<em><strong>Short takes from a journey through a disorganized mind:</strong></em>

When people used to describe a period of time by saying it was "40 days and 40 nights," they generally weren't referring to five weeks and five days or to 960 hours.

No, when they said 40/40, it was a colorful way of saying "it was a long time, but we're not sure exactly how long."

Well, when I tell you I have completed the first 46 days of my effort to get back into shape, I am referring to the specific number -- 31 days of March and 15 days of April -- and I have a specific result. I have lost 42 pounds. Of course it's essentially the same 42 pounds I lost two years ago en route to losing 112 pounds in six months.

I wish I had kept track -- or better yet -- that I could just remember exactly how much weight I have lost in all the various and assorted diets of my life. I'm pretty sure that it's at least 400 pounds, which would be great if I had weighed something like 550 and how was down to 150. Of course that's not the case; I have been on nature's roller-coaster ride for the last 30 years or so, and at some point the mechanism is going to break.

I'm actually pretty good at losing weight. I just suck at keeping it off.

That has to change.
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>


[caption id="attachment_1679" align="alignright" width="300" caption="In my room."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120326_76.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1679" title="20120326_76" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120326_76-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

Something about my office -- the one room in our lovely house that is all mine -- just makes me happy. Deep down happy.

Nicole has done a truly wonderful job of decorating the rest of the house. Our house is a real showplace. But my one room, with all its movie posters, sports memorabilia, photos and the like on the walls, is the nicest room I have ever had that I could call mine.

The built-in bookcases, which are packed to the gills with books and DVDs, fill an entire wall. A television set and storage cabinets occupy the opposite wall. I've got four autographed jerseys, of which there's room on the walls for two at a time. Right now I'm looking at John Elway's No. 7, and I've got Johnny Bench's No. 5 on the wall behind my left shoulder.

Chipper Jones is packed away for now, and I'm looking forward to the arrival of a fairly rare minor league jersey of Tom Seaver from his one season below the major-league level. He was 12-12 with Jacksonville in 1966. The very next season, he won 16 games for the New York Mets.
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>***</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">It has been nearly 15 years since television shows started coming out on DVD, and there is one that has been in my sights for almost all that time.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/LA-Law.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1681" title="LA-Law" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/LA-Law-300x192.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="192" /></a>I was living in St. Louis when "LA Law" first debuted in 1986, and almost everything about it spoke to me of how much I wanted to live in California.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">I had always had my sights set on the San Francisco Bay Area rather than the Southland, and I nearly got a job in Marin County in January 1988. That didn't happen, though, and in 1990 I got a job in Los Angeles and moved south to spend the next 20 years of my life.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">When we left for our retirement in Georgia in November 2010, I was more than ready to leave. But now that the first season of "LA Law" is finally out on DVD, watching it really brings back memories.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Good ones</p>
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