1 Month Already?

Another action-packed week. Here are some highlights (albeit a bit wordy!) ...

Saturday - Bard on the Beach. A Vancouver institution for 20 years and a tradition of mine for about 4 now. It is a bit ironic, considering that I think I slept through Shakespeare in high school ... nevertheless, I have developed an appreciation, nay love, for the productions. I saw A Comedy of Errors with Carly & Steve (mom decided that the seats wouldn't work with the current state of her elbow - or lack of elbow). The production was excellent, the acting superb and you simply can't ask for a better setting than Vanier Park at sunset. I don't think I would have discovered how entertaining Shakespeare can actually be if it weren't for Bard (Vancouver lingo for Bard on the Beach). NB - if you are thinking about going, you MUST buy tickets in advance!

Sunday - Dinner for 16. I can't take all the credit for this soiree ... today was time for the "kids" to provide dinner for our parents, aunts, uncles, in-laws etc. We've done this for a couple of years now instead of having separate Mother's and Father's Day dinners. Family dinners have always been important for us and I am grateful to have such a wonderful group of people to call my family! Us kids pulled off a great dinner - appies by Heather; flank steak prepared by yours truly and grilled by Paul; cole slaw by Jeff; caesar salad and rolls by Carly & Steve; Asian pasta salad by me; and dessert by Toireasa & Paul. Wine by everyone!

Monday - alarm at 5:20, alarm turned off at 5:21. Clean-up from last night's event had me up past a reasonable hour to get up for a swim. Honestly, my motivation to swim is at an all-time low right now. Time off in the spring has me swimming way at the back of the pod and lack of progress with my feet continues to wear me down. I had great workout with Chelsea at Innovative Fitness. These guys have done a great job adapting my workouts depending on my pain and mobility.

Tuesday - Harry Potter. I admit it, I'm a huge fan. Not only do I love the stories, but I am truly amazed at how someone (in the case J.K. Rowling) comes up with stories like this. She really is a master at intricate details. I think a reread of the books and a rewatch of the movies is in order.

Wednesday - alarm at 5:20 ... up this time to get mom to the hospital for her elbow replacement. (It went well and she is now on the long road to recovery.) No swimming, again! Meyrick rescued me from a third day on public transportation by giving me a lift to where my car had been in for repairs. Another great workout at IF with Dylan.

Thursday - Prolotherapy round 3. I'm not sure how to best explain what it does, but here's a non-medical description: they inject a solution of dextrose and alcohol into my plantar fascia, more precisely my heels, with the purpose of irritating the soft tissue that is deteriorating. The irritation causes inflammation which is the first step in the healing process. I think I'm getting the hang of the routine:
Day 1: Injections. Try to stay off my feet as much as possible; even though they freeze my heels, there is still bruising and tenderness around the injection site. Feet start swelling.
Days 2 & 3: More swelling, stay off feet. My gait is totally off at this point (heels hurt!) which causes a host of other problems.
Days 4 - 10: Swelling starts to come down and am allowed to do very light activity. After this point things feel pretty much like they did before (which is not great at present). Unfortunately I can't take any anti-inflammatories or ice as this is counterproductive.
6 weeks after injections: Start all over again. Nobody is sure how many times we'll have to do this, but it may take up to 8 or 9 injections, so about a year. If all goes well, I may start to feel an improvement in the fall.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday - Penticton.

Friday I had a much needed day to myself. Karen & I were planning on going for a swim in Skaha, but it was just a little too windy & rough for it to be safe without support. So she went off on her ride & run and I did a little touring. This day turned out to be a huge success as I discovered several "new favourite places". Summerland Sweets makes some of the best fruit jams & syrups out there. The Vinegar Works makes, well, you guessed it, vinegars. They don't just make it, they grow everything that goes in the bottle. The Bench is my "new favourite" market cafe. They serve up great paninis, salads, baked goods and awesome coffee. I also discovered a few other places that I want to visit in August.

Saturday & Sunday was CMS Coaching's Ninth Annual Ironman Prep Camp. Given my state of "disrepair" I was a member of the support crew. Friday night's dinner was highlighted by a talk from the "Voice of Ironman Canada" (and numerous other races) Steve King. Not only is Steve an amazing race commentator, he is also an athlete, clinical counsellor and motivational speaker. He has a special interest in energy medicine and how our thoughts influence the flow of energy in our bodies. Follow the link to his site for more information. Saturday was swim & bike - I got in for the swim and managed around 3.5 - 4 km in a little over an hour. The rest of the day was spent out on the bike course making sure everyone was well hydrated and doing OK. Karen pulled the boys back into Penticton and had her best IMC bike course time EVER - 5 hrs 39 mins despite a wicked storm that produced torrential rains, lightning strikes and winds that brought down trees & power lines. Sunday was on the run course. Nice and sunny instead of the bizarre weather on Saturday. It was great to be out supporting my friends as they get ready for IMC, but it is bittersweet as I can't help but think about the activities I haven't been able to do for a long time.

The final "new favourite" find for the weekend was Sanderson Farm Market just outside of Keremeos. I came home with cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums and apples!

All in all it was a busy and somewhat stressful week, but it ended on a good note which is the best way to start the next week!

First Harvest

The "newest" trend in shopping and eating is to "buy local". Call it the "100-Mile Diet", "Sustainable Table", "Food Routes" or whatever you want, I have a news flash. Until very recently, this is how things were done. Buying locally was all the rage when you could only get things that were grown / made locally. I'm no history buff, but I imagine that sometime around the Industrial Revolution, things started to change (rather quickly when you look at time lines) and now you can get things from all over the world in record time. In theory, this is not a bad thing, but unfortunately in a time when your environmental footprint has more impact than ever before, it isn't a good thing either.
I have always loved going to the local Farmer's Market, for several reasons: everything is fresh, usually better priced, often you get to talk to the producer and I love the atmosphere. I much prefer going from stand to stand with the scent of fresh produce in the air. No canned music, calls for cleanups on aisle 7 and the constant beep beep beep of UPC scanners is replaced by chirping birds.

This year I decided to try my thumb at a little gardening. In the past, I have failed miserably at gardening. I forget to water, don't harvest before things go to seed so it usually turns into a disaster. This year though, I have been diligent with the watering can and plant food and I scrutinize my plants for anything that looks out-of-place. And so far, there have been a few "harvests" which have really been the odd clipping of herbs, but even that has been great. I've made pesto, tabbouleh salad and have had fresh herbs on pasta, salads and in omlettes.

But today marked the beginning of a great future in my "garden" (which is really several pots containing mostly herbs, flowers and a tomato) - the first harvesting of tomatoes. Time in transit for these three babies: about 90 seconds from plant to mouth. Doesn't get much fresher than that.

What do you get ...

when you cross something a bit more complicated than "point & click" and someone with little patience for things a bit more complicated than "point & click"? You get me. Now, I wouldn't call myself a "techno-idiot", but when my techie friends start talking code and initialization and things like that, my eyes do glaze over and I turn into Charlie Brown and all I hear is "wha wha wha wha whaaaa". On a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being "how do I program my VCR?" and 10 being "this application sucks, I'll rewrite the code so it works", I'm about a 5.

Now, for some reason, getting that "Receive posts in your e-mail" box on a blog requires the know-how of someone who is at least a 6. When the steps start looking like this:
to get one simple thing done, I go into a "panic mode" - OK, maybe it's not that bad - but I end up looking at the "instructions" and the best I can come up with is "huh?"

So after a lot of trial & error, some coaching from MJ, several curses and the near death of my laptop, I got it done. The final step is for some of you to actually enter your e-mail addresses into that little box. Humour me people - even if you don't read my posts, put your e-mail address in the little box.

For those of you who feel more adventurous, click on the orange icon next to "Subscribe in a reader" and discover the wonders of Real Simple Syndication, aka RSS. If I can do it, anyone can! Remember the first 'S' stands for SIMPLE!

3 Weeks In

It has been an eventful first 3 weeks of my summer! So eventful, in fact, that I haven't had much time to record the events. So here's the recap ...

Week 1 - BC Bike Race. I was asked to help support some friends who did this epic 7 day stage race. The days were long, the nights were short, the weather was hot and windy, the scenery spectacular and from what I was told, the riding was amazing. Check it out ...

Week 2 - zzzzz ... even supporting is tiring! I suffered from some short-term narcolepsy after Week 1; it seemed that I fell asleep at every possible moment. But, I did manage to get a couple of swims in at Batchelor Bay and Sasamat Lake before heading off to the sunny Okanagan.

Week 3 - Okanagan and Tour de Hospital with mom & Geordie (mom's Cairn Terrier).
Saturday - Osoyoos was HOT - 38°. Helped out at the blueseventy tent, went for a swim sans wetsuit in Lake Osoyoos and generally spent a lot of time trying to stay cool. Sunday - watched parts of the Desert Half Iron and cheered on friends. Special congrats to Karen for her first place finish in the competitive Women's 35-39 age group (5th overall!). Mom & I had a wonderful dinner at the Sonora Room at the Burrowing Owl Winery. Monday - we took the "back road" (Hwy 33) to Kelowna. Unfortunately it was raining, so we didn't do any exploring. The drive out of Osoyoos heading east on Hwy 3 goes up Anarchist Mountain and affords a spectacular view of the lake and valley:
Tuesday - Myra Canyon. Most of us recall the devastation that occurred during the Okanagan Mountain Fires of 2003. All but a couple of the trestles in the Myra Canyon, part of the historic Kettle Valley Railroad, were completely destroyed. Over the past few years, the Myra Canyon Restoration Society has restored all the trestles and the canyon is open for riding and hiking. We walked about 7 km (round trip), crossed 10 of the 18 trestles and went through both tunnels. Mom and I were impressed that Geordie braved all the trestles & tunnels! The canyon is well worth the visit for anyone in the Kelowna area.


Later in the afternoon, mom tripped on this ...
while carrying this ...
over this (too hot and slippery for little paws) ...
and shattered this...
And thus began the Tour de Hospital - Kelowna General Tuesday afternoon followed by a very fast drive down to Lion's Gate (4 hours door-to-door with a drive-thru dinner and doggie pee break). LGH Tuesday night, Wednesday and Wednesday night followed by Vancouver General on Thursday. In a nutshell mom is getting a shiny new artificial elbow next week.

Up next week ... Bard on the Beach; Family Dinner; elbow surgery for mom; prolotherapy round three for me; CMS Ironman Training Camp ... I think that's enough for now!