Well, where do I start...

Since I last posted anything, I've:

• Not made any progress on the Life, Liberty, and Levin 'transcript' I promised
• Made some progress on the Foreign and Domestic series
• Weeded, tilled, and planted the family garden plot at grandma's
• Started some container plants here at our house as a bit of an experiment
• Thrown my back out
• Visited the ER with a 'cardiac related event'
• Officially started being tracked by the government

So let's get started.

Life, Liberty & Levin Transcript

In a nut shell, I've been either too tired or too sore to make any progress on this front. I really want to make progress as the interviewee is discussing a rather relevant topic in EMP's and the US electrical grid.

Foreign & Domestic Series

The characters continue to face an uphill climb as they attempt to overthrow the corrupt government of President Alejandro Calderon. I did an interview some years ago with James Burnette over at the Survival Punk Podcast and he asked if I could write him into the story and kill him horrifically. Well, I took the requested character A LOT further than I anticipated. So much so in fact that the character is one of the antagonists in the final two installments of the series. But, he’s almost dead and Calderon’s days are slowly coming to a most glorious and climactic end.

Family Garden Plot

Winter, or more specifically the winter wind, did a number on all of the perennial herbs. Fortunately though, looks can be deceiving. With a little trim, most of the herbs returned. I chomped at the bit for a few weeks there in early April, but I managed to refrain from jumping the gun and getting my plants killed by frost this year. I suck at asparagus though. I don't think they get enough sun in that bed. I think I have to start over and move them to a bed that gets more direct sunlight. I mean, I'd prefer to trim the trees instead, but the in-laws seem attached to the damn things (the tree limbs) so I can't. Everything is in the ground now and by all accounts seem to be doing well. I did lose 2 of 18 corn stalks to some sort of nibbling pest like a squirrel or chipmunk, but everything else survived intact.

Container Plants

This is an interesting development. I provided the wife with a variety of heirloom seeds for her biology classes this year. She has since been bringing home mature plants to transplant into our garden at home. However, my garden was supplanted by construction last year. As a result, some of the plants have gone to the family plot over at grandma's and the ones we retained are in containers here at the house. The last time I did container gardening it didn't go well. I've learned from my mistakes and I think we should be successful this go-round.

It did make me think about various reasons for container gardening though. Here's my mental list:

• Can easily be moved when inclement weather approaches - meaning frost, hail, torrential rains
• Space limitations
• No weeding
• Easy transport in emergencies (wink wink)
• Light weight (relative)
• Easy rotation when height or width becomes and issue and small plants need to be placed in front of or next to larger ones

Threw my Back Out

Yea, so that was fun. Here's the story... My neighbor had a bunch of pots. Some were plastic, some were 'self watering' (yeah right), and there were a handful of terra cotta one. They weren't using them anymore and he had them all lined up along his garage and they were pretty much an eyesore to me... so I bought them. Plus, I knew that my wife was coming home with all of these plants from her biology classes.

Once I had them on my side of the fence, I spent several hours the following day cleaning all of these things. Apparently the lifting, and scrubbing, and being all hunched over for several hours on end wasn't good for my back. As a result, my back decided to seize up and tell me who's boss. Pretty much didn't and couldn't move for about two days... Went to work on Monday and it hurt too much to even sit at my desk and even type so I called it a day and went home at 11:00. 

Why was I so vigorously scrubbing a bunch of pots... well, probably because I'd not been taking as good a care of myself as I had fooled myself into believing so I got to visit the ER a few weeks prior to this... read on Macbeth.

Visited the ER

On Saturday, May 5th, we had a guy at the house giving us an estimate for a sump pump install. I literally fell asleep talking to the guy at our kitchen table.

Mid sentence... no, really.

After he left I took a four hour nap. It was 11:00 am and I'd been awake less that 3-4 hours and managed to sleep for another 4 hours...

Weird. Totally an aberration... never happened before, I thought.

On Sunday, May 6th, I'm getting dressed for church when I feel light headed, dizzy, nauseous, and my chest really freaking hurts. I'm 44 years old and I have chest pains? You've got to be freaking kidding me.

I'm scurred.

So I finish getting dressed and tell the wife I need to go to the ER... she doesn't believe me and continues to nonchalantly fold laundry. Somewhere in the middle of me telling her how much I fucking hate laundry and that it is literally going to be the death of me, I tell her I'll drive myself.

She finally gets the memo.

Six hours later I am home and the doctors have upended my world. They have told me that I experienced a 'cardiac related event' due to an acute undiagnosed sleep apnea condition most likely the result of carrying 250 pounds on a 5' 11" frame.

After a few weeks of tests, it is discovered that I have no heart related issues. I have severe weight related issues.

So, I'm now on a diet, forcing myself to increased levels of activity, and monitoring everything that goes into my body. Good times. Which is why, I am now being...

Tracked by the Government

Yeah, my youngest daughter, whom I scared the crap out of with my little trip to ER, has 'forced' me to be her FitBit buddy! I now have a little wrist band that tracks my movements, levels of activity, sleep cycles, heart rate, and whole host of other crap.

I look at it and think, Great, now the 'man' knows where I am at all times...

My daughter sees me eyeing it and shaking my head in disapproval and says, "Tell that 'Ron Swanson' voice in your hear to shut up. You're walking me down the aisle, mister."