Reset Password
Reset Link Sent
| Blogs > Fallic40 > Seeing Red ....... |
This 'N' That
|
This 'N' That And so it is time to wander back to work for several days: hopefully this week will not involve sleeping on a pile of boxes for several nights in a row, albeit with a sleeping bag and blankets. That being said, after that week, my back felt the best it has felt in several years. This brings me to one of several key issues and, for lack of a better word, discoveries that I made while having my schedule completely changed by the weather for the past two weeks. ********************************************************************************************************************************** My body is far healthier than I had thought. Perhaps it is that I have been rather gun shy after a heart attack three years ago to really push myself physically. Perhaps I have used my extensive right knee damage (and there really is no cartilage in there) and left ankle damage as a crutch. Whatever it was, I had to do a great deal of walking last week in the snow and ice, and rather than finding myself with a swollen knee and ankle, I found myself feeling stronger in my legs and lower back. Stamina-wise, I feel brilliant. Of course, when I played soccer, I was what is referred to as a lazy footballer. I was blessed with a heart that beats at only 45 beats per minute which meant that my rate of recovery when I played was incredible. As a result, I did not pay attention to being “fit” the way that most soccer players usually are. I could run forever in a game so I just didn’t feel motivated to run sprints to the point of puking. Now I wonder what would have happened if I had trained the way that my daughters train. Last week’s long walks posed no problems stamina wise for me. In fact I never got winded or tired: and that was walking several miles each way in heavy snow. So, I am going to really up the stakes in terms of working out. While I am targeting losing some weight, I am really planning on getting fit again. Bearing in mind that I am still the world’s laziest footballer, nothing magical has changed in the five years since I retired, I will be doing this in my own manner. Yoga is a real favourite of mine ‒ and I have been doing this for some time now; and may well be the root cause of a lot of the improvement that I have seen in my legs. Walking will be a major part of future fitness endeavors ‒ especially since there are lots of hills around me. And if my knee continues to hold up ‒ my oldest will get plenty of opportunities to remove my hard earned money from my wallet by beating me up on the golf course. ********************************************************************************************************************************** The biggest “inconvenience” for me due to the storm related closures and general bad weather/bad roads issues was not being able to get to the library for almost two weeks. (“Oh, the horror” I hear you all saying.) But to me, this truly was terrifying: no new music, reading material or sundry intellectual contact for 13 days was an experience that I do not wish to repeat very soon. Please note that I have posted more the past week than I had in the past couple of months. And a very special debt of gratitude is owed to my favourite hot librarian (complete with very sexy librarian spectacles just like Leanne laydee2) who was at the library on Tuesday posting a note saying that the library was going to be closed again and who smuggled me in and let me check out all of my “on hold” items, along with a copy of Lord of the Flies for Junior Wingman No. 2 who had left her school copy in her locker prior to the next Ice Age descending upon us. ********************************************************************************************************************************** One of the more entertaining aspects of Christmas this year was what people got in their stockings since getting to the stores was nearly impossible. And if you could walk to the store, then what you purchased need to be portable (or you needed to be massively strong). I bought most of my oldest ’s stocking stuffers at Walgreen’s. So she got things like pine tree air fresheners for her Blazer (a rather well received gift, actually, since her goes everywhere with her and tends to be a bit stinky), breath mints, toothpaste, toothbrush (actually requested) and scotch tape (amongst other mundane items). My stocking was filled at the grocery store and contained bottles of beer (the best Christmas ever) such as Grolsch, Heineken, Stella Artois, and Dos Equis. I also got peanuts, Twix bars and a jar of Robinson’s Golden Shred marmalade. My future -in-law bought me a bottle of twenty year old single malt scotch ‒ obviously he is in my good books right now. ********************************************************************************************************************************** Boxing Day (December 26th for the Americans out there) was spent at “the pub”. My little truck was not yet able to navigate the side roads since they were still ice and snow packed, but the guy who is the head coach of the girl’s high school team that I coach the defenders on lives about half a mile away and his missus told him he had to go to the pub and hang out with the English, Irish and Scottish lads and misbehave for a day. Did I tell you that apart from being a truly underdstanding wife, she is almost the spitting image of Minnie Driver? So she is knock-out sexy. So at 6:45 am, I am co-piloting my good buddy’s (who is a church deacon and pillar of the community and respected insurance agent) four wheel drive. He is like a little in a candy store as he is planning on getting his beer on early and often. He only gets to do this with me or at hunting camp (with me). We had Man. City and Hull, followed by Aston Villa and Arsenal to watch with the lads. He went home about 2pm. I was digging in for the long haul as my was picking me up after she got off work at 6:30. Which she did …. But instead of waiting for me to wander outside, she stuck her head in the doorway to see where I was at. Immediately she was spotted by several friends of mine who told her to come in and sit down with us and have a drink. (The thing was completely ignored by everyone.) Most of the guys at my table have known her since she was born. She got to meet back up with one of the Irish boys, who was over from Ireland visiting, used to let her ride on his shoulders in pre-game warm-ups when she was two, maybe three, years old. Then a couple of the guys wanted to know if she had her guitar with her, or would she go and play piano for them. She did, and she would. So all of a sudden my twelve hour day in the bar was turning into a marathon session. Three sets later, it was 2am and time to leave. I was, by now, very sober (which was good since my was not) so I drove home and she slept in her favourite bottom bunk in her room. Getting her up at 7:15 was a real bastard, but not as much as working customer service at Best Buy two days after Christmas on the first day that everyone can really get out. ********************************************************************************************************************************** Now after a day and a night involving lots and lots of beer and barmaids, nothing hits the spot like a meal: a really crappy (for you) meal to be more precise. Portland is not exactly awash with kebab shops, chippies selling fried Mars bars and Irn Bru, or curry houses specializing in curry and chips. So I have to make do with what exists in my immediate vicinity: Taco Hell. Yes, when I have had my beer on, I need to make a “run for the border”. Nothing satisfies my alcohol fueled cravings quite like a chicken soft taco and a beef and bean burrito. Salt and preservatives, salt and preservatives: yummy yum yum. But tonight, needing to get the home, I was going to have pass on the lard fest. Or so I thought. Because, sitting on my door stoop, in all of its green cardboardy glory, was the biggest gift box from Swiss Colony that I had ever laid my gluttonous eyes on. This was my Christmas gift from the practically perfect, always knowing exactly what I need _Safira: all hail _Saf, Queen for a day. After depositing a snoring, drooling Junior Wingman No. 1 into her bunk, I stood in the kitchen and stared into the depths of the most glorious box of cheesy, meaty (and chocolatey) goodness (or badness, should you think that way). There were little triangle shaped cream cheeses and Cheddar, Swiss and Edam cheese blocks, and four different types of summer sausage and two different mustards and all sort of other goodies (including more marmalade). What would be the perfect accompaniment for the (drool and) burgeoning hangover from twelve hours of beer drinking and seven hours of sobering up? I went for the summer sausage slathered in hot, sweet mustard. This was followed by several cream cheeses. And then this was followed with more summer sausage and hot, sweet mustard. ********************************************************************************************************************************** The final item of interest from the week that wasn’t, was getting to spend a lot of time in close<b> proximity </font></b>with my youngest . Now this is the who is in open warfare, total -age rebellion mode with her stepfather. There may, or may not be, a post about this. Legal issues may prevent me talking about some of what has been going on between him and her (nothing sexual, let me assure you). But I am the proud father of an emo/screamo/goth heavy metal princess, and, I am assured by the ex, the meanest, nastiest, foulest tempered ever: everrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I tell you. (I can hear some of you who have gone through all of this already, laughing your arses off.) But I am constantly regaled with tales of a who is in constant trouble at home, mouths off continually to both her mother and her stepfather, and who is basically on the verge of being kicked out of the house. And yet when she is with me, there has never been any backtalk (let alone her ever cussing at me). I am never ignored when I ask questions. Never has she told me to “fuck off”. Any requests for help, or for chores to be done, are dutifully carried out to the best of her abilities. So, as far as I am concerned, there is so much for me to be proud of. And my three snowy days with her were a joy. (As I find to be the case of any time that I spend with her.) She told me about not having her copy of Lord of the Flies in plenty of time for me to get her a replacement. And my darling librarian came through in spades for me. And my has been reading her book, and while not exactly enjoying it, working hard to understand it and understand the author so that she can write a paper on it. We baked gingerbread men and I left her to decorate them as she chose. We had goth gingerbread men, this year, with black fingernail polish, and black eyeliner (and missing heads…..) We built a model kit together and painted our soldiers. We jammed together and she showed me some of her riffs she is using. Her take on open minor chords is really something and I have been practicing them diligently. So, I tend to go by my experiences with her, and while I do not doubt what kind of hellion she is at her other home, I also tend to look at the source of that information and weigh it with the fact that my other has nothing what-so-ever to do with her mother and stepfather. And the story of why that is, is for another day. ********************************************************************************************************************************** As everyone can see, even with a white-out descending and everything coming to a halt around here, nothing ever actually stopped, and many things actually sped up on the ice. Issues rose like the snowdrifts outside and went away with the coming of the warm rain. But, my daughters and my friends made this an absolutely brilliant Christmas ‒ one of my favourite ever. And now, if you will all excuse me, there is a garlic flavored summer sausage begging me to dunk it in stone-ground mustard. Perhaps the Stella would be the appropriate beverage for such a salty, spicy, preservative laden mouthful of joy?  |
|||
|
POODLE ~ I am so happy you had a great holiday ... Happy New Year, Love! *hugs* /  This is my blog - [blog _Safira]. There are many like it, but this one is mine. RECOMMENDED READING: A F F The Only Site For Me
| ||
|
Wow, sounds like you've had both a chilled and hectic time of it over the holidays.. I'm so glad you've enjoyed yourself though and I do hope you'll be repaying that librarian sometime  Happy New Year L  [post 3969793]
| ||
1/1/2009 2:27 pm |
Fun... catching up on what's going on with you, I'm glad you were bored (as well) and typed up so many new blogs posts. Our firm was only closed two days due to "weather", the rest of the days a partner with a 4-wheel drive and chains picked me up ... but at least half the staff couldn't make it in and had to use vacation days... leaving it insane, of course, for those of us who were there. My car was stuck in a drift for a day, no tow trucks available - which serves me right for thinking studded snow tires can get me anywhere  I've been in a funk for awhile now, not sure if it's the holidays, the weather, my pathetic love life, or my lack of motivation to excercise, hence my fat ass  ... anyway... here's wishing you a belated merry Christmas and all my best to you and yours in 2009.Cyn Apparently the depth of depravity here is bottomless... don't you feel right at home? ~~~~~
| ||
|
POODLE ~ I am so happy you had a great holiday ... Happy New Year, Love! *hugs* / Your gift was the icing on the cake (but not the icing on my mum's fruit cake). I am still working my way through the mass of meat and cheese.
| ||
|
Fun... catching up on what's going on with you, I'm glad you were bored (as well) and typed up so many new blogs posts. Our firm was only closed two days due to "weather", the rest of the days a partner with a 4-wheel drive and chains picked me up ... but at least half the staff couldn't make it in and had to use vacation days... leaving it insane, of course, for those of us who were there. My car was stuck in a drift for a day, no tow trucks available - which serves me right for thinking studded snow tires can get me anywhere I've been in a funk for awhile now, not sure if it's the holidays, the weather, my pathetic love life, or my lack of motivation to excercise, hence my fat ass ... anyway... here's wishing you a belated merry Christmas and all my best to you and yours in 2009.Cyn And even if you could find the tow-truck, getting it down that hill would be a massive adventure .... A belated Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you and yours too. L
| ||
|
Wow, sounds like you've had both a chilled and hectic time of it over the holidays.. I'm so glad you've enjoyed yourself though and I do hope you'll be repaying that librarian sometime Happy New Year L And the weather keeps getting better. It rained like hell here yesterday, flooding everywhere. And then, magically, overnight, the skies clear, the moon comes out, the temperatures bottom out and everything freezes.... My favourite librarian was there today when I ran in to the library to pick that all important UFO cd from the '70s that I had ordered: and her husband was manning the checkout desk. What can I say but "bummer" .
| ||
|
Hi Tiz, Cured meat is always good..... Actually, even though the weather was bad, I did have a great time.
| ||
1/6/2009 3:17 pm |
sounds like you enjoyed the time off immensely!  I could have used MORE time off...but without the snow!  Oh...and I do believe that your youngest is polite and respectful to you because YOU treat her with respect and accept her as she is. Bravo dad.   "All you'll get from strangers is surface pleasantry or indifference. Only someone who loves you will criticize you." - Judith Crist, crack film critic
| ||
|
sounds like you enjoyed the time off immensely! I could have used MORE time off...but without the snow! Oh...and I do believe that your youngest is polite and respectful to you because YOU treat her with respect and accept her as she is. Bravo dad. We have actually had that conversation about why she is different when she is with me; and that was the exact reason she gave. Plus, I have been told by both daughters that I make chores fun - and they like seeing me working alongside them.
|
Become a member to create a blog
