Medifast Status: Day 88, Down ~42lbs
I got up this morning and, of course, was on the phone. Multiple phone calls, yet again. This is really wearing me out. Then in to the office on the late side as I had logged in from home and worked a while from there first. I am on call this whole weekend so wanted to verify my remote access was working before being stuck physically in the office all weekend.
For lunch today Dominica and the girls picked me up and we went to La Cima. We had seen the menu and knew that it looked like something that we wanted before I even headed in to work so I was dressed for the club and Dominica was almost starting to get the girls ready when I left. We were just late enough for lunch that we were alone in the lounge which is perfect with the girls. They can make noise or walk around without bothering anyone.
Liesl gets so excited when we go to La Cima. She watches out the window and can see William’s Tower a mile or so before we get there and points it out very excitedly and tells us over and over that we are almost there. Then, as we round the corner onto Conner she says “We’re here! We’re here!”
On the way back to the office from La Cima we ran over to Medifast and I had my first appointment in a month. Dominica and the girls just waited in the car. My weigh-in was not actually that bad and my trainer was very encouraged that I managed to average two pounds per week loss for the past month even while being pretty significantly off of my Medifast diet due to all of the travel and events.
It has been really tough for the past month trying to keep up with my diet. All of the travel and events make it nearly impossible to stay on task and eat what I am supposed to eat. My trainer was very impressed with how well I have done, all things considered, and said that most people don’t manage to do that at all.
This evening ended up being pretty quite because of the market freeze that has been put into effect due to the current failure for the US government to pass the debt ceiling bill that has been going back and forth. Years from now, when you are probably reading this, the debt ceiling votes going on today and for the next few days will probably be completely forgotten about – a trivial point of financial minutia in the grand scheme of things. But right now, this is an all encompassing political and economic disaster putting the country on the edge of collapse. The US will, on Tuesday, August 2nd, run completely out of money and does not have the legal ability to borrow any more money which means that we cannot repay our debts (mostly to China and our own citizens) and will be forced to default.
Defaulting, for the world’s largest economy and one that has never defaulted or missed a payment in its entire history, would be catastrophic not just for the US but for the world too whose global economy has been fragile, to say the least, over the past few years. If the US was to default not only would it significantly hurt the economies of our lending partners but would cripple the US’ own investors, such as bond holders, too. And the value of US bonds would plummet. The worst thing, though, is that rating agencies like Moody’s and Standard & Poor would be forced to downgrade the US from a AAA rating which would trigger forced sell-offs from many investment agencies that have requirements to only hold AAA bonds. This is much bigger than it sounds and would cause dramatic losses for things like pension funds and anyone holding US bonds and would make it nearly impossible for the US to raise additional funds in the future as its biggest investors would be barred from investing in it.
So we wait with baited breath to see if the US government can stop its partisan bickering and get a resolution passed. The whole world is watching us and our own government is acting like children. I understand that any party that lets their guard down will get run rough-shod by the opposition but this is truly ridiculous. The stakes are far higher than most people imagine that they are and this is not the time to be making political maneuvers. The interests of the country are in second place to party politics. The flaws of the US system are exposed for all to see right now and the actions taken over the next few days will have a ripple effect far into the future. So my future reads will probably not even be aware of this near event – because there is almost no chance that some measure will not be passed at the eleventh hour – but the stability of the world economy is seriously threatened right now and catastrophe has its name on our dance card this evening.
I was able to get out of work on the early side, leaving at six thirty, and went home to spend the weekend with the girls.
I had to spend a bit of time on the phone tonight and Dominica put in quite a bit of time doing more painting. Boy is a lot of painting getting done around here! We watched Dirty Dancing tonight and then Mr. Baseball.
We stayed up really late tonight after the girls went to bed. Lot’s of housework getting done. I moved the soaker hose tonight too to attempt to water the failing pillars rather than the front yard. We will see if this makes any difference. We are hopeful but the chances of it working are very low.
I am working all weekend for the office. It just worked out that I had traded weekend shifts with someone and it turned out that I picked up the “freeze” weekend when no changes would be going on. That’s awesome. My weekend will likely be really quiet.
Next week I am on an early shift starting at six thirty every day.