Work Hard Play Hard

So this morning I decided to heed the message from the weekend. Blood coming out of my penis even when I'm not actively urinating is a loud enough message, even before I went to the urologist earlier in the week. And so I decided to make changes. Lifestyle changes. And that starts with diet and the food I eat. Of course me being me, there is no slow on-ramp. I remembered the first time I got kidney stones while I was already in my apartment, which was in late 2018. I just figured I got them because of the emotional trauma of actually moving out and getting separated with Lisa. What was the emotional trauma this time? THAT I still have to think over. Not that there has to be any one big thing, maybe just an accumulation of little things over time, including diet. I'm pretty much going to let that bubble up intuitively hopefully sooner rather than later. Based on what I've been reading: Kidney issues often arise when we are dealing with fear, such as a change in life direction or unstable living conditions. When we experience extreme fright, our kidneys struggle to hold qi and we can quite literally pee our pants. Involuntary urination like this is often seen in ‘stage fright’.  That was pretty much spot on when we first got Johnnie, which was the first time I experienced kidney stones. And a pretty bad case at that. Also when I first moved out of Maplewood. I mean I literally re-invented my life after all. But what am I afraid of now? Was it a sense of mortality brought about by what Dexter is dealing with now physically? Still need a little more clarity. In the meantime, look at what I had for breakfast. Doctor's orders from Whole Foods. A green juice with lots of parsley. And ginger. Most definitely ginger. I only had 12 oz of the stuff and that was enough. For breakfast. I was not hungry any more all morning. For anything else actually. Although i did have some zen green tea. What am I doing? Detoxing with less meat, less sugar, less everything, and more juice. More fruits and vegetables. Let's see what happens then...

And so I spent the morning doing my normal round of meetings with IS Team, with the EHR team and then had myself some more Whole Foods stuff for lunch. Teriyaki salmon over rice this time. Washed down by fresh squeezed pineapple juice. Hey that's healthy right? And then off I went to Penmar to play golf with Scott and a couple of his friends that he usually plays with on Thursdays. It was a beautiful day out and I couldn't help but notice all of the out-of-office notifications from folks at work. I'm sure they're not going to miss me for a couple of hours this Thursday afternoon. And it gives me a chance to work on my golf game. And get my mind off the physical illness vibe. I mean, how sick could I be if I'm still whacking the ball 200+ yards off the tee? Not that I was consistent at that today actually. In fact, my first shot was real flat. But I did my thing and should have gotten a par on the first hole. But I missed my putt, and so that program of "I do not putt well" is very much definitely active and I need to reprogram it for the next golf game. And so the bottom line was that I did not have a good game today. And I say that because I did not get one par today. This is the course that I always say I should get a minimum of 2 pars at least. Heck the guy I thought was the weakest golfer in our foursome DID get 2 pars. How can I not?? Because I missed putts, that's why. Same reason the last 3 weeks. But hey at least I got to play golf on a weekday on a nice day out. That was easily the play of the day. And then afterwards I only got to chill for a half hour before it was time to pick up Johnnie. It's Spanish lesson day today and while he did his lesson, I made us a thin crust pizza. Only no pepperoni for me this time. Still with the pineapple. And I threw in spinach. And it actually turned out to be pretty good if I do say so myself. And so started my voyage to different eating patterns that will hopefully improve my health indicators in my prostate, my urinary tract, and my blood pressure. In the meantime, I thought Johnnie did pretty good with his Spanish class. I mean it's only been a couple of lessons and I already know he has learned quite a bit. And I am learning too as I sit and listen. it's like learning by osmosis. And then I let him watch his Dragon Rescue Riders until Lisa called on her way home from Pasadena and her piano lessons. It was 6:30 PM. I had Johnnie and Claire at Lisa's house by 7:30 PM. And so my next series I'm into now is THE LAST KINGDOM which I was into big time last year. This is the season finale. I hope I don't get sucked in until the wee hours of the morning watching this one...