I am still feeling depressed -- or just have a case of the 'blahs.' It has turned unseasonably cold here, only 39 today and overcast, occasional rain...so I'm stuck indoors. Plus, my knees are still giving me pain, so I haven't been on the bike ride for three days. I don't dare aggravate my knee troubles, compound the damage, so I can't ride. And this contributes to my depression; I like getting out in the fresh air, being outdoors for a short time every day. The biking gives me that opportunity. Alas, I'll just have to survive.

I weighed 90 lbs this morning, and ate lightly yesterday too. My weight seems to fluctuate between 91--88 lbs, and I suppose that's mostly water-weight gain/loss. At any rate, I'm not dieting nearly as much, although still watching what I eat, trying to stay below 1,500 calories per day.

Hmm, looks like finally the war in Iraq has made at least some small measure of progress. However, after seeing all the awful looting and mayhem in the cities, it sort of makes you wonder what the future will hold for the Iraqi people. Nothing like "liberating" people so they can kill and steal, huh? I guess time will tell....like in about 20 years we'll know the end result.

What else? Nothing much to write about, I don't feel inspired. That's the way it is with the blahs...but here's some interesting facts about American foreign policy you may not know, curtesy of "Bowling for Columbine."

1953: U.S. overthrows Prime Minister Mossadeq of Iran
U.S. installs Shah as dictator

1954 U.S. overthrows democratically-elected President Arbenz of Guatemala.
200,000 civilians killed

1963: U.S. backs assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem

1963 --1975: American military kills 4 million people in Southeast Asia

September 11, 1973: U.S. stages a coup in Chile. Democratically-elected
President Salvador Allende assassinated. Dictator Augusto Pinochet installed;
5,000 Chileans killed

1977: U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador. 70,000 Salvadorians and four
American nuns killed

1980s: U.S. trains Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists to kill Soviets. CIA
gives them $3 billion

1981: Reagan administration trains and funds 'contras' 30,000 Nicaraguans die

1982: U.S. provides billions in aid to Saddam Hussein for weapons to kill
Iranians.

1983: White House secretly gives Iran weapons to kill Iraqis

1989: CIA agent Manuel Noriega (also serving as president of Panama) disobeys
orders from Washington. US invades Panama and removes Noriega 3,000 Panamanian
civilian casualties

1990: Iraq invades Kuwait with weapons from the U.S.

1991: U.S. enters Iraq. Bush reinstates dictator of Kuwait

1991- present: American planes bomb Iraq on a weekly basis. U.N. estimates
500,000 Iraqi children die from bombings and sanctions.

1998: Clinton bombs "weapons factory" in Sudan. Factory turns out to be making
aspirin.

2000-01 U.S. gives Taliban-ruled Afghanistan $245 million in "aid."

September 11, 2001: Osama bin Laden uses his CIA training to murder 3,000
people.