Session: 70-minute walk

Weight: 201lbs post walk

Diet: 4 days of good stuff

I didn’t really exercise for the last 4 days, and I guessed that my weight would be around 203 this morning, but it’s not as bad as I thought. After my walk this morning, I checked the scale and it was 201 even. Lisa and I went to the Braves game on Thursday evening and had a great time. I found two last minute discounted tickets on Stub Hub and they were front row seats, field level. Best seats I’ve ever had, and we were right next to the action. The Braves beat the Mets, and I got to watch Juan Soto play for the first time. For some reason, we were surrounded by Mets fans and after the Braves jumped out to lead the game, things got awful quiet in our section and the only sounds being made was me chattering it up, like I was still a first baseman back in the day.

I joked with a buddy on Facebook, that I may have to fight our way out of the section we were sitting in, which prompted an old friend of mine to like my comment. His name was Oscar Tellez, and I knew he got a big chuckle out of my comment because he and I had to fight our way out of a section at a San Diego Padres game some 33 years ago. I was a Cincinati fan at the time and I was wearing an Eric Davis jersey at a ball game between the Padres and the Reds. Eric Davis played for the Reds back in the early 90’s, and he was a favorite of mine. The Padres were winning the game till the 8th inning when Eric Davis came up to bat with ducks on the pond. The Reds were down by two and I was receiving a lot of flak from the Padres fans in our section where Oscar and I were sitting. Oscar was wearing a Tony Gwynn Padres jersey, so he wasn’t catching as much flak as I was getting. Eric Davis hit a 3-run home run, and I stood up in my seat to cheer as the Reds took the lead. When I did, a couple of drunks from a couple rows above threw a beer and hit me with it. It splashed on Oscar also, so it took us about 3 seconds to grab a couple drunks and go to town on their cabeza’s. That prompted more drunks to join and get involved and then these knuckleheads tore my Eric Davis jersey. That’s when it became an all-out brawl which involved several fans and several security folks. We were blamed for the scuffle and Oscar and I were escorted out of the area in the end. They let us watch the rest of the game in a breezeway far away from where our fight went down. Oscar was a Padre fan but when it came to sticking up for me and fighting these guys, he was right there with me.

I got a call from an old Navy friend on Saturday morning to tell me that Oscar passed away suddenly the day before and that really hit me hard. Oscar was one of my best fishing friends out west and another one of our fishing crew that is now gone. If you’ve read my story, “Mooning the Lincoln”, you’ll read about myself, Oscar and the passing of our fishing friend Steve and Lucky, both of which has passed from our old crew. It’s pretty much down to Frank and me now. I know for a fact that Oscar got a chuckle out of my comment about fighting my way out at the ballgame and I almost made a comment about our fight years ago. I’m going to miss you buddy. RIP till we fish again my friend.

Lisa and I took a little road trip up to Ruby Falls and Chattanooga to checked out some stuff up there last week. We had to stop at Buccee’s on the way up and the way back for some of their delicious food and a few snacks, so I decided to break from my diet for a few days. We ate our meals on the road and at restaurants once we got to Chattanooga, but I tried to eat semi-healthy when I could and stay away from grease and chocolate, my two favorites. If you’ve never been to Ruby Falls up in Chattanooga, it’s worth the 2-hour drive to get up there for a visit. We stayed at a nice hotel on the river and had dinner at a nice place Friday evening before heading back home on Saturday morning.

Yesterday evening I threw a couple blackened red snapper filets on the Blackstone and put them on a bed of pasta to end my weekend and get back on my weight loss plan this morning. Party’s over but it was a fun four days off the diet. Back to the trail and back to the diet.

Song of the day. The first time I heard this song was while I was on my latest trip to the big easy for some red snapper.