 JOHNNY WALKER
My doctor told me that if I walked 2 hours my diabetes would go away. Where to, I don’t know. So I began by walking for an hour and added a block each time.
It had been 17 years since Gail and I walked regularly. Those were strolls. I now power walk. I find walking on our beach boring—nothing but sand and water. But doing city blocks means seeing more people and vehicles and people in yards. Strangely, the two hours seem to zip by.
I have made a couple “friends” running (walking?) into other walkers. Usually its the ones with dogs. I have had chats with people out in their yards. A very stressed fellow was waiting for an ambulance and appreciated my hanging with him until it arrived.
Speaking of ambulances, I go past the St John station and always make a mental note of how many of the three are out helping people.
I have found a $2 coin and a golf ball. And I proved that I could do 2 hours and even if my diabetes hasn’t changed, it has to be the best exercise going. With warmer weather I am going to reduce to one hour walks and spend the remainder outdoors doing other stuff.
 At the pump:
$1.71/litre
$6.58/gal
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In 2001 I decided that I would type my handwritten diaries (going back to 1959) into the computer. I considered the best way would be as web pages so I could include photos and hyperlinks. I also put them online, using the Internet as a backup that will always be there should my computers fail. 15 years later and I am still refining those 365+ pages. And I now use it as my current diary. I was able to toss 50 diaries from my book shelves.
Since I had to scan photos/slides for the diary I decided to scan every photo and slide, as backup to the hardcopy. Well, ten years later I got a new scanner which does a much better job, so for the past year I have been rescanning the 2000+ slides and tossing them. Because computer storage has increased so dramatically I can also increase the size of the photos, giving me bigger and better copies. Once I finish the slides I shall re-do the photos.
Two other things that got mentioned in diaries are greeting cards, 16,000 letters/emails and postcards, both received and sent. And yes, I had saved everyone since 1950. Since I used a typewriter I was able via carbon paper to keep a copy of every letter that I wrote. I have completed the cards and am about 90% done with correspondence. Then came old home movies which I had converted onto VHS tapes. Those and all of the home videos I had recorded are now digitized.
In 2006 I decided to digitize my music collection. I began with 200 reel-to-reel tapes. My player died and I was lucky to buy a very rare used one online.  Then I moved onto 300+ cassette tapes, And I had 100+ VHS tapes filled with music. I am currently about 85% done with my 600+ albums. Next will be my 45RPM singles collection.
 A few months ago I began doing the 100+ VHS tapes that hold TV shows and movies. I reckon it will take me two more years to complete.
Other things that I have online are my complete Goofy collection (1000+ items), our seashell collection and my cereal box collection. I have so many collections (go to Malleybases page), that I have begun and need to be completed.
And then I will have my whole life on a single TerraByte external hard drive.
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2015 - No. 7 www.malecek.com 2015 No 7
JOHNNY DRIVER
