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
Here's the photos Wallace had to go on to do the picture I requested for my brother Rick, with the finished artwork:
No comments:
Post a Comment