My dearest Marcy,

After twenty-three years of knowing and loving you. After seven wonderful years of marriage, the only itch I feel, is the itch to remain in your arms for the rest of my life.

Happy anniversary Beautiful. You are my soul mate and I will always be in love with you.

A while back I bought a bike from a friend. As he warned me the shifters on it were a bit problematic. No problem I thought, I can find some on e-bay, and I did! They broke shortly after I installed them. I got discouraged and the bike sat in a corner for over a year.

Recently the cycling bug bit me again. I came up with a solution to the shifter problem. I bought some older down tube mounting shifters and some aero style brake levers and installed them. Voila! I has a functional bicycle.

After some spit and polish and a bit of adjusting she was ready for her first ride. I decide to take it easy for the inaugural cruise and chose the longer but flatter route from my place in Oakland to Ducks in CV. It comes out to about 13 miles with about three decent hills, but nothing killer. I made it in about 45 minutes, and had no issues. The shifting is smooth. The brakes stop on a dime. The bike is a tad tall for me, so I have to get used to the handling. The ride is a bit rough do to the aluminum forks, stem and bars. Thinking about switching to carbon fork and bar, but for now it's fine. And, I have a functional rode bike! Just in time to, as I have signed up for Team In Training, and am trying to get ready for a 62 mile ride through Marin in August. Anybody that wants to join me on Sunday training rides is welcome. I will try to post in advance where and when. If you are interested in helping me meet my sponsorship goals you can click click this link. http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/moabtour09/enelsonhnm It is the page the Leukemia Society set up for me. I have not had a chance to customize it but I will get to that by the end of the week.

I'll give it a try.  http://kevan.org/johari?name=eggic71

Good idea:  Riding your bike to work in order to save money and get exercise.

Bad idea:  Not checking the weather report first.

Rode across the bridge again today.  Figured the weather had been pretty nice lately and opted not to wear tights.  Big mistake!  Twenty MPH winds on the Carquinez strait at 6:30 am makes for a cold ride.  My legs were blue when I got to work.  The ride home was worse yet.  Riding on the bridge with 40-50 MPH crosswinds was a little frightening to say the least.

I made good times though.  Its a little over 8 miles each way.  I made it to work in a little over 35 minutes.  Back to the park n ride in 32 min.  Considering the winds, I am pleased with those times.  I think tomorrow I will where my heart rate monitor and see how the ticker is handling the ride.  I think that will give me a good idea of how much of  work out it is. 

I feel good.  Not  as sore as I have been after rides.  My kiester is a little raw, but I know that will go away with time in the saddle.  My legs are not tight.  I just have a nice general tired feeling.   Time for a well earned night of sleep.

So, I went to the Psychologist last week. We had a good conversation. After much discussion, he suggested a couple of classes that might help me. That's how Kaiser does things. Everything is classes. He is also setting up a medication evaluation. He believes that I have an anxiety condition, and wants to see if there is a med that might ease my racing mind. I am not much for taking drugs, but there is something that might keep me from becoming so overwhelmed, then I will keep an open mind.

I am also going to make a big effort to get back on track with controlling my diabetes. I am putting together a work out plan which I will start next week.

I thought I had more to say, but I can't think of it right now. Except maybe, Bravo Sean Penn!

Certain things have come up lately that have made me think. There are a couple of issues that are of particular concern to me. I would like to take a couple of moments to ask my friends to do a couple of tings for me.

First, if you have a problem with me, please bring it to me, personally. I know this is not always easy, but it is the only way that these things can truly be worked out. I have been informed, lately, that I can be intimidating to talk to. This is something, I am ashamed to admit that I have never considered. Because of this revelation, I will make this vow. If you have a problem concerning me, and you come to me with an open mind, I will be happy to discuss it with you in a mature manner.

The next issue is a bit more touchy. After much introspection, I have decided that speaking in a way that is disparaging to one's character, when they are not present to defend themselves is not a practice that I condone. I do regret that, to my shame, I have taken part in this activity in the past. This is something that I wish to change. I therefore ask, that in the future, you refrain from doing so in my presence. I also ask that, if you do gossip in my presence, do not take offense if I excuse myself from the conversation. I am not trying to judge you, I merely do not wish to participate.

This week was a bit of a set back. I slipped into some bad eating habits. I also did not make it to the gym as much as I would have liked to. I did, however, manage to keep up with my daily sit-ups and push-ups.

My blood sugar reading were a bit on the high side last week. I was not paying very close attention to what and when I was eating. This was partly do to a hectic schedule, and partly do to laziness. I need to get back to preparing lunches the night before, and shopping in advance to make sure I have healthy foods in the house.

I certainly did not get the exercise I needed last week. I only made it to the gym twice. That was not enough, especially when coupled with poor eating habits. Because of this, I gained a couple of pounds, and felt generally crappy over the last couple of days. It still amazes me, how much what we put into our body has to do with how we feel. I need to get back on track this week.

Goals for the week:

1. Eat more fruits and veggies. I will make a concerted effort to eat 6-8 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, with the majority of those being vegetables.

2. Return to a regular gym routine. I hope to get to the gym at least 4 time this week. I also hope to make better use of my time at the gym.

3. I will set aside 15 to 30 minutes every day for quiet contemplation or meditation.

My new job at work is very repetitive, so I have decided to make it more interesting. I have decided to turn the hours of monotony into exercise. A three inch diameter by eleven inch long steel pin ways approximately 20 pounds as a blank. The same pin ways about 19 pounds drilled and threaded, and 22 pounds with the bolt inserted. My machine loads on a platform with a pallet on each side of a revolving wall. Each pallet has a fixture that holds four pins for machining.

This is what I am doing. I unload the pins with my left hand, bringing each pin up to my chest and before lowering it to the work table. I then reload the fixture with my right hand, bringing each pin up to my chest before loading it. While the machine runs I debur the finished pins and install the bolts, before loading them onto a shipping pallet, using both hands.

The machine takes six minutes to cycle. When I factor in breaks, lunch, machine maintenance, and material handling, I average around 40 to 50 cycles a day. That is approximately 160 to 200 bicep curls, with each arm, in an 8 hour day. I know this definitely counts as work, but I wonder if the repetitions are close enough together to count as a workout? I ask because I am logging my workouts, and and question if I should include this. Also if I am doing this at work and then go to the gym and do curls, am I overworking my arms. Any thoughts?

Well it's official. I received an email from my doctor today, concerning the results of recent blood tests. I have diabetes. Honestly, this news was not totally unexpected. I guess it is time to start implementing all of those grand plans I have for taking better care of myself.

My doctor is putting me on metformin. Yay, M and I get are on the same meds, for different reason of course. He also has left a glucose meter at the pharmacy for me. I am hoping that if I can make some changes in my lifestyle, like actually exercising, and eating better, I can make my time on meds a temporary thing. We shall see.

I understand this is not the end of the world. It is a wake up call. I seem to be getting a lot of those lately. I am beginning to think that maybe it is time to grow up. I am no good a drastic changes. I am going to have to take this one step at a time. I think making small short term goals will work better for me than huge life changing plans. Rather than say, i am going to loose 100 pounds over the next year and a half, i think I will start with something like, I will go to the gym two times next week. If I can do that and continue to fulfill the small goals, I think the big ones just might take care of themselves.

I have found a good book called Your First Year With Diabetes. I am going to pick it up tomorrow. If anybody has information or tips on dealing with this, please let me know. I am open to all sane suggestions.

Yet another medical scare this week. Some idiot placed a water bottle filled with acetone next to the machine I was running today. I mistook it for my bottle of water and took a big swig. As soon as the flavor hit me I spit most of it out. I then proceeded to puke for about a half an hour. I spoke to poison control, and they say I will be fine, I just feel lousy right now. I guess I have to smell everything before I take a drink at work. Why am I surrounded by idiots?

Snaked from Blackcoat

Here are 35 things Id like to know about people on my friends list.


01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
02) What was your dream growing up?
03) What talent do you wish you had?
04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
05) Favorite vegetable?
06) What was the last book you read?
07) What zodiac sign are you?
08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
09) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me?
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
26) What's your favorite place to hang out at?
27) Do you believe in ghosts?
28) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
29) Do you swear a lot?
30) Biggest pet peeve?
31) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
32) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
33) Favorite and least favorite food?
34) Do you believe in God?
35) Will you re post this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?