SD - Day # 16 - Storage wars

I know I'm supposed to be writing about what happened Friday, but today's news takes a little precedence over Friday....at least for the first paragraph.....at my weigh in this morning I officially broke the 200 pound barrier for the first time in close to 3 years......I came in at 199.4!  I am still amazed at how such a simple diet can bring such dramatic results, but who am I to question, or complain......keep those Subway Clubs coming!

Friday morning I spent time wiping the rain off the Beetle, and continued to clean the interior until around 10:15 when we had to get ready to drive into my son's office to go through the rest of what we have stored there, sorting out the things we no longer need, and setting aside Xmas decorations the three girls may want to keep.  TLE found my year books from junior and senior high school, and our college year books.  I need to scan pictures from the high school ones so I will have them handy when I need them......no room in the coach for a bunch of year books.

We spent a couple of hours sorting through our stuff, much of it I had forgotten about, so we began to create 3 piles.....stuff to toss, stuff to donate, and a very small pile of things to bring home....the donate pile ended up quite large....the biggest, by far, of the three piles.  I have a lot of backpacking stuff that is sitting unused, but I don't want to get rid of it, so I gifted it to Chris, my son, in the hopes he and his son will get more use out of it that I am.

A little after 1 pm we headed over to Fontana to look a potential bike I wanted to purchase to part out on eBay, but like many things on Craigslist the pictures looked way better than the reality.  The shock was low end and NON-functional....as in NON-repairable, so I politely passed and we headed to the Subway on Rubidoux Blvd. to get my last two meals of the day.  After lunch I spent the rest of the day finishing the cleaning of the Beetle. Earlier in the morning I had discovered that two lug bolts were missing on the wheels.....one on the left rear, and one on the front.  We had stopped at the VW dealership just off I-15 on our way into my son's office and picked up the two bolts for about $8 each.....a very fair price.  I installed and torqued them, then continued working on the inside until the daylight gave out.

Before going in I put up some more Xmas lights we had found in a box at the office to add a little more Christmas cheer to our site, but the cold, damp night air chased me inside within a few minutes.....I'll have to finish that Saturday.  Speaking of Saturday there is another bike over in my old neighborhood I want to look at.....the pictures and description look good, but we shall see how reality compares!

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 15 - eBay, rain, detailing....yada, yada, yada

I was awake at 4:45 am....why, why, why?  I don't know, but around 5:30 I surrendered and just got up.  I had a big day ahead of me anyway, and that is probably why I woke up early.  I had to get my last, and two biggest items I sold on eBay packed and shipped.....the bike frame, and front suspension fork....both require big boxes, and careful packing to prevent damage in transit.  But, first I wanted to start cleaning up the interior of our new to us Beetle.  Since I was up so early I got an early start on that project, and was just finishing some of the cleaning when the rain began.  Since I no longer have the EZ-UP canopy I have no protection from the elements anymore when I'm outside working on the cars, so I headed inside, and out of the rain.  It was okay, because I needed to drive into my son's office to get the aforementioned packing done.

The weather guessers forecast a 70% chance of rain by 11 am, and they guessed right....at almost exactly 11 am it began to rain.....but not for very long.  I was on my way into the office by 11:30, and by 1 pm had the bike frame and suspension fork packed and addressed.

As I was finishing up I was remembering I had not bought my footlong sub yet, and I was getting hungry.......really hungry, but I still had to stop by FedEx to get these packages into the shipping system.  Of course, after spending 10 minutes filling out the bills of lading, and then waiting in line I found out I had used the wrong forms......sigh......back to the counter to fill out the correct forms, then back in line.....all the while I feel my energy level dropping....it is now close to 2 pm.  Finally the packages are released into the system and I am on my way  home.....I decide to pass up the nearest Subway and head for the one closer to home, but wouldn't you know it....there was an accident on the freeway....imagine that...an accident in the rain......hardly every happens...:D  So, I get off the freeway and drive the last few miles on surface streets....I finally get my footlong, and arrive home around 2:30 totally famished.  By now it is raining hard again, and it continues on into the evening.

Around 3:30 I lay down for a much needed nap, and wake up at 5:30 feeling more rested.  One thing I have noticed though.....during this diet I have taken fewer naps, and frankly, have not felt the need to nap as often.....I seem to have more energy.....certainly a nice bi-product.

Just realized I have not updated you on my weigh in this morning (Friday)......I am now down to 200.2....so close to breaking the 200 barrier.....a barrier I have not seen the south side of in a couple of years......yay for me!  I have gotten a few comments on Facebook about this short term diet so I thought I would take a few lines to compare the Subway Club with the Veggie Sub (all vegetables):

Subway Club - 620 calories of which 80 are fat....has 9 grams of fat
Veggie Sub ---460 calories of which  40 are fat.....has 5 grams of fat

These are not significant differences.....I only add 4 more grams of fat, but get 160 additional calories, which I need to avoid being famished 24/7.  The meat makes up around 10% of the total sandwich contents.....the rest is fresh lettuce, tomatoes, onions, olives, bell peppers, pickles, banana peppers and jalapeno peppers wrapped up in a freshly baked honey oat roll.  Sure, it is fast food, but that does not mean it is unhealthy.  Everyone has an idea of what constitutes healthy food......some eat only vegetables, but add in dairy, while others limit themselves to a strictly plant based diet.  I respect each of those choices, and have immense respect for those who can spend their lives without eating meat, but that is not me.  Human beings were designed to eat plants, dairy and meat....we are carnivores.  The most important thing you must do no matter which diet lifestyle you choose is to eat what you eat in moderation and balance. In addition to diet, regular exercise plays a significant part in ones health.  There are obviously many other factors that determine your health status such as genetics, mental outlook, rest, recreation, a little vino, or beer (in moderation, of course), friendship, marital status, etc.  

If one only focuses on diet thinking that will mean a long life they will be disappointed......there are no guarantees in life.....no one knows when their number will be up.....mine could be up today, or in 20 years....who knows?  In the interim I am going to do my best to eat a little less, and move a little more and enjoy all of the food groups God has blessed us with.....in moderation, of course.  My current diet is a short term option I have chosen....it works for me......it may not work for you........I will not be eating Subway sandwiches every day for the rest of my life....it is a short term means to an end. My inherited genetics have been a blessing to me....at age 64 I have NO health issues.....no high blood pressure, a strong heart, no joint issues,  no maintenance medication of any kind.   The body you were born with determines, in the long run, what you can eat....plain and simple.  Do what works for you, but please to not expect those of us who can eat meat without apparent consequence to stop.

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 14 - Cars, eBay, bike rides, and more cars....

Wow, what a long day Wednesday was......what a day!  It felt like at least two days rolled into one.  But first, of course, some of you want to know the answer to the daily question.......how much does Clarke weigh today?  Okay, I get it,....some of you may not care a lick about how much I weigh, but I know some of you do care, because deep down inside you want to lose some weight, but you know it's going to be painful, take a long, long time, and you'll have to eat stuff you would never choose to eat, and probably don't like, but now you're hearing about diet food that is actually kind of pleasant to eat, and you can lose weight fast while eating healthy. Can I have a drum roll, please?  I weighed in this  morning (Thursday) at: 201.0!  I am now down 10.5 pounds in the last 18 days......the last 14 days on the Jared Fogle Subway Diet.

Wednesday was the day we hoped to close the deal on the 2003 VW Convertible Beetle.  We arranged to meet up with the seller at 10 am, so we headed over to our bank to pick up a cashier's check around 9 am, and were at the meeting place by 9:55......the seller a few minutes later.  We dickered with him and got the price down  couple hundred dollars, but still wanted to take it out on a 30 minute drive to be sure.....there were some lingering doubts in our collective mind......TLE more than moi.  After running east on US 60 for about 5 miles, we got off at Country Village Road and stopped in a parking lot convinced this was the one.......convinced, that is, until we attempted to "drop the top"......we found there was something wrong with the top lowering mechanism as it wouldn't go down all the way, and then discovered the interior lining in the rear area was completely unattached as all the securing points were broken....here we were more worried about  the drive train mechanicals, and it turns out to be the top that was the deal killer......ugggh.....not knowing how much it would cost to fix, and the fact the owner had not disclosed the problem (you know, "what else hasn't he told us?") we kindly declined to finish the transaction, and went back to our bank to cancel the cashier's check.....once again.....BUT, instead of putting the money back in our account we just took the refund in cash, so the next time we could just hand over the cash to the next seller if we decided to pull the trigger......will we ever pull the trigger?

We did, however, still have one ace up our sleeve....we had test driven a 2001 VW Beetle hardtop on Sunday that we kind of liked....or should I say TLE really liked....it had a sunroof, a turbo, heated seats, a 5 speed manual transmission, and the high end leather seats that were amazingly comfortable!  I texted Keith, the owner, to find out if it was still for sale, and it was........so we made arrangements to meet him after 6 pm in Upland at his home to look at the car one more time.  It has some interior cosmetic issues that can be easily remedied, and it was the one TLE really liked.  I should really pay closer attention to her intuition....I'm getting better at it, but after 42 years I seem to have a ways to go yet.

As soon as we got home I headed out on an 11 mile bike ride including another summit of Mt. Rubidoux......came close to matching my personal best, but topped out at 25 minutes 32 seconds....about 17 seconds off my best....then rode around Fairmont Lake on the way home....took me about 53 minutes total to cover the 11 miles.

Fairmont Lake

In the mean time, I had a number of bike parts to box up and get in the mail to my eBay buyers, so I spent a couple of hours doing that and then taking them into the Post Office to mail.  Then we headed back up to my son's office where I left some of my packing materials 2 years ago, to finish packing the rest of the parts, then delivered them to the local Post Office (just across the street).  Have any of you ever used those automated postal machines that many USPS locations now have?  I love them, and the line is always shorter.....they have 4 of them now at the 91730 Post Office.

These machines are so easy to use!

From there we headed to Keith's Upland home arriving just before 6 pm.....Keith was not home yet.....he has a long commute over to West L.A.  and back everyday, and he does it on his motorcycle, so his arrival time home varies from day to day....... anyway, we headed down to the local Walmart to look at a new digital scale that provides weights in 2/10's of a pound increments....our current one gives weight in 5/10's of a pound increments....when you're trying to lose weight every 1/10th is important, right?  We ended up with a new scale that will remember your past weights....cool.

While we were there Keith sent me a text advising he had arrived home just a few minutes after we left, so we headed the few blocks back to his home to try and close the transaction.......after a few questions, and a little dickering we finally exchanged money for a pink slip and were on our way home........so it's official.....the search is over.....we are the proud owners of a 2001 VW Beetle 1.8 turbo......she runs fast, and flawlessly.  

So we went from the "agony of defeat" to the "thrill of victory" in just one long, long day.....our new girl has heated, high end leather seats, a sun roof, a turbo, and cool wheels, and is about 2 feet shorter than the 'Bird, so we'll have a little more room in the trailer for more stuff.......if we choose.

We arrived back home around 7:30 with big smiles on our faces feeling like a small burden has been removed from our shoulders.....now to get the 'Bird read for sale.

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 13

We are beginning to notice a trend, and at this point it is strictly a theory, that when we have a glass,or two of red wine with dinner is when we see the weight loss the next morning.  Monday night I had 2 diet Dr. Peppers with dinner (ZERO calories).....no wine, or alcohol.... and gained 1.5 pounds over night.....otherwise all was the same.  Last night we had Zinfandel (dry, red) wine with dinner and TLE recorded a 1.5 pound weight loss, and I a 1 pound loss back to 203.5.  I will be interesting to see how this theory proves out over the next few weeks.  It may be the red wine helps us digest what we east more efficiently, and helps keep our metabolism up.....I am not a doctor, or scientist, so these are just anecdotal, uneducated guesses.

Tuesday was an early day for us.......every Tuesday for the next month we will be working 6:30 am to 12;30 pm......this is fine, because once we get the Kiosk opened and it is not a Tuesday immediately following a fish stocking Friday then one of us can leave to go clean cabins, or whatever, and then come back and spell the other so neither of us is there for the entire 6 hours.  What's nice about that is we are working one hour less in each of our weekend shifts.  On our walk over to the Kiosk we were greeted with this spectacular sunrise....

My shot

TLE's pano shot

On this Tuesday (2nd Tuesday after the last fish stocking) traffic was almost non existent, so TLE left around 7:40 to go do her part in Cabin #1, and then I left at 9:30 to go do my part (floors, mirrors, trash cans, etc.).  Once I was done with that I headed over to the Post Office to pick up some Priority Mail Flat rate boxes for the bike parts I auctioned off on eBay over the past 10 days.  It looks like when all is said and done I will make about a $125 profit on the bike.....not as good as I would have hoped, but this is the first bike I've done in 2 years, and I think I paid about $50 too much for it.....nevertheless, I turned $275 into $400 in about 10 days.....not a bad rate of return for doing something that gives you pleasure.

Once I had all the boxes matched up with an item I headed over to a new Subway up by the freeway that is actually a little closer than the one on University in downtown Riverside, and is in a lot less congested area....easier to find parking when I am driving my car.....the one downtown works well when I'm stopping off on my bike ride to get my foot long sub.  While I was eating my first 6 incher of the day I called the owner of the 2003 VW Beetle we were waiting to hear from to see how the replacement of the thermostat had gone, and were pleased to find out that had solved the check engine light problem.  He decided to drive the VW down to Orange county on business and back (about 100 miles round trip) to just be sure the light would not come on again, and would call us later to let us know how that went.

TLE had a hair appointment in Claremont.....about 25 miles away......why so far away you wonder to yourself?  Well, that is where Amanda, a long time family friend, works.  Amanda does a wonderful job on TLE's hair, and I wish we could just fly her in to wherever we happen to be every month or so. Surprisingly, for TLE, getting a good haircust on the road is a challenge.

From there we headed over to my son's office to pick up mail, and for me to borrow his pickup truck to go over to USA Cyclery, a few blocks away, to get a bike frame box (free) from them so I can ship the Specialized MTB frame I sold.  This works out well for them because don't have to break the box down after unpacking a new bike, and it works out well for me because I don't have to buy a box.  

Once again we got home just at sunset.....neither of us had taken any time during the day to get in some exercise so we headed off on a 2 mile walk........during that walk I got a call back from the VW owner saying he had just returned from Orange County and the light had stayed off, so we made arrangements to meet him at 10 am on Wednesday to test drive the car again, and to negotiate the final price on the car.....starting to get just a little excited!

Tuesday night is what we call the "big three" night on TV....NCIS, NCIS L.A. and Person of Interest.....all were new episodes, and the Person of Interest was the last new show this calendar year, and, of course, it was a a cliff hangar.  We will have to wait until after the first of the year to see the resolution of this episode.

It was a good day....Wednesday I'll get all my bike parts boxed and mailed to their individual buyers, and maybe we'll be the owners of a new car!

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 12

Shortly after I finished yesterday's blog entry I went off on a 9 bike ride around Fairmont Lake.....no climbing this day.  When I returned  weighed in again, and had lost another 1/2 pound bringing me down to 203!  Today's weigh in (Tuesday) I came in at 204.50.....must be retaining water gain!

We had an appointment to meet the owner of the 2003 VW Beetle convertible at a local mechanic to have the code read......the check engine light was on while we test drove the car, so the owner offered to have it checked at his cost.  The first, and primary code was for a coolant system deficiency and a second one for catalytic deficiency.  Typically, according to the mechanic, this means the thermostat is not operating correctly, which sets off a coolant deficiency, and then sometimes sets off a false code for the catalytic deficiency.  At any rate they are going to replace the thermostat and see if that fixes the problem, so one more day until we know if this is the one.  

We stopped off at the local TruValue Hardware store to pickup some woven nylon string to repair one of our Levelor mini-blinds, and a short extension cord to plug in our 32" Xmas tree lights and headed home where I went to work immediately fixing the mini blind.  Surprisingly it did not take more than 30 minutes and the mini blind was working again.

That was pretty much our day......oh we did head out one more time around 2 to look at a 2002 VW Beetle, but that one ended up being a "dog"......I should have known when the owner asked to meet us in the parking lot of the local Burger King.....lol.  It had custom alloy wheels that had been painted to match the car color, but recently the right rear tire had gone flat on the freeway, and the owner drove the car to the next exit...about a mile, and basically toasted the rim......it is no longer usable.  He seemed puzzled that I didn't want to buy a car with spare tire on it, and only three matching rims....go figure.....I guess I'm just too picky.

We hooked up the short extension cord to the Xmas tree after hanging the decorations on it and it turned out just fine.

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 11

As promised, I dug the old scale battery  (one of those flat ones that is about the size of a nickle....#2032) out of the trash and re-installed it, and then weighed myself.....same weight....205.5.....I then put the new battery in......same weight....205.5.  Okay.....a temporary blip on my weight loss horizon, but wait, there is more......this morning's weigh in has restored order to the universe......I am down to 203.5!  Maybe I was retaining water?   Lol.....I have no idea, but onward we go!  At any rate, 203.5 is a number I have not seen for close to 2 years.  One thing that has changed the past few days.....I am hungry all the time now.  It's like my body has suddenly figured out I am only feeding it 1300 calories a day instead of the 2,000+ it was getting before.  It has been a long time since I was hungry before a meal.....I mean really hungry.  To compensate TLE has bought a lot of those baby carrots, celery, radishes, etc. for me to snack on, as well as an occasional hard boiled egg.  The extra bulk is helping me "feel" full, but I'm still losing weight, and am still hungry most of the time.....that's a good thing, right?  It has been a long tine since I had a beer.

On a slightly different note, we stopped in at Costco the other day after driving the Mini Cooper that over heated, and bought one of their house brand (Kirkland) single malt 18 year old scotches just to check it out......I have to say we are very impressed.....and at $33 for a quart I would say it compares well with several $70-100 per bottle 18 year old scotches we have tried over the past couple of years.

Sunday we had the iniquitously early Kiosk shift, but it was only from 6:30 to 10:30.....4 hours seems way shorter than 5 hours, especially when there is almost nothing going on, which was how it was Sunday......since we're 10 days past the last trout stocking the number of fishermen coming into the park was greatly diminished.  I had taken my HP Netbook into the Kiosk just in case it was a slow day and began searching for a replacement vehicle in earnest again.  As I mentioned yesterday, we have broadened our vehicle search to include Mini Coopers, VW Beetles (the new version), and Ford Escapes.  Sunday we looked at 3 VW Beetles.....two of them baby blue convertibles, and one gray coupe.  The one below is the one we are very interested in.  I'm going to take it into our mechanic Monday to have it checked out.  We both like it a lot, but until I get the thumbs up from Joel I'm not going to get my hopes up.  This one is just immaculate inside and out!  When we started our search our goal was to get a car that could seat 4 people, and carry our bikes.  The bonus here is that we would still have a convertible.....yay!  We are also able to have a 1.25" receiver installed on the Beetle so we can mount our bike rack.  We've kind of given up on the idea of the Jeep as we would need to double our budget in order to get a decent running, later model Jeep.

2003 VW Beetle Convertible

The sunflower

While I was in the Kiosk I sent a few e-mails and texts to people who had VW's we were interested in, and by Noon we had set all our car viewing appointments.  Our first was at 2:30 over in Mira Loma, the second at 3:30 back in Upland, and the 3rd was in Rancho Cucamonga just a couple of blocks from where my son Chris and his family live.  We were blown away by the condition of the first one, a 2003 VW (above)......I could tell from the pictures on Craigslist that a girl, or woman had been the driver, and I was right......any time you see a sunflower on the dash board of one of these you can be pretty sure there is a feminine touch involved, and more than likely the car will NOT have been driven too hard....the driver of this car is the owner's daughter who drove it gently.

The second VW Beetle in Upland is a gray coupe, and looks good on the outside, but the inside was a little the worse for wear.....it was a turbo with a sunroof, and runs good, but the interior would need some serous detailing.....it is about $1,000 less, but it's not a convertible.  The final VW we saw in Rancho Cucamonga was a 2005, and identical to the first one, but even cleaner if that is possible....also driven by a young girl, and it also had the ubiquitous sunflower on the dashboard.....this one is about $600 more than the 2003, but if I had a choice I would buy that one in a heartbeat.....unfortunately, we are in second position on that one, so unless the guy who left a deposit backs out that one is out of the running, but you just never know what Mr. Jello, or Miss Serendipity may have in mind.

It was a nice afternoon, for a change, of car shopping, and frankly we could see ourselves in anyone of the three VW's.....if the 2003 doesn't check out mechanically we'll move on to the 2001 and have it checked out.  We arrived back in the park just at sunset with smiles on our faces.......we think we are getting near the end of our search, and can begin to focus on other unfinished business, like selling our baby, the T-Bird!

Oh, I forgot to mention that for the first time I rode to the top of Mt. Rubidoux for the second time in just 3 days.....I was riding into a headwind about half the time so my summit time was about 2 minutes above my personal best....from the summit I rode over to the Subway to get my daily foot long sub, and then rode around Fairmont Lake again....total distance ridden was just over 11 miles.

We spent the evening watching the "Survivor" finale.....once again my favorite won.....Tyson....he played the best game, in my opinion, of the three finalists.  Another great day in the books, and many more to come.....God willing, and the river don't rise.

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 10

You'll get a kick out of this......so yesterday morning I get a "low battery" warning on the bathroom scales, so I put in a new battery late in the day.  When I go to weigh myself in this morning it comes up 205.5.....that's one and a half pounds more than yesterday.  So I ask TLE to weigh herself and hers comes up exactly 1.5 pounds more than yesterday.......hmmm....was I losing weight so fast because the battery was getting low?  I ate exactly the same thing as the day before and the day before, etc......how do you gain 1.5 pounds overnight?  I'm going to run an experiment later today.....after we get back from Kiosk duty (yeah, it's one of those iniquitous mornings again) and weigh something static with both batteries and see what happens.

We had Kiosk duty Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm.....I took the first two hours and TLE served the last 2.  I had located a Mini Cooper over in Chino Hills we were interested in so when TLE got home from Kiosk duty we headed over to  Chino Hills to check it out.  We took it on a test drive and all seemed to be going good.....in fact I really liked it......until I began to smell the dreaded coolant smell....we pulled over in a Walgreen parking lot and found coolant dripping on the ground under the engine......not good.  We headed directly back to the owner's home and gave him the bad news.....oh well....on to the next one.....we'll be looking at a 2002 VW Beetle Sunday....like I said, we are broadening our selections a little.....we want something that can seat four reasonably sized people, but is small and sporty to some degree.  Up until the coolant incident I was reminded how much I like driving a Mini Cooper....we drove Chris and Cherie's about 11 months ago while we were in Cedar Key, and loved it!

Meanwhile the wind was pretty bad all day long.....so much so that they were not able to raise the flags at the Kiosk (U.S., California and RivCo flags)....even with two people it was just two windy to get them up.

There was only one notable college football game and that was the annual Army vs. Navy game, which Navy won again for the umpteenth consecutive time in a row.  I spent time looking for cars to go and see, but that was the extent of our day.

We got home from the aborted Mini Cooper test drive around 4:30 and headed indoors for the night....there would be no campfire this night......just too windy.

Thanks for stopping by!