I finished White Nights. The girl waited three days with the fella, then just as she tore her heart out and decided that she could love him when her man did not return for her after a year, and the fella knew he was in for undying love, the guy came down the road, recognized her and off they went. That left our storyteller in the cold and that was that. Yeah, I recognize the story from at least two or three tales of high school. Is it really literature, or the journal of a few girls I met back before I was even 18? Tolstoy comes next. I hope he is better.
So yesterday was Thanksgiving. I was asked what I wanted to watch at one point in the morning, and I said I didn’t want to watch anything but would rather play some games with the girls. So the three of us played Uno while Missus worked on some things she needs to finish for Market on Saturday. She put Indiana Jones on. The girls and I did not keep score, and I can tell they had a jolly old time.
We had pork ribs and stuffing and some vegetables for dinner. It was plenty good, and didn’t include any of those weird traditional sides that I used to have to endure or ignore as a child. I never could love a yam or a sweet potato! But the roasted potatoes Missus made were just great! I only had two, so I could keep my diet mostly on track. But in the evening, I did eat four English Muffins with strawberry preserves and butter on them. I used about 1/2 a teaspoon to a teaspoon of preserves on each. So it was not like I would have done when I was young, and did not want to endure the sour taste of the English Muffins. Still, it was very good to me! And I think it was totally off my diet, but delicious none the less.
I am violating my diet more these days than I would like to in order to get my weight down across some arbitrary finish line. There is still a bit of a belly there, so I will take that as still not done. Maybe I should do a run at it till Christmas! But even though I am in violations of the diet, I am trying to be careful, such as with the minimal amounts of preserves. I think it best that it remains a change in eating and lifestyle. I know that when I eat such things, the hunger pains return quickly, and I am likely to have joint pains. Give me a bit of meat or some cheese or even a salad, and I am good for several hours without hunger. Eggs are great, though not great to have all the time. Throw me some pasta or bread, even some cereals, and things are turning into pain and hunger. Give me some milk, and I am running to the loo time after time. These things I have got down pat. The English muffins did not affect me near as bad as a bit of say, white bread on a sandwich might. I am not feeling perfect at all, and it is a bit of a pain to hold my arms up to type this, but it is not death warmed over like days before.
All this to say we ate. Then more things happened.
Firstly, our younger infant granddaughter brought her parents over for a pleasant visit. She was lovely, of course, and perfectly well behaved. I got to hold her for a while and thoroughly enjoyed that! After they parted, our older infant granddaughter brought her brother by, and his parents followed him. I made sure to sit with him for a bit and included him so he would know that while all the boring adults talked and talked and talked, he was still an important part of the family. Then I got to hold the little one, so I ignored him after that. Oops! Little one is adorable just like her cousin, and impossible to not put my full attention on while she is there on my forearm, bouncing gently, and looking so sweet. She had a bit of wind in her, so I worked to get that out. She did let one big belch up when she popped up on my shoulder for a quick cuddle, and I was pleased to hear it, though not so much to smell it. And soon they went on their way.
I tried to have a game on the VR goggles the evening, but my oldest daughter come in and talked to me because I think she could not see the VR goggles covering my face. I scolded her for her ignorance, and told her how seldom I played it, and that when I do, I would like to have the time to get going in a game before someone demands my full attention on them and generally gave her my bad vibes for her ignorance. What is it with kids these days? Why, if she were mine, I’d give her hell. I’d feel bad for doing it, but I’d still give her an appropriate does of grief so she would not make such a jerk of herself in society.
Then we talked for a while. She wanted to know what kinds of things she could do to work out and try to get more fit, as she deals with the same stupid joint pains I do. I wish she would get the breads and cereals out of her diet for a while and try that out so she could drop medical treatments, and perhaps live normal rather than like I have, ignorantly stuffing myself with the indulgences that were hurting me and doing so for some fifty-years or so. But maybe she does have something different. It would be easy to find out. Mine responded rapidly. Hers would too with just a tiny little bit of willpower.
Before long the discussion was over, I gave up on playing anymore of my game, and I went to bed and finished White Nights, only to feel unfulfilled, and a bit repulsed by how vividly it brought up memories of schoolgirls, and my hopeless hope of ever finding love at that young age.
I was shocked out of sound sleep at five in the morning by my alarm to wake Missus for her weekly rendezvous with her friend Sandy on a call to Texas, where Sandy lives. Missus had only been asleep for two hours at that point, so she was shocked when I woke her, too. She said she would like to sleep till 9AM after her call with Sandy. So I get to sleep from now till then if I would just end this.