progress

[llcoolvad]

Having a reasonably good week. Mostly Mom has been ok. She freaked out the other day for no discernible reason, but I guess she's over it now. My mood pretty much depends on hers; if she's pissed off, I take the brunt and can't seem to shake it, so I'm glad she's been mostly ok.

Health-wise, had some dental work done this week. Despite 4x per year cleanings for the last five years, I finally needed another gum scaling procedure done. Had part one on Monday, and part two on Thursday. Was sorta fun to see my hygienist twice -- we always chat a lot (probably too much to get stuff done quickly) and she was very complimentary about my weight loss. The procedure was pretty easy: they've gone fairly high-tech, with some topical gum-numbing agent, and an ultrasonic device that gets plaque off and sprays in antiseptic solution under the gums. Nasty tasting, but no pain really. I'm on antibiotics for two weeks (six days to go, sigh) and then in six weeks I see the perio guy so he can tell me what the next step is. I hate gum disease. Expensive and scary!

Also health-wise, I was reviewing my 101 in 1001 days list today. Managed to cross off a TON of stuff in the Lose Weight / Get Fit / No Pain / Look Better category, including get diabetes under good control, eat breakfast every day, cut back on Diet Coke, keep up with meds, eat better and make late night snacks healthful, etc. It's 1001 days on November 1, so I have a bit more to go — maybe I can get more done by then. I didn't really expect to make so much progress in this area, frankly, as when I've tried to do this before I usually make progress in the finance section and little else. This time I'm trying to hit all my categories.

Managed to get a bunch of other random stuff done this week: loads upon loads of laundry, moved some more stuff around, got rid of some more of my own stuff, did some work at work, like that. Also had some fun: dinner with Patrick one night (Swedish meatballs from IKEA and "Revenge"), picked up a few Redbox titles ("The Texas Killing Fields" and "Drive") this weekend, set up my Roku so was able to watch a few other things there, and went out with Stephen on Friday to see the Pompeii exhibit before it left the Museum of Science. Very interesting and moving. Of course the human toll was terrible, but also of course I was saddest about the dog. Very cool to see delicate glass jars, etc., that managed to survive, especially after watching the video that animated what happened the day the volcano exploded. The scariest part of the exhibit was the last room, where they showed all the active volcanoes all over the world. Yikes! We are, of course, reasonably safe here in New England.



More images from photogs other than me here, and some cool videos here.

So that's my week. What'd you do? Anything cool?

Comments

[p-j-cleary.livejournal.com]

One of those truisms that never sounded very true was, "Write down your goals, and you'll be more likely to achieve them." The project you're doing with your goals is something you've been very specific about, and I think that's definitely helping. You're making a ton of progress, and it really shows. It's probably already time to start thinking about what goals go into the next 1,001 days.

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

I've been making a list of 100 things to do each year for a few years. I also do best on the financial ones and the intellectual ones (reading new books, seeing new things, learning stuff). I tend to finish less than 1/3 of the goals. But then I also add new goals, and I finish about half of those.

This year I've decided to start with a lot fewer goals, with the expectation that I will have 100 by the end of the year. I got rid of (okay, commented out) most of the longstanding ones that I "should" do but haven't done in years and am only including the ones I am more in the mood to do. Now it's much more useful looking at that list reminding me of things I want to be doing. In fact, I did it just now and got distracted in taking the next two steps towards rolling over one of my retirement accounts.

[llcoolvad.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been thinking about my lists of things to accomplish, and how I can go from simply listing them to actually DOING them. I mean, it's one thing to have a huge list for life, but it's another thing to have a smaller COMPLETED list. I should probably read some of the things involving Getting Things Done, but I think I'll try first to have an organized approach to attacking my goals, perhaps by breaking them down into daily tasks.

Anyway, interesting. How's retirement treating you? So jealous!

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

Sadly, it's not retirement. More of a sabbatical. I love it, though I haven't gotten much done. I'm starting to realize that the mess in the house should be tackled (as well as cooking, exercising, and book writing) because it really slows everything down and contributes to a low-level background stress. I also blame some of my lack of progress on having to catch up on sleep from the cruise, but I got 11.5 hours of sleep last night, so I should be in pretty good shape on that front.

The only hint I have for actually doing things on the list (which I suppose is one of the Getting Things Done ideas) is to actually look at the list on a regular basis. I tell myself I'm just seeing if there's anything else I can cross off yet, or seeing if there's anything I can add (I keep track of progress toward various goals even if I haven't yet accomplished them). That doesn't keep me from scrolling past several sections without reading them at all, though, of course. (Domestic stuff.)

And speaking of huge lists for life, have you made a bucket list? They are more fun when you also put a bunch of things that you've already accomplished on there. Even if they are things that weren't originally life-long goals, but now that you've done them, you realize they sound pretty cool.

[llcoolvad.livejournal.com]

No, I really should. There was a meme going around back a while ago (as I was turning 40) that was listing 40 things people wanted to do by 40, so since I was already 40 I decided to do a list of accomplishments. So I've done that part, and it did sound pretty cool.

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

Ooh, hijacking a meme! Sounds fun!