Pacemaker

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Every year sometime in late January, Dixie and Mark come to visit us. To keep his professional engineering license current, Mark needs to take some continuing education courses and he chooses to get them in January at the World of Concrete Convention in Las Vegas. This year they were going to do the convention first and then arrive at our house on January 22. On the morning of January 22 Dixie called me and told me that they weren’t going to be there that day but hopefully they would get there the next day, Friday.

They were between classes and Mark was visiting with a fellow in a vendors booth and he felt dizzy and was looking for a place to sit down. He walked out of the booth and that is the last thing he remembers. He woke up in the hospital.

They tried to revive him but he was very delirious and talking nonsense so they called an ambulance. The paramedics hauled him off to the Sunrise Hospital. One of the security staff (or maybe a paramedic) used Marks finger to open his phone and called Dixie who was back in the hotel room. I assume they got Dixies name from Marks wallet.

Mark has already had two heart attacks, so it isn’t hard to imagine where Dixie’s mind went when she got a call from Marks phone and a womans voice askes if this is Reynold Hansens wife. Mark never goes by Reynold. Dixie rushed to the hospital and they spent the day going through a myriad of tests and none of them showed any signs of problems. Finally, at the end of the day when they were about to discharge Mark, the doctor decided to keep him over night for observation and there was one more test they wanted to do the next morning.

In the morning they did the final test. From what I can tell, they strapped him to a bed, moved him around a bit and then stood him up and made him stand there for thirty minutes after which they then fed him a nitro pill. He immidiatley passed out. This time his heart was being monitored and they saw that it stopped beating for nine seconds. They decided to give him a pacemaker.

Mark has been having dizzy spells for several months now and that could be explained by a heart that stops beating now and then. It was now Friday and they scheduled the surgery for Saturday morning. Lisa asked me if I thought I should head to Vegas to be with my sister. My first thought was that they would be fine but later that day I changed my mind. No one wants to sit alone in a waiting room while their loved one is having surgery. While the surgery is now fairly routine, they are sticking probes into his heart and that seems scary to me.

I picked up the kids from school, packed and then headed north. I got there around 11:00pm. It was plenty of time to get a good sleep, but of course Dixie and I just visited until way too late. We got up early on Saturday morning because even though the surgery was scheduled at 8:00, the doctor was going to be going over everything at 6:30 or some unearthly hour.

The surgery went well and we were all happy expecting Mark to be released Sunday morning. We stayed in Marks room pretty much the entire day just visiting and it was really nice.

Marks room had a great view of the strip but all the nurses and orderlies kept apologizing because the parking structure next door had just been demonlished. Mark assured them that to him this was a beautiful view because he loved seeing how the concrete beams from the 1950’s were constructed and how they differed from concrete structures today. Mark made his way to the window and he was showing me how the rebar was positioned in the beam and how it had a tensile strength of something like 260,000psi. I found it quite fascinating.

I think I annoyed the surgion and several of the nurses when I kept playing with all their equipment and asking a ton of questions. I kept a close eye on Marks vitals just to make sure he was not going to die on us. I was frustrated though because most of the outputs were sent to displays at the nurses desk where I couldn’t see them. I did get his bed all figured out though. They even had it alarmed so that if he got out of bed it set off an alarm.

Mark and Dixie have a tradition that on their last night in Vegas they go out for a fancy meal. Since this wasn’t going to happen with Mark, Dixie invited me to this fancy meal. We ended up at Dixie’s favorite steak house, Bob Taylors Ranch House. It was rather expensive, but as it happens, Dixie and I have the exact same tastes in a steak. Rib Eye steak done medium. We split a steak and it was perfect for both of us.

We arrived at the hospital expecting to take Mark home but apparantly at some point during the night one of his probes had been dislodged so he went back into surgery to get it repositioned. Everything went well and once he was back in his room and coherent I had to hug them both and say goodbye. Mark was discharged Monday morning.

--------------------trivia-------------------

They founders of Hi-Z developed a thermoelectric battery that used Pu-238 as a heat source. It was used to power pacemakers and would outlast the patient. Due to concerns of cremation and the fact that mentioning the word "plutomium" freaked people out, it was never fully adopted.

 ---------------------------------------------

Medals

Tuesday, January 23, 2026

Last year, I think on Fathers Day, Lisa gave me a hook that can be anchored to the wall. Along with it, she gave me all of my medals from the many running events that I have taken part in. The medals had been scattered around the house and I had no idea where many of them were. This bag sat in my bedroom for months, but, as we were putting our house back together after Christmas, she told me it was time to hang up my medals and she suggested where it should go. I did just that, and what a wonderful trip down memory lane it was. I figured it is time to document all my runs. Most of them have dates on them but where there are several medals in the same year I may get my story mixed up. In any case, you will see how much fun I’ve had.

2011

This is the very first medal I ever received, and my very first run. I had talked often to Alan Bird about marathons, and then one day he invited me to join his Ragnar Relay team. It was a blast and I’ve never looked back. I believe the So Cal races are always held in the the spring.

2012a

This was twenty four years ago so I don’t remember any details but it was another Southern California Ragnar Relay. Back then, the race began in Huntington Beach, went inland and then down the I-15 corridor to get around Camp Pendleton and then back to the beach somewhat paralleling highway 78 back to the coast and then roughly followed the beach through downtown and around the south end of the San Diego bay and ended at Silver Strand beach. One of my favorite memories is running through down town Fallbrook around 10:00 pm. I ran right through tables in front of a restaurant. I ran around people who were enjoying their meals. Such fun.

2012b

At some point in 2012, some of my kids (probably Justin) decided to sign up for the St George Marathon. After having run two Ragnars, I figured I was finally ready for a marathon. Running a marathon was something that had been on my bucket list for sometime, so I was very excited. There were two groups of us and I don’t know who was with which group but the runners as I remember them was me, Justin, Ben, Alycia, Sam and Sarah. I trained diligently for the race but some of the others not so much. Many of them were hurting after the race but I felt great. Alycia and I may have been the slowest but we were in no pain.

I’m not sure how it worked out, but Alycia and I trained together often getting ready for this race. We were in Provo a lot and we ran together and she was in San Diego a lot and we ran together. We also ran together for the entire race. I think my favorite training run was down Provo Canyon. I think Sam and Sarah were with us on that run.

Alycia and I started out great and ran pretty much the entire race until about mile tweny one. The last five miles were rough. Throughout the race, if I was slacking Alycia encouraged me and if she was failing I encouraged her. What a fun marathon. We were just a few minutes over 5 hours and I know we could have made those minutes up if we’d know how close we were.

When I saw that the medal was just a rock I was a little dissappointed. All they did was take a drill core and slice it into pieces. Looking at it now, I love it. I think this is one of my favorite medals (stones) and I look at it fondly.

2013

I think this was a race that I tried to organize. Not a good decision, it is rough trying to get twelve people to commit to a 200 mile race. I think this might be the one where Mom, Ben and Kira ran with me. That was fun.

2015a

It looks like I never got a race in during 2014 but we sure made up for it in 2015. Kira and Justin invited us to go on a Disney Cruise with them in January of 2015. That was so much fun. Better yet, we started the trip out with a Marathon. Actually, I think Justin ran a 10K, a half Marathon and a full marathon all in the same weekend. I think they call it a Goofy. I imagine they chose that name because you had to be Goofy to do something like that.

I have a very fond memory from this race. I could see Cinderellas castle in the distance. As I approached it the sun was just rising. It was dark enough that the castle was still lit up with this beautiful blue glow but it was also light enough that I could see clearly. As I approached the castle I could see two princesses on a balcony just above the road and as I ran under the castle and below the balcony the two princesses both waved at me. It made me feel good. I loved it.

2015b

Later in that same year we ran a Ragnar in Las Vegas. We started in the mountains northwest of Vegas, ran through the city and ended up in Henderson. We ran right by Justins Aunt and Uncle so we stopped by and had a middle of the night snack.

2015c

This was a good year because we managed to squeeze in a third run. Disney had a deal that if you run a marathon in Disney World and a Half Marathon in Disneyland in the same year, then you get a special medal.

I’m not sure how it happened but I managed to get a starting coral way ahead of Justin. I think he may have been late getting his information submitted. That made it fun because he caught up with me about half way through the race. We ran together for a mile or two until he got bored and then left me in his dust. This was an avengers themed race so I wore a Hulk T Shirt.

2015d

This is the special medal we got for running the two races.

2016a

I got two very fun runs in 2016. The first one was the Wasatch Back Ragnar relay and the second one was the Las Vegas relay. The Wasatch back ran through the mountains from North of Heber City and ended in Heber. I think Mom may have run this race with us.

2016b

The Wasach Back was the very first Ragnar Relay race. Later in 2016 we ran the Las Vegas Ragnar a second time.

They also gave you a little clip that you could use to clip your two medals together.

2016c

We picked this race because if you ran the Wasatch Back and the Vegas race in the same year you got a Saints and Sinners medal. It is very cool because it reads the same whether it is upside down or right side up. I guess there is no upside or downside.

2017a

This year was a real bumper crop. I got six medals this year.

I don’t remember the order of them but, according to this medal, one of them was another SoCal Ragnar. The SoCal runs are really amazing. The scenery is beautiful, the weather is beautiful and we can sleep in my house.

This might be the race where our team got a warning. Kira was running through LaJolla along the beach and we would drive ahead of her and cheer her on and then drive ahead and repeat it. At some point I think I ran through a water puddle and splashed a runner. They must have report us.

Or maybe it was because Justin and his friends kept stealing hats.

2017b

I have absolutely no memory of this medal. I don’t know where it was or what kind of Ragnar it was but it says 2017 so I must of got it somewhere.

2017c

And then there was the Spartan super. Ben likes to mix things up so he suggested we run a spartan. The spartan likes to add an obstacle course to the run. Going off my memory, I remember that Me, Ben, Brandon, Alex and Frank ran this race.

There are three levels of Spartans, the sprint, the super and the beast (or Ultra). If you look at my medal you can see a pie shaped piece behind it. You get one of those for each of the three races and you can put the pieces together to make another medal called the trifecta.

The spartan had a dozen or so obstacles and they were all fun except for the ones where you had to go hand over hand on monkey bars. I couldn’t do those. I was one of the few in our group to climb the rope though so I get some bragging rights.

2017d

And then there was the San Francisco Ragnar. Sarah and Sam joined us for this race. Just before the race, we all got notified that it was cancelled due to major brush fires in the area. The air quality was bad and the race course went right through the middle of the fire.

They told us that if we showed up, we could get our medals even if we didn’t run. We all had our tickets so we decided to show up and make the best of it.

Our first night there someone smashed the windows out of our car and stole all our luggage so we were off to a poor start. Luckily the police found all our stuff dumped in an ally and we recovered most of what was taken.

We toured the Alcatraz jail which was pretty cool.

2017e

We also found out that there was a half marathon that crossed the San Francisco bridge that weekend so we signed up for that. I got to run across the San Francisco bridge and back. I ran with Kira the whole way and it was amazing.

2017f

Perhaps the best part of the weekend was the Lard Butt 1K. This was another race that we entered that weekend. This was a 1K race and they had donut stations every so often with all you can eat donuts. It was amazing and a lot of fun.

2018a

This was another great year. I got three medals this year.

Kira and Justin invited us on another cruise so of course we had to run another Disney World Marathon. Apparantly, this year was also the twenty fifth anniversary of Disney World so the medal is very cool. Probably my favorite medal of them all.

2018b

They also had a short fun 5K run on Castaway Cay. Disney bought an island in the Bahamas. It was nothing but a small, barren and deserted island but Disney used desalinated water from the cruiseship and they have converted a corner of the island into an island paradise. They have a runway and a few short paved trails that they use to hold a 5K race.

2018c

If you run the 5K and the marathon in Disney World then they give you this cool looking medal. The medal is made of rubber but still very cool.

2019a

Back in 2012 when we all signed up for the St George Marathon, Alex was still on his mission. No one felt that it would be fair to commit him to a marathon, but when he got home and realized that we were all running a marathon he was understandably upset. Oh well, it was too late now. Six years later he decided he was going to run a marathon and he signed up for the San Diego Rock & Roll marathon.

I had just ran a marathon but after a marathon I usually take a break for a few months before I start running again. When I realized that no one was going to run with Alex I figured that maybe I could get up to speed in time. I wasn’t quite ready by the time the marathon rolled around but Alex hadn’t trained at all so I figured I could stay with him OK.

Things went great for the first ten miles. It was a ton of fun because every few miles they had a band playing on the side of the road for us. We also ran through some residential areas and every one was out on the street cheering us on. Some where around the ten mile mark Alex started feeling bad for me. He was obviously holding me back and he finally convinced me to go on ahead and leave him behind. Reluctantly I headed on without him.

Queen Lisa and Princess Lisa tried a couple of times to wait and cheer us on and somewhere around the twenty mile mark they were successful and I stopped for a minute or two to hug them both and say hi. Imagine my shock and dismay when they told me that Alex was a good ten or fifteen minutes ahead of me. Neither one of us has a clue how that happened. Oh well.

Shortly after hugging the Lisa’s I was running up the 163 hill going into Balboa park. That was pretty cool. I say running but by this time I was not in any shape to “run” up a hill like that one. As we were “walking” up the hill I heard people around me talking about a person with a gun at the finish line. We were all wondering if we would be able to finish the run.

As it turned out, Alex was actually held back for a few mintues before they set up an alternative finish line and not too long afterwards I ran into the alternative finish line. The “shooter” turned out to be distraught woman with an airsoft gun.

2019b

Later that year Justin and his buddies invited me to join them in another try at the Wasatch back. I think this might be the Wasatch back that mom joined us. It is all so confusing looking back, but mom was with us on one of the two wasatch backs that I ran.

2021

It looks like I never ran any races in 2020, probably due to covid, but during covid I had more time on my hands and ran in the canyon almost daily. It is weird to say it, but I have very fond memories of Covid for a number of reasons. My carefee life is one of them.

As life was getting back to normal, Sarah decided that she wanted to run a half marathon and Brandon and I went out to join her in the race.

Sarah was anxious to get a good time so she ran on ahead and Brandon and I ran together. It was a lot like when Alycia and I ran that first marathon together. When I was weak he encouraged me and when he was weak I encouraged him. We got a pretty good time if I remember right. It was a fun run.

2022a

In 2022 it was Alycia’s turn to want to run. She invited everyone to join her in a run through Snow Canyon. This time the Palmers decided to join us. In the end, for some reason that I can’t remember, Evan and Landon bailed on us and it was just Kira, Piper and Cameron.

They had many events for all ages so I think Mom ran with Cameron in a short fun run, Piper ran a 5K and I ran with Kira and Alycia. Alycia hadn’t trained well so she set a goal to make it through the park without stopping to walk but in the end all three of us made it to within a few miles of the finish line. At that point Alycia stopped to walk and Kira and I ran to the end.

As far as being properly prepared for the run, this was the race where I was most ready. I felt the best, I got my best time and I ran with two of my girls. What a fun day.

2022b

Later in that year we signed up for a Ragnar Trail run. As far as the running goes, this was one of my more enjoyable runs. I love to run on trails and this was all trails. You have a team of eight people instead of twelve and you have a base camp where everyone stays together. In theory I think this would be my favorite type of Ragnar because the entire team is together in this one camp but, as it turned out, every one scattered and we hardly saw some of the people in our group. At least in a road run you are trapped in the car.

The runs were amazing and I was in good shape and ran them all quite fast. Well, fast for me at least. I do think the medal is stupid. If I wanted a wooden medal I could make that myself in ten minutes on a laser burner.

2023

The race that started all the long relay runs is the “Hood to Coast”. It starts in Mt Hood and you run through Portland and end up at the coast. It is roughly 200 miles and many companies have copied them.

Hood to Coast has stuck with just this one run and it is beautiful. Justin, Kira, Alex and I all signed up along with Justins regular running friends but in the end only about half of us actually ended up going.

While it was dissappointing, in the end it turned out to be an amazing run. We all picked three runs that we wanted to do and we blocked out a good eight hours of sleep, we all piled into one van and away we went. So much fun.

As we normally do, while we were there we checked out all the things to see. The Goonies was filmed in Astoria near Portland so we checked out the Goonie house and the jail that was used in the movie. We went and checked out the Tilamook Creamery which was far more interesting than I thought it would be and then after everyone else left, Kira, Justin and I all went up the Columbia river and checked out four or five amazing waterfalls that are close to the highway. They were all spectacular.

2025

It looks like I didn’t get a race in 2024 but the race last year was another SoCal race and it was very revealing to all of us.

In the last fourteen years since we have been running together, we have all gotten older and slower. Personally, I haven’t slowed any because I was always slow but the fast guys always made up for it. Let me see if I can name all the people who have run with me. Many of these people have only run once or twice but others have run every single time. Justin is the magnet in these events. If I miss anyone please remind me so I can correct my journal.

Fred Leavitt
Lisa Leavitt
Justin Palmer
Kira Palmer
Brandon Leavitt
Ben Leavitt
Alycia Crowley
Alex Leavitt
Lisa Leavitt
Sam Taylor
Sarah Taylor
Brian Palmer
Jared Palmer
Chelsey Meyer
Shane Walton
Stacey Walton
Dave Holland
Joli Holland
Matt Smith
Sheena Smith
Chris Orr
Lanny Leavitt
Luke Haberman
Bethany Haberman
Kyla Conway
Crystal Chandler
Julie Walker
Angie Palmer
Carter Palmer
Logan Palmer
Dallin Lacock
Pat Carey
Teresa Walker
Katy MacKay
Frank Crijger
Cathrine

When we started running together thirteen years ago, these guys were fast. When you register for a race you need to include your pace and if you are a slow team they have you start early on Friday morning and if you are a fast team then you can start later. Ideally, everyone hits the finish line at the same time on Saturday afternoon.

As the years have gone by our start time has been earlier and earlier. This year we had to start very early. As we were running our second time, the run during the night, a Ragnar offical stopped our team and told us that we were one of the last people in the race and that we would have to start skipping legs in order to catch up. Shane even went out and bought an electric scooter to use on his legs. Jared called his sons who live in Temecula and convinced them to come and run some legs (they were fast). Kira, Alex and I all ran together on one of our runs. In the end we finished at a decent time.

I guess the lesson from this run is that unless we recruit some faster runners we will need to modify our races.

So that is the story behind my medals. I smile every time I look at my rack full of medals.

--------------------trivia--------------------

The earliest recorded instance of a medal-like honor dates back to the 3rd century B.C. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus recounted that after the high priest Jonathan led the Hebrews to assist Alexander the Great in battle, Alexander rewarded him with a golden button—a token typically reserved for the king’s kinsmen.

----------------------------------------------

Farewell

January 2, 2026

On Friday morning we fed everyone a pancake breakfast and they all hit the road. It was suddenly very quiet in the house and we started to undecorate. We got most of the place cleaned up on that day but it took a couple weeks to get the place back in order. What a fun time it was. We sure missed Sarah and Brandon and their families.

New Years Eve

December 31, 2025

Wednesday was New Years Eve and we decided to head for Legoland. As it turned out, this was the day that the rain decided to show up. For the most part it was just a drizzle off and on all day long and we were able to have a good time. They did shut down the roller coasters which made no sense to me but we had fun. The good thing is that we got rain day passes so we can come again. I’m sure either Alex or Alycia will be back within the year so I’m sure we will use them.

They had two sets of cars, small ones for the little kids and bigger ones for the bigger kids. June and James were having a ball on these cars.

Adelaide however wasn’t quite getting the hang of it. Somehow she managed to get around the first curve but then she got stuck in a corner and that is where she remained for th remainder of the ride. You can see her there in the back in this picture.

Ella, Sawyer and Holden were in the big cars. They took the driving very seriously.

Mom and I and Alex’s family headed home and Alycia and Trevor spent the night at the Legoland Hotel and did the park again the next day on New Years day. It turned out to be a beautiful day. When they were done at the park they came home and spent the evening with us.

The most exciting thing that we saw that day was a bobcat on our deck in the backyard.

That was exciting because earlier in the week we had a coyote walking on our wall.

--------------------trivia--------------------

In a cave system that spans over 106 square kilometers spanning over greece and Albania is a spider web crawling with over one hundred thousand spiders. 

-----------------------------------------------

 

 

A Day to Unwind

December 30, 2025

Tuesday was a day to unwind. Since Alycia and Bens families missed out on rockets we headed up to Black Mountain park and fired some more rockets off and then both Kira and her kids and Ben and his kids all left us. It was just Alex and Alycia and their families.

--------------------trivia--------------------

As you get older you sneeze louder
-----------------------------------------------

Beach Day

December 29, 2025

Monday we went to the beach. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. The water was freezing but because the day was so nice we didn’t mind.

It was a normal beach but instead of building a sand castle Alex brought a hot wheels track and cars. It looks like no one got a picture of it, but we basically built a large hill, constructed a castle on top of the hill, and ran the track out the castle gate and down the hill. It actually worked pretty good but the least bit of sand on the track messed up the cars. With all those kids it was impossible to keep the track clean.

We went boogie boarding, threw the frisbee, ate junk food and then went home.

There was another beautiful sunset so mom dragged the kids out onto the deck and took some more pictures. 

Every time the grandkids visit they love to play the piano. This time it was a special treat because Trevor was actually playing some real music and he was helping Zanee make some decent music as well. At one point they called me in and Z and I played a simple little duet that I always played with the kids. It was fun.

--------------------trivia--------------------

Nine days after Star Wars opened in 1977, Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi) wrote in his diary: ‘Am pinning my hopes on Star Wars percentage which could bring me £100K or more if it does Jaws business, as predicted.’ He ended up earning an estimated $95 million for what amounted to 20 minutes of screen time.

----------------------------------------------

Hotel Del

December 28, 2026

On Sunday Justin and Evan had to head out. Evan has a new car and he has almost completed the requirements to get a drivers license that will let him drive it. All he has left is some driving time with an instructer in the vehicle he will be driving. He wants to complete that before he heads back to Auburn. So they headed back to Chandler and the rest of us headed to Seal Beach (Childrens Beach) and then to Hotel Dell.

I’m kind of torn on Seal Beach. It was constructed so that the children could have a sheltered beach to play on and then it was gifted to the city with that condition but now that the seals decided they like the place they won’t allow anyone to use it. That used to annoy me but then one time Alycia said to me, “but dad, there are a lot of nice beaches for the kids. How many places can we come and watch the seals this close?” She is right and it is especially cool during pupping season. We checked out seal beach and agreed that it was cool and then we headed on to the Hotel Dell.

We got to the Hotel Dell an hour or two before sunset. After checking out the big Christmas tree and the hotel itself we headed to the beach. That is what the grandkids all wanted to see and our timing was perfect for a beautiful sunset.

I think we all decided that it was a good time to take a bunch of pictures. I also decided to take a picture of each of my four kids who were there.

And of course, they always have their sandcastles. They had several this time and they were all pretty good.

-----------------------trivia--------------------

The fastest animal in the world is the Brazilian free tailed bat if you only count speeds made under your own power. The perigren falcon is basically falling. 

-------------------------------------------------