July 2004
Friday July 23
Wineless!
So, in determination to revitalize my upper-body exercise regimen, I decided I should stop drinking all forms of alcohol. Lean as I am, the effects of wine consumption and gravity were beginning to manifest in my abdominal region. And the requisite morning caffiene was having negative effects as well, aggravating the ol' vertigo, which is what knocked my ass out of dedicated weight-lifting five years ago.
I sometimes miss the wine, because the majority of my consumption was during early evenings at my mother's house, with my sister, two or three times a week. These visits sort of started when my father died, back in 2000. It's a good time, with conversation, TV, mother and sister's refined culinary senses. Plus, Mom stocked the wine. But it became too much, and I've known for a long time I needed to cut the wine out if I ever wanted to stop the bloat and start pumping the weights again. So I've done it.
Well, my visits haven't stopped, but for the moment, I ain't drinking alcohol, ever. And I wake up every morning extremely grateful.
The upper-body routine is off to a good start. I've progressed farther and faster than I would have dared hope. I feel alive. I feel great.
And the swelling has stopped.
Saturday, July 3
I think hell might be freezing over. Not that I necessarily subscibe to the concept of hell, but that old saw sure comes in handy here.
When Richard Land, figurehead of the Southern Baptist Convention, takes issue with the Bush/Cheney administration, something unusual is in the air.
"It's one thing for a church member motivated by exhortations to exercise his Christian citizenship to go out and decide to work on the Bush campaign or the Kerry campaign. It's another and totally inappropriate thing for a political campaign to ask workers who may be church members to provide church member information through the use of directories to solicit partisan support."
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