Tuesday - morning

No word on the truck yet.  I will make no assumptions, the trucking industry and truck repair can and usually is unpredictable.  Especially when they have to order parts and have them UPS'ed in.  I'm afraid that when I do get back into driving mode, they are going to screw me for a while.  Or try to anyway.  The last I heard, they wanted me on Ennis runs.  Yeah, no.  I'll do a couple more if need be since I've been off another 9 days - they pay a lot more I found out - but it isn't permanent.  

In fact, the only communication I've had with them in quite a while was yesterday when one of the dispatchers texted me declaring that she assumes that I left the hard hat, gloves and gear in the truck.  Referring to the truck I was going to drive a few Sundays ago that ended up having no AC in it.  No, I needed new gear badly, I kept it.  She must have gotten mad at that for she didn't reply a single word.  I don't care at this point, their style of running a business is a little off.  

But then again I'm not your average truck driver either. I don't want OTR, I don't want to constantly run up and down the roads, I've done that for years and years and I'm sick of it.  My normal run is fine by me.  

Anyway, allegedly today is the day they take it into an alignment shop.  Since it already has the new parts, I can't imagine this taking much longer. 

I can tell you, I could get used to the idea of not working anymore. It's not like I haven't toiled under the sun for many, many decades.  How long were we meant to work like this? 

So, finally, a few minutes ago I got on the scale aaaaannnnnd:  My weight finally dropped 2 pounds! It's been weeks worth of stall/plateau.  I've been at 215.2 for what, shortly after I came back from vacation and dropped a lot of what I had gained?  It now, finally, showed 213.  I mean, there are times when a stall goes on so long you just want to quit and do something else. 

But besides the Ozempic and other current fad weight loss drugs, I've tried most everything else. I would only do those drugs if I were so overweight that it would be considered morbid obesity, the stuff that kills people. I'm determined to get below the 200 mark.  I've resisted sugar filled foods and the foods I normally like to eat such as potatoes and pasta for quite some time now.  The vacation really dug it's nails under my skin in stubbornly saying no, you aren't going to lose any more than the initial weight you lost after returning home. 

Like, was it even worth it? Yes, I had a good time on vacation lol, I'm not going to wallow in regret over spending 8 days eating and drinking whatever the hell I pleased.  I just didn't expect it to take this long to start losing again.  I have checked my ketosis rate fairly frequently, I've been in ketosis for a while now. It doesn't show a deep rate of it, but that's because your body adapts eventually and doesn't flood your system with ketones as it does at the beginning of starting this type of diet. In other words, it won't show a deep ketosis rate, at least in my experience and that's fine.  

Now if I could just get down to say, 205 before another plateau that would be highly motivational.  I can tell ya one thing: pants that weren't fitting at all are now falling off my ass and I'm back to having to use the third hole on the belt instead of the first one.  That is significant, at least for me.  If I try to use the first or second one, my pants fall off.  I can tell by looking my legs are losing fat to the point that are starting to - narrow up - for lack of better terminology coming to mind. Slimming down is what "they" call it but I'm not slim so I refrain from using such verbiage.  

Oh, so finally.  I have used the word verbiage when the need for it arises for - ever - and when I do, spell check comes up and if you click on it, it says word not found or something like that. Excuse me, but I am 100% sure that verbiage is a word and verbage is not.  Oh, and there it is as well! The word verbage has the red, wavy underscore!  Verbage is NOT a word! Look it up!

Oh the ridiculous things I get caught up on in minutia.  But it annoys me that these machines had the gall, the utter nerve, to correct me! LMAO.  I do tend to get caught up in what I call conversational English in these blogs, I gave up on the "correct" English a long time ago.  Seemed too formal and this is certainly not a formal blog.  I am not writing essays for the English class in college. Yet, if I'm using a word and getting corrected on it by some person's coding in a software system I want to talk to that person.  And AI, whoever codes that stuff, well it's cutting edge technology so I'll give them a break on that.  It is slowly getting better.

I still get a bit nervous in thinking about AI being a reality.  Oh, there will never be a terminator type of scenario with it. If you ask AI, it will outline the reasons why it will never be self-aware. I have asked on a couple of occasions, lol, having a conversation with it to see how it does.  A written conversation I might add, the Google version of it. It gets too caught up in being hyper-focused on a subject to the point it overlooks other important factors to whatever it is you are talking about.  You correct it and it actually apologizes. But the idea that it is always correct is completely false.  If you bring up contextual factors, it looks into it and agrees with you.  

I got way off topic. Weight loss.  2 pounds doesn't sound like much, but to me it's monumental.  It's the weight I was at went on vacation and represents 28 pounds dropped.  Now if I can get to 212 or 211 quickly, that's new territory and will get my momentum going.  I haven't been cheating on Keto at all.  Even when someone else in the house decides to take a break from their version of a diet, I don't.  We went to El Taco the other day and I just stood my ground.  No beans, no rice, no tortilla chips.  But yes on a little of the salsa and the guacamole dip.  I had carne asada steak on a bed of lettuce with cheese, dumped some salsa on it and called it good.

If I really thought about it, I would have brought my own zero net carb tortillas with me.  I have started taking my zero carb monk fruit sugar substitute with me if we're going out and I want to order unsweetened tea.  Seems funny, but it gives me the taste I am craving without the carbs or the insulin spike.  

I had the strangest dream last night. I have no idea where I was at, we'll start with that.  I was walking along somewhere in the desert and a lion came running up to me -  yes,  a  lion in the desert - I thought I was dead.  Instead, the thing laid down, whimpering and apparently wanted help.  Well, there is no sense trying to run from a lion, you aren't getting away from them. I remember experiencing complete terror and now wonder why I didn't wake up from that dream at that point.  I started examining the creature and found what it was: a large amount of cactus needles stuck in it's face.  I started plucking them off, the lion winced in pain but started to relax. At least that's what it appeared to be doing.  I got all the needles out and still examined closely - like right next to it's teeth - to ensure that they were all out and then looked at it.  It looked at me and I woke up, lol. I'm not sure if the next move would have been me for it's dinner, probably why I woke up.  

Well enough. I'm expecting some kind of communication from the company today. Even if it's to tell me at least another day or whatever. I don't contact them, they are the management of the company, let them call me. They've gotten along without me is all I can tell ya.  

I've got a couple of people working at the park getting rid of all of those ridiculously tall weeds.  I need to take in quite a large chunk of cash to the bank and deposit it into the business account so I can pay the rather large electric bill sitting around 2k.  It's actually far better than last year.  I've come to understand that when people bring in those junky old trailers, it's not just their appearance that is off. It's whatever is going on with those old ac units consuming huge amounts of electricity. Of course I assume that at least some of these people turn the temp setting to the lowest possible amount which in turn uses up massive amounts of electricity.

I don't have any of those currently. I have a couple of somewhat older units but nothing like the one whose owner I threw out of the park after she started all of that shit with me.  Lying about paying rent.  I have proof, she had a made up template.  She was drunk, she later informed and "I don't know what that was all about" acting out like that, but I'm glad she's gone.  Byyyyeeeee. So instead of close to 3k I'm at 2k, a significant difference and considering the park is completely full,, that speaks for itself. 

Oh, well we're getting the weeds out and dousing that entire area with weed killer so they won't come back.  You just can't work with that stuff in there - the trench that is.  I've had inklings of wanting to drop down into that ditch and get back to work but that stuff was there.  It will take them days to get all of them out of there and this is the same person I was talking about before where he actually has a work ethic and does what he says he'll do.  He has an 18 year old helper on such chores.  Basically, he contacted me yesterday and said work has been slow, do I have anything for him to do? Yup. Doubt he's liking it but he's getting some money into his pocket.  

Those weeds had to come out of there.  They were probably as much as 4 feet tall and have small thorns on them. It's part of the reason I haven't gone back into the ditch. Admittedly the excessive heat has also been a huge factor in my rejecting the idea of getting back to work as well.

And finally, at least for this blog entry? The kids are going back to school on Thursday!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Summer is going to be over, they will be in school all day and we get a break from all of that.  When you have kids constantly asking you for this and that and it goes on day in and day out, yes, you need a break from it.  The flip side is yes, they are gone from early morning until around 4:00 pm, but they have to do homework usually and then they are in bad moods about that.  And of course "what's for dinner?".  We make them food, obviously, but our dinner time habits have changed substantially since both of the adults in the house started dieting.

She is doing a different take. She started working out religiously every day with some of her lady friends and typically is only eating one meal a day. It's not keto, it's just a huge reduction in calorie intake. It works for her, she has lost a substantial amount of weight and is determined to continue on with it.  She started after I announced the shock I had in getting on the scale and I am absolutely going back on Keto, sorry if it's disruptive to dinnertime meals.  We were eating huge amounts of pasta quite frequently. That stuff will pile on the fat and weight.  

See? I barely wake up and kids.  I love them, don't get me wrong, they are like family to me, but both of us need breaks from them........if I can get my "old job" back and back on the Gurdon runs, I typically get home anywhere from 2 to 4 hours before the kids get home.  Yup, it's a nice break, peace and quiet.

With that? G'day. Not sure what I'm doing today but right now, just enjoying a nice, hot cup of coffee : )