--EXCERPT--
from 20th Century Un-limited
Chapter 1
"The benefits of walking , especially up a hill like that one,” Dr. Deanna Cheung had said, “Are inestimable.”
Little did she know.
Deanna was my blood pressure specialist at a clinic for such, attached to a hospital, and she insisted that I walk as much as possible, and that walking regularly would be even better than the lisinopril and amlopidine she’s prescribed and that I was taking for my moderate blood pressure issue.
“Our distant ancestors walked five to six hours a day.” Deanna pointed out. “And they ate predominantly fruits, nuts and vegetables.”
I’m pretty good with produce, eat a lot. But I forebore from mentioning that our distant ancestors were three-feet-four tall, weighed sixty pounds at most and lived until the age of about seventeen.
But the hill was there. I lived two thirds of the way up a steep hill in the West Hollywood Hills, and it went all the hell the way up, a corkscrew road, with, once you got to the top, absolutely dizzying views.