In the Neighborhood

Saturday night was my last night as a night dispatcher.  My choices were:

1. Take a pay cut and stay in dispatch
2. Go back to driving

I chose option 2. So I’m in transition from being a “night person” back to being a “Day Walker.”  The kids won’t need to keep quiet anymore when they get home from school because “Daddy’s still sleeping.” We can go back to having as normal a family as we possibly can, considering our personalities.

Will I miss dispatching?  I don’t think so. The stress will be less, and the paycheck will probably go up a little, because I’ll be working more days each pay period.

And I get Christmas off on my new schedule!  Woo Hoo!

I am committing to posting more often than twice a year.  I post more on Facebook than I do here.  Shame on me.

Yesterday I realized that my jeans were dirty. Or at least they were in the hamper. Jeans are not truely dirty until they can stand on their own and outrun you. On a whim, I tried on a pair that have been in the closet for 3 years now. They are one size smaller than what I normally wear, and they were depressingly hard to get on normally. To my surprise, they fit with room to spare! I’m down one shirt size, too.

I’ve been seriously working on my weight since the middle of February, and for the first time I can appreciate the results so far. I still see FAT when I look in the mirror, but maybe now it’s not as much as before. I have a long way to go to get my body fat percentage down to where I feel comfortable, but I am on the right track and making progress.

No, I’m not going to say what size I wear, since I am still uncomfortable with how high the number is.  However, it is coming down! I now have a whole closet full of new clothes.  Well, new to me at least.  It’s been so long since I wore most of them, that they’ve gone out of fashion and are now coming back into fashion again. I knew there was a reason I didn’t throw them away.

Getting back in contact with old friends is always a joy. You laugh about the good times, and maybe touch on the sad/bad times you might have shared together. You spend most of the time with the “remember so-and-so, guess what he’s doing now” type of gossip. Before you know it, you’ve been transported back into a world of your shared memories. You remember threads, and those are woven together with the threads that others remember, and pretty soon you have a good picture going in your mind.

Recently, I was lucky enough to reconnect, on Facebook, with 5 people from my high school days. I had been in loose contact with one of them for a couple of years now, but we never really talked about the past. It was more of a “how are your children doing” type of connection. Well, through this friend I connected with 4 others.

Suddenly I am thrust back into the threads of my memories from school. “Do you remember Mr Moody and his Garlic Cooking?” “Hey, how about those black gym clothes.” “Have you heard from So-and-so? He’s a preacher now!”

Some names I remember, some I don’t. Some names I associate with a face in memory, and some draw a blank.

It’s fun to romp down memory lane, and reconnect with old friends. Looking at the way my friends turned out, for better or worse (more better than worse), makes me happy that I have their friendship (however out of date it is), and how blessed I am to have a wonderful wife and exceptional kids.

I look forward to getting together with these people from my past so that I can brag up my family, and catch up with my friends.

And who knows, maybe they’ll help me toilet paper Old Man Mahoney’s house, down on the corner.

If you can’t remember your log-in for your Blog, it’s probably a pretty good indicator that you need to write more.  Or at least post something.

I have another meeting with my new personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness this morning at 8am.  The previous trainer I had needed to go back east for a family issue and may not be back for a while, so I was transferred to this guy.

He changed my routine around and I’m still sore. Today should be interesting.

Last week, we were on a Disney cruise to the Mexican Riviera (Cabo San Lucas & Puerto Vallarta). Today Matthew was diagnosed with a sinus infection and strep throat…and his asthma is kicking up. I think we officially suffered from “TMFS,” Too Much Fun Syndrome. If you ‘re interested in the photos and comments from our trip, here is the link to our Cruise Blog.