Monday Musings

I had to think about it a little bit, or, really, more than a little.  My years of writing this blog began just before Christmas in 2005 when we lived on Jeter Street in Santa Cruz.  My daughter was in her senior year of high school, I was scheduled for my bariatric surgery in early January 2006 and my wife and I were dealing with a landlord who lived on the property and was quite the busy-body.  My job was excessively stressful, managing building projects at the university that would eventually drive me to take an early retirement a few years later.

Through it all, I kept writing.  Silly stuff, really.  I was getting the hang of it all.  I was figuring out how much to share, and what exactly this blogging exercise was really about.  My friends over at New Dharma bums inspired me and mentored me, as they would mentor me during the first few years of my retirement.  They talked me down off the ceiling when post retirement anxiety got the better of me.

So here I am all these years later, through retirement, catastrophic accidents, divorce, becoming a grandparent twice over, dating, the disasters of dating (after the thrill was gone) and meeting a man that asked me to marry him, and we did.  Now living in a retirement community and wondering how in the hell I got here (even though it's a lovely community that I love for the most part.).

me, 60 lbs lighter

Oddly enough, I am once again scheduled for bariatric surgery to remove the Lap Band I had installed 13 years ago.  January 9 I shall go in for an out-patient l procedure to get it out of there since it has slipped and roamed to a completely unusable spot.  I've gained a considerable amount of weight since 1.) living at a place that offers an array of sugary desserts every evening and 2.) getting no restriction from the band that kept me slimmer for the bulk of 11 years.  I had to laugh when the new surgery center had me fill out a form regarding my 'diet history.'  I think I answered "30 years" to every questions.  In addition to "varied," as in varied results with every said dieting technique I used over 30 years.  I'll be consulting about having another kind of procedure, since I obviously need it, I am at my highest weight in 13 years and it's uncomfortable, unhealthy, and unattractive (to me).  I've got perhaps another decade and a half in me before true old age may strike me down, and I am not going to spend it in obesity.  Before you say it, or think it, diets don't work.  If they did, we wouldn't be an obese nation.  We'd lose the weight and keep it off.  There is a $40 bazillion diet industry out there and we just keep getting fatter and fatter.

I have surmised that I am a very efficient user of calories, and it takes very few to keep me fueled.  In addition, 18 months of weight training and walking/bicycling brought me a whopping 6 pound loss.  Fuck that shit.  It brought me  happiness in other ways, but weight loss was not one of them.

On the heart front: the medications I'm taking to slow down the irregular  heart beats seems to be working moderately well.  A recent monitoring shows the premature beats reduced by about half.  This is rip-roaring good news and I hope it will continue to improve, as I've only been on the medications for about 5 weeks.  If I can avoid another ablation procedure I will be extremely happy and relieved.

Thank you for reading my blog over the years.  I don't have a large readership, but I have a loving one, and that is what matters. I keep it going for myself, and it's been a useful diary of sorts.  Many of you have also been keeping at it this long, and I love that we have shared this journey for 13 years.

Happy Monday!