Another Lazy Update

All I can say about this past week is that I FEEL like I did pretty well.  I guess I need to start writing down what I do that makes me think I'm not being lazy so I can remember it for these posts.

I know I did a few things.  Hitting the stationary bike and doing my other exercises continued apace.  Friday night, I really, really, really didn't want to get on the bike but I did it anyway.  A few nights, I did the core muscle exercises at 10:30 or later.  But, I'm still doing them.

As for stuff around the house, I did get down to the basement to start on cleaning that up.  I spent a couple nights down there and made some visible progress.  This week is going to be concentrating on the garage.  We need to clean out a spot for our entertainment center.

Why are we moving that to the garage you ask?  Well, last weekend our next door neighbor gave us a 32" LCD TV.  He works for a hotel chain and one of "his" hotels is being upgraded.  The hotel gets all new 37" TVs and they sold the old ones off for a song.  He bought at least 5 for his family and he gave us another one that he bought.  Naturally, it doesn't fit in our entertainment center so we bought a new one.  We're pretty sure we're going to have to give the old one away since it's old enough that it was built for a tube TV, not a flat panel.

Next Sunday, I'll be coming to you live from Atlanta.  I'm going on a business trip and I leave the house about 9:30 or so Sunday morning.  My focus for that week is going to be eating right and getting in exercise as much as I can.  I may end up getting to know the stairwells in the hotel very well, if nothing else.

I really need to come up with a much more interesting format for these posts too.  Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Friday Night Miscellany

There's a blog post in me but I'm not feeling it right now so you get a couple things that worked their way into my mind today.

First off, happy 7 billion (give or take) to the Earth!  Want to find out where you fit in?  Go for it here.  (HT:  Brad Delong.)  I'm number 3,832,713,927 baby!

Has anyone else noticed the sudden increase in people posting/sharing silly pics on Facebook lately?  It seems like most of my "Top Stories" (what a joke that usually is) are people sharing lolcats.  Either people are really bored or Facebook is losing its luster and people are resorting to the easy post.  Between that and the music links, there isn't much of anything actually going on there anymore.

We're getting snow here tomorrow.  It should be interesting.  The first snow is coming early this year.  Let's hope it's not an omen of what's to come.  Be safe and have fun everyone.

Lazy Update

I guess it's good when I'm too busy to post an update on the progress against lazy, right?  It would be better if I had actually accomplished something useful around the house other than the standard chores that I do.  Since last Wednesday, I have done some stomach/core exercises 4 days, got on the stationary bike twice and rode 20 miles on my real bike once.

Saturday, we went to Hawk Mountain to see what that was like.  We went on a short hike.  Our son had some problems walking around on the rocks but our daughter was great on them.  The trail was a little long for both of them so we didn't get out to the main overlook.  We also didn't see any birds but we still had a good time.  I think we may start trying to get out on more local trails to get the kids up to snuff for going back there.

Saturday was pretty much spent doing that.  Sunday was the bike ride and my general cleaning duties.  Then we went to the last soccer practice/scrimmage for my son.  When we got home, the fun started.

Our neighbor told us he had something for us.  I went over to his place and he tells me the hotel chain he works for is selling a bunch of stuff from one of the hotels because they're upgrading it.  Then he proceeds to give me a 32" LCD TV.  We've been here long enough to know not to argue with him about this.  It's sitting in our garage right now because it doesn't fit in the entertainment center.  Last night, we spent the evening online looking for a new one.  Tonight, we went to a local furniture store and bought a new one.  It gets delivered in 2 weeks.  In preparation, I did get another neighbor to help me move a piece of furniture into the basement and I found a taker for a workout machine that we don't use that's in the basement now.

By my count, I exercised 4 of the last 5 days (at least a few minutes every day), started the process of cleaning out the garage and basement and managed to keep up with the chores.  Oh, and managed to get this posted relatively on time.

Finally, a quick update on that promised rant.  The original rant kind of fell apart so you'll just have to wait for the next one.

I'm not lazy, I'm just procrastinating

When I posted about the Battle of the Bulge, I promised you a battle against lazy.  The first skirmishes have started and the good guys are a little slow out of the blocks.

I'm sad to report that I'm having a lot of trouble getting started.  I could make up all kinds of excuses about being busy, not being home much, and prepping for a birthday party for our son.  And that has had some bearing on how much has gotten done and what has gotten done.  I just can't help but feel that I'm putting everything off.

In the interest of my self-esteem, I'm going to tell you about my minor victories.  First off, I've kinda sorta kept up with my daily assigned chores.  I've cleaned up my fraction of the closet and my dresser drawers.  I got some shoe polish and tried salvaging a pair of shoes that had some nasty scratches on them.  A few more coats and they may look pretty good.  I've still been exercising and I finally started something new to help work my core muscles.  Unfortunately, I need to go out and get some core muscles before I can actually work them.

The one thing that's most important to me is the fact that I've been putting things away when I'm done with them.  Filing papers right away, replacing tools when I'm done with them, that sort of thing.  I'm terrible at that and I look at that as a purely psychological thing.  If I can keep doing the easy things that I have always put off doing, I'll feel like I'm getting somewhere.

My original point to all this was to give you an idea of where I am and ask for ideas on how to keep myself going.  However, in the spirit of the blog, I came up with an idea of my own.  Every week, I'm going to give you all a report card on what I accomplished.  Exercises, chores, long term projects or just stuff that needed to be done.  Along with that will be writing a blog post every week.  Ha!  We'll shoot for the weekend for that post and see how that works.  The day may change if I just can't find the time on Saturdays or Sundays.

It really is all about trying new things without being afraid to fail.

PS - my first rant is coming soon if I can ever get my thoughts straightened out.

I knew I'd be (almost) famous someday

NPR's Planet Money had a contest on their blog.  Rather than explain it, I'll just link to it.

The reason I'm linking to it, and almost famous to boot, is the fact that I'm one of the 700+ to have guessed 12 and have my name listed on their blog.

And now, all I can see is the digital clock in my head

15:00

14:59

14:58

14:57

...

Yellow Ledbetter

Ok, the title is a shameless attempt at hoping someone comes here off of a search for something to do with Pearl Jam.  Since part of the post actually has to do with Pearl Jam, I hope you aren't disappointed.

Another theme that's going to run through my blog is humor.  Well, my version of humor anyway. Here we go with something that a co-worker showed me the other day.

After watching that, I just had to find out what the actual lyrics were.  Apparently, not even Eddie Vedder knows what they are.

Next up is something that I saw on Facebook today.

That's not exactly a mental picture I ever had before.  And now, it's one that just won't leave.

Finally, there's this from HuffPo.  Not all of them float my boat either but the first pic is worth the click all by itself.

Finally (a) - while searching for the last one, I came across this on HuffPo as well.

As with everything, no guarantees on how often these recurring themes are going to be posted. This one should come back whenever I find something that strikes me as amusing enough to share.

Battle of the Bulge

One of the facets of this crisis is my weight/health.  Earlier this year, it dawned on me that I was going to be 40 next year.  While I don't feel 40, it still loomed large in my mind.  I can't say I decided on the spot that I was going to do something about my health but it was probably within the week.  My actual thought was "I don't want to be fat and lazy when I'm 40."

Being lazy, I went after the fat first.  I had lost weight before with the help of my lovely wife and Weight Watchers.  I took what I learned those many years ago and started off on my own.  After a couple months, I hit a plateau and couldn't get anywhere.  Honestly, I think I wasn't eating enough to keep my metabolism going.  Back to WW I went.  Signed up for their online service and I've been, very slowly, losing more weight ever since.  So far, I'm down about 35 pounds.

To help with the weight loss, I dusted off the bike and started riding it.  It wasn't long before I decided that was fun and I wanted to keep doing it.  Unfortunately, it gets dark every night and I don't like a lot of traffic.  After a while, we bought a stationary bike so I could at least get some exercise during the week.  I've been using it semi-regularly and I can feel a difference on it and on the real bike whenever I go out.  It's nice to actually get some feedback from my body on how it's feeling and how it's working.  The bad part is, that good feeling hasn't translated into losing weight any faster.

Where does that leave me right now?  Well, I'm at another plateau.  I haven't lost much, if any, weight in the last 4 or 5 weeks.  I went into this wanting to be healthier by eating right, losing weight and getting some exercise.  I told myself that a specific number on the scale wasn't the end all, be all of this endeavor.  That's slowly changed as I got closer to my goal weight.  That realization ended up with the idea that it's time to start the fight against the lazy.  More on that later.

Periodically, I'm going to give you updates on how my diet/exercise routine is going.  Not sure exactly what those will consist of but this is all about trying new stuff, failing and trying again, isn't it?

I know how he feels

Yup, this is how I usually feel about this stuff.

(H/T to The Incidental Economist)

Welcome!

Good morning and welcome to my blog! As the title suggests, this is going to be an experiment. I'm almost 40 years old (gah!) and I've hit a wall on what I think my life should be like. By almost any measure, I'm doing just fine. But sometimes, you just need to shake things up a bit. Starting now, there's gonna be a whole lotta shakin' goin' on.

If you must name what I'm doing, it's a mid life crisis through and through. I'm not the type to dump my family and chase after some twenty-something woman to make me feel younger. Fact is, I think of myself as more of a twenty-something most of the time anyway. Nope, I'm the kind of person that suddenly realizes there's got to be more to life than pushing papers across a desk for 8 hours a day. What that something is, on the other hand, is the mystery looking to be solved. For the first time in my life, I think I'm actually ready to try some new things and be willing to fail miserably at them.

This blog is going to be part of that. I'll chronicle my forays into new and wonderful things letting you know the good, the bad and the ugly. I'm also going to spout off from time to time, share stories of my family, and just try to find my writing voice. Join me if you wish. I can't guarantee it'll all be enjoyable or even interesting but it will be my struggle to decide who I am and who I want to be.