The Silence of the Phred

Phred has been inactive on the blog for some months. I'll explain later. Things have been happening, just not quickly.....For example, my oldest grandson graduated from law school. The other one below (oldest granddaughter) is making straight "A"s in college now. This is a 2012 photo from someplace we took them that had a pile of old stones. Once we saw the stones when it was raining and empty. This was the Summer Solstice and the place was mobbed with weird English people in white robes.

Also, one of my other granddaughters (#3) got married and moved to Honolulu-. Here she appears to be contemplating a Tara Misu on a trip to  Barcelona with us in 2016. I'm happy for her. It's a paradise. I landed there 30 or 40 times in the sixties delivering war materials. They had a topless ice cream parlor, but I didn't get to go. The sixties were a time of change and innovation.  I remember climbing out of Pearl Harbor into beautiful cumulonimbus clouds...In fact, Honolulu was voted the #1 place to staycation, but the cost of living is higher than California's.

We moved back into our Sarasota condo and out of the aging RV.....the hoodie belongs to grandchild # 4...He's 16 now. I think he enjoyed the soccer game we attended together in Barcelona. After the game, we walked about 3 miles back to our hotel...

The washer/dryer in the RV died. The replacement cost was an amazing $1,600 if I did all the work myself. My friend and I disconnected the 150-pound broken washer and hauled it off to the dump. The RV also has a parasitic current drain that is killing all three batteries. I'm running it down fuse-by-fuse with my multi-meter. If I can get the bugs out and fix a cracked windshield by August we might take another Fall road trip to Canada and the Southwest...

I had another operation with my pesky cancer. The Doc took a six-inch diameter divot from the side of my head this time in early November. Then he replaced it with a mesh made of bovine collagen and shark cartilage.  My job was to vascularize the mesh with blood vessels and grow new skin. I had to cut a lot of my hair that wasn't already surgically removed because it kept getting stuck in the wound.  Anyway, I kept a low profile and mostly just dieted, read, healed, watched TV  and listened to music....nothing to blog about here....the wound site is about 90% healed. I think of growing skin is like baking a cake...it takes time....skin more than cake...it should be 100% by October...

...and...just dropped to less than 169 pounds...that's down from 240...I weigh my food, avoid alcohol completely, estimate my calories and put it all in a spreadsheet....I'm gravitating toward a preference for foods with more fiber: Chili, cole-slaw, pears, beans....and fish...Mrs. Phred says I can buy a Harley now...When you walk a mile it's about 100 calories burned. For my age (75) weight (169) and height (6 feet even), they think I need 1610 calories a day to maintain my weight if I sleep all day. You can add 100 calories for every mile you walk  (I try for five), but to lose a pound a week you need to eat 500 calories a day less than the maintenance number. 3500 calories = one pound of fat. Right now I love playing with ice cream consumption ....tickling the dragon...oops gained five pounds...recalculate!

We're also planning a June/July trip with grandchild #5, who is an interesting and determined young man,  now aged 13...only two more to go with what has become something of a travel tradition...The picture above is very old but he is still an intense, active and interesting young man...Can't wait...

So about 2021, if the creek don't rise, I look forward to a possible exotic travel date with enchanting grandchildren  #6 and #7.above...