Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

A Tale of Two Broken Airplane Wings

Well today was Orientation for another term of the Exploratory Writing Workshop (EWW). Usually I get a normal distribution of students, some good, some grounded in the basics and some remedial. Thus, I have to adjust my thinking to each student’s level of development. This term I'm delighted to say that the distribution is skewed heavily towards some very talented individuals from all over the world. I don’t have a single remedial student.

Today the Lounge to the EWW opened and I was amazed with how many of the students had read all the requirements and showed up posting their biographies and introducing themselves. I don’t usually get this much participation. We're off to a good start. Now, if I can only keep the momentum of enthusiasm going!

Today I took the two broken wings and cut out the ribs on my table saw. Both wings were of the same scale and produced by the same company. I was gratified that the ribs were identical. This allowed me to sift through and try and find enough unbroken material to make one complete wing out of the two that were “Parted Out.” By the end of the day I had a completed wing ready to be covered.

When I weighted this morning I showed 171.8. lbs. That is pretty good and my diet is more or less working. I call my diet the ”No Food Diet.” I get two pieces of toast for breakfast and then nothing until about 3PM. Then I have a late lunch or early supper. This is a full meal but without any excess or deserts. That’s it for the day. I do drink plenty of water and sometimes snack on a couple handfuls of plain popcorn. I drink one soda a day. I have gradually lost twenty pounds. Linda and I are both following this diet… and approaching it like we did quitting smoking…. Just staying after it one day at a time.

If you stay busy it isn’t so bad and there is that one good meal every day to look forward to. For my meal today I had a Double Quarter Pounder and fries. It was not very good. Yesterday we went to Cracker Barrel and had a wonderful dinner, the best in a long time. I ordered the grilled chicken strips with green beans, corn and French fries. There was also a good hot biscuit with butter. I wish they had yeast rolls instead of biscuits and cornbread. In grade school they had yeast rolls that were the best I’ve ever eaten. Now, only those “Texas Rolls” come close. Too bad the world has forgotten the yeast roll recipe.