How quickly things can change. Just last week I was making final plans for a solid training month leading up to my big event of the year. Fast forward a week and I am down in Florida visiting my Father in the hospital. My Father Al had Quintuple bypass surgery last Friday. He is not doing so well and is currently in an induced comma in ICU. Like many, I hate hospitals. I have spent far too many days in them and have a real dislike. My Uncle Wallace, Al's little brother, came with me several times to keep me company. While we were there we discussed all the family members who have passed away. Most from accidents, but many from heart disease. It appears I have some very bad genetics with many having heart problems. At one time in my life I wanted to live until I reached 100 years old. But with this recent discovery I might have to reduce that to 75 or so.
I have been working hard this week helping my Mom and working remotely at my normal job. Needless to say I have been very stressed, worried and tired. Normally I like to exercise when I get really stressed as it helps me cope. Saturday was not as busy at my parents business so after the mail ran and we got the deposit together I head off to the beach. I really needed an open water swim and what better body of water to do that in than the ocean. Conditions were very good today at South Beach Park. Temps around 85 and very little wind which meant good swimming conditions. The goal today was to just relax and find some peace out in the ocean. As I entered the water I noticed a swimmer approaching swimming about 75 yards off shore. I decided to swim out and follow him to practice drafting some. All was well until he headed toward shore then I was all alone. I continued swimming North towards Spanish River Park. As I continued along I started to see golf balls on the ocean floor. Or at least I thought they were which would make perfect sense because I was swimming past the Red Reef Executive Golf Course along A1A. I decided to take a break from swimming and tried to dive down to retrieve one. The depth I was swimming at was just too deep for me to reach them so I continued on trying to maintain a good swim stroke/position and find that "Inner Peace" that I was searching for. As I did I remember this little story about
Golf Balls and Life which helped me some. I started to get a little sick from waves and my shoulder was starting to hurt from the constant swimming. I turned to shore and was happy with the distance I had covered - nearly reaching Spanish River.
With no bike to ride my next best option for a leg workout was to buckle up a set of rollerblades. It has been a long, long time since I rollerbladed. I must have looked like a real "Queen" trying to rollerblade along A1A shirtless with old blades and a set of poles. My balance was off. I do not know if it was from using the poles or what but I definitely revered to Newbie status. After several miles I finally settled in and started to glide well. This brought back a lot of fond memories of spending time rollerblading with this sweet little blond girl from Pennsylvania that I had met about 20 years ago. I remember blowing my entire paycheck on a new set of Rollerblades for her. We were both hooked and loved rolling along with not a worry in the world. One day we ventured out and bladed all the way from her house to Deerfield Beach (well over 20 miles), had lunch and enjoyed an adventure all the way back home. That was a great day. My little ride today almost ended badly for me. As I was working my way back to the car I took a side road which had some damn speed bumps. I guess I was still dreaming and thought I could Rollerblade like I used to 20 years ago. I tried to jump the speed bump and lost my balance big time. Luckily I had the polls and used them to act as a tripod skidding along. As you can see by the picture above, I wore right through the rubber ends trying keep from falling. I do not know how I did it, but I saved it. I may not be able to walk straight tomorrow, but I saved it.
How quickly things can change. Just last week I was making final plans for a solid training month leading up to my big event of the year. Fast forward a week and I am down in Florida visiting my Father in the hospital. My Father Al had Quintuple bypass surgery last Friday. He is not doing so well and is currently in an induced comma in ICU. Like many, I hate hospitals. I have spent far too many days in them and have a real dislike. My Uncle Wallace, Al's little brother, came with me several times to keep me company. While we were there we discussed all the family members who have passed away. Most from accidents, but many from heart disease. It appears I have some very bad genetics with many having heart problems. At one time in my life I wanted to live until I reached 100 years old. But with this recent discovery I might have to reduce that to 75 or so. 
I have been working hard this week helping my Mom and working remotely at my normal job. Needless to say I have been very stressed, worried and tired. Normally I like to exercise when I get really stressed as it helps me cope. Saturday was not as busy at my parents business so after the mail ran and we got the deposit together I head off to the beach. I really needed an open water swim and what better body of water to do that in than the ocean. Conditions were very good today at South Beach Park. Temps around 85 and very little wind which meant good swimming conditions. The goal today was to just relax and find some peace out in the ocean. As I entered the water I noticed a swimmer approaching swimming about 75 yards off shore. I decided to swim out and follow him to practice drafting some. All was well until he headed toward shore then I was all alone. I continued swimming North towards Spanish River Park. As I continued along I started to see golf balls on the ocean floor. Or at least I thought they were which would make perfect sense because I was swimming past the Red Reef Executive Golf Course along A1A. I decided to take a break from swimming and tried to dive down to retrieve one. The depth I was swimming at was just too deep for me to reach them so I continued on trying to maintain a good swim stroke/position and find that "Inner Peace" that I was searching for. As I did I remember this little story about Golf Balls and Life which helped me some. I started to get a little sick from waves and my shoulder was starting to hurt from the constant swimming. I turned to shore and was happy with the distance I had covered - nearly reaching Spanish River. 
No comments:
Post a Comment