The Week In Review

 

I'm using this photo on the blog every day for a little bit, in hopes reading it frequently will help get the message across !

I had said I wanted to write more in 2024 and I'm trying !

Friday 01-19-24

It was 19 degrees when I woke up this morning. The bedroom temp was 70 (thanks to the space heater), the downstairs was 70 and I forgot to check the laundry room. I sure it was in the low 60's. Temp is expected to drop today and tonight's low is forecast at 7. This will be the ultimate test of the heat cable !

As always, just when I start to think everything is going great the bottom falls out of my life. I had heard that all work from home was being eliminated in 2024 and today my boss advised they are "looking at" some office space in Syracuse. While I'd be happy to keep my job, I'm not happy with having to start commuting every day. It's the winter driving that gets me and if we end up in downtown Syracuse, I'll have to pay for parking again - which is ridiculously expensive. Then there is the gas expense. I'll be back to 12 hour work days (get up at 6, get home at 6) since my hours are 8 to 5 and that sucks. Yet again my employer is following the pack instead of blazing the trail. I will likely retire and look for a WFH job unless the office space is outside of downtown and has parking. One of my colleagues has a list of some consulting firms that would likely hire us and I think I'd be good at that ! We'll see what happens ! It sounds like our leadership may push to leave us "as is" .. but we'll see how far that goes ! Maybe knowing the 4 core members of our team will leave will influence their decision making !

So my day was ruined, and my weekend will be ruined. All I want to do now is go back to eating junk food to drown my sorrows. I guess it's a good thing I don't really have any ! 

Speaking of food, breakfast today was waffles and a yogurt. Lunch was a 200 calorie can of soup with some crackers. By dinner time I was starving. I had a meatloaf sandwich and then polished off an old hash brown casserole lunch entree - which actually expired in May, LOL ! It was DELICIOUS and I'm sad that they don't have it anymore. Evening snack was an ice cream sandwich and a chocolate cupcake with whipped cream. I also had a pack of peanut M&M's and 5 Ghirardelli chocolates. I gave in to the job news a little.

Saturday 01/20/24

It was 6 degrees when I got up at 8 am today. I was happy to find that the pipes were fine, so my heat cable is doing its job. We haven't had any below zero temps yet, so that would be the ultimate test. Before I got up I had a dream about the pipes bursting in what looked like my mother's kitchen. So weird ! We're supposed to be back in the 30's on Monday and 40's by Thursday, so I won't have to worry about the pipes freezing. February tends to bring the below zero weather, so we'll see how this winter plays out !

We had some light snow falling all morning and since it's so cold the roads are snow covered and probably slippery, so I decided to stay home. I will try a Walmart run tomorrow and I'll get the mail on Monday during my lunch hour.

It was 67 in the downstairs and 57 in the laundry room when I got up. The upstairs is maintaining a steady 68 thanks to the space heater in my bedroom. I often find Minnie snuggled up to the heater ! I plugged in the space heater in the living room around 10 am and it really helped warm it up.

From a food perspective, I'm glad I don't have a ton of junk in the house as I'd be eating it ! I had a cinnamon roll for breakfast and around 10 am I made a double pack of oatmeal. It was too much. I ate maybe 1/3 of it and set it aside to snack on later.

I'm trying not to dwell on the current status of my job. It's out of my control and I'll be fine if I have to retire. I have my pension and my 401k and I have $40k in the bank. I have no credit card debt, so things are better than they were back in 2019. I should also get 6 months of severance pay if they let me go over WFH, so that gives me time to find a new job.

Monday 01/22/24

I didn't write anything yesterday, but it was a relatively quiet day. We had some snow showers in the morning but by afternoon the sun was out and the roads were clear, so I went to Walmart. $265 later I was back home on the couch ! I did a good job sticking to my list and not bringing a bunch of junk food home. The only exception was 2 boxes of Pop Tarts. They are my current addiction but I haven't been eating them every day. I also stopped at McDonald's after Walmart. I ate the fries on the way home and had the Quarter Pounder once the groceries were put away and the cats were fed. I bought a vanilla milkshake too, but I put that in the freezer and never had it. It turned into tonight's dessert !

Weather was warmer today - it was 28 by noon and that's a huge improvement over the temps of the past week ! 4 of the stray cats were waiting for food when I checked this morning. They haven't been around the past couple days because of the cold and the snow. It was good to see them, though I didn't see the older male and the tiny orange cat. I'm sure they will turn up eventually. 

From a food perspective, today was so-so. I had a Nutrisystem cinnamon roll for breakfast and late morning I gave in to Pop Tarts. About noon I had a yogurt and later a Nutrisystem pepperoni pizza melt. I had some cottage cheese in the late afternoon and that held me until dinner, which was a bag of riced cauliflower and a Nutrisystem entree, chicken fettuccini alfredo. Then there was the milkshake, which was like soft serve because it was frozen. I also had a lemon zest cake with whipped cream before bed.

During lunch I went to the post office to pick up my package of skincare from Beekman, along with my property tax bill and the bill for my urgent care visit. My taxes went up about $40, which is no big deal. The assessed value of the house didn't change but I won't be surprised to see a jump next year because of the siding. We'll see ! The urgent care bill was only $235.70, which surprised me. I thought it would be $300 or $400 and I didn't expect my insurance to pay anything, but they paid a little of it. I used my HSA to pay the bill so it really cost me less, since my HSA contributions are matched by my employer. I will start using the Beekman stuff tonight or tomorrow and see how I like it.

Work is busy as I took on a very large project. It will probably keep me busy for the next couple of weeks. It will help keep my mind off the return to office initiative. I'm hoping they just decide to leave our team as is. 

I was going to soak my feet after work today but then I saw that a bunch of snow had fallen off the roof into the driveway. I decided to go out and shovel that away now, before it gets too heavy. Temps are going to be in the 30's and 40's this week so the snow out there is just going to get heavier every day. Speaking of the temps, it got up to 65 in the laundry room today ! I only leave the door open a crack so that the cats can get out there, so it's always chilly, but it hasn't made it past 62 in the past week. I will likely not need the space heater in my bedroom now, so I will turn that off when I go to bed tonight. 

Tuesday 01/23/24

Woke up to a balmy 32 degrees this morning ! It is so nice to be out of the deep freeze for a little bit. I say "a little bit" because the current forecast indicates we'll be back to teens and 20's by Monday. February tends to bring our coldest temps, so we'll see if we dip into the below zero temps ! My pipes survived single digit temps, so I'm cautiously optimistic I can survive below zero ! By noon it was 34 degrees and a light snow was falling. I have to admit, it's really pretty ! Temps in the house have stabilized. The space heater is off upstairs and it was 67 when I got up. That is great since the thermostat is set on 68. Downstairs was a comfy 70 (thermostat setting) and the laundry room was at 65. By noon all zones were at the thermostat temp, which was great ! Thanks to the warmer temps the rest of the snow slid off the roof but nothing made it onto the driveway. 

I got the trash ready this morning but they came for pickup before I could get it outside. No big deal as there is plenty of room in the gigantic bins they gave us. I'll be sure to put it out next week. During lunch I cleaned up the laundry room and that meant litter boxes ! They actually weren't too bad so it didn't take long. I refilled the dry food and water fountain and it was good to go ! I also refilled the k-cup carousel in the kitchen so I'm good for a while there too. I still have dishes to do and a little bit of laundry.

Work was busy because of the large project I have. 

From a food perspective, I'm doing ok. Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup and a late morning yogurt. Lunch was a burrito with salsa. Afternoon snack was 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and a Nutri Grain bar. Dinner was roasted turkey medallions and the last piece of stuffing from Thanksgiving !

I've been working on eating the older food that I have in the house. I have a lot of non-frozen dinner entrees and I have quite a few meatloaf sandwiches and chicken breast. I keep skipping the chicken breasts because they take longer to cook, which is ridiculous. Why ? Well, they only take about 10 minutes in the air fryer after a 1 minute microwave to start the warming process. I could easily throw one in the fridge the day before I plan to have it and that would cut down the cooking time. I threw one in the fridge today, so that will be tomorrow's dinner. 

I fed the cats at 5, ate my dinner and then soaked my feet ! I was done with that by 6:45 so it didn't take up my whole evening. My feet feel and look so much nicer ! I may soak them again this weekend to get more of the dead skin off my heels and the ball of my foot. I have a tough time reaching to put lotion on, so on my next Walmart trip I'm going to buy one of those lotion applicators on a long handle. You can use it to put lotion on your back too. I had bought one for mom a couple years ago and I don't think she ever used it.

Wednesday 01/24/24

It was 34 when I woke up this morning. It was the first time in a while I didn't have to put my coat on to go outside and feed the stray cats. It was tough to drag myself out of bed this morning as I woke up at 1 am and didn't go back to sleep until 3 or later. I'm glad I was able to go back to sleep but I sure would have enjoyed those 2 lost hours of sleep !

From a food perspective, the day started out well - as always ! Breakfast was a cinnamon roll followed by a late morning yogurt. Lunch was a delicious hamburger with dill pickle relish and ketchup. I don't know why I don't order the hamburgers more often, because they are really good ! I really need to get back in the habit of making salad, because even though the hamburger was amazing I was still starving afterwards. I used to have a protein shake at noon but I've been out of that habit for a long time. I had some twizzlers and cottage cheese later in the day and dinner was an artichoke stuffed chicken breast with broccoli. I went off the tracks tonight with dessert ... ice cream sandwich, Pop Tarts and a lemon zest cake with whipped cream. I'm back to starving in the evening because I'm not eating enough during the day.

I didn't "restart" Nutrisystem on Monday 1-22 as planned. The new goal is Monday 1-29 but I'm going to "try" and get my fat ass on the treadmill this weekend. 

Thursday 01/25/24

Today is another day. 24 more hours to get it right. It was 36 and foggy when I got up and the house was comfortably warm, even the laundry room ! I didn't check zone temps as they're not a concern right now. Next weeks temps look to be high 20's, low 30's during the day and high 20's at night. My heat can keep up as long as we stay away from the teens and below.

Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup and a late morning yogurt. Lunch was a pepperoni pizza melt. In the afternoon I had some cottage cheese and dinner was chicken fettuccine alfredo over riced cauliflower. Evening snack was a chocolate cupcake with whipped cream. I also finished off the bag of Twizzlers today.

From a food perspective, I'm still not back in the Nutrisystem "groove". I haven't been having my protein shake and I know the lack of protein during the day contributes to evening hunger. I also haven't been drinking enough water. I've also been too lazy to cut up a salad to have with my lunch. These are 3 relatively easy tasks that need to become habits again over the next couple of days.

I've fallen back into the habit of reading way too much news on the internet. I am just astonished at the number of cases of people killing their entire family. Clearly there is a large number of people out there with undiagnosed or untreated mental illness. I'm so sad for the innocent lives lost. I cannot imagine the mindset needed to put a bullet in any child, let alone your own flesh and blood.

During lunch I took down the rest of the Christmas decorations on the front porch. I also fixed the outlet pipe for the sump pump as it had become disconnected. I found that the elbow connection was broken, probably from the weight of the snow. Since I need to buy a new elbow I'm also going to buy a connector so they don't come apart anymore. I'm going to look online and come up with a design that can withstand the snow. I'd like to have a short piece to ground level and then a longer connection out into the yard, but it needs to be flexible so I can move it out of the way when I mow the lawn. A simple Google search found a ton of options that I will explore. While I was outside I also got the last bit of snow off the front steps and shoveled away the slush on the sidewalk in front of my house. That will make it a little safer for anyone walking by. I also scooped out the litter boxes, so it was a busy hour ! 

Friday 01/26/24

I woke at about 6:10 today, mostly because I had to pee. I also had locating my phone on my mind as I knocked something off the shelf above my bed and then couldn't locate the phone. I was worried about not waking up for work ! I ended up locating the phone right next to me but there was no going back to sleep. I got up around 6:20 and it had begun to rain. I stumbled over the oil heater in my room and stubbed the toes on my right foot. Needless to say, after I went to the bathroom I moved the heater out of the way ! From the looks of the weather forecast I won't need it for the next week, but that can change at anytime. It was 40 degrees when I got up - not bad for late January !

Breakfast was a slice of Nutrisystem french toast. I could eat 4 slices - it is that good ! Later I had Pop Tarts. I'm still addicted to them ! Late morning I had a yogurt and lunch was a pepperoni pizza melt.

Last night I indulged in a few Ghirardelli chocolates after I went to bed. I have to say they weren't that good and I regret the $40 or so that I spent on them. It was an impulse buy the last day I was in Florida. I "only" had 4-5 pieces, but did I really need them ? No, I did not. I'm eating them because they're there.

I'm still in a rut but I'm trying to dig my way out of it. I did have a spurt of energy yesterday and got all of the Christmas stuff back upstairs. My spare room is a disaster so I may try to address that this weekend. The dining room table is almost clear of clutter and my office is looking better, but there is still plenty to be done ! Tomorrow I will make a quick grocery store/post office/Home Depot run and the rest of the weekend will be all about getting the house in better shape. I really want to "clear the decks" in my office so that I can get back to working in there AND using the treadmill. I'm going to Home Depot as they have the fitting I want to fix the sump pump outlet.

During lunch today I filed some paperwork and tossed some junk that I didn't need. I'm making progress towards having a clean dining room table and office ! I also threw a  3 pound bag of carrots into the oven to roast. Part of my issue lately is I don't have enough veggies available. Bags of frozen stuff takes up a lot of room in the freezer and it's been overstuffed with Nutrisystem lately. I've delayed my next delivery until 2-5 and when I get closer to that date I'll decide if I need to delay it further. I have a TON of lunch and dinner entrees and always seem to run short on breakfast and snacks. I guess those are 2 meals I never miss ! I can supplement breakfast with Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches but I don't have a good substitute for my evening snacks. 

Well, today it became official: we have to start going back to the office 5 days a week starting as early as mid-February. I guess I'm grateful to keep my job but it's going to suck going back to those days, especially in the dead of winter. Back to paying for parking, back to getting up at 5:30 every day. Back to paying a lot more for gas. Abby is going to suffer the most as I won't be here to feed her every 2 hours. She has survived one day a month but now it's going to be 5 days a week !

Saturday 01/27/24

After yesterdays news, my day pretty much nosedived. I guess I don't like change and I'm not looking forward to going back to commuting every day. I spent the evening on the couch and slept there all night. I'm moving towards acceptance today and working out what I need to do to get ready for the change. One thing I will need is some clothes, since nothing I was wearing to the office in 2020 will fit now. Perhaps this change will help me get back on track with Nutrisystem ! When I started back on 01-04-19 I was commuting every day for the first 8 months and the weight came off. I used to eat breakfast at work so I'll go back to doing that again. Hopefully the new office space has a microwave. If I have a permanent desk I will bring my small Keurig in so that I can have coffee whenever I want.

I spent some time today reading my 2019 Nutrisystem Journey blog, to see how I was managing the food I needed for the day. I was bringing the frozen breakfast entrees & lunch entrees, along with a protein shake. I also brought raw carrots to have with my lunch and string cheese as an afternoon snack. I thought about starting a new "back to the office" blog and publishing it to Facebook, but decided against that as it would just be a cry for attention.