I have spent the whole morning trying to get food! Roads still impassable (no plows or salt or anything here, so even a tiny bit of snow is a disaster) and thanks to my mom freaking out and making me drive out to the county on my last grocery day I didn’t get to buy groceries for myself before the snow. After the snow started Kroger literally closed - yeah, that is what it’s like in the south, when it snows you can’t even buy groceries. So today was the first day we were able to get a delivery. And what a delivery. I have a family pac of 16 chicken thighs, and one polish sausage, which was the entire contents of the meat department. Not kidding, my shopper sent me a pic. One small package of raspberries, one large bag Bosc pears and a tiny acorn squash, all that was available in produce. A package of not our usual brand cheese. Canned greens, not our usual brand. And that is it. It’s not supposed to thaw for five days and we are getting six more inches of snow tomorrow.

I do have eggs, v8 juice, garlic, and chickpeas, so I can make shakshuka, and I have one metric ton of canned tuna, so we won’t actually starve, we are just going to be very sick of chicken and tuna.

I’m more worried about my birdies. The grackles have been going through seed at a record pace and they only let the little birdies eat when they are full. The only birdseed left at Kroger was a 5 lb bag of Cockatiel seed! So I started calling around, and in theory Home Depot is going to deliver me seed tomorrow morning. In other news it appears grackles will eat cat food and I have a large bag of cat food which my cat hates, so hopefully that will help.

@quilteryoyo Thank you!

Morning check in! In 2019 I was an early riser, up at 4:40AM to go for my morning run, now that sounds horrible LOL. My running partner moved so now the motivation to get up and run in the cold and dark is a daunting task. I ran on Sat morning (when the sun was up) and a GIANT coyote (like mid-thigh) ran right in front of me. At least skunk season is over, way more terrifying.

Yesterdays challenge (I wont say problem b/c I am trying to stay grateful) was that some of my mom's mail was sent to her house (banking stuff!) and the tenant who lives on the ranch let me know. The mystery is how? She had a PO Box and I forwarded all that mail to me and out of the blue the Bank is sending stuff to her house...do they even have that address? I haven't reported her death to the bank yet either, I am a joint owner so they wont freeze the account (I hope) but I was advised to wait until as much was settled as I could get done first.

A coworker made me cookies yesterday (everyone is trying to make me feel better) but I brought them home and didn't touch them. Calories came in ~100 over goal of 1550 with no exercise.

Todays plan (checking in here on ya'll keeps me accountable of snacking) Calories 1550 + 1/2 exercise. Exercise 3 mile easy hill run after work (I freaking despise running after work, I prefer being a couch potato).

Hopefully I have a good report tomorrow!

@CMorning99 I am NOT a morning person either. I have gotten up early for long runs in the past, and was glad I did and got them done. But, to get up at 4 on a regular basis to run is not me. Plus, I do have to wait until it's light outside, unless I run on the treadmill. Living in the country, there are no good places to run in the dark. That's odd about the bank. I'd call and see why they changed the mailing address. Nice of the co-workers to make you cookies. Great that you had the will power to resist. It sounds like you are doing great.

@quilteryoyo I have a new birdie today. Well I saw it yesterday and couldn't get a pic. My windows need cleaned and today's pic isn't great. It a pretty bird, a bit larger than the oriel. Dh saw all the oriels and said "oh no! the grackles have found us!" I pointed out that they weren't. I have no more seed today and threw out uncooked oatmeal, it is not a hit. oh well.

@CMorning99 Oh so sorry to hear about your mother. That is tragic.

potential trigger
@noblsheep We have electricity and only lost internet for half a day and then it was super slow the next. Still power, but we may have outages still to come.
Just got off the phone with the doc...
MRI was not a concern to him. Felt I had LEFT side weakness... well that's new to me. I m not sure if it's a mix up or something I just didn't get when I was in. The left is the side with the nerves cut, not the rod. I didn't ask for him to elaborate, I am trying to learn to shut up and listen. I understand that he may not convey what he sees immediately to me and what gets put into his notes are usually little interactions with his recording nurse. So I don't always understand what is noted. SO.. I'm just off with him and trying to digest.

Overall, hips are better than they ever have been. WIN.
more doc info...
Food
I am tired of my scale and clothes. I decided it was time to get back after it, count calories and try to add some movement and set a goal to lose 4 pounds by my birthday (April). I was going to log food yesterday but couldn't do it. Alex's meals come up and I couldn't. So I'll just be mindful or write it down in a notebook.
I cooked chicken black bean soup yesterday and made chicken egg rolls (baked) and an apple egg roll with honey. I ate too much but I ate better food, so that's a win.

Still no new phone due to weather... My guess is friday or the following week depending on how backed up they are. It was suppose to be here 6 days ago.

@rheddmobile I do have several boxes of cereal... the coconut cheerios were not a hit and I do have cat food for the strays I could give the birds. Several have found the dog food on the back porch. I think I may have some seeds for sprouts that I could part with too.
Thanks for the suggestions and bird identification.

@swenson19d Not sure, but that is probably a Wood Thrush or Hermit Thrush. Could possibly be a brown Thrasher if it's eye is yellow. It's a great start to be eating better food. You'll get there. I know it's hard when exercise is an issue.

@rheddmobile Glad that you still have power. Hope it stays that way. Sorry our delivery got cancelled and they didn't even let you know!

@Avidkeo Hope your mum's surgery goes well. Having a HM this weekend, I wouldn't be overly concerned about food this week. You're doing great!

Ok I assumed this was thrush, it is a mean little bird running all the other birds off.

swenson19d wrote: »

@rheddmobile. is it possible to get some chicken food for them? I assume you have a farm store, like atwoods, orschelens, or tractor supply. They may have a seed mix. The bird in the pic is the thrasher I think, from internet search and very much Robin size. @quilteryoyo We do also have the thrush. It seems to be smaller and similar I'm markings. I couldn't get a pic of the thrush to ask, then did and assumed it was the same bird but smaller, male/female. I thought it'd be dumb to ask to have the same bird Id'd lol! So you answered even though I didn't have to ask!
The one I assume is the thrush is rather aggressive at digging in the snow.

@Avidkeo sounds like a good eating plan! I hope the 2 pounds is a real loss! Way to get out there and bike. With that I may que up Hulu and see how long I can get on the bike before cori gets in the way. I set a half a slice of pizza down and told him "go ahead, take it if you have too" yup he grabbed the whole thing and ran off with it. We do feed him, he's gained more than a pound and tomorrow is a month that we've had him, so he's on track and then some.

TSC has bird seed (in fact that’s where we usually get it) but also won’t deliver at the moment. Roads are really not drivable here at the moment.

However! We have bird seed now! When Home Depot cancelled our order I was grousing about it and realized we could probably get there on foot. We never go that direction when running our neighborhood because traffic is insanely dangerous - city put in a bike lane and now people use it to illegally pass on the right! Also there is a homeless encampment under the nonconnah bridge and a massive overpass with crazy people flying off the interstate in all directions and no sidewalks. But! It turns out it’s only a mile and a half! And today there is no traffic because Memphians do not drive in the snow.

So the only thing left to figure out was how to schlep 40 lbs of seed home without a rucksack. We don’t have rucksacks (both of us had a nice one but they were stolen out of our car) but we DO have..... swag bags! Lots of swag bags from various races! And also carabiner clips, likewise from race swag! So we slung swag bags across our shoulders, clipped the straps together across our chests, and toted home four 7 lb bags of birdseed, which ought to get us through the next couple days until the thaw.

When we got back, it was almost sundown, but the little birdies swarmed the whole yard eating their food anyway. They kept eating after dark, they were that hungry! And not a grackle in sight, maybe the grackles gave up.

@CMorning99 I missed seeing your post earlier. I’m so sorry. We lost a close friend to a carjacking a few years ago and I don’t know why that kind of event seems so much worse than if the person just died in a car accident or something, but it really is. Wishing you peace.

....and I mentioned our roads are really not driveable. We were eating our post rucksack run victory hotdogs and noticed people outside screaming and cursing at each other, and various car noises including a loud slam like a car hitting something. My husband ducked outside to see what it was and my one-over-from next door neighbor had backed out of his driveway and that was the end of that. He couldn’t get the car to turn to go up the road. He couldn’t even get it back into the driveway. And when he finally did get it to move it slid sideways and into the other neighbor’s car. Husband quietly went back into the house without letting anyone know he was watching.

So yeah, us walking to the Home Depot instead of trying to drive was probably the better part of valor.

@bearly63 good to hear you're doing okay. I have a niece with 3 kids in grand Prairie with no electricity for 2 days now. Her biggest complains the effort it takes to make coffee. Well least on FB it is.

@rheddmobile yay! A walk and bird seed! My dh went and bought 2 bags and a bag of meal worms. Birds are going to be happy tomorrow! Glad the crazy neighbors weren't too crazy!

@shanaber thanks for the app suggestion. I saw the Cornell web page had an app too. I enjoyed sharing the birds here, I can look them up too.

Food
I do okay most the day then don't. I ate ice cream again. I knew that was a risk when dh went to the store. Oh well. Tomorrow I can try again. Perhaps this summer I can force myself to exercise through some pain and get stronger and lose some weight, no lie, I'll probably cheat and make a cool sculpting appointment soon to get that dern right fat arm pit that bothers me so.

Thank you everyone for the comments! I an not an emotional person outwardly so most folks dont even know underneath the surface is a hurricane of sadness.

@shanaber I am back in Cali, got lucky to be stationed in the same state as my mom this time. Very grateful that I am this close and not trying to handle everything from overseas. I was on half her accounts, but she had a couple small ones where I was not. I did hire an attorney to assist me with transferring everything (including a ranch...oof).

@swenson19d So sorry about your son, it has been such a horrible year. I equate it to the Ghost Busters movie where all the negative slime was running under the city LOL

@avidkeo I am so jealous of your race! I was watching youtube videos this morning of peoples races LOL

Well yesterday is a day 2 of getting back in the saddle success. I came in a little higher in calories than I wanted but still under and I even got in a 3 mile hill run. It was rough convincing myself to get out there after work bc the wind was a bit strong, but I avoided most of it. Felt strong on the run too, didnt break any speed records but didnt die either. I really miss being strong and fast. Earlier last year I could crank out mile repeats all day, this year...maybe 400 meters LOL

Still no word on if I can transfer, unfortunately our personnel office is in San Antonio, so I imagine they are backlogged. On the Mom front, trial has been delayed another week. We are still in the pre-preliminary stage. BofA is a PITA and I had to go get 3 different signatures notarized, why couldn't I have just done it at the branch in front of them...but no. Citibank Visa has been another arsehole. Once they figure out someone is dead they automatically close the account and send it to "Ascensions Point" which while they claim to handle deceased members affairs, bottom line is they are debt collection agency. Now I imagine some people do pass with large credit card debt, but in this case Visa owed me money...and so when I called...super sketch, they sent me a regular statement showing the credit, but when I called the citibank customer service number to get a check sent, they had switched it out for the collection agency number...I hung up twice thinking I had dialed wrong number. Finally talked to them after listening to their whole debt collection rant...only to be told citibank will send me a check in 60-90 days.

Today has been a bit challenging with "kid" (I call my young Airmen kids....most cant even drink)...dirty rooms, ditching out of work issues. le sigh...sometimes I wish I could pay them by the hour to make a point how good they have it. By baby Lt had a flat tire so we had to go out and do car repair 101. I am in the military right? Not just a babysitter? LOL I really do love what I do though.

Calories should be coming in maybe a tad over (I had a reeses cup), no exercise planned but I saw an advert for the apple+ exercise app ($9.99 a month) and you pick a body part and a time frame. My great dislike for anything strength related attention span may be able to handle that.

Aim high folks!

rheddmobile wrote: »

... and we’re under a boil water directive. Reservoir is frozen and several water mains have burst so city pressure has dropped below safe levels. I found this out after drinking a large glass of water from the tap to hydrate first thing in the morning. Now trying to calculate how to brush my teeth.

When I was in Iraq the first time we had this issue. You had to close your eyes and mouth when taking a shower and we brushed our teeth with bottled water. I survived...came home 15lbs lighter but I found them all

@rheddmobile I love that you walked to Home Depot just for bird feed. I know the birds appreciated it! Glad you made it there and back safely too. Hope cooler heads prevailed with your neighbor's and everything got worked out between them. Yeah. Good call on the walk.

@bearly63 I hope you make it home and everything is ok when you get there. I feel for the TX and other southern folks dealing with the snow, ice, and power outages.

@swenson19d Yeah for making good food choices most of the day! That's a great start. Keep trying. You'll get there. Sorry today is a bad day for you. Hang in there.

@Avidkeo I'm glad that your mom's operation went well. Brains are weird. Like you said, you do need to try to eat more this week so you can be fueled for the HM. Maybe add nuts...I think that is what you guys suggested to me when I was afraid I was loosing too much. Not an issue at the moment.

@CMorning99 Slow and easy is the best way to get back into running, even though my guess is that your slow is my fast. I hope your transfer goes through. Taking care of financial affairs is hard. Hugs to you. And, as for the airmen, yeah, your pretty much a babysitter/mom to them. It's probably the first time most have been away from home and have no idea how to do the most basic things. BTW, I was in the AF for 15 years - took an early retirement they offered electrical engineers. I loved it. Thanks for your service.

@rheddmobile You know you can brush your teeth without toothpaste. It was originally used just to make it "taste" better with no real benefit. So, for a few days, you could do it. Or boil a bunch and safe some for that purpose. If you think you may lose water service, fill a bunch of pans/buckets with snow to melt and use that to flush the toilet. Also, is you lose power, you can put pans of snow in the fridge to keep the food cold and put frozen stuff outside somewhere while the temps are low. I hope things get back to normal soon for you.