This is year four of my retirement. This year I will also hit another milestone in my life; assuming I don’t die before it happens, I will turn 70. The idea of turning 70 is even more startling to me than when I turned 30. An unsettling realization of the last three years (since 2020) is how everything went by in something of a fog. I attribute that to the COVID19 lockdown that we didn’t really come out of until the middle of last year.

A good piece of news is that I don’t have the genetic marker for Alzheimer’s. In October of 2022 I signed up for a study testing a then-new Alzheimer treatment. I had blood drawn and tested for an Alzheimer genetic marker, as that was the primary requirement for being in this study. I didn’t hear anything from the company until March of this year, when they called me to tell me I didn’t have the marker and I wasn’t going to be in the study. Frankly, great news to hear.

As for living in general, my wife and I have now become “full” vegetarians (not vegans). We’d already cut out all red meat over a decade ago. All we were eating was poultry (chicken) and fish. Even so, I was always horrified that I was living off the dead carcass of animals industrially raised and slaughtered for my benefit. Along with the morally reprehensible aspect of eating meat, the cost of all meat produce has grown overly expensive to the point I can save at least $50 (sometimes more) every week of grocery shopping if I don’t purchase meat produce. I’m now substituting fruits and vegetables for all meat. We’ve already cut out heavily processed foods (frozen pizzas, Eggo waffles, etc), preferring instead to prepare all our meals at home, thus knowing what goes into our food and into our bodies. This also means we don’t eat out anymore, again because of cost as well as the health benefits of not eating out. We’re losing weight as a consequence and our blood testing is coming out extremely well. Our A1C and cholesterol levels, which are bellwether health markers, are down to high normal levels, and continue to slowly drift down over time. Of all the additives we’ve battled over our adult lives, the one additive we’ve cut down as much as possible is sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup. We keep salt to a very low level as well.

My activity around the house is also picking up. More gardening is going on now, and I’m organizing a list of people to come and give us quotes on work that needs to be done to the homestead itself.

As far as the old/new Acura is concerned, after nearly three years of ownership we just turned 20,000 miles over the odometer. That comes out to a little less than 7,000 miles/year, which nets us a discount on our car insurance. I note that as I get older I find driving more onerous, less enjoyable. I try to keep to the slow lane and at the speed limit, but today’s drivers ignore speed limits and basic road courtesy.

That Series 7 Apple Watch I purchased back in 2022 is providing feedback on my sleep habits. It supposedly records how long and what types of sleep, from deep to core to dreaming. I take what it tells me with a grain of salt, but if it shows at least seven hours at night I’m happy. It’s most important accomplishment is helping me to get back into a healthy sleep habit. Before retirement and during the pandemic lockdown my sleep habits were lousy; all over the place as far as when and for how long. Sleep discipline along with diet discipline is contributing towards my overall personal health, especially as I grow even older. It isn’t about duration of life, it’s about quality of life. As I continue to age I want to be able to care for myself as well as my wife, and not become a burden on my family. I believe that all of the steps I’ve documented towards living a healthier life help contribute to that.

As for our continuing to live in Florida, that may be problematic. For the first time since we moved down in 1984 we’ve both been talking about moving away and to another area not controlled by Republicans. Right now our absentee governor is out on a world-wide book tour while we Floridians continue to struggle with the aftermath of the flooding down in south Florida, that interrupted the importation of gasoline into a major port. We’ve suffered lines as pumps (especially down in south Florida) and a spike in prices everywhere else. I don’t know who I’m more angry at, the Republicans for giving us such bad governance, or the Democrats who have been asleep at the switch all these decades and let the Republicans get away with stealing democracy away from Florida. Unfortunately, unless I fall into a large fortune, we aren’t going anywhere. So we’re going to have to live with the situation and try to help push the political pendulum back towards the center and towards political sanity.