Into the Sun

It is the time of year when my drive to and from work is directly into the sun. It lasts for about three weeks every Spring and Fall, and continues until the sunrise and set have moved more furtherer away from each other and the sun is high enough in the sky that it no longer stares me in the face.

This is an afternoon shot, heading west at I-90 and Argonne Road.

In the meantime, I am flapping the visors about furiously in a quest to block the sunshine as I drive the freeway towards my work...or home.....depending on the time of day.

The Ol' Reliable

The pain in my right knee, whether caused by gout, arthritis or a marauding knee urchin has subsided. I am trying to keep track of when this thing occurs and how long it lasts.

Last time was a month ago, starting on January 23rd and lasting for about a week. This incident started on February 25th and is gone today. I am completely off my gout meds and trying to manage any future gout-breaks with diet. It seems I need to keep beer intake at a minimal level.

That has been helped by the South Beach Diet, where we give up beer for Lent. We are into Phase Two of South Beach and I am maintaining at 205. I rise above, I dip below, but I always come back to good ol' reliable Two O Fi5e.

Struggling Downward

I hopped on the scale this morning to discover I had lost another pound, down to 203 today. I'll probably end up doing something stupid today that will make me pop up to 207 but the goal is to try an avoid that possibility.

I'm doing a ride along tonight with an officer of the Spokane Police Department. I'm supposed to check in at the Court House at 3:45 and then I'll be taken to my officer. The ride along will last about five hours. I'll chronicle here when (if) I return.

Wow O Wowzy Woo! I have returned from my five hour ride along with Spokane Police Officer Austin Toal and all I can say is Wow O Wowzy Woo!!!

We started the shift out with some investigative work. Apparently, there were bomb threats called in to several schools today. We drove around to a few addresses following up on leads on a kid who didn't want to go to school today because he knew what was going to happen.

All the leads fizzled out.

Our first official call was to a house where an run away was living. It turned out there were two sets of parents there looking for two different kids. The cops went in and I waited outside. I didn't want to thrust myself into their problems but I probably should have. It was cold out and they were in the house for about 20 minutes.

Finally the two kids came out and went with their parents.

Upon finishing that call we pulled a kid over on his bicycle because he had no lights and no helmet. In other words, the way I rode my bike my whole kid life. He was almost home when we pulled him over and Officer Toals let him go with a warning.

Next we went to a DV (Domestic Violence) call that was just a few blocks away from the house. The couple was divorced but the woman moved back in to try and work things out. The guy (Justin)informed her yesterday that it wasn't working out and wanted her out of the house. There may or may not have been a scuffle. Toals told the couple he was unsure what had happened but if he had to come back, they would both be going to jail.

At that point, I had him stop at the house so I could use the bathroom. We stayed parked in front of the house while he worked on a couple of reports.

We started heading north to check out a Crack House but got called to a Suicide Attempt. Officer Toals told me he had been to this address before and that it was pretty gross.

He did not do it justice. This was a small house not far from home that had five adult people living in it. None of them were related and they all have varying degrees of mental health issues. They also had a crap load of dogs who would dump their crap loads wherever they wanted. The house was filthy and smelled of urine.

I can't believe people choose to live like that. 

The suicide attempt turned out to be a 35 year old female who had a fight with her boyfriend over spending money on something frivolous rather than on bills and wanted some attention. She took some pills and tried to stab herself several times with a steak knife. She did not inflict very serious wounds.

We followed the ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital and got her checked in.

By then, it was nearly 9:00 and I got dropped off at my car.

I'm really glad I did it but now everything smells like urine to me.

A New Record

Susan and I have just returned from a walk. It's a brisk day out there but we were able to walk without heavy coats or hats. With all the snow nothing but a memory, it seems very much like Spring. Early Spring. Really early early in the year Spring sort of an affair.

My pedometer measured 1,802 steps taken in 17 minutes and 52 seconds.

That's the time to beat for this season!

204.4

It seems that the death knell for any standard pocket comb is after it looses its first tooth. The first tooth goes and then it is only a matter of time before the next tooth goes. And then the next, and so on and so forth ad infinitum until it is finally as thin as the hair it was meant to coiffe.

That is the case with my current comb, which leads me to believe I had better get ready for its ultimate demise and purchase a new one.

Initially, it felt like I had more to say in this post, but it turns out I didn't.

Round is a Shape

I'm still hanging at 205 and I'm doing better at following the diet. Not great, but better.

I got home early enough today to go for a walk around the park before it got too dark. The days are getting longer.

I walked the long route around the park which is a mile. It took me 20 minutes and I think I took about 1,200 steps, according to my pedometer. I have it set to reach a goal of 10,000 steps a day. So far, I have never even come close.

I made it through the walk okay but I am definitely out of shape. Waaaaaaaaay out of shape. I can tell that two miles would be pushing it for me. It's not anything to do with joints or knees or anything physical, other than my lack of stamina. We'll be working on building that.

As the weather gets better, so will my walking.

Happy V.D.

So far, I'm doing a horrible job of following this diet we are on for Lent. The only thing I've followed is not drinking alcohol and I even screwed up on that on Friday. I had a beer.

However, I'm still at 205 and holding.

I have just returned from the Arena where the Spokane Chiefs are playing the Everett Silvertits. I just wanted to show up and surprise Susan on Valentines day.

In the process I walked around quite a bit and discovered I'm not in good shape at all. It was pretty trying to do all that walking. And it wasn't all that much walking. I really need to get out and walk before I loose all ability to do so.

Lent Day Two

I'm still hanging at 205. I didn't do a very good job of following the South Beach Diet because I had a bunch of candy hearts that had to be dealt with. So yesterday is a lost day as far as the diet goes, but I'm ready to buckle down and be Lental.....Lentin?.....Lentish!

Ash Wednesday

Today is the beginning of Lent which means we are starting the South Beach Diet today.

My starting weight is 205. I only need to get to 200 but I'm going to try and drop ten pounds to 195.

All is well with the knees. I'm walking around on them a bit gingerly, especially on stairs. Especially going down stairs. But the limp is gone and I can walk around with a fairly lively step.

The one thing that is a little difficult for me is kneeling. The gout knee is sensitive to it but the surgery knee does not like it at all.

I'm anxious to go skiing but it is probably not happening until my birthday weekend in about 3 1/2 weeks.

Stairs, Knees and Breathing

I am pleased to report that I can finally go up and down a set of stairs like a normal person. I no longer have to rely on the railing to support myself and ease the pain as I step down. 

Going up has always been easier than going down. I still have a little pain in my right knee, the gout knee. But all in all, I feel pretty good. 

I'm also feeling better about my breathing. Some days are better than others but I haven't had any major shortness of breath in a good month.

I really need to develop a plan to walk regularly.

Scale Wars

I've been fighting with the scale for the last couple of days. Yesterday I weighed somewhere between 187 and 204. Today I clocked in with 201.6 poundages.

The surgery knee is great. The largest incision is still healing and a bit tender. I definitely notice when I bump my knee into the box below my work table at work.

My gout knee is improving but not back to 100%. There is a general sense of a discomfort surrounding the knee cap area. I'll know I'm back to me when I can descend a staircase without trepidation. Or holding on to the railing.