Today was a rough day for me, personally. It wasn’t a terrible day by any objective measure. Even the fact that I was at the dentist twice (yes, twice) was not a huge downside since everyone there is really nice. It was more that I kept dropping things. I also had a bad inflammation day (probably because I ate fast food at lunch, etc). With the fusion in my neck and spine it seems like sometimes there can be issues with nerves. Limbs going numb, weird pains, etc. Anyway, sometimes my hands just drop stuff. I have techniques I use: carry bags by wrapping the handles around my hands rather than gripping them, hold important stuff either against my body or with two hands, and trying to stay very mindful of my hands when I am carrying things. But today I dropped everything. Starting with the morning in the kitchen. I dropped eggs, bowls of fruit, utensils, a container of olives, and so on. It was extremely frustrating and time consuming to waste food and have these messes to clean up. To an outside observer I just seem clumsy but it feels like I have lost control of my body at times like that. As the day went on it stopped happening. I worry that this will get worse as I age. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear to affect typing or driving, etc. It is more when I am holding something and not 100% mindful of “holding”. My hand will just let go. Arg.

This weekend was pretty productive. assembled more Ikea stuff (mostly not me) assembled some Lego with the boy got Christmas decorating done inside got outside lights up got tire pressure checked and pumped up BEFORE I put used the extension cord for the compressor to hook up outdoor lights purchased a Santa hat for the boy for his daycare stuff that actually fit! In computer news, I am trying to move my entire “personal” computer set up to my VPS. This means Emacs is all on the terminal on the VPS and I’ll only run Syncthing on the VPS and my phone, etc. We’ll see how it goes.

Made it through the night without snacking! Felt full and slept well. My inflammation is lowering as time goes on and I feel pretty “woke” in terms of brain fog. I need all the mental acuity I can get. After work I am taking my son to a friend’s house for a social gathering with a large group. Dinner will not be served (AFAIK) and my son is clamouring for a Happy Meal (which would be extremely convenient given the locations involved). I am not sure what I will do. I am considering buying 2 McDoubles and combining them, throwing away one of the buns. I would normally get the chicken ceaser but I don’t want to count on the lettuce being available and not being riddled with e. Coli.

Getting more of this Hugo blogging system figured out in the 15 minutes I spend on it each day. The theme is OK but I am looking for a better one. Today besides work I managed to get a shelving unit into my office closet. My office is near the kitchen. The shelf will be used to hold less frequently used appliances (vac sealer, slow cooker, electric griddle, etc). Also stuff like paper towels and toilet paper. This will also let me organize all the Christmas gifts (don’t tell the boy). Very tired, need sleep.

This was a pretty action-packed weekend. We got a ton of organizing done which involved assembling a lot of Ikea storage. A little trick I used was to wrap the end of those cheap Allen Keys with painters tape. This means the “turn, turn, turn” motion where you are drilling in those long bolts are much easier on the fingers. This also freed up a bunch of old storage that had been toy room storage built using a bunch of blue recycling bins. Since these are freed up I can use them in the garage for a much more organized recylcing set up (currently a pile of loosely tied bags I untie and haul into the kitchen every couple of nights and separate an overflowing bin into). Health-wise, not a great weekend. Definitely wrenched my back coming down the stairs, didn’t get enough sleep, and no stretching or real walking to speak of. However, I did manage to get a lot of movement in with all the cleaning and assembling. Plus some shovelling. All good.

Vacation day 1 - the mountains are beautiful and we aren’t even all the way into them yet. Tonight we’re in a motel that reminds me of my childhood. Beds are comfortable, though. Sadly, the WiFi is garbage. :)

down about 15 lbs in three weeks, I guess… I’ve lost the weight I regained on vacation and am losing again. Eating like a King, too. Feels like cheating. Breakfast was a keto mug bread grilled cheese with bacon, strawberries, and an egg. Lunch was a Boston Pizza sandwich entree, hold the bread and fries with Cesar Salad. Dinner was a bunless burger, Greek salad, and mushrooms fried with spinach and garlic. Later we had keto cheesecake for dessert. I mean that’s good eats. we took our boy to the park today and went for a nice drive outside the city. Beautiful weather. that is all… Work in the morning.

Second last day of vacation. After several nights of nostalgia (literally, since I was sleeping poorly on a bad mattress in my childhood bedroom) my wife and son came back from visiting her family and we all moved into an AirBNB that has comfortable beds. Nirvana. Re: low carb - although we are trying to be good we couldn’t resist meeting friends for sushi. It was awesome but I got too full. From now on I’m going to view carbs like I view alcohol: OK to have a little from time to time, maybe have a little too much a couple times a year, and generally abstain. I almost never drink so I guess that works for me. It’s good to have a useful frame of reference since carbs are “normal” and associated with having a good meal in the same way that we’ve normalized booze and associate drinking with having fun.

Air travel today. Highlights included a guy watching Spaceballs on his laptop, my son yelling out about how stinky the plane was, a single passeger applauding the landing like a maniac, and waiting in a McDonald’s drive thru line for 20 minutes with an hangry toddler only to be told they “ran out of salad a couple hours ago, actually”. Got salad somewhere else, kept it low carb all day.

Sitting in a McDonald’s Playland while my son very slowly eats fries. I successfully beat a lifetime of fast food addiction by ordering a Ceasar salad with chicken. I opted for breaded, should have gotten grilled, but I’m still well under my carbs for the day and don’t feel like I “missed out”. Yay.