petefeet's Sixth Adventure

petefeet · February 20, 2015

Hello kids and welcome to my sixth challenge!

A little about me... I'm 41, live in Nova Scotia (east coast), Canada, unattached (ended a 7 year relationship last fall) no kids (one cat), have WAY too many books and proud of it.

I'm a boiler and refrigeration operator by trade, though my dream is to have a "bricks & mortar" used bookstore. I currently, have a part-time one that I run out of my basement in my spare time and my whole inventory is science fiction & fantasy (my passion). Should be a link to my stores facebook page in my signature.

Main Quest:

In August 2013 I weighted 267 lbs and my doctor said I had to shut up about my sore knees or die (great guy, bedside manner of a doorknob).

So, I started trying to get healthy and since I'm a type "A" person I use www.loseit.com as my food log and calorie counter. I have hit my goal weight of 180 lbs and am working to keep it off.

So my main quest is to continue my healthy lifestyle and improve my fitness level.

To do that...

Side Quests:

1. Keep my daily food log and weigh-ins with my loseit.com account.

2. Do at least 2 Cardio workouts a week (min 20 minutes), even if its just walking around my sub-division or playing on recumbent bike. Finding this hard to do during the cold winter months.

3. Do the following BBWW during the week.

50 Push-ups

100 Squats

100 Leg Lunges

50 Dumbbell Rows

5 x 15 sec Planks

150 Jumping Jacks

This has been hard for me, I think because strength training is foreign to my nature <g>.

Life Quest:

My long term life quest is to finish my basement (couple current pic's in my gallery) and turn it into a bookshop/rec-room.

To help keep me sane (ish), I also like to write. So I will be continuing the adventure of petefeet as he explores the world around him. I try and take parts from my real life and weave them into a story.

So far.... (Check 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Adventure's for written story)

Petefeet is a halfling who was kidnapped by raider's as a small child and taken to a large human city and sold as a slave to the people running the cities gladiator arena. For much of his young life he was used as a servant, used to fetch and carry for the Masters and the gladiators.

After many years of this, petefeet starts to realize that he wants more out of life and starts to secretly steal better food meant for the Master's and starts trying to copy the exercises done by the gladiators.

Just when the Master's start to realize that something is changing with their normally meek and cowardly Halfling slave, an outside (Maybe the "Lady in Flames"?) force intervenes. How and when it happens is still a blur to petefeet, but one day he finds himself waking up in the middle of a crater out in the middle of the wilderness wearing nothing but his slave robes, which are now tattered and singed.

Found by a young human girl named Jan and her Grandfather, petefeet had his burned skin tended, feed and dressed in old work clothes. In an effort to repay them for their kindness, petefeet offered to rid them of an giant rat that had taken up residence in their work hut. With nothing to protect his hands, our little Halfling wrapped the burned and tattered remains of his slave robes around his hands (like boxing mitts) and went into battle. It was during the battle with the giant rat that petefeet realized that the old robes held some magic (or was the focus for an innate ability or a gift from "Lady in Flames"?), for when he became scared, tiny sparks formed on the old robes covering his hands and when he punched the giant rat burns were also left upon the beast though petefeet received no damage. The more is was able to control his fear, the better he was able to hurt the beast.

Since that day, petefeet has wandered the land, helping out where he came, getting into the odd bit of trouble and making new friends. He isn't quite sure where he is going, though is sure he will know it when he finds it.

Currently petefeet is holed up in an abandoned manor house for the winter months as he tries to deal with emotional issues and be happy on his own, leaving the larger world for another day.

Characters within the story

petefeet = Me

Giant Brown Bear = My friend Hal who I only get to see a couple times a year

"Lady in Flames" (figure in petefeet's dreams) = Friend who I realize I'm falling in love with, and the knife edge I'm walking wanting to be more without losing what I have with her.

Black Dog (figure in petefeet's dreams) = Depression & that insidious emotion called "Hope"

Mickey the Cat (Mysterious Wizards Familiar?) = My cat named Mickey!

T2sarahconnor · February 20, 2015

Great challenge! Can't wait to read more stories and hear about you finally getting the drywall up!

Kareesh · February 20, 2015

Following along for more of your adventures.

Countess D'If · February 21, 2015

petefeet · February 22, 2015

Tired of being stuck in his lean-too within the walls of the abandoned manor house due to sickness and snow storms, petefeet decides that today will be different. Putting down the charcoal stick he had been using to play uncounted games of "X's & O's" against himself upon the stone walls, he decides to try some of the exercises he remembers from his time as a slave watching the gladiators. Unfortunately, either due to being sick or just out of practice, our little hobbit struggles to complete even a small portion of the routine. Instead, he bundles up in his rabbit skin cloak and braves the outdoors.

While cool and windy, the sun is shiny brightly making the glare off the snow drifts blinding. Putting his back to the sun, he sets to work digging out his pile of firewood that is covered in a mountain of hard packed snow. Using his hands to clear the snow is not a fast job, nor an easy one, nevertheless, petefeet is able to clear off his woodpile. He is more tired than he really should be and the sweat flows freely from his brow.

To stretch out his stiff unused muscles, petefeet decides to go for a bit of a walk around the area to see if anything has changed since he was last outside. With the setting sun on his back, petefeet trudges back to his home, completely worn out from his walk around the manor house. It wasn't a long walk, but his weakened condition as well as the snow drifts, make it a real chore for the halfling.

Sweaty, tired and cold, nevertheless petefeet feels good about his day as he builds up his fire and makes himself a cup of herbal tea.

Hey kids,

While the challenge hasn't officially started, I felt like "I" should start.

While my flu has improved a lot, I still have a bit of a cough, head cold and general laziness, but the sun was out so I figured I should do something with my day other than play "Risk" on my iPad (X's & O's).

Got bundled up and shoveled around my oil barrel (pile of firewood) so it can get filled. That went better than I thought so on a whim I cleared around my fire pit and burned up a bunch of scrap wood I had in basement from my reno. I think the picture is attached.

While I didn't go for a walk today (like in story), I instead played on my recumbent bike while watching Doctor Who.

Main Quest: Weighed in at 178 lbs this morning, would like to stay between 175-180 for challenge (my maintaining weight)

Side Quests: Food Log and daily weigh-in's done. Been splurging a bit this past week, need to smarten up.

35 minutes of Cardio done on recumbent bike, though not counting it since challenge hasn't started.

Tried doing some of my BBWW this morning, doing 20 squats, 10 push-ups and 20 arm lifts with homemade weights almost killed me. Really out of shape.

Life Quest: Nothing at all in over a week. Between being sick and snow storms every other day, unable/unwilling to round up help to hang drywall.

T2sarahconnor · February 22, 2015

Kudos for you starting now!

RES · February 22, 2015

I'm a sucker for a good story

Subbed!

petefeet · February 22, 2015

Has nothing to do with anything, but realized that I hadn't been to the mailbox in a day or two so I checked it to find my "thank you" for supporting a local artist in her kickstarter to create her first graphic novel.

My favorite part is the one of a kind "zombie" version of me! I asked to be disemboweled in honour of my weight loss and my efforts to keep it off.

Buff Brogan · February 22, 2015

Has nothing to do with anything, but realized that I hadn't been to the mailbox in a day or two so I checked it to find my "thank you" for supporting a local artist in her kickstarter to create her first graphic novel.

My favorite part is the one of a kind "zombie" version of me! I asked to be disemboweled in honour of my weight loss and my efforts to keep it off.

right before i scrolled down i was thinking of how i like your new "zombie" pic. that's awesome.

subbed

pyrite_philter · February 22, 2015

I was thinking the same thing as kzacher! I love the new pic and I super love the full image! I'm following you again because you are awesome and I want to continue to support you!

petefeet · February 23, 2015

The day was bright and cheerful for our little halfling. When petefeet woke from his rest, bright rays of sunshine stabbed through tiny holes in his evergreen branch roof and the air was warm and pleasant.

For the majority of the day petefeet putters around his new home, completing chores that for too long had been put off, and it is with a sense of accomplishment that he finishes off his day.

The blue sky quickly turns to a star filled heavens as the sun and its warm fall below the horizon. Nearing bedtime, petefeet decides to make one last trip for firewood to see him and Mickey through the night, only to find that days warmth has created a new set of problems now that the temperature is once again freezing. All that melting snow that hours ago was puddles and tiny rivets upon the ground, is now a massive sea of ice, trapping his prepared stack of firewood in the frozen mud and making his carefully cleared pathways a dangerous maze.

His good mood evaporating, petefeet shakes his head at his turn of luck and gets busy.

With a sliver of the moon casting a weak light upon the night shrouded ground around him, petefeet uses a large stick to break up some of the larger pieces of ice in his walkways, frees his mud encrusted firewood and spreads a layer of wood chips around the area to aid in his traction.

Exhausted before this latest effort, our little halfling drags himself back to his lean-too, wraps himself in his rabbit skin cloak, while careful not to dislodge a sleepy Mickey, and falls into a dreamless sleep.

Hey kids,

While the challenge starts tomorrow, I thought I would make an entry tonight. It was beautiful (and above freezing!) day today and I puttered around the house getting chores done since I'm on 12 hour night shifts for the next two nights. Normally on nights, I sit on my ass, read or watch a movie while watching gauges, tonight was different.

For whatever reason the guy I relieved tonight forgot (or couldn't be bothered) to clean off the snow/ice around our 90,000 litre oil barrel or our walkways while it was daylight/warm/easy today. I didn't notice this until I went outside for a breath of fresh air (-9 degree C air now), to find everything coated in a 2 inch film of ice. So for the next 2 hours I beat and pounded to clear steps, walkways etc... at 10pm under a weak streetlight, I wasn't impressed. This guy always pulls something like this, since it will now be a week before I see him again.

Tired, sweaty and annoyed, I'm trying to stay awake until 7am when I can go home and go to bed.

But tomorrow is a new day and a new challenge!

Glacier · February 23, 2015

I envy your fire pit!

And I'm glad to hear you're just a zombie. I thought you had turned green from that horrible flu

Ahyar Dreamspark · February 24, 2015

Hah! Nice new zombie icon XD Also, nothing wrong with starting early!

Petefeet's adventures in the snow seem to jive with the "fuck winter" sentiment that seems to be prevalent across the Maritimes ;P

petefeet · February 24, 2015

Petefeet's adventures in the snow seem to jive with the "fuck winter" sentiment that seems to be prevalent across the Maritimes ;P

Both petefeet and myself have been in full blown hermit mode lately, making the ongoing "adventurers" anything but.

Hopefully with spring that might change.

petefeet · February 24, 2015

Once again winter intrudes upon our halfling...

Petefeet's sleep is disturbed by Mickey the cat burrowing in closer to the halfling trying to find some warmth. Poking his head out from under his rabbit skin cloak, petefeet notices that his breathe instantly turns into a white cloud that is pulled away by a powerful draft that races through his lean-too. The weather has turned bitter again and a strong wind sucks out whatever heat the halflings campfire manages to produce.

Knowing that his tiny little fire will not be enough to see him through the rest of the night, petefeet forces himself to abandon the comfort of his bed and build up the fire. Careful not to dislodge the cat, petefeet drags himself up and instantly regrets the action. The cold is much worse than normal, coupled with the wind, the danger of freezing to death is real. Rubbing his arms and legs to try and get the blood flowing, petefeet stumbles to his woodpile and builds up the small fire into a proper blaze.

Just standing there watching the fire take, does nothing to warm the halfling as the cold quickly seeks a way into him, so petefeet starts stretching and doing some light exercises that he remembers watching the gladiators perform. Before long, a fine sheen of sweat covers his brow and his fingers and toes become prickly as his circulation improves.

With his heart rate now up, sleep seems far away to the little halfling, so petefeet decides to stay up for a bit and keep feeding the fire.

Hey Kids,

Bitterly cold night here at work, I think it's -37 C with the wind chill. While it's nice and warm here in the boiler room, just watching/listening to the wind outside makes me feel cold so I decided to do some BBWW to get the old blood flowing.

Main Quest: Still in the 178 lbs range

Side Quests: 1. Weigh-in and food log kept. Hard not to snack too much while on night shift, sitting on my ass watching gauges.

2. 0 of 2 Cardio's done

3. 10 of 50 Push-ups

20 of 100 Squats

20 of 100 Leg Lunges

0 of 50 Dumbbell Rows (Nothing here at work I can use)

1 of 5 x 15 sec Planks

30 of 150 Jumping Jacks

Life Quest: Nothing yet this challenge

pyrite_philter · February 24, 2015

I like that you did body weight exercises to get the blood flowing; this is what I do when I want to warm up and it works EVERY time! I don't remember if I've asked you this or not, but are you lifting any weights or using dumbbells?

petefeet · February 24, 2015

I don't remember if I've asked you this or not, but are you lifting any weights or using dumbbells?

Nay, just body weight exercises, I don't have the space to have a home gym (at least until basement reno is done) and joining a gym in my rural setting isn't really doable.

Countess D'If · February 24, 2015

I like that you did body weight exercises to get the blood flowing

I tried to do something similar as I walked to work this morning - it was -8200Âº (I know, I checked) and I kept telling myself to walk faster! walk faster! But, it was so cold it actually slowed me down without me even realising. Stupid cold

petefeet · February 25, 2015

After a cold night with little sleep, petefeet decides to do what he can in the daylight to improve his situation.

Thinking that another layer of evergreen branches might help to shield him from cold driving wintery winds, our little halfling trudges through the deep snow to collect supplies. Luckily, the weather that has been sure a burden to his has also helped petefeet in some ways. Whether due to heavy snow loads or strong winds, there are no lack of branches on the ground, though how to get them back to his lean-too has him puzzled for several minutes.

Finally petefeet comes up with a plan, using several lengths of braided rabbit hide as rope, our little halfling is able to cobble together a make-shift sled from fallen wood and load it with branches. Using his last piece of rabbit-rope, petefeet makes a sling and starts dragging his materials back to his home.

Tired and sore from the physical effort of building the sled and the walk dragging it back, petefeet nevertheless feels a sense of accomplishment when he goes to bed.

Petefeet dreams...

Instead of having to hunt for the "Lady in Flames", petefeet finds her right away, though he can see right away that something is wrong. Instead of the strong bright halo of flames surrounding her, the fire seems to be flickering and weak.

Concerned, the halfling slowly and carefully makes his way towards her, but in doing so, her fires seem to weaken further. Berating himself, petefeet calls himself a fool for failing to think of her, he has been selfish, concerned for what she can do for him, heedless that she might have needs as well.

Uncertain how to proceed, petefeet doesn't want to just walk away from her, but clearly he can't come any closer. Instead he squats down and starts talking to her about his day. It's a one side conversation, about nothing special, just the halfling letting her know he is there and after a time it seems like her flames become stronger.

Hey kids,

After a short sleep (3 hrs since I worked last night) I got my ass moving. My truck (sled) had to go in for it's MVI today, owned it for 3 years now, 2 more to pay the bloody thing off.

Since I've given myself some hard number of BBWW to complete this challenge, I figured I needed to plug away at them this afternoon.

I visited "LiF" tonight as is normal for Tuesday. She seemed a bit down in the dumps, but in the end after talking to her, I think she's just tired, worn out and got the winter blues. She tried keeping up her side of the conversation and I didn't push her in any of the directions she doesn't like to go (slowly learning to pick my battles) so our visit went ok, though wish I could have given her a hug to let her know I'm here for her, but I could tell that won't have been the right move tonight.

Main Quest: Still in the 177 - 178 lbs range. Hopefully this will be easier to maintain once spring shows up.

Side Quests: 1. Weigh-in and food log kept. Within Calorie budget, but needed my calories earned from playing on recumbent bike to offset my drink of whiskey tonight!

2. 1 of 2 Cardio's done. Played on Recumbent bike tonight for 27 minutes, would have done more, but got a charlie horse in my foot, weird.

3. After playing on bike, I did some BBWW (Weeks totals below)

20 of 50 Push-ups

20 of 100 Squats

20 of 100 Leg Lunges

25 of 50 Dumbbell Rows

2 of 5 x 15 sec Planks (Think I need to up the time limit, 15 seconds too easy)

30 of 150 Jumping Jacks

Life Quest: Nothing so far

petefeet · February 25, 2015

Just something I created to hang on the fridge to keep me motivated.

petefeet · February 25, 2015

Yet another winter storm keeps our little halfling trapped within the walls of the abandoned manor house, the falling snow and driving winds making any thoughts of working outside impossible.

Cabin fever taking hold, petefeet stomps around in frustration within his confined space nearly walking on Mickey, making the cat seek the safety of height to rather than being crushed under an halflings foot.

Determined to be productive, petefeet looks around at the mess of his living space and sets about cleaning up. Scraps of rabbit hide left over from various projects, the failed attempt to make a birch bark bowl, and general clutter are sifted and sorted. Anything that can be salvaged is, everything else ends up in the fire.

Tired and sore from the strain of lifting, bending and tugging, petefeet nevertheless feels that today was an productive one.

Hey kids,

Another bloody snow storm here in Nova Scotia which kept me inside for most of it. Decided to finally start going through the 7 boxes of paperwork, memento's, photo's etc from my Grandfather's estate. He pass two years ago, a man I looked up to greatly, and to be honest I've been putting it off.

I have it about half sorted into rough categories, Family History (found some old letter from the 1860's), Military (He was a Major in the Canadian Army) and Masonic (He's the reason I became a Freemason).

Only down side to this is that I can no longer see my bed!

Between bouts of sorting I did some BBWW.

Main Quest: Failed a bit last night, after visiting "LiF" I hit the whiskey and roasted almonds which put me at 179 lbs this morning.

Side Quests: 1. Food Log and Weigh-in kept. Tried to stay with calorie budget today.

2. 1 of 2 Cardio done for week.

3. BBWW Totals below

30 of 50 Push-ups

30 of 100 Squats

40 of 100 Leg Lunges

25 of 50 Dumbbell Rows

3 of 5 x 15 sec Planks

30 of 150 Jumping Jacks

Life Quest: Chatting with my father today and going to try and organize an afternoon or two with he and my brother to start hanging drywall. This would be easier if the BLOODY SNOW STOPPED!!!!

Kareesh · February 26, 2015

We're getting a snow storm here today. I'm soooo looking forward to spring. Winter just makes me not want to do anything, especially get out to the gym. :-/

I love doing geological stuff. I know it must be hard going through a loved one's things, but hopefully those pictures and mementos bring happy memories to mind.

petefeet · February 26, 2015

I love doing geological stuff. I know it must be hard going through a loved one's things, but hopefully those pictures and mementos bring happy memories to mind.

Found some old photo's and such that I hadn't seen in years as well as my Grandfathers letter's to his parents when he fought in Korea as well as part of a letter my Grandmother sent home from France/Germany during WW2 (She was a Captain in the Canadian Woman's Army Corp) telling how they were boarded in a bombed out monastery within sound of the German guns.

A VERY reflective day.

Ahyar Dreamspark · February 26, 2015

Cabin fever taking hold, petefeet stomps around in frustration within his confined space nearly walking on Mickey, making the cat seek the safety of height to rather than being crushed under an halflings foot.

Did Mickey the cat seek the safety of height by climbing to the top of a snow bank? Because nothing would ever get to him there.

Good job on the decluttering and getting BBWW done during the storm, though! I kind of sat on my ass all day :\

pyrite_philter · February 26, 2015

I'm in the midst of cleaning/clearing myself... and like you I cannot seem to find my bed! Good job staying productive! Maybe LiF needs some vitamin D or B complex? I know that some people suffer from seasonal affective disorder... Of course this is just for us to ponder about LOL.

I am looking for a way to store our workout stuff (dumbbells, bands, mats, etc.). We live in a small apartment, so every little bit of space counts! Good job with the body weight stuff though! :cool-new:

I think that everyone will appreciate spring just a little bit more this year.

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