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.

Defense

Giants gave up 40+ points five times last season. They also alienated Chief Osi Umenyiora, their best defensive player.

On the positive side, the Defensive Coordinator has been replaced, and the Defensive Captain, who seemed to miss most of his post ticker-tape parade tackles, has retired.

Offense

Let’s hope Brandon Jacobs, stays healthy, and Eli Manning does not waste another great season.

Giants were ranked near the bottom of “Red Zone Offense” — NFL’s most important offensive statistic. How did Giants, a supposedly smart organization, try to fix this?

Offensive coordinator, Kevin Gilbride, hired his son, Kevin Gilbride, Junior, as an assistant Coach.

Special Teams

Sadly, Domenik Hixon, NFL’s second most productive kickoff returner last season, tore his ACL, and was placed on injured waivers.

Don’t Forget!

See When Are 2010-2011 NY Giants on TV? for schedules and results.

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

I try to write about ancient stuff, before our daughters were born. I always wanted to know what my Dad was doing before I was born, and presume that it will interest our daughters, and the thousands of people, who will eventually read this article.

Ancient History

I met Jayne on a 1981 Friday night, at Mickey’s bar, in TriBeCa. Mickey’s closed two weeks after we met, and ironically became a gay heath club. We lived in a large, one bedroom apartment, on Riverside Drive, with a piano, and an eight-foot Brunswick Heirloom pool table in our living room.

TriBeCa was trendy, but it was not expensive at that time. After Mickey’s closed, three of the bartenders (Ace, Gary, and ?) were able to open The Raccoon Lodge, which is still open, two blocks away.

Jayne and I liked going there on Sunday afternoons, when it was nearly empty. We always sat at the far end of the bar, near the pool table, usually with Annie and Rob.

Annie was a thirtyish elementary school teacher, who was friendly with Jayne. Annie lived in a large loft, on the fourth floor of a converted warehouse, that you reached in a manual elevator — it moved when you pulled on cloth covered rope.

I liked Annie, but I did not spend much time with her. I chiefly recall that she sewed her own blouses and skirts, and came to our apartment a few times to play with Jayne’s sewing machine.

What Happened to Rob Anthony?

I enjoyed playing pool with Rob. Rob was a very good player, and also popular with women, partly because of his looks, but mainly, because he was a nice guy. Rob was almost always happy, too.

Rob Anthony looked like a soap star, except for a small bald spot on top of his head, and crow’s feet, around his eyes – from 40 years of happy living. Rob built expensive custom cabinets, in a small basement workshop, just south of Canal Street. But his love was his theater company — I wish I could remember its name.

Incidentally, I would like to know if Rob is still alive, because I could not find him with Google.

Not so incidentally, my back is starting to hurt, very badly, so I will make this quick.

Rob was unhappy one day. He had a sold-out, six-day production, opening in two days, and his piano player, who was the entire orchestra, just broke his arm. I challenged my wife, who always bragged, “I can play whatever I can read, and I can read everything,” to fill in. Jayne took a day off work, to practice, and performed admirably. I cannot recall the name of the play, only that there was a lot of piano background music.

Nevertheless, I can clearly recall, the first time Jayne met Rob at Raccoon Lodge, after her performances. Rob was beaming, and bought us drinks. He removed a small leather notebook from his jacket, and was about to say something to Jayne, when she held up a finger, and said:

Don’t ask me to do that again

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