LittleBill

If I could have laid hands on him. We live on a very old farm, or what it left of it. The house is approximately 200 years old. We also own all the outbuildings, one of which has been dedicated to "The Man Cave". We had used it as the place where we homeschooled all our children, but now that they are gone, my wife told me to do with it as I wished. Anyway... We heat the building with a wood stove. There is an old chimney in the building from its days as the butcher kitchen or summer kitchen, and the stove is piped into that. Last week I went in to inspect the chimney prior to firing up the stove for the season, only to discover that a SQUIRREL had made it into his personal, brick penthouse. My first inclination was to smoke him out, but immediately thought that might not be such a good idea. I don't need to burn the place down just to get rid of a tree rat. So I called a wildlife removal expert. He arrived this morning, and with my assistance, spent the morning evicting Mr. Squirrel from my chimney. The process took long enough that I missed my midmorning meal, and am late on lunch besides. My stomach (such as it is) is not happy with me. The squirrel, though homeless, is still in the land of the living. Squirrels are not in season at the moment. Otherwise, he might be stewing in seasoning to pay for his misdeeds, squatting in my chimney like that.

Interesting. I hate taking these stupid supplements, mainly because I keep forgetting them. I am going to have to do some more reading. ETA: I have a fair amount of respect for the medical people in my program, but unless I push them on issues, they have a "one size fits all" mentality about things. For example, the nutritionist kept repeating that I should be aiming for 50 grams of Protein a day. After a few times of pointing out I needed twice that for my TARGET weight, she came on board with my dietary choices.

Here's a decision fatigue story. When our girls were little, they would often badger me for permission to do something outside the norm of their regular activities. If I was tired, I would tell them I would think about it for a while and then give them a decision. They would always counter with, "You're just going to make us wait and then say no, Daddy!" "I can say no right now if you want." "No, no, we'll wait!" They very often got a yes if they waited, but if they pressed the issue? NO!

Habit and practice will go a long way to overcoming bad decision making. I'm just repeating what has already been written here, but it is worth repeating. If you don't expose yourself to bad opportunities (like lingering next to the Tastykake display in the store) you reduce the need to make decisions which will deplete your mental energy and often turn out badly.

I thought this was going to be a religious thread at first. I was up walking very early in the morning the day after a late afternoon surgery, and commenced to walk a little more each day. Serious exercise waited on the approval from the medical people. Not only are they supposed to be the ones most familiar with your general situation, they will likely be the ones sewing you back together if you spring a leak.

@@bayougirlmrsc She sort of has two to her credit. The second one ran out of the woods and into the side of her car. It survived, and didn't do a lot of damage. We don't really count that one because it hit her, and not the other way around. But that first one, boy, did she paste it!

It didn't take me long to get to this sub forum. I am old, and stricken in years, as my children tell me. I have some arthritis that flares up in places, and recently my right hip has been giving me some trouble. I have been a good boy and have avoided all NSAID consumption as the doctor ordered. However, the doctor also told me that once I got through my surgery, I would be able to take them occasionally for pain, minor injury, etc. The key phrase there is "got through", as in all healed up. I called the doc's office earlier today to talk to the CRNP I see, and who seems to know her stuff when it comes to the intricacies of the various surgeries. The first time I called, I was left on hold for eight minutes before I concluded that I had been forgotten. In all my visits to this office, I have never seen them take more than two or three minutes for ANYTHING at the front desk. So I called back. The same woman answered the exact same way the second time. "Bariatric and surgery, can you hold please?" "NO, I can't hold! You left me forgotten there last time and all I want to do is leave a message!" "We didn't forget you sir. We're very busy. Who do you want to talk to?" "I want to ask my RCNP a couple of questions about some medicine." My questions aren't so much as what I can take as when. I already know I can. Now is when things got worse. The woman who was so busy that she didn't have time to pick up the #$%& phone proceeded to quiz me in detail about what I wanted to know and why I wanted to know it. She wasn't even interested in who I was for a while. She finally wormed it out of me in detail what I wanted, and THEN proceeded to start telling me what I could and could not take! I was thinking, "WTF!?!?!?!" She ended her little lecture with a smugness that just oozed out of my phone. So I said, "But you're not Alicia, are you?" Alicia is the RCNP. "No, but I've worked here long enough to know what we tell all our bariatric patients." I felt like saying something like, "Well maybe they should promote you to surgeon, lady, seeing as how you know it all!" But I bit my tongue, knowing she is the gatekeeper I need to get past. I settled for, "I would prefer to speak to Alicia about my concerns." This woman had the gall to tell me that she already knew what Alicia would tell me! The good news for her is, they have not yet invented a feature for smart phones where you can actually reach through the phone to slap the idiot on the other end. I finally got her to promise she would leave a message. I finished up by asking her who she was. She is the office coordinator. Not only am I going to speak to the RCNP about some office person giving out medical advice, I will very likely speak to her personally when I have my next appointment. Stupid $%#^&.

I don't know. I guess my Maxpedition bag would qualify, but it doesn't usually go to the shop. It rides in the truck. Are they on the site here? I will have to check them out. No, they're in the grocery store by the lunchables. It's cheese and meat bites, some with dried fruit, some with nuts. I think it's Oscar Meyer brand, but I'm not certain of that. Thank you! I will look for them at the store today. I'm already going for other groceries, so this will work out nicely.

Yer spejiale! I know, I know. I hear it all the time. I never seem to run out of people saying, "Well, aren't you special?"

I'm impressed! Three years? We've been here 17 years, and we are still working on the place. The pace has picked up considerably since the last child moved out. We've probably done close to 50% of the inside since then. But when you live in a place that long, pretty soon you find yourself doing stuff you did before, and remembering when you said to yourself, "I pity the poor guy who has to take this apart!"

WTF!?! Double post again? Does this happen to others, or am I special?

@@LipstickLady Yabut! You're in Virginny! It's COLD cold up here. When I leave my Water in the truck overnight, I don't have any water for the next day because it turned into a giant ice cube. For example, it is 21° here right now. The wind chill is 5°. I like the little cooler idea though. It would make meals a little more interesting while driving around.

@@cdsjjotn So, you're asking me to believe that you actually FINISHED renovating an old house?!? I don't think I will live long enough to get this place done. And you are right. Squirrels are pesky rodents (tree rats, we call them) but they are tasty. They don't really taste like chicken. Maybe closer to rabbit. It has been a while since I ate one. I could very likely shoot a deer from my front porch, but the neighbors would take exception. Before we bought this place, and before the development, the man who used to live here shot three deer out the bathroom window. Now that's a comfortable way to hunt!

@ That "on the road" stuff gets real old real fast. I don't travel anymore for work, but I can drive 100 miles in a day just running various errands. I've been stashing protein bars and even some canned shakes in my truck, but with the onset of colder weather, freezing is an issue. The shakes will be the big problem. With the bars, I just have to remember to put one in my pocket and let it warm up a bit before trying to gnaw on it.

Yeah, me too. During pre-op, I think they were messing with me on purpose, telling me I might not like beef anymore, or smoked meat, or bacon, blah blah blah. I was worried I might turn into a vegetarian, start wearing Birkenstocks, and buy a Prius. None of that happened. Does it really cause you pain, or do you just feel really full? Early in my soft food phase, I would get full very quickly. One more bite, and I was uncomfortably full. And I mean literally, one bite would do it. As time progressed, I was able to eat more, but I can still cross that line between full and uncomfortable if I do not pace myself and pay attention.

I must be special, because I haven't seen it yet. But now I'm curious.

@@cdsjjotn That sounds like a good plan!

We call it "cat food". Well, I call it cat food. Mrs LittleBill either glares at me or just rolls her eyes. I stock up on it when it goes on sale at the grocery store.

@@Aggiemae Thank you. Whoever lived here years ago planted bunches of walnut and mulberry for the fencerows between fields. And of course, walnut has a way of taking over. The squirrels who live in the metal porch roof on our second floor sit up there and eat the meat out of the walnuts, and then drop the husks down onto the porch. For some reason, Jester loves crunching them up.

That's a lot of fixins, but it does sound good!

@@Aggiemae We are stuffed with walnut trees here. They are all over the place. The neighbor's cats are well fed, fat and lazy, and Jester the dog keeps everything else at bay. The place is crawling with squirrels. We even had a couple of incursions into the house from flying squirrels. I wrote a story about one of those adventures.

I don't know. I guess my Maxpedition bag would qualify, but it doesn't usually go to the shop. It rides in the truck. Are they on the site here? I will have to check them out.

@@LipstickLady I took up leather working as a hobby recently. I'm going to have to make a holster for my Quest bar so I don't forget it again. I'm not sure how I'm going to fit it on my belt. My belt is getting shorter and there's a bunch of stuff on it already.

It can be all over the place, but one thing it is not, is linear. I've lost four pounds in three days, and then one pound for the following week. I have to resist the temptation to get on the scale. This is long term. At least, I hope it is. I would hate to have gone through all this and given up all the good food and then get hit by a truck.

I'd only chew a little bit. I wouldn't want to be disarmed.