Off the beaten path

 Update:  Mark feels great!  Better than he has in twelve years!  They told him there wasn't anything right about the way his former pacemaker leads were put in.  They were too short, looped wrong and the ends were even placed in the wrong part of his heart.  No wonder the poor dude has felt like warmed over death this past decade!   Amazing how the arrogant, "thought they were God's gift to cardiology" doctors with the big fancy office got it so wrong so many years ago and how the humble, down to earth doctors we have now got it right!  (Sorry, I'm not a fan of arrogant doctors!)  But, bless Mark's heart, not once have I heard him lament the loss of health for twelve years of his life, I have only heard him express gratitude that he finally feels good again.  In fact he keeps getting on me to send a thank you card to his cardiologist and surgeon!

Now, he is determined to keep the "good" times going, so we are trying to eat as healthy as two people who love to eat can, and walking anywhere from three to five miles every morning.  We could be the human form of those commercials that were on TV a while back for some weight loss drug that showed the little stick man shrinking down to nothing while his poor little chubby stick wife keeps looking the same. He has shed about ten pounds and looks fantastic, while I, on the other hand, keep watching the scale stay stuck on the same line day after day after day! But that really is alright.  I feel good and I know that eating right and exercising at our age is more about health and feeling good than it is about skinny jeans.

 



But even more than that, our walks are like a mini vacation every day!  And I have Mark to thank for that.  He announced the first day that he can't stand just walking the road.  He wants to be able to see new things.  I thought, "OK, and exactly how are you going to do that, we can only walk four different directions from our house and it pretty much all looks the same."  I couldn't have been more wrong.  We do off-road walking!    He talks to the land owners around us and gets their permission and we and our dog Shadow head out cross country through pastures and wheat fields and I absolutely love it.  I never know which way we're heading.  He makes that decision and is always thinking of new places to take me and it is a surprise each morning.  Last night I heard him talking to someone on the phone and when I asked who he had been talking to he said he was getting permission from someone to take me on a walk through a new place.  Occasionally, we load up in the pickup and drive a short ways to get to where he wants us to walk.  I had no idea the beauty that surrounds me and all within five miles of home!   We've seen a newborn colt who wasn't even dry yet, countless deer, had turkeys run right in front of us and fly into a tree, and watched dozens of gorgeous sunrises.  We've walked though the plum thicket groves in full bloom, walked to many farm ponds and watched Shadow learn how to swim in them, walked by the river and collected all sorts of

interesting treasures to show the grandkids like different animal skulls and deer antlers.  We've come upon some amazing deep gullies, climbed down into shadowy basins and climbed up some very steep cliffs to get out of them that left us laughing and catching our breath when we finally reached the top. I am always so glad that my phone takes pictures so I could capture some of the truly breathtaking scenery stretched out before us.  I tell him every morning that I feel like I'm on vacation, traveling down a scenic walking trail.  What a wonderful way to start our days!  Gotta go, I've got some thank you cards to write!