I was up and at the gym at 6:30am this morning. Not really a particular reason other than the fact that I was awake. I will be working on getting myself back on a real schedule and working out is a fairly important part of that.

Later in the day Sandy and I went and walked the mall since it was raining and had Chic-fil-a for lunch. I feel a bit old because I found myself complaining that 2 meals at a fast food place was $23. I feel like it was rare that I spent over $5 for a meal at fast food joints but that was longer ago than I think I’m sure. Ahh, more of the joys of getting older.

While yesterday was nice weather-wise, we’re back in the cold today. I guess that’s Texas winter for you. Had I been in Erie it would have just been cold.

It’s mom’s birthday today, she’s 82. Exactly 30 years and 4 days older than I. We’ll be getting together tomorrow for lunch to celebrate both her and my birthdays at Saltgrass. That should be nice.

Got a haircut today. It’s short and the weather is cold, I should have thought that one through but honestly, it looks so much better. I remember having long hair in school and I wore it well but I don’t think my hair grows the way it did, takes forever to grow in and looks like a mop when it does. To prove that here is my PA driver’s license from back in the day.

I had almost forgotten that part of being an alumni from WGU gets me unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning. One of the classes they have is on WordPress and while I’ve been using it for years, I’m far from being an expert. So I started taking the classes associated with WordPress and I’m a little excited about it. I haven’t really touched my six-monitor Windows 11 development computer since I left ThinkTalent four months ago. That computer was only ever used for work so it feels odd to be on it without doing TT work on it. I’m slowly making it my own again. I do need to do a thorough cleaning and backup of the information. But wow it’s nice to take a class on the dev computer. Six monitors and no waiting. Windows 11 has a built-in SSH client and with WinSCP, it’s almost like being on a native Linux box.

I haven’t spent much time in the last 4 months on a computer. Heck, half that time has been spent on the road in places that rendered the phone a bricked camera due to lack of signal. I was getting worried that I’d lost my addiction to computers, but I spent half of today sitting at the desk in front of the 10 monitors and it felt good. Missed being in the captain’s seat:)

Made it halfway through the week and it warmed up a bit, that’s subjective since it only made it to 42 but it beats 22. Lab tests are back in and I’m fit as a fiddle, not a new shinny one but one that will be around for a couple more years. The only thing that was slightly elevated was glucose because my sweet tooth has been in full effect and getting the sharing size as opposed to the family size of Heath bars just wasn’t a big enough concession. I can fix that.

Birthday meals will be on Saturday. Mom, sis and Ron will come over here and I’ll drive us to the Saltgrass Steakhouse for a late lunch and then back here for cherry cheesecake. Cortney and Sandy are going to something called the veggie fest this Sunday. I’ve rarely been happier to not be invited someplace.

Sandy and I managed to make it to the gym today, did half an hour of cardio and even a little bit of running. It was nice to get out of the house and move a bit.

The annual trip to see the doctor was today. It was nice, due to the weather no one was around. EKG came out normal, and blood work was drawn and we’ll have the results tomorrow. I always get a bit nervous for the annual physical. I guess it’s because that’s where a problem will get spotted one day. I mean it’s not even really a matter of if but when. It’s a reminder that you’re human and you’re going to die one day and you need to stop in to see if there’s anything we can do to delay the inevitable.

Other than that Sandy and I just laid around and dealt with the cold as we have been. Tomorrow we’re above freezing for a change.

We’re sitting at 26 degrees and that’s more or less the high for the day, dropping back into the teens this evening. Only issue so far has been the kitchen cold water tap, we have a heater pointed at it and it freed up the water so we should be good to go until the thaw on Wednesday.

It’s just stupid cold outside. Spent the entire day inside and at home. I was somewhat excited to be home bound with the crumby weather because there was going to be some football on. The Cowboys should be able to make short work of the Green Bay Packers BUT, that wasn’t the case. I’ve posted on here before about the curse that Jerry has hanging over the Cowboys and it was in full effect as they fell on their faces in the game. Pick six interceptions, wide open enemy receivers and the usual host of penalties doomed the boys to golf next weekend. I completely understand why they’re cursed but it’s hard to watch.

Something like 4 or so hours ago it was 63 degrees outside. I spent the day cleaning out the garage so the cars could fit in there and getting as much water out of the RV as possible. Now it’s 32 degrees and dropping into the 20s or so. We’re below freezing for the next couple of days but I think that we’re ready to roll with it. I’ve got 10 gallons of gas for the generator should the power go out. We’ve got like 100 pounds of propane in case we needed to occupy the RV and we know the battery works great too.

We’re thawing one of the cheesecakes we made so we’ll see how the quality is after the freeze and thaw. Fingers crossed it comes out well as that will be a boon for bringing desserts to gatherings. Also made blueberry muffins for giggles, they came out perfect considering I added half a bag of thawed berry’s to the batter.

Stay warm and more news tomorrow.