Dakota's Timeline

We have a lot of stuffed animals around the house. I like making entertaining narratives with them, things like learning we'd mis-gendered a bald eagle and red tail hawks competing for a snake. I figure it's a form of creativity akin to roleplaying games, which I've enjoyed since being introduced to them at about age 10 and still play to this day. (My next D&D game is in 6 days!)

Over the past year or so Hawk has been acquiring a lot of decorate bowls. Some are stone, some are wood. She buys them to hold her burgeoning collection of rocks, but then I started using them as nests for our stuffed animals, particularly our many hawks. Then, a few nights ago....



"This bowl can be a nest for Monkey!" she said, proudly. (Monkey is the name of this sheep.)

"It looks like he's sitting on the toilet, taking a dump," I countered.

At that point I knew what I had to do. I set it up when Hawk left the room. Then I had to wait for her to discover it. How long would it take? How many days could I wait without spoiling the reveal?

The sheep sat there, untouched, for two days. Finally Hawk said, "Hand me Monkey!

"You're done letting him take a dump on the toilet?"

"IT'S NOT A TOILET!"

"Sure it is," I countered. "Look...."



"See? He pooped." (The "poop" is the three cotton balls. The rocks were already in the bowl.)

Hawk was outraged. "You cut him open and removed some stuffing?" she accused. Nope. "You cut another animal open and removed stuffing?" Also nope. These were just cotton balls from the jar in the bathroom... roleplaying here as stuffed animal poo.

"I can't believe you'd embarrass your stuffed animal by making him poo."

"He's not embarrassed, he's happy that he's a real little sheep now. Just like when Peter Peckerwood exclaimed 'I'm a real little boy!' in that classic Disney movie."

"You mean Pinocchio?"

"Pinocchio is just 'Peckerwood' in Italian."

My #PoolLife streak continues. As of today I'm at three weeks, 21 days, in a row of using the pool every day.

Yesterday I was tired in the afternoon and thought about skipping the pool. In months past I might've just stayed inside, figuring, "Yeah, the pool would be nice, but laying here and doing nothing is also nice." But now I've got a streak to keep alive, so I headed out to the pool deck and just used the hot tub. It was pleasant. #Goals FTW!

Today was a full-on pool day.



The means I spent time doing walking laps in the pool, time floating in the pool with a pool noodle (like in the photo), and time soaking in the hot tub. Oh, and time sitting out on a patio chair on the pool deck just enjoying the beautiful weather.

Speaking of weather, it hasn't been super hot lately. Afternoon highs have been in the upper 70s the past several days. That's certainly pleasant weather though not what I think of as pool weather. Except the pool water felt surprisingly warm today. I checked the thermometer in the pool, it read 86°. I thought the pool heater was set at 83°. Maybe the setting has been changed? Because the weather sure doesn't seem hot enough to be warming the pool to that level. Either way, the pool water is almost bathtub-warm, making it easy to walk right in. I'll take it!

Those of you who remember my "gruesome" forehead (that was the doctor's highly technical medical term) from a few days ago might wonder how I"m out in the sun for an hour-plus a day when I have a sensitive skin condition due to medication. That's what the hat is for! I mean, I'd be wearing a hat anyway when I'm out in the sun like this, but hats are now a regular thing anytime I leave the house at all. If you zoom in on the photo above you can see some of the reptilian transmogrification from the freeze ray in the shadow under the brim.

As of my morning weigh-in today I've lost 20 pounds since starting "the pill" 10½ weeks ago. 20 pounds may seem like a lot, though for me it's a little. It's a little but it's also meaningful.

The difference in weight isn't visible yet but I can feel it already. I feel it when I put on my clothes. Shirts that barely fit at the end of last summer fit better today. Shorts that with waists that dug into my gut and irritated my skin don't do that anymore. Clothes that totally didn't fit last summer... well, they still look bad when I try to put them on now, but I expect in another 20 pounds that section of my closet will become relevant again instead of being a sad reminder.

While it's nice to hit this milestone, a round number like 20, I'm mindful that tomorrow I might back to 19. Or even 18. Losing weight is not strictly linear. There are little bounces up and down and long plateaus.

I'm also mindful that my weight loss seems to be slowing down. After losing 9 pounds the first month and a total of 18 after two months, it seems like I might only notch 3-4 pounds in month three. That rate is still very meaningful when I extrapolate it out. It's 40-ish pounds a year! But it's also slow enough that, with those bounces and plateaus I can go a week or more with seemingly no loss.