Found a Group?
2006-10-04, 2:31 p.m.

Day 773 Found a Group?

Got out to another Al Anon meeting last night. Felt kinda good really. Did see one person from the old Thursday group (neighboring villages, they actually share a few members).

Might like to stick with this group. Folks seem genuinely nice. Meeting room was packed last night � 15 or so attendees. Meeting room is also rather tiny. Noticed my voice kinda boomed when I introduced myself. It�s sort of deep and resonates in my chest anyhow, but the dimensions of the room just picked it up and amplified it. Felt like I was the whole Mormon Tabernacle Choir for a moment there. Well at least the bass & baritone sections.

One of the discussion subjects last night was compassion. It made me immediately recall a powerful and touching piece Alison wrote last month (when I get her ok, I�ll link it) What she wrote wasn�t directly on the subject of compassion, but if after reading it you don�t understand what compassion is, you must have a lump of coal for a heart. Grinch. It�s entirely possible that the piece speaks to me because of the research Alison did (dead on accurate), but still. Gets to me every time I read it.

Actually got moving a little earlier this morning, managed to get in a rousing cardio session, but had an early meeting that I really, really needed to attend and had to again forego the weights in order to be at work at a reasonable hour. Tomorrow, weights, I promise. Hey � at least I made the meeting last night. 1 out of 2 ain�t bad.

Kinda sorta got a dare to fire up the tater gun and record the proceedings for use on YouTube. Sounds like way too much fun to pass up. Because the gun can fire so dang far (200 yards is not an unreasonable estimate), I was fishing for something to do that would impress with the velocity of the thing, but could be captured on video. Thought about busting clay pots at a distance of 100 feet or so. Might be kinda cool, but I hate to sacrifice the pots. Just hitting a target painted on some plywood is boring.

Then a real thought occurred to me. (Scary, huh?) Baseball gloves!! I�ll have the kids fire the gun & run the video. The lucky one (we�ll have to draw straws or something) will get to fire a tater at me. My job will be to try and catch the speeding spud. Thinking a distance of 150 � 200 feet ought to be pretty safe. It�ll at least give me time to draw a bead on it and make the catch. I�m wondering just how fast that thing goes. I can (could) throw a baseball upwards of 80mph, and that gun can shoot a tater MUCH farther than I could throw one. I�m thinking 100+mph. Maybe we can figure it out from the video.

There�s a slim chance that we can get it done this weekend as we may have both boys home for a brief while. Only snag is that the spud cannon is down at Jill�s house, where Zach left it after showing it off once this summer. He�s going to be down that way this weekend, so if I harass him enough, maybe it�ll end up back home. I�ll dangle the YouTube dealie in front of him too.

If we can�t get it done this weekend, next real good chance might not be till Thanksgiving. Then, if we�re lucky, maybe we can launch some snow balls too. I know there�s some folks down Louisiana way that would love to see that. Heck, I would too. Need just the right kind of snow though. Has to be wet enough to stick together really well. Usually any snow we get around Thanksgiving fits that bill very nicely. Thank god for Lake effect snow . That article doesn�t mention it specifically, but Rochester, Buffalo & Syracuse have this unofficial Golden Snowball award that goes to the city with the most snowfall in a given winter. All the cities have won it, but Syracuse has probably won the most (if you call 160+ inches of snow winning). Those of us around Rochester are kinda fortunate in that we are in between the primary Erie & Ontario snow bands and don�t get it too terribly bad. Only around 100 inches a winter. That�s livable. If you have a big snowblower and pay lots of town taxes to finance street plowing & salting.

Anyhow. Tater gun. Speeding spud. Daredevil baseball glove catch. Coming to a YouTube near you soon. It�ll be a blast.

Updated stats:

Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight: 186 on 10/2/06 (?!? Stalled again)
Next weigh in: 10/9/06

New target � Aim is 180, by Halloween. Getting tougher all the time

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 10/4/06: 784.44 (on target so far)
Miles with cool down: 862.81
Target for 2006: 1000 miles
Plus 161 miles biking so far. (160.99 for you choosy mothers)

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