Maybe This Time

I recently decided that I was going to stop embracing the "woe is me" mindset regarding Old Age. Eight or nine years ago ago, I picked up another tick borne disease and next, within a year I had the worse run of gout I had ever had. I also chose that time to quit smoking tobacco. I was a mess. I hated Life. I figured selling my bike shop and retiring was the thing to do. Functioning like I was used to was not happening anymore. My weight ballooned to 306 pounds. I became a chubby lizard on a sad rock, fat and not happy.

In 2024, the negative effeccts of the tick borne illness lessened and the gout was under control. The off and on again Depression that came with the medical issues dissapated. I was ready or so I thought, to re-emerge full of piss and vinegar again. I had already lost a serious chunk of weight, dropping forty pounds. 

For the last two years, the positive swing I had been on stalled.... many times it stalled. Since then I have only lost approximately 16 pounds or so. I was still not exercising, telling myself, my knees and hips just weren't up to the task anymore. I remained an unhappy whiner who has had no one to blame but myself. I bet in the last two years, I have promised myself once a week, I was going to Man Up, say "Fuck the Pain" and actually get over this mental plateau I created for myself.

I have made headway with the diet problem. But diet without exercise does not a complete weight loss plan make. I was unsure if I could ride my bikes, as my balance had become shaky over the past 8 or so years. What to do? 

I remembered a friend in the area who began a fitness program by working his property using as little machinery as possible. Get a workout and make property improvements. I have considered this idea before and even promised to start doing it "next Spring", but for several years, it has been an empty promise.

Finally, over the last week or so, I have been outside poking at the obvious yard issues. At this point, I am concentrating on cutting back the jungle, particularily the recent invasion by a vine from away, called Asiatic Bitterseet. The best time to attack it is before the leaves show. 

Since I started, I have dropped another five pounds. I have worked through the pain and now with each new day of grunt work, I find I hurt less when I get up in the morning. I won't say I am back or claim "Mission Accomplished" yet. I am not even close, but maybe I have turned the broken promises into a "Maybe this Time".

In an effort to carry this effort through to a satisfying conclusion, I also hope to record my progress here in the BoZone as the warm seasons pass by.

Later ......................................

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I am just picking a tune I like. ....................

I got lost. I Googled "Number One Hits of........." First up was 1963, then 1964, 1965, ...you get the picture. I tasted so many Teen Club hits from those years, my brain numbed out and the smiles I was enjoying made my face hurt.

I was looking for the one song that defined that Teen Club period of my life. Finally, as I began to write this, "My Girl", by The Temptations hit the target. No song represented the awkward intensity of learning how to deal with young girls as a young teenaged boy. Clumsy moments of making out outside the club, sucking down some of the first alcohol of my life, and smokin my first joint. ...... Yeah, "My Girl" is a good choice alright.