MORE NEWS THAN YOU WANTED TO KNOW

Okay...the boy's crying because he's trying to wake up, but he would rather sleep.

The wife's in the shower.

It's 5:30 a.m. and I've already walked 2. 5 miles this morning, fed the dog and tried to console the baby.

Dammit.

Lemme go try and console him again. He's stuffy.

You know...growing up...one thing I always promised myself is that I would NEVER enjoy having someone else's snot all over my body.

But when it's your baby's snot...you kinda bend the rules a bit.

Not that I'm covered with snot. I don't want anyone conjuring up images of the Swamp Thing here.

But the poor little guy is congested and seems miserable.

Unfortunately, neither of us can really afford to take a day off today, so he's going to HAVE to go to daycare and act like he's okay and fool Miss Robin.

I hope the kid has inherited my amazing acting skills.

So yesterday I spent the afternoon at church under the pretense that I was going to be interviewing people that are down on their luck that wanted to take advantage of this new Food Pantry that we've started.

On Wednesday, we're getting 4,000 lbs. of food donated to the church which we will then distribute to these people.

In a two hour period, in which we had 14 people waiting with pens in hand to interview these people....one person walked in.

...And I was in charge of interviewing her.

As she walked up the sidewalk to the church, everyone started freaking out because they didn't know how to interview someone.

"You do this for a living!" someone hissed as they ran into the sanctuary.

"But I'm not good at it!" I yelled.

The lady walked in the door and I greeted her and escorted her into our library.

I tried to start the interview but she just needed someone to talk to first and to hear her story.

She just got custody of her 14 year old boy. Apparently, she and her husband were both drug addicts ... he cleaned himself up quicker than she did and when they divorced, he got custody of the child.

She got Crone's Disease(?)and has irritable bowel syndrome, so she receives disability.

She cleans people's trailers as that's the only job she can handle because she can never be too far from a toilet and she's not a public pooper.

Alright...granted...that's way more information than you needed to know.

Try being Uncle Bob and hearing these words straight out of the lady's mouth. It took every ounce of willpower that I had to not just scrunch up my face and go "ewwwwwwwwwwww".

Of course, then I'm fighting mental images of her in a maid's outfit, dusting a table and crapping her frilly undies while she's still talking.

She told me about how she's recently gained a lot of weight (she was still pretty small to me)and none of her clothes fit her but she can't afford new clothes either. She needs clothes for her son who's going through a growth spurt right now and has outgrown all his clothes but she just can't scrape up the money to get him some new clothes either.

It made me wish that we could do more for her than stock her cupboard.

She wanted to know about our church since every church she's gone to has looked down on her because she can't afford to wear the latest styles.

Granted...I think that was just her self-esteem talking. Nobody's going to walk up to you in church and say "Look...nobody thinks you're fashionable. You're going to have to find another church."

I told her to come to our church and give it a try. She might like it.

She said when she walked in, everyone was smiling and that made her feel good.

So she may show up. And if she does, I'm inviting her to sit with us.

And I think that will probably be one of the nicest things anyone's done for the woman lately.

So I woke up at 4:15 this morning and laid there.

"You've got to go walk this morning," I told myself in a casual voice.

"What was that?" Susie blurted out in fear.

"Just me dear...go back to sleep," I said.

"Huzzah, whazzah...huuuuuh....snorrrrrrre"

I finally got out of bed at 4:30, threw on a ball cap and was out of the house by 4:32.

The streets are so quiet at that hour of the morning. A few dogs were awake and barked at us, but the majority of the walk was quiet.

I saw two bicyclists riding through the streets.

I figured out that I have to lose a pound and a half a week for one year in order to get to my ideal weight.

I can do this. Everyone says I'm older and it's going to be tougher.

Bullshit.

When you put your mind to something, you can do anything.

And I will do this.

Sorry...that phrase kept going through my head during the entire walk and now it's ended up on the page.

I want to serve as an inspiration to the overweight readers here. If my big ass can do it....you can too. There are no excuses.

...Unless of course, you just don't want to lose the weight. Then I guess that could be considered a valid excuse.

Sorry...I'm a bit demented from having no sugar in my system, a growling belly and weak legs from the walk.

Bear with me.

Yesterday at church, during our prayers and concerns portion of the show, Rev. Brian announced that I had been diagnosed with diabetes.

A gasp fell over the crowd. I felt like jumping up and saying "What did you people expect? Look at my fat ass!!!"

But I didn't. I sat there and smiled and nodded my head.

After the service, I was bombarded by people who were so sorry for my condition.

I just kept smiling and told people to not be sorry. This is my wake-up call. I have only myself and my gluttonous eating habits to blame. I will beat this. There's nothing to be sorry about.

But man...it took FOREVER to have to talk to everyone who wanted to let me know I'm in their prayers.

Thanks.

Thanks a bunch.

Finally, over on the message board there's some heated discussions about diabetes.

I appreciate all the facts and tips, etc. But people....come on....there's no sense in arguing over diabetes.

Bottom line...my doctor told me that with a proper diet and exercise, I can reduce my blood sugar to a normal level, and after about a year's time there was a good chance that I could stop taking the pills and would have gotten rid of this diabetes. But if I gained a bunch of weight and went back to my candy and Cokes diet then the diabetes would come back.

I talked to two people at church yesterday who got rid of their diabetes.

So it is possible to get rid of diabetes. You have to work to stay rid of it.

I'm speaking of Type II diabetes. That's all I know and care about right now.

So please...stop the arguing. I appreciate the input, etc...but as a nation, we have to become united over bigger things than who's right and wrong about diabetes.

Look at the big picture.

Thanks.

See you all later.