Who Is This Person I Am Married To?

Do you ever have one of those moments when you ask yourself this question?  I have to admit that it does not happen that often.  In fact, before this morning, I cannot remember specifically the last time I asked myself this question.  First, a little background for you.

Both the wife and I are from Indiana.  We grew up in bordering counties and for part of my life (and most of hers) we lived in small towns.  By small town I mean a town that only has 1 stop light.  The kind of town that rolls up the sidewalks around 8 PM (earlier on Sundays).  My small town had about 2,500 people and hers around 1,500.  Since we grew up in Indiana, we could relate to the movie, Hoosiers.  In case you are not from Indiana, or not from a small town, or perhaps do not like basketball (or maybe sports movies, or perhaps Gene Hackman) let me give you a brief overview of the movie.

• In the 1950’s a small town high school has a small basketball team
• They get a new coach
• Despite all this, the coach gets them to believe in themselves and they start to win
• They make it all the way to the state finals
• …(last bullet point removed in case you have not seen the movie)…

A pivotal scene in this movie is when the team arrives at the venue where the finals will be held.  The players are obviously in awe of the size of the stadium compared to where they play most of their games.  There is a tense moment of silence when everyone is overwhelmed.  The coach then has a few of the players measure the height of the rim.  It is (of course) found to be 10’ tall, just like every other rim they have ever played with in every other game leading up to this game.  The coach assures them that if they took measurements of everything else on the playing area that they would also be the same.  The players get what the coach is saying and (…last part of this sentence removed in case you have not seen this movie…)

A point that I want to make is this: if you have grown up in a small town in Indiana, you have seen this movie.  They play it all the time on Saturday afternoons on the local channels.  You can’t not have seen this movie.  It might even be required watching to graduate from certain, small town high schools in Indiana.  My wife has seen this movie, probably multiple times.  She likes sports (her sport was softball).

So this morning the wife and I are sitting in bed, drinking coffee and watching an episode of Parks and Recreation.  If you are not familiar with the show, no worries, it is not important to the point of this blog.  Basically the show is set in a small, Indiana town and is about the parks and recreation department.  This season’s main theme has been around the main character running for local office.  She (the main character) is behind in the polls and her only chance is to do a good job during the one and only debate.  In this episode (about the debate), she and her campaign manager arrive early at the hall where the debate will be held.  She comments that this place seats 800 people and is much larger than where she used to compete with her high school debate team.  Her campaign manager (who is also her boyfriend) takes out a measuring tape and measures the podium.  He them confirms that it is the same size podium that she has been using all of her debating life.  I immediately caught the Hoosiers reference.  Later in the show there is another scene that is very similar to the final scene of the movie where (…last part of this reference removed in case you have never seen the movie…).  Anyway, if you have ever seen this movie AND if you live in Indiana AND if you live in a small town then there is NO POSSIBILITY that you DO NOT catch the references.

That is to say, I THOUGHT there was no way to miss them.  As you might have guessed, my wife missed them.

Now, it may be due to lack of coffee in her system (she was only about 1/2 way through her first cup) or there could be other reasons, but as I explained the subtext and references to her (I got up and paused the show when I was dong this) she just looked at me as if I was insane.  I pointed out that if you had seen that move (and she admits that she did) then you could not have possibly not known that that scene (the measuring of the rim) was a pivotal scene.  It embodied all that had happened previously.  It confirmed that despite their surroundings they believe in their coach and, in turn, in themselves.  The movie would be much less without that scene.

After my 5 minute explanation of how this all tied together she gave me a look / hand gesture that conveyed “whatever” and asked me to un-pause the show and come back to the bed.  I did so but dumbfounded that she did not see why the reference was so important.

Who Is This Person I Am Married To?  She is probably asking herself the same question after reading this blog.

Jon

Couch To 5k–Week 2

The instructions on the Couch-To-5K page for week 2 are as follows…

Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

In the end (just like week 1 you are only running for 6 minutes total.  I had a slight problem with this as the math does not work out great.  Each group of 90 seconds of jogging and 2 minutes of walking is 3.5 minutes.  If you do that 4 times you get to 14 minutes.  Throw in the 5 minute warm up walk and you are only at 19 minutes.  In the end I just walked for 3 minutes at the end to get to 20 minutes (it made me feel better anyway).

As for the actual jogging part, the last 90 seconds was a little tough on Monday and Wednesday but not really.  Next week will pick up the pace a bit.

I had reached out to a former manager of mine (who is an avid runner) for advice on shoes.  I mentioned that I was only on day 1 of week 1 and one of his first questions was “Have you decided which 5k you will run?”  This week I was talking to my current manager (a former avid runner) and he asked the exact same question.  I fear that (like all things I suppose) running is going to contain a certain subset of people that may seem a little crazy to me at first in their love of the sport.  I also fear that I might become one of those people.

After next week I might have to consider getting some better running shoes.  This would involve going into a real shoe store (probably one that specializes in running [and probably one that caters to those fanatics that I am trying not to become]).  I will keep you posted.

Jon

The Refugee

U2 LYRICS

This is rare.  I could not find any website that could give me a pointer as to what this song is really about.  Continuing on with the theme of the rest of the album (“War”), this song talks about an unfortunate girl who is dealing with war but does not know the reason for the war.

Wa, war her papa go to war.
He gonna fight but he don't know what for.

…and…

Wa, war she's a pretty face
But at the wrong time in the wrong place

As with many songs on this album I cannot really relate (but I like it nonetheless).

The only thing that coms to mind when I hear the word “refugee” is a scene from The Karate Kid II…

Daniel LaRusso: Hey, what are you building out there?
Mr. Miyagi: Guest room.
Daniel LaRusso: Are you expecting company?
Mr. Miyagi: Nah, refugee.
Daniel LaRusso: Refugee? Oh yeah, that's great. From where?
Mr. Miyagi: Fresno.

This probably (most certainly) degrades the U2 song to have these two things related in my head but it is what it is.  I always felt bad for Daniel.  I mean his girlfriend dumped him and he was going to have to spend the summer with his mother (I forget where she was going exactly).  Fortunately he got to go to Okinawa and have a fight to the death.  He should have stayed in Fresno probably.

Jon

Drowning Man

U2 LYRICS

Rise up, rise up with wings like eagles.
You run, you run.
You run and not grow weary.

For the first part of this song it appears to be a love song (between a man and a woman) but then there is the above lyric that references Isaiah 40:31…

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint

…so that causes one to rethink the lyrics for the first part of the song from a spiritual point of view and the love from God to man.  The general consensus on the internet is that this is a song directed at U2’s bass player (who evidently was the least spiritual of the band members).

This piece of scripture speaks of waiting, patience, etc.  I remember my youth pastor explaining (though I did  not quite buy it) that there is a second definition of “wait”, namely being like a waiter and serving the Lord (I still don’t buy his interpretation).  Circling back to patience, it appears to be important to wait on the Lord.  The saying “good things come to those that wait” is recalled here (like waiting on Heinz ketchup) and that patience is a virtue.  I think we can all agree that we are ever searching for life’s fast forward button at times (like in the movie “Click”).

This whole album is less spiritual (to me anyway) than their first 2 studio albums.  This song (and the final song, “40”) are about it as far as blatantly spiritual songs.  The rest stay true to the album title (“War”).

Jon

Couch To 5k–Week 1

Now that the Outsourcing My Body project is over and done with I am looking for something to keep the momentum going.  If you are familiar with that project then you know that I am not good at setting goals (or more specifically to be motivated to think about setting goals).  Trying to meet a goal once it is set is something I can do easily enough (especially if there is a spreadsheet involved).  I sort of arrived at this project in a backwards way.

On the way home from church last Sunday the wife needed to stop by 2 stores.  Not particularly interested in either store, I decided to go to a 3rd store that was in the same strip of stores.  I took the son with me (more out of keeping the kids separated as they are in a funk lately about arguing constantly).  While in that store I saw a pair of running shoes on sale for a decent price.  They fit and I happened to have my clothing money with me (thank you Dave Ramsey) so I bought them.

My current manager (and my manager before him and a few teammates) used to run quite a bit so I thought that (if for no other reason to be able to discuss running with them) I would see if there were any training plans for beginning runners out there on the internet.  The first one that I happened upon was the Couch-To-5K plan.  It had a 9 week plan to get you up to running 3 miles (roughly 5k) and thus a new project (this one) was born.  Even though I am not a couch potato starting out, I think this will work for me.

There are several reasons why I do not call myself a couch potato…

1. I rarely sit on the couch.  Now this may be a trivial distinction but when I am sitting down it is mostly in my office chair (either at my work office or at my home office).  When I find myself in the family room with the rest of the family, they hog the couch and I tend either to stand up (I sit down all day at work) or I sit in the recliner.  Also, I do not find our current couch confortable.  It was a hand me down from my grandma and we really need to replace it (not so much due to it being old but in that it has that “80+ year old woman” décor that just does not go with the rest of our furniture – but beggars can’t be choosers).
2. I do not watch that much TV.  The wife and I watch a 30 minute show while drinking our first cup of coffee in the morning (we like The Colbert Report) and that is usually done in our bedroom.  Also, we do not have cable or satellite TV.  We have not had it since 2007.  We either watch a show online or we watch it on DVD.  We (as a family) are currently watching season 1 of I Love Lucy, season 1 of The Walton’s and season 2 of The A Team (don’t judge us).  Previously we watched all 10 seasons of Little House On The Prairie and the first 2 seasons of The Facts Of Life.
3. I spent the last 3 months or so working out or at least walking 1 1/2 miles each day.  I am not starting from scratch by any means.

So with that background information in mind you might believe me when I say that week 1 of this program was not too challenging.  The instructions were pretty simple.

Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Sounds simple but I did have a problem, namely how to keep time.  There is an app to download but I do not have a smart phone so I had to think a bit.  In the end I fired up Audacity and spliced together 20 minutes worth of music as one long mp3 file with sounds that occur at the allotted times when I should start or stop jogging.  This was kind of fun to do actually and right after I finish this blog I am going to start in on the week 2 mix (since there are different lengths of jogging and walking in week 2, I need a different mix).

I can remember getting up to being able to run 1 mile straight only one time in my adult life and that was right after I was first married (15 years ago).  For some reason there is something about being able to run a mile for me.  I don’t know why.  Being able to run 3 miles straight is something I cannot fathom right now so I will focus on getting to 1 mile and that does not happen until week 5.

Jon

The Listening Project–Week 37

This marks the end of this project  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  There was only 1 CD remaining to be listened to in my march through all of my CDs. 

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
1046	U2	Zoorpoa	4/8/2012	Yes

• U2 “Zooropa”: This is not my favorite U2 album but I like them all anyway.  I was taking stock of my U2 albums and between CDs, LPs and cassettes I am only missing their “Rattle and Hum” album.  It was fitting that U2 ends this project.

Well that’s it.  It took me 263 days but I listened to them all.  Here are my closing thoughts.

What I knew already

I like music.  I often quote the latter part of Ecclesiastes 1:8 which says “The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.”  My ears are never full of hearing.  I listened to 4 CDs a day, every day, for the past 7+ months and it did not seem odd to me to do so.

I like all kinds of music.  If you joined me on this journey then you know this already.  From jazz to pop to rock to metal to new age to dance to punk to country to you name it.  Other than the really hard core metal, I did not find a genre that I did not like.

What I kind of knew already

I have a lot of Reba McEntire CDs.  I mentioned during this project that I bought a few Reba CDs on the clearance rack during a time that our family was watching reruns of her comedy show and then I just could not stop.  At current count I have 11 of her CDs.

I have a lot of Stephen Curtis Chapman CDs.  I thought I did not like SCC but then I was looking for a new song to sing for a solo during a church service.  My mother recommended one by SCC and then I started to research other songs by him to sing as well.  I think I have done 4 or 5 SCC songs now (including “Cinderella” one Father’s Day).  Like Reba, I have 11 CDs by SCC but unlike Reba he got NOs on 4 of his releases.

I do not like 4Him, Jonathan Pierce, Al Denson, or PFR.  These artists got the most NOs percentagewise.  These artists accounted for 25% of all the NOs during this project.

I really like Harry Connick Jr., Melissa Ethridge, James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, and Sting.  I own at least 5 CDs from each of these artists and they all got YESs.

I have a ton of CDs that are by “Various Artists”.  75 to be exact.  These include soundtracks of course but also a ton of theme CDs (best of the 50’s, compilations made for Startbucks, new artists on a specific record label, etc).  These tend to show up on the bargain racks at a higher percentage rate it seems and I tend to buy them even if I only want it for a single track.  I have been introduced to tons of new artists this way.  I should probably stop buying Various Artists CDs.

What I learned

I have a sickness.  I did not write it down but when I started this project I “only” had about 800 CDs.  I knew I had a lot but I did not know that I had that much.  This project was supposed to (among other things) make me realize that I have too much music and that I needed to stop purchasing any more (even if they were only $1 each).  This collection took my my whole life to amass.  Then, in only 260+ days I bought over 200 more CDs.  So, during this project, which was supposed to make me realize that I had too much music, I increased the size of my collection by 25%!  The wife is right, I need help.

What now?

After listening to “Zooropa” last Sunday morning I had a problem.  What should I listen to?  I mean, for more than 1/2 a year I have not had to think about what CD to listen to next.  In the end I chose the Susan Ashton CD that I had just bought the week prior and then copied all 11 of my U2 CDs to my mp3 player and have been listening to them pretty much all week.  Last night I grabbed the best of KC & The Sunshine Band as the we drove to dinner.  I even pulled out my USB LP player and listened some old The Call and Degarmo & Key LPs while I worked from home this week.

What do I do if I buy more CDs?  Certainly I will listen to them all but I will not likely resurrect this blog series to report on it.  Maybe a few years from now I will start the whole project over again, who knows?  Thank you for joining me.  I had a lot of fun.

.Jon

Like A Song…

U2 LYRICS

Like a song I have to sing
I sing it for you.
Like the words I have to bring
I bring it for you.

Here is yet another song that I cannot relate to on a personal level.  More cryptic lyrics that are about wars or the (then) current situation in their native Ireland.  Whatever it is about, Bono feels compelled to sing it based on the opening lyrics.  There is an interesting lyric at the end of the song though…

Angry words won't stop the fight
Two wrongs won't make it right.
A new heart is what I need.
Oh, God make it bleed.

This speaks of not replying in kind to violence (a soft answer turns away wrath) and that it is beyond him to change into the peaceful man that he wants to be.  Now this I can relate to.  Having a “new heart” is a very Christianese type of phrase and pleading to God to “make it bleed” reinforces that this is the context in which he uses it.  This album is less religious than their previous one but I suppose with a title like “War” what can one expect but more songs around that topic?

Jon

New Year’s Day

U2 LYRICS

All is quiet on New Year's Day.
A world in white gets underway.

The radio stations play this song every New Year’s Day but I am pretty sure that this song has nothing to do with celebrating the new year.  There is some speculation about what this song is really about but given the other songs on this album it is probably about some war somewhere (maybe the cold war?).  U2 is simply not specific.  It does talk of wanting to be with someone so I suppose if could also be a love song of sorts.  I can say that no matter what the subject is, I really like this song.

The remastered release of this album contains a bonus disc that contains 4 additional versions of this song.  They are all in order on the bonus disc so listening to that CD is a bit painful (unless you are in the mood to here the same song over and over).  I was impressed on the “Under A Blood Red Sky” video how The Edge could play both piano and guitar for most of the song.

Jon

Seconds

U2 LYRICS

It takes a second to say goodbye
…
Push the button and pull the plug
…
Fall, rise and…

This song is about activists or any activist movement (though a movement against the atomic bomb is called out specifically).

Perhaps in my middle age I have lost the zeal to really be an activist for any cause.  I do not think I have ever picketed anything.  I do remember a church I grew up in joining in with other local churches to picket a woman’s wrestling match that came to town during the county fair once.  I lived in a small, Midwestern town (population 5,000 or so with only 1 stop light) and the conservative church found this event offensive enough to take action.  I think I was too young to join in as I do not recall being invited.

The wife works part time as a representative for a high end dog food.  Basically she hangs around the dog food section of some local pet stores and promotes her product for 4 hours at a time.  Most of the pet stores that she goes to sell puppies.  With that comes a set of protestors outside the store (usually on Saturdays).  They are protesting the store in that they sell puppies form puppy mills.  There is only one problem, the store does not get their puppies from anywhere but reputable breeders.  Evidently the store employees and owners have tried to reason with the protestors but to no avail.  It seems these folks are actually being paid for their time so they could not care less where the store gets their puppies, they just want to get paid.  They evidently are not allowed to say who is paying them.

Now I think of all kinds of things that I might protest and puppy mills might be on the list.  But, it would be way down the list.  Would to God that I had so much free time in my life that I could get down that far on my list.  As for the U2 song that inspired this blog, maybe I need to think of a good cause to get behind while I am still able to walk a picket line,

Jon

Sunday Bloody Sunday

U2 LYRICS

I stopped blogging about my thoughts about U2 songs not because I had grown bored but rather due to the fact that this song was next.  Today I plow ahead and start with track 1 of the “War” album.  Given this song’s reference to Easter Sunday I think it is time to get back on the horse.

How long, how long must we sing this song?

This song was about Bloody Sunday.  I remember hearing this song for the first time, not quite catching the verses really except that the name “Jesus” was mentioned and then hearing the title of the song in the chorus.  I think I mentioned in previous U2 posts that it seemed Christians were really hoping U2 would be their voice to the world.  As with a lot of U2 songs, it is just not that easy.

As I have mentioned before, I have no way to relate to how U2 were feeling when they wrote this song.  My country during my lifetime has been relatively stable and nothing like the Ireland of their youth.

The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jesus won
On...Sunday, bloody Sunday

I still do not understand why this lyric is in this song.  As a Christian youth I liked it.  The name “Jesus” is so polarizing and really got everyone’s attention back then.  And there is the point to be made that it was really Friday that was bloody, not Sunday, when it came to Jesus, the cross and Resurrection Sunday.  I suppose we can give some poetic license here.

The song talks a bit about not joining in on the violence as well.  Bono usually holds a white flag (or at least he did in their early concerts) as they play this song.  I can relate to that as I am typically not one to return fire with fire (not due to my ability to turn the other cheek per se, it is just how I am put together).

Anyway, I do like this song and find myself screaming along passionately though I still do not know why.

Jon

The Listening Project–Week 36

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  I had a three day workshop this week at work so that slowed my progress compared to recent weeks but with a long listening day today I was able to get to 42 CDs.  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
1004	Merchant Band	The World Can Wait	3/31/2012	Yes
1005	By The Tree	World On Fire	3/31/2012	Yes
1006	Superchick	Beauty From Pain	4/1/2012	Yes
1007	Big Dismal	Believe - Bonus Sampler	4/1/2012	Yes
1008	Blind Melon	Blind Melon	4/1/2012	Yes
1009	The Violet Burning	Chosen	4/1/2012	Yes
1010	James Taylor	A Christmas Album	4/1/2012	Yes
1011	Mannheim Steamroller	Christmas in the Aire	4/1/2012	Yes
1012	Common Children	Delicate Fade	4/1/2012	Yes
1013	Susan Ashton	A Distant Call	4/2/2012	Yes
1014	Semisonic	Feeling Strangely Fine	4/2/2012	Yes
1015	Preacha	Geography Of A Journey	4/2/2012	Yes
1016	The World Wide Message Tribe	Heatseeker	4/2/2012	Yes
1017	Halo	Heaven Calling	4/3/2012	Yes
1018	Blackball	Hope	4/4/2012	Yes
1019	M.C. R.G.	In Jesus Name	4/5/2012	Yes
1020	The Choir	Kissers And Killers	4/5/2012	Yes
1021	Nevertheless	Live Like We're Alive	4/5/2012	Yes
1022	Various Artists	My Utmost For His Highest: The Anthems	4/5/2012	Yes
1023	GS Megaphone	Out Of My Mind	4/5/2012	Yes
1024	Dishwalla	Pet Your Friends	4/5/2012	Yes
1025	Various Artists	Pure Moods	4/5/2012	Yes
1026	Ginny Owens	Something More	4/6/2012	Yes
1027	The Violet Burning	Strength	4/6/2012	Yes
1028	Avalon	Testify To Love Live In Concert	4/6/2012	Yes
1029	Twila Paris	True North	4/6/2012	Yes
1030	Delirious	World Service	4/6/2012	Yes
1031	Worldbeat	Worldbeat	4/6/2012	Yes
1032	Adam Again	Worldwide Favorites	4/6/2012	Yes
1033	Michael W. Smith	Worship	4/6/2012	Yes
1034	Michael W. Smith	Worship Again	4/6/2012	Yes
1035	Chris Taylor	Worthless Pursuit of Things on the Earth	4/6/2012	Yes
1036	Various Artists	WoW Hits 2002 Gold Disc	4/7/2012	Yes
1037	Various Artists	WoW Hits 2002 Red Disc	4/7/2012	Yes
1038	Various Artists	X 2008	4/7/2012	Yes
1039	Various Artists	XM Artist Confidential Vol. 1	4/7/2012	Yes
1040	Melissa Etheridge	Yes I Am	4/7/2012	Yes
1041	Leann Rimes	You Light Up My Life- Inspirational Songs	4/7/2012	Yes
1042	Glenn Kaiser	You Made The Difference In Me	4/7/2012	Yes
1043	Melissa Etheridge	Your Little Secret	4/7/2012	Yes
1044	Matchbox Twenty	Yourself or Someone Like You	4/7/2012	Yes
1045	The Smashing Pumpkins	Zero	4/7/2012	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• Merchant Band “The World Can Wait”: I bought this online (mp3 format) for the son for his birthday as he said he really liked this band.  I somehow lost the CD I burned for him and also the mp3 files but fortunately I found the actual CD in the bargain bin somewhere.  Think of a praise and worship version of Coldplay.
• Superchick “Beauty From Pain”: And thus starts a 24 CD streak.  I should have finished this project this week but I did something stupid last Saturday night.  I went to a resale shop and bought a pile of CDs.  Who can blame me?  They were 4 / $1.  I have the remix of this album and listened to it back in August.
• The Violet Burning “Chosen” & “Strength”: Pretty good stuff. These guys (or maybe this guy) sounds a lot like another artist called Dead Artist Syndrome.
• James Taylor “A Christmas Album”: I could not resist another Christmas album.
• Susan Ashton “A Distant Call”: I could not believe it but this is my first Susan Ashton CD.  I think I have a song or two of hers on some compilation CDs.  Awesome.
• Halo “Heaven Calling”: Never been sorry to have purchased anything on Pachyderm Records (the brothers Elefante).  I did a quick search and found one website that wanted $80 for this disc!  I think I will keep my copy.
• The Choir “Kissers And Killers”: This one is rare as well.  The Choir’s independent release between labels.  The rerecorded most of these for the “Speckled Bird” CD (which I also have).  It was nice to hear the alternative versions.
• Nevertheless “Live Like We're Alive”: I thought I recognized the band name and I was right.  The first track was a big hit on the local Christian hard rock radio station.  Lucky to find it for a quarter.
• Avalon “Testify To Love Live In Concert”: Despite this band being very popular I could not find this CD listed anywhere on any web site.  There was a DVD released with this title but I could not find it as a CD.  I might have another rare one on my hands.
• Twila Paris “True North”: Yikes!  Another yes for another Twila CD?  I might have to admit to being a fan.
• Adam Again “Worldwide Favorites”: A best of from on of my favorite bands.
• Various Artists “WoW Hits 2002 Gold & Red Disc": This is an annual thing done for Christian artists.  It is an honor to make the WoW CD listing.  It is sort of like the “Now That’s What I Call Music” serious I suppose.
• Various Artists “X 2008”: Similar to the WoW series but specific to the Tooth-N-Nail records and their affiliates.
• Melissa Etheridge “Yes I Am” & “Your Little Secret”: Melissa in her prime.
• The Smashing Pumpkins “Zero”: This CD (really an EP) is definitely on the CON side of me doing this project.  The last track is parts of 70 songs (from what appear to be various jam sessions) all crammed into a 23 minute track.  It was almost unbearable, especially the final 3 minutes.  The wife plugged her ears and begged me to turn it off.

I almost finished this whole project this week but ran out of time.  I tried.  Once I finished the 23 minute torture from The Smashing Pumpkins I had had enough.  As it stands I at 99.9% complete with only 1 lone CD remaining, U2’s “Zooropa”.  Next week I will close out the project with my final thoughts.

.Jon

Outsourcing My Body–Final Week

Well, we have come to the end of this experiment that I am calling outsourcing my body.  Here are my final thoughts…

Diet

The wife all but admitted that she stopped mentally controlling my diet.  In my head I still thought “would the wife allow this?” when faced with a food choice and I did ask permission to go to a frozen yogurt place with the kids on Friday night.  I think this is a good thing as I need now to move on to some sort of maintainable lifestyle.  This project help me get off of soda (I have not had one in these 13 weeks) and deserts (other than the frozen yogurt [which was not that great] I have not had what you would call a desert).  All in all I would call the diet portion of this project a success.

Exercise

I have really enjoyed riding my bike in the evenings lately.  There is a great bike path just outside of our neighborhood and it takes about 30 – 40 minutes to take it to the end and then get back home.  I still walk the dog each morning (Nina is staring at me as I write this blog).  I have been thinking what else I should be doing but for the summer I think walking and riding will suffice.  I think this project has done it’s job in getting me off my hind end and outside moving around.

Weight

I was down 5/6 lbs. this week compared to last week.  This brings the total weight lost for this project up to 25 5/6 lbs.  Though I have slowed down a bit in this area I am still happy with my progress, even though I am only down 2 lbs. for the last 4 weeks.  I think the rest can come off slowly as I ease into a lifestyle that is more healthy than the one I had before this whole thing started.  This project has giving me momentum.  Sometimes when you see how far you have to go (for me it was almost 40 lbs.) it can stop you from even starting.  You see the mountain as insurmountable.  Since I only have less than 15 lbs. to go, I think I can get there now.  There is still that challenge my mother gave me a few weeks ago that I could not keep the weight off for 18 months.  Proving you mother wrong is good motivation!

Other

A big thank you to the wife for keeping me on the straight and narrow path.  Also for being my cheerleader during the entire project.  Also, thank you for not taking advantage of the situation by plucking my eyebrows or doing some strange thing with my hair.

Jon