Walking... Dead

Sometimes (some people may not agree that it's only sometimes) I'm not that smart! In a moment of weakness I subscribed to Netflix. For most people this is not a problem, for Richard a TV junkies it was a life changing event.

I don't know how I would be able to enjoy regular TV anymore. On Netflix; no advertisement, no schedule to check if my show is playing, no game that kick out my shows and that the following day, I checked my recording and it's missing. I have full control, I can watch as many shows as long and at the time it please me. You might think those are advantages but let me say this again... I AM A TV JUNKIES!

So for my weekend post, I'll talk about TV shows. The first one in that series... The Walking Dead.

For years, I have from time to time, surfed the TV programming and notice that show. I thought what the heck is wrong with the persons watching something so stupid! I can answer this, I watched all 5 seasons on Netflix, and I can't wait to see Season 6 that is currently on TV.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me without spoiler, describe it.

There was a virus that spread in the U.S. Once someone get the virus, they died. What about the walking part Richard you might ask. Well they come back from the dead but they are not human anymore. They just walk aimlessly. Wow if I had read this before, I would have never watch the show but it get better, stick with me.

Those walkers has no purpose, they don't even seem to feel anything; you could cut their arms, open their stomach and pull out their entrails, no problem, it might slow them down but like the energizer bunny, will still keep going and going.

It seems that the only thing they are motivated to do is to eat living people (also known as not dead). I don't really understand why they don't eat dead people but hey I'm not in their shoes.

I'm not watching the shows for entertainment, I'm watching to learn: What would I do if this ever happen in Canada?

I have learned so much already, I'm the type of person that would have tried to reason with them. Maybe let them chew on a finger while explaining how wrong this is. THIS IS THE WRONG APPROACH! What you have to do is stick something in their brain to kill them indefinitely. You can stick: a knife, a sword, a bullet, you can even bash their head... it will do the trick. Ouf! I'm so glad to know that, bring them on! I'm ready, I'm keeping my Swiss knife at the ready.

If you don't want to watch the show, it's OK, when you start to see walking dead people coming for your limbs, hurry up come to me, I know what to do.

This is a test if you fail, you are doom. One of those two is dead, can you guess wich one? 

Have you watch it?

Hardship or is it?

I own 2 homes.

One is in Florida and is the perfect get away from our Canadian winter. It's locate in a retirement community.

The other is in the province of Québec, Canada. I live there 7 months per year. It's in a camping where you can buy your lot. 

Do you see me waving in the window... I hope not, I'm taking the picture, can't be at 2 places at the same time LOL 

During summer, on weekend there is a lot of people but once Sunday arrived, I have pretty much the whole place to myself.

My view is spectacular; I'm by a lake and across the lake is a small village (Val-des-Bois). I also have a view of the mountain. I can sit on my sofa and take it all in for hours and be so blissful. As a bonus, in early spring and late fall, the ONLY traffic in front of my home are deer. For entertainment, there is about 10 strays cat begging me for a free meals.

 The view from my sofa at 6:30 AM, the sun hasn't rise yet!

I have satellite TV and High speed Internet. My propane tank is full and I'm not freezing to death. But because this is a camping, there is no running water until the weather is warm enough to prevent the in-ground pipes from freezing.

This “little” inconvenient is enough to keep away all the other walking-on-two-legs campers. Personally, this is my favorite time. I have bottles water for drinking, I have Jerrycans (which I can re-fill at the main gate) for things like doing the dishes, brushing my teeth. And being beside a lake, I get buckets of water to flush my toilet. At the front office, there is showers. So I need nothing, it is just a little more work, but it's well worth it. 

You do whatever you want with your life, for certain a hardship is really just a small inconvenience that is worth to look over. I would use the analogy of the glass that is half full, but since I'm limited with my water I'll not going to. ha ha ha 

Now the best part... I retired at 52! you might think I'm rich or something but it is not the case. It is cheaper to live in Florida during winter than living in Canada... I don't have to pay to heat the place (which in Canada amount to a lot of $$), I don't pay municipal taxes on a house (still a lot of $$) but I do pay for food, cable and Internet but I would do the same thing back here. If you are interest to know more about my financial, let me know in the comment, I'll be more specific but I think that what the financial planners advised is a load of crap.

I don't know for you folks, but this weekend there will be a lot more snow melting going on in my area, I'm so excited about this.

An Ounce of Wisdom – 20 pounds of Baloney

Last year I was perfect! I was so dedicated to that health race track; nothing unhealthy touched my lips.

My main exercise was walking. I was walking all over, even one day in the excess of 30,000 steps. My vivofit counting every steps of the way. If there was no where to walk, I would go to Walmart and walk around and around, never looking back, never looking at what was on sale. I would bypass the bakery, didn't need to get those aroma to hunt my resolve.

At night, around the fire, I would have vegetables and enjoy a nice bottle or two of water. Meanwhile the pigs my friends would stuff their face with food that were off the chart calories wise. The pigs my friends would keep opening wine bottles and draining them down like they were a bottomless well.

I was so successful, I lost in excess of 50 pounds. Yes I was perfect. But there was an inner voice murmuring: “Richard you are a fraud, soon you will be back to your regular bad habits, you'll see.” I kept shutting down that voice and tell every one that it was a lifestyle change.

In the fall, I started to release my grip on my lifestyle... a little bowl of chips in the evening, a small portion of dessert, a glass of wine, once in a while won't hurt, right? After all now I had so much wisdom, I could manage something call MODERATION, couldn't I? Any way those small treat would be burn the day after on the pickelball court.

In insight I can stated that I thought I had so much wisdom, but the reality is that it was probably less than an ounce of wisdom and I can say I was full of baloney as a matter of fact I took about 20 pounds of baloney in less than 6 months.

Today I'm at one of those fork on my health road, do I need to get back on the lean wagon or do I want to ride the chips wagon?

I don't know! Last year I was addicted to pills... maybe addicted is not the right word :) I was taking a pill for cholesterol and one for blood pressure. I know I don't want to take those any more. That is all I'm certain of at this point.

On a less self-doubting subject... the sun is up, it's going to be a gorgeous day. Probably there will be some melt down of the white cold substance that is hanging around so late this year and I 'll be sitting front and center to keep an eye on the whole spring process. Youppi!

What happen when you keep driving North?

At one point you catch up with winter. Those are today pictures of my paradise...

The lake (just trust me on that one)

The road in front of my home (It's great if you don't particularly enjoy traffic)

Jo et André here is your space... just bring a shovel you will be fine... in July :)

A medical year in review

Last year, at the beginning of April, I had lost a lot of weight. I should have felt the gain of energy everyone talk about. But it was not my case. My right shoulder was giving me so much pain that I had problem to lift it over my head. My back was also acting up and once in a while I was taking pills (Aleve) for it.

I consult my doctor and he send me for x-rays. The verdict was devastating, I had degenerative bones problems and I was not to get better. The doctor even told me that I had to give up pickelball entirely.

I didn't like that, I keep playing but I was trying to only used my left arm, not an easy task for a right hand guy :) After a while, I decided to used my right hand but not smash the ball (because it involved bringing my arm over my head and I just couldn't do that without excruciating pain).

I was really down. There I was doing my very best to get healthier to find out that the quality of my life was diminishing as fast as my waistline.

The doc send me to see a physio therapist. At my first meeting, she said that what I had was bones of a 55 years old and was just the normal aging process. However I had a tendinitis to my shoulder. This could be fix, I need to get a doctor to removed some calcium in my joint.

By the end of the summer, nothing was medically done but at least I had hope.

I kept playing pickelball, always careful about movement. At one point the ball was just too perfect and I smash it without putting any strength to it. I felt a little discomfort but nothing that I couldn't manage.

As time past, I kept hitting the ball over my head more often and what happen; I started to feel better.

During the fall and winter, I started to gain weight (about 20 pounds), the strangest thing happen; I started to fell more energy and the pain is now almost gone. Even my back, with the extra weigh I would think that it would get worse but it's not the case.

Now I can smash the ball as hard as I want. I don't push it because I'm nervous about the previous pain and it's still a little tender but I'm so happy with where I am right now.

I'm about to get back on the health trail and drop the extra weight but I'm curious, does anyone out there ever had an experience when putting up weight made you feel better?

I keep talking about pickelball but I know many has no idea what this is, I'll post about it but here is a clip of it if you want to see more.

Pickelball Link 

I forgot to mention, I had some works done on my knees, here is the x-ray:

 

Meaning of Life

In the past 3 months, I have been really quiet, but I was not wasting time, I was busy looking for the meaning of life!

In this journey, I determined that the meaning of life is... 

 

Pain!

If there is any skeptic out there, I'll try to prove my point.

It started right on your birth day. How else can one explain living in a nice warm cocoon and getting eject outside in this cold world. There is a good reason why baby cry when they finally made it to the other side. They feel pain but it's the price to pay for life!

Moving forward 56 years...

This winter, I have been “playing” pickelball 5 times a week. As a kid, I never participated in organized sport, didn't had the money to do so. Now as a retiree, (I don't have the money but) I have the time. So every week day, in the morning, I would find a gym where other retiree were spending time on the court hitting balls. It was fun, it was life, but with life came... pain.

So in the afternoon, I was in pain, it felt like every muscle in my body were complaining about the morning's abuse. Every afternoon, I was considering to take a day off the following day.

But in the evening, I could walk again. I could move without feeling like a 57 years old man.

The next morning, I was back on the court, living. This was my circle of life this winter.

My point is that if you want to live the life that you were destined to have, you have to put up with pain. It's not always physical pain, mind you, but pain is part of life.

Saying painfully NO to the next piece of cake, might be painful, but in the scheme of life, would you rather have that instant gratifying but short ephemera piece of sugar poison, or would you rather keep the ability of living your life to the fullest?

Excuses Excuses

Wow 3 months without a post... what happened you might wonder. I have so many excuses, here is a list of my 10 most likely reason why I didn't blog:

1. I was in a coma. As a matter of fact, when I woke up the first thing I ask was: “What happen in the blogging world?”

2. Both of my hands were amputated. It was a freakish accident. I was shaving my face outside with a very sharp blade when my blade fell on the ground, I tried to pick it up, but an alligator was there and ate my hands. It took 3 months to get prosthesis, now I can type and even scratch my balls (the eye-balls one, what do you think!)

3. I forgot to pay my Internet provider and they cut me off. Just kidding, I can live without a lot of things but internet is not one of them.

4. My computer froze. It took 3 months for it to thaw back to life. If you believe that one, I have a sink hole for sale in Florida, it is easy to find, it's locate by a swamp!

5. I was too busy playing pickelball. Every day, it was like having a j-o-b but without getting the monetary rewards. Talking about j-o-b, I never was as professional as I was on the court; Always on time; I didn't mind doing extra work; Once in a while there was meeting to attend in the middle of the court.

6. I got hit by a time warp. One day it was the beginning of January, the next one it was April. What happen meanwhile, your guess is as good as mine.

7. I died, and 3 months later, resurrected. Oh wait, that is someone else and he didn't need 3 months!

8. One of my blogging competitor threaten to sued me because I was too awesome. This could be a dream... I'm not too sure!

9. I forgot my password and couldn't log back in. To prevent this to ever happen again, I'll share it with you: 'mypassword' please put that in a secure location and if I ever need it, I could just ask one of you.

10. One of my favorite excuse when I was in school... I did it but the dog ate it. Never mind I don't have a dog, the stupid mutt ate all my last 3 months posts.

There you go folks, I had good excuses to not blog for a while.

By the way, I'm back in the North. I was so tired of wearing, shorts and sandals, it is great to be back with 50 pounds of clothing, just to be warm enough to go to the store. I also stopped shaving, the extra layer of hair might be just enough to keep my face from getting frost bite.

Hope you are all doing great.