Hi ho hi ho.. it's off to work I go..

Back to the grind, as they say. I'm hoping the computer problems are all worked out.. I'm getting too old for that crap and I'm not feeling up to handling the stress... I took last week off and I just sat around for the whole week and did nothing.. I had wanted to take the time to do a bunch of stuff around the house and get out walking.. I walked once with Ron and the dog and the next two days I suffered with the pain in my hip... I think I'm in a low grade depression right now because I can't take advantage of the nice weather and get out and do stuff without paying later with the pain... Ron is so patient with me because I sat around like a lump for the whole week and only did a bit the last two days towards getting anything done..

I'm going to a seminar on diabetes this weekend with my sister. It's a whole day affair on Saturday and I'm wondering if there will be anything new that I don't already know.. I hope so.. it would be great if I could be drug free but the chances of that are pretty slim.. now if I could take off another 25 pounds to go with the 25 I already have off that might make a difference.. anyone have any ideas?

We looked into getting a pellet stove for heat next winter.. the government has some low interest loans and a few grants for that type of stuff but we have to get an energy audit done.. I know there are areas where we need improvement for sure and the wood stove we have now is pretty well done for... so in the next few months we're going to get under way with the "plan" to make our house more energy efficient.. because the price of heating oil is criminal!! That's all for now.. can someone give me a push out the door to my car?

Work and I have fallen out of favor...

Ahhh work.. it used to be my means of identification. I was that girl that worked in an office doing gymnastical mind twirls and leaps of imagination. I took great relish in a job well done (and was slightly territorial about my space and job)... who are we trying to fool.. I had my name on ever piece of equipment from pens to office chairs and god help anyone who laid a hand on what was MINE dammit!!.. not any more.. my mind set has been irrevocably changed.

The time until my retirement has become a large stone tied to my neck as I struggle to swim upstream against a tide of discontent. It's like a child preparing their parents for their eventual leaving of home by becoming rebels and struggling against the status quo with all their might until the parents are ready to kick the little jeesers out long before they are ready to leave. I'm not sure if I'm the child or the parent but either way a break is coming. But alas it is years in the coming (or until I have a breakdown, whichever comes first).. and it's looking more like the latter rather than the former as each day passes..

The beginning of the end of my love affair with my job came when we made the news.. the collective "we" of the Provincial Government.. and not in a good way. You see for the last three days of last week our computer system hasn't been working.. I shouldn't say it hasn't been working at all.. we have a split system (much like my personality) and the one that we use to process about 5% or our daily work is working (much like my mind) but the big sucker that we use to process 95% of what we do a day while passing 300 to 400 customer through our happy doors is down 95% of the day.

So we are stuck manually calculating and recording transactions for said 300 to 400 not in a good mood customers. Can you say "stress overload?".. now isn't that a nice happy, sunny frame of mind to be in while contemplating early retirement?

Oh, did I tell you that I have this week off.. great timing for a change. Let someone else deal with all the crap while I vegetate at home (much like I plan to do once I retire). Gotta break myself into it gradually.

My Theory on Weight Loss

I've had a theory on weight loss for years and it has been proven out once again today making it closer to a law of nature..

You see.. I believe when you lose weight it doesn't just disappear... it stays suspended in the air in the vicinity of your body like a fog or ghost, and when you least expect it, it will attach itself to your friends or family.

As I have said, I have lost 25 pounds and have been feeling great about myself.. my clothes are fitting better, I don't flinch from my reflection in mirrors. I foolishly thought that the weight was gone.. never to return.. and since my friends, family and coworkers hadn't had any major weight gains I pushed my theory to the back of my mind and even attempted to dismiss it.

But today I saw a friend of mine at work who I haven't seen since before Christmas and I noticed his new Budda belly. He had always been fairly fit but ummm he looked a little preggy.. He informed me that he gave up smoking and gained... you guessed it... 25 pounds. Need I say more..

My theory came rushing to mind once again. I thought the curse of the floating fat cells was a thing of myths and imagination but I was WRONG.. DEAD WRONG... so be afraid.. be very afraid.. because I plan on losing more weight.. and you could be the next victim of the fat gas.. don't say you haven't been warned!

The Before and After...

We have the before... taken a year or so ago...























and we have the after... taken yesterday...


I hadn't realised how much of a difference 25 pounds made until I took that picture.. I'm quite impressed... (even tho' I do say so myself to quote my late mother).. and you can hardly tell that I'm in constant, crippling pain eh?..

It's Spring!

Time to give the old blog a face lift. If only it was as easy to give this face a lift. I believe it is time for a new icon photo as well. That picture of me is so last year! I was told I look marvelous and hot by a guy I work with (who also told me I looked miserably in pain, how do you process that combination?) so I think that picture should reflect my new hotness, but why is it that hotness doesn't translate on to film or digital technology? You would think that we could successfully take a picture that doesn't show the reality but what I visualise myself looking like in my head. Now that would be progress.

Update on the computer front

I got my new hard drive only to discover that it was a dud and returned it in exchange for another, slightly more expensive one. When the second one arrived it wouldn't work in my computer so I opted to call a "computer guy" to pick up the said computer and see what he could do to fix it, if anything. I had images of a new mother board in my future but was pleasantly surprised (if not slightly embarrased) to find that my memory stick wasn't inserted all the way in (much like my own which has worked loose with age).. so a mere $35.00 would fix it all up sans a red face from me. I had mentioned that my power supply wasn't heavy enough for my new video card so he offered to install a new one for around $50.00 while he had the computer at his shop so I said go for it. So for $95 and change I got my computer up and running (that doesn't include the cost of the new hard drive $135. and the new video card $79.00) but now my computer rocks!!! I have 500 gig of on board memory and 500 gig of external memory and a video card that allows my 3d programs to finally work properly. Life is good.

It's time for a pity party!!

Who's bringing the party hats? I've been in pain over a month now with my sore back which manifests itself in deep, searing, tearing, rotating pain down and around my right leg and into and across my right foot. Some mornings I can't go to work because I'm in tears and some days when I go to work it takes all I have not to go home again because the pain is a wild animal taking a bite out of my resolve.

I can't even enjoy my new found weight loss. I'm down to 170 pounds and if I can't get out and walk again I fear that the weight will creep back on again. But until my doctor gets back a week from tomorrow I fear that I will have to suffer through. I do have some mega pain killers but they are nasty nasty things that I choose not to partake in. Besides the possibility of getting hooked, they make me feel like death is a viable alternative to the shit that they play with my head and body.

I had blood tests taken a couple of weeks ago to rule out rheumatiod arthritis because the xrays showed extensive arthritis in my lower back and especially my right hip which the doctor suspects is pinching on my sciatic nerve. So I don't know if there is anything that can be done or if I'm doomed to suffer with this pain the rest of my life (big bummer on that one).

So now the party's over (or at least moved to a private party at my house), time to throw the confetti, kiss the hostess and head for home. Thank you for attending.