An Edited Comment I Made On Mike's Blog - http://myadventures2008.blogspot.com/

Sorry that you missed Yosemite because of the idiotic government shutdown.  At this point in U.S. history, our government is disfunctional.  Our democracy is fractured, broken by ideological extremes and the influence of monied interests.  I don't know if we are in an irreversible decline, ripe for the triumph of an authoritarian regime or for revolution, or if this just a phase in our national history with an eventual return to functionality (and with the adults back in control.) 
********************************************
I wrote and deleted the following (edited) comment on someone else's post;
    "Your experiences, reinforced by the cynicism of the age, lead you to question the motivations of 
      other people."
I liked the sentence (which is why I've written it here) but is was an inappropriate response to the post  on which I was commenting.

At this moment

I'm sitting on the brown chair weighing about 40 pounds less than the last time that I posted.  It's appropriate that I begin this with such a statement; I began the first of these blogs that I've written over the years as a blog about getting rid of weight.  My first blog was entitled, "Getting Rid of he Regain."

I've been swimming a mile a day for the last eight months or so.  The chronic pain that disabled me has diminished.  I can walk a couple of miles, even three with little or endurable pain.  I'm more fit than I've been for years.

A doctor motivated me.  He said he'd give me new knees if I got to a certain weight.  I'm about three pounds away from that goal.  And now, I no longer feel the need for such surgery.