Larry knew as much about me as anyone, and I knew almost as much about him. This happens when you spend several hours a week walking around Lexington together for a few years.

I wanted to get to know Larry after our first WoodSongs show. He was carrying a large amplifier, struggling a little, but moving. I followed, carrying a lighter piece. When I caught up to him at our backstage destination, I asked, “You’re the photographer. Why are you doing this?” Larry replied, “It keeps me young,” before returning for another object.

The following week, this old man claimed that he often rode a bicycle. So we took a ride. I had trouble keeping up with him. Larry’s bicycle was better than mine, but he was also in much better shape than me. Larry said, “Don’t worry. I will train you.” His training worked. I was riding a hilly eight mile course in 48 minutes last Summer. Nevertheless, we always found time to walk for an hour. Larry said that we needed to walk for an hour every other day, and eight miles on Saturdays.

Larry also helped me with my diet. We kept the same weird foods in our refrigerators. He complained that I was too thin yesterday, I am eating ice cream for him while I write.

A couple of weeks after our first bicycle ride, I found a new apartment, 4/10 mile from Larry’s house. Larry and I moved everything in his van.

Then we started walking.

Larry ran marathons until he hurt his foot. He could walk, but he was in pain after running for a few steps. Pain was another reason we got along. I walk with a knee brace, and my knee swells while I walk. I have other injuries too. Larry was the same way. A couple of weeks ago, we counted all our pinched nerves while we waited for a traffic light to change. But we rarely complained. You can’t expect to feel great all the time, you have to keep going.

I missed a few months walking in 2008, when I had a stomach problem followed by a back injury. Larry encouraged me to get out of bed and return to walking. We have walked outdoors in sub-freezing temperatures, in malls when the weather was worse. During the Summer we walk earlier, later in Winter. We always walk.

For the past year, our favorite place has been the UK practice track. This track is padded, great for injuries. We walk a mile to the track, four laps, and home. We also enjoyed watching the UK athletes practice.

If Larry had one flaw, it was installing free software he found on the Web that messed up his computer. After he installed something, he would call me, sounding quite perplexed, hoping to mislead me so I would not torment him for repeating past mistakes on the phone. These calls always began:

I don’t know what happened. Can you please come over now and look at my computer?

I miss those calls.

Goodbye Larry

Larry Steur died March 1, 2011, while we were walking on Euclid Avenue.

I have had two pains in my chest. This never happened before. Should I worry?

Let’s walk to your house. I will drive you the ER if you don’t feel well.

Larry died a half a block later.

This year I made a much simpler calendar, that shows the entire season. I will add the results after each game.

My New and Improved New York Giants TV Schedules and Results

• NY Giants 2010 2011 Pre-Season TV Schedule
• NY Giants 2010 2011 Regular Season TV Schedule
• Playoffs

Blogging

For a few months, over 90% of my visitors requested Bear Grylls : Worst Case Scenario is Coming Soon. I had no idea that the Worst Case Scenario television show would be so popular!

My article is ranked ninth on a Google search for “Bear Grylls” “Worst Case Scenario”

For over a year, the favorite had been Where Does Bear Grylls Live? If you search for “Where Does Bear Grylls Live” on Google, my article has been on top for 20 months!

Remembering Dead People

Writing relieved my sadness after my 48-year-old friend, David Nolan died. David thought he was going to pickup his daughter from school, until he had a fatal heart attack on the Subway.

I also wrote something not-very-cheery, about my dear departed friend Ellen, but I over-edited it.

So I started reading books about writing.

Writing More and Enjoying It More

I met Stefan Andersson at Writing Practice. He was visiting Lexington from Sweden, and writing about Bertrand Russell. Stefan writes very well, in English, his second language. He must be unbelievable in Swedish!

We became friends while I made his homepage, and enjoyed many hours together, solving English crossword puzzles. Sometimes we watched television, on one of the three channels that his ancient window antenna received. Stefan especially liked the hockey games during the Winter Olympics.

Our afternoons do not seem exciting, but in between these events, Stefan encouraged me to write. I heard “You have a great voice” many times. After many attempts, I have finally finished one story that I think is good enough to sell. Stay tuned.

Why Is This A Year?

I have only written an “end of the year” article once: Five Wishes for 2008. Three wishes came true when New York Giants miraculously won the last three games of their stupendous season. But right now, I just hope Giants do better than last year.

So no more wishes, and certainly no predictions for our illogical world.

It is a year, because yesterday was my birthday. I refuse to disclose my age because I do not want to see it. I wanted to write about making it through it another year, and I hope I can do this next year too!

My goal as Chief Scout is for every young person that wants to be involved in Scouting to be able to take part. But in order to make this happen we need even more adult volunteers to keep up with the demand. So my aim is to encourage even more adults to volunteer alongside me and join in that Scouting adventure.

Bear Grylls brought his seven-year-old son Jesse, who has joined the Scouts as a Beaver, to Northumberland yesterday. Bear Grylls joined the Scouts when he was eight.

Bear Grylls will participate in activities, including sailing, rock climbing, canoe polo, and a canal boat expedition along Salterhebble Basin, through the Salterhebble Locks– one of the shortest locks on UK inland waterway system.

Where Is Bear Grylls Right Now?

Follow Bear Grylls, and the weekend activites on Flickr and Twitter. For photos, visit Bear Grylls takes to the air to visit 10,000 Scouts. For news, check UKScouting or search for #bearinthenortheast on Twitter.

For more information on UK Scouts visit: www.scouts.org.uk

Help For Heroes

Help for Heroes was started in 2007, to raise money for the construction of a swimming pool, at Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court for injured members of the British Armed Forces.

This 85 acre facility was purchased after World War II using donations collected by Royal Air Force Pilots and Crews Fund. It was the Headquarters for Canadian Forces during World War II.

Help for Heroes raised £8 million for the swimming pool at Headley Court, and will open The Help for Heroes Rehabilitation Complex this year. (2010)

Please donate to Help for Heroes, which is not connected to any political organization.

Headway

Headway, “the charity that works to improve life after brain injury,” wants:

To promote understanding of all aspects of brain injury and to provide information, support and services to people with a brain injury, their families and carers.

Since traumatic brain injuries are the signature injuries of current wars, both charities support the same people.

Please donate to Headway. It uses contributions to provide vital services to brain injury survivors and their families.

Where Was Bear Grylls?

Bear Grylls, as I previously noted, has been filming the fifth season of Man vs. Wild, in Russia, Australia, and an unnamed desert island.

Bear Grylls is amazing because he participated in this event, with his wife, Shara, and oldest sons, Jesse, 8, and Marmaduke, 7, on his “day off“ between Russia and Australia.

Bear Grylls had a personal reason for appearing at this event:

When I had an injury when I was in the army I ended up in Headley Court which is the military rehabilitation place. Now they are seeing 100 soldiers a month passing through there who have lost limbs or arms. They do extraordinary work and I try to do as much as I can for them through various expeditions and supporting local events.

That’s why Bear Grylls is amazing!

Bear Grylls will lead a team on a two week trip, through the Northwest Passage in August 2010.

The Northwest Passage is a sea route that connects the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean through the Canadian Arctic. The team includes Dave Pearce, the medical officer, who helped discover Peak Levy in 2009, after Bear Grylls was injured, and unable to complete that expedition. Let’s hope there are no injuries on this expedition!

The expedition will also raise money for Global Angels, an innovative charity for children, which was created by Molly Bedingfield, mother of singer Natasha Bedingfield, in 2004.

How Will Bear Grylls Cross The Northwest Passage?

Bear Grylls will be traveling on the Arctic Wolf, a 37 foot (11.2 meters) long, “rigid inflatable boat” (see photo). The boat is a Zodiac Mach II – Military Air Channeled Hull manufactured by Zodiac Military and Professional Boats. Their description:

Considered the finest craft of their type in the world, the Zodiac Hurricane range of RIBs are used by the most knowledgeable and discriminating operators who demand the utmost in ruggedness and reliability. RIBs combine the security, stability, light weight and ease of use of traditional inflatables with the speed and comfort of a rigid boat. True “go anywhere” boats, they provide exceptional marine qualities combining a low centre of gravity to a deep V hull and a stabilizing buoyancy tube.

A “stock version” is fitted with three 300 horsepower engines, two fuel tanks which hold 1000 liters, and can travel over 55 knots, or nautical miles per hour. One knot is 1.15 MPH, or 1.85 km/h.

Bear Grylls and his team will have a customized version that includes:

• larger fuel tanks
• a canvas covering
• heaters
• additional storage

Arctic Wolf will also have a shock absorbing console built by Shock Mitigation which manufactures products “to make a violent collision or impact less intense.” Watch the Shock Mitigation Extreme RIB Video, to see a smaller RIB, operating in rip tide conditions.

Future Fuels Team : Northwest Passage Expedition

Bear Grylls and his team, expect to travel 5700 miles, at speeds of 18-38 knots, in two weeks. You can see an aerial view of their route.

Good Luck to Bear Grylls and his team!

Where Is Bear Grylls Now?

Bear Grylls finished filming Worst Case Scenario last week, and is working on Man vs. Wild : Season 5 in Russia, Australia, and an unnamed desert island.