The making of an action hero, pt14

Entry #13. There’s a war out there, a war for the future of human kind. Agents Squish, MX, and I are on the front lines patrolling, hacking, and claiming new ground for humanity. Saturday we loaded up Squish’s mobile command center and drove out to a secluded piece of managed property for some quality field work. I grew up running wild in birch and pine forests. This wasn’t anything like my youth. Our chosen area was crossed by streams and standing water. Thick clumps of saw grass stood belt-high. The ground seemed to give way with every other step as my boots sunk into the mud. Patches of sticker bush were everywhere. In spite of the ruff going it was nice to be outside. Dear sign was all over the place, so fresh that even MX could see the tracks. Frogs and cicadas harmonized with woodpeckers and whippoorwills. Squish and MX waded in a stretch of sandy-bottom stream while I kept watch in the shade of an old lightning struck tree. The only sign of civilization was the distant rumble of cars and the chirp of the tracker program searching for X.M. fields. After our brush with nature, we drove through Hunt Valley and hacked a series of enlightened portals while claiming new territory for the humanist movement. You can’t go a hundred feet up there without encountering a lay-line. Agent MX walked me through a gas station to grab iced tea while Squish refueled the command center. Iced drinkage tastes better after an hour of ruff hiking in 90 degree weather; it tastes of achievement. The last week has been a win for the most part. I averaged 305.4 pounds, a drop of 1.04 pounds. Food has been generally good, with particular avoidance of ordering out and junk food. I made BBQ chicken wraps on the fourth. They were done up with peppers, onions, cilantro, and chicken lightly sautéed in Andy Nelson’s BBQ sauce and topped with jack cheese. I had two and a couple glasses of wine with dinner. I also tried out a marinated salad that came out acceptably, though some tweaking is required. Saturday I had dinner at my parents’ dining room. They make heart healthy food, but have less healthy options where desired. I had tofu lasagna, squash with tomatoes, and a green goddess salad with light cheesecake for dessert. It was delicious and I was very full afterwards. The more I focus on eating healthy, the more I get pushed toward vegetarian choices. I like vegetarian, but I like meat too. It’s just sort of working out that way. Sunday the dam broke. We were reading a fantastic book called Promise of blood (book one in the powder mage trilogy.) It’s one of the best books I’ve read in the last year, bar none. One of the characters is a chef, a very accomplished chef. The description of all the food plus the late discovery that I was out of some of my basic ingredients lead us to order dinner for the first time in a month or more. I really really really wanted a burger. I made the call with every intention of ordering a chunk of charred meat with bacon and cheese and all the fixings. I ended up ordering a chef’s salad with added bacon and a piece of lemon cake for dessert. I don’t know what happened. It kind of bothers me because there wasn’t a conscious choice involved. The woman read off the description of the salad with all the veggies and it was ordered before I really thought about it. Before that she read off all the pizza specials and they all sounded terrible… I still like the idea of junk food. I like the remembered and media enhanced perception of the 1100 calorie meal. When it comes down to the thing, the act of ordering, my mind recalls the calorie counts for all the side orders of fries and 800+ calorie burgers…and it just doesn’t sound as good any more. I feel like a kid who just found out that Santa isn’t real. I don’t get it. It isn’t like any of this is new to me. The lair is coming along nicely. I still need a good workbench, a second shelving unit, and a real executive desk. That said, our cleaning lady helped me move some of the furniture around to a more efficient design. I’ve trashed a bunch of random junk, freeing up lots of space. My goal is to have a working room up and running by October. That’s going to take picking up a low table for the brunette’s display case, the afore mentioned components for me, and some major hanging of posters and pictures. The light box came today. I am making every effort not to drag my feet on the exercise. For this to work, as with so many other things, I have to build myself a foundation that I can live with. The box is part of that, providing me with the chance to set my sleep cycle in order and hopefully raise my spirits. I have lots of projects, but making exercise part of my life again will take priority. Now I have to use the box, put myself on a regular schedule that will get me up earlier, and find instructional materials for the steel clubs. I started today at 305.8 pounds That’s been my most common number lately three or four times over. I had a bowl of oatmeal and blueberries for breakfast with a banana and a glass of milk. Work meal was a turkey and Swiss wrap, an apple, and a snack pack of mixed nuts and crazens. For dinner I sautéed whole garlic cloves, sliced yellow onion, diced tomatoes, chicken sausage, sliced mushrooms, diced red pepper, and sliced zucchini in pesto sauce. I added one of our few remaining cans of cream of mushroom soup to thicken the sauce and spread the mixture over penne pasta. It was full of veggies and flavor and goodness. The brunette even approved of the zucchini which is a miracle. We split a gourmet bar of salted dark chocolate for dessert. The plan: My first reward to myself will be a pair of metal framed, mirrored aviator glasses when I average less than 300 pounds in one week. Squish has agreed to help me pick something that won’t make me look stupid. This is grate motivation since I’m getting tired of MX styling better than me while on our Saturday jaunts.