But I digress.

A big part of mindfulness is arrived at via meditation.  Hmmm.  So I am attempting to learn to meditate.  Easy right?  Nope.  I have now been practicing for almost a week.  The idea is to calm the mind by focusing on your breath.  It is like trying to stop a run-away train with strong language.  So far it is not going well.

What IS going well is that I am on day 24 of sticking to a fitness plan.  The “Plan” is to do a minimum of 30 minutes a day of high output rowing on my Concept 2 erg.  So far I have mixed and matched 30 min,  12km, and 8x500m sessions  with intensity that leaves me just short of throwing up or falling down.  My resting heart rate has already started to drop.

The other effort involves a strategic diet strategy, namely:  EAT LESS.  That also is going well.  I am down 2.5 lbs.

Tonight I have been scheduled to work from 9pm until 4am on short notice.  Can’t sleep, so here I am writing away.  Dumb but relaxing so w/e.

Onward.

Share on Facebook

Today will mark 20 consecutive days that I have either rowed or run.  I am starting to feel like a fat version of the old me.  Aerobic capacity is starting to return.  My left shoulder is weak but starting to come back.  Aidan and I went to BJJ last night.  We sucked.  But damn it felt good.

So I’m older and have to be smarter to be able to continue being physical.  The rowing machine is helping…low impact  Low key BJJ will mean I don’t get injured.  Being mindfull will help essential ego supression so I can focus on learning.

Conclusion – I’m actually optimistic about 2012.  It will be a good year.  Day by day.  Minute by minute.  Second by second.

Share on Facebook

Now in the media, questions are being raised about the manner of his death. A waste of time in my opinion. He knew what he was doing. He rolled the dice.

Freedom is the ability to do what we want, provided it harms no one else. “License” is the same, except you have no regard for other’s right to freedom.

No photo for you Mo. To got what you deserved. Be grateful there is no hell.

Share on Facebook

Where events just seem to conspire against you?  Where things come to a head at exactly the wrong time.  That is today. That has been this week, this weekend.

Something has to give. Just a bit so I can catch my breath.

Sometimes I feel like I need no sleep. Like right now. I’m tired past all words but I like this feeling that at this very moment, everyone is safe in bed and that we have made it through another day. I get a moment to lie here and think and take a few deep breaths.

Share on Facebook

I really enjoy BJJ and in order to progress I need to attend class and I need to stay healthy.  I also need to free up the time required.

In any case, my broken foot, while still a bit tender, is healed.  I ran last Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, and today.  Easy runs but still a solid 40-45 minutes.  I’m back at the weights.  Pullups, deep pushups and deadlifts.  Let us see whether the marginal increase in age has brought a corresponding increase in the inner focus required to whittle myself into competition shape.

Share on Facebook

In Europe we noticed that all the cars are small.  No Hummers, Escalades, or F250 club cabs.  The vehicles were predominately tiny hatchbacks, scooters or motorcycles.

Next to these, my Toyota Echo seems positively, well…”midsize” at least.

We did some vehicle watching on the way back from grocery shopping this morning.   It is the weekend so many of the vehicles were carrying families on errands or to events.  Some had a passenger in each seat.  ”Full occupancy” so to speak.  Yet even here, the vehicles are larger than is strictly required.

It IS a safety issue to some extent.  My Echo is one of the smallest cars on the road.  If I mix it up with even a small pickup truck, I will be in big trouble.

I see it as just one more symptom of our consumerist society.  We are the contents of our wallets.  We are the cars we drive.  We are our 4000 square foot homes, we are our designer clothes.  We’ve drunk the koolaid.

We are also, in general, in North America, in over our heads in terms of debt.  Our jobs are disappearing.  We work long hours, spend little quality time with our families and we are fat in ever growing proportions.

It used to be that being fat was a sign of affluence.  We are bloated in so many ways as a culture and it’s more than corporeal.  Things went south fore the Romans.  And for the gang that drank the Koolaid.   Maybe we need to hit rock bottom before we figure it out.

WHAT IF…

We all drove smaller cars, lived in higher density communities in smaller living spaces?  Would we then have enough money to work less?  To spend more time with family?  To exercise?  Would our debt levels be lower?  Would the incidence of stress and environmental related disease be lower?  Would fewer people be buying homes they cannot afford?  Would we even have had the greed driven recession?  Easy question with no pat answer for sure.  At the back of my mind though, is the thought that our way of life is unsustainable, toxic and well…just plain greedy.

Share on Facebook

Well…Yes.

I actually targeted Kingston years ago as one of the better spots to live in Canada for a number of reasons:

1. It’s not too big.  Easy to navigate, little traffic and low crime.
2. It is not too small.  All the services are here and Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa are not that far away.
3. Close to Family in Toronto and Ottawa.
4. Moderate climate (for Canada).  Reasonable in the summer and winter, not too much snow or rain.
5. Good schools.  Queen’s, St. Lawrence College, RMC.
6. Good hospitals; KGH and Hotel Dieu
7. It’s pretty.  Limestone buildings, the canal, the lake, Fort Henry.  Many parks and green spaces.
8. Reasonable home prices.

Share on Facebook

Liam, Aidan, Annette and I just got back from a 16 day trip to Roma, Pompeii, Paris and Venezia. Annette did a side trip to visit her family in Poland.

The experience was more than worth the cost. So much of what we saw was unexpected. From the dominance of Smart cara in Roma to the way our food was cooked and prepared, everything seemed different.

We noted that stereotypes are often misleading. The Italians for instance, DO have a chaotic lifestyle at first glance. But scratch a bit deeper and a culture of dedication to family and tradition shines through. Parisians are NOT the rudest people in the world (far from it) and Venezia DOES smell…like seawater….duh.

We figured out taxis and hotels and trains and directions and grocery stores just fine thank you and everyone learned how to be resourceful and spontaneous. A good thing for teens to see first hand. Liam and Aidan both think that they could do it on their own now! Cool.

We took some 4000 pictures and will spend quite a while putting together our slideshow.

What I learned:

• I can now speak to how to travel in Europe with teens and what they find interesting (or not).
• I can also attest to the fact that it is possible to travel for two weeks with only a carry-on bag (we bought ours from Mountain Equipment Co-op) without wearing smelly clothes or leaving something crucial behind.
• I saw the benefit of the Panorama feature on our Sony cameras and was grateful for the bigger sensor on my NEX-3 for low light conditions where flash was not allowed (like the Mona Lisa).
• I think Rick Steves is a travel god and am so happy I bought his Paris and Rome guides. Annette loved his carry on bag.
• We all wore lightweight quick-drying clothing from MEC. Prana, Under-Armour, Patagonia and yes, Walmart and it kept us cool in the 34-38 degree Rome weather.  Zip-off pants work and are incredibly flexible for summer travel.
• Renting an apartment in Paris was a great idea and saved us a lot of money because we could cook most of our meals and shop at the very inexpensive local grocery stores and bakeries.
• The fast trains are expensive but they are FAST.  In the summer they save a lot of time on days when extra hours+heat=cranky travelers.
• I bought European roaming minutes on my Bell Mobility account and some skype minutes and all our communication was done via skype via wireless.  My HTC Legend smartphone worked great.

More to come soon.

Share on Facebook

The city is just across the bay. We can see the Canada day fireworks from our deck and some nights I hear the sound of a fox crying in the gully. The cardinals and bluejays perch on the gutters outside my window and always seem to be able to predict when I am about to take a picture.

The dogs are getting a little long in the tooth. We’ve been through a lot together. Chase spends as much time as he can in the water. It’s cool and I think it feels good to float a bit.

Share on Facebook

“Grace is an unearned gift of momentary happiness that we experience with our family or friends”

This was a pretty rough weekend. There were times though, where it occurred to me that I am very, very blessed to have Liam, Aidan and Annette in my life.

Share on Facebook