In Part One I explained how as a teenager I began to develop a pragmatic approach to personal health.  I embraced trial and error, exploring, researching, and refining personal well-being and what works for me.  Often this meant quietly pushing aside peer or societal pressures and medical norms.  Over the decades, I continued seeking out pragmatic health tools that best fit me. Until the past year, I still looked first for help from the U.S. “sick” care system, which repeatedly failed to help me during Covid and Long-Covid.  Read More

It’s been too long, since Thanksgiving that I sent an email update.  Much has happened. Most dramatic on November 30th Jim Sugrue and Doc. Lynda probably saved my life by getting me to Illinois Masonic Hospital.  I was unable to think clearly or form words and later learned low-sodium spurred by a second bout of Covid (Delta or Omicron, who knows?) and my mistakenly pushing too much water.  This gave me a front row seat to learn the old adage is true: Ignorance really IS bliss, for I didn’t suffer and have only fleeting, dazed and confused memories of the initial 36-48 hours.  Read More

I contracted Covid in March of 2020.  I was never hospitalized but I experienced four weeks of fatigue, difficulty breathing, tightness in my chest, malaise, exhaustion, brain fog, and a complete loss of productivity. I am a 57-year-old writer and athlete.  Feeling better, I got back on my road bike and four weeks later had logged 520-miles.  Then BAMM!  With no warning—on May 15, 2020—Covid returned and laid me out.  Month after month I struggled to manage life’s basics, occasionally able to accomplish some half-days of work.  Read More

So, if you read my last blog post you already know my experience getting knocked down with Coronavirus (now officially, SARS-Cov-2).  My original reaction to Corona hit on Monday, March 23 with serious fatigue.  I found out later from a doctor’s comment it was symptomatic of becoming hypoxic – like the altitude-sickness experienced by mountain climbers.  However, they plan and train for it as part of the climb.  I was in my third-floor condo on the couch, a mere 620-feet above sea-level.  Read More

Hope you are enjoying your summer!  It seemed to take forever to get some consistently nice weather here in Chicago!  And then BAM!  Someone turned a switch and it’s full on Summer! Of course living less than a score of blocks from Lake Michigan’s cool water in the spring definitely makes for chilly and foggy days that extend into June.  In addition, all-time high-lake water has made boating more dangerous with submerged jetties and barely visible break walls — even the lake shore bike path is half underwater near Oak and Olive Street Beaches! Read More

Each author has her or his own approach, but the trick to writing a book is trusting the process.  As Hemingway advised a young writer, “the first draft of anything is shit!” explaining that the real work comes in the revising, rewriting, and reworking of a manuscript as many as forty, maybe fifty times, to get to the finished product. For many writers, myself included, the first draft can be the hardest to complete, even though it is rarely where the bulk of the time lies.  Read More

A week on Bermuda did, and did not feel like enough time.  It was enough to get a sense of the island, despite usually spending mornings and early afternoons working.  Blue did homework for his sophomore year of high school via the internet. Brian worked on boat chores, primarily rebuilding a broken daggerboard and bent rudder.  I was doing emails, social media, and transcriptions of research (sadly not much real writing).  Afternoons and evenings we explored Bermuda on rented scooters usually initiated by an errand for boat parts or supplies. Read More

Questioning the origins of everyday things saved my a**! Christmas had rolled around again and as usual I was scrambling and out of time.  Thankfully I remembered the dozen or so scarves I had bought while traveling last January, but unsure my niece (age 13) and two nephews (ages 11 & 13) would really appreciate “a stupid scarf.”  My attempted solution (and in the spirit of home made gifts, which were not out of the ordinary when I was growing up) I created the following to go with each gift . Read More

Reprinted from: 2017 Yachting in Chicago magazine published by the Chicago Yachting Association (CYA) Chicago is a dynamic ever-changing city with a rich history closely tied to the Lake, its rivers and canals.  Yet, the bridges crossing our waterways are often over looked and taken for granted unless up for repair or viewed on a river run.  Most boaters know of the bridges, yet how much deeper have we looked at these magnificent structures – beyond their dance of conveyance and obstruction between Lake Michigan and winter storage? Read More

It has been a week since we cleared Bermuda Customs after arriving,”by private yacht.” We will visit Customs tomorrow to clear out and begin sailing Leg 2 to the Virgin Islands. The last week of easy days in St. George’s Harbor has been a nice respite. My typical day started between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. brush my teeth, wash hands and face, decide whether or not to wear the same shorts again, a fresh t-shirt, and finding a small bite to eat. Read More