I took Beatrice for a morning walk. We passed a poor fledgling Common Grackle, which had died in the night, standing up as if it were alive. As it did not get cold last night, I suspect it fell from the nest and passed away. It was in that nether region in which it probably could fly but was not at all an adult. On a happier note, I took photographs of a lovely Blue Jay, and saw three Brown Thrashers, the third bird being a sign that a pair had successfully nested and raised a family. After the walk, I noticed that I had that thing in which standing up quickly makes me faint (it has a name, but I am too lazy to look it up now). I realized I must be dehydrated, so I re-hydrated, and all was well.
I went to the 9:30 service at First United Methodist Church. The hymn choices were all to my liking--"Holy, Holy, Holy" (though as I type it I am reminded of the joke that in the Unitarian/Universalist church the lyric is "Coffee, coffee, coffee"); "Be Though My Vision", with its lilting Irish melody, and "Christ for the World We Sing".
After church, I went to Bethany Lakes Park. I like the family of House Sparrows that lives there. This little park has three or four (depending on how one counts them) park ponds surrounded by sidewalks with open fields adjacent. I took a few House Sparrow photos:
I also liked the little Mallard Ducklings:
I went to my 2 p.m. Weight Watchers meeting. I learned good news: I am now less than a pound above the goal weight my doctor set for me. I plan to meet that goal (which I have met twice before in the last ten years) and to continue to lose 15 more pounds to achieve a "typical" body mass index for my height. Someone called a district manager for the organization advised us that the Sunday at 2 p.m. meeting at the location I attend was being phased out.
This did not particularly surprise me, as attendance had been slack through much of the year. The sharp drop-off in attendance during May's immense rains, though not the leader's "fault", may have been the straw that broke the camel's back.
I like a lot of things about the program. The on-line tools improved tremendously in the past few years. Now I can scan a label with my cell phone and work out the points-plus-count value in this "eat x number of points plus" scheme. I am 81 pounds lighter than I was in 2005 when I first joined. I like the weekly meetings as they serve a useful monitoring function for me.
The program is commonsensical.
I miss a few things from the old days. The presentations each week are standardized by a home office, and thus are more programmatic and not as "trade a recipe" as in the old days. The marketing efforts by the organization seem a bit out of touch to me, and I am not particularly "in the know" about marketing.
I must choose between attending a 9.30 a.m. Sunday session at the same location, or going to nearby McKinney for a 2:30 p.m. Sunday session. I think I will do the morning one, though it will change my morning timing a bit. But perhaps I will alternate between the two locations.
I just know that every time I ever quit going before, I slowly begin to undo my progress. So I am going to keep going.
After my meeting, I stopped by Williams Chicken for lunch. Williams Chicken is a local chain that makes extremely excellent fried chicken. Fried chicken white meat is fine, so long as one eats it without the skin attached. Though I love the taste of the breading for fried chicken, I dutifully peeled it away as if the chicken pieces were bananas.
Then I went to Bob Woodruff Park. I walked around the park pond, and then crossed under a bridge to a wooded area. I liked the young Blue Jays cavorting:
I picked up bananas and grapes and headed home to work more on my car. I have more to do. Then I got a sandwich at Subway and settled in for the evening, listening to music but intending to do more organizing. I bought a Bill Nelson album on Bandcamp and now I am listening to a pop song by Azeda Booth.