As should be expected, I am all geared up to get started with a new nutrition and exercise program when life decides to rear its ugly head.

You know how life can be sometimes.  Unexpected.  Unpredictable.  Just plain annoying.  I don't have a whole lot of these kinds of times, but when they come their arrival is usually with the worst possible sense of timing.  One thing I don't need right now is distractions.  Changing a lifestyle is not an easy thing to do, and distractions just take my focus from where I need it to be (on making a dramatic life change) to where I would rather not have to go.

What are the distractions, you might ask.  Let me tell you.

First, I have a vehicle that needs new tires.  4 of them, to be precise.  This morning I went to get some estimates on how much it would cost to replace 4 tires.  The first total I got came in at nearly $800.  Now, I seldom buy full sets of tires (in fact, this is the first time ever), so I did not realize that 4 pieces of steel-belted rubber would cut so deeply into my wallet.  When the counter guy saw my pallid face and shaking hands, he played with the numbers a bit to bring the price down to just shy of $700.  Still a bit out of my budget.  He finally, did some digging and found a set of import tires that had a higher durability rating that might be good for me.  The price: $505.  Better, but overspending a budget is something that my wife and I talk about before I do it.

I later learned that my tire size is an odd one, making the availability of a full set a little more difficult (and more expensive) to come by.  Lucky me.  I'll work it out, but since I want a gym membership to go with my new tires, it might take 2 trips to the tire store rather than just one to get a full set of tires.

That incident pales in comparison to my other life issue.  After discovering that the tires I want cost several useful body parts, I drove out to a rental unit that I have.  My tenant there has been kind of iffy for the past several weeks, and since it's the early in the month I want to make an appearance at the front door earlier rather than later for my rent.  When I got there, I found it to be quite - disturbing.  Yes, that's the word I need.

My tenant is gone - moved out without notice.  Before leaving, she kindly ripped out my carpet and destroyed the shoe molding around the entire living room.  She replaced the carpet with some kind of vinyl flooring that looks like it came right out of the 70's.  There are holes in walls in every room (not big ones, just big enough to be a pain in the butt) and mismatched carpet in the hallway that she put over the new floor I installed before she moved in.  An entire part of the wall is missing in a bedroom, as is the closet door it was attached to.  She destroyed the door to the second bedroom and threw out the access panel to the HVAC unit, leaving a gaping hole in the wall where none should exist.  There's enough trash and junk around the house to fill a small dump truck.  Then there's the bugs.  Lots and lots of bugs.

She also vacated the premises with a window AC unit and three space heaters - about $300 worth of appliances.

All of that means simply this: getting another tenant in there is going to be expensive.  No one would want to live there as it is.  Just cleaning it isn't going to be enough.  It needs a lots of repair-some of it major, heating and cooling, a LOT of cleaning, and a good bit of yard work.  $1000 might get me out of it, but who has $1000 just laying around?  It's also going to require a lot of my time - time that I would rather spend writing this blog or working out or something more productive than cleaning up someone else's mess.

Distractions, distractions, distractions.

They happen.  I just have to make sure they don't take away from the real goal here - to look like a million bucks on my 40th birthday.

Be well.