A couple days ago, I was out on a walk and a mom was coming home with her three kids. The two bigger ones were on their way to the front door, but the mom was holding a toddler on her hip, and was bent over, pulling up flowers from the front yard.
The daughter asked, "What are you doing?"
Mom replied "I'm pulling up these weeds, they are all over the place and I want to get rid of them."
But, oh no mom. Those are not weeds. Those are crocuses. Those are the first signs of spring. You have got to be kidding me that you think these are weeds.
The little girl lost her mind.
She threw her backpack down and demanded that her mother stop.
"STOP! DON'T! I LOVE THEM! I LOVE THEM! LEAVE THEM!" And the mom just pulled them up and gestured all over the yard and yelled at her that they had to go, they were ruining the yard.
This broke my heart. I kept going but part of me wanted to turn around and help the poor little soul.
I'm on Team Little Girl. They are beautiful. Not weeds. They may be everywhere but they are gone so soon. You can dig them up, and relocate them to the side of the walkway or the driveway's side yard. You could do so much. You could do it with your child and have something together.
I went by tonight and all the flowers are gone. All of them. It made me very sad, so I came home from my walk and took this picture of the corner of my yard where the small wild things are happening.
You are safe with me, small wild things. Thank you for your short lived visit, and I celebrate you in your loveliness.
Digits below.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 20 minute walk, about .80 miles. 6100+steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
9am: 154 5pm: 135 10pm: 142
food:
coffee/water 11am: 2 egg omelet, spinach, goat cheese, red onion noon: Metformin 1:30pm: ramekin of cashews 6pm: chicken parm white wine
Work was busy but I had some downtime to try and figure out how to do something that someone asked me to help with. I fought with the thing for well over an hour and finally gave up, well after the time that I could have asked someone who may know how to do it to help. Shit.
At least I know what to do, how to tackle it tomorrow.
At about 6 I decided to go for a walk. Geoff was making dinner for us, he had today off so I put him in charge of the meal so I could futz with the thing.
He called out to me from the kitchen that everything had this crazy pink neon glow to it. So I went to look. Sure enough, it was a spectacular sunset. We stood there together and looked at it. I thanked him for making dinner so I could go for a walk (Doug had driven the car back up to the garage and was walking home).
The sunset and my kid made me feel better about the world for a few minutes.
And I didn't take a picture. The phone camera would not do this justice. You'll just have to believe me.
Digits below.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. Pokemon walk, just under a mile, 22 minutes; 6100+ steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
8:30am: 174 5pm: 178 10pm: 174
food:
coffee/water 10am: English Muffin w/pb 11am: metformin 1:15/1:30pm: 2 giant bowls of chicken salad 6:30pm: one bowl of rotini pasta with meat sauce ginger ale (2 bottles) with ice
Geoff didn't want a ride to work this morning so Doug and I commenced to just drinking coffee and chilling. Around 10:30, I asked him if I should go to the gym and he have time to ponder what we should do after I get back.
He said "I'd rather go on a stroll with you than you go to the gym. It is beautiful outside. Let's go." So that we did.
We took a 2 mile walk, it was hotter out than I expected and I was a little cranky. But we did it. Did some big pokemon hunting and Toffee got to be outside walking, which is her very favorite thing to do. We need to work on her "chill" factor so she'll relax when we are out and about. But it was fun.
Home and sandwiches had, Doug took a nap and I worked on a spreadsheet for my cats & soup game when I should have loaded the dishwasher. ha. Yes I am a total nerd making a spreadsheet about my cats and their skills.
I was about to go take a nap myself when he woke up and said "we do need to take the car on an excursion so, let's go to a brewery." We went the long way up to Elder Pine brewing, it was packed, so that was a nice thing to see on such a beautiful day. We sat outside, what with having the dog with us and all. A couple and their little one came to hang out with us when their toddler got a look at Toffee and she had to come visit. I did the thing where I set fire to children by just paying attention to them. The little one and I became best friends.
Toffee was super nice and gentle. I gave the small human cookies to give Toffee and I think her mom was nervous, but, that dog. I tell ya. She's so gentle and sweet. I was impressed. And we ran out of cookies.
It was a good day.
Here's a pic my new best friend took of us with my phone. Because 20 month old children these days totally know how to use a phone camera. Hilarious.
I wish we had another day of no work but. Let's go get it tomorrow.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 2 mile walk/45min. with a big pokemon bench rest halfway through. 10,300+ steps by bedtime
Donovan's Barabajagal was running through my mind. I was thinking to myself while listening to Donovan playing inside my brain that Donovan and Beck are a lot alike. They do weird things with words and lyrics, and overall I feel like it's a good combo if I were to make a playlist.
And then I thought well, Beck is our generation's Donovan.
Then I said no, Donovan is his generation AND our generation's Donovan, and Beck is everyone's Beck. And I liked thinking about both of them. Both of them deserve our love and praise. Maybe Donovan knew that some old lady was thinking about him at 5am her time.
I then fell back to sleep, with Barabajagal fading into the backdrop.
Geoff usually walks to work but this morning it was pouring and he texted me at 7am to ask if I'd give him a ride. Sure thing.
He came to my room with a cup of coffee a few minutes later and said "I'm ready to go," but.... guy. You start work at 9 why on earth do we want to do a 5 minute drive at 7.
"I'm allowed to come in early and leave early, according to one of my co-workers."
"According to your boss though? You should ask that first before you start doing something like showing up 2 hours early and leaving 2 hours early." Make sure this is true. Because what if stuff needs done after 3pm and you weekend kids are all gone!
He agreed. I thought about telling him to come back and get me at 8:30 but. He brought me coffee and stuff. So. I got up.
We did go early, I had him there at 8:15. He said there is a courier that comes around 8:30 and waits until they have everything to go for them, so, he was ready to get a jump start on that, and I have to admire the enthusiasm to get in there and get the overnight stuff taken care of.
Not a cheese sandwich. Thankfully. I know he isn't a cheese sandwich. And a morning like this reminds me of his super goodness.
What to do at 8:15 on a rainy Saturday morning?
Go to the gym? Sure.
Not a bad plan, actually. I thought it would be packed but no. Easy to get on a treadmill, and the circuit training room had one lady in it when I started.
By 10am I had as many steps in as I did yesterday by bedtime. I should do this more often, to be honest.
Here is a picture from this morning's workout. It was funny because someone was playing all kinds of 90s music, and I added in Beastie Boys, Beck, REM, and we had us a dance party I tell you what. Sadly the app they use at PF doesn't have hardly anything I want to listen to, but this was good.
We went hard in the paint this morning, kids.
digits
exercise: x/12 hours of 250 steps. 1 mile on the treadmill, 25 min. 1 mile on the exercise bike (I got bored), approx 10 min?, full circuit room using the step dealies in between machines.
blood glucose:
7:30am: 174 4:15pm: 127 xpm: x
food: coffee/water 10:45am: 2 egg omelet w/wilted spinach, red onion, goat cheese 11am: Metformin 1:30pm: ramekin of tuna salad w/dill, celery, dash of lemon, mayo 4:15: celery & peanut butter; a couple whole wheat crackers & peanut butter 6pm: metformin+jardiance
We got the Dodge back, and there was a coolant leak, and it was hitting the temp gauge and making it look like the car was overheating but it actually was not. Just a false report. Much better than our fear of a water pump failure.
Our mechanic fixed things, changed seals and cleaned up the mess. Reported it was good as new. He did suggest taking the car for a long trip. Longer than just to the Target, to a brewery in the county.
"Take it somewhere and make sure she's behaving."
Well then.
What to do?
Geoff is working this weekend. He is supposed to work one weekend a month and I feel like his February weekend was literally 2 weeks ago and now he's on the schedule for this weekend. So no Geoff with us for the day or days, maybe. When he works weekends, it is a full 8 hours each day and sometimes longer since they have far fewer people on. For sure we'll have to take the dog then, so she won't be in the kennel all day.
We shall see what happens. But now, Bed! No picture tonight.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. No dedicated 10 - work+rain=no walkies; 4500+ steps by bedtime (fitbit on the charger today also lowered step counts!)
blood glucose:
9am: 184 4:45pm: 223 10pm: 230
food: coffee/water 12:00: metformin 12:30: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon; bacon in fajita wrap with Mayo (I wanted turkey too, but. none. and too lazy to make an omelet). 6:30pm: meatballs in sauce w/spaghetti; 4 small pieces of garlic toast red wine
No secret, I love me some Guster. Everyone on earth knows this. This is a banner day/week/month/season/era for Guster and fans.
Yesterday they announced their ninth studio album release, Ooh La La. Their last album was released in 2019 before the world kind of fell off its axis a little bit. I've been waiting for this for a long time.
Over the past year(s) they've been playing two songs, Wishing Tree and Black Balloon. Neither of which I've really liked, except when they were with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the intro and outro by the orchestra was just next level beautiful and brought a real depth to the song.
With the album release announcement, they put two more songs out into the world. Keep Going, and All Day, as well as an official music video for Keep Going.
Now. I love me some Guster all day every day. The last album, Look Alive, took me a long time to like. I needed to hear acoustic versions of the synthy slick highly produced songs to really start to love the tunes. It happened. I did get there.
I think the same thing is going to happen with this album. It's going to take me some time.
This particular song has some really good "Gustery" lyrics, such as:
Well the world brought us here
If we let it now all good things reappear It's ok I'm alright
It's ok I'm alright
Keep going
Keep going
To the light...
Keep going, indeed.
One of my fellow facebook group friends posted that this song is helping her deal with the grief of her father's very recent death. Until someone said that, I just kind of felt "meh" about this tune but I started really thinking about how all songs have meaning to different people when they come out, and they are met in that place by the music. I hadn't thought of it that way.
And I thought of people who need to be encouraged to Keep Going.
It feels like another Guster church hymn to me in some ways, like Hang On has always felt to me. I just got chills thinking about it.
An additional ponder: With my first listen or two, this song and others recently released are "Ryan Miller" songs, and not Guster songs.
I don't hate it, I'm not mad, but I do feel like there is a lot missing from the presentation.
I miss Adam's voice being in the forefront of things, it has been a very long time since they put out a song where he's singing lead. It feels too overproduced, noisy. I felt that way about so much of Look Alive, so I feel like we're all going along with them in this "era." The synthpop era. We've moved far far away from the bibbity bobbity bongos and two guitars, three part in the round harmony things.
Every band moves through their changes and growth, this I know. They're even calling this tour "We Also Have Eras," a nod to the lovely Taylor Swift there.
But I do kind of feel like my ears are being left behind, my heart is not being spoken to. Not like Easy Wonderful or Ganging Up On The Sun did for me and those were kind of the last overall "everything on this album is awesome" releases for me.
But like I said, I do not hate it. I just need to sit with it for a while. I need to analyze this era. I need to just, you know. Be with it.
It's okay, I'm alright. It's okay, I'm alright.
The official album release date isn't until May 17th, but at the March 30th show, that's the CD release party. It'll be my second Guster CD Release Party - I went to the Ganging Up On The Sun one at a Boston Harbor Cruise a bajillion years ago.
I'll probably buy a copy of the CD because I do want to hear the other tracks. There are not that many. It's not a hugely packed album.
And I am for sure looking forward to hearing what these songs sound like live on stage.
Here's me and the aforementioned Mr. Ryan Miller on the Boston harbor Booze Cruise CD Release boat. June 2006.
Geoff wanted to go with me on this excursion, but it was 21+ because, you know, booze cruise. So Doug came with. I told Ryan that Geoff wanted to be there, and he waved to the camera and said "oh hi Geoff" and other nice things. I think he wished him a good day. Sorry you couldn't be here, kind of messaging.
Digits, below.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 15 min. indoor walk (dedicated 10+5) 5500+steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
9:15am: 181 5pm: 171 9:45pm: 195
food: coffee/water 11:30am: 2 egg omelet w/goat cheese, wilted spinach, red onion. Metformin 1pm: tuna sandwich on 15 grain bread 2pm: the rest of the tuna salad 6:30pm: tater tots (Doug made fish sandwiches but feh, I didn't like them so I took a bite and didn't finish) 8pm: large bowl of greek yogurt w/blueberries red wine+diet ginger ale
No real entry today, I'm off to bed. Better more fun entry tomorrow, I promise. Here's a picture of Toffee Beans. Her toe beans are 90x as big as anyone else's She's a beast.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. no dedicated 10 indoors or out. 5k+ steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
8:30am: 157 4:30pm: 156 10pm: 182
food: coffee/water 10:30am: 15 grain bread w/peanut butter 12:30pm: Metformin, left over fajita chicken mixed with cream cheese for chicken salad 6:30pm: mushroom tortellini, sauce, homemade chicken nuggets, piece of garlic bread 7:30pm: metformin+jardiance shiraz
First, a moment of silence. A long time ago Doug bought a little 4 piece set of cheese spready knife dealies of these wee hula girls. We have two left but today, we have one.
I encourage my family to not put utensils in the right side of the sink, because that's where the dish disposal is. Well. Today I broke my own rule and ended up destroying one.
RIP cute hula girl spready knife dealie. You were good with my peanut butter and apple snacks.
On my walk last night, I passed a trash barrel with an interesting feature. There was a tall wooden carved raccoon sticking out of the top.
Now, I'm not usually the one in our family picking stuff out of other people's trash barrels. Doug is. Doug is the king of side of the road trash discoveries. We have bookcases, and a Stickley Chair (we think it is real, not a fake/copy) so maybe Stickley style. There are no stickers on it so we don't know if it is authentic but it looks it.
Anyway, Doug finds stuff, Doug brings stuff home. We decide if it is decent. We either keep it or trash it after second thoughts.
But this time, I couldn't walk past a tall raccoon statue and not bring him home.
He has pants on, yo. And his tail is super cute.
In order to take some pictures of him this morning, Iput him on the back patio table. This scared my dog out of her fucking MIND when she came around the corner. I knew she'd be a little astonished but did NOT expect an outright panic.
And of course, I laughed.
So he needs an identity and a permanent spot. I want to get the back patio fun-ready after spending a little time out there with the fire pit the other day.
The Raccoon will be a welcome buddy. Here are some pictures.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. Dedicated 10 in the house while cooking dinner/Doug went to pick up the car. Extra 15 min pokemon walk. 7300+steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
8:30am: 136 4:30pm: 164 10pm: 150
food:
coffee, water 11:30: grilled swiss, roast beef, red pepper hummus on the 15 grain bread. Metformin 1:30: apple w/pb 3pm: celery stick w/pb 6:30pm: chicken fajita mess & topings, in a bowl, no fajita wrap, avocado. Metformin+jardiance 8pm: pretzels. red wine
Doug didn't buy any low carb bread ("they didn't have it, sorry") or lettuce and tomatoes for salads ("oops, I forgot"). So right now without a working car, we are a little bit stuck.
I stood in front of a very full refrigerator, and just languished. What the hell can I eat in here? Hardly anything. There was a stack of leftovers, and my family is not good at eating leftovers so I looked them over and they were no good, so out they went.
Sigh.
I had toast. He has a loaf of 15 grain bread and a beautiful loaf of sourdough. He made a grilled havarti and roast beef sandwich for himself, and it looked and smelled beautiful.
But I wasn't going to do that.
Lately, the past several days, my blood sugar has been a lot lower than usual. I had several zero carb days and was super proud of that. Last night I forgot to record that I had some pretzels (22 pretzels, 20 grams of carbs) with pub cheese, and got up this morning to a much higher than wanted reading.
Booo.
So no. Those two pieces of 15 grain bread were super nice but I'm not going to try and have more.
I found some bacon in the fridge, thin bacon that will crisp up very nicely. Lamented the no lettuce no tomatoes situation, and no BLT salad.
Decided that just eating 5 slices of bacon my themselves wasn't like, a good culinary decision I should make for myself. That seems lazy. So I opted to make an omelet. Out of fresh mushrooms, out of spinach, no shredded cheese. But we had a block of Monterrey Jack and I sliced it up so it would be melty sizes. Not in the mood to get out the cheese grater for such a small task.
I found some avocado dip in the fridge. Oh this will help.
And I built a hell of an omelet that I didn't even want.
Doug took Toffee for a ride up to the garage to drop our car off and walk back with her. The walk is about a mile and a half, so after I finished my last meeting, I put salmon in the oven and took myself for an almost mile walk. Not quite. Still a good one, and met them on the way back.
Dinner was much better than trying to come up with something for lunch.
Anyway, that's about it for today. Tomorrow I have a fun surprise! No picture today though.
Digits below.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. Dedicated 27 minutes, almost 1 mile. about 7k+steps by dinner
blood glucose:
8am: 197 5:30pm: 177 10pm: 154
food:
coffee, water 10am: 2 slices of 15 grain bread w/peanut butter 11am: Metformin 1pm: 2 egg omelet w/Monterrey jack cheese, 4 slices of bacon, avocado salsa 6:30pm: salmon w/mixed veggies 7pm: metformin+jardiance
Yesterday when we were plotting out what we were going to do, Doug noted that one of our favorite breweries near where we were going was doing a "Mean Girls" themed drag show/brunch. "That's just not what I have in mind for fun. It won't be fun," says he.
Feeling a little like, huh. This is interesting. Is Doug showing a side of intolerance I didn't know he had (I know he has some, trust me, he does).
That's a touch closed minded, thought I. So I said "or, it could be the most fun you've ever had."
"Not if it is "Mean Girls" themed," he replied. "I'll take one without the other, thank you."
Alrighty then. There we go. That's what I would hope for and expect. Open to seeing a thing that you've never seen, and then later you can develop opinions on it. But I absolutely understand the "no thanks, Mean Girls" stance.
With one car dead and the other possibly on the verge of overheating, we're not doing anything venture-wise today. But it would be a very good day to go to a brewery. Even with outdoor seating. It is chilly but no wind. Several good breweries we know and love have nice fire pit setups. One is closed "for the season" but today would be a nice day to be open, Landmade. But Lone Oak, Babycat, and Waredaca are sweet spots for outside even this time of year. I'm thankful for them being there. Especially want to get a yurt rental some one of these fine days at Lone Oak.
And today would have been super nice for such a fete. But. Ya know.
With it being Sunday and we can't really make progress on getting things fixed up car-wise until morning. Hence, there is puttering around happening. I've got the dishwasher humming. The laundry is rolling, the bathroom is in progress.
The bathmats are in the dryer, the shower mat is soaking in bleach and I'll scrub the tub next. Sink is scrubbed. Toilet and floor around the toilet - scrubbed. Lord help me, I think I need to start yelling at the boys about aim. This is ridiculous. When they aren't around, the toilet area is spotless and perfect. I sit to pee, after all. So c'mon guys. like, clean up after yourselves??? Jesesh.
I'm not sure what is up with this shower mat. I threw the last one out that we bought when we moved here and got this one and it gets gross FAST. And it leaves black circles and an outline in the shower in no time. The other one, never. I'm sorely disappointed.
And I don't like these bath mats either. They're thin and stupid. I like the old one we had but after, oh, 6 years or more it started to fall apart. It was thick and fluffy and I washed it often. Probably what wore it out.
I think I'll end up back at Target getting the same other ones we had. Lesson learned!
I played D&D at 3pm with my buddy Matt as game master and a bunch of other new people, and one I've played with before. I agreed to this time and thought "crap, what if we wanna go somewhere..." and here we are. Unable! So this is good. Good for me. We've played three times together and it is always a riot. Two hours went so fast.
Doug started a fire in the fire pit, and we went and sat out for a while, but it didn't want to stay going. The fire pit needs to be fully emptied and we need some good, dry kindling. But he didn't start it that way so a lot of newspaper met its death. It was nice while it lasted!
So a low-key homebody kind of day. Could have done more but glad I did not do less. It's like that sometime.
Here's the fire. Digits below.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 15 min 1/2 mile walk before dinner (pokemon, etc) 6200+ steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
9am: 180 4:45pm: 174 10:30pm: 195
food:
coffee, water 11:30: metformin; Big bowl of greek yogurt w/blueberries and a smidge of splenda. 2:15pm: Apple w/peanut butter 7pm: Metformin+jardiance; 2 frozen beef and bean burritos in a cheese/salsa/sour cream sauce that Doug whipped up. Red wine 9pm: pretzels and pub cheese
