I Walked 395,215 Steps

The contest is officially over. I walked a total of 395,215 steps in the six week period. That averages to 65,869 steps per week, 9,880 steps per day. In total I walked 197.6 miles which averages to 4.94 miles per day. Take in account that 2000 steps equals one mile.

When you have your steps counted like this it is rather amazing how much a person does walk in a day. Naturally I made a concentrated effort to walk more, knowing that I had to count each step.

I also lost 5 pounds in the six weeks. Not too happy about that, my goal was to lose 10 pounds. The 5 pound loss is 3.3% of my body weight. We would have scored higher if we lost 5% of our body weight. Most of the people in the court house group didn't make this target. On the plus side though, my clothes are fitting looser.

According to the nurse who took my blood pressure, she said that I did a fantastic job in getting my blood pressure down to normal levels. I don't think the nurse who took it at the beginning did it right. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and she took my blood pressure right over the sleeve, also she had a hard time hearing because other people in the room were talking. However, the nurse today was concerned because my pulse rate was low and she said I have an irregular heart beat. I have an appointment for a check up with my doctor in a couple weeks, so will have to mention this to her.

The man who is running this study came to me and told me not to feel offended or anything, but I have good muscle tone. He works out at the pool the same time I do and he can tell a difference in my body shape. Poor guy was so embarrased telling me this. He wanted to let me know that he wasn't checking me out or anything.

I'm A Meanie

Last weekend the weather finally cooperated and we got some work done around the house. Hubby was whining because it was beautiful on Saturday in the 70's and I wouldn't let him ride the Harley. Poor baby. He told his friends that I got my bull whip out and made him do manual labor.

I was able to shampoo my carpets (really needed it). Hubby mowed the lawn and then he started cleaning out the porch and storage shed. In fact I ended up helping him clean the porch too. We threw out a bunch of junk, figured that it was in storage this long it can go. Found a bunch of junk that we wondered why we kept. Took two loads out to the landfill on Saturday.

I did find my outside Christmas lights that I couldn't find last year. I now have all my Christmas decorations together and labeled. We now have room in the shed to move around and we can get to things easier. Still have more work to do on the porch, but we got all the big stuff done. What an accomplishment.

Sunday I helped Hubby again on the porch, we sorted through a bunch of boxes that belonged to Robert and Jason. This all went to the garbage. It was mostly their love letters from the old girlfriends and some of their girlie magazines. Don't think they will be needing those anymore.

Now that we got the major cleaning out of the way, this will leave our summer weekends open for riding. I told the Hubby that we are just going to have to get our work done during the week to leave the weekends free.

Hubby was supposed to clean the porch and shed two weeks ago, while I cleaned the inside of the house. I got my cleaning done, but all he accomplished two weeks ago was napping.

Riding Season Officially Begins

Yesterday was the official riding season opening day. We met at the dealership for a safety inspection on the bike. Gary also signed up for the mileage contest with the local chapter and we also signed up for the mileage with the national HOG.

The safety check consisted of checking to make sure the headlight, turn signals and brake lights work and we had the correct tire pressure and tread. We are fine, but will probably need a new front tire next year. Filled out all the paperwork for the mileage contests.

The national mileage contest is for every 5,000 miles you get a patch and a pin. We need to be verified at the dealership, so you just don't get to put any kind of miles down. Even though I am a passenger, I also get credit for all those miles.

The local chapter mileage contest begins in April and ends in October. The chapter gives out prizes for the winner, 2nd place and average. We also get credit for every 1000 miles we travel. At the end of the year, we will get a ticket for prizes. You get a ticket for every 1000 miles traveled, again as a passenger I get credit for the ticket miles. Gary knows he won't win the actual mileage prizes, he is not retired. There are too many retired guys who can ride all the time. Some of these guys get 20,000 or more miles in the short six months. We would like to get as many tickets for the drawings as we can get.

It took them a couple hours to get the safety checks done, there were 45 bikes total. Off we went to Ballentine for the meeting. During the riding season our meetings are held in bars at the little towns we stop in. We are getting to know where these little treasures are hidden. Also traveling with the group we stay off the interstate and take the two lane roads to our destination.

In Ballentine our meeting was held at the Long Branch Saloon, we sat out on the patio after getting a drink. Had a short meeting, got all the scoop on upcoming events. Gary won one of the door prizes, he won the Harley Davidson bottle opener. It is really nice. After the meeting we rode with the group to Hardin.

We laugh because we had a nice escort home. There were 16 people in total who rode to Hardin. We ate at the 4 Aces Bar, the best chicken in town. Had a great time, the weather was perfect for riding, not too hot and not too cold. Best of all no wind.

Said our goodbyes to our friends and then we went home. We put on officially 100 miles yesterday. Too bad we can't count the 50 miles we put on earlier to get to the dealership. This ride is one of the few times when we get to go home early. We usually have the extra miles to go.

Here is a photo of us at the dealership, waiting for the safety inspection.

Motivational Jeans

Tuesday I had a dental appointment for a filling. Naturally afterwards I needed my therapy. I always schedule my dental appointments in the mornings so that I can have the afternoon in therapy.

This time I took a page out of Bonnie's book. I bought a pair of size 10 jeans. I am currently wearing a size 12 and have been for 3 years. That is saying something for me to stay in this size for this long. I am bound and determined to get into a size 10 jean comfortably by the end of this year.

I went to Goodwill looking for some Harley shirts. A friend of mine gets her Harley shirts at Goodwill. I didn't have any luck finding Harley shirts, but I did manage to find a denim vest, a regular shirt and my size 10 motivational jeans.

I thought I had already bought my motivational jeans two weeks ago when Jen and I went shopping. We were at Ross trying to find a blue blazer for Jen. We were looking around and I thought why not. I was looking at jeans in the size 10 section. They were on a hanger that had a size 10 tab on it, the tags on the outside said size 10. They are cute so I bought them. Jen couldn't believe that I would buy a pair of jeans that don't fit.

When we got home and put our stuff away I thought lets just give putting on these size 10's a try. Imagine my surprise when the jeans fit perfectly. I knew that this couldn't be right so I took them off. To my disappointment my motivational jeans turned out to be size 12. Oh well, I got a new pair of jeans. Hubby told me to just pretend that they are a size 10. I told him that it just doesn't work that way. Lesson learned, read the tags inside too.

This time I did. I checked all the tags that I could find and I really do have a size 10. Got home and put all the stuff away. It was the next morning after my swim that I thought, lets give this a try.

After some wiggling I got them on. I was even able to button and zip up the pants without laying on the bed. Now I can't breath and I don't dare sit down or bend over. It is a nice feeling knowing that I can get them on. Just a month ago I couldn't get a size 10 up over my hips. Even though I can get the size 10's on and zipped, I'm not going to count it until I can wear them comfortably. Breathing is a plus.

I'm going to give credit to my new Sketcher Shape Up shoes. I've been wearing them for a month now and I wear them about three days a week. Especially when I know I will go alot of walking. I swear that my legs, thighs, butt and calves are getting in shape.

Biker Church

Yesterday Gary and I went to Biker Church, at least that is what I call it. There is a motorcycle group called Christian Motorcycle Association in Billings. We have met many of them from the Patriot Guard Riders. The first Sunday in April the CMA sponsors a service to bless motorcycles for the riding season.

We have several biker friends who do this every year and we were invited to attend. Gary really wanted to go. He really appreciates what I gave up this year to attend this event. We got up bright and early to head to Billings. We were to meet our friends at their house at 8:00. It was too cold to ride to Billings at 7:00 am, so we hooked up the trailer and loaded the bike up. We have a rule that if it isn't at least 40 degrees out, we won't ride. It was only 29 yesterday morning. We would have been frozen by the time we got to Billings.

We got to our friends house without any problems and Gary was able to drive through all the new roundabouts without any problems. Unloaded the bike from the trailer and then we sat and visited. Other couples starting arriving. We got all our biker gear on and made our way to the services. The service was being held at the Elks Lodge in the Heights.

We arrived and were a bit cold, immediately we were greeted with a nice hot cup of coffee. Many of our other biker friends were there as well. There were probably about 80 of us there, 50 bikes.

This was a nondenominational service, lasted about 40 minutes. All we did was sing a few songs, then a guy read some passages out of the bible. I think he is an ordained minister. Not a very good reader, but he means well. After the service was done, they fed all of us bikers. We donated money for the food. They fed us biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs. The eggs were powdered eggs and didn't taste very good, but if you smothered them in with the gravy they weren't too bad.

After eating we all went back outside and the bikes were blessed. There were a couple guys playing their bagpipes. We now have a sticker with proof that our bike was blessed this year. It was all a very nice service.

Afterwards the group decided to go on a short ride. The sun finally came out but it was a bit windy. We didn't go very far, just took the Molt Loop. This is a road that takes you out of Billings and you are about 15 miles north of Laurel.

We got back home around 5:30. We got the bike unloaded and the trailer put away. Jennifer said she would take us out for supper, so we went to Subway.

Not the traditional way to spend Easter, but we sure had a good time with our good friends.

Added Job Title

The county commissioners are adding duties of one office into others. I am now the Big Horn County DUI Task Force Coordinator. I am mostly doing the paperwork and filing reports with the state. I go to Helena in a couple weeks for a state DUI Task Force conference.

The guy who had this position resigned and moved out of the county in November, so the group was without a coordinator for about 5 months. I was appointed in March and have been getting things figured out what exactly I have to do. I go to all the meetings, but I don't conduct them or take minutes. My main job is to file the annual and quarterly reports on the activies of the group and also keep tabs on grants and stuff like that. I also give out press releases and schedule special events.

The commissioners are trying to save money due to a lessening of the tax monies collected, so they are combining his duties to other offices. My office got chosen to be the coordinator mainly because we work with schools and they thought this would be a great way to get the message out to the youngsters. Also because our office is not as busy as the other offices.

No extra pay in the mix, just added duties on top of what I normally do to run this office. My boss wasn't too happy about it, but what can you do. She does want my job description changed to include these duties.

Once I go to the conference I will know more on what kind of reports I will have to file and what not. I have already told the group that I will not go out on the check points and bar checks like the other guy did. First I am not in law enforcement and am not qualified to determine if someone has been drinking or not. The commissioners agreed with this, too much of a liability. They did say that the guy before me was very passionate about this and he did many things that were not required of him.

The law enforcement guys can get me all the numbers for the reports I need when they do the bar checks and check points.