Week 398 Update
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| Weigh-In Date: | 12/27/2008 |
| Weight: | 201.5 |
| Body Mass Index: | 25.19 |
| Average Weight for week: | 200.50 |
| Miles Walked for week: | 0.00 |
| Miles Walked in 2008: | 314.82 |
| Pounds +/- for this week: | +1.5 |
| Pounds lost total: | 38.0 |
| Pounds From Personal Goal(185 lbs) | +16.5 |
Week's Data
Saturday |
Sunday |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
12/20/08 |
12/21/08 |
12/22/08 |
12/23/08 |
12/24/08 |
12/25/08 |
12/26/08 |
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200.0
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200.0
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202.0
|
200.0
|
198.5
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200.0
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201.5
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CONTROL PANEL
GRAPH |
FUTURE
GRAPH |
60-DAYS
GRAPH |
90-DAYS
GRAPH |
1-YEAR
GRAPH |
464-DAYS
GRAPH |
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It was 4:30 AM when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "201.5 pounds!"
My Weight Commander Control Panel Graph shows me drifting without much control. Upwards, and upwards. The only positive thing about it is that I am drifting upwards slowly and not quickly. There are no losses in the left hand boxes and on the right hand side I weigh more today than I did 1, 2, 3 or 12 months ago.
With all that happy news from the Control Panel Graph, is it any wonder that the Weight Commander Future Graph shows me moving on up to over 209 pounds by spring? And if that is not enough joy to find in the numbers my Excel spreadsheet projections for the next 90 days come to 212.36 and 205.27, based upon my 14 day change in weight, and the change in my 14-day running average over the past two weeks, respectively. The wheels appear to be coming off the wagon.
My Weight Commander 60-Day Graph also is now showing a pretty clear upwards trend. There is no other way to view it.
My Weight Commander 90-Day Graph shows that I was doing pretty well at holding steady up until early November, but I have been doing badly ever since.
My Weight Commander 1-Year Graph indicates that my weight is moving in a similar way as it did last year, only I am starting earlier this year to mess up.
My Weight Commander 464-Day Graph shows that I need to get a grip on what I am doing, or else my weight will take off again on me. I know this, but here I sit, unable to fix myself. The one positive thing I have going for me is that I have hope that things will settle down into a routine soon, and routine is the best way in the world for me to control what I am doing. It is critical that I be proactive in structuring a positive and healthy routine if I want to be successful.
This past week was anything but routine. I think I would be doomed, if every week were like this one was.
Saturday - Dec. 20: After a very good night's sleep in Eugene, we continued south towards Tiller. Eugene is physically very close to the midway point between our old house and our new one. So, we were starting the day out half way there already. 
Rip was driving our van, with Dotti keeping him company, while Mom was riding in the 26-foot truck with me.
We pulled into a rest area and in the photo it almost looks like we were towing the van behind the truck. We would have done that if Rip hadn't of come along, but there was no way we could fit 4 into the cab of the truck. Rip did a great job of driving and it was a great opportunity for Dotti to visit with her brother on the trip, and I visited with Mom.
There was some snow on the ground here, but it wasn't bad yet, and the roads were clear still. We had made the right call getting off a day early! Fortunately, Rip was able to accommodate the change in the schedule. (Is Rip cold in the picture, or just doing his Pumping Iron pose? )
There was a family at the rest area, consisting of a mother and a couple of young girls, and they were selling wreaths. (Christmas wreaths, for anyone who might find this season to be unduly confusing.) Dotti ran over and purchased one for us, and naturally we all wanted to pose with it. Little Mom is just beaming, while holding the (Christmas) wreath, surrounded by the guys. She felt like an NBA referee no doubt.
No sooner had we taken the (Christmas) wreath picture, and Dotti spied some mistletoe that the family was selling as well. Well, you know what happened next…and here are Rip, Mom, and Dotti with (Christmas) wreath and (Christmas) mistletoe, with a real live snowy evergreen background. Yep, even the rest areas are beautiful in the Pacific Northwest!
As we got closer to Roseburg, we came to a huge valley which I-5 cuts across. We were on the downward side, heading into the valley when I pulled out my pocket camera and snapped this picture through the windshield of the truck. By the time I had the camera ready we were over halfway down the hill, but still it was great seeing those cars on the other side of the valley, climbing up into the clouds.
It was great because we had clear roads to drive on, but still got to enjoy some snow, green trees and interesting clouds.
We pulled in and parked the truck in front of our new building, and the van in the open spot beside it.
We were too tired to unload, and we had a couple of days still before we had to have the truck back. As it turned out, that was a good thing, because the contractor hadn't left us a key and we couldn't have started putting things in the storage area anyway.
We decided to drive up to South Umpqua Falls. Rip hadn't seen them yet and we knew he would enjoy it. We got about halfway there, with still 10 miles to go to reach the falls before the snow got too deep. People who live up there, and who drive up there, obviously have high clearance, 4-wheel drive vehicles. We had a low clearance front-wheel drive vehicle that was scraping snow underneath it all the way, once we passed the point where they had stopped plowing.
We reached a "school bus turnaround" point, and after that we could no longer clear the snow easily. We were starting to push it instead. So, I had some fun turning the car around with a couple of feet of snow on either side of the tracks we were driving in, and nearly as much right in the middle of the road. I eased it over a bit at a time, to make sure I didn't get stuck (I hate to have to get out and push in the snow if I can avoid it) and slowly worked into a "3-point turn" and got us going back the way we had come. Whew!
We decide to stop and take a few pictures in the snow. The road was pretty well free of other cars, so we thought it wouldn't hurt. (We did have one guy come along, but he was in a 4-wheel drive SUV, and he went right around us in the snow before we could even get to the car to move it.)
Pine trees don't quite seem complete unless they have a bit of snow on them this way.
In the background, the beautiful South Umpqua River is running along its valley floor, and the snowy forest surrounds it, while in front, Dotti is radiating her beautiful smile. When they say, "Pretty as a picture" I think this is what they had in mind.
Rip and I were snapping some pictures, while trying to keep our camera equipment dry. The precipitation wasn't quite sure if it wanted to be snow or rain, and kept changing its mind.
Mom was the wise one, because she sat tight in the car and stayed nice and warm. She was enjoying the snow though, anyway!
Rip is diving into the car to get some warmth, and Dotti and I were not far behind. We headed back home shortly thereafter. Once we hit the area that had been plowed the road was completely snow-free and the drive was uneventful.
Back home, Rip broke out his copy of the 2008 Coon Family Christmas Letter and read about our year. (Part of that ended up in our Dotti's Newsletter this time around.)
Sunday - Dec. 21: We finally got into our building and found that hardly any progress had been made. Most of the sheetrock on the storage side was up but not taped and sealed. We just had to load in anyway, because we had to return the truck soon. We were expecting this building to be completely done by now, so this an unfortunate inconvenience. But life has a way of dishing out plenty of that from time to time. We don't have a lot of choice but to accept it and push forward.
Rip was a really big help in the move! We were very fortunate that he could come along with us. The truck was unloaded fairly quickly and we could relax for the evening. Rip is a night owl, and was up late into the early morning. In fact he was going to bed about the time I got up.
Monday - Dec. 22: Dotti and I drove in to Canyonville early to drop the truck off. (Rip was sleeping and Mom stayed at home too.) It was our first time alone together for a while and we stopped at the local market and deli to have some coffee, while reading some magazines, and visiting. It was a nice break.
On the drive back home, a couple of miles from the house, there is a little rest area where we pulled in and stopped to take some pictures. The snow was coming down and it was fun. Dotti looks a little cold in this picture, especially with the big flakes falling.
Naturally, she got me back by taking my picture. The snow wasn't sticking yet, so it was just fun stuff falling, and not causing any safety issues.
We crawled back into the car and went the rest of the way home, but it had been a really nice morning! Dotti is my best friend, and anytime I can spend with her is golden.
Tuesday - Dec. 23: We felt doomed. The weather in Portland was very bad, and getting worse. Rip had to be back to work, or else I would never have made the drive on this day. Unfortunately, there was little choice at this point; so, the four of us piled into our Honda and set off for Portland on our studded snow tires.
This drive is around 240 miles and it normally takes around 4 hours to complete. Our start was great. The sun was shining brightly, and the roads were clear. Even the area beside the road was green, and not white. Only the hills, with their higher elevation, were covered in white.
Two hours into the trip, we were in Eugene, which is normal for this drive. Eugene is the midpoint, physically. It was nowhere near the midpoint chronologically on this day however. At the gas station in this photo you can see Rip by our Honda, Mom talking with a man who had just come south from Portland, and Dotti was returning towards the car, while looking to see what Mom was up to. The sky was showing blue that was nearly as bright as the Chevron strip above our car. The ground was clear and all looked great for a drive. Hah! That would have been true if we were heading south, but north was a completely different story.
As we were leaving Eugene, I commented to Rip that it was like someone had thrown a switch; suddenly we were locked into foggy overcast conditions. The road was still okay, but the sunshine was gone.
For another hour or so the roads stayed pretty good and then we hit the last "quarter" of the trip. What normally would have taken us 1 more hour of driving ended up taking us about 5 hours. Oh joy! 
When I saw this sign, I was thinking of the song The Wreck of Old 97 and the line, "It's a mighty rough road from Lynchburg to Danville; And the lie was a three-mile grade…" I was hoping that any connection with the sad 1903 train wreck of that song, which happened in Pennsylvania, was strictly in my head. But the roads were getting worse by the minute.
The freeway was unplowed for long stretches. (The State had complained that it had run out of deicer but what about snow plows?) It was below freezing and snow was falling.
I told Rip about here that carrying chains was really tiring, and he replied it was those traction tires that he had a hard time with, because they are really heavy as well as bulky. 
You look for humor where you can find it when you are heading into trouble.
The cars and trucks were forming up a very long and not too wide parking lot, and we were merely looking for a way out of the lot. Sadly there was no way out. We just had to bite the bullet and suffer through.
This trucker decided that he was tired of carrying those chains and decided to put then on his tires instead. Chains are great when the conditions are really bad, but when you hit a clear bit of road they slow you down a lot. I was happy that we had studded tires on, so I didn't have to mess with chains. (We had the chains in the back, just in case it got really bad out there, but fortunately I never had to put them on for this trip.)
They had warned us that it was going to be a rough road from Woodburn into Portland, and so we stopped at Woodburn to grab something to eat. We pulled into Elmers, a local chain of pretty good restaurants, and I opened Mom's door and walked her over across the ice to the restaurant entrance and let her in. I then went back to the car for a moment to see if Dotti and Rip needed anything. I turned around in just a moment and found the restaurant door was now locked! They were closing due to the terrible weather coming. And, in the process they had locked Mom inside. We rapped on the door and got them to come to see what the racket was. We asked them if we could please have Mom back? About that time, Mom made her way out of the restroom and we called her over to the door and we all left together.
We stopped at a Jack-in-the Box, which was still open fortunately, and got some food before diving into the mess on the freeway. On the way to I-5 we passed a Chevrolet dealership and checked out their new "snow top" models. We still had over 3 hours of driving ahead of us, although we had no way of knowing that at the time.
I was completely done in by the time we reached our house in Vancouver. The snow was thick in our drive way and the road leading to it. Rip had left his truck in our garage, which helped keep the bed of the truck empty of new snow, although a bit of the old stuff that had fallen into it was still there, since it was so cold out. Soon we had his 4-wheel drive truck loaded up with some of the stuff he was nice enough to haul away for us, and he was on his way.
The photo in its natural lighting seemed a bit orange. The human eye and brain is so good at dealing with all the different color situations you find yourself in, that you hardly notice the odd colors you walk into, especially in outdoor lighting. I didn't think of our street light as having that amber tint, but the photo tells the story. So, I converted it to a brownstone two-tone photo and I think I like it better that way.
Next it was off to the hotel to check in. Finally! I was very tired after driving for 8-hours, and having the lousy conditions for most of those hours. I was ready for a nice quiet evening of relaxation! Mom was ready too as you can see.
Wednesday - Dec. 24…Christmas Eve: Rip had made it home okay the night before, but then he got snowed in at his place and couldn't make it to work. Oh well.
Our hotel had
a really nice "continental breakfast" for the 3 of us, and we took full advantage of it! Dotti cooked up some waffles for us, and we had a view of the snow out the window by our table.
Mom, Dotti, and I set out for the house to get it ready to turn over to the landlord for good. Along the way we stopped at Starbucks.
On the way in Dotti looked really happy and full of energy. She was enjoying the snow, and her motto was, "Let it snow!"
Looking at the outside temperature, it was clear that if it did snow, it was going to stick! At 30°F there wouldn't be a lot of melting going on.
Here comes my lovely lady with Starbucks in both hands. The three cats on her shirt all look a lot like our cat Frostbyte.
This is SE 1st Street, and we are driving west. The sidewalks are covered and look like they are part of the rest of the driving surface, all of which is under snow. When Dotti and I used to walk our 3-mile loop, or to Borders/Red Robin, or to Wal-Mart, we walked on this stretch of road. But, we had to move away for it to get this kind of snow cover. I can't count how many times we have walked along here hand and hand.
This is 155th Avenue and it runs right behind our old house. If you look on the left, the fence corner is marking the back of our yard, and our house is just out of view behind the nearest house on the left. This road usually gets a fair amount of traffic but looks really quiet today.
I had pulled the screens down on 3 of the windows last spring so I could install our air conditioners. I put the screens back up today, but before I put the one back on my office window, I leaned out and snapped this picture. The road you see is 155th Avenue, and the corner of the fence near the road is the same one you saw in the previous photo. It sure looks like a winter wonderland out there.
Dotti was standing in the garage and I was having some fun in our driveway with the snow, throwing up a rooster tail in front of the car as I was spinning the wheels in reverse. Mom was being very patient with me, while she was sitting in the back seat.
It is hard to believe that just a few months ago I was playing basketball on that very ground with our two sons and our grandson. Wow, how things change!
Dotti and I always have a lot of books. Books require bookshelves. So, we had a lot of shelves to take down. We had the traditional types of bookcases that we could move, but we also had lots and lots of shelves that we had mounted onto the walls. And if you have heavy books on shelves on the wall, you had better put the screws into the studs. Our electric screwdrivers both ran out of juice long before I had all the screws out, and there was a lot of manual screwdriver work going on before this day was done. Along about 4 PM we were all three exhausted from our labors, and decided to call it a day, and see if we could find something to eat on this Christmas Eve.
If we would have waited a few minutes we wouldn't have made it! Taco Bell closed its doors while Dotti and Mom were inside ordering. Our orders were filled but we saw other people arrive too late. We had already tried Red Robin on the way here, but it was closing up too. And the signs on the doors said that they would not be open for Christmas either. However, we decided to only worry about crossing that bridge when we came to it.
While the ladies were inside ordering, I went out and took some pictures. The hedges you saw in the previous photo were all topped with little snow caps and looked cute lined up that way.
As we were starting our dinner (we ate in the car) I was wondering about that sign. Were they going to leave the drive-thru open for awhile like the sign said, or were they going to turn the sign off? Only a few moments after that thought crossed my mind, one of the guys inside ran over to the sign and turned it off.
Back at the hotel, here is Mom waiting for the elevator.
We were ready for a nice quiet evening. However, I had to work on Dotti's Newsletter, because Dotti had gotten the rough draft to me in the morning. I didn't get it finished but I did get started.
Thursday - Christmas day: We were really thankful for the continental breakfast this time. We would not have been able to find a restaurant open for breakfast otherwise.
After breakfast the first job was to get the car ready. Normally, I would go out and get it cleaned up and ready to go, and then drive over to the covered entrance so the ladies could get in. But today they came out with me and sat in the car while I got the windows done.
I can tell from this picture that I was feeling really tired at that time. In fact we all were. We had to drive up, load the truck, drive down, unload the truck, drive up again in the nasty weather, clean the house and then go back and spend today doing the same thing. We had all just about had enough of this whole process.
Dotti snapped this shot of me cleaning the windows. It is probably odd, but I enjoy knocking the snow off a car. In Massachusetts I always made it point to get all of the snow off of the entire car before going out on the road. At one point during this trip we watched one guy driving his car with snow all over the roof of his car, and the whole thing came off on the freeway as a single piece and slammed into the windshield of a car behind him. It could have been very bad if that had caused an accident. It is much better to get all the snow off before setting out. And, like I said, it is fun too.
I even look less tired now I have the job done. The tinted window even makes the gray sky look blue.
It is hard to believe that the last time we got to look out of our living room window there would be all that snow! The green bush beside our window is sporting about a foot of snow on its top.
Dotti worked on getting the shelves down that we had mounted in the garage, while Mom was doing a very thorough job of vacuuming the entire house. (She vacuumed the entire carpet in a room running in one direction, and then did it all over again running in a direction 90° off from the original direction. When she was done it
looked like it did when we first moved in. Nice job Mom!) While the ladies were busy with that, I was loading up the car and making runs to the storage shed to put things in there until our building is really finished in Tiller and we can move all the rest of the stuff down there. I went over at least four times, and on the last trip I took this picture. Before leaving home, less than a mile from here, I had cleaned off the snow from the car. When I got done putting a load of stuff away at the shed, the windshield was completely covered with new snow. I went around cleaning the windows and the windshield was covered again. I finally just gave up and used the wipers.
The roads were unplowed, and had about 6-inches of packed snow at the start of the day. But the temperature crept up to 36 degrees and that packed snow turned to mush and made driving quite interesting. Actually I was loving it: sliding around and spinning my tires, and generally enjoying myself.
Once again on SE 1st Street, but this time heading east from the other side of our house. The flakes were falling fast and big, and the mush in the road made the car want to buck this way and that, and I had to turn my wheel a lot to keep the car moving in more or less a straight line.
Looking over the snow in our back yard, from our open kitchen sliding glass door. I played with our little puppy Peaches out on that yard. On that lawn, we played croquet, and laid on the grass with Jim and Tammy and watched 4th of July fireworks. I stood there and took pictures of lighting bolts, and it is all now in the past for good. Chunks of sky are falling onto the white carpet, and I am left with my memories.
The flash caught the falling flakes in the foreground but the drifting snow on the roof was the real subject of this photo. If we really had that much snow all over it would have been a bigger mess than it actually was! Snow is funny how it can pile up in an area and look like a lot more snow has fallen than actually has. And then when the wind clears off an area, like it did on the roof above, it looks like far less snow has fallen than actually has. We had a foot of snow or more in the area, and a lot of it was still hanging around at this time.
I have taken a shot similar to this countless times. Similar that is, in the orientation, not the content of the picture. I have taken snow pictures before from here, and pictures of hail, power burst rainstorms, and sunny days. Our van has usually been parked there, but no longer. Dotti and I set up our tripods and shot pictures of the moon and of fireworks from this driveway. And finally, pictures of snow—snow on the ground and snow falling from the sky.
Our driveway and the road leading to it, covered with snow, and more coming down all the time. It reminds me of New England a bit.
At 36°F it was a bit warm for the snowflakes, and they tended to melt on contact, so I was protecting my camera while Dotti took this picture. I had jumped into the snow to show how deep it was in the yard. My boots went in a ways before bottoming out.
Once again we were very tired at the end of the day. We stopped at a gas station convenience store and picked up some things for dinner. It wasn't exactly health food, but at least we found something to eat. I went to the ice and vending area
(I don't suppose too many readers use the Navy term Geedunk?) and the window was crystal clear looking out over a frozen Vancouver, Washington. I wonder if January and February will be as wild as December has been? We may have to give up running around in terror of global warming and start running around in terror over global cooling. It would be disastrous for those making a career out of promoting the one, but they are of little real importance anyway. What would truly be a big deal would be if glaciers started up again, moving across their ancient paths once more. Names like Lake Missoula, Glacial Lake Columbia, Moses Coulee, Grand Coulee, Dry Falls, and other old formally exciting places come to mind. It isn't a question of if, but only when. Hopefully, it won't be anytime soon.
Friday - Dec. 26: The "Second Day of Christmas" found us driving around Vancouver cutting our official ties. One of our errands was to drop our keys off at the landlord's office, and here is Dotti coming back from doing just that! We are done cleaning and patching and fussing with the old house. Well, pretty much. We still have a bit to do.
We had our Internet, Dotti's TV, and our phones through Comcast. So, we had to close out those accounts. When we got there, we found that we needed to bring the box that their technician had installed in our garage. Bummer. We had to drive back to get it.
Well, since we were there to pick up the Comcast box, we also put out the trash for pick up one last time. (Our normal trash day was Thursday, but that was Christmas and there was no pickup anyway.) We then took the box, and said our final goodbyes to our house.
The tower at Comcast used to be decorated as a Christmas tree every year when we first moved back to Vancouver. I think it was a different company at the time running it, but they strung green lights from the top to the bottom, forming a cone "tree" shape, and it was visible for miles around. I remember taking off from PDX one time and looking over to see if I could maybe spot my house where Dotti was thinking of me, as I was of her. This tree stood clearly in view, and our apartment at the time was only about a block away. That was close enough. I mentally made the connection and felt much better. It is a shame they don't do that any more.
I walked around the parking lot for a couple of minutes and took some pictures of the area, and I spotted this bumper sticker on a pickup truck. I wonder how you might implement that one? I wouldn't want to be the one to tell Dotti (or Tammy for that matter) that there will be no more Starbucks. I think I will pass on that one.
Things were looking up for the drive home. The weather was warm enough to melt ice, albeit slowly, and the roads were wet, not frozen. Tires were throwing up water, but not sliding and it looked like the trip would be much better than when we came up.
Dotti at the Santiam Rest Area. Things were still looking good on the freeway, and of course Dotti is always looking good!
It is funny what 9 little degrees will do for you! At 39°F we have no worries about ice or snow. Life is good!
Did I say that life is good? With my Dotti by my side life is awesome! Thank you Dotti for being so wonderful, and for being mine! (And I love to see your hair getting longer again…Thank you!!!)
Mom was checking out our position on the map at the rest area. We are almost home.
Interstate 5 is sitting there waiting for us,and we are ready to go. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we were home before dark!
We still have lots of things going on in our lives, but we are narrowing them down. Hopefully, we can start getting a solid structure to our days that will carry us along and help keep our sanity in the rough spots. We will have to be strong, but I think we have it in us to be so. Wish us luck!
Happy New Year!!!
7 years, 229 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.
-Al-
6'3" 239.5/201.5/185.0±2.5/BMI:25.19/WK-398
Starting weight: 239.5
Target Weight Range: 185.0±2.5 pounds
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