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.

Who let the kids out – p2

Yesterday I was talking about Patrick, 75 years old, smiling even after doing 4 hours of physical activity.

Today I like to talk about my neighbor. Three years ago when I bought my house in Florida, I met them. They are a very old couple. Marcel had a stroke about 15 years ago and since then, he has been having problem remembering words.

They take their car to go every where; the club house that is about 2 minutes walk, at one of her sister that is in the same park. They really are older so it is to be expected, right?

Marcel often talks about death, not in an obsessive way but every conversion I had with him he always mentioned that he will not be around for long. He is right! he is even 3 years closer since the first time I met him.

What those folks lost is their quality of life. They don't do nothing else than wait for the day when there will be a light to walk to.

But they are the same age as Patrick! Why one person is like a kid and the others are elders. One is all about moving and be active and the other are sitting waiting for the day that they go on their eternal trip.

It's all about the choices we made. We harvest what we sow, don't we?

The choice is ours, we can have fun, while playing. It doesn't mean we are not aching after our workout. Or, we can take it “easy” and just stay on the side line witnessing our quality of life running by.

Personally, I choose to stay a kid and have fun with every thing I do. I walk daily and play pickelball regularly, I'm even thinking of playing tennis. I am not an athlete and it is not my goal, but I'm getting better. What do you do? Are you a kid? Are you on the side line?

 

Who let the kids out!

My computer must have a virus. There is something really wrong with the date, it says that we are in 2016, how can it be? Where did 2015 go? I guess I'm a little late but happy 2016 folks, I wish you all health, prosperity and may the force be with you!

 

But what I really wish is that we might grow younger...

Last year, or 3 weeks ago to be more precise, I was playing pickelball. There was one gentleman, his name is Patrick, that also came to play. We didn't started the games that he was already sweating, his shirt was wet. But he was smiling so everything must have been good. He is a very good player and have a mean slide to his ball. Always playing with a smile in his face, meanwhile I'm just trying to keep up with his game.

Last year, or last week to be more precise, I went to walk at the rec center just 2 minutes from my home. There is tennis court and as I'm walking, I always look at the games that is going on. I should mention that Pickelball is a bit like tennis but less of a workout. As a matter of fact, a lot of pickelball players are tennis players that couldn't play tennis any more.

Who do I see coming out of the tennis court? Patrick! He had just played 2 hours of tennis. He told me that when there is pickelball, he go and played tennis first and then he go to pickelball. He is 75 years old, I'm 55 years old and after playing 2 hours, I am in such pain that I can't barely drive back home! He plays 2 hours of tennis and 2 hours of Pickelball and he is still smiling. I think he is a kid that forgot to age.

I have a point I like to make but it will have to wait for tomorrow, I have to go play now... have a great day folk!

It Starting to look like Full House

 

Yesterday, I picked the “kids” from the airport. WWE and her must-not-give-his-name boyfriend arrived in the morning and my baby daughter arrived in the evening.

The airport is about an hour drive from home so I spend a great deal of time on the road.

Last week was all about cleaning the cave and hunting for something to stuff all those new mouth. It is an expensive undertaking, please feel free to send me any scrap of food you might want to get rid of... there is no end to what those guess eat in a single serving.

They didn't spend too much time visiting the house, they just went underneath the tree to see if anything was there with there name on.

They should have been disappointed as, except for myself, no one has been good this year. But somewhere it is written that parent has to love their kids... unconditionally... so there is things with their name under the tree. To keep secrecy, I'll refrain to say anything else about the “things”.

They are going to be in Florida for 7 days, so if I survived you will only hear from me after they are gone.

Meanwhile, have a great Christmas!

 

Bad News Weekend

This weekend I had some bad news. So today it will be only about that.

One of my best friend, this summer, had blood in his urine. He got that checked out and they found out he had a tumor in his bladder.

Like me, he has a home in Florida. He delayed his departure for after his surgery.

At the end of October he got the tumor removed. The tumor was send to be analyze to see if it was cancerous or not.

The result was catastrophic, he has a very aggressive cancer. He was send to get biopsy. More bad news, they found out that he has affected nodes. Furthermore, the cancer has metastases (travel). He is a stage 4.

Saturday I skyped with him. He has started Chemo treatments. The doctors told him that his chance of survival are really slim and that if he respond well to the treatments, they will remove completely his bladder.

It's really heart braking to learn that he has put his home for sale in Florida, update his will and arrange his funeral.

He faces his challenges with his head high. I think that if there is one person that can beat this, that's him. He is relatively young (65) in great shape (he could beat the crap of me at pickleball).

He is the kind of person that if he is out walking and see someone working he would go back and get his tools to help out. From now on, he might be needing helps but he is a really proud person and it is difficult for him to accept a helping hand.

Health is not always about a number on a scale, sometime health is living within our capacity!

New and Inprove Breakfast

In February when I started my run for health, I was about 50 pounds fattier.

My breakfast was always a cup of each: Yogourt, fruits and cereal (cherrios not the sugar lace one but the one that has that delicious carton taste). It was keeping me satisfied all morning.

I found it is just not enough anymore, I feel like I run out of energy just too quickly. So for a while now I have modified my breakfast of champs and removed the cereal and instead eat a toast with PB. This seems to satisfied my demanding body.

It is strange to me being lighter I should need less food not more to do the same tasks. Maybe the answer is that I have more muscles and they required a lot more energy!

Now it's time for me to praise Anonymous (WWE) again as her prize for guessing right my question about my new ninja friend. “Bravo WWE!”

Report card for Dec 11th

Bread – 1 Slice + 1 hamburger buns

Water – 1 + bottle

Wine – None

Sugar – Maple sirup

Fried – Half of a small size

Unhealthy Snacks – Crakers and Cheeze

Walk – over 10 K Steps

Final Score: C