Wednesday, June 4

Post 1754, Day 155 of 2014
- 1,251 days since I started this blog -

Daily Comment

Now that I've been up here for just short of five years (!!!) and am entertaining my first visitor in four years, I wanted to take advantage of this week's only night off last night to show him a little of Syracuse.

It was a beautiful night, and we walked and talked for quite a while... and my friend David can talk. Fine with me, he is interesting, and not hard to pay attention to. He is also inquisitive, so it wasn't entirely a monolog.

He does talk circles around me. I'm out of practice, I guess.

He has told me he has a neurological problem that his doctors have not been able to pin down, but to me, it presents as Asperger's. He is very particular, reacting to things he perceives as unpleasant as though he were allergic. He is struggling to maintain his relationships. 

He is highly intelligent. He struggles because, as he himself declares, he is deeply into attachment, living in his head, remembering, interpreting, churning things over and over, without the inclination, maybe without the ability, to let go of anything. 

From our conversation, my understanding is he doesn't grasp the idea of 'Now' because by the time he expresses it, it has passed. Stuck in space and time, he insists on the existence of the whole continuum. It is very important to him to validate his thoughts.

It is also, to me as a compassionate observer, the source of a lot of unhappiness for him. He vigorously believes he must not let go of anything, and that it is his purpose to pursue understanding, to be curious and to find answers.

Me? I struggle to let go of everything. 

He's gone back home now, to his day-to-day life, to his day-to-day struggle, to work on his relationships, to trying to make sense of the world by processing his thoughts.

His visit to me was a great time for me, less so, I think, for him, as my schedule didn't match his agenda. After our night of talking, for instance, he thought we hadn't talked much. I found that pretty funny - it was the longest conversation I have had, except for a couple of phone calls to brother Andy, in decades. For him, not so much.

He had asked me to teach him to meditate. I hope it helps him, although, if, somehow, it doesn't, I don't see how it can hurt.

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 Food and Diet Section

2014 Daily Weight

Today's Weight:         210.2 lbs

Previous Weight:        209.4 lbs

Day Net Loss/Gain:      + 0.8 lbs

Diet Comment

My continued vacation eating (even though it isn't my vacation) are having predictable results. Ends tomorrow.

Food Log 

Breakfast
A Quest bar.

Lunch
At Ling-Ling's Chinese Buffet and Grill:

Brussels sprouts, kimchee, and, from the "Mongolian Grill", my go-to dish: pork and chicken with cabbage, onions, mushrooms, green peppers and broccoli. This is the same meal, and the same picture, as always.

Snack
A Quest bar.

Dinner
At Eskapes: Blackened salmon with bacon on baby spinach, tomatoes (wedges and cherry), cucumbers, mandarin oranges, red peppers with a ginger dressing. Sauteed vegetables (spinach, mushrooms, onions. (I took a pic that didn't turn out - sorry!).

Snack
A Quest bar.

Liquid Intake

   Coffee:  0 oz.   Water: 54+ oz.  2 glasses of chianti.

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