Ok, Enough Snow

I don't think the City of Gladstone owns a snowplow. If they do, they are not using it. This is the street I live on. The best place to walk is right down the middle of the street. Very few people have cleaned their sidewalks.

The car chains has kept the snow churned up and it turned warm so the ice is breaking up too. It's a ten block round trip to my favorite coffee shop. I'm still trying to walk every day. Besides, I don't like to drive in messes like this.

According to the National Weather Service we had the whitest Christmas since records were started. Ok, it set it, now let it warm up so we can get on with living.

Scary

I just had a very scary experience. Nothing to do with the winter weather here in Portland. Worse. I had a memory lapse and forget the email address and password for my Blogger account. Thanks to Google I was able to recover what email account I had used and reset my password. What a relief. I felt cutoff from the world.

Ten Things I'm Thankful for this Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving. It's been quite some time since I've blogged and boy have I missed it! So, today, I’m back to blogging again. I'd like to do my top ten list of things that I am thankful for. I think this is especially pertinent given the level of fear and concern about the economic state in this country...

1. Unconditional love.

2. The unexpected changes of direction in my life that has opened many new opportunities.

3. The opportunity to explore the second sixty years of my life that has given me a new career that I am passionate about; it's still work and really hard work, but the challenge and continual learning it provides gets me up in the morning.

4. Warm mud between my toes on a summer day that reminds me of my roots grow deep in the rich soil of Oregon.

5. The ability to move into a community and make myself at home with new surroundings and new friends.

6. Having the opportunity to share my knowledge and life experiences.

7. For my own health coach for helping me, at 62 years of age, to lose 80 pounds and showing me how to keep it off forever.

8. Family that I actually enjoy spending time with; and friends that I couldn't live without.

9. A country that has a democratic process that allows for change, significant and dramatic change, driven by the people and without violence and unrest.

10. For all the servicemen and women on duty around the world, guarding our freedom and for all the Veterans who served their country.

I hope that each of you to take a moment to think about what you are most thankful for - and I encourage you to share that with others.

An Update from Gladstone

I decided it is time to post an update. I have been self-employed for a month now and still enjoying the adventure.

My Take Shape for Life health coaching practice (www.coachtom.tsfl.com) is growing. Even with the uncertain economic times people still need to eat and insteret in creating additional income streams is growing. I will be expanding my business in the wine country of Sonoma County, California in the next couple of months. There are a large number of Take Shape for Life health coaches here in the Portland area.
Personally, I have now lost (no destroyed - what is lost can be found) 80 pounds and within the next week to ten days will start the transition phase. The backroads and small towns website (www.backroadsandsmalltowns.com) is in the final stages of testing and I have been working on the sales materials. By the beginning of November we will be recruiting sales representatives across the country. The sales commissions will be in he 50-60% range. Visit the website and click on Oregon. It wil give you an idea how the site will work.

I'm now a "Netweaver in Training" (www.netweaving.com) Have been working with Robert Littell, author of "Power Netweaving" and "The Heart and Art of Netweaving." This is golden rule and "Pay It Forward" version of networking. I continue to be involved with the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce and have found several other networking groups in the area. For relaxation I like to hang out at one of the areas Great Good Places, the Happy Rock Coffee Company, here in Gladstone.

The Great Good Place is a book by Ray Oldenburg. He writes about the cafes, coffe shops and other hangouts that are at the heart of a community. One of these days I will figure out how to get my Amazon links to work here on my blog. Tom

New Blog: Back Roads and Small Towns USA

This morning I created a new blog: http://backroadsandsmalltownusa.blogspot.com/.

I'm now the National Sales Manager for www.backroadsandsmalltowns.com and will be recruiting sales representatives nationwide.

Backroads & Small Towns is an idea hatched by Joseph Shelley of Sandy, Oregon. He started development in late 2007.The main though is to provide a single place for all small towns and their businesses to have an inexpensive way to get their basic information out on the web. The other reason for this is for travelers to be able to find information about these out of the way places that many people never knew existed.

Seaching for Yoder

Now please understand, Yoder was never lost, I just couldn’t find the little Willamette Valley community.

The Saturday started out simple enough. My eldest sister, with whom I share a town house, wanted to visit Al’s Nursery in Woodburn. We live just a block off of Hwy 99E in Gladstone, Oregon. For those of you who don’t know, Gladstone is located between Oak Grove and Oregon City, north of where the Clackamas River joins the Willamette River. Time wise the city is somewhere between the 1940’s and the 1960’s. Most peole zip by on the 205 freeway, which is the way most local people like it.

Anyway, we headed South to Al’s Nursery and had a great time viewing the wide variety of plants. Soon the car was loaded with two large hanging baskets in the truck and the back seat was full of plants too. Lunch was next on the agenda. I had thought about going back to Canby. Then I remembered the Marquam Inn, located in the small community of Marquam on the Cascade Highway. I had no problem finding the place and we had a very enjoyable lunch.

After lunch we headed for home. I have driven the Cascade Highway many times. When I twin daughters were with me I would always say “where’s Yoder?” when we passed the sign. They would respond “yonder.” Ok, it’s a bit corny, but we would laugh and enjoy the humor.

So, I decided to take my sister to Yoder. Now I have been to Yoder but never from the Cascade highway. We headed north and made the left turn onto Babcock Road. The sign said Yoder 4 miles.

Babcock Road soon ended at a “T” intersection and a filbert (ok hazelnut) orchard and no sign. Right or left on Dryland Road? I decided on left and drove for what seemed like 5 or 6 miles. No Yoder and no signs. I turned about and went back to the intersection and took the right arm of Dryland. We soon came to another intersection. I picked right again and in a couple of miles was back to Babcock Road, right where we had started from.

Around we went again. This time I turned left and nothing looked familiar and no sign of Yoder. So back to the last intersection and I made a left turn onto Dryland. Soon the countryside changed from valley to foothills. At one point we had a great view from high above the Willamette Valley. After a series of roads I found one headed down onto the valley floor and soon were were approaching a small community.

As we got closer I told my sister there would be an antique store around the next corner. Sure enough. We were back in Marquem and nowhere near Yoder. At that point I gave up. We were soon headed up the Cascade Highway toward Oregon City and home, only to be detoured when we got to Molalla because of bridge construction.

I made a left turn toward Woodburn and knew that I could get to Highway 99E there or in Canby. Soon I came to a highway sign “Marquam – Canby Road” Then there was another sign pointing to the left. “Yoder – 1 mile.” I turned right. Yoder will have to wait for another day.

What is so exciting about Yoder? Nothing. According to Ralph Friedman book In Search of Western Oregon, Yoder was established in 1915. the Yoder family had settled in the area in the 1888 and the place was called Yoderville. The family still owns the lumber mill, built in 1891 and there is a store, built when the Willamette Valley Southern RR arrived. According to Wikipedia, the community is best known as a filming location for Nowhere Man (TV series).

Maybe next time we will carry a map with us. Why Yoder? No reason, I just like the name.

Off on a new adventure with Squidoo

Today I created my first lens (web page) on Squidoo (http://www.squidoo.com/) Squidoo is an awesome site that let's us create our own web pages. I have already discovered that the magic of Squidoo is how quickly the serendipity of exploration kicks in. Another words, there are thousands of pages on hundreds of topics just waiting to be explored. It's very easy to get lost surfing.

The link to my lens is http://www.squidoo.com/coachtom. Take a look and give me some feedback. There is a comment section at the bottom of the page.

As you can see from the lens, I'm building my Take Shape for Life coaching practice. This week I joined the Sandy (Oregon) Area Chamber of Commerce and worked a booth at their annual Golf Tournament at the Resort at the Mountain (http://www.theresort.com/) That was Wednesday when it rained all day.

The weight? It's still coming off. I have now lost 65 pounds since May 9th. I cannot remember being this skinny. I feel great and people tell me I look great too.

Summer of loss

Like many people I have experienced weight gain over time. Yes, I was once skinny. I can barely remember it, but I do have the pictures to remind me.

Since 2000 I have been writing a goal “to reach my ideal weight in a healthy way by December 31, 2000. Then every January 1st I would change the year.

This year started the same way, with me weighing a record high of 267. That’s a hundred pounds heavier than I was in the above picture.
I spent time upgrading my goals, knowing that there would be no change. I would plan to lose a pound a week and in the first 18 weeks I had managed to lose 7 pounds.

All during this time I had been watching Melissa at the weekly Sandy Chamber of Commerce meetings. She was promoting a weight management program. Then another friend announced he had gone from a size 44 to a size 36 pants in a very short period. That got my attention.

About the same time an associate at work left me a note on my computer that included a drawing of me that was very unflattering. I also hated to see myself in mirrors. The drawing was right; I was fat, obese according to the Body Mass Index.

A phone call to Melissa started me on a new adventure. On May 9th I started using the program. On Sunday, August 10th, 14 weeks later I had lost 60 pounds, two thirds of the way to my ideal body weight of 170.

The real challenge is still ahead of me. 85% of people who diet will end up regaining their weight. Eating right and exercising are not temporary conditions to be dumped when I reach my ideal body weight. They are lifestyle choices, and ones to be made for a lifetime.
Stay turned for further updates.

Bit of Oregon and Literary History Preserved

Today, while surfing the net on the second hottest day of 2008, I came across an AP report that ownership of a remote 32 acres in the middle of the Rogue River wild and scenic area had been sold to the Bureau of Land Management.

The land, at Winkle Bar, was the old mining claim purchased by Zane Grey in 1926. There he built a crude one-room cabin of peeled logs and hand-split shingles. This was his wilderness retreat. Grey loved what would become one of the first rivers protected by the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1962.

Grey first discovered the Rogue River in 1916 and the river became the backdrop for his novel “Rogue River Feud”. What other stories came out of his visits to the remote cabin?

The AP reporter interviewed Eric Grey, Zane’s great grandson. The article quotes Eric saying that Zane Grey once wrote, “The quail and trout have vanished from California and the forests are following. I’m glad Romer (Zane Grey’s son and Eric’s grandfather) can still see something of wild America, but I fear his son never will.”

This bit of Oregon and literary history is being preserved, Rafters on the wild section of the Rogue will continue to stop and peer into the windows and wonder about the man who created a retreat in this bit of the wild west. What dreams does the brief visit inspire today?

Honoring an American Hero

Today (Saturday, May 10, 2008) there was a gathering that included four Medal of Honor recipients and seven former prisoners of war. They were at Bath Iron Works to honor a fellow Vietnam POW and Medal of Honor receipient.

Vice Admiral James Stockdale flew 201 carrier-based missions before being shot down in 1965. He was the highest-ranking naval officer captured during the war and spent 7 ½ years in captivity in North Vietnam. Upon his release in 1973, he received 26 combat decorations, including the Medal of Honor.

He was honored today with the christening of the USS Stockdale, the Navy’s newest guided missile destroyer. His widow, Sybil, christened the ship with the traditional bottle of champgagne

Noting that the new destroyer's motto is "Return with Honor," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said "Admiral James Stockdale did just that, and our nation is forever indebted to him. I know that all who serve on the ship that bears his name will do the same."

In a few months the ship will sea trials and sometime next Fall will be commissioned as the USS Stockdale (DDG-106).

Good Bye Audray

Every once in awhile someone who touches my life without me even realizing it. Three years ago I came across a reference to the “Adopt A Nursing Home” program in Texas. My search for information leads me to Audray Landrum in Tyler, Texas. We may have met on the How Much Joy Facilitators group on Yahoo. Anyway we connected and she sent me a wealth in information on the “Adopt A Nursing Home” program.

A year ago I moved and did not have easy access to the Internet and I lost touch with many people, including Audrey.

Today I decided to check out a publication she wrote for The Senior Voice. Her column wasn’t in the latest issue. I started back through the issues and found her last column in the June 2007 issue.

Going back to July I found a note that Audrey had moved to Chicago for cancer treatment. Further research revealed that she had passed away on October 23rd.

The Senior View reprinted the following quote. In their December 2007 issue

“I’ve come to understand that happiness doesn’t just happen, it requires
effort. We begin with the decision to be happy, we take action in search of
it and most of all we are willing to receive it. In this glorious season of celebration,
I hope you will seek and find a light heart. After all, we’re
workin’ for God!”

I’m going to miss Audray. We only talked once or twice and exchanged a couple of dozen emails.

Thank you Audray for your friendship.