A FEW MORE THINGS
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WEEK 423
Week Ending June 24, 2009
Weight Watchers Goal
(the top of my normal weight range)
200.0 pounds
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Week 423 Update
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| Weigh-In Date: | 06/24/2009 |
| Weight: | 209.0 |
| Body Mass Index: | 26.12 |
| Average Daily Points: | 32.64 |
| Average Weight for week: | 210.14 |
| Miles Walked for week: | 0.00 |
| Miles Walked in 2009: | 83.25 |
| Pounds +/- for this week: | -1.5 |
| Pounds lost total: | 30.5 |
| Pounds From Personal Goal (185 lbs) | +24.0 |
Week's Data
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
Monday |
Tuesday |
06/17/09 |
06/18/09 |
06/19/09 |
06/20/09 |
06/21/09 |
06/22/09 |
06/23/09 |
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210.5 lbs
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210.5 lbs
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210.0 lbs
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211.0 lbs
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209.0 lbs
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211.5 lbs
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210.0 lbs
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33.5 pts
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32.5 pts
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29.0 pts
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31.0 pts
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33.0 pts
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29.0 pts
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40.5 pts
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CONTROL PANEL
GRAPH |
FUTURE
GRAPH |
60-DAY
GRAPH |
90-DAY
GRAPH |
1-YEAR
GRAPH |
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It was 6:10 AM when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "210.5 pounds!"
While I feel a lot more like being on track these days, I still am not running like clockwork, as I felt I was back in 2001. When I began my journey, I didn't go over points. The only exception was when I miscalculated what I had eaten. I can remember on time eating a raw Jalapeno pepper and it was burning my mouth, and I refused to eat anything more to cool it off, because I couldn't afford the points. It may have been stupid, but it showed my determination at the time to remain OP. This week I was over my limit of 31 points on 4 of the 7 days, and on Tuesday, I was almost 10 points over. I am concerned about this a bit.
On the other hand, I am glad that I am tracking what I am eating and working on keeping my eating in check. Seeing the scale continue to drop has been motivating and helps me to remember that I am determined to hold to my goal and not go soaring up again on the scale.
My Weight Commander Control Panel Graph has some positive and negative things to say about my Journey this week. The positive part is the continuing downward trend of the solid squares. Also, the left side numbers show that I have had 4 weeks in a row where I showed a loss. I am very happy to see that!
Also, on the right side, I weigh 7.5 pounds less than I did 30 days ago. That is a very good! I weigh 5.5 pounds less than I did 60 days ago, and that also is good. I even weigh 7.5 pounds less than I did 90 days ago. This is much better than weighing the same or more than I did 3 months ago, but it shows that most of the progress I have made occurred this past 30 days. So, I am still very early into my recovery stage.
On the negative side of things, I weigh 3 pounds more than I did 1 year ago. Since I have had a bad year, that is not surprising, and I can take heart in knowing that I am only 3 pounds away from where I was a year ago, which puts me in striking distance of wiping out this past year's extra weight, and will allow me to return to working towards reaching my goal, instead of wandering further and further away from it.
What concerns me a bit is the fact that the last 4 solid squares have been pretty much in a straight line, showing a maintaining trend rather than a losing trend. Also, this week I have had two daily weigh-ins that were above the solid squares, with a third that was just about right on them. Compared with last week, this is a change for the worse, and if allowed to continue, it could spell future trouble. It is a warning, but for now, the week was a good one, and I will take it gladly.
As noted from the last graph, I have had a change in momentum, but not direction, at least not yet.
My Weight Commander Future Graph shows the same thing. It projects my weight 90 days from now being down about to my goal weight, right at my upper limit to my Normal range at 200 pounds. This is a bit of a change from last week's future graph where I was projected to be 196 pounds, or the week before where I was projected to be around 198. This is in spite of giving me an additional week or two of projected weight loss, but getting less total results for the extra time.
This is not a disaster, or even a bad thing, in and of itself. Reaching my goal weight in September would be quite welcome, and it would put me in good position to continue my walk down to my personal goal once more. However, it does show that I have slowed down in what I am doing, and it matches what my eating has been doing. That is what concerns me. I do not want to lose my focus and start drifting again.
Overall, I am quite happy with my
Weight Commander 60-Day Graph . It shows a downward trend, and a downward slope for lines drawn through previous week's points and today's weigh-in. But the last 7 to 10 days show a stagnation, as I bounced up and down and have been making little real headway in moving down towards my goal. I am not gaining, and that is super! But here is a point where I need to take time to evaluate my attitude and my methods and begin a new campaign of focusing on holding the line on my daily points. All can be well, as long as I don't lose sight of what I am doing right now.
I really have no complaints with my Weight Commander 90-Day Graph, ups and downs included. This graph shows a nice downward trend, and if I can continue that trend, I will reach my goal in a very short time. That is why, increased focus on my Journey today can reap very good results, at a time when I could start drifting upwards again, if I neglect to work on what I am doing.
It is going to take some time for me to work my
Weight Commander 1-Year Graph into something that looks as positive as my 90-day graph is today. It shows that I am into a recovery, after an excursion into areas I don't want to be. But it also indicates the problem I have with losing my focus on my Journey, and drifting up and down, without purpose or goal. More clearly than any of the graphs, it shows that I need to pay attention all the time, and drifting along on autopilot is not going to work for me.
I have the warning before me, and it is up to me to do something about it. I need to focus on what I am doing and continue to strive for improvement on my eating.
On Thursday, our niece Jamie graduated from her dental program at Spokane Community College, and Dotti and I attended the ceremony in the 2,700-seat Performing Arts Center of the downtown Spokane Convention Center, along with our son LeRoy, our dear friends Jim & Tammy, their daughters Caudy and Misty, and Jim's mom Oletha. We couldn't all fit in one van, and so Dotti and I gave LeRoy and Caudy a ride in our car, while the rest piled into Jim and Tammy's van. We followed them, because they know Spokane so well, and we are still learning our way around.
 I took this picture of Jim at their house before we left. He's the proud papa, and was very excited to see his daughter graduating after all that hard work in school.
 After we got to the parking lot, Caudy and Dotti posed for this picture. We have known Caudy since she was 6 months old, when we moved in across the Cul-de-sac from the house where her folks and she were living. Little did we know 31 years ago that a lifelong friendship was about to be created, that today we would still be living so close and sharing so much!
 When LeRoy met Caudy, they were sitting in two high chairs next to each other eating cake for LeRoy's first birthday celebration. They made a mess, but had a lot of fun, and after all these years they are like brother and sister, and still have a good time when they get together. And my wonderful Dotti is smiling a lot these days, especially when our son is so near. It is good to see her in such high spirits again!
We got down to the Convention Center early enough to catch Jamie before she went in for the ceremony.
 Tammy is so proud of her daughter and Jamie is really happy to finally be done with this part of her schooling!
 These three girls, our wonderful nieces, are looking beautiful and happy on this fun evening. Seeing them all grown up makes me wonder where all the time went. Has it really been 31 years since we first met Caudy? Wow!
Misty, standing on the left in the photo, was born in 1981 here in Spokane, and we first saw her when we moved up to Spokane from El Paso, Texas in early 1982, when she was about the same age as Caudy was when we first met her. Jamie, the grad in the middle, was born in 1988, the year I got out of the Navy for good, and it was during the same summer that Dotti and I moved up to Massachusetts with our sons Glenn and LeRoy, while Jim and Tammy were stationed in California. We didn't get to meet Jamie until she was about 8, in 1996, when Jim retired from the Navy, and they all moved up to Spokane once more, after Dotti, LeRoy, and I had moved to Vancouver in 1995.
Our two families have crisscrossed the country and the years together, and it has enriched our lives in very wonderful ways. Being able to share in Jamie's graduation is just one enjoyable part of that.
 Here's Jamie and her octogenarian grandmother Oletha, who is still looking beautiful, hiding her years very well indeed.
Jim's mom remains the only one I have ever waltzed with. I am not a dancer and she is a very good one, being a member of a ballroom dancing group at the time around 1982. Jim and I were in her basement practicing our karate katas, and she was watching. She said that it looked a lot like a dance, and so she proceeded to take me in my karate gi, and showed me how to waltz. I didn't do it well, I am sure, but I wasn't stepping on her feet, and we were moving around the floor. I am sure it made for quite an odd picture, especially the way I was dressed, but fortunately, Jim didn't have a camera with him. 
 Awesome! Jamie is looking radiant with that smile, and Jim is about to pop buttons off from his shirt with pride in his "little girl." It was a happy night.
 Jim's Mom, Jim, Tammy, and Misty are seated in the Performing Arts auditorium. We showed up early enough so seating was not a problem at all, even with the large group we had.
 I had no idea how many graduates there would be, and when we first sat down, the stage was completely empty, and I thought they might have a lot of extra seats up on the stage, since so many graduations are held on these grounds. (E.g. In June of 2006 we came to the Veteran's Memorial Arena next door to watch Jamie graduate from high school.) But these weren't unplanned chairs at a all, and they filled up all of the seats as the graduates came marching in.
 I got up during the ceremony, while the guest speaker was giving her motivational address, and worked my way down towards the stage. On the way I looked out the window and there was the Spokane River, Riverfront Park, and the old clock tower. We had walked on that very sidewalk on our Bridge Walk a couple of weeks ago. The sun was going down, it was a beautiful evening coming on.
 Back in the auditorium, with the lens set wide [18.0 mm] I moved the shutter speed very low [1/15 second], and the ISO high [1600] with the aperture open wide [f/3.5] to capture the dimly lit room, in order to show all the supportive family and friends who had come to cheer on the grads. At this point, I am only 4 or 5 rows down from where I started, and I continued to move forward. (Our group begins 4 rows back from the row with the gentleman with the flowered shirt, and about 6 people in from the left of the photo.)
Side note on the photo technique—as you can guess, if you do any photography at long shutter speeds without a tripod available, I had to prop myself against the wall and lock my arm down against my chest for support to hold the camera steady for this shot. I was happy to see that it came in as sharp as it did.
 Here Jamie is picking up her diploma, and getting congratulated by the faculty members. (I had managed to get down close enough to get a shot, even with my short lens. It wasn't as sharp as I would have liked but I wanted this lens for the close ups after the ceremony.)
 Jamie leaving by the stage door. They had the path roped off, so the grads could leave directly without creating a bottleneck at the exit, but I was waiting at the rope to catch her leaving, diploma in hand, and smiling brightly.
 Outside we all gathered to congratulate Jamie, and here it was my turn. She has her tassel moved over and her diploma in hand and ready to go out and face the world. Way to go Jamie!
 Here are the three sisters again, after the ceremony. 
 A family group shot, and you can tell they are very happy for Jamie, and proud of her accomplishment. I am sure glad we could be here to see it!
 Tammy is holding Jamie, while Jamie is presenting her diploma, and Jim is beaming his pride in his daughter. A true Kodak moment!
 LeRoy's turn to congratulate Jamie. These two are always there for each other, and I know LeRoy is very proud of Jamie for what she has done!
 Dotti is showing how happy she is with that beautiful smile, and Jamie is in that graduation afterglow still. I am very proud of our niece and her hard work to get where she is today. She is going to do awesome at her new dental job as well. You ROCK Jamie!
The Coon family is showing how happy we are for Jamie!
 My wonderful wife, flashing her beautiful smile!
 Can you tell Dotti is happy to be in Spokane? I think LeRoy is pretty happy about it too.
 Misty giving LeRoy a big hug. She is the most outgoing of anyone in the group. She has been backstage to meet many famous country stars, she knows the mayor and other well known people around the state, and goes after whatever she wants with an enthusiasm that makes me very proud. She grabs life with both hands and lives it to the fullest. As Dotti often tells me, "Misty is my hero!" Because Misty never lets things get in the way of her goal. She is incredible.
 Daddy and Grandma showing their pride in the new graduate. It was a very happy night for all of us.
Back in 2002, Jim had started doing something he called "mud bogging" and he had his truck rigged up with big tires and was really excited about his new sport. He wanted to put a sign across the front of the truck, and he had LeRoy put his artistic talents to work and create something that would do the trick.
 Here's LeRoy holding the finished sign. He put in the American flag, because Jim loves America, and is a very patriotic man, who served in the US Navy and is a retired chief petty officer.
The two guns and the name of his truck come from a story about Caudy. One time Caudy, when she was small, mistakenly thought she heard two gun shots, and she ran out of the house, leaving the rest of the family to fend for themselves. Jim has teased her about that ever since, and she picked up the personal nickname by her father of "Two Shot." Jim and Caudy have always been close and it is with great endearment as well as humor that the name stuck. Anyway, in honor of his daughter, Jim named his truck Two Shot.
 Now here is that sign 7 years, and a lot of mud-bogging, later. One flag is still visible, both guns are still there, but the name is no longer easily readable. Perhaps we can get LeRoy to do a little touchup rework.
Saturday, Jim invited me to be on his "pit crew" for his first mud-bogging race of the season. I had never gone to watch him do a race before, and this one was local, just a few miles up the road. So, I said I would love to. I took this picture shortly after we arrived at the bog. Jim had his hood up to check out the engine before race time, which was a couple of hours off yet.
On the back bumper you can just barely make out DWLZ.COM, which Jim painted on the bumper some years ago. The left side is gone, but you can still make out the right side.
 They were working the bog run when we arrived. The left track had been worked the day before, but the right track was being worked right up until race time.
Between the tracks there is a light on a stand, and it was of interest, because Jim said in all his races before, they had never used a light. They would wave a flag or something to let the drivers know it was time to get moving. So, this would be a new experience for him as well as me.
On the right you can see the "start girl" who was going to be lining up the trucks for the start of each run, and then checking to make sure that the drivers were ready before turning the light control over to the guy pushing the button. He would then have from 3 to 10 seconds to push the button that would turn the light green.
The guy in the tee shirt and shorts was the "DJ" who played the music, in between events, and I was very glad I had along some earplugs for some of the stuff he played. I had originally brought them because Jim warned me that the engine noise could be pretty loud, but the music was what I used them for mostly.
 The backhoe was digging down to break up the dirt, and then the water truck would soak it down.
Here the water truck was soaking things down, getting the mud ready for the race.
We were on the driver side of the pits, while the observing audience was located on the other side of the concrete safety blocks running along the opposite side of the tracks.
 I walked down to the "finish line" area, and shot this picture looking back down the tracks. They had run a couple of test vehicles through already and you can see the tracks left behind. The audience was starting to show up and line up along the concrete blocks, and things were about ready to go.
 This is one of the trucks they used for the test run up the pit, but I took this picture before he made his run. The truck is still clean.
 This truck was high up, and had large tires, and he had no trouble at all going through the pit mud. But he didn't go very fast. It was a "slow but sure" ride, because there was no way he was going to get stuck, like some of the vehicles did, but he did didn't run fast enough to win. The main reason I am including this picture is because the truck is bright yellow, and that is Dotti's favorite color.
 This one was a jeep rather than a truck. The passenger had "Tattoo Power" on his helmut and it looked like he was a true fan of tattooing.
 Driver and passenger both had beards and a love of running through the mud.
You can see mud flying above them, and the audience across the way, sitting on, and lined up behind the concrete safety blocks.
 The mud is really flying on this run! Off in the distance right over the top of the truck on the right is a girl in a red sweatshirt who is taking pictures from the end of the run. She would catch the start of each run, and then turn and run herself out of the way, as they approached.
 This is another yellow vehicle. But I included this one to show that the passenger and jeep both are sharing in the mud after the first run. I was standing several feet from the mud pit when the first run was made, and was surprised when I found that I was being hit with clumps of mud. I continued shooting through the run, and looked down to assess the damage afterwards. It wasn't too much, but I found it interesting that the mud flew so far. I had thought I would be completely clear where I had been standing. I paid closer attention on the later runs.
 The races were run according to classes and so a lot of runs were made before they got to Jim's class. When they called his class and told the drivers to get ready, Jim put on his helmet and fired up "Two Shot."
If you look just under his mirror, you can see the blue strip on his arm. That was what they gave the drivers and pit crew personnel to identify them, so they could have access to the driver's area.
 Jim is all ready to go, but his class was a large one and he was at the bottom of the list. He had a long wait before they brought him to the line.
 The procedure was for the truck on the left (which is the "right lane" from the driver's perspective) to pull up close to the line. The start girl would use hand signals to let them know that they needed to keep coming, back up or when they were there.
 When she closed her hand like that, it meant you are in place, and it is time to stop moving.
 It was finally Jim's turn and he had the left lane. He was directed into place and all set.
 both trucks are lined up and ready to go. I was getting pretty excited by this time and hoping Jim would do well.
 The start girl pointed at Jim to see if he was ready. He nodded.
 Next she pointed at Jim's opponent, and he nodded. Oh boy, it was about to begin!
 When the girl pointed both hands straight back like that, it meant that it was turned over to the guy controlling the light and when he pushed the button, the light would change and the race would begin. Here goes!
 Look at him go! The truck in the right lane is moving right down the pit. (You can see, in the distance, that he photo girl has removed her sweatshirt and tied it around her waist. It was really warming up by this time.)
 Something was wrong in the left lane though. Jim's truck just died on him. It was left at the line, and hadn't moved a bit. The mud covered light was standing in silence and the backhoe was providing the backdrop for the drama. What had happened?
 Looking down, the truck was pouring out its radiator contents onto the ground with great gusto. The green fluid was letting us know that the truck was way too hot.
 They brought a truck over and towed Jim's truck out of the way, so the racing could continue and when Jim lifted his hood, the steam was pouring out of the radiator cap. Jim let it cool down a bit, and brought over a hose to spray down the radiator. It still took a while before he could get the cap off safely.
 Once the cap was off, he filled it back up and we thought he would get another chance to make a run, but when the time came around, an electrical problem shut him down where he sat, and he never made it back to the line.
I really felt bad for Jim, because he has been trying to get me out to watch one of these races for a long time, and when I finally made it out this had to happen. I am sure we will get another chance to do this, when I can see him run his rig through the mud. And I had a good time anyway, meeting his friends and watching the racing.
Once he found the electrical problem, everything was fine and I followed him all the way back home in my car without a hitch. It was too bad the way the timing went. If he had had the electrical problem show up earlier, he could have had it fixed and the overheating thing was because he had to sit so long without enough air through his radiator. So, it could have worked out if the timing had been different. Anyway, we lived to fight another day, and I am sure I will catch another race this year sometime. (Jim said he has another one or two that are local this season, which will be good opportunities to do it.)
Another thing that I really liked seeing, was the way that many of the other drivers came to help Jim. One guy came up with a spare battery to try in his truck in case that was the electrical problem (it wasn't), and others were there to give moral and technical help. (One guy told me while we were waiting, that he pulled his thermostat right out of his racing truck and ran without one. He didn't use his heater anyway and the truck ran fine and as cool as possible in that configuration.)
It was a fun time and I am glad that Jim asked me along. He is in his element when doing anything mechanical and I admire his energy and ability to fix problems when they come up. His truck broke, but he fixed it and had it running fine by the time we left. He has helped me many times over the years with my vehicles and he's good. I will never forget when he had me out in the driveway (1982?) helping him reinstall a transmission in his truck. (My help was all manual labor, he was the brains on the job. ) I have always been interested in the physics behind cars, but I was never really bitten with the bug to work on cars. I do enjoy watching a master at work though, and the way Jim can tear something apart and put it back together right is poetry in motion.
Sunday was Father's Day and LeRoy invited Dotti and I over to his apartment and we played some darts, after dinner.
 It was really nice of him and I enjoyed being able to spend my Father's Day with my son. I am really proud of him, and he turned out to be a really good man. It is really nice to be living so close to him once more, and we get to see him a lot more often now.
I really like this photo that Dotti took of LeRoy and I on Father's Day!
8 years, 43 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.
-Al-
6'3" 239.5/209.0/185.0±2.5/BMI:26.12/WK-423
Starting weight: 239.5
Target Weight Range: 185.0±2.5 pounds
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