Wikipedia says it way better than I could:

A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users, either through email or in public message boards. Many BBSes also offer on-line games, in which users can compete with each other, and BBSes with multiple phone lines often provide chat rooms, allowing users to interact with each other more instantaneously.

Originally BBSes were accessed only over a phone line using a modem.

I was an avid member of many such BBSes, which had a “variety” of content. We will leave that right there. Asis.

I made friends with the owner/operator of one of these systems and we had long chats both on the board and and on the phone. He was an interesting guy and we liked each other.

He one time told me that he had to “take the board off the hook” for some maintenance. At that point he had several hundred incoming phone lines so it always struck me funny, that phrase.

Long story short here. I am taking this blog “off the hook” for a while.

Two reasons for this:

The amount of regular readers here, driven by Facebook postings mostly, is real small. No offense regular readers but you are not worth my time.

And… I need my time to be worth something. So I am going to spend at least the next month endeavoring to turn water into wine, a loaf of bread and a fish into a meal for thousands and…you get my drift.

Yesterday was the first time in over two years that I missed a daily update. The world did not come crashing down on my head. The sun came up this AM. I felt guilty but I will get over it.

I have already at this point cut back by 1/2 on these posts. Now I am going “off the hook” at least for the next month.

Thanks for all the comments, all the time you spent reading here (both of you) and I hope to see you back someday.

So…

So long. Thanks for all the fish.

I am once more car shopping. The last time, for the long-suffering wife, took a human gestation period. It was at least as painful as well. But at least we got the car she wanted, although I am sure we paid too much.

Yesterday we went to look at a car about 25 miles from here. It was the make, model and year I had been researching and the right color too. It was not right for us, no fault of the dealer. What was the dealer’s fault was that the car was not ready to be shown, never mind bought.

I called the day before to announce our intentions. The chirpy receptionist answered with “Good morning! Blankity blank auto-dealerships. Are you calling about our used car buy back program?”

I replied, “No.”

Long ass silence. She was waiting for me to say something, that was clear. Me, I had all day.

Finally, “Umm…how can I help you?”

“I wanna buy a car.”

“Oh! I’ll, uh, get you a salesperson.” Like this had NEVER happened before.

We will call the salesperson “Don”, becasue that was his name. I told “Don” the lot number of the car and he put me on hold. He returned with the news that the car was on the front row of the lot by the road, I must have seen it there, right? No, Don, I am in another county and will drive up the next day to see it.

“What time will you be here?” he asked.

“What time do you work?” I asked back.

“9am to 8pm.” was his response.

I thought, golly, hell is a used car salesman’s life. We agreed on before noon. Plenty of time to get the car washed and prepped. But no.

Not only was it not washed, it was filthy, inside and out. Some sort of paper strips all over the seats, floor mats dirty, a mystery plastic “thing” laying in the center console.

And the windshield was cracked. Not only had no one even prepped the car, no one had even LOOKED at it.

I handed the plastic thing to Don. He looked at it like I had given him a dead rat.

“What did this come off from?” Don wanted to know. Kind of accusatory, he was. I told him and he handed it back to me without a word. OK…

We took the car out and the LSW HATED it. Since this was to be my car it was my choice. I didn’t like it either.

We agreed to take it back to Don and tell him it was underpowered for our needs and a bit small.

I walked in with the keys and the LSW to the showroom. Don came bounding up. Before he spoke I handed him the keys and said “We don’t like it, and the windshields cracked.” The LSW kicked me in the shins.

Don demurred, saying the windscreen was no problem, they could fix that. I have done this dance enough to know that anything you tell the salesman is wrong, is no problem, they can fix that.

“The engine caught on fire and fell out, Don.”

“No problem, we can fix that.”

It’s not the dealership’s fault or Don’s that we didn’t like the car. But, even though it was a used car, it was sticker-ed more than $20,000. In these marginal times I would think the prospect of selling something for that kind of money, coupled with the fact that I drove quite a ways to look at it, would have made Don wriggle with anticipation at a possible sale. We were the ONLY people on the lot.

Back to the drawing board.

1/25/11 This AM’s weight: 236.0-Blood sugar 132.

1/24/11 This AM’s weight: 234.5-Blood sugar 149.

1/23/11 This AM’s weight: 233.5-Blood sugar 144.

1/22/11 This AM’s weight: 235-Blood sugar 149.

1/21/11 This AM’s weight: 233.5-Blood sugar 138.

1/20/11 This AM’s weight: 234-Blood sugar 150.

1/19/11 This AM’s weight: 236.5 -Blood sugar 129.

1/18/11 This AM’s weight: 236.5 -Blood sugar 152.

Very odd this body of mine. Extreme day off the reservation, though still vegetarian.

1/17/11 This AM’s weight: 235.5 -Blood sugar 153.

1/16/11 This AM’s weight: 234 -Blood sugar 139.

1/15/11 This AM’s weight: 234 -Blood sugar 165.

Too much whole wheat pasta and beer…today is another day.

15 days in no sweat. Wish my numbers were better. I will do a five point blood sugar…today maybe.

1/14/11 This AM’s weight: 232.3 -Blood sugar 156.

Can’t see any good reason for weight loss or sugar spike. Weird. 14 days nearly 100% vegan (a little dairy, some eggs whites in recopies-trace amounts really)…without breaking a sweat.

1/13/11 This AM’s weight: 235 -Blood sugar 151.
Made Pasta beans and tomatoes with garlic and ate WAY to much of same. Still the same amount of regular pasta would have sent my blood sugars much higher so I will take this as a semi-victory.

In the “Too much information” department. My B.M’s have never been better. Without going into detail I can say that the difference is between night and day. I read a cool quote “Diarrhea is the Jazz of bowel movements.” I was Miles Davis. Now I am Lawrence Welk. Make any sense at all?

1/12/11 This AM’s weight: 236.5 -Blood sugar 141.

1/11/11 This AM’s weight: 236 -Blood sugar 161.
Fell off the wagon..sort of. Went to Red Robin for lunch. I was good, had a boca burger which takes some getting used to.
Research showed the fries were vegan but I probably shouldn’t have eaten any, never mind the full portion. The good news is I survived the LSW’s hectoring about having or at least sharing the potato soup-bacon bits notwithstanding who knows what’s in it. Cheese for sure.
The bad news…I drank lots of beer.

Oh well. Today is another day.

1/10/11 This AM’s weight: 234.5 -Blood sugar 130.

There. Much better. The key? Darned if I know beyond the fact that I have hit the gym again.

1/9/11 This AM’s weight: 237 -Blood sugar 149.

So…one week ago: weight: 234 -Blood sugar 178. Interesting. Weight up, (Take Vegan haters-I am NOT starving to death, clearly and sugar down, though it could be lower.

I am going to try one more week at this before I hit the reboot button.

1/8/11 This AM’s weight: 238 -Blood sugar 154.
Well..yesterday I ate at the Olive garden. Thought I did pretty good-Minestrone soup and salad-although I did eat all the croutons.
A word about this effort. I have no axe to grind about being Vegan. When it’s impossible to be so I can at least be Vegetarian, which is my plan. I also am Not going to evangelist, beyond this here blog, nor am I going to drive myself crazy.

That said I clearly need to step up to the plate.
Two things need to happen- I went to the gym ONCE last week. That has to to change.

And I think Monday (at least) will be a Juice day.

1/7/11 This AM’s weight: 234 -Blood sugar 158.
Happy with the weight. Blood sugar not so much.
I think maybe I am eating too late and snacking (had walnuts last night before bed) so I will experiment with that.
I will say one good thing is that I am never hungry. That with no weight gain is enough to convince me that this is the right path. Not that I needed any real convincing.

1/6/11 This AM’s weight: 235.5 -Blood sugar 149.
Not too concerned about numbers at this point. Any number of factors can give a little bump. Fasting blood sugar down from 178 in fours days to 149. I’ll take it.

Made Brussels sprouts sauteed with garlic and walnuts yesterday for lunch. Great tasting and very filling.

1/5/11This AM’s weight: 234.5 -Blood sugar 138. really pleased with Blood Sugar, and weight if not as quick to move as when I juiced, is drifting down.

One of the things that I like most about “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. is that he says, and I will paraphrase: “If you are hungry, you are doing something wrong. eat Something.” So I certainly have not been denying myself, and last night I made and ate several portions of a yummy black bean soup.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 pinch black pepper
4 cups vegetable broth
4 (15 ounce) cans black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn
1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

Directions

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Saute onion, celery, carrots and garlic for 5 minutes. Season with chili powder, cumin, and black pepper; cook for 1 minute. Stir in vegetable broth, 2 cans of beans, and corn. Bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, process remaining 2 cans beans and tomatoes until smooth. Stir into boiling soup mixture, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Completely Vegan and boy was it good. Downside: Long-Suffering Wife didn’t really like it, eating less than 1\2 a bowl. My diets have always been tough on her, she usually ends up frying an egg. She is, however, very healthy.

1/3/11 This Am’s weight: 235 -Blood sugar 148. Not worried about gain on the scale- Pleased to see the fasting blood sugar drift down a bit.

Ate a lot yesterday but it was a Vegan day. Made a delicious spinach with chick peas stir fry sort of deal and even have some of that left for today.

1/2 hour on treadmill-an effort since this is, no lie, the coldest day this year at 19 degrees.

I know it’s too soon to feel better…but I do!

1/2/11
After nearly two months of bad living the chickens have some home to roost, so to speak.

This Am’s weight: 234 -Blood sugar 178.

Yikes.

But I have confidence that I can turn those numbers around and fairly quickly.

The next thirty days will be as close to the lifestyle eating program outlined in “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D.as I can make it. It’s a vegan diet but Dr. Campbell suggests it’s OK to add trace amounts of Milk/Eggs included in recipes. My only real variance will be the use of olive oil as a dressing/cooking oil and I will keep that to a minimum.

As I think about this I will probably try to juice at least once a day. As I get deeper into the thirty days I may increase that. I think that having had the success I did with the juice program and going nearly vegan before will quickly turn me around.

Somewhere I will also be recording what I eat. This may or may not appear here.

So here’s to good health. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.