Form: Diary

WEIGHT UPDATE

Waist 32″, neck 15.5″. Lost six inches around the waist. Two in the neck. I’m now the same size I was in college. A 16/32 trim fit shirt is perfect even with a tie. Regular cut shirts are too blousey. Getting close to a 40″ jacket. 41 is quite good. 40 in Abboud is about right. Hickley fits ok at 41. 42’s look like tents. I would love to drop five more from my tire but now muscle tone in my shoulders and abs is more important than weight loss.

Wish I was a gym rat but home workouts and yard work were always better.

My friends Andy and Todd are looking great too. I’m glad the recession applies to waistlines. 🙂

Cheers.

BEING SICK IS NOT GOOD FOR ONE’S WRITING

I haven’t produced anything substantial in the past two weeks. Thank god I’m getting closer to getting it under control. I can understand a novelist or a poet still trudging onward, but philosophy is just too steep a hill to climb when your head doesn’t want to cooperate.

Guess in on the way west to get my stomach looked at.

I DONT GET IT

So I get sick for a month and lose five pounds — and gain two visits to the emergency room. The only thing I can eat or drink is coca cola and soup. And I gave up on coffee.

And suddenly my debilitating allergy to sulfites disappears.

The only two suppressors are b12 and molybdenum. Both of which I bet are absent from cola. So did a month of not eating clear my liver or something? Was the tear in my stomach the cause? Avoiding the high sulphur content water in Canada?

I just want to know so it doesn’t return. A life without chocolate is just too painful. 🙂

OLD FRIENDS ARE A WONDERFUL THING

Had an old friend contact me today. Made my day.

ARGH

Three pain pills last night. Turned the heat up to high. Fetal position all night. This is getting really old. It’s got to be that infection in January. Did something to my stomach.

Need a clear head to write legal documents and can’t do it.

PARKING MACHINE FIRE?

So, I’m in seattle, going to the courthouse to file a document, and I walk up to pay for the parking, and absently notice that there is smoke billowing out of it, it’s carrying the powerful smell of ozone from what’s obviously an electrical fire. So, of course, I can’t pay for parking. I think about being civically minded but I call the fire department primarily in order to create a record of the problem in case I get a ticket. Over the next five minutes I have to convince two oblivious men not to just stick their credit cards in machine, despite the fact that the display is blank, smoke is coming out of it, and it emits no sign of life. More quickly than I expected, two trucks and a mob of firemen show up, followed by three guys from the parking company. All of whom attend to the meter as if it’s an injured human.

I can’t quite figure out why, but it just seemed very surreal. Something Renee Magritte would paint. I mean, it’s something to do with anthropomorphizing the parking meeter I think. But it was just… well, weird.

WEIGHT LOSS UPDATE

I keep looking the mirror with surprise and remembering that line from Henry V where Falstaff says “Do I not dwindle? My skin hangs about me like an old lady’s loose gown.”

My skin isn’t hanging about, but my clothes certainly are. Just went to Nordstrom and got remeasured. I fit perfectly into a 42″ Armani and a 40″ Joseph Abboud — Abboud’s are cut larger. The Armani looks awesome. Perfect shoulders. Not sure I won’t get down to a 40″ which puts me down there with the A-listers. Looking at 16/32 shirts, 40/42 short blazers, and 32-33 waist if I can drop the rest around my middle and back.

For a contrast with the past, I can wear a fleece jacket comfortably under my existing Ralph Lauren 46 short, and the jacket front overlaps by almost eight inches.. I’m pretty sure I’ll get comfortably into cut 42’s, which means I can wear all the trendy stuff rather than wear light wool year around. My 34″ jeans are falling off me and in the 36’s I look like Billy Halleck in Thinner. (Makes my day.)

Got my wonderful italian loafers polished today for 2.50 and they look brand new. It’s awesome to make progress. And it compensates for the medical news today a bit.

TEST RESULTS

Eh. Well. Got the scan. There is a node on my lower right neck deeply recessed that looks like a candidate. I think it’s the only one. They wanted to monitor it last year. But it’s good sized. I can feel it now that I”m aware of it. So, we’ll see what the doctor says tomorrow or monday, but it looks like I”m going in for another round of surgery.

I feel like the terminator. I take a licking but keep on ticking….

ULTRASOUND

Next test is tomorrow morning at 9:00. Can’t get in to see my doctor before the 17th. Next possible appointment is in July (argh). But at least I’m making progress. All I have to do now is get my prescriptions. I’ll have to come back to the area in a month or two for the next set of fun stuff.