Morning...

Read through all the messages last 6 days. A lot going on here! Bill's amazing 15000 step days, and a 3-mile hike. And after all you've been through. Amazing. There's always hope, I guess. Lee, seems strange that there's no diagnosis yet for your achy joints... good there's relief and all finally, but still has to be a reason for the sudden onset.... keep pursuing. Dave, awesome hike up Rainier. How high would the peak be? And would the peak be a "hike" or a climb with ropes etc? Steve, never seen an office with 80 and 92 year olds in it. I think everyone at my place was forced to retire at 70 or 72 or something. (I was 63, after 39 years in the state/municipal retirement system.) But I always thought it was impersonal or brutally rude, to force people to retire. It may be good business from an efficiency and financial angle, but a company is more than that, and the esprit de corps is healthier when people are all treated like human beings and not cogs in a wheel IMHO.

We had a great canoe trip down the Clarion River for two days-- idyllic weather, good water levels, people learned (eventually) to not hit every rock in the rapids and nobody fell in. Some sunburn and mosquito bites. Saw bald eagles, herons, mergansers, geese, muskrat and a deer, and rhododendrons were in bloom here and there. Everyone said they enjoyed it. My shoulder and wrists held up without any pain, which was great, and no a-fib. (None since Nov. 2017... but I expected it on a challenging trip like this.) I switched back to my old CPAP the night before I drove the 400 miles to PA and stayed on that every night. Gradually recovered from fatigue and zombie-state each day. Still using old CPAP now. I get a sleep study this coming Tuesday.

Steve, it might not be a bad thing for Connie to consider leaving the MADD thing. She's done much good with her work, but maybe time to move on with life into other things? There's lots of other people out there supporting MADD. Just food for thought.

Sorry about the long post today... have a good day, men.

Good morning gentlemen.

Just a hike, Mike. Gobblers Knob is one of the four remaining lookout towers in Mt. Rainier N.P. It is around 5, 800 feet. Hike started around 2,000 feet. It has been a loooong time since I did anything that required me to rope up.

My fingers locked up again, this morning. Guess the pills I took before treated the symptom, not the cause. It isn't painful; just a bit annoying. Just the ring and middle fingers on my right hand.

I have a bid, open-sided wide-belt sander a friend gave me a few years ago that has just taken up floor space in my shop. I finally put is on Craig's List Wednesday. Now I have to wait at home, today, for a guy to drive down from Vancouver, B.C., to pick it up.

The grandkids begged their parents to let them stay at Lola and Pop's house, so they were over last night. Guess we'll slather them with sunscreen and turn them loose in the back yard for the day. They can have fun playing in the dirt where I used to keep my logs.