Special Effects: From a Letter to Two Childhood Friends

P, I'm so sorry to hear about your fall. Were you alone when it happened? How did you get help?

They always joke about aging not being for sissies but boy are they ever right. Today I was thinking that I should look around the internet because surely someone has written a funny song about all the thrills (and spills) of getting old. 

There would have to be a stanza about what happens when you laugh too hard (cross those legs, ladies, it's leaky time!), and one about the joys of a high fiber diet (eat fiber because the colonoscopy doctor told you to do it, add up the insufficient fiber grams, sigh and eat more fiber, sit around feeling bloated while processing the fiber, run to the bathroom, quick! quick! quick! before it's too late, then repeat the whole cycle). 

Today I am sporting several bandages, having been half nibbled to death by the dermatologist. Oh, good, just another ten days in hot weather when I can't get those bandages wet while I wait to hear if I have some terrible skin disease, tra-la!

C, I never get into the shower without thinking about your terrible shower fall. I will be thinking about you again in ten days, when I'm finally allowed to shower again. 

Guess what? I just got a tricycle! There really is some message about the circle of life there. A couple of years ago Bill bought me a very pretty two-wheeled cruiser bike for Christmas, but I fall off of it. The last time it threw me, I was just standing still while holding it and chatting with a neighbor. It flung me right into the roadside gravel. Getting up is no picnic, as you may or may not know, and I didn't even have to do the usual quick look around to see if anyone noticed my embarrassing fall. Nope, the neighbor was still right there, looking appalled and probably wondering, how on earth did she do that?

So now I have a nice stable tricycle. Bit of a wide load (ha ha) with those two back wheels, and the seat is built just like one on a tractor. Nice, fat, broad, comfy seat. I was interested to find that it just exactly fit me! It's not easy to steer a trike, I've found, so although I don't have to worry about falling over I still have a way to go before I can steer a steady course. But how nice to be able to get out and get some exercise without damaging myself too severely. 

Which makes me think of my adventures at the gym. Last time there I was diligently wiping down the control panel of the treadmill I'd just used. Unfortunately I also wiped the "on" button, so as I turned to step off I got a little power boost, sending me off the back end a little faster than I usually move. Lucky for me, my fellow jocks were busy huffing and puffing so they didn't notice my unintended burst of speed. 

So, have I covered our aging issues? Diet, exercise, medical tests, doctor's orders... Wait, there's one more. 

Today I picked up a prescription written for me by that nibbling skin doctor. After reading the possible side effects, I see that I'm apparently looking at symptoms that may or may not include more bloating, gas, and nausea (just like the special effects of the high fiber diet), possible loss of sense of smell and taste (lasting for up to a year), and accidental weight loss (can't wait for that one). 

On the other hand, if I decide to forgo the medication because of the dire warnings about potential liver damage, I face a future in which whatever is going on with my toenail (sorry I didn't attach a photo, lol) will spread to my artificial knees and will actually implode me, saving my family all the trouble of spreading my [future] ashes. 

I send you both much love; that's another good thing about being older--you just go ahead and tell people that you love them.

Moving!

I've been going to the gym for the past five and a half months. If you knew me at all, you'd know that that statement should have a lot of exclamation points after it. The daily exercise has changed the way I feel about myself. I'm losing weight at a reasonable rate. I'm stronger and I have more stamina. My clothes are getting looser. I have more energy. I sleep better. I'm.... well, proud of myself! Yes, I am.

Along with the change in daily activity levels, I started following an eating plan that I got from my doctor. It contains lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and poultry, and whole grains. Fats are limited to good ones; and the sugar is obtained naturally, from fruit. With small meals, plus a snack,  I find that I don't get that "need" for extra carbohydrates that used to plague me. 

If you look at the menu linked above, you will see that there aren't any fruit juices (too much of a sugar jolt), and there are a surprising (to me) amount of carbs. I guess the whole grains do the trick, keeping my body busy with digesting each meal. 

Because Beez is in training for a big bike ride from Telluride to Moab, he has been going to the gym, too, making it even easier for me to get there. Now, as his ride is getting closer, he is doing as much higher altitude biking as he can; and that gives me an opportunity to get out and do some hiking. 

And that's what we did this morning instead of going to the gym and exercising indoors. Here is my view as I hiked up (and up and up), looking back down toward Las Cruces and the floor of the Mesilla Valley along the Rio Grande, all in the hazy distance: 

My walk was all uphill at an altitude of about 5700 feet, all desert, all hot, and a challenge to me. Quite different from the treadmill at the gym! The payoff: Silence, solitude, a hot breeze, and birdsong all around. And yes, some pesky flies.

That dot way down there on the road is Beez (who started lower down than I did), battling the mountain, the heat, and the altitude. I think the next time we do this trip, we'll start out a little earlier, when the temperatures are a bit lower. It's too bad the gates don't open until 8AM.

And this was the view outside our destination, the visitor center at Dripping Springs. We want to do this hike/ride combination a lot, so that we can each measure our progress. The goal is to keep moving!

The Morning Mile

I love that phrase, "the morning mile." I first came across it on Andy Baird's website, Travels with Andy, when he mentioned that he always takes a walk in the morning--his "morning mile." For some reason, that stuck with me and, on all the mornings when I was talking myself out of getting outside for some exercise, I would imagine that I could hear Andy, saying in a matter of fact manner that he was heading out for his morning mile. So why didn't I do the same?

Of course, once I got started, I found that I wanted to go the distance, and even a little more. So, now my morning mile is actually a morning mile-and-a-half, and it passes through some lovely country, with views of fields, gardens, mountains, and horse pastures--places where something is always going on.

When we first moved here, I showed you a photo that I had taken of the then-empty big ditch that runs through this agricultural area, and said that I hoped to be able to show it to you when it was full. I didn't realize that during the growing season the big ditch is always full and farmers on either side of it open gates to flood their fields and orchards whenever it is their turn.

So, here you are. The empty ditch in winter (click on the photo for a larger image):

And the full ditch in spring (adjust your volume):