Earplugs! Somebody give me earplugs! If Lee grumbles one more time about my zero tolerance of his caffeine consumption, I’m liable to ‘bump’ into him while we’re topside  and send him tumbling into the deep. A good drenching, that’s what he needs.

Bad enough he’s complaining  to everyone who’ll listen that I’m riding him too hard. He’s starting to find excuses not to complete his quota of  the various muscle toning exercises and treadmill time that can only help. So what that he’s been busy with running the boat, well, buster, so have I !

Nelson’s  absconded  in the flying sub back to NIMR  to avoid him I think.

The clincher today was when I found Lee  hiding in the ventilation shaft downing about a half dozen chocolate cupcakes (with sprinkles) and  a thermos of coffee.  I also discovered a cache of doughnuts up there! Apparently he’s sneaking into the galley (they know he’s not allowed any goodies this cruise) to pilfer said yummies , then escape into the vents to pig out or defy me, I ‘m not sure which.

I did the only thing I could and began to chew him out, again, which wasn’t easy as he’s begun to look  so woebegone that I’ve begun to have second thoughts about my training regimen. After all, normally I’d welcome adding a few pounds to his skinny frame, but those pounds should be muscle, not flab! Especially before a marathon!

I let him off with a warning. If he wanted to continue with my services, he’d better do what I tell him! That he’d thank me in the end. He apologized (not from the heart, rather self-preservation), then I made him to two extra rounds on the treadmill.

While he was huffing and puffing in the gym,   I conferred with Doc who said perhaps I have been too hard on him, that perhaps his gorging on forbidden fruits, so to speak, may be his brain’s way to make him replace the burned  off calories.

I was just about to go tell Lee that I was going to allow him a cup of coffee a day and maybe one or two doughnuts a week when Sparks handed me a message. Apparently the sneak entered me in the run! Paid the entry fee and told me if he had to suffer, so did I, but that he’d still finish  in the top ten

In your dreams, Lee Crane. In your dreams.