lost and found in retirement
My world takes on a new focus at midnight on Christmas Day. Overnight, the after-effects of the monthlong orgy of parties and family gatherings become real, very real. My habit of diet and exercise were tossed aside, and good times and good food moved front and center. December 26 is judgment day; a day when my focus returns to health and wellness. My mind turns…
Today is the fourteenth anniversary of my triple coronary bypass surgery. I had a minor heart attack a few days earlier. I suffered several setbacks in the days following surgery. I was placed in a drug-induced coma. I had two additional surgeries. I spent ten days in cardiac intensive care. I left the hospital feeling pretty broken after a seventeen-day stay. That time in my…
I sat on the curb disappointed in myself in Asheboro, North Carolina. I was well into the third day of my mountains to coast ride. Two hilly days were under my belt. Temps were in the nineties with humidity approaching the same. The forty-four miles on my third day were hilly, really hilly. The last eighteen miles beat me down. I was facing 26 rolling…
I pedaled through dark tunnels of green with mountain laurel to my right and the sound of rushing waters to my left for three days. The forest unfolded and the sun streamed on my bike as the trail approached Meyersdale. The view ahead was stunning. The Salisbury viaduct appeared as a ribbon of steel and concrete high above the expansive open valley. Wind turbines rimmed…
I pedaled west from Berea towards Sandusky from the starting line of the 2010 Bike MS 150 Pedal to the Point. I was surrounded by 2,400 cyclists, most of them much more experienced, fitter, and on much more expensive bikes. I questioned if I had any right to cycle with them. I was a new cyclist, only a year out of getting on my bike…
February 21, 1970 was not a typical Saturday morning. I would normally be glued to the TV watching cartoons. Instead, I was preparing to visit my father in Alliance City Hospital. He was being transferred out of intensive care. A phone call that morning changed my world. The call from the hospical infomred my mother that my father had passed away. My dad lived an…
I nervously scanned the people in the conference room at Summa Akron City Hospital on that cold January night in 2008. I was taking my first step towards bariatric surgery by attending a weight loss seminar. I saw a cross-section of obese people who appeared to be equally as uneasy. I suspect my newer friends and followers may not know I had bariatric surgery. I…
Community I toured Florida’s Space Coast in early spring on Bike Florida’s supported weeklong tour. Like Ohio’s GOBA, this ride is a moving community of cyclists where people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities return to renew friendships and make new friends. Flavor I returned to the North Carolina Coastal Tour in late April. Mom and pop diners and dives are on my radar on…
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