Luciano Is Being Seventy

Sunday, August 30, 2015 Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of Katrina. The date was August 29, 2005. It is very hard not to know this fact since every news station has a program about Katrina, including my favorite news Sunday Morning show on CBS.  When I first heard the news yesterday I was in a bit of a shock. Was it really 10 years later. It had to be 10 years later since there were pictures of President Bush in his plane flying over New Orleans. I remember the pictures and the scenes from this disaster. Bodies were floating in the rivers, the football stadium was in shambles, people were on roof tops waving and trying to be rescued. And waiting days and days to be finally rescued. It was hard to believe that 80% of New Orleans was under water. I have visited New Orleans numerous times in the 1980's, including walking into the Superdome. What an interesting city! I remember jogging along Lake Pontchartain towards the causeway and enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way. ...

Monday, August 31, 2015 According to my health ap on my iPhone6, this morning,  I walked 8,143 steps or about 3.2 miles. I will do another mile or 2 miles later in the afternooon when the day temperature isn't 112 and the sun isn't as hot. I am really looking forward to the fall season. My goal is to walk at least 10,000 steps every day. Some days I accomplish it and some days I fall short.  But I try to walk every day. I have been walking every day for about 10 years. I don't do the10 k's or the 1/2 marathons that I used to do in the late 1970's and 1980's. My grandson looks at me and can't believe that I used to run that far. I showed him  the t-shirt where I broke 50 minutes for a 10K. But then I take out my other  event t-shirts and show him the tags on the shirts and he becomes a believer.  "Grandson, I was't always this age?" If you don't have a dog, I would recommend getting a small dog. I have a 10 year old 1/2 Shitsu and 1/2 Yo...

I spent last Wednesday, August 25, taking my father-in-law from one medical appointment to the next. He had a knew replacement surgery at 89 years, in January of this year. We took him to the orthopedic surgeon for  a checkup. The surgeon says the knee seems fine, he is using a walker to get around. The one thing this surgery did is to alleviate the pain in his left knee. He was walking around on a knee that was bone on bone for about 2 years. Before the surgery the doctors gave him either cortisone or rooster shotscrest to alleviate the pain. That would work but only for so long.. So you can imagine the pain. This is one tough old guy but the pain almost made him cry. As I took my father-in-law to his next medical appoointment, and as he shuffled on his walker down the long corridor of the Hospital to his next appointment, I realized that my father-in-law was the age that I am now when I met my wife in 1996. That was almost 20 years ago. He was 70 years old. The age that I will ...

“The mission of my blog is to encourage a thoughtful life among the baby boomers that leads to feelings of belonging and hope in both myself and my readers by exposure to a variety of ideas, experiences, and real-life stories as I head into my seventies.I hope that sometimes my experiences will bring a smile to your face. Stay healthy my friends!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3c-WBn5cCg Wednesday, August 26, 2015 Every year that I have a birthday I think about the lyrics to this song, "I Wish I Was Eighteen Again"  by George Burns. I have attached the YouTube link to the video of George singing it, I hope that you can see it. I guess the lyrics to the song say it all. At a bar down in Dallas An old man chimed in And I thought he Was out of his head Just being a young man I just laughed it off When I heard what That old man had said He said, I'll never again Turn the young ladies heads Or go running off into the wind I'm three quarters home From the start to the end And I wish I was eighteen again I wish I was eighteen again And going where I've never been But old folks and old oaks Standing tall just pretend I wish I was eighteen again Now time turns the pages And, oh, life goes so fast The years turn the Black hair all grey I talked to some young folks Hey, they don...

I am starting this blog on this date, August 25, 2015, almost a month before I turn seventy. I never thought that I would be seventy. I always thought that seventy was old, very old. Now I am turning seventy next month. I am entering the last quarter of my life. It is scary in one way but yet I have lived to this great age. I want to chronicle in this blog what it feels like to be seventy. I still see myself as maybe 26. Even though I don't have the stamina that I once had. Like the songs says, "I am not as good as I once was but I am good once as I ever was." I see the obituaries in my local newspaper and I read the obits of people dying that didn't reach seventy.  I feel very blessed in that sense.  People that are my age are the tip of the baby-boomers group. Those people that were born between 1946 and 1960 or so. Even though I was born in late 1945 I always considered myself a baby boomer because most of my classmates were baby boomers born in 1946.We are the gro...