Archive for June, 2015

too much and too little

Author: Oldfart

Jun 29 2015

There are just too many interesting things to do in your life, and nowhere near enough life to do them all. And, depressingly, some of those things you never got around to doing are a little difficult to accomplish when you get older. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know – there are hundreds of 90-year-olds that climb mountains, right? So it’s just a matter of setting my mind to it. After all, I’m not 100 yet. Heh, right, like that’s going to happen.

It’s actually true that I once thought I would like to do rock climbing, but it’s also true that to try to do so now would be more death wish fulfillment than dream fulfillment. I’m long past my rock climbing days, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other things I wish I had done, or could do. I would have liked to have hiked the wilderness, seen more of the world, and participated in archeological digs. I once wanted to have draft horses and log with them on my own property. Now, time, physical condition and money conspire to keep me grounded in reality.

But there are still plenty of pursuits that can be followed, even from a bed if necessary. I always wanted to be a writer. I would like to write computer programs and know more about electronics. I still enjoy working in the woodshop (if I could ever get it even half-way organized) and learning new things there. And those are just a few things currently on my list.

So it comes down, as it always does, to setting priorities. And that’s what started me off on this post. There are just too many interesting things to do in your life, and nowhere near enough life to do them all. I guess it’s good that some things must of necessity fall to the wayside as ones physical condition changes. It is a kind of automatic thinning of the possibilities, leaving you with fewer options that should, theoretically, be easier to manage. The funny thing is, the longer I live, the more interesting things I find to do, and a lot of those things are not physically demanding enough to eliminate them as options.

Oh well, better to die with too many things on my plate than to die with an empty plate. If ever I find my fork empty, then I will indeed know that it is time to go. However, I just don’t see how that will ever happen.

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  • Filed under: Odds & Ends, Personal

    • never fast enough

    Author: Oldfart

    Jun 27 2015

    I fell off the old “diet” band wagon last Tuesday. I just got fed up eating what I had been eating and really, really craved some pizza. I gave in. Ordered my usual, a large, thin-crust, with light sauce, Italian sausage, pepperoni and mushrooms. Went and picked it up, brought it home, and ate the whole damn thing. After all, this was definitely off my diet so I didn’t want any leftovers.

    Other than falling asleep almost immediately after eating it, I didn’t fare too badly. I figured I would really pay a price for it. Well, it took another day, but I did. Oddly enough it wasn’t until the next afternoon (and night, and Thursday morning) that I started to feel like shit. I thought I had the flu or something, but Thursday afternoon I started feeling better. Once again, I slapped myself around over the evils of eating poorly. Sure hope I remember it next time I have such a desire.

    No, pizza in and of itself is not a terrible thing. Mass quantities of it are, and my diet doesn’t allow the crust, either. Moderation has always been a problem for me, which is why I can never have sweets or snacks in the house. I always thought, “Well, I’ll just have a few a day,” and in an hour they would be gone. I know better now, which sure helps with the diet.

    Of course, part of the problem with dieting (actually a misnomer – it is “changing my eating habits,” not dieting) is that you never lose the pounds fast enough. Once you start eating differently, you want to see fifty pounds drop off of you in two weeks. Ain’t gonna happen, and realistically you know that, but reality has nothing to do with it. It’s always encouraging to lose that rather easy ten pounds right at first, but boy, weight coming off at only a pound or two a week after that can really be depressing.

    Still, if you just keep at it, the pounds will come off. I thought that the pizza would really kill my weight loss for the week, but when I stepped on the scale today, I was actually three pounds down from last Saturday. I was shocked, but pleased. 308 pounds. Sigh. Still so far from where I want to be. Where is that? I’m not sure, but at least down to 250, and would like to be down to at least 230. That’s going to take a while, though. My closest happy point is not too far away, though. When I break that 300 pound barrier I will know that I am truly on my way.

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  • Filed under: Health

    • bookmark: bum rap

    Author: Oldfart

    Jun 22 2015

    Bum Rap – Paul Levine

    A legal mystery type novel, written by someone who obviously knows the system. That’s no surprise, as the author, Paul Levine, is a former trial lawyer. This is the first book by him that I have read so I am not familiar with his characters. Apparently this is a “cross-over” type book where characters from two separate series by the author come together in one book.

    I have to admit that I am not usually much of a fiction reader. Perhaps it’s a matter of being “jaded” by a constant flow of movies and television shows that cover the same type of material. It starts to be that if you’ve read (or seen) a couple dozen books or movies of a genre, you can pretty well guess what is going to happen in any other book. Still, that doesn’t keep me from reading.

    While not a book I would keep on my bookshelf to be read over and over, it was an entertaining diversion, as most books like this (in my opinion) are. If you are really into legal mystery stories, then you will probably enjoy this one, too.

    (Finished 6/22/15)

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  • Filed under: Books

    • bookmark: the world turned upside down

    Author: Oldfart

    Jun 12 2015

    The World Turned Upside Down: The Second Low-Carbohydrate Revolution – Richard David Feinman

    A very illuminating book, backing up much of the dietary knowledge I have been gaining. It is astounding how much “common knowledge” about what you should eat is not based on any real scientific principles. It’s hard to believe that doctors follow what are actually dietary fads just as much as people eating only grapefruit. You would think that they would have greater access to legitimate research, but I suppose, like everyone else in the world, you just don’t have enough time to research everything yourself and you have to choose based on your limited knowledge. Seems most people have been choosing poorly.

    This is an important book for those of use who have been skeptical of the “of course we know that” kind of dietary knowledge. Of course if you eat “bad” fat, it’s going to somehow migrate to your arteries and clog them. It just ain’t necessarily so, and there is damn little real evidence to support such a view.

    Like so many other subject matters, though, if you are firmly convinced that you already know “the truth” about something, you are not likely to be swayed by evidence to the contrary, so this book won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (or pound of butter). Still, it wouldn’t hurt to scan the information in this book anyways. You might be surprised at the questions it may raise about how you should be eating.

    Now, as to the Kindle version of this book, which is what I read – IT IS TERRIBLE. There are so many typos and editing problems as to almost make the book unreadable in places, and certainly much less enjoyable. This is a real shame for a book as valuable as this. I actually cannot believe that Amazon allowed this book to go on sale in this condition, but it has taught me to be wary of Kindle editions of technical type books.

    (Finished 6/12/15)

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  • Filed under: Books