how often do we get to say something really clever? 25 3 17
Like after a few days ago 25 3 13, when I lost the second of my once 3 brothers-in-law? And since 2002 4 6 when I had my massive heart attack I know how I have been living on borrowed time, all patched up with a triple by-pass surgery? Why so?
Thinking of Benjamin Franklin's old adage that we enter old age long before we get the wisdom of how to deal with it or words to that effect..?
But then I began to question the premise and reminded myself I first stopped smoking aged 15 being one of those kids who following the example of his peers had had to start smoking maybe aged 14 though exceptionally I was still a little squirt still wet behind the ears... But starting work aged 15 and from my first wage packet of £3 16s 2d getting 10s pocket money from my Mam I wasn't about to squandor my money on smoking what: 2s a packet of 20 Senior Service the butch unfiltered cigarettes of the day because buying cycle parts or a new (secondhand) bike was my bigger priority in the next 3 years given over to cycling as my main hobby when with my brother Jim, I planned three tours of the British Isles: the first to Devon and Cornwall; the next all the way up the west coast of Scotland as far as Carbisdale Castle, then down the east, stopping off at Inverness, its so-called Highland capital, before traversing the Cairngorm Mountain range, to return back to Bury, Lancs., the 210 miles, about 336 km in 2 days from an overnight stay in Edinburgh. Then the third tour, crossing the Irish Sea en route to Dublin from Liverpool, thence a circumnavigation of the south of Eire, following the coast down to Waterford, across to Limerick then northward to Galway Bay, before crossing the country through Athlone back to Dublin, and the ferry back to England
And if I began smoking again aged 20 in order to be able to offer the ppl who gave me lifts on a second hitch hiking trip to Norway and Scandinavia I decided in my early 40's I wasn't going to smoke any more at work: that if smoking was bad for one's health I would do it in my own time, begining each day at 17 00 hrs once I had finished my work for the day. Moreover that if rock climbing followed cycling as my main hobby, once I became a family man the rock climbing gave way to hill walking which would become my third main hobby: that and cross country ski-ing occasionally slalom ski-ing when I would begin climbing or hill walking the Monro hills of Scotland in addition to those of the English Lake Disrict and Wales.
The foregoing then took me beyond the years my 50th, 51st, and 52nd when my father's antecedents in at least two generations popped their cloggs, and if my pre-disceased father's only sister, also joined this merry band of heart discease victims, I got to delay my attack until aged 62, when 3 weeks before it happened I was astride Fairfield and St Sunday Crag 15th March with nephews Nick and Greg of the opinion i needn't go for the second summit if they wanted off, but soldiering on when at 5pm I would also take my first ciggi of the day...
6th April 2002 then the day in my life I ceased believing I was indestructable immortal in other words, when I was so fortunate to learn the truth about my life hitherto. After the attack I returned a few days back to work when my heart doctor told me no-one returns to work directly following a heart attack, all pumped up with blood thinning Primaspam, Emconcor Beta-blockers, etc., but I stuck it out a few weeks before I succumbed to the stress-induced sense, there was no way I could continue with the cut and thrust of industrial life before I got my bypass sorted, and maybe the rehabilitation which was to follow?
There then followed a major re-evaluation of what in life was important? A matter that coincided with a so-called fitness programe interestingly called "Aino" that the company who employed me, now part-time had initiated for all employees, including yours truly working his final 2 years before his first retirenment aged 65. Well with a waist monitor that clicked away at all one's physical activities, plus work-outs in the Gym on an excercise bike, which increaesed the stress of wheel resistance in 50 Watt increments, the programme pronounced me was it 13 or 23 years younger than my true age. This rather suggested I was doing good. So on my next visit to see the Yli-lääkäri (Consultant Dr in English maybe) I decided on his exercise bike to give it all I had when starting at 50 Watts resistance he increased to 100 Watts, 150 Watts then to 200 Watts, when he told me to stop. Adding not to visit him anymore because he said that my ECG was so good he could no longer tell I had had a heart attack (not something I necessarily accepted but that it was apparent I had made a pretty good recovery)...
Thereafter then I took it I was fit enough to return to my solo hill walking hobby sometimes in the company of my wife, one or other of my two sons, or more commonly one or other of my nephews and/or nephews-in-law. Using for a brief period a heart monitor to ensure my pulse was kept at no more than 80% of its maximum (age + 150?). Whatever the event this only obtained until my next visit to Lakeland's Helvellyn's Striding Edge, when I couldn't allow the party coming up from behind to overtake me. lol.
During the years 1977 to 2002 I had climbed 124 Monro hills in 24 years: thereafter between 2002 and 2019 I climbed another 141 in 18 yrs. And since 2019 I have been climbing peaks in Northern Finland and Arctic Norway of a similar climbing height some of them beginning at sea level and rising up to the full Monro height of 914.4 metres.Therein lies my response to Benjamin Franclin's edict which in my case was helped along owing to my mid-life heart attack..?
Happy St Pat's Day one and all!
Thinking of Benjamin Franklin's old adage that we enter old age long before we get the wisdom of how to deal with it or words to that effect..?
But then I began to question the premise and reminded myself I first stopped smoking aged 15 being one of those kids who following the example of his peers had had to start smoking maybe aged 14 though exceptionally I was still a little squirt still wet behind the ears... But starting work aged 15 and from my first wage packet of £3 16s 2d getting 10s pocket money from my Mam I wasn't about to squandor my money on smoking what: 2s a packet of 20 Senior Service the butch unfiltered cigarettes of the day because buying cycle parts or a new (secondhand) bike was my bigger priority in the next 3 years given over to cycling as my main hobby when with my brother Jim, I planned three tours of the British Isles: the first to Devon and Cornwall; the next all the way up the west coast of Scotland as far as Carbisdale Castle, then down the east, stopping off at Inverness, its so-called Highland capital, before traversing the Cairngorm Mountain range, to return back to Bury, Lancs., the 210 miles, about 336 km in 2 days from an overnight stay in Edinburgh. Then the third tour, crossing the Irish Sea en route to Dublin from Liverpool, thence a circumnavigation of the south of Eire, following the coast down to Waterford, across to Limerick then northward to Galway Bay, before crossing the country through Athlone back to Dublin, and the ferry back to England
And if I began smoking again aged 20 in order to be able to offer the ppl who gave me lifts on a second hitch hiking trip to Norway and Scandinavia I decided in my early 40's I wasn't going to smoke any more at work: that if smoking was bad for one's health I would do it in my own time, begining each day at 17 00 hrs once I had finished my work for the day. Moreover that if rock climbing followed cycling as my main hobby, once I became a family man the rock climbing gave way to hill walking which would become my third main hobby: that and cross country ski-ing occasionally slalom ski-ing when I would begin climbing or hill walking the Monro hills of Scotland in addition to those of the English Lake Disrict and Wales.
The foregoing then took me beyond the years my 50th, 51st, and 52nd when my father's antecedents in at least two generations popped their cloggs, and if my pre-disceased father's only sister, also joined this merry band of heart discease victims, I got to delay my attack until aged 62, when 3 weeks before it happened I was astride Fairfield and St Sunday Crag 15th March with nephews Nick and Greg of the opinion i needn't go for the second summit if they wanted off, but soldiering on when at 5pm I would also take my first ciggi of the day...
6th April 2002 then the day in my life I ceased believing I was indestructable immortal in other words, when I was so fortunate to learn the truth about my life hitherto. After the attack I returned a few days back to work when my heart doctor told me no-one returns to work directly following a heart attack, all pumped up with blood thinning Primaspam, Emconcor Beta-blockers, etc., but I stuck it out a few weeks before I succumbed to the stress-induced sense, there was no way I could continue with the cut and thrust of industrial life before I got my bypass sorted, and maybe the rehabilitation which was to follow?
There then followed a major re-evaluation of what in life was important? A matter that coincided with a so-called fitness programe interestingly called "Aino" that the company who employed me, now part-time had initiated for all employees, including yours truly working his final 2 years before his first retirenment aged 65. Well with a waist monitor that clicked away at all one's physical activities, plus work-outs in the Gym on an excercise bike, which increaesed the stress of wheel resistance in 50 Watt increments, the programme pronounced me was it 13 or 23 years younger than my true age. This rather suggested I was doing good. So on my next visit to see the Yli-lääkäri (Consultant Dr in English maybe) I decided on his exercise bike to give it all I had when starting at 50 Watts resistance he increased to 100 Watts, 150 Watts then to 200 Watts, when he told me to stop. Adding not to visit him anymore because he said that my ECG was so good he could no longer tell I had had a heart attack (not something I necessarily accepted but that it was apparent I had made a pretty good recovery)...
Thereafter then I took it I was fit enough to return to my solo hill walking hobby sometimes in the company of my wife, one or other of my two sons, or more commonly one or other of my nephews and/or nephews-in-law. Using for a brief period a heart monitor to ensure my pulse was kept at no more than 80% of its maximum (age + 150?). Whatever the event this only obtained until my next visit to Lakeland's Helvellyn's Striding Edge, when I couldn't allow the party coming up from behind to overtake me. lol.
During the years 1977 to 2002 I had climbed 124 Monro hills in 24 years: thereafter between 2002 and 2019 I climbed another 141 in 18 yrs. And since 2019 I have been climbing peaks in Northern Finland and Arctic Norway of a similar climbing height some of them beginning at sea level and rising up to the full Monro height of 914.4 metres.Therein lies my response to Benjamin Franclin's edict which in my case was helped along owing to my mid-life heart attack..?
Happy St Pat's Day one and all!
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