Spent a week in Cape Town, getting caught up on my midlife medical checkups.
The good news is that I'm not going deaf; apparently I just don't listen
very well(hmph, my girlfriend was right after all), there's no sign of
arthritis in my feet as I suspected (just too much toe-knuckle cracking
while I watch TV), my Blood Pressure has dropped from 140/92 when I arrived
in Kinshasa to 130/70 (somehow, life in Africa seems to agree with me; go
figure), no sign of malaria or any other parasites (who'd a believed THAT,
given some of the wacky stuff I eat), and my eyesight is still going strong
(no sign of RP, which I genetically carry and which blinded my mom). The bad
news is that my recurrent back pain is caused by three dried-out,
decomposing disks in my lower lumbar spine, and the bony protuberances on my
vertebrae are slowly fusing together, causing intermittent inflammation and
spinal constriction. The good news behind this is that, within the next few
years the disks should decompose enough to allow the vertebrae to fuse
naturally, and (along with complete loss of flexibility in my lower back), I
will no longer get back spasms. The important ingredient is that I need to
lose about 20 pounds to help facilitate this process. I have no expectation
for this to affect my fly fishing.

Oh, right; fishing. Went fishing up in Franschhoek on the Breede river, but
got skunked as the recent rains had the water all muddy and the fish were
down. Had the river to myself, seeing as the locals were wiser than I was
(and had more free time to pick their days). That entire upper-river
watershed is getting carved up for a dam to provide water for Cape Town, so
yet another beautiful river and trout habitat is going by the wayside. This
may be the last year I get to fish up there.

Heard through the grapevine that Ari has not awoken from his coma yet, but
he opened his eyes momentarily a few days ago. Don't know if it was in
response to some stimulus or not, but the general consensus is that he is
coming along, and is expected to wake up at some point and recover. I'll
keep folks posted as I find out stuff.

Off to Mauritius tomorrow, where I hear the SWFF on the reefs is completely
undeveloped and excellent. More to come.

--riverman