Busy, Busy, Busy

     The last few weeks have been extremely busy. With all of the rain and heat grass seems to be growing almost as fast as you can cut it. With us moving in to town this is a lot easier to deal with, with one exception. We still haven't sold our other house so this means way more work. Our other property is just over three acres and has about a 400 foot winding driveway with laurel leaf willows on either side. In the summer this looks really cool as the willows form a canvas over the drive. The unfortunate thing about laurel leaf willows is that they are self pruning trees. Normally this is a pretty good thing. As the smaller twigs and branches die off they fall to the ground so the trees always look full of life. On the other hand, when you have a day with 60-80 Km/hr winds, like we had last week, it makes a huge mess. There are still showings being booked for this house, even though there is now a deal pending, so this stuff can't be left it has to get dealt with which adds probably another 10 hours of work each week. I know from my work and the changes that get made, that as soon as people are overwhelmed with being too busy they fall back in to their old, usually bad, habits.
     Not being at Kung fu for the past couple of weeks I started to worry about this same thing happening to me. When you start to fall out of a routine that you have formed it becomes pretty easy just to revert to old habits. In order to combat this I did the extreme opposite. Last week once I heard from the Dr that I for sure didn't have chicken pox, I signed up for "Training for Warriors" again. This makes a busy schedule even busier with four classes a week, but it, much like Silent River, is a group of  very motivating people. Is this something that can be sustained for extended periods of time? Likely not but for the month that I have signed up for I am pretty sure that I will be able to manage. Next week the conditions of the sale of our other house should be removed and the new owners take possession at the start of July so hopefully a month from now things should be back to normal, whatever that looks like. Until then there will be lots of running from task to task, with push ups and sit ups in between.

Chicken Pox???

     Almost two weeks ago I found myself laid up in bed for about three and a half days. Not an ideal thing to have happen especially when you are on vacation visiting with people you only see once a year. By Mother's Day I started to feel somewhat normal and we were able to go out to celebrate. Monday and Tuesday was Kung Fu as normal, then Wednesday things deteriorated. I woke up to a few, what i thought were pimples on my forearm. By the end of the day both of my arms were covered in these "spots". Thursday morning I went to see our family Dr. before going to work to see if it was in fact chicken pox and/or if I needed to be worried about being contagious. By this time I now had these spots everywhere but no real concentration they were very sporadic. The Dr didn't think that the timeline between the fever and chill and the spots equalled having chicken pox but he didn't have an answer for what it would be. He said that I would be fine going to work as long as I managed to keep all of the blisters covered. He figured as long as they were contained that I should be able to pass the infection?? on to anyone else. 

     Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get some answers as to what I have and will be able to resume going to Kung Fu. On the plus side I haven't been feeling too bad so I have been able to keep up with push ups and sit ups. The acts of kindness are a little harder when you are trying to avoid most people though.  

Visitors

     This past week we were home to a couple of visitors. Nana and Papa, my parents. We don't get to see them too much so the kids are always excited when they know that they are coming. They flew in a week ago last Thursday May 4th, which happened to be my 45th birthday. We had expected them to be at our house, new house which they had never been to, around 9:00pm. We went out for dinner just before 7:00pm so we figured we had lots of time. Just after we had finished eating the doorbell rang, our security system has an app that connects the house and our phones so actually Dawn's phone rang. Dawn talk to my dad through the doorbell cam, which I am sure was an unusual experience for him, and was able to unlock the front door for them as well.
     I had booked a few days off of work so that I would be able to spend some time with them, there had been lots of times in the past where I hadn't taken time and have regretted it. On the Friday there were still lots of things to get organised for the auction at our other house on that coming Sunday. I went out there fairly early and then my parents were nice enough to join me later and give me a hand. Staging stuff either on the trailer or on tables and then cleaning the dust off as well. The auction went well, or so I have been told I should get the paperwork this week, and I am sure it is due to the cleaning and the care of setting up. Thanks again for the help.
     On Monday I had made a T-time for my dad and I to play golf at Stony Plain Golf Course. It was a nice day and even though the greens were in terrible shape it was nice to spend the time together. The next day was supposed to be about the same for weather so I phoned another course to see if we could get a T-time for Tuesday. On Tuesday we played at The Ranch which was in great condition. All but maybe two of the greens were excellent and the rest of the course as well. Another difference in the days was that on the Monday we had been put together with another pair to make a foursome but on Tuesday we were left on our own. When we arrived they had told us that we were the next out. There were no people on the two holes ahead of us and no one else teed off until we were on the third or fourth hole. 
     I used to play golf fairly regularly, 15-20 rounds during the season. A change in jobs here, some kids over there another change in jobs over here, and this time seemed to vanish. The last probably five years I had maybe played two to three times a year. Usually in a tournament where you are not actually playing a full game but in a scramble. Anyways, I had always had the same issue that most golfers have, recovering after making a bad shot. Once a bad shot is made then in creeps doubt, second guessing followed by pressure to make an even better shot next time to recover. A couple of these in a row and most peoples game does not recover, or at least mine never did. On Tuesday though I noticed that something had changed. Instead of getting upset and letting emotions control the game I started breaking down what had happened and trying to change one thing before the next swing. 
     Did the game of golf get mastered that day? No. But on a personal level it was probably one of the best games I ever had the opportunity to play. The scorecard sucked and it didn't seem to matter, I got to spend some time with my father and learn some things about myself as well. 

The Effects of Inaction

     This weekend I had some time to reflect as I was preparing for an auction at our acreage. I went out early Saturday morning in order to clear a spot for the Auctioneers trailer. The initial goal of the morning was to clean up the remnants of a tree that we had cut down last year. Last spring to be exact. We had a couple of dead trees that were infringing on the neighbours yard and threatening to destroy their chain link fence. Because of the location of the trees and the hazards that were involved we decided it would be easier to hire someone to take the trees down. While they were there, we also had them take down another tree that was close to the house and causing some issues with the eaves trough. After the crew that cut them down had left I started limbing and cutting these trees. I had most of them cut up within a few days. The one that was by the house actually was two intertwined with each other. This made for some tricky limbing and cutting as the pressure from the weight of the top tree would either cause the branches to snap back or the saw to get pinched as the weight shifted. With about two thirds of these large evergreens cut down and just about twenty feet of the top left, the removal of the refuge seemed to drop in priority. 
     A year later, the work was still required to be done but now had a higher priority as they lay in the way of the optimal spot for parking this trailer. As I moved the branches in to a pile in the treeline, I started to think lots about what was actually going on. There are lots of life lessons about doing something at the time being faster than putting it off. This wasn't that. The branches themselves were dry and lighter than when the tree was first cut making them easier to move. Most of the needles had also fallen off of the branches over the winter aiding in making the branches lighter. As I reached the branches that were at the bottom I started to notice something and my train of thought change directions. The needles that had fallen of had formed a sort of barrier where they lay. This barrier was thick enough to block out any sun from reaching the earth thus giving life to the plants below. In this case mostly grass. 

     Due to the fact that I had not taken the action required to finish this task the grass that had been in this spot for over thirty years was now completely dead where the tree once lay. With a fine rake I made sure that the barrier of needles was removed. Will the grass come back? I have no doubts that it will. I assume that by the end of summer, weather permitting, this area will be green and full of life again. 

Lesson: Changing the priority of a task doesn't necessarily mean that it won't get done or will be harder when you do end up doing it. Depending on the task however, this delay may have some affect on the environment around you. 

Charitable Casues

     This past week I had the opportunity to go to the NHL Alumni Luncheon for the Alzheimer's Face Off Tournament. One of the guys at work has played in this tournament for the last few years with a team in Leduc. I had never really looked in to this event much before attending the luncheon. The cost of the event does not really allow the average person to entertain attending. In fact my initial reaction to being asked to go was not excitement but almost disgust. Pay how much to spend a couple of hours with a bunch of over payed ex athletes? This did not make a lot of sense to me. 
     I had just finished reading "Relentless" which was written by a pro athlete trainer. This book looks at athletes from a different point of view. The author talks about the internal force that is inside of people who are always trying to be better than not only everyone else but themselves as well. He talks about them being relentless in their pursuit of excellence. With this knowledge, I set fourth to see and meet some individuals who were not set on some pedestal by society, but that were relentless enough in their careers to achieve some sort of greatness.
     At the luncheon every table of eight has an NHL alumni sitting at it. Sitting at our table was Steven Goertzen. Born in Stony Plain and now living in Spruce Grove and still active in hockey and training young hockey players.
     After the food was served the MC started to introduce the people that make this tournament happen. One of the people that came up to speak was medical researcher that talked about dementia. One of the things that was said really stuck with me. He made a comment that I had heard before but not with Alzheimer's or dementia but with Cancer. He made the point that everyone in the room at some point will either have or know someone suffering with dementia. Late Saturday afternoon I had some time and started to look in to some posted stats. In America one in nine people suffers from dementia. That's a little scarier than I would have thought so I kept looking. The next information that I had found seemed even worse. It said that one in three people that die over the age of 65 will have experienced some for of dementia in their lifetime. My outlook now has completely changed. If this information was correct, which came from a published  document from the Alzheimer's Association, then with two living parents and two living in-laws there is a good chance that this will have some impact on our family.
     This event, Alzheimer's Face Off, raised over $1,000,000 this year. I may not have another opportunity to attend the luncheon, but I will do whatever I can to help support the teams playing in the tournament. The realisation of the impact of this disease on not only my own families but others we know had completely changed my perception of the event and the charity that it supports.