The General Overall Feeling of Wellbeing Meter

So, yeah...

20 years ago,  on this day, I would have been waking up to a digital alarm clock the size of a pager, and set for 5:12 a.m.

It would still  be dark and around 70 degrees, the morning of April 29th, 2006.

It would be  pretty quiet, with the morning birds still asleep, and the pond surrounded by what sounded like 250 bullfrogs, also having simmered down, by 5:12 a.m.

I would break  that silence with the 'phfkack!!' of an energy drink being opened.

That was the  closest thing to a ritual that I practiced. Taking a few gulps then getting on my bike to ride 2.7 miles to Workfoce quality temporary staffing. I would toss the empty in the same trash can at the marina. It was a 12 minute ride.

Getting there around  5:37 a.m. put me ahead of a contingent of workers who arrived by bus, from some poverty stricken part of town.

I worked all  5 weekdays, plus Saturday. The check I cashed every afternoon was for $49.62. So, I was taking "home" just shy of $300 every week, finding more than enough food in the Winn Dixie dumpster, to go on the fire, and really just spending money on alcohol and cigarettes.

It didn't take  long for me to be walking around with almost a thousand bucks in my pocket, amongst the good people of that upper middle class area, who might pity me for my homelessness.

But, all this  is to maybe put yesterday's post in some context.

I was thinking  that I might "recycle" posts, every 20 years, as in, going back 20 years and reading the post in hopes of jogging my memory. Then perhaps turning them into a "It Was 20 Years Ago, Today" type of sidebar; where the perspective gained over the past 20 years can be applied to some sort of commentary, informed by wisdom, type of thing.

I will say  that; the energy drink every morning with the high fructose corn syrup is one thing that I would tell myself of 20 years ago to eliminate. It gave me the glucose spike which got me through the 8 hours of laboring, after which I switched to the keto diet with red wine in the evening.

But I basically  cut out HFCS around 10 years ago; and it took a good 3 or 4 months before I just felt better all around. It took me from like an "83" to an "88" on the general overall feeling of wellbeing meter...

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