OldMansRevenge.com

Hi Everyone from Steamboat Springs!  I came up here on Sunday - Jill just got here.  We pretty much always have wonderful Thanksgiving’s at Steamboat. We’ll hit the community dinner tomorrow.  The turkey and fixin’s will be wonderful (OK, my raw diet can get set aside for a day).  Our friends Janet and Kyle (and their kids) are hanging out with us this year.   Jill won’t ski because (1) the mountain is open - but shouldn’t be, and (2) she doesn’t have her new knee brace yet.   I won’t be going snowshoeing or cross country skiing because there in NO natural snow.  Bummer. I hope your Thanksgiving is a joyous one for you and your loved ones!  

Those who read this regularly know I’m a half-full kinda guy.  Not today.

I’m sorry about that…but life sometimes sucks.  I started a 4-month round of radiation last Friday for the non-cancerous tumor I have behind my right eye.

It’s been 3 1/2 days since the first treatment - and I still feel like a steamrolled pancake.  I have 4 months to get in 40 treatments.  That is 2.3/week.  So….feel like it or not, I’m planning to do another round today.

Ouch.

My dog Cody likes it, though.  He’s the laziest, most worthless canine in history (understand - I love him to death).  He thinks doing nothing but sleeping all day is the best.  This is the only time he gets this out of me.

Oh, well.

Wish me luck.

I got home late Friday from my trip to San Diego, Las Vegas, back to San Diego, Tijuana.  I drove about 3300 miles in 12 days, plus sat in non-stop meetings in San Diego plus ViSalus’ Vitality in Las Vegas.  Wow…my butt hurts.

I gotta tell you…home is a wonderful place.  I’ve done little this weekend - just enjoyed hanging out.

I don’t know how long I’ll be home, though.  It has been suggested my bum eye needs proton therapy.  That would mean leaving home for months for treatment.  That doesn’t sound like much fun.  I need to make a decision whether to get treatment at home (although the preferred treatment is elsewhere) or leave home for a while.

Radiation, in any form, sucks.  I’m headed for more.

I spent the weekend in Atlanta, attending Armand Morin’s Big Seminar 12.  As with all Big Seminar’s (this was my 8th), Armand goes out of his way more than anyone else I know to try to make his students happy - and well fed!

The speakers were mostly terrific.  

I’d missed the Big Seminar last April, so hadn’t seen some of my internet friends in a year.  It was great to catch up with them.  I came away energized about a new product I’ll be announcing in the next month.  I now think, even more than I did before, this product (which is really a service) will be a big hit in the internet marketer market.

And, I can grow it past that!

I hope you are having a wonderful 4th of July.  It is a quiet one around here.  Jill’s in upstate NY, touring that part of the country visiting family.  Both her Mom and Dad grew up there - lots of family still alive and in the area.

Her sister Linda (Mom of Anna - the one who’s living in our basement this summer), Linda’s husband Steven and their other daughter Nina joined the festivities for the weekend.  I’m DELIGHTED I wasn’t invited.  

I had a pretty quiet day.  A pretty hard bike ride this morning.  Then back home to do a little work before taking my Mac to the Apple store where it was supposed to get repaired.  There was some sort of Apple mess up and it isn’t fixed.  Something about a part ordered that was DOA.  I got my Mac back - but have to wait a few more days before taking it again.

Oh, well.

Then a little more work.  I’ll go enjoy fireworks later.

Boring…but healthy!

Happy 4th to you and your loved ones.

I’m a happy guy today.  My aunt’s funeral is over - I’m back in Denver and trying to catch up from losing almost a week unexpectedly.  It is around 7:30pm and I’m still sitting in the office.  I’ll probably be here for a while - I got pretty far behind.

But I’ve been knocking things off a very long list all day.  That feels good.

It amazes me how fast things pile up when I’m not paying full attention to my business.  Geez - there are lots of people looking to me to help make their lives better.  Guess I’d better get off my duff and deliver, huh?

I fell off my raw food diet while I was gone.  Not completely - but I ate (with gusto!) quite a bit of food I would not have eaten if I was hanging out at home.  Amazing to me - but half a dozen cooked meals really did make a difference.  My arthritis is kicking up a little!

Or maybe just a black heart.

I’m leaving in a few minutes to go with my Mom to my Aunt Lois’ funeral.  First, we will go to the funeral home for a private showing.  Then Mom and I will drive to Indianapolis to pick up my Uncle Max.  The three of us will then go to Anderson, IN for the ceremony.

There are going to be more people than I originally thought at the gravesite service.  Best I can figure…around 20.  Most of them are long time friends of my Mom from Plainfield.  All those people met Aunt Lois when she lived here for a couple years between MA and FL.  You got to meet Lois Thomas, you loved her.  The people coming today, besides family, will be paying respect to both my Aunt and my Mom.

I’m even wearing a tie.  For the first time in 8 years.  Why?  Because the LAST time I wore one I was with Aunt Lois after a wedding in Boston.  She was such an elegant lady…I know she’ll smile when she sees me wearing a tie like I know she would love to - but NEVER would - tell me I should.   What she won’t know…and you do…is that I’ve sworn off ties.  This one is for her.  Only her.

My favorite non-Mom relative died Tuesday.  Lois Thomas, world’s coolest aunt, died peacefully in Citrus County, FL.  She is survived by my Mom, Catherine Wisehart of Homosassa, FL and their brother, Max Beam of Indianapolis, IN.  

She was only 96!

Sometimes genes are a good thing.

Aunt Lois still lived alone, next door to my Mother.  My Mom was her primary caregiver for the last 10 years or so.  Calling Mom the ‘primary’ caregiver isn’t really fair.  Aunt Lois still pretty much was able to take care of herself except she gave up driving a few years ago.  She fell and broke her hip a couple months ago.  She was still in a rehab facility when that institution took her to a hospital very early Tuesday morning.  She died that evening.

She had Alzheimer’s.  She still had good powers of cognitive thinking, but not much memory.  I know it drove my Mom nuts.  Knowing Aunt Lois, it did her, too.  But she was generally healthy to the end.  Her biggest bitch in life sounds like mine: insomnia.  She had to worse than I do - which is saying something.  She fought sleep problems for decades.  The problem with her is when she didn’t sleep it pissed her off.  She would take it personally and be mad at the world.

At least I don’t do that!

Aunt Lois was married for lots of semesters to my Uncle John.  Uncle John was a Polish immigrant and the best investor I’ve ever known.  He would pour over financial statements and other corporate documents for months before investing in a company.  When he did, though, you could almost take it to the bank that a stock was about to take off.  He was famous in New England as the guy with the accent (who worked as a laborer in a shoe factory) as the guy who would pepper high-flying CEOs with pointed questions at annual shareholder meetings.  Uncle John BELIEVED in his rights as a shareholder.  He wanted nothing but the truth about corporate goings-on.

Uncle John and my Father died the same year.  A couple years later Aunt Lois moved from Salem, MA back to Indiana to be nearer my mother and uncle.  She and Mom, along with my brother and his wife, all moved together to Florida a few years ago.  My brother lives 10 or so miles away - he and his wife work hard taking care of the ‘girls’.

Aunt Lois never had kids…probably a bad deal for those kids never born and a great deal for my brother and me.  She always doted over us - even though we only saw her a time or two a year.  She and Uncle John always returned to Indiana so Uncle John could go to the Indianapolis 500 (he caught 40 or so in a row - I don’t remember the exact number).  Some years they made another trip.

My brother, Bob, and I always knew she loved and cared for us - even if we didn’t see her much.  That was special in a small family.

She became more important in my life as I grew into adulthood.  I always talked with her on the telephone a lot - even though I didn’t get to see her that often.  When I would see her…the lobster was ALWAYS on her - and don’t argue about it.  ;-)

I’m flying to Indianapolis tomorrow to be with my Mom and other family members for the funeral Monday.  I GUARANTEE you I will be the one crying the hardest.

Good bye, Aunt Lois.  I loved you.

And I’m sitting inside a seminar room waiting to make a presentation about both Business and Personal lines if credit.  I love bringing the message to a couple hundred people…but it is 85 and sunny and gorgeous today.  Frankly, I’d rather be out on my bike with Ms. Jill - taking in a lovely summer Denver day.

I’ll make a few dollars today - but all things being equal - LET ME OUTA HERE!

Yesterday was an interesting day.  I went to the funeral of one of my buddy’s mother.  She was not only Mom - but also his business partner.  He and I have been friends for years.  We often do business, ride bikes, have a cuppa Joe or cold one together .  But I’d never met his Mom/partner.  After hearing some of the stories - I’m sad I didn’t.  She must have been a helluva lady!

I found myself sitting there in the LDS church patting myself on the back for my lifestyle.  I may drop dead tomorrow - but truly believe it isn’t very likely.  Why?  

Raw food.  Exercise.  Don’t smoke.  Don’t drink much.  I often pass people 20 or more years younger when I’m tooling around on my bike.  Ego aside…this life is good and I want more of it.  I believe the easiest way to get more is lifestyle.

End of today’s sermon!  

I finally got home today from San Jose.  Between Canada week before last and California last week it seems like I’ve been gone forever!  I wonder why?  I used to travel for weeks at a time and never cared much.  Maybe because life at home with Ms. Jill is so good?  Don’t know.

But I do know I’ll be home for a couple weeks.  That’s a good thing.

We had a funny thing happen in San Jose.  On Friday, after Simon Leung’s event, I went to dinner with a group to this Vietnamese place.  The food was great.

A mostly different group decided to go back there on Saturday.  The food was still great - but the service was among the worst I’ve ever had at a restaurant.  I think I literally asked for one dish 9 times!  The staff took our place settings away, an owner told us the dish in question wasn’t possible that night, that she would create a ’special’ veggie dish for us…then the staff came back with new place settings and the snow pea leaves with garlic we’d ordered a couple hours ago!  It got to the point where it was very funny - but probably only if you were there…

I know more about Google AdWords tonight than I did Thursday night before the weekend event.  Thanks for that, Si.

Now…home to get some real work done and seriously get back onto my raw food diet.  The diet isn’t hard at home - especially with Jill’s support.  It sure is hard on the road, though.  I’ll be feeling better again in less than a week.  

Take notice, folks.  That is better in less than a week.  Yes, we are what we eat.