Scattered Thoughts

Five and a half weeks without a drop of alcohol and I still stubbornly refuse to say that I've quit...I'm just on a roll. Somewhere along the way I've managed to become addicted to green tea...I guess that part of it could have been worse. Thought I'd lose even more weight. That didn't happen! I have had a non-stop case of the munchies lately, and despite it's all being healthy stuff (nuts, fruit, etc), if I don't start getting more physical than getting out of this chair for another pot of tea I'm going to balloon back up to the bad old days.

My ankle seems pretty much better, can't imagine if this happened while my mother and aunt are visiting (four weeks from today). Another reason to start exercising. Hope we'll all be ready for the steps, standing and walking that is the very definition of sightseeing around Kanto.

It snowed today in Kansai. The news tonight showed it snowing in Nara park on the first (official) day of full cherry blossoms. Bet that bummed out a lot of people that had pre-scheduled hanami parties!

Read an article today that said only 20% of 11-17 year olds get the recommended nine hours of sleep a night (when did it go up to nine?). The article went on to say that 45% get less than eight hours of sleep a night. This means that 55% of 11-17 year olds are getting eight or more hours of sleep a night?! Somehow I really doubt this. The article also stated that the average time to get up on a school day was 6:30. So this means that 55% of kids as old as 17 are asleep by no later than 10:30 at night?! For that matter, 20% are asleep by 9:30 on school nights? Hmmmm.

Here's something I wrote some time ago and never posted:
I saw another accident tonight. As far as I could tell, nobody was hurt. A car hit a person on a bike. The driver of the car was at least 20 mph over the speed limit, smoking a cigarette and talking on the cell phone. The guy on the bike was actually reading or writing e-mail or text messaging on his cell phone (that's right, I said he was on a bicycle at the time!) as he just rode right through the red light. There seemed to be very little harm done on either side, and it was like a contest of which of them could apologize the most and escape the scene the fastest. ...don't know why I added that now (other than it allows me to erase a two month old unposted draft). I fear the day I get in a bicycle collision with some idiot that is as stupid as that guy on the bike. I don't think an apology will do it...and the first bow is likely to be into my knee.

Taka's life becomes a hell on earth tomorrow or the day after. There will be arrests of partners at Taka's firm tomorrow (or the day after). Three separate, unrelated cases of what amounts to the same crime (advising or helping a client to do something less than legal). Rumor has it that six partners are involved. Two for each of the three cases. If taken together to prove a corporate culture, this could be the end of the company (think Anderson Consulting). Since Taka is in the public relations department, she will be beyond busy for a while (possibly right up to the time that the company she works for no longer exists). The caca will hit the fan sometime after the arrests and press conference.

Anyone that read this far may now breath that sigh of relief (or disappointment) that there was nothing political or overly controversial in this whole post.

Time to take out the trash then get some sleep.