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Well, as usual, I haven't updated the blog in ages - about a month to be more precise.
Things have definitely improved since I last wrote, just two weeks after the house fire destroyed Casa de Necronius. My son and I spent about 10 days at a Residence Inn, and then moved into a three bedroom apartment not far from the house. Farmer's Insurance is footing the bill for all this, I just have to keep paying the mortgage on the burned out shell of a house.
I've come to view the house fire as a sort of a crucible, both literal and philosophical. My life got kind of cleaned out and straightened up. When that sort of thing happens, you realize that it isn't all the things in your life that really matter, it is the people. I have found myself surrounded by family and friends who care about me more than I realized. From my coworkers who collected cash to help us get through the first couple of weeks, to my parents who let my son, two dogs, and myself stay with them for days without my even having to ask. Everyone in my life has been truly great during this ordeal.
Above all, my girlfriend 'J' has stood by me during this. I truly could not have mentally made it through the last couple of months without her, and I have realized just how much she means to me. A few weeks ago, my mother jokingly said that if J stayed with me through all the stress of the fire, then I should keep her. Last Saturday, I got down on one knee, and asked J to marry me, and much to my delight, she said yes.
I look forward to building a new life together, even as the ashes of the old one fade away....
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It has been nearly two weeks now since the fire destroyed my home. I'm still staying with my parents, waiting for Farmer's Insurance to find me temporary housing. I think I'm going to call them back Monday and bitch up a blue streak. My son has been at his mother's for several days now. I really haven't seen any of my kids in a week. To top all that, my ex is moving to Rock Springs, WY with her fiancee, and taking my daughters with her. This is a 5 hour drive from Denver, and will seriously cut down on my time with my daughters. One visit a month is looking optimistic at this point. My girlfriend is in Yosemite climbing with friends this weekend, so for lack of anything better to do, I did a 23 mile bike ride today. It felt good, but I hadn't ridden since the day before the fire. I'm a bit sore. I'm tired. I want to go home, and I miss my cats. I found a picture of Bailey sleeping on the couch from just a couple of weeks ago on my cell phone:  This sucks. Tags: lonely
Current Location: Home, what home?
Current Mood:  sad
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So, girlfriend 'J' has been motivating me to try and get off my ass of late. Back on Memorial Day weekend, we went camping with some friends of hers, and did a great hike, as well as a cool bike ride through Glenwood Canyon. My bike was kind of sucking that day, but after a good cleaning, lube, and tune-up, it seems to be running much better now. Of course, the bike is ancient and weighs probably 4X what J's top of the line racing bike (Trek Madone) does, but it is fine for now. With the bike in better shape, I signed up for Ride Your Bike To Work Day on June 25th. I was rather nervous, but I'd been doing a bit of riding around work at lunch, so I figured I could handle it. Normally, the trip to work is about a 9 mile drive, almost straight west along 112th Ave from Thornton to 108th & Simms in Broomfield. My estimate is that this would take me about an hour, so at 7:22am last Wednesday, I set out. I realized about a mile out that I had forgotten my work badge, but I wasn't about to go back for it. My basic route was to head west on 112th, and then pick up the Farmer's Highline Canal trail where it cross Malley street at roughly 115th ave. I had to detour a bit due to construction on 112th, but it wasn't too bad. I haven't ridden on this trail before, so my only guide was looking at maps. Turns out the FHC trail is pretty decent. It has an underpass at I25, and then winds along through various neighborhoods headed west. I ended up leaving it and taking some neighborhood trail at Federal, but ultimately, I ended up in the same place at 104th & US36. From there, the trails run out. I headed north on Old Wadsworth to 108th, then west about three miles on 108th to reach work. I pulled into work at 8:40. I was huffing and puffing quite a bit, but alive. Fortunately, work had a cool, catered breakfast for all us riders, and I even ended up winning the tshirt. Woo! The trip home was relatively uneventful, except for a large, lunging snake in the middle of the path at one point (he missed, whew). Total round trip distance, 26.15 miles. Not bad for a big guy like me. I'm off this entire week of June 30th - July 4th, so I'm chilling out a bit at home, and I went for a 20 mile ride this morning on the nearby Platte River Trail. Here's to getting off one's ass. :) Tags: bicycling
Current Location: home
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: none
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So I haven't posted anything in quite a while, but I had to share my perfect weekend. :)
Some may know that I've been dating "J" for a couple of months now and things are going great. We spent Friday evening with J and some of her friends at Chopper's bar in Cherry Creek to watch the KSU game (her friend 'T' is a big fan.). Saturday, J had to work, so I got a few things done at home, but Saturday night, we went to the Colorado Symphony and had a wonderful evening. Sunday, we got up bright and early, then picked up 'T' and headed up to Winter Park, where we spent the morning snowshoeing.
The afternoon was capped off with sushi, courtesy of J.
I truly can't remember the last time I had such an all around great weekend. I am madly in love with this girl, and I want to spent all my time with her. So.... I have invited J to move in with me, and she has accepted.
Certainly a big step for both of us, but I really think this will work out great. It should be interesting to see how my son adjusts to this. He has been warned, and seems ok with it for now. We shall see...
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Ok, taking a cue from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) dasgeek, here's some dietary honesty. I begin 2008, as I have the past 18 or so years, as a fat man. I graduated high school weighing 155lbs, I picked up the "freshman 15" and then some, weighing in around 180lbs my sophomore year. When I got married in 1993, I was up to 215lbs, and it went up from there. I have spiked as high as 280lbs at times in my life, but when I split up with the Ex 18 months ago, I weighed 267lbs. I have not done bad in the last year. I entered 2008 at about 245lbs. That's a 22lb difference for you math whizzes out there. While admirable, this amount of weight loss is vastly less than what I need to lose, or feel myself capable of losing. Following dasgeek, I flirted around a bit with the South Beach diet last year, but after moving back in with my son, I kind of lost my will and I've been sliding a bit ever since on the carbs and crappy food. I got to meet the Geek in person last summer, and let's just say he is now one skinny bastard (sorry, Geek, 'thin'). South Beach has worked phenomenally well for him, and he is my proof that it can happen. And so, 2008's resolution is the same as it has been for many years: lose weight. I know, big shock, right? My tools for this goal are simple, the South Beach Diet, and exercise. Last year, the exercise really didn't happen due to some health issues (now better), and I have learned a lot about SB and myself in the last year. Today is day thirteen of my two week phase one period of South Beach. I think I am actually doing very well. I know that the low-carb period of South Beach really does not agree with some people, but I'm doing fine with it. I've been eating egg-beater omelets and turkey bacon for breakfast, salads for lunch, and meat, salad, and veggies for dinner. I stocked up on sugar-free jello, pudding, and chocolate for the cravings, but those have largely gone away now. This morning's weigh-in put me at 234.5lbs, or down 9.5lbs, most of that coming off in the last week. Considering that I also had a severe cold last week and only worked out once, that is actually pretty good. I think the average loss for SB phase one is something like 7-14 lbs, so I'm right in the expected range there. My overall goal for this year is both a stretch in terms of recent history, but modest by my final goal. I'd like to get down to 200lbs by summertime. I'd actually look pretty decent at 200lbs and it would be a great thing. Eventually, say by one year to eighteen months, I'd like to get down to 180lbs, and then you have my doctor saying I should weigh 167lbs. (Can we just call that 170 for convenience?). I expect that final 10lbs will be much harder to achieve than the first 10 has been, but weighing 60lbs less by then ought to help a lot. For exercise, I'm not planning on anything really dramatic. Past history has shown me that I hate most regular exercise with two exceptions: running and biking. Now, my knees are old enough that I can only run on the treadmill (so far), but I've worked myself back up to 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. Not too bad for a fat-ass. What I really need to do is keep up my schedule and do 4-5 times a week, which hasn't been so great since the holidays. I have a treadmill at work, and I have one in my living room. There really is no excuse now. I'm not real big on winter biking, so I don't expect to break out the bike for a while. Getting it fixed would help too. I also have some free weights and a sit-up/weight bench at home for a bit of muscle toning, but I am not out to do heavy weight lifting. I've tried that before, and it really doesn't agree with me. So, there I have laid out my dietary shame and dreams in all their glory. Here's to a great 2008! Tags: south beach, weight
Current Location: home
Current Mood: determined
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