Just an update on the weight.

July 14, 2012

Yesterday, we took a road trip.  My hope was to find the grave of my grandfather, Robert D. Williams and grandmother Nancy J. Williams.  The last place that he'd lived (according to the information I had) was in Beaver, Iowa.  

Well ... there is Beaver, Boone County, Iowa and Beaver Township, Guthrie County, Iowa.  

We headed for Beaver first because it is near Payton where my wife's first husband is buried.  She wanted to visit his and his grandmother's graves.  I took pics of that.

  

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the rest of the trip.

From Payton, we went to Beaver.  The town is so small (population 48 in 2010) that it doesn't have a bar.  The only business that we saw was the grain silos at the CoOp.

We called my sister.  She actually knew my grandparents, who had died before I was born.  She said that Nancy was buried in Missouri and Robert was buried in Silver City, Iowa.

Hmmmm.

Well, I checked the GPS and Beaver Township was closer than Silver City, so we decided to find Beaver Township.  We could not find it on a map but according to the Web, it was somewhere north of Menlo, Iowa.  So off we went.

We never found it.  But it was a nice drive down some dusty back roads into some beautiful rolling countrysides.  For miles and miles the only people we saw were cows.   And then for miles and miles there weren't even any cows.

We also discovered that Iowa's road crews are very busy this time of year.  Many of the two lane roads we took were down to one lane and we had to wait for a 'pilot vehicle' to lead us through the construction.

Since we couldn't find Beaver Township we now headed toward Silver City.  We stopped in Jefferson and had lunch at the Pizza Ranch.  While we were there we heard the bells (actually a carillon) chiming out a tune.

When we arrived in Silver City (population 245 in 2010) we found a mechanics garage that was open and stopped to ask directions to the cemetery.  Ella and I walked through the graves (there are more people dead in Silver City than live there) and did not find Robert.  I had noticed a sign for an ice cream shop so we went back into town to cool off.  I told the proprietor why were in town and that we hadn't been able to find the grave.  He suggested we stop at City Hall, which was only a half block away.  (the whole 'business section' was only two blocks long.)

After our shakes (they didn't have malts "'cause my order hasn't come in yet."), and paid in cash (even though there was a sign on the door that said they took Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, "I ordered the machine but she aint delivered it yet.") we went to City Hall but found it was closed because the clerk only works part time.
We wound our way back north and east until we found the Interstate (which was down to two lanes because of construction) and arrived home about twelve hours after we left.

So, we did not find the graves of my grandparent, but, all in all, we had a nice drive on a nice day and saw a lot of the country side.

I figured that if we'd driven the same distance in a (more or less) straight line down Interstate 35 we'd have been somewhere in mid Kansas at the end of the day.  Maybe this was a practice run for our trip to Texas this fall.

WEIGHT

This was supposed to be tracking my weight loss ... well ... at least it is an honest record of my weight ADVENTURES!

July 9, 2012

July 10, 2012

July 11, 2012

July 12, 2012

July 13, 2012

2012 July 10 Tuesday

An interesting storm came through yesterday.  It lasted less than a half an hour and dropped a little of half an inch of rain.  What was special was that during the worst of this little cloudburst, you could still see the sun shining on the clouds around us.

2012 July 9 Monday

Another sketch on my phone, using the new stylus which has a much finer point than my finger.

            I awoke a little before five this morning.  I was rested so I got up.  It was actually cool out for the first time in weeks and weeks.  I made coffee and then sat down to work on next Sunday’s sermon.  I had read through the scripture passages last Saturday.  I normally wouldn’t look at them until after the sermon on Sunday.  I find that it confuses the current sermon if I’m working on the next already.  However, I didn’t preach this last Sunday so I didn’t need to worry about getting the sermons tangled.

            About six thirty I fixed breakfast: one egg, one strip of bacon (crisp) and some hash browns.  Oh, and the coffee.  It was nice outside so that’s where I went with the breakfast.  After breakfast, I went back in and grabbed the laptop to take back out to the patio.  I sat there and worked some more on the sermon until about seven thirty. 

            I woke Ella enough to tell her that I was going to go after milk, eggs, bread and groceries, and ask if she wanted to go with me or sleep.  She chose sleep.  I needed gasoline as well as some fresh fruits so I chose to go to Sam’s Club.  Normally I wouldn’t buy fruits and vegetables at Sam’s because we can’t eat those quantities fast enough to keep them from spoiling.  However, since my son Adam gave me a juicer, I can run them through that thing fairly quickly.  I’m only juicing for one meal a day at this point.  We have a freezer (very small RV freezer) full of meat that we need to eat before we go for a week on just juice and grains. 

            I think I’ll make some split pea soup and add the pulp from a couple of carrots that I’ll run through the juicer.  That way, I’ll have the juice and still be able to add extra flavor and fiber to the soup.

            After returning from Sam’s I decided to clean and vacuum the inside of the truck.  It was sadly overdue for a good cleaning.  If I have time before I go to work at two thirty today, I’ll run the truck through a carwash.

            Right now, I’m sitting in the recliner and have my legs elevated.  I also have an ice pack on my knee.  Since the surgery on Thursday, I’m getting around pretty well.  I think I over did it a little yesterday though because I could barely walk by the time I got off work at nine last night.  I don’t want to baby this knee too much but I’m not sure where the line between ‘enough’ and ‘too much’ exercise belongs.

            That’s all for now.

                                                                                   

Adventures at the hospital

Here I am waiting in preop to get my torn meniscus repaired.

The warming blanket has warm air blown into it. Felt nice in a cold hospital.

IV in and nearly ready for surgery.

These are photos or the actual surgery.  Pretty cool, huh?

And here I am at work the next afternoon.

And here are some sketches that I did on my phone while waiting in the waiting room.

This little guy with the blank face just stood there and stared at me in preop. Didn't say a word 'till they hooked him up to me for blood pressure and pulse.  Not very good company at all.