Volks,

Thanks very much for the kindnesses, the voices of concern, and the
well-wishes that have been expressed, both on list and off. I am
functioning and making progress. Please now get on with the business of
Vanagon business.

But before closing, a few words:

My life has been a bit different.

I fair t-boned a compact car with the Red Brick(vanagon content) -
nobody hurt, minimal damage to the brick, more to the compact. I have
been in three airplane wrecks which totaled the airplanes - not air to
ground crashes but where airplanes out of control ran into something on
the ground. I have had helicopter pilots transitioning to fixed wing
aircraft try to hover the trainer planes 5 to 7 feet in the air, only to
drop very hard to the t\runway, thus bending things. blowing tires. I
have had parts fall from airplanes in flight, I have put two airplanes
on their backs in landing incidents, I have flown a Cessna 180 on skis
through an outside loop - not because I wanted to, but as a disparate
measure to avoid a certain killing crash. I have had turbofan engines
automatically shut down on the airplane while on the takeoff roll where
liftoff would have  put me over a 600 foot drop into the sea. I have had
a really pissed off loon attack me and my kayak. Of course I brought it
on by playing a tape recording of his own voice back to him. I don't
know what the tape said, but boy did he get mad.! I have eaten a
porcupine with no ill effects, I have eaten Eskimo "Stinky Fish" with
ill effects(don't ask - bad memories), I  have had the privilege of
hunting with  the Yupik Eskimo people. I been chased by one of the most
dangerous animals in Alaska - a cow moose with a calf. . Lightening has
struck my place three times - once burning the paint off the metal front
door and frying the overhead lamp and fan in my living room, once
blowing all the siding off my barn/shop all the way around d the base of
the building, and once hitting my oak tree and me at the same time -
killing the tree, but sparing  me, and my latest performance was to
have  a heart attack!

Life has been an adventure for me!

I ain't even a'gonna ask "what's next?"! I might get struck by
lightening - again! Or worse.. :-)

Gad! You gotta be tough to be old!

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

John Rodgers wrote:
> Vanagon content:  I drove myself in the Red Brick to the clinic at the
> VA hospital to see the PC. I was rushed to the ER. The rest is history.
>
> Today I got out and did some walking. First time since getting out of
> the hospital for a heart attack. All went well.
>
> I had heavy pressure in the chest, difficulty breathing, pain in the
> right and left sides of the jaw, pain in my teeth. Classic heart attack
> symptoms. Spent five days in the hospital getting worked over, then the
> docs came and said I showed no heart damage of any kind, that I seemed
> to have suffered some sort of stress related heart event, and I should
> take the pills they gave me to prevent such a thing from happening
> again. AND to lose 80 lbs.
>
> At this point, I feel great!
>
> It was an adventure.
>
> I think I am going on vacation.
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver
> Chelsea, AL
>
>