Twenty Miles

Yesterday I went for my last "big" bike workout before the triathlon. It was hot and humid, but I decided to shoot for twenty miles. It took an hour and a half, and I drank through a liter of water and a liter of my home made black cherry gatorade before I returned. But I made the whole twenty miles. In fact, I went an extra half mile beyond that, and was able to pedal up the monster hill to my house.

I needed the ride. It has been a pretty miserable time of late. Stress and sorrow from all quarters. My mom lost a cousin, Dean, to cancer. My brother's father in law died in a freak accident, throwing their world into turmoil. My father in law came for a visit to Mayo and has ended up being in much worse shape than anyone knew, thus stressing my wife and I quite a bit. With all of the tests and hospitalization and further tests and consultations, I have not been able to have the workout week I would have liked. The Wife and I are in the midst of change as well. She and I have been working part time so that one of us can be home with the kids all the time. Thus erasing the need for day care, which would have taken my entire paycheck as a full time medic. But the schedule has been horrendous. We have about three days off together each month, and we alternate working holidays, so we have not had our family together on actual the actual holiday much at all. This sort of schedule leaves no time for any sort of vacation either. We have been down to see my folks once or twice in the past year, or over to see my in-laws. But the kiddos big adventure this summer was playing in the sprinkler on the front lawn. And that's just not right.

The Wife and I have agreed that this schedule is just not working for us as a family. So we crunched some numbers, talked about several plans, and here is what we have come up with...

She is moving to a .8 position and I am moving to PRN, or as needed. This will give us at least a few days off every couple of weeks, allow for an actual vacation, and means we can spend actual holidays together as a family. Since my medic hours are going to be dramatically less, I am going to focus on getting Bluefeather Gardens and Workshop up and running for real, and seeing if I can make a viable business out of it. I'll still take shifts as a medic, which is great, because I still love that job. But the Wife and I agree that I have to give 100% to Bluefeather and see if it can work. Otherwise, I'll always wonder.

Needless to say, this huge life change is adding extra stress to an already stressful time. So the big bike ride and the full length tri on friday were so vey welcome for stress relief.

It seems that in this season of my life, my elders are beginning to die off. I am not looking forward to their loss at all. Nor am I looking forward to becoming the elder. The Wife and I are changing our lifestyle and eating habits too, as if we need something else to worry about. But we both want to be healthier for our kids and our future grandkids. Life is too short to be out of shape and sickly. I (as you know) have taken up triathlon training. The Wife is going to start running again with the goal to team up with me on a future tri as the running part! I'm really looking forward to that!

So. Lots of transition right now. Some not so great. Some unsure but hopeful. Keep us in your prayers if you are the praying sort. I'd appreciate it!

More Later