"Check & Double Check"

One precious and amazingly strong partner, Claudette.  Check
One beautiful son Peter                            check
One creative son Jonathan                        check
One studious son Michael                         check
One charming son Adrian                          check
One gifted daughter Miguette                     check
One inspirational daughter Alisha               check
One brilliant grandson Colby                       check
One kind and gentle granddaughter Kylie    check
One teeny weeny pending grandchild ......    check

An that is my checklist for all that is important.  They are the  priceless aspects of life that today I am immensely grateful for.

There are other things, but...sometime shit happens to "things'''

Motor homes!  Who gives a fuck!

RV garages!  Who gives a fuck!

Even this! (the inside of our garage attic!) Who gives a fuck!

I'm sitting in my own living room right next to Claudette as I type this.  I think we were perhaps one minute away from staying at a hotel tonite.  I have never felt so afraid, or so out of control my entire life.  The fire started in the motorhome.  I was running the generator just to charge the batteries, and when I came out of the house 20 minutes later to shut it off, I realized it had already stopped.  When I opened the RV door it was only to get a face full of black acrid smoke.  After a bunch of stupidity on my part I finally realized that my wife was right and called 911.  I'm pretty sure that the amazing volunteers of the Central Elgin fire department were here within 15 minutes, and thereby saved our home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I won't bore you with any more details but I needed to at least tell you about it.  Pretty hard to write a daily blog and then just pretend that one whole day never happened.....much as I'd like to do just that.

As usual my wife probably saved our house as much as the firefighters.  And as usual she was a tower of strength the whole day.  I'm still feeling totally overwhelmed, and what's oh so difficult for me, I feel totally out of control.

I'm gonna try very hard to focus on all those important things I mentioned earlier, and let the insurance people hopefully do the right thing by us.  Of course we will never recover our costs, especially regarding the motorhome, but it is what it is.

And did I mention the good people from three local volunteer fire departments!!!  There was one very special one amongst them who's name I never got.  I think Kylie will remember him forever though.  After all.  He gave her "Sparky the Dalmation"!

And all's well, that ends with well, with my family well!!  Colby, in case you're wondering, will only find out when he gets back from camp in a week.  I'm gad he wasn't here. 

And I got no ambition to find an appropriate quote for this post, but if you have one I would live to hear from you. Peace!

Love

Peter

"Happy Birthday Sonny"

I think the pic is about 30 years old.  The boy himself is 34 as of today, and soon to be a proud poppa himself!  Happy birthday Jonathan Michael Rooyakkers.  Your life is just beginning.

Love
Peter

"Long Freakin Day"

But the end is drawing near!

My day started out at 9 am at Sally's lawyers office, where I put in motion the documents to finally close out her estate; 11 months after her death.  Still one final hurdle to cross, but for all intents and purposes, the work is done.  Hopefully just one more meeting with the beneficiaries, and I will be able to eliminate that stressor from my life.  The end is drawing near.  Woohoo!

After I got back I got organized and headed out for my long workout.  That took quite a bit longer than the legal consultation.  By the time I finished it was after 5 pm!!

And I think it went okay.  I definitely didn't feel very strong right from the start but the good thing is that my endurance seemed fine.  Because I felt tired, I was cautious throughout. and managed to finish my 160 kms without flagging too much.  I was faster than last week, but produced less power.  That would imply that today's route was a bit easier.

I didn't hold out much hope for my follow up walk/run however, but even that wasn't too bad.  I had to guess at my distance because my watch quit at about 3 kms, which also meant I didn't know just how slow I was going.  Maybe that's a good thing?  I did stick with my walk/run throughout however. I could time that fairly well just by counting my steps.

And now it's 8 pm and I am bagged.  Next week will be a little easier, and then one or two more long ones.  I still have not decided which.  I will try to err on the side of caution.  Either way, the end is drawing near.

Six weeks from Sunday!!

ride 160 kms, 28.3 kms/hr   walk/run 8 kms

....and here's a couple of good ones about the "big end'

"It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are."---Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'."---Erma Bombeck

Love
Peter

"Mental Health Day"

Gotta get to bed.  Long ride tomorrow.

Love

Peter

"Grampa"

Yes?
Can you get me some breakfast?
Yes.
Can you help me fold this paper?
Yes.
Can you help me find my swimsuit?
Yes.
Can you take me to McDonalds?
Yes.
Can you cut a piece of wood for me?
Yes.
Can you glue this stuff on there for me?
Yes
Can you watch me do cartwheels?
Yes

And that was just today, and just one kid!  Do I really need any more of this?

Grampa?
Yes?
What do you think we should call my new baby cousin if it's a boy?
lmao!!  As if I have any say in the matter!  Both in the naming of this pending new grandchild, and in the ability to say no to any of them.!

So the answer is apparently yes.  I need more of this.  And spending time with Kylie the last few days has reminded me just where my priorities belong.  I was trying really hard to make some headway on one of my projects, and it seemed like every time I got on a roll Ky needed me for something else.  It was the realization how easy it was to drop everything, and the realization of how much gratification it brought me, that also brought the realization that it's impossible to have too many grandchildren.

Game on!!

Congratulations to our son Jon, and his amazing spouse Alisha!  They are going to be fantastic parents!  Life is good!!

Love
Peter    

"I Feel 50 Years Old!"

Today was the best workout day I've had in at least 2 months!  Funny thing is that I sure didn't expect it, based on how I felt first thing this morning. But soon after I got out there I felt different.  My legs were a bit tired but something else was going on as well.  I don't specifically know what encouraged me to start out a little harder, other then that it felt right.  I still did my 1/2 minute, run/walk, but I ran faster and walked faster.  For some reason I was also possessed to add some hills into the session.  The Mont Tremblant course has one section of about 4-5 kms that is all rolling hills, and you have to do that section both ways, not once, but twice.  Towards that end, I included 8 kms of hills as part of my 24.  During the hill portion I altered the pattern to simply walk up the hills and run down, but other than that I never changed my run/walk ratio even the teeniest bit.  Every time I was due for a walk I took it.  No cheating in order to improve my overall pace

And I'm still amazed at how it all worked out.  I wouldn't have believed it was possible to maintain this pace based on spending 2/3rds of the time walking.  I am absolutely convinced that practicing my walking has made it more natural and less stressful.

But still that doesn't completely explain it.  Somehow I just felt different today.  Although I completely ran out of gas near the end, up until that point I was in complete control, and my pace never wavered.  As matter of fact it actually got a bit faster as I went on, and I didn't lose anything during the hill portions. Also  I think I only ran out of gas because I got a bit dehydrated. (I lost 4 1/2 lbs)

The other very positive factor today was my heart rate.  Once upon  a time I would be happy if I could keep it down, but now a good day is one where I can get it up!  (no double meaning  intended :) My rate rarely dipped below 130 even while walking, which is very good news.  What was very cool was that running down the hills, and walking up, resulted in approximately the same rate

So there you have it.  I'm taking a great big positive out of the day, and when I have a rougher day I'm gonna look back at today.  Even as I acknowledge that there may be least gratifying days in the future, I can tell you with the utmost confidence that tomorrow won't be one of them.  And if that seems a bit cryptic, then I suggest you read tomorrows post for clarification.  :)

Oh, and I almost forgot.  I topped off this encouraging day with the unquestionable honour of escorting her royal highness to the beach for a couple of hours.

I never want to take this little girl for granted, nor forget to be grateful that I live 10 minutes away from one of the Great lakes.

And speaking of being grateful.  How about the fact that I live in a country where you can find this in a public washroom, on a public beach!!!

I have visited at least 5 countries on this planet where every last  one of these would be gone within minutes of them being put on display!!  This country is so great as to inspire me to even tolerate its current Prime Minister.  Thank you Mr Harper for being nor more than a puddle in my otherwise perfect driveway!!

walk 2/run 1    24 kms, 6:06/km

"It's not hard to tell we was poor - when you saw the toilet paper dryin' on the clothesline."---George Lindsey

Love
Peter

"Had a Good Nights Sleep"

Which made for an even better day.  I love these days when I'm busy, busy.  Got lot's of stuff done again.  I think my to-do list is effectively down to about 17 years worth of work.  Funny how it keeps building back up again eh?

I did break one more promise today and that was in regards to the pool.  I suppose I should have gone yesterday when it was still raining, because the sunshine this morning called me out on my bike.  I'm pleased to say that the programming changes all worked out as expected, and also proud to say that I was able to ride very relaxed with so sense of "race".

Tomorrow I will try a long walk/run again but I have already decided that if I need to limit it to 20 kms, then I'm gonna be okay with that.  I promise!!

ride, 43 kms

"We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile."---Earl Nightingale

Love
Peter