SD - Day # 24 - Up and Down

Looks like I'm into the rollercoaster faze of weight loss.....just one day back to my normal footlong club and I go back under 200 pounds once again......today's weigh in news......198.8.  Order is restored, and now maybe I can make a dash down to 190 over the ne2 t couple of weeks.  I know I'm losing inches because my shorts are starting to move southward....I'll have to tighten up the draw string on them, instead of loosening it like I have been for the past 22 months.....by the way in another couple of days we will have been fulltiming in our coach for 2 years, 11 months and on the road for 23 months.

Saturday morning we had Kiosk duty once again at 10 am.  TLE headed over first giving me time to work on some more VW detailing, and take my bike ride.  Since there was already someone on duty until 11:30 we didn't think it necessary to have three of us cluttering up the office.  Around 10:45 I took my ride up to the summit of Mt. Rubidoux once again....I felt strong, but not strong enough to equal or better my personal best, nonetheless, I did top out at 25 minutes, 2 seconds, and once again continued on down the hill without stopping to catch my breath.  I was able to stand in the pedals all the way down again, too.

Just before I left on my ride my daughter, Meredith, stopped by to do her laundry.....seems the dryer at home is on the fritz.  After returning from my bike ride I took a shower and headed over to the Kiosk just after 11:45 to find TLE and Sara quite busy.....in fact, our four hour shift was the busiest one we have had.  It probably owes to the fact this is really a holiday week.....we ha a lot of RV's coming into the park which is unusual on a Saturday.....usually by Saturday morning the weekenders have all arrived, but these folks are coming in for the New Years celebration and will be here until Thursday.  After about 30 minutes TLE suggested I take the opportunity afforded by a break in traffic to drive over and buy my footlong.  I arrived back just in time for the next rush, and it stayed that way until after 2:30 when I finally left Carolyn to handle the rest of the afternoon shift.

We had one of our cabin tenants check out during our shift, and the other will check out Sunday so we'll have two cabins to clean Sunday in preparation for their new tenants coming in Monday for the New Years.

After returning from Kiosk duty I took a short nap while TLE and Meredith went to TJ's again......when there is one so close you must go there often, right?  Then it was time to list the next batch of bike parts on eBay.

Sunset Friday night - forgot to post it

We spent the evening watching more old black and white movies (and one color one) we had recorded off the TCM network such as "Out of the Past" with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas (1947), "Suspicion" with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine (1941 Alfred Hitchcock movie), and a 1967 movie starring Tony Curtis called "Don't Make Waves" (comedy) set in Malibu, which also had Sharon Tate and Claudia Cardinale...which I don't recommend.......I'm sure it would be classified as a "c" movie....."b" at best.

Sunday is an "iniquitous" day so we were in bed by 10......

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SD - Day # 23 - Salted Pigs

Well, my 2 day stay below 200 pounds ended rather abruptly......why will become obvious shortly.....my weigh in this morning.....200.6.  To find out the why, read on....

Saturday started out slowly......I had my usual oatmeal breakfast, and puttered around in the trailer, airing up TLE's bike tires, doing a little more organizing, etc.  Around mid morning my daughter, Kate, sent a text message reminding us about our lunch date suggesting a change in venue from Simple Simon's (a breakfast/lunch place) to the Salted Pig (a gastro pub) on 12th and Main.   This is the last place someone on a diet should ever enter.  Both places are rated highly on all the various food rating services...Yelp gives both establishments a solid 4 stars.   

Our original plan was to ride our bikes to the original lunch destination, and when we found out the Salted Pig was just a few blocks further we got on the bikes and started our ride around 11:30 am.

The air temperature was in the low 80's, and very dry as we departed RJRP on our bikes for our lunch date with Kate and Nick......we've known Nick for years, and like him a lot, and it appears that their relationship is moving in a good direction, so we were glad to be invited to lunch to spend more time with them as a couple.

We timed our ride perfectly arriving at the Salted Pig at exactly 12 noon to find Kate and Nick waiting for us near The Salted Pig entry.  I don't think I've had a beer in almost a month now......pre-dating the start of the Subway Diet.  As you know I love dark beers, so just after sitting down at our table I began to peruse the draft beer offerings settling on a Jolly Roger Black Ale....no doubt there are a lot of calories in one pint, but if I had stopped at one pint I might have stayed below 200 pounds......but, alas, it was not to be.  Along with the beers I had their "Street Tacos" which were delicious.  This is the kind of place we love, and is the main reason we gained so much weight in the last 2 years on the road.  If we are going to continue to frequent these great eateries we will have to start sharing plates, and keeping our beer consumption to 1 pint each.  Some might say that will happen when "salted pigs fly"......perhaps, but I prefer to be optimistic.  

The "Really Good Burger" - what my daughter had

All of the food was presented beautifully......I wanted to eat everything I saw come out of the kitchen, but, alas, I am on a diet.  I think I showed remarkable restraint, but I can dream can't I?  I mentioned before that Yelp gives them a solid 4 stars.....and that is were we come down....is they had al fresco dining I would bump my rating up to 5 stars......on a nice balmy day like we had Saturday it would have been nice to sit outside.

After a leisurely lunch with Kate and Nick we bid them farewell as they motored off on Nick's Harley, and we mounted our trusty Cannondales for the ride home......bike riding is an excellent way to ride a "buzz" off, but those two Jolly Roger Black Ale's really stuck with me.   I was in my recliner within a few minutes of arriving back "home" to take a nice early afternoon nap.  While I napped TLE went off in the Beetle to TJ's (Trader Joe's) do some shopping.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cataloging bike parts, and taking pictures of same for listing on eBay.  I have 21 things to list from this bike, which is an amazing number.  I managed to get 7 of them listed, and will continue to list 5, or 6 a day until they are all up.....don't want to have to ship 21 things out on the same day!

There were a couple of college bowl games on during the evening of which I watched parts in between dozing off for short cat naps......we finally headed off to bed around 10:15.  

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 22 - Even Steven

I am pleased to report trumpet scream from the highest mountain top that I have stayed below 200 lbs now for 2 consecutive days.  Of course, who doesn't want to see a weight loss every day....well every day when you are trying to lose weight, right?  After spending most of the last week bouncing above and below that mark I am content to say I'm "Even Steven" this morning at 198.6!  I was commenting to TLE Christmas day that I wore my heretofore jeans for 4 hours with no discomfort.....those 36" waist jeans I bought at the Goodwill in Polson, MT fit perfectly now.  There are a few other pairs of jeans I'm looking forward to wearing again....it's nice to have a 36" waist again.......those 34" waist jeans I bought at the Goodwill in Spokane a couple of summers ago because they were brand new and only cost $3.99 may come out of storage soon!  When I bought the ones in Polson I really should have bought 38" ones, but then I thought I would just be giving up.....I'm glad I didn't give up!

Thursday was a delightful day....a day, finally, where we didn't spent half the day in the car, which we have done a lot of lately.  I spent most of the day cleaning bike parts so I can take pictures of them, and then list them on eBay.  That was pretty much my day.....the kind of day I enjoy a lot.......60's music playing at the proper volume in the back ground with no one suggesting a lower volume........the trailer door wide open letting in the 80's weather....and putting shine back on old, dirty bike parts.  The only time I left RJRP was to purchase my usual footlong club at Subway.

TLE had a project also......our VW came with a dashboard cover that was not quite the right size so she spent the afternoon removing the seam binding from it, cutting it down to size, then sewing on the seam binding again.  It came out great......now she just has to cut the holes for the speakers and it is done.  I will take a picture of the finished product when she finishes.  She has a few other projects lined up, and "we" will get to them in the next few days.....my assistance will be required.

One thing I almost forgot, around Noon we got a call from the Kiosk advising the tenants in Cabin #2 were checking out, which meant we had to get it cleaned so the next tenants, arriving at 2 pm, could check in.....no problem there......we can, and did, turn a cabin over in about 40 minutes if it is not too dirty, and this one was not very dirty at all!  I was just finishing a bike part when TLE let me know about the cabin, so I finished what I was doing and then walked over to join her, and we were done before 1 pm.

I had recorded a few black and white movies on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) on Christmas that we watched in the evening......."Carefree" (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), "Narrow Margin" (Charles McGraw and Jaqueline White), and "The Bishop's Wife" (Cary Grant and Vivian Leigh)....the Bishop's Wife is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies and we watch it at least once a year.

Another day lived well spent with my best friend........thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 21 - Christmas Hobbit

May I please have a drum roll?  Rata tat tat tat tat........today's excellent weigh in news.....198.6!  I gave myself the day off from Subway (no choice of course.....they aren't open on Xmas day) Christmas and just trusted myself not to over do it, and apparently I did not.  I hope I shall not see anything north of 200 again for.....well.....never!

Christmas Day dawned clear and balmy.....the balmy part left over from a mild Santana condition that began Tuesday afternoon.......we got the warm off shore breezes flowing down down through Cajon Pass from the high desert, but not with the normal Santana intensity....maybe 8-10 mph at most.

Since we were having breakfast at my oldest son's home I waited until then to eat.  We arrived at Chris and Rochelle's beautiful home around 10 am to find most of our kids already there with their families.  The drive up to their home was a breeze with very few cars on the road at 9:30 in the morning.

When we arrived Chris, my son, was just putting the finishing touches on breakfast.  My, son, by the way, is a great chef, and loves the culinary arts so he always makes Christmas breakfast for whomever shows up, which this particular morning included scrambled eggs, bacon, chorizo, fried potatoes and gravy.   I resisted the temptation to have champagne and orange juice, and just stuck to the Keurig coffee.  A number of Christmas' ago  I gave Chris a Keurig coffee machine for Christmas and he loves it.....so much so that he now has one in his motorhome and has upgraded the one at home to the really high end one.  Even though I had a couple of helpings of breakfast I managed to lose weight....of course that was the only meal I had all day......well.....other than a box of popcorn I shared with my daughter Sharon at the movies.

After breakfast, and the opening of the gifts we gathered around the Christmas tree to take our traditional Christmas pictures.....words are insufficient to convey how great it is to have all my kids and grand kids in one place on such a special day.  

 Cynthia, Christopher and Elijah.....3 of the grandkids!

 Our amazing children - Christmas 2013

Chris' family: left to right - Rochelle, Cynthia, Chris, & Christopher

All the kids, grandkids and significant others

It is a little sobering for me at times to think that none of the people in the picture above would be in my life except for the fact I fell in love with The Lovely Elaine almost 43 years ago.

We did the traditional opening of the Christmas presents, spent time talking as only Hockwald's can do, and then headed home around 12:30.....we had a date with Sharon, Rod, and Meredith to meet at 3;15 pm at the Ontario Mills AMC theaters to see our annual Christmas movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 3-D.  At $17 a ticket that is one of the most expensive movies I have every seen.....well, only $16 for us senior citizens.......:-P  TLE and I watched the first Hobbit movie exactly one year ago Christmas in Campbellsville, KY.

Has anyone noticed that the number of trailers being shown before the actual movie you paid to see starts has like doubled?  I'm pretty sure we watched a good 20 minutes of trailers before The Hobbit started.  Of course we all loved the movie....loved, and hated the way this episode ended with Bilbo Baggins asking the foreboding question"What have we done?"  Now I have to wait a year to find out the answer.

We got home around a quarter to 8.....TLE settled in to read, and I watched a Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn moved called "Holiday"....one I had never seen before.....and enjoyed it thoroughly.  You know, of course, there are really no bad Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn movies......if there are I have yet to see them.

We were in bed by 11 with smiles of contentment plastered across our faces......Merry Christmas everyone....Merry Christmas!!

Thanks for stopping by!

SD - Day # 20 - Christmas Eve, Proposals, Engagements.....yada, yada....

First, let's get this out of the way......my daily weight in, Xmas morning.....200.0.  Just trying to get below 200, and stay there, but it's all good....down .4 lbs from Tuesday.....still going in the correct direction.

We had Kiosk duty first thing Tuesday.....one of those 6 hour shifts......TLE and I worked it together until 11 when I departed to go get my ears lowered.....I think the last haircut I had was in Idaho Falls back on October 26th.......I was beginning to get a little shaggy to say the least.  I've taken to getting a haircut and shampoo the last year, or so.....the shampoo washes away all the hair clippings so they don't end up on my collar later on.  This day I was asked if I would like the "Tea Tree Experience"......I heard myself say "Yes", not really knowing what that was.....well, it was like a spa for the head......WOW!  I think I fell asleep at one point I was so relaxed!

I got home just after TLE have arrived back at the coach from the last 90 minutes of Kiosk duty.  She headed off in the Beetle to our former "sticks and bricks" home to work on Christmas cookies, etc. with her daughters (Mere, Kate and Sharon).

While she was off playing house with the girls I dug into the latest bike disassembly project.....it pretty much took me until TLE arrived back home around sunset.....and there was a little blood shed.....I'm glad I had my gloves on or there would have been a lot more blood!

Around 8:30 we decided to run over to see the Mission Inn Festival of Lights...we've never been to it on Christmas Eve before, and usually it is very difficult to find parking in close, but on this night Lady Serendipity was with us, and we found a spot about 1/2 a block from the Inn. Our daughter, Meredith, had called to say Sharon and Rod where there with friends, so I called Sharon to find out where she was.....the first thing she said after I said "Hi Bunny" was......."Rod proposed!"  Of course we wanted to see her and give her a hug, and see the ring, and congratulate Rod on getting a "Yes" to the big question.  Within minutes we found each other......

The proposal

The ring being accepted

The happy couple!

The ring!

Festival of Lights

We caught Santa in the act!

They set up an ice skating rink for the Festival of Lights every year

The site of the proposal

It was a magical evening filled with serendipity.......I wrote just a few days ago how we were hoping Rod and Sharon's relationship would take the next step, and look what we got for a Christmas present.  

We headed home to have a celebratory toast to our youngest daughter's engagement....TLE broke out the bottle of the good stuff.....

To all our friends and family, wherever you may find yourselves this Christmas Season, whether with family, friends, or both, Elaine and I wish you the best Holiday season ever.  Know you are in our thoughts daily until we reconnect with you again.  May God Bless you and yours!

Thanks for stopping by!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HOCKWALD'S

AND A HAPPY , HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!!

SD - Day # 19 - Smogging, DMV, XM and..........plateaus

Sunday.....another full day....left the coach around 10 am to drive into Joel's Automotive to get the VW smogged so I could register it, to leave the T-Bird to have a "check engine" light checked out, and to find out what we can get for her at auction. But before we left her we took out the XM Radio to re-install in the VW later in the day.....wow, that kind of makes it even more final when we take out the XM Radio huh?  Whenever you buy a car via private party you are always taking a risk that it will not pass the smog certification and will have to spend money to get it to pass.  We both had a good feeling about this car, and we were right....it passed the first time.

From there we headed to the gas station as the low gas warning light had just come on....what a pleasant surprise to find it took less than 13 gallons to fill her up.  We still have to put 91 octane gas in her just like the 'Bird, but at least we will be getting about twice the mpg  of the 'Bird, and it takes less to fill her up.

Then it was on to my son's office where we had a couple of packages to pick up.  A few weeks ago I bought the new Craftsman Bolt On drill that you can also attach a small skill saw to, and a jig saw as well as multiple other attachments.  My old Black & Decker drill was going south fast, so this is the perfect replacement and it gives me some additional power tools I would not have room to carry otherwise.

While I went into AAA to register our new car, TLE went over to Target to finish our Xmas shopping.....I was in and out of AAA in about 15 minutes, but TLE was not done at Target, so I walked across the street to Active Ride Shop to get my grandson, Christopher, some new wheels, bearings and "trucks" for his skate board.....wow those things have gotten expensive, but it's only money right?  We've been shopping at Active going back to when Christopher's father, our son, was asking for skateboard stuff for Christmas.  As it happens Sharon's boyfriend, Rod, is the manager at the Rancho Cucamonga store, and was there to help me decide what exactly Christopher wanted and needed....by the time I was half way through the long check out line (they are popular) TLE joined me.

One thing I want to add about AAA.....if all I did was register cars, and pay for our annual registration at AAA it would be worth the annual membership fee.  Going to the DMV to do anything is a nightmare.....of course, now you can most things online with them, but if you have anything a little complicated AAA is the way to go.  In the case of the VW the guy we bought it from had bought it from someone else a few months earlier, and had never registered it as his wife didn't like the stick shift, so he gave me a "Bill of Sale", which was what made it a little more complicated.....of course at AAA nothing is complicated, which is why I prefer going there for something like this.

We got home by 2 pm.....while I installed the XM Radio in the VW TLE took her daily power walk....man that chick can walk fast.....I have a hard time keeping up with her pace....by the time she returned the radio was in and working.

Around 3:30 I took off on my 8 mile bike ride around the lake, and was back before 4:15.......it was such a lovely day for a bike ride.....the air was balmy with a very slight breeze.

After taking a shower I sat down to eat the other half of my footlong Hot Pastrami Subway sub from the night before....TLE heated it up again, and it was delicious!

Tuesday is Iniquitous Tuesday, so we were in bed early....nothing on Monday night, but Monday Night Football anyway.

I seem to have hit a weight plateau, which I did expect would happen at some point in my weight loss.  I keep skipping back and forth across that 200 pound threshold.....at my weigh in this morning (Tuesday) I read the number 200.4 on the bathroom scales......at least every time I cross it I am less over than the time before.

Thanks for stopping by!