Erin Update

No pithy title for this post, as I'm operating in that gray area of "I would rather accomplish this than waste time being clever" and "I don't want to jinx this" at the moment. 

Things are looking cautiously positive at the moment. After two months of the house being a shambles due to the mold problem I discussed earlier, it seems like we have finally filled out enough paperwork, jumped through enough hoops, and lit enough fires under people that the insurance company is finally thinking about getting around to possibly paying to have dad's old bedroom - bathroom - closet suite made habitable. Neither mom nor I know when this will be -- knowing my luck, they'll want to begin when I'm out of state for LibertyCon -- but like my tummy after eating too much Taco Bell, I feel rumblings which presage future motion. 

Speaking of LibertyCon, not only will I be there (June 23-25, Chattanooga TN) but I will also be a panelist for the first time! I even have a Guest Page like a big shot. Here is my schedule:

I've talked about this over at Blue Collar Prepping, but I have been taking nightly walks around my neighborhood pretty much every night since December of last year as a way to lose weight and get in better shape. I am overweight like pretty much all Americans, and I have arthritis in my back that has diminished my quality of life, so I started walking as a low-impact form of exercise. Most importantly, it doesn't feel like exercise to my body, which is pretty much essential to insuring I do it. The weight loss has been... well, I'm down six pounds since I started, but that's basically just a pound a month? But please keep in mind that I had to get through Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter, so that walking helped keep weight off when I was stress/depression eating. (My favorite carbohydrate is sugar.)

Perhaps more importantly, though, my back is getting better. Usually it would start tightening up halfway through the 1.1 mile loop, and by the time I made it home I would have to limp into a hot shower. Tonight, however, I did two loops, my back didn't even begin to get sore until 3/4th of the way through the second loop, and I'm typing this now before I take a shower. This is an absolute win for me in terms of flexibility and quality of life!

Finally, in related news, I think I've figured out why my brain has felt so sluggish for months: I didn't take my nightly dose of melatonin, and when I got up the next morning I actually felt well-rested and not sluggish in the brain. Apparently my body is super-sensitive to melatonin, because 5mg (half the recommended dose) is like anti-ritalin for me in that it basically makes thinking difficult! Imagine if your body is awake but your brain just wants to take a nap, regardless of how much coffee you drink... and believe me, it's a WEIRD feeling to have my body wired on caffeine while my brain still refuses to go any faster than first gear. 

I truly hope that between the exercise, the weight loss, and quitting the melatonin I will be able to return to what feels like normalcy. I've missed writing and I hope to do more of it soon.  

Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you again soon.