To Bob St. John

August 12, 2009

Hi Bob, thanks for the good letter.

Sounds like you have an “achy breaky” body.  Like a “pretzel” huh?  One thing that I have not had is a hiatal hernia. From what I’ve heard they’re at least a nuisance and sometimes very painful. Can you do anything about it besides just biting the bullet.

My body isn’t doing much better although I’ve recovered pretty well from my Tiger Woods knee surgery. Now it seems I have a torn rotater cuff on my left shoulder. My doctor wants to operate but I haven’t committed to it yet. I’m loading on celebrex, ibuprofen plus a medicine I can’t spell and hoping the dang thing will just heal on its own.

Jeri and I are getting serious about Greece. I haven’t contacted Kostas yet but plan to soon. Jeri and I are thinking about making it our 25th wedding anniversary trip sometime in 2010. Before we do any serious planning we’ll want to talk to you. We’re thinking we’d like to do it in the off season to avoid tourists (like us) and to maybe get better prices. We also think we would like to spend some time in Athens, etc, but most of the time on Paros and the surrounding islands. At this point we have loads of questions.

Speaking of Paros, how are you coming on the book? If you get any chapters you want to share, I’d love to read whatever you might send. Jeri and I sure enjoyed Chapter 3 which you sent to me a while back.

You mentioned The Secret Life of Bees. I read it and saw the movie too, enjoying both very much.

Lately I completed reading The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel Marquez and Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. I started slowly with Godot but got to a certain point I really became captivated by it. There’s a monologue in it by a character named Lucky which is mind boggling.

In preparation for Greece I’ve been reading some of the ancient Greek masters like Hippolytus, Aristotle and Plato, not easy fare. Currently I’ve started to read The Ilyad by Homer which is fascinating. As you might recall Achilles is the hero, so I keep waiting for him to tear his tendon like so many athletes have done.

Jeri and I went to  the International Yo Yo Open on Saturday down at the Seaport.  This current bunch of YoYo’ers have come a long way since the 1940’s. They are amazing. At the event Jeri bought me a new ball-bearing Duncan. I haven’t yo yo’d in a hundred years but put it on my middle finger and proceeded to ‘walk the dog’, go ‘around the world’ and ‘rock the cradle’. It was like riding a bike.  Does this bring back any memories?

Looks to me like the Rangers have a shot at it in the American League West although the Angels are pretty tough. Concerning the Yankees, they’ve got the hitting but I just don’t think their pitching can hold up in the playoffs and World Series. At least they just beat up Boston pretty good.

Jeri and I are heading to San Juan for the month of September. I can’t wait. I’m going to practice with my new Duncan on the Isle Verde beach.

Take care of yourself Bob. My very best to you and Sandy.

Mike