Notes from the Cave

It's way past time for another update from the Cave.

You may recall a few weeks ago that I blogged about a new CD I've been listening to by an indie band called Terminal Union.  I got to see them live recently and they were exceptional.  If you like folksy Americana music, you'd love their stuff.

The fella on the right is M's cousin's husband.  I guess that makes him my cousin-in-law?

A lot of new faces at work in the last few months, and some old faces gone.  That kind of sucks and, quite honestly, I don't enjoy working there as much as I used to, but I suppose that's just the way it goes.  I've never adjusted well to change.  The good news is that beginning in mid-October, I won't have to work third shift on the weekends anymore.  I'll be straight second shift all the time.  I'm really happy about that because I have come to dread those third shift weekends.  I used to love them, but now that I eat cleanly and sleep normally those third shifts are hard to endure.  I've just got one more to work before the change.

Thanks to my mother, I got a new car recently.  She was replacing her old car, so she gave it to me.  Nice, eh?  It's a 2006 Honda Accord, but it only has 29K miles on it and it has all the bells and whistles: leather interior, 6 CD changer, Sirius/XM (paid up through the middle of next year!), sun/moon roof, etc., etc.  M is now driving my Altima (she didn't want to drive the Honda because it's a manual transmission) and we sold M's car, which had over 170K miles on it.  Still, we got $1500 bucks for it, so we're pretty happy.  Added to the 1200 bucks we got from the Kentucky State Treasury Division of Unclaimed Property, it's like we've had a nice fat autumn tax refund.   

If you haven't been listening to the songs I've been writing and recording, you really should.  They are FANTASTIC.  Just kidding.  But seriously folks, I've done 4 so far and you can listen to all 4 of them at my Tumblr page: Click Here Now. And tell all your friends to Click Here Now. And if you know any record company executives, tell them to Click Here Now too.

I've hit a major plateau in my weight loss, and I can't help but think that there MUST be a psychological element to it because I'm basically stuck at 200 pounds.  200.8 to be precise.  I just can't seem to get below 200.  I've said all along that 195 was my goal, but these last five pounds have proven to be unbelievably difficult to lose.  Over the last three weeks or so, I have weighed in at EXACTLY 200.8 pounds at least four different times, including today.  Several times I've been slightly higher than that, but never lower.  I just can't seem to break that level.  

In any case, I have until October 23 to get to 195.  That's the day I have my stress test and echocardiogram.  Since I scheduled it back in early August, I've been saying I wanted to have my weight loss goal completed by then.  Thanks to this plateau, that's in jeopardy now. 

Part of the problem is that I haven't been walking as much, and the reason for that is because my foot is injured from walking so much.  It started out as a problem at the ball of my left foot (I self-diagnosed it as sesamoiditis), but now it's moved into what must be a tendon or ligament along the anterior-medial side of my foot (that's the top-inside for you non-medical types).  I can still move around just fine, but it hurts, and when I actually go for a power walk, it flares up even worse.  So I've not been walking as much in an effort to let it heal, but it's not healing very quickly.  Of course, I also am on my feet 8 hours a day whether I walk in the mornings or not.  I got some inserts for both my walking shoes and work shoes, but I can't tell if they are helping or not.    

It sucks getting old.    

In any case, once I DO get down to 195, I'm going to post those "before and after" pictures I promised earlier this summer.  I had taken some "before" pictures of myself in January, when I still weighed 250, planning on starting a New Year's resolution workout routine.  That didn't pan out so well, but then the heart attack happened and the weight loss finally started for real.  So ladies, just keep waiting with bated breath for those topless Scott pics.