Day 53: A Quiet Tuesday

 

Here we go ! It's a new year. Time to get back on track with diet and exercise. The goal is 100 pounds by 12-31-25. Can I do it ? At this point, probably not but I'm going to keep trying. My original Day 53 blog can found here. It was a Monday but I took yet another vacation day due to weather. High winds, heavy blowing snow, a travel advisory AND the power went out for 2 hours ! That meant no heat but me and the cats survived ! I'm glad this the same day 6 years later has brought a high temp of 43 and some light rain. The forecast for the next week has changed and there is little snow in the forecast. This makes me SO happy ! I can see upper 40's coming and that gives me hope that the winter storms might just be over. God willing !

I was awake just after 7 today and I'm glad I've been getting up relatively early, since I may have to start getting up early every day ! I have an appointment to chat with the hiring manager today at 10 am. The more I think about it, the more I believe taking this job would be a good idea. It would give me something to focus on (other than YouTube and online slots games) and use my brain ! I do plan to ask if there is flexibility with working hours, since I really want to be able to continue going to rock & roll bingo. I can do it even if I have to work until 5, since it doesn't start until 6:30 but it would be nice to go earlier. The amazing thing is I'd be replacing the person who really trained me for my job at ATT back in 1985 ! Talk about going full circle ! The transition will be that much easier for me and I think the company knows it would benefit them hugely. We'll see how it goes. Teresa is retired at the end of June so I'll be interested to see when they want this job to start. I'd be happy to keep collecting unemployment for a couple more months ! One irony is that the ATT office in Florida is closing 3-22 and suddenly one of the d-bags that worked there wants to be my friend on LinkedIn. I couldn't stand him when I worked there and I have zero desire to be a contact. I'm sure he's looking for people to help him find a job. If I am offered the job at Digital Direction it will be an incredibly happy day when I can remove the "open to work" on my LinkedIn profile and announce my new position. 

I spent the morning watching YouTube and playing the slots. Around noon I got my ass off the couch and ran the vacuum, since Minnie was up and around. I hate to run it when she's snoozing since she is afraid of it and runs away. She's likely upstairs snoozing on my bed now. It's amazing what a difference something like vacuuming the carpet can do. The house suddenly looks and feels brighter. I managed to get the garbage out today. My bin isn't full but I put it out anyway. I don't think anybody put theirs out last Tuesday since we had been slammed with snow and it bashed up all day long. The garbage truck did come but they sailed right down my street and kept on going ! I'm sure the guys were happy about that !

Yesterday I stuffed myself with chinese food and I don't think that craving will pop up again anytime soon. I still had a portion of chicken with garlic sauce left so I threw that in the freezer. I ate some of it yesterday and then finished the hot & sour soup and the wonton soup. It was so good ! I also ate the cherry pie that I brought home from dinner on Sunday. I have to say it was disappointing. The filling had a gel like consistency that I didn't particularly care for. I won't get that again !

The break in the snow has done wonders for my state of mind. Having all the snow off the porch roof and cleared away on the driveway side of the house has helped tremendously too. Now I just need the snow on the other side of the house to melt enough that I can see out the windows ! I really hope we are done with the snow storms. I can deal with rain as long as my sump pump keeps running. The outlet outside is buried so I'm not sure where water will go if the pump has to run. I believe it ran once last week when it rained but we didn't get a lot of rain so it's not like the basement was flooded. We just need a nice slow melt !

Breakfast today was a 180 calorie cinnamon roll. Later on I was hungry and Minnie was on my lap, so I had some cookies. More on the cookies in the next paragraph.

I think I mentioned that I bought cookies at Aldi on Sunday. i bought a "family size" package of vanilla sandwich cookies. Basically a generic vanilla Oreo. They're really good and I've already eaten over 2/3 of the package. Yikes. Hopefully going back to work will help me get back on track with the Nutrisystem plan. I ate so many cookies that it's 1:47 pm and I have zero interest in lunch or anything else to eat. 

It's so weird. I'm sitting here today with NOTHING to worry about ! During the past couple of weeks I've really come to understand how crippling anxiety can be. You cannot just "shake it off". It just builds and builds and builds and even though you know it's happening you are powerless against it. In my case, I couldn't stop the snow from falling. I couldn't stop it from piling up everywhere. I couldn't possibly shovel it all and not all of it was accessible to the people I hired to clear it. I'm just glad I got in the habit of making sure I had a fully stocked fridge and pantry because I never had to worry about running out of anything for myself, Minnie or the stray cats. I think next winter I will plan to have at least 3 bags of dry food on hand for the strays before the snow starts. I'd also like to build a better shelter on the back porch. I plan to get a snowblower so that snow never piles up against the house again and that should help keep the back porch and the kitchen & dining room windows clear. In reality, I'm hoping that next year we return to the mild winters we've been enjoying the past few years ! I'm not sure I can take another winter like this, though with a snow blower and the lessons learned I feel like I'd be better equipped to manage it ! One thing I will never do is let it pile up on the porch roof again. I can easily push the snow off that roof from my bedroom windows. I have a snow rake that just sits in the garage all year ! I'm going to add a rubber edge to it so that the aluminum rake doesn't scratch the metal roof. I can get it for $6.99 from Amazon !