Saturday, July 26, 2008

Saturday at the Aerie

It was a slow day here at the Aerie. I spent most of it around the Aerie waiting for the forecast rain that never fell here. It fell to the north in Elmira and a little fell to the south but none fell on the hill here. And the rain has been scrubbed from the forecast tomorrow as well.

Terry and I were going to go birding this morning but neither of us got to sleep easily last night so we opted to sleep in instead. Fat chance we had of that with Chester (the cat with the alarm clock for a tummy) howling for us to wake up and feed the three of them at 6 AM.

I putzed around a bit this morning trying to get my feet under me and then went out to check the one working game camera and pull the other. There were just 8 pictures of a doe on the memory card when I got back in the house. All were taken yesterday afternoon and early evening. None were outstanding photos so No pictures tonight. The second camera is acting up, as I mentioned yesterday, and, while it allowed me to make changes in all the settings, it still will not run a diagnostic test on itself nor will it turn to "Auto" so it can take pictures of anything moving. Sounds like it has gone to the great darkroom in the sky.

Terry had another sewing club picnic today (she had one yesterday too) and was gone for about three hours. During that time, I had a lovely lunch of a half dozen blueclaw crabs she brought home from Bilo yesterday. They were a manager's special at $6.99 a dozen already cooked and she couldn't pass them by. (Actually she brought home a dozen but we ate half of them for dinner.) Picking through those crabs to get the small morsels of meat reminded me of the times I used to go crabbing on Barnegat Bay. I will say, you are far more likely to enjoy the crab meat when you've spent all day catching the buggers under a hot summer sun. I would bring home a couple of dozen on a Saturday evening, steam them up with some Old Bay seasoning and then sit before the TV to watch the late college football game (crabbing was always best in the early fall when the crabs were big and full of meat prior to their burrowing into the mud for winter) and pick crabs for a couple of hours. Nearly all of the meat would go into a bowl and then get frozen or made into crab cakes. I would, of course eat one or two of the crabs but I would also have to feed the two hungry kids who hung around with their mouths open like baby birds begging for a meal.

Anyway, it took me almost two hours to eat that half dozen crabs today. I must be out of practice. And when I was done, all I wanted to do was exactly what the three cats were doing after finishing their lunch; namely curl up on the couch and nap. That's when Terry returned. And all she want to do was curl up on her couch and nap. They had a pretty good picnic I guess.

Neither of us wanted much dinner.

Back on May 29 I started to track my weight with the goal of shedding a few pounds. When at the Aerie I step on the scales every morning before getting dressed and then record my weight. Back then, I weighed in at just shy of 233. What followed were two months of roller coaster rides. With a retirement dinner in NJ, two weeks at the Bolt Hole, a trip out to San Francisco area for a wedding.... My weight would yo-yo up and down. Thinking I must e losing lots while working hard at the Bolt Hole, I would get back to the Aerie to find I had lost just half a pound. It was pretty frustrating.

Well, since returning from the Bolt Hole about two weeks ago things are looking much better. Terry's been using the Weight Watchers' cook books more and we've both been pushing away from the table after one helping. I've been doing a little more walking around the property and trying to increase my activity level. This morning I weighed just 221.5 and have lost a little more than 11 pounds. If I can continue to shed about 5 pounds a month while increasing my daily activity level, I'll feel pretty good going into the hunting season the end of September. (Of course all my hunting clothes will be too large....)


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