Category: Health & Well Being

The Matrix Has You…

There’s no denying that modern life has led to the here and now; a world where everyone (or almost everyone) is plugged in. Computers, laptops, cell phone and tablets are seen and used everywhere with a very small demographic remaining who have either never laid hands on one of those or never will. Our children are no different, with modern life making it almost impossible for someone to raise a child without the use of electronic devices. One good example I can provide is when my son start second grade and his school demanded that we provide him with a device to do his homework on. This blew my mind and I immediately opposed it, as it’s one thing to pay for supplies that are needed but entirely another when you’re expected to buy them an expensive electronic device just to do homework.

My opposition was not well-received, as I was told that any device could be used, including my own cell phone. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m not a fan of providing my personal cell to anyone. Beyond the fact that I use it myself as my personal phone line, there’s also my email access, games, alarm, scheduler and social media. My phone is my phone, purchased with my own money for my own purposes. The presumption of being told I can simply hand it off to anyone else is ludicrous to me. But here we are. I ended up giving my son one of the older version cell phones I had, since I never turn them in. He now uses this not only for his school apps but for a few simple games and some streaming services as well. This is combination with the Nintendo Switch we bought him last summer to keep him occupied on our trip out East.

The issue is that my children are fast-becoming people who can’t live without these devices. As a result, my 8-year old, who should be outside, running, playing, climbing and riding a bike, spends his down time on his back or lying on his stomach, watching Netflix Kids and Disney+, playing Minecraft and unfortunately binge-watching Minecraft videos on YouTube. The unfortunate byproduct of this standard is that Nathan is becoming a bit of a lazy shit. Gets home from school, drops his shit and grabs his devices. Wakes up in the morning, walks himself out of the bedroom and grabs his devices. All weekend, stays on his devices. Drives me absolutely batty!

I grew up on the Northern shores of New Brunswick, where I spent my down time in the forests, swimming in brooks and playing outside. I put so many kilometres on my bike that I usually ended up needing a new one every couple of years. Maybe that had something to do with my growth, though. My point is, we’ve been trying to get Nathan more physically involved with the everyday life outside the house. Considering we have some pretty nice weather on occasion, our new standard has been that if he wants his device, he needs to spend an hour outdoors, first. Not if there’s a snow storm or bad weather, obviously. But in general and overall.

Our idea has also been poorly received. Considering that yesterday morning, I was able to sleep in quite late (pretty bad that between 9 and 10 am is now considered late) before my toddler woke me by scaring the living shit out of me, I didn’t start out my Saturday on the best note. But I made it clear to Nathan that he was getting no screens until he spent an hour outdoors. In true, teenage form, he decided it was a better and easier option to curl up in a blanket and sulk than just go outside. It was -3 degrees. That’s almost cut-off jean shorts weather. Never mind the fact that the time he used to sulk about not getting his screens, he could have easily burned through an hour outside.

Look, I get it… It’s 2023 and everyone and everything is tethered to the electronic frontier. There’s no living completely device-free because no matter how you live, you’ll eventually need technology in some given way, shape or form. I just don’t want technology being the only way my children experience life. Ultimately, he conceded and went outside. Although I don’t like that it turned into a negotiation, at least I got him outside. I think it’s one of those scenarios where the parent gets to say, “Someday you’ll thank me…” ☯️

Sometimes, It’s Worth A Listen…

It’s been a little over 20 years since I tasted my first energy drink. I was the manager of the retail side of a local pharmacy back home and Red Bull had just started to hit serious popularity in Canada. This was before Monster, Rockstar and 5-hour energy started seriously hitting the market, although they wouldn’t be far behind. On its face, there isn’t much inherently wrong with consuming an energy drink. The average 473 mL can usually contains about 100 to 140 milligrams of caffeine, realistically making it no worse than two medium cups of coffee from your favourite coffee chain. And I know people who consume far more than that.

The idea behind something like energy drinks is moderation. The average, healthy adult can safely consume about 400 milligrams of caffeine in a day, meaning between four to five average cups of coffee. Like anything else in life, the words “average” and “safely” get thrown around because it depends on the specific person, their physiology, age, weight, pre-existing health conditions and so on. It’s a little like alcohol; I know people who will start to feel tipsy after one drink. Others may not feel anything after several drinks on an empty stomach.

So why am I bringing this up? Well, ever since that first pull of sugar-free Red Bull, I’ve been in favour of energy drinks on a daily basis. I don’t go overboard and suck back several cans a day but I have made a point that my day starts with one. I usually prefer the flavour and the fact it’s cold over the taste of coffee and waiting for coffee to cool down. It’s allowed me to start getting caffeine into my system right away and without burning my tongue. plus, I’ve usually managed to rationalize that buying a full flat of drinks from my local bulk store comes out cheaper than buying a medium coffee at a drive thru on my way to work, so it’s more financially economical, as well.

But recently I start taking some health supplements that I’ve been hoping would help with fitness, weight loss and make me feel a bit more energized overall. The big problem with caffeine is that it actually tricks your brain into thinking you’re less tired; it doesn’t actually help with the fatigue itself. So, these energy drinks often contain massive amounts of B-vitamins and minerals that, while useful to the body, can often constitute five times the daily recommended amount. Not something I want to necessarily keep mixing with an untried fitness supplement, as they can often include some of these things. So reluctantly, I stopped having energy drinks almost two weeks ago. And here is the story of the carnage that ensued…

In all seriousness, I feel like shit. The sudden loss of all those B-vitamins and all the other “energy-providing” additives have had me floating through my day like a well-dressed zombie. I’ve experienced headaches and body aches, irritability and difficulty in keeping my eyes clear. A wise man probably would have tapered off over time rather than quit cold turkey but I’ve never been one for trying anything only half way. With that logic in mind, I consumed the last can I had in the house and then stopped. Many of the symptoms I’m describing here have now started to pass and are no longer a constant, although most mornings I wake up jonesing for a can instead of the cup of black steam that everyone else seems to partake of.

But, since I believe in balance, I need to point out the positive aspects, as well. I had a colleague who often used to tell me that I always seemed different, mood-wise, when I drank energy drinks. The big issue with this is that one usually won’t recognize their own change in mood. So I can’t say that I ever genuinely noticed. But one thing I have noticed is that I get to sleep easier and my rest appears to be deeper than it usually is. Maybe that’s just a coincidence since I never made a habit of consuming energy drinks beyond mid-afternoon anyway, but it’s definitely been noticeable. Prior to this, I’d usually be up three to four times a night at minimum and that wouldn’t include blood sugar issues or simple need of a bathroom. So it’s been kind of nice getting full nights sleep.

So maybe all of this is simply coincidence. Or maybe this is just something that my new health supplement is helping with, overall. Either way, once I got through the initial issues with cutting out energy drinks, and I’ve been avoiding using the word “withdrawal” but it is what it is, there have been some noticeable changes. And maybe for the better. Perhaps it would have been worth the listen, when my colleague told me I was better off without energy drinks. And maybe I am. Does it mean I’ll never have another can again? Probably not. But it makes for some interesting conversations. ☯️

Croaking In A Winter Wonderland…

Wow, I can’t remember the last time I posted something this late in the day. Probably not since my first year of blogging. Sometimes, it gets a little difficult to figure out topics to write about and as my wife occasionally reminds me, I don’t HAVE to post something every day. Most bloggers don’t, in fact. But for me, it’s kind of a “me against me” kind of thing, you know? Anyway, some of my posts have been pretty self-pitying lately so I thought I’d switch gears and move on to something that’s actually productive. And since it’s cold as all fucking hell in Saskatchewan right now, I can’t think of any better subject than, well… the cold!

The cold weather of winter can have some pretty negative effects on the human body. At its least, the body will fight harder to keep your core temperature warm when exposed to cold temperatures. This will cause to body to burn through its energy reserves, leading to the body getting colder, which can lead to difficulty focusing and thinking clearly in extreme weather. Eventual issues can include the aggravation of existing pulmonary issues, such as asthma. The human body is a wonderful machine that works hard to try and keep you warm in colder weather but there’s no denying that the modern homo sapien isn’t biologically designed for extreme colds, which makes me wonder why we live in Saskatchewan. But I digress…

Despite any other health conditions or the risk of hypothermia and frostbite, dealing with Type-1 Diabetes in cold weather can be a challenge, as well. Considering extreme cold aggravates most pre-existing conditions, Diabetes is no exception. Although every person is different, being out in the cold weather usually tends to cause my blood sugars to drop. This is likely a result of my body working so hard to maintain its temperature. In fact, half an hour of being outside in the Prairie winter clearing a bit of snow from the walkway will usually cause a bigger drop in blood sugars than a full hour of weightlifting or cardio.

This is why it’s so important to keep a solid eye on one’s blood sugars when venturing out in the arctic wonderland. Being on a continuous glucose monitor helps, since it allows me to venture out and have a continuous view of how my blood sugars are reacting. It’s not so bad when I’m at home, since I have immediate access to snacks and fast-acting carbohydrates in the event I drop. Things get a bit tougher if I happen to venture out to go sledding or running. Although I have to confess that running in the snowy weather is not my cup of tea. Another important thing to remember is to stay hydrated. People forget that dehydration can happen almost as easily in the cold as it does in the heat.

Last point I’ll bring up is to be mindful when shovelling snow. I’ve attended a lot of incidents during my policing career of people who suffered cardiac arrest while shovelling. The forcing of the muscles and pressure it places on the chest, mixed with the effects of the cold can make shovelling extremely dangerous under the right circumstances. Take frequent breaks, lift with the legs not your back and if you feel faint or dizzy, be sure to stop and take breaks. The snow ain’t goin’ anywhere. Unfortunately… ☯️

Thermogenic Supplements

I’m a big fan of supplementation. Start a conversation about vitamins and shit in any group and I can promise that it will be divided conversation, almost ALWAYS equally divided. For some, they believe there’s no point to supplementation as it just ends up being something you swallow to crap out the other end with no measurable results. The big problem is that one needs to take supplements for a significant period of time before any measurable results can/would be seen. Plus, since all people are different, supplements may not work as well for one as they would work for another. The other half are the ones that at least take a daily multivitamin or supplement in order to help themselves along in whatever they’re trying to accomplish.

For example, you can take supplements for low iron, lack of B-vitamins or if you spend all your time indoors and never get the opportunity to spend time outside, supplementing your Vitamin D can be a good idea. Actually, I wrote a really good post about certain vitamins, minerals and supplements that explain what individual supplements do and how they benefit one’s body. I’ve reposted it several times and for your convenience, you can read that post here. Despite promising myself that I wouldn’t conform to societal norms and make a New Year’s resolution, I would be lying if I said I didn’t have plans to increase my fitness in the coming year and a part of that is a new form of supplementation.

I recently did some research on some called “thermogenics.” Simply put, thermogenic supplements are intended to increase the body’s core temp, specifically in the fatty tissues, which is supposed to cause the body’s metabolism to burn fat through this increased body temperature. Since I’m not a scientist or medical practitioner, I’m sure there’s more to it than that. But it’s an interesting concept and one can’t deny that something that aids in fat burning sounds far more plausible than a supplement that’s supposed to just make you lose weight. After all, one’s fitness must always include one’s own efforts as well.

According to an article posted by HealthLine.com, “the word “thermogenic” literally means heat-producing.” The article covers different types of supplements that have a thermogenic effect on the body but outlines how the effectiveness of this is hotly debated and there’s no significant evidence that it holds any significant effectiveness. One thermogenic supplement they mention is caffeine, which is ironic. If caffeine was effective as a thermogenic supplement, I’d be a skinny bitch by now, considering how much caffeine I suck down in the course of a day. Of course , all of that will need to change since I have decided to find out for myself and have started taking a thermogenic supplement prior to working out.

It’s only been a few days, of course. But if it works, great. If it doesn’t, no harm, no foul. Seeing the effects of any supplement takes a significant amount of time, usually a few months at least. In the meantime, the same rules of life continue to apply. Stay hydrated, monitor blood sugars and check one’s blood pressure regularly. If I begin to notice anything out of the ordinary, I can drop the whole thing without issue. I’ll keep everyone posted, if and when I see any results. ☯️

Have Yourself A Carb-Filled Little Christmas…

One of the biggest problems one can face over the holiday season is properly calculating one’s carbohydrate intake. And this stands to reason, considering one tends to consume homemade meals and baked goods, alcohol and desserts. This can make it a bit more of a guessing game when it comes to determining how much insulin to take and trying to avoid the unfortunate ups and downs that can accompany a miscalculation. And once you’re on that unfortunate roller coaster, it can take quite a while before you can get off…

When you buy something at the store, you get the benefit of the nutrition label on the back of the packaging that tells you how many grams of carbs that are “expected” to be in a piece of whatever you’re eating. I say “expected” and put it in quotations because it’s always a bit of a crapshoot, even when they list it. For example, I have a very nice frozen pastry I buy that’s spinach and feta-filled. But if I bolus for the amount of carbs it says for the amount I eat, I bottom out faster than you can say hypoglycaemia. With homemade foods like stuffing, mashed potatoes, pies and desserts, the guessing game can quickly become a game of Diabetic Russian roulette.

The difference between the holidays and the average meal is that the average meal is, well… one meal. once it’s said and done, even if you fucked with your blood sugar levels a bit, you get to adjust and correct and you’re likely fine over the short term. During the holidays, we’re usually talking several meals over a few days, mixed with alcohol and sugary products that one might not partake of during an “average” meal. So if you don’t bolus enough or have carbs in your system that act faster than your insulin, you may be compelled to correct sooner than you should to bring yourself back to normal, which is followed by the insulin you ACTUALLY bolused for the meal kicking in and causing you to bottom out.

Perhaps you wolf down more jelly beans than you should, because it’s 2 o’clock in the morning and you just want to go back to sleep, which causes you to slingshot too high again. Wash, rinse and repeat… I’m speaking from experience here, folks. Recent experience, in fact. I spent a good portion of the Christmas holiday playing yo-yo with my blood sugars and the result was a level of exhaustion that made it so that it was anything but a holiday for me. of course, I could have stemmed a lot of that by avoiding the beer and homemade desserts I consumed. But what’s the point of modern medicine and wearing an insulin pump if I can’t eat at least SOMEWHAT like a normal person once in a while?

The important thing to remember is to keep yourself hydrated, both because of the potential alcohol and all the food and blood sugar fluctuations. Don’t be afraid to check your blood sugars often but also be mindful that some foods will require some time to catch up and your insulin may require some time, as well. Your endocrinologist can discuss these aspects with you to prevent your repeat visits on the blood sugar roller coaster. The holidays are meant to be enjoyed and you should be able to enjoy them along with anyone else in the family. It may require a few added steps on your part but doing so will ensure that you don’t find yourself in a compromised position during your celebrations. Enjoy! ☯️

A Little Slice Of Spice…

Alright, so it’s no secret that I’m a big fan of spicy foods. It’s one of those things where I was denied spicy foods throughout my entire childhood by virtue of my father’s bad stomach and my brother’s dietary restrictions so I’ve kind of gone off the rails as an adult. At the least of times, I keep bottles of hot sauce and buffalo sauce on tap. At the most of times, I’ll easily sit and eat a dozen jalapeño poppers as an actual meal.

Although not exactly the best thing for your digestion, certain hot spices do have documented benefits for blood flow and cardiac health but I’ll let y’all look up that shit on your own as that isn’t the point of today’s post. During the holidays, it’s natural for people to make certain recipes and enjoy certain foods. With that in mind, I wanted to share a simple buffalo chicken dip recipe I found a few years ago that I make often. I guess I must be craving buffalo today…

I may have shared this recipe before but if I’m being honest, I’m rounding the corner on 2,000 total posts and I can’t remember what I’ve written about and what I haven’t worth a shit, so here it is! The beauty of this recipe is that it’s super fast and simple, requiring only about ten minutes of prep then your slow cooker does all the work. We carry all of these ingredients in our home in general, so whenever I get a craving for something spicy, it’s pretty easy and convenient for me to toss five ingredients into the slow cooker, let it simmer and melt together for an hour and then you’re good to go.

What’s nice is that this is reasonably crab-free, so as long as you ensure you bolus enough insulin for whatever you have with it (bread, nachos, etc), it won’t affect your overall blood sugars very much and can be consumed as an actual meal or as a movie-time snack once the kids are out of your way. My wife even enjoys partaking of this dip and she usually doesn’t do very spicy foods. Provided there’s a slow cooker available, this is an easy way to impress friends and family over the holidays. It would make a great treat to snack on during New Year’s Eve, actually. ☯️

A Little Vacay Never Hurt Anyone…

During my years as a police officer, the general rule was that I could between being off on Christmas or on New Year’s but not both. The thinking was that in order to accommodate everyone having their preferred holiday off from work, staff had to split their time off in order to accommodate our respective community’s policing needs over the holidays. It was a pretty good arrangement, although there were always those who were unhappy with it. Such is life. You can’t please everyone. Much to everyone’s surprise, I usually chose to work on Christmas. My logic behind that was pretty straightforward; things are quieter over Christmas. People hang with family or travel, and complaints fall way down. But on New Year’s is when people get slizzered, go out and do stupid things and attend mass parties. Not my cup of tea. But I digress…

Today marks the first day of a much-needed vacation. Although Christmas is happening over the weekend, I have today off by virtue of being owed a day as Christmas is a statutory holiday. In keeping with how I used to operate when I was an officer, I took the following week off in order to encompass the New Year. It will mean that I get a much-needed break. A break from waking in the wee hours of the morning, dressing and prepping lunches and braving the icy cold of the Canadian Prairies to make my way to the office. I’m a sucker for maintaining my work, so there will still be a laptop at home where I will occasionally be checking on things. But it will be nice to kick back, put my feet up with a hot coffee and let my mind cool.

Modern society has led us to believe that we’re meant to work on a near-constant basis with a few weeks off a year as recompense. Realistically, it should be the other way around. There’s a growing trend in some countries of incorporating shorter work weeks, company exercise sessions and even nap pods in the office. There are plenty of tools available nowadays that make sense so that taking a vacation isn’t your only way to stem fatigue and burnout and keep the cheese from sliding off one’s cracker. Either way, there’s a lot of rest and relaxation planned for the coming week. And maybe just a hint of binge-watching shows… ☯️

Taking Some Time…

I was never much of one to be out until all hours of the night, when I was younger. While most of my counterparts were out at parties, drinking booze and getting into trouble, I was usually in the dojo, studying at home or watching movies and spending time with my dad. Even once I hit my teenage years and got my own car, my time out was reasonably limited of my own accord, often choosing to bid good evening to my friends and head home rather than stay out for the sake of staying out. This didn’t always work out in my favour and may have contributed to my becoming something of a loner or outcast. Que sera…

“I didn’t disappear, I traded;
Nights out for knowledge seeking.
Parties for intimate gatherings.
Chasing money for chasing purpose.
Meaningless work for my passion.
Being busy for protecting time.
Soul extortion for soul searching.
Living for others for living my life.”

– Lewis Howes

I found the quote above some weeks ago and it kind of stuck with. I look back on my time as a youth and I recognize that I wasn’t popular, wasn’t part of any sports teams or major groups and I’m reasonably sure that almost no one that I graduated from school remembers me or gives two shits about where I ended up. But I have no regrets about how I’ve spent my youth. I made some god friends, the best a man could ask for. And ironically, I still have contact with all of them, almost thirty years later. That says something. It tells me I made some good choices that led me to the here and now and I did it while involving people who made a positive impact.

This is what’s important to remember; how you chose to live your life will ultimately impact the person you become. Does that mean that hitting the clubs and being popular automatically make you an asshole? I wouldn’t make THAT generalization but I can confirm that I was never bullied or beaten up by any of the academics in my school. This also says something. The message to any of my young readers, assuming I HAVE young readers, is no matter what you may be dealing with or facing in your life, it’s up to you to forge the path that will lead you to where you need to be. So make sure it’s a positive path. Although some things may gratify you in the moment, the long term is what you should be looking at. Food for thought…☯️

Tired, Or Burnt Out?

It’s not unusual for someone to get tired and feel exhausted after a long day of being at the office, dealing with one’s children or managing a household. Add cold weather that forces the body to work harder internally in order to stay warm and you’re looking at a perfect recipe for developing a strong case of “I don’t give a fuck-ness…” But one problem, and it’s a big one, is that people tend to use the term “burnout” interchangeably with being tired. And the two are typically quite different. Let’s dive in…

Being tired and experiencing burnout are similar in that they can both cause feelings of mental and physical exhaustion. But the big difference comes from the fact that if you’re tired, sleep, different forms of rest or meditation as well as distractions or diversions will help relieve your tiredness and it will usually pass. If you’re experiencing burnout, your fatigue likely won’t go away regardless of how many hours’ sleep you get. And that’s where the problem comes in.

Burnout usually happened because you’ve been dealing with high levels of stress, emotional difficulties or trauma for prolonged periods of time. Although most people would associate this with the workplace, it can occur in ways that don’t directly relate to work. Some signs of potential burnout can include anything from heavy drinking and moodiness, all the way up to lack of motivation, inability to make important decisions all the way up to suicidal thoughts. Just a touch more significant than just being tired, wouldn’t you agree?

According to an article posted on WebMD, burnout doesn’t happen immediately. It’s a gradual process that builds with stressors from your job. Signs and symptoms can be subtle at first. The article echoes a lot of what I wrote above so y’all can go have a read for yourselves but it does include that some important ways to dealing with burnout include getting an appropriate amount of sleep, engaging in relaxing activities and exercising. In fact, getting even just 30 minutes of exercise a day can help relieve stress and help you to sleep better, which helps the overall burnout.

It’s also important to talk about it. If you’re feeling overwhelmed as a result of your work, talking with trusted coworkers, friends and family can be important. Even discussing your workload with your boss can be important, although most people have a fear of doing so because they feel it will make them appear unwilling to work. Speaking strictly for myself, I prefer to have staff who are willing to discuss their workload in an effort to do a good job than someone who just keeps their mouth shut and ends up quitting once they’re burnt out. But self-care is ultimately important. If you feel your fatigue is more than that, you also have the option of discussing it with your medical practitioner. They may have the means of assessing what is actually causing you or tiredness, burnout or not. ☯️

Look Before You Leap

I had something kind of entertaining happen to me at work, last week. This story is precluded by my poor decision to consume a batch of store-bought jalapeño poppers, the night before. I grew up in a household where everyone had health and stomach problems, so my mother’s idea of seasoning never went beyond salt and pepper. As a result, my adulthood allowed me to indulge in the wonders of buffalo sauce, spicy seasonings and a plethora of flavours that I never would have experienced in an Acadian household, where their idea of cooking for an entire family is to basically boil everything in a single pot until it turns to mush. But I digress…

Although I enjoy tasting spicy foods (buffalo sauce is my favourite and goes on manny things), a lifetime of bland food developed a digestive system that doesn’t quite like to be challenged on such a brazen scale. As a result and even if I know better, I’ll sometimes indulge in ways that my system won’t quite like and will choose to voice its displeasure by causing anything and everything to come out in liquid form. You can be grossed out by that all you want! It happens to all of us, so don’t pretend to be high and mighty. If this is TMI for you, so be it. Moving on.

As I said in the opening paragraph, I had passed the previous evening by enjoying a handful of store-bought jalapeño poppers. Although delicious and hot at the time, it wouldn’t be until the following morning when I had digested them and made my way to work that the problem would present itself. Setting aside for a moment, the fact that snacking before bed is a bad idea, eating spicy foods right before bed is even worse. I hadn’t been to the office for more than an hour before the tell-tale gurgle in my abdomen told me that I had better make my way to a washroom, which I did. I won’t go into details about the specific lavatory trip besides saying that I made my way back to my office and spent the morning consuming plenty of water to prevent dehydration.

At one point during the lunch hour, I ran to the bathroom with my forehead bathed in sweat and my stomach threatening me in a way I had no way to stop. Luckily, our bathroom has a deadbolt and I can assume a bit of privacy when such events are taking place. However, it wasn’t until I was in the washroom, had experienced a Hiroshima-level explosion out my backside and allowed my pulse and heart rate to relax, did I look down and get a different kind of bad feeling in my stomach. Lo and behold, I was caught in every person’s worst nightmare at the office: there was no fucking toilet paper.

Now, such situations usually only take place in a sitcom or comedy movie. And in almost all of those instances, there’s the possibility of having someone walk in, on whom you can request some assistance. Even if I weren’t too proud to make such a request of other staff in my office, I faced the issue that I had dead-bolted the bathroom door upon my entry and there would be no way for anyone to open the door to come to my rescue. I began running through my options. The sink area obviously had some hand towels, but those couldn’t be flushed. I had no other options within the bathroom, which meant my only options would be outside the bathroom.

Given the nature of these bathroom trips, it wasn’t a situation where I could just lift my pants and carry on to go grab a spare roll and come back. Pulling up my pants before making some cleaning efforts would be unwise as it relates to getting through the rest of my day comfortably and without drawing too much attention to myself. I found myself with two options: pull up my pants and head home to finish out my day or do something naughty that one would typically see in a comedy movie. I chose the latter. What other choice did I have?

I lifted my pants just enough so that I wasn’t flashing anyone I encountered in the outer hallway. The, I cautiously opened the washroom door and peaked out. The hallways were clear from both sides. But there would be no warning if someone suddenly came around a corner. I had to dash quickly, grab a spare roll and make my way back without anyone seeing me with my pants undone. Although it shouldn’t be TOO complicated, since the storage area is less than ten feet away from the door. It was time to make my move…

I stepped out, ignoring the pit in my stomach at being spotted and called a flasher, and dashed for the cabinet. As soon as I opened the door and grabbed the roll, I realized I had used a hand for both of those actions and my pants had been released. My pants dropped to the floor, although my underwear mercifully stayed up. Unfortunately, the damage had been done. I tripped and nearly fell flat on my face in the middle of a heavily-travelled hallway within the office. I struggled to my feet and yanked open the bathroom door and basically fell inside and deadbolted the door.

I managed to clean myself up and make my way back to my office. I was sweaty and bruised, having exerted more energy getting a spare roll of toilet paper than I had during what I required it for. But it certainly taught me the important lesson that one must look before one leaps. Had I taken a second to check before sitting down, the entire situation could have been avoided. Looking back on it, I can certainly laugh about it now and it taught me something about paying attention to my surroundings. You’re never too old to learn. AND it provides a bit of laugh for all of you on your Tuesday morning! ☯️