Day 17 of pull to Thanksgiving

Day 17 of 100 Days to Thanksgiving
253/243/915

Got on my scales a 20 minutes ago and still was at 243, and so still
pounds gone.

I was watching 10 seconds ago a tiny little spider ascending on his
web, apparently from part of my keyboard to the ceiling, struggling
along. Tiny, tiny little animal pulling itself up. I can't see it any
more although I imagine I could wave my arms and destroy the filament,
but I kind of like spiders - especially teeny ones and also gravamens
(those are the ones with the long legs).

Our own journey I guess is rather like that of this little spider,
pulling ourselves along by filaments which might possibly break. To the
spider, of course, the filament is incredibly strong and spiders almost
always are able to make it to the end of their threads. I'm going to
make it to the end of my thread too - that is, Thanksgiving on this
diet and exercise program. 83 more days left of this portion of it.

I went up my little hill last evening with my 25 pound pack on in 30
min. 50 seconds with nose breathing all the way. A little slower than
going up with some mouth breathing. Seems to me to be great
cardiovascular exercise though. (I have before gone up my little hill
breathing less regularly than I wanted to and if nose breathing gets to
be too easy for me with a pack, I think I'm going to try to go back
to breathing every fifth step or so, rather than every second step.
Different strokes for different folks, and it keeps exercise
interesting to me.)

I had about 1100 calories yesterday, all last night. Sure seems easier
to moderate what I eat if I limit myself to one meal a day.

The devastation in Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states sure makes one
appreciate what we've got. In a matter of days the total savings,
possessions, work-opportunities, etc., of so many people have been
utterly destroyed and the proven loss of life will start to increase.
(One of the things I have been long interested in is getting cities to
offer in their telephone books good first aid and related information
- Portland, Oregon had such information until this last phonebook
printing but does not have it now. Among other health items in the
phonebook were tips on treating water with chlorine to make it potable.
I haven't heard any of the Red Cross people there in Louisiana
suggest chlorine - nor do I know if it would work - but if it was
effective, it sure would be a lot easier than boiling water.)

Anyway, I hope everyone makes it through Hurricane Katrina with minimal
harm. We've contributed to the Red Cross for this terrible event.

In spite of this disaster, I hope that everyone has a great day and
month ahead. I hope we can focus like that little spider on pulling
ourselves up our filament and successfully reach the end of our
journey!

Yours,

Caleb