Am I behind now, or was I ahead before?

So it's Friday morning, Feb. 3, and I'm writing the third installment of my American Heart Month blog. The first two installments were posted the previous evening; so am I late today, or was I early on the first two?

I'll say I was early.

I had a couple of interesting interviews over the past 24 hours. The first was with an ambitious Forest Hills High School junior who organized a Red Out across the district today in support of American Heart Association. Like many of those involved in Heart Association benefits, Spencer Ivock was inspired by his own family members' experience with heart disease.

Then I interviewed Dr. Victor Morrell, chief of cardiac surgery at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Morrell talked about the differences between adult heart disease and congenital heart disease in children. While most heart doctors deal with a few common issues: heart attacks, bypass surgery, valve replacement, catheterization and heart rhythm issues, pediatric surgeons encounter dozens of different abnormalities discovered in newborns and young children. Dr. Morrell said he can do 15 operations a week and never repeat the same procedure.

“It is fascinating,” he said.

I've said the same thing many times in my career, especially after talking to someone like Dr. Morrell. I love interviewing people who are passionate about the subject of a story.

Also in the last 24 hours, I have managed to get in two days worth of heart-healthy walking – including two nice walks with my lovely bride, Becky.

On Thursday, we took a quick 15-minute loop around the cottages at Arbutus Park Retirement Community before she went in to work at the manor.

I followed up with brisk 20-minute walk around downtown after a Kiwanis meeting.

Then today, we did almost a half-hour on our street. We had to cut it short a bit because on the walk we passed a water company work crew who told us they were shutting the line down to repair a leak. We had to get our showers for work.

The scales weren't too kind today, though. Friday morning is my usual benchmark for how well I'm doing on weight control. Yesterday's 191 was good news after the 193 on Tuesday, but today the needle wasn't much lower. And I skipped dessert at the Kiwanis lunch – mainly because they ran out.

Oh well, maybe the cats were messing with the scales' setting.

Now it's back to work in the Heart Month Project stories. Yesterday, I finished the story previewing the Feb. 18 Cambria-Somerset Heart Ball, and I almost finished Aiden Braatz story. He is the 21-month-old Heart Hero who will be honored at the ball.

Both of those stories, along with an overview on the American Heart Association and its work will be featured as the Heart Month Project installment in The Tribune-Democrat on Sunday.

I'm still trying to decide if I'll do a third story focusing on pediatric heart disease. You'll have to read the paper, in print or on line, to see how that turns out.