The making of an action hero pt17

Entry #16 Saturday agent Squish, MX, and I hit the trail again in search of XM fields and portals to hack. Squish found a wide view function that let him map the portals in the local area the better to plot our route. We hiked near ponds, up to a golf course, and past an agricultural park. We began at the old graveyard portal. We’ve become possessive about it since it’s the first portal we ever found and the closest to my apartment. After that we cut across some paths up to an old alms house that has been maintained by the local historical society. Portals are maintained by one of two factions. Each day they lose a portion of their energy. Every time they are attacked they lose some of their energy. If you have a key to that portal you can recharge it from a distance and link it to other similarly aligned portals that are within range. The control line formed between two linked portals prevents links by an opposing faction from crossing that line. Thus hacking and linking are as much strategic as tactical. We patrol the area to hack portals and acquire items, refill our XM reserves, take down enlightened aligned portals, recharge our own portals, and search for potentially new portal sites. As we walked through the woods, we carved a stick for agent MX to pick up leaves and such. It was like one of my old boy scout hikes, wading in a pond, making sharpened sticks, talking about “stuff”, and wondering what was over the next hill. MX kicked his beach ball around for most of the hike (he still hasn’t figured out that no matter how nicely he asks I’m never going to catch the darned ball.) At the top of the alms house’s hill we rested in the shade, and snacked on almonds from my pack while kids played on the nearby park grounds. It was a great way to celebrate establishing our first control line. Today, for the first time in 4+ years, I weighed in at 299.4 pounds, finally under 300. Monday was 300.4, Tuesday was 301.4, and Wednesday was 301.6. I’m pretty sure the scale is still having issues calculating my exact weight, since there’s some variance if I get on and off it several times. Even so this is great news. It also explains why I’ve been walking around like a gunfighter lately with my left hand on my belt holding my pants up. The wilderness instructor belt is in transit to my door even now. Hopefully it will live up to its reputation. The challenge facing me right now is sleep, specifically getting enough of it. In order to exercise regularly I need to get up earlier. In order to do that and be functional during the day I need to go to bed earlier. I’ve been using the light box to regulate my sleeping patterns with some success. At some point I have to move past preparing to change my sleep patterns and on to actually doing so. That’s going to happen starting August third. I’ve been getting up at 5:30am five days a week for the last six years. It’s my default setting. I’ve thought about it a lot and while I don’t want to find reasons not to exercise, I do want to make changes in such a way that I can live with them long term. So starting August Third I’m going to: • Start going to bed at 10:00pm at the latest, provided we don’t have company, a game, or some such thing. • Order the instructional video for my steel clubs (currently delayed due to dire need for a slacks support device.) • Sit down with a friend and go through that video to learn the basic moves to start work with the clubs. • Practice the moves with the clubs every subsequent day, even if it isn’t a full workout. I won’t start getting up in the morning for a 30 minute workout until my sleep pattern is stabilized around going to bed at the right time. Yesterday I walked into the man-cave ™. I found a pile of old dumb bells and steel clubs in a corner where I left them after some recent redesigning. In-laws gave me the dumb bells years ago as a holiday gift when they heard I was trying to exercise more. Ever since I pulled them out of their wrappers they’ve lain unused under a chair collecting dust and rust. For me it was like walking into a home where someone obviously bought the treadmill for themselves and you find it covered in laundry. I will not be that person. The dumbbells reminded me that I was that person once…but not this time. Today’s intake: Breakfast=a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, raspberries and honey, a glass of water, and a banana. Work food=an apple, a turkey and Swiss wrap, a yogurt, and some almonds. Dinner=a bowl of pasta salad (heavy on the veggies), a glass of water, and a few kit-cats for dessert.