Some weekends come and go so quickly.  Others are so packed with commitments and events, you can’t wait to get back to work on Monday to relax.

This past weekend was not overly busy when it came to activities, but it had a very big high and an extremely big low.

I’ll start with the high.  I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, have been to the Toyota dealership several times before, trying to make an affordable deal happen to get me into a Prius.  Finally, this past Saturday, everything came together and I now drive around in a silver Prius, getting 51 MPG in the CITY!  48 on the highway. Since the dealer bought the first tank of gas and we don’t have any out-of-town trips scheduled in October, my goal is to make it through October without filling up!

The bad news came Friday afternoon at 5:40pm.  I was trying to get out of work when the cell phone rang. It was my doctor’s office.  I had been in for a physical two days’ before and had forgotten to ask for a refill on a massage prescription for my forearms and thumbs, which take a beating with all my writing (ouch).  The perky medical assistant gave me the usual greeting and then began to dish.  The blood test results from my physical were back and they were not good.  The long and short of it:  I have type 2 diabetes.  For those new to this prognosis, it’s the best of the bad news.  It means I have diabetes, my liver is producing too much sugar….but that it can be controlled with diet and exercise.  As you all know, that’s easy, so in a way, of all the things this could have been, Type-2 diabetes is the lesser of a lot of evils.

So, goodbye sugar,  Never again will my lips touch cotton candy, sourdough bread and so many other things you eat without even thinking about them. I have a 30 day window to eat better, do some exercising and drop a few pounds, to see if I can turn this thing around.  Needless to say, my beloved Scotch is going to take a seat on the bench for a while.  If nothing else, I’ve never been a fan of sweets, so giving them up won’t be so bad.   It’s just all the thinking involved and making sure I eat something every two hours to keep the blood sugar even.

So there you have it.  When I finally get around to writing the book on my life story, I already have the name for this chapter: “The Weekend I Got a Prius and Diabetes”.

I just wanted you to know.

Tim Hunter