Career change

At the encouragement of a friend, in order to be able to help her with her business, I am busily attempting to gain familiarity and proficiency with WordPress software as well as various social media. A whole new world from either teaching music, or for driving errands for an auto service company!

Intergenerational bonding

Since my daughter Christy and her two kids, Izzy (4) and Danny (1), are visiting Michigan for a few days, staying with Christy's mother up in Okemos, I was absolutely delighted to be able to go up Monday and meet them for lunch. My sister, Marianne, was there too (along with my mother), and got this nice picture of Danny and his Boppa AB fist-bumping.

Big change

Finding that it's been a year and a half since I wrote anything in this blog, I was quite surprised - but also realized that I need to address this issue.

On the morning of Monday, December 15, 2014 (a day I am regarding as Black Monday), I drove an errand for my employer, picking up tires from our store in Canton, and afterwards was waiting to turn right (west) onto Ford Rd., to go back to Ann Arbor. Looking to my left, I was watching for traffic on this busy thoroughfare to clear, when WHUMP—a bicyclist struck my vehicle. Fortunately, witnesses called 911, the the cyclist, who flew off his bike and landed on the ground, was very soon being treated, and the police officer, who arrived quickly also, came over to see me.

I first showed him my card explaining why I couldn't talk, and he was fine with that, asking me to wait in my vehicle. He wrote up his report, taking 10-15 minutes, and then finally I ambled back over to his vehicle to inquire about the cyclist. "Is he OK?" I asked, and the officer responded quickly, "He's fine." In the end, however, I was ticketed for failure to stop on leaving an alley or private drive. This seemed to me quite ironic, since I WAS stopped, and the cyclist hit me.

At any rate, I returned to my store, and typed out an explanation of what had happened. But a few hours later, when I was ready to leave for the day, my manager asked to speak with me. Although he asked, "What does Allen want to do?" it was fairly clear to me that my wishes had little significance; he had already drawn up the paperwork for my "Exit Interview," and requested my signature. So I was fired from a job I had held since March 2001.

Wanting to deal with it quickly, I paid the ticket online that afternoon. But then in thinking it over later that day, I remembered that when I walked over to the cyclist, the very first thing he said to me was to scream, "WHERE'S MY PHONE?" I walked a few feet away, picked up the phone and its detached cover from the ground, and returned it to him. And it seemed to me that the combination of his words, the condition and location of the phone, and the fact that I was sitting still when he hit me, was very good evidence that he had been texting while riding and not seen me before he ran into me.

I went to the court the next day, laptop in hand to explain the circumstances, and filed paperwork to rescind my payment, and was told that I will be contacted by mail to tell me how I can go about contesting the ticket. So those are my plans.

Meantime, those close to me have weighed in with the opinion that, given my driving history, a job requiring me to do a lot of driving was probably not the best match for me, so I am moving on, looking for something else.

Firekracker 5K

I continue to miss running, and on this Fourth of July, am reminded of the several races I've run on this date in the past. The most notable was the Firekracker 5K in Ft. Collins, Colorado, on July 4, 2008—the day before my daughter Christy's wedding out there. She ran it with me (the picture here shows us before the race, when we were still fresh), as did my son John—and Christy is running the same race today, too.

Biking injury

Since late 2010, I have worn an upper denture. Though, early on, since it is less than perfectly comfortable, I frequently avoided wearing it, since this January I have been trying to wear it every weekday, in an effort to be more "civil" and presentable.

I have become a fairly steady bicyclist this year, as detailed in my biking blog -

http://ride-ab-ride.blogspot.com

However, on June 22, I fell (as detailed in my post for that day) -

http://ride-ab-ride.blogspot.com/2013/06/78th-ride.html

When I fell, I went face first onto the pavement. Fortunately, I was not wearing my denture during this ride. Even so, though, my remaining natural lower teeth cut up the inside of my mouth pretty good, and consequently, I have not worn the denture since then, in an effort to give myself some time to heal. But I think that tomorrow I'm going to try it again.

Weight

Weight has been a very thorny, yo-yo issue with me. Before my May 1993 accident I maintained a weight of about 190, largely by running, though I was by no means either addicted to running or an accomplished runner. Then, though, after I was nearly killed on May 22 of that year, and spent two months in coma (and was in the hospital until early December), I didn't give my weight a thought for quite some time—and was then stunned to step on a scale that fall in physical therapy, for the first time in months, and see "250" staring back at me. For some time, I assumed that they must have miscalculated my intravenous feedings when I was in coma—but then, eventually, Michelle confessed and reminded me of the nightly pint of ice cream she brought me. Coupled with my lack of any activity, the results were not surprising.

I continued to let it go until the beginning of 2005, when I had climbed to over 300 pounds—and that was a big wake-up call for me. I realized I needed to take action, so I got busy, first walking, and then with the resumption of running in early 2006, and continued to pare it down in pursuit of a goal of 200 pounds. I never quite reached it, although I did get to 202.5 at the time of my daughter's wedding in July 2008.

However, various health issues caused it to go back up again, until I was at 230 in December 2011, when I was forced to quit running due to arthritis. For some time thereafter, it climbed yet again, until I got to just over 260 in the spring of 2012, before I could begin to turn it around. Since then, it's continued to decrease steadily, and more dramatically this year with taking up bicycling, and participation in Weight Watchers. Currently I'm at 220, and am still in pursuit of that goal of 200, but now want to go beyond it. I'm hoping to be under 200 by the end of 2013, and, based on Weight Watchers recommendations for a healthy BMI (Body Mass Index) given my height of 5'10", I am aiming to get eventually to 174—and maintain it!

Wonderful visit

Michelle and I were so greatly blessed this past weekend when Christy and her family (husband Reggie, daughter Izzy who turned 3 in February, and son Daniel, born January 18, whom we had not yet met) stayed with us while visiting Michigan. They spent overnight with us on Friday night, and then on Saturday we all enjoyed a lovely picnic together at Gallup Park, a local bright spot that we used to visit with Christy and her brother John on short day trips while I was still inpatient at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital during summer and fall 1993.

We got—I should say, Michelle got, as she is an excellent photographer— numerous photographs of both their time with us at our home—here is one that Christy took of Michelle and I with Daniel, and then a couple of pictures by Michelle, of Daniel and I both showing delight in one another, and one of my helping Izzy with her purple tennies:

and also during the picnic on Saturday. (This one of Grandpa, or 'Boppa AB,' as they call me, snuggling Daniel is from that occasion.)

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, we gathered all together at my brother John's home (JB), south of Jackson, and I was delighted to be able to get, first, this photo with Izzy and Daniel,

recreating one like I had with Christy and John at Christmastime 1986, and then, a four-generation shot with Christy, Daniel, my mother, me, Izzy, and John.

Weight Watchers

At the end of February, Michelle and I joined Weight Watchers and began attending weekly meetings. Though we had tried it once—very briefly—a few years ago, we were not ready for it at that time. But now I feel ready, and the results seem to have borne that out so far. From a starting weight of 249.1, I've been able to come down so far to 234.5 at last night's meeting (on the strength of a satisfying 4.7-pound loss for the week), which allowed me to meet Weight Watchers' initial goal of 5% of my body weight. Eventually, I want to get down to the top end of their recommended range for my height—from 144 (at which I think I'd look virtually skeletal) to 174. But getting to 174 will mean a loss of just over 30% of my starting body weight. This will be a challenge, but it's one I'm committed to continuing to work at.

Weight Watchers works on a points system, with different foods getting different numbers of points, and you 'track' your intake daily. Already, due to the weight I've lost, my daily points budget has dropped from the initial 49 to first 45, then 44, and today, following last night's loss, to 43. But you also earn points for activity, and all the bicycle riding I've been doing has helped greatly. For instance, by virtue of Sunday's 2 hour 20 minute ride, I was able to earn 15 points!