2018 April annual letter 11 Apr 2018
I’ve been remiss about writing for the last several years, so this is a long letter full of details; skim or skip as you wish. This letter actually highlights the last three years first before launching into my usual long-winded prose.
2015 started out to be a normal, wonderful year of travel and sightseeing until Cynthia’s birthday on July 16th, when she turned 18 again and my heart went into atrial fibrillation. That led to five cardiac procedures that seem to have the situation "corrected." I am now proud owner of 5 stents and a pacemaker.
2016 started rough and had ups and downs, mostly due to my heart condition. Rough part #1 was a periodontal dental procedure that caused profuse bleeding from the roof of my mouth for three weeks and caused my heart to go back into atrial fibrillation, necessitating an ablation and the pacemaker. In April we bought a new BMW motorcycle in Scottsdale, AZ, a K1600GTL, and have put 34,000 miles on it since then. The bike is awesome, with 6 cylinders producing 160 horsepower, although all that weighs too much for me at 768 pounds “curb weight.” Rough part #2 in November was that a clot developed on my pacemaker lead (giving Cynthia a lot of anxiety), but it isn't that uncommon and can be ignored.
2017 was a great year for us with no problems and no major traumas. As a matter of fact, the year was spectacular, and we thank God as we count our blessings. Cynthia is my wonderfulest blessing, and she counts me high on her list too. The events of note are two visits to the Pritikin Longevity Center (April & November), an awards ceremony at the Union League in Philadelphia (click here), where I was honored by the Swedish Council of America (click here), lots of hiking in Virginia and Vermont, and new caps on my front teeth. Cynthia likes my new "million dollar smile,” although it didn’t cost quite that much.
Now begins the details about 2017. Our year started at a vacation rental on the Gulf shores of Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula of Texas (click here). For us the beauty of Crystal Beach is that the sand is a firm surface, which allows us to walk every day on the beach for miles without causing foot, knee, or back distress. It is fun to see the waves roll in day after day. There are also a couple of good restaurants that cook for us without oil, butter, fat or cheese.
Thursday, January 5th we rode the motorcycle into Houston to visit Sasha, Cynthia’s hair stylist for the last thirty years. The next day we saw Dr. Gould, my cardiologist. He is a very serious guy but is occasionally amused by my humorous quips. A week later Dr. Anderson took impressions for the caps on my lower teeth. I now have a full set of shiny white caps on all 16 of my visible front teeth. Once we were done with those appointments, we spent another couple of weeks at the same vacation rental at Crystal Beach. Then we learned about DNA at a conference in San Antonio, where my sister joined us for giggles & grins. (She also supplemented the instructors instructings.) One conference session introduced a new DNA analytical "tool" that maps out a relationship matrix for people sharing autosomal DNA segments. Cynthia discovered a new 2nd-cousin match to her aunts that turned out to be from her mysterious great grandfather Harry Bernard King. That match descended from an earlier marriage when his name was Charles Edwin Rinker !! He left a family in Virginia as Charles Edwin Rinker and appeared in Iowa five years later as Harry Bernard King. He actually deserted a second pregnant wife in Lakeland, Indiana after “the first and legal wife” from Virginia showed up. We are very pleased that Cynthia finally solved the mystery of Harry Bernard King. She is quite the success, and the story is astonishing. We wrote an article entitled “Nancy Drew Does DNA” and are discussing publication with genealogical magazines.
From Texas, we rode across the Gulf coast to the Pritikin Longevity Center in Miami (click here), where we learned how to become good little longevities - mostly by eating a plant-based diet and exercising a lot. Cynthia suggested that we go there in April because she thought it would do me good (given my heart condition); I agreed to go because I thought it would do her good (given her diabetes). We both won, eliminated several nagging aches and pains, thoroughly enjoyed the food since we were already accustomed to no salt and no meat, and enjoyed the daily supervised workouts. We honestly recommend it to all of our peers (and anyone of any age) as the most significant investment that we can make to enjoy the rest of our lives
According to Pritikin, movement is the most important thing we can do for our health. Almost as important is avoiding salt in our diet and avoiding animal fats. Those three things alone will go a long way in preventing heart attacks, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, obesity, and most cancers. So, our new diet is no fat, no oil, no butter, no cheese and no salt. I quip that I get to eat all the Styrofoam and cardboard that a person can enjoy. While we were at Pritikin, I enjoyed 45 minutes of yoga, 45 minutes of cardio (on machines), and 45 minutes of weight training or core conditioning every day. Outside Pritikin, we do a daily 15 minute exercise program every morning before we get out of bed, and we walk as much as previously (4 to 6 miles a day). At Pritikin we enjoyed a huge variety of food with no added oils and no salt. We find this delightful since so much good food is provided, and the admonition is: “eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full.” I love to eat until full all the time; the key is eating salads, fruits and vegetables to fill up on very few calories. Then there are typically four good lectures per day lasting 45 minutes each on nutrition, exercise, and medical topics. I’ve seen some of these three times and am still learning from them. The interesting part is that Cynthia is now controlling her diabetes by eating lots and lots of veggies but no salt. For diabetics, water-soluble fiber is key, as in oatmeal, shredded wheat, and beans, because the fiber slows the absorption of the sugars and carbs into the system and levels out the sugar surge that causes diabetics problems. The diet boils down to: “if it grows in the ground, you can eat it.” Refined flours and grains do NOT grow in the ground. Other participants found the diet bland; we find it wonderfully more varied than our previous 10-grams-of-fat-a-day diet. Ruby Tuesdays, our favorite restaurant, is right on target with the unadorned veggies on its salad bar, and we call ahead to have them bake a potato without salt for us. In eating out, the key idea is to call ahead to let the chef know what we need; if not a French restaurant, they are usually quite willing to accommodate us.
We liked Pritikin so well that we went back for the entire month of November. As usual, you can see pictures and read daily descriptions on our blog. (Google: Where is Ron
After those two expensive weeks at the Pritikin, we headed north towards an awards ceremony in Philadelphia. Going north from Miami, we first visited MIT friends in Florida and then my freshman roommate in Columbia, South Carolina. We had to hustle getting north, because this year the Swedish Council of America presented me with an award for achievement, a nice heavy crystal plaque, for my efforts on behalf of the Swedish Colonial Society. The big event was held at the Union League in Philadelphia, a real swanky place. (Hoity Toity according to one friend.) My brother and sister were so astounded that they drove all the way there to watch (and heckle).
The original plan was to commence hiking (backpacking) the Appalachian Trail southbound from Harpers Ferry on June 6th, but in preparation, we walked too many miles on concrete, and Cynthia’s sciatica returned with a painful vengeance, so we repaired south to the Comfort Inn in Waynesboro, Virginia, a favorite place, and hiked daily on softer terrain in the nearby Shenandoah National Park on various segments of the Appalachian Trail. Meeting the current crop of thru-hikers was great fun, and Ron wore himself out with trail maintenance: cleaning out water bars, clipping overhanging shrubbery, and tossing unwelcome rocks and sticks off the trail. That softer terrain combined with icing her feet, hip and knee combined with the exercise we learned from hiker Trillium for the IT band and piriformis muscle proved an effective cure (click here to see ankles crossed forward bend), and Cynthia was feeling quite well again. But by then it was July 5th and the weather had become too hot, so we rode north into Vermont and continued hiking nearly every day for another two months.
Our favorite place in Vermont, the Inn at Long Trail near Killington, VT (click here), had to kick us out after a month, so we called the gang together at the Pasta Loft in Milford, NH again (click here), and eleven of my MIT friends were able to join us, even though the Annual Pumpkin Regatta (click here) was scheduled for the same day. We then rode north to see an MIT friend and musician in Bangor, Maine; he created his own piano studio by mounting sound absorbing blocks on all flat surfaces. We then rode south through L.L. Bean and out to the Driftwood Inn on Bailey Island (click here). This was a delightful “old Maine” motel without any semblance of modernity (except for WiFi). The food was excellent although they stopped serving dinner during our second week there. It was mesmerizing to watch the waves pounding the rocky shoreline hour after hour, relentlessly. We will likely go back again and again, God willing. This was the kind of place where all the “regulars” ask the newbies (us), “How did you find this place?”
Our next weeks were spent apart; Cynthia flew back to Houston for doctors appointments, and I stayed with Dave and Chris in Carlisle, Massachusetts for the week and visited several MIT buddies in the Boston area, especially Richard who had a massive stroke that crippled his left arm and leg. He is recovering slowly, three years so far, and he can now walk a couple of hundred yards with his four-footed cane. I was also able to visit Maggie, my former exercise guru, who is still delightful, being now 86 years young, although confined to a wheelchair with stenosis. Fortunately her enthusiasm is undiminished, and she is a shining example of a positive outlook. The forecast rain held off just long enough for me to enjoy a wonderful luncheon with Sock just hours before picking Cynthia up at Boston Logan after her return (and I was on time).
We returned to the Inn at Long Trail for another couple of weeks, and Cynthia’s daughter Julie joined us for several days of hiking. She did marvelously well despite being from Texas without advantage of mountains in her daily life.
I was disappointed that the fall foliage colors were not vivid and bright when we left, but we did enjoy the occasional brilliant tree or bush or copse. Fortunately the colors continued sporadically bright as we returned southward through Mt. Airy, Maryland to Waynesboro, Virginia again for our last hiking of the year. Thereafter we rode to Caswell County, North Carolina where we stayed at our favorite vacation rental on Lake Hyco for ten days while I researched property records concerning the plethora of Cynthia’s Lea landowning cousins. That done, we returned to Columbia, SC to visit and walk with friends, although Greg & Donna had migrated to Minnesota for the winter already. (Talk about wrong-way Corrigans.)
We visited several friends as we rode down the west coast of Florida to the Pritikin Longevity Center again, but we purposefully arrived in Miami three days early so that I could ride down to Big Pine Key to help my friends Greg and Cindy recover from Hurricane Irma (click here). The eye wall of the hurricane passed directly over their house. Fortunately they evacuated early. Their house sits on the ground and had three feet of water inside with sea bottom muck covering everything. Another friend's house was shoved six feet away from its foundation, and his neighbor's demolished house ended up in his yard. Greg and Cindy were busy indoors sanding doors and doorframes, so I volunteered to continue clearing debris from their lots. The improved lot had already been cleared by church volunteers, but the back lot was a tangle of broken vegetation. Throughout the island, any tree limb less than 6” in diameter had been snapped off by the winds and most large trees had been uprooted, palms being the exception. I spent three full days hauling broken branches, vegetation and coconuts to the curb. Once a day I had Greg start his chain saw, and I’d cut through any tangles that I could now safely reach. Greg and Cindy were able to move back in just before Christmas after months of working dawn to dark.
After the first visit to the Pritikin, Cynthia said, “I could live here !!” So we went again for the month of November, exercising, eating and going to lectures, learning lots and getting healthier. We now pay attention to pelvic tilt, tight core, and scapular retraction while walking, and it is transforming. We were inspired by the several very healthy and active 90+ year-olds we met. The diet is: eat when hungry, but first eat low-calorie density foods so that you fill up on far fewer calories, i.e. salads and veggies and fruits. We are always full and don't gain weight. Our month-long stay at the Pritikin has transformed my creaky old body into a much more youthful feeling creaky old body. For the last four months, I have awakened and gone through every day nearly pain-free !! Cynthia’s back and foot pain and sciatica are also quiescent. It is a miracle !!
We’ve discovered a favorite route along the Gulf coast through Florida and Alabama that provides us excellent views of the Gulf in places, especially the El Governor Hotel in Mexico Beach, Florida (click here TripAdvisor). We arrived again at Bolivar Peninsula, but now Cynthia’s son Jon owns a vacation rental a few blocks from the beach, so we stayed there and walked the beach daily. Thanks Jon.
Thursday, January 5th, was pretty chilly as we rode the motorcycle to Houston for Cynthia’s appointment with Sasha. Friday Dr. Gould again provided his welcome professional opinion that I am still very much alive and doing well. He added this time that I don’t need to lose any more weight, since I was then 173 pounds, fully dressed.
I intended to be done with doctors and dentist visits by January 17th, but it rained and iced on the morning of the 16th, and Houston shut down for two days, so my appointment got rescheduled for March 21st.
2018 has been great so far. We are both pain-free most times and thoroughly committed to our Pritikin exercise and diet program that is working so well for us. We left Montgomery the 1st of April and have been lucky to avoid both excessive heat and punishing cold so far. We have also seen several varieties of spring. Just now I have the time to enjoy writing as I sit beside a tiny fishing pond at the Greer Lodge and Cabins in Greer, Arizona click here). The pond is “catch and release,” but I doubt that the great blue heron (click here) follows the rules. We are ahead of “season” so it is still a bit cool but wonderfully peaceful and quiet. Daffodils are blooming, and pussy willows have buds. We will be here for six days, since Sedona is only another two days away (by way of the Salt River Canyon[click here]) We’ve stuck to our diet and exercise program and are both feeling so good that we cannot believe it. We frankly think that our Pritikin experience was the best thing we could ever do to enjoy our aging bodies.
A picture of the crystal plaque is on the blog.
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These links are on all my web pages:
Eve's Garden Organic Bed and Breakfast, a wonderful, eclectic, artistic papercrete alternative living learning mecca in Marathon, Texas
Rambo family genealogy, Bankston & Bankson family genealogy, the Camblin family genealogy, the Dorsey Overturff family, cousin Jean's Schenck and Hageman genealogy, and