Major suckage

You know how you have work friends that you aren't very close to, but you still see every day? Or at least every week? And you have a sortof camaraderie? And you count them as your friend, but as a friend you don't know very well and should probably get to know better?

Well, I won't be getting that chance now.

Someone I've worked with at 2 different companies is dead.

He was a bit of a thrill seeker, which is a mentality I'm beginning to understand, as I'm realizing I have a bit of that streak in myself.

He went hang gliding... even rode thermals as high as 18,000 feet, with and without oxygen. [When the latter happened, he looked at his altimeter, said "oh sh*t", and decided it was time to go lower!]

He surfed.

He went scuba diving.

And he rode motorcycles.

He was intense, and fun to talk to. And a nice person in general.

He works in a different building than I do. Well, "worked". I haven't talked to him much since he came over to my current company. Last week I talked to him because a friend of mine is trying to get work there. While doing so, I got to know him a little bit better, and found out his interest in hang gliding and in scuba.

I told him when he and his dive buddy decided to go out again, to please let me know (if he wanted to), and me and my husband would go with him!

I also heard about how he took a few risks in scuba... and warned him about it. I've yet to see "bad things" happen while scuba diving, but I've read enough and been taught enough about them to do my best to stay safe! I didn't want to read about him later as a statistic.

I was warning him about the wrong sport.

There's this favorite road bikers like to ride on called Jalama. Or maybe that's the city the road is near, I don't know. Two bikers died over the weekend. He was one of them. He was in the left lane and hit oncoming traffic. I think he may have taken a turn too fast, and so had to use more space to make the turn.

I found out this morning about it. And I also found out he is married with a 2 year old child!

How could I not know that about him? How could I feel like he was "a friend", and not know he was married and had a kid? What kind of "friend" am I?

There's more that distresses me about this. But it's of a religious nature, and I'm not ready to talk about that.

I feel like I somehow failed him, like maybe I could have said something to prevent his death. Or like I could have at least known him better before he died. It's really strange. I mean, I used to bump into him alot at the first company we both worked at, but we didn't really chat seriously. And then I go chat with him last week, find out we have alot of interests in common, and now he's gone.

I hate that his life has been cut short so soon. And I hate to think of what his wife is going through, and how his child is going to grow up without his father.

I hate that this was an accident. That it was preventable. That it was death due to a simple error in judgment.

And I hate that there's not much I can do after the fact. Can't undo his death. Can't bring him back so his wife and child aren't ...

Shit.

And now I'm kindof afraid to get back onto my own motorcycle. And I know I'm going to be worrying whenever my husband is out riding his.

This has totally rattled me.

We (my company) are going to hear later this week when the funeral is, and if there's going to be some sortof fund we can donate to.

Why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam?

So, last night I came home to find out that we could no longer log in to our voice mail. Huh.

Husband suggested 611, the quicky number to get technical support.

After some navigating around menu's, got to a human.

For the purposes of this conversation, I am replacing my first name with Darth, and my last name with Snoopy.

"Hello Mrs. Snoopy. May I call you Darth?"

I said, "Yes of course." with a smile in my voice.

"How can I help you?"

"Well," I said, "my password seems to have been changed out from under me."

"Ah, yes, we upgraded our software. You have these new features...", and she rolled off some of them. "Your new password is the last 4 digits of your phone number." [The first of the last 4 digits starts with 6.]

"You know, I tried to guess at it. I tried to think what you guys might have defaulted it to if you'd sent it back to the 'starting' password. '1111#'.... damn! '1112#'.... damn!"

She and I both laughed, and she said "I bet you would have been pretty upset by the time you reached it!"

I laughed some more and said I'd have probably have lost my temper somewhere closer to 3000, not 6000! :)

And now we have voice mail again. And yes, I was thinking of that Family Guy episode where Stewie doesn't know the home phone number, and tries to type it using a systematic search algorithm.... "111-1111.... Lois? Damn! 111-1112.... Lois? Damn!" :)

Today, I decided that if I was to re-dye my hair tonight, I'd better do it before we walked the dogs and my hair got all sweaty. My hair had been very recently washed, and was thoroughly dry... it was as primed as it would ever be for dyeing. And I'd been trying to find time to dye it for several days... [Red, if you must know. :) ]

I wanted to get home from the walk before Battlestar Galactica came on... I'm addicted to that show! And I was under the mistaken impression that it was on at 9pm when in fact on Friday's it's on at 10pm.

So at 6:50pm, I'm in rather a rush to prepare the chemicals. I had a box of 2RR, and 5RR. The 2RR is almost pinkish, and very pretty. The 5RR takes no prisoners. But lately I'd been in a 2RR kindof mood. I donned the gloves, spread out the instructions, put the conditioner for after rinsing into the shower, opened the bottle that you shake the stuff in, then opened the color chemical that goes into the bottle and mixes with the bottle's contents to become activated.

Poured it all in. Hmmm... it's white. And the bottle's contents aren't changing color...

Read the "color" tube. Crap. I just mixed the activator with the conditioner!

So tonight became a 5RR night instead. :)

And I walked my poor husband and our two dogs at a rather rapid pace to make it home in time for Battlestar Galactica, when in fact I had an hour more time than I had thought. :P

[Why didn't I cancel the dog walk? I'm on a diet/exercise regimen, and damnit, I'm going to lose this weight.]

Ah, well. No sense crying over unmixed hair color and activator. :)

And the fast paced walk probably did us all some good. Although I think I owe my husband ALOT for the patience he displayed when I was in a hurry to make it home for a tv show! As it was, we made it home 15 minutes ahead of 9pm... or 1 hour 15 minutes ahead of when BG was really on. :)

HMR

So, in my pursuit of health and being able to sleep, I have gone on a supervised diet with my husband. This will obviously improve my health, but should also improve my ability to sleep as being in better shape helps sleep, as well as the fact that losing weight improves sleep apnea, if you have that. [I don't know yet if I have that.]

HMR is about doing 2000 calories (kcal) of exercise a week, and per day, eating 2 of their packaged entrees, drinking 3 of their shakes, and eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables.

The 2000 calories works out to 300 calories a day approx.

Trying to eat 5 of what they call a serving of fruits and vege's is quite the challenge.

It's either 1 cup in volume or 8 oz. in weight, with some exceptions. Salad is 3 cups of leaves per serving, I think due to lack of compression. [I decided therefore that a canned of cooked spinach was a 1-1 ratio and not a 1-3 ratio, therefore!]

Beans, due to their density, are double. I'm not sure if that means you can have 8 oz of beans volume or weight in order to achieve 2 servings. I need to bug the weight counselor in our phone call.

You'd think there would be a FAQ for all of this. The weight counselor says she didn't have a FAQ. Certainly SOMEONE must have one.

So, why have I and a bunch of my friends started HMR? Most of my friends have realized they need to get serious about this whole weight-loss/health thing, and have always noticed that it's easier to learn something either when you are in a class and need to make a grade, or when you are learning on the job to complete an assignment.

Both require accountability. You don't want an "F", and you certainly don't want to get fired!

Both require accountability not from just your friends, but also from a "higher source", whether it be your boss, or your teacher. In this case, it's our weight management counselor.

Anyway, since most of my friends, myself included, have realized we need outside motivators, we went out and got them!

It's just totally weird to be doing this, though. The other day I packed a bunch of "illegal" food into boxes, and delivered them to my place of work, putting them into two shelves in a cupboard and writing "free!" on two paper napkins I placed in there! Sigh. No more chocolate sauce. No milk. No chocolate milk. No ice cream. No crackers or bread. No macaroni and cheese. Aigh! No cheese! Aigh!

Anyway, accountability is good. 'Cause w/o it, I don't think I would have lasted the... past... 5 days!!! ;)

Wish me luck.

Poetry

Insomniac (poem 1 of 2)
---------
Sing it with me!
Oh, I'm not up early... no, I never fell asleep.
Oh, I'm going to be surly, about the office I will creep

I will meander and gander and gawk and yawn
If lucky I will sleep in the eve, and not be awake until dawn

My dogs don't understand me. They want to go to bed.
They don't realize that this wakefulness has gone to my head.
My husband snores happily... in bed he does lay...
Which is where I will be wishing I could spend the sunny day

Oh, I'm not up early... no, I never fell asleep.
Oh, I'm going to be surly, about the office I will creep!

It's 5:45am. Do you know where your insomniactic bed partner is?

Ode to Sashimi (poem 2 of 2)
-------------
Free Range Bait
Roaming Around My Plate
To My Hearts Delight
We're Eating Well Tonight!

Dog rules, Part I

(1) If the doorbell rings on the tv, it is equivalent to the front door's doorbell ringing, and will be treated as such.

(2) ... no matter how much the humans yell that it's just the tv.

(3) It is a fact written in stone that the only way for a dog to sufficiently show it's affection when human returns home is to jump up as high as it can reach, scraping it's paws across every inch of the human's exposed skin. This can include the human's face.

(4) It is also a fact written in stone that no matter how long the doggy nails get, or how uncomfortable they are for the dog to walk with, the dog will still resist all attempts at trimming same nails. [Besides, the dog knows the human is just trying to test the dog: if the dog truly loves the human, the dog will avoid nail trimming in order to be more effective at item (3) above.]

(5) The couch is only for the humans...

(6) ... unless the dog manages to get onto it first.

(7) The dog can only be comfortable upon the bed if spread out as far as all appendages and the doggy frame can go. The humans should understand this and be accommodating.

(8) Eating poo is a physical necessity.

(9) Breathing poo breath into a human's face should be thoroughly enjoyed and not punished. After all, the dog is merely trying to share the wonderful taste in it's mouth!

(10) Dogs know that reading computer screens or books causes eye strain in their humans, and will therefore do their best to nuzzle said humans so that they will take a break... and also so they will do their duty of scratching the dog.

If you enter my house, expect to get sniffed in the butt, nuzzled by a wet nose, licked, pawed, and otherwise showered with possibly unwanted attention. You should also expect more of the same from our dogs. ;)