Football Saturdays with Pizza

The 7-9 Seahawks beat the defending Superbowl Champion Saints 41-36. It was the first NFL playoff game that I had watched in 6 years. I used to work on weekends and then did not get broadcast TV with the games for two years. I ordered a pizza, salad and soda. With a coupon, the large Papa John's pizza was $10. The pizza was good, the salad was less than expected.

The second game of the day was a nail-biter that went down to the wire. With 3 seconds to go, the Jets kicker made a 35-yard field goal to win the game. It was an entertaining finish. I will probably watch more playoff football this year.

While watching the game, the maintenance guy came by to work on my powerless electrical outlets in the kitchen. He spent 40 minutes testing and checking without being able to determine the source of the problem. Another guy will come by tomorrow to work on it some more. It is one advantage of an apartment to have that level of service. It would have cost hundreds of dollars for an electrician work on the problem if I had to pay for the repairs if it was my condo.

My friend Mike's funeral was today. I did not go. None of my current friends knew Mike and I did not want to go to a sad family event by myself. I did just post a comment on his online guestbook at the Sunset Hills Funeral Home. Some deaths are sadder than others. Mike was in a lot of psychic pain and will hopefully find relief in the next life—whatever that might be. I am grateful we got together several times in the last year. It had been years since the last time I saw him. I don't know what he died from, but strongly suspect it was a secondary effect of the spinal cord injury he had in 1987. Mike was always very supportive of my efforts to find sobriety. When I went to rehab in 1999, he brought me sugar-free candy as suggested by the staff. Goodbye and god-bless you, MO.

Now I will use my hand-bike to exercise for a few minutes and call it a day. My newfound gratitude has made exercise something that I am now willing and able to do. I had known for years that exercise was a really good thing, but was not able to break through the inertia to get started. Being grateful has either given me more energy or lowered the threshold, either way, I am now able to do some exercise. It might not be a lot of exercise, but it is a HUGE improvement from where I was. Thank god.