Took a day for meself, and meself only. Back-cracker appointment was AWESOME, feel like a new body after the last couple weeks of pinched nerve fun. Maybe tonight I can get some rest.

Spent time with Duct-tape fams I don’t see near enough of, tickled Godson, and completely hog tied and tossed the Diet into a duffel bag today. I’ll pay, thats alright: this diet is more habit building so that such times as this aren’t downfalls.

I’ll be working on this weeks podcast tomorrow after Domestic Duties are attended to, so Look for that in the early eve.,

L,L,L,L,L!

Simple day, mostly under my own supervision,,, I’m one of the couple Emps at the J.O.B. that get that privilege. Installed a sensor on a clients gate, then came back built a hobnob of pipe into a pedestal for an AC unit in one of ‘our’ rental properties. Then spent the rest of the afternoon installing Bossmans powered gate. Finishing specifically, as this has been a months long project, from building and installing the rolling gate (months back) to installing the pedestal for the new (sorta) gate operator (last week) installing said operator (this week, had to wait for the electrician to make a power drop for it) and today, fine tune after attaching the drive chain. Works good, simple operation with no exit wands, or keypad entry, just a couple of key fob remotes and one obstruction sensor so the gate can’t close if’n a car or truck is in the way.

FINALLY got around to emailing Francis, His new/old site is back up and operational since the host of his last site turned feral or something. Was glad to know that he hadn’t folded up the house and went packing for greener pastures (or worse, he isn’t exactly a spring buck either.)

Still workin’ the Blue Work Truck angle,,, no word back yet, but from what Son of Bossman says, this guy moves at glacial speeds and contact may be ‘sometime next month, or next year with the holidays fast approaching’,,, Thats fine, it allows me to put myself in better financial footing for when/if such manifests itself. (and I am doing all the manifestation tricks I know,,, we’ll see,,,). sorry, still no pics as I wasn’t on that site today. Maybe Monday,,,

Update on my “Diet”,,, Still doing the timed eating schedule thing. 9am-2pm. Thats 19 hours of fasting with a short window to let my body know, ‘no, we aren’t in famine mode’. On my last notch in my belt, pants fall off my ass if I don’t hitch up constantly, even with that last notch in the belt. Gonna have to add one soon. And I am not losing as much weight as you might think from that description. I AM losing mad visceral fat though. The belly is shrinking, but the arms and legs are putting on some mass: lean stuff, but it’s there. I get one ‘feast day’ where I go whole hog and can eat as much as I want, (only in that window though) but NO SODA/POP,,, Water, coffee, teas (green tea with stevia ROCKS) water with ACV and a pinch of sea salt during the fast period (7 hours after the last bite has been swallowed, to the next morning. The ACV really kicks the hunger urge to the curb.).

So what am I eating? Yellow fin tuna in olive oil, one or two cans per day. 1lb of cheese, I prefer Colby-jack, or sharp cheddars, one avacado, or I can have raw broccoli. I use olive oil and vinegar for the veggies, not a bunch of crap dressings. The one splurge I allow myself with the tuna if I plan ahead is a hardboiled egg and some organic olive oil or avocado oil based mayo. Ya gotta watch these though. I spent $6 on a jar from one maker, and yeah, it had olive oil in it, but the second oil was CANOLA,,,, I didn’t even open it. I gave it to one of the emps at work. OILS TO AVOID, Soy, corn, sunflower, canola; basically any SEED oil. Palm oils are ok, but be frugal with them, the others, like coconut oil are ok too. BUTTER is absolutely fine, but I should be strictly butter, not a blended hybrid. Lard and tallow are allowed too. I am going far off the beaten path to avoid SOY anything. No soy-sauce, looking at ingredients with a magnifying glass if need be to make sure NO SOY, even if that means I pay double for my tuna tins. (of which I buy 50/50: olive oil or spring water). If I have a short day at the J.O.B., I will buy a steak, like a rib-eye or porter house when I get Mama-kats DedKow. More for variation as the protein density on Kow is lower than that of Tuna. My target for protein intake is 0.6g/lb of bodyweight/per day. I’m not tracking my fats, only my protein and sugar intakes (which is well below 50g/day now.)

Do you see something there? All of those things we were told ‘would kill us’ when we Gen-X’ers were kids, are on that list, and the crap we grew up with is now the verboten list.

Also severely cutting the carbs of all sorts,,, as little bread/pasta as I can get away with, which is essentially NONE AT ALL. I pass the buns from a sandwich off to Cosmos, and he noms on them like they were treats, where I get the ‘guts’ of that little beasty. That’s not often though; maybe once a week.

to date, I have lost 20#. I’m sitting steady at 190#. It was fluctuating for a week, 190-195, but has fallen off and stayed down for a solid 7 days now. It’s not the weight that bothered me, it was the flabby nature of it. I’m a guy, not supposed to have teats dammit! IF I could trim that belly and other flabby areas, I would be perfectly comfortable at 210. It’s when the package jiggles when moving that I get annoyed. (though I do enjoy seeing the ‘jiggles’ in the womanly kind,,,)

Anywhoos,,, it’s Friday, my back has an appointment with the Cracker in the am. Gotta get myself straightened out. Been feeling a pinched nerve in the neck area that has traveled down my shoulder and arm. Mad pains,,, Getting that taken care of, and then I start working on improving my calesthenics again. Hard to do push-ups when your arm feels like someone running a hot spike down it from the neck to the elbow, every time you move. (and when I get that into routine, I bump up the protein intake to .9g/# to help encourage the muscle repair/replacement)

More tomorrow,

And if you have a suggestion for the next “The Cog Speaks”, let me know in comments. I have something I am working on, but thought to open the channels for suggestions as well.

Live

Learn

LAUGH

Love

LOAD

PS: I forgot to mention my baselines: Glucose, BP, etc,,,,

Glucose average when I started this ‘trek’ was around 115, with spikes at meals in the 150 range. Not horrible but showing signs of insulin resistance. BP was averaging right around 125/85 at rest, between meals. It would elevate after eating. Those two baselines are now 70-80 glucose, spiking to 105 after meals. and my BP is down 110/70 at rest with 120/78 after eating. Digestion takes more energy and blood flow.

I’m seeing all sorts of improvements and even my arthritis is at bay. The pinched nerve in the shoulder area is due to “me stoopid” and hauling pipe from the yard to the shop, on the same shoulder every danged time. We have younger emps that I should employ for that but, me being me,,, don’t wanna wait,,,

go see his collection

Ill be back with more later (banking day so bizzy day)

Is anyone else feeling it? Things popping up that make you go ‘hmmm?’,,, Little things, like some strange video popping up in your suggested viewing, or someone near at hand, known or not, saying something that answers exactly something you were thinking about?

Think on it for a minute while I tell you about my day.

Doing some feild work with the crews, nothing spectacular to talk about, usual hum-drum sorta stuff. BUT, there was a truck, obviously ‘abandoned’ for some time, in the lot we are fencing. Not just a truck, but a WORK TRUCK, one with the Boxed bed, much like this

Older, obviously, and BLUE, not that eye blinding white. (apologies for not taking pics while I was there,,, if I am back there tomorrow, I WILL,,,)

And I asked one of the guys there working, if it might be for sale. His response “Well, it ran great before I parked it there. We shut down that part of the business. I’ll ask the owner. Any idea of what you’d wanna offer?”

Immediately I popped with “$1500” off the cuff and sorta low-ball. The truck would fetch that in scrap prices. It has been sitting for a damned long time, and is gonna need mad TLC,,,

“He’d probably let it go for that,,,” So I gave him a card and,,,,

Haven’t heard a danged thing back yet, but NOW, I’m working on coming up with that 1500 ‘just in case’. The truck boxes are in excellent condition and what I saw under the hood didn’t look horrid (usual stuff that congregates under long parked vehicles) A little high on the milage (195K) but thats around break in for a Chevy 350. Heck, Buffalo has a 4.3 (shortened 350) with 332K on the clock, ORIGINAL block!!!

And its a 5 speed: not a slushbox.

Do I need another truck? Yes and no. It would be nice to have that secondary option. It would also be nice to have a “Dedicated Work Truck” where I could leave my tools LOCKED UP when not needed, AND would open up other doors for side work. People look a little askance at you when you pull up with a 17′ kayak strapped to the roof of your ‘work vehicle’. I would keep Buffalo for weekend kayak/camping stuff (and I think she would really like losing several hundred pounds of tools) and be able to use my ‘new to me work truck’ for everything else.

No, I don’t need it, but like I said, WOULD open up some doors that aren’t open (though not locked) yet.

BUT, its gonna come with costs,,, Gonna need LOTS of TLC as I said. Not sure how long it has been parked, and yes, I could have asked, but the moment slipped by me. But right out of the gate, I see tuneup parts, brakes, tires battery, FUEL LINE CLEAN OUT, and likely some exterminator actions (packrats and god only knows what bugs have ‘moved in’.)

And this ‘window’ may slide right by me and the current owner blows a gasket over my lowball bid.

BUT if you don’t roll the dice, you can’t win. I saw this truck, saw its potential, and ‘rolled the dice’. I can come up with that much but its gonna put a hurtin’ on me for awhile,,, Definitely NOT the way I would prefer to handle this sort of transaction, but there are times where you just have to jump, leap of faith style.

Will see.

But that sorta pulls me back around to that “Wyrd Vibes” thing. Normally, I would have looked at that truck and felt pity for it: “poor thing, such a good beast left to rot away in a feild,,,,” TODAY, a whisper said “Ask if they wanna sell it” and never once did I think “WHERE DO I FIND THE MONEY”, something told me, if need arose, that money would be there,,, AND I DIDN’T DOUBT,,,,

Universe? My Gaurdian Angel, Nudge? one of the gremlins residing in the back of my cranium tweaking neuro-receptors? I dunno, but there was no doubt, TO ME, that there were outside forces in play. IF this comes to be, I will know for fact that this was destined, not serendipity. I ain’t making plans for it, but I am looking ahead to potential futures where I am getting my knuckles busted getting a work truck back on the road and in legal eagle readiness.

So have you experianced something off of late, that made you tilt your head to the side like a pupper hearing a strange noise? OR overheard something, from a source that had no relavence to the point, that answered a question you had? Or saw something ‘odd’ that ‘felt’ like it was meant ‘only for you’ to see? Tell the rest of us in comments.

Live

Love

LAUGH

LEARN

LOAD

‘

This image is a screenshot of a screen on my phone. Downloads of Files, and in this case, audio files in particular.

For ONE month. Since I started that podcasting thingie specifically.

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Be careful following the Masses: sometimes the ‘M’ is silent.

Because time is the real currency—and once it’s gone, you don’t get a refund

“The man who knows how will always find a place in life,” says the adage, “but the man who knows why will be the boss.”

The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
 —H. L. Mencken

And the Wrap up!

When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the question students asked him most was: Do you believe in God? And he always answered: I believe in the God of Spinoza.

Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.

According to Spinoza, God would say: “Stop praying. I want you to go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to sing, have fun and enjoy everything I’ve made for you.

“Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That’s where I live and there I express my love for you.

“Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don’t blame me for everything that others made you believe.

“Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can’t read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son’s eyes—you will find me in no book!

“Stop asking me, ‘Will you tell me how to do my job?’ Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry or bothered. I am pure love.

“Stop asking for forgiveness, there’s nothing to forgive. If I made you, I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies, and best of all, free will. Why would I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How could I punish you for being the way you are, if I’m the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of god would do that?

“Respect your peers, and don’t give what you don’t want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life—alertness is your guide.

“My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, not a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now—and it is all you need.

“I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.
You are absolutely free to create in your life. It’s you who creates heaven or hell.

“Live as if there is nothing beyond this life, as if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist. Then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is an afterlife, rest assured that I won’t ask if you behaved right or wrong, I’ll ask, ‘Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?’

“Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don’t want you to believe in me, I want you to believe in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.

“Stop praising me. What kind of egomaniac God do you think I am? I’m bored with being praised. I’m tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy! That’s the way to praise me.

“Stop complicating things and repeating as a parrot what you’ve been taught about me. Why do you need more miracles? So many explanations?

“The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.”

Y’all take care out there today,,,,

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