Today is a good day, I think, which is not to say I leaped out of bed ready to fight. More like crawled out to feed my kitties, give Chewy a little extra, and I have a plan for him. Since he eats but loses weight, I am giving him more – whenever he asks – and I thought if I gave him kitten food, he might gain a little to offset his massive weight loss. His spine is almost totally without padding now and that is very distressing. So today I’ll get to the market and buy kitten food.

As for me, I had gained about 5–8 pounds over the past 18 months due to being too tired to do much. Can’t do less and eat the same. So I decided to go back to Mendacious Thoughts’ (remember him on Blogster?) diet plan. I give you the basics here, in case anyone is interested.

First off, my aces scale, waist high and dating from the early 1960s is no longer reliable. So I went on line and ordered a Detecto professional type and Ed put it together a week ago and I have lost 3 lbs. since I went back on this system. The Detecto is a weighted scale taller than me (that is easy, since I am barely 5 feet these days)

You keep a sheet of paper posted on fridge or elsewhere – in left upper corner you put current weight and in lower right corner, you put a reasonable target weight, 10 or 20 lbs. less. Then you weigh yourself at the same time each morning, wearing approximately the same – nude or pajamas, whatever suits you – before breakfast, and after bathroom if that is relevant. You write the date and your weight, then you go about your business without thinking about it. Over time, you will lose weight.

The first time I did this, I didn’t lose any weight for a month and then the number started going down. This works on you subconsciously. You do not deliberately diet but you subtly start to do stuff that leads to weight loss. It works because you are not consciously depriving yourself.
When you have reached your target weight, you can start over with a new target. Or forget about it for a while.

Elsewise, I continue to monitor the doors on the pool deck – paranoia being my new normal. Ed said I should stop writing for publications (right … I don’t need a life) … Nadine said I should use a pseudonym. I don’t think I will follow either suggestion. The stuff that has come my way, I am convinced, has one source. A few have disagreed in print, some have been supportive. I don't think any of them are seeking me out for mischief. It's all Don.

And the latest disappointment is that I wrote my nephew, Johnny, a long letter explaining the circumstances. It isn’t flattering to his father, but Johnny hadn’t been in touch anyway, and I was guessing, since Don has spared no friend nor acquaintance in his circle the gory details of my shameful attitudes about politics and the foolish décor of my house (New York antiques – and don’t you know Florida is different???) and how I betrayed him after “all he has done for us” by having my own thoughts instead of his so I dare say he has lied to Johnny as well.

Well, that was more than a week ago and Johnny is silent, but he was in the wind before, so what have I lost? In any case, I carefully considered what I was doing and if this is the result, I can live with it.

xx, Teal