Motivation

Well, I went to the doctor to find out about the sleep study. Just like diabetes, I sort of have sleep apnea. It's normal to have a little problem sleeping. Most people never even know it. I stopped breathing just often enough to need a C-PAP machine. If I feel like it. Or I could just get a mouth piece to hold my jaw forward more. Eh. Or I could have surgery. Oh, hell no.

Or I could just lose 30 pounds.

I decided to go ahead and get the damn C-PAP machine. I plan on losing the weight, but I figure I have a better chance if I'm not yawning while I work out. Plus, after I lose weight and don't need the machine The Man can use mine and leave his old machine for emergency backup. After all, his is pretty old. He'd be in trouble if it broke. I can't see him waiting 7-10 days for a new machine to get shipped.

So Tuesday somebody is coming here to bring my machine and show me how to use it. Oh, happy, happy day.

On the bright side, it's free.

Spring Cleaning

We've had an extremely late bout of spring cleaning here at the Cud household. I kept saying I wanted to clean up the basement on my vacation, but never did. Yesterday we finally started. We got a lot of just plain junk ready to throw out next trash day. We're going to move a lot of stuff around down there. I'm going to have a place finally for all my candles and candle supplies, and we're moving down bookshelves from the office so I can finally unpack books that haven't seen the light of day since we were flooded in 1993.

We decided to fix up the walls like before, so The Girl and I hit the junk stores today for sheets to hang up for walls. We're going to tie-dye some white sheets we found. There was a web site that showed how to make tie-dye bubbles with marbles that we're going to try. We bought all kinds of colors to try, plus I bought some tulip and daffodil bulbs to jazz up the flower bed.

Sleepy Time

I thought about kicking and screaming, but knew it wouldn't do any good. Wednesday night I went in for the sleep study. I forgot to wear the pirate eye patch. I was disappointed because the lady that was in charge came in and woke me up about 3am. She made me put on a C-PAP machine, so maybe I have sleep apnea like The Man. Of course, the sleep lab is set up for only two people, and the other person being studied that night worked second shift. He finally said there was no way he was going to go to sleep and just left, so I'm hoping maybe that lady was just bored and thought she'd mess with me for the fun of it. I won't know what the actual verdict is until next Wednesday. I hope I don't really need to use a C-PAP machine. I mean, The Man uses his and it's really made a big difference, but surely I don't need one. I'm getting sick of going to the doctor. Every time I go in I end up with more pills. I think next time I go in I'm going to tell him I need something for my prostate. I bet he'd write me a prescription.

What Next

I went to the doctor again today. I've been having trouble sleeping. Not trouble getting to sleep though. I get to sleep okay, but wake up in the middle of the night with pain in my lower ribdal area. It feels like wearing a bra a couple of sizes too small, but a little lower. The doctor said it sounds like, get this, I might have sleep apnea. He said that area is right where my diaphram is, so it sounds like I'm straining myself trying to breathe while I'm sleeping. That's why I don't get this pain while I'm awake, and after I sit up for 45 minutes or so reading the pain goes away.

So now I have an appointment for a sleep study next Wednesday. On Speak Like A Pirate Day. I told The Man I was going to wear The Girl's pirate eye patch during the sleep study so I could sleep like a pirate. He always shoots down my best ideas.

Better Than Kittens

We have new carpet. Again. I'm sure I probably mentioned our carpet woes before. The Man went on a mission earlier this year. He wanted a new improved living room. Something like Bush's theory of Shock and Awe bombing. Pow! New living room. We went out and bought new furniture and carpet. Had to replace both. This is the third try on the carpet. The first carpet was defective. The individual threads fell out all the time. When they moved the furniture to replace that carpet they broke the new love seat. Oops! We called the furniture store and they said no problem, a lot of customers have problems with that style. You would think they would quit selling it if it was obviously defective, but no. So now, for the first time in my life I have leather furniture. It's not as bad as I thought, but not as forgiving as cloth concerning cat claws.

You would think they would quit selling the carpet we picked out because the second try wasn't any more successful than the first, but no again. That carpet started shedding, too, so we picked out a totally different brand of carpet this time. Mohawk carpet in a color called Tea Party. Sort of shag-ish light brown, tannish color. Hopefully the color of tracked in dirt and animal vomit.

I told The Man if we have any problem with this carpet we were just jumping right to Plan J. Staple kittens to the floor.

Hangin' With Mr. Stabby

I've been using the blood tester I named Mr. Stabby. So far, I don't think I really have much of a problem with diabetes. If I just cut back on sweets and get my lazy butt off the couch more I'd be fine. My blood sugar was only over 200 once, after I'd had some goodies. Donuts or something. I'm on vacation this week and I thought it would be fun to have a sugarfest and see how high I could get it. The Man put his foot down. Apparently that's a Bad Idea.

I'm still going to make myself some yummy snacks, but I'm not going to go into a sugar coma doing it. The trick is to have a little piece of something extra special instead of a whole lot of something ordinary. I just have to decide what extra special treats I want. I'm going to go for the old fashioned cinnamon toast one day. Maybe I'll have that for breakfast tomorrow. I wonder how that is on wheat bread? Probably need extra cinnamon. I also want something drenched in honey, I just don't know what. Maybe an English muffin. Those are excellent with honey. Bagels not so much. The honey just rolls right off them. Biscuits rock with honey drizzled all inside.

Yes, believe it or not, I'm not dreaming about chocolate. Well, not completely. I think I'm going to get some chocolate ice cream. Something as full of chocolate as you can get. Chocolate chunks and fudge ripples. Just no coffee or mint. Marshmallow and nuts are fine, coffee and mint are not. But not a big bowl full of ice cream, just a small cone. Just one or two scoops, not five or six. Everything in moderation. Except crack or meth. Don't do drugs, they're bad, mkay.

I haven't forgotten about the get my butt off the couch part either. I'm planning on cleaning house this week. In the basement I have a workout gym and treadmill I want to start using again, but the basement is just such a depressing place with all the junk piled around. It's not as bad as it used to be, but it needs a good shaking out. I know I have boxes full of books down there lost in a sea of miscellaneous things we've accumulated and forgotten about. The basement could be really nice. It's got a pool table and hot tub and workout equipment. If it was just cleaned up it would be like going to a spa every time I go downstairs. Why would I want to sit on the couch and watch TV all day? I've got lots of CDs I never listen to just because I'm always sitting on my ass watching TV. If I was downstairs I'd play them. The Boomtown Rats, Simon and Garfunkle, 10,000 Maniacs, Violent Femmes, Planet P, Hank Williams, Georgia Satellites, Rush.

I could have a lot of fun downstairs. I could even write on my laptop downstairs. I'm trying to decide if I want to NANO in November. I'm in a writing funk, still tweaking Sassafras, plus stalled on the sequel. Taking a month off of both and writing something completely different might get the old noggin working. I could even blog downstairs. And read some of my long forgotten books. I don't even know what I have down there in those boxes. I've probably read half of them already, but that still leaves boxes full of books to read. Plus if I saved all those books I already read, I must want to read them again, right? I wouldn't just keep a book for no reason, would I?

Homeland What?

I was listening to NPR on the way home from work today. They were talking about the national tragedy of designer knock-offs. Apparently that really is a national tragedy because they said to call Homeland Security if you have a problem with someone smuggling in counterfeit shoes or whatever. I feel so much safer knowing Homeland Security is protecting me from fake sunglasses and backpacks, don't you?

A Quick Course In Economics

Well, my toothache is gone. So is my tooth. I went to the dentist today and had to make a choice. Either spend $2000 on a root canal and crown, or $200 to yank the tooth. Even considering insurance would have paid for half of either one, I still didn't want to spend $1000 on one tooth. Our finances haven't been exactly rosy since I had to take off work practically all summer. Plus, the dentist said my tooth was pretty busted and a root canal might not have worked anyway. Apparently I have a plunging cusp. When I chew my teeth slam down on each other funny, and it makes the molars crack. That's why I had to have that other tooth pulled a year or so ago. Coincidentally, it's the exact same tooth that went bad this time as last time. Well, exact except for being on the right instead of the left. Duh. So now my mouth is symmetrical again.

Back In The Saddle Again

Well, my extended vacation ended last Monday. I've been working half-days, just 10 to 2. I have to work all next week and then guess what happens? I get to go on my scheduled week of vacation. It doesn't seem right to go on vacation after only being back two weeks, but I'm just going to have to be brave. The first day back was pretty rough. I felt like my brain shrunk while I was out of work. I couldn't remember how to do simple things at first, like transfer calls to supervisor type people, or look up movies. Don't tell anybody, but when I got real flustered a couple of times my finger slipped on the call disconnect button. But you didn't hear it from me. Luckily it's all pretty much come back to me. The first couple of days I just made notes of the things I couldn't remember and asked my coach how to do them, so that's helped.

On a slightly less optimistic note, of course now, when I've had a pinched nerve, high blood-pressure, diabetes, and cabin fever, now I also have a tooth ache. The last time I went to the dentist he said a couple of my molars were starting to crack and I should think about having them capped. I think I thank too long. At least on one.

So the Man set me up with a dentist appointment for the first day of my vacation. What a treat. Then the vague pain in my tooth transformed into a pounding agony. Not complete, stab myself in the eyes with an ice-pick pain, but I didn't think I could wait almost two weeks to have it looked at. So I got another appointment set for this Tuesday. I thought I would probably be able to last until Tuesday but I wasn't sure. Surprisingly, today my tooth actually feels better. About the way it did the first day it hurt. Maybe a little more, but not a lot. I just have to make it through tomorrow, and then the dentist can torture me all he wants.