It's been a long year, or here we are again.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Christmas 2008. Jessica and me with her entire maternal family.

Time flies.

Since last I wrote here at Spark, life has taken a number of interesting curves. The first started almost immediately after I wrote the last post. Seriously.

Backstory: my wife's 84-year-old grandmother, a 10-year breast cancer survivor, had relapsed in fall 2008 with new tumors in her lungs and femurs. Back on radiation, chemo, etc... but she still lived on her own. Insisted on it, in fact. Stubborn lady. :) In December I took on the role of helping Lois get around to doctor's appointments, made sure she was eating regularly, and otherwise kept her company many days.

Fast forward to late February, a bad flu, and a particularly rough round of chemo. Lois had had enough, and on Friday, February 27th, she decided it was time to stop the treatments and move in with her daughter to live out her life. Small detail: Jessica and I were already living at the house. Finances being what they were, and Lois's needs being what they were, it made sense for us to all stay in the house.

Everything went well for several weeks -- Lois recovered from her flu, had a red-blood-cell transfusion to combat anemia, and was a bundle of energy. Then came some pain in her belly (her first ever cancer-related pain!), significant enough to send her to hospital on a Thursday evening. Overnight stay, ultrasound, etc... they determined that the cancer had metastasized to her liver much worse than previously thought).

Lois was started on hospice care on the Saturday, and I became her primary caregiver. Three weeks later she died, peacefully and surrounded by her entire family.

Those three weeks were a life-altering experience for me. Then came the funeral, sorting out affairs, etc... and the small matter of my 100-guest wedding on May 30. While taking care of Lois, wedding planning was the farthest thing from my mind (much to the chagrin of my infinitely patient spouse). Suddenly the wedding was much closer and was my sole priority. Time to switch gears.

To be honest, it took me several weeks to switch gears completely - again, much to Jessica's chagrin. But I finally did, the day of the wedding arrived, and the entire event was a smashing success. Another life-altering experience. For one thing, it was the first time in nearly 30 years that my parents had seen each other (or for that matter even spoken). THAT took a while to process. Then I had the pleasure of seeing several disparate groups of friends together in once place for the first time. Very cool.



It's been a long year.

Now that's all out of the way, it's time to turn my attention to matters of health and fitness once again.

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Here we go again...

Friday, February 27, 2009

I've slid backward by quite a bit. In October I was flirting with the low 370s; I stayed fairly stable in the low 390s through January; February has brought me back over 400. My original success is not completely undone, but I've regained about half of what I had lost in the middle of 2008.

The culprits: poor food choices and far less exercise.
The remedy: return to the food choices I had been making in April, May, June... and get to the gym more.

Pretty easy, right?

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... not gone.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Hey, has anyone lost twenty pounds or so? I think I found them. You can have them back if you like.

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Going, going...

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

I love autumn. It's my favourite time of the year for many of the same reasons VEEJAY mentioned a while back.

Jessica and I are off to Toronto today until Sunday evening for a refreshing few days of family, friends, food, and alcohol. And lots and LOTS of fall colours as we visit my mom's place on Georgian Bay.

tinyurl.com/skerry

We're back to quasi-regular workouts, and my weight has returned to its southward trend again (albeit more slowly). Good times.

See ya'll next week!

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Life happens; get a helmet.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

I knew the halcyon days wouldn't last.

I knew that once I received my green card, my days would be filled with job hunting and the unrelenting anxiety that accompanies it. Unfortunately, my most common defence against anxiety is usually to ignore its cause; this invariably leads to MORE anxiety when the cause can no longer BE ignored.

Increasingly difficult financial straits transforms the desire to get a job into an absolute necessity, which only amplifies the stress. Knowing my wife is getting increasingly impatient; feeling uncertain about my career path: these both amplify the stress. Needing to find a job--any job--RIGHT NOW adds to my uncertainty, undermines my confidence, and ... amplifies the stress.

Getting sick just as prospects start appearing doesn't help.
Getting calls from every MLM-type insurance-selling factory doesn't help.

Such is my current situation.

I know this truth, though: I have been through more trying times and prevailed.

So yes, I am still alive but occupied with more pressing concerns than diet.

I'll be back.

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