The Paperclip Challenge

I an taking a 12 week Self Relience Course sponsered by my church. The first week the assignment was to take up the Paperclip Chanllenge. It is a kind of trading game where you take a paperclip and trade it for something bigger and/or better and keep trading it up in hopes of gaining value.

This was kinda started by Kyle MacDonald, a fellow who wrote a book about his exprience in One Red Paperclip:How to Trade a Red Paperclip For a House. (this is a amazon affilite link, so if you buy I get a small comission at no extra cost to you.)

Check out The Red Paperclip Guy 's 2015 TEDtalk on YouTube.

Kyle MacDonald The Red Paperclip Guy

But my odyssey started with a blue paperclip

the paperclip

 That paperclip sat in my pocket for a whole day until my sister took me to a friend's house to make a trade. My friend Linda thought about it for a bit and pulled out brand new pencil. Very remenicent of the fish shaped pen (what pen? see youtube the red paperclip guy).

the pencil

The next morning I went to my neighbor and traded the pencil for a set of playing cards that had cajun recipes the cards' box had a magnet and the autograph of the creator on the back.

the playing cards

My sister hadn't even seen the cards but from the discription I had given her over the phone she said, "I've gotta hav'em!" my first reaction was that this was cheating but after a little reflection  I shugged and decided "why not". But I realized I had leverage and made her give me give me something good. I had rejected a hand crocheted dish cloth and  t-shirt until she found a pair of ear rings she had constructed.

the ear rings

It took my sister a while to locate the ear rings for the trade but in time for me to approach a friend who had dropped by with her husband to help my Dad out with some handyman chores. She seemed actually impressed with iridescent beads. After some thought she remembered she had a pair of what she called "Slippers" that she didn't need anymore and willing to part with them for a pretty pair of ear rings.

the slippers

The next day I received the "Slippers" - my friend had mentioned that they were pink and jewel encrusted. For some reason I had envisioned bedroom slippers, but the "Slippers" turned out to be flip-flops that were indeed pink and jewel encrusted. I was very pleased with the swap.

When we went to the Self Relience class to report on our Paperclip Challenge. My sister was the winner because she had not only traded her paperclip up to something bigger or better. She got the playing cards with the cajun recipes - she convinced one of the participants in the class to trade a cookbook he was not pleased with for her 4 sponges.

My sister also ended up the pink "Slippers" as well. They are just more her style than mine.
So she made out like a bandit.

Weighed in at 326.2 Lbs on March 16th

Lots of socializing this week. Which is a good thing for a hermit like me, but not so good for a weigh loss regimen.
I happy with my progress in other areas I'm stronger in my walking ability, so maybe its just muscle gain... "he he... yeah right,😏"

By the way Happy St. Paddy's Day💚

Weighed in at 323.8 Lbs March 9th

I was surprised by the 3lbs drop. I wasn't particularly righteous in my eating this week, but I did give up caffeine.

Weighed in at 326.8 Lbs. on March 2nd

The day before on March 1st I went to a doctor appointment at the VA medical clinic and weighed in at 325.9. The last couple of weeks my eating has been poor - too much diet soda. March 1st I comitted to give up caffine in an effort to curb my consumsion of it.

Weighed in at 327.6 Lbs on February 23rd

I've been going to a class that teaching me how to use CorelDraw and having a lazer printer cut the drawing into a piece of wood.


This last week I made a plaque with my personal mantra.

This is a piece of Walnut wood that Michelle a fellow classmate gave me instead of using the plywood that is supplied for free in the class. I will cherish this little plaque as it reminds me of my mantra as well as the kindness of others.