Reborn As An Early Retiree, I Now Wander America’s Costliest City: Volume 1, Chapter 8

WHAT’S ON MY MIND

My brother is in a rehab center for now, and I visit him thrice a week. He still needs physical therapy for a medical issue in addition to the other stuff that’s going on, and yet he may be released soon. As you can imagine, this has been a near constant source of stress.

When I helped my sister dispose of the plethora of ultra processed food from his kitchen at the beginning of the week, I acquired a tube of Pringles. More on that later...

WHAT I LISTENED TO

Nothing. I kinda sorta forgot to stream podcasts when I sat down at my writing desk this week. 

WHAT I ATE

Have you ever heard Spo use the term “crack cheese”? This taco seasoned Monterrey Jack cheese is as addictive as Doritos. When it was combined with Marie Sharp’s habanero hot sauce, it gave my veggie omelets a finishing kick like Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes.

WHAT SACRED TEXTS I READ

• Robyn Hood: Blood In The Water
• Fairy Tale Team-Up: Robyn Hood & Belle: The Beast Hunter
• What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?, Volume 4
• My Girlfriend’s Not Here Today, Volume 1
• My Lovey-Dovey Wife Is A Stone Cold Killer, Volume 6
• Cheeky Brat, Volume 10
• The Kept Man Of The Princess Knight, Volume 1

The abundance of new sacred texts this week was like ending a drought with a flash flood. I still have a couple of titles I’ll carry over into next week.

WHAT I’M WATCHING THIS WEEKEND

Super Taikyu’s 24 hour race at Fuji Speedway will be underway by the time I post this. I'll watch the first hour before I go to bed, and then I’ll watch bits and pieces of it throughout Saturday afternoon and evening. Sunday features the Indianapolis 500, plus McDreamy’s return to competitive racing. I’m assuming they’ll run simultaneously, so I’ll likely stream Indy on the TV and McDreamy on my tablet so I don’t miss anything.

Neither the Monaco GP or the Coca-Cola 600 interest me. The former lacks passing on Monaco’s narrow city streets, and the latter is mostly a five hour substitute for Nytol.

WHAT I BOUGHT

This Kurumi Tokisaki “Calligraphic Beauty” figure is on its way. Soon the Date A Live femme fatale will write alongside me at my writing desk. Or will she try to distract me with that seductive look? Ara, ara!

WHAT MADE ME LAUGH

Schadenfreude! I was in fourth place watching two people play bumper cars in front of me at over 150 miles an hour, and sure enough the one that had raced me rough to pass me was the one who wrecked. Later on that same lap, either the leader or second place car did the same thing shortly afterward. 

Guess who slid into second place like a nuisance into someone DM’s?

WHO’S ON THE DOCKET IN SLAP COURT

The defendant: Me

The crimes: Since Monday, I wanted to see how a serving of Pringles (14 chips) for lunch would affect my weight loss. 

The punishment: I stopped on Friday morning. Keep reading...

WHO DESERVES A FIST BUMP

After a half decade of near misses and misfortune, Tadasuke Makino finally won his first Super Formula race last weekend at Autopolis. His celebration was gloriously over the top by Japanese standards for decorum, reminiscent of Josef Newgarden’s 2023 Indianapolis 500 victory. I hope to see something like that again soon.

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED IN GAMING

On Thursday night, I switched to Motion Sense steering in Gran Turismo 7. In plain English, you hold the PS5 controller in front of you like it’s a steering wheel. When you rotate it up to 90 degrees left or right, the car you’re driving will steer in the same direction.

Surprisingly, it’s only taken me about a day to run laps as fast as I did when I used a joystick to steer the car. I imagine I’ll only get better at it with more practice.

WHAT HEALTH MISADVENTURES I'M ENDURING

After going two months maskless, my sinuses have become an energy sapping snot factory. I’m masking up again, just in time for everyone to pass around COVID-19 this holiday weekend. Amirite?

I had 0.2 pounds of remorse when I threw the half full Pringles tube in the trash yesterday afternoon, the same amount of weight I GAINED this past week. It’s amazing that it only took four servings of those little fuckers to sabotage my weight loss efforts.

Despite this minor setback, I will still partake in the unhealthy food binge everyone takes for granted. I have Johnsonville brat dogs, and this Saturday night I will not be denied!

WHAT’S UP WITH MY WRITING

I finished editing Act I, the first ten chapters of “Unbound”. I’m now confident the writing will both set up the rest of the story well and hold the reader’s interest. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to rewrite Chapter 11. Perhaps I can ask Red Lobster to help me with that? 

Okay, I’ll see myself out the door. Enjoy your holiday weekend!