Posts Tagged: #morningmusings

Giving a Tough Answer to a Tough Question

Today marks the one well anniversary of my induction in to the “Officially an Adult Club.” That’s the club my mother told me I joined by getting my first ever colonoscopy. The procedure went well, and, according to the doctor, I’ve got one of the top five nicest bung holes she’s ever seen.

Ok, I made that last part up, but she didn’t say it wasn’t so I can still indulge my ego 😉

Having a video shoot for my guts wasn’t the only first that occurred that day. It was also the first time I had to answer this question, “Do you have diabetes?” since being told by my doctor that I do, in fact have diabetes.

For years I’d been able to hide behind “you’ve got pre-diabetes” to answer that question with a confident no, but now things had changed. I was lying naked on a hospital bed with a few layers of thin cotton/ polyester blend covering my modesty when the inevitable question came from the attending nurse.

“Do you have diabetes?”

“Um, not yet because I haven’t officially gotten the diagnosis face-to-face yet (I get that the first Monday in June),” was my actual first try at answering that though question.

I guess I should be grateful it sounded like the copout, weak, stupid response it was. By about the third time being asked the embarrassment of ducking the question led me to I finally came to acceptance.

“I have type-2 diabetes.”

“But she did say it’s diet controllable!” I was quick to add. Have to keep hope alive somehow 😉

So now I’ve admitted it, and now I’m back on a low carb diet and doing Atkins. I’m down 20 pounds in the month since finding out, and I’m actually feeling better than I have in a while. The words still don’t come easily out of my mouth yet, but I’m getting there.

Revenge of the Son of Hello World!

Well it’s been almost two years, time for a new blog post!

So much for keeping up with this place like I promised. The weird thing is even though I haven’t posted anything in a long, long while, I have actually been keeping the site maintained and up to date.

I guess I’m tired of looking at my fully updated, fully functional Word Press blog that is also quite fully empty. Time to get off the stick and start posting regularly again.

And this time I mean it! Sure, I meant it last time too, but this time I really, really, for 99.9999% pure mean it.

I think one of the main reasons I stop posting regularly is just a lack of time. Well, I have the time, I just seem to keep misplacing it. That’s true for the time I want to spend on this blog, and for all the rest of the “Me” time stuff I’m not doing. When I finally do get some free time to do that kind of stuff there just seems to be so many things I haven’t done that I can’t decide on which one I want to do. Instead of picking something I enjoy doing and then doing it, I just elect not to do anything and just kind of stare off in to space until the time is gone.

So, what do I plan to do to change things around and actually do “Me Things” during “Me Time”? Well, not only have I always heard you need to make sure you schedule your personal time in with your work/business/other demands time, I have even spouted that advice to lots of other people. What I haven’t done is actually follow that advice, so, after 53 years I guess it’s time.

Step one in order to regain my “Me time” is to come up with a plan. I have decided to call it my “Plan for Me time”. Pretty brilliant huh? Next up is to list the things I want to be doing during my “Me time.”

  • Post to this blog on a regular, Monday through Friday schedule
  • Post at least one photograph/video a day here and on social media
  • Practice my music
  • Do some coding
  • Actually complete some of the training courses, books and magazines I have accumulated

The next step is to look at my well planned day and see where I can fit those things in. My day starts at 3:45 am. I report to the bus garage at 5:35. Fifteen minutes to prep the bus, at the first stop by 6:30am, and then every minute plotted out after that. I record all my meals, calculate carbs, everything but the “Me time” is planned, plotted, and accounted for. Since I’m already good at following schedules and plans for the things I don’t want to do, it actually makes sense to put the things I do want to do into those schedules and plans so I can actually do them.

Looking at my daily schedule I have three blocks of time that are ripe for being turned into “Me time.”

  • Every morning after I get up I pour myself a cup of coffee, grab a meal shake, and then dread getting ready to go to work. There is a good 45 minutes to an hour that I could be using to do a blog post while I check in with news sources.
  • Every afternoon between my bus runs I have about three and a half hours of downtime. Right now I spend it taking a nap, eating lunch, and dreading going back to work. Occasionally, I fill it with field trips or some other extra work, and appointments. This might be a good time to do coding, reading, and course taking since I can do some of that on the go if needed.
  • Every evening right before bed I have about a half to one hour. Working on some music should fit this spot. It’s a great way to relax, unwind, and decompress from the day.
  • On weekends I don’t plan to blog, so I can expand on the music, coding, and learning.
  • Photos and videos can be shot at any time of the day. I just need to start getting back in to the habit of doing it. I can also expand this activity on the weekends to do some serious photo/video editing.

Well, guess that’s a start. Let’s see if I can work this plan longer then the time it took to outline it 😉