Viruses

Last week's technical debacle pretty much fried my nerve ends that had not already previously dis-attached since the bridge going out incident. After my last blog post of 4/20, I was more than ready to settle in for a quiet Easter weekend. Alas, such was not to be the case...

Unfortunately, Dear Child had caught a bug from someone someplace in our township and came down with what will forever be called "that first stomach bug."

Who knew (other than more experienced parents) that a child could throw up once, not eat for three days and then poop enough for five well-fed adults? One simply does not intuit that from childfree life. Nor does one know that one can become best friends with a pediatrician who LOVES to hear your anxious voice at 3:30 am night after night after night...

One learns so many things during a child's "first stomach bug."

I did not know that the banana, rice, apples & toast (BRAT) diet excludes apple juice. It seems that the juice form of the fruit has the opposite effect on human stomachs (natch).

I did not know that Pedialyte comes in yummy flavors and can be made into groovy ice cubes.

So much learning, so little time...but thank God the bug was programmed to run its course in approximately 36 hours, which meant that Dear Child was better for Easter. My nerves sang in jubilation and were ready to catch up and get ahead on a number of projects big and small, when....

My computer came down with its own virus someplace from someone, which will always be known as the "Vista Security 2011 Fiasco." At first, being technically naive, I believed that I need to buy Vista Security to stop getting pop-ups warning me of breaches in my McAfee Firewall.

After days of ignoring, then searching the desktop, then trying to buy the program, I realized as I was reading the terms of purchase that there were typos in the online document. Now, typos we see everywhere, even in this blog, but this was supposedly a Microsoft agreement. There is no way in this universe that Microsoft would ever, and I repeat ever, have a typo in one of their contracts. They're about as anal as I am about contracts. And there are more Microsoft lawyers looking at the same documents before they go live.

So I knew something was afoot.

Upon a quick Google search, I had what I needed: numerous website giving me instructions on how to wipe the virus from my computer. Yet none of them worked.

Finally, I called McAfee and paid the $90 to have them take over my computer and clean it for me. That $90 was money extremely well spent.

Dear Child and computer are both healthy again. My exergaming workouts continue. Weight loss carries on. And now, ten days later, I'm able to catch up and get ahead on projects that are stockpiled. God willing, we'll be free of other such viruses and seriously horrible impediments for quite some time.

Fear & Food (3.24.11)

Image via Wikipedia

I was whipping along, happy in my weekly progress and slowly plowing through my first personal goals, when life, as it is sometimes apt to do, threw my weight loss a curve ball.

As is not often the case, it could not have been anticipated, as many have called what happened an act of God. You see, last week the East coast saw some rain. Make that buckets full of torrential rain and you might have the correct idea. We were impacted, because Dear Husband was travelling for work and the bridge we use to access the outside world was literally washed away. All of last week I would stand looking at the whitewater that was the river between us and, well, everything else. And did I mention that our cars were safely nestled in our garage on our side of the river? :Sigh:

So my child and I were stuck at home alone with no route of vehicular egress and I was stressed. What if anything happened and we needed emergency services? What if something happened to me and my child was stuck alone? What if, what if, what if?

While I continued to religiously do my EA Sports Active 2 routine, with my child trying to do it alongside me, I needed to attend to my child’s needs, bridge repair coordination, work and keeping Dear Husband abreast of the situation, which seemed to change most hours of most days: more rain, sleet, snow, ice, walk bridge, walk bridge warping, and the list went on and on. It’s one thing to be concerned and handle inconveniences; it’s a completely different experience to go through those same things as a parent.

After my child went to bed at night, I’d have a beer (or two), replay the day, try to get ahead on things for the following day, plan out potential crisis aversion and….emotionally eat. It’s not like we have much unhealthy stuff in the house (shucksthank God), but as with anything else, something in moderation like a few cheddar bunnies turns into something else entirely when one goes off the reservation – like consuming an entire box of cheddar bunnies in one sitting.

End results: Dear Husband is home, bridge is completely repaired, child is happy and healthy, my EA Sports Active 2 trainer is happy that I completed all of the required workouts last week, I was tremendously productive in work, I got very little sleep and ate waaaayyyyyy too much. So at this week’s weigh in, I was up two pounds instead of down one.

Final analysis, I am happy that everyone is healthy; things could have been much worse (our hearts and prayers are with the people of Japan and the Middle East); we’re grateful for our friends around the world who offered immediate support; and I have a new understanding of emotional eating in general and my emotional eating in particular. It’s something I’ll watch out for in stressful situations, but will also embrace as a short term necessity. So long as one gets back to the cycle of healthy eating, exercise and healthy choices, all is not lost – in fact, insight makes us all winners.

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