Where To, Bud?

Hey, everyone. It’s me, Jenni (Argentrose) again. This past Thursday morning Dondra passed away in the hospital.   Bill was with her at the time, and while he is doing his best to keep it together, the love and support of friends and family have been vital.   So, please, if you see this and can, do reach out to Bill—either through a message here or an e-mail or a phone call. I know he’d really appreciate it. There is a lot that needs to be done still, and Bill is preparing for Dondra’s celebration of life gathering as well as dealing with all the little details that need to be taken care of after a loved one passes. It can be hard to express, sometimes, how vital and important someone is in our lives, but I know Dondra means a great deal to Bill.   Despite their ups and downs, they never stopped loving one another, and I know it will be difficult for him to be without her now. So, please be patient with us while we process these events and our own love, sadness, a...

 Hey, everyone. I'm Jennifer, the Editor and Producer of the podcast "Where to, Bud?"--the podcast Bill, Jon, and myself have been working on in the background based off of Bill's own recountings here on this blog. Bill asked me to send you all an update on how everything is going—and also to give an update about why there hasn’t been much written here about the podcast of late. At the end of September Dondra asked to be admitted to the hospital and while there, she, Bill, and the doctors talked.   Dondra then began hospice care, and they’ve kept her at the hospital to keep her comfortable and make sure that they can manage her pain more easily. Bill has been with her at the hospital during this time and work on the podcast has, obviously, been put on the back burner while their family has been dealing with all of this.   That doesn’t mean there will be no podcast, but for the time being, and for the foreseeable future, we’re taking a break from production. It...

Hey Folks! I know: "Promises, Promises", right? 😁 I am sorry it's taking so long, but as I have written before, Priority I is and always will be Dondra, my wife, who is in Stage IV of her kidney disease, and I have been concentrating my efforts into taking care of her. As I am sure you know, being a caregiver is a full time job. Luckily, however, my friends and partners Jenni and Jon (editor, producer; sound, director and producer) have been hard at work getting things ready on their end and since I work well with deadlines ( most of the time) from my days as a journalist, they have given me certain assignments to prepare. Because they are and have been so understanding, I can work under those circumstances.  I don't want to jinx the program by naming a launch date, so I will hold off for now until we all three are satisfied that we will have for you will be both informative and enjoyable. So thanks very much for being what Stephen King calls my "Constant Reader...

 I'll keep this short and sweet, I have only myself to blame about not making the run (a 10K) I always had misgivings about it, even while training on "The Carrollton (GA) Greenbelt". It was a fun time for me (as mentioned previously), but I was forgetting, that I'd be going alone and Dondra would be staying home, and even though neighbors would be going to stay with her, I wondered if I was maybe being selfish, and decided I was. So we talked about it, she and I. To refresh your memory if you haven't read me in a while, Dondra is in end stage renal disease and the only thing which helps is the dialysis she gets three times a week. She didn't qualify for a transplanted kidney (too many other health-related problems stood in our way). So even though I was enjoying the training runs (up until then I was home getting fatter), and doing those all-important intervals, I wondered to myself if I'd make that run. And in the end, I didn't. The race got "Bl...

Hey Everyone   Sorry to have wimped out on logging my training efforts, but at my age and the work that is required, sometimes afterward all I want to do is lie down. With a little more than a month to go, I'm having a ball outside getting some sun and working on my stamina. Getting as much of that as a 74 year old can, I guess. I know I'm supposed to train one day on and one day rest, but I'm already running intervals and enjoying it, so if I feel like it, why not do it? (Rhetorical question - I know I have some followers who run and/or cycle and they may have a word or two to say about my regimen). My intervals began at 20 strides at a slow run, then 40 a little quicker; and now I'm at 120 strides and will begin hill training this coming weekend (Memorial Day). The Race begins on an incline and then tops off on what is known as "Cardiac Hill", which is why I need the hill training. Downhill? Oh, yeah. I look forward to those, but even there I have to run car...

In the beginning of this journal, I identified myself as an amateur "Beethoven Scholar". From the time I was a student musician in high school and played the percussion part in the Eroica  symphony, which he had originally composed in tribute to Napoleon, I became enamored of all his works, their little nuances and pastoral influences (he loved nature) and combed my way through all the stories, legends and lies. What remained was a huge question mark. He died at 56 In Vienna, Austria, sick, deaf and destitute, but no one knew what ultimately killed him. I was of the opinion he may have died of one of 11 dementias, but nothing definitive was ever proven. Now we think  we know, but we're still not 100^ sure. An article  here  goes into more detail, and, if you're interested, I invite you to read it, and maybe you'll come away with a better understanding of what could kill us in the 19th century, and how a prescient Beethoven himself delivered a lock of his hair to...

First of all, I really picked myself a challenge, didn’t I? 74 years old, 28 pounds overweight and less than 2 months to get myself trained up. The last time I ran the Peachtree, I also ran the Atlanta Half-Marathon, planning to run the “Full” a year later, in 1991. It’s good I kept my number, because The Atlanta Track Club had a fire and records from that date were destroyed. I remembered that date and my finish time which I shared with the Then-Director Julia Emmons, who allowed me to replace my own, lost medal on the strength of knowing my number. Julia served for 22 years as Director and from all accounts did a fantastic job. While I won’t share my official time with you, I will tell you I finished before they picked up the cones and was so overcome with emotion that I finished at all , that I dropped to the ground and hugged my friend Ed and his wife. I still think Ed ran a bet sheet on me, which he denies to this day. This year, for the 4th Of July Road Race, I knew I would need ...

...up from 74 or down ? Doesn't matter - take your pick. Either way, I'm still around, and "...still crazy after all these years."  First, let's get you caught up on the bad/sad news: Dondra didn't make the cut for a kidney transplant, because of numerous reasons - any one of which will disqualify a person. To be honest, I think we both knew in the backs of our minds there wasn't much of a chance, but we were hoping to get those things fixed within the time we had. Sadly, it just wasn't to be. I received permission from my wife to tell you the reasons so that it may help one of your  loved ones. Had everything been "hunky-dory", her age might not have mattered. She was 74 when we applied and she'll be 76 in July. So "Father Time" was always lurking throughout the preliminary lab work, the interviews, and decision-making process. Cut-off was age 75, so not much "wiggle-room", was it? The official reason was listed as ...