#1491, Tuesday, August 18: Success in lack of planning.

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Post 1491, Day 230 of 2015
- 1,691 days since I started this blog -

Daily Comment

When I tell the story about how I came to live in Syracuse, I begin with the desperate circumstances that led to the move.

Four months earlier, I had suffered a major reversal. My wife had left me when my medical problems didn't sort themselves out acceptably and the money ran out and I got fired from my job in the hospital. When the house was sold, there wasn't enough money to pay off all the debts we had racked up in our marriage.

That was where I was at: I was homeless. I was, for the first time in my adult life, in personal debt, with a negative financial net worth. I had been doing end-of-life home care for a male ALS victim, and he had gone to palliative care, so I was unemployed.

Homeless. Jobless. Broke. It's a good thing I had friends, although not all my friendships survived this low point. My best friend was so angry with me over 'allowing' my fortunes to turn around (possibly making me needier than him), that our friendship was doomed.

Counseling came from my brother. Reassurance from my sister. I was couch-surfing, so shelter came from a few friends.

I had no recovery plan. In fact, I was lost in my emotions, and feeling lost, and couldn't even formulate a coherent plan or strategy for lifting myself out of the hole I felt I was in. No plan.

A friend who I hadn't seen in some years heard about my situation and offered a solution: Leave North Carolina, come to a rust-belt, dying factory town where a high-tech company was starving for software engineers.

My son was out in California. My local prospects for employment weren't good, not having worked in the tech field for more than four years, or coded in seven. The things that had brought me to North Carolina in the first place, family and work, weren't a factor in keeping me here any more.

I felt there was no reason not to go. A little brush-up work to prepare for technical questions and I was ready (my resume looked good, I had done good work when that was what I did).

They flew me up for an interview right after Memorial Day. It was the first time I was ever in Syracuse. It was cold. The gas was expensive. I figured, get the job, get back on my feet, move on.

I got the job. It sucked. A little over a year later, the company missed getting some contracts, put itself up for sale, and laid me and half its employees off.

Meanwhile, I had assimilated into the local music scene, and found joy in playing and friendship among the players and fans. I was smiling a lot. I was comfortable.

After the axe fell, I downsized my life, took advice from that same friend who helped get me the Syracuse job, and, at age sixty, landed a job at the VA in Syracuse being unemployed only about sixty days. After the job started, I moved to an apartment walking-distance away, and went to work with the expectation that this would be my final job.

True dat.

Now, six years and a couple of months after moving up here, I have a transformed life. I have retired all my debt, and have savings. I have joy from making music here. I wake up feeling good and feeling full of gratitude.

All without a single plan coming to fruition.

Food and Diet Section

Today's Weight:                   210.8 lbs

Previous Weight (8/17):           215.0 lbs

Day Net Loss/Gain:                - 4.2 lbs

Diet Comment

A little fasting, a nice high-protein, high-fat, low carb meal, and, bam! Almost all the way back to pre-weekend weight.

Food Log

Breakfast
Protein shake with almond-coconut milk, kefir, kale, extra-large organic egg, whey powder (36g protein), hemp seeds, hemp protein (7g protein), raw organic cacao powder, chia gel, moringa leaf powder, cinnamon, celery and stevia-inulin blend.

Lunch

Skipped.

Dinner

Roast beef, pepperoni, celery and mayonnaise.

Snack
Quest bars.

Liquid Intake
   Espressos: 2;  Coffee: 24 oz.; Water: 72+ oz. 

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