R.I.P., Raquel Welch

Her charm and wit and beauty will be missed.

 

Julian Sands still missing

Actor Julian Sands went missing back in the middle of January.  He was hiking in the mountains in California and disappeared.  He still hasn't turned up, and the odds of his survival are grim.

I'd love for him to turn up safe and sound.  This is the 2020s, and the strangest things imaginable--and some that defy imagination--have been happening with some regularity, so I'm not counting anything out.  He might yet pop up with some crazy story.  Perhaps he's holed up in a cave and is living off the meat from a bear he killed with his bare hands and waiting for the snow to melt so he can come back down to civilization.  He's a highly skilled mountain hiker, so it's not impossible for him to pop back up.  I really hope something like that happens.

I think I first saw him in Warlock, and I've been a fan of his ever since.  He made an excellent villain.

I feel for his friends and family, and I hope they're dealing with this situation as best they can.  It sucks all around.

Did some pushups today

I'm finally feeling well enough to try to get back into an exercise routine.  I haven't been blowing gobs of phosphorescent yellow snot out for a couple of days now, so the sinus infection might be beat.  I'm still coughing, but that's typical for me.  After being sick, I often have a lingering cough that takes a few weeks to go away.

I did 51 pushups in a single set today.  I usually shoot for 70, but these are the first pushups I've done in a couple of weeks, so I'm okay with 51.  I should be back up to the usual amount in a few days.

I also need to get back into bicep curls with my rubber exercise band.  I know my biceps are in a poorly state, and I've got to work on that if I ever want to lift any heavy objects.  And I need to walk, too, because my legs are pitiful and my endurance practically non-existent.

Hopefully I won't have the setbacks I've had the past three years.  Hopefully I can actually end 2023 in better shape than I began it.

Well, that was a week and a half

My 2023 has not started out well.

On Jan. 2, I came down with a migraine.  That lasted for about 48 hours and was accompanied by fevers and chills and a general sense of malaise/fatigue.

On Wednesday the 4th, the headache subsided, but I also woke up that day with a sore throat.  I feared there was more fun and adventure awaiting in the days ahead, and I was right.  I came down with a sinus infection.

By the weekend, I had done so much nose-blowing that the rims of my nostrils were chapped.

I've been trying to drink at least one bottle of Gatorade each day in order to stay hydrated and help flush that stuff out.  I've been sucking down cough drops like they're candy.  I haven't done a pushup in at least a week.

So that's where I'm at right now.  I'm still sick, but not as bad as I was a few days ago.  I'm hoping this stuff clears up soon.

Also--and this just developed within the last day--I've got some pain in my toe in the same place where I had my abscess.  I figure there are two possibilities: either the toe was squeezed in a shoe too much and hurts simply because it was cramped, which I consider unlikely, or else there's a piece of scab trying to work its way to the surface from somewhere deep inside my flesh.

That's my 2023 so far.

Happy New Year to me, I guess.  :(

Here comes the arctic blast

It just finished raining here, but the wind is still gusting.  I can hear it beating against the house.

Now the really cold air is going to move in.  The forecast says it'll get down to eleven degrees today, and the temps won't get above freezing again until Sunday.  Christmas Eve day will be frozen solid the whole day.

It usually doesn't get this cold around here until January or February, if at all.  This is pretty chilly for December.

The good news is that a good hard freeze should kill some of the dormant bug eggs, thus giving us a summer with fewer bugs.  Fingers crossed.

The other good news is that I'm done with all Christmas preparations.  I need to clean the bathroom and do a few other thing, but that's it.

Keep warm, folks.

Update

Okay, it's been a while since my last blog post, and I apologize for that.  The holiday season is upon us, and there are things to do, places to go, etc.  I've made a few forum posts in the interim, but it's a lot easier to respond to a forum post than it is to initiate a blog post.  My brain simply isn't in the right mode most of the time.  But as the holiday season winds down, that should change.

The good news is that my Christmas shopping is done and everything is wrapped.  Also good news is that I haven't had a migraine in at least a couple of weeks.

On the downside, we lost Coach Mike Leach recently, and that sucks.  The crazy pirate was always a hoot in press conferences, and he brought his eccentric genius to the football field and gave us some memorable offenses.  R.I.P., Coach.

My books are now live on Smashwords!  The Draft2Digital acquisition of Smashwords seems to be complete now, or at least complete enough, because my books went live on that retailer a few days ago.  Welcome, Smashwords shoppers, and I hope you like my stuff.

I guess that's all for now.  If you're traveling for Christmas or New Year's, then I hope you get there and back safely.

Until next time...

It's raining acorns

It's been a long time since I've seen this many acorns.  Or heard, rather, not seen, because it's the racket that I'm noticing.  Just a constant refrain of rustles and bangs and thunks.

Does this mean we're in for a colder-than-normal winter?  That's the conventional wisdom, right?  I honestly don't know.  I'm not a farmer, nor do I subscribe to the Farmer's Almanac.

Right now, it's unseasonably warm.  It's 78 degrees at the moment.  It should be fifteen or twenty degrees colder.

So I don't know anything about any of this.  :/

All I know is that there are lots of leaves on the ground, and those leaves won't mow and bag themselves.  *sigh*