Two 10 pound bags of sugar

I haven’t made new years resolutions for several years. Just never got up the enthusiasm for that sort of thing. My weight has been creeping up ever since I stopped doing the treadmill every morning. I’d started it to control my weight after I stopped smoking. After a year or two, the extra sleep in the morning seemed to do me more good than the sweat and effort of walking a couple of miles before I was really awake. My back has been sore for a while, you know, the kind where you get out of bed and have to walk bent over for a while until you limber up enough to straighten out. I concluded that the problem with my back was that it was too far away from my front. That and the fact that I stopped wearing belts because 1) my pants weren’t about to fall down and 2) the belt buckle tended to dig into that part of my stomach that hung over it.

The company I work for, Applied Materials, is big on employee wellness, with weekly and monthly Wellness Tip emails, discounts at health clubs and the like. It was through one of those programs, a company discount at www.selfhelpworks.com that I stopped smoking. As part of the run up to last new years the Wellness Tip email offered suggestions and support for the various, generic resolutions people tend to make. It mentioned a discount for the Living Lean program at that same web site. I signed up before I could talk myself out of it. I started the program on New Years Day, and I am happy to report that I have lost 20 lbs and am well on my way to my target weight. The program consists of 12 short audio visual segments you access from your computer. The key is to recognize that you have a choice every time you go to eat something. You work on recognizing the choice and reinforcing the desire to choose what is best for your short and long term goals. It works for me.

In other news, some one was out enjoying the nice weather we've been having lately. Here is what Bailey and I found on our walk yesterday


spring

Monday Question

What did you do this weekend?

It is a common Monday morning question.

Friday, on the way home from work, I listened to an interview of James Howard Kunstler, author of “The Long Emergency”. He talked up his new book about the changes that will be forced upon us as oil supply dwindle and demand outstrips supply. He thinks we are definitely in the end of the oil era and will start seeing oil shortage changes as soon as 10 to 15 years from now: more regional and local focus product wise, as the transportation cost for goods makes prices prohibitive for many of the goods we take for granted today; urban sprawl contracting again, as transportation costs for goods and customers increases; smaller houses that are more energy efficient.

One of the phrases he used in the interview was “recreational shopping”. It was, I thought, a nice phrase. It rings true.

Utility is an economic concept that talks about the satisfaction, or utility, gained from consumption a good or service. I remember one of my instructors talked about how, for many people, the true utility in buying a product comes not from the product bought, but from the act of buying. That is where the true utility of money exists for many today: Recreational Shopping!

What did you do this weekend? We did some recreational shopping.

It got us out of the house, into the malls and shopping centers along with all the rest of the suburban shoppers. And there sure were a lot of us!

My Walk With Bailey

I got a new phone last week. As you will see, it has a camera. It is much easier to carry and use for quick snapshots. So, I thought I'd give you a sense of what was happening around our neighborhood this weekend. It was dry, luckily, and mild. The birds are back and the plants are starting to wake up to a new season....



This is the primary view when we go for a walk. It's his best side....



Even though February ended just last week, we are already seeing signs of spring.


and signs of another kind too. I always expect discolored water when flushing....

This picture didn't turn out so well, but you can still see that these trees are going to really bloom this coming week.



Little patches of color starting to push their way out of the ground.


A small bridge spans this mighty waterway. It's part of the path that cuts between two neighborhoods on the way to the dog treat store. There was a good two feet of water flowing in this stream during the January monsoons.



Such vibrant color!



As with just about every neighborhood around here, they are squeezing more and more people in. Where do they all come from???? This little area, less than an acre, is zoned for 18 units!



Daffodils are usually the first to announce the beginning of the new season.
We came around a corner and this was the fanfare that greeted us. Sending out the message loud, bright and clear.



These guys may have been hidden by the fence, but they aren't bashful. They were strutting their stuff!