ounds a week. I have found that if I do not exercise regularly now the weight loss stops completely. I went all last week without serious exercise and I didn't lose any weight at all.The doctor nevertheless says I am on target and predicts that if I continue like this I will be down to my fighting weight of 200-205 pounds about 18 months after surgery. That would mean a weight loss of about 140 pounds. So I am about halfway there already!
Hardly a Handful
I can eat just about anything I want now, as long as it is not fatty, fried or sugared. I have been grilling like a pro—chicken breasts and seafood mostly – and liking the meals. I am still amazed at how little food fills me up and quells my hunger. This past Saturday we drove to Charlotte to visit grandson Paul at Queens University. His brother Peter was visiting for the weekend from Denison University. We had lunch at a popular biker pub. I filled up on four nachos and a third of Sylvia’s grilled chicken wrap. Of course, two hours later I was hungry again. But I have grown accustomed to eating these small meals four or five times a day. Three grilled shrimp and a half a piece of fish makes a full meal!Ready for Repair
Paul was not too happy when we visited. He tore up his knee at lacrosse practice and is awaiting reconstructive surgery. The injury put him out for the season – a real bummer because it’s his senior year and he is team captain. He walked (limped) the sidelines Saturday at a scrimmage, looking more like a coach than a player. He is a coach, of course, having coached his high school’s varsity team in Ann Arbor last season. He is also up for a job as a lacrosse demonstration coach in England this summer. We met their girlfriends. Olivia is a communications major at Denison and has been dating Peter for several months. They drove down with Peter’s friend Antonio. Erica, Paul’s girl, has been carting him around in her car because he can’t ride his bike or walk far. Both are beautiful, personable young women.Our volunteer fire department is flourishing. A proposal I wrote just resulted in a $235,000 grant to recruit and retain volunteer fire fighters over the coming four years. It appears we will get another $175,000 or so to buy protective gear and tools for fighting forest fires. Both grants come from FEMA.
Sylvia is awaiting her commission as a notary public. She took a course last month and, of course, aced the test. So in another week or two she can hang up her shingle and be the fire department’s in-house notary. That will be handy because some of the documents I submit in my grant proposals have to be notarized.
I am still plugging away on my second book – memoirs of a foreign correspondent. I call it “Under the Mango Tree.” I’m writing it at the insistence of my children and grandchildren who have heard my stories dozens of time but still think there is something interesting there. We’ll see.
