Week 321 Update

Saturday I did my weigh-in, and the scale said 201.0 pounds. That was almost there, but not quite. So, the quest to get back into my goal range continued. I did my write up for the week, and then Dotti and I had some errands to run.

At one point I was sitting in the car waiting for Dotti to finish making a purchase in Best Buy. Best Buy had selected some particularly offensive music, which they played at a very high volume level. So, I made my retreat. (I won't even set foot into a Sam Goody's any longer. I can obtain my CDs through other, less noisy outlets. As the years go by, merchants have lost their sensitivity to patron's wishes, and couldn't care less whether or not what they are playing is offending you. The days of pleasant, soft playing music in the background are gone for many establishments.)

In the quiet of the car I was enjoying the pleasant weather and playing around snapping pictures with my camera. I took this picture of myself just before Dotti appeared with package in hand.

For the day I ate 35.0 points which I consider to be very good.

Sunday - my weight dropped into my target range at 200.0 pounds. I did a lot of snacking, and didn't eat nutritiously for the day, even though I ate low in points at 26.0. In the evening, just as I was getting ready for bed, all at once I got hit with pain and various levels of discomfort right in my solar plexus area. When I took a breath it was not pleasant. I felt a little light headed and even lying down I didn't feel well. (I never did find out what it was for sure, but looking back on it, it might have been the antibiotics that I was taking. The entire time I was taking them my stomach never did feel really well, and once I stopped, things got better quickly.)

Monday - I dropped another half pound, and dropped into "One-derland" at 199.5. While my target range extends up to 200.0 pounds, it felt good to move below the 200 threshold.

I had set my mind on taking a walk first thing Monday morning, because I had done so poorly last week on walking. However, when Monday morning came around I was feeling worse, not better, and walking was out of the question. I was well enough to go in for a doctor's appointment I had, for an annual checkup, and on the way home, Dotti was not feeling very well either. The newsletter deadline was coming up faster than normal, because our best friends Jim and Tammy were coming down for a few days for the 4th of July holiday season. What should we do? Cancel this issue? We came up with a plan where I would write an article for the top of the newsletter and Dotti would pull the rest of it together. My stomach was fighting me all the way, but I was able to write the piece before bedtime while Dotti worked on getting her special items together that make it uniquely Dotti's Newsletter.

I really didn't feel much like eating all day on Monday. I ate from time to time in hopes of making my stomach settle down. But it didn't help much. I ended up eating 24.0 points for the day. I went to bed pretty close to my normal 10 p.m. but Dotti worked a little later. In the morning, I once again weighed 199.5. Dotti finished up her part of the newsletter and then I did the final proofreading, and we shipped it around 6:30 p.m. My appetite returned with a vengeance! I consumed 53.0 points! Since I have started on my return to sanity, after banging up against 211 pounds, I have done pretty well at holding my points down below 46. The last time I ate 53.0 or more points in a single day was in April. This time, I didn't feel bad about it at all, because my two day average after that was still only 38.0 points, and that is just fine.

The reason we needed to hurry on the newsletter arrived just a few hours after we shipped it. ☺ We met Jim and Tammy in 1978, when we moved to Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of that meeting, and we have covered a lot of ground with our friends. When I got out of the Navy, Dotti, LeRoy and I all moved up to Spokane to be where Jim and Tammy were living. We loved the city, and being close to Jim and Tammy was super, but jobs were scarce. After a few attempts at finding jobs in Spokane, Jim and I finally went back into the Navy, and both families moved all the way over to Norfolk, Virginia so we could be together while serving. Later the Navy took us in different directions for a few years, but then we all ended up back in the Pacific Northwest again (Dotti and I came in 1995, and Jim and Tammy returned in 1996) and have been in close contact ever since. Our families have grown closer over the years and today our kids and the grandkids all seem like part of one big family to us. And we had been looking forward to this visit for some time! In Vancouver they set the limit for setting off fireworks at 11 p.m. and people did a good job of following the law. We heard fireworks popping in the evening up until 11, but by the time Jim and Tammy showed up, a bit before midnight, things had quieted down. We visited for a while around the kitchen table before I ran out of gas and had to go to bed.

Wednesday morning I slept in until almost 7 a.m. and the scale said 201.0 pounds. I ate quite a few points the day before and there was some sodium in what I ate, so a bump up on the scale was to be expected.

When I see the number of years ago that the Declaration of Independence was signed it always reminds me that Dotti and I were married on the bicentennial year of that signing, 31 years ago. It was 231 years ago that Thomas Jefferson, in my opinion the greatest American thinker and president this country has produced, wrote the majority of the Declaration, and our Founding Fathers signed the completed document on the Fourth of July. It marked the beginning of our struggle for independence but it was a struggle that was conducted by 13 separate and sovereign colonies, working together for a common cause, but not yet joined together as a single nation. They wanted to be represented, and taxed fairly, a concept that, unfortunately, no government has really taken to by those at the top.

America was "conceived" on the 4th of July, 1776, as she began her struggle to reach full term, and to be actually born, on March 4, 1789, when New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify the constitution and the constitutional government of the United States began actual operation. (Rhode Island was the last of the 13 to ratify, holding out until May 29, 1790, and three states: Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island; included a clause in each of their ratifications that stated they had to right to leave the union should the federal union ever become oppressive.) There was quite a discussion at the time about whether the colonies should remain separate, and later a war was fought over whether or not they had the right to do so. It has not always been a smooth road, and we never know when a bridge might be out ahead, but it is truly incredible that this country has done so much in such a short time. I consider myself to be very lucky to have been born in this country!



I was fortunately feeling a lot better, and the four of us decided to visit the Vancouver Mall for a bit of shopping. I snapped this picture of Dotti in a shop we stopped at, and isn't she beautiful? She just bowls me over when she looks at me like that; and it only gets worse as the years go by!

Our two beauties have not located some new pets; they are each holding a purse that has a very strong resemblance to a puppy. One of the things that I most enjoy about when our friends come for a visit, is that Dotti smiles so often, and Tammy does too. They just bring out the fun in each other, and it makes us all far happier. There is as special chemistry when we get together and we always have a really good time.

Of course food had to enter in somewhere during our visit to the mall, and we made two food stops along the way. Both of them really were "OP stops" because they did not push our point totals up too high. We visited Subway for some sandwiches and here Dotti, Jim, and Tammy are in line. (Yes, I am spoiled. I admit it. ☺ Dotti always waits in line and gets our food while I find and save a table for us.)Dotti already has her order all ready in her mind, and has turned around to smile her lovely smile at me, while Jim and Tammy are studying the menu.

Tammy spoils Jim too. ☺ Jim has given her his order and he joined me at the table, and Dotti has moved on down the counter and out of the picture, leaving Tammy all alone. Is that a smile that is trying to break out?

In addition to Subway, we also made a stop at All American Ice Cream. Their low fat soft serve ice cream in a waffle cone like the one that Jim is holding is only 4 points. The cone is 2 of the points, and if you have it on a regular cone, it is only 2 points. Dotti and I love their cones.

In the evening, back at home, we all went out and watched the fireworks around the house. No matter which direction you turned, there were fireworks going off. We laid a couple of blankets down and oohed and awed as the fireworks dazzled us. We spent the rest of the evening visiting. I ate 38.0 points for the day.

Thursday I woke up at 6:40 a.m. and once again weighed 201.0 pounds. Since my points averaged out over the past few weeks come in well below my limit, I was not worried about what the scaled said too much. It is just a matter of time before the scale will follow where my eating leads. It has no choice.

We had a very active day, because we visited the Oregon Zoo in Portland. We arrived at the Zoo about 9:30 a.m. and didn't hit the gate to leave until nearly 4 p.m. Other than the train ride, we were on our feet the whole time walking around.

As a quick overview of our day at the zoo, we naturally came in on the left of this map, where it says "Enter & Exit" and then proceeded past the mountain goats, towards the point labeled Great Northwest. We then took the Cascade Canyon Trail, passing by the Elks and Bears on our way towards the Asian Elephants. We took a brief deter through the Primates section, covered the Elephant area, passed through the Alaska Tundra—naturally, after our Alaska Cruise together less than a year ago ☺ —walked the perimeter of the Africa section, visited the Lorikeet Landing, saw the Big Cats just before boarding the train.

The train took us out of the zoo, and through the woods of Washington Park, and over to the Rose Gardens, where we took lots of pictures of flowers. When we returned to the zoo we exited via the gift shop naturally.

It was a bright sunny day, a great one for taking pictures, and Dotti brought her nice camera along. She let Jim borrow it for part of the day, and he fell in love with the whole SLR camera concept. He took some very good pictures along the way, and I think he got bit by the digital photography bug. ☺

The last couple of times that Dotti and I came to the zoo they had been working on a new section of trail, with some new animal exhibits. This is what we saw when we came by in February. The bridge was pretty well completed but there was a chain link fence blocking our way to the Cascade Canyon Trail.

This time we made it across the bridge, and I took this picture from the other end of that bridge as the ladies approached across it.

Once we made it across the bridge, Dotti found a friendly bear to pose beside. He tried his best to appear natural, but I think he looked a bit wooden. (Groan.)

Dotti was leading the way with a big smile, while Tammy was enjoying one of the exhibits off the trail and Jim was looking ahead to see what was coming next.

Dotti took a picture of me taking a picture of her. You can see my little Olympus camera that I take with me just about everywhere I go. It is just about the same size as my iPod, and it fits into my shirt pocket very easily. If I am close up, and the lighting conditions are right, it takes excellent pictures. But it doesn't have the flexibility of Dotti's Nikon, or my Canon cameras.

As usual, I have one of my DWLZ hats on. ☺

Jim took this shot, using the Nikon. Dotti was in front, and I was checking my last shot out on my camera. Tammy was thinking, "Oh no, another one shooting pictures now." ☺

I through on the long sleeved shirt just before we left, after checking what the weather was going to be, because we didn't have any sunscreen, and I wanted to make sure I didn't burn in the bright sun. It did the trick, but I was a little warmer than I like to be, especially towards the end of the zoo visit.

Ever since Dotti started shooting pictures too, I have found myself in more of the shots on our outings. On this day, Tammy had a camera that she used from time to time, as well as Dotti and Jim sharing the Nikon, and me clicking away with the Olympus.

Jim was saving us a table, while the ladies were placing our order. The food court was located in the Primates section, right across from the bears.

Dotti and Tammy had waited through the line and reached the window. Food was not far away now. ☺

Back on our feet and walking after lunch, Jim took a picture of the ladies from the front as I looked on from the other side.

Dotti is fond of lizards, and so when I found this display I had to take a picture for her. I took the camera over to where she was standing and zoomed in so she could see the little face looking back at her. It had the desired effect. ☺

Looking over Dotti's shoulder, we can see the elephant trying the door to his inside cage. It was about time to eat as far as he was concerned.

Judging by where the red "You Are Here" button, we are at the edge of the Asian Elephants section, and the ladies are searching for the next item of interest to see.

Dotti and Tammy have found a cave to crawl into. ☺ The back of the cave is glass, and it allows viewing of a bear habitat behind it, but the cave itself tends to draw people in just because. I think the designers intended for this to be a children's viewing area, but adults are drawn in quite often as well.

One of the things I was trying with my camera was shooting with the "Available Light" mode. It was a bad idea I found, because it left many of my pictures both grainy and blurred. Even so, I thought this one was worth putting up because Dotti looks so happy in it.

Jim is already looking natural with the Nikon, while shooting a picture in the Vollum Aviary, located on the edge of the Africa section of the zoo. These aviaries make it easy to view exotic birds up close, without having to hunt far and wide to see them. After coming out of the Alaska Tundra section, with the icy and appearing displays, the sultry atmosphere in this building was quite a contrast.

Outside again, Dotti flashed one of her sweet smiles for the camera.

Several times, as we were walking along, Dotti asked where the bats were. So, when I found the sign, I asked the ladies to pose beside it.

The creepy little critters were hanging upside down just around the corner from here, and the aroma they gave off was about to become quite apparent very soon.

The heat and the exercise were taking their toll on us, and so we all agreed that it was time to take the train ride. As we were waiting in line, Dotti borrowed my camera to take this shot. Jim and Tammy are the young folks on the right, and the old guy on the left is yours truly.

The train cuts through forested lands, with hills and valleys exchanging sides all along the way. It is hard to believe that the entire Washington Park is inside the Portland city limits. The nearly 30 mile long Wildwood Trail (See WW Trail One, Two and Three) is inside this park as well.

Jim is enjoying his Coke, and we are on the train getting ready to ride. Behind Jim you can see the covered area where we were standing only minutes before as we waited for the train to arrive.

Dotti was leaning back and enjoying the ride through the woods. The open-air coach was perfect for the nice day. It was getting a little warm, but the breeze felt nice as we moved along.

Jim was enjoying the view from the coach as well. There was plenty of green, and sunshine to light it up for us.

On the other end of the line, we stopped and got our hands stamped, so we could make the return trip after our stopover. On the way from the station Jim took this picture of Tammy smiling brightly. It isn't often enough that a camera captures this natural happy look of hers, and that is a pity. We'll just enjoy this one for now. ☺

After going down a set of stairs from the station, we came upon a gift shop. Here is Dotti holding an angel she found. (You can see my fingers and camera in the mirror at the top of the picture.)

Here is romantic shot of Tammy and Jim in the gift shop. Tammy is sporting the hand stamp that we got at the train station, and Jim is holding the camera tight. His Navy hat and the Nikon neck strap are nearly color coordinated.

Here we have gone down some stairs and entered the Portland Rose Garden. Dotti has borrowed her camera back, because we have hit the flowers, and she loves to take pictures of flowers. Jim and Tammy look on, as Dotti clicks away. (When Dotti gets her photo album up from this event, I will put a link to it here.)

We made it back to the station and the ladies are smiling as we wait for the train to arrive for our return trip. You can see a large group of kids in the background wearing green shirts. They boarded as a group when the train arrived, and then the rest of us loaded up. The adults in the group had the kids well organized and they marched right on and loaded the train very quickly.

As you can see we caught the other train on the way back. The "Zooliner" appears to be a more modern design, and the cars are a bit more closed in. Still, we had plenty of air flow and the ride through the woods was very pleasant.

You can just see the top of a child's head in front of our position. There were two boys that we were watching and worrying about a bit because their father fell asleep in the seat beside them and wasn't watching their little hands and heads. I finally had to tap one of them on the shoulder and ask him to move back a bit from the window, and he just missed getting smacked by a branch that moved by very closely. (I had this grim picture of him losing an eye.) Fortunately, no harm was done.

AT the tail end of the ride, just before reaching the station, there was a pretty long tunnel. I waited until the very end (I didn't want to spoil the effect for everyone) and then snapped this flash picture of Dotti. The train was running pretty close to the wall, as you can see the light from the flash lit it up pretty well, even with no other light helping.

I guess they were looking for the tall silent type. ☺ Outside the gift shop, the ladies posed with two huge stuffed bears.

We went inside, and I found a spot where the air conditioner was blowing a nice stream of cool air and planted myself there for a bit. I then suggested that I could run out to the car and start to get it cooled off while they were shopping. It sounded like a good idea to the others, and Jim offered to join me in my project. The car was hot when we arrived and it took a while to cool it down, but by the time Dotti and Tammy arrived it was feeling much better.

I really hadn't eaten much for the day, and I was coming off an illness. Also, the heat was more than I was used to. So, it wasn't surprising that I ended up with a top notch headache about this time. I took a couple of aspirin and then we set off on the road.

It was Thursday, and about 4 p.m. Rush Hour in Portland starts up around 3 p.m. and just gets worse with time until sometime after 6 or 7. After years of driving from the west side of Portland, where we were, over to Vancouver, I had a real phobia about dealing with the freeways at this time of day. So, we took the back way over to Germantown Road, across the St. Johns Bridge, and ultimately to I-5, which was moving as slowly as I had feared. But the back road had cut off most of the I-5 time, and soon we were heading to Newport Bay in Vancouver for dinner.

Dotti commented later that I must have been feeling bad or very hungry, because I didn't take a single picture during dinner. She was right, I was not feeling well at all by that time, because I had overdone it for the day. But from that point on, I started feeling better and better. I had 23 points for dinner with half a turkey sandwich, coleslaw, turkey curry soup, some sourdough bread and coffee. I was really full by the end of the meal, and had eaten 41.5 points by the end of the day.

Friday I was 200.0 pounds. We did some shopping early and then Jim and I watched a couple of DVDs on photography. We had fast food twice, once at McDonalds (12.5 points) and once at Taco Bell (15.0 points), and it ended up pushing over the top a bit with 48.5 points for the day. Still, the scale finally dropped today, as I weighed in at 198.5 pounds.

Friday night we did some things on the computer, and here is Tammy working on her laptop. (Pay no attention to the cereal box in the background that appears to have a 25 year old picture of Dotti on it. It is only your imagination.)

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and today we had to say goodbye as Jim and Tammy headed out on their drive home. We stopped by Sharis for brunch on their way out of town and took these final pictures standing outside of Sharis.

I wish all weeks could be like this one was, enjoying the company of our dear friends and having a good weigh-in. We had lot of fun and are already missing Jim and Tammy!

6 years, 57 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-
6 '3" 239.5/198.5/197.5±2.5/BMI:24.81/WK- 321

Starting weight: 239.5       Target Weight Range: 195 lbs to 200 lbs