The New Leaf
June 9, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Fitness, Puter Stuff
Tags: fat, fire, gym, happiness here i come, sleepless & worrying, tanning
So this morning I did something really different. I actually got up. As in out of bed. Then it was into the shower, got dressed, then got my coffee. I haven’t done that in a loooong time. And I actually sat at my desk today instead of geeking from my bed. I also refrained from answering emails from my iPhone while still under the covers. My morning emails tend to be more incoherent than normal when I only have one eye open. I can’t say I was anymore productive, but the shower definitely woke me up.
Around 1pm today a small “mall” (a large building with shops, bank & a restaurant) in downtown Lynden caught fire (pictures are here). Several blocks were cordoned off, at least six different fire departments were on hand, it was pretty intense. So much so that the power was cut off for the surrounding blocks, including mine. Which meant no Internet.
I took this opportunity to head to the gym. I threw myself in the microwave for another 7 minutes and got all toasty. Then it was off to this peddle machine-thingy. I worked out on the machine for 60 minutes and went an estimated 20+ miles. I burned 266 calories and it kept my heart rate above 121, according to the built in monitor. My legs were shaking after that. The first thing I wanted afterward was a McDonalds cheeseburger. Instead I headed to the deli and had them make me a healthier sandwich with some water.
It’s now about 8:40pm and I’m completely exhausted, hopefully I’ll crash soon and get an early start on my morning. It’s been pouring rain, a gray sky eyes kinda day. But I’ve managed to stay positive despite this and one way or another I’m going to stay this way.
Update 4am: Going to bed at 9pm with worries on your mind makes sleeping pretty hard. I passed out for a few hours, but had weird dreams that kept waking me up. Life at 4am sucks. I don’t think I’ve ever had a good time at this hour. When I used to stay up till this time, I was always feeling exhausted and sick from drinking too much. Or getting up this early to make it to the airport to catch a flight was never fun either. I don’t think my ability to pretend everything is alright in the world starts until much later in the day. Of course that’s many a sleepless hour from now. 
Need More Sunlight
June 2, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
3comments Categories: Castle, Squirrels
Tags: fat, gym, tanning
Back story: A few months ago I headed to my drive-thru medical practitioner to talk about my lethargy and mood. At the time the weather was dreary, but even when it’s not I tend to spend my time on the computer, in the basement, with the shades down. My sun light in-take is near mole people levels. So she had me goto the lab, where the technicians take turns trying to find a vein. (This usually takes 3-5 stabbings as my veins are oh so wily. One tech actually said that the vein “moved out of the way” just as she was about to stab it. Uh huh.) They ended up taking several tubes of my precious juice and on my next visit I was informed that I’m so vitamin D deficient I had to take prescription vitamin D. I didn’t know you could even get prescriptions for vitamins. One bloated, Nyquil looking pill a week, would give me some 50,000 units of vitamin D. In addition it was recommended I start using a tanning bed.
And that brings us to todays post. I have a gym membership that I’ve used only a couple times, but one of the benefits they have there are tanning facilities. So I headed on down for my first tanning session today, where they showed me how the thing works. All the beds were in use so I had to use the stand up unit, something that looked like a coffin/transporter/microwave all in one. I had to figure out how the stupid welding goggle things worked, then willfully stand buck naked in - The Device. There was a fear of pubes bursting into flames or burns on tender anatomy, but I figured I’d give it a go - besides running screaming naked through the gym with smoldering pubes sounded ridiculously fun.
They only let me nuke for about 4 minutes since it was my first time and afterwards I marveled at my growing bulk in the full length mirror. I don’t feel any more vitamin D-y, and I certainly don’t look any more tan.
As I headed out (clothed), past the mostly empty machines and pool I realized that I could have also worked out. I had only worn flipflops though, so lucky me I had an excellent excuse. Methinks that next time I’ll try to convince myself to do both while I’m there.
