These Are the Days of Our Lives - week 4

January 22 Sunday

Just a little light snow falling today, and the temps were mild to accommodate it.  The sky tonight looked pretty ominous, though, as the big storm we're supposed to get is hurtling toward us.  Word is we're getting 30 cm or more.  Winter will finally have really arrived with the punch we've grown accustomed to.  We're trying to get a snowplow operator to do our driveway, but it's not easy.  *  Janice went to work for noon today, and I woke up around three-ish, after getting to sleep quite late last night.  I mean real late, like 7am or something.  I was up finishing up the blog for last week, adding links and proofreading and stuff.  I heard from my brother Roy and his son Chris updating me a bit on Chris' brother Shawn, and I heard from the man himself - it looks like he's going to be looked after, not that there was any doubt.  If Shawn were fifty pounds heavier and sedentary or something, on the other hand, that would've been cause for worry, but that guy's a sound, solid machine.  Roy and Chris are solidly in his corner too, as are Janice and Lex and me of course, and pretty well everyone who knows him.  I just wish he didn't have to deal with it.  He deserves better.  *  The plan for us today was to have linguini, spaghetti style, for supper with hamburger left over from last week when we had it then, and we'd frozen it for a quick put-together for a time like this.  Plus I gotta make more ginger cookies.  Friggin' awesome, those things!  But first up was the gym, once again.  We're on a pretty good roll with it this month.  We wound up going there late again, around 9 or so, and finished up 2 1/2 hours later.  Another 4 miles plus of cardio for us both, as well as freeweights Shack Day, one of our favorite regimens because it's so effective.  I do a daily walk around the perimeter of the gym at the end of every workout now, carrying two 45 lb plates, for my shoulders, finishing that up with shrugs before I put the plates away.  It's not much, but I've advanced to 30 lb dumbbells for the Arnold Press, something I'm trying to improve upon because lifting weight over my head doesn't come that easy for me.  Janice is killing it too.  I pushed her to do a bit more weight today, and she did it, with a bit of difficulty, but that means progress, which she's constantly making.  Pretty proud of her!  *  Back home we went, greeted by Marvelous Marbles Hagler at the door (aka 'Batcat' with his silouette in the bedroom window), showered and started supper and making the cookie dough to bake tomorrow.  My sister Cindy gave me Mom's recipe for the ginger cookies and I follow it to the 'T', although I recall Mom using bacon fat sometimes instead of shortening.  But we don't eat quite that much bacon.  The linguini was sublime, it was half white pasta and half whole wheat, as we combined the leftovers of two boxes.  I made it with the hamburger and this Prego with meatballs sauce that we got in the States recently.  Pretty bitchin', I gotta say.  Janice went through her vodka, so now we're looking to finish off the Crown Royal I still have left, and we'll just have the odd canned vodka beverage after that until Lent arrives, when we cut out alcohol altogether.  And after that, I'll be probably just a beer guy, once in a while.  I've never drank all that much anyway, and besides, it ain't cheap to drink.  *  We watched 'Question Period' for this week, and cleaned up the kitchen and Janice tackled a bit of laundry before we relocated north for the night.  My dear wife didn't need too long to fall asleep, though she's been groaning a fair bit, so I briefly woke her so she could take some pain meds.  Between the weather and the working out, plus her health challenges, sometimes it's a struggle for her to relax.  I'm always watching her.  So does Marbles - who's sleeping on my lap right now... well, he just woke up hearing a snowplow.  *  That's the kind of day it's been.

    The one, the only, Marvelous Marbles Hagler

January 23 Monday

Getting walloped by a winter storm today, really the first bonafide one of the season.  At least 30 cm up to now, and it's far from over.  Wind is kicking up too, potential for ice pellets overnight, and toward the end of the week they're calling for plus 10 and RAIN.  One of Mother Nature's mood swings is in full effect.  Or Old Man Winter?  Maybe they're having a freakin' baby.  *  This sleep struggle is getting to be crazy.  Didn't sleep last night at all, and only passed out around 3 in the afternoon today.  Janice got home from work after leaving the car in the driveway this morning because of the incoming storm - she only works up the street, so not too big of a deal.  We think we found a snowplow operator to do the season; we booked and paid for it, so hopefully he shows up!  *  We're fairly sore from the Shack workout yesterday, as anticipated.  This is the most dedicated we've been for going to the gym in a long time.  Maybe ever.  But today had to be an off day, I don't even know that they're open.  Pretty well the whole city shut down by early afternoon.  No power outages here yet, but the night is young.  *  Just heard our snowplow driver do the driveway, so that's a bit of a weight off our shoulders.  *  We went down and got ready to bake those cookies and make supper, and Janice tackled the laundry, when suddenly she got a wave of nausea come over her.  She sat on the couch and shortly after, while supper was nearly done, told me she had to go upstairs because she was going to be sick.  Indeed she was.  The past couple of days, since being at that packed-like-sardines bar Saturday night, she's been clearing her throat a lot, and had some soreness in it.  Sunday night it appeared she was getting a cold.  Now she's coughing and out of it in bed next to me.  I put supper together on a plate and put it in the fridge for her hopefully for tomorrow, and finished baking those cookies, and she was flaked out in bed when we settled down.  Our loyal little Marbles followed her right up the stairs when she said she was going to be sick and stuck by her side, he's such an empathetic little guy, like all our cats were.  I insisted that she stay home from work tomorrow after such a rough night.  She took a covid test and it came up negative, but there's a flu going around too, and that appears to be what it is.  Or a really, really bad cold.  I'm going to take good care of her.  *  Man, the news today... they keep finding out how deep the Russians are into the GOP in the States.  It's scary, but not scary - because Russia as they are right now, I don't believe they can bounce back on the world stage under their current leadership.  It's almost like they're trying to bring the U.S down with them, though, and Ukraine.  If AG Garland doesn't get off his ass and act faster, I'm going to wonder if he's in Trump's pocket.  I've been thinking that for a while now.  *  The snow continues to fall, and I guess I'm going to shut this down... but not before saying I just found out my brophew Shawn is on the upswing and is hoping to be released from the hospital maybe tomorrow.  That's a relief.  I didn't think he wouldn't handle things, but I'm just glad that he's actually moving ahead now.  His brother Chris, and their mom, are flying out tomorrow to be with him, so I'm happy he'll have that.  I hope Roy is resting easier now.  *  Quite a day today... and that's how it was.

January 24 Tuesday

Not much progress on the sleeping front.  Was up pretty much all night, so I read a bunch of stuff online on various sites, and actually spent a few hours finishing Mima's 'Always Be a Wolf' novel.  Which had a really satisfying, noir-ish ending to it that really resonates.  *  Janice indeed tested positive for Covid, and although her digestive issues resolved pretty much, the cold/headache/fever part stepped up in its place.  She's not that bad, though, we thought it was just the flu really.  I'll be taking care of her through it - chances are I'll wind up getting it, but we'll deal with it as it comes.  Janice had to call off work today and tomorrow as well, of course, and she's scheduled for six days vacation after that, so it looks like we'll be doing a whole lotta nothin', but we like just being together anyway.  Today, for instance, while she was sleeping beside me this afternoon, I watched 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' on Crave.  How the hell I let this movie get past me for so many years, I have no idea - what a masterpiece of filmmaking.  A major head-trip of a movie, and anybody who knows me knows I love that type of show.  It definitely demands to be watched twice, so when Janice was awake, later on I watched it a second time with her.  She loved it too.  We also watched HBO's 'The Last Of Us' this week, which I felt was actually an improvement on last week's debut.  Pretty good.  The scariest thing about that show is that it's actually plausible.  *  Anyway, earlier in the day I got out to shovel out Janice's Mom's house... her front deck and entrance, and did a pathway to our front steps.  Our plow guy sufficiently did the driveway last night.  *  Supper tonight couldn't have been much easier.  Janice only wanted toast because of her Covid woes, and I had the supper she didn't have last night, which was grilled chicken, corn and rice.  *  I forgot to mention, the temps were standard today, around the minus 3 range, and it's supposed to dip down colder tonight to minus 10.  Daytime today was bright and sunny, so a pretty good reprieve from yesterday.  *  My brophew Chris was to go out to visit his brother Shawn out in Vancouver today with their mom to offer moral support for Shawn's aortic dissection issue, which is evidently under control.  That was a bit of a scare, but Shawn's the epitome of health, so essentially this is just going to bounce off him, where it would take down most of the rest of us.  I'm very thankful for that.  So are all the rest of us!  *  News-wise, I got word that bill C-22 got through third reading in the House - that being an increase to the Canadian disability benefit.  We're actually doing okay right now, but an increase would give us more breathing room, and maybe even make it able to get things done that we need more quickly.  In the States, they're allegedly closing in on a Trump indictment, something they've been saying for over a year now.  Mass shootings down there are tragically typical, with way more of them than there are days in the year so far.  What a sad state of affairs.  *  Marvellous Marbles Hagler got his required bedtime snack, we're both laying here watching TV at nearly 3am, and I'm gonna finish it at that.  *  That's the kind of day been.

January 25 Wednesday

Day 2 of Covid for me, day 3 for Janice.  It's kind of rough, but not quite as bad as many horror stories I've heard, perhaps because we've got all our vaccinations up to date.  Although Janice is having a harder time with it because of her immunodeficiency problems.  For me, the coughing is pretty intense at times, like it is every time I get a cold or something like it.  I don't know if it's actually bronchitis or not, but it's very raw, like a bark or something, when I cough.  That brings me to headaches, which are pretty bad with this.  But, I have my stash of Sudafed Advance, which I swear by when it comes to all things sinus related.  It's like a magic bullet for me.  Janice, on the other hand, has to be careful with what she takes because of the meds she's on.  She takes Tramadol, which actually is very effective for her.  Plus the cannabis she takes really smooths the edge off the pain.  The oil does help me sleep, but not every time lately, likely because of this viral infection.  *  Our sleep schedule is way, way, way off as a result of dealing with Covid.  We get sleep when we can, basically, kind of like having a newborn baby.  Three hours here, four hours there -- it's good that as of Wednesday, Janice is on holidays until next Wednesday, though it puts a real damper on her vacation.  Still, we're together, and that's the main thing, and both of us will tell you that.  Each other is all we need.  *  Our diets are pretty stripped down for now, limited to toast and Diet Canada Dry.  We don't have much appetite for anything else.  Janice has already dropped ten pounds, so the road to recovery is going to be a little longer because of that.  I didn't lose any weight, myself, even though I haven't eaten much of anything either.  *  Something I should note that really helped was when I suggested we both shower.  It'd been three days, after all, and we were certainly due, but we had to bring up the gumption to get it done.  I have to say, it was quite invigorating.  I took it first, and ran the water as hot as I could on my chest and back for a bit, and it really did help renew me quite a lot.  Janice did the same and felt the same way.  Perhaps tomorrow we'll do the same thing, it was that effective.  *  I'd like to notate what the weather was like on this day, but I don't have a clue, because of our wacky sleep schedule.  I do know that temps are supposed to go way up and a lot's going to melt.  *  We watched AEW Dynamite tonight, with a tribute for the now-deceased Jay Briscoe, with a tribute match involving his brother Mark and comrade Jay Lethal. Good match, and it was emotionally invested due to the circumstances.  Jay Briscoe's tag team partner/brother Mark did it to salute his brother, with a supportive and sentimental audience and announce team.  It was a bit of a tear-jerker.  Both those guys are devout Christians, and Mark's faith really shone through at the end of this.  I hope Mark can overcome this and continue to prosper, in tribute to his fallen brother.  *  That's more or less the kind of day it's been.

January 26 Thursday

Well... our sleep schedules are still way of kilter.  Basically more of the same, sleep when we can, because it's interrupted a lot by headaches, coughing and more or less bad rhythm.  Really, as long as we get the sleep we need, at least we get that.  *  We've both been running a mild fever since this Covid thing descended on us, and that, of course, doesn't help our sleep efforts.  I did take Tramadol myself today when a headache was threatening to release an alien baby through my skull or something, but I more or less just handed it a Snickers.  Better.  *  Today was actually a marked improvement for both of us, healthwise.  This whole sleeping-while-we-can thing pays off quite a bit, and we did the hot shower again today and it helped us as much or more than it did yesterday.  Janice is dealing with bouts of nauseousness that's been a bit stubborn, though, keeping her from eating much.  It was toast for both of us tonight for supper.  I also baked more ginger snaps as it seems to have a bit of a calming effect on our bellies.  The TV was off for the majority of the day as we just talked a whole lot or surfed the web or whatever.  We basically remained horizontal for a lot of the day, save for the latter part of it when I felt well enough to venture out to the grocery store to get a few things, like soup and bread and bananas.  I wanted to go when it wasn't busy, so I waited till a half hour before closing, and there was really just staff there at that point.  Of course, I wore a mask, and avoided any contact with anyone, using the self-checkout.  Being up and around and getting the fresh air kind of livened me up a little bit.  *  Earlier in the day, it was just plain ugly outside.  Lots of rain and ice pellets, with pretty high winds made it enough to knock power out for awhile, although we were sleeping when it all happened, and we only figured out the power outage when all our clocks thought it was midnight.  Which screwed me up too - 'we slept THAT long??'  Now the temps are dropping back below freezing, which'll make it interesting tomorrow for commuters and pedestrians.  *  After we had our toast and DCD and made cookies, we headed back upstairs, where Janice could lay down.  She probably shouldn't have gotten up; I did go to the store without her, I didn't want her being up too long.  She had to take Gravol tonight, like last night, and is attempting sleep beside me right now.  I'll make the same attempt very shortly.  *  We have a great little guy in Marbles who's very faithful to us, going everywhere we go.  I think he can tell when one or both of us is ill, because he cozies up to us more.  I'm thankful he's such a healthy little guy for his 17 1/2 years.  We rewarded him with a little catnip and some munchies to go with it.  Now he's faithfully asleep on my lap.  Let's see if I can join him.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

January 27 Friday

Pretty much everything's status quo from the last day or two.  Although honestly, we're finding out firsthand now that Covid is that guest that just doesn't friggin' wanna leave.  It's got one foot out the door, then it turns around and is like "...and another thing..."  Our fevers were back today, appetites back on the wane, headaches, the whole nine yards.  Although, as the day progresses, it seems to get better.  Sleep has been the same... get it when we can.  I'm certainly no stranger to interrupted sleep, but it's weird to see Janice up with me at 5 in the morning.  We seem to be getting it in three or four hour intervals, or less.  Damn... just lost my train of thought.  Yes, I did take oil.  I'm trying to go back to sleep after sleeping for three hours, now I'm here at 7:21am, and Janice just passed out beside me.  Let me indulge a little thing we do for each other... when we go to bed, we give each other our shirts, and we use those shirts to cover our eyes when we go to sleep.  It's gotten to the point we have to have it.  *  Anyway, today was chilly out, minus 6 or so with clear skies, and it got to minus 13 during the night, enough for our furnace to kick in.  Which is hardly ever.  This heat pump we got is saving us loads of cash.  *  So, I don't know what to think of this, but now that I'm on disability benefits, I'm also getting Old Age Security.  Sure, it's great the money ticks up a bit, but... OLD AGE??  Cripes, I'm fifty friggin' seven.  Although when I think of it, when I was young, people my age right now seemed old to me, too.  My poor Pop only lived to 57.  I think he actually inspired a lot of us boys in the family to take care of ourselves so we can live far beyond that modest benchmark.  I have brothers in their 70s, and they just don't fit the same definition I had of 70 years old even just 20 years ago.  They're re-defining it.  Or maybe that's just how we see it?  Perhaps it's just perception.  *  The day's a bit of a blur, because of our asleep/awake cycle that we've got going on - or rather the lack of one.  We opted for toast today once again, only this time I gave Janice a banana and ginger snaps to go with it.  One other thing we noted was Janice has been missing her probiotic Align supplement the last few days.  We both take it, it keeps us feeling good.  But her missing it this week I think is one of the sticking points to her getting better.  Between that and taking her meds.  She's been missing those too, so I'm wondering about a kind of withdrawal effect going on.  Tonight she took all that stuff, plus the food she ate, and she seems pretty good.  She's lost at least ten pounds over the last few days.  She's been very tired, but I know we're on the other side of this at this point.  Every day is a little bit better, even though it often doesn't seem to begin that way. *  Let me tell you, our little Marvelous Marbles Hagler has been a stalwart for us, sticking by us all the time.  The sweet thing he does lately is, when we're in bed, just like a little kid he wants to come get under the covers with us.  So he lays there and sleeps, or else he lays on top of the covers between us and sleeps.  He's such a sweet little guy.  *  We watched 'Real Time With Bill Maher' tonight - I'm finding he's getting more conservative in his views the older he gets.  He has guys like Bill Barr on, gets a big backlash from his generally-liberal audience, and then goes on a ten minute rant about 'Woke' or something.  I'm getting a 'get off my lawn' kinda vibe from him these days.  I might not agree with everything he says, but I'm always interested in other points of view that aren't combative or idealistic.  Discussion is what bridges gaps, after all.  *  The big thing in the news right now is another black guy got killed by what's basically a gang of five cops.  The twist in this story is, ALL those cops are black.  There's more going on with police down there than meets the eye, and the colors of them.  It's something they have to focus on and fix, or that country is going to continue to literally tear itself apart, all in the name of itself.  It's scary and heartbreaking to see it all happen like this.  *  Anyway, that's the kind of day it's been.

January 28 Saturday

Time to close out another week.  This is 28 days in a row - like, frig man.  Where do I get the time?  Well, this week, that's mainly thanks to Covid.  I assume today was sunny out and kinda sorta mild, because it was this evening.  I say 'I assume' because we got to sleep super late last night and slept all day, with not a regret in the world.  Because, as it turns out, sleep is the best weapon against this illness of ours, of which today is the anniversary of our exposure to it for a week.  Honestly, it amounted to being a bad, bad cold, but I certainly don't want to deal with it again.  I especially don't want Janice to.  *  We both woke up here and there and at different times today, but neither of us objected to actually trying to sleep this virus away.  Today was a day for the upswing side of it.  It's probably the best either of us have felt since we came down with it.  You can hear it in my voice when I talk, but Janice, not so much.  She sounds great, and is eating without any issues at all, same with me for that matter.  We opted for chicken & rice soup for our first real meal in nearly a week, with a bunch of crackers.  I finished up some laundry, and then brought Janice out for a little spin just to get her out for a little fresh air and away from the house.  It was a dark, cool evening spin around Moncton and Riverview around the outskirts.  Driving by my old workplace in Riverview was slightly melancholic.  I do miss the days I worked there when times were good, that being when I worked for my original boss.  But leaving was an awakening for me, really.  I know now what kind of person I can be without subjecting myself to such undue stress.  It's evident that I haven't truly been 'myself' in... maybe ever??  And it's been almost six months since my last anxiety attack.  This is unusual territory for me.  And I like it.  *  We got home from our drive, were greeted by MMH at the door, and we locked up and headed upstairs for the night to partake in our resumption of watching 'Battlestar Galactica' on disc.  We're now three discs deep into season 1.  Yup, this just might be my favorite show ever on TV.  It's amazing how well it's held up over the years.  Now Janice is on her Cookie Jam facebook marathon beside me, MMH is resting on my lap, and we're waiting to get tired because we slept all day and it's now 3:27am.  At least now Janice can say she's pretty much on vacation where we're both more or less in the clear concerning illness.  *  And that's the kind of week it was.

These Are the Days of Our Lives - week 3

 January 15 Sunday

Well, talk about an ugly weather day today.  The clouds were on a major mood swing over the Maritimes, dropping everything from rain, freezing rain and a little snow, but mostly freezing rain.  A lot of it came down, but didn't really accumulate, however it made the roads treacherous.  This forced us to decide to forego the gym yet again today.  Better to be safe.  Janice had the day off anyway, so we just took it slow and easy.  *  We only got to sleep last 'night' at around 6:30 am, between me writing my journal entry and kinda sorta watching "Logan" on TV.  That's one hell of a movie, I'll say.  Between "The Wolverine" and "Logan", it's basically a two-parter directed by super-director James Mangold that takes the X-Men franchise into R rated, adult territory, paring back all the unnecessary special effects of the MCU and focusing more on the stories and performances.  And you don't really need to know the comics or their connected movies to enjoy them, they're great stand-alone shows.  But I digress... we slept not exactly uninterrupted for about eight hours after that, woke up and watched Question Period with Vassy Kapelos - really enjoying her sticking it to politicians that try to slide stuff by her - and Janice and me really just talked a lot.  We communicate constantly without hardly ever fighting.  I don't really even remember the last time we did, but we always patch it up promptly on that rare occasion it happens.  I proposed listening to Rachel Maddow's podcast "Ultra", and we listened to the first two episodes to start.  Sounds like a boring idea.  But the fact of the matter is, she presents the information in a revelatory way that makes you question the factual nature of our own historical records, or lack of them, actually, in this case.  And what's missing, or maybe omitted, is enough to shake you to your core about the present day happenings.  This podcast has garnered a lot of attention, and it's clear why when you listen to it.  Give it a chance.  Janice says she can't get it out of her head, it creeped her out that much.  *  We headed downstairs, then, and I made our supper, this time being cut red bell peppers with ranch dip, a few fries and chicken wings.  Just the plain 'ol wings with sauce without the coating.  After I took my supplements, I began to raise suspicions that something out of what I'm taking might be screwing me up a little, as I felt a little nauseous.  I actually split them up by about 20 minutes or so - first taking a mulitvitamin, omega 3, the Berberin supplement that's a probiotic to try to address potential candida issues, and a prostate supplement.  The second round, I take 3000 IUs of vitamin D, zinc, Align (a probiotic) and a stomach med that's got a name too long for me to remember or spell right.  Most of the time, I split these up like that and there are no issues, but tonight I wasn't 100% afterwards.  Not terrible or anything, but not pleasant either.  *  We cleaned up the kitchen and migrated upstairs to take in the next 'Battlestar Galactica' disc of season 1.  And we continue to be blown away by how advanced it is, despite being 17 years since it aired.  It's more relevant now than it was nearly two decades ago.  We've seen the whole thing before already, but we're still tensed up and holding our breaths at a lot of scenes (with captions, which maybe draws our attention more fervently to the story), as they grab us more emotionally than they did the first time around.  I can't praise that show enough.  If you haven't seen it, or are one of those "I don't watch space shows" kind of people, give this one a chance if you can.  It's outrageously great.  *  Janice is asleep now beside me, Marvelous Marbles Hagler is passed out on my lap, and I'm about to do some reading.  Might have to take oil to relax enough to sleep.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

January 16 Monday

What a messy day it was today.  It was a dirty day indeed.  All sorts of precip has been falling since Friday, and today it's beginning to cause flooding problems around the city.  Nothing major as much of a nuisance.  The temps just hover around the freezing mark, give or take, making it ripe for all forms of cold wetness to come down on us.  Today's weather just flat out sucked.  Appropriate for 'Blue Monday'.  We're not expecting to see the sun at all until Thursday.  *  Since sleep was rather rough last night at times, I only got up when Janice got home from work.  Marbles was right there with me all day, either curled up on my lap, or 'camping' under the blankets curled up with me.  Janice's socks finally came in that I ordered for her online for the gym.  The plan was for us to get a few things at Costco, bring them home and head out to the gym.  *  Off to Costco we go.  Raining like cats and dogs and canned hams.  The wife returned workout pants she got me for Christmas because they didn't fit, they were way too big.  She had tough luck with me for Christmas this year, getting me the KISS Creatures boxed set that wasn't a boxed set at all, so she had to return that too.  After that, we got some stuff pretty much for the house, and came home.  I had to clear the driveway entrance of the slush that was plowed into it; wound up turning my bad knee and nearly wiping out in the pool of ice water all over the driveway - so that in effect scotched our gym plans.  *  I get into the house and get a drink with the wife, and proceeded to make linguini with Prego sauce, half a lb of farmer's market ground beef and half a bulb of garlic.  There was leftover pizza from Saturday too, so we made a modest amount of linguini.  We enjoyed it very much.  *  Earlier on, social media kind of took my knees out from under me a bit, and was triggered more as the day went.  I pretty much found out I got the wrong socks for Janice.  The odd other thing piled on and my brain proceeded to go into shutdown.  Often what happens after things like that are anxiety attacks/self-harm episodes.  But I didn't.  The threat of it is always there, though.  It's times like this that I realize why people desert me.  *  Came upstairs, gave the cat his night time snack, and we went to bed and turned the lights out.  With me still in shutdown mode.  Janice endures a lot from me.  I wouldn't want people to think I'm suffering, it's what I do to Janice that's concerning.  Me, I'm just a knob that can't get it together some days.  *  So that's the kind of day it's been.

January 17 Tuesday

The sun was out today, finally.  Things kinda sorta dried up, but a long way to go; still, not even close to how messy it was yesterday.  Daytime temps were mild at around plus 2, nighttime dipped a bit, but not terrible.  *  Something I can discuss here is that I got the family to go in on a drawing from a friend/local artist/former bandmate Wallace Horn, a drawing of my brother Rick with Paul McCartney's hand on his shoulder.  What a fine piece of work he did!  He did it framed and I had to have him rush it because Rick's 65th is this weekend, and it's also his retirement party.  I'm normally not one for big gatherings, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to this.  I love Rick.  He's the epitome of what it is to be a great, loving brother.  He's put up with a lot from me through life, and never turned his back.  He'd much sooner give the shirt off it.  I wanted him to have a gift that was unique and one of a kind, and personal.  The whole family agreed, and so all of us chipped in to pay Wallace to get it done.  In my view, it's spectacular job, better than I'd hoped for.  In fact, I teared up upon seeing it the first time.  *  Sleep was a bit of a bitch, as usual.  Last night before falling asleep, I actually picked up Bono's book and started reading.  That guy's one hell of a writer, singer, songwriter and poet.  I've always loved just how he is, I find him inspirational.  So far the story he tells is so engaging, and a story he tells about his father "castrating himself" (it was an accident, and he didn't, just to be clear!) was absolutely hilarious.  He talks about the meanings behind his songs, and it brings brand new interest to them for me.  I love pretty well everything U2 does, anyway.  Ever since their "War" album came out back when I was in high school, I've been a huge fan.  I saw them twice now, the first time in Montreal at the Bell Centre to a positively raucous, wild crowd that even took them by surprise, with the wife on the Vertigo Tour, and again in '11 here in Moncton at Magnetic Hill in front of over 70,000 fans.  The cool thing about that show, besides 'The Claw' stage, is that it was the last show on that tour, which up to that point was the highest grossing tour by anyone ever.  If I saw them again, I'd love to see them in Montreal.  That's the best place to see a concert by anyone.  They go ballistic for KISS!  *  Anyway, I did sleep... for about an hour, woke up, farted around until I felt like I might sleep again - taking oil twice to try to bring on some shut-eye.  I wound up sleeping in the afternoon for about four hours or so.  Janice came home from work, and we resolved to go to the gym today, with the weather not holding us back for once.  Today was to be freeweights Charms day.  And holy hell, did we go at it.  We each did handy to five miles of cardio, getting on and off the treadmill because the weights area was so busy, and we had to wait for a bench.  It'll be a while before the New Year's resolution crowd thins out.  We really pushed ourselves, doing drop-sets for chest and arms, sweating ourselves silly and really pushing to get better and better.  The wife is a friggin' BEAST.  A sexy one.  She lifts weights a lot of younger men don't do, and her technique is spot-on.  And she's determined.  I love to see it, and it inspires me, too.  She says I inspire her.  This is what happens when a committed couple routinely goes to the gym together.  I fully expect to feel it tomorrow.  *  Jay Briscoe of the Briscoe Brothers from ROH Wrestling died in a car crash on the weekend, apparently, no drugs or alcohol involved.  Very sad, the guy was only 38 I think, was in one of pro wrestling's greatest tag teams and was highly revered for their talent.  I never got to hardly ever see them, because ROH isn't on TV around here reliably.  *  I got Janice to watch Rachel Maddow from last night because it was such a packed episode.  A republican who lost his election went on a shooting spree against democrats, hiring other guys as well as himself to shoot up their houses with guns, nearly killing a ten year old little girl in her bedroom.  This is what the republican party has become.  Just a party of hatred and revenge.  I worry that this kind of crap will happen in Canada, because eventually, a lot of what goes on there, does happen here.  *  We had Subway after the gym, seeing as we didn't have it last week like we wanted.  We both had Italian BMTs.  They were good, but salty as usual.  Lots of veggies in them.  *  I went so hard at the gym that a few times, I felt like I was beginning to black out.  I had to sit down a few times.  I thought it was a bit unusual... I questioned a lot of things.  Too much weight?  Too many reps?  Too much cardio?  I did push myself, but I just didn't think I overdid it.  Could it be the Berberine I'm taking for the potential candida issues?  Then it occurred to me, I once again forgot I donated blood ten days ago.  I need to learn to remember not to go too hard for a while after that, like at least two weeks.  I researched Berberine some more, though, because I felt a general sense of malaise, which also could be attributable to over-exercising close to a blood donation; but there was this hanging feeling of nauseousness.  As it turns out, Berberine can bring that on, though it's a generally safe and effective supplement.  But I'll taper down to one capsule a day instead of two.  I'm also going to consider weaning off Zoloft temporarily so I can take a dose of Diflucan to combat the candida thing.  The problem with Diflucan and Zoloft is, there's an interaction that can induce arrhythmia in the heart, which can be problematic.  My doctor said not to do it; so I may just wean off my Zoloft for a short bit so I can take it and get my gut back in better working order.  Plus these thrush issues are a pain in the ass.  I have noticed since taking Berberine, though, that things taste a whole lot better, which indicates that it's been effective against this candida thing.  I also read that garlic and vitamin C is great to keep your gut flora in order, among a ton of other things.  The thing with vitamin C is, that the supplements are all chewable, and I'm not big on that.  But I am going to resolve to eat less sugar and bread, and drink more water.  I've been drinking substantially more water lately, but our water cooler broke down, and those things aren't cheap.  And Brita sucks.  I hate having to buy cartridges for filters all the time, too.  *  It's 7:23 am right now, and the wife is sleeping soundly with her arm across me, so I guess I'll stay up to wake her up.  I love in the morning seeing the sunlight on her face from the window.  I'm blessed to be with this woman.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

January 18 Wednesday

The skies were mostly clear on this pretty standard day, temps once again three degrees above or below; though at night it's a little chillier.  But really, nothing to report.  *  I slept surprisingly good during the night, but wound up taking a nap with Janice anyway when she came home from work.  I still felt sluggish though, and not really in gym shape or anything, so Janice went out herself to do some cardio - which she did for an hour and a half, clocking in a little over six miles.  I don't particularly like this not going to the gym stuff for me - it makes me feel good doing it.  But the thing is, I have to feel good to actually go.  It all makes me think, every year at around this time, in January and February, it doesn't seem to matter what I do, my health gives me the middle finger.  It's a good enough reason for me to hate winter.  But seriously, what the hell?  *  Janice comes home with a rotisserie chicken, and we had that with scallop potatoes and corn for supper.  Had a couple of drinks too, before settling in to watch a bit of the telly.  *  I opted tonight to make some of Mom's ginger snaps, with the recipe my sister Cindy gave me.  Man oh man, you gotta be careful with those.  After baking a big mess of them, the two of us wound up probably scarfing down too many, but they're so friggin' good!  We couldn't find a free container around, so we just used the crock pot to keep them in.  Works fine.  *  After watching the trusty good 'ol Big Bang reruns, we headed upstairs to watch AEW Dynamite, where they did a bit of a tribute to Jay Briscoe.  He died in a car crash with his two daughters with him, both with serious but not life-threatening injuries.  That doesn't mean it's not serious.  The oncoming car from them apparently veered over the center line and collided with them.  By all accounts, Jay was a devoted family man and all around nice guy.  This is a real tragedy in the wrestling world.  *  Today I was advised by a pharmacist to ditch the Berberine supplement if I'm suspicious of candida issues in favor of one of those yeast infection zapper, one-and-done pills.  Done.  I just don't really think this Berberine stuff is doing me any favors, really.  Digestively, I've been off for a little bit now and I'm getting pretty tired of dealing with it.  I don't expect taking this medication to be a smooth ride either, but a shorter one.  Hoping, anyway.  *  Janice played her usual Cookie Jam games on facebook, passed out, and I needed a little more help from my oil to get me relaxed enough to keep my eyes shut.  *  Pretty short entry today - so, that's the kind of day it's been.

January 19 Thursday

More of the same weather-wise, standard temps with a few light flurries, but word has it that things are about to get worse in the near future.  A potential weather-bomb on the way for next week, but some fairly significant snow before that.  *  Didn't sleep too bad last night, though it took a while to pass out.  We wound up taking yet another short sleep when Janice got home, before getting up and making a go of it to the gym.  Up to this point, I'm feeling fine.  *  It was machine Shack Day today.  We put in our usual cardio, about 3 plus miles for me, and Janice did a little over 4, I believe.  Her goal is to put in 1000 miles for the year.  Not undoable, but a tall order.  Did lots of stretching and some ab stuff.  We were at PF for a solid two and a half hours.  It wasn't terribly busy, but it was when we arrived before it cleared out a bit.  *  We get home and it starts hitting me, not feeling all that great; having to go to the bathroom three times in a four hour span.  We showered, made a quick Dr. Oetker pizza for supper, did some laundry and tuned into MSNBC to see essentially the same stories over and over.  It's getting late by this time, so we decide to head north - aka upstairs.  I'm feeling quite lethargic and spent.  The January Blues, as I've pretty much come to be accustomed to dealing with every year.  I wonder if anyone else's health goes to shit in the first few months of the year.  It's pretty well every year with me.  *  We settle into bed after brushing our teeth and stuff, getting Marvelous Marbles Hagler his meatstick treat, and we have our Yeti with our DCD at our bedsides, as we watch The National on CBC before getting ready to shut down.  *  Lots of talk about the health care system lately.  It's been in dire straits ever since Covid hit, and really long before that, but Covid just showed how broken the system had become.  Now we're staring down the barrel at a two-tiered heath care ideal that can't sit well with a lot of Canadians.  It sure as hell doesn't with me.  But governments have been throwing money at this problem without actually dealing with the problem itself for decades.  It's a little scary, really.  Even I'm afraid to go to the hospital now.  Not that I'd have to, but if I got a kidney stone or something, which I have a history with, I hate to think of what I'll have to go through to get it taken care of.  There are people having health issues that are going to run into walls with our health care in its current and projected state.  The future does not look good in that area to me at all.  *  And on that cheerful note, I'm outta here.  Oh, and Happy 102nd Birthday to my Pop in Heaven!  *  That's the kind of day it's been.

January 20 Friday

A little snowier outside today, a fair bit came down, maybe ten cm or so.  It's still falling right now Friday night, steadily, but not very hard.  A fair bit is supposed to accumulate, but nothing we Maritimers can't handle.  Less than standard, actually.  *  As has kind of been the usual, after needing to sleep during the morning/afternoon because of insomnia issues, I got up shortly after Janice got home and had to go to the bathroom three times.  The #2 variety.  I figure that's the medicine I've been taking working its way out of my system.  Going to the gym was up in the air, given also that Janice's knees were bothering her today.  Precipitation does that to her from time to time.  We watched "Most Terrifying With Jason Hawes" on the DTour channel, mostly because she likes the whole Ghost Hunters thing.  We decided we were going to make a go of it to the gym, despite me being kind of wiped out and her feeling a bit rickety.  *  After scarfing down a waffle, we grabbed our G Zeros and headed out first to Wal Mart to get some chicken treats for our little beast Marbles.  I got some so-called waterproof Band Aids because of a sore on my heel from my runners being worn down, and we headed to the gym, where it was pleasantly quiet, seeing as it was after 10 pm.  When we arrived, Janice headed to use the bathroom there and slipped and fell, compromising her knees more and bruising her right hand.  Not a good day for her in that regard.  She got on the treadmill for over an hour anyway and still did her five miles, as did I.  It was machine Leg Day, plus squats.  Actually she opted for the leg press because of how the day was, shocking herself that she pressed 225 lbs.  I actually set a record for myself, squatting that same weight eight times.  We did our stretching and called it a day there.  *  We got home and made chicken salad sandwiches with green onions on Dempster's whole grain bread, quite a satisfying supper, really.  It was the leftover chicken from Wednesday.  We settled in to watch 'Real Time With Bill Maher' in his season opener - pretty good tonight.  Then headed upstairs to give Marvelous Marbles Hagler his kitty chocolate - there's this routine now where he jumps back and forth from the bed to the end table he has by the window to look outside, and I get his treats ready and he jumps from spot to spot.  It's pretty funny, I'll have to record and post it sometime.  That and 'Wifey on the Cob'... you'll see soon enough what that is.  *  I'll be praying for my nephew Shawn who's experiencing a bit of a health challenge that I think is freaking him out a bit.  It'd do that with anyone, but from an outsider's perspective, it's much easier to see it from a calmer, more rational point of view.  He'll be fine, but I sympathize with how he feels.  *  That's the kind of day it's been.

January 21 Saturday

Yep, so the snow is beginning to finally hit us.  Probably another 5 cm or so came down since yesterday, so the temperatures aren't very freezing cold really.  It was a sunny day, not that we'd know much about that, because we got to sleep late last night - me later than her, as per usual - but we both slept in late and relished in Janice's Saturday off by laying in bed all day and watching TV.  Among the stuff we saw, more episodes of that Jason Hawes show, and a CBC Marketplace that focused on this dweeb that was claiming to cure cancer and other diseases; spoiler alert, he doesn't.  It's amazing shysters like this are able to get away with so much these days.  But then again, fear will make you buy anything if you're gullible enough, or desperate, unfortunately.  *  We finally got our arses out of bed, and decided that we'll go to my brother's birthday shindig, and skip out after that to the gym in the same complex.  I guess there was an oddball bowling thing going on too, so we had the option to bring Rick's gift there or to the bar.  The bar won out, but first we had to get to Dollarama to get a bag to put the picture for Rick in.  We did that, then went for a spin around Moncton and Riverview, seeing as we wanted to be sure folks would be at the bar when we got there.  I could feel my anxiety ramping up the closer the time came that we had to go, and Janice sensed it.  When we finally wound up at the bar, the place was packed.  PACKED.  A pretty good band was playing there, actually, and a couple of tables were reserved for Rick and company.  We saw a lot of familiar faces, but didn't actually get to talk much to anyone.  I did get to talk to my nephew Jamie for a bit though, and I'm pretty proud of that guy.  He's been through some struggles and has found some valuable peace in his life.  Talked to nephew Ryan a bit too, he's always looking to bring a smile to people's faces.  Saw brother Greg briefly, plus Jamie's wife Janice and her son, and it was nice to see everyone.  Of course we saw Rick and May - May's dealing with a lot healthwise and I feel terrible for her.  She put the whole thing together for Rick, but I believe she bargained on it being a much smaller affair than it was, where the bar owner I think mistakenly thought it was supposed to be a way bigger party.  But, things go sideways sometimes, it all turned out fine in the end.  Although, Janice and me left about an hour in, because the crowded and loud atmosphere was a bit overwhelming to me.  The bottom line is, Rick was happy and grateful for everything and everyone.  He would text me later on that he saw his gift when he got home from the bar and was more than grateful for it, where the whole family chipped in.  The artist who made it, my old friend/former bandmate Wallace, did a sweet job and I'm going to spread the word about his talent.  I'm sure he'll do well.  *  We left the bar and went to PF to sweat things out.  And that we did, clocking in another four miles cardio and executing machine Charms Day.  We just might do this a lot more, going to PF late on weekends, where attendance is sparse and it's a 24 hour gym, so there was only us and a handful of others.  And we quite enjoyed it.  *  So what's better after a 2 1/2 hour workout than cheeseburgers and fries from Burger King, right?  We didn't want to cook tonight, so that became the plan.  We had that and Marvelous Marbles Hagler had his supper with us, then it was up to shower and hop in bed.  MMH is snoozing on my lap as I type this, Big Bang is playing on TV, and Janice is next to me playing Cookie Crush on facebook.  *  I must note also that today I felt pretty good, I think my body's finally bouncing back from a rather sketchy week healthwise.  *  Snow is on the way for Monday, so we're kind of scrambling to find somebody to plow the driveway for the rest of winter.  Janice's Mom used to get it done for us, but I don't like expecting that kind of thing at all.  All I know is, between my back and Janice's arthritic maladies, it's a bit rough on us.  That reminds me too, we need to find a contractor or somebody who knows something about foundations, because I'm a bit concerned about the supports holding up the house, and there's a basement window with no window, but with our patio in the backyard covering it.  Along with tarp and Gorilla Tape.  So yeah, that basically the extent of my handyman-ness.  There's Tim the Tool Man, then there's me, just The Tool!  *  Anyway, that's the kind of day it's been.

Here's the photos Wallace had to go on to do the picture I requested for my brother Rick, with the finished artwork:

These Are the Days of Our Lives.....Week 2

January 8

Colder today, with temps dipping to minus 6 C, but the sun was out.  No precip.  The clock has got to be ticking on a huge winter storm, right?  This is highly uncharacteristic for us here in Moncton.  We usually get clobbered by Old Man Winter starting around October or November at the latest, but we've only had one modest snowfall up to this point.  We're now just over two months from the official start of Spring, not that Mother Nature recognizes the change of seasons as according to the calendar these days.  I bet we'll get buried in snow by February.  *  I finished the book, "The Book of Joy" last night, and passed it on to Janice to read.  I keep saying it should be required reading, and I mean it.  I can't thank my nephew/BFAM Shawn enough.  I'm now currently halfway through Mima's "Always Be a Wolf", which I bought off Amazon for Kindle.  It's quite a daring story that sneaks up on you in places you don't expect.  *  Janice got up and headed off to work for noon to four, and I got up around one for my tattoo appointment at two.  I scarfed down a Drake's cake, sipped a Diet Cherry Coke and I was on my way.  The lovely and talented Ariana Avila is my tattoo artist, tasked with touching up my Irish Cross tattoo already on my breastbone, and applying a semicolon/ying-yang symbol on my right arm, with the words "Midnight is where the day begins" arched around it.  Finally, I got Janice's name in her own writing tattooed on my ring finger.  She did tremendous work!  Full stories about each tattoo are posted on my facebook and Instagram pages.  *  I got home after leaving the car for Janice at work, snacked on jalapeno and cheddar Doritos and finished my Diet Cherry Coke from this morning, and turned on the tube television.  I wound up watching a bit of WWE's NXT program that was on - a program I used to like before they changed everything about it.  It's not the same program it was at all now.  Disappointing.  *  Janice got home and we watched a few things on TV, not terribly notable, and resisted the urge to take a nap.  Eventually we got dressed for the gym, to embark on a cardio workout; I didn't want to do weights because of the tattoos that were still quite fresh, so I did a little over seven miles on the treadmill on a run/walk journey that lasted close to two hours; Janice, of course, was with me - the real reason I went, because I want to support her on her quest to do 20 miles a week.  She goes harder on the treadmill than I do, because she goes on the incline, pretty steep most of the time.  But she might have overdid it tonight, because she was very sore and took a fair bit of cannabis to alleviate the pain in her feet when it was done.  I feel guilty because I feel I may have pushed her too hard.  *  We got home and showered, and it was time for supper, this time being omelettes, each consisting of:  three eggs, crumbled bacon, Tex Mex cheese, chopped onion, Frank's Hot Sauce, garlic powder and pepper.  Let me say my piece about Gotham Steel cookware... I got a two pan set at Costco about a year ago.  It's not what I hoped it would be.  First of all, it's teflon, not ceramic.  Second, even when sprayed with olive oil Pam cooking spray, it is NOT non-stick.  But I would like to tell the manufacturer where they can 'stick' it.  I made the second omelette with actual olive oil and had better results, at least.  Served the omelettes with two toast each with a little margarine and a bit of strawberry jam, much to the delight of Janice who was effusive in her praise of the meal.  Tasty stuff.  We might've overdid it with the strawberry shortcake dessert from yesterday, though.  No regrets!  Yet at least.  *   Finished with a nightcap of Diet Vanilla Coke and rum and toasted Bishop Desmond Tutu, whose favorite drink was rum and Coke (note... I wrote previously that the Butter Rum Lifesavers flavor was with whiskey, when indeed it is not, it's with white rum).  Janice had her usual DCD/vodka.  *  We watched some of the "Big Bang Theory" marathon on TV, as they showed the final few episodes.  The finale is quite the bittersweet ending.  Then we watched CTV Question Period on DVR, the only thing I'll watch news-wise on CTV because they put the screws to Lisa LaFlamme.  They've got a new woman hosting QP, I forget her name and I'm too lazy to look it up - but she did a tremendous job.  She used to work for CBC News, I know that.  She didn't take any shit in an interview she did with Bill Morneau, the former finance minister for the Liberals that did arguably the worst job as finance minister in Canada since I've been following politics.  And that's saying something after the bumble-fest that was Jim Flaherty for the Harper regime before him.  Anyway, I look forward to more of her hosting the program.  *  Now we're upstairs, Marvelous Marbles Hagler is resting on my lap, the wife is ready to sleep after starting to read "The Book of Joy" and playing her nightly ritual games of Cookie Crush on facebook, and the party's over for another day.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

January 9

Well, I told myself I'm going to try to sleep and just do the journal in the morning, but here I am wide awake at 2:22, actually technically January 10.  I resolved to take cannabis oil for the first time this year tonight, with an eye on staying hydrated.  Being off of the oil has made me feel physically good, but jumpy and a bit anxious.  I just wish there was a strain of it that didn't make my body feel like the friggin' Sahara desert.  But, I will watch out for what I will now deem the Sandman, bringing the desert to my body.  So bugger off, Sandman!  *  Ah, just cracked open a can of Diet Canada Dry.  *  In the midst of my attempt to fall asleep... which I think I did for a half hour before BING my eyeballs saying Nope... I decided to take the advice from my "Book of Joy" and meditate and pray.  Wow, that did a lot for my jumpiness.  It helped ease my soul.  I prayed for a lot of people that are going through a lot of stuff.  I want to share here who some of them are, in case they're maybe reading this, to know that I'm putting in a good word for them with The Big Guy:  Darren E. and Tina, Emile B., Eldon H., Peter H., Wayne W. and Dee, Alan and Lisa C., May W., Patcy W., Martha H., Joan M, and others.  Each of those people need extra blessings in their lives due to the more adversity they're facing.  I also ask to bless all of their families, as well as my own siblings and their families, and all of my friends, even if some of them don't see themselves as a friend to me.  I pause after each name, attempting to put myself in each of their individual places with their own unique situations, to feel and understand more of what they're going through.  The peace it brings me is like gold.  *  So yeah... I guess a few people are actually reading this maybe, eh?  I don't expect people to read it, but when I know they do, I must offer my thanks.  You took time out of your own lives to reflect on mine.  Thank you!  I am grateful and humbled.  *  So... on this Monday, it started out before the crack of dawn with me getting up to go to the bathroom.  I noticed I was in a cold sweat, with my new tattoos 'leaking' a bit because they're still healing - that winds up making my night shirt a bit of a mess, but I knew it would happen till my tatts heal.  Anyway, "geez, I'm feeling crampy."  I decided it's time to drop anchor and take a shit.  Whoa... I did enough to say I took the Browns to the Super Bowl and then some.  I was dizzy and for a bit, thought I was gonna woof my cookies.  What the hell brought this on, I thought.  I'm taking extra good care of myself lately, so wtf??  So I'm crapping my brains out, and finally go back to bed, stumbling a bit.  That took a lot out of me.  In more ways than one.  My shirt is soaked, my pillow's wet... so I just laid here deep breathing, and in about an hour, it passed.  The dizziness, anyway.  *  Since I didn't sleep, I just thought I'd stay awake and make sure she got up, because she went through pretty much the same thing before she went to bed.  That made me think something's up.  With her due in at work at 9am, at 8:30 I wake her up.  "Wake up, dear.  Wake up.  Dear?  Janice, get up.  HEY!"  *  "Uh?"  *  "You gotta go to work."  *  "No I don't.  It's Sunday morning."  *"No, it's not."  *  "Yes it is."  *  "No, it's NOT."  *  "Yes.  It IS."  *  "Then why did we watch Question Period yesterday?"  *  "..... oh shit I'm gonna be late!"  *   She wasn't.  She felt improved, but not 100%.  We've both gone to work feeling sick like this a lot of times.  I told her not to call the doctor to call me because I didn't sleep most of the night and I'm gonna sleep during the day.  She's off to work, and the shutters close and try to sleep.  Nope.  No friggin' way.  I kept the TV off, and just farted around online, waiting to get tired enough to keep my eyes shut.  I did sleep... maybe a half hour.  Janice comes home and crawls in bed with me, being pretty wiped out.  We both wound up sleeping for maybe an hour, and she decides she wants to go to the gym.  (!)  She goes and does over three miles of cardio before she realizes she's about to crap her drawers if she doesn't get home.  At this point both of us feel fine tummy wise, it's the residuals from the bottom end that are pissing us off.  Or shtting us off in this case.  We're both famished, so we indulged in chicken burgers from Popeyes.  Lord, their food is good.  Then we watched whatever on TV.  I was totally wiped out from the night before and not sleeping, but you think I can get to sleep??  *  Anyway, I did some research on whether there might be something wrong with the veggies we had last night in our omelettes.  I was suspicious of the onions we had, because spanish onions seems to be taking advice from Romaine lettuce and just be bitches to us humans.  Sure enough, there was a recall in late November on spanish onions.  Why it isn't made more public, I don't know.  And why the product is still available to begin with , makes me know way less than that.  Salmonella and/or listeria could be in them, the article read.  Why is this not in the news??  Well, we wound up with one of those bad batches.  *  Marbles had his chicken meatstick treat, nearly taking one of my fingers with it, and attempts to sleep begin at 11:30.  She's sound asleep, that's the most important thing.  I'm often up at night, and I keep an eye on her if she's snoring or kinked or having a bad dream or something.  The odd time Marbles mistakes her for a trampoline.  *  Through the course of writing this journal, I took pot oil.  Not sure if you can tell or not it's hitting me.  *  That's the kind of day it's been.

January 10

This will be a short entry because it was so uneventful, but that's okay, that just means no bad stuff happened.  And that's accurate.  *  The temps dipped down to minus 6 with some flurries, and into the minus teens at nighttime, enough for the oil heat to kick in, which has to happen because if it doesn't, the pipes will freeze up.  All good, the heat pump is still doing great for us.  *  Sleep was indeed a bit of a challenge yet again last night, so sleep during the day was rather necessary, and choppy, at that.  Janice is sleeping just fine, though.  And that's the most important thing.  I did get enough sleep to function... barely.  I don't want to take cannabis oil every single night anymore, but when I do take it, it'll work well and bring on the euphoria, which is very nice if I'm being honest.  But not taking the stuff and having absolutely no withdrawals from it is proof positive that this stuff is not addictive like narcotics are.  And I refuse to call cannabis a narcotic.  It's a friggin' plant.  *  Janice occasionally gets free pizza coupons at her work from a Dominos guy who expresses to her how much he appreciates her service.  She gets this a lot from very many of her clients, proof that she and Lexy are the best at what they do.  We used two of these small pizza coupons for dinner tonight, after deciding that the gym was a no-go because the crowd meter on the app indicated the gym was pretty much full, and neither of us like going when it's stupidly busy.  Really, PF needs to open another place around here, because this one's filling up big time - although I'm aware that the New Year's resolution crowd is out in full force and will thin out eventually.  *  There's this commercial for Head and Shoulders shampoo that shows guys showering and singing in low tones, "how deep in my scalp does it gooooooo...."  I go and imitate that and Janice comes in with her own attempt at baritone to hilarious results that cracks me up every time!  *  She started reading "The Book of Joy", and I turned the news off because it's been so boring lately, and watched AEW Dark online on YouTube.  It's basically a show where the jobbers learn their craft, so it's not exactly ready for prime time, hence being online and not on TV.  But the real news of the wrestling world now is the rumor of Vince McMahon selling WWE to the Saudis.  This has been my problem with WWE for years now, that they're getting too cozy with MBS and his creeptards.  I would venture to say that a lot of wrestlers are going to leave WWE over this IF it happens, and fans in droves.  That they hold their annual "Crown Jewel" pay per views there every year was enough for me to say 'enough'.  This might be the final nail in the coffin with others.  I hope it is.  *  Marvelous Marbles Hagler got his salmon meatstick for his nighttime snack, and it's time for the three of us to retire.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

January 11

Ir was chilly today, minus 6 during the day and dipping to the minus mid teens tonight.  No precip, but apparently there's some on the way.  This continues to be a very uneventful January; the only unusual thing is that we're not getting way more snow than we have.  All winter so far, we've only gotten one real 'storm', but not so much by our standards.  And I'm fine with it.  *  So wow... I think I got something like twelve hours of sleep last night.  I didn't get much the night before, so I think I'm balanced now, at least I hope!  I woke up a few times, mostly from bizarre dreams.  I dream a lot about Emmerson Street, where I grew up and lived for 27 years.  Sometimes I dream of my parents, but they're not vivid dreams like ones I had a long time ago, where there were a couple of times where they felt so real, that one time Janice saw me sitting on the edge of the bed having a conversation.  The dream was me talking to my Mom, where she was telling me she's okay, and she has to go now.  I had another one like that about my Dad years later.  I woke up crying, they were that vivid.  *  Anyhow, I wound up waking up around two in the aft, roughly, so I got online and just killed time until Janice came home.  I chatted briefly with Michelle D., and we reminisced about her Dad for a bit.  Her Dad became one of my dear friends in life, and indeed even much like a Dad of my own.  He passed a couple of years ago, sadly, and we miss the guy a lot.  I even shed tears at Christmas thinking of him, because there are a lot of holiday memories with him and Carol, Michelle's Mom, also a tremendously sweet lady.  *  So, Janice came home, and we went to Ford's Apothecary to ask about getting something non toxic for my thrush issues, seeing as taking something like Diflucan is dangerous because of its interaction with Zoloft.  They gave me something that starts with a B that I forget right now, an anti-fungal probiotic that I have to take twice a day for awhile.  Hopefully it does the trick.  *  Then we were off to the gym.  PF was busy, with the countless treadmills almost entirely occupied, so we had to wait a few minutes to get a couple.  We did our usual 25 minutes-ish, burning cals going way uphill, then hit the machines for machine chest and arms day, or Charms as we call it.  Man, we put ourselves through the wringer on that today.  I decided we push ourselves this time and do trade-off drop sets, where we do, say, a chest press, starting with the lowest weight and higher reps, and advance over three sets to heavier and less reps.  We made a good go of it, that's for sure.  Did some brief stretching, then back on the treadmill for another 25, where Janice actually got on earlier for over 30 going uphill, while I did 25 alternating every minute between walking at 4 mph and a light run at 5 mph.  *  We got home and I immediately lit up the barbecue on the deck for a steak that I marinated overnight.  Took our showers, then I got the meat on the grill and prepared some mashed carrots and cooked fries in the oven.  We had drinks in a rum and Vanilla Coke Zero for me, and Janice had a couple of DCD/vodkas.  Kinda nice having barbecued steak in the wintertime like that.  *  We tuned in to AEW Dynamite on TV, as per usual Wednesday nights.  What a friggin' program they put on!  The sold out LA Forum was absolutely lit for the show.  Adam Cole finally returned from his concussion issues after six months to thunderous applause.  He even got a bit teary eyed acknowledging the support from fans.  The way AEW is setting up the eventual pay per view match between MJF and Bryan Danielson is fantastic.  Both guys are superstars in the most literal form of the adjective.  MJF being a wonder on the mic, and Danielson being the best in the ring in the world.  *  Also with wrestling, WWE is denying that they made a deal with the Saudis to sell their business to them so they can take it private.  No one knows what's really going on fully, but it sure looks like Vince McMahon and his cronies are doing damage control after the severe blowback about the possibility.  I stopped watching WWE because of their cozyness with the Saudis years ago.  *  Sadly, Jeff Beck died today.  I wasn't a huge fan, but very much respected his work with The Yardbirds, Rod Stewart and countless others.  A real sad day for guitar fans.  *  Upstairs we go, and Janice read some more of The Book of Joy, and here I am typing the final few characters for this entry.  Marvelous Marbles Hagler got his meatstick fed to him by Janice this time tonight, and he's all curled up on my lap now, and it's just about time for lights out.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

January 12

Today, Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis' only daughter, died, and so did Robbie Bachman, drummer for the legendary Bachman Turner Overdrive.  Sadly, I think Bachman's death is going to be overshadowed by Presley's death.  So many of my generation's celebrities seem to be leaving us recently.  *  Temps were pretty middling today, cold but not biting cold.  Something like around minus 6, but no notable precip.  A storm system's on the way for the weekend, but if my fave Cindy Day is right, as she pretty well always is, we'll get some snow that won't last at all because the temps will rise, maybe even to double digits.  What a weird winter this is.  *  I'm actually writing this around 8:30 on Friday morning, as I was tired last night and I wanted to take the opportunity of that tiredness and try to sleep.  I think I fell asleep around 2:30-ish, which is pretty good for me.  Janice seemed to sleep really well.  *  I slept okay, I guess.  Maybe not a lot in the night, but made up for it in the morning.  It was tough actually getting to sleep, so I had to take oil to give me a bit of a boost to pass out, and of course, it worked.  I went through several bottles of PC Raspberry flavored spring water, to make sure I didn't get dehydrated, as I'm acutely aware of that now.  I took to reading a lot of a book an old friend of mine wrote, and I'm almost finished.  I don't think she likes me much these days, because, well I guess I'm just a jerk.  This morning I woke up crying actually, dreaming about being deserted by everyone - I dreamt I was walking around the empty neighbourhood with a donkey for whatever reason.  I laid on the side by the curb, and I was actually consoling the donkey as it laid by my side.  What that means I have no idea!  But I remember leaving my old house, the great 136, because I think I pissed somebody off, so I walked up the street to Green Gables, which isn't there anymore, in the rain and picked up some snacks.  I think I dreamed this part because I talked to my friend Michelle D about the old days, maybe the rain means it's melancholy.  So I left the store, it was then twilight outside like it usually is in my dreams, and walked down Butler Street, next to Emmerson, so I could see the back of my old house and who was there.  My car was there, but I think I let my brother Pete use it, and it was gone when I turned the corner, and the house became empty.  There was a ballgame going on at Kiwanis Park, and somebody hit a foul ball to the parking lot, and it came to me as kids chased it and tried to get it.  When I was a kid, I used to get paid two bucks a game to retrieve baseballs that were hit away from the park (that's a better description to me than 'chasing balls').  So I got this ball, and a few kids surrounded me wanting it, and I walked with the ball towards the park to give it back, figuring out which kid was the retriever so he could do his job, and walked away.  I don't expect this to make sense to anyone reading this.  It doesn't make much sense to me!  I walked away from the parking lot, glancing over at 136, and proceeded to Lockhart Avenue, the next street over, and met up with this donkey, who I wound up striking a conversation with, and like I said, the both of us laid down by the curb and cried together as I stroked his head to console him.  Then I myself woke up in tears.  There's an old friend of mine, a girl, who used to kind of ridiculed me for talking about my dreams a lot, but I always have to wonder what they're trying to tell us.  That friend seems to be gone from my life, too.  The dreams are almost always about desertion, people leaving my life.  I'm tearing up right now just writing about it.  Really, I think I've been an asshole for a lot of my life and I'm just getting what I've always deserved.  It's amazing I still have Janice, but my dreams tell me that she'll leave me too.  I haven't self-harmed in well over five months, and I almost wonder if my brain is telling me that I should be doing it, because it's what I deserve.  The impulses come and go.  I won't!  I'm doing so well, and all that does is hurt others around me - those who are left, anyway, namely my wife and daughter.  I have absolutely nowhere to turn to address these mental illness issues, so I guess the desertion dreams kind of reflect that.  I'm basically on my own.  *  So yeah, Thursday... Janice came home after work, as usual, and munches on some sesame snaps that she loves, I had a waffle, and we got dressed for the gym.  I talked to my brother Rick's fiancee May for a bit, and she told me Rick brought over cinnamon rolls from this local baker lady.  Were they ever great!  Janice and me each ate two of them.  What a kind gesture from them.  *  We kept an eye on the crowd meter that's on the PF app to see how busy it is at the gym before going, so we just hung out and talked for awhile, finally leaving to go around 7:30pm.  Today would be freeweights Shack day.  The gym was so full; we did our opening 25 minutes of cardio, then walked around looking for room to start our weights.  We had to find other things to do until it cleared up a little bit, so we did some ab stuff first.  Then started our Shack workout, which got interrupted because it was so busy, so we went back on the treadmill for a bit, then back to finish the workout - and back on the treadmill to complete it.  We wound up being there two and a half hours.  Treadmill-wise, we wound up doing over four miles each, which is good for Janice, because she has a goal she wants to reach on the year, distance-wise.  *  After a rather gruelling Shack workout, we got home, showered, and I proceeded to make supper, consisting of scrambled eggs, baked sausages basted in maple syrup, and toast.  Pretty awesome, really.  Then it was off to bed where we had to stay awake for a bit because we ate late.  We fell asleep well enough, without oil for me even, and the rest after that I talked about.  Marvelous Marbles Hagler got his freeze dried chicken snacks for bedtime, and he settled in with us for the night.  *  If anyone's reading this, I just want to say, be kind to each other, because you really don't know what people are going through.  You really don't.  *  And that's the kind of day it was.

January 13

Snow today!  Hardly though.  Some fell, but most pretty well melted as the temps rose to nearly plus 10.  It was enough to cancel school and halt mail, though, weirdly.  I'll spare the journal of the 'back in my day' claims.  *  I spent a lot of the morning and aft 'camping' with Marvelous Marbles Hagler - that being, he crawls under the covers with me and curls up by my belly and sleeps with me.  Like Crocky the cat before him, I just have to say "you wanna go camping?" and he's on his way.  He's such a sweet little guy.  *  Janice came home from work and we chatted a lot, and she brought home some Amazon deliveries for me; some more Yuedge socks, an external CD disk drive and a set of three weird brushes that I never ordered.  That's what they sent instead of vegetable peelers.  Kinda hard to peel vegetables with a brush.  *  Janice had a bit of a snooze, I farted around online while she did, and we resolved to have Subway tonight after we got home from the gym.  We did half of that.  We went to the gym for over two and a half hours for a gruelling Leg Day, complete with around four miles each in cardio, and Janice squatted a personal best 115 lbs.  Considering everything against her, including being 55 and numerous arthritis maladies and fibro, that's stunning progress.  The gym was shallow in traffic tonight, so that's nice, but we left at around 10:45 pm.  *  Off to Subway we go for our dinner.  Nope... closed.  All of them.  So were most restaurants.  Since when did Moncton shut down before 11 on a Friday night??  Like what the actual hell?  The contingency plan was to go home and figure it out.  *  We showered and got ready to cook.  I wound up choosing creamed peas on toast again, this time with cream of mushroom and garlic soup, and lots of peas - I ate the whole friggin' thing.  Pretty awesome!  Janice opted to cut up some red bell peppers and dip them in ranch dressing and have some Stove Top stuffing.  Unorthodox, but blame Subway for screwing off so bloody early.  We enjoyed what we had anyway.  We had our usual DCD/vodka and I opted this time for Coke Vanilla Zero/Crown Royal.  And thus was reminded how much Jack Daniels sucks.  *  I chatted a bit with our friend Kelly via messenger, as well as Tim and Wayne.  Wayne's other half Dee successfully completed chemo for breast cancer, such wonderful news!  And Kelly's hubby also completed radiation therapy for prostate cancer.  These are brave, strong folks and I'm happy and proud of the war they waged against that damned 'C' word.  I'm also proud of Kelly and Wayne for standing behind their spouses.  Prayers answered, as far as I'm concerned.  Meanwhile, big Tim is recovering mightily from shoulder surgery he had just weeks ago.  He's flying all over the world pretty much for work, so no real downtime for him - he's a better man than me.  *  We watched CBC Marketplace and fully realized how much Canada is ripped off in the cell phone market, with ridiculous air time prices and even worse for data.  I refuse to buy data or go on any kind of plan except for pay-as-you-go, as does Janice.  We each pay $25/month and rely on free WiFi wherever it's available, even though I hardly ever carry a phone with me anyway.  I find it amazing how many people have become so attached and dependent on cell phones.  I will never become that needy for those things, I just think air time and data are a rip off - but, to each their own, I guess.  *  On tap for Saturday, perhaps Charms day at the gym, and Janice is off with Alexandra and Cole to a staff party while I hunker down here at home.  I'll probably bang on my electric drums to songs I have to learn to jam with a couple of friends sometime this month.  The staff party is actually the Christmas party, and they're going to ... Hitachi Grill or something?  Can't remember.  This is an annual thing and I never go because of the whole crowd thing, and restaurants are generally a turn-off for me.  So I wind up getting pizza for myself while they go out.  *  Anyway, that's the kind of day it's been.

January 14

Today was funky weatherwise.  Snow, rain, freezing rain, but none of it amounted to very much.  Although it's not a good day to drive for a living.  Temperatures are there for there to be precipitation, so that much is tolerable.  *  We woke up a few times in the morning, but got back to sleep soon enough.  But there was nothing on the agenda today, as we took a day off from the gym, seeing as our legs are so freakin' sore from yesterday.  Therefore, we were just honestly plain out lazy today.  *  As we were about to head out, Martha, Janice's Mom, flagged me down and had me go over to get a container of apple pie she just made.  I had no problem with that!  It was a sweet little gesture on her part, and her pies are incomparable.  We went out to Wal Mart to get munchies, something crunchy and salty for the odd craving.  But we made the mistake of going there hungry, so came back with probably way too much.  After Wal Mart, we go to Dominos to get a pizza for me, then to pick up CoLex at their place, and they all drop me off at home, while Janice takes the car with the other two to go to their staff party.  *  Then I get home, with the ideas of playing around with my electric drums, but lazed out and instead watched TV and did a bit of laundry.  First I started watching 'Black Adam' - I got through about a half hour of that before I said I'd had enough.  The I gave 'Wednesday' on Netflix a try.  I see why it's garnered attention, and it's well made and everything, but I just don't think it's for me. *  Janice gets home with some booty from the party; a bluetooth speaker and a pair of wireless earbud type thingies.  Pretty good value to that stuff for door prizes.  I guess they all enjoyed their dinner at the Osaka Hibachi restaurant that hosted the party.  You may see pictures for that on Janice's facebook.  *  We saw some 'Big Bang Theory', as we do basically every day, and headed upstairs to watch the beginning of the 'Battlestar Galactica' reboot series.  I have to say... it's been around 20 years since it was first released.  I saw it very differently at my age now than I did then, presumably because in those 20 years, the world turned me into a different person than I was, with a different outlook and everything.  So I found it fascinating how I perceived it now compared to then, even though my general view of it is basically the same.  We watched it with captions on, so maybe it made us pay closer attention to the dialogue and the story.  Here's the thing about that series... it's not futuristic.  The reason being, is that it takes place in a different part of the universe with a solar system nearly identical with evolution to us here on Earth.  Their existence throughout the series is questioned as to their origins.  It asks the question, can things possibly be cyclical?  Eventually the show states, "all of this has happened before... all of this will happen again."  If there are planets out there with a gaseous cover to them, is it possible that inhabitants of that planet annihilated themselves with WMDs, leaving nothing on the surface but what WE just might have if we annihilate ourselves similarly?  The universe has existed for at least billions of years... what if there was no beginning?  If we can imagine eternity, then what about eternity behind the present, and not just ahead of it?  At least, the present as we know it.  Anyway, watching BSG is fascinating, because it's long-form storytelling, meaning that it's answering questions as you watch it without asking the question yet.  In other words, it's rich in rewards of repeat watching.  Both Janice and me were blown away by how much we felt watching the first disc tonight.  And the visuals and dialogue and acting all hold up absolutely incredibly.  In fact, since it's aired back in the early '00s, I think filmmakers are still catching up to a lot of it.  It portrays the military incredibly accurately, and questions what could go very wrong the more we depend on technology.  And there are NO aliens.  Ever.  *  Wow, went on quite a rave there eh?  *  It's been a peaceful Saturday, and it's back to the gym tomorrow for freeweights Charms day.  Janice is off too.  *  And that's what kind of week it was.

These Are the Days of Our Lives.... week 1

 January 1, 2023

Started out snowy today here in Moncton, then changed to rain for the rest.  New Year's Day - the Eve involved Janice and me at home enjoying chicken wings.  We were invited to brother Greg's but opted to stay home so we could stay a bit calmer and retire without worrying about being under any influence. * Logging onto the internet, I decided to try to figure out why I've been having an ongoing thrush problem.  I came to the conclusion that it's due to my use of cannabis oil, which dries me out overnight and I wind up waking up with major cotton mouth.  I'm concerned, somewhat, that it's migrated to my gut, which I found out, can happen.  Upon further investigation, candida can be quite problematic.  I'd dealt with it before, and went on an elimination diet to rectify it.  It's not easy to do, but so very worth it.  Even better, upon reading up on it, I believe it's the cause of Alexandra's ongoing maladies, which has doctors baffled.  She also uses cannabis for anxiety.  I truly believe that if she embarks on a journey of the elimination diet, that she'll finally solve the riddle of what's been ailing her.  And me too.  *  Janice and me went for a drive this evening, getting our traditional hot chocolate/iced coffee and taking a spin around the rainy city.  We spun out to Magnetic Hill and then off to Dorchester, just because.  We love being in each other's company and just talking about whatever comes to us.  I've been talking to her a lot about the book my man Shawn Cook gave me a few years ago, "The Book of Joy", that I finally came around to reading, and am just about finished with.  It has the ability to change one's outlook, and I must let him know how much of a difference it's been making.  I will re-read it and even make notes, once Janice reads it herself.  *  Upon coming home, Janice suggested we get take-out, which we've admittedly had too much of the last couple of weeks, which will change beginning tomorrow.  I tried this Horseradish Burger King Whopper that was really good, and Janice had a bacon one.  Burger prices are crazy now!  It'll be a long time before we do that again.  Besides, I like to cook.  *  We came home to Marbles the cat and ate, giving Marbles his supper (freeze dried chicken breast), and watched "Pro Wrestling Territories" on Crave, a fun show to watch for any longtime wrestling fan.  Then we migrated upstairs to put in the "Prometheus" blu-ray, watched the extras, and then the movie with subtitles.  And once again, we picked up a lot watching it that way.  It's a movie that gets better as it ages.  *  Time to retire.  I'll attempt to sleep with no CBD/THC oil in an effort to cut down, in light of the candida threat.  

January 2

Janice went back to work after a short holiday respite - had a decent sleep.  Janice brought home a lemon loaf that Alexandra made for me for my birthday, probably the best one she ever made even, and that's saying a lot!  *  Was cloudy out today with temps hovering around plus or minus three.  *  We went to Champlain Mall to check out the calendar sales, seeing as their prices aren't cheap beforehand, and we got three.  The Mall was quite busy, a lot of kids there since school isn't back in session yet, but it was nice to see the livelihood after the last couple of depressing years of covid.  We hit the gym right after that, and saw that the new Popeyes Chicken take-out still had lineups stretching down Mountain Road two weeks after opening.  *  Expecting Planet Fitness to be busier than usual post New Year's Day, but it was just average, which is fine by us.  It was freeweights Shack Day, or shoulders and back.  20 minutes cardio warmup followed by over an hour of free weights, and another 20 cardio.  Janice is getting scary strong!  She whipped my ass on New Year's Eve.  She's determined to lose some lbs. before summer, and really the rest of the year.  I better keep up the gym work or she'll wind up burying me!  *  Back home to shower, weigh in - I'm at 182-ish, Janice was 191-ish - and supper with ribs, green beans and air fryer fries.  Our air fryer is a piece of dog dung.  It's an Insta-Pot brand air fryer that was pricey and very inadequate, after using it for several months now.  I don't recommend it at all.  Our little boy Marbles had his soup for supper with us.  He always has supper with us everyday, it's a family thing.  *  Later off to the bedroom to take in "Alien: Covenant" on blu-ray.  Good movie, but doesn't quite measure up to the finesse of "Prometheus" before it.  *  News-wise, we're keeping our eye on the U.S. congress, where nimrod Kevin McCarthy is looking to be Speaker of the House, but is being met with a lot of resistance.  If he doesn't win the position, it'll be the first time in 100 years that it goes beyond the first ballot.  That's the mess the republicans are right now.  *  Since I'm writing this the morning after Jan. 2, I can comment that last night's sleep was horrendous.  I used the shower massager after the gym, but it failed to alleviate the oncoming tremendous headache that would rule the night, coupled with a sinus headache, which is something I've dealt with a lot since the change of seasons.  I was nearly in tears, it hurt that much.  Since I took Kirkland brand Robax before trying to sleep, I had to wait at least 6 hours before taking Sudafed Advance, which is the magic bullet for me when it comes to sinus pain.  I only got to sleep around 7:30 in the morning, woke up at 11.  And here I am.  Onwards and upwards.  *  I should also notate that today is now five whole months since my last anxiety attack.  That's a serious milestone for me.  Wasn't without hiccups here and there, but thanks to my cannabis oil when it counted, I kept it in check.  Janice is tremendously understanding when anxiety creeps up on me.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

January 3

It's 1:20am on the 4th actually right now, and I still haven't slept, but here we are.  Another mild day in cloudy Moncton, with occasional drizzle and temps hovering just above or around the freezing mark.  *  Today I didn't go back to sleep, and opted instead to watch the shenanigans in Washington as McCarthy couldn't get his Speaker gig in the U.S. House, even after three ballots.  I find it pretty entertaining watching the GOP tear each other apart after all the lies and false pledges during the election cycle.  *  But anyway, Janice came home from work and I boiled a bunch of eggs in prep for making my lovely egg salad sandwiches.  *  We headed to the gym once again, feeling bitchin' sore in the neck and shoulders - both of us - from yesterday, but thankfully, no headaches.  It was freeweights leg day, probably one of the more brutal leg days in a long time.  Janice put in her time for cardio as well like she's pledged to do, and we dropped into Sobeys for some stuff for my sandwiches and some Carlsberg and Heineken.  Came home to shower and proceeded to make the mix for the sandwiches, consisting of:  nine boiled eggs, one small shredded carrot, Miracle Whip, garlic powder, green onions, salt and pepper and a splash of Frank's Red Hot.  I cooked some bacon in the oven too, for the first time, and I don't think I'll do it any other way going forward.  I put it in the oven on baking sheets and parchment paper at 400F for about 20 minutes - came out in sublime quality.  *  Watched MSNBC to take in the commentary on the day's events, we went to bed, and here I am.  A pretty normal day.  Ah yes, we did drop into Janice's store too with the intention of getting Diflucan or something like it to try to counter what might be Candida in my gut, but I got cold feet after realizing it was in the fem section.  Janice said why not ask the pharmacist - I said because I don't want everybody to know I'm this walking bread machine... we already have one of those to make real bread.  She'll ask the doctor when she can get hold of him what I ought to do.  But, laying off the cannabis oil so far in the New Year seems to be paying off right now, too.  We'll see how it goes.  I also need to talk to the doc about my hands, where the tendons in the palm of your hand tighten and contract.  You can see the tendons in the palm of my left hand, and I can't flatten it on a flat surface, and I need padded gloves for things like going to the gym.  It hurts sometimes.  I want to get it looked at before it ... well.... gets out of hand.  Sorry.  *  Guess Janice, Marbles and me will retire now for the night, hopefully with better results than last night.

January 4

Another calm day weatherwise, temps around the freezing mark, dipping a bit lower to minus six after dark.  Winter has been kind to us so far, but we know it ain't gonna last forever.  *  Got lots of sleep last night; guess I was so tired from a lack of it the night before that I caught up.  What woke me was a dream turned nightmare I had.  I dreamt that my old work called me up and asked me to go in to help, as the receiving area was a mess - I was flattered and delighted that they would regard me in this way to ask, so I went in.  At the drug store I worked at, the receiving area was a massive mess.  Empty pallets all over the place, stacks of them, and full ones loaded with product.  The receiving room where the loading doors were was in complete disarray, and trucks were arriving.  And it was on a Sunday, of all days, but the way the company is these days, you wouldn't have been surprised.  I got the place cleaned up and ship shape, and the store owner, the last one I worked for, comes in with his arms crossed and says, "I need to talk to you in my office.  We know about the $90,000 that went missing when you left because of your bad orders."  MY bad orders??  I don't even do the orders!  I told myself to wake up, this must be a nightmare.  So I did.  I went back to sleep and was back in the same place.  I think this stems from an actual accusation that I was responsible for an order gone bad made by the new boss I worked for after the one left that I worked for, for 10 years, had left.  He tried to pin it on me, and I think told the owner it was my fault instead of his own.  It's stuff like this that drove me over the edge and forced me into disability.  Anyway, I shook it off.  *  I watched day two of the fecal fiesta that is the nomination for House Speaker in the U.S., as they went another six rounds of voting without picking anyone.  What a fustercluck.  The legacy of tRump just keeps rolling and destroying that country after letting that clown out of the box back in '15 on the escalator to hell.  *  Janice came home, and had to go to the post office on St. George Street to pick up a popcorn maker for Alexandra that Lex had ordered, and was shocked at the clueless service there.  My wife and kid deserve the kind of pay P.O. employees get and not the slave wages that they do have.  Loblaws is a greedy, self-serving outfit that cares little about its workers.  I know that firsthand.  *  We resolved to go to the gym again, but first put ingredients in the breadmaker to have fresh bread for egg salad sandwiches again tonight; to find out that mice got into our cupboards hand helped themselves to the flour.  Little bastards.  So when we went to the gym, we went next door to Dollarama and got plastic containers for anything that was cardboard or paper wrapped on our shelves.  *  We start out in the gym, embarking on our 20 minute warmup on the treadmill, and I decided to get my running legs back.  Janice did her usual steep uphill walk, and I ran - only to feel something pop in my calf after a mile and a half.  I nearly collapsed.  It hurt like hell to try to walk it off the last half mile, probably not a great idea, but I'm hoping it's just strained.  We continued to work out, doing our freeweights Chest and Arms workout, or Charms Day as we call it.  We go pretty hard, but not overly hard.  Janice really puts her best into it.  We expect to be sore tomorrow, but a good sore.  We did our stretching, another 20 minutes on the treadmill - though I kind of limped through it - and headed home.  *  Popeyes is STILL crazy busy.  It's long after 9 at night and the restaurant is still packed and a lineup for the drive-thru stretching out of the parking lot.  I think people are finding out what we found out when we first tried it in the States years ago, that it's the best chicken around.  And those biscuits and sides are something else!  *  Got home to the smell of the breadmaker being just about done its job making our bread for the sandwiches.  Eventually we made them and DAMN they were good.  We ate the leftover bacon from last night too, and I ran into what my childhood dentist used to call a 'fender bender' - or a broken molar.  What a drag.  Thankfully, it doesn't seem sensitive, and I have an appointment for a checkup next month anyway, so I'll get that looked after then.  Anyway, we had that sandwich with a beer while we watched AEW on TV, with a banger of a show that was possibly the most entertaining one they've put on to date.  What a crazy, boisterous crowd.  Great athleticism and storytelling.  *  Janice cleaned up, and it's upstairs to bed we go.  Gave Marvelous Marbles Hagler his meat stick treat, and settled into bed.  *  We learned late tonight via text that one of Janice's brothers suffered a stroke, but he seems like he'll be okay, though he's in the hospital.  It's scary news that no one wants to learn of their sibling.  Prayers for him to recover... and I hope to God it won't be difficult.  Hopefully better news tomorrow on that.  *  That's the kind of day it's been.

January 5

Weather has kind of been in one place all week here, around the plus or minus three degree mark, and maybe a flurry here and there, but no real action.  A suspiciously calm winter up to this point.  The gorgeous Cindy Day has done a marvelous job with her predictions on her website.  *  Not a bad night of sleep.  Woke up to the usual, being kind of addicted to the House Speaker drama in the States while the rest of the country is salivating over hockey.  Canada won, I hear?  Seriously, the whole Speaker of the House voting thing is exactly what everyone says it is, Groundhog Day over and over again.  Actually, it's beginning to look frightening more than funny.  *  I'd said at the conclusion of the previous day that Janice's brother had suffered a stroke; turns out, doctors only thought that was a possibility, and he actually is having heart issues, not unlike their father did handy to the age he's at right now.  So the situation is a lot less dire, but still in need of desperate attention.  Here's hoping he gets it.  *  Janice and me had a short nap when she got home from work, then we got up and hit the gym again.  My leg is much better today, but no running for me.  Instead, I wound up walking uphill at 15% for 20 minutes, while Janice did her usual sweating boogie.  We then did the machine Shack Workout, where we work the shoulders and back on the machines, since we did the freeweights version a few days ago.  We'll be sore tomorrow, in a good way.  Janice wanted to hit the gym more in an effort to knock down the weight.  We've been there everyday so far since the new year for at least two hours a day.  We finished off today again with lots of stretching and another half hour or so of cardio and headed home for supper, where I grilled boneless, skinless chicken thighs in my own homemade spice mix with Bulls Eye sauce, cooked rice on the side and made peas/corn together for myself, and just corn for Janice, where she has an aversion to peas.  I usually made grilled chicken in olive oil, but opted this time for Pam Olive Oil cooking spray.  It actually turned out better.  We both loved it.  We had it with vodka and Diet Canada Dry - after I'd primed myself with a Vanilla Diet Coke and Jack Daniels.  I'd never tried Jack before, but it was part of a sale at Christmas, so I thought I'd try.  It's okay I guess... not as good as Crown Royal, but better than that Forty Creek crap.  The best is Canadian Club 12 year with Diet Vanilla Coke - tastes just like Butter Rum Life Savers.  Janice is loyal to her vodka and Diet CD.  When Lent season hits, we go dry and cut out alcohol altogether.  Haven't even had any cannabis oil yet since New Year's.  I used to take it before bed for sleep, but adjusted to going without it.  My suspicion is, as I stated before, that it dries me out so much, I suspected gut issues.  I'm feeling a lot better these days.  *  Gave Marbles his kitty chocolate (don't worry, not real chocolate, just looks like it), hit the sheets and now it's time for lights out.  

January 6

Pretty boring reporting on the weather on this, as it's been the exact same thing pretty much every day this week.  Temps around plus or minus 3, but it was cooler last night at around minus 6, enough to make our oil heat kick in, so I cranked the heat pump up a bit to thwart that.  We got an oil delivery the other day, a whole 45 litres!  Damn good - the heat pump is paying off big time.  Since we got it last summer, and the government announced later that they were subsidizing them a few months later, I have to figure out how we can get some of it paid for.  In the meantime, it's paying for itself.  *  Not the best of sleeps last night.  I dug into some Hawkins Cheezies at bedtime and paid for it all night.  I asked Janice to call me from work to wake me up at one for a blood donor appointment at 1:45, but it wasn't necessary because I was up way sooner.  I almost cancelled the appointment, the gut rot was so bad.  But I sunk some water, ate a Drake's cake and was good to go.  *  Made it to the blood clinic on time, and it didn't take long to bleed out a pint - something like six minutes.  They patched me up and I was on my way.  This is number 17 on my donation count.  I wanted it done today because of a tattoo appointment I have on Sunday to get my Irish cross touched up, and a couple of other things.  Touch ups are free with the girl that I get to do my ink work.  *  Dropped the car off for Janice at her work and came home to watch the circus that is the House Speaker vote thing.  It stretched on to late in the night with a fight even breaking out on the R side.  McCarthy eventually won, after 15 rounds of balloting.  He basically sold his soul to the extremists in the party to get it, though.  Anyway, it was fun to watch this week.  *  When Janice came home from work, we were both pretty pooched, and opted to go upstairs for a short nap to catch up on some Z's.  That 'short nap' turned into a three hour snoozefest, evidently one we needed.  We decided to give the gym a rest today, where she was quite tired, and I was kind of shaky from my blood donation, which is normal and usual.  We'll go back tomorrow and I'll scale back a bit for the next couple of weeks while I build my count back up.  Last time I went full tilt after a donation and thought something was desperately wrong, but of course it wasn't.  I can admittedly sometimes be a hypochondriac.  It's a Cook thing, I think, with some of us!  *  Speaking of which, I looked into Dupuytren Contraction disease, something I realized I had for a little while now.  Actually Janice had pointed it out and helped me investigate it.  It freaks me out a little bit, because my brother Rick's fiancee May has very serious issues with her hands, and I've seen what she deals with - I don't know that that's what she has, though.  All I know is she's gone through hell with it.  I think I have it in both hands, one more pronounced than the other, but according to what I read, I have to get it taken care of before it takes off on me and becomes irreversible.  The treatment for it isn't pretty!  I think surgery is in my future for this, but we'll see.  A lot of needles involved.  Ugh.  Could be worse, though.  But, this is further evidence that I need disability, I guess.  I did so much work at my job in the past 15 years with my hands with heavy lifting that it's kind of just caught up with me.  The worse hand is the left one, so that'll probably be treated first.  Then I'll have to probably get the right one treated, which, I imagine, means I'll have to learn to wipe me arse with my left hand.  (!)  Believe it or not, Janice offered to help me with that!  I said, uh, NO.  I'll figure it out.  But is she a keeper or what?  But she says the same about me. If I had to do the same for her, I think I'd need a barf bucket to keep up the pace while I did that for her!  *  Tonight on the menu, Janice made herself a rare treat of Kraft Dinner - rare because it's probably not the healthiest of meals, but not the worst either.  A treat.  I had my own treat - creamed peas on toast with homemade bread.  You either love that or hate it.  My family grew up on it, where we were quite poor and made do with what we could get at times, but we all really loved this stuff.  And it's cheap.  *  I had a Dr Pepper Zero with vodka, and one with Diet Canada Dry tonight, and Janice had a pair of DCD/vodkas, and we relaxed into the night, and sent ourselves to bed, not before giving our black and white bomber Marbles his meat stick treat, and here I am ready to sign off, with my wife fast asleep beside me, and Marbles camped out on my lap.  The weekend is upon us.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

January 7

A few flurries today, no big deal, as the weather holds steady here in mighty Moncton, again temps hovering plus or minus three.  The weather has been pleasantly boring so far this year here.  *  Had a tough time getting to sleep last night, probably due to the long nap we had last evening.  I wound up reading some more of the "Book of Joy", nearly finishing it.  What a great, potentially life-changing book.  I want to read it periodically to inspire myself to keep growing as a person, which I really feel like it's doing.  Anyway, I think I might've got to sleep around 7:30am, and woke up several times between then and around four in the aft.  Janice slept like a rock for a long time, as she often does on Saturdays to catch up with her sleep she lacks during the week.  *  We gobbled a waffle before heading out to gas up at Costco - the only place we buy gas - and dropped into the store for a few things.  I really like this Spyder wear that they have, and tonight I got this black and gray pullover that'll be good for the winter and spring, and cool summer nights.  Janice got a pair of active-wear pants, and we got a few other things.  Align probiotics were on sale, which we take daily.  Picked up a few guilty munchies to boot.  Dropped into Sobeys to get stuff for tacos for supper.  *  Boy this is boring eh?  This is adult life.  *  We dropped off our stuff home and then hit the gym and did machine Leg Day and a lot of ab stuff, followed by stretching and the usual hour of cardio.  Janice is kickin' it... she wants to do at least three miles a day pretty much every day.  That's basically what I do.  Today was a little rough because of my blood donation yesterday, but not terribly difficult.  We've been drinking this stuff called Bio Steel, a Gatorade substitute, pretty much, and it's pretty tasty.  We get it pretty cheap at Costco.  Back home we go.  *  And then it's suppertime.  We had this taco kit that's half hard shells and half soft, because we like to wrap the hard shell tacos with the soft ones.  I find it a pain in the arse when you eat a taco and it basically self destructs a couple of bits in, so the soft taco holds it all together.  We made it with a pound of farmer's market ground beef, red bell peppers, green onions, fresh garlic and Tex Mex cheese, with the taco seasoning of course and sauce.  Bitchin' stuff!  The leftover meat mixture we ate with these plain tortilla chips we had from our last batch of nachos.  *  Warning:  one of Janice's stocking stuffers was a can of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey Lemonade with honey... grossest shit I think I've tried to drink in ages, and Janice agreed.  Yech!!  So I opted for a Blackfly Orange and Vodka, and Janice had her usual DCD/vodka.  Dessert was strawberry shortcake that we recognized as my birthday cake which we also got at, you guessed it, Costco.  Another thing we got there was 30 free run eggs, since we're going to eat more of them.  It'll likely be omelettes tomorrow for dinner.  *  Retired upstairs shortly after that and watched "Turner and Hooch", one of Janice's all time favorite movies.  She laughs so hard when she watches that!  I actually recorded her laughing at it a little on my cell phone.  Took in Marketplace, which was about high sodium dishes at restaurants.  No surprises there, really.  We don't eat at restaurants a lot, between that and the crazy tipping you have to shell out, we just don't find it's worth it.  Besides, I like to cook.  *  Tattoo day tomorrow.  I'll post shots of what I get done on facebook and Insta.  *  And that's the kind of week it's been.