Week 202 Update

It was 4:15AM, and 45° when I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, "185.5 pounds!"

Here's how my week went.

Saturday - I weighed in at 185.5, just like this week. I ended up spending the entire morning, and part of the afternoon working on my HTML program for exercise data. When I finally had to come up for air, since Dotti had been hinting at wanting to watch the Godfather movies with me, we spent the afternoon and evening watching Godfather I & II. In between the two movies, for a little intermission break, Dotti and I went to a Mini-mart to get some milk.

It was late when we finished, and it was time for bed. I didn't do any walking on Saturday, and I ate 53.0 points.

Sunday - I got up around 7:15AM, and I weighed 186.0 pounds. I worked on my program some more, and finally got it to produce an HTML output that looks usable. (Click here to see the output from that program.)

Dotti and I walked to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch, and then walked on to Wall Mart. We “window shopped” at Wall Mart and then walked home. It was a bit rainy, with cloud cover all the way. The temperature was around 55°, so it wasn’t too bad. The company was awesome!

When we got back we watched The Godfather part III. After watching those 3 movies, it makes you feel that the whole fabric of civilization is covering some things that are as barbaric as the Neanderthal. But all you have to do is read the newspaper to get the same feeling. That is true even though most of what people need to know to make intelligent decisions never makes to the papers, or I believe they would have been in revolt long ago. The Mafia isn't even a big threat, when compared with other things going on, but still it is shocking to wallow in that cesspool. It had been decades since I watched any of those movies, and will probably be decades more before I return to them.

Dotti and I walked a total of 6.43 miles. I ate 58.5 points.

Monday - I got up to the alarm this morning. I made it to work early enough to walked 3.17 miles. The sun was out, but it was cool (36°). I put on my heavy coat, with my gloves and knit cap. It kept me comfortable for the whole walk.

When I got back to the car, I realized that in my rush to get out the door, I had forgotten my computer. I called up Dotti and she said that she would bring it out to me around lunchtime. J

When I got inside I found out that the part that I had been dealing with trying to get delivered last week, still hadn't arrived! I found out that it had gone to Seattle instead of Portland. Wonderful. The delivery service said it would be onsite by 1PM. I had a couple of other machine problems to work on in the meantime. I tried a few things and the problems clear up. The main problem appeared to be board seating related.

Dotti arrived about lunchtime. (Maybe I should forget my computer more often. J) We grabbed a bite to eat, and then we went back to my customer's parking lot and visited for a while. I used her camera to snap some pictures of a sign that has a map of the trails through the part where I walk. I thought that the map might come in handy in documenting distances for future walks. It was finally time to go in from lunch and I had to say goodbye to Dotti.L It sure was nice visiting with her!J

In the afternoon, the part finally arrived, and we put it in. Fortunately it worked fine. (After all that waiting, it would have been very bad if it had been a bad part as well.)

I didn’t get out the door until after 5PM, but traffic wasn’t too bad, and I was not much later than usual getting home.

I ate 52.0 points for the day, and I walked 3.17 miles.

Tuesday - woke up about 15 minutes before the alarm went off this morning, and I weighed 189.5 pounds! Wow! I didn't like that very much. I had taken some Ibuprofen, and that probably was behind it, but I have not weighed over 190 since I hit my target weight, and I don't like coming that close to it.

I read a book during breakfast. I got to work well before 7 AM and set out on a longer than normal walk. As I began walking I was running my walking options over in my head. I wanted to get in at least 4 miles. I finally came up with the idea that I would walk my normal 3.17-mile loop, and at the 0.75-mile corner do an out and back to the bench (1 extra mile) and then if I had time, walk up to the pine tree and back (an extra 0.5 miles) and then go on to complete the loop.

As I came out of the first tunnel, I noticed that the pond was still dry. Heading off ahead, just about to turn out of sight, there was a jogger with a moderately large black dog. She was running at a slow jog. I continued off to the right on my way.

After reaching the 0.75-mile corner, and doing my out-and-back to the bench, I still had time to add in the extra half-mile to the pine tree and back. So, I turned right and headed down the hill. Soon, I was back on my normal path and completed the loop. It was about 44° and there was no rain. I ended up walking 4.67 miles in 1 hour, 2 minutes and 21 seconds.

Once inside I found that things were pretty quiet with the machines. So, I set about doing my paperwork. I did my monthly report, which took several hours to complete. I issued parts and got my Daily reports done. A coworker came over to look at the SCSI connection on one of my computers that I had installed a couple of months ago, to help him in setting one up at his customer's site. Towards the end of the day, I got some info on some more parts I had to take care of, and then my customer came by to discuss a machine problem with me.

At lunch I did a 3.17-mile loop, and the temperature was in the mid 50s. Very pleasant walk.

After lunch it was back to paperwork, and at the end of the day, I still didn’t have everything done. I had been working on paperwork items pretty much non-stop all day. I was more tired than I would have been working on a machine problem all day.

When I got home, Dotti and I walked over to Red Robin for dinner. (By the end of the day I had walked just over 11 miles!) We saw two distinctly different sunset presentations that were very striking. The first was mostly yellow, light orange, white, and there was some blue poking through. The clouds were being brilliantly lit by the sun, which was hanging low on the horizon at that time. There was one elliptical hole in the clouds that was bright white, and looked almost like the top of a hurricane eye obliquely viewed from above. I commented to Dotti that it was like something that you would see in a good science fiction movie.

A few minutes later, our route had turned our backs to the sunset, and when a guy crossed the street behind us, I turned around to make sure that we were not blocking his path, and there was one of the most marvelous sunsets that I have ever seen. Dotti and I stopped and looked at it in awe. The clouds raced away from the horizon, looking like a washboard with corrugated ripples. The sun was bright reddish orange, and its rays were shooting underneath the clouds and painting them bright red, way up into the sky. It was incredibly beautiful!

Dotti and found the restaurant to be crowded, and the lobby area had a whole mob of kids jumping around and yelling, holding balloons and apparently enjoying themselves very much. Standing back a bit from them was someone dressed in a colorful cartoonish robin outfit, waving and standing around for pictures.

We were finally shown a seat at a two person booth down near the restrooms, and we waited quite a while for our waitress to come and take our order, and then bring our drinks. We both asked for water, but neither got any at first. Dotti asked again if we could have some water and she was brought some, but I still wasn't. I told Dotti to not worry about it. The place gets really crazy when it is so busy. We both had the Fiesta Fajita salad (mine without chicken) and they were good.

After dinner we stopped at Borders and I read in a book on ancient civilizations while Dotti looked around. We didn’t end up buying anything, but it was a nice time anyway. We completed our loop back home and then I worked on putting mileages to some pictures of the map of the park routes, that I had taken at lunch with Dotti’s camera the day before. Soon it was time for bed. Dotti beat me there about a few minutes, but it was only 10:15 when I finally got there.

I had eaten 37.0 points for the day.

Wednesday - I woke up to the alarm going off this morning, and I weighed 186.5 pounds. I got moving fairly quickly and was able to read a bit while eating breakfast, and still make it on the road on time. Dotti was very tired, and said that she had trouble sleeping. L

On my way to work, coming out of the tunnel on route 26, and heading up the hill, my gas indicator suddenly went on. Great!

I was fortunately early, so I could squeeze in a gas stop and still do my walk, provided that I made it to the station. Going up the hill, the gauge was reading very low, and I gave some thought to stopping at the Sylvan exit, but I hate stopping there if I don't have to. As the car leveled out at the top of the hill, the gauge was a bit above the E mark. It was only a few miles to go--I figured that I would go for it.

When I reached my exit, I was doing okay for time, as long as the gas station didn’t take too long. When I pulled in, a guy zipped in front of me, around a car from the other side, to the pump I was headed for, and I had to take one on the island furthest away. Nobody came out to pump the gas for quite a while, and I was cursing the stupid Oregon law that made it illegal for me to pump my own gas. (I do that nearly every time I buy gas in Oregon, but this was more so.)

Finally an attendant arrived to start the gas pumping. But then he disappeared, and when the pump popped off, nobody came for a time. I got out of my car and that seemed to catch another attendant’s attention and he finally wandered over to take the hose out and give me my receipt. What a stupid system!

As it was, I was back at the parking lot at my customer's site early enough to get my rain gear on and start my walk by 07:07. It was 44°, and sprinkling. There was some rain most of the way. It wasn’t too heavy, but I was glad I had on my rain gear.

When I came out of the first tunnel, it was like déjà vu. The empty pond was still there, and turning around the path heading away around the pond was the very same jogger with the dog, at the very same place as the day before, even though I was starting later today. The weather was great for walking, and the streets were wet, reflecting the headlights from their surfaces like a Thomas Kincaid painting. It created a warm feeling inside me, in spite of the cold wet air around me.

Soon I was back at my customer's site, and headed inside to work. I found that they had been working on a couple of problems, but they were well in hand. I shipped a part and did some more paperwork during the morning.

At lunch I walked 2.4 miles, in the rain. It was warmer (53°), but I needed my rain gear on. As I passed the place where the little yellow house used to be standing, there was a huge crane truck parked in my way. I had to move out into the road to get by. As I came along side of it, I noticed that there was a huge concrete chamber they were getting ready to lift off the truck and put into the ground. The truck was labeled “Utility Vault.” Apparently the new apartment complex would be routing its utilities through that chamber in the ground. The guy who was on the truck, playing with a hoisting chain that was around the chamber, turned around and looked at me sort of funny and he seemed to be looking over my shoulder as I was backing away from the chain he was holding. Suddenly I realized that a car was coming from behind me and the driver hadn’t slowed down much, or honked his horn. He just drove on by, barely missing me. I see why construction workers are so often injured or killed at construction sites.

When I got to the car I ate my lunch and read some more.

The afternoon was fairly quiet, and I got out the door before 5PM. When I arrived home, Dotti had just put on an outfit of jeans, tee-shirt, and long-sleeved unbuttoned, and untucked outer shirt. She was standing in front of a mirror looking at herself and didn't know that I was home yet. She looked really nice in it, and I whistled at her. She nearly jumped out of her skin. Oops. She then reminded me that she had a bowling meeting to go to tonight, and that was why she was putting on the outfit. After fixing dinner, she drove to the meeting.

I read a bit in my Exploreing the Cosmos book about the constellations and some other solar system related topics before jumping on the computer and typing in some data. I next worked with the maps and data on the park paths, and figured out the distances for a number of the path segments. For example, I calculated the distance around the loop around the eastern set of ponds to be 0.56 miles.

Before long it was time for bed. I had walked 5.57 miles and eaten 45.0 points.

Thursday - I woke up early, about 4:45 AM, and weighed 186.0 pounds. I was eating breakfast about 5AM, and reading.

This is Dotti's bowling day. It was hard for her to wake up this morning but after she made my lunch, and I had gotten dressed and ready to leave, she had perked up a little, and gave me a smile with her kiss goodbye.

The drive to work was relatively easy, and I arrived in time to get on my way before 7AM. I decided to use my new data to add in a loop around the eastern ponds, which upped my normal 3.17-mile loop to a new 3.73-mile enhanced loop. The pond was still mostly empty, but the ducks and geese have not abandoned the little bit of water that has been left.

It was 42° and the clouds were very broken, allowing sunshine to come through easily. On the final stretch of my walk I was thinking to myself, this feels late. It wasn’t. I still had 10 minutes to spare, but the sun is getting higher in the sky much earlier right now. We have passed the vernal equinox and daylight will be longer than darkness for the next half year.

When I passed by the point where the Utility Vault was being trucked in yesterday, I saw that there were 3 of them installed in the ground with two hinged panels on the top for a lid, that would be right at ground level, perhaps being located on a future sidewalk.

When I got inside, things were looking good, with all of the machines shown as being up. I had a quiet day. At lunch I walked my 2.4-mile loop. My stomach was hurting again, like it was last year so much. I don’t know if I over did it with my walking or what.

It was a quiet afternoon.

My drive home was uneventful. I felt like Dotti could use a pick-me-up, and so I stopped and got her some flowers at Safeway. The young lady there was very helpful, and she asked me if I was looking for anything in particular. I told her the type of flower that Dotti most likes. She pointed out a few of them, and then said that if I wanted another color that she could go in the back and check for them. I asked if she might have yellow ones, and she said that she would go and check. Sure enough, she came back with a couple batches of them. She then asked if would like to be rung up right there at the flower counter rather than having to wait in line with the grocery shoppers. I absolutely hate waiting in lines, and so I was very pleased by that offer. Great service! J

Dotti, not only liked the flowers, but she had a nice meal ready for me when I got home. We watched the first half hour or so of the original 1960s Flipper movie, while we ate. Dotti went in to chat, and I got on the computer for a short while, but ended up sitting in the living room reading a book on the planets and universe. Dotti came by and woke me up a little later, because I had fallen asleep. I can't remember the last time I did that. I must have been tired. I went right to bed after that.

By days end I had walked 6.13 miles and eaten 50.0 points.

Friday - I woke up about 2 minutes before the alarm was to go off this morning, and got up to turn it off before it could sound. I weighed 186.0 pounds.

I ate my breakfast while reading my book. I woke Dotti up just before 6 AM so she could make my lunch, while I finished getting ready for work.

I arrived at work just after 7 AM and set out on another 3.73-mile walk. It was cloudy, and so I wore my raincoat, but there was no rain throughout the entire walk. I spent my walking time contemplating the upcoming conference, thinking about the songs I would be doing, etc.

Before I knew it, I was back at my customer's site and headed inside for work, where I found that everything was up and running. Good Friday was a holiday for my customer, so things were really quiet in the office area. I got my daily paperwork completed, and what was required for the week. There was a machine issue, but it was identified and the part was already headed out from the office.

Around 10 AM I was told that the customer needed another part but this time we didn't have one in the office. So, I put one on order for Saturday delivery. (My hope is that this one works better than the one did last Friday.)

At lunch I walked 2.4 miles. The horizon was covered all the way around with heavy rain clouds, but right overhead it was blue sky. The clouds were moving however, and I put my raincoat on over my Columbia jacket just in case. As it turned out, no rain fell, even though the sun did get pushed behind the clouds for much of the walk.

The area where the yellow house had stood was really showing signs of heavy activity. There were hills of dirt that had been moved around, and surveyors were out in the street. The 3 Utility Vaults were all in place, and though the work crew was on lunch, there were a lot guys on the work site, and heavy equipment everywhere. It won't be long and the buildings will start to go up.

At the other construction site, down at the corner (about 1.08 miles from the finish of my loop), things were at a standstill. No work was being done today, even though some heavy equipment was on site. It all looked abandoned, with nobody in sight.

I spent a quiet afternoon, and before long it was time to head for home.

The drive home was easy for a Friday night, and when I arrived it wasn't much after 5PM. Dotti and LeRoy were off shopping and it was a half hour or so before they arrived and we all headed out for dinner at Sweet Tomatoes.

In the evening we visited with LeRoy, and Dotti worked with him on doing some things for the DWLZ conference.

I got tired around 9PM and headed off to bed. I am not sure what time Dotti came to bed, but when I woke up at 11:30PM she was sleeping soundly.

How did this week measure up?

In area of eating, I averaged 47.43 points-per-day. So, I was a bit up over my normal 46 points-per-day maintenance level. My average weight was up as a result (of the points and the Ibuprofen) to 186.71. I needed to be a little lower on points to be right where I should be, however, I am satisfied with how it all ended up. Perhaps this upcoming week will be better.

My water consumption was quite satisfactory this week. I once again drank at least 6 cups every single day. I averaged 51.43 ounces (6.4 cups) per day. That is well within my target range.

I even did better on my exercise this week. I walked 38.47 miles for the week. I moved my total miles up to 129.62 for the month, exceeding my base goal for the month already. I also moved my total for the year up to 374.27. In other words, with 23% of the year gone, I have completed 29% of my goal.J) That is well ahead of schedule, and very nice change from what I went through last year.

3 years, 319 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185.5/180±2/BMI:23.19/WK-202

GRAPHS:

Weight Loss Maintenance Year 1 Maintenance Year 2 Maintenance Year 3 Maintenance Year 4 2005 Walking 2005 Walking Data

2004 Walking Data