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!
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