Day 17: Chugging Along

 

Here is the link to my original Day 17 on Nutrisystem. It was Sunday January 20, 2019. My headline that day was "I Have A Dream", as we were about to commemorate Martin Luther King. It was super cold and I spent the day at home. I was struggling with hunger and that is likely because I wasn't getting 1200 calories. I also wasn't drinking enough water. I haven't been pushing the water this time around, but I do need to drink more just for my general health and well-being.

The new day 17 was chilly, but not single digits like the first one ! It was in the 50's outside and 65 in the house. A little chilly but once I got dressed I was fine. The sun was out and the high for the day was expected to be 71.

Breakfast was 160 calorie waffles with low cal syrup. I use so little of it that it's taking forever to finish the bottle ! I had an 80 calorie yogurt around 12:30. Lunch was a xxx calorie hamburger with ketchup and pickles. This was an oldie hanging around in the freezer ... the "use by" date was December 2022. Ouch .. if I die today you'll know why ! Regardless of it's age .. it was delicious ! After grocery shopping I had a coffee cake muffin and a large mocha frozen coffee from Dunkin. A very late dinner was a 250 calorie meatloaf sandwich and too much corn bread for dessert !

In a little bit of a lol for the day, I turned on YouTube and checked out the live stream of a Waymo parking depot in San Francisco, CA. This lot became a bit notorious because the Waymo's had a habit of beeping at each other in the early hours of the day (say 4 am) as they migrated in and out of the lot to head off for charging. The person that put a video clip out for that ended up starting a live stream of the lot and I started watching it a couple weeks ago. Well, this morning the Waymo's can't seem to park ! I tuned it at about 6:20 PST (9:20 my time) and there was a Waymo looping around the lot. It was soon joined by a second car and before you know it anywhere from 1 to 8 Waymo's were circling the lot. At one point the lot attendant just stood in the middle of the lot, bemused at their antics. At 8 am it was still going on, one lonely Waymo circling the lot forlornly looking for a parking space ! It finally left the lot at 8:01, likely headed off to the charging depot. I'm going to guess they did a software update and screwed up the geofencing of the lot, causing the cars to not be able to park. At that point there were 10 cars left in the lot. However, at 8:03 am PST two car's entered the lot and the circling continued. They made stops that looked like they were going to park, but then continued on. When full I think there is around 30. I didn't know about Waymo's (autonomous taxis) until I saw the video of the early morning honking. I'll bet Waymo's engineer's will use this livestream to troubleshoot the issue ! At some point today all vehicles will be out on the road and the lot will be empty until this evening, when they start migrating back to park for the night. Hopefully they'll fix whatever the issue is by then. Note: at 9:22 am PST the cars finally started parking themselves ! 

It's Tuesday and the week is looking good. Tomorrow is rock & roll bingo and Friday I'm going to a baseball game with Rich & Barb and Michelle & Mike. Forecast is calling for a high of 80 and sunny for the day. Hopefully that doesn't change !

Yesterday wasn't a perfect Nutrisystem day, but yet again I need to remind myself I have to stop chasing perfection ! Just stop it ! It's never going to be perfect and I need to stop putting that pressure on myself. I did good yesterday ! I exercise and I didn't eat like a pig. I did finish the open bag of pretzels and the rest of the butter toffee cashews, but the pretzels are ok and I'm glad to have the sweets gone. I skipped my afternoon snack (worth 240 calories) to help compensate. The goal for today is simple, at least one workout and eating to plan. All the "contraband" is gone from the house, so I really have no choice .. lol !

Today I had a follow up call with the career counselor, now that I received my resume back from their review team. They didn't change much, so I was on the right track. I'm glad to have a more polished version and maybe I'll get some interest from the most recent jobs I've applied to. If nothing else, it felt good to be able to talk to someone about the job search and what I'm doing to try and get a job. They have some webinar recordings that might be helpful, so I plan to watch some of those, especially the one on interviewing.

The more I look at LinkedIn, the more I feel like it has lost its luster. So many people are on there just posting nonsense for views and trying to sell career services and financial services. They're like cannibals that latch onto anyone recently unemployed. The more I search on there, the less helpful I find it. I've had better luck going to company websites and using their career links. I've also found Google searches helpful. Glassdoor/Indeed is also not bad, though I'm finding it harder to filter the searches.

On the AT&T front, the strike in the Southeast goes on. I won't be surprised to see this surpass the 30 days that we were on strike in 1986. Current leadership is all about the money and the wireline side of the business isn't the cash cow it used to be. Right now they don't have to pay those union wages & benefits, and most managers are salaried and don't get overtime pay .. so they are working for free ! If I were still employed, they'd have had to pay me OT and I've had made a fortune. However, I'm glad I'm not on the hook to work 12 hours a day six days a week. On multiple occasions we were told we were "an expense". How is that our fault ? YOU run the business ! It's not my problem the people running the show can't manage to get that line of business in the black ! I honestly don't miss the BS of being a manager in a Fortune 50 company. More and more I'm leaning toward a smaller company, which is why I'd be thrilled to get a job with the company I reached out to Saturday. LinkedIn says they have 11-50 employees, so they are small. It would be great to know ALL of your co-workers for a change ! 

Just after 3:30 I decided to go get the mail and go to Wegman's and Walmart. Mail had nothing remarkable other than my water/tax bill and my school tax bill, which I was expecting. Although I strolled through the prepared foods at Wegman's, I stuck to my list (with one exception) and got produce, feta cheese and another tub of romano cheese. I also picked up some waffles & breakfast sandwiches, since I delayed my Nutrisystem order 2 weeks and only have 4 breakfast items left. I'm trying to use up dinner items as I have a ton of them. I should have a better balance of food items once my new order ships. The exception I mention was a pan of corn bread. I have been craving that for some reason, so I bought it. Next stop was Walmart where I spent nearly $200. I bought a lot of stuff I didn't really need, but I like to keep ahead on the things I use the most, like dry cat food, salsa and salad add-in's. They didn't have the pickled onions I like, so I'll need to stop at a different store to get some.