These Are the Days of Our Lives - week 10

Sunday, March 5

Another sleepless night gone by last night.  I got to sleep I think around 11 am, and Janice got up at noon to go to work till four, cane and all.  I woke up around 2, and tried getting more sleep, but nope.  *  Janice gets home and had a nap for a bit, while I attempted one, but nope again.  She woke up later and we got ready to hit Planet Fitness.  We did head out there, handy to 7 or so, and we had to keep an eye on the time because there was going to be a pay per view on, AEW Revolution, that I wanted to see.  Janice too, apparently.  We did machine Charms Day today, the last in the workout cycle before moving on back to free-weights Shack Day.  It was a good workout... I did the usual run a mile to start, walk a mile to finish, and what I'm trying to get to is running a mile in ten minutes.  I used to be able to do it long ago, and I'm getting there.  I think today I ran it in ten minutes and thirty seconds, around there.  Janice did fine, doing three miles between the first and last treadmill sessions.  Pretty good for somebody who gets around with a cane everywhere else.  I've taken to calling her Master Yoda - if you've seen Attack of the Clones, you get what I mean.  We did seven machines, I think, for the Charms portion, then I did two trips around the gym on a Monkey Walk, and a bunch of weight-resisted crunches and stretching.  I do a fair amount of ab stuff, and I have no expectations of ever actually seeing my abs in my stomach.  I just want a strong core.  *  Anyway, we head back home just before the show was about to start, and I set it to record so I could make supper for us.  We had meatballs left over from yesterday - I think they might have been better today - along with herbed rice, Janice had corn and I had peas.  For dessert, we split a small lemon meringue pie that her Mom gave us.  Then it was time for AEW Revolution.  It clocked in at nearly four hours long, and boy was it worth it.  Folks who watch WWE, I'm pretty sure they realize that's a kids' show, and AEW is for the adults.  What a vicious card this was.  And absolutely no down time.  One match gets over, then they need a minute or two to clear the ring and go right into the action.  Lots of suspense in a lot of the matches, especially the main event, where MJF beat Bryan Danielson to retain his title.  That bloody affair was well over an hour long, leaving everyone guessing how it was going to end up.  The crowd was great for this show.  *  And the cat's out of the bag for our kid.  She knew we were going to attempt to get tickets tomorrow for the KISS show in Montreal (I have a KISS Army membership, which gets me into the presale before the public presale).  With it, I can get four tickets.  The plan was for us to get the four, then on her birthday, surprise her and Cole with the tickets to the show in November.  But she messaged us tonight asking if we could please take her and Cole when we try getting tickets.  So, we spilled the beans and told them we were going to anyway, and she's a happy camper now.  I'm hoping I have some luck getting those tickets.  I know every seat at a KISS show is a good seat, because Paul flies out to the back of the venue at one point, and lifts take the guys out into the middle of the building at another - plus the huge video screens and lighting pods that are on this particular pull-out-all-the-stops tour.  This would be Cole's first big concert that he's seen... kind of a high bar to start!  *  Marbles got his meatstick treat, we're in bed after I took oil, and I've got to try to sleep so I can be up in the morning for the presale.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

March 6, Monday

Well whatta day.  I slept maybe three or four hours before I had Janice wake me up by phone to be awake for the presale for tickets for the KISS show in Montreal in November.  It was a test for my anxiety, with the screen freezing and trying to figure out how the hell to pick seats.  The ones we could afford are in the first level balcony, but they're in a good spot, and the show will be a great one.  The four of us have a few months to figure out exactly what to do re: hotel accommodations, transportation and whatever.  We'd leave Friday, land there for the hotel, see the show Saturday, and come home Sunday.  It's all for rock and roll... and the last time we'll see the Hottest Band in the World.  

After that, I had to wind down a bit and take oil to relax and try to get a few more zzz's.  I did - I got about another three hours.  Not terrible.  *  When I woke up, Janice was there beside me in bed, ready to catch a snooze herself.  She did, and I attempted to join her slumber, but my eyeballs had other ideas.  When she woke up after an hour and a half or so, we resolved to hit the gym for free-weights Shack Day.  But again, there are rodents in our room that changed those plans.  Marbles treats are kept in a chest of drawers we keep clothes in, and mice have been feasting on food stuff in the house this winter; this time they found the cat's meat sticks and a bag of freeze-dried chicken.  The little bastards ate the whole bag!!  Un friggin' real.  I could hear them in the drawer and tried catching them in the act, but all I caught were torn up and empty meatstick wrappers and an empty bag, and mouse turds all over the place.  We wound up having to wash a ton of clothes because they shit on so many of them.  I mean, these treats were in a safe place in enclosed drawers, we thought.  So what the actual hell!  I'll have to investigate Amazon and see what they have for traps, because the ones we have clearly don't work.  *  It was hair day today, so I had to shower and do that, without a gym session.  Janice washed all the clothes, and I scoured Marbles' cat box.  That's always fun.  I spray it with Mr. Clean and use the power nozzle setting on the shower massager and blast the thing clean.  Then I brought my electric drum pads back downstairs.  Supper tonight had to be Domino's, half price, so that's what it was.  With parm bites.  Great stuff.  Also, I went on a water drinking binge because my kidney stones kind of hurt today.  They're not on any timetables and don't recognize eviction notices, so I just have to wait while they ruin the place (my kidneys that is) and try to power-piss the things out of me.  It's Lent, so no beer, which is what I'd be doing, is drinking that to expedite this whole thing.  Gonna be a while before that happens.  *  Janice's knee is not good.  She needs the cane more lately to get around, and now her good leg is beginning to bother her because she's compensating for her bad one.  They can't get around to addressing this soon enough, but I have no real faith in the health care system these days.  I don't think she should be working, but Alexandra is her employee, so it's not like she can just say 'screw it' and stop.  If she does have surgery, though, she'll have to take time off.  She has a whole month's worth of sick time to fall back on, fortunately, because she never calls in sick.  *  We're in bed now, Mr. Marbles had his treat, my poor wife is laying beside me sleeping with my shirt as a blindfold, and Monday is officially done; two more weeks and it's Spring.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

March 7, Tuesday

A bit tough getting to sleep last night... or this morning actually... but once I fell asleep I was good.  I did get a solid seven or eight hours.  Janice got home from work and passed out for a while with me.  Her knee is still problematic.  She works at the store with a cane, which I think is kind of criminal, but as I've stated numerous times before, her workplace doesn't allow for more than three employees at her P.O.  And that one besides her and Alexandra is just a 4 hour shift.  I don't know what else to say or think of that.  *  We decided to wait a bit until around 8 to go to PF tonight, and try to avoid the after supper crowd.  Before we did go, news was breaking on TV about how Fox News is being outed more by the minute lately from this Dominion voting systems lawsuit.  It's quite spectacular, really.  It's what a lot of us have known for many, many years, but it's becoming official now, I guess, and shocking a lot of people.  I'm not one of them.  *  At the gym, it was free-weights Shack Day, one of our favorites.  That doesn't mean 'easy', but it's very effective.  Janice did a whole four miles on the treadmill while I did extra stuff besides the Shack workout.  I actually started with running my mile first, and I did it in exactly ten minutes, which I was aiming to make happen by the end of the month, so this is good.  I finished walking a mile at the end of the workout.  The place was quite busy, really.  In the free-weights area, the crowd was more ignorant than usual.  I got cut-off a lot walking around, guys got in our way a lot impolitely, and the area was just cramped.  I understand that this kind of thing will happen from time to time.  One guy on a machine swung a bar around and cranked me in the arm as I walked past, and he was effusively apologetic - that pretty much cancels out what happened.  If everyone was like that, life might be more enjoyable.  *  Back home we go in the light sprinkling of snow falling from the dark skies, to head straight up to the shower.  Then back downstairs where I prepared garlic bread and cheese for me to go with a frozen Pad Thai dinner, and Janice had a piece of leftover pizza from last night to go with her PT dinner.  Janice stamped on the floor, and it freaks out the mice that are in the ceiling.  I did order mouse traps from Amazon last night.  But this might be an issue that's out of control, as it is in the majority of the city.  We're pondering calling an exterminator.  Marbles isn't much of a mouser either.  At ALL.  *  We watched a lot of news stuff, then headed to The Promised Land.  I forgot to mention we watched 'The Last of Us' from Sunday - probably the scariest one yet, and it didn't have a single clicker/zombie/whatever-they're-called.  The monsters were humans.  Next week is the last episode of the season.  *  Marbles got his meatstick treat, we settled into bed to watch Seth Meyers from last night, and now Tuesday is behind us.  And that's the kind of day it's been.

March 8, Wednesday

Happy birthday to brother Greg - short for Gregarious! *  Got a reasonable sleep last night, even if I only passed out late.  I was awake at one this afternoon, contemplating sleeping further, but chose to stay awake.  Janice came home not too long after that, hobbling up the stairs with her cane, and came to lay beside me.  She seems almost euphoric to be off her feet after being at work for any length of time.  I don't like the idea of her having to wait so long to get this issue of hers addressed.  *  I sent out the Bat Signal on facebook asking friends for tips on how to address our mice issue.  I got a handful of responses, but none of which I didn't already know about; still, I wanted to know from others who have the same problems what worked for them.  From peanut butter to peppermint oil, I took all the advice to mind, and we headed out shopping for mousetraps.  First going to Kent - where we didn't really get much help at all.  Off to Home Hardware at Magnetic Hill - they had some standard wooden Victor mousetraps, so we bought half a dozen of those.  Then we thought we'd change gears altogether and go looking at a used furniture store for a glider-rocker/ottoman, because the only seating we really have in our living room is a love-seat; we gave Alexandra and Cole our couch because we never get company, and Janice and me like to sit close when we're home, so we retained the love-seat.  But we're on the lookout for a glider-rocker/ottoman and a recliner at some point.  The recliner we'll likely eventually get at Costco.  The other is a little harder to find.  There was nothing satisfactory at this place called Bernie's Furniture, where they have new and used stuff, so we gave up on that for the day.  *   Next up, we had to figure out supper, so why not go for a spin to Costco and get something.  We wound up only getting a box of Dunn's smoked meat to have sandwiches.  Back in the car we go and head to Superstore to get some kind of munchies, since Janice has a boatload of points.  I'd much sooner not buy anything from Loblaw outright.  While there, we dropped into Cannabis NB for some kind of oil for me at night, since now they don't make the same Soleil oil that I've been taking now, either.  I got this other stuff - we'll see how that works.  *  Back home we go, to set the mousetraps.  Damn near losing my fingers in the process of setting those demonic little contraptions.  I loaded them with peanut butter for bait and put them in the attics and crawlspaces, now we'll see what happens.  *  Then it was gym time.  We headed out for what was to be free-weights Leg Day, and Janice was to do alternate exercises.  She did mostly treadmill walking, but also a weighted taekwondo exercise that I made for her, where she practices punches with five pound dumbbells in her hands, then finishes without the dumbbells.  It's quite effective, and trains you to punch faster and harder.  I did my usual Leg Day exercises, which are hateful, but effective.  At the end I squatted 255 lbs six times on the squat rack, and I was pretty happy with that, being the old codger that I am.  We both finished up on the treadmill, and I spotted Janice's knee buckling close to the end, but shut it down then and there.  But she did get four miles in.  I can't really stop her from trying, but I will stop her if I think she might get hurt.  *  Home we go to the shower, and to wash and dry a shit-ton of clothes because mice got into our drawers and left their shit everywhere.  I made our smoked meat sandwiches, which we had on kaiser buns with mustard, sweet pickles and Swiss cheese.  It was actually quite decadent.  I had my last can of U.S. pop from our last trip, a can of Dr Pepper Zero, and Janice had her DCD.  We watched AEW Dynamite, which was pretty good, then tackled the mountain of clothes left in the dryer to fold and bring to The Promised Land to put away.  Marbles got his meatstick - damn near took the end of my finger - and we settled into bed for the night, as Janice played her habitual Cookie Crush while I watched MSNBC stuff.  Now I know for a fact Russell Brand is a cocksmack.  He appeared on Tucker Carlson on Fox twice this week after claiming to be impartial on Bill Maher last week.  He's just another crackpot anarchist sowing seeds of division wherever he goes.  *  Janice was passed out before I realized I didn't rub Icy Hot on her knee, so I did it while she slept, but she woke up briefly.  I really, really don't like seeing her hurting.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

March 9, Thursday

A sleepy day today for sure.  Only passed out last night around 5 am, so I slept pretty well and woke up around 2:30, only to have Janice come home from work, lay down beside me and we slept 3 1/2 more hours.  I'm not going to complain about that, because good sleep is tough to come by, and I like the idea of her resting that knee of hers.  She loved the elongated slumber.  *  I pretty much made the call that we weren't going to the gym tonight, because I'm still sore from Shack Day and Leg Day yesterday, so a day for recupe is nice.  Not to mention, more rest for the wife's knee will do it a whole lot of good.  She got her notice in the mail today for her MRI, finally, which will happen at the end of the month.  That's actually pretty quick for an MRI scan.  *  Tonight we tossed around ideas for supper like the new Chicken Big Mac, a sub, Popeye's, etc. but my idea of steamed hot dogs won out.  We steamed the buns this time too, that made them wicked great.  Those Kirkland wieners from Costco are the best hot dogs around, the same ones they serve in their food courts.  We watched Star Trek: Picard while we ate, and this time this show is getting better as it goes, as opposed to starting off great and fading like other new Star Trek seasons.  *  Then it was back into the kitchen where we turned on MSNBC and I made ginger snaps, per Janice's request.  Man, those are good.  We cleaned up and headed to TPL, where Marbles had been howling at one point, we think maybe because of mice.  Which we've had no luck catching whatsoever.  We set umpteen traps with peanut butter where they go and it seems they couldn't care less.  There are more traps coming from Amazon tomorrow, I think.  I'm not terribly encouraged.  *  There's a fair bit coming back at us for our income tax return, so there are car repairs we need to address, a basement window with no window we have to fill (an open invitation to mice) plus supports that need to be installed, and we also have to fix our eaves on the roof.  We don't know how much of this we'll get done, but we can at least get started.  *  Janice works tomorrow, then she has Saturday off, and it's back to her six day work week.  But we love our Saturdays together.  We usually have something that we make Saturday night and have our playlist playing and act foolish.  I'm thinking maybe this weekend it'll be meatball pizza.  We can't wait for the warmer weather when we have these treat meals on Saturday nights with a fire and some brewskees.  *  Anyway, that's the kind of day it's been.

March 10, Friday

Woke up after a decent sleep at around 2-ish in the aft, after having weird dreams that I forgot all about.  I did post one dream I had here on Ragnar, since it was one of those vivid ones.  Janice came home from work, called her Mom, and got her grocery list for us to go shopping for her.  Janice's Mom is 97, still gets lots of groceries, still bakes and cooks, and is definitely not bedridden or anything.  She's sharp as a tack.  I think science should study her to figure out how to live properly.  *  While we shopped for Momma (what I call her), I picked up a couple of pizza crusts and a red onion so we could make a pizza here at home Saturday night.  We came home after dropping off Momma's groceries, and 'The Shack' was playing on the Starz network, available through Crave.  Janice and me decided to watch it again, because we enjoyed it the other two times we watched.  This is a great show to watch to center your moral compass.  We always shed a lot of tears when we see it.  It really renews my faith, spiritually, not necessarily in a religious manner, either.  I feel like it's a modern take on how we should view God.  *  After that, it's off to the gym for free-weights Charms Day.  I once again ran a mile to start - actually, I've been running a mile in ten minutes lately, and this time I stretched it out to 11 minutes, and I'll keep stretching it gradually.  I forget exactly how far I actually ran, but I did run 6 mph for that eleven minutes.  Janice did her walking, slowing down at my behest.  I told her that her ligament tear (if that's what it is) won't heal by stressing it.  She grudgingly agreed.  She wants to go go go.  *  We did our usual dropset Charms Day workout, maybe pushing harder than we usually do - especially on the cable exercises, and I added a Monkey Walk of two trips around the gym with 45 lb plates, with 90 crunches at 40 lb resistance on the machine for that (3 x 30), and stretching.  Janice did some too.  She opted for extra treadmill time in lieu of the bonus exercises that I did, to try to get her mileage in.  She's on a mission to get a certain number of miles on the year and she keeps a journal of her own as to what she does.  *  After 2 1/2 hours slaving at PF, it's time to go home, shower and have some fish 'n chips, with mashed carrots and turnips.  A LOT of carrots and turnips.  It went quite well together, actually.  We watched 'Real Time' with some interesting guests, whose names I'm not privy to, but they were smart and engaging.  Then we watched a 'The Proof is Out There' episode, always interesting.  Topped of with heading up to TPL where Marbles got kitty chocolate from Janice, and we tuned in to a new 'Ancient Aliens' episode where they discussed crop circles.  It freaked me out enough to save it on PVR so I could watch it again.  As it is, there actually are crop patterns out there made by humans, but the vast majority are unknown, with freaky coded messages in them that kind of leave you slack-jawed.  *  So, I go surfing on facebook and come across, by random chance, this video of a guy who used to work at Lockheed Martin, a scientist, who was terminally ill, but wanted to get his information out on video, since he's going to die and they can't go after him then.  It was eerily authentic looking.  It looked like it was shot on a home video camera, and the guy had a ton of photographs and information that makes you stop and think.... wait, he's not acting or reading a script or anything, is he?  I've watched it twice now and I'm still wide-eyed about it.  Then NBC News is saying there's a possible 'mothership' spacecraft-looking thing headed for earth??  WTF is going on right now?  *  And that's the kind of crazy day it was.

March 11, Saturday

It appears my kidney stones are 'sleeping'.  I certainly haven't passed them, because I didn't feel it.  I've never passed a kidney stone before, they've always had to knock me out and go in and get them.  This worries me a bit.  If I can't feel them, it makes me think they're growing.  If they're growing, that could mean serious pain and more surgery in my future.  Not that I'm worrying.  *  So, after freaking myself out about aliens last night, I finally got to sleep at maybe 7 am.  We both woke up around 2-ish, so it was a good long sleep for Janice, as resting her leg is one of the best things for it right now.  It's still sad for me to see her get around with a cane.  Although she does do the Yoda thing and springs to warrior-like life at the gym.  It's when it freezes up afterward that it catches up with her a bit.  *  Anyway, firstly, we decided this afternoon that we'd like to go to church for the first time since probably '18.  It's been quite a while.  Last time we went, I was in a  bit of a bad way, with anxiety tripping me up pretty badly.  I bowed out of my reading duties there for the time, and then Covid hit.  We stayed away from church for years because of Janice's immune issues from her meds, and she can't catch Covid and then go see her Mom next door.  So, we went, and not a whole lot has changed.  Except there's just one reader now, at least on Saturdays, and everyone on the altar wears masks, and many of the older attendees.  On our way out, Father Roderick said hello and welcome back, and that the folks up there were glad to see us again.  I do miss reading.  I think if they needed a stand-in, I'd step up, but I don't know that they need that at this point.  *  We headed to the mall after that because we needed a new shower curtain, and as we walked about, we walked by the Laura Secord store and saw that the Easter stuff was out.  They haven't had the big peanut butter chocolate eggs in years now, so I thought I'd look just in case.  And they have them!  Three for $20, though.  Screw it, I have to have those.  That, to me, is the holy grail of peanut butter and chocolate combos.  The best EVER.  Nothing comes close.  We walked around a bit more to see what's changed.  A lot of stores come and go in that mall.  It was fairly busy, and it's nice to see after the worst of Covid being put behind us.  *  Back home we go to drop our stuff off, change out of our church clothes into our gym stuff, and out the door we go to PF for machine Shack Day.  We pushed and pulled some serious weight in dropsets; I'm pushing Janice to go a bit further.  For example, if I'm pulling 100 lbs on a machine, she'd normally do half of what I do, in this case 50 lbs.  Today I had her do more than half of what I do, because she's getting stronger all the time.  Her strength is growing by leaps and bounds.  I call them Post Office muscles, because she has to lift and carry a lot of heavy parcels at work most days.  After working seven machines, then doing some reps on the ab crunch machine - on which Janice hit new highs, and I did as well, with three sets at 50, 60 and 70 lbs resistance at 30, 25 and 20 reps - then me doing a Monkey Walk twice around, Janice hit the treadmill again after stretching while I opted to just go ahead and do machine Leg Day, too.  I figured why not, Janice can get more mileage in on the treadmill since she can't do Leg Day until her knee is better.  So I went ahead and did all the exercises on the seven chosen machines, finishing with 15 reps on squats at 135 lbs, then 8 reps at 265 lbs.  I don't go super deep on those squats, but pretty close to 90 degrees, where my right knee is acting up, mostly on the posterior side, but in the front too.  I did my stretching all over - including the on-your-knees back bending thing, which just about murdered my right knee - then joined Janice on the treadmill for another walking mile.  Oh, and I started the workout with running 12 minutes at 6 mph, as I inch up a little every time, maybe to train myself for some shorter marathons this summer.  Maybe.  If my knee holds up.  Janice did something like six miles - astounding when you consider what she's dealing with.  I did insist she go slower, though, limiting herself to 3.5 mph.  She tried to sneak going 4 mph before I scolded her!  *  We head home after a nearly three hour sesh at PF, with the roads of Moncton once again eerily quiet on a Saturday night, and we were greeted by Marvelous Marbles Hagler at the door being chattier than usual, and took our showers before we came downstairs to make our pizza.  Plus a mammoth pile of laundry.  SNAP... we finally caught our first mouse in the entrance to the basement.  We gave MMH some catnip to space him out for the night while I prepared the pizza, which was of the meatball variety, with halved meatballs, red onions and bacon crumble with lots of mozza.  Which turned out quiet nicely.  We watched W5 while we ate, then caught up on the Seth Meyers episodes from the last week.  Then it was up to TPL.  *  The time changed tonight, so we lost that vital hour of sleep, as we settled into bed after giving Marbles his meatstick, I surfed for a bit as Janice watched some of the telly and played her Cookie Crush, and the night came to a close, as did the week.  *  And that's the kind of week it was.