My younger brother arrived home last evening barely ahead of 9:00 p.m. However, I was upstairs here at my computer; so not wanting to have anything to do with him because I feared him to probably be stupid drunk, I ducked away into the bathroom, and then followed suit to my bedroom for a very early evening to bed.
An hour and 20 minutes later, I was still awake. That was the only occasion in which I made a check of the time. Eventually I did get to sleep, of course, but I am really hating this ─ my life is not my own. Had it been, I could have just risen and put some work into the post I am developing at one of my six hosted websites ─ not find myself forced to hide away because my brother is unable to operate our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box and consequently has to rely upon the basic cable package we have through Telus.
The next check I made of the time after falling asleep, it was possibly 1:48 a.m., and I was alone in bed ─ my wife had not come home following her day working at the Thai restaurant that employs her.
It was time for me to rise and put work into that website post.
Then at 2:40 a.m., I heard my wife unlocking the front door. I didn't have to ask her anything ─ I knew that she had been partying.
Such is my sorry marriage.
Such is my sorry marriage.
I never solicited any conversation from her, and about all she offered was that she did not have to go to work today. In other words, don't rouse her late in the morning if she doesn't rise around 10:00 a.m. to begin readying for her usual 11:00 a.m. start at the restaurant.
I remained up until a little ahead of 5:00 a.m. before I returned to bed to try for some further sleep. Believe me, it is never easily accomplished.
By 7:30 a.m. I was already awake again, and I could have risen. But doing so would only complicate the integrity of my day. My brother expects me to join him in the living room around 10:00 a.m. to operate our Android TV Box and spare him further basic cable.
I toughed it out in bed until awhile after 8:30 a.m., at which time my brother had apparently just completed his morning shower. However, there was a stranger's voice downstairs in discourse with my youngest (22 years old) stepson.
I left it to my brother to go down and discover what was up, but it was ─ from what I could overhear ─ an agent from Telus. Our Internet had gone down for a time on Saturday, and I think the lad had managed to retrieve it ─ he is the subscriber to our Telus cable T.V. and Internet.
But in getting things operational again, apparently the cable T.V. remained down. He was not likely privy to this detail until Sunday evening when my very drunk brother came home from wherever he had been drinking and rousted both of my stepsons to remedy this dilemma ─ I was here upstairs at my computer with no intention of any socialization with my brother in his state.
The lads could not bring back the cable television, but the younger one at least was able to cue up the Android TV Box and opened up one of the video streaming 'apps' that I have downloaded into it. And soon, I could hear an episode of South Park playing.
After a few minutes, out of curiosity I peered downstairs to evaluate my brother ─ he looked to already be unconscious. Then when the episode played out, all was in dead silence. I went downstairs and would have turned off the T.V. and turned on the stereo for my brother to wake up to there in the darkened living room, but he had the remote for the Android TV Box in one hand on his lap, and the T.V. remote in his other hand.
It would not be worth the trouble for me to risk rousing him, so I just left matters as they were and came back upstairs.
Anyway, I suspect that my youngest stepson was not desirous of having to weather another similar interaction some evening with my helplessly drunken brother, so he must have contacted Telus to have something done about our connectivity troubles.
At least when we had Shaw cable T.V. and Internet, the T.V. and Internet were entirely separate feeds. Whenever the Internet might fail, the trouble was unrelated to cable television and that service was thus uninterrupted and still available.
This is no longer so where Telus is concerned. Both services fail together, and we are left with nothing.
From what I overheard this morning, the Telus agent may have promised to do something about the main control box in our utility room where the end of our home's buried optic cable from outside enters into the house.
I am normally involved during the weekdays from about 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. or even later operating our Android TV Box and watching shows with my brother, but this morning he had at least three phone conversations with drinking buddies, and something was arranged for 1:30 p.m.
And so it was that not much after 11:30 a.m., he announced that he needed to get some more bed rest then or he was not going to manage to have any at all ─ drinking was beckoning especially early this afternoon, it would seem.
He got some rest, I suppose; and then late into the noon hour he headed away to catch a bus this rather wet day.
I hoped to finally give my TAVIEW blood flow restriction (BFR) bands their first trial, but I needed a nap first. Since I could not use my own bedroom, I resorted to my brother's just after 2:00 p.m.
When next I checked the time, is was over an hour later, and I knew that I had gotten a little sleep. So I came downstairs and had my day's second hot caffeinated beverage. And upon enjoying that, I gave the bands a try.
I ordered the bands from AliExpress.com back on February 12 for a total price of $25.97 Canadian (shipping was free), and I received them exactly 15 days later ─ all the way from China. I honestly do consider this to have been quite the score.
This was the actual advertisement:
This first workout of mine was experimental. I still have to become familiar with just how tight I need to be pulling the bands. Also, I only have two dumbbells to work with, and I cannot adjust them to match one another.
One is very heavy ─ 43½ pounds. That's ridiculously heavy for BFR exercising purposes.
The other is maybe 20 pounds, so I used that. I first curled for 20 reps with my left arm, then straightaway curled for 20 reps with my right arm. Then without a break, I curled again with my left for...gosh, I now forget. Was it 12 or 15 reps?
I may have dropped down to 10 or 12 reps for the third and fourth sets, and that's where I stopped.
Then I did presses in the same fashion, but with less reps. I should have paid more attention, but I just can't remember how many now.
By the time I was done, I estimated that I must have surely been exercising for around 15 minutes, so I removed the bands.
Then I put on the bands for my thighs. I just tried weight-free squats ─ first, four sets of a version of Hindu squats. And here again, I cannot recall how many reps I performed, but maybe it was 30 for the first set; then a 30-count break, followed by maybe 20 reps or less.
Gosh, I'll have to pay better attention next time!
After four sets of those, I then did four sets of partial flat-footed squats where I clasped my hands in front of myself, and then I just squatted down a short distance for 30 reps, followed by a 30-count break, and then 30 more reps, and so on ─ I had no trouble doing 30 in each set.
As I said, I am still experimenting. I think next time I will only exercise one arm for four sets, and keep the other arm band-free; then I will change arms. Banding both arms and then alternating with the curls allows the free arm to get too much of a rest.
Also, I question whether I had the bands as tight as I should have. They seemed tight, for sure; but I wasn't getting all that much of a pump, by my estimation.
I hate learning curves.
As I have been typing this, at 4:57 p.m. this afternoon my wife exited our bedroom at long last.
She quickly showered, and then made ready to go somewhere ─ I am thinking she has only gone somewhere to grocery shop and will be returning to do some cooking.
But she begged me not to let on to her sons that she took $1,500 from our chequing account last night ─ I expect that she is back to her gambling. She has me buried in debt!
She promised that she'll replace it all tomorrow, for I suppose that she will be getting paid. But all that means is that her entire paycheque will be useless for helping out when the monthly mortgage becomes due as early as the 22nd of this month. This one will have been essentially thrown away.
On top of that, the annual utilities bill is due April 2 ─ for well over $1,200. I'm a 70-year-old pensioner ─ I have no means of making up for these heavy outlays of funds. My wife's two sons are going to have to be heavily enlisted.
On top of that, the annual utilities bill is due April 2 ─ for well over $1,200. I'm a 70-year-old pensioner ─ I have no means of making up for these heavy outlays of funds. My wife's two sons are going to have to be heavily enlisted.
I am so bloody sick of living like this but I dare say no more here. I am both crushed and infuriated.
I am going to close this post now with some photos, for I no longer feel like blogging.
Yesterday I posted two photos that I took back on February 26 of a mini lily in bloom just outside our front door. Google Photos announced today that it has 'stylised' one of the photos, so I shall now compare them, beginning with the original:
The enhanced version is definitely somewhat brighter, isn't it?
Google Photos also created a collage from two photos that I scanned and then uploaded into an album on March 3, 2013:
The original photos are considerably older than 2013, for they were taken when my eldest stepson was likely celebrating a birthday back in Thailand before he ever came here to Canada in September 2008.
He was 14 years old when he came here, if I am remembering right. That boy in the photo above is not him, but he appears to be the same age as my stepson, and was present at the celebration.
The woman is my wife ─ I have no idea why she looks so dreadful in that photo. Perhaps she was unwell.
I will now post the two original photos, plus one that displays my eldest stepson at his birthday party:
That is my stepson just in front of his aunt ─ he's almost looming over the candles on a cake. The boy lying down in the previous photo is the lad at the far end of the table. And seated directly across from the birthday boy is my youngest stepson, if I am not mistaken.
Well, it is now 6:14 p.m. and my wife is still not back. I don't know what the hell I can do about her ─ I can't even talk to anyone about her, for I have no friends anywhere near to where I live.
I feel quite alone and isolated....
Well, it is now 6:14 p.m. and my wife is still not back. I don't know what the hell I can do about her ─ I can't even talk to anyone about her, for I have no friends anywhere near to where I live.
I feel quite alone and isolated....
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