Saturday, August 30, 2008

Back At It

It's been a long two weeks, but I'm finally doing 10k days again. Back on about the 17th or 18th, I started getting really stuffed up and I could tell my sinuses were filling up. I still walked 15k steps on the 18th, but the next day at work I was feeling bad. I had a meeting with my manager about 2:30 that afternoon and I told her I was probably going home early cause I was completely out of gas at that point.

I got home about 5pm that day, and went to bed by 6. I basically stayed in bed for the next 3 days, and I had a fever that didn't break until Friday morning. I still felt bad the rest of the weekend, and the past week I haven't gotten a lot of sleep because I couldn't stop coughing. By the way, the new Nyquil without the pseudoephedrine is really not very effective. I want to thank all of the drugged out rednecks out there for ruining what was one of the best medicines for me getting over a cold.

Today I didn't wake up until 11, so I slept about 12 hours, but I think I just needed to catch up. I've still got some excess nasal drainage, but it's not filling up my lungs anymore and I'm barely coughing at all now. I decided I'd try to hit 10k today, so I cut the grass early this afternoon just before the game, then sat down at 7pm to watch Bama play Clemson. What a great game! I was on such a high after the first half that I walked a mile during halftime. By the end of the game I was charged up enough to go out and do another two miles to put me up over 10k for the day.

The funny thing is, I didn't gain any weight during all this. I actually lost 4 pounds! I'm at 296 pounds now, which puts me down 19 lbs since June 17. Now I'm just going to keep piling up the days of 10k steps in a row and watch the pounds keep coming off. Another bonus is the 11 days of not walking very much has let my ankles and heel rest up, so they're not bothering me at all tonight after the walk. I did miss my monthly caving trip to Hardins this past Wednesday though, which I heard turned out to be a good one.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

The Wild Chesney Glen

So I was out doing one more lap around the neighborhood tonight, since it's only 67 degrees out right now and just perfect to get out and exercise. I was on the back street of the neighborhood, heading back to the house, when I saw something small running down the middle of the street directly towards me. At first I thought it was a dead leaf blowing along, but as it got closer I could tell it was some type of animal. I assumed it was a rat until it got about 30 feet away from me and I could tell it was a really small rabbit.

It ran right past me about 3 feet away, then hung a right at the cul-de-sac and went about 20 more feet before it stopped, right in the middle of the pavement. I walked over to it, and it scrunched itself up really tight, including pulling its ears in. I could tell it was really young, since it was trying to hide from me instead of just tearing ass down the street like a more experienced adult would do. I put my feet around it and bent down to grab it, but I wasn't quite quick enough and as soon as my hand touched its back it shot off down the street again and ran down the side of a house.

I kept going, wondering what would make such a young rabbit panic like that and run away from the nest. A few houses later I had my answer when I saw a rather large opossum sniffing around in a yard near where I first saw the bunny. I didn't try to catch the opossum, but when it saw me it had enough sense to run away.

Earlier in the evening I caught a frog on our back deck sliding door and showed it to Jack. He thought it was really cool, but he didn't want to hold it. We've been seeing them sitting on the sliding door for several weeks now. It's getting to be like a jungle out there.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Six Years

Yesterday was our sixth wedding anniversary. Tempus Fugit was never a truer statement. We celebrated by going out to lunch after church at Sakura, which is Marissa and Jack's favorite restaurant. I have a kid that loves broccoli! How cool is that? When we walked in, Victoria was already there with her Dad and new step-mother, along with several other members of the Dowdy family. It's her favorite restaurant also.

Then it was home for a nap, then back to church for a reception for our pastor leaving after 22 years. Then we went over to Opry Mills for a while and I got about 2.5 miles of walking around while Victoria and Jackson shopped and Marissa read a magazine. Opry Mills is a great place to get some walking in since it's a circular mall and a lot of it is carpeted and of course it's air-conditioned also.

On the way home we stopped by for a romantic dinner at McDonald's off the dollar menu. That's good living right there, I tell ya!

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Lucy, You Got Some 'Splaining To Do!

So earlier in the afternoon, Marissa wanted a couple of holes drilled into a board for a craft project. I showed her how to do it, but the battery on the drill was really low so we let it charge for a while. A few hours later she comes into the room where I'm reading and shows me the drill bit, shown here with no modifications having been made to it after that point.


I'm not sure I know how this happened or even want to know. Of course, it's turned into my fault since I'm obviously "not enough of a handyman." Heh.