Great song!
And I love the photo of man and plane.
I was born the first summer of the Eisenhower Administration. I was 4 when the Soviets launched Sputnik, and then the street dog, Laika, and I was aware when both were happening. My father, an expert on the Soviet economy, took us out to look for Sputnik (we didn't see it, and I don't think we could have), and I probably learned about Laika from him, and I kept asking when Laika was coming home, and he kept avoiding the question. I now know that Laika probably lasted no more than a few hours in space, if that.
I'm mostly feeling better than ever, at this advanced age, despite the lack of a woman partner, and despite the heart disease, which I blame on a decade of leaf blowers going in my neighborhood from early spring until late autumn. Noise is a precipitating factor, and the more stressful, the worse the effects.
But I'm doing everything to fight the heart disease, and I feel like I'm succeeding. My diet, which I've always said was better than that of 94.9999 percent of Americans, is now better than 98.9999 percent, and has been for about 15 months. I don't eat anything that's harmful--almost no added sugar or saturated fat, and I eat almost nothing that's not highly beneficial. I eat salmon and soy protein (every other day), several types of beans, whole grains, and rice (every other day), multiple leafy greens, vegetables, fruits, berries, root vegetables, crucifers, nuts, unadulterated peanut butter (which I eat with nonfat Greek yogurt and walnuts, which I don't like except in this mix... I eat most of these foods every day. And I've gotten to the point where I like everything that I eat, although if a decade ago you'd told me I'd be eating this way, I'd have given you a funny look. I'm EXTREMELY happy I didn't have to give up my espresso macchiatos. If there's one thing it would have truly pained me to have given up, it wasn't ice cream, despite how I used to tell people that ice cream is America's favorite food. I did love the stuff, and I'd probably love it if I ate it again, but my espresso is far more important to my well being.
My border collie, Natalie, and I run every day, and lately we've doubled the amount we run on weekends, to close to five miles each day (two runs around Fresh Pond, Cambridge). I'm going to get an app so that I'll know exactly how far we're going.
So I'm hoping to make it well into my 90s. My mother's cousin Ruth made it to 104. She'd had three marriages, the first 49 years, the second two much shorter, and all three ended with the death of the husband. She also passed the driving test "with flying colors" at 96. On the other side, my father's cousin Barbara is 96, compos mentis, lives alone and takes care of herself, and I think she'll make it to 100 and likely beyond. My aunt Rose, a couch potato with a terrible, but fun diet, made it to 90, and I suspect if she'd taken care of herself she would have made it to 100. I think it was the multiple sclerosis that kept my mother, Rose's slightly older sister, from making it to 100. She was very youthful despite the MS.
Other good things are happening... and I sure like being part of this group of subscribers to TCinLA.
