Done With Carnivore

 I tried the carnivore diet for about 3 months, maybe a little bit longer. Honestly, I did not count the days. The price of meat went up. The price of eggs went up. But my health did not improve. I lost a little bit of weight, but that's it. It is certainly not worth it to pay so much money for meat and eggs, if my health does not improve because of it. If I'm going to lose a little bit of weight, I could do the same thing by eating fruits and vegetables. 

And so, my wife and I talked about it, and we decided it is best for me if I stop the carnivore diet and just eat fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods that are low in cholesterol and carbohydrates. The good news is, I can bring out my creative side when it comes to creating delicious foods with fruits and vegetables. The bad news is, that fruits and vegetables are bland to me. Flavorless. But then again, most everything that is not sweetened with sugar or sweetener is also bland and somewhat flavorless. 

And then there is the tug of war that is going on inside my mind. Yes, while eating fruits and vegetables, I will be constantly thinking about all the delicious foods that I am missing out on. Tacos, burritos, chocolate cake, cheeseburgers, and you get the idea. I already know that I can resist these tempting foods for an extended period of time. I also know that eventually the urge and cravings are going to catch up with me and get the best of me. 

I imagine that is the reason why some diets have a cheat day, that a person can eat something delicious that they have been craving, if only for one day a month. I think I can handle that too. Between you, me, and a flagpole, I am craving my homemade spaghetti right now. Resist, resist, resist. 

I am working late today. And I knew that I would. It is 5:36 p.m., and it will be closer 6:30 or 6:45 by the time I finished. I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'm earning really good money when I work long hours at work, but it takes away my own social life and my own time that I use to create content and just enjoy my life in general. Money+Dream=Happiness 

Stephen 

SNAFU Day 2

 This day started out normal, but then got progressively worse as the day went on. This company decided to Mill the road and pave right after it. It's been done before, but it got crowded quick. Too many trucks on the road. Getting in the way of each other. Now, they are finished milling for today. And now it is just paving the road. Bobcat skid steer broke down and held up progress for about an hour. But it is fixed now and it has moved out of the way. But, we still have not continued paving yet. I don't know why we are sitting here and doing nothing. 

I only got 5 hours of sleep last night, because I could not go to sleep. And now I am feeling tired and drowsy. I keep thinking about my bed. I keep thinking about sleep. But, looking ahead now at the unpaved road in front of me, I can already say with confidence that we are going to be working late today. If they really and truly want to get this road finished today, then we need to get started back again right now. I do not want to be here until 6:00 p.m. again today. 

It is the same as it has always been for years. There is a fine balance between my paycheck and my life. If I work too many hours, then I get a big paycheck, but I don't have much of a life. If I do not work enough hours, then I get a small paycheck, but I do get to spend that little bit of money on something enjoyable in my life. Because I have the extra time to do it. Anyone who has been keeping up with my journal already knows that I'm trying to get away from a job. I wish to retire early. But not as a dump truck driver. I wish to retire early as a content creator. I have the tools, the talent, the knowledge, and the method and system to put it all together and make it happen. And that is what I'm going to do. 

Stephen

SNAFU

 In case you don't know what SNAFU is, it is an acronym that means Situation Normal All Fucked Up.  I did not create this acronym. It has been around for many years.  Today, I am at work, sitting in the dump truck, at the Green Grove Subdivision in Alberta, Alabama. The company that I work for (ST Bunn) is milling and repaving the entire subdivision. At first, they were only going to mill a few inches down, and then repave it. 

But! Upon repaving the road, it started to weaken. There are weak spots and cracks and ruts and divots all through the newly paved road. So, now the company has to mill all the way down to the dirt. Yes! That's right! All of the road has to be removed and replaced. All the way down to the dirt. And, just like every other residential community, there are manholes in the road so that sewage and rain drainage can be maintained. 

Here is where it gets very interesting. As the milling machine is milling out all of the pavement, down to the dirt, the machine hits a manhole. And I'm thinking to myself, why didn't they mark the manhole with bright paint? So that they would be able to see the manhole as the machine is approaching it? 

Yeah, I don't know either 🤔

So now, we sit here, and wait for them to replace the manhole with a new manhole. This is going to take some time. But, here is some really good news! I'm on the clock. Yep! I'm getting paid to sit here and do nothing. But, this gives me plenty of time to think about what my video is going to be about. 

Yes, I am making a video for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Facebook Reels. You want to know what the video is about? Subscribe to this journal, and you will be notified every time that I post something new. And, of course, I will be posting about the video and when it is finished, and what it is about. And.... What the heck! I will even post the video here on my journal. I can do that now. Because, I am not journaling on paper anymore. I have transitioned to the digital world in journaling. The digital age. If you can't beat them, join them. I'm only joking, of course. I acclimated into online blogging and journaling, a long time ago.  And, I have become very familiar with the internet, social media, and content creation. I am a member of a lot of membership websites. Although, I do not have enough time to keep up with all of them. But, that is for another journal entry. 

Stephen 

SocialStephen.com

New Road Supervisor

 Today is going to be a long day. The company I work for just hired a new road supervisor, and he does not know what he is doing. Definitely a newbie. We have been paving the road in this back neighborhood all day, and now the road is breaking up and tearing up and it looks like it needs to be replaced all over again. This is not good at all for the company or the new road supervisor. 

I just finished proof rolling, which means that I take a loaded dump truck and slowly drive over the milled road to see if there are any soft spots. The inspectors found quite a few places that need to be dug up and replaced with stone base to firm the base of the road. 

And now, I am waiting in line to unload into the spreader machine. It is already 3:20 p.m., and this is going to be a long day. And I already know that I will be seeing this neighborhood again. Because we are far from finished in this neighborhood. 

Stephen

SocialStephen.com

Because It's Delicious

 I will say that the reason why I am not eating as healthy as I should, is because only the unhealthy food is delicious. I do not know why healthy food is not also delicious and preferable. It seems, only the unhealthy food is delicious and preferable. I already know that I need to eat healthier food. And I already know that I should not eat so much food. But, I still do. Maybe it's because I think I deserve it. But, the bottom line is, because it's delicious. 

I could spend the rest of my life eating unhealthy and delicious food, just so that I can be happy. Or, I can live a longer and healthier life, eating healthier food. Even if it means that I am not happy with it. I would say that most people will spend their whole life eating unhealthy food, because it makes them happy and because it's delicious. I do not want to be a statistic. I do not want to be like most people, that spend their entire life eating unhealthy food, and being unhealthy, just because the food is delicious. 

At the same time, I do not want to spend my life eating food that is not delicious. Maybe I should just eat string beans or peas or corn right out of the can. But that is not a happy life. That is the life of a lonely hermit. Yes, of course I want to be happy. And of course I want to eat delicious food. Because it's delicious, of course. But I have to think about my health also. Damn you life the way you are! I hate it! If only healthy food can be delicious too. Or maybe I need to think outside the soup can, so to speak. 

Maybe I need to find ways to make the healthy food delicious. Well, if there is a way to make healthy food delicious, then I'm sure that lots of people are already doing it. But they're not. But, that does not mean I will not try. I will try to make healthy food delicious. And, most importantly, I will control how much food I eat. People will say, it is not so much the type of food that you are eating. It is because of how much food you are eating. But honestly, I don't know what to believe. I just know that I need to work on both factors. Eating the right foods, and eating the right amount of those foods. Too much food, or the wrong foods, and you are living an unhealthy life for the rest of your life. 

Do the right thing
-Stephen

Mental Clarification

 Everything is falling into place mentally now, like pieces of a puzzle. I just needed to get that last idea into my head, for mental clarification. And now I know what I am going to do with creating videos. It's going to be my daughter, on a unicorn. I know, right?!

It's going to be amazing! 😁 

I'm very tired right now, because I just finished working 13 hours at work. But, at least now, I know what I am doing with the videos. My wife told me that she does not really like taking notes. And I can respect that. But for me? I enjoy taking notes. In fact, I just recently downloaded Microsoft whiteboard. It technically is not for taking notes, but it does have a template that is great for organizing notes into sections and categories on one screen. And so, I'm going to enjoy creating notes and organizing them into sections on the same screen 🙂

And of course, on the whiteboard, in the template, I'm going to cover video creation, blogging, book writing, website design, and email marketing.  It's going to be stupendous and magnificent! Absofreakinlutely amazing!

-Stephen

Not So Typical Monday Morning

 Well, everything was typical in the beginning. I drove to work on time, I arrived on time, and I got the dump truck warmed up and ready to go on time. And I drove to the job location. But first, I stopped and bought a cup of coffee. At first, I wanted to go into Burger King and get coffee and a breakfast sandwich, in Livingston, Alabama. But, at 7:00 a.m., the doors we're still locked. Despite the fact that the door said that the dining room is open at 5:30 a.m. . I was, of course, upset and disappointed, but just ended up going to the convenience store right next to Burger King and I bought a very crappy tasting cup of coffee and a honey bun. 

This all only took about 10 minutes, but at the same time, I was concerned that I would be arriving at the job location late. But, as it turns out, when I arrived at the job location, I was the first one there. Yeah! Seriously! I was surprised. There was quite literally no one at the job location. Just the equipment parked and cold. So, I parked and waited, and waited. Finally, after about an hour, workers and supervisors finally arrived at the location. They tried to start the millings machine, but it would not start. Dead battery.

This is when the not so typical Monday kicks in. I backed up the dump truck to the millings machine, and they connected jumper cables from the batteries of the dump truck to the batteries of the millings machine. After another 30 minutes, it still would not start. So, they had to go buy new batteries for the millings machine. And I waited another 90 minutes to get started. But wait! There's more! They finally got the millings machines started, and we headed out to the road to start milling the road. They milled about 20 feet, and then hit concrete. And it tore up the teeth of the millings machine. And so now, they need to replace the teeth of the millings machine. 

But wait! There's more! They have a limited amount of replacement teeth for the milling machine and they do not have the hose needed for the impact wrench, to remove and replace the teeth. So, back to the store. They bought a hose for the impact wrench and started replacing the teeth. Because, when they chewed up that concrete that they did not see, it tore up the teeth on the milling machine. So it had to be done. So now, here I am, waiting for them to replace the teeth on the millings machine, and waiting and waiting. 11:49 a.m. and I am still waiting. It's just one of those days where nothing can go right. I'm not complaining. I get paid by the hour. It is just another one of those not so typical Mondays. 

Stephen Robinson
SocialStephen.com