Blood, Safari, Golf"ish"

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

10/21/23

 

Aloha All ---

 

Last Saturday's Iron Man World Championship went extremely well.  As I mentioned, this year's competitors were all women,  and everything went much more smoothly compared to last year when they tried to do two races in one week.  This was almost back to the good old days in terms of community support and the competitive yet friendly vibe.  The weather was perfect -- clear and sunny in the morning and fairly calm seas for the swim, and not much wind on the northern bike run.  Relative to some years it wasn't too hot -- rain the day before kept the temps down.  The good conditions were reflected in the record-breaking performances.  The professional winner finished in 8 hours 32 minutes, a course record.

I got my blood test results back over the weekend, posted to my online account.  I haven't gone over them with my doctor (next Monday) but I compared them to my results for March myself.  To me they look very good, and in some respects, like Cholesterol levels, even better than before.  Still no signs of diabetes or heart issues.  I'll see if my doctor agrees with my assessment.  His usual overall conclusion is that I have a very low chance of dying from heart attack or stroke.  Comforting, but that still leaves a whole range of nasty ways to go.  One of the things I want to talk to him about is getting a Cologuard test -- a non-invasive test for colon cancer.  I'm due for another probe-up-the-butt-oscopy, but I'd like to try the less unpleasant option if I can.  The Cologuard test isn't as definitive, and has about a 10% false negative and false positive rate.  In my position if it was a false positive the worst that would happen is that I'd have a colonoscopy and it would be clear of cancer.  A false negative, though, means that the test missed something that really was there.  The uncertainty is how bad is the thing that was missed?  My previous two colonoscopies were clean, I have no family history of colon cancer, and my diet for at least the last 25 years has been good for reducing risk.  What would you do?

A lot of this week was spent going back and forth with a safari company in Kenya to do an add-on to our Ethiopia trip next January.  The Ethiopia visit, as I have mentioned, is something that we have wanted to do for about 50 years.  Our first attempt was in 1976, the year we spent 1 1/2 months in Africa, a good portion of which was in Kenya, where we stayed with a friend who was doing research at the University of Nairobi.  We had to cancel the Ethiopia portion at that time because of warfare.  A few years ago we tried again -- this time on a group tour -- but had to cancel because of  Covid,  We rescheduled for the following year but once again had to cancel because of internal conflict.  We're now trying once again, probably for the last time.  Given the horrendous trip to get to this part of the world, we thought it might be good to revisit Kenya and go on a safari one last time.  Our previous safaris in Kenya were on our own in a little Toyota rental.  We traveled with a good friend from Ohio and went from camp to camp on a Serengeti circuit through southern Kenya and Tanzania.  Since then we've made several trips to Africa, and have done safaris in South Africa (twice) and Botswana. These were also on our own, but arranged with a company that provided transportation and accommodations at the game parks, two of which we had to fly into because there were no roads.  Our plan now is to fly from Ethiopia to Kenya after the group tour and do a private 1-week safari to three different parks north of Nairobi. We'll have our own vehicle and driver/guide/game-spotter) and we will stay in a lodge at one place and in tented camps at the other two. We're looking forward to it very much, but we're mindful that trying to re-create the past can lead to disappointment, also.  Of course, this all hinges on making it to Ethiopia first, so stay tuned........

On Wednesday we managed to go to Makalei to see if we could still hit that little golf ball.  We still aren't

up to a full round, however, so we opted for the putting green and drive range instead.  GOOD THING we didn't pay for a full round!  I was pretty pathetic, I must say.  Two geezer months off from this sport is a real problem, because the body not only forgets what to do, it can hardly do what it remembers to do.  Anyway, ready or not we are likely to try at least a partial round next week.  

Ok, that's it.  Off for our usual Saturday morning rounds.  Take care. Whistle a happy tune and hang garlic around your neck -- it might help keep the poltergeists and politicians at bay!