Day 40: Pick Yourself Up

 

Thursday September 26, 2024

Here is the link to my original Day 40. It was  Tuesday February 12, 2019. My headline that day was "Baby Steps". I had taken a vacation day due to a forecast winter storm and it seemed like I was very upbeat. I working my way back toward feeling positive, but it's hard when you keep getting disappointed in the job search. I guess I have to work on not getting my hopes up whenever I have an interview. Maybe I need to go into any interview with zero hope of getting the job. I do feel like the company I interviewed with on Tuesday really wants to hire me, so who knows. People leave jobs all the time, so if someone quits on them they might look me up.

I slept in this morning since I was up and awake longer than usual. I was home from rock & roll bingo by 10 but I wasn't tired. I went to bed after midnight and scrolled my phone in bed. I also ate about half a bag of pretzels. It is what it is. I got up just after 9 and fed all the cats. My new mama was soaking wet, so I'm wondering where she is sheltering her babies. Hopefully she is just wet from traipsing through brush. Her babies will not survive if they're in a wet environment. I feel bad for them but there is little I can do, other than feed her and hope she is caring for them as best she can. The orange & white male was out there this morning but not the female, so I had 5 customers for breakfast.

Once cats were fed I settled in for breakfast, YouTube and Cookie Jam. Minnie and I have a routine now. She comes and snoozes on my lap once I am on the couch. Around 11 she hopped up to probably use the litter box, so I took that opportunity to make my bed, get dressed and grab a second cup of coffee. In that time, Minnie took over my seat on the couch ! I came into my office to use the computer in there and finalized yesterday's blog and started this one.

Breakfast was a 180 calorie cinnamon roll. It was amazing and clearly a better quality item. I hope this is an indication that Nutrisystem is putting more effort into the quality of their products ! I forgot to mention that the lemon zest cake from the new shipment actually had the glaze on it .. something that has been missing for a while ! Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 240 calorie chicken bacon ranch quesadilla with salsa and low fat sour cream. This is technically a dinner entree but I have a lot of them, so I sometimes have it for lunch. Afternoon snack was an 80 calorie cheese stick and 100 calorie crackers. Dinner was a 250 calorie enchilada with some leftover carrots, that I heated in the air fryer. Evening snack was a 140 calorie lemon zest cake. That puts my total calories at 1145 .. a bit short of the 1400 I'm supposed to be on.

Below is what I achieved today. I am focusing on what I did today and not looking back to what I did or didn't do yesterday.

Make the bed - x

feed cats - x

have breakfast - x

clean litter boxes - 

take vitamins - 

get dressed - x

exercise - x

have morning snack - x

exercise - 

have lunch - x

exercise - 

have afternoon snack - x

have dinner - x

exercise -

have evening snack - x

shower - 

skincare - 

brush teeth - 

It's a gray rainy day today and I'm already missing the blue skies and sunshine we have enjoyed so much over the past few months. The south is currently awaiting the impact of Hurricane Helene. It is forecast to be a catastrophic storm so I hope people in it's path took heed and evacuated as best they could. Media people are on the ground issuing live reports now, but they'll have to evacuate before it makes landfall. I'd love to see it demolish the AT&T building, but that would impact a lot of innocent people who need their jobs. Hopefully the storm will lose a lot of it's power as soon as it makes landfall. It's scary that they are predicting a "storm surge" of up to 20 feet. That is not survivable for any living thing, so many people could lose their lives.

As for me, I'll keep looking for a new job and as I've planned all along, I'll make some decisions in the new year. Everything I've read tells me I can retire now and be able to survive, so I'm not too worried.

I guess Baby Steps is a good headline for today, along with Pick Yourself Up. I'm starting to accept I may actually be done with a career and I'm working harder towards my diet & exercise goals. This actually gives me something to do if this is retirement !

Well, it's 11:46 am, so I'm going to put my shoes on, make my shake and get my fat ass on the treadmill. I need to work off all the extra carbs I ate yesterday !

It's 12:40 now and I just completed my first workout of the day ! It was 19m25s and it was the last in part 1 of the Road to Recovery series. I will start part 2 later today. The first workout in the new series indicates the speed is 2.3 mph, so I'm stepping up no matter what ! The first workout also has a lot of up and down incline, so that will be a little bit of a challenge. The inclines are brief and the max incline is 4, so I think I'll be fine. I feel like I'm ready for a little bit of a challenge. Today I feel like my left hip is better ! Obviously, moving is best ! Sitting on the couch for hours on end is not good. This is a good time to start getting things done around the house.

After my workout, Minnie had vacated the couch and I could easily have settled back in there. Instead, I opted to sit in my office and set up my next workout series while listening to some more of the hurricane coverage. This will be my life for the next couple days, as this disaster unfolds. Everything I hear about Florida makes me wonder why anyone would voluntarily move there. After a condo disaster (collapse) the state moved to force condo associations to make millions of dollars in repairs to ensure another disaster doesn't occur. The problem there is the condo associations don't have the money so they're trying to get condo owners to pay 6 figure association fees ! Retirees cannot afford that and no one will buy these units ! So I'm sure many will face foreclosure and end up with nothing. Very sad. You also have the hurricanes and tropical storms. I don't think there a "safe" place anywhere in the state. Then you have the douchebag governor. Yeah, I'll stay right here in my little small town where my taxes are low and crime is minimal. For me, the only reason to go to Florida is Disneyworld and I'm happy to just visit when I can. Kim would really like to spend winters there but Joe doesn't have any interest in that. 

Before my workout I went out on the porch to discard some cardboard and I realized it was relatively warm out. My phone says it's 66 but it feels warmer because of the humidity. After my workout I opened the windows to let some fresh air in. Soon enough the windows will be closed for the winter and I'll miss that ! The sun also came out an this gray gloomy day turned into a beautiful early fall day.

It's almost 3 pm now and I spent some time on LinkedIn. I applied to one job and didn't see anything else I was interested in. There are a ton of remote customer service rep jobs, but I haven't reached a point where I want to do that. If I ultimately decide to be "retired" I will take one of those jobs just for the medical and dental benefits. It would supplement my pension and minimize withdrawals from my IRA.

I just had the scare of my life a little while ago. I was sitting at my desk and I noticed what looked like a wet spot in the corner of the room by the ceiling. The last thing I need is some sort of leak ! I turned off the light and it turned out to be just a shadow cast by the smoke detector ! Whew .. that was a relief ! With my metal roof and year old siding, I couldn't believe there would be a leak !

While sitting in my office I've been watching the hurricane coverage on the Fox app on my tv. They have so many commercials ! This is why I am happy to pay for the Hulu/Disney bundle with no commercials. YouTube has its fair share of commercials, but they don't last for 3-4 minutes ! It seems the hurricane is going to be at its worst around midnight, which is usually why you have loss of life. People go to bed thinking everything will be ok instead of staying alert. 

I wanted to wash the dishes today but I have a healing cut on my right hand. Normally I wouldn't care, but last night it looked more red than I'd like. I was afraid of infection and putting my hands into dirty dish water today just didn't seem wise. The cut in on the knuckle of my right index finger, so you have to worry about an infection getting into the joint capsule. Fortunately, it seems less red today and there is no warmth or swelling, so I think it's fine. If all looks good tomorrow I will get the dishes done. I just remembered I have some gloves, so I may opt to use those tomorrow. The cut is nothing more than an area I bumped on a window sill behind the couch while retrieving a blanket that had fallen back there. However, being on a knuckle makes it harder to heal because of the constant movement. 

I'm doing better with what I eat, mostly because I have nothing "ready to eat" in the house, other than the pretzels. I do have the biscuits and corn bread that you bake, but I haven't used any of those yet. I was shocked to see the corn breads are 170 calories and I think the biscuits are 180 .. for one ! This is exactly how you gain weight. I was honestly shocked at the high calories, though I believe I looked at the calories before I bought them. Let's face it - they were an impulse buy.

I had to close the north facing windows in the house as the breeze blowing in was pretty chilly. I want the house to stay warm so I don't need to turn on the heat. It was 68 in my bedroom this morning and that is perfect ! Daytime highs are supposed to remain in the low 70's through the weekend, which is great.

As of 5 pm the first wind and rain is starting to reach Florida.