Category: Motivation

There Are No Cookie-Cutters In This Dojo…

I remember the first week that I opened my karate school’s kid’s class as a junior instructor. Boys, was I nervous! I’m not really sure why; I was qualified, well-trained and they were kids. I was in my late 20’s and there was nobody in the class older than 13 years old. But there was something particular about teaching the first class in “my” school. It only took a couple of weeks to find a groove and begin feeling comfortable with classes. And only a couple of months AFTER that for me to realize that teaching karate is not all it’s cracked up to be…

There’s a certain prestige that comes with being able to teach something to someone else, especially in the martial arts. After all, if you’re teaching someone else it probably means that you’ve learn said skill to a sufficient level that it allows you to pass on that knowledge to someone else. I had been a been a black belt for a few years at this point, and already accustomed to leading the class whenever Sensei would request it. But this would be my first foray into being the focus of attention if/when students or parents would be displeased about something.

Now, don’t get me wrong! I can deal with complaints with the best of ’em. After all, I’ve got years of management experience in retail, food service and public sectors so dealing with customer complaints is no problem. But karate is particular, because it’s personal. It’s not a job, it’s a part of my lifestyle that I not only study but thoroughly enjoy. And I’m not well-known for my ability to put up with other people’s bullshit. Enter: the league of disgruntled parents…

By the time the kid’s class had been up and running for six months, a few of my students had graduated a yellow stripe or two. My particular system has a LOT of yellow stripes for kids prior to testing for yellow belt, which is a good way to keep them focused and motivated. One of the disadvantages of opening a school from scratch, is that everybody starts off as a white belt and there’s no established belt hierarchy in place. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. It’s good in the sense that you don’t have to worry about branching off your teaching to accommodate the different ranks. It’s bad in the sense that the first people to promote usually set off alarm bells in others.

Sensei and I had agreed from the very beginning that as a junior instructor, I would teach the class while he tested for stripes. I would assist him with belt tests, but until I developed my teaching legs, he would deal with pulling out the students who were progressing and issue the stripes as required. That was an easy agreement. But as a few of the students climbed in rank, the ones who didn’t began to question why they didn’t. This concern was obviously passed on to their parents who apparently felt this meant their kids were being ignored. Can you guess what happened next?

I began receiving phone calls and having parents confront me in the dojo, questioning my audacity in promoting other students but not their kid, especially when everyone had started at the same level. These were some of the same parents that would often bring food or drinks into my dojo, take phone calls or carry on conversations at the back while I’d be trying to teach. I believe in picking one’s battles, but these are issues I had to discuss with them on previous occasions.

I tried explaining to these parents that every child is different and that every child learns in a different way and at a different pace (a lesson the public schools should no doubt adopt) and that stripes would NOT be issued if a particular student had not reach the required skill and knowledge level associated with it. This was like throwing gasoline on a campfire and caused further indignation from parents. Although we were still a few years before the true advent of the snowflake and parents who believe their kids can do no wrong, these parents were clearly adamant that the promoted students were no better skilled than their kids and that it wasn’t fair of me to promote some and not others.

I closed out the argument by explaining to the parents that karate was not a generic skill and that there were things the students could do on their own time in order to improve and help ensure promotion when the time came, but that it wasn’t fair to the students or my school, in fact, for me to issue a promotion someone hadn’t earned. This led to all sorts of threats about pulling their students out and enrolling them elsewhere, to contacting the parents of students who had promoted and a score of other idle threats to ludicrous to repeat.

Between these issues, which unbelievably never really went away, and the fact that I moved to Ottawa about six months later led me to close the doors of my kid’s school. That’s one of the benefits of not doing it for a living; you can close your doors without destructive repercussions. It was unfortunate for the kids more than anyone else, but it was also a sad mix of behaviour on the parents’ behalf, who should have been supporting the growth instead of trying to influence it. Some of the kids transitioned into the regular class and continued to train, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Folks, karate is not a cookie-cutter art. What this means is that if ten people started karate at the white belt rank today, you will see ten different people at ten different skill levels and likely ten different ranks. This is because each and every person is different and every person learns and absorbs information in a different way. if you’re studying the martial arts, it’s important to remember that even if someone progresses to a higher rank than you, it doesn’t mean they’re “better” than you, it simply means that you need to grow in your way. Every person’s martial arts journey is their own. ☯

The CGM Do-Over…

For the most part, I’m a firm believer that most people and things deserve a second chance, even when things didn’t work out the first time around. Unless we’re talking about someone who has done something truly horrendous that’s damaged my life, of course. But today, we aren’t talking about anything quite so dramatic. I’ve been taking a second crack at CGM, or Continuous Glucose Monitoring.

For anyone who doesn’t remember, I wrote a post about five weeks ago entitled, CGM Is A No-Go where I described the various issues I had been dealing with in regards to the sensor set-up involved with CGM. Although I had decided it would be in my best interest to step away from CGM, a quick video chat with my Medtronic Representative was all it took for me to give it another go. Plus, Medtronic replaced the box of sensors that I had burned through at no cost.

My Guardian Sensor, tucked safely underneath my adhesive patch (yes, I know I look exhausted)

When a company is good enough to go above and beyond in that way (box of 5 sensors is $399.00 in Canada), I owe it to at least TRY and make the damn thing work. So I’ve been hammering through. The photo above is the fifth sensor I’ve been on since that last post, and it’s been going reasonably well. I had one sensor give out after five days instead of seven, but that’s an error margin I can live with.

One of the main recommendations that my rep provided was that if I was used to having my Freestyle Libre on the tricep and it was working for me, I should do the same with my CGM. And to be honest, it’s been WAY better. Because of the steps required to properly install the sensor and transmitter, I can’t get it all done one-handed. So I enlist the help of my wife to get everything set up and in place.

The large, black adhesive you see covering everything is an after-market adhesive called Patchabetes that my rep recommended. I ordered mine through Amazon, but you can click the link to go right to their site to have a look at the various products they carry. I ordered a pack of 20 patches for about $25 Canadian, which means they’re costing me about $1.25/week to use. That’s definitely a cost I can live with. I shell out more money on that in caffeine every DAY!

One of the big problems I was having with the adhesives that come with the sensor is that after a rigorous workout followed by a hot shower, the adhesive would dry out and start to lift. I was shoring it up with band-aids and pretty soon I looked as though I was a badly-designed mummy out of a B-movie. On top of that, the sensor tube would usually end up slipping out of my arm and I’d have to replace it within days as opposed to after a full week. I’m fortunate enough that my medical insurance covers my sensors, but it still feels horrible to be burning through expensive supplies that quickly.

Since switching over to Patchabetes, I can work out, shower and spend all afternoon in the hot sun and it still stays firmly in place. The size of the adhesive and the fact that it’s one piece, ensures that the area is waterproof and I’ve had no issues since starting back on the whole thing. And let’s be honest: it’s kind of nice to have an updated blood sugar reading every five minutes. It’s been making the overall daily control a little bit easier.

Technology can be wonderful and can be very helpful in making the life of a Diabetic much easier. As with most things in life, there’s a steep learning curve involved, especially when it involves your overall health and well-being. So the lesson here is that sometimes you have to push through and give things a second chance, once you’ve had the opportunity to learn the proper way. Even in a fast-paced world, not everything can happen quickly. Now I just need to get over my cowardice and activate the AutoMode again… ☯

Why Be Afraid Of Being Afraid?

Life certainly throws out a more-than-fair amount of challenges into one’s daily life. Even when you think you can fight your way through one obstacle, another one pops up to either take the first one’s place or make matters even worse. It certainly seems that way, over the past two years.

If anyone is keeping score, issues in my professional life have caused me difficulties and sent me home long before COVID-19 took hold. Despite this radical change of life and the reckless endangerment of my dream job by others, I kept on pushing and fighting. Then, job interview after job interview came and went. Most left me feeling pretty good and certain that I wold turn a corner. But I’ve been consistently passed up over and over.

Then at the beginning of the year, the world fell into chaos (more so than it usually is) and the pandemic struck. I’m sure that at this point, I don’t need to explain the problems and issues that having the world self-isolate and essentially lock itself down has caused. Even six months later, the world is still licking its wounds and trying to recover.

Then, we attempted to sell our home. We came to this decision as a result of my current job situation and the fact that we’re trying to eliminate debt. Despite many people who came to view our home, structural issues with our foundation caused most people to pass. We have come to the decision that we need to repair our foundation, which requires the demolishing of our finished basement. This sucks, because it also meant we had to take our house off the market as we can’t really show the house while we’re in mid-construction/renovating.

It almost feels as though everything is coming up bullshit and sometimes it certainly feels as though it would be easier to simply give up and let go. And no, I’m not being fatalistic or trying to send out red flags; I simply mean that the Buddhist side of me feels that life shouldn’t be such a struggle, that I shouldn’t have to force so hard in order for life to be good. The martial artist in me believes that I need to keep fighting and win, no matter what the struggle. If it comes down to me or them, it won’t be me! More often than not, the martial artist wins over the Buddhist. Such is life.

“Success Is Stumbling From Failure To Failure With No Loss Of Enthusiasm.”

– Winston S. Churchill

As a general rule, most people are afraid of failure. They see it as a weakness and they believe that it’s an embarrassment or shameful to fail at something. But the irony is that I can promise beyond any reasonable doubt that every living person has failed at something. It’s inevitable. You show me someone who claims they’ve never failed at something in life, I’ll show you a liar.

But failure is an important part of life. You see, life believes in showing you what you’re doing wrong. It sucks, can be painful and can even be disruptive to one’s life. But it sure shows you what path you should be taking. Failure isn’t a failure, it’s a learning tool. It helps you to grow and become the person you’re meant to be. I’ve been defeated and failed at a number of things in my life. But I keep on fighting. Because what’s the point of the lesson if you do nothing with it?

Don’t be afraid of failing at something. As long as you keep pushing, fighting and moving forward, you’ll eventually clear the storm and come out on top. And should you happen to fall and fail, the important part is to rise, dust yourself off and find a new and different path to pursue. ☯

One Man’s Weed Is Another Man’s Flower…

Since a lot of people are stuck at home until the world returns to normal, many have chosen to undertake some DIY projects within the home. I, myself, have decided that the patch of bare dirt in our backyard deserved to get some love and I started working the soil. Much to my surprise, the past few summers of weeding and spraying made the soil pretty easy to till and plant some grass seed.

I managed to make myself proud as a full half of our backyard now contains a full, lush green lawn that requires mowing twice as often as the front yard. The other half contains a quarter space where we plan on planting our own vegetables and a quarter space that I had left for Nathan to dig with. I have since seeded the digging quarter as Nathan has given up his mining ambitions in favour of his razor scooter. but I digress…

Our back yard has a circle of grey bricks that had apparently been arranged to ring a tree that had been in the backyard. When we moved in, the tree was cut down at its base and nothing remained but a slim stump. So I decided to till the soil within the ring and plant some flower seeds. I felt that the back yard could use a little color. Within a few weeks, the entire ring grew some greenage that was over half my height! I was tickled pink (not literally) and like an unaware idiot, kept watering daily and trying to get everything to grow as much as possible.

The decimated centre area, once my wife and I removed all the weeds

Turns out that the tall, green stalks I was watering and so proud of, were invasive weeds that were preventing the actual flowers from fully blooming. I have to admit that I had no clue and I thought the thick stalks were a species of flower that would bloom fully. Once we found out, my wife and I took an afternoon to remove as much of the weed as we could in an effort to let the flowers take hold.

The flowers that come in when they’re permitted to bloom

Flowers are starting to take over and some are already in full bloom. But as usual, it got me to thinking about perspective. Until I was told the tall stalks were weeds, I was happily and cluelessly watering the weeds like they were worth their weight in gold. Once I knew they were weeds, I got angry and became hell-bent on removing them from my garden. But I would have been oblivious, otherwise.

And this is something that applies to life, as a general rule. Something that may be unpleasant to one person could easily be a benefit to another. Sometimes, things may seem like they don’t belong but even things that are not preferred can be important to someone else. Dandelions are considered weeds, but it sure doesn’t stop my son from loving the yellow ones and blowing the fluff off the white ones. It’s all about one’s perspective. ☯

The Pot Calling The Kettle Black

I’m usually really good at telling the people in my inner circle, “Don’t forget this” and “Remember to do that” when it comes to their medical requirements and/or Diabetic needs. A strong attention to detail is always something I’ve prided myself on, personally and professionally. But if there’s one thing that this pandemic has taught me, is that I have the potential to slip and get a little too comfortable in my routine. I learned exactly to what depth I had slipped into that comfort zone yesterday morning…

As is the case on most Monday mornings, my wife had the day off and since the pandemic has limited the number and type of excursions we can undertake, I usually use this time for a long-distance bicycle ride. Since my 70k from two weeks ago was such an unmitigated disaster, I thought that yesterday would be the perfect opportunity to make another attempt. I discussed it with my wife and she agreed that maybe it would be better to attempt an in-city 70k as opposed to the open highway.

This would at least prevent some of the issues I had faced on my last excursion. Alright, this made sense. After all, I had achieved my 70k (as far as distance goes) but my phone had died, I ran out of food and struggled with the Prairie wind so badly that I added more than an hour onto my total time. Not exactly the ideal situation. Despite the great workout, I got home feeling frustrated and disappointed that I had no documented proof to show of my achievement.

So yesterday morning was supposed to be different, and I hit the sack on Sunday night, confident that Monday would provide me with a screenshot of my Runkeeper app showing 70k or greater. I set an alarm for the early hours of the morning and let my head hit the pillow. Ironically, it turned out to be a night where Diabetes didn’t intervene in any way and I actually slept for a solid number of hours. But as I’ve often said in the past, life doesn’t care about our plan. And we usually can’t predict when a wrench will be dropped into our gears.

I awoke with the morning sun and as is often my custom (unless the baby wakes me first) I woke up before my alarm went off. The sun had been up for a while, and I went downstairs to my home office to prepare my gear. Nathan had fallen asleep on the spare bed in the office, so I made every attempt to be quiet as I prepared. The first item on my list: change up my pump’s infusion set. I went to bed with about 35 units left, and I already knew I’d have to change up my set before heading out on the bicycle.

I grab a reservoir and infusion set and realized I couldn’t find my bottle of Humalog. I searched everywhere and just couldn’t find a bottle of insulin anywhere. I still had enough insulin to last me the morning (as long as I didn’t consume carbs) and the pharmacy only opened at 9am. Well, there goes my plan to ride… I can’t remember the last time I ran out of insulin. As in, I can’t remember because it’s been YEARS! I’m usually on top of my supplies, especially since they keep me alive. I now found myself despondent and killing time until my pharmacy opened.

By the time I made my way to the pharmacy and dealt with some unnecessary and unexpected delays on their part, I was most of the way through the morning and the Prairie summer heat was already in full swing. As I’ve learned the hard way over recent weeks, this isn’t the ideal environment in which to cycle for long kilometres. I opted for some light yard work instead, mowing the back lawn and getting a bit of fresh air.

Despite my usual attention to detail, this proved to show me that I’m just as human as the rest. I’m at least grateful that I live in an area where getting a prescription the same day as I need it is pretty easy. But it has also proven that I apparently need to start paying closer attention as I crawl forward in my age, as I already seem to be letting details slip. ☯

Vanity Is A Weakness

I’m selling my “bachelor-mobile.” Yes, that’s right! I’m selling my little two-door sports coupe with the manual transmission that’s kept me feeling like I’m still in my twenties when I’d rip around the streets of Regina, Saskatchewan. The reason is pretty simple: my wife works from home now and we really only have need of one vehicle. It’s financially unreasonable to keep two vehicles when a household only needs one. Right? Am I right?

What’s blown my mind in recent months is exactly HOW difficult it is to sell a premium vehicle in excellent condition. It seems that people are ridiculously hung up on the little details and as opposed to what I’ve done in the past, people assume that the work and the research will be done for them. I realized after a couple of weeks of dealing with people who were inquiring about the car that I’ve never actually SOLD a second-hand vehicle before. I’ve mostly dealt with dealerships.

The Bachelor-Mobile

Selling a personal vehicle as a private seller is extremely taxing and time-consuming. We’ve had a ton of interest in this car, and for every person who has an interest, I’ve had to subject myself to a lengthy plethora of questions about the vehicle and multiple photos beyond the adequate ones included in the selling post. It’s tiring, because I’m generally of the opinion that these questions could most easily be answered by setting up a viewing to simply come SEE the vehicle. Wouldn’t that be so much better than trying to ask questions about it?

For some, I can kinda understand the impulse to want to see more and ask further questions through a digital frontier. I’ve had some people who live two, all the way to eight hours away from Regina who have shown interest. But for those who reside right here in the city, it’s pretty disappointing to see the reactions and requirements of some of the people who have come to view the vehicle.

Just so everyone doesn’t think that I’m some sort of megalomaniacal douche-canoe (Google that, if you don’t know what it means), let me give you some examples. Some of this may seem perfectly normal and expected, but it struck me as a touch odd and left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I had a young guy, probably 16 or 17 years old, come see the vehicle with his father. They spent well over half an hour with me, pushing every button, trying every feature and then taking a lengthy test drive, which included city AND highway speeds. The boy was totally enamoured with the vehicle and I could tell that he was definitely interested. His father asked the rough questions, although I was able to answer them without issue.

He said he would get back to me and he left quite happy. So imagine my surprise when I got a text from him a day later saying that he wanted me to bring my vehicle in for a mechanical inspection before he would put a offer in. Now, this struck me as a bit odd, especially since he spent more than half an hour test-driving the car. It would be one thing if he had no idea how the vehicle ran, but we ran it in every condition it could face, except off-road!

He said he had no concerns but wanted the inspection done as a precaution. Although I was a touch resistant, I would have gone through with it if he had simply agreed to pay the necessary expenses! One thing I definitely won’t do is put out money in order to sell something. That’s just flat out ridiculous. Therefore, ambitious hot-rod-seeking teen boy didn’t buy my car.

Another potential buyer reached me through text message after getting my number through my wife’s FaceBook market page. She requested “additional photos”… That always throws me for a loop. I had a half dozen photos of the car, inside and out, which showed every perspective of the vehicle. I wasn’t sure what she was looking for, so I asked. She specified she wanted a side shot of the vehicle. Okay, fair enough. I told her I’d get the photo as soon as possible.

Errands and parenthood got in the way and she texted aggressively, asking why I hadn’t gotten back to her yet. I told her that the time to take some photos would need to happen but that I would still get them as soon as I could. I asked her why she didn’t simply come over to take a look at the car herself, to which she replied that she lived in Saskatoon. This put her at just over two hours away from Regina. I kinda get it. But on the other side of the coin, why wouldn’t you just buy a car in Saskatoon? It’s a bigger city anyway!

I eventually got a free minute to take a full-on shot of all four sides of the car and sent them to her. Her exact words were, “Finally, those are MUCH better pictures… my son’s dad will texting you with questions.” Umm, what? There was nothing wrong with the advert’s photos, but “my son’s dad” sounds strange as compared to “my husband.” I let it go and moved on. The next day, a random dude called me, not texted but called, and identified himself as this buyer’s ex-husband. He asked a couple of cogent questions about the car, but ended up asking for specific photos of specific areas of the vehicle.

I’m definitely not lazy, but I explained to the gentleman that I had an adequate number of photos on the advert and that the extras I sent to his ex-wife were a courtesy. The next obvious step would be for one of them to come down to Regina for an in-person viewing and test drive. This would answer all the questions he had and would save the trouble of trying to work around my schedule to get added photos.

Apparently I had the “audacity” to suggest he come for a test drive and it was decided that he would pass on the vehicle. I understand that this is subjective since it’s my car and my blog, but am I being too sensitive? I find myself wondering what happened to the good ol’ days when you’d purchase a private vehicle by showing up in person and taking the damn thing for a test drive. Don’t even get me started on the folks that are either asking me if I’m willing to trade for another vehicle or are offering HALF MY ASKING PRICE…

It’s amazing how difficult it is to sell of a second vehicle in order to lower/eliminate some debt and try to get ahead. People are hung up on the small details, before they even see the damn vehicle. I have a guy who intends to buy the car without even test-driving, but won’t have the money for another week from this post going live. I’ll be curious to see if he comes through. Maybe I’ll get a chance to reduce more belongings in the long list of property I don’t want/need. ☯

Duty Is Heavier Than A Mountain…

I first heard the quote in today’s title all the way back in the early 1990’s when I started reading Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series for the first time. At the time, I thought it was just a cool quote, “Duty is heavier than a mountain, death is light as a feather.” It’s a quote that the main protagonist ends up carrying with him throughout the entire series. Since the release of the books, many people have been quick to point out that the quote actually comes from an old Japanese military text (myself included, since I wrote about it last year).

But by the time I had reached the end of the series, the expression had come to mean a great deal more to me than simply a line in a book. And in truth, there are a lot of values that are important to me; loyalty, honor, duty and obligation. These are things that are surprisingly not thought about in any great depth by most people. But the martial arts (at least traditional schools) are steeped in these values. And I’ve grown with these values ingrained as part of who I am.

“Loyalty Above All Else, Except Honor…”

– Lt. Vincent Hardy, Striking Distance

Doing the right thing should be easy. People think it’s hard to do the right thing, but it really isn’t. Unless you’re values are a bit shady, doing the right thing should come smoothly and easily and should be done without thinking. It shouldn’t be a chore, it should feel like what you’re SUPPOSED to do; because it is. It should be. Key word: should. Sometimes, it can be harmful to yourself to do the right thing because it can cost you.

Doing the right thing can sometimes take something from you that you endeavoured to obtain for yourself. So the important question becomes, if you know that being loyal and doing the right thing will take something important away from you, do you still do it? Yes. The answer you’re looking for is yes…

Duty is ever-present. There will always be things in your life that you have a bound duty to, so you should roll with that. Honor is always important. It helps you to do what’s right, even when it seems hard. Loyalty should be earned. But if someone in your life has become important enough to earn that loyalty, then you should be true to that loyalty to the best of your ability. ☯

The Next Milestone…

So after using yesterday’s post to bitch, whine and complain about Mother Nature’s unending use of the Prairie Provinces as her personal whipping ground with the non-stop wind, I got an e-mail from my RunKeeper app yesterday indicating that I’ve apparently hit 1000 kilometres this year!

I had some recent issues with my workouts not syncing up to my RunKeeper account, so even if I’ve been counting the number of workouts I’ve been doing per week, none of the statistical stuff has been uploading. I sent in a message to their support link and got a solution the same day. Once I cleared the syncing error and all the workouts synced, I got a batch of emails. One of them was the image you see above.

Considering I reached the 500k mark back in late May, I’m somewhat surprised that I got here this quickly. But either way, it feels nice to be up in the thousands. It will be interesting to see how many more kilometres I can rack up before the colder season kicks in and the snow hits the ground! ☯

No Use In Getting Angry With The Wind

Last Monday was a Civic Holiday (Saskatchewan Day for us), and most of the city was quiet and businesses were closed. My wife had the day off and since the temperature seemed pretty mild, I thought it would be an ideal day to try and achieve 70 kilometres on the bicycle. I had discussed this plan with my wife a few days prior, and given the amount of time that it would take me to reach this distance (I cycle at about an hour for every slice of 20 kilometres, give or take) she suggested that I leave during the early morning hours in order for it to be cooler outside and so that I wouldn’t lose the majority of the day to my trek.

I decided to take her advice and set my alarm for 6:30 am. I probably could have gone a bit earlier, but COVID has made me a bit lazy in my old age, and getting out of bed is a definite “not like” for me. My CGM sensor was scheduled to need replacing in the next four hours and I knew I wouldn’t be home in time, so I opted to remove it and simply run without for the duration of my trip. I loaded up the satchels on my bike with cereal bars, protein sticks, electrolytes and jelly beans. I checked the inflation on my tires and I took to the road at about 7:30 in the morning.

The first leg of my trip went flawlessly. My goal was to take a 35-kilometre route to a local community called Lumsden, stop for a light bite to eat and make my way back. My plan was to use secondary Highway 734, since it had a paved surface but would be quieter than the busy, four-lanes Highway 11. It also takes a roundabout route, allowing for a longer mileage. I had tunes going, my mileage was being tracked by my Runkeeper app and I even achieved 10 kilometres in 20 minutes, which was a speed goal I had been trying to achieve the week prior.

My view of the bright, yellow Canola fields along the highway

I managed to reach Lumsden in just short over an hour, but the route I used only took 29 kilometres! You’d think this would be a good thing, but it meant I’d have to find a different, longer route in order to get home otherwise I’d have to spend time lapping my neighbourhood streets in order to hit my 70. I examined the map and decided on a route that should have allowed me to reach my goal.

I had plenty of company on the road, despite the light traffic. Between prairie dogs, horses and cattle in the fields and the dozens of caterpillars walking about the road surface… Since it was a fairly chilly morning, the caterpillars are drawn to the asphalt’s heat, which it absorbs from the morning sun. But before I go off on a tangent, let’s get back to the ride…

One of the many fuzzy companions I encountered

Not only was I sitting on cloud nine from the speed I had used to reach Lumsden, I was pretty confident that I would be able to get back home in roughly three hours’ total, which would have signalled a whole bunch of achievements in terms of time and distance. But as I often say, life doesn’t care about one’s plans. And in this instance, nature and technology had a much different idea of how my morning would go.

First, I experienced the AWESOME pleasure of climbing the Lumsden hill on a bicycle. In case my sarcasm isn’t quite oozing through my typed words… It was ridiculous. Then I hit the top of the hill into the open area and got hit by wind. Directly. Into. My face. It was the kind of wind that brought me to a complete stop as soon as I stopped pedalling.

I know that a lot of people joke about how flat Saskatchewan is, but does there seriously have to be this much wind ALL THE TIME??? All the time I gained during the trek towards Lumsden was blown out of the water by trying to ride against the wind over the next three hours. It didn’t take long for me to become exhausted and with the lack of CGM, I was curious as to how my blood sugars were doing.

I stopped on a quiet stretch of highway and tested my blood. I was sitting at 4.1 mmol/L, which isn’t a HUGE issue but since I still had about 20 kilometres to go I thought it would be a good time to stopped for a snack. I texted my wife to let her know I was still alive and stuffed my face, followed by some electrolytes. I got back on the road and kept struggling against the wind.

Then, right in mid-song, my phone went quiet. I stopped and checked on it, only to find the the battery had died. This struck me as odd since I’ve often cycled for four hours or more and still got home with a charge. So now, not only had I lost my ability to track my progress, I also lost any means of communicating with my wife (or emergency services, if need be). There’s a certain psychological effect to recognizing that you’re in the middle of nowhere with no means to call for help, if needed.

I made my way home and realized that as I was angry at the fact it was windy. And then I realized? Is there any point to being angry at the wind? After all, the wind is a natural occurring phenomenon. It serves a number of purposes in nature. It wasn’t INTENTIONALLY making my ride tougher, despite the fact that I kept asking ti to “give me a break.”

And this is an important aspect in everyday life. We’re often faced with naturally-occurring obstacles that we have no control over and aren’t set out to make our lives difficult, despite the fact that they often do. Life doesn’t care about our plan and we have to work through or work around those obstacles accordingly. Ultimately, I managed to reach my 70 kilometres. It sucks that the phone stopped tracking at 58.9 kilometres, but at the end of the day, I still reached the mileage. So it wasn’t a wasted day, despite how blasted I was when I finally got home. ☯

International Beer Day 🍺

There are no shortages of “holidays” out there, and some of them are pretty far out of left field. I’ve written about a number of these before, and holidays surrounding beer are no exception. Today is International Beer Day, not to be mistaken for National Beer Day, which is celebrated on April 7th. Unlike the latter, the former was founded in 2007 and is celebrated on the first Friday of August. Since its creation, the holiday has come to be observed and celebrated in over 80 countries.

This particular holiday is intended to allow people to “unite” under the banner of beer and celebrate all the different brews offered around the globe. It’s observed by enjoying beer, buying rounds for those celebrating with you and acknowledging the people responsible for the creation of beer. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it might have been just another excuse for people to get together and slam back a few cold ones. But honestly, does one really need an excuse for that?

Both holidays were founded n the United States, but this one is kinda cool because it’s observed in many countries all over the world. In the interest of today’s most boozy of holidays, I thought I would re-share my post about beer facts from my National Beer Day post from last April. Here we go…

Beer holds a particular interest for me. And unlike the average consumer, I enjoy consuming it for the different flavours and different blends, as opposed to the intoxicating effects (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). I’m an odd duck in comparison to my counterparts in Canada, as I only start drinking beer when I was 23 years of age in Japan of all places, as opposed to early in my teens like most of my friends. This is mostly because of beer’s significant carb-count and effects on the waistline.

Depending on what history book you read, the first beer is thought to have been brewed by the Chinese almost 9,000 years ago. But beer as it’s brewed today (or close to it) is believed to have been started by the Mesopotamians around 3,500 to 3,100 BCE. Although some scholars think it may have been accidentally discovered when grains used for bread fermented, some postulated that not only was it brewed for its intoxicating effects but also as a dietary staple.

Regardless of who did it first, beer is here and most of us couldn’t be happier. And believe it or not, beer may have some particular health benefits in addition to being the beverage of choice for guitar-playing teens sitting by the fire on a beach. I found an article on a website called EverydayHealth.com, which lists 8 ways that beer is good for you. Here are the ways…

  1. Beer Fights Inflammation. The article suggests that some of the hops used in beer can contain bitter acids that help fight inflammation;
  2. Beer Aids Digestion. Those same bitter acids can also help with the release of stomach acids, essentially helping you to digest;
  3. Beer May prevent Some Cancers. Beer contains Lupulone and Xanthohumol, which have shown promise in fighting tumours. Most of these are just in the study phase;
  4. Beer Builds Bones. Beer contains silicone, which is said to be important for the building of strong bones. The article suggest India Pale Ale (my favourite) as the best source for this;
  5. Beer Is Heart-Healthy. A study in 2012 apparently links the consumption of one or two beer a day as beneficial for the prevention of heart issues, and the prevention of further issues in those who already have them;
  6. Beer “Polishes” Your Teeth. Beer apparently beats out tea and other methods of eliminating the biofilm that accumulates on your teeth if you haven’t brushed for a while, according to another study done in 2012 (were we all just drinking THAT much in 2012?);
  7. Beer Protects Brain Cells. A 2015 study from China describes some benefits in this regard. Finally, a study that WASN’T done in 2012;
  8. Beer Prevents Kidney Stones. Some studies have shown that consuming beer may help prevent the formation of kidney stones.

So there you have it! Beer isn’t all bar fights and hangovers but can actually do some good for you. As with all things, the idea is moderation. Too much consumption can lead to the reversal of some of the benefits listed above, and can also include increased blood pressure and weight gain. So the idea isn’t to down a twelve-pack thinking you’ve found the secret to eternal life! And bear in mind that the average can of beer can be anywhere between 11 to 25 grams of carbohydrates, depending on the blend and size of container. So, know what you’re drinking and how to bolus accordingly.

I’m lucky in the fact that the city I live in has a number of local breweries with their own specific blends of beer. Most of the dispensaries in the province sell a lot of these brews, so there’s a lot of opportunity to try some of them out. So if you have the opportunity to celebrate this holiday, as with all things in life, drink in moderation and be responsible if you happen to be out with friends (which you likely shouldn’t be, since social distancing regulations are still in place). ☯