, I suddenly felt the symptoms of my annual bronchitis kick in.

That Sunday, at the wife’s request, I went to Care Now. And lo and behold I tested positive for COVID. But, I protested, this is my annual bronchitis – not the flu. I get it every year (with the notable exception of 2020 and 2021, the result of, I guess, excessive hand-washing), the coughing knocks me on my butt for a day or two, the docs give me a Z-Pack, and I’m miraculously cured.

This doctor, decked out in just slightly less than a full hazmat suit, would have none of that. It’s COVID, she insisted, and it mimics other diseases. We will not be giving you a prescription for azithromycin; you’ll just have to ride it out.

Well, I thought, not being in a good mood at that point, it’s a good thing I didn’t come in with raging hemorrhoids. That’d be COVID in disguise, too.

Once home I doubled my vitamin C and vitamin D3 doses, drank lots and lots of fluids – water and fruit juices, and generally took it very easy. Despite my coughing and fatigue (from not being able to sleep peacefully through the night) I did not miss a day of work, nor did my output suffer. After a few days I felt 90% of normal. As of Monday, I am completely healthy.

So, COVID or not, I survived. 50+ year old Me with my one functioning lung and extra 25 pounds around the waist.

Hopper 1, Wu Flu 0.

 

Happy New Year 2022!

 

New Year’s Eve.

I must admit, I love the holiday. One last night to wallow in one’s personal failings, then boldly resolve to do better. Phoenix rising from the ashes, with an eye towards self-improvement, or attaining some goal or goals, or vowing to correct some yawing character flaw.

I love it. But to be honest, like the vast, vast majority of folks out there, I’ve never kept a New Year’s Resolution in my life.

Doesn’t matter.

A few weeks back I thought it a grand resolution to read books of only 150 pages or less. The book nerd in me tracks and grades every book and short story he’s read (with a nerdy grade assigned to each). The most books I’ve put away, cover-to-cover, in a year was 60, done way back in 2014. My floating annual par is 40, based on what I’ve noticed I can comfortably complete from over two decades of avid reading. This year ending, 2021, I’ve read only 32, the lowest number I’ve put away since 2008, back when I was dealing with an extremely difficult boss in an extremely difficult job with an extremely difficult newborn at home.

A lot of the books I read this year had a lot of pages. That’s doesn’t necessarily deter me, but pages = time. Commander-in-Chief had about 550 pages. The Witnesses had 450. Science and Health had 700. Even my fiction books were thick: Dracula with 400, Red Mars with 375, Little Big Man 400, my three Sharpe books at 350 apiece.

Thus the 150-page limit resolution.

Then, I got into Bernard Cornwell’s Napoleonic books, the aforementioned “Sharpe books,” and bought/was gifted ten of them this Christmas season. That’s 3,500 pages. And I’d rather read them books than stick to that resolution, worthy though it be.

So what else?

Well, I’ll let you in on a secret.

Hopper is now a Fatty.

Yes, I’ve put on the weight since summer. I’m now at the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life. The reason is simple: I stress eat. And face it, regular reader(s), ’twas quite the stressful year for your host. Quitting an old job, moving out of a house he’s lived in for 17 years, relocating across country, navigating two teenaged girls through such a move and a readjustment, finding new employment. Stress! So I’ve packed on the pounds. Since I’m due to start working in the office January 17 (two days in, three days home per week), I realized that I don’t want to be a fatty at work.

So my resolution is to drop 25 pounds, tone up and get flexible. As quickly as possible.

Yeah, get flexible. I have the creaky joints of an 80-year old man.

I did real well when we first moved down to Texas, from mid-July to mid-September. Got down to 200. Muscles got firm from hurling the iron. Got fit from a daily 2.5 mile walk in 100-degree weather. Ate Keto and the spare tire melted off.

Then I got employed, and the stress eating kicked in big time. Since Halloween I’ve been a mess.

Tomorrow morning I’m doing my stretch routine (hams, quads, calves, lats, plus a few yoga moves to hit my hips and neck). Then the 2.5 mile walk (it’ll be 63 degrees here at 8 am). Then the gym in the garage, the newly-Christened “Thunderdome” (“House of Pain” seemed to have too negative a connotation for my old carcass) to do some curls, some bench presses, hack lifts, leg dips, tricep curls, rows, etc.

Time to get back into shape. Time to not be a fatty at work.

Anyways …

 

HERE’S TO A SAFE AND

HAPPPPPPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!