Days Off — April 2, 2025 – John Agliata

🧩 Today’s Puzzle Pieces 🧩
PTO🥱
Vindicated🎶
Eternal Sunshine☀️

THE DAILY UPDATE

I took a few days off of work this week, and by that, I mean my day job and, for the most part, my side business. Life has been busy since I went back to work in January after recovering from my neck-fusion surgery, and I reached a point early last week in which my brain just needed to not think about work-related writing for a bit.

I had been neglecting a few things I wanted to get done, including upcoming travel plans. I had trips I needed to work on for Wifey Poo and I at the end of this month, the Fab Five at the end of July, and me and a high school chum in September. I love planning vacations, and besides writing and being weird, it’s one of the things I’m good at. So over the course of my Monday-Tuesday vacation, I planned a long weekend at the end of this month for Wifey Poo and I to take a road trip up the Great River Road in Illinois to Moline and back, our Fab Five July road trip to Washington, D.C., and my trip to Baltimore to hang with my bud Josh and his brother and go to an Orioles game.

I also got a ton of little errands done. Monday was Home-dentist-CigarStore-HomeDepot-Panera-SoundSpa-DMV-Walgreens-Home, and then I did a bunch of the work with the stuff I got from Home Depot. I felt productive, and I like feeling productive. During the Dark Years battling brain illness, it took all I had to function, so feeling energized to get stuff done is energizing in and of itself.

Tuesday was a little different. We were having our roof replaced, and I needed to stay home to welcome the crew and answer any questions they might have. If you’ve never had your roof replaced while you’re home, you don’t know how freaking loud it is. So when Wifey Poo returned, I bolted, took Boy The Younger to his co-op classes, then went to Panera and the park before picking BTY up and coming home just as the roofers wrapped up. It was cool to be able to use my limited Spanish to talk with the crew. I take any opportunity I get to hablo espanol. I think of my middle school Spanish teacher, Mr. Powers, who brought so much energy to teaching the language that you couldn’t help but learn it.

The new roof is likely to be tested today. We’re under a tornado watch until 4 p.m., and there is large hail expected. We’ll see what actually materializes. It’s been a wild month or so of weather. Lots of wind. These type of days make me want to just curl up on the couch under a blanket with a book and a hot coffee (or perhaps a whiskey). Having some good company would be nice, but alas, that is not where my life is right now. I’ve been thinking a lot about when it was where my life was, and I miss the people who are gone. A lot. Some I would love to have back in my life on the regular. Some I just want to talk to one more time … to explain, to apologize, to try to set things right and have the better goodbye we deserve. I think a lot about dying or them dying before having that opportunity, and I don’t want that to happen, yet I feel largely powerless to change the narrative at this point, and that’s frustrating. I accept blame for being in the situation I’m in. That doesn’t mean I don’t wish it could be different.

I’m looking out my home office window now. The clouds are fast-moving, various shades of gray, ominous. Trees with limbs adored in new green buds sway in a constant breeze, bending deeper with the gusts. A squirrel is on one of the thinnest branches, and perhaps he’s questions the life decisions that have led him to that precarious point. Or maybe he’s just a stupid squirrel incapable of such thoughts on his own mortality. A vulture soars in circles overhead. I wonder what’s dead in the woods. I’ve heard the coyotes in the night recently. Maybe they have something to do with it.

The house is empty, save for me and Luna The Wonder Bulldog. She’s asleep. She does that really, really well. It’s a lot quieter here today than it was yesterday with the roofers. I’m thankful for that quiet.

Something I’m grateful for today: Free WiFi that enables me to work from various places in the world.

Something I’ve (ghost)written: Eternal Sunshine, 20 Years Later

Song In My Head When I Woke Up: I’d Do Anything, by Simple Plan

Meaningful Lyric From SIMHWIWU:

I’d do anything
Just to hold you in my arms
To try to make you laugh
‘Cause somehow I can’t put you in the past
I’d do anything
Just to fall asleep with you
Will you remember me?
‘Cause I know I won’t forget you

Song of the Day: Vindicated, by Dashboard Confessional

Meaningful lyric from the S.O.T.D.:

I am flawed
But I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now
The things you swore you saw yourself

Something good from today/yesterday: Getting a card from my Aunt Pauline, who is in her 90s and who has faithfully sent me and my family cards throughout the years for all occasions — birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Easter, etc.

Something I’m looking forward to in the next seven days: Hitting the trail for a ride on my new bicycle.

Fat-Ass Update:

Starting weight: 230.6 on 2/12/25
Goal weight (for now): 199.9
Today’s weight 220.9 (-9.7)
Fat-ass burn-off remaining: 21.0 fat-ass pounds

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Days Off — April 2, 2025

THE DAILY UPDATE

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