Sleeping in San Diego

I really love this home in the willow district.

Almost 350 miles this afternoon and I have arrived in El Cajon, a bedroom community of the big city. I will catch some ZZZz and drive to the conference and my other motel on Point Loma Harbor.

The New Covenant, based on better promises

Here is another view of those obelisks outside Mercy Gilbert taken with my new Canon ELPH 300EM

I love the new covenant, it is the gospel of Paul which is the gospel of God in Christ.

Everyone who loves and reads the bible has read every verse of the new covenant....but many, me included, missed it because we were blinded by tradition,or so set in a theological position that any teaching that did not fit, got ignored or twisted.

It stresses God activity on man's behalf, inclusion of all in the plan of ages, God's grace as expressing Himself through love as the highest value.

Find it, believe it, practice it, change with it, enjoy it.

I will be heading to San Diego for a four day seminar, will try to stay in touch, I am leaving time for walking, photography, sitting outside in cool weather, and finding a good fish taco.

Me, on A Diet

Brian and the grand kids always pull out our ginormous box of legos and have a design contest when he visits, here are this years entrants.

I bought a sale copy of the huge educational book by Dr. Oz and associate on how we get fat and what to do about it. Entitled "YOU on a Diet." Very funny illustrations through out that are worth my super discounted price. I am on a search as to how I can get off my present sticking point.

Today will complete two years of total commitment to diet and exercise. I have spent 350 plus or minus hours in the gym, combining aerobic and non aerobic exercise, and my body has really responded, I am shaped differently, and feel wonderful, inspite of the fact that heart attack number 3 intruded on the party.

I am however, stuck, and am on a research quest to get me unstuck as I have 20lbs of belly fat and upper back fat to get rid of. I will share my results and frustrations.

Off to the gym with my fellow sexy senior citizen, Laura.

I am late, like the Congress

This is one of the few perks I still get, and not in many hospitals these days.

Day off, golf with friends, shopping for a needy person. Tired of vilification of those who want our nation to stop spending. Tired of blaming on both sides. Hoping we survive this mess.

Its a small world after all!

I am so sorry I made you think of that song, you will not be able to get it out of your mind the rest of the day.

Laura and I discovered that we both attended the New York World's Fair in 64 the same summer. Walt Disney unveiled a Unicef Pavilion ride, commissioned one of his writers to create the song, moved it to Disneyland where it remains an immensely popular attraction.

I learned when I was growing up, that Dixie, the south is a series of small worlds.
I live in a small world called High School, a small world called College, a small world call Seminary, and then I lived in a small town in the south. Each had their own rules and cultural realities.

Brian just returned to his College World at U of Arizona for a few days. He loved his time there but is glad he moved on. You cannot go back. You can take it forward. He and some fellow students moved to NYC and have managed to survive and thrive. He lives in a different world than I but it's still people, work, cooperation, kindness, with some logical awareness of danger and need of security.

We get to hear about his new life in that melting pot city. Last night at Oregano's he introduced us to Pesto Pizza, which was delicious and delicate in flavor.

As a westerner I will always be a southerner, can't escape your raisings. But I have learned as I have grown, that, it is a small world after-all.

Thoughts from the Man Cave

Sunrise, sunset,sunrise, sunset....swiftly fall the days, one season following another....

Most evenings this summer I am firmly ensconced in a chair in my man cave, trying not to hear the blare of the absolutely terrible stuff they call summer TV specials. I dislike reality shows with a passion, no offense if you love them. The whole direction of TV just sends me out of the room these days.

I use the time to read and study. Reading the research and thoughts of others who are hardworking and intelligent raised my own level of understanding. In the area of health I am trying to figure out why my body has stopped losing weight. In the area of evangelical health I am trying to figure out what went wrong with the harvest. Its all more fun than "America's God Talent"!

I am finding lots of people who share about why diets fail. The body just does not cooperate in the long run with the stress that calorie restriction gives the system.
That is why yo yo weight gain is such a problem. Interesting stuff because my bodies set point is still twenty pounds higher that I need to be healthwise. It's the kind of quest that makes the time fly by in the mancave.

Then I switch gears and wonder why modern Christianity is so pessimistic about the future when Paul, who was very realistic about how needy we are, was very, very, optimistic about God's plan to rescue and restore humanities hope through Christ.

There is a scene at the end of Titanic after Rose has told her story and drops the emerald into the deep, that she goes to sleep (dies), and is reunited with the masses of people who died so long ago and the love of her life. I think the future is something like what Cameron was showing in that heartwarming conclusion.

I passed by a shopping center on Southern yesterday that was totally dead and deserted, and I remember in my mind when it was vibrant, and I am sad. I pass through the halls of Banner Hospital and remember I was a patient here just a few weeks ago, and I see people crying in the surgery waiting room and think about a future time when all the broken people who died in this hospital will be reunited with their loved ones......and the mancave glows with hope.

Post 1100...Before and After

Eggs are my friends.

I love before and after pictures. I am happy for everyone who successfully loses excess weight and regains health, and thankful for everyone in the health industry who is trying to help restore people to active lives.

This week I will mark two years in the gym. 104 weeks of 3-5 weekly visits to walk, stretch, lift weights, and raise my heart rate.

As I mentioned, I am a bit stuck and am trying a new month long experiment to increase my metabolism, returning it to a more normal function. Everything I have already done has moved me us some notches in that direction.

So a FB friend says today he lost 30 lbs since May by drinking something with his coffee, and I think, what a waste of time all this work has been. All I needed was a packet of ***** and the fat would melt off my body.....I think I need a before and after picture on that one. For me, there has been no easy fix and no magic formula and no melting away of anything. I am through with quick fixes.