Friday, December 23, 2011

The rings of time

I can now see why people are happy when they retire from working.  The past few days of waking up when my body says to, and not living on a schedule turned out to be very relaxing.  This morning for instance, I got up around 730 and as a creature of habit proceeded downstairs to make coffee.   A single real egg (watching my cholesterol)  and some eggbeaters in the pan, and a minute later I was sitting down to my typical breakfast.   Instead of rushing to work though, I sat and read the newspaper, checked some email, and got ready to go to the gym.

Not worried about time, I popped the skull candy into my ears, plugged into my Blackberry, and started up my Pandora app.  10 minutes on the recumbent bike listening to some Pink Floyd, moved onto the treadmill and switched over to Alternative.  25 minutes of treadmill, and boredom started to kick in, so onto the elliptical I went.  No rush to be anywhere, so I eased into some station called 140 BPM, a mix of Techno/Trance.  A lot of you are probably wondering about my musical choices, but the 140 Beats Per Minute (BPM) station is a great way for me to get my cardio workout done and have another 20 minutes slip by.   A few machines for upper body workout, and a 10 minute stretch, and it was time to head home.  Like I said, what a great feeling not having a schedule or time constraint…with some luck, I have 13 more years until early retirement.

This day in history did not thrill me in the least.  Who cares that Van Gogh chops off a piece of his ear in 1888.  Far more interesting was this little tidbit from 1999 “Bubble Boy” parents sentenced in Colorado.  Unless you live in a bubble, you have to remember that hoax where the dumbass dad and mom had the media and police scrambling to save his son who allegedly was in a weather balloon careening out of control. 
 
The so-called “Balloon Boy” saga riveted viewers around the globe two months earlier, on October 15, when it played out on live television. At around 11 a.m. that day, Richard Heene, a handyman, amateur scientist and father of three boys, called the Federal Aviation Administration to report that a large balloon in his family’s Fort Collins backyard had become untethered, and it was believed his son Falcon had crawled aboard the craft before it took flight. Minutes later, Heene phoned a local TV station, requesting a helicopter to track the balloon. A short time afterward, Mayumi Heene called 911.


Luke decided to help me cook dinner tonight.  Unlike the Nimrod who hid his son during his media hoax, I decided to let Luke gain some valuable skills.  Meatballs and Rotini, no spaghetti in the house, hence the pasta alternate.  Was nice cooking with Luke, who usually wants me to make my Meat Squares, or as I call them, “Bruce’s Square Balls”. Several good reasons to have them be square.  They are easier to brown in the frying pan, they won’t roll off your plate, and will ship more compactly when I market them in Asia.  More on that another day.   I have even received a nickname by a friend Mary Anne Fileccia-Mitchell
SBJ = Square Balls Jenkins…don’t ask.

Anyway, speaking of retirement, I noticed some tinsel when I was combing my hair this morning.  Only this tinsel was not on the tree but on my head.  While not the first grey hair, there seems to be a few more of them today.   Another grey hair and a day closer to retirement, maybe they are multiplying and getting ready for Christmas and wanted me to look festive.  Since it was a mostly cloudy day, and sort of grey outside, it inspired me to go grey scale for the photo of the day.
 
Photo of the day “The rings of time”

P.P.S - Still no Doom and Gloom - I think they took off for the Holidays :-)

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