Down 7, 18 to go !!!

After not working for the past 14 months and not doing much more than watching television and telling Susan, don't worry, I'll do that project tomorrow, I gained some weight. No I'm not going to say how much I actually weighed two weeks ago. Suffice it to say I figured I needed to lose 25 lbs. Now let's be real, I have never dieted in my life, nor do I intend to. I also don't exercise but have been giving it some thought lately. No, you won't see me at at your local gym. I'm talking about walking and perhaps even riding a bike around the neighborhood. Enough said. Stephanie has been very nice and not mentioned my weight gain. Suzanne will come home from school for a weekend and ask what happened to " POWER 90 ". That was a package of videos that Susan and I bought, which has you doing exercises in front of the t.v. Your suppose to change your body in 90 days. What was I thinking. I did it once for 5 minutes. Maybe 4 minutes! Steven came home over the winter break, and just smiles when he looks at my growing gut. I know they all love me but I also know what they're thinking. Dad, lose some weight.

A few weeks ago, I saw an ad on the computer, that seemed interesting. I bookmarked it for Susan. Am I a techie, or what? To my surprise she found it interesting as well. Usually if I save something for her to read, she already knows it, or explains why it's not a good choice. That's what happens when your married to a very smart person. She bought the program, which we downloaded and began reading. Without going into detail, all it's about is making better choices about what your eating. We began shopping for healthier food. In 10 days I lost 7 lbs. I can't believe it. Susan has been wanting me to eat healthier for the past 2 decades. I should have listened to her. Can't believe I just said that! Susan and Wendy joined weight watchers a couple of months ago. In a combination of weight watchers and this new program, Susan has lost 15lbs. Wendy is also losing weight. Her and I might be in an unspoken composition. I lost more in ten days than she lost in two months. BRING IT ON, O'HEA!!!!

Any way Susan is happy and I'm happy she is happy. So we're all happy, happy, happy!!!!

Bagels and Lox

After a year and many requests, I have decided to start blogging again. After a year and many requests, mostly from Susan I have decided to start working again. Don't misunderstand, these requests weren't from any members of congress, just members of my immediate family whose first names begin with the letter S.

I began working last Thursday, in a brand new bagel store called Long Island Bagel Cafe. It is there first store in Suffolk. They have five other locations in Nassau, and have been in business since 1986. I had delivered newspapers to some of the other locations when I worked for Newsday. After working in the trucking business for the last 25 years I decided I know longer wanted to work outdoors and be driving a truck all day.

The store is located in Nesconset and is only a 15 minute ride. What is so exciting to me is everything is brand new and nice and clean.

The last time I worked in a deli was 1985 and boy have things changed. All the different selections is amazing. They make all types of cream cheese, chicken and tuna salads. They actually have taco tuna and and olive cream cheese. Suzanne might like the olive cream cheese. Stephanie likes the Buffalo chicken salad.

I never had lox which I learned is Nova Scotia salmon. Joe the owner was showing me how to cut the fish. I tasted it and it was delicious.

I came home the first day and Susan and Stephanie were home. I could hardly contain myself and spent almost and hour just telling them all that happened. After 15 minutes they both told me to take Xanax to calm down. I can't believe how much I missed the deli atmosphere. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't going to be a career. I want to work but lets be real, I'm only going to work part time. 4 days a week, 6 to 8 hrs. a day.

So if your in the area, stop in and I'll make you lox and cream cheese on a Black Russian bagel, which is pumpernickel with raisins.

The Crack of the Bat

Spring training is now in full swing. My favorite time of year for t.v. I can finally watch baseball after 6 months of crap on television. I'm not a fan of reality t.v. Then there are programs that you become interested in. There are some that I follow each week. I like a program that has a story which starts and ends in one show. You get caught up with the shows that have a continuous story and then have to watch every week or you miss something in the story line and don't know what is happening. Sometimes the show you are following each week is cancelled. Love when that happens. ABC is the worst. They cancel more shows than the other networks. Or you watch a program for several years, just to have it end in the dumbest way possible. The Sopranos comes to mind.
Susan likes the reality shows. They drive me nuts. I won't name them all, but whats with the guy on The Bachelor. Is he the biggest moron on the planet. I don't know the whole story, but it seems he was one of the bachelors last season on The Bachelorette. He doesn't get picked then comes back this season as the bachelor. After several weeks he finally picks the girl he wants to marry, just to change his mind and then pick the last girl he just sent home. To every ones astonishment she takes him back. I think they're all idiots. Who wants to marry anyone that some t.v. producer picked to be on the show. Anyway I don't want to ramble on about this subject, it's just doesn't interest me.
There was a show called Jericho which I didn't start watching until the second season. It was a continuous show that seemed interesting, only the second season was the last season. It was cancelled so now I rented the first season just to see what happened. I know that sounds dumb because there won't be any ending, but if you watched the show you need to know what happened in the first season. I can't believe I'm doing it, but I am. Talk shows is another type of programming I not fond of. It's not so much the content, because there is a lot of good subjects, I just can't listen to all the screaming people in the audience. They must give them some kind of drug to make them scream that loud, or pass some kind of screaming audition to be in the audience. Grown women and men screaming just because Oprah or Ellen are on the stage. I wouldn't scream half that loud if I won lotto. The morning news programs where you can see people outside the studio. Do they have to wave for hours on end? Then again, you have the same dopes at baseball games who know they're on t.v. waving for the whole game. Maybe I'll just listen to the games on radio this year.
There are some shows I am committed to, like Lost. It gets stranger each week, but is scheduled to end next season. If by the end of the show they don't answer all the questions I have about the show, I might just have to go to the producers and let them hear the crack of the bat.

Sunshine, Birdies and Alligators

It's been more than a week since Susan and I returned from our trip to Orlando. It was nice to get away for a few days, but the time went quickly. We arrived on Wed., the 11Th about 5 p.m. The flight was uneventful, except for the fact I was able to sleep for the first time ever, while flying. It's not because I have a fear of flying, I just can never seem to sleep in an airplane, which is strange considering how much I love to sleep, which I have been told by everyone I love and adore many, many times. Susan just happened to have an extra IPod and set of BOSE headphones in her bag of electronics. No surprise there. I tried them and have to admit they worked great. I sat back and listened to Dean Martin all the way. After gathering all of our luggage, which included 2 suitcases, 2 sets of golf clubs and 2 carry on bags we found our car rental. Good thing we were only staying 4 nights or we would of needed a small truck for any more luggage. Susan entered the hotels address in her handy GPS, or as Noreen would say GSP, and off we went into the warm Florida night.

The weather was nice, temps. in the low 80's. Thursday we made the trip to Bushnell National Cemetery, about an hour and half away. Susan drove both ways, I slept both ways, it's great to be me. I wanted to drive but no, I wasn't a listed driver on the rental agreement. Can't break the rules when your married to Dave's daughter. NO PROBLEM, suits me fine. Life is good. The people at Bushnell were very nice. Everything went smooth. Fay Mary and Al are finally together again.
Friday morning after a late breakfast we decided to play golf, the main reason we took this trip to begin with. Or at least the main reason we decided to travel with our own clubs, instead of renting them. It was a warm sunny day, maybe the nicest day of the whole trip. We decided on a local nine hole course, since neither of us had played since Oct. We didn't want to overdue it the first time playing this year. After paying our green fees, getting some cold drinks and a sun visor for Susan we headed for the practice range. We had about 20 minutes before our 12:30 tee time. We don't agree on how much we should warm up before playing, especially after 4 cold months. I would like to do some stretching, hit maybe 50 practice balls, and chip and putt for 10 minutes or so. Susan doesn't need to stretch, after all she still goes to the gym everyday and works out with Wendy 3-4 days a week. She now wants to take a rowing class. I'm impressed everyday by her work ethic. She only needs to hit 8-10 balls. Putting isn't necessary she says because she's good at that. To my surprise and her overwhelming delight she pars the second whole. A short par 3, on in one and a two putt. Amazing! With all my practice, I don't manage a par, the whole round. Unfortunately there weren't any birdies, but definitely an alligator. No kidding. Susan saw it first, on the seventh fairway. She said there were signs saying there were alligators, but I didn't see the signs. Anyway, there it was baking in the sun, on the side of a water hazard on the right side of the fairway. After taking a picture with her blackberry, yes she had it at the ready, right there in the golf cart, she has her best drive of the day. She hits it right down the middle of the fairway on a par 4. There is another swampy hazard between her ball and the green, about 100 yards away. Without hesitation, a quick look at the gator, 50 feet from where her ball is she manages another great shot, over the hazard, just to the fringe of the green. Susan jumps up and down, with a grin on her face like she is playing wheel of fortune, already knows the answer to the puzzle and is next to spin. That is why I enjoy playing golf with her. When she makes shots like that it's nice to see how excited she gets. She just misses her second putt for a par, makes a tap in for bogey. A good hole never the less. I'm looking forward to playing golf this year. Maybe we can continue our Friday foursome, like we did last fall. It was Andrea's idea. The group included Susan, Wendy, Andrea and myself. Andrea never showed up, Susan and Wendy gave up after 2 weeks, and I played another 3 weeks by myself. And they say men can't commit.

To Be or Knot Two Bee?

I know the title to this post is a quote from a Shakespeare play, but this post isn't about Shakespeare or plays. Suzanne called to tell me how much she enjoyed my last post, especially the part about Mr. Barnes and his quote about unmitigated audacity. She says it all the time, because she has herd me tell the story at least a thousand times. Which brings me to the topic of this post. Thank goodness our founding fathers revolted against Britain, where I believe the English language began, I could be wrong. The only thing they forgot to do when they declared independence was start a new language, or at least make some new spelling rules. I never did, don't now or never even hope to understand the way we spell words in INGLISH.
Bye the way if you are having this red to you, like Suzanne reads it allowed to Lauren and Dana, or Stephanie does to her coworkers in the office, your going to have to read it yourself to get the reel effect.
I no I'm knot the first won to talk about this, the late George Carlin comes to mind. Bye the way how late do you have to be before they start calling you dead, instead of late because good old George is definitely dead. Susan bye the way is more than won our late. She asked if we could start some chores around the house by 10:30 this morning. She left for the gym around 8 a.m. and hasn't bin herd from since. I no she is okay because she carries any wear from 3 two 6 electronics with her at all times. I'm sure NASA could track her if she was orbiting Jupiter. She probably met Wendy and went to Starbucks after the gym. We all no how much Wendy can talk. Maybe I should call and rescue her, nah. Hear she is now, and I'm sure she'll be hungry because she can't stop any wear for lunch because she is sweaty from the gym and wouldn't want any won to sea her. I guess the people at Starbucks all go the gym, and don't care if everyone is sweaty. Anyway I'm once again rambling and off the subject.
Back to the spelling of our onederfull English language. Bye now you no wear, I'm going with this. And is it England, Britain or Ingland. Anything that ends in I N G is pronounced ing, but the dum Brits spell their, there or they're country with an E N G. See what I mean. Whoever wrote this language must have bin hi on something. N O W is now, put a K in front of it and it becomes no. Then is it raining, rain eng, reining or reigning. I before E except after C, what kind of crap is that, if your already having a problem spelling. Lets just throw a G in between the first I and E in reigning and then not pronounce it. That makes cents. I could go on and on butt I can sea Susan wants lunch and can't weight to tell me about this morning, no pun intended.

Who would have known?

Ok, I know I havn't been here in almost two weeks. Who would have known anyone wanted to hear what I have to say. Like I stated in a past blog, I don't know if I'm going to post everyday, even though it seems some people would like me to. I've had somewhat of a writers cramp, and my typing is so slow it puts me to sleep. Mr. Barnes would be pissed. I can still hear him, forty three years ago saying, " You have thee unmitigated ordasity to bring this garbage up to my desk." You can all make of that qoute what you want, and I don't know or care if the spelling is right. He did say thee instead of the, all thee time.
Anyway it seems I have somewhat of a following. Chris and Wendy seem to enjoy what I'm saying. Thankyou ladies. Suzanne wants to know where all the happy news is. Stephanie says its more like a journal and was quick to mention a few of my typos. Steven even mentioned the other day he keeps checking to see if I've posted anything new and even knew when the last post was. Who would have known?
The good new is, it's been over nine weeks since my last cigarette, and even though the urge is still very strong, it is getting a bit easier. More good news which made Susan very happy was the ct-scan I had done, came back negative. All that concern for naught. They were looking for vein endings and nodules, whatever that means. After all was said and done, Susan let out such a sigh of relief, I thought a jet just took off from the driveway. It's good to know she cares even though I make fun. She says I was concerned, I suppose a little.

Track and Confirm

Steven forgot a few items when he was home from Rider for the holidays. He asked me if I could ship them to him. I said sure, and after procrastinating for a week or so, I finally decided to ship them and found a box int the garage because once again I didn't put out the cardboard or newspapers to recycle, but that's another blog for some other time. After packing everything, and addressing the box, I finally went to the post office at 6:30pm. The man behind the counter said it would cost more to overnight than priority mail. Priority would be 2-3 days, probably two since it was only going to New Jersey. I said fine, priority it is, he has waited this long what's another couple of days. Then he says for only 65 cents more I can purchase a track and confirm receipt and track the package online and see when it is delivered. As long as the package doesn't have to be signed for because Steve and his housemates are in class and I don't know if anyone will be home to sign. He says no signature required. I'm rambling a little bit here. Seeing that the post office is losing money and thinking of cutting back mail delivery to 5 days, I figure I would give them a little more business and purchase the "TRACK AND CONFIRMATION RECEIPT". After I get home, I log on to the post office website and enter the number on the receipt. It tells me my package has been excepted in Selden at 6:30. Future information will be updated every evening. Ok, that's cool, I wasn't expecting an hour by hour summary. Then on Tues. Feb.3rd I log on again and it says your package has been excepted in Selden at 6:3o Mon. Feb. 2nd. future information will be updated each evening. I figure it's a little early and they haven't updated yet. In the meantime we speak to Steve on the phone and tell him the package has been shipped and to look for it with the mail. Wed. evening I once again log on, it's now been 24 hrs. and I get the same message, your package has been excepted in Selden at 6:30, Mon. Feb 2nd. Duh!! Once again we call Steve and he hasn't received any package. It is now Thurs. evening and after I log on and enter the confirmation number the website tells me "oops we can't find the page you are looking for." Are you kidding me? I look a little further on the website and it says all information not available in all areas. The clerk didn't bother to tell me that when he sold me the track and confirm. Don't get me wrong, it's not the 65 cts. it's the principle. I no longer care how much money the post office is losing and couldn't care less if they went out of business altogether. I'm about to call Steve now and see if the package has arrived yet.