January 29 Sunday
A calm, cool Sunday has flown by as I sit here on this late Sunday night/early Monday morning. Weather-wise, I think it was standard; that being, handy to the freezing mark, no precip, and it seems to have followed into the evening. Fact of the matter is, over the last number of days, we've barely even gotten outside because of this Covid complication. Today was no different. * Since we got to sleep late last night, once again, we slept in, once again. Janice was up before me. She's feeling way, way better now, her appetite is all the way back, and pretty much symptom free, save for a bit of nagging cough; she just needs to re-up her energy levels. This is great news, really. As for me, I'm just about there myself. The cough has drastically subsided, and now it's just a lot of throat-clearing, and the energy level really needs to come up. Sleeping is one of my favorite things to do this past week. Today I must've slept 12 or 13 hours. When I awoke for what I thought was for the day, Janice was already up, and we munched on ginger snaps, and before I knew it, I told Janice if I didn't get more sleep I wouldn't be able to really function, so, back out I was. After another hour and a half though, I was good. Thing here is, that sleep seems to be this Covid thing's worst enemy, because it feels like it's gone a bit more each time. * Tonight it was scrambled eggs with crumbled bacon and toast for supper, as we graduate towards regular meals. I'd say we're pretty much there, now. For both of us, we don't feel sick as much as we feel tired. It appears we're good to go. The gym awaits us... I would anticipate going back Tuesday, perhaps. We really miss it. It feels great when you're done; enough to make it addictive if you can get into the habit of going. We were on quite a good roll until Covid knocked us down for a week. We'll have to ease back into it this week, maybe just do cardio for a few days first. * After supper was done and MMH had his chicken dinner, we tuned into the newest episode of 'The Last of Us'. This show takes unexpected off-ramps, at least to those of us who don't know the actual game it's based on. There's a keen sense of levity it employs to keep the narrative from getting stagnant, like 'The Walking Dead' is very guilty of. We stopped watching TWD when the Negan character unnecessarily bludgeoned one of the main characters to death in the head repeatedly with a baseball bat; it was a plot device that served zero purpose and turned a lot of us off for good - probably the jump-the-shark moment for that show for a lot of watchers. TLOU tonight challenges viewers who might be homophobic. It largely centered on two characters getting to know one another and evolving together in a very powerful episode just over an hour long. If you have issues with gays, like I did even when I didn't realize it years ago, something like this might make you re-think your position on humanity; in a scenario like this when the human race's existence itself is in question, differences like sexual preference or skin color suddenly become irrelevant. But we shouldn't wait until a dire crisis happens to make us see that. Watching this episode made me realize how ignorant and closed-minded I was in the past. But... everyone should be given a chance to change and to grow. This whole "me too" thing completely shuts the door on that idea. * After that, it was upstairs to settle in, give Marvelous Marbles Hagler his kitty chocolate, and watch three more eps on disc of 'Battlestar'. It's at the point where it's starting to get political now, as it should, if it's going to be plausible at all. I wish all shows depicting space were as cool and realistic looking as this one is. * Not much more to report. I'm gonna take my oil, Janice will do hers, our little Bumpersnicker will settle in with us and we'll call this one a day. * And, that's the kind of day it's been.
January 30 Monday
Not to sound like a skipping record, because a 'broken' record won't actually play... but the temps are pretty much hanging around the freezing mark, nothing drastic either way. No precip today either. * We're both feeling fine and dandy now, and had plans even to make a trip to Halifax to take in the new Avatar film in IMAX - well, my stupid-ass sleep schedule wasn't having it. When I signed off last night, I made a valiant effort to actually sleep, to no friggin' avail. Tried and tried and tried. And tried some more. Laying here with my eyes shut, when it feels like there's a little guy behind my eyelids pulling up the blinds to let the light in. Sleep came... sometime after noon, for about four or so hours. I wonder if this is a retirement thing. I know my brother Rick has similar issues. Janice slept like a baby. I know that because I actually spent a lot of time actually watching her, with our ever-faithful MMH by our side. * We both got up eventually, anyway, and decided to go get a few things at Costco, with the real intention being finding something not too heavy for supper. We opted for one of their store-made chicken pot pies, which seems like a gradual step-up from the chicken soup we had the day before. We got a few other things, popcorn, dishwasher tabs, waffles, just boring stuff. We gassed up there too, where it was $1.59.8/litre, around six cents cheaper than regular gas stations. The only time we gas up anywhere else is if we're out of town and have to gas up. * The pot pie gets thrown in the oven, I had a rye & Dr Pepper Zero, Janice a DCD on ice, got Marbles his chicken dinner, and we proceeded to watch Chris Hayes on MSNBC followed by Rachel Maddow, who's only on on Mondays now, unfortunately. But she's worth taking in, because she goes so deep with the stories she investigates, getting info you don't always hear anywhere else. Lots of Trump-related information coming out now pertaining to his whole deal of paying off the porn star just before he got his presidential gig. Damning info, too. A long, long time coming. It's like the tree called Trump was chopped down when Biden got in, but the stump is still there, and digging at the roots to get it all into the open uncovers more and more rot. * We came upstairs shortly after that, and I conversed a bit with my brophews Chris and Shawn via facebook messenger, to get into the details of how Shawn's doing. The mystery behind what's caused problems for him is slowly coming to light, but progressively. * We'll be watching 'Battlestar' some more tonight, but this time out, I decided to type out this journal before we watched it and I got tired and foggy-brained. I have to note, I'm a little bit shocked at the number of folks who actually tune into this blog page and read this journal stuff. I didn't think anyone would! I mean, it borders on the mundane at times. Seriously, like, "here's what I got at Costco." But hey, make no mistake, I'm flattered and I appreciate it! * The dark days of January are coming to a close, the days are getting longer, Spring is getting closer, and I leave you with the usual... And that's the kind of day it's been.
January 31 Tuesday
What's it called... a Polar Vortex? Rearing is cold, ugly head down upon us here in dark, not-that-snowy Moncton. It was around the minus 8 range or so, down to minus 19 at nighttime. That's enough to get the furnace ready to finally have to do some work. I still find it remarkable in Moncton that the main roads are good and clear, but when you hit the side-streets, it all goes to hell. It's been a thing in this city since I've been alive. Whatever. * The last day of January sets in, and it's more of the same as far as sleep cycles go. Got to sleep quite late, because Janice and me stayed awake to watch the last disc of the first season of BSG, which was pretty interesting. The storytelling is very deep, and this disc kind of lets you in on how deep it is. One of the most fascinating things about BSG is the story it tells about belief in deities in the universe. It mentions belief in gods, plural, and also a separate belief in God as a singular. It's a theme that runs throughout the series and builds on a mythology based on the same kind of subject matter that originates here on Earth. * Sleep was on and off. It's hard to get a good run of long sleep, I seem to have to get it in shorter, cumulative periods rather than one good uninterrupted session. Telemarketers wake me up a fair bit. Today, I woke up feeling like I had a bad sleep, so I had to crash again around the five o'clock hour to try to shake the cobwebs. It more or less worked. Janice is patient with me concerning this, because she knows how vital sleep is for folks like me with anxiety issues. Since focusing on getting appropriate sleep, those issues have really calmed down. I give credit to my wife for making sure I get enough. * When I did get up, we each scarfed back a waffle, gave MMH his snack, and readied ourselves for the gym. Finally. These are the days we have to warm up the car because of the fierce cold, and now the inside of the windshield gets frosty. It's pitch dark in the sky as we drive to PF about a mile and a half away. Seeing the odd person on a bike makes me shiver - and the streets are fairly vacant of cars, perhaps because of the cold, perhaps not. Since the onset of Covid in '20, nothing has truly gotten back to normal. There are really no 24 hour stores anymore. All the grocery stores close at 10 pm now. Even fast food joints close mostly by midnight. I had a conversation with Janice about decades and eras - and it occurred to me how we've regressed as the decades are passing. The sixties saw a bit of progression. The seventies saw it continue, with more industrialization. The eighties saw tech beginning to advance, communism falling apart, and equal rights beginning to make headway. The nineties saw tech begin to make major leaps with the spawning of the internet and prosperity actually beginning to flourish. Then the '00s came. 9/11 happened, and everything began to regress. We became suspicious of people that didn't look like us again. Social media picks up and people begin feverishly lying without any accountability. Wars waged on lies. Equal rights starting to corrode. Climate change picking up with no one taking the objective in governments to do anything serious about it, but people like Obama were giving everyone hope. The teens happen, Trumpism happens, and the world begins to tear itself apart again. Nazi-ism on the rise. Christianity or bust. Not just any Christianity... far, ultra right Christianity, thanks in large part to the far right news media. Now Covid hits us in the '20s. Further and further regression. Ukraine. China imploding. The U.S. on self-destruct. It's hard to be optimistic about the future when too many are trying to bring back the past. * So let's get ourselves sweating at the gym. We went specifically to get ourselves back in 'gym shape' after a bit of a layoff because of dealing with Covid, so we did an hour and 45 of cardio. I did seven miles, Janice around six and a half, but she goes uphill. WAY uphill. I just go for distance, at least today. It was tough getting going this first time back. I felt heavy. My legs were heavy and trying to point me to the exit door, but this is par for the course after a layoff. Janice got a good sweat on with me, and we took our Gatorade flasks with us and went home. * Shower time... and with it, a weigh-in. Janice now comes in around 185-ish, and I'm now 179-ish. I have no idea how my weight dropped like that, especially when just the other day I was 184. Of course, our eating patterns are kind of off lately. After showering, it's time for the other half of that chicken pot pie from yesterday, while we catch up on MSNBC and see what became of the popcorn show that is U.S. politics these days. Trump is deposed, pleading the 5th on EVERYTHING. * Upstairs we go to settle in for the night. MMH gets his kitty chocolate treat from his Mom this time - interesting seeing it from a more outside perspective. Cuteness overload! Bryan Adams is supposed to be on the Tonight Show, but we opted for DVR'ing it and attempting sleep. That happened for me for about two or so hours. A sinus headache came on, sending my head into a bit of a spin. These are the days I go thru a lot of Sudafed Advance, but it always works, thank God. Still, it's left me awake here at 7 am unable to pass back out. Oil might be in order. Oh, and I did have a can of pop tonight called Bubba Kush, that we got from Cannabis NB, which has cannabis in it. This one was lemon-lime flavor, pretty good, really. But I didn't like the buzz from it. It was a bit too heavy for me, and so it pretty much solidifies my preference to just taking the oil that I have, so I can control exactly what I'm taking. I think that pop might meant to be drunk more slowly, where I finished it in fifteen or so minutes, but I'm pretty much done with that. * Janice is back to work tomorrow after a 1 week, Covid-fortified vacation. I dread being without her during the days, so sleep isn't that bad in that way. Although, we may at some point, handy to Spring, attempt to try to go to the gym at 6 am during the sunny months. Maybe. * And that's the kind of day it's been.
February 1 Wednesday
Another day, another cold, dark 24 hours. As I sit here recapping the goings-on of the first of the month, I'm kind of lodged in twilight, sort of. This time of year is weird to me now. As of April 22, it will have been three years since I've worked, and I still can't quite get into the swing of it. When I worked, I saw people everyday. For better or worse. I dealt with vendors, salesmen, co-workers, deliveries - for ten years at that particular job. I loved all my drivers, and got on with them quite well - many of them would tell me I'm their favorite guy to deal with on their routes. Cold stop - take all that away and just learn to adjust. It's a shock to the system that I still haven't quite blended into yet. I don't know if I will. I love the peace, the not dealing with anxiety attacks that came with every job I ever had - some more than others. But it's lonely. The days are long, and maybe my body won't allow me to sleep during the night because subconsciously, I dread the daytime. In the coming weeks, I'm going to attempt to change this, as the days continue to get longer. * It was around minus 8 or so today, dipping down to minus 18 overnight. It's going to get a whole lot colder in the days ahead. * Sleep... it did not come easy, yet again. The oil I take isn't quite the same oil I used to have, because Loblaws controls what's available now from Organigram, the company that made the stuff called Utopia that I took for sleep. They de-listed it, and now that you can only get the oil through Loblaws-owned outfits, I can't get it. That company is fucking me still even after I've been gone three years. There's a reasonable substitute called Soleil at the Cannabis NB stores that I'm going to have to go with. Anyway, I must've slept maybe four hours before Janice got home. She woke me up, but I asked her if I could sleep longer. Nope... couldn't get back to sleep. * I tried for about an hour and a half to drift back off, but finally gave up on it, and we both got up and got ready for the gym. I'm having heel issues once again with all the cardio we've been doing, so is Janice. But we want to get our cardio back in rhythm before we tackle weights again. I did 4.73 miles and Janice did a little less, but went uphill a bit. * We got a Domino's pizza on the way home for supper, since it was kind of late. Pepperoni, mushrooms, pineapple and bacon. It's fairly light. Homemade Chinese was in the plans, but it was too late in the day, so tomorrow. Janice had a rye and Coke Vanilla Zero tonight and I just had a plain 'ol DCD. We watched AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite; a good card with some hard hitting action. What I like about AEW compared to WWE is there is so much less talk and cartoony stuff going on, they just get right to the matches. I don't know how some of those guys take such beatings. * Upstairs we go after that, turn on the news, Janice plays her Cookie Jam on facebook, and I take in a bit of Chris Hayes on MSNBC. I've come to like this guy a lot, because he gets into the details of the stories he covers. Over at Fox News, there's a nimrod named Tucker Carlson (I call 'Tucker' something that rhymes with that) who this week mused that the U.S. should invade Canada and 'liberate' us from our Liberal government. To which everyone on Twitter from Canada responded "please go fuck yourself." And I concur. But here's the thing... there was a proposal in our House of Commons for a vote to condemn Carlson's proposition, seeing as that guy loves anarchy and insurrections. The people who voted against it? Right.... Conservatives. WHY Conservatives are so hateful these last couple of decades, I don't know. I get it... Trudeau's a knob. The people he has working for him are largely knobs. There's even corruption - like there is in every single government. But if your party wants to take over, why is it so difficult to do it justly and peacefully, like the old days? Even when Mulroney helped drive Canada into the ground in the eighties, nobody was talking invasions and coups and all this crap like they do now. We are digressing. And it's scary. * The lights went out tonight, and we attempted sleep. Nope. Janice only a half hour ago from right now was able to fall asleep... I think. It's gonna be a long day for her at work tomorrow. As for me, I don't know when the hell I'll fall asleep. Still... all in all, things honestly are good for us. We just got our RRSP reports in today and we made a little bit. I'm debating on whether or not to cash some of mine in so we can do our kitchen, pretty much the only part of the house that hasn't changed since we moved here. It's literally falling apart. And I mean, "literally". But wow, have we made progress everywhere else. I guess we saved the kitchen for last because it's going to be the priciest; but first, we have to tackle the basement and get some supports up, fill in what used to be a window, and then put doors in upstairs. Then the side entrance........ God, it goes on and on, doesn't it? Every homeowner needs to do stuff. But I don't lose sight that we're so blessed to have everything we do have. One thing is for sure, something that can't be bought, between Janice, Lexy that used to live here, and our cats, there's a TON of love in this house. When people come over here, they often comment that they can actually feel it. And that is a blessing that's priceless. * Anyway, that's the kind of day it's been.
February 2 Thursday
Temps were back up a bit today so it could snow a little. Not much, under five cm I think. This green comet is supposed to be in the sky this month, right around the Big Dipper's neighbourhood, I think. If we ever get a clear night, that is. We'd have to get away from the city lights and bring binoculars, I believe; I want to get a telescope real bad. Always wanted one. I did get one second hand on facebook Marketplace, but the remote and guidance apparatus that came with it doesn't work, so I got burned. Buyer beware when it comes to buying stuff there. * It's been pretty much status quo with the sleep situation, having trouble actually getting to sleep. Although I slept markedly better this time. Basically easy come, easy go. I have been wary of the sinus issues though. I'm having to take Sudafed Advance almost every night at this point; so I did some research on it, along with nagging neck pain, and as it turns out they're correlated. Whenever I get neck pain, which is a fair bit but it comes in spurts, 99 times out of 100 my sinuses are involved. One of the factors... no alcohol before bed. I'm guilty of having a drink or two around suppertime, but that's not something that will be hard to curtail. When Lent hits, there'll be no drinking at all. * Last night Janice didn't hardly sleep a wink, so I don't know how she got through the day, much less staying awake all the way to almost 2 am. She did sleep good, though, this time. But when she came home from work, I basically was up for the day then. I think she went to the gym, but if she did, we didn't talk a lot about it. I didn't go because I was just too sore and flaked out; I would've figured she was too, but I guess not. * Dinner tonight would be chicken fried rice and egg rolls. Not take-out either. Since I learned to make the rice myself, take-out just doesn't cut it anymore. I made enough to last us a couple of days, so tonight was the egg rolls, and tomorrow it'll be with pineapple chicken. Plus, tonight I made a big-ass batch of ginger snaps, which have turned out to be deliciously addictive.
February 4 Saturday
definitely be having it again. I served it with rice and we sipped on DCD. I got MMH his chicken dinner and we settled down to watch a couple of news magazine shows. W5 did a story on the Beirut explosion from a couple of years ago, to which it appears no one has been held accountable for; plus they had a story on a guy who's been in prison in Quebec who was wrongfully accused of murder and has been in there for 30 years despite irrefutable proof that he didn't do anything. It's eye opening to see how inept the court system in Canada really is - truly, and has been for decades. On another show we watched, the mighty CBC Marketplace, they investigated telemarketers ripping off elderly people with scams threatening to send them to jail unless they were given money. It was actually good to see their team catch these bastards red-handed and keep these seniors from getting robbed. They do pretty good work on that show. * Janice did some laundry, we cleaned up the kitchen... Oo, I should also note here that if you try that recipe with the link I posted above, when you're done, spray that Dawn Powerwash stuff on the frying pan and let it sit around ten minutes, it comes off really good. That detergent is a godsend. Anyway, we grabbed a few ginger snaps from my Mom's recipe that my sister Cindy gave me and headed up to the Promised Land, where Janice right now is clobbering cookies on her laptop, Marbles is on my lap chillin', and I'm doing this here entry for the journals. That kind of wraps up the week. The week ahead should be an improvement on anything in January; we'll be Covid free, have running water, and hopefully be healthy enough for a good run at PF. Plus we both have dentist checkups Tuesday and cleanings. Both Janice and me have 'fender benders', or a broken tooth, so we'll see what's beyond that. I actually have to start considering a plate for my uppers where I have one too many gaps up there around my molars. God knows we can't afford implants, so we'll see what the options are. * And, that's the kind of week it was.
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