Life Gets In The Way

Summer highlight having the family together in Canada.

 The summer isn’t officially over yet but having moved into September it can definitely be classified as being on life support. This has truly been the summer from hell. Easily one of the hardest summers of my life and that’s saying a lot for me.

Going into the summer I was feeling great. I had lost over 170 pounds, was working out daily, work was going well, family was doing fine and the thought of feeling the heat of the sun on my face again was something I was looking forward to. The only thing that didn’t look promising was my love life which in all honesty hasn’t been much to cheer about for a very long time.

I don’t mind sharing my own personal thoughts and life story with all of you because I like to think I’m a pretty open book. There are some family things that will always remain as private as possible. I try to walk a fine line between being honest and protecting those I love.

The one big reason why I’ve been neglecting my blog this summer revolves around my father who was diagnosed with kidney cancer and not the kind that can be cured. It’s Stage 4 renal cell carcinoma and unfortunately it has moved out of his only remaining kidney and into his lungs.

Quite simply, it devastated us when we learned the news as I’m sure it does for most families. My dad is my best friend and the toughest man I’ve ever known and he’s wearing a brave face through all of this but knowing what he is facing in the months ahead scares me and I’m sure behind his brave face he is also feeling some fear. But I made a decision to spend as much time as I can with him and keep life as normal as possible which I think I’ve been pretty successful at doing.

The support of family and friends has been pretty amazing to see and I know my dad and mom both appreciate the kindness of those who have closed ranks around us at this time.

Of course with all that is happening in my family it has taken up a lot of my free time which I’m perfectly fine with. But my plans to be more active this summer by golfing more and walking and running more has suffered. I haven’t golfed nearly as much this summer as I have in past years and as far as my health goes, the summer has taken a bit of a toll on that as well.

I postponed my gym membership for July and August which means a lot of the progress I had made last winter with my weight lifting and fitness has been lost. I’m still in pretty decent shape but I’ve lost a lot of the muscle tone I had built and I’m sure some of that muscle has also turned into fat again. Thus, my weight has increased some this summer. That’s not to say I’ve ballooned up again but I’d say I gained about 20 pounds at one point.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to ease back into my old routine again and the pounds have started dropping again and I’ve returned to my original goal weight. Come the middle of September my gym membership will kick in and I hope to be back pumping iron and burning more fat.

My love life this summer has been interesting at times. Perhaps I should just dedicate a whole other blog to that subject as it’s kinda interesting how times have changed since I used to date years ago.

So I’m sort of back writing again but as usual I’m sure life will throw me some curveballs and I won’t be able to write as often as I’d like but I’ll do my best.

Wild Winter Needs To End

What a crazy winter this has been and as of today there really doesn't appear to be any end in sight to the madness.

Normally I can handle the snow but the cold weather is what usually bothers me. This year however we've seen higher snowfall amounts combined with the frigid temperatures and I'm nearing my breaking point. The thoughts of going "Postal" are creeping in. Okay, not really but I've had enough of it.

I've lost count the number of times I've had to shovel the driveway or use the snow-blower since November. I've had to replace one rear window in my car that blew out one night the mercury dipped to minus 30 and I picked a good time in my life to start lifting weights because it came in handy when I spent three straight days chipping four and five inches of ice out of the driveway and the walkway.

I'm not a skier and I don't own a snowmobile. I don't like ice fishing and while I'm sure those who do enjoy these activities have had a wonderful winter season, I truly hope their fun is about to end.

The only interesting thing that has come from all of this cold weather is the ice formations on Lake Ontario. The Great Lakes have seen nearly all of their surface area covered in ice this winter which hasn't happened in a very long time.

At Presqu'ile the waves combined with the cold have created some impressive ice volcanoes and formations that are really quite something to see. In recent years on my visits to the park there wasn't much ice at all but this year really made up for it.

I'm not one to venture out on to the ice because I just don't trust what's happening underneath it but even from the shoreline I was able to get a few photos of life in the winter at the park. But I won't lie, the green grass and leaves on the trees can't come soon enough for me.
 

Hello Again, I'm Not Dead

I wasn't lying on my last blog posting when I said I might be away for a bit. A month and a half since my last posting but you haven't missed a whole lot. Okay, that's not entirely true but certainly nothing earth shattering.

As planned, I spent Christmas in Florida with my brother and his family. I dragged my parents along with me as well to make it a real family Christmas. The first one in many years where we've all been together.

The "Unconditional Surrender" statue in downtown Sarasota, Florida.

I won't bore you with all of the details. Suffice it to say everyone got lots of presents from Santa and we ate way too much good food. It was a great three weeks in the Sunshine State.

Well, it wasn't entirely without incidence. My poor mother after just recovering from a broken ankle last Autumn, missed a step coming down the stairs and fell again two days before Christmas. Despite her intense pain she didn't let us take her to the hospital until Boxing Day where she was diagnosed with a bad sprain and pulled ligaments but no break. Of course anyone who's had an injury like this knows, sometimes you're better off just to break it. So as it turns out, mom spent most of the vacation on the couch resting although I did drag her out a few times shopping where she could ride the electric scooters around Walmart and Target and near the end of the trip she could walk a little better.

Of course mom's injury meant she wasn't able to go to Tampa to see the Montreal Canadiens play the Lightning. So in her place went my sister-in-laws sister along with my dad, brother and sis-in-law of course. We had a terrific time and Montreal won which was a bonus

Red-shouldered Hawk in Myakka River State Park.

During the trip I got a bit of sun which was nice but the one thing I did a lot  of was shop. I spent over $1200 on mostly new clothes. Having lost all my weight my old wardrobe was no good to me. All of my old clothes were several sizes too large. I had a good time shopping.

Weight loss and body changes continue to happen.

So how did my weight loss go while on vacation? Well, as expected I gained some weight because to be completely honest, I ate like a pig. I fully expected to come home and find I'd gained 30 pounds. But when I stepped on the scale after getting back I had only gained about 14 pounds. And I'm happy to say that within a week I had dropped every pound and was back to my pre-vacation weight. I think the main reason I didn't gain more likely had to do with the fact that most mornings I would go for a good long walk and do a couple laps of a local lake. Probably about 3 miles each time.

I did get a couple opportunities to practice my photography hobby as well. I took my camera on my walk one day and got some shots of some of the local water birds like Blue Herons, Ibis, Egrets and others. Another day dad and I loaded mom into the truck our way to Myakka River State Park near Sarasota. Here I got some nice photos of lots of Alligators and was lucky enough to spot a couple of Red-shouldered Hawks.

Ibis in Flight.

It was a good trip but I was not pleased at all to return home. While away there was a brutal ice storm. The tree damage was minimal but there had to be anywhere from two to six inches of ice in the driveway. I was three days chipping it clear and shovelling the heavy ice onto the yard. And if that isn't bad enough, I just got it cleared in time as we've had several snow storms since then and have more snow on the ground than I can recall in recent memory.

Oh, and to make matters worse, the temperatures have been bitterly cold. One night at work I was sitting in my car when all of a sudden my back window exploded. The heat inside and the minus 30 temps outside didn't agree with the tempered glass. That was a fun night.

So as you can see, it has been a somewhat interesting period since my last posting but life is funny that way. Never a dull moment.