I didn't watch a movie tonight, so I am trying to think of what I can tell ya. It was just Yer Basic Workday, and as you know it has become very difficult for me to get out for a hike these days, otherwise I would tell you about my excursions like I used to. Here's a news item related to the hiking slowdown : I'm getting fat. I shouldn't tell you this, but I am up to 165lbs after being 157 for many years. The weight gain began last year, when I went up to 160 over the Summer and couldn't get rid of it. I figured "it's only three pounds", but I could feel the difference, and I also know that once you let it go, it can get out of hand before you know it.
I may have mentioned this in the past, but once upon a time in the late 1990s I became very overweight.
"How much so", you ask? C'mon, you know you asked it. And I probably told you, way back when.
In 1999, I became concerned after being out of breath when sitting up after tying my shoes. At the time I was wearing a 42 inch waist on my pants. My high school pants (and through my early 20s) had been 32 inch. From about age 24 through age 39 my weight went up and down, mostly up in my 20s (up to 180), and then down in my mid-30s (to 142, and you can guess why).
And when that "guess why" period ended in 1997, I began to eat and eat and eat, and drink and drink, and I put on a lot of weight very rapidly. And so, on that occasion in December 1999 when I was short of breath after tying my shoes, I knew something had to be done about the situation.
One thing I had not done, in a long time, was to get on a scale. So I went and bought one, and I got on it, and I was shocked. I was expecting 200lbs at the most, but it said 225.
I am 5' 9", so 225 was quite a lot of weight for me to be carrying. My thighs were rubbing together when I walked, I could hear my pants go "swish swish". I have a few pictures of myself from that time where you might not know it was me at first glance, but anyhow, seeing 225 on the scale shocked me to the point where I started immediately to lose weight. I am not naturally rail-thin, but my high school weight had been 168, so I was shooting for that as a goal. This was how my daily walking program started, and of course I made a huge effort to cut down on fast food, chips, boxes of cookies and all kinds of other stuff I shouldn't be eating. I had always been athletic, even when I was heavy, so I took to my walks with a vengeance, and within a few months I was doing 5 miles a day, a total I have been mostly able to maintain ever since, and I am now in my 19th year. From December 1999 to October 2000 I lost 75 pounds, down to 150, and I felt like myself again, though a bit skinny. My body rebounded to 157 within a year or two, and I stayed there for 15 years, and by 2014, when I was first discovering all my hiking spots, and driving to Santa Clarita every other day for mountain hikes, I was in the best shape of my life at age 54.
But as my job became more demanding, I wasn't able to maintain my hiking schedule, and by last year I was stuck indoors for many hours of the day. And I developed, or I should say "went back to" my old bad habits of pounding snacks, especially late at night. Good thing I have kept up my 5 miles per day, or I could have been up to 170 or higher by now. But 165 is bad enough. It's less than my high school weight, but it's not my natural weight. I was a bit chunky in high school. I feel most fit at 157, so I've got 8 pounds to lose, and I am gonna do starting now, and do it slow by the end of the year, so it stays off.
Man, I've been doing my walk for almost 20 years now. But it's a little bit harder to keep the weight off at 58 versus when I was 38. I will do it though, because it feels uncomfortable.
I didn't mean to tell you all of that, so I'm sorry if it was boring or TMI or too self-indulgent. But at least it gave me something to write about. I am really down to the point where, if I haven't seen a movie on a particular day, I end up wondering what the heck I can tell you, because not much else happens in my life at the present time.
There's a lot of Intrigue under the surface, of course, and I am always thinking about FOIA letters I need to write. My next move, as I explained, is to send FOIA requests to the CIA about certain deceased people who were involved, or may have been involved peripherally, in 1989. The deal about requesting info on other people is that you must submit their written permission. But if they are deceased, they are exempt from privacy considerations and are fair game, so long as you can prove they have passed away, by sending along a death certificate, obituary or something of that nature.
So I'm gonna start with Dad, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago. I don't have his death certificate, but I know his Social Security number, and his dates of birth and death, and he is in the SSDI index.
I figure that - by the sheer overwhelming nature of what happened to me - that others close to me must have been informed about what had happened, at least to some degree. And I feel that my parents surely must have been spoken to at some point. After all, I was gone for at least a day or two, after the Rappaport incident. I am certain that Lillian's parents must have been informed as well.
I base my assumption on the fact that I myself was met by Federal Agents (probably FBI) on the morning of September 2, 1989, at a table by the pool at the Concord Square apartment complex in Reseda. That was the meeting where I was practically forced to sign a non-disclosure oath, a National Security form. This is for real, what I am telling you, as I always say.
And because the FBI, or whoever they were, visited me, I can imagine that they may have visited my parents, to explain to them why I was gone, and to tell them not to talk about what had happened.
In Lillian's case, I know this is true because when I phoned her in late 1994, when I was confused about my memories coming back, she told me point blank, "you have to be careful what you say".
So she was certainly talked to by the FBI (or whomever) as well. And I believe her parents were talked to also, and her sister, who as a nurse assisted me on the night of September 1st 1989, when the whole thing began.
Right now I intend to send FOIA requests for info on the deceased people involved, beginning with my Dad. After that I will send letters requesting info on others.
I don't expect to receive anything useful. After all, the Agency denied me even the smallest tidbit of information about myself, and I was the central character in the 1989 episode.
But I will send the FOIA letters anyway, even if they yield no results.
We are living in the Age Of Trump, when - as the nightly new shows us, we are definitely in danger of losing our democracy altogether. So I will write my letters, which have nothing to do with Trump - that's Mueller's job - but have everything to do with the rights of private citizens to be informed about government involvement in their lives. In my case, that's putting it mildly.
The truth is going to come out, for Trump, for 1989, and for all of America.
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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