Nathan E. Lewis

I have started to run again, after a four-year break (the day I suffered my stroke, I stopped running.) In these years my veins have been coarsing with blood thinners and, of course, the best coffee in the world - Black Tiger from Java Nation in Beaverton - “Declare Your Independence!” (It is slightly better than Stumptown, I must admit, which is slightly better than The Coffee Cottage in Newberg, and Sluislaw from Florence, Oregon - but only slightly better and a matter of taste.) By now, I have convinced you that caffeine may be the only substance coursing through my veins as I write this update. Yesterday, I finally told Glenda that I had started to run again. She is fearful of the pounding impact and over-exertion. My doctors have dried up my joints and greatly reduced the uric acid levels in my body (but not the acid from coffee levels) and so, I have not suffered any gout flare ups for eight months! And so I have hit the trail again. (I am addicted to running.) I confided in my friend, Scott Turner, and I am sure that he has been praying for me as he runs. I have also notified Loren Wiebe, who founded the 49′rs Club back in 1982 or ‘83, when I was a college student, singing in the Biola Chorale, under his direction, and running a minimum of 49 miles monthly or paying the club members $49.00 for failing to do so. I am rejoining the club this September 1, 2008! Now I am back on track. I am asking the world to keep me accountable to run regularly and to lose 20 pounds by Christmas 2008. (The Beijing Olympics 2008 have nothing to do with my recent spurt of exercise - absolutely nothing to do with it.)