ten days

I have been on vacation for the last ten days. I ate like the old days and even had a night of too much wine. I did not exercise at all. And still, after all that, I remain at 225 pounds. Hurray! Now to lose some more.

Get your own graph at skinnyr

Lucy and her cousins

Lucy and Pete play on the floor at the farm after Easter dinner.


Lucy was part of a big Uno Tournament in Syracuse with cousins Alison, on left and Ellen, wearing glasses. I think it ended in a tie.

March is colorectal cancer month

Here is an editorial published in the Marion Star this week.

Everyone can be a hero

There are many ways to become a hero, but the most direct route to hero status is to save a life.

You might think that most people never have the opportunity to save a life. You would be wrong.

All of us have the ability to save a life and it is ridiculously easy.
When you start to get close to your 50th birthday start asking your doctor if you should schedule a colonoscopy.

A colonoscopy can save your life.

During the procedure, pre-cancerous polyps can be identified and removed, thus cancer is prevented and a life is saved.

Colon cancer is the third most prevalent cancer in the United States in both men and women and it is the most preventable.

The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 108,070 new cases of colon cancer and 40,740 new cases of rectal cancer in 2008 in the United States. Combined, they will cause about 49,960 deaths.

That is an alarming number for a cancer that can be so easy to detect and prevent.

In addition to screening for the disease you can lower your risk by eating right and exercising.

It is important to eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain foods and to limit intake of high-fat foods.

You should exercise at least for at least 30 minutes, five or more days per week.

It's all very simple and it's all live saving.

Are you a hero, just because the life you saved was your own? We think so. The longer you hang around the better your chances are getting the opportunity to save someone else's life.

I was a disc jockey in the eighties and this speaks to me

quick mix

Seldom seen cat

In my book, a seldom seen cat is the best kind of cat. Scaredy, however, takes elusiveness to a ridiculous level.

St. Patrick's Day gear

Lucy had been telling us for over a week that despite her school banning pinching she needed to wear green on St. Patrick's Day.
So, Mary laid out a very nice muted forest green "Life is Good" t-shirt for Lucy to wear on March 17.
Lucy took one look at it and said, "That's not my kind of green. It has too much gray in it."
Something more garish is what she wanted. As always, she got it.

Funny because it is true

I got this here

Lucy cartwheels

Lucy has been to two gymnastics classes. She is liable to bust out a cartwheel at any moment. You always have to be on guard. Aside from the penultimate snap, these pix are awful. They do, however, give you an idea of what is going on. The leotard was just purchased. She slept in it that night.

weigh-in day for week 17

Get your own graph at skinnyr

Today is weigh-in day for week 17. I am at 223 pounds. That's two pounds less than last week and 27 pounds less than my starting weight. I am three pounds away from my short-term goal and 24 pounds away from my long-term goal (which, I suppose, will soon become my next short-term goal). I am averaging a loss of 6.35 pounds per month, which is 3.35 pounds ahead of my goal. My body fat percentage is 30.8 percent. That's down from 31.4 percent last week. My BMI is 32. Normal BMI is below 25, which now seems possible. ... When I started out 17 weeks ago I didn't think I would get this far. Especially using my plan, which was basically nothing. I believed that I could lose weight if I made just small changes to my life. So, I started exercising on a regular basis. I walk for three miles as often as I can (most of the time five days a week). I bought a bike trainer ($95) to make sure I had something to do on horrible weather days. I started talking a yoga class ($40 for seven weeks). I only moderated my eating. I tried to eliminate "seconds" eating between meals and eating after dinner. I have also limited my beer consumption to special occasions. I really didn't think it would work. I was hoping it would and I was hoping that I would be able to show people that it wasn't that hard to do. And, it hasn't been. Sometimes I am proud of my success and other times I feel like there is nothing to be proud of because it was so simple (and because I have so far to go). Controlling one's weight and becoming fit is the easiest, cheapest and most important thing you can do to improve your health. I had to have three doctors lecture me (all but one very nicely) before I got it. If I had listened to the first one eight years ago, I would be a lot further along.

Things only change a little

When I started out at the Malone Telegram back in 1991 it seems like I went to a barn fire just about every week. I always had my camera, a Pentax K1000 with me. Wednesday morning the phone rang at 3 a.m. and just like the old days I was on the road and out to a fire. This time it was a building downtown in the little hamlet of LaRue just west of Marion. I have a digital camera now A Fuji FinePix S700. This was the best image I shot that morning.

More Snow pictures

My Talented Friends

The creator and I worked together at WEAV back in the day ... Way back in the day.

Our traveling friends

Our friend Dirk from Germany was in the United States this winter with his family. Wisely they visited the desert.

Bei unserem Las Vegas Trip machten wir auch einen Tagesausflug ins wunderschöne "Valley of Fire". Wir waren von den in der Sonne glühenden Felsen sehr begeistert. Ach ja - am Lake Mead waren wir dann auch noch.

Translation (with help from Babel Fish)During our Vegas Trip we made a day trip into the beautiful "Valley OF Fire". We were very much inspired by the sun on the glowing rock. Oh - We also went to Lake Mead.

My Talented Kin

Niece Ellen and a short film about travel.

snow cat

Sunny is wondering why we moved him here from North Carolina. Frankly, we are thinking the same thing.

snow photos

step one in snow angel creation.


The car is there for scale. But, it doesn't work. The house is a lot bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.


You can see how the snow drifted around on the roof.

Lucy and Tom

We had so much fun there was a little snow on the lens.

snow photos coming

here is a taste.

Here's the snow

Lots of shoveling and walking to work in my future. Looks like we might end up with about 12 inches. This is what the shrubbery in my front yard looked like at 4:30 a.m.

My antenna topper weather gauge was reading "snow" this morning.

16 weeks of weight loss

I have dropped 25 pounds or 10 percent of my former body weight - somebody do the math for this journalist. I am now 25 pounds from my goal for this year. I think I might make it. ... If I don't fail.

Another long election day

I went outside three times to scrape ice off my car. Each was an act of futility. Much like the rest of the day.

I started at 9 a.m. and got home at about 3 a.m. I got up this morning at about 5:55 a.m. to monitor the weather. The weather sucks and the election was inconclusive. The answer to all of this might indeed be 42. Or, maybe I am a little punchy.