In the Sunny South

[Pete Wass]

I didn't put up a travelogue this year but we arrived in Florida at our winter home yesterday. We took 5 days, stopping along the way for various things. We're too old for marathon drives now a day.

We were turned back from Skyline drive because of a fire and could not cross the Great Smokey Mountains because of Ice and snow causing the road to be closed. Just our luck, eh!

But, we made er here without incident only to find our AC unit Kaput! Oh well, it's the Nursing Home's Money anyway so better we have a new AC unit than them having it.

Pete

 

[ebb]

Says the guy from Michigan. You haven't seen very much of Florida if you don't know that it's the south.

 

[vtmarmot]

Anybody remember Roscoe Sweeney?

He was the central character for years in the Sunday version of the Buzz Sawyer comic strip. I remember him from when I was a kid in the fifties. He and his sister Lucille lived in Florida. Their idyllic existence was constantly interrupted by distant relatives from the north dropping in uninvited for extended stays. Kind of an early version of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation".

I think that later in life, this probably soured me on ever wanting to move to Florida. The furthest South I ever made it was a 21 year stint around Atlanta, GA. I do miss those pecan groves, sacks of pecans in the Locust Grove general store, crappie fishing, and very numerous nice bucks. That's all gone now. There's gated communities, golf courses and McMansions on every square foot of my old stomping grounds.

 

[Pete Wass]

When I was around 50

He was the central character for years in the Sunday version of the Buzz Sawyer comic strip. I remember him from when I was a kid in the fifties. He and his sister Lucille lived in Florida. Their idyllic existence was constantly interrupted by distant relatives from the north dropping in uninvited for extended stays. Kind of an early version of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation".

I think that later in life, this probably soured me on ever wanting to move to Florida. The furthest South I ever made it was a 21 year stint around Atlanta, GA. I do miss those pecan groves, sacks of pecans in the Locust Grove general store, crappie fishing, and very numerous nice bucks. That's all gone now. There's gated communities, golf courses and McMansions on every square foot of my old stomping grounds.

I stopped liking winter and all that came along with it. It took us about 10 years to find a place we can consider home - like or comfortable enough to call a second home, one might say. My first winter, I drove all over the State twice, two laps, and couldn't seem to find a place that felt like I wanted to invest any money into a place.

We found a nice quiet and friendly community of single story townhouse condominiums that has filled the bill. Everything outside the doors is taken care of by the association, to include painting, the grounds and the ROOF; a major item here they say. Even our back porch is air conditioned . What's not to like? Although there is building everywhere one looks, there aren't the crowds one sees on the west coast and we have the air of Country Living in a city of 80,000.

Just 50 minutes south of the range in Jacksonville, which has a monthly match, I can keep the old muscle memory alive, at least. Not bad for an awful place.

Pete

 

[vtmarmot]

I can say that I saw The South, when it was still The South. I went native. Picked up the accent, dropped my Yankee ways. I had some experiences you can't get anywhere else. I hunted the big creek bottoms, found the backwoods BBQ joints, ate slimy boiled peanuts out of a paper sack. I always said that The South is a great place to be from, if you don't mind dying young. All that fatback in the collard greens and the drinking. Atlantans can't go to the symphony without drinks at intermission. Remember the restaurant in the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes?" Well, the movie was filmed in East Juliette, GA, just outside Piedmont Wildlife Refuge. Across from the restaurant was a cinder-block honky-tonk called "Miles Landing" with a 6 stool bar and two pool tables. Ended up there one Halloween while camping out during a quota hunt on the refuge. The locals were having a party. They had a claw foot bathtub out back with "hunch punch" in it (whatever you got a hunch to throw in). I could write a book about that night, but suffice it to say I spent the next day's hunt propped against a tree with my head too big for my hat.

Eventually, Mom was getting old so I had to go back North to keep an eye on her. Glad I did while I had a few brain cells left. I've never been back in 18 years. I do a Google satellite photo tour once in a while and can't believe the growth. McDonough and Locust Grove were once as rural as anything in New England. Now McDonough has a Starbucks. Life is change, but it was a great ride while it lasted.

 

[Pete Wass]

Depends what one wants out of it

I can say that I saw The South, when it was still The South. I went native. Picked up the accent, dropped my Yankee ways. I had some experiences you can't get anywhere else. I hunted the big creek bottoms, found the backwoods BBQ joints, ate slimy boiled peanuts out of a paper sack. I always said that The South is a great place to be from, if you don't mind dying young. All that fatback in the collard greens and the drinking. Atlantans can't go to the symphony without drinks at intermission. Remember the restaurant in the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes?" Well, the movie was filmed in East Juliette, GA, just outside Piedmont Wildlife Refuge. Across from the restaurant was a cinder-block honky-tonk called "Miles Landing" with a 6 stool bar and two pool tables. Ended up there one Halloween while camping out during a quota hunt on the refuge. The locals were having a party. They had a claw foot bathtub out back with "hunch punch" in it (whatever you got a hunch to throw in). I could write a book about that night, but suffice it to say I spent the next day's hunt propped against a tree with my head too big for my hat.

Eventually, Mom was getting old so I had to go back North to keep an eye on her. Glad I did while I had a few brain cells left. I've never been back in 18 years. I do a Google satellite photo tour once in a while and can't believe the growth. McDonough and Locust Grove were once as rural as anything in New England. Now McDonough has a Starbucks. Life is change, but it was a great ride while it lasted.

There is no going home. The town I grew up in in Downeast Maine almost doesn't exist any more because there is no work and people quit shopping local 4 or 5 decades ago. SO, one must endeavor to persevere, as Chief Dan George said in Josie Whales. A person can kill themselves with excesses anywhere they live if they are bent on doing it. Just as a for instance, By eating all the fat one can handle via the Atkins diet, one can loose a bunch of weight and get their cholesterol numbers where they belong. One just has to shun the carbos, the real culprit to obesity, just sayin. Living is as state of mind, regardless of where one lives. One can make a paradise anywhere if they choose to. Just look at folks who love NYC, for instance.

I spent 18 mos. in Warner Robins, Ga in the early 60's serving in the Air Force. I hated it, in spite of taking on the accent and trying to be like the locals. They still know I was a Yankee Boy. Today, I feel welcome in the South, regardless of where I travel. Things have changed. I have a number of dear Southern friends today, probably wouldn't have happened in 1963. Life is good because it is what I have made it to be.

Pete

Pete

 

[Hunter]

By eating all the fat one can handle via the Atkins diet, one can loose a bunch of weight and get their cholesterol numbers where they belong. One just has to shun the carbos, the real culprit to obesity, just sayin.

Nope, the real culprit to obesity is eating more calories than you burn -- time after time after time. The deal is calories in, minus calories out.

 

[jackie schmidt]

Nope, the real culprit to obesity is eating more calories than you burn -- time after time after time. The deal is calories in, minus calories out.

That's the truth. All of this Cr-p floating around about how this food and that food put on pounds is a bunch of BS. Lower your calorie intake to a level lower than you burn calories off and you will loose weight.

The problem is the vast majority of people do not burn enough calories in a week to get rid of one bowl of Blue Bell Rocky Road. Sitting in a recliner and clicking the remote is not exercise.

I am 70. I weigh about 180, with a true 34 inch waist. I work every day, climbing around boats in Shipyards and on my feet 90 percent of the time. I do 60 push ups every night before bed, alternating each night between reverse push-ups and regular.

I don't drink any kind of Soda Water. Three years ago, I took a battery of physicals, I was having migraines and had got up to over 190. I had a good diet, but was hooked on Dr Pepper. I'm talking about walking around with a 48 ounce DP 10 hours a day.

So, I went cold turkey. I lost 15 pounds, and I have not had a single headache in three years.

There is something in those things that is addictive, and horrible for your health.

I am fortunate to own a thriving business. Yes, I have to put in a lot of hours. But I love what I do, and thrive on being a intragal part of a major industry. I like being in charge. I like the idea that customers are willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on my word alone.

I would hate having to get up every morning and going to a job that I loathed.

Most guys my age are retired. I will work untill I either physically or mentally can't. Most of the guys I know who are "retired" are out of shape, overweight, and in many cases, sick.

Yeh, sign me up for that.

 

[Hunter]

I am 70. I weigh about 180, with a true 34 inch waist. I work every day, climbing around boats in Shipyards and on my feet 90 percent of the time. I do 60 push ups every night before bed, alternating each night between reverse push-ups and regular.

I don't drink any kind of Soda Water. Three years ago, I took a battery of physicals, I was having migraines and had got up to over 190. I had a good diet, but was hooked on Dr Pepper. I'm talking about walking around with a 48 ounce DP 10 hours a day.

So, I went cold turkey. I lost 15 pounds, and I have not had a single headache in three years.

There is something in those things that is addictive, and horrible for your health.

Jackie, congratulations on your diet and exercise. A few years ago, I was looking through a Precision Rifleman rag and saw a picture of a tall, lean guy whose arms were very well "cut" -- sort of a Client Eastwood-like build. Afterwards, I saw that same guy in a few more magazines. A few years ago, at the E-W shoot, I saw that same guy standing in the loading barn and walked up to him and said, "You look like Larry White." During our brief visit we talked about exercise and diet -- he said he doesn't drink soda water. Based on his and your testimony, that may be a habit worth adopting.

BTW, what is a "reverse" push-up?

 

[jackie schmidt]

Jackie, congratulations on your diet and exercise. A few years ago, I was looking through a Precision Rifleman rag and saw a picture of a tall, lean guy whose arms were very well "cut" -- sort of a Client Eastwood-like build. Afterwards, I saw that same guy in a few more magazines. A few years ago, at the E-W shoot, I saw that same guy standing in the loading barn and walked up to him and said, "You look like Larry White." During our brief visit we talked about exercise and diet -- he said he doesn't drink soda water. Based on his and your testimony, that may be a habit worth adopting.

BTW, what is a "reverse" push-up?

The best place to do them is on the edge of a bathtub. With your back to the tub, just stretch out and put you hands on the rim facing back.. And go up and down, just like a forward push-up. It works the triceps, back, and chest.

The secret to push-ups not sets. Go down and do them untill it burns, just once. Do as many as you can.

I top out at about 70 if challenged. That's it. I even have contest in Shipyards against some unsuspecting young man, all of the Supervisors are in on it, I will bet some kid $5 if he can beat me.

The "hustle" is I always have them go first. They will start, and after 40 or so, they will start to burn, and say to themselves, "there is no way this old man is going to do that many". I then have them. The most I have ever had to do was 65 to win.

 

[vtmarmot]

Ever play tic-tac-toe with a chicken? They have booths in NYC Chinatown where you pay money to play against the chicken. Take your friends to challenge the chicken. The chicken always wins. People say "but the chicken always goes first." You say "but it's a chicken." Then they say "but the chicken plays all the time." You say "BUT IT'S A CHICKEN, STUPID!"

Anyway, soda is very bad for you. Especially the kind with sugar. Sugar causes inflammation. Sugar also causes belly fat, which further exacerbates inflammation. Then you hurt all the time. I am the poster boy for that, but I still love cream and sugar in my coffee on weekends. I hurt pretty good by Sunday night, then I lay off and drink it black until next Saturday. Diet soda has other crap which makes you feel bad. I buy Polar tonic water with flavors like lime, orange and black cherry. It's not sweet, but you get used to it.

I have torn my body up pretty good over the years - dirt bikes, jack hammers, hockey, that sort of thing. I used to self-medicate with alcohol. Trouble was, my body figured out that if it hurt more, it would get more alcohol. Then I figured out that people are alcohol's method of replicating itself. I didn't like being a slave to a solvent, and it was getting expensive, so I quit. Now I take Aleve and hope it doesn't eat my stomach up or give me a heart attack.

Anyhow, to get back to The South, their great tradition is to go down to the Piggly Wiggly or Jitney Jungle and get an RC Cola and a Moon Pie. That'll get you jacked up higher than a kite on sugar. As Jeff Foxworthy says, "if you see a two year old runnin' around the flea market in a diaper and drinkin' cola outta a baby bottle, your lookin' at a future Nascar fan.

Anyhow, I tore my right rotator cuff massively. After it settled down, I had got back up to about 50 pushups, then I tore the other side worse. When that settles down, I'll start the pushups again. No wagers though.

 

[Hunter]

I am 70....I do 60 push ups every night before bed.

I tore my right rotator cuff massively. After it settled down, I had got back up to about 50 pushups, then I tore the other side worse. When that settles down, I'll start the pushups again.

Guys, I'm IMPRESSED! My left shoulder has been bothering me for several months and push-ups are not on my schedule right now -- that last quote above gives me hope. It's sobering knowing how "fragile" our health is.

 

[gerald]

I don't know how we got from being in the south to doing push ups, but I think it would be more fun to do them on the beach while fishing. What do you think Pete.

 

[vtmarmot]

Guys, I'm IMPRESSED! My left shoulder has been bothering me for several months and push-ups are not on my schedule right now -- that last quote above gives me hope. It's sobering knowing how "fragile" our health is.

Sobering, maybe, depressing for sure. The surgeon said he could "fix" the rotator cuffs if I wanted to turn the yard work over to someone else, be in a sling and sleep in a chair for 3 months (per shoulder). He said a lot of the damage was old. I asked how that could be if I didn't remember any other injuries. He said that it lets go little-by-little over a long time. The muscles had pulled back so he'd have to put in some extensions to hook them up again. I said it that was the case, why wouldn't it all just pull out again? He said "well.......".

I'm weaker, but I still have full range of motion on both sides. I'll go with that.

My Mom lived to be 95. If I equal that, I've got nearly 30 years left. I guess I need to focus on what I can still do, not what I can't. Fishing on a beach somewhere sounds good as long as the fish don't put up too much of a fight.

 

[Pete Wass]

Yup,

I don't know how we got from being in the south to doing push ups, but I think it would be more fun to do them on the beach while fishing. What do you think Pete.

I have a left shoulder that is bone on bone and the surgeon I saw told me when I couldn't stand the pain any longer to come back. He then showed me what he would need to do to rebuild the shoulder and said, given my age, he recommended living with it as long as I could stand the pain. I have no pain if I don't push it, so I don't push it. I was surprised he was so lacking in the desire to bill Medicare for the surgery.

I always figgered people who had problems with being retired never learned to play and have fun. Me, I've been on vacation since August 25, 2006, I think it was. Haven't longed to be at work one day of that time.

That being said, it was after I had retired I realized I had pursued the wrong lines of work over my career to enjoy working. If I had stuck with a line of work similar to what Jackie does, I may very well feel the same as he does but I do love the freedom to do whatever I please on any day of the week. I don't have any family I want to leave anything to so as long as I don't owe much over $5k to the credit card companies when I kick it, I will rest well, I believe.

Pete

 

[jackie schmidt]

Pete, I got on the exercise kick back in 1984 when I had a terrible crash on a High Gear Only Harley Fuel bike. I broke a lot of parts......on me.

My orthopedic surgeon told me I would have to commit to a stringent rehabilitation program or be a cripple. Particuarilly bad was my left arm which was broke in half at the wrist.

When the cast came off, I force myself to do push-ups to work that wrist. It hurt. A lot. It also hurt both shoulders, which were both dislocated in the crash.

After several surgerys, I healed up, and continued doing push-ups. I got up to 100 in my 40's, but old age has taken it's toll.

As for the South, we are having great weather at the moment. It was 65 this morning at the Range, and got up to a blistering 78 in the afternoon.

 

[Wilbur]

Francis - I don't think the records are being broken, maybe they are, but it's been fairly pleasant around here.

Jackie - Went to the Harley/Honda dealer a long, long time ago to buy a Honda. Right there in the window, they had a Harley drag bike that looked darn good! I wanted such a thing so I asked about it. The salesman said that bike belonged to one of the owners and that he would go get him. Here he came pushing something that closely resembled a "person" in a wheelchair. The fellow could just barely talk but when I asked him what happened he said he had a wreck at the strip. I didn't buy it....the drag bike that is.

 

[Pete Wass]

I hear ya,

Pete, I got on the exercise kick back in 1984 when I had a terrible crash on a High Gear Only Harley Fuel bike. I broke a lot of parts......on me.

My orthopedic surgeon told me I would have to commit to a stringent rehabilitation program or be a cripple. Particuarilly bad was my left arm which was broke in half at the wrist.

When the cast came off, I force myself to do push-ups to work that wrist. It hurt. A lot. It also hurt both shoulders, which were both dislocated in the crash.

After several surgerys, I healed up, and continued doing push-ups. I got up to 100 in my 40's, but old age has taken it's toll.

As for the South, we are having great weather at the moment. It was 65 this morning at the Range, and got up to a blistering 78 in the afternoon.

After surviving a light plane crash in 1980 in which I broke L3, my right arm above the wrist, smashed my face, wired up for 6 weeks and 400 stitches, i was probably 6 months before I could get around much and 18 months before I didn't have constant back pain. They didn't recommend any exercises beyond what I could normally do. They did not do any surgery on L 3 so I have scoliosis there now and arthritis, of course. I will say my back has become less and less painful as the years passed; perhaps pain becomes normal ?

Ii have finally convinced them to shim my right shoes 3/8" to keep my hips lined up better. I figger at 73 I don't want to rock that boat a lot, if you know what I mean. Heck, I feel fortunate just to be breathing. Not having the use of one's legs is likely forever.

Pete

 

[Bob Griffin]

Cause of over weight

Overweight is caused by Umpires Disease - You spend to much time behind the plate. It advances to Furniture Disease - Your chest falls into your drawers.

Only two ways to lose weight, Eat Less or do more. I'm to lazy to do more, sssooo gotta eat less.

(Except for Thanksgiving)

 

[vtmarmot]

Sounds a bit like the diaputic bluck. First you feel crappy. Then the top of your head starts to sink in. Pretty soon your head descends into your neck. By the time your chin protrudes out your backside, you got an acute case!

I was a reporter and editor for Cycle News East for a brief time back in 1978. I thought that the Harley 750 flat tracker was the coolest bike ever. I wanted one bad. Then I covered a night race at Metrolina Speedway in Charlotte, NC. Half mile, dirt track, all Harley field. I was in the infield at the first turn. When the flag dropped the roar was deafening, When they hit the first turn and chopped the throttles, you could hear the bikes bashing into each other and see the sparks coming of the steel shoes.

I can't remember the name of my "guide" that night, but he was a champion flat-tracker. He used a cane and had a nasty limp. I decided that night to stick to enduros.