[at-l] 10 years ago today

[David Addleton]

that's a great story: you should write a book: I'm serious. You should write
a book. The last 10 years would only have to be a chapter. You could write
that chapter first. There's an outline below:

On 1/4/07, rcli4 at comcast.net <rcli4 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> 10 years ago today I died from congestive heart failure caused by
> cardiomyopathy.  I don't know what that means but that's what it said on
> the insurance papers. If my wife wasn't a nurse I would have stayed
> dead.  She done
> what she does and I made it through.  My cardioligist was hand picked by
> her to
> help me stay living.  She was Vietnamese and mean as hell.  She was as
> honest as
> any person I have ever met.  She said I better get my affairs in order
> because
> the chances of me living a long life was slim to none.  After a week of
> test she
> told me statistically I would probably live about five years without a
> heart
> transplant.
>      I went home and got all my stuff in order in case I was on the short
> end of
> the statistical curve.  I started walking on the local rail trail a short
> time
> later.  I met an old lady carrying a huge backpack.  Since she was old and
> carrying a lot of weight and I was an invalid waiting to cash it in, we
> walked
> about the same pace.  I got to know her and asked her why she carried all
> that
> junk on her back.  She said every year she went to hike for a month on the
> Appalachian Trail.  She carried a lot of weight to help make up for the
> lack of
> hills in Florida. I asked her where the trail was at.  That old lady
> caused me to
> catch this sickness we call backpacking.
>      I continued to walk the rail trail until I worked up to ten miles a
> day in
> about 2 1/2 hours.  Six years ago next week I went to North Georgia to the
> first
> really organized SoRuck.  On Saturday morning Ken Bennett aka "Big
> Cranky", Lee
> I. Joe, and his 6 year old son Trooper set out to hike to the top of Blood
> Mtn.
> I told them I wasn't sure if I could make it but I was going to try.  I
> loaded
> all my gear in my pack and we headed out.  Trooper would stop every once
> in a
> while and ask me if I was all right.  I truly believe that this 6 year old
> took
> breaks on the way up because he thought I needed to stop and rest.   When
> we
> reached the top someone took a picture of trooper and I.  That picture is
> one of
> my most prized possessions. It has hung on my wall ever since.  It was the
> first
> time that I thought I might be on the long end of the statistical curve.
>
> Clyde
>
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