Less Than Half Of Lessie Alvarado

That is Lessie Alvarado on the left. Lessie lives in Grand Prairie, Texas. Grand Prairie is a town east of Arlington, west of Dallas. In the photo Lessie weighs 305 pounds.

Nowadays, Lessie Alvarado is truly living up to her name. As in there is way less of Lessie. She now weighs 140 pounds. Less than half the size she was at her biggest. Lessie's weight loss accomplishment is detailed in People's cover story this month, featuring people "Half Their Size."

What motivated Lessie to lose the weight, you can't help but wonder.

Well, during a family trip, with her two kids, to Six Flags in San Antonio, Lessie was all excited to get on a particular ride. She climbed aboard, but the ride would not start, due to Lessie being too big. She was told to get off the ride, which she did, with tears flowing, while the other theme parkers gawked and whispered, adding to Lessie's humiliation, while her husband and brother comforted her. And the kids enjoyed the ride.

In addition to People, Lessie has also been featured on Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight and the Today Show.

Lessie got to her 305 pound high by sneaking in extra fast food meals. Or she'd sneak in a buffet and then a few hours later her husband would want to go out to eat and Lessie wouldn't admit she'd already eaten. That would be a pattern that would pack on pounds.

Lessie continues to lose weight. Besides eating sensibly and nutritionally, Lessie also took up kickboxing to help with the weight loss. That is the "new" Lessie on the right.

I don't know what type ride Lessie was trying to enjoy that wouldn't start due to someone weighing over 300 pounds. One of those that you go upside down in? A bumper car? I don't know.

I've only seen a BIG person have a "can't get on the ride" type humiliation once. It was at a McDonald's. The BIG person wanted to sit at a high table with high stools. This BIG person tried and tried to pull herself up onto the stool, pulling hard on the table to try and pull herself up. The table being to tremble. I had to insist she stop, lest she injure both of us.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I should have encouraged her to keep trying, hoping that the table would come crashing down, injuring both of us, with us suing McDonald's for having such dangerous stools and tables.

I think if I had trouble sitting on a stool, I probably would have foregone the chocolate shake, quarter pounder with cheese and fries and started my diet right then, continuing the diet til I could easily sit on a stool.

Gar the Chunky Texan & Contagious Obesity

Earlier today I blogged about going up to Turner Falls with Gar the Texan. Later in the day, Gar took exception to the accuracy of what I wrote.

I had suggested that, due to his butter loving German wife, Gar the Texan had packed on a few pounds and was no longer the skinny Gar the Texan in the Turner Falls pictures.

Gar claimed, "I weigh the same now as I did then."

I then asked for photo documentation with a date/time stamp.

Gar the Texan then pointed me to the picture you see above. To my observant eyes it appears he has packed on quite a few pounds since I last saw him. Even his hair has gotten bigger.

Meanwhile, I listened to Rush Limbaugh for a very short time today. He mentioned some UK Scientist saying that obesity can be contagious. Rush can be so far behind the times. That news has been out there since 2007.

Obesity is not contagious in that there is some virus or bacteria that you catch. Rather it is contagious in that you tend to pick up the bad (or good) habits of those with whom you associate. I did not gain any weight when I was in Tacoma for a month last summer. I had done some heavy duty immunity precautions to prevent any dire weight gain during a month of being exposed to bad habits and obese people.

When I used to hang out with Gar the Texan he was skinny. I would worry about hanging out with him nowadays, what with that obesity being contagious thing. And I do like butter. I had me some today at Sweet Tomatoes. On real good whole grain bread.

Sweet Tomatoes is a very healthy eating type restaurant, that is also tasty.

Unlike my usual buffet haunts, like Zorro's Buffet in Fort Worth, where at least 30% of the patrons appear to be obese, I saw not a single plus-sized person at Sweet Tomatoes today.

An Ice Storm is predicted to be here by morning, with up to an inch of ice. Which means I won't be going anywhere until it melts. The National Weather Service Ice Storm Warning ends at noon on Wednesday. I'm stocked up and can survive 2 days of being stuck.

I hate it when that happens.

Turner Falls In Winter With Gar The Texan

I was scrolling through Picasa looking for pictures of Mount Rainier to go along with one of a Volcano Eruption Evacuation Route sign, when I came upon pictures taken up in Oklahoma, in January, at Turner Falls Park.

The pictures include ones of the illusive Gar the Texan, who does not use photos of the real him on his blog. I understand that several years of marriage to a butter-loving German has added some poundage to the skinny Gar the Texan we see in these photos.

In the first photo Gar the Texan is climbing down some steep stairs at the Turner Falls Castle. This very eccentric, well, castle, was built during the Great Depression.

The day that Gar the Texan and I went to Turner Falls Park in Winter, on the way north, he had the worst case of the vapors I'd seen him have. A Whopper at Burger King revived him. But, even after the revival I was concerned as to what he'd be able to do at Turner Falls Park, due to a lot of climbing and hiking being involved.

There is a cave high up the cliff beside the falls. Gar the Texan was determined to get into that cave, because we'd seen people in it when we looked down on the falls from the overlook. I am a bit of an acrophobe, though my acrophobia is very situational, as in it makes no sense. Get me at the Grand Canyon and I can climb out on some precipitous ledge and not be queasy. But if you mix a waterfall into the steepness, I get wobbly.

So, I followed Gar the Texan higher and higher as we climbed the Turner Falls cliff. The effort came to a point where I did not want to go further, but Gar did, climbing through a hole and then into the cave.

To celebrate his triumphant rock climbing and spelunking, Gar the Texan climbed a pinnacle high above the falls and let out some sort of primal scream that had me, for a second, thinking he was having another case of the vapors.

Honey Creek is what flows over Turner Falls. The water comes out of an underground spring a short distance away. It is very clear water. In summer the water gets nice and warm. In winter, not so much. But there is more of it in winter, making for scary rapids above the falls.

I have not been back to Turner Falls Park since the visit with Gar the Texan. I have been up to Oklahoma, a time or two, and have driven by the exit from I-35 that quickly leads to Turner Falls.

All year long the Turner Falls pages on my Eyes on Texas website are the most visited. Why? I do not know.

Cooking Oatmeal In Texas & Waiting For An Ice Storm

I'm blogging while I wait for my rice cooker to finish making steel cut oats. Did you know a rice cooker works great for cooking oatmeal? I didn't either, til I tried it. You can make grits in the rice cooker too. For you Yankees, grits is this thing us Southerners like with breakfast, or just about any ol' time. Grits is made from corn meal. It's pretty much tasteless, so you melt butter on it or syrup or honey or sorghum or cheese or anything that seems like it'd taste good.

It is a gray, foggy, drizzly Monday here in Texas, with a potential Ice Storm for Tuesday and Wednesday, with the temperature below freezing and with wet, likely frozen, stuff falling. I do not like Ice Storms. I had a butt bruising fall in my first Texas Ice Storm that was my biggest bruise ever, til a few years after that, when I had my worst roller blading fall ever.

I need to get another battery back-up, so a trip to Fry's Electronics in Arlington is on today's agenda. I'll see if my new digital camera is at Fry's. I bought all the parts, for the last computer I built, at Fry's. Fry's is good at making it easy to return stuff that doesn't work right, like my last laptop that blew up soon after being turned on.

After Fry's it's to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. I like Sweet Tomatoes.

I just heard the rice cooker click off. Breakfast is ready.

Ancient High School History

I've previously mentioned that a couple days ago, while looking at a thing called Facebook I inadvertently sent out a thing called a "Friend Request" to some names I recognized. I only actually knew 3 of the people to whom I sent one of those "Friend Requests."

One of the 3, who I actually knew, has been trying ever since to figure out who I am. This amuses me. She keeps sending me initials. Like are you MO? FC? SW?

This identification problem has caused both of us to dig out our long buried high school annuals. Or yearbooks. It's been so long I forget what they are called. I only have 3 of them, somewhere along the way I've lost my Freshman yearbook.

So, this morning I started looking through the yearbook from my Senior year, thinking there might be a picture of myself and the person who doesn't know who I am. I found numerous ones of both of us, but never in the same photo. Near as I could tell.

But, what was unsettling was reading the things people wrote in my yearbook. A lot of it made no sense to me, because I couldn't remember what they were talking about, about things I did or some wanted me to do. Were those years so painful I've blocked the memory? Or is it a function of time? Since I can't remember, I don't know the answer.

After I was done looking at the Senior yearbook I looked through the Junior one. That got even more confusing. Most of the people writing comments sign with only their first name, leaving me clueless as to who they are. Apparently I went to various places with someone named Laurie. On one of those occasions, apparently we were at the home of someone named Sue. For some reason a smacking noise was made and Sue popped around the corner all excited because she thought smooching was going on.

Another comment was from Beth. I remember Beth. I don't remember the incident Beth commented on, about me being a good sport taking someone named Lila to some prom/ball thing. along with Beth and some guy who's name I've already forgotten. I've no memory of going to a dance thing with someone named Lila.

I do remember Linda and I knew what she was talking about in her comment about Linda and me sitting in the front seat of my car for way too long, unaware that the windshield had been broken and we were sitting on glass.

A running theme in all these comments is the majority seemed to feel I have a good sense of humor. And repeatedly I am being advised not to ever change. But then there was one who commented that I had changed so much that year, and for the good. I don't remember changing. I do remember sort of being my mouthy self all the time, where earlier I only acted like that to the ones who really knew me.

Many commented on a fun event that happened to me my Junior year that gave me some bad boy notoriety that I'd never had before. That may have been the point where I decided to be my mouthy real self all the time.

In my Sophomore yearbook the comments really made me realize where the term sophomoric comes from. The Sophomore yearbook is the only one where I saw a comment from the Facebooker, Karen P.F., who can not remember me.

Apparently a friend of mine from grade school had spoken of me. In her comment in my Sophomore yearbook, Karen P.F. said that she ".....really had fun this year and one of the reasons is because I met you! I was scared of you at first and felt dumb, but after Wendy talked about you all the time I had to get to know you---glad I did!!!......"

Okay, now I know who Wendy is. Wendy and me were practically neighbors. Sometimes I rode her to school on my bike, with her sitting on the handlebars. Later we often rode the bus together to high school. And by the time I was 16, and had a car, I'd, ever so often, give Wendy a ride home. But, Wendy and I had a very, well, sarcastic sort of way of talking to each other. She'd make fun of me, I'd make fun of her. I can't picture her speaking of me in a way that would want someone to get to know me.

An example of Wendy sarcasm is what she wrote in my Sophomore yearbook..."Dearest (ooops, I can't type my name, that'd give Karen P.F. too good a clue) Let's start over....

Dearest X,
I don't know how I could have managed to complete the year without seeing your shining smile and knowing that your presence was not too far away. You really made my year and I don't know how I managed all the others without you. Your really a great guy. Good luck in absolutely everything. May the sun always shine on your path.
Just me,
Wendy

I remember exactly where the above was written. We sat next to each other in the back of the room in Geometry. All year long we bickered. I remember when I read what she wrote, I pointed out that "your" is a possessive pronoun and that she should have used "you're." In grade school I always got straight A's. Wendy usually got straight A's. I think she thought I was smarter than she was, so correcting her grammar was really annoying.

The last I saw Wendy was in 1991. She was looking real good. If I remember correctly we spoke pleasantly to each other. I actually don't remember for sure if I talked to Karen P.F. on that occasion. I do remember talking to her brother.

Okay, it is time to put these ancient annuals away for another couple decades, unless Karen P.F. comes up with some more initials for me to decipher.

Still Freezing In Texas

Okay, I know I've whined about it before, but I'm in a whining mood, so I'm gonna whine about it again. As in the schizophrenic weather of Texas is so annoying.

Yesterday was so warm I had my windows open and was tempted to turn on the A/C. Then today it's back in the DEEP FREEZE. I think our high for the day was 34. I think it was freezing when I went hiking on the Horseshoe Trails on Lake Grapevine after shopping at a super crowded Costco, that had more people cramming the aisles than when I was there before Christmas.

Where is this recession I keep hearing about?

Well, okay, other than all those shoppers, lots of cars on the road and restaurants with lots of cars in the lots, I did see some signs of the bad stuff that's going on. I saw a Circuit City with its going out of business sign. I saw the Alan Young GMC dealership with its empty lot, due to GMC shutting it down and taking the cars. I saw a lot of people having a free lunch eating Costco samples today. Including me. Yes. Hard times.

These cycles of HOT & COLD are wearing me down. It's like that torturous month I spent last summer in Tacoma, miserably shivering the entire month, for more reasons than the temperature. It took me quite some time to recover from that month last summer. Bouts of cold, like today, bring back the pain, sort of like post-traumatic stress syndrome, I suppose.

Well, the heater just came on, so warm air is now blowing down on me, giving me temporary relief from the cold. For now.

I need a tropical vacation. I hear Puerto Rico is nice.

A Tale Of Two Cities: Fort Worth And....

No, not Fort Worth and Dallas. I'm talking about Fort Worth and Seattle.

One of the many things that makes living in a new location interesting is noticing how differently things are done.

Like Public Works projects.

Both Seattle and Fort Worth have projects in the works that involve water.

In Fort Worth the water project involves changing the Trinity River, obliterating two forks that join at the north side of downtown, making the confluence into a little lake, taking down the flood levees, building a flood diversion channel and some canals where housing and restaurants will be built, along with 3 new bridges.

Seattle's water-related project involves tearing down what is known as the Alaskan Way Viaduct, that being an elevated section of Highway 99 that runs along Seattle's downtown waterfront. The Alaskan Way Viaduct is of a similar design to San Francisco's Embarcadero Freeway that came crashing down in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The Alaskan Way Viaduct was damaged during Seattle's last earthquake.

There has been one public vote in Seattle regarding replacement options. That vote did not settle the issue. Because it is a state highway, the state got involved. After a lot of debate the governor decided on a $4.2 billion tunnel option.

In a classic example of how differently things work up north, Elizabeth Campbell filed an initiative to prohibit replacing the viaduct with a tunnel. The Initiative was coincidentally named Initiative 99, like Highway 99. This initiative was filed the same day Governor Christine Gregoire and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and King County Executive Ron Sims announced the agreement to build the $4.2 billion tunnel.

Campbell has to get 17,968 signatures to have her initiative either adopted by the city council or sent to a public vote. Campbell thinks the tunnel option is ridiculous, preferring a cable-stay bridge over Elliot Bay.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, what is known as the Trinity River Vision has not been put to a single public vote. Though a lot of people think the vision is a boondoggle, there has been no attempt to force a vote, via petition or any other means. Fort Worth has snagged some pork barrel bucks, due to the machinations of Congresswoman Kay Granger, who's son runs the Fort Worth Vision, in what many consider an outrageous example of nepotism.

In these new, leaner times it is likely the Federal dollars will be cut from Fort Worth's Bridge to Nowhere. Unless, I would guess, Fort Worth's citizens finally get to vote and approve of the project, including taxing themselves to build it.

And then there is a third city. Dallas. Also with a Trinity River Vision. The citizens of Dallas have voted and approved of their vision. The first of 3 signature bridges is under construction.

I'm guessing Dallas is going to see its vision turn into a reality long before Fort Worth's Town Lake sees its first boat or the first car drives through Seattle's mile long $4.2 billion tunnel.

Unless another earthquake knocks down the Alaskan Way Viaduct, forcing a fast fix.

We're Freezing Again In Texas

That's the view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony late Friday afternoon. It was an 80 degree day. Very pleasant. I had the windows open and was tempted, at one point, to close the windows and turn on the air conditioner.

I was almost back believing in Global Warming again.

But then this morning we are back in a deep freeze, as in it is only 30 out there at 10 in the morning. Brrr. The furnace is back on.

I was not successful in getting a new camera at the Arlington Costco yesterday. I'm able to temporarily revive my current camera out of its drop-induced coma to take a picture or two, like the one from Miss PR's balcony. And then it dies again.

I think I'll go up to the Grapevine/Southlake Costco today to see if my new camera is there. That Costco is a lot nicer than the Arlington one. It's more like one you'd find in Costco's homestate of Washington. Which makes sense due to Southlake having the D/FW Metroplex's highest percentage of transplanted Yankees, as in customers who have been in a West Coast Costco and thus have a higher quality expectation.

It's the same for the Southlake School District. The parents are used to non-Texas school standards and so they make their expectations known to the school board. And so Southlake has top-rated schools.

I read this morning that Gar the Texan has temporarily given up reading children's sci-fi type books and is instead taking someone's advice that he read some non-fiction. So, apparently Gar the Texan is now reading "Columbia History of the World." He is rushing through history, currently he's at the part in the World's History where the continents form and life begins.

Gar the Texan has a long ways to go. It's my hope that by the end of this book he will be able to talk about something other than computers, religion, Harry Potter and German beer. I hope it doesn't shock him too much when he gets to the part where he realizes his beloved Germans were bad boys long before World War's I & II.

The Priority Mail Myth

Yesterday I mentioned my newfound disdain for the delivery reliability of the U.S. Postal Service. I mentioned a package that someone sent me over 2 months ago, via Priority Mail, that had not arrived.

I also mentioned unsuccessful attempts to call my local Postmaster to complain. Well, today I got through.

The person I talked to put me on hold while she went to see if the package was there. She was back on the line within a minute, telling me that the package was there, that a delivery attempt had been made December 24.

I was here December 24. That was the day that I got a note from my mailman telling me he was sorry he was unable to deliver a package. That's the time I successfully called the Postmaster, he told me the package was there, so I went and got the package. A box of Christmas cookies.

The Priority Mail package that I got today, cost $9.80 to ship from Washington to Texas.

It seems to me there is not much of a priority to Priority Mail if the priority is so lax as to allow a package to languish for so long on a shelf with no attempt to deliver it. Or return it to the sender.

So, I opened the package. It was several Christmas gifts, all wrapped. It was like having Christmas all over again. Out of it I have a nice Washington calendar. I'm looking at a snowy Mt. Spokane ski lift right now, with the lights of Spokane in the distance. It doesn't make me homesick. It looks cold.

Facebook Friends Fiasco

A couple days ago I was reading the Only Child Syndrome blog when the Only Child mentioned that she was finally provoked to check out Facebook. She had been an early user of MySpace, but grew tired of MySpace when it was co-opted by teenagers and trashy webpages with way too much going on.

I went through a MySpace phase a couple years ago, moved to do so by Tootsie Tonasket. She was having some problems (they've gotten worse) with her son and the mother of her granddaughter. I had fun making up a bunch of characters. It was amusing having all these people interacting with fake people.

Two of the characters, Durango & Igor, used pictures of me. I had Igor being a 34 year old Dallas cop. One thing led to another and soon Tootsie Tonasket's son was making threats to Igor. Which led Igor to cause the son to believe Igor had been in contact with the Wenatchee police regarding the threats.

Which all sounds ridiculous, but had the son, he ain't too bright, telling his mother he was going to turn himself in to the Wenatchee police before they arrested him. His mother was then able to tell the wayward son that she could get Igor to stop this, if the son would shape up. And that's what he did, for awhile. And he was grateful to his mother and treated her better. For awhile.

So, anyway, after reading what the Only Child said, I decided to check out Facebook. Well, before you can do anything in Facebook you have to set up an account. The steps in that process have you listing your birthdate, where you went to school, what year, I forget what else.

And then the setup process comes to this part where people from your high school years show up. I thought I was supposed to click on names I knew. I only recognized 4 of them. So, I clicked them, not realizing this sent the person something called a 'Friend Request."

One of the Friend Requests went to someone named Jeff Kenoyer. I recognized the name, but had no memory of the guy. He sent a message back asking who I was, how he knew me and why I wanted to be his friend. This felt vaguely embarrassing.

Then I got another reply from one who I actually do remember, Karen Fisher. Since I'd made myself younger than reality during that setup thing, she said "Hey. We were not in the same class. Are you from Burlington?"

To which I explained how it was I came to send out that Friend Request thing, and that some of the info in my Facebook profile isn't true, due to me not thinking I'd be using this Facebook thing, so why bother worrying about making every little detail accurate. That and I like being 15 years younger than my actual age.

Anyway, last night Karen made a series of amusing attempts to figure out who I am. I pointed her to this very blog, but apparently I look so much different than I did in high school that I am not recognizable. This pleases me. I had no idea!

To figure out who Jeff Kenoyer is, I had to find my high school yearbook. I was pretty certain they'd made it to Texas with me. I was right, all but the Freshman one. I've no idea what became of that one. When I saw Jeff Kenoyer's face, I recognized him as someone I'd seen before.

I'd not looked at a yearbook in a long long long time. It all looks so dated now. I guess that makes sense since it was a long long long time ago. That's Karen and her twin Keith, above, scanned from the yearbook. Apparently they were voted "Most Dependable" by my class. I have no memory of voting on such a thing. I don't remember if they were dependable or not. I do remember they were both cheerful and nice people.

What a world we live in now. Way back in high school if you'd told me that in 2009 we'd have an African-American President, that I'd be in Texas, walking distance from where Lee Harvey Oswald is buried, sitting at something called a computer, writing something called a Blog and scanning a picture out of my high school annual, well, little of that would have made any sense to me. Though I would have thought the info about the black President to be cool.

I wonder if Karen will figure out who I am today. I suspect not. I have never been a memorable person....