Tick-tock goes the final hours of my 47th year.

A shark bit some guy’s foot off while he was visiting Maui, and a German lady was killed several months ago while snorkeling. Supposedly, it's highly unusual to have two shark attacks in the same year. No, it’s not going to scare me if we decide to go snorkeling.

No hip or leg pain today after yesterday’s semi-fierce run, but today I got up too late to go out there. It’s way too cold and windy. Instead, I got my workout in the form of housecleaning and playing with the rats. Definitely getting pretty fit again, and when I say “fit,” I mean for a 48-year-old, not a 20-year-old. Still no desire to actively lose weight, but if I did, a 40-pound loss would be ideal, while a 30-pound loss would be sufficient. My waist is down from 38 to 35, but that’s still a good 10 inches more than I should have.

I have no idea what the hell’s going on with my period, or lack of it, but I can only guess menopause is slowly setting in. The water retention has gone down quite a bit. It will be interesting to see if I get a period this month.

I’ll be stuffing myself tomorrow with KFC. :) I love that stuff. I limit my fast food to once or twice a month, but tomorrow I won’t be working or working out at all. First, the birthday girl will be sleeping most of the day away since I’m on nights right now, then it’ll be nothing but food, fun, writing, movies, and music.

While I still don’t appreciate people trying to push their lifestyle on me or complain about mine, I totally hear Andy when he points out that in-person friends can do things cyber friends can’t. Cyber friends just aren’t real. I mean, of course they’re real people with real lives and real feelings and real interests and all that, but they can’t give you a ride if you need one or throw you a birthday party.

At the same time, I feel confident that if we ever needed anything, Bob and Virginia next door would be quick to help out. This isn’t like a regular neighborhood. Think Virginia would’ve come out, introduced herself to Tom that day she saw him going to the mailbox, then told him they were going on vacation and not to think anything was wrong if this was the mainstream? You might do that in a regular community after you’ve known your neighbor a while, but not a few months after they moved in. There are other people as well who would help us in ways like that if we needed it, so don’t think we’re totally helpless.

As for throwing me a birthday party? LOL, that’s really sweet, but at my age, birthday parties simply don’t mean what they do when we’re younger. Just throw the food at me, give me a back massage or a foot massage or something like that, and I’m in heaven. :)

Speaking of Bob, Tom chatted with him earlier on the way to pick up the mail. He was stringing Christmas lights.

On the 17th, Tom’s department is being treated to bowling, free food, and the chance to win things in raffles. Wish I could go with him. Not just for the free food and raffles (bowling I could take or leave, though it’s better than tennis), but to meet his coworkers. They’re not allowed to bring anybody, though. It’s their own private company party.

Got a birthday card from Eileen. So nice of her. :) She always remembers me.

Picked out some crockpot recipes I’ll want to try and Zudded my mugs. Zud is the only product that dissolves coffee and tea stains from mugs in seconds.

We’re going to hit freezing tonight and are at our coldest. Wish it was May, but would settle for March. We reversed the fan in the living room where the cathedral ceilings are to push the warmer air down.