Parade

It's 9am. I went to bed before 11, woke up briefly at 4am, and without an alarm clock or other foreign agent other than the sun, I've just woken up. I am ok with that.

It seems that my overnight sleep cycles have lengthened to 120 minutes. That's a bit of a guess admittedly, but the 90 minutes cycles I was used to have disappeared.

Although my work day begins now, let me recap the adventurous week I've had.

Saturday afternoon I led a practice under the influence of Rx. I was focused, positive, vocal. Not unheard of, but there was definitely an enhanced coach on the field.

Saturday night I played soccer under the influence of Rx. I was wittier than usual, played at least as well as I normally do, and perhaps slighly better, but ended each shift in a bit of a panic due to a very high heart rate. I lay down at one point, but I did survive. After the game, I touched base with my fellow players who knew me, and the feeling was that it was not a bad influence.

That evening I noticed a fast, pounding heartrate caused by merely walking up stairs. Most of the day I had had a headache. I became worried.

For the next 3 days I checked my blood pressure (high) as I debated whether to see the doctor. I eventually did, checking in with my regular g.p., who assured me that it was likely part of the adjustment period. He warned me of Rx's addictive nature, and said I should try to cut back as much as possible. I felt better; it occurred to me that part of my difficulty possibly came from my stressing about it.

Meanwhile there was work to be done every day, and activities for every evening.

Late Saturday night I was given the news that my main credit card processor was going to shut down in 2 weeks. I was up until 3am finding a replacement (my bank). Sunday I spent the entire day working on my brothers' web site. He's very pleased with the results, but it took perhaps 16 hours instead of the one I planned. Since then I've been juggling contracts with two clients, regular support requests, and getting my web site ready for a possible transition to using the bank for credit card processing.

Monday night was devastating for me; my sons' team lost against my eldest son's ex-team, a game that had more than a little symbolic meaning. In our last outing we had had a 0-0 tie, but since then my star keeper has been sidelined with a bone growth problem (he's out for 2 months minimum), and one of their better players returned. We could have still won, but we didn't, and I blamed the coach, as always. On the way home I yelled at one point, an obvious loss of control due to the Rx.

Tuesday night practice featured high emotions. I had another "more intense than usual" reaction to a lack of discipline, and I used the term "Shut Up" repeatedly instead of "Quiet". It's not that I haven't said "Shut Up" before, but my facial expression and emotions were not under the tight control they usually were, and my eldest son went into an all-night sulk. Two nights in a row he has felt like he has been "ganged up" on by his brother and I. It took me a day to figure out how to best recover our relationship properly, and I still haven't put my plans into effect, which is to spend a half hour listening to him and not replying until he is done.

Wednesday afternoon I was at the gym, getting my fitness assessment. I did well enough at most things, having positive marks in the aerobic fitness, partial curlup, and back extension areas, but poor grip strength, sit and reach, and only managed 3 (!) pushups. There is work to be done, because my overall prognosis is "fair".

Wednesday night was a relaxing night of a movie with the prof, and fish-shopping with the family and the prof. Two new fish were purchased, and I was pleased that my youngest and the prof took a shine to the same Kulhi.

Thursday night was an evening back at the gym, fortunately unnoteworthy. I hope that the Rx adjustment period is nearing its end.

Tonight, and this weekend, it is a soccer tournament for the boys. I hope to be a better coach than I was at the last game, focusing on the right things, letting them be somewhat worked up, but still listening to me.

We'll see...

So there you have it. It's been such a busy week that I haven't blogged, barely been to the grocery store, and have forgotten multiple times to fix my leaky toilet. If you can't find time for the toilet, you're busy.

So now I must go squeeze in a crap-load of work. I was very worried about how much work I would have in January and beyond, and still worry a bit, but for now, I must worry more about getting what I have done.

Until we meet again...