Welcome to Our World, Rose Helen Jackson!

No doubt there are a few readers who are squinting at that little fraction-of-an-inch patch of Rose's face and saying, "Awwww, isn't she cute!!??"

And I am sure she is very, very cute. But I am here to say that this little girl is also very lucky, because she was born last Tuesday to two wonderful and grateful parents, Jennifer and my old roomie Paul. A little over 8 pounds, or about twice as big as the puppy Danny got for his fourth birthday.

It's been a blessing to watch all of this unfold over the past couple of years, Rose, and I can't wait to meet you. And I am also looking forward to sharing some of the experiences of fatherhood with your Dad.

As for the Big Man Getting Smaller, fatherhood continues to provide one amazing experience after another. Today, Danny got poked in the nose in karate, and it bled. Second time for this, but a big difference from the first time, which was a little bit teary. Today he just sucked it up, went in to the bathroom to clean himself up, and went about his business. That's my boy.

And of course, Danny is at or near the top among the many reasons why I am hard at this quest for fitness and health and longevity. Who would want to miss and of what I experience day after day and month after month with kids like Danny and Kippy and Moriah and a grandson like Callum? Nobody in his right mind, that's who.

So I swam again today, 40 laps in the pool at 6 o'clock. After swimming half a mile (36 laps) without a rest, I finished the workout with two 50-yard freestyle (crawl) sprints in 64 and 63 seconds. The U.S. mens' record, a little over 21 seconds, is safe. But I felt like I was moving in the water, and it felt good.

And I also got on the scale for my weekly weigh-in, and it was good. Down 0.8 from last week to 250.6, still ahead of schedule, and within spittin' distance of my little side goal of getting down into the 240s by July 1.

Student of the month - Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 - Tuesday, October 23, 2007

JUNE 19, 2009: I drove down to my old stomping grounds last night for a nice dinner with a great friend and a terrific meeting back "home." The pillow was awfully comfortable when I first opened my eyes at 6:54 this morning, but somehow I managed to be in the pool an hour later for 26 laps. We endure. Happy Juneteenth!

Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 - Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Student of the month

My daughters were never skeptics about their old man when they were little. They called me “Little Man” 20 years ago, for reasons that I am sure had nothing to do with this blog or its naming. I think it was a nice counterbalance for them, a way of taking me and my deep voice and authority and bringing me down to their scale. It always made me happy that they felt comfortable to do that. They are 29 and 27 now, and for many reasons they do not need to re-name me to bring me down to their scale.

My son, who is 9, is more of a skeptic. Not only about me but about nearly everything. That doesn’t keep him from applying himself very seriously, which is great. He does his homework without being told, he is very good to his mother, and he is the October 2007 Student of the Month at the American Martial Arts Academy in Belmont.

He takes some interest in my blog. I’m pretty sure he’d prefer if I looked like a guy on a SoloFlex commercial. I get no points for having looked like that 40 years ago.

But he did say “Good” when I told him the other day that I had hit “30” in pounds lost. 

Then he said, “You were in the 20s for a long time.”

True enough. I started at 273.4 on August 31. 

It took me 3 days to lose the first 10 pounds.

Then it took me 20 days to lose the second 10.

And 28 days to lose the third 10.

I explained that weight loss does slow down a little the longer you are at it.

Then I explained the more important reason, which may be evident in the food and exercise logs here but about which I may not have been properly analytic.

It’s the Red Sox. Sort of.

I’m not just making a silly excuse. About 8 months ago I stored my TV in the basement. It was taking up too much space, and I almost never watch TV. I grew up listening to the Sox on the radio, and I kind of think that baseball was made for the radio, or radio for baseball, or something.

But comes the postseason, and I am watching a good chunk of every game. When they were playing early enough I could watch at the gym while I was on the elliptical. Now they are starting all their games at about 8:30, and the gym closes at 6 or 7 on the weekend

So I have been a regular, game nights, at the Newtowne Grille in Porter Square. They know me there. A pint is $3 and 146 calories. The food has a few more calories. I have allowed it to put me over my daily calorie target a number of times. Not enough to gain weight, but to slow down the process of losing it.

So, there are only 7 games left. Some I will watch in other settings. But I will try to limit myself to just 2 or 3 at the Newtowne Grille, where I am sure they can survive without me counting their calories. If I stay on track with this, maybe it won’t take me 28 days to go through “my 30s.”

Tuesday's Soundtrack

"At the age of thirty-seven she realised she'd never
Ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair
So she let the phone keep ringing as she sat there softly singing
Pretty nursery rhymes shed memorised in her daddy's easy chair."



Marianne Faithfull, "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan"

"At the age of 37
she knew she'd found forever
as she rode along through Paris
with the warm wind in her hair"

Annie and I saw Marianne Faithfull perform live in a kind of recreated cabaret setting at the ART in Cambridge in the mid-90s. She's a remarkable performer, partly for the shocking transformation from what she first seemed when she appeared on British invasion shows as a teenager in the 60s, when one wasn't sure if she was anything more than Mick's arm candy. That was selling her way, way short.

Freaky Pizza, and a Great Line

As I wrote on my Facebook page today (June 3, 2009), I am "amazed and grateful for your wonderful outpouring of birthday wishes. I began my 60th year with an absolutely wonderful dinner with multiple generations of family and loved ones last night at Za in East Arlington. I know I am a sap, but so far, it is a great, great year."

Also worth mentioning that both yesterday on my birthday and today in its aftermath I got to the pool and did my 22 laps, and despite a very nice dinner that included what Danny calls "freaky pizza" (others might call it "gourmet"), a pint and a half of Smutty Nose dark beer (I split the second pint with Kippy), and some extremely sinful "bourbon pecan pie with whipped cream," I got on the scale today and can report that I right on track as I head toward my next weigh-in on Sunday.

Said she'd never been in trouble, or even in town

Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 10/8/2007

A little over a week ago Donna made a very thoughtful comment that I’ve been kind of waiting for the right moment to engage:

22 Pounds! That's very good for one month! How does all this make you feel? I would imagine you are having feelings of accomplishment and power, and loving yourself more and more. Those are the real benefits of having a goal, focusing on it and doing it!
Donna

I think those very positive feelings are there, definitely, and as she says they are direct benefits of focusing on a goal and achieving it.

Yet I have to admit that it is so easy to lose touch with the positive feelings, even while I am doing it. It is my proven nature that, far too often, even when things are going exceptionally well, I have a tendency to get all wrapped up in the other things I want to accomplish, the other goals that are not being met, the various and manifold ways in which I am flawed. If that were simple humility it might be a good thing, but I think it is as many parts pride as humility.

I am not bringing this up just now to try to figure it out or conquer it, because I would not be optimistic regarding my chances in that battle. I only want to say that it is part of the condition of things for me, something I must live with and try to keep in its place.

And what I must say beyond that, the almost naming of this probably pointless angst, is that this is a large part of why it is good for me to write things down as I am doing, to record my progress toward this very serious goal – the goal of getting into good shape, a goal that I haven’t yet made specific in terms of an ultimate number. By writing things down here, of course, there is the obvious gravity of accountability that helps me stay on track. But there is also the fact that I am allowed to look at this blog each morning, a few times a day even, and say, “Yeah, keep it up, you are doing it, you hot shit,” or words to that effect.

And every bit as nice is that I get comments like Donna’s and emails and other nice feedback from people who know me and people who don’t, along the way. It helps, and I absolutely believe that I will live longer as a result.

I am getting younger every day. The problem with that is that I could keep going, way too far, and end up a dorky kid again, back in 1965, knowing nothing ... sort of like these guys ... give it up for The Critters. Really, they called themselves that.

American pop music had it moments in the 60s, it really did. These guys made two mildly interesting songs, and just go ahead and try to tell me that this line isn't deep:

Said she'd never been in trouble, or even in town

It's a great line, is all.



Here's a somewhat more interesting cover of the same song, by an English-language band out of Hong Kong, Teddy Robin and the Playboys:

Danger - Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 October 4, 2007

A little after 5 p.m. yesterday I was headed over to watch the Red Sox’ first playoff game with Danny, and I hadn’t made a plan for dinner.

I don’t know about you, but nothing spells danger for me, in terms of food and eating and weight gain, like a couple of hours of watching a baseball game. If there is food in the house, well … isn’t that why they have those 17 little breaks at the end of each half-inning?

I needed a plan.

I needed dinner, but that was only the beginning.

There’s a Whole Foods Market half-way between my house and my son’s, and I pulled in.

Five minutes later I walked out with vast quantities of fresh fruit (strawberries, blackberries, and bananas) and veggies (celery and carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and broccoli florets). There was a container of ranch dip, but I took a little of that and mixed it with balsamic vinegar to lighten it up and thin it so it lasted longer.

I had most of the fruit for “dinner” while Danny had mac and cheese. Then half the veggies and my “homemade” dip sustained me quite well during the game. All in all it came to just over 500 calories, and the other half of the veggies are in my fridge.

Was it the greatest game-watching fare I have ever eaten? No, but it wasn’t the worst either.

It cost less, even at Whole Foods, than I would have spent if I had sat at a bar and watched the game with a sandwich and a beer.

And the Sox kicked some backside, which is especially nice.

Off to the gym! Have a good day.

Oh Danny Boy - Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 9.27.2009

It’s a good time to mention two very nice extra benefits, in the last few days, from keeping this blog.

First, my 9-year-old son Danny has taken an interest in my progress, and it is having an effect on his own health, too. After I mentioned the other day that my weight loss had reached 20 pounds, he told me that he is working out twice a week on the elliptical machine on the back porch. He also took it on himself to suggest that I give him fewer pretzels in his after-school snack!

Like me, he is a big guy, but he’s learning something about the meaning of calories and exercise and the benefit of keeping the two in balance. He is off the charts in height as well as in weight, so it is never too early to learn how to build a strong, fit body. Good for him! Just one of many ways in which he makes me proud.

The other nice thing I wanted to mention is that, because of the blog and the fact that I emailed Wednesday’s entry to a few old pals with whom I had been out of touch, I’ve had some nice email contact in the past 24 hours or so from some good friends from the past: Ned French, Nick Wyman, John Simon, and Steve Peterman. Nice people all, and I am in the process of being back in touch. I am certainly not alone, among men I have known, in being inconsistent at best in maintaining connection with people I care about. But it is so important, and I am grateful to be connected again with these guys.

Back to Danny for a moment. In honor of the fact that I am proud of him, and also of the fact that he helped me a lot on a recent copywriting assignment about Naruto (a teenage ninja franchise, or saga, from Japan), today’s soundtrack is a video that Danny told me yesterday was his favorite song.




Then there was Thursday's sound track... since I am kind of bridging the 2 days here with an overnight post after returning from my GA meeting in Plainville.



Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Free Falling" -- Somebody worked pretty hard on this video

I'm not sure, but I suspect it may be a character defect, that I feel compelled to archive each day's soundtrack as if this is somehow the newspaper of record. I'll have to check the list of defects in Step 6 and see if it says anything about YouTube. Meanwhile, I am parking Saturday's soundtrack here, too, since I didnot post that day:



Sox clinch! Steve hits 22.5! I've gotta work like a youngster today to complete a 50-page assignment -- aargh! There must be a theme here somewhere.

I love it when we're cruisin' together.

Gwyneth may not know how to name a child properly, but she has talent. Or presence. Something, definitely something.

Life is what happens when you are....

All is well with my eyes, for those who followed my travails yesterday after an otherwise successful and satisfying third straight day at the pool: 12 laps Tuesday, 14 laps Wednesday, and 16 laps (400 yards) Thursday.

I bought goggles and allergy-relief eyedrops. The burning still returned gradually to my eyes after I applied the eyedrops twice yesterday, but -- since the allergic reaction was effectively the same as being sick -- I took an hour nap in the afternoon and woke up to find that the burning was gone. Some puffiness remain, I was told by an acquaintance who pays more attention to my face than I do.

So I got to thinking that the various eye symptoms I was experiencing might be compounded, once the pool's chlorine set them off, by the hours I spend staring at a computer screen (hopefully seeing new words appear on the screen fairly regularly). I continue to give my eyes a rest through last night, applied some eyewash in addition to the eyedrops, and changed my plan for today: I would swim in mid-day rather than when the pool is open from 7 to 9, which would give me a chance to assess whether a morning work session at the computer -- yes, that's right now -- would inflict more irrittaion on me.

And here's what I have to report:

• My eyes are good, so I am looking forward to the next swim, with goggles and eyedrops and eyewash at the ready.
• However, that swim is not going to come at noon today as I'd thought, because after it was too late to change my plans back and do a morning swim I learned that Danny is home sick from school today and I offered to split the day of Danny-care with his Mom. So, since I already planned on taking one day a week off from the pool, I'll make the off day today and take Danny and Brownie for a little walk around the neighborhood, instead, if they are up for it.
  

So there may be a plan for BMGS, but the underlying plan is that I am blessed to have a life that can trump my plans.

And just to make it easier on me, I was happy to note from the scale today that my weight is down from 256.2 to 255.0. I ate very moderately yesterday -- some pasta and salad left over from Paparazzi for lunch, as comfort food when I was feeling sick, and the only things I ate after that were two pieces of cinnamon toast and a banana smoothie with half a shot of Frangelico.

Meanwhile, got to hurry to finish as much as I can of a day of work before the Danny drop.