1. I had to put myself to a moderately challenging test today. The Wellness Trail winding up the hill just east of the hospital is only a half a mile long and, in descriptions of it, is considered easy.
Well, it has enough incline and gains enough elevation that it gets me breathing hard and works out my legs.
When I saw Dr. Jespersen back in the spring, I happily reported to him that I'd hiked this trail recently and thought I did pretty well. He told me that consistent physical activity was the key to keeping my pulmonary system functioning well and told me about a patient of his with low functioning lungs who keeps himself getting along well by riding his bicycle everywhere.
Inspired by that story, I took my bike to the shop, made sure it was in good shape, and started riding. I didn't ride everywhere I went, but I took rides on the local Trail of the CdAs.
Then one day in June, I got sick from riding in moderate heat in the sunshine and never rode my bicycle again -- nor did I hike the Wellness Trail. I didn't want to experience that sun/heat illness again.
When I saw Dr. Jespersen near the end of October, he recommended that I start a rehab program in the Cardio-Pulmonary gym at Kootenai Health and I'm going into that gym three days a week now and I've rejoined the Fitness Center near Smelterville and workout there on the days I don't go to CdA.
Today, however, instead of going to the Fitness Center, I returned to the Wellness Trail for the first time in over six months.
Walking to the start of the Wellness Trail, I'd become a little short of breath walking up The Trail that goes from Riverside Ave to Kellogg High School.
As I worked my way up the Wellness Trail, I stopped a handful of times to stop panting, but I thought my recovery time was pretty good. My legs, which had become weakened from inactivity over the summer, felt good going up this trail. I was glad to be doing this hike alone because I was so slow, but I made it to the end of the trail, rested at the picnic table for a short while and had a good hike back down the hill and a good walk home.
2. Listening to the first hour of Jeff's Thanksgiving Day Deadish show on kepw.org made my hike even more enjoyable. He played songs from a show on 11-23-1973. Early on, Jeff featured songs with Bob Weir on lead vocals. I thought Bob and the band sounded terrific on "El Paso", "Mexicali Rose", and "Looks Like Rain". Lately, Jeff has been playing a lot of live "Deadish" music from 1973, not just the Grateful Dead, but Jerry Garcia Band performances, Traffic, Old and in the Way, and other stuff. Is it just me -- or were these groups sounding really good fifty years ago? I sure think so.
3. Back home, relaxing in the living room, I put in my wireless earbuds and listened to a couple of stories by P. G. Wodehouse. One was a detective story about a boarder at a place called The Excelsior having been murdered under mysterious circumstances -- it involved bananas, a cobra, a harmonica, and a cat. The other story was an early Bertie Wooster tale that barely included Jeeves. It was hilarious. Bertie's overbearing Aunt Agatha sends Bertie to NYCity with orders to rescue his cousin Gussie. Gussie has fallen in love with a vaudeville singer. Aunt Agatha disapproves. Once Bertie is in NYCity, a series of madcap events occur and the story comes to a surprising and most comic conclusion. The title of the tale is "Extricating Young Gussie".
No comments:
Post a Comment