Post #211053 by stentiki on Sat, Jan 28, 2006 11:08 AM

Aloha gang,

During my recent recovery from open heart surgery, I've worked diligently toward a new life again. By drastically altering my lifestyle with diet and exercise, I have made amazing progress and you'll be happy to know that I am still enjoying the occasional Mai Tai now and then. :)

I've also been taking ukulele lessons through the city of HB which has brought me great joy and has become a new passion of mine. Just by chance, I ended up sitting next to the co-founder of Ukes for Troops, Anita Coyoli-Cullen. We had never met before but we immediately struck up a friendship. Several weeks after I met Anita, she suffered a heart attack and had quintuple bypass surgery. Like me, she was also far to young to suffer from heart disease. Life is strange. Fortunately for Anita, she is on the road to recovery as well and continues her efforts with Ukes for Troops.

Some of you know Shirley from Island Bazaar in HB who is also the co-founder of Ukes for Troops and has been so instrumental in the efforts. There's a great article today about Ukes for Troops in the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ukes28jan28

As for me I will begin the process of returning to work on a part-time basis on Feb. 1 and will take it day by day on the road to returning full time.

Finally, I want to thank you all once again for your support of the past year. I hope to meet up with you again near future.

Aloha,

Arty

"It's times like these you learn to live again" - Foo Fighters

[ Edited by: stentiki 2006-01-28 11:11 ]