LittleBill

Oh, lovely 65. I bet you love the traffic. Yeah, the heat is awful. It's humid and smothering. Last year I had to drive 2 months in a hot Jeep without any A/C. Talk about fun. We try to time our trips so we can avoid rush hour traffic. Montgomery is probably the worst for traffic, although we've gotten caught once in a while in construction south of Birmingham. Once we get south of Montgomery though, we get on some back roads, and it is very relaxing for the rest of the trip. Going north, it isn't to bad until we get to Chattanooga. And from there to Knoxville it can be a real mess.

@Carrie1122. Thank you! I hit 159 bpm on my heart rate throwing that ball. He was impressed. I think my artistic temperament helped out some.

Snow is nice. Ice encrusting everything, not to much. We're in a drought right now, so who knows what we'll see this winter?

We come down 59 from GA and pick up 65 from there to FL. I love driving therough southern AL on the back roads. But the heat would kill me in the summer.

I will do that. We travel through AL from time to time, too. Our oldest daughter and her family live in Niceville FL.

Thank you. Mrs LittleBill made the costume for me. I was roped into playing the Spirit of Christmas Present for a local theater group in a musical version of A Christmas Carol. We were getting a little more mileage out of it at this party.

@@jenn1 There is a story behind my screen name. I am a junior. So ever since I was a little boy, I was Little Billy. As I grew, that became little Bill, with my Dad being Big Bill. Now, I am several inches taller than he is, and much stockier (even without my adipose additions). But I remained Little Bill. Then the movie Unforgiven came out, with Gene Hackman playing the character of Little Bill. I actually used a picture of him as my avatar on some forums. Here is a picture of me from a Christmas party a few years ago with two of our friends. Both of them are five foot nothing - barely. But the lady on the right is a real firecracker, and inspires fear in all sorts of people.

I have the kind of build that even if I lose all my fat, I will be around 300 lbs. A friend of mine once told me I intimidate people just standing around. Add in a Darth Vader voice and you get the idea. But a woman with muscles? I suspect lots of people find that intimidating. They're probably just too skeered to say so!

@@Hiraeth Thank you, and I think she will never need this surgery, because it sounded like she was going to have her rear end chewed right off. I will find out more at my next appointment. I was actually thinking about having a party for all the folks here. We could have a big banquet hall and a buffet table with nothing on it! Seriously, I may think up something for next summer. We've had parties here for folks from the Internet many times, where we've had over 100 people here at our place.

It takes quite a bit to intimidate me. Some of my political activism has required me to face down both law enforcement and media, sometimes at the same time. But I do wonder about some of these folks at the gym, how they do what they do without hurting themselves. That list helps. Do you know where a mansplainer gets his Water? From a well, actually...

Is that for one arm, or two? I am really hoping you say two, since mine started me out with 20 lb weights for a lot of arm stuff. But then I am doing around 100 for some other large muscle groups. And I can lift 120 lbs with one arm. I know that because I have to move my bucket full of wheel weights around from time to time, and it weighs 120 lbs. Three times a month is a lot more than I am getting, but I have the most basic of packages. I get two consultations according to the membership rep, but then the trainer said I would be getting a third from him in a few weeks. According to what I have read, I will be allowed a pair of consultations every three months or something like that. Good luck with the pull up. I was never very good at them.

@@Anna Nim I'd discount that entire thing, except for this last part right here... "But remember, if you are locked into this thing and absolutely have to like a Lemming going towards a cliff; no matter what you do, you will always be my princess and I will always be your dad and I will always be there for you." Let's hope he means it. It looks like seeing is the only way for him to believe.

I've been using Gold Standard. Their Extreme Milk chocolate tastes a lot like Nestles Quik, something I have enjoyed since I was a small boy.

I got them frequently right after surgery. The doctor told me it was a result of them messing around with my diaphragm while fixing a small hiatal hernia, and that they would go away. They did. If yours continue, ask them to show you your bill. That should work to scare them out of you.

I see men there who are both older and smaller than I am lifting weights that I would not even begin to contemplate. At first I felt somewhat inferior, because I know I am stronger than the vast majority of the population, just on the things I have had to lift or move that no one else around me can do. And I interact with a lot of people. But then I started watching technique closer, and could see lots of stuff being done wrong. These guys may walk out the door all puffed up, but they are headed for some serious injury. This trainer is giving me a program to get my muscles back in shape much in the same way he would for injuries, and he knows all about my surgery. He knows I don't want to be Arnold Schwarzenegger or anything. He advised me to start light, take it slow, and move up 5-10 lbs per exercise in a few weeks, after I get the hang of things. We were actually laughing together about the muscleheads. He is a swimmer, so he trains for that. And he seems to have a very good outlook on balance in a person's life.

For me it is more weird than hard. I have no patience at all with arrogant, uppity people regardless of age, and it shows through no matter how hard I try for it not to. But this kid is very polite, respectful, and from what I have seen so far, knows his stuff. I have no problems taking orders from someone like that. It is just strange for me. By contrast, there is a kid who is almost the same age who works part time at the local woodworking supply store. The kid is a total jerk, and I suspect that no matter where he ends up, he will always be that way. I cannot stand having to deal with him. Beyond being arrogant, he has nothing to be arrogant about. He is a total novice, and is nothing more than a glorified clerk. But, he seems to think he has become some sort of expert by virtue of standing next to some machines for a while. I do a lot of teaching for my business, and for most people, my business is their hobby. I get doctors, engineers, lawyers, all sorts of people who could buy and sell me many times over. Most of them are older. I have even gotten quite a few fellow professionals who have come to me to fine tune some of their skills. You are absolutely right. Respect for the other person is essential. And just because I know more about one thing than they do doesn't mean I know more about everything. That is a huge mistake that most people seem to make regardless of their place in life.

They told me anything I could get to puree. Mrs. LittleBill makes a killer 16 bean and ham Soup that went into the blender. Turkey chili should work for that.

Yeah, what they said. Check with your doctor. He is the one who will be opening you up again to fix infections or incisional hernias, so get his approval first. I was able to get into the Water about six weeks after surgery as well.

In another post, I mentioned that I had joined a gym for the first time in my life. I grew my muscles the old fashioned way, by hard work. As I am getting older, work isn't all that hard anymore. Maybe that's because I do less of it. So I joined up to lift some weights, perhaps ride a machine or two, and get back in shape. And, the gym has a pool. We used to have a pool here at the LittleBIll compound, but it started to rust out, so it is no more. It was only good for floating around with a beer anyway. Besides, swimming outside in December isn't exactly my idea of fun, or even sanity. I've been there about two weeks now, and have had several adventures there. One thing that is included in the swingeing fees they charge is a couple of appointments with a personal trainer. They set me up with a young gentleman whose father is four years younger than I am. It is an interesting relationship. He is not quite sure what to make of me, and I am taking orders from someone younger than my own children. I had my initial appointment with him shortly after joining up. I was supposed to meet with him last week, but had to reschedule due to squirrelus interruptus. Today we met up again so he could take me through a personalized workout plan. I learned a few things. One, I had been just moving weights around on the various machines up until today. He walked me through a bunch of exercises, starting out with the exercycle, or whatever they call it. Then it was squats. I felt like telling him when you get older, you do lots of them anyway. I kept my mouth shut though, because I didn't want to give him the impression I thought he didn't know squat. I was a little miffed at the weights he was suggesting for me. "I thought, I can lift way more than that!" Well lemme tell you something. By the time I was done, I was lucky to be lifting my feet off the floor. The last exercise probably made the least sense, but it was kind of fun. I had to take a 10 lb medicine ball, lift it over my head, and then hurl it to the floor with all my strength. I told him, "I'm already good at this one!" Every now and then something goes wrong in the shop and a piece of wood will impact the floor at near relativistic velocity. It doesn't improve my situation any, but it makes me feel better. By the time I did 10 reps of that though, I was ready to quit. Fortunately, it was the last thing on the list, and he was expecting my reaction. He told me I did better than he expected. Either that means I am in better shape than I thought, or I look even worse than I am. I will choose to believe the former rather than the latter. There's no way I am going to join the musclehead crowd though. That's the group of guys there who spend what looks to be most of their life pumping Iron. Some of them have bulging muscles in their eyelids. I am going to have to stop looking in the mirror there though. I understand it is good for proper form, but it also keeps reminding me that right now I sort of look like a snowman in the sun with the way the weight is sluffing off of various parts, and none of it symmetrically.

I would like to call attention to this sentence right here and emphasize it. Regardless of how these people are paid, they are working for us. We are the patient, the customer. Make sure they are working to your satisfaction.

When I started out, the doc said I had to quit smoking (my pipe and cigars), quit drinking (bourbon), and quit eating (food). I asked, "What's left!?!" So now I spend more time chasing Mrs. LittleBill around. Hey, at least it's exercise.

@@Alex Brecher, I was a moderator on another board for a long time. Killing spammers was one of our chief occupations. I know how much work goes into it. Thank you.

I am glad to be of service.

I cannot sit with my arms folded across my chest right after eating. They put enough pressure on my minituarized stomach to make it uncomfortable. I worried about a leak (having done many plumbing jobs over the years) but leaks are usually associated with vomiting, fever, extreme pain, etc. If none of that is happening, it may be just a vivid imagination.

Well, the proof is in the pudding, as they say. If your protein levels are good, then it is working for you. I still don't believe their claims though. It is a physical impossibility to compress molecules as they claim to do. At least, it is with the technology available to us now. If they had found a way to do it, they'd be doing something more lucrative than peddling Protein Powder.