2009 is over.

2010 is three days old now.

I'm not one for resolutions.

But I am one for clean breaks.

The past few years have been a slow descent into my pre-2005 world.

2010 cannot... and will not... be like that.

There was a momentum in my life from 2005 to 2007 that disappeared after my bout of the shingles. That's when my downfall began.

In February of 2007 I was 235. I am now at 305 due to pain, depression, and negligence.

75lbs to lose again!

I lost close to 100lbs before. I can do this again.

It is all about momentum.

Momentum has to permeate my life on every level. It is only when the old slacker arises that I fail in things. I have proved this to myself many times over the past few years.

No resolutions for 2010 though. Just goals.

Goals that should be easy to accomplish should I be able to find the momentum again.

1. The most important goal for early 2010 is to have an approved home study and to become a father. This is more important than anything else for my life. However, the other goals all help to prepare for fatherhood.
2. Drop back down to 240 or in that range. This is where my body always wants to be. There's no point deluding myself with 200. 240 is realistic over the coming months.
3. Figure out my shit!
4. Get my right knee repaired as much as possible. Being able to move without pain will help me keep momentum. The pain really robbed me of vigor and the momentum I so badly need.
5. Rid myself of most of these damn robots. Honestly. Not as easy as it may sound. There's money here I need to recoup to support my future family.
6. Complete the bathroom refresh. This one is easy.
7. Finish the damn garage by June!
8. Get the basement cleaned up and and a proper laundry area created.
9. Get proper shelving installed in the basement to allow for the much needed organized storage my life needs.

Those should be cake right?

Fred Sanford and I packed up the pick up and the Deluxe Luxury New Beetle with the shit we collected since last year.

This year we were prepared. There was a place in the basement were things collected that were more or less intended for the sale. There wasn't the usual running around at the last minute looking for the crap to get rid of.

Sold some of the old vintage (and not that old) light fixtures that I'd removed as I redid the bedrooms and such.

I sold my ancient dual deck Pioneer tape deck for $5. Alas, nobody wants a $5 Pioneer laser disc player.

The 27" heavy as hell TV sold for $25. The art decoish glass top coffee table from the old House of Love III sold. One of my former robot shelves from the Attic of Love sold.

My old Olympus won't read smart media any more so I could no sell it. :-( Lotsa early robot photos and silent movies taken with that.

The T's stopped by.

It was actually quite a successful yard sale. We brought very little back.

I love Day Zero!

32?

I am so f'n old!

Yup. A new Panasonic 42" Plasma HDTV for the bedroom.

Hopefully it will have the level of picture quality I need and will work well without cable TV since we do not have cable upstairs.

I need to call the doctor's office to get the exact scoop since having the NalaMatka regurgitate the doctor's phone conversation to her no doubt left something out.

Well, as close as I can tell:

Floaters
The joint had debris that was floating all around and he cleaned out everything.

Kneecap
He scraped my kneecap of the arthritis it had.

Cartilage
As best as I can relate, they drilled several holes into my remaining cartilage in the hopes that it will produce new growth, and likely lubrication for the joint. I'm not sure if they did this on the medial or lateral sides or both.

Arthritis
The joint is fairy arthritic and was in pretty bad shape. They cleaned up a lot of the arthritis.

ACL
They inspected the scarred up tear of my ACL but beyond that I don't know what else they may have done.

So my joint is in an immobilizer from by ankle to my upper thigh. As far as I can tell I will need to wear this a lot during the next 4 weeks.

I'll be happy when I can get some simple range of motion. Without the immobilizer, and a simple knee bend, I can drive and do many other things without having to put any weight on the joint.

Maybe after the holiday I'll discuss short-term options with the surgeon such as this.

- - -

The part I hate is that it will be very hard to get around for a very long period of time.

Giga will likely have to drive me to and from work every day (starting Dec 30), and getting up and down the stairs will be a real pain in the ass.

I forgot how utterly horrible moving a fat ass such as mine around on crutches can be. I have no idea how long I have to avoid weight-bearing pressure on the joint but trying to pivot and navigate with the knee immobile sucks the balls of nastiness.

Thankfully I'm not in any real pain. I can feel some of the obvious surgery pain but since I can't really bend the knee I can't say for certain if the pain I've been having these past few months is still here.

So.

That's it.

I don't know how bad it'll be to try and get to Glass City for the holidays and all the other things planned for the next few days.

Getting any more decent Christmas shopping is out and I may have to send out Giga to get randomly shitty gifts for others. At least I got his stuff online and it is arriving piecemeal.

In a way that is a lot better and I won't be coming home after 7 but this going without coffee is gonna kill me.

Yes. I know some of the few people who may still read this site that I barely update probably don't know but I'm having knee surgery.

I'm pretty much a physical mess right now due to the back problems of 2008 and then the knee problems since August.

Let's not go into the 60 pounds I put back on because I haven't been able to exercise since July.

Yeah.

Long time no write.

Been hurty and stuff.

Especially hurty now that Pierogi Day is over with and the almost 2 days of standing on a bad knee are confined to history.

There were a lot of people over throughout the day yesterday rolling dough, cutting dough, stuffing pierogies, boiling pierogies, etc.

Jeff had all kinds of issues learning the dough routine. However, the attachment to the Kitchen-Aid make a massive difference.

Flour fighting and other off-color shennanigans were the rule of the day for the kitchen.

The dining room became the center of stuffing activity.

Arjun is now of the age where he can particpate in such activities and he not-so-much made but assisted-in-making several pierogies.

Even though there was probably 10 solid hours of pierogi making going on we didn't make quite as many as last year.

Still... it turned out fun and crazy.

Definitely more insane than in years past.

You can thank the wine for that.

It is freezing and we've not had our first day with actual accumulation.

Winter has arrived in the Cowlands.