꿈이란 것도 잊은 채…

So it’s been a couple months; lots has happened. There was the trip to Louisiana that I mentioned in the last post; my sister went home to North Carolina for most of October; the house that I visited back in May had another re-union event to celebrate 50 years since its founding; my high school sent its alumni coordinator out here so I met up with her a couple times; I went to a Stanford Alumni East Bay “barbecue”; I’ve watched or attended a few operas; a close relative found out she has (had?) breast cancer; I’ve been working on that Coursera Deep Learning specialization and on the Crooked Calligraphy 201 course; I hit my intermediate goal weight so I’m going to take a couple months off of weight loss; … and so on.

Oh, and through it all, my dog has been wonderful 🙂 We dressed him up as a “knight in shining armor” for Halloween!

But ok, to start unpacking that first paragraph. Let’s see; the relative with breast cancer had surgery last week to remove it, and the procedure was successful — they think they got everything, and she seems to be recovering well.

The trip to Louisiana was fulfilling. Hours and hours of hanging out on the back patio of the house my mother grew up in (her brother and his wife still live in that house), just chatting. Never a dull moment. We also visited my grandparents’ grave; solemn and dignified. And the couple hosting made hush puppies from scratch and deep-fried catfish in epic quantities; I knew I was back in the South, for sure.

When my sister was back in North Carolina, I took care of her plants — she has more than 70! So it was a lot of watering a few times a week. It was really a lot of work; I told her we’re going to get some Raspberry Pis and automate some of it, so that will probably be my Christmas present to her.

The weight-loss status update was a big one for me. I picked the number on the scale because it’s roughly the boundary between being overweight and being obese for my height. And it’s also roughly halfway between my starting weight and the final number I’m aiming for. It’s been so many long months (I started in earnest on April 1), so hitting this goal was very satisfying. There’s all these little details, like putting on a pair of pants that I hadn’t been able to wear for a couple years. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I had been very happy with my weight until about 2018 or so, when I was put on a medication that made me gain an obscene amount of weight in just the short time I was on it. It’s only been now that I’m in a place where I can finally make a concerted effort to get that weight back off. But, anyway. I’m no longer obese! I’m feeling much better just in my skin. And keeping up with walking (I just finished another Conqueror challenge, “Estrada Real,” and I’ve only got 32 miles to go to hit my goal for the year! — 730, or 2mi/day) and barre help there too. I am just… feeling great :). I’ll maintain here for now, and probably start back trying to lose weight sometime early next year.

Opera! And reading! And Deep Learning and Calligraphy courses! Duolingo! Progress and enrichment!

But that’s enough for now. Hope you’re doing well!

Until next time~

Spent a couple hours yesterday wandering around downtown San Francisco. This is the Ferry Building, where I started and ended my travels 🙂