Monday, July 25, 2011

Weight lost, car lost, sun lost.

As I do every Monday, I weighed myself today, and am down to 214 pounds. Three pounds in one week is pretty good, but I know from experience that weight I gain quickly usually comes off quickly (I began this blog right after vacation). When I get under 200, we'll see what happens. It usually comes off a lot more slowly then.

I promised to say something about what happened yesterday when I wasn't counting calories; I didn't do too badly, actually. I probably could have had just one popsicle and not two and, man, I really like chips! I tend to eat the more healthy kind of chips (pita chips, Pop Chips, rice chips, that sort of thing), but that can be deceptive; if I eat enough of them, they sure aren't healthy any more! But I had only a single helping of the great paella I made, and one of Kathy's potato salad, which was pretty restrained for me. Not bad.

Today we got the news that our Subaru is dead. This is very sad. We bought Polly (yes, we named our car; didn't you?) new in 1996 and she has been a stunningly wonderful car for us. She has about 182,000 miles on her, nearly all of which we put on (she's been driven a few times by friends). She has been through thick and thin with us, and it has been a grand ride.

Another element that adds a special flavor of apprehension to this news is that Kathy and I determined some time ago that when Polly bites the dust, we are going to go without a car altogether. Yikes! Now the reality is here. Of course, we have many options, including Zip Cars quite nearby and a pretty good bus system, as well as light rail coming close to us within five years or so but, still...not to be able to just zip out to the garage and get something I forgot from the store, that sort of thing, not to mention the fact that she has been such a reliable, beautiful presence in our lives is a cause of some actual grief.

I came home today and really wanted to throw caution to the wind and just eat whatever I wanted. It was cloudy and dark after a weekend of sun, I was tired from work, and my car had died, with all the complications that entails. Mostly what restrained me was the knowledge that I would then have to write about it here! This kind of accountability, as I said earlier, is one of the main reasons I started this; thanks, blog (and all of you who read it)!


2 comments:

  1. Ouch. Sorry about the car, dude.

    We signed up for Zipcar in 2003 (it was Flexcar, then) - one month after we bought a new Prius. Zipcar has pleased us as a second car. (We're too chicken to ditch our car ownership.) We use Zipcar when we need something bigger, or more rugged, or when we just want to know what it's like to drive a MINI. The last time I looked, the UW still offers a discount on membership.

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  2. Thanks, Paul. Actually, I have belonged to Zipcar since the beginning, when it was Flexcar, too. In fact, I used one to do my errands to day. Pretty slick!

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