Week 327 Update

I have made another update on my dental story in the Fifth Installment of The Tooth Fairy's Evil Twin. Please feel free to drop in and read all about it. I am looking forward to the day when this is a non-issue, and speaking of it will be too boring to consider. In the meantime, however...

I woke up early this morning and at 04:25 I stepped on Mr. Scale and he said, “196.0 pounds!”

I can’t complain about my weigh-ins these days. I was up to 199.0 on my weekly weigh-in last Saturday, but since then I have spent most of my time at or below my target weight of 197.5. And I have been having plenty to eat as well, since I averaged 45.0 points-per-day this week, more than 7 points-per-day higher than last week.

I didn’t get in a lot of exercise, but we were more active than we have been lately for this week, and that is good thing.

Saturday, August 11, 2007 we walked over a mile around the neighborhood visiting garage sales. We met a lot of people and got in some exercise. Dotti’s big brother, our sister-in-law and niece came over for a visit on Sunday. We had a good time visiting.

Oh no, it was Monday the 13th, far scarier than Friday the 13th! But it wasn’t really too bad. I ate 47.5 points, but didn’t do any harm on the scale.

Tuesday evening we checked into our hotel for our little get away in the Columbia Gorge, and we took the stairs nearly every time we changed floors. (We used the elevator when we moved our luggage from the car to the room, since it was on a cart, and that would have been tough to run up the stairs. ☺)

Wednesday, we spent in the hotel and went up and down the stairs many times, and went out to the miniature golf course and played through a couple of times.

Thursday we were up and down the stairs a few times before checking out, and then later, in the evening back home, we walked 3.1 miles around our local neighborhood loop.

Friday we met Becky at Sweet Tomatoes for lunch and my soft food selections (see evil twin) came to 18.0 points. Since I often have eaten at Sweet Tomatoes and consumed 17.0 points, it really was not too much higher than normal, which I was thankful for. We then went over to visit a Zonie at home (see pictures below and see if you can guess which one) before saying our goodbyes and facing the traffic. It was Friday afternoon, and about 3 p.m. Normally, at 3 p.m., traffic would be picking up, but the really heavy stuff would be another 30 minutes or more behind you. But not on Friday.

We hit rush hour, and Dotti was telling me that she would never be able to stand doing this day after day. I said, “Welcome to my world.” I drove through that stuff every workday for 11 years, and it was giving me digestive problems, and a multitude of other ailments. I could see why there are more heart attacks on Monday morning than any other time of the week. I could see why road rage would be such a problem with the heavy traffic and the complete idiots who jump lanes and cut people off. I found two things that saved my sanity: 1) a route home that bypassed most of the jammed freeway miles; and 2) audio books! I was able to make it home each night without blowing a gasket (or going back to smoking) because of those things. I don’t miss that drive at all! (Dotti has the right view.) Another week is over, and that makes 327 weeks of my journey. That is two thousand, two hundred and ninety days. It is hard to take all of that time in, all at once. But it is just a drop in the bucket of a lifetime journey. I am after all, just getting started, and have the rest of my life to go.

Wednesday -In the walled garden there were a number of fountains. The water splashing and spraying over the rocks made a cheerful sound and gave a very pleasant feel to the location.

The garden was surround on three sides by the hotel, and on the forth side was this rock wall, which had water pumped to the top of it, to create a very nice waterfall effect all along it. The water actually flowed over both sides of the wall, even though only one side is visible here.

On the right is another fountain, and once its water flowed down to the ground level, it formed a little stream that ran along the rock-sided bed, and under the footbridge in the distance. The trees almost make the hotel room balconies invisible in the background.



Close up the water from the fountain almost looks like it is forming a dragon that is climbing out of the stone. The fast shutter speed freezes the motion, so we can see things that our eyes would miss on their own.

Dotti took this picture of me, looking down from the third flood at me, standing on the second floor, with the Great Room behind me on the first floor. At times the Great Room was empty, and even when there were some people there, you could have a lot of privacy with the spacing placed between the groups of chairs. Dotti and I spent some very relaxing time here, reading and visiting.

I have noticed that my stomach is not hanging over my belt so much these days, since I am back at goal. ☺

They had a challenging 18-hole miniature golf course that Dotti and played. There were some incredible slopes on many of the greens, and if you didn't hit it just right, you could find yourself making the same shot over and over again, with the ball running past the hole, and getting caught on the tilted surface, and rolling right back where you started.

The camera is directly facing a string of 3 very similar holes, and I am smiling because these are 3 of the easiest hole we would be playing, because it is the "fairway" rather than the "green" that is hilly.

Off in the distance is the other side of the wall of the garden. It isn't too easy to see from this viewpoint, but the water is streaming down this side as well.

Dotti was quick on the trigger to get this shot. ☺ I had said, "Hey, catch this!" And she did. Her first try was the best one, and this is it, with the ball left suspended in space for all time.

Once again inside, I took this picture of Dotti from the second floor balcony. After your eye moves past her dazzling smile, it will find the very large rock chimney, which houses a very interesting fire place. There is a cutout in the stone where logs over 3 feet in length can be, and are, stored. But that is all just for show, because the fire is all gas fed. Still, it is pleasant to sit in the overstuffed chairs surrounding the antique globe of the world, and gaze into the flame. Even though it was summer time, the room was kept cool enough to where we could enjoy the fireplace.

On the other side of the chimney a bench can be seen sitting right beside it. There is no back to the fire, and it is equally visible from the other side and this. So, sitting on the bench will put you in a comfy position, right next to the fire. The deer's head on the wall is looking right at the front entrance and check-in desk.

And if all of that were not cool enough, this "3-man hot tub" was sitting there on our private balcony. Talk about relaxing! We were in it for 3 separate sessions during our short stay. ☺

Once I figured out how to operate the cover mechanism, it was unbelievably simple to do, and it took nearly no effort at all to either cover the tub, or uncover it completely as is shown in the picture.

Looking out over the hot tub, you can see that we had privacy behind us as well, with a sharply rising hill, climbing up hundreds of feet and blocking view into our privacy.

This made for a very nice romantic setting. We had the privacy of being indoors, while being able to enjoy the fresh air of outdoors. When we save up some extra money in the future, you can be sure that we will be coming back here again!



Thursday - When got ready to take our walk around our 3.1-mile loop at home on Thursday, this is the sky that greeted us. I had to run back inside and grab my camera. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it was a beautiful scene!



Friday - This is Buddy. He is one very friendly dog. I had never met him before, but he treated me like is best friend, whom he had been dying to see again, the very first chance he got. I opened up the door just a crack, and he was up on it and sticking his nose inside trying to lick me.

He finally hit the ground and was contemplating another leap when I snapped this picture. Notice his beautiful eyes; one is blue and one is green. I went out into the backyard with him, and found that he was one of the best "fetchers" I have ever seen. I picked up a softball and slung it across the yard. Buddy was over to the ball, and back again with ball in mouth before a man could say Jack Robinson, to borrow a figure of speech from a favorite author of mine. (I am having a Dickens of a time remembering who it is. ☺)

During our visit, he spent nearly the whole time, doing his Samwise Gamgee impersonation, listening in to our conversation outside under the window.

Here are Becky and Dotti during our visit, and after our lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. We had a lot of fun visiting and snapped this shot during one of their less serious moments. ☺

Now, who were we visiting with? You might be able to guess without any more hints, but just in case you don't know, Here are three pictures of her. The first is when she was a young blonde girl, as pretty as a picture in a lovely dress, with two other young ladies on either side of her.



In this picture, she is 14 years old, and she is with her very first collie. It reminds me of Lassie, a dog on a TV show I used to love. It had June Lockhart as Mrs. Ruth Martin, and Jon Provost as Timmy Martin. (Lassie the collie was actually played by a string of male dogs, but each episode they would say, "Come on girl!" ☺) I was about the same age as the actor who played Timmy at the time, and so it helped me to relate to the show.

And finally, this picture was taken a few years later, when she was a beautiful young woman, looking quite sophisticated and lovely.

If you haven't guessed by next week, I will let you know who it is.

6 years, 99 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-
6 '3" 239.5/196.0/197.5±2.5/BMI:24.50/WK- 327

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