Getting Back in Shape - Part 2

When for another walk today. The program the VA gives me has me walking every other day in the beginning and then progress from there. Today I walked for about 40 minutes through the park and marina down by the bay and back home through the neighborhood for a total of 1 1/2 miles. I live on the south shore of Long Island and try to take advantage of living near the water as much as possible.

The day was a beautiful day, sunny and in the mid-70s. The temperature the next few days is supposed to climb in to the 80s, so I'm not sure if I'll do much walking. There will be an ozone alert and stressing my unfit body this early in the program isn't smart.



PS
If you missed my HNT post, check it out below.

US Army Basic Training

I was drafted into the army on May 6, 1968 and sent to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for basic training and Advanced Individual Training (AIT). Both assignments trained me for an 11B MOS as an infantryman and service in Vietnam. I got to basic training about a week after arriving at Fort Jackson. The first week at Fort Jackson was spent at the Reception Center.

The first week of basic was spent mostly being harassed while waiting for the rest of the troops to arrive. I have a lot of stories about my time in basic, but I'm not ready to tell them all in this short HNT post. I promise that someday I'll write another chapter about basic training for my Vietnam Story blog.

So as to give this post a reason for me making it, here are some of the pictures I scanned from my yearbook.

The is SSG Temple, the lead drill sargeant assigned to our platoon. What a prick! He was a real redneck from the back woods of Tennessee and hated yankees. Since most of us were from the northern states, he gave us shit for almost the entire time we were in basic. He was the most despised drill sargeant we had.

To give you an idea what a prick he was, one Sunday him and the corporal got drunk and thought it would be funny to "really" harass the troops. Sundays was always our day to rest, so that especially made the harassment suck even more than usual.

The battalion commander just happened to come to our company area and saw what was going on. Both NCOs were court marshaled and busted down a rank. Luckily, I was assigned to the motor pool that day as a truck driver, so I missed it, but I was told all about it when I got back.

This is SGT Krietz and the most liked of all the NCOs commanding us. Just look at him, can you blame us for liking the guy?

Who does he remind you of? You'll know if you ever watched the Andy Griffith Show or Mayberry RFD. Yep, the spitting image of Deputy Barney Fife the bumbling dope of a deputy of Sheriff Taylor.

But Sgt Kreitz was far from a bumbling dope. Like almost all drill instructors, he had served at least one tour in Vietnam and was an excellent trainer.

Here are some pics of all of the troops in Company A, Sixth Battalion, Second Brigade and a few other guys I hung out with from other platoons. I'm in there somewhere. See if you can find me. Click on the pic to make it larger if you have trouble.

Couldn't find me? No biggie. Here's a close up of Private BTExpress. Look at those fucking elephant ears!

Happy HNT Soldier!

Ya know what I was just thinking? I wonder how many of the young men you see above, never made it back alive from Vietnam, I wonder?

Getting Back in Shape (Hopefully)

Four weeks ago I went to my first weight loss meeting at the VA Hospital. Lori thinks I'm the prefect weight and size, but the doctors and I disagree. I figure I have to loose something like 70-80 pounds.

I've made significant changes in my diet; e.g., lower fat and calories and higher in fiber. I've also started eating a morning meal and drinking milk with my meals too. I know I need to do better, but this old dog is not so easy to retrain.

I was on Weight Watchers years ago and dropped about 50 pounds. The key to my weight loss then, was my running everyday. I was doing about 5 miles a day until my feet went. Then the weight slowly started creeping back on until now, I'm the previously mentioned 70-80 pounds over weight.

I know I'm in no shape to start running right now, so the plan is to walk. The VA program has laid out a 12 week walking plan which I started today. In the beginning, I go out walking every other day and work up from there. Today I followed this route in my neighborhood.


I looked on the Internet and found this web site. Among other things, it allows you to trace your route on a map and lets you save it for your records. It also calculates how fast you walked, or ran if your running, and the distance of the route you mark on a map. It calculated that today, I walked 1.6 miles @ 2.2 miles per hour. Not bad for my first day. :-D

Gas prices around the world

Think you pay a lot for gas? Perhaps you'd prefer to live in Venezuela.
Note: All prices in USA dollars.

Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48
Norway Oslo $6.27
Italy Milan $5.96
Denmark Copenhagen $5.93
Belgium Brussels $5.91
Sweden Stockholm $5.80
United Kingdom London $5.79
Germany Frankfurt $5.57
France Paris $5.54
Portugal Lisbon $5.35
Hungary Budapest $4.94
Luxembourg $4.82
Croatia Zagreb $4.81
Ireland Dublin $4.78
Switzerland Geneva $4.74
Spain Madrid $4.55
Japan Tokyo $4.24
Czech Republic Prague $4.19
Romania Bucharest $4.09
Andorra $4.08
Estonia Tallinn $3.62
Bulgaria Sofia $3.52
Brazil Brasilia $3.12
Cuba Havana $3.03
Taiwan Taipei $2.84
Lebanon Beirut $2.63
South Africa Johannesburg $2.62
Nicaragua Managua $2.61
Panama Panama City $2.19
Russia Moscow $2.10
Puerto Rico San Juan $1.74
Saudi Arabia Riyadh $0.91
Kuwait Kuwait City $0.78
Egypt Cairo $0.65
Nigeria Lagos $0.38
Venezuela Caracas $0.12

Source: air-inc.com

I SUPPORT TOP FREEDOM, DO YOU?

With a slogan like "GET YOUR LAWS OFF MY BREASTS!" it's got to be good.  (Warning: HOT DAMN!  BOOBIES!)

http://tinyurl.com/2n4eg9

NEWS FLASH! We Were on TV Today

Remember when I told you Lori and I saw a taping of the Rachael Ray show?

No? Then you read the story here.

This morning I was rudely awakened by a phone call at the ungodly hour of 8:45 AM! Everyone knows not to call me before 11:00 AT THE EARLIEST! It all worked out for the best though. I got to watch the "Charmed Ones" and their boobage for the next 70 minutes and then the Rachael Ray Show.

Rachael's show started and I knew it looked familiar, it was the show Lori and I saw at the end of March. I quickly jumped out of bed to get an old VCR tape to record the show. That wasn't as simple as that seems, because I haven't used the VCR in years. I managed to locate a blank tape and loaded it into the VCR in the living room. Pressed record and away it went.

I retired back to my warm, cozy bed to watch the show, looking to see if one of the cameras got a shot of us. If you remember, we didn't get a seat in the audience. They put us up in the balcony with the director and sound guy.

Forty-four minutes into the show and just before they broke for a commercial, I saw our group! For all of about one second. I can't be sure, because we flashed by so quickly, but it looked like it caught everyone but me. I was blocked by a light hanging from the rafters. I decided to check the tape after the show was over to see if I was on TV or I really was blocked by the light.

I rewound the tape, pressed play and saw nothing but a black screen. HOLY CRAP! I screwed it up and had the VCR recording the wrong input. Not to be out smarted by a VCR, I decided to give it another try at 3:00 this afternoon when the show replays on a different channel.

I programmed the VCR correctly THIS TIME and set it to record the show automatically from 3 to 4. I tried a practice record just to be sure I get a copy of the show this time and it worked.

So, if you have a chance, check out the Rachael Ray show this afternoon about 44 minutes into the show and you will catch a fleeting glimpse of us up in the balcony, Lori anyway. But don't blink or you'll miss us.

How Time Flies HNT!

I can't believe it's been 39 years!

Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday Y'all!