August 24, 2000

Survivor.

Who the heck is Rich and why should I care that he won?! Man, why don't people get this excited about books or something? And why do they think Paul and I are totally out of touch for never having seen an episode and not caring? How exactly does watching that junk enhance my life? Why to I want to see a TV serial about people being sneaky and bizarre trying to win who can stay on the island the longest? A display of the worst human traits I can think of -- sneakiness, greed, betrayal, etc. I can't see what's so entertaining about watching people be jerks. Stand on any street corner and you can see them be jerks in real life!

This is like The Running Man without the ending where he blows up the people in charge of the show.

Now if something like that happened, I'd get excited! Death to crappy TV show makers!

I was talking to Paul the other night about canceling cable. It was an invisible cost at our first flat (meaning we paid for it in the rent already and they pretended like they give it to us free), and the townhouse I just never bothered getting it installed, and now for the first year hear at the new house I let it go on because it was so cheap through the HOA and we hadn't had it for two years and we were curious if we were missing anything good.

Ok, so it's been about a year. We've had cable TV. We didn't miss anything -- we barely watch it! Why should I pay a monthly fee to not watch TV? I can do that for free.

I don't think we were missing much, and now that I know Power Puff Girls will be out on tape like Rugrats are, why would I care? We use the TV mainly for watching movies on tape on weekends. If we feel like it. Paul said to do whatever I wanted -- we'd get X-Files anyway and he agrees about PPG's on tape.

I'm going to cancel it.

Maybe I'll buy a DVD player for Xmas with what I save and then start changing out collection of tapes over to DVD. Or maybe I'll buy a better/larger TV for seeing the movies we've got. Or maybe I'll just chuck it into savings. Or we'll wait a little more and then take a vacation somewhere. Or maybe I'll stretch the book budget to double and watch Paul get goggly-eyed in anticipation of the next book run.

When I talked to Shawn this evening he told me I was totally whacked for not liking TV. Everyone likes TV.

Anyway, Paul saw Karen (dietitian) today. She told him he was starting to slack off and to be careful. Last time, he'd put on 7 lbs. This time it was only 2 lbs. and he forgot to bring his food log. Maybe I ought to just start keeping it on DietWatch for him. Too bad he doesn't keep it that way himself!

She also told him to start thinking about incorporating exercise into it. He was telling me all about this stuff in the kitchen. I was chopping dinner vegetables on one chopping board on the counter near the stove and he was grating/chopping iguana vegetables on the other chopping board by the fridge.

me: Oh?

him: Yeah, she said, 'Why don't you just go to gym with Cat' and I gave her this terrible look and told her I can't think of anything more boring than going to a gym.

Me: We all knew that already. Well, not Karen. But I did. I have a new schedule soon with cross training for Sundays. So we do have definite bike dates then, right?

him: I can do that but gym! Ugh! Ugh! Terrible!

me: Why'd that come up?

him: She said it didn't have to be gym if I didn't like it. But she's concerned about upper body strength and suggested swimming as another maybe.

Me: I'd swim with you but all the community pools here are tiny wading type. Not lap type... you'd either have to come to my gym for that pool style or we'd have to drive.... somewhere. I don't even know where the nearest pool other than a gym pool is around here.

him: I told her we were thinking of a weight bench for both of us and she said that's good enough.

Me: Wow! Funky rice!

him: That sounds bad.

Me: It's not funky bad. I didn't use the usual brown rice because I had leftover wehani and with the vegetables I didn't realize the colors would look so stunning together. Funky cool... I have to remember that next time we entertain and have people for dinner... It tastes about the same, just looks really neat.

Him: Oh. That's OK then.Anyway, I can deal with a weight bench. I just can't stand the gym. Too many people and bad music and no scenery and just ugh!

me: Well, nobody is making you do anything you don't want. Were you doing anything this weekend? I mean, do we have plans?

him: I was just going to work on my car and do house stuff. Why?

me: Because I was going to say if we were going to go antiquing anyway it wouldn't be a big deal to stop to look at weight benches again.

Him: I forgot about antiques.

Me: I have a super light training schedule this week and my weekend is pretty free. No gym unless I feel like it. New schedule starts next week.

Him: Oh, good, then antiquing would be excellent this weekend. Let's do that.

I kept fixing dinner but mentally thought, "You bet your butt we're going antiquing. And you can bet we'll be stopping to check out weight benches too!"

I vent at Karen about Paul food stress when he makes me frustrated. I don't like to vent at him about it -- I rather he go at his own pace and deal with it without any extra pressure from me. We even go different days when we go see her so they are total separate experiences. I worry after him, but at home I try to just listen and get hints about what food to have around to coax him to eat. When I did groceries the other day, I got him vegetable crackers, Bugles, M&Ms and a can of mixed nuts because he needs the calories and I know he'll eat finger food absent-mindedly if it is there. This weekend I should make party Chex mix and put it in a can. It's a good thing I'm not wild about salty foods! I'm surrounded!

We've been avoiding the issue of him being awfully sedentary other than when we bike, which frankly, isn't regular enough.

How do other people manage that spouse-health-worry thing? I mean, I care about him, I don't want him to get sick or die before his time. At the same time I don't want to nag. At the same time I don't want him to take his health for granted. At the same time I don't want to get picky at him. At the same time why do I have to be in charge of all this junk for both of us -- making appointments, tracking medical stuff, managing foodstuffs? I didn't sign up for this job! At the same time he's so forgetful he won't do it. He helps some in the kitchen but left to his own devices he'd never do this stuff on his own.

One of the coworker's brother-in-laws died in his sleep of what seems to be a spontaneous freak brain aneurysm earlier this week -- get this -- in his early 20's!

It spooked the both of us. We both know weird things can happen and it doesn't have to mean it will happen to you too but when faced with it in your own circle of people it's a little reminder like "Hey, stupid! You aren't indestructible just because you are young!"

~Astrophe