Daily Update

Weight: 229. I weighed myself this weekend and discovered that I am fatter than I’ve ever been in my life. Back when I was still working at Tempur-Pedic and working out every day, I used to worry if I got over 215.

Currently Reading (fiction): River God, Wilbur Smith. This is my second time through River God...the first time I’ve reread a Wilbur Smith novel. I love Wilbur.

Currently Listening To: Ride Across the River, Dire Straits.

Rush Lyric of the Day: I am the working man.

Weekend Update: Melanie and the kids went to Cincinnati on Saturday evening and I stayed home to study. Then I drove up on Sunday morning and spent the rest of the day with her family. We had lunch and I spent some time in the spa, although the water wasn’t as warm as I would have wanted it. We got home yesterday evening. During the day on Saturday, before Melanie went to Cincinnati, we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and ran some errands around town. It was a really pretty weekend here. I’d say this week, up through this coming weekend, we will be hitting our peak in terms of fall color.

School Update: I have a test every night this week. This will be the first time I’ve had a test every night. I spent most of the weekend preparing for Monday and Tuesday’s tests, so I haven’t really studied for Wednesday or Thursday’s tests at all. Tuesday’s test is going to be tough because it’s covering four chapters’ worth of material.

In Cincinnati’s Sunday paper, there was a big full page add for jobs at area hospitals, and there were a number of openings for radiography, including several that were offering a $6,000 hiring bonus. One was at Bethesda North, where Mom used to work.

Food Update: As is obvious by my weight, I’ve been doing remarkably poorly on my dietary habits over the last few weeks, particularly since starting school. Eating out way too much, too much fast food, eating at odd times, eating enormous portions. Melanie and I are going to try to get back on track this week. So far today I’ve had green tea, and oatmeal with flaxseed.

Work Update: I was daydreaming this morning on my way to work about the 6 months last year when I was unemployed. God, that was such a nice time in my life.

Funniest Thing Seen on a Medical Record: Erythema of the labia major, caused by vaginal abscess.

Today in History, October 16:

1781 – Using a backdrop of painted soldiers, painted by the Skinny Kid with the Pipe, George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia. Lord Cornwallis complains bitterly, stating: “It’s not cricket! You’re not playing the game!”

1793 – Marie Antoinette loses her head.

1854 – Birth of Oscar Wilde.

1859 – John Brown leads a slave revolt on an arsenal in Harper’s Ferry.

1923 – Walt Disney and his brother Roy found The Walt Disney Company. Their cousin, Roy Wally, founds Wally World a few years later.

1946 – 10 top German officials are hanged following their death sentences during the Nuremberg Trials. Hermann Goring avoids the noose by taking his own life just hours before he was due to hang.

1969 – The Miracle Mets win the World Series.

1978 – Pope John Paul II ascends to the throne of Christendom.

1991 – In a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, George Hennard opens fire and kills 24 people. He then kills himself. The kill spree would help birth Texas’s legalization of concealed handguns 5 years later (a patron in the store had a gun in her car, but felt that if she’d been permitted to carry it with her, she could have stopped the massacre...she later successfully lobbied for the legalization to carry concealed handguns).

1999 – Death of Jean Shepherd, who wrote the screenplay for, and played the role of the narrator in A Christmas Story.