Week 258 Update

It was 38° outside at 06:55 when I stepped on Mr. Scale and he replied, "186.0 pounds!"

Four weeks in a row my weekly weigh-in has come in within my target range. I am very happy about that. I had 10 weeks in a row where I weighed over the top of my target range, and one of those weeks I was over my personal goal of 190 pounds. Now I am starting to string good weigh-ins together, and that really feels good.

This week, I had an added bonus of having every one of my daily weigh-ins land inside my target range. The week ending on November 5th in 2005 was the last time I did that. That was nearly 6 months ago!

While I am really happy to see my scale numbers back on track, what I am really excited about is what Dotti has been up to!

Dotti had an awesome week! She dropped 1.5 pounds and brought her average loss on her Comeback Journey back up to 1 pound-per-week. (She is only one pound over my personal goal right now, and soon she will waving to me as she passes me by on her way down. J)

Other than her personal goal weight goal of 145 pounds, Dotti doesn't actually have any number weight goals this time. She is not aiming for any particular number of pounds to lose per week, or per month; but she is aiming at remaining OP each day, and striving to show either a loss or at least a maintain for each week along the way. So far, she has done just that (with the only exception being the week she had shoulder surgery, and she showed a huge loss right after that).

So far, Dotti has dropped 32 pounds, and is right on program still. The past couple of weeks, she has been working on some major reorganizing projects around the house and as a result, has gotten in a lot of exercise. We think that is what helped her to do so well this week on the scale.

The really important thing is that she is moving along, a day at a time, on program, and not struggling. Like me, her toughest task is getting in her exercise. We will both be working on that during the upcoming weeks.

As always, you can follow Dotti's consistent progress at her Dotti's Return to Goal page.

Here is how this week went:

Saturday - I weighed in at 184.0 pounds. I was in a hurry to get at the E-Letter so that we could get it finished and sent off. I was deep into the project when all at once, the pager went off.

Oh, I was not a happy camper. I found out that I had to run a part (actually a fixture that was to be used in installing a part) down to the technician in the Eugene office. It took several hours out of my day, and by the time we made it back, it was clear that I would not get my article done in time to ship the E-Letter on Saturday. The ship date would be pushed to Easter Sunday.

I had my normal breakfast of 7.0 points, and since we were on the road at lunchtime, Dotti and I stopped at Taco Bell, because it sounded really good to both of us. I had my standard, two tostadas and a bean burrito for 15.0 points. It was a few more points than I normally like to burn on lunch, but it really hit the spot.

When we finally got home, after making a mandatory stop at the store for some necessaries, it was dinner time, and we had some of Dotti's excellent tortellini soup. That brought my meal total up to 30.5 points for the day, and then I added in 7.5 points worth of snacks to bring my points up to 38.0.

Easter Sunday - I was up at 06:30 and I weighed 186.0 pounds. Once again I started working on my article for the E-Letter. I got it finished before the pager went off once more around 10 AM. (Even after my article is finished there is still a significant amount of work getting the E-Letter in shape to send out. This month's E-Letter was our Easter one, and it had to have its own format, naturally. J)

So, even though I had crossed one major hurtle, I still had to put the E-Letter on hold for another pager induced interruption. Dotti decided that she would ride over with me to the west side where my customer was located, and she would go shopping while I worked on the problem. (I estimated that it shouldn’t take much more than 2 hours of labor to fix the problem once I actually got there. Of course it was only a guess, but I was hopeful.)

Dotti dropped me off at the customer site and she headed out to find some stores. (I found out afterwards that nearly all the stores she tried were closed for Easter. L Still, she did find a couple open to keep her busy while I was working.)

I found that a water line had popped off inside the machine, and it had dumped all of the deionized (very pure) water out onto the floor. The customer's technicians had hunted around trying to find the place where the leak was originating from, but they couldn't find where the hose had come apart.

I first had to locate the source of the leak, and then repair it. Then, their water reservoir had to be refilled with deionizer water. There was a source of such water that I could, and did, use however, their water was not quite pure enough for the machine.

NOTE:

Resistance is a measure of a material's ability to restrict electrical flow. It is measured in OHMS, and the larger the number of OHMS, the less current that will flow if a voltage is applied to the material. A 100 Watt light bulb will, when lit, have a resistance of about 130 OHMS. A 25 Watt light bulb will have a resistance of 530 OHMS. The 100 Watt bulb will draw more current because its resistance is lower, and it will convert that greater current to more light.

The purity of deionized water can be directly measured by its resistance. The purer that it is, the more resistance that the water has to electrical current flow. Absolutely pure water will not conduct electricity at all, and so they normally will rate the purity in MegOhms, or millions of ohms. (If you combined the resistance of 7,700 one-hundred Watt light bulbs they would total about 1 MegOhm of resistance.)

There is a meter constantly monitoring the resistance of the deionized water in the machine.

When I first filled up the reservoir, the resistance was reading less than one MegOhm. This was not good. The machine is checked every day to make sure that the resistance is at least 6 MegOhms, and it is normally is greater than 10 MegOhms. However, it was just a question of waiting. Once I got the air cleared out of the water circulation pump, so it could begin to circulate the water through the system, the resistance began to increase, because the water was also moving through a set of deionization filters. By the time I had the machine all closed back up and I fixed a couple of other minor problems, the resistance was already up over 5 MegOhms. When I got a beam run up on it, making sure that all the electronics were okay, after the bath that part of the machine took, the resistance was up to 7 MegOhms and all was well.

Even though it cost him nearly $800 for 3 hours of my time (I only wish that I personally got paid that much J) the customer was happy to have his machine back up and running product through it. And I was happy to call Dotti up and let her know that she could come and pick me up.

Soon we were heading back home, and we could dive into the final stages of getting the E-Letter out. It was late in the evening when Dotti and I finally put the last touches on it, and sent it out.

I worked right through my normal lunch time and so I ended up eating a combination lunch/dinner. Even with a high volume of food, it only came to 9.5 points. (Rice, beans, cottage cheese, pears, green beans, and Dotti's pumpkin pudding.) It all worked out so that I only ate 29.5 points for the entire day.

Monday - I weighed 185.5 pounds. It was 39° when I got up and overcast. We got a little drizzle during the day, but it wasn't bad. As usual I had some weekend catch-up work to do at my customer site, but it just made the day go by quicker.

At lunch I continued to listen to the Narnia audio books, on my second time through them.

A few thoughts on the currently two most popular children's series of books...

It is amazing to me how two authors can take the same sorts of mythical creatures and events, and from them make something so completely different. CS Lewis has constructed a Christian storybook platform upon which to act out fantasy tales, with magic, spells, magical and mythical creatures—and lands just as magical and mythical where they reside. Lewis' world of Narnia is watched over by Aslan, a Christ symbol, which is shaped like a lion; and the residents of both Narnia and our world are under his direction. All magic flows from Aslan and his Father, "the Emperor across the sea."

In J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter books, there is no apparent source for magical power, other than genetic inheritance for it (leaving the poor inferior "muggles" forever on the outside looking in), and there would be no place for a creature like Aslan. (The "White Witch" of Narnia was completely helpless in the face of Aslan's power when he exerted it, whereas Voldemort is very nearly equal with Dumbledore, his only serious opposition.)

Everyone in Harry Potter's world appears to be on his own, and it is only the wits and the power of the magician that seems to matter in the end. Fate may be directing things—hence prophesies are made and are fulfilled—but that is left to your imagination, one way or the other. If Fate exists, does it have self-awareness? Is it a being, or is it under some being's control? Or perhaps it is like the Star Wars' Force, not really aware of what it is doing?

Philosophically, the Harry Potter world has no reference to, nor apparent need for, a personal God, or Savior, while Narnia is completely saturated in those concepts. For anyone who embraces Christianity, it is like night and day, and I think that this difference cannot help but form a line of demarcation that may draw up many on either side of it. Will it be a cause of "war?" I doubt it, but it would take more time than I have here to expound upon the reasons why.

I will leave the topic of Narnia and Harry Potter with this thought: The Harry Potter books are right in line with the "Politically Correct" attitudes in vogue right now, and the Narnia books are often in direct opposition to it. The question is, which path will parents be willing to push their children down? Or will they not push them at all and just let society make the decision for them?

Why do I read children's books at all, one might ask? I am always looking to see what is being used to program the minds of our children, because those children will grow up to be the future of my country. (It is clear that the powers that be are fully aware of this!) There is no area of entertainment that is more saturated with attempts at manipulating the captive minds as is that of our children. All books, movies, and even textbooks are used for that purpose. What messages are being programmed into our children's minds? If we don't pay attention to our children, we are risking our entire future. So, I am paying attention, for what it's worth.

The nice thing about a busy day is that it is soon over, and I was off to face the "fun flow of traffic." On the Washington side of the Columbia River I tried a different path home and it turned out to be a bit faster I believe. It still took over an hour to get home, but I think it would have been even longer on my normal route.

Dotti fixed me a 6.5-point dinner in the evening and we watched a Bewitched episode from the third season, for a little escape before jumping onto the computers to answer email etc.

My total points for the day turned out to be 34.0 points.

Tuesday - I weighed in at 186.0 pounds. The cool mornings continued on Tuesday, with the thermometer reading 39° when I woke up. Later in the day it climbed up to 63°.

I had a quiet day at work, and that was a nice change of pace. There are always things to do still, but the low stress is always appreciated.

I had a treat (some peanut butter toast) with dinner which moved the points up to 11.5 for the meal, but for the day it only came to 34.0 points, and no harm done.

Wednesday - I weighed in at 185.0 pounds. It was 41° when I woke up, and it made it up to 70° by the time I drove home from work. My drive home was very easy, and after a busy morning and quiet afternoon, that made for a nice day all the way around.

For dinner, Dotti and I had Subway, and I ended up eating 38.0 points for the day.

Thursday - I weighed in at 185.5 pounds. It was around 42° when I awoke, and it made it up to 68° by the end of the day. I had lunch at the office, where they ordered in sub sandwiches and chips from Big Town Hero. My lunch (8" sub and chips) came to 13.0 points.

In the evening, dinner came to 11.5 points, and for the day I was up to 41.5 points. That was a little over my target of 40 points or less, but it was close.

Friday - I weighed in at 185.5 pounds. It was 46° when I got up, but the warmer start didn't help it get warmer later in the day. The high was only 59° for the day.

I was busy today, but it wasn't bad. For meals I ate 26.0 points, and I had 11.5 points for snacks, bringing my total up to 37.5 points for the day, and that led to my 186.0 pounds weigh-in this morning.

How do I rate this week?

I was happier with my weigh-ins this week than I have been for months. Seeing the number on the scale hold steady within my target range all week long was a very nice experience!

Eating – I went over my upper limit on points on Thursday, but for the rest of the week I was below it, and my average points-per-day was only 37.5. So, I think I did very well on my eating this week.

Weight – While my weekly weigh-in went up a couple of pounds, my average weight dropped from 186.93 down to 185.64, more than a pound. Last week my average weight was barely within my target range, and this week it is solidly there. I am very happy with that! J

Water – I missed my target of getting at least 6 cups in each day on two separate days. I averaged 49.17 ounces (6.1 cups) per day, and that does hit my goal. So, my water consumption was okay.

Exercise – I am not doing any better on exercise, but I am hopeful that the next week or two will see a turn around in this category.

4 years, 346 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3"/239.5/186.0/180±2/BMI:23.25/WK-258