Dio's WorkshopWelcome to my brain. It’s messy. It’s interesting. And it’s all connected if you stick around long enough. "Believe Nothing: no matter who said it, even if I have said it, except it agree with your own reason and common sense. Siddhartha Guatamo, the Buddha.
Was feeling a tad frustrated chasin’ “Truck”: was only able to pull together $800 and that would have left me in deficit, unable to do much more than pick up the truck and watch it rot in my presence for a several months as my finances recovered.
STILL, this is gonna put a little bit of tension on the finances, but not as deeply or as suddenly. Spread the damage out and have a little room to wiggle for stuff like tires and brakes.
What did Dio do?
I talked to Son of Bossman,,,,
I owe him now,,, and that’s completely fine. He knows that I bring my tools to the table, and that is (large) part of why I am an asset at the J.O.B.; not just my brainium,,, I’ll be pickin’ “Truck” up this Friday, towing it home using a car dolly (another of those fringe benefits I will oblige myself to). Talked to the owner this afternoon, and he is cool with a Saturday pickup if’n Friday is too mucked up. Dunno which it will be, don’t care: the deal is working towards completion and that makes me quite happy.(update: MUST be Friday,,, forgot about an planned event that can’t be missed,,,)
Fact: I tossed and turned on this all day today, ready to let the window slide closed on me,,,, THEN, I kept thinking about something I say to the boys now and again; “Hard choices, easy life. Easy Choices, hard life.” The hard choice in this case was approaching the Son of, ‘hat in hand’ and ASKING. And he had been waiting for exactly that,,,, He wasn’t gonna offer, but wanted me to make the choice of my own free-will. Yeah, there is some humbling aspects goin’ on here, but that might be needed on my end. (IS needed on my end, it makes me appreciate the deal that much more.) I SEE a future for me in that truck, and one that is NOT at the J.O.B. per-se. One where I have more say, and don’t need to watch my efforts be rewarded by a small percentage of the margin. Had I let this slide closed on me, without asking, I would always be haunted by the fact that I LET it close without trying: thats a hard road to travel and one I have no intention of taking. The hard choices made, Time to get bizzy and make the future easier. (FYI, Son of Bossman and I are only 9 months apart in age: him senior to me, but he has been much more successful in the financial world, being a business owner and what not. I have just done more and seen more of the world,,, so it balances.)
‘Bout damned time I take charge of my future instead of relying on someone else to provide the opportunity of ‘income’. Granted, there is a lot of headache involved on their end, the headaches I will have to take on myself if I wish self-employment,,, I know those headaches from my producer days, my Tour manager days, etc etc,,,, Won’t be new territory,,,,
And the future looks a little brighter for your faithful blogger/podcaster,,, Won’t slow me down a bit on the blogging/casting stuff,,, Though my days will be busier for a spell, I still take the time to let y’all into the workshop for ‘chill time’.
Yes, thats in relation to the Contractor truck I’m pursuing.
SO, instead of telling you about flaming financial hoopies and wranglin’ hopes and ideas to a standstill, I present you with something completely different.
I’ve been seeing lots of little shorts like this all week. Someone/s been busy at the desk and inputs.
It makes one wonder just what IS real these days. How many of the ‘footages’ are we being fed that are as fake as those clips? I know we had instances of Slo-Jo Xi-den with his mysterious hand passing clean through a boom mic as one example, and that one faded into the memory hole with a quickness, but what has been getting fed lately? Any idea?
Me neither,,,,
And thats part of why I have been focusing more on things like TOOLS, and TRUCKS that are elements to a future, whereas the stuff coming out of the grand picture seem more questionalbe than usual and therefore NOT TO BE TRUSTED as tactical considerations towards the future. With everything moving the way it is, and financial issues looking like an approaching event horizon, I plan on getting a better footing under my arse before the bottoms drop out. LOAD; Yup, in progress. Even if this window slips past me, I have means: this window would be a better set of means, only. Prefered, not essential.
Fact: during my nightly stop in with Da, he was telling me some of his fears for the future and I can tell you this much:: the propaganda being fed into his world is working. Stuff that I have joked about (Global warmening/coolering/change-o-matic whatev’s) has him concerned. World wide famine was another he mentioned along with some “extinction level event” being predicted. I told him to turn the TV off and go take a walk at the lake everyday instead. It will clear his head. AND, that ‘extinction level event’ thingie,,, Fuggit! IF there were to be such an event, what could you do to stop it, seriously? What could YOU do, to stop it? Not a damned thing. Maybe make like Noah and build an Ark, (and maybe that IS what Elon is trying to do in some round about sort of fashion) and pray that you beat the rain, but what if that extinction level event is more inline with that movie 2012? Where the poles shift and the tectonic plates have a Grand Mal seizure, with Yellowstone blowing its 40000 year behind schedule top amongst other chaos and calamity?
This ain’t Hollywood,,,
You can’t do a damned thing so why worry about it? That was my point to him. And I DO hope he takes my advice and gets out walking more. It would do him far more good then sitting in front of a widescreen toob and eating snacks because he’s bored. (and he earned that right, but I see it and worry,,,)
sigh
No point in wringing hands over things so far out of our control that only God could intervene. Just do whats right, right here, right now, and leave the rest of the cards there on the table and don’t worry your pretty little cranium about it. Thats my take anyways.
left turn
Trying a new ‘start to the morning’ routine. 16oz of warm water. 2tbsp of Apple cider vinegar, 1/2 squeezed lemon, pinch of sea salt, 1tbsp of Olive Oil EXVirg. pinch of cinnaman and 1/2tsp of ginger (dried and powdered) Doesn’t taste bad at all. Getting used to the olive oil slickness was odd, but once past that, goes down smooth.
Hunger cravings GONE!!! I still eat around noon (10-2 is my window. goals are 115g of protein and whatever fats I get to balance it out. Some veggies as well. More for the fiber and minerals that the proteins lack.) but ALL CRAVINGS prior are vanished. Supposedly this little concoction stimulates ketosis (and I beleive it: keto breath is real.) which means your body is converting fat to fuel to use. My mornings are clear headed, stable mood, and steady energy. I get a mild rush after eating (Protein high is what I have heard it refered to) but my Glucose levels ride in a 10 point window ALL DAY LONG.(80-90) No spikes!!!
(Hint, you MUST drink water. More water means more fat burning. Keep some sea salt handy for electrolyte additions.)
Still have my Coffee, but I don’t feel the need for it like I did. I’m waking clear-headed and rarin’ to go.
I would never have thought it possible to go as long as I have with so little INTAKE, and it has made me reassess my stores for SHTF. What I once thought of as 6 months could easily be 12 or more,,, with a careful eye to carbs. We obviously eat way too many carbs now. Spread out the carb intake and stores could AT LEAST double in time range.
(and y’all are probably sick of hearing about it. Nothing like the evangalist of a reformed hooker or addict, and I WAS addicted to sugar. Still am in a sense, though my ‘one a day’ soda/pop is becoming ‘meh, I’ll get one tomorrow’. )
MOre laters,,, Hopefully I have some news that I CAN share about the trucky tomorrows.
Still no pictures of the truck, crew leader that went to that site today has no clue how to use his phone to take a picture (I told y’all that I work with some simpletons, t’weren’t kiddn’)
and yet,,, I got the call this afternoon, that “Yup!, $1500 and you can get it, might wanna come look and see what ya need to get it out of here.”
Already did that: a car dolly or car hauler will suffice to get it home, and I can borrow either from the J.O.B.. (fringe benefits,,,) From there, its all busted knuckles, time, and copious amounts of the paper version of time as well. I know tires are needed, a battery, brakes more than likely, the tune-up parts might hold a bit longer, but are planned for, clean the poor beast out of any critters it may have squatting in various nooks and crannies. Yeah, there’s some work involved yet. Not including the paperwork side of things to get all legal-like.
The real bump I need to get over is that $1500,,,, I have it, but not without liquidating stuff, or ‘cash advance’ on a credcard (interest payments!)
And this may slide by me yet,,,
If it weren’t for the potential I see in it, I would already be ‘sliding by’; not jumping through mental hurdles, cost-benefit analysis, etc etc etc. Consider my thinking as ‘self investment’, and I don’t like making any investments using interest payments.
That potential is what doors it would open up as “Side Gigs” or even freelance stuff. I see how its a tool towards MY potential, not just what it is.
The week has only just begun, and who knows WHERE it leads,,, I may have a ‘new to me’ truck come friday, even if its a month of more before it see’s usage.
My manifestations are bearing fruit, though its not ripe yet.
Some audio ‘differences’ here, one from direct to chip recording, and I won’t be doing that again unless I am “live” in the field somewhere. The rest, the truly clearer parts, are straight to the Mac and I like this much better. Tried to do a ‘To disc’ recording so that I could just run from the hip and edit afterwards. Doubled my work load and made the audio,,, noisy is the better term I guess.
ANywhoos,,, enjoy. Putting up a mirror of this in Substack as well.
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.,
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,,,
It was the early part of the Tweens when the political divisions of the United States reached irreconcilable differences. Ted, a burnt out computer programmer, and Jim, a double amputee combat vet, reverse engineer the pentagons drone program and create a rebel air force. While traveling the country helping others defend what is left of the country, they run afoul a most evil woman intent on creating a serfdom within the country.
A beginner’s guide to going off grid. how to evaluate if you even want to make the attempt. written by the curmudgeonly author of this blog and his dog
Dio's Workshop 