Just for the Record,

08/20/08 weight 208.5 pounds, blood pressure 115/84, heart rate 35 bpm

08/21/08 weight 210.0 pounds, blood pressure 138/84, heart rate 55 bpm

08/22/08 weight 205.0 pounds

08/23/08 weight 204.0 pounds motorcycling to Lincoln City, Oregon

08/24/08 motorcycling back from Lincoln City, Oregon

Wife tells me not to trust the scales, I need to start to exercise and jog again and get the Computer Cave organized, the end of September looms large.

Sunday shines

I weigh 204.5 pounds today, my blood pressure is 115/68 or 119/73 with a consistant heart rate of 37 beats per minute sitting down. I am reading Cinderella Man, by Jeremy Schaap, better than the movie, which I have and love - because it speaks to the people, the country and the times of the events. Best History lesson on America of the period.

http://wmearl-justthelibrarykeeper.blogspot.com/
http://earlswaywardway.blogspot.com/
http://home.att.net/~wmearl/wsb/html/

I started blogging because the Institutional Library System was going to build a blog for the public and I was supposed to be one of the blog writers, and so I started Just the Library Keeper and I wrote and posted and posted. Then I told my family and friends about it and sent them links to check it out. Some looked but never returned, but I kept churning out words and didn't have to bother the family any longer. Then I decided to stop worrying about the calendar and posting my measurements and exercises on it, I built another blog Physical Fitness for Foold so I can see what I thought when, what I weighed and measured, and my general health and a bit of what was happening. Just think of all the trees I have saved by not sending letters, think of all the cyberspace left for important commercial announcements about Viagra or variations of get me rich schemes. Hit that DELETE key, folks.

Well, the Institutional Library Services blog site will be closely monitored for political correctness and comment, of course the ones monitoring it don't want to write it, they just want to control it and the public image. I find my blogs helpful, I get to write and whine and wonder, I have my favorite places to check for thoughts from other folks - some close to my thoughts but the most interesting are from people doing their lives well, writing it, and I get to peek and become a lurker - although when I feel important and wise and sharing I do drop a note, most not too worthy. It would depend on the subject I am commenting on. There are people that visit my site and drop comments or just read, I am not counting visits nor comments and more than anything I write because I want to say something and that will be enough.

My sister wrote a wonderful letter, and sent it email, and I have her last two from before but then I wonder if she or her husband check my blog to see how I am. Probably not, my teaching sister said she liked the blog idea and thought she could build one, but then she is very busy and I don't think she got around to it, she didn't say she had - and she still writes letters. My brother is doing stuff in Denver, with music and sound, and supporting the current Presidential Primary conflict (oops, it is only a contest not a conflict).

Well, I do need to get started on this Sunday, Communion Sunday in my chuch, working in the choir (can't really sing, so work at it), and riding my motorcycle to the girl friends (like I ever had any - I am just out for the ride without rain). I do have a round Mount Rainier ride on 14 June with some sunshine riders from DOC, has a barbeque and poker run with it. No, I don't have any idea what to do with a poker run, nor the social barbeque - but I want to ride around Mount Rainier. Seems sometimes like I don't get out enough. This Friday, the 9th, the 191st Infantry Brigade from Fort Lewis has a motorcycle safety ride, two hundred and fifty miles in six hours, they asked the Patriot Guard Riders for assistance and I don't feel 9120 miles on my Triumph enough to make me a mentor, but I would like to try and keep up with those young folks and have a great Friday. I ought to for my Community Service, not given for breaking the peace but just because I can relate.

Well, my wife has a birthday tomorrow, so I had best figure out how to help celebrate it - kiss and a hug minimum, jello birthday cake?

Saturday calls to me..

I wake early enough, take the medicine and then turn on the computer. I go weigh, 204.5 pounds this morning, blood pressure is 132/72 with a resting heart rate of 44 beat per minute. Off to get some coffee and breakfast and read blogs and write comments and remember that I should be a quiet lurker unless there is something truly worth mentioning. I finally wake my wife so she can prepare herself for the day. We drive off to Fort Lewis, where they had a big bomb scare yesterday, and find out that her records are completely posted and her ID is very current, she will have to get another in five years but then when she turns seventy-five they will give her one without an expiration date. A few more years.

We decide to go to the YMCA, since it is raining, for our workout and walking. I think I should stop at the Triumph dealer and look into getting a sissy bar for the motorcycle. She agrees and we do, lot of lovely machines on the floor and I ask for and get a sissy bar kit, and my wife sees some gloves she would like to wear - she has boots, gloves and a helmet. As I pay for the purchases she quietly asks if they service mounting the sissy bar, just in case I can't do it. They do, but the salesman and I laugh at me not being able to mount this - he doesn't know how bad I can be on mechanical stuff.

At the YMCA I do five thousand on the rowing machine, she walks laps and then we use different machines for different things. Exercise time was fifty-one minutes for me, but forget the zone and calorie burn, I was just moving. I would do some chin ups at home after I mounted the sissy bar and cleaned then greased the chain on the motorcycle. It was still raining, I am hoping for Sunshine tomorrow so I can ride and pose on my fine, improved for female companionship, motorcycle. I won't have any female companion ship, but it is like preparing for rain, it could happen.

What is the Sunday for...

I wake too early, weigh 208.5 pounds, blood pressure is 137/84 and heart rate of 40 bpm. Take my medications, drink coffee and get on the motorcycle to go to the Methodist Men's Breakfast, where the best part is making, then eating the breakfast - get to tell stories and today we had Chris, just turned eighteen, and we honored (?) him with our attention and gave him a bit of the lore of being a man they don't give you in high school (all tall tales and lies, of course). He took it all in good humor and he told about his recent motorcycle accident, his grandfather mentioned that Chris's father was against his interest in firearms (although there are lots of shooters in the Men's group; hunters and fishermen, too). He helped clean up after - I always seem to get the washing of the dishes and he dried.

I rode the motorcycle home after, it was turning cloudy and cold, and yesterday's wonderful weather is History, sigh, this is the Great Northwest, nine months of rain, three months of Sunshine. I put the clean machine away and take the bicycle down and get it ready to ride, and I ride it back the two miles to church, relearning the gear pattern and such - it has been a long time. I sing with the choir, pay attention to the Sermon story and have coffee with Hal after, I get a truly wonderful beautiful smile from a mother that thinks I am watching her little girl - I was actually staring into space but the smile brought me back and I am so undeserving of that, but WOW! you don't forget beautiful deep smiles into one's tomorrows. I ride the bicycle back home and laugh at trying to keep the pace on the hills up and down - and although similar, leaning on a bicycle isn't half as much fun as it is on a motorcycle - but that may be the pumping action - different muscles.

The rains return, scattered and light, but enough to slow me down, I do work more on getting lights working on the bicycle again, and I will have to find my bicycle helmet if I am going to cruise around. All one's exercises should be fun and frolic.

Coming in like a LION! Mar's month...

I slept Friday evening away, normal end of the month work day, normal walk to dock after riding my fine motorcycle through the lingering fog. The cold feels gone, therefore it is. I put my rainsuit on for the ride home in the evening, the weatherman was right - it is a soaker, which only means I watch my distances from fools and I still enjoy the ride - old man pleasures are so simple. I had a spicy fifteen bean soup with hot Italian sausage, took a hot shower and got ready to read and watch wrestling. I missed the wrestling, waking at midnight to turn off the television and put the bodies to bed. Waking from dreams of parachuting, military and selection boards and fool Earl's way too high standards. I refuse to consider myself a lamb, so I have to come into Mar's month as a Lion, old and almost toothless, but all male with attitude, dude. I weigh 207.5 pounds, blood pressure is 133/75 with a heart rate of 40 beats per minute. I start cutting my medications in half today, I have been just a shade too light headed the last few weeks.

Thought better of it... and did it anyway

I wake before the alarms and get up and turn them off. I take my medicine and think I shouldn't go to the 15K today, my wife would agree with me. My sinus problem is there but doesn't seem that bad, still my wife would tell me not to run. About the third time I thought about not running because it was cold, I had a sinus problem and my wife would tell me not to run, I decided to go and run anyway. I weigh 206.5 pounds, blood pressure is 124/84 with a heart rate of 45 bpm. I make my gruel (oatmeal, grapenuts, chopped nuts and raisins with warm milk) and have a cup of coffee. I dress in layers and remind myself that it is only 9.3 miles to run - anyone can jog for that distance.

I drive by the closed Triumph Dealership, promising myself that I will visit it when it is open, my wife wants a sissy bar on my bike for when she goes with me. The sky is clear and blue and the Olympic Mountains and Mount Rainier are brightly reflecting the Sunshine from their fresh snows. I am early but I do get my number and wander, listening and then slowly stretching and checking the heart monitor's function, I reposition the belt for better contact. I am cheating just a bit, I left my partials at home so I am lighter - not that it will make a difference.

At nine the gun (not really, must have been a horn) sounds and we move out, I am ready to start my watch as I cross the starting line, I already know I am going to be slow - I have been sick. I jog along, keeping my pace up for the first three miles, after that I kind of fall into the what ever feels good pace - the one I day dream to so well. Before I hit my turn around the fastest fifteen miler flys by - so fast and so smooth. I make the turn and the three men trying to catch the leader speed by me, too. Ah, since I know I am slow, not a real problem. Don't I wonder if I was ever fast enough - not racing fast but speedier than now, was I? Well, I make it in, cheered on by kind folks that know it takes effort to show up and start and then finish. Finishing is great! I burned 869 Kcal and 45% of it was fat (a pound of fat is 1600 Kcal) my average Heartrate is 108 bpm (so slow), in zone only 17 minutes and 2 seconds, total exercise time one hour, fifty-eight minutes and sixteen seconds. I am pleased that I have run, just not proud.

I firmly believe that I beat everyone that hasn't jogged today - because I am sure movement is very important to life, very. Still my average speed was 12.69 minutes per mile. Such a slug. I go back home and get hot soup for lunch and find out what my wife's plans are for the day. I go take a nap and will my muscles to loosen up a bit. I check my email, find I have a meeting I am supposed to be at, make it and then ride off on my motorcycle. The run has me feeling like such an old man I want the powerful feeling back, roll on that throttle.

I ride off into the last of the Sunshine and wave at the other motorcyclists, too good a day to miss. I stop at the Harley-Davidson dealership - saw something to look at one day, nothing to buy. I then get back on the road and hit the highway, long enough to feel really powerful. Then I exit to find the Triumph Dealership open and look around (they are repainting) and talk to one of the staff. He asks me when I got my America, and I realize it was exactly a year ago I rode it home in the rain, scared I was going to do something stupid (stalled it three times, dropped it at home). He then asked how many miles I had on it and I said 8400, he said I really ride. Yes, I do and I mentioned the long trip to Minnesota. I left, the Sun had gone down, and it would get colder riding. Time to call it a day, a very good day it was, too.