Some remembrances...

My family has been active in the military over the last century. As I think back about their service, I wish I had been able to ask them more about it. Here are some things I do remember.

My Uncle Clarence was a rear gunner in a plane during WWI. He was shot down and survived the crash, but, unfortunately, crashed in a field that was saturated with poison gas. He only lived until the '20's after the war. He had breathing and vision problems from the gas. I regret that I never knew him.

My Uncle Al, Clarence's brother, drove an ammo truck during WWI. I was stationed near Bitburg Germany and he told me of seeing the flattened city at the end of the war. One other thing I remember is his talking about his convoy being shelled, and he hid under his truck until he remembered what his truck carried. He ran away, but a shell hit the truck and left him mostly deaf.

My dad Mike, Al and Clarence's brother, served between WWI and WWII in the Navy. He never related much about it except that he couldn't swim when he joined. He said he learned to swim when they threw him off the dock in basic training.

My Uncle Bob served in WWII. He was part of Patton's army and didn't do the D-Day landing. He never talked about the war. I have a picture of him in uniform and some postcards he wrote to my Aunt Nellie saying he was fine.

My brother Clarence was in the Korean war. He was a heavy equipment operator and built airfields among other things. The only time he talked about the war he commented on how bomber would return from their missions with the central gun control shot out. This killed the gunner of course. It wasn't a good memory. He also recalled having to raise the bulldozer front blade as protection as his unit retreated from the Chinese. He had gunners on the arms of the blade firing at the Chinese.

I served in the Vietnam era, but never in Vietnam. I was part of the Cold War, doing repair on radar's in a HAWK missile unit. Did that for eight years. Everybody's dead now and how I miss them.

Mounting frustrations

I just CANNOT seem to write in this blog as often as I would like to. I have stuff going on in my life, but putting it down on "paper" is hard. For instance, I've been dealing with mental confusion for most of this week. It's been a lack of focus and the inability to prioritize jobs that has been frustrating. I know the ADD has a big part in this, but some of it seems to be based in my inability to sleep well at night and these freaking strange dreams I have when I do get to sleep. I woke up this morning at 5:30, but didn't get up until 6:30. I was trying to get some more sleep, but that didn't happen. I should have gotten up at 5:30 and started working on things. The fact that I didn't get up is just one more frustration for me. It didn't help that the lettuce I have been using for lunch has been recalled because of listeria. I haven't gotten sick from it so far, but that's another thing to bat around.

Well, made the wife happy a bit ago. Swept the kitchen floor and hooked up the dishwasher and started it running. We don't have a built in model. Our floor cabinets aren't deep enough to have one, so we have a portable that we move to the sink and run every few days. It's a pain in the rear, but it's likely the only thing we can do.

Oh, I did lose 1.6lbs last week. I've been on the down cycle for a while, so each victory there is encouraging. Don't know what will happen this week with the problems with the lettuce. I'll take it back and get my money back for it and hope the next batch I buy doesn't have any problems with it.

I guess I'll write some more tomorrow, I hope. I will definitely try to.

A Little of This and That

It's been a different week. I've been trying to get my information together for the bankruptcy, but it's slow going. Part of it is the ADD reluctance to start something I don't want to do and the other is the sheer immensity of the task. Lots of pages to fill out and information to gather, let alone the special class we have to take and the money we need for it that we don't have. Oh well, I'll get through it, one line at a time.

The lawn needs mowing, but it'll wait until tomorrow. I've got quite a bit to mow, but the lawn tractor helps me get through it fairly quickly. If I didn't have the mower, I'd have to have my lawn done by someone, and I can't afford that. The next job is to get the neighbor kid over here to help me with chores around the yard. His legs work and mine don't. He won't be mowing or trimming but I can use him for raking and picking up fallen branches. Then I have some inside chores he can help me with.

I did some planning ahead for next week. I've just been going from day to day right now, but I hope planning household chores ahead will help me. I'll forget to do them if I don't write it down. I'm hoping this will help extend my focus by planning some things ahead. No guarantees, but I'll try it for a while.

Tomorrow I think I'll write my thoughts on gay marriage and civil unions.

Following Dr. Fuhrman

I'm up to chapter 7 in his Volume 1 book. Interesting reading. I haven't started following his plan yet, but I am seriously planning to. There are probably a few things that will take time to adjust to. The first is that I am going to cut back on the amount of milk I drink. I really like milk, and I drink 3 glasses a day. I'll cut back by one or two glasses, one at a time and see how it works. I have some pills I have to take with milk or they tear up my stomach so I will have to take that into account. Reducing the amount of meat I eat won't be a problem, because I have already done this. I probably have meat once or twice a week. The only thing I won't eat is raw broccoli. My dog won't even eat it, and he eats almost everything! So it will be cooked broccoli only.

After I get Volume 2 and the Workbook read, I'll ease my way into the eating plan. I've already replaced my noon lunch with a salad, but that was before I received the kit. Too much bread when having a sandwich for lunch. I don't remember if I mentioned this, but I only weighed 371 at the last weigh-in.

Time to address weight loss again

I've been doing so-so on my weight loss. I have lost weight, but last week I stayed at the same weight. I am 371 now and hope to lose more this week. One thing I have found that is a hindrance to my losing weight is eating bread. One or two slices a week doesn't hurt, but 10 or more a week is a sure formula for weight gain for me. There are, of course, other factors at work here. I ate out 3 times last week, so that didn't help my loss any. Nevertheless, I am still working to lose weight. However, I am about to take a new tack to it.

In March I contributed to IPTV and received Dr. Joel Fuhrman's "3 Steps to Incredible Health" kit. It came this week and I have been reading in the first book in the kit.There is two books in the kit, one on the basics of his nutrition plan. The second one is the recipe book, which I haven't looked at yet. There is also a workbook included in the kit providing practical guidance to following his nutrition plan. There are also 6 DVDs in the kit. I haven't watched any of them yet, but I will soon. I'm primarily reading in the first book. I've gotten about half-way through it. I want to finish it and the other book and workbook before I start the plan. That way I've got a heads-up on what I have to do in each step of the plan. I'll write more about this as I go along. My only disagreement so far is that I drink 2 or 4 cups of coffee a day and he suggests that only one should be consumed. He'll have to convince me to change.

That being said, I'm also searching the web to find what other people have to say about his plan. So far I find I have to search with his whole name, not just Fuhrman. Too many other references to other people and places. I'll keep you informed on this as well.