Week 395 Update
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| Weigh-In Date: | 12/06/2008 |
| Weight: | 198.5 |
| Body Mass Index: | 24.81 |
| Average Weight for week: | 198.64 |
| Miles Walked for week: | 8.00 |
| Miles Walked in 2008: | 302.84 |
| Pounds +/- for this week: | ±0.0 |
| Pounds lost total: | 44.5 |
| Pounds From Personal Goal(185 lbs) † | +13.5 |
Week's Data
Saturday |
Sunday |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
11/29/08 |
11/30/08 |
11/31/08 |
12/01/08 |
12/02/08 |
12/03/08 |
12/04/08 |
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198.5
|
198.0
|
198.0
|
200.0
|
198.5
|
198.5
|
199.0
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CONTROL PANEL
GRAPH |
FUTURE
GRAPH |
60-DAYS
GRAPH |
90-DAYS
GRAPH |
1-YEAR
GRAPH |
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It was 6:35 AM when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "198.5 pounds!"
My Weight Commander Control Panel Graph indicates that I have settled in for a "long winter's nap" of maintentance in between 195 and 200. I do weigh a pound less than I did last year on this date and that is something, but not much. 
My Weight Commander Future Graph shows a projected gain once again, but this time it only has me heading up to 202 pounds over the next 3 months. That is a lot better than a couple of weeks ago! Maybe I can soon turn it around and have it projecting a loss again.
My Excel spreadsheet projects, based upon my 14 day change in weight, that I will weigh 193.79 pounds in 90 days. That isn't awesome, but it is at least a loss. The projection, based upon the change in my 14-day running average weight, is less optimistic than either the other Excep projection or the Future Graph. It has me weighing 209.14 pounds in 90 days. Clearly, I am not rushing down to 185 anytime soon unless I do something very different than I am doing.
My Weight Commander 60-Day Graph is staying right at the same place it was last week. I am simply moving along in a river's idea of a straight line in the high 190's. I am not taking off (yet) but I am not dropping either.
My Weight Commander 90-Day Graph once again looks like the side of a mountain falling into a wooded valley. (I wonder why I would use that particular simile? ) Since early October, things have been pretty much unchanging for my average weight. There have been some small ups and downs, but I really haven't moved either way.
I got in 4 two-mile walks this week, and managed to push my total number of miles for the year up over 304 miles. It isn't as good as I did in 2004 but it is better than last year, and hopefully I can do even better next year.
So far the hardest part of our project to make things better for Mom is getting her to accept any restrictions on what she does, even when she has been clearly showing an inability to safely do it herself. We will spend a hour or more discussing a point, and think we have her agreement at least in principle to what we are asking from her, and then she will make a comment that sends the whole conversation back to square one. This has happened over and over again. When we are driving, every single time we pass a house along side of the road, she will give us a carbon copy message of what she told us about the people in that house the last time we drove past, whether it was last week or merely earlier in the day. Sometimes we get it both going and coming. The repetition is no big deal to me, because it is a small thing to ignore, but the stubbornness on important issues will be a problem that will keep resurfacing. And I think I understand a lot about where some of it is coming from. Who wants to move from being independent to being cared for? Mom was an accountant, running payroll for thousands of employees. She doesn't want to have to have help balancing her checkbook, because that would be admitting that something was seriously wrong, and the loss of dignity is quite large. The feeling of sinking with no life line to grab onto is terrifying and I don't know how comfort her when she is caught in the feeling. All I can do is tell her I love her and show it as best I can in my actions. Mom has gone through some tough things in her life, being married to two problem drinkers, and then caring for an invalid for 20 years. But this is really scary for her (and for me).
If it were not for Dotti, I don't know what I would do. She has been a tower of strength at times when I most needed it. She has worked through problems, and worked out compromises with Mom when we have needed them. She is an angel! I am so lucky to have her!
Since we have been here, our time to work on DWLZ or post on the message board has been very hard to come by. We need to get many things done this month and we are stuck in quicksand, with one issue after another coming up to bite us, and tie up our time. Between the move and issues with Mom we are getting things done. Hopefully, when the building gets done, and the issues we are currently working through are more set into a routine, we can get back on track.
All I can say about this situation is that I never even dreamed that this could happen to Mom, and I suppose that was just as well, because I would have hated knowing that this was coming. How this will play out, the direction or the duration, I have no idea. We are doing all we can to get her evaluated to see what exactly is going on. (Why her "doctor" didn't already start this going when she diagnosed a problem—and failed to tell us about it, or even discuss it with Mom—is way beyond me!)
In the meantime, we are just trying to keep Mom safe and enable her to do the things she likes to do as much as possible.
My Weight Commander 1-Year Graph appears to show me a bit lower than last year for this time, but really it is too close to call. I spent September and half of October making up for what I did the preceding months.
Saturday was a beautiful day for a drive, and I drove Mom to church, as I always do now. The Church is located on the campus of my old high school, a church that was built a year or two after I graduated in 1970. This is the road that leads from the covered bridge (see next picture) to the campus. The clouds are very common companions to the mountains lining the valley of the South Umpqua River. Sometimes they come in layers, with a high ceiling and various strips of clouds lovingly settling in among the trees. The cloud on the right looks like a hand laid across the tree covered hill. The sun looks beautiful hitting the green lawn, and even the leafless tree on the left.
The first time I was on this road was when I had just turned 15, and my folks drove me up to drop me off for my 9th grade school year. I can still remember them driving back down this road, across the bridge and out onto the little highway leading them back home 800 miles away. I felt so alone! I was a bit early, so the student body hadn't arrive and only a few summer working students were on campus. The place felt empty and I felt like I was the only human in my world for a bit, and I didn't like it. Of course that changed later on, but watching them drive away, I felt abandoned.
I turned around and looked the other way for this picture. This covered bridge is one of my schools hallmarks. The alumni all talk about it, and is a big part of the school.
This bridge is not the same one that was here when I attended, and surprisingly, the one then was only a couple of years old when I arrived. The flood of 1964 damaged the bridge; it floated logs and other debris, after applying considerable force to them, causing a good deal of acceleration before crashing them into the bridge. My uncle, who was a teacher here at the time said the sound was incredible to hear.
I in the summer the boys would go down to the river and there was a rope tied to the bottom of the bridge that they could swing out over the water and drop in. Now the bridge looks like a door into the past and it still feels very odd driving across it. As time passes, perhaps that feeling will decrease.
On our Saturday evening walk, Dotti took this picture of me. The white reflective strip on my coat really jumps out at you when the flash goes off.
Sunday, a Lowe's truck arrived with the boards and tar paper and plywood to do the roofing. Since the stuff was quite heavy they brought along a fork lift to assist. I was fascinated with the way the stored it on the back of the truck, taking up no room whatsoever from the payload area of the trailer. I watched the operator drive up to the rear of the trailer, and lift his forks up and line them up with two holes in the back of the trailer. He shoved the forks in, like you would do to a Thanksgiving turkey, and the started lowering the forks. Of course the forks couldn't really go down, being trapped in the holes. So, the entire rest of the machine went upwards instead. Once it was high enough the strapped in the wheels and chained the unit to the truck so there was no way it was going to go anywhere except where the trailer went. Pretty cool!
As you can see the material that they brought along was not light stuff and there was no way they could quickly move that from a truck to the ground without a forklift. They also brought along a couple of doors and frames that were mounted on pallets. They didn't have any tools to take them off the pallet and they needed to be off the pallet and placed in a safe place in case it rained. So, I ran into the house and got a drill with a screwdriver bit and they used that. Soon, all we in place and they were on their way. I visited a bit with them while they worked an they were great guys.
I told them about the South Umpqua Falls and a few other things and I think one or both of them may run up to check out the falls one of these times. (We had a lot of fun with our sons Glenn and LeRoy, and our grandson Kai up there during our family reunions in 2006 and 2008.)
Our walk on Tuesday was interesting for the weather. We started off with a bit of rain and went through a rainbow, to return in the sunshine. Dotti zoomed in on me from a ways back for this photo.
The rain left drops behind on the trees and we caught a couple of them hanging around on this branch.
Dotti watched the trees that we pass and anytime she hears a bird up in the branches she stops and patiently works for a good shot of the noise maker. This bird is perched on branch that is damp from the rain, and he is surrounded by glistening moss, dead leaves, and branches.
The sun is starting to brighten up the trees behind us, as Mom and I posed for Dotti's camera. The ground is wet still, and it is our reflections rather than our shadows that you see below us in the picture. (Notice how the shadows in the picture are running off to the left, not towards the camera.)
Here we are 26 miles from somewhere.
Mom is a tiny little lady and looks so cute in her hiking clothes.
Here, Mom sort of reminds me of the Dickens Oliver Twist character: Jack Dawkins or The Artful Dodger. It must be the hat. Dotti took several pictures of Mom and I during this walk and...
As we were getting back towards home, and the sun was shining brightly Mom and I stopped just short of our new building and looked back down the road at Dotti. The roof is only partly on, but it started. Since this was an early Tuesday morning walk, there was plenty of time to finish up the rafters today.
I don't know about you, but I never tire of looking a smiling pictures of Mom. She is a people person, and likes to have fun when she can.
Now it must be known that while Dotti is out taking pictures of us and birds and such, I am busy taking pictures of as well. Mom and Dotti are walking out ahead of me on the wet, but now sunny road. The evergreens make you feel like maybe it is spring rather than rapidly approaching winter.
This is early in our walk, where Dotti had her umbrella out and perhaps being a bit thirsty, was hoping to catch a few drops to drink on the hike. Seriously, isn't she cute?
As we started to transition over from rain to sunshine the result was this lovely rainbow. We really could have used it, but we just couldn't get to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It kept running away from us. (That is why the Leprechauns hide them there. Perfectly safe really. )
Mom was waving back at me when I took this photo, with really nice smile.
This green clinging growth is all over the trees in the forrest. Here the rain had it glistening.
I love the pine needles and tend to take pictures of them quite often. With the water hanging on after the rain it made this branch really pretty.
Jack Frost came through here and breathed on these poor leaves. There days of happy photosynthesis are over. Soon they will drop to the ground and be swept away by the wind. Even in death, these leaves still have a beauty about them.
Once again we find ourselves 26 miles from somewhere. My two lovely walking companions are smiling for my camera and I am glad they are!
They may not be able to spell it, but they can sure do it! (Check Quality that is.) The Umpqua name is widely used in this area. The river here is called the South Umpqua. It joins up with the North Umpqua River around Roseburg, Oregon and the joint venture heads west towards the Pacific Ocean, as the Umpqua River. Businesses like the local flavor of the name and so they tend to use it when they can. This truck just made a delivery to the school, and the driver is about to move the truck back down the road towards Canyonville.
The nice thing about inclement weather is that it can make for more interesting photographic opportunities. The drops left behind by the rain on this branch are sparkling in the sun.
Yep, another picture of Mom. I remember when that face was looking down at me when was ill and it always made me feel better knowing that she cared so much about how I was doing. When I used to get very bad ear aches, she applied a warm oil treatment that really helped. When I had a sore throat, it was a warm compress around my neck. I don't know if the treatments helped as much as just having the TLC so freely ladled out, but I know it always made me feel better. Thank you Mom!
Coming around the corner showed how far they had come on getting the rafters up during our walk.
Looking back here comes my lovely Dotti! She is still looking to see if she can find more birds. The mountains, the trees, and the river dominate everything in this area. The roads follow the courses taken by the South Umpqua River, or the streams that feed it: lots and lots of curves.
Fresh new rafters in the sun. Soon they will be covered up, and hopefully won't see the sun again for "many moons."
Mom has made it past the new building and is heading for the house, and happy to be doing so it would appear.
About the time I took this, I was telling Mom that it is a sign of living in a really beautiful location when you can just point your camera down the road at it is beautiful picture.
Dotti is protecting her camera in the light rain, and smiling while she is doing it. Those happy little eyes sparkle and light up my life!
On Thursday the roof was on, including rafters, wood sheets,and tar paper. The inside will be fairly safe from rain now!
Dotti found this blue jay and took his picture before he flew away only a moment later.
Out on a walk again Mom and I turned around to see where Dotti was behind us. When she finds a bird, she often spends some time getting the right shot of it. So, we stop and check from time to time to make sure she is still with us. The truck in the background reminds that people almost always wave to you as they drive past. Even if they don't really know you, they wave anyway. It makes you feel at home, even when you are the new guys on the block.
At this point the roof forms a sort of "wind tunnel" beneath it, being open on both ends. But at least the top is on and waterproofed.
Looking from our bedroom window you can see right through the top of the building, but that won't be for long.
This week, Mom's church had a Week of Prayer, and so she had meetings to attend on more nights than usual. (She normally only has one weekly evening Prayer Meeting.) I drove her there, and then I came back to pick her up. She wasn't finished yet and so took a couple of pictures. One of them was of this Nativity Scene. While the PC Thought Police cringe in terror at the sight of such a thing on a school campus, it always does my heart good. Since over 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas in some form or another, a hearty "Merry Christmas" makes a lot of sense!
Dotti spotted a blue jay and she was sharing her find with me. She is wearing her gloves with no fingers, so she can easily work her camera, while not getting to cold in the process.
One of the things I have always associated with this part of the country is the logging truck. We used to see dozens of them run past Mom's place, but they stopped for awhile. (I think it was over the spotted owl, but I am not sure.) Now they are back in business!
Dotti was ready to turn and shoot something. She was talking to Mom as she spotted another bird in a tree. Dotti is always ready for fun, and her zest for life is such a wonderful thing for me, and it rubs off, enhancing my life in many, many ways! She is so awesome!
Mom was obviously enjoying her conversation with Dotti, as she was smiling big as she replied.
Dotti had slipped behind so she could take her picture and Mom smiled for my camera.
Each day we go out, the moon waxes a bit larger, as it heads for the Full Moon on December 12th. Here we had the sunlit branches in front as the sunlit moon sat on a blue ocean of sky.
Well, here it is on Friday, all closed up! It is dry and safe to do interior work now. It has come along quite a ways already. Hopefully it will continue to move quickly, because we need the space to finish moving in, and that has to happen by December 31st as the absolutely latest date, and we really need it much sooner than that. So, we'll see how it goes.
7 years, 208 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.
-Al-
6'3" 239.5/198.5/185.0±2.5/BMI:24.81/WK-395
Starting weight: 239.5
Target Weight Range: 185.0±2.5 pounds
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