NOT A GRINCH!

Age and Health.  This post is Good News.  You can read on in peace.
Marvin's twin brother experienced a heart attack in January.  He is fine, but his ordeal and subsequent follow-up care served as a wake-up call to us.  How long had it been since Marvin visited the Stern Clinic?  Hmmmm. 5 years.  Time for a check-up.
The tests are far more sophisticated than they were even 5 years ago.  New tests have been added and more combined tests are performed.  Thank Goodness for SCS Insurance Benefit for Retirees.  Don't ever take that for granted!
After the nurse took him off the treadmill test when his BP spiked, we became concerned.  Well, turns out, that spike in BP was fairly normal.  After a week, Dr. Heart Specialist's secretary called to say - "He has a Perfect Heart."  It may be larger than most given the kind of work he's done all his life, but there is Not One Thing wrong with this man's heart.
It took a lot of money and days and tests to state in one sentence what I could have told them, from my perspective.
Marvin's Heart is huge with a capacity for love and tenderness like I have never experienced. He is so easily touched and moved emotionally with stories of family and sacrifice.  It is also a complicated heart, bruised and wounded through years of living. X-rays and CT scans do not reveal scar-tissue and caloused areas built up to cover pain.  His mouth sometimes betrays his heart, but who among us has not had that happen? Marvin's big, tough-guy persona and old-time, long-held value system puts a different picture out in public, sometimes, but I am here to state unequivocally, if anything is wrong with his heart, it's that it is 2 SIZES TOO LARGE.
Other Health News:
I'm fine!  Exercising and losing some stress weight, I hope.  I am cooking healthy stuff, cutting down on Diet Coke, eliminating fat-filled goey chocolate desserts, catfish and hushpuppies, and planning to live for a very long time.
Another Hallelujah health report comes from my dear friend Anita Simmons. She had been incognito for a while, but called me 2 weeks ago.  I felt like a piece of MY heart had been found and reinserted, making it whole once again. She is doing well and had a negative breast biopsy from tests last Wednesday.
Prayer requests for Lorraine Griffin.  She is fighting cancer which was well-advanced when discovered.
Try to remember that DARK CHOCOLATE is MEDICINALLY RECOMMENDED.