Yet more milestones...

So! As per usual, I have been tardy in posting. My apologies. It's been a pretty busy time of late and on the whole a great period. I made it out to the fair city of Vancouver... well, mostly Surrey, which is at least equally special. Also Abbotsford. Let's go with the fair Greater Vancouver Area, shall we?

The trip was absolutely fabulous. I want to start first by thanking my hosts and cousins, Mike and Melanie, for putting up with me for 4 sleeps. You two are amazing and inspirational! I certainly hope that all I gleaned from you, particularly this weekend, I will successfully apply to any future relationship I am in. One can't do much better than to copy y'all!

I also want to thank Ryan for throwing the birthday warming... er... houseday... well, some combination of birth, day, house and warming party anyhow. It was great to interact with you, with Mike and Mel, all the guests in general, and particularly an old college pal, Matt! What a surprise it was to suddenly have his head in my face, staring me down, and to think, "what is this weird face I see? Wait a minute... looks familiar... Matt!" Ahhh, such good times to be had when you encounter people you knew 15 or so years back and hadn't been face-to-face since!

I also met up with another dear friend, Margaree. We cruised through Gastown, Chinatown - I am now massively addicted to Red Bean Buns, which I need to hunt down here in Saskatoon - and False Creek. This was Saturday, before the party. We then made it out to the party, and had an extraordinary time.

Sunday, we walked over to a church that Mike, Melanie, Rob and Clarice were wanting to check out. Little did I know this was Pentecost weekend. I heard a rousing tale of the birthday of Christianity, which is yet another whack upside the head to my faith. Mind you, as with the rest, a good whack upside the head. I definitely have had a number of instances whereby my faith has gained clarity. Yay, God for that!

Other than church, Sunday became a bit of a wash. I was hoping to do something with a couple other cousins, Clay and Monty, either Sunday or Monday. Offsetting that would have been hanging with Margaree some more. But neither happened on Sunday, which squashed Monday a bit. So a nice, lazy Sunday it was, which probably was a good rest period for me and Mr. Hernia.

Monday was a very late breakfast with Clay, Monty and shy little Riley, Monty's son. What a fantastic time it was for all of us! I think Mike, Melanie and I had not seen Monty since their wedding. 7 years goes by way too fast.

I then headed out to Abbotsford, where I enjoyed doing laps around the lake, doing elderly exercises, learned to make sushi and jammed, all under the watchful eye of Margaree. What a great time, especially considering that she had been getting sick Saturday night and had to leave early. She was pretty sick Sunday, which leads to the miracle of the weekend: while at church, worship leading, her illness completely disappeared! As soon as it was over, it returned with a vengeance. Yay, God again! Anyway, she apparently was well enough to do the aforementioned tour-guiding of Abbotsford, which meant a lot to me. Thank you so much, Margaree!

I flew back Tuesday, so not much to report there, aside from the sensation that I was coming down off a big-time high. Getting home felt like rock-bottom. As far as the hernia was concerned, I am not sure if all that walking was REALLY good for it, and my subsequent lack of walking on return has made it feel worse, or perhaps all that walking wasn't much good at all and I have been paying for it since. We'll find out today or tomorrow, because I went for a 5 or 6 k stroll today. So far, so good... which seems to indicate walking is a very good thing. I hope so!

As some of you may know, I desperately need to get back to being more active. I'd love to be able to once again justify my old nickname "Energizer Bunny." I do think that, given time, I can achieve that goal. But it will take time and patience. Of the latter, it will take a LOT for the next week or so.

Now that 2 weeks have gone by, I expect that I will begin to feel much less pain as well as see signs of improvement in terms of the bruising and swelling in the area. This is danger time: less pain and visual reminders of the injury means more likelihood of overexertion. Thus, more care a patience will be required.

At the hospital, before the surgery, I proposed to the doctor that maybe after three weeks, running would be ok. He said it would (the mesh will have fully adhered, so I can't undo the surgical repair at that point), but that it would be unlikely that I will want to because of the pain. I suppose that then means this next week won't be so pain-relief/swelling/bruising friendly. Hmmm...

Oh well. We shall see! I'm definitely itching to run... it's what I've missed the most during this injury period. I feel like a big ol' lazy schmuck right now... I can't wait to feel like an active, vigorous schmuck instead!

Milestone #2 (for blog purposes) on the road to recovery: the first shower!

Today I was finally able to shower post-surgery. Yesterday, I removed the original bandages from surgery and got a look at what was happening below there. Shocking. Today, in removing my first bandages, it was even more shocking. The bruising has spread like crazy, and is definitely showing a wider range of hues. I will take this as a sign that, as lightly as I am trying to take things, I am still overdoing it. An example: simply lifting and moving this little laptop of mine, I definitely can feel it in the surgical region. So I'll have to concoct a different way of approaching entertaining myself. Any ideas?

But to the point at hand: I am now well-cleansed! I was scared I may shower too long, and cause some sort of wound/taping issue, but... so far, so good. It feels great to, in the horribly misquoted words of Radiohead, "get the stink off." I was able to, almost universally, use new product to achieve this goal: and here is my verdict on these side-notes. First, Herbal Essence shampoo/conditioner RULES. Axe bodywash also RULES (I returned to both after experimenting with Axe shampoo, which is crap, and Zest body wash which might be good if it wasn't so darned runny and thus, wasteful). I also tried the axe body scrubber thingie and well... I will reserve judgement for now, but attempt #1 was not heading down the right road. Anyway, love or hate, everything accomplished the goal of cleaning my personage, which is the main thing anyway, right?

There was one problem that I had failed to consider: proper drying of the incision site. I know all the technicalities of doing it, but the problem is because it is in the groin region, there are too many nooks and crannies and such to effectively "dab" dry. The option of choice ends up being, dab as much as possible without disturbing the injury followed up with a period of air dry. Then, apply the bandages. We'll see how successful this plan is.

I think what I am learning the most is just how many little adjustments need to be made when dealing with something like a surgery. Something as simple as, "how do I dry myself off correctly down there?" and "maybe I can't use my laptop for a while because I a) can't lift it b) can't stretch far enough to use it if I don't lift it closer c) can't sit for any real amount of time to use it at a desk. Curious. Also curious is how driving was not too bad, but rolling down the window was excruciating!

Well, that is all for now I suppose. I will hereby try to do even less today, and go about enjoying my return to cleanliness. In all truth, I wish the same for you all.

:D

Post-surgery blogifyingness

Hello again! It's been ages. But I felt like, now that I will be off for a few weeks due to hernia surgery recovery, I ought to share some of my thoughts, insights and learnings from this reflective time.

So as it stands, I am in day 2 of post-surgery. From what I am told my recovery seems to be doing very well. After surgery, when I had to sit up, stand up, do the whole walking test thing, it seemed the nurse was massively surprised by what I could do so quickly. Here's where my brother questioned the legitimacy of such claims: He wonders if they always say stuff like that? I don't know... I've never had surgery before. :)

I do think that, with other stuff that had happened leading up to surgery time, that perhaps it is symptomatic of my pain-threshold. I am beginning to think maybe I have a pretty high one - not as big-time as some others I know, but probably above average. I wonder, is this a good thing, or is it bad? I suppose what I am getting at is, perhaps I need to take more seriously some minor hurts, while others might need to be on the floor, rolling around in agony before it can be taken as legitimate injury. Any thoughts on that?

Anyway... I have been pretty mobile already! I am making a conscious decision for today, at the least, to be as immobile as possible. I'll have to do a lot of conscious decision-making regarding how active I become, and how quickly I do things. I'm pretty much an all-or-nothing guy, so I'm going to have to err on the side of "nothing" for a while. Which is to say I will still get up here and there, just really minimize it.

So this week, there isn't a lot of plans until the weekend. This recovery period has allotted me some time to get out and travel, see some dear friends and such. I am SO excited to get to Vancouver next weekend! My dear cousin Mike and his wife Melanie just returned from their sabbatical in France, so it will be awesome to see them. Apparently, it is also a mutual friend's birthday/housewarming party weekend, so that'll be fun. I can't wait for the weekend, to see lots of great people and a whole bunch of great sights. Hernia recovery permitting, of course.

Mr. Harper's got some 'splainin' to do!

So it's been a while. Not so much an indication of the lack of brain activity in J, but moreso the spinning nature of the plethora of interests being consumed.

There were a couple of weekend spent mindlessly drifting the pages of wikipedia, firstly researching Greek and Norse Mythology, then another the largest stadia in the world. Fascinating stuff... alternatively occassionally (in the "I never would have guessed that!" sense) and often (in the tangent following sense) surprising. Such as learning about The Ashes series (England vs. Australia cricket competition) when crossing paths with famous grounds in which the contests are played, fuelled by the reference to this competition in a) BBC Sports blogs b) Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Still, the major issue that has perplexed my brain - well, at least of interest to anyone who is not I, your humble author - is the handling of the Helena Guergis affair. It is troublesome no matter how it is spinned: if there are legitimate "serious allegations" that warranted her removal as a Minister of the Conservative Government cabinet, that obviously raises all kinds of questions about the Conservative Party's ability to govern adequately. If the current set of circumstances prove to be true, one has to question why she would have been publicly removed not just from this public office, but also booted out of the Party. Seems to me that many many Ministers in the past have had legal issues to deal with, and at the very minimum were supported by their particular party enough to remain a member as a back-bencher. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong on that point, but to my current knowledge the removal from their portfolio and/or ejection from the party hasn't historically occurred until such allegations have been proven.

So, if there are legitimate serious allegations as Mr. Harper likes to assert... why did such a scoundrel ever make it to a position of such power? Did the Conservatives not do their homework, and check the background of Guergis and her husband, Rahim Jaffer? Should we not expect that such due diligence would be commonplace when considering a candidate for such a high-level job? The essence is: if these drug, fraud, and improper business practice allegations are correct, I can't imagine they would have been hard to find if one would have engaged in a slight uncovering of these people. Then again, perhaps I am wrong there, as all the opposition parties seem to have been caught off-guard on this as well.

Perhaps even scarier - although this would only be yet another arrow of incompetence in his opponent's arsenal - is the possibility that these accusations based on innuendo and half-truths are proven to be exactly that. Why then would our Prime Minister strip a party star and cabinet member not just of the Ministry post she enjoys, but also eject her from the party as well just because someone said she might have done something bad? Do we really truly think that this is good government and good leadership? When one of your best, most talented individuals is barely accused of something, they get abandoned at the drop of a hat? I don't think so. I thought this country, this society, and if not the whole world, certainly Western civilization was based on innocent until proven guilty. This smacks to me of guilty until innocence is proven - which, as an aside, I also believe is the ditch the NFL is going as evidenced by what is happening with Big Ben in Pittsburgh - and that scares the heck out of me.

Of course, I am NOT a Conservative fan, nor have I ever believed that Mr. Harper posesses a single leadership gene. So take my words with that grain of salt. I do believe, no matter the outcome of this, that Mr. Harper and the Conservative Party he leads horrifically mis-managed this whole affair.

Brian McKeever, and the douche-bags of Cross Country Canada.

Having a bit of an arguement on this issue at the Olympics today. Thought I`d share my displeasure here...

Just a thought on Brian McKeever, the paralympian who made Canada's Olympic cross-country team, but was left out for this 50km race today: He SHOULD have been included! SHAME ON Cross Country Canada! It's just far too massive a story - the first Paralympian to also participate in the Olympics - to leave him out. Not even too massive a Canadian story. This is a major human story. 

Next part:

Then why bring him on the team? Why the big VISA ad campaign? The Olympics aren't just about who wins and loses. If it was, why do wars stop for this event? Why is there such good comaraderie between opposing athletes? The Olympic spirit has taken a hit here.
I was only interested in watching the cross-country skiing in the hopes of watching a huge historical moment. One that was guaranteed: rarely are we afforded such a luxury as a no-doubt historical moment. CCC robbed the world of this. It was a hugely important moment for the Paralympics, for people with disabilities all over the world. It would have been almost as significant as Barack Obama becoming president. THIS is a major part of the Olympic movement... make the world a better place.
As it stands - this is a "results" oriented statement - Canada is barely threatening the podium right now... far from dominating in this event. And a few of the guys are slipping back badly. Seems like perhaps they were gassed from previous events. Maybe a "lesser" athlete who is fresh is better than a higher-ranked fellow with nothing left in the tank.
Again, if it's all about rankings, don't bring the guy. Don't set yourself up for douche-bag status of using a massive, feel-good story to get investment in the team (VISA ads) and then not following through.
Last thing, once again... my major point in this: if you`re going to bring the guy, use his story, you pretty much become obligated to use him.

Further along the story: another point to ponder. It is NOT uncommon, for various reasons to knowingly field an inferior team. Example? Canada regularly selects players for it's international squad in hockey specifically to groom them for future competitions. Arguably, this would have been the case in Vancouver for Jonathan Toews. Seen as a lower-level selection as a forward, he probably won the job because he is also seen as a young star with loads of future potential, who could moderately contribute this time out. Funny thing is, he more than moderately contributed. He became viewed as one of the main cogs in the entire tournament picture. What if "lesser talent" McKeever had proved a big-game player as Toews did?


Now obviously, cross-country skiing is individual and as such, the "weaker team" scenario is severely hampered. My point is merely that there are circumstances that justify fielding a weakened team. It was not without this fear that Jackie Robinson broke the baseball colour barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Was it a shoo-in that the plan would work? Or perhaps... they waited for the right guy to come along that would 100% guaranteed dominate enough to eliminate all justification against his participation. Hmmm. Either way, the CCC choked on this massive opportunity, or they made a critical error in bringing along and allowing McKeever to be overhyped when he wasn't fit for the monumental task.

Alexandre Bilodeau, you are Rediculous!

At long last, there's gold in them there hills for Canada. Alexandre Bilodeau will forever be the answer to Canada's favourite Olympic trivia question by winning the Men's Freestyle Moguls on Day 3 of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. This much I am certain you all know full well by now.

This simple act and newly minted fact has made Alex an instant legend in Canada. I dare say there could not have been a more perfect personage to fill the role. Here is why:

This Olympics has been remarkable in the fact that there is so much synergy between the Olympics itself and the Paralympics. The Paralympics were notably recognized in the Opening Ceremonies, most obviously with the inclusion of Rick Hansen in the ceremony. He is also responsible for a wonderful daily feature on CTV's Olympic broadcast called "The Difference Makers." One such difference maker was Alexandre's older brother, and poster boy for the wild celebrations, Frederic. Frederic has cerebral palsy, and his efforts in overcoming the obstacles presented him proved inspirational to Alexandre. Couple this with the first ever Winter Olympic AND Paralympic athlete, Brian McKeever of Canada, and the symbolic power of Bilodeau's victory grows.

The fact that a Quebecer won the first gold is significant on the national unity front as well. And while this event is inherently an individual sport, the true team spirit of Men's Moguls team and one of these guys winning gold is a big boost for the entire Canadian Olympic team, in their highly specialized and "individualized" events.

 

And to a lesser degree, this Valentine's Day victory provided a whole lot of warm feelings and glowing hearts in Canada with our first gold on home turf ever!

 

There may be other reasons discovered as to why Alexandre Bilodeau proved to be such a great and symbolic winner of the first home gold for Canada. These may not even be the most significant, but in the moments following his victory, it just struck me how wonderfully connected this individual was to all the things this Olympics in Canada is trying to achieve. Bravo, Alexandre! And thank you from this very proud Canadian!

One quick donation thought

Hello all! With the recent devestating events occurring in Haiti, I just wanted to give one piece of food-for-thought here when making donations to aid groups such as the Red Cross that was passed along to me by one of my former pastors...

When making these donations, make them non-specific to the organization in general. This way, the funds will be directed to whatever situation is most dire at the time. When you make the donation to say, the Asian Tsunami Relief Fund, that money can ONLY be used for tsunami relief. What often happens is these group get deluged with Tsunami relief money, and after a time, there is more than what is required. When a new crisis occurs such as the earthquake in Haiti, this money cannot move from the specific fund to help the other crisis. When you donate in a more generalized sense, the money can then be used for Haiti as is required at the moment.

Anyway, this explanation is probably clear as mud, but I just thought I'd throw it out there for your consideration...

And of course... I do encourage everyone who is able to donate what they can to help in any crisis situation! We are blessed to not endure such horrible events at the moment, so let's share that blessing with those not as fortunate. Thanks!

More variations on a sporting theme

My dear people: I apologize for my tardiness in posting. And for the repetitious nature of my theme here, but two events, one in each of  the past two days, has fired up the ol' thinking-cap atop my cranium.

First, the Eric Tillman saga. From what apparently little I have gleaned on the subject, I do think that the judgement in the case is acceptable. I am personally still in a state of shock that he plead guilty, and in this regard, I feel he has lost credibility in the behavioural demands of his players. It's what he was brought in to do in Saskatchewan: clean up the "gangsta" culture that was prevalent in Riderville. Now that he has pleaded guilty on a sexual assault charge, it doesn't matter the hows and whys of such a plea: how can he administer discipline on any player for any misdeeds outside of the game? This is a major part of his job, which I feel he cannot continue to do under the circumstances. He is a great football mind, very likely a great person who made a mistake. Sadly, this mistake inhibits his ability to do his job, in my view.

Secondly, my home city of Saskatoon hosted the 2010 version of the World Junior Hockey Championship. I challenge all Canadians to admit to this fact: of the "trilogy" of Canada/USA Jr. clashes, tonight's 6-5 overtime victory by the USA was the best of the bunch. The fact that our boys did not win this installment should not deter from the absolutely jaw-dropping exhibition of fabulous hockey that was on display. Both teams played extremely hard, skilled, and determined hockey. I watched this game with my Mom, and she noted that there really was no threat of a fight in the game! How about that: amazing clean entertainment to boot!

First, an admission on my part. I typically gain more enjoyment from the US losing in anything than I do from Canada winning the same. It really struck me this afternoon that I wouldn't be terribly upset by losing this game to the Americans. Why? Those kids spent their entire time in Saskatoon exuding the highest level of class, dignity and respect on every level. I admire that. Without doubt, a small part of me thought they deserved a gold medal simply for this. And now that they have won World Jr. gold, I am quite proud that we have turned over the crown to such a worthy opponent. Bravo Team USA! May you continue to embrace the graciousness that won over this Canadian hockey fan!

Post-mortem for a CFL Season

As you know, I am a Riders fan. After the 28-27 loss in the Grey Cup to the Montreal Alouettes, I know one thing with certainty: I am strangely thrilled to be so disappointed.

Allow me to explain. Virtually for the entire duration of my life, the Riders have been bad. BRUTAL bad. "My grandma can throw/hit/run/catch better than you" bad. We hadn't won our conference (think division in the NFL) in 33 years. Thus, there has never been a serious expectation for us that our team would contend for the championship.

In my mind, this season marked the first time my team has made it to the championship and legitimately belonged there. The fact that it is our 2nd appearance in the big game in 3 years also makes me reflect that, for the first time since those great Lancaster/Reed years - aka first time in my lifetime - we have a team that is going to regularly be counted on as contenders for the championship. When we make it again, it will be no surprise. We in Saskatchewan will no longer feel like, "hey, we made it to the game! If we win, it's bonus!" No, we will expect to win and when we do not, we will be hurt. Badly. We will feel robbed, stripped of our just destiny.

And those newfound expectations to me are the greatest legacy this team left on the field tonight.

Bravo, Riders! You played valiantly, and you deserved better. I look forward to having many more chances for Grey Cup glory in the forseeable future!

To vaccinate or NOT to vaccinate.

So, I've been poking my nose into the whole H1N1 thing. For me, I really think there is a whole lot of flawed logic on the paranoia. #1, the "swine flu" is far less harmful than the typical seasonal flu. Some even say it may go down in the record as the least dangerous flu in recorded history!  #2 There is a very real potential that the fast-tracking of this vaccine will cause much more harm than it will help.

All in all, I am strongly against THIS vaccine, and have a newfound appreciation for my parents - Mom in particular - refusing to let my brother and I get vaccinated as kids. Some of the potential side-effects really leave me shaking my head.

Anyway, much of this is a matter of debate - while I personally will not willingly take this vaccine, I will merely agree to disagree with you if you choose otherwise.  But it truly seems to me that the risks of the vaccine are far greater than the risks of the disease.