Man, business has picked up just in time. The Taurus is starting to act up, as in major tune-up time again. I’ve measured out a spare parking spot north of the laundry that everyone assumes is for the unit across the way. It is occupied, but the little old lady has no vehicle and never has company. I could always borrow a cup of boredom there, I suppose, but I want to find my own.
Here is the gas pump on the way to the wig shop, so you can do the math to get the price per gallon. I stopped at Office Bunker and got some fax and office supplies. then I measured out the scanner, it has to have a custom shelf built over the computer. That tiny office was out of space many years ago and now every change means shifting something else.
It was not the most productive day. Ruth toggles back and forth between wanting to learn something and wanting me to do if for her. I cannot emphasize enough that you cannot have both. She snaps at me when I second guess, but quickly recovers because she needs me for now. She’ll ask me to do something, then say she wanted me to show her how. My style means I have to describe it so it makes sense but often she does not want to hear that. This makes learning revert to rote memorization, which is time-consuming and hard on both the teacher and the student. Although 90% of my grade school teachers seemed to love that system.
She had a graphics artist come in. I left them alone to hash it out because she requires a lot of back and forth interaction. It is mildly comical because computers can be misleading if one does not understand the process does not include labor. The artist, who I found on craigslist, spent several hours without completing the logo, because it will never be perfect enough. He knows his computers, but I know that they won’t do what Ruth needs. She will ultimately have to compromise on that one, folks.
I sense some people are riled about what I said about labor. Too bad, but when I sit down in front of a computer and do what appears to be exactly what you do, I want five times as much money because I am doing it right the first time, and that is guaranteed. The part about labor means that if you do not know what you want and each step is dependent on the next move I make, like a chess game, you pay me the full rate – I get paid for what I know, not what I do. The most economical way to hire me is know in advance what you need and leave the room until I finish it.
That sounds stern, but hey, nobody calls me unless they have no choice. On the way home, I stopped for groceries and grabbed this interesting shot of a food that is no longer on my diet. Milk. It is not good for you after a certain age. I saw the artistry in the display, here, you take a look. Um, let me revise that. Milk, as in drinking milk, is not on my diet. I must have evaporated in my coffee and I use milk on cereal and oatmeal a few times a month.
I know, you want an update on my diet progress. Sure. I have not lost any more weight since I got the bicycle nearly two months ago. My intake consists of between 950 and 1050 calories per day of top quality fruit, rice, chicken and vegetables, with very little standard deviation. My weight of 172 pounds has hardly fluctuated in the seven weeks since I got the bike. I burn up 420 of those calories riding each day, averaging over 12 miles. That means the statistic that bike riding gets 40% of your energy from fat is suspect. If that were accurate, I would weigh 161 pounds today.
On the positive side, I am not discouraged in any way. I am roughly half again as athletic as I used to be which always makes me happy. Toning up makes you feel much younger. One of the reasons I stay with it is because I know for the first twenty years I was over-eating, I never gained anything until the end. I expect losing it will be similar. Nothing for the longest time, then a dramatic loss. I assure you, the loss will not be any danger to my health.
That is because of a factor not shared by everyone. I am the type that fat will accumulate as part of my build. Since I began riding, I have toned up considerably and now the fat “hangs” on me. It seems to have become loose on my frame and the few times in my life before when I lost weight (like working in a factory for six months), the same process occurred. I kind of get muscular under the flab, then it melts away. This time, I am muscular like that beyond anything I’ve known since I was in my early twenties. Um, some of my clothes kind of hang on me too, but I’m not buying nothing until the weight stays off for sure.
