Alvin and the Chipmunks said it best...

~~~We can hardly stand the wait, please Christmas don't be late~~~

Every Christmas season I am reminded that our Saviour was born on Christmas day. I believe in the story of his birth as told in the gospel of Luke. I also believe in the story as told in the gospel of John that "Whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life". Without the Christ there would be no Christmas Season.

I love everything about the Christmas season. For me it starts with the music. Good old reliable 103.7 had non stop Christmas beginning the day after Thanksgiving and I listened to it almost every second I was in the car. Figuring out how we can afford the gifts gets harder all the time but we always seem to find a way and that is fun. Shopping is even fun at Christmas. The best thing is you just spend more time with everyone. I spend more time with Karen the month of December than any other month. Christmas Eve is the big Holland Family Christmas party. That is when my family all gathers to eat and exchange gifts. My Mom, brother, sister, and all the nieces and nephews and their kids ( the kids have kids now!) together is just wonderful. But of course the best is Christmas Day. There is no greater feeling of contentment for me than when I have my wife, my four daughters, and my grand daughter under the same roof with me and that is how I get to spend my Christmas day. The Christmas season truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Unfortunately this years' Christmas season has to end for now. As of Monday 12/28/09 103.7 is no longer playing Christmas music. The good news is that there will be another Christmas season next year. It just can't come soon enough for me. I say we all channel our inner chipmunk and also sing "please Christmas don't be late."

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Final weigh in for 2009

Phase one is complete. I have obtained my goal of 235 pounds. I plan to maintain this weight through the rest of the holiday season. I will return on Friday January 8th with my next weigh in. My goal for that date is to weigh 234 pounds. Friday will be the new weekly weigh in day for 2010.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

I am off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 12/16/09

My weight control plan set in August of 2009 was originally to get from 280 plus to 210 pounds. There were two phases to this plan. Phase one was to lose two pounds a week until I weighed 235 pounds. My goal was to be there by New Years Day. Phase two of the plan is to lose 1 pound per week until I reach 210 by Memorial Day 2010.

As of this morning I weighed 236.4 for a 1.6 pound loss for the week. I figure that if I eat well and don't eat too much Christmas fudge that I should be at 235 on New Years Day. I might even be able to get me some apple pie on Christmas Day.

WOO HOO!!!

I'm off and pedaling for now.

World's are colliding and you're killing independent George!

I find the old saying that "life imitates art" to be so very true. I can find so many song lyrics that sum up a situation that it astounds me sometimes. There are also situations from TV shows that describe life events as well. One of my favorite TV shows of all time was "Seinfeld". It was the show about nothing but so often it was the show about day in and day out real life situations we all face. I know several episodes described some of my real life situations. I recall once when they tried to co-mingle their friend groups. George Costanza was one type of George around Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer (Independent George) and he was a different George around his fiancee Susan (Relationship George). When Elaine tried to include Susan into their inner circle without Georges' knowledge it was a huge threat to Independent George. He felt he couldn't be Independent George and Relationship George at the same time. I remember very clearly a worked up George screaming " YOU'RE KILLING INDEPENDENT GEORGE" and a sympathetic Jerry and Kramer trying to explain to Elaine how this was the equivalent to "world's colliding". In the same episode Elaine met up with a new set of three guys. They were very similar yet at the same time polar opposites to Jerry, George, and Kramer. It was the Bizarro world to their world. The Bizarro world is from the Superman comics. In the Bizarro world everything is backwards from the way it really is in the real world. Elaine liked both groups but the two groups could not mix. The point is that somehow certain things don't mix and are best left separate. I have two examples of this. One is from my childhood and the other is current day. As you read this try to think of things in your life that fit in this description. I would appreciate some input on this from any one that can relate to this for a future posting.

I recall growing up having two main types of friends. You had the 1) neighborhood friends and 2) school friends. Some kids are lucky enough to have these two intertwine but in elementary school all my neighborhood pals were older than me so I had to find new school friends. For some reason I recall that whenever I tried to introduce the two groups it didn't go so well. From the third grade on Jimmy Cox and I were inseparable as neighborhood friends. In the fourth grade I met Ronnie Sikorski. His family just moved to Irving and he and I were in the same class at LB Barton Elementary School. He was a great guy. We shared a love for running and sports and we were instant best school friends. I remember telling Jimmy he was going to come over and play football with us. Jimmy didn't like Ronnie before he had even met him. Jimmy dogged Ronnie the whole time. This didn't hurt my relationship with either of them. It just taught me something early on and that was for me to attempt to collide the worlds of my neighborhood friends with my school friends was not a good thing. The second and current day example involves my wife Karen. As much as we might love each other it is safe to say that my shopping universe and Karen's shopping universe are probably best left separate. Let me go with ads in hand, zip in and out with the exact purchases I intended to make. Let Karen go to each store, shop, compare, get prices, yada yada yada and eventually make her purchases. I will state on record that Karen's way is best but it just is not me. Both of our styles work, they just seem to work best separately.

Okay guys...get the idea? If you think of something along this line email it to me.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 12/09/09

My plan all along was to lose 2 lbs per week until I reached 235 and to accomplish that by January 1st. Then I wanted to lose 1 lb. per week through Memorial Day 2010 which will put me around 210. That plan has not changed although I am starting to have "What then and why not try to lose 20 more" thoughts BUT... I will cross that bridge if and when I get to it. I mentioned last Wednesday that I was losing more each week than I expected to. It was nice while it lasted but this week got back to normal. I weighed in at 238.0 this morning for a 1.6 pound loss for the week and I am happy with that.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

I did think of something I am doing differently

Addendum to Wednesday weigh in for 12/02/09...

I thought of one thing that I am eating differently. I was eating a lot of hot dogs and bologna sandwiches for lunch. These aren't the worst things in the world as long as you eat only one. I tried it and much to my surprise one was enough. However the past few weeks I have eaten the panini and flat bread sandwiches almost exclusively for lunch in lieu of the hot dog/bologna. That probably has helped me. By the way Smart Ones brand has a flat bread sandwich that rocks. I like it better than Lean cuisine.

Off and pedaling...

Life is a song

~~~I tip my hat to the keeper of the stars. He sure knew what he was doing when he joined these two hearts~~~

The year was 1971 and it was Halloween. It was my freshman year of high school. Halloween was on a Friday night that year. There was a football game and after that there was an all night lock in for the youth at Plymouth Park Baptist Church. PPBC is the only church I have ever attended. PPBC was the place to be at that time on a Friday night and this one was going to be special. It was the first all night lock in that I had ever been to. Food, friends, and great movies to watch made for a great night. We saw two horror/monster movies first. The first movie they showed was Frankenstein vs. The Wolfman. This was right up my alley. I grew up watching all the classics with Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, etc. on Nightmare Theatre on Channel 11. These movies scared the wits out of me as an 8 year old but my Mom was always beside me watching them with me so I wasn't damaged beyond repair. I even outgrew my secret yearning to grow up and be the Wolfman (eventually). But that movie was perfect for me that night. The second horror movie they showed was the great classic " Horror of Dracula" with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. That was the first time I had ever seen that movie and I still consider it to be the best Dracula movie ever. By the time those two were over it was probably between 2-3 AM. I was never much of a night owl and I was exhausted. They started a third movie and it was the Andy Griffith classic " No Time for Sergeants". It is a tremendous comedy and this was the movie that launched the great Andy Griffith's career. But at that instant my prospects for seeing that movie through to the end weren't looking great. I was sitting up in my hard plastic chair and I was starting to nod off. After that came the leaning over and starting to fall out of the chair syndrome. I would jerk myself back awake for a minute or two but that was only to be followed by more nods and jerks. I was a few minutes away from a deep sleep and then I heard her call my name.

Her name is Karen.

Everyone knew her. She was special. She had the sweetest spirit and was abnormally kind to every one. She also had the world's most beautiful smile. Every boy in the ninth grade would have loved to call her his girlfriend but she was considered off the market. She had this boyfriend that everyone knew she was crazy in love with. He did not treat her well but for some reason she was so in love with him. They had just broken up but it was assumed she would go back to him as soon as he called her. For whatever reason he wasn't there that night. She was sitting on the floor maybe 5 feet away from me and saw that I was about to fall out on the floor. She asked me if I wanted to lay on the floor in front of her and rest my head on her lap. Of course I accepted her kind offer. I laid on my back with my head on her crossed legs and she patted my shoulder and said I could just go to sleep right there. When she touched me I was stunned. I had crushes on girls before and I had girlfriends before. But her touch was like a million volts of electricity being shot through me. I had never felt anything like this before. I grabbed her hand and held it. I did not want to let go of her hand and I held it tightly. She held mine back tightly too. I wasn't sleepy anymore. I remember that Andy Griffith movie thanks to her. We watched it, laughed at it, and I held her hand as if my life depended on it. When it was over I didn't want to let go of her hand but I had to. It was dawn now and time for the parents to come get us. We stayed side by side until the folks came. I hated that we had to leave each other that morning. I didn't want that moment to end but it had to. The good news though is that while a moment may end a story will live on. The story of Karen and Rick started that night and has lived on for the last 38 plus years. Our story is still evolving. I don't believe that there has ever been one single couple story about whom you could truthfully say " and they lived happily ever after". I think that "happily ever after" only happens in fairy tales and real life is not that kind to us. I believe that in real life if a couple can get to "somehow we got there" and once they get to that point can say "I can't imagine finishing this thing without you" that they've done pretty well.

We have done pretty well.

~~~And I hold everything when I hold you in my arms. I've got all I'll ever need thanks to the keeper of the stars~~~

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 12/02/2009

I don't fully comprehend this but for some reason pounds are falling off me lately. Losing 2 pounds a week has not been easy but the last 3-4 weeks for some reason it has gotten easier. The only two things I can attribute this to are 1) I am eating fewer bananas. Bananas have no fat grams but they do have calories ( about 100 each). I am eating less of those these days. 2) The other thing I have changed is my exercise routine. I now am using walking as my primary form of exercise. I close the dealership four nights a week and on those days I do a brisk 15 minute walk around 8:30 pm after I finished all eating for the day. Exercising after all my daily eating may have some kind of effect but I'm not really sure. All I know is that even after last Thursday with two wonderful and large Thanksgiving meals I still had a good week.

I weighed in at 239.6 today for a 2.4 pound loss for the week. BYE BYE to the 240's!

I'm off and pedaling for now.

The cat seems to have my tongue lately

I can blame it on the holidays I guess. Having a little time off for Thanksgiving was so nice. Karen and I started our Christmas shopping and that was fun too. Getting to see the family was the best of all. But the point is I don't have much to post here right now. I may take a break in fact through the holidays but if something comes to mind I'll be sure and write about it.

I will continue with the weekly weigh-ins as that is, after all, what this blog was started for in the first place. I managed Thanksgiving well. I ate a lot of food but I stuck to the more healthy meats and vegetables and less of the breads and desserts. I should be able to post a weight that makes me happy this Wednesday. I'm back then.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 11/25/09

DONNY OSMOND WON DANCING WITH THE STARS!!! YESSSSSSSSS

I have already had one Thanksgiving. Monday we did pot luck Thanksgiving at work. It was wonderful and it was huge. Turkey, Ham, stuffing, and all the fancy vegetable dishes, desserts, etc. I had a plate at noon and a plate at 5:30. I had good plates too. Larger meals than I have been eating but not too bad. I had about 6 oz. of turkey/ham for the day and a spoon of everything on the vegetable dishes. Some of the veggie things I didn't even know what I was eating but I must admit they were all wonderful. I had one bite of dessert. Not a serving, just one bite. It was a chocolate/cool whip/nut pie that was maybe the most seductive piece of food I have ever seen but I just had the single bite. I am happy to report that if you choose the right foods to eat, then eat right the rest of the week, a Thanksgiving day of eating will not blow up the old scales.

I weighed in at 242.0 for a 2 lb. loss for the week. I am not allowing Thanksgiving to be an excuse for me. I plan to lose 2 pounds this week too. If I don't I won't be discouraged but I still intend to accomplish this objective.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

The Computer Virus

I got put through the wringer at work this week. I somehow put a virus on my work computer. First let me state that if something pops ups telling you that your antivirus is not working and it looks like a microsoft notice IT IS NOT A MICROSOFT NOTICE. Do not click on it. I know better but I did it anyway. It was a nasty virus. It took a couple of different programs scanned several times each to finally clear it up. I strongly recommend that you go to these websites and download these programs to your computer so you will have them in case you need them. There are free versions of each program. If you download them open them up at least weekly and "update" them to keep them current.

www.malwarebytes.com ... the program is called malwarebytes. It does not run in the background and won't use up memory. It is a powerful tool.

www.lavasoft.com ... the program is called ad-aware. another powerful anti virus program.

May we all stay computer virus free!

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 11/18

This was a good week. I weighed in this morning at 244.0 for a 2.8 pound loss for the week. I am down almost 40 pounds from August 1st. That's the good news. I still have a long way to go to get where I want to be but I have a lot of time to get there.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Thought for the day...or lifetime...whichever applies

I have a core group that are "my people". I imagine that we all have such a group. For me it my family and my closest friends. In other words it is the people that read this blog regularly. What I am about to say does not apply to you people (most of the time).

PEOPLE DRIVE ME CRAZY!

I have lost nearly 40 pounds in three months. I don't need some tape worm skinny goofy twit telling me how I could be doing better. I don't need to listen to two nincompoops discussing social security and Canadian health care and yada yada yada blah blah blah. I don't need to hear someone who does not do my job and knows nothing about my job tell me how I should do it. I could go on and on but I know you all feel my pain. Well during all the rambling on and on that I was surrounded by at work Saturday I reached a point where I just had to go outside and find solitude. I love solitude. I ask all the questions and I give the most brilliant answers. To borrow an old famous saying, "Sometimes I sit and think and sometimes I just sit." It was during one of the sit and think moments that a specific thought came to me. I give you all permission to use this thought as a quote in the future. If it truly applies to you then I don't even want credit. Use it as if you own it.

The thought... "I don't know if I was born a loner or if people just drove me to it".

If you happen to be in the presence of the responsible/guilty parties it is okay to add "you" in front of "people".

After further revue, this may be one of my most brilliant thoughts ever.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

It's time for some TV TALK

1. Glee - This just gets better and better. Originally we thought that a show about a high school glee club could have musical numbers in it without considering the show to be a musical. We have decided that this show is a musical after all. Like all musicals there are some extremely unbelievable story lines going on but it still a cute campy show. The cheer leading coach, Sue Sylvester, is becoming one of my favorite TV characters right now. This past week showed her in a new light though. She has been 100% pure evil till now but her interaction with the downs syndrome little girl and then finding out she has a sister with DS was waaaaaay touching. I loved it.

2. Dancing with the Stars- We have loved this season. The real bad and unlikeables went early. Michael Irvin started horribly but he improved so much and came across as a good strong person and leader. He went out in 7th place. The last 5 were the 5 that should have been there. It appears Mya will win and deserves to win but we are rooting for Donny Osmond anyway. He is just so likable and is over 50 so that counts with us. The host Tom Burgeron may be the funniest ad libber I have ever seen. He alone makes the show worth watching.

3. Survivor - We have liked this year. I can't believe how Russell controlled his original tribe but he botched the merge completely. He may go tonight but we'll see. The show may become much less entertaining if he leaves I'm afraid.

4. Grey's Anatomy- Best writing they have ever had. They introduced some new characters and they have been good. I have REALLY enjoyed Izzie being gone but she is back tonight and that scares me. I wish she would leave the show.

5. A new entry to my must see list...Dinner Impossible. This comes on Wednesday at 9pm on the food channel. Chef Robert Irvine is told to show up somewhere and he is given a time limit to prepare a special feast for usually 200 people that must center around a certain theme each week. It is dramatic and entertaining.

6. Saved the best for last... AMAZING RACE!!!! Thank heaven for the Harlem Globetrotters. Flight Time and Big Easy ( pair of real current day Globetrotters) have been a hoot! This is just the best show on TV. If you are not watching it give it a try.

I'm back next week...I'm off and pedaling for now

Wednesday weigh in for 11/11/09

I had hoped to wait until Christmas before I had to buy clothes. I had reached the point though where I was starting to look like a little sad sack because my clothes had become so baggy. I bought me a few shirts and pairs of slacks last week. I was wearing 3XL/19.5 neck shirts and I am happy to say that XL/17.5 neck now fits me comfortably. I was wearing 44 inch waist with elastic stretch sides and I now wear 38-40 inch depending on the brand and style of pant. I feel better in regards to my health and I also feel better about my overall appearance.

I weighed in at 246.8 pounds for a 2 lb. loss for the week. Total loss is approximately 33.5 pounds. I still hope to be 210ish by Memorial Day 2010.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

The Ft. Worth Teen Fair

My fathers' family was in show business. Once it is in your blood they say it never leaves and based on my remembrances of his family I would have to say that is true. I am glad that this is true because their past led me to one of the best experiences of my preteen life. But before I get to that let me share a little Holland family history. My Dad was born in 1919 and grew up between WWI and WWII. His parents were traveling vaudeville stars and they incorporated their children into the act. The Holland Players were quite an act in their day. They were also acrobats. My Dad's father, Harvey, never really lost his health until he was well past age 90. I recall reading a newspaper article where he was interviewed on his 84th birthday. He celebrated (or showed off) his birthday by walking on his hands 84 steps for the reporter. Through the years at family gatherings my Grandparents would get up do routines for the entire family. Vaudeville died out and they found other means of support through the years but they were always entertainers. They also had some "carny" in them too. In the late sixties my Dad's sister Maxine and her husband Gene had a hand writing analysis machine. They also made paper mache boutonnieres. They would rent booths at carnivals and fairs and that is how they made their living at that time. They booked themselves into an event in the summer of 1966 that turned into two very special weeks for me. This was the summer between my fourth and fifth grade years. The event was the Teen Fair which was held at Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth.

My Mom offered to help them work the booths and since it was all day every day for two weeks leaving my brother and I at home was not an option. We got to work with them. And we did work. We manned the booths, sold the flowers, and fed the handwriting analysis machine. There was a real nice and funny guy named Johnny who sold autographed reprint photos of the top teen idol music acts of the day and we helped him in his booth too. But that was maybe 1/3 of the time. Most of our time was spent roaming around with a place full of "real" teens. Is there anything cooler for a preteen than to hang around "real" teens? Nothing could have come close. I know there were boys there too but all I remember caring about was all the beautiful teen age girls. I made a game of seeing how many couples I could catch kissing. There were bands there too. They had the Box Tops and that was when their smash hit "The Letter" was number one on the charts. I saw them do that song live. I was on cloud nine. There were several local bands too and they did a battle of the bands, elimination style, to see who the top local band was. It was all very dramatic to me at the time. I was rooting for a group called "Those Guys" but they came in second place. But the real highlight of each day to me was the fashion show. Every three hours they held this show and models would come out wearing the latest fashions. At the end a cute little girl would dance down the aisle throwing bags of Morton's corn chips out to the crowd and I would scramble to see how many I could get. But that was not the real high point of the fashion show. The highlight for me was the last model. She would come out in a dress and would do a quick twirl to reveal it was BACKLESS! People just did not show that much skin in those days. It made my day every time I saw her though.

There were two cute little girls our age that were at their Dads booth. One was a blond and one was a brunette. It was some kind of car dealership and there were adults showing the new cars. The girls were dressed up like go go dancers and would just dance in front of the booth. I had a huge crush but was too afraid to speak to them. We finally did speak to them on the very last day of the fair. We were outside in front of Will Rogers coliseum . Using typical 10 year old interaction we somehow decided to race. I remember racing the brunette and she beat me. Then I remember falling off the steps and really hurting myself. I pretended it did not hurt but I was in such pain. Needless to say I did not do too well with the ladies....again.

All in all it was just a great two weeks for a 10 year old little boy.

I'm back Wednesday with the weigh in. I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 11/04/09

Some of the things I used to eat a lot I do not miss at all. I am not missing french fries. I don't miss oreos. I don't miss candy bars. I can do without those things. The one thing I can't do without though is chips. Fritos, potato chips, tostitos, etc. are foods I can't (or choose not to) give up. But here is what I have learned to do. I read the back and it tells me what a recommended serving is. It even tells you how many chips it takes to reach the recommended serving. I count out my serving, eat it with my sandwich or whatever, and then put the bag away. If I can do it, any one can do it.

I weighed in at 248.8 this morning for a 1.8 pound loss for the week. I am now under 250 and have lost around 32 pounds since I started my program. My new adjusted goal is to be at 235 by New Years Day. I still have my long term goal of being at 210 by Memorial Day 2010.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

The issue of daily exercise

First let me say that a daily exercise routine is hard. It doesn't matter if I am riding my bike or jogging on the mini trampoline. Once I get going I enjoy it. But most days I leave for work early and get home between 9:30 to 10 o' clock. It just gets harder and harder to find the desire. I do not believe that I have to exercise every day but I know that the more I exercise the more calories I burn and the more weight I lose. I do want to exercise daily. I had a revelation today regarding the daily exercise. It is so simple and so obvious that I am dissappointed that it took me so long to think of this.

It occurred to me that I have an opportunity while at work to get some exercise. I have the type of job where I can get a lot dumped on me at once and not be able to look up for hours. But it also the type of job where there may be hours where I have nothing to do as well. I had a down time moment this morning. I went out side and just decided to walk around our main building. I counted my steps and the first lap was 207 steps. The second lap I found a way to add 13 more steps to make it 220 steps. I consider one step to be one yard. 220 yards is 1/8 of a mile. I know this because I used to run track and that was in the 60's before the democrats convinced the US Track and Field Association to go metric. 8 laps is one mile and I did it in 15 minutes. The charts at Livestrong.com say that I actually burn a few more calories walking 1 mile in 15 minutes than I did in 20 minutes on the mini trampoline.

The good news is that my exercise issue is resolved. The bad news is I can no longer use "I don't have time" as an excuse.

I'm back Wednesday with the weigh in. I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 10/28/09

I made it through Bonus Jack Wednesday and our last Sunday of the month family feast that has become a new tradition of ours. I weighed in at 250.6 pounds this morning for a 2.0 pound loss for the week. I should be in the 240's next week!

My story on the Irving Theater is scheduled to run this Friday in the Irving neighborsgo section of the Dallas Morning News.

This will be my final post for the week. I will be back on Monday.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Trick or Treat

There are many different elements that make up Halloween. The elements change through the years too. As a preschooler and into early elementary school years it was all about the costume and candy. The first costume that I can recall was an out of the box Superman costume that I wore when I was in the first grade. I was honored to wear Superman of course. The costumes always looked so cool in the box. They weren't that comfortable to wear though. I remember the plastic masks being miserably hot and they made it difficult to breathe too. I still loved them anyway. I remember one year getting a boxed Dracula costume and thinking it was really cool. Then I see Vance Gallimore, a neighborhood kid a few years older than I, wearing a home made Dracula costume. He had a real cape and blood painted on his face. He definitely out costumed me that year. Regardless of costume the real goal each year was to get all the candy possible, bring it home, and eat it. I don't think I was ever out performed in that area.

As an adolescent Halloween became more about the friends. I remember in the 5th and 6th grade feeling this calling that I had to find Ronnie Sikorski. Ronnie was my best friend in elementary school. His neighborhood was adjacent to mine but was actually a pretty good walk/run from my house. With all the kids on the street finding him was like the proverbial needle in a haystack but somehow I always did find him. We would sprint from house to house to get the candy. We were the fastest running trick or treaters ever.

I do have to say though that my favorite Halloweens were those where Karen and I took our girls out to do their trick or treating. This was in the 80's/90's and these were different times. By then security had become the focal point on Halloween. Our Halloweens were spent at Plymouth Park Baptist Church. They would do some type of festival theme each year and they had carnival games and candy galore. The kids would always get their fill. What made it special is each year Karen would make us our costumes. We would always go as a family or unit of something. One year we were pound puppies. I remember a year where we were bunnies. One year we were a 50's family. I was just the lucky man who got to be next to those adorably cute girls all night long. Those are the best memories.

Everyone enjoy this Halloween. I'm off and pedaling for now.

The world's fiction was our reality

As young boys growing up my brother Dave and I were heavily influenced by the world of fiction. I have written earlier about the impact that The Hardy Boys series had on us. There were other fictional characters as well that influenced our daily lives. There is no way I could list every influence we had but here a few that top the list. The following events are true and really happened. No names have been changed because there were no innocents involved.

I personally was fascinated by The Wolfman. He was my favorite monster. You know how grownups will always ask a little kid what he wants to be when he grows up? There was a time when I would look them dead in the eye and give them the honest answer of " A Werewolf". It was what I aspired to be. I could do great wolf call too. Mothers would call their kids in at night when I busted loose with "bahhwwwhhhoooooooooooooooo"

Most kids pinned on a towel and ran around playing super heroes. We went beyond that. Having a mother who was a former seamstress helped too as we had a ton of old material left over from her seamstress days to use for costumes. Dave had a cool Superman costume. If you recall Clark Kent wore his Superman suit under his clothes and when duty called he ran into a phone booth and did the quick change bit. Well this inspired little Dave. My mom recently told me a story about picking him up from school one day and noticing he seemed a little thicker. Appears Dave had worn his Superman costume under his school clothes that day. It is a good thing Lex Luthor didn't show up at LB Barton because he would have had Super Dave to answer too. This is assuming he could have found a suitable phone booth to allow him the quick change.

We had Batman and Robin costumes that, given that they were put together by elementary school age boys, were very realistic. One night I was woken by Dave telling me that he had heard something go bump in the night. He really believed and had convinced me that something or someone was in the house. We did what we were called to do. On went our Batman and Robin costumes. We were inching our way down the hall, completely scared to death. Whispering back and forth we made enough noise to wake up our Mom. She came out and saw what she probably knew she would see. Her two goofy little boys were at it again. I remember her sternly telling us to get back to bed and that all was okay. We did just that. What I wonder today is after having time to think about what she had just witnessed just how long it took my Mom to quit laughing so she could get back to sleep.

Of all the fictional characters though I would say Tarzan held the most influence. Tarzan was the ultimate good man. All he ever wanted to do was to provide for and protect his family. Playing Tarzan was easy. No costume was required and every kid in the neighborhood had a tree with a rope to swing on. We all had treehouses to play in. Dave read many of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan novels. Tarzan had his own language and we learned to speak the Tarzan language. If we wanted someones attention we just said "UMGAWA". If we wanted someone to stop what they were doing we just said "UMGAWA". If we wanted someone to follow us we said "UMGAWA". Dinner time? "UMGAWA". We always understood what the other meant.

The good news is that for the most part our influences were all guys who stood for the right thing. Dave and I still stand for the right thing, we just don't run around with costumes under our clothes any more.

Or do we?

I'm off and pedaling for now.

What makes it special...

Karen and I had our Bonus Jack hamburgers last night. It is not the world's greatest hamburger but it is one of my favorite burgers. It was the same burger we ate 37 years ago. Same two patties, two pieces of cheese, double decker bun, lettuce, onions, and secret sauce. It is a unique hamburger for sure. There is nothing else like it. But the burger itself is not what makes it special. As we had ours last night I realized that what makes it special is the memory of the two of us sitting in Mom and Dad's car, after church at Lively Park, sharing the Bonus Jack meal. Sometimes it is the memory that make something special.

Speaking of special...My post on the Irving Theater was also about a place that was special to me. Dave told the old New Hope group to check it out and that produced several great comments from that bunch. I knew we weren't the only ones who had fond memories about that place. I submitted the story to the Dallas Morning News and they have emailed me and informed me that they are going to put it in the paper. Tentative date is Friday October 30th.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 10/21/09

The roller coaster is back.

Last week I weighed in at 254.0 pounds. As of Saturday morning I weighed 252.0 and was at my weekly goal of a 2 pound loss. Karen and I had decided earlier in the week that Sunday we were going to El Fenix. It may be our only restaurant trip this month so we wanted to go to our favorite. I skipped breakfast and ate what I thought was a good lunch meal. I ordered the Jalisco plate. It comes with a cheese enchilada, a soft cheese taco, a regular taco and rice. I had a few chips but was very careful with the serving size. I ate five soft corn tortillas and corn tortillas are very healthy compared to flour tortillas. I left full but not the usual miserable level of full that I normally experience at a Mexican food restaurant. That night I ate spaghetti and a salad. It was not a bad day in terms of daily allowed calories.

Well Monday morning I weighed 253.6 pounds. I don't understand the science of it but there is something about restaurant food that takes me longer to burn I guess. It also sits "heavy" in my stomach.

I weighed in today at 252.6 pounds for a 1.4 pound loss for the week. I'll take it. Tonight is BONUS JACK night so I am eating lightly the rest of the day. Wish me luck!

I'm off and pedaling for now.

This is huge...My letter worked!

I don't talk about what I eat much any more because it became repetitive and frankly boring. But I do strive, on a daily basis, to eat healthy. The biggest change is that I have all but eliminated fast food and restraunt food from my eating. I try to keep those meals to a once a week maximum. Inspired by Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef and all the cooking shows that Karen and I love to watch I have taken on a new interest for cooking. I always have loved to cook but my cooking has always been in the most basic and elementary level. I am trying to take my cooking style and incorporate some of Karen's style into what I do now. I am a work in progress. Having said that there is nothing wrong with an occasional picked up meal and boys and girls it is time to run, not walk to JACK IN THE BOX because they have brought back the BONUS JACK !

HIP HIP HOORAY! MY LETTER WORKED !

The younger of you reading this have no idea what I am talking about. From the time I discovered Jack in the Box, which was in the late 60's, until around 1978 they had a burger on their menu called the Bonus Jack. It is a small double decker with cheese and it is similar to a Big Mac but so much better. Just like the JITB tacos, it is simply unique. There is nothing else like it anywhere. When Karen and I dated in high school it was our staple meal. Sometime in the late 70's JITB tried to become a little more upscale and they added some chicken sandwiches and different things to their menu. They discontinued the Bonus Jack at that time. I did something I had never done before and have not done since. I wrote a letter of complaint to the JITB corporate office in San Diego and begged them to bring it back.

I am sure that Jack, had he seen it at that time, would have acted on my behalf. But if you recall Jack was ousted in a corporate takeover at that time and was not able to run his own company until he took control back in the early 2000's. I know this to be fact because that is what Jack said happened when he started being used in their TV commercials again. There had to be so many letters to go through during the time that he was out of power that he just now got around to mine. I am sure that Jack tried to contact me personally but I have had several new addresses and phone numbers since I wrote my letter. I'm okay with that and all that matters is that the Bonus Jack is back!

Karen and I have made our plans. We are eating a Bonus Jack this Wednesday on my early day off from work.To those of us that remember, let's all run out and get one and before you take the first bite, raise it in a toast to 1) My close personal friend Jack and 2) the power of the complaint letter. To those who will be tasting this treat for the very first time, let me tell you that you are welcome. I feel your thanks already.

A side note to Jack...I love you man.

Back Wednesday with the weigh in...I'm off and pedaling for now.

A landmark of Irving...The magical Irving Theater

Of all my pre-adolescent memories I have to say with out a doubt that the Saturdays my brother Dave and I spent at the Irving Theater are the fondest memories of all.The time frame would be around 1960 through 1968 or so. It was a single screen theatre on Irving Boulevard about a half mile west of Nursery. We always begged Mom or Dad to drop us off early because we had "our" seats and couldn't let anyone else get them. We sat in the center section, second row, first two seats on the left. Of the hundreds of trips we took there we may have missed those seats maybe once or twice. We each got one dollar. Admission was .35 cents and the .65 cents left bought a Dr. Pepper, popcorn, and Baby Ruth candy bar. I didn't buy them all at once but staggered them through the day. It got me through the afternoon.

The movies of course were the main attraction. We saw all the Elvis movies in their first run release at the Irving Theater and loved every second of every single one. We saw all the Beach Blanket movies there. Annette Funicello was probably the most beautiful female in the world to me at that time and I loved those movies. There were Disney Movies, the Edgar Allen Poe horror movies, Three Stooges movies, and various other kid movies. The most memorable Saturday ever was when "It's a Hard Day's Night" played. It was at the height of Beatlemania and the theatre was totally packed. It was one of the few times we did not get "our" seats and we could not sit together due to being so crowded. I sat next to some teen age girls who were very nice and looked out for me. I remember them screaming and crying. I asked one why was she crying and she said " Because I want them!". I had no idea what she meant.

There was more to it than the movies. It was at the Irving Theater that we were introduced to the cliffhanger serial. These were produced in the 40s and 50s and they ran weekly chapters of each one. Each week the hero would finish the episode in a death trap and we spent all week wondering how he would survive. Somehow he always did live to fight again. At the end of the serial the hero would finally defeat the bad guy once and for all and the world was safe until the next week when the new serial started. To this day Dave and I love the cliffhanger serial. We have purchased copies of some classics over the Internet on DVD. My grand daughter Madi and I have watched one together recently and she enjoyed it.

There were also the dance contests. Each week they would let kids up on the stage to dance and they would eliminate kids until they were down to maybe three and the audience would chose the winner by applause. I went up on the stage to compete one time and had my shoulder tapped rather quickly. I guess there is a reason they haven't asked me to be on "Dancing with the Stars". There were also weekly door prize drawings off your admission ticket stubs. I never won but always believed I would.

Even afterwards waiting for Mom and Dad to come get us was special. There were other little boys to race and other little girls to chase. They had these rails on the steps that we treated like our own personal jungle jim. It was fun flipping somersaults on those bars. There was Mal's Model Shop next door to the theatre and we would look at the models. We were huge fans of the classic movie monster models. Our favorites included The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, and the like. We bought them all and would paint them. Mine were always the worst painted but Mom would come along behind me and paint mine up to look so lifelike. They ended looking just as good as the displays in Mal's window.

The building is still there. I went there maybe 15 years ago and it was at that time some kind of studio. I met the new owner and to the best of my recollection his last name was Peck. He said some TV commercials had actually been filmed in there. It was a pretty neat visit for me.

Today what we knew as the Irving Theater is just another older building in an older part of town. It's nothing special any more. But I do know that there are at least two little boys who by laws of nature were required to grow into middle aged men who still consider that place to be magic. What I don't know and wonder is how many others like us are out there when it comes to that building. How many other baby boomers consider that building to be magical? My guess is that the number would fill the Irving Theater many times over.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 10/14/09

First thing I want to share is that Karen has found us a wonderful new meal. Chicken Helper Chicken Lo Mein is a good healthy dish. It was a little on the bland side but a little salt and soy sauce added made it perfect for me. Karen added some Green Giant steamer vegetables to hers. All I know is that she can cook that meal for me any time.

This week it went the way I wish it would every week. I had no days of gaining weight. Each day I either weighed the same or lost .2 or .4 of a pound. I weighed in this morning at 254.0 for a two pound loss for the week.

I will always use the same sign off of "off and pedaling" because I like it but for what it's worth I am pretty much exclusive jogging trampoline now for my exercise. The weather has a lot to do with that but also it is our TV season now. Every night when I get home we have one or two hours of programs to watch and it just works well for me to do the exercise while watching our shows together.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Ten things from my childhood that you don't see any more

1. The Ice Cream Man... What happened to the daily melody that signaled yummy was on it's way?
2. Chicken Delight delivery cars... Something about that chicken on the roof of the car that endeared itself to me.
3. Kids out on Halloween without parents... Remember when you went EVERYWHERE with just a big group of kids and no one worried? Sad to say my kids don't know those times.
4. The Double Feature Saturday matinee... The kids loved it and the parents had to love it too as it was really a cheap babysitter for the afternoon. Alas the fear of kids safety rears its' ugly head again.
5. Drive In movies...Okay if you drive to Ennis there still is one but what kind of idiot will drive to Ennis ??...er...never mind that one.
6. Variety Shows...man I miss The Carol Burnett Show!!!
7. Horned Frogs....maybe they were the smart ones and got out of town while they still could.
8. Drug Store Soda Fountains..There is still one in downtown Irving but remember when there were 3-4 in Plymouth Park alone? Almost extinct. Best lemonade ever.
9. The Milk Man..remember home delivered milk, eggs, ice cream, etc.? Note to my Mom...remember it's "DON"T let the dog out" and not "let the dog out". The mental picture of the Milk Man trying to get devil dog LittleBit out from under the couch is scary.
10. Shave and a haircut, 6 bits...It's $15.00 now.

I'm back Wednesday with the weigh in.

An embarrassing story and special moment

In July 1969 I suffered the most embarrassing incident of my adolescent life. I was 12 years old and just two months from turning 13 years of age. I was leaving elementary school and about to enter Jr. High School. It was a time of change for me. I grew 8 inches during my sixth grade year and went from a kind of squatty kid to a full blown teenager. I was at that point in my life that you never ever want to look bad in front of the girls. Oh was this was going to be bad night.

There may have been other people there that night but I really only recall the principal players. My best friend Jimmy Cox and I were up at the McCullough girls house playing records. That's what we did in those days. We sat around, played records, and sang our hearts out. The girls would get up and dance but we just watched them dance. Wanda and Mary Nell McCullough were there and so was Kathy Roche. Kathy's presence was of particular importance. For years the older guys were going steady with the older girls but Kathy and I, being the youngest of the bunch, were kind of on the sidelines watching the game. There was a effort, I believe engineered by Mary Nell, to make Kathy and I boyfriend/girlfriend. It almost happened but never really did. This very night may have had a lot to do with that. But I certainly did not want to do anything stupid in front of Kathy. Again, this was going to be a bad night.

In one of the few moments of silence that night, a sound slipped out from my body. I wish I could say it was a good part of my body that it came from but that is not the case. It was very faint and would have been ignored if not for good ole Jimmy Cox. Jimmy let loose with the loudest and most over exaggerated "What was that?" I have ever heard. I stammered for a second and all I could muster was a sickly, feeble "Excuse me". Jimmy howled with laughter. Forever. He doubled over. He cried he was laughing so hard. Seconds became minutes, the minutes seemed to become hours. The girls were polite and tried not to laugh but Jimmy's uncontrollable shrieks were just too much. They were all about to split with laughter and I understand this now but at that moment I just needed to get out of that room. So I did something I had never done in that house and walked to the back den where the McCollough's parents were. They asked me what everyone was laughing about and I just mumbled "nothing". I'm sure that by my beet red face and general attitude they knew that whatever the joke was I was the brunt of it and that I needed shelter.They told me I should stay in there for a few minutes because something special was about to happen. They pointed to their TV and I turned to hear "One small step for man..." .

I wasn't the coolest kid in the house that night. I was, once again, the goofball of the bunch. But I was the only one of the kids that were in the house that night that saw Neil Armstrong, live and as it happened, step on the moon.

I'm off and peddling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 10/07

It was a strange roller coaster week.

Last Wednesday I weighed in at 258.0 pounds. I spent Wednesday afternoon mowing the back yard and ate well Wednesday and was at 256.6 Thursday morning. I weighed 256.4 Friday morning. I was off to such a great start. I got off at 6pm Friday and Karen and I decided to use a Chili's gift certificate she got from work. We split an order of Mushroom Jack chicken fajitas. I also got a bag of chips and salsa to go. I ate half of the fajitas and Karen ate half. I ate what I considered to be a half bowl of chips. I checked the charts at livestrong.com before I decided to order this. It would put me at the high end of my daily allowed calories but it would not put me over. I really thought it was a fine meal. I also decided that as tired as I felt and at the end of a long week missing one night of exercise would be okay so I did not do anything that night.

WRONG

Saturday morning I weighed 260 lbs! There was something in that meal that didn't agree with my metabolism. Also choosing to not exercise on my highest caloric and fat gram day of the week in hindsight was just plain stupid on my part. It was a struggle to get those pounds back off. Monday morning I was at 258.2 which was still .2 higher than I was last Wednesday. I was faced with the prospect of my first week of no weight loss. I am mentally prepared for a week like that by the way and I will not let it discourage me but I am not ready for it. I ate my regular healthy routine Monday and Tuesday and did 15 minutes each night on the jogging trampoline. This morning I weighed in at an even 256.0 pounds. Somehow I did obtain my weekly goal of a 2 pound weight loss.

Friday I have the story of how the single most embarrassing incident of my adolescent life turned into a pretty special moment.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

The Haunted House

I believe all kids are fascinated by "The Haunted House." I really feel that every kid wants to go to a haunted house. If you don't have a haunted house in your neighborhood you pretend that you do. That's what the kids in my neighborhood did growing up. We had a vacant house that we considered haunted and made several field trips to until one evening something happened that scared us all so bad we never went back there.

The house was on the far northwestern border of our neighborhood. We would go to Pat and Kathy Roche's house and walk through the back yard. We then crossed the field and headed west. It set back about 100 yards off Belt Line. It was a large, old, vacant, and dilapidated house. The doors were open so we could go in any time we wanted to. I went inside that house a few times during daylight hours but I would never go there at night. It was spooky and it was frightening. Part of the fear was deep down inside we all knew that our being in that house was wrong and that if we got caught we were in big trouble. The thing that really fascinated me about this house is that it had a storm cellar. It remains to this day the only storm cellar I have ever seen. It was much like the one in the Wizard of Oz. It was next to the house and it had a trap door that covered it. The door was hinged at the top and required lifting up from the bottom to open it. It was full of trash and was very scary to go down into. That storm cellar gave me the creeps.

One day we were thrown a weird curve ball. Someone had cleaned out the storm cellar. It had a little ledge inside and there was even a mattress on it. This freaked us all out. We decided we had to find out who did that and what was going on in there. We decided to make a field trip out to the place and check it out. We went around dusk and there was still a small amount of daylight left. About half of the kids in our group were there but I really can't say exactly who was there and who wasn't there that night. I do know my brother Dave was not there. Our leader David Skaggs was there and he led the way. There was comfort in knowing David was in charge. We tried to make our way silently towards the house and as is the case with a group of kids silence was next to impossible. I have a clear recollection though of the closer we got David Skaggs telling us over and over to be quiet. David made it to about five feet from the storm cellar door. Mike Skaggs was a few feet behind his brother and Jimmy Cox and I were a few feet behind them. We had actually arrived at our planned destination. We just had no idea what to do next. That decision was made easy for us. There was a sudden creak coming from the cellar door and we could all see that the door was starting to raise. It took about 6 inches of raising for us all to reach the same conclusion and that was we needed to TURN AROUND AND RUN FOR OUR LIVES. Seeing who was down there was no longer our mission as survival was our new goal. Our leader David left nothing but a cloud of dust for us to follow and follow it we did. I had never in my life felt as much sheer terror. I could picture Dracula turning into a bat and flying after me just before the Wolf Man jumped on my back. But somehow we all survived. We ran as a group to the Skagg's house and just trembled with fear for about 30 minutes until we could catch our breath and calm down. We came to a realization that night. We decided that playing records with the girls was a much better way to spend our time. None of us ever went to that house again.

I'm back Wednesday with the weigh in...off and pedaling for now.

We were also Goonies

I love watching movies with my Granddaughter Madi. What is really special is when I introduce her to a favorite from my past that becomes a favorite of hers. A prime example of that is "Abbott & Costellos's Jack and the Beanstalk". We have watched it a hundred times and can still watch it today and find new things to laugh at in this movie. Two weeks ago I bought her "The Goonies". I remember watching it with my girls and that they absolutely loved that movie. It has now become a favorite of Madi's. The movie is about a neighborhood of kids on an adventure together. There is the older cool teen brother and his love interest. There is the younger brother with asthma. He is an optimist and a tireless worker who never gives up on anything. There are the rest of the neighborhood kids. One is a brainiac inventor, one is a wisenhiemer smart mouth, one is an eating machine. There is a younger girl that was more mature than the younger guys her age. None of the younger guys see as attractive yet but by the end of the movie you see her and her main nemesis, the smart mouth kid, share a "moment". First spark of puppy love perhaps. They were all different but they all were pieces of the puzzle that made up the neighborhood and together they were something special. They called themselves "The Goonies".
Reflecting on that movie led me to compare them to my childhood neighborhood and I came to the conclusion that we had this core group of kids that were also Goonies.

I grew up in a neighborhood with houses full of kids. We all knew each other. We all played together. Some years the kid next door was your best friend, some years it was the kid on the next street, and the next year those two were best friends and you found someone else to be your best friend. It was all good in the end because we were all pieces of the same pie. We lived in the middle of Williamsburg street. My Goonie story starts with my brother Dave. He is two years older than me. Dave was my first playmate and my first best friend. Others come and others go but Dave and I will always have each other. Dave was very smart and he was the one who had a way with the ladies.Two houses to the left lived David and Mike Skaggs. David was about 5 years older than me , the oldest kid on the block, and was every one's hero. For little boys the biggest, strongest, and fastest kid on the block is revered. He was funny and he was so cool. He never bullied us and in fact he was just one of the guys. But he was the leader, no doubt about that. His little brother Mike was my first playmate outside of my brother. He was a year older than me. Smallish kid and very funny. Mike was a mechanical whiz. Next door on the other side was Kenneth Johnson. He was Dave's age. His parents were older and a little more strict than everyone else's parents. Kenneth was kind of nerdish but in a good way. He taught me the joy of roller skating. Kenneth had an older brother David and he always scared me. He was the same age as David Skaggs but I considered him more bully than buddy. That is probably not fair to David because he was not a bad guy. Around the corner one way was Jimmy Cox. Jimmy was Dave's age. I was terrified of Jimmy until the third grade and then we found out that we shared two things. We both loved to sing and we both loved to laugh. Jimmy and I became inseparable for many years and stayed close until he graduated high school and moved away. Around the corner the other way was Pat Roche. He was Dave's age and just a great guy. Pat was always calm and laid back and he loved to laugh. He also could run like a deer. Mark Stephens became a part of the group when I was in maybe the 4th or 5th grade. He was an outsider who showed up on his bike one day and through overall general coolness and a passionate love for The Beatles was an instant fit in the core group. The last Goonie was Roger Buchanan. Roger was Dave's age. He lived around the block from us and in fact our back yards butted up to each other. I really didn't get to know Roger until I was in the 4th or 5th grade but his easy going nature made him fun to be around.

And then there were the girls. There was Pat's sister Kathy. She was a year older than me. She was also calm natured and was definitely the sweetest girl on the block. The girls on the hill were the McCollough sisters. There were two that were much older. Shirley was the oldest and she was 6-7 years older than me. Barbara was a year or two younger than Shirley. Barbara was gorgeous and she was David Skaggs first girl friend. Way to go David!. Wanda McCollough was Dave and Pat's age. She was a fiesty red head and was Pat Roche's first love interest. The youngest McCullough girl Mary Nell was a year older than me. She was definitely the fem fetale of the bunch. She was a pretty blonde and was Dave's first offical steady girl friend that I recall. She may have been everyone's first girl friend except mine although I'm not sure of that. She kind of went through the whole group. Although they were younger and not really a part of the core group I have to include my two younger sisters. Betty Ann was 4 years younger and Dinah was 8 years younger than me. They had their own group of Goonie friends ( The Glover kids, Dotson kids, etc) but they were all much younger than I was so I have not included them in my list.

There were a few other kids on the outer boundaries of the neighborhood that we interacted with as well. There was Neil, Betsy, and Patsy Farris on Luke Street. On Jamestown there was Vance, Denise and Stephen Galimore and Charlie Rucker. On Roanoke street were Charles Cox and Karen BeKnight. I am sure that there a couple of kids that I am forgetting and I apologize to the world if I left a name off that obviously belongs here.

Note one recurring item here and that is in our core group EVERYONE WAS OLDER THAN ME. Being the youngest presented challenges. I was kind of a goof ball. I was not as active romantically with the girls as the other guys. I wanted to be the funny one and sometimes I was, sometimes I wasn't. I consider this neither good nor bad. It is just the way it was.

I have some neighborhood adventures I intend to share from time to time but today I just want to introduce the cast. To summarize the main characters :
Rick Holland... youngest and part time village idiot
Dave Holland... Rick's brother. Part boy genius, part boy Casanova
Betty Ann and Dinah...Rick and Daves younger sisters
David Skaggs... Oldest and coolest
Mike Skaggs.... Funny little guy, great mechanically.
Jimmy Cox.... Rick's best friend
Kenneth Johnson... Artistic one of the bunch
David Johnson... Kenneth's older brother
Pat Roche... Mr Laid back
Mark Stephens... Joined group as we were pre teens but was instant fit.
Roger Buchanan ... He had the most easy going nature of the whole group.
Kathy Roche, Mary Nell McCollough, Wanda McCollough, Shirley McCollough, Barbara McCollough... the girls on the hill and love interests to the above listed males.

Monday...The Story of the Haunted House...I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 9/30/09

Jumping from one set of 10 lbs. to the next lowest is always exciting. I am now officially under 260. I weighed in at 258 this morning for a 2.2 lb. weekly loss. I have lost just over 20 lbs. in about 6 weeks. I am setting a goal of 245 by Thanksgiving, 238 by January 1st. My original long term weight goal was to be 210 by Memorial Day 2010. As my weight drops I expect the weight loss to become a little slower but I feel good about the pace I'm on.

One thing I can tell my family members is that I will be easy to buy for at Christmas time this year. If you draw my name I NEED WORK CLOTHES! What I have now is starting to fall off me. No brag, just fact...okay I AM BRAGGING! I really have no idea what size I'll be so Walmart or even Sam's gift certificates are what I want. They carry a good Docker type pant that I wear and they have good oxford dress work shirts too.

Tomorrow I start a new series that I plan to work in called "We were also Goonies". Be sure and check it out.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

I usually post on Mondays but...

It's my birthday. I don't get a day off work so I'm taking a day off posting.

I'm back Wednesday with the weigh in and unless I really blow it these next two days ( and I am capable of massive "blowing-it") it's going to be a good one.

I'm off and pedaling for now

TV Talk

Amazing Race starts Sunday with 2 hour premier. If you have never watched this please try it out. It is the most wholesome of all reality shows and is edge of your seat intense. My favorite show of all.

Survivor...This is the best Survivor in several seasons. Russell makes Johnny Fairplay look like a boy scout.

Dancing with the Stars...Very enthused after one week, I like several people but Michael Irvin is embarrassingly bad. The swimmer is my early favorite among the gals and Donny will be hard to beat with the fans although there are a couple of guys with talent.

Hells Kitchen..this is winding down to the end. A disappointing season actually as there are some marginal people still around this late. If that guy Dave hadn't broken his wrist I think he would be the run away winner. Gordon Ramsey alone makes this worth watching. He fascinates me.

Greys Anatomy..may be an interesting season. Ellen Pompeo (Meredith) is pregnant in real life but her pregnancy is not being written into the show. Look for less of Meredith and more of the rest of the cast and that I predict will be a good thing.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 9/23/09

The most encouraging thing this week is that I had a couple of days where I ate "outside the box" and it didn't kill me. I actually gained 2 lbs on Thursday and Friday but after eating smart the rest of the week I weighed in at 260.2 lbs this morning for a 1.8 lb. loss for the week and I will take that.

With the rain and weather I am using the jogging trampoline quite a bit now. I just love that little thing.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

One nice surprise, one not so nice

We had a nice surprise Friday night when Laura and Jenna showed up with pizza and brownies for Karen's birthday. It's always so good to see the girls and we didn't even know they were coming. Then on top of that they bring food! That was great. What I learned after they left though is just how bad pizza is when you are trying to watch what you eat. The really good pizzas (my kind of pizza) are loaded with fat grams. I really didn't over eat but I gained a couple of pounds that day. I love pizza just like everyone else but I have to watch it from now on whenever I am near pizza.

I'm back Wednesday with the weigh in.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

My first big bike adventure

My brother Dave and I loved detective books when we were kids. We were avid readers of the Hardy Boys series. Life was a big mystery and it was up to us to find the clues that would solve the case. I remember our first case which in true Hardy Boy fashion I call "The Case of the Lost Slip of Paper with the Address on it".

One day we were in the old JC Penny store that was in Plymouth Park Shopping center. Dave was in the 4th or fifth grade at the time and I was in the second or third. Dave found a scrap of paper that had an address on Winslow street written on it. Winslow is near the intersection of Northgate and Finley and at that time that was the far northern tip of the city of Irving.

THIS WAS THE CLUE WE HAD BEEN WAITING FOR!!

We decided that returning this scrap of paper to the address on Winslow street would solve the case. How would we get from 3124 Williamsburg to Winslow Street? Our twin gold sting ray bikes of course. Our Mom would never give us permission to ride across town so we had to make it a covert mission. Dave, our friend Mike Skaggs, and I embarked on the case solving trip. It was far and away the longest bike ride I had ever been on. It was at that moment when I realized the power of the bike. It provided mobility and freedom that I'd never known up to that point. It was exhilarating actually.

Okay, back to the case...I had imagined knocking on their door, telling them we found this very important slip of paper, and taking the hugs of gratitude we no doubt had earned from the tearful and grateful mother. No one was home. We wrote a note telling the owner that we found this scrap at JC Penneys, gave them our phone number if they had any questions, and left it on their porch. We never heard back but I'm sure we saved the day for them. We had solved "The Case of the Lost Slip of Paper with the Address on it".

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 09/16/09

I have to say one thing..I hate the treadmill. My old friend the jogging trampoline is about to make a comeback.

The weather/rain cost me some riding time this week but I ate well and it was still a good week. This morning I hit the scales at 262.00 for a 2.4 lb. loss for the week.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Old diet vs. new diet

I used the word "diet" in the title but let me state once again that I am not on a diet. I am eating three meals a day with fruit, salads and sometimes even cereal as snacks. But there are reasons I gained so much weight before and reasons that I am losing weight now and I want to look at some of those reasons.

My worst eating of the day used to be breakfast. My old eating had too many donuts. My cleaners is next to a donut shop. Twice a week I made the cleaner run and that included a quick run into the donut shop. We also have donuts at the dealership every Saturday morning. I have not had a single donut in a month. I am not saying I will never eat a donut again but I won't eat very many until my weight is under control. I also used to eat a lot of fast food breakfast meals. The charts at Livestrong.com have revealed to me that those aren't good healthy choices. Karen makes me a home cooked wheat bread toast, bacon, egg, and low fat cheese sandwich almost every morning now. This breakfast has 1/3 the fat grams as what I was eating. When she doesn't cook I eat the delicious Jimmy Dean low cal breakfast sandwich or a hot pocket breakfast. If you haven't tried these get you a box and sample it. Good tasting food can be healthy too and these little jewels are proof.

For lunch and supper I pretty much eat the best thing from my old consumption routine which is Karen's cooking. Her left overs from the previous day were and still are the best things I can eat at work each day. Karen not only is a wonderful cook but she has always cooked healthy food for me. If you have to eat fast food, and sometimes that is all we have time for, my favorite choices are Subway (of course) and Taco Bell. Three regular Taco Bell tacos fills me up and that meal has 510 calories and 30 fat grams. Any complete meal that has around 30 fat grams is good for me as my daily goal is 100 for the day. My old favorite fast food meal was a Jumbo Jack, two tacos, and large fries (1600 calories, 83 fat grams). That is about what I try to consume for the total day now so needless to say I don't eat that meal any more. I used to eat a meal after work. The main problem there is I get home after 9:30 most nights. We now send my entire day of meals to work with me and I eat my last meal around 7 o'clock. If I get home really hungry I will eat a bowl of cereal but in the last 4 weeks that has only happened three times. I have cut back on sweets. I loved Karen's baggie of oreos or the honey bun he used to give me but we have replaced that with fruit. I really haven't missed the sugar and the fruit gives me all the sweetness I need.

Well that pretty much sums up the old diet vs. the new. I am not starving my self although I do let myself get hungry before I eat now. I just can't put into words how much better I feel.

I'm back Wednesday with the weigh in.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

TV talk

It is probably accurate to say that for most people the number one form of entertainment in our lives is TV. I have always loved watching TV. For Karen and me watching our shows together is our bonding time. We have certain can't miss shows and many of them are starting in the next two weeks. I plan on making TV talk a semi regular report where I review and discuss our shows. We have a new entry this year and that is the show "Glee" on Fox. The first episode of the season was last night and I find this show a little quirky but highly entertaining. It is not a musical but being a show about the school's musical group it has a lot of singing and dancing in it so you know that is a plus for us. WE LOVE MUSICALS. If you missed the Wednesday show it will be repeated Friday night, try and catch it. Observation number one on "Glee" is that that character of Sue Sylvester, the cheer leading coach, may be the meanest female character I've seen since the witch in "Wizard of Oz" but she is an absolute hoot.

Our shows that are either on or starting soon...Numbered but not in order of favoritism.

1. Amazing Race...the most intense hour of TV each week. My favorite show.
2. Dancing with the Stars...We love it. Gosh I wish I could dance like that.
3. Survivor....We never get tired of it. The original is still one of the best.
3. Grey's Anatomy...sometimes irritating, sometimes compelling, it still is must watch although of all the shows on our list it is the one I can miss without caring really.
4. Hell's Kitchen....We missed the first 2 seasons but got hooked in season three. Surprised me how entertaining it is. Gordon Ramsey is fascinating and terrifying.
5. Lost...Have not missed a second of this series. Confusing yes, but good anyway. This will be the last season and I hope it explains everything.
6. Next Food Network/Design Network Star...These are summer shows and we just love them. Competition with weekly eliminations. Food Star is over, Design Star finale this Sunday.
7. American Idol...Nothing need be said here.
8. 24...The most intense drama on TV...hardest part here is waiting till next week's episode.
9. Dark Blue...Summer series on TNT. It features Dylan McDermott who played Bobby Donnell on "The Practice". Finale is next week. This has been good. Intense under cover cop show.

I probably forgot a few shows..I will make updates to this list.

I'll return Monday. I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 09/09/09

It was a good week. I have one thing I would like to mention and that is that I have increased my rice consumption . Knorr rice mixes are so easy to fix and with their many flavors you get a variety. We had fajitas Sunday and I have been eating rice and fajita meat mixes for lunch. It is delicious and there are very few fat grams in rice. Fajita meat is high protein and low fat too. I feel full but not bloated. Highly recommended.

I lost 3.4 lbs. this week I now tip the scales at 264.4 pounds. That's about a 16 pound total loss so far.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Bike memories

Teaching your kids how to ride a bike is, to quote Charles Dickens, "the best of times and the worst of times". The worst part is of course the hours spent running beside and holding the bike up for them. It is exhausting and at times frustrating. The best part though is the site of them when they start pedaling on their own. None of us were born with the ability to ride a bicycle. We just learn how some way. It doesn't happen in the first 5 minutes or even on the first try. It takes several tries and a few falls before we get it down. I'm not sure how accurate this is but my recollection is that my Grandfather Roger Howard ( my Mom's Dad) is the person who got me going originally. We were at their house on the corner of Staffordshire and Conflans. I'm pedaling away on the sidewalk and so thankful he is holding me up. I glance over my shoulder to make sure he won't let go and he is gone! I immediately panic and fall but he comes and lifts me up. He tells me I have been riding by myself and that I can do it. He got me going again, told me he was letting go, and off I went.

I do recall Karen and I both training Melanie and Kimberly. I recall very vividly when they got it. We were on the LB Barton blacktop. There was plenty of room and no other traffic. After several tries it happened. Kim got it first. I can't believe she stayed up given the way her front wheel went back and forth but she did. The wobbling lasted maybe 5 minutes but then she was zipping all over that blacktop. I was so proud of her. Well big sister Melanie would have none of that and with new determination she got on her bike and within 15 minutes of Kim's first solo ride she had it down too. It was a great day.

The younger two daughters were a lot easier on me because the older sisters provided more training than I did. Karen, Mel, and Kim taught Laura. I do remember getting home from work and Laura calling me outside to show me she could ride. She was so proud and I was even prouder. Laura picked it up fast and she was good on her bike in a short time. I really don't know how Jenna learned to ride but I remember when I found out that she did. I was outside in the front yard while the kids were playing. Little Jenna comes flying down the sidewalk on a little 12 inch bike without training wheels. She was so young and tiny that it had never occurred to me that she ready to learn how to ride a bike but she was off and pedaling. I'll give the credit to her sisters for teaching her. Whoever taught her I owe a big thank you.

The thing about memories is we own them to ourselves. Sometimes they aren't totally accurate and my recollections may not be 100 percent the way things actually happened. But this is how I recall the events and they are some of the best memories of my life.

Back Wednesday with the weigh in. I'm off and pedaling for now.

Random thoughts while riding...

Sometimes I get home late and it's just too late for Karen to ride. I still take a solo ride. Random thoughts for the solo rides...

Why is everything funnier when I am laughing at it with my grandaughter Madi?....I am happiest when Karen, my daughters, and my granddaughter are in the same room with me.....I don't like to be seen when I am heavy.....I miss the elementary school years.....Thank you, Karen Lay, for teaching me about fat grams.....Does Jack Bauer ride a bike? .....Karen is so beautiful on her bike.....Like Forrest Gump, I once could run like the wind blows.....I have a great family.....I wish I was The Shadow.....Winning the lottery would be so much better than going to work every day.....I can't wait until Madi can ride without training wheels..... ~~~que sera, sera~~~whatever will be, will be~~~ .....I should have listened to Karen more through the years.....I remember pedaling the bike being a lot easier than it is now.....Go Rangers!.....Even the safe residential streets, at night and in the dark, are kind of spooky.....Is my front wheel assembled backwards? It is!!!


But most of the time my mind is just blank.

I'll be back on Monday. I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 09/02/09

Before we get to the weigh in, I must share something that I have come to grips with. I can not ride my bicycle every day. I have always known that come winter I would need other forms of exercise. The cooler weather we've had lately is so nice but let me tell you it is actually already chilly during a morning ride. I feel that winter riding will catch me my death of cold. The good news is that my bike knows it is my first love and is not jealous. My bike knows I will always come back to it. I am going to start working a treadmill into the exercise routine. Daily exercise is the key and I will get mine in one way or the other.

Well I maybe have hit the wall. I ate well all week and rode every day. The bad news is I was hoping to keep the 4 lb. per week loss pace up and it didn't happen. The good news is that I did hit my weekly goal and lost 2.2 lbs for the week. I weigh 267.6 for now and I am still committed to get to 210-ish by Memorial Day 2010.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

There are many possible morals to this story...

I imagine what a prospective adoption parent must go through and feel. When you finally get your baby it just has to seem absolutely perfect to you. Then after a couple of weeks you notice it's imperfections but you deal with them. I have been through this sort of thing with my bike the last two weeks.

All little boys love their bikes. When I got this shiny red bike it was love at first sight. It was awkward pedaling at first but I attributed that to my declining motor skills and physical conditioning. And I did get better at riding it. But this bike did present ongoing challenges. It was hard to control, especially at start up and lower speeds. It also seemed harder to pedal than I felt it should have been. I felt from day one that the front wheel was too close to me and even commented on that to Karen. I noticed on our rides together that there were times she was coasting but I had to keep pedaling to keep up with her. A boy having to ride harder to keep up with a girl? I would not have survived childhood if that had been the way it was back then. I was starting to think of ways I could modify the bike. Maybe adding a banana seat or new handle bars, something to make this ride right. It never occurred to me that maybe it something was not assembled correctly...until yesterday.

I have shared how we got our bikes. We bought them, at a good price, fully assembled from a guy who buys them at auctions. He is a nice guy but not a bike shop owner. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page you can see our bikes. Notice the fork that holds the front tire. It has slight crook in it that extends away from the pedals. My bike was assembled with the fork backwards! This shortened my wheel base and caused all the problems I listed above. All I had to do was loosen a nut and turn the fork and handlebars in the correct direction. I did this and a light shone from above and a dove flew down to my shoulder and a voice from heaven said " It's about time you figured that out Einstein!"

So of all the possible morals to this story I choose to go with "All's well that ends well".

I'm back Wednesday with the weigh in... off and pedaling for now.

What is the ideal body weight?

What is an ideal body weight for me? What is your ideal body weight? Well as always I turn to my good friend Google and ask the question. There are several answers of course. What drives me nuts is the opinion of the medical profession. They say a man 69.5" tall at my age and big boned should be 131-171 lbs. In my junior year of high school, in the best physical condition I was ever in and at this height, I weighed 167 lbs. I do not find their number to be realistic. In my search of sites I found the one that has what I believe the most realistic number. The site is http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/body.htm . The number is the average weight for people my height, age, and gender and they say my goal weight should be 214-218 lbs. Given where I am now that number would be great. I initially set my goal at 210 lbs and I do plan to get somewhere in that range. But what then?

I have set weight goals before and I met them. I then celebrated over the next year or two by putting all the weight back on. Tracking pounds is important. It is how we can measure our success. But this ultimately isn't about hitting a weight. It's about eating a diet and exercising enough to keep my weight where it should be for the rest of my life once I get there. I guess my goal this time is to get there and then keep on pedaling and eating right.

This will be my last post of the week. I'll return on Monday.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday is weigh in day

Tip of the day: Lean Cuisine Panini sandwiches. Healthy food never tasted better and at only 3 minutes in the microwave has never been easier to fix.

When you are trying to lose weight every pound lost is good but the pound that takes you from one set of 10 to the next lowest set of 10 is always special.I am now under 270! I hit the scales this morning at 269.8 lbs. I love digital scales by the way. Any loss, even 2/10 of a pound, is reflected and just lifts my spirits.

I have lost over 8 lbs in two weeks. The weight loss is always quicker early on and I don't know if I can keep that kind of pace up or not. I guess we'll see what happens.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

The sins of the children visiting the parents?

My mom gave a good reminder tip today. It's something we all know but don't practice. The funny thing is I recall when I was six years old and we would eat at the dinner table my mom would tell me to do this very thing and yet to this day she still has to remind herself to follow her own advice. Mom, this is actually quite a relief. I thought it only me.

To quote my Mom... " slow down, chew longer, maybe take smaller bites. If I want to eat half as much, try to make it last twice as long. They say it takes 20 minutes for your stomach to "feel the full" from what you're eating. "

Okay I'm back Wednesday with the weigh in.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Keep those tips coming in...PLEASE!

One thing I have quickly learned about writing a blog is that there is only so much you can say. I can only say " I ate well and rode my bike last night" so many times before it gets old. Fortunately the great encouragement I have received along with what you all have shared with me has provided most of the content here so far. Be sure and let me know of any cool websites and/or programs you know about so I can share them with everyone.

Today's tip comes from my daughter Kimberly. She, and anyone else who knows me, knows how much I love french fries. I have always loved them deep fried too. They are obviously much healthier baked but you lose so much in the flavor and texture areas. Well Kim told us about a way to bake the fries and get deep fried texture and taste and it is so simple! First you Spray the sheet with Canola oil non stick spray. Then spread the fries in a single layer and spray the fries with the same canola non stick spray. They are wonderful prepared this way. The crispiness and deep brown look and most importantly the taste that you get with deep frying is all there. Tip number two is my own. You should cook only the recommended serving size portion and when it's gone it is gone. Now this is simple and most of you have probably done this all your life but just understand this is a new practice to me.

I'll have my next post Wednesday and every Wednesday is weigh in day. See you then.

I'm off and pedaling for now...FLAME ON!!!

So what's on the menu these days?

I believe that should be allowed to eat good food that I enjoy. I believe can have a couple of wickedly delicious fat gram loaded meals each week too. It's how we balance it out that makes the difference. Unfortunately I forget to balance these things out. I also forget to get in my exercise. There are many forms of exercise available to us. I once was hooked on the jogging trampoline and still believe that for the price it is the best piece of exercise equipment on the market. I have one now and in the cold if the winter I plan on removing the dust and using it too. What I have to do is make the once and for all lifetime commitment to eat smart and always exercise. The trick for me is that I work all day every day sitting at a desk as a finance manager at a car dealership. Most of my food is microwaved meals or re heated leftovers (not that there's anything wrong with that). So with that in mind we search for a healthy eating plan.


My Mom put me on to a cool website and that is http://www.livestrong.com/. If you click the link to "diet & fitness" and then click "daily plate" there is a form you can fill out with your age, height, current weight, weight loss goals, and level of exercise you will be doing. It then tells you how many calories a day you can eat and still hit your weight loss goal. According to their chart, at a moderate exercise level, I can consume 2400 calories a day and obtain my goal of losing 2 lbs per week. I took it one additional step and registered (for free) at livestrong.com. I can tell them what I ate each day and they tell me how many calories and fat grams I have consumed.I am honestly surprised that I can eat 2400 calories and still lose weight. It doesn't mean that I will eat that much either. In fact I am going to try and stay below that each day. On the days I go over I will try to make up for it the next day. I LOVE THIS WEBSITE AND RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY. Thanks for the tip Mom!

This is what I ate Wednesday:
Breakfast- Jimmy dean frozen low cal breakfast sandwich. You can buy these at Sam's. Delicious and filling. I ate it at 8:15 on the drive in to work. I also had a banana. It kept me full until lunch time.
7 fat grams, 260 calories

Lunch at 1:00 pm- One Totinos Supreme pizza. This is the small one that Kroger runs on sale all the time for $1.00 each. I also had a one ounce serving of Frito's.
Pizza- 40 fat grams, 740 calories Frito's- 10 fat grams, 160 calories

Supper-Good size portion of Karen's world class spaghetti. The only thing I like more than the sight of Karen's leftovers is the sight of Karen herself.
Spaghetti- 40 grams fat and 640 calories.

For the day I was at about 100 fat grams and 1800 calories. I ate well and was never hungry. I rode that night and lost .8 lb from the previous day. These are the types of eating days I am having now. We'll see if it gets me where I need to be.This will be the final post for the week. I'll be back Monday.

I'm off and pedaling for now.