Random Bits

Dearest Rachel –

You know, I have a couple of letters that I’m currently working on to send you, but they aren’t exactly talking about things that are happening to me at any given moment; they’re more just ongoing stuff. So I’m carefully assembling those still, hoping to release them to you when I have enough to say about them as a standalone topic. In the meantime, you get to hear a bunch of random bits and pieces about the past twenty-four hours or so – because life doesn’t happen in a neat, little narrative, but rather, as a bunch of random events put together like Fruit Loops on a string, like a kindergartener would assemble in craft time at school or some such.

Which I guess is mildly appropriate; by the time I get around to my breakfast, you can snack on these Fruit Loops, and by the time I head off to the ‘office,’ you’ll have chewed the string bare. You’ll probably not have gotten much nourishment from it, but hopefully it can tide you over until I have something more meaningful to tell you about.

***

Ironically enough, I’m not sure what I expect to be doing once I get to the ‘office’ today; I basically put everything together for both the church and camp for August before I left for the gym – although it was a close call; I was hoping to get out by 2:30, in order to have the workout completed with time to spare before Daniel and I headed out to Joel’s Bible study. Eventually, as it took longer to collect the data and run the reports, I decided I could be satisfied with leaving by 3:00, but even then, it didn’t look like I would manage to get out “on time.” I probably left at five or ten minutes after, mildly concerned that I (and thus, we) would be running late.

But I went through my usual pattern, including a newly-downloaded map for the exercise bicycle that had me going through ten miles of desert around and through a stylized version of Las Vegas – excuse me, “Lucky Springs”; they don’t use actual place names for whatever reason. Probably because they aren’t striving for realism (unless you count the adjustments to resistance while going up and down hills) – after all, I passed by a crashed UFO site along my path, so… yeah, that’s a routine thing in the Nevada desert.

I did get home before five (albeit only just), and while my weight wasn’t exactly at record levels, it was satisfactory for the moment. Interestingly enough, the shower itself tends to remove at least another half a pound, and occasionally even a full pound; guess all that sweat really adds up, which is nice to see. It does mean that it won’t last, as once I hydrate myself properly, I’ll put at least two right back on, but it’s still gratifying to see in that moment.

Anyway, for all my concern, we got to Chik-fil-A (Daniel likes going there on Bible study nights because, after all, it’s not an option after church or anything) with about an hour and a half before we needed to be at church, so we ate inside, rather than take it to go. I tried so hard to be good, honey, only ordering grilled chicken nuggets and a Coke Zero (the formula with sucralose is tolerable, as long as they add plenty of ice so as to deaden my taste buds a bit) – but I still gained three and a half pounds from getting out of the shower last night to waking up this morning. But that was later; at the time, we were done and out the door with still the better part of an hour to spare. It gave me time to stop for gas, and still be the first ones there by a long chalk.

It’s been a couple months since we last met, so I’d forgotten what the new discussion was supposed to be on; perhaps I should be tuning in to the podcast. We discovered that Joel was leading a series covering prophecy and the End Times, which should probably be quite compelling, given the state of the world. Then again, when hasn’t the world been in such a state that people don’t find themselves thinking “the end must be upon us soon, right?”

Of course, Joel obviously refuses to speculate on times and dates (after all, it explicitly states in the source documentation that no one knows; to presume otherwise would be supreme arrogance – not that this has stopped a lot of people), but he does mention how Christ’s death, burial, resurrection and the Holy Spirit’s arrival all correspond to various holidays on the Jewish calendar, with only the Feasts of Trumpets and Tabernacles thus far unaccounted for. Since the “trumpet shall sound” at the time, he suggests that (“if you put a gun to my head to take a guess when it will happen”) it might be possible that His return could occur around time of the Feast of Trumpets; however, when he dismisses us while announcing “The Rapture is next week,” he makes a point of stating that he means that next week’s topic is on the Rapture, not that it’s happening next week.

Curiously enough, once we got home, Logan reminded us that he would be off at his parents’ over the weekend, as Rosh Hashanah is upon us… the Feast of Trumpets.

Hmm… maybe Joel was onto something? Nahh…

***

As a completely unrelated aside, I should mention that my phone was pinging at me throughout the course of the study. It’s been a while since this has happened, but someone was trying to get a hold of me through Skype. I tried to ignore it until the study was over, but I couldn’t resist responding once we were on our way out, with the usual “hi, do I happen to know you?” despite already knowing full well that I didn’t.

That’s when the pinging went into overdrive: “Heya I know it’s kinda random but I found your name from the username search thing here cuz I was bored and figured I’d take a shot and hit ya up. 🙂 So whatcha up to?”

I know you’re supposed to be cagey when dealing with people like this, but what harm is there in a little honesty? I told her that I and ‘my son’ (I didn’t give her his name, in any event) were just finishing up at a Bible study. This should have precluded what happened next, but it didn’t:

“Welll I have an idea if you’re up for a lil fun.. I was actually gonna get to “work” here shortly. My best friend was ‘working’ online and I kept askin her about it so she showed me what she was doing. I thought she was nuts at first, but its not as bad as I thought. We work online doing private live cam shows which sounded suuper sketchy at first believe me, but I actually love it!!!”

This girl (assuming she was who and what she claimed to be) didn’t even balk at what I said I’d be doing. If you remember my story about Patpong Road, this had some very distinct ‘non, m’sieur’ vibes to it. But I told her we needed to drive home before I would even consider her offer, and left it at that. Haven’t tried to reach her since; Lord knows I don’t need or want a camgirl in my life, thanks ever so much. Still, it doesn’t happen often, so I might as well comment upon it.

***

After getting home, I was still weary from the afternoon’s workout; so, after watching a couple of videos together, once Logan came down from his room to join Daniel, I simply bid the boys goodnight (despite it being only about nine-thirty), and wandered off to bed… only to be woken up by the ‘ping’ of my phone again. It seemed that, in her downtime while working in Beloit, Kerstin was trying out filters on her phone app, and she was sending them to the group chat. Some of them really do make her look cute, I’ll say that much – although the one where she has the face of a book is decidedly strange. Who comes up with these things, anyway?

I finally did get to sleep, though, and found myself with nothing particularly coherent in terms of dreams; just the forlorn hopes of finding some more tapes – video or audio, it didn’t really matter which – with your voice on them. Guess this current project is really doing a number on my mind.

And, apparently, on my circadian rhythm, as I found myself awake again shortly after five. Well, when I go to bed before ten, I guess I should expect that. Still – especially after weighing myself – it left me wondering whether I ought to hit the gym for the second time in less than fifteen hours, and whether this was starting to become an unhealthy compulsion.

But, after burning ninety minutes and some nine hundred calories, I’m back down to the ‘floor’ I reached a day or two ago. Not a new low, mind you, and I’ve still got to shave off – and keep off – at least another four more pounds by the end of the month (and between breakfast and especially dinner, I’ll probably not keep all these off as it is for even today), and I’ve some fifty more to go before I get to where I really want to be, but it’s nice to match a personal best for now (especially since it’s below that first goal of matching my license weight).

So, that’s been the evening and the morning of the past day, honey, and now you’re as caught up with my life as you can be (unless, of course, being outside of time, you already know what will go on with the rest of my life going forward – in which case, I’d like to ask you to fill me in if you could. I mean, as long as asking you for anything is impossible, I might as well shoot for the stars, right?). Keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.