Inside The Perimeter

The days come, the days go.
Some days are better than others.
Yesterday was average.

I’d like to hold yesterday in higher esteem, I did get a large delivery after all, but the constant nagging pains (more than just the torn meniscus, which now that I know that I have torn the outer as well it has started to be tender to the touch but I’ll hold off considering surgery for it until it proves to be as painful as the inner) and technical internet failure that dropped me twice from a work meeting and then cut my German class short, dragged its reputation into the mud.

German class wasn’t going particularly smoothly for me, and then the instructor had to reboot his computer because his audio stopped working. We got back running again until we took a short pause, and as I tried to come back from our pause Zoom disconnected and I couldn’t reconnect due to my own shitty internet’s tantrums. My AT&T U-Verse internet, for which I feel I pay too much, has been problematic since we all started staying/working at home. It’s not like I have many options either, hell, I don’t even have a Comcast cable connected to my house since it was ripped off four years ago.

I woke up thinking that today was Monday. How’s that for being out of touch? If it were Monday I had to be certain not to oversleep since I have a pre-operation interview at 7:45am.

Knowing that it is still Friday I am going to try to beat the rain by running, we’ll really driving, to Dollar Tree and Aldi when they open. Shit, the forecast for today’s rain has been pushed earlier, I may get we regardless. I have already decided that I will spend tonight at home, perhaps watching movies after making dinner. Maybe I’ll try to get into a Christmas spirit, it is December 4th after all.

This weekend will bring some fun time hanging out with Bonnie, and on Sunday I’ll be attending Black Sheep #801, which will be my 170th attendance. I used to pride myself in knowing that I had done the trail for all of my Black Sheep run counts, but yeah, you know why that’s no longer true. I’ll try to keep the anxiety of next Wednesday at bay.

And you? Whatever it is you get up to please stay healthy so you can let me know all about your goings on next Monday.

Another day, another blog. It’s funny that some of the YouTube channels that I have been watching are undertaking “Vlogsmas” during which they are trying to put up a video every day between December 1st and Christmas. As I mentioned yesterday I briefly considered dipping my toes into the YouTube water, but realize that I don’t have the time nor drive to do so.

Yesterday I was able to wedge in 45 minutes on the trainer. In addition to pain-free living (at least regarding my inner left meniscus) I am looking forward to being able to do a range of exercises and sit “Indian style” (I know, I shouldn’t call it that any longer) after recovering from my surgery next week.

After thinking I had accidentally locked myself out of the house after going outside to work the compost and check on my garlic (note to self: you need put some failsafes in place), thankfully I did not, last night was dedicated to relaxation. I made a quick dinner, did some pleasure reading, watched an old Top Chef while texting with Betsy, and the streamed some videos before falling asleep.

Tonight is the final class of this German term. I have registered for the next term, which may be the end of the line for my formal German learning.

Hope you are remaining happy and healthy.

I used to pride myself on my organization, so whenever something is not where it is supposed to be, or missing outright, I get annoyed with myself.

I am annoyed with myself.

Yesterday one of my networking base stations was having a problem, it appeared that a software update was available for it. When I was prompted with “Enter Password” for this base station I had no clue. I did what I always do in this situation, I consulted my password manager application (more on this next week), but alas could not find an entry for this base station. I tried the passwords for all of the other networking hardware, with no luck. I searched through Apple Notes, the Drafts application, archived zip files from Evernote, coming up empty for each. When I have time I will initiate a hard reset for this device and start again.

I am annoyed with myself.

Also yesterday I was looking for the video files for all of the Louis CK programs that I purchased. I know, Louis CK is problematic. Regardless, I was searching for them since I know that I cannot download them any longer. Pre-COVID I had discovered them and thought that I had copied them to a logical location, like one of the many flash drives that I possess (note to self: get rid of some of these flash drives!), but could not find them on any of the drives in front of me. When I have time I will connect to my network attached storage and look there.

I am annoyed with myself.

Yesterday I drove up to West Paces to get my COVID test for next week’s surgery. Boy, what an unpleasant experience COVID testing is; thankfully it is quick. Unless I am one of the most asymptomatic of COVID-positive people I don’t expect to hear that I have the virus. I did have to pay $5 to park at the facility, but at least there was no $40 co-pay for this outing.

Starting today I am going to try to not plop my ass on the futon at 5pm to start watching videos on the television. While I was able to accomplish a few tasks last night, I was not nearly as productive as I should have been given that there was little else to do other than the chores I want to accomplish.

“Off to work”. Hope you are staying healthy and happy.

Brrr! It’s official, I cannot plant anything else before Atlanta’s first frost of the season.

Yesterday was a decent day — Home Depot had my order, I finally made it to Your Dekalb Farmers Market, I did some laundry, I spun on my trainer for about an hour, made some dinner, and oh, I did some work. What didn’t make the cut was German studying (no shocker there) and some yard work (due to lack of time and the weather).

Of yesterday’s activities clearly visiting Your Dekalb Farmers Market was the outlier. My journey there was made harder by slow drivers and the downed tree that closed Ponce. Once at the grocery store I was surprised how busy it was for a Monday (considering COVID?) and I remembered what I liked and didn’t like about shopping there. And oh, that new parking lot and cleared land? 🤯 My goals in shopping there was to buy some garlic (for planting), look for mushrooms I can’t buy at either Kroger, Aldi, nor Publix, look for potatoes (for future planting), and to buy some bell peppers, and to spend a $100 the was in my possession. Even in non-COVID times spending $100 bills can be problematic, however YDFM is famously a “no credit card” business so I figured they’d be able to handle the task. I also assumed that I’d be racking up at least $50 in purchases because I figured I’d be a kid in a candy store, but because my house is currently well stocked and I didn’t find as many unique items as I hoped, I only made it to $20. The cashier was taken aback with my $100 bill, and had to give me eight $10 bills in change. 😂

Another odd task that was killed before it ever really got off the ground was Cyber Monday purchasing the hardware necessary for me to start a YouTube channel. 😂😂😂

Today I hope to restart my Clean and Organize efforts, pushing hard to make my house more enjoyable for me by year’s end.

Tuesday Tale of the Tape: 188.0 pounds (+0.8 from last week’s weigh-in); not great, but not bad either.

November Summary

11/01 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/02 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/03 -?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/04 – 188.6, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/05 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/06 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/07 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/08 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/09 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/10 – 189.0, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/11 – ?, M, nothing 😢🤕
11/12 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/13 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/14 – ?, V, walking 😕🤕
11/15 – ?, V, yard work 😀🤕
11/16 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/17 – 187.2, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/18 – ?, V, yard work 🙂🤕
11/19 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/20 – ?, V, yard work 🙂🤕
11/21 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/22 – ?, V, walking 🙂🤕
11/23 – ?, V, walking 😕🤕
11/24 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😁🤕
11/25 – 187.2, V, trainer (50:00) 😁🤕
11/26 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/27 – ?, V, hiking (4.25 mi, 120:00) 😐🤕
11/28 – ?, M, nothing 😢🤕
11/29 – ?, V, nothing 😢🤕
11/30 – ?, V, trainer (50:00) 😀🤕

Don’t look now, but we’ve reached the end of the eleventh month of 2020.

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend; mine was a busy one, but by and large enjoyable, not even the rain could spoil yesterday.

On Wednesday I drove up to Black Mountain, NC and returned on Saturday. While there I violated a few CDC guidelines by communing with the Raleigh Royalty for a Thanksgiving break. For the most part all activities were held outdoors, but I have to admit that I failed at being completely diligent.

Upon returning Saturday I unloaded the M6 and then took a look around the ITP “future farm”. I was stunned that the garlic, which had been barely sprouting when I watered it on Wednesday morning, had sprouted mightily, reaching heights of 3-4 inches, which I am not sure is good right before a frost. Oh well, at least I am not trying so become a self-sufficient gardener. Saturday night was a much-needed home alone, relaxing and watching the finale of The Great British Bake Off.

Yesterday’s weather be damned, Bonnie and I got together to use our expiring offers. We started with a chilly breakfast at Ria’s Bluebird for which I had a $20 gift certificate given to me last Christmas. As you can imagine, COVID made eating out difficult but the certificate expires in December so it needed to be used soon. We both ate tempeh and biscuits, which I wish I could say was amazing, but it was fine. Afterward Bonnie and I attempted to outrun the rain and use our Hop Passposts in the process by heading north. We drove up to From the Earth Brewing in Roswell (Hi Bob!) and then up toward Cumming to enjoy some beverages from Cherry Street Brewing. Thankfully both breweries, which were more like restaurants in this case, had mushroom heaters to keep us warm whilst we consumed.

Hey Amazon, when I explicitly select a Monday delivery date, deliver my package on Monday! While driving to the breweries I received notifications that Amazon would be delivering packages a day early. Between the predicted rain, package thieves, and the knowledge that they would leave the packages on my front stoop, I was concerned that the boxes would be drenched or stolen when I returned home; thankfully, neither outcome occurred.

Because I’m still injured and tonight’s weather looks like it’s going to be brutal, I will be skipping the Moonlite hash. Instead I intend to run an errand at Home Depot before coming home to ride the trainer for an hour. It’s a shame that it gets dark so early these days, otherwise today would be a great day to pull English ivy since the ground is saturated.

Well, call me late to the party but I just learned that Sean Connery passed away a month ago. Who knew? Okay, everyone except for me I’m sure.

How you are remaining happy and healthy.

UPDATE at 8:35am
Hitting another “Internal Service Error” when I attempt to comment. Not thrilled by this! 🤬

Happy Black Friday. Okay, okay. It will be interesting to see how many people eschew their health to go out and get “deals” today.

I had a lovely, vegetarian, Thanksgiving yesterday. Today I am hoping to get outside for awhile to get some exercise in the form of a pleasurable hike.

Hoping that you had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving and are gearing up for a fantastic weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Americans!

Just a quick one to say hello before I leave the house.

Fun time last night drinking a few beers at the Three Taverns Imaginarium with Bonnie and my buddy Shelby.

Found the riding my trainer does not irritate my torn meniscus. Big Win for my exercise routine! If not for the fact that I am leaving the house I’d be starting a streak of riding indoors.

Scheduling my knee surgery today.

Take care of yourself. I’ll have a better post tomorrow.

Maybe. 😉

Tuesday Tale of the Tape: 187.2 pounds (0.0 from last week’s weigh-in); satisfactory.

Well dangen, I did it again. I forgot that today is Tuesday, and because I was awake well before my alarm clock went off, I’ve eaten breakfast before my weekly weigh-in. I ate because I was hungry; I probably ate too much food because I was hungry. Poop. I’ll push my weigh-in to tomorrow.

Once again I was awake early, 4:00am in this instance, because I fell asleep very early again. I think my current sleep pattern is definitely contributed to by lying on my futon under blankets in a cool, darkened room watching YouTube.

Yesterday I made a lame, in all senses of the term, attempt to get a little exercise by walking. My chore was to make the painful walk to the post office to mail my property taxes, whose check was painful to write. From the post office I made the turn toward home and managed to stagger around my neighborhood for almost 2.25 miles.

Today I will be getting visitation from Bonnie, who will kindly take my recycling to CHaRM. Technically it was my turn to do this chore, but Bonnie offered to go again.

Tonight I expect to get together with Bonnie and my buddy Shelby for a few drinks. I am going to give myself a consumption pass this week and start the return to eating better next week, and serious exercising when my knee surgery has occurred.

Because of commitments blog posts for the remainder of this week may be terse, but they will appear.

Hope all is well with you and that you are remaining healthy.

It’s 5:15am, I am awake and feeling a little sniffly which is typical for me during weather temperature swings, and my frugality about heating the house. I’ll be fine.

This weekend was different…

On Friday I did a few hours of yard work in the afternoon. I mostly cut up branches that I had piled onto the ground, and stacked the shortened pieces for future fires. For the first time in many months there are no piles of long branches on the grassy (future raised bed garden) area. In addition I filled a single yard bag with English ivy. There is still plenty more ivy to pull, but I had already worked hard and the dry ground made pulling strands from it difficult so I quit after filling the one bag. It was also nearing darkness so I started a fire for one and relaxed with some beer. It was an early night, I was asleep by 8:30pm.

Awake early on Saturday morning, as you can be when you fall asleep by 8:30pm the night before, I was in Lowe’s by 6:00am. In anticipation of more ivy pulling I purchased fifteen leaf bags, and in anticipation of more fires I bought a bag of fire starter blocks; the latter is not “needed”, but I like having them on hand.

At 9:00am I was at Bonnie’s house to watch our Bundesliga teams clash. We sat outside, as you do these days, to watch the match. My team, Werder Bremen, had lost the previous twelve matches against her team, Bayern Munich, so I saw the 1-1 draw that occurred Saturday as a major win for me.

Saturday afternoon was Black Sheep #800 for which I could do little more than observe. It was okay, but hashing is only really fun when you can actually hash. Because Black Sheep is normally held on Sundays I had to keep recalibrating my brain to remind myself that it was still Saturday.

Yesterday morning I did a walkabout with Betsy and her dog Bella. For some reason starting yard work at 11:30am, when the weather was gorgeous, seemed silly. However, I was able to muster enough discipline to do a couple of clean up chores. I had high aspirations for accomplishing major gains yesterday, but they were not realized.

Knee still hurts, I’ll be calling this week to schedule surgery.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving. 🤯

I have too much food in my house. I will start trying to clear out pantry, refrigerator, and freezer again. In the process I want to reorganize my freezer space. Exciting stuff, eh?

Headed to the Waschsalon this morning to knock out some laundry in one fell swoop. Some of the laundry is quite dirty from yard work, so I’m letting the machines do all the hard work this week.

Hope your weekend was healthy and filled with happiness.