I slept OK, but not that long. I swear I woke up with breathing issues again, but not because of my nose. It seems to happen on my stomach. I think too much of the mask gets blocked that way as I relax. I also had a nightmare about some guy violently puking in a parking lot who was in so much agony that he screamed, “I wish I were dead!” Then his face got really red and alien-looking, like some kind of sci-fi horror movie.

Anyway, this is the second day in a row that I have fairly decent energy. I probably should have taken advantage of it and gone out walking, but it’s hard to motivate myself to do something I know I can’t do consistently. I’m always hitting the road, though. Even so, I wish I could motivate myself to do more cardio and strength training.

Tom installed our water filter under the kitchen sink, and I wish we had done that in Cali. It’s awesome! It was funny because when we both got up, we went over to the refrigerator out of habit, which he disconnected.

I was out back working on a story and saw what almost looked like a wolf at first glance. It was a big gray dog, but as I found out, they don’t have wolves in Florida. I guess they were here over 100 years ago, though. We definitely do have coyotes, and I’m sure there are some stray dogs too, so maybe that’s what I saw. It was a damn big coyote if that’s what it was. It was about four houses down, so it was too far to see if it was wearing a collar, but I definitely didn’t see anyone with it, whatever it was. When I saw it head toward the front, I walked down to the end of the driveway, but didn’t see anything.

My eyes are still annoying me and watery, but not as bad as yesterday, and today I don’t have a headache to go with it. I really hope it’s a minor problem that can be resolved simply, like Tom thinks it is, because I don’t usually get off easily. I just hope to hell it doesn’t get really bad before the appointment. I can’t get in until the 11th.

My tooth still irritates me, and I’m still hoping to hell I’m not infected and that they’ll be able to put the permanent crown on in a couple of days with no delays or additional costs. I’m treating myself to Chinese food that day either way because I still have to eat, and it’s been a while. After that, it’s back on my Atkins-like diet. I’m definitely not as hungry if I eat more meat and fewer carbs. I ran my diet plan through AI and asked if I was getting the nutrients necessary, and it said that I had the bulk of them but recommended a few different things to add for magnesium, potassium, and vitamins C and E. This mostly means incorporating almonds and spinach into the diet. The plan is to have three meals. Two meals will consist of meat and veggies, and the other one will be something like Rosina’s chicken meatballs. Just three of them are quite tasty and filling. Then I might have a bowl of Cheerios or a yogurt mixed in. Those will be more like snacks. Weight definitely goes back up if I have more carbs.