14 pounds down!

Dear Family and Friends,
Just back from a successful run to college checks.  Funds have come in from a variety of places, cash in Manteca, a check this afternoon upon completion of the land appraisal and then I thought why not give the party in Martinez a call.  Long ago, perhaps 6 months, I did an appraisal but was never paid.  So I began to call to collect but the people are really going through a rough time so I waited and called when I was in town, lowered what they owed me and just kept calling once in a while.  So tonight I thought I'd call one more time and the owner said, sure you can pick up a check, music to my ears so I drove over to Martinez, picked up the discounted check and with that check I think I have the house payment covered at last.
Two of the four orders that came in last Friday have been cancelled, that was very disappointing but I still have two and one is half written while the other one is set to be seen at 11:30 in the morning.

Lois loaded a book in the IPOD for me and so for the last couple days I've been listening.  The entire center theme of the book is a man losing his wife to a heart attack after they had been married many years.  It then follows him as he stumbles through his terrible grief and then finally finds someone new.  Listening was both hard and enjoyable, so many of the moments he was experiencing were very familiar to me.  When someone loses a spouse of many years, no matter through death or divorce it is a devastating time, one you wonder if you will recover from and then time passes and you find yourself laughing at times, or smiling and becoming more at peace.  The terrible unfairness always lingers, you just want to do something to make all the hurt go away.  Thank you Lois for sharing the book.

I had very good news at Weight Watchers today.  I fully expected to have gained some, mostly due to Jerry stuffing me with his good cooking and the many excuses we found to go out to eat yet I was down a full 2 pounds.  I could not believe it.  What do I attribute the loss to?  Water is the best reason.  I have water with me all the time and I drink, drink, drink.  Second, when I am full I quit.  Just quit.  I have three different leftovers in the frig right now but frankly they will just be thrown away.  One nice trick I've learned at WW is to dip your fork in the salad dressing and then put a bite of the salad on the fork, this rather than dump hundreds of calories on the salad.  I first tried it tonight when I went to a new place in Antioch, the salad was a simple dinner salad and I dipped the fork each time in the dressing, the salad stayed crisp and it tasted great.

Sleep is overwhelming me as I write so I'll bid you each good night.

Love

tim