“The sooner you become more health conscious, the more likely you’ll live a long and healthy life.” Ready to become more health conscious now? This series of blogs is written by Mark Neese, LCSW, BCBA. To see more entries in this series, click here.
August 16, 2026. Nine hikers get lost near Indian Staircase in Red River Gorge. This report by Wolfe County Search and Rescue Team indicated that students from Indiana and Kentucky had hoped to watch the sunset from Indian Staircase but became disoriented by the numerous user trails. They sent a text to the rescue team,…
Sometimes your real superpower is realizing that you’re no longer a young man or young woman and then realizing that there are things that are better left for younger people to do. I’m sitting on the backside of the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. Quite a view. I woke up…
I’m 70 for exactly 12 months, and I’ve planned some adventures during this period. Adventure #1 I’m writing this at Gate 15 at Chicago Midway Airport on a layover to Colorado Springs. I’ll be there a couple of days and then go on to the Wind River Range in Wyoming for a five-day backpacking trip…
Two sobering things happened to me this week. The first was my Garmin watch announcing that my fitness age is 60. It uses my average resting heart rate, which has been 53 BPM, my body fat percentage, and the number of vigorous minutes and vigorous days I spend exercising. Turning 60 on my 70th birthday…
Forty people plus one. That’s how many took care of me this past week. Let me rewind 10 days. Monday, June 8 My wife and I were doing our regular after-dinner walk. You know, to help regulate our blood glucose. We walk three loops in our neighborhood, which is about a mile and a half….
“I wouldn’t want to be any other age than I am right now!” That’s what my mother said when she turned Seventy. I echo that. It really doesn’t seem that old to me, now. My Garmin watch says that my fitness age is 59.5 years old, but regardless I’m 70 and I’m learning to embrace…
I walked 3.5 million steps during the past 12 months. The most steps in one day: 31,240. The most in one week: 113,443. The most in one month: 426,784. The longest streak of 10,000+ days: 16. The last three records were from September 2025. I walk a lot. I’m writing this episode at the Muhammad…
I was a Smartass in High School. My dearest friends today would probably say that I’m still a Smartass. I could cite several incidents in high school that prove my point, but the first one that comes to my mind involves Mr. Augsburger, my Senior Physics teacher. Boonville High School was a small, rural High…
My grandfather died when I was 13 years old. He was the first person that I knew to died. He was born in 1898 and died at the age of 69. The death certificate stated that cause of death was my grandmother (JK). In fairness, Grandpa wasn’t an easy person to live with. In a…
Religion can bring out the best in people and the worst in people. My two grandmothers spent most of their lives proving this point to me. Ida Louise and Lulu. One was a Catholic and the other was a Pentecostal. My father, like his father, had little interest in Pentecostalism and because he wanted to…
