After several days of construction inside our condo it looks like everything will be finished today. A large section of the tiles in our living/dining room had to be pulled up so that a new subfloor could be put in. Then the tiles all had to be put back and this morning they finished the grout work. We are now just waiting for the painting crew to come buy and do some touch ups after which cleaners are coming in to deal with all the mess. By this afternoon we should have all the furniture back and place so all will be normal again.
I belong to a community group on FB and I often times marvel at how people will jump on there and be outright nasty. The other day someone posted about being scammed by a bylaw officer because they received a parking ticket when the purchased parking time was nowhere near expired. I could not believe how quickly people started saying horrible things about the bylaw officer and several of them demanding that the worker be fired. I tried to put the breaks on things by advising the worker shouldn’t be blamed, its an automatic system and obviously his handheld device provided incorrect information. I think because of some of the comments the administrators of the site shut it down. The original poster came back complaining about being shut down and proceeded to make the same outrageous claims. I posted back to her that what she was claiming was not logical, the worker wasn’t trying to scam her as the ticket would be paid to the city. I again asked that the system rather than the worker be blamed and that since she had proof that her parking time hadn’t expired it is quite a simple process to have the ticket canceled. At the end I noted it should be easier to be kind than to be nasty.
I’m going to make a case in point about it being easy to be kind. The other day when we are at the waterpark it was a fairly long walk back to the car especially if like my brother you have an artificial leg. Unfortunately he is having problems with his lower back when he walks too long (likely a posture issue because of his leg so he has agreed to see my physiotherapist when we get home). The pain is apparently quite debilitating and at one point he needed 2 people to help him to a chair so he could sit for a bit. As he was trying to get up a young man came over and apologized for butting in but he could see my brother needed help. This guy was big and muscular and he asked my brother if he had lost his leg serving his country. He then went on to tell us he was a former marine (that did not come as a surprise) and he basically carried my brother to the awaiting car. This man was so polite and quite frankly gentle that I thought this is how we all need to be everyday. We all thanked him profusely and he brushed our thanks off because you don’t leave a fallen man down.
I’ve decided when reading too much of the nastiness on social media, and there is a lot of it lately, I am going to turn my head back to the kindness of that young man. He certainly did not have to step in as he did but to him exhibiting that level of kindness is what you do. To me most of us could use some of that gentleman’s personality, kindness and help should be intuitive and should be the first thing we all reach for.
So go out there and be kind each and every day.
My apologies to anyone who was looking for my blog on Thursday, I just didn’t have time to write one. Our good friends invited us out for a day of fun at a local water adventure park. My husband, brother and I spent the day floating on an inner tube down a long river eventually ending up in the Caribbean Sea. It was a lovely relaxing day and we are so glad we had the opportunity to do it.
A week before we left for the condo a worker came to our door and offered us a great deal on our internet/cable. Seriously it was about 1/2 the price we currently pay with Shaw (now Rogers connected together with Shaw) and she told me it was because we were a new customer. Huh? We’ve been with Shaw for 30 years. She left saying she would look into it as we don’t show on the system as being with Shaw but she was sure she could get us the same deal. Turns out she couldn’t but suggested because we had a very old plan that we look into shifting to the Ignite system where we would have better internet for less money.
I called to inquire about this and after more than an hour we had been set up on a less expensive plan and I was assured we would have the cable channels as we had before. Alarm bells should have gone off when I kept requesting that the agent add the WWE channel to which she kept replying the W Network is included (this is not the same thing at all). It took me 5 attempts to get her to understand what I wanted. There apparently were some weird issues with our account which she said she would ‘backdoor’ to fix but said the new account was all good. I reiterated multiple times I wanted the duplicate type of set up we currently had and she kept telling me this would be better. She lied. When the new cable boxes were installed and we transferred to the new system we realized we did not have the same channels as our previous system but we were a day away from leaving for Mexico so decided to deal with it when we get back.
On May 1st I got my ebill and it showed the same amount billed as what we previously paid and listed the old plan name. I reached out via chat and was told I was wrong that is not what we are being charged. I told them it is exactly what they had in their bill and again I was told I was wrong. Why I didn’t twig to the fact that things were seriously messed up at this point I don’t know but it was about to get so much worse. I should note, at this point I was close to 2 hours into what to me should have been a simple change in internet/cable plans.
On Monday I realized I hadn’t received any emails to my Shaw account for several days. Quite frankly this is an impossibility as I get a lot of emails each day. I checked my other email accounts and emails were still coming in. I checked Shaw outage and nothing was showing. So then I tried to log into my account online only to learn my email had been deactivated (as had my brother’s as his email is attached to my Shaw internet account). And so I called them, it took 2 1/2 hours to resolve this issue. They were not able to plausibly explain why they had deactivated my email nor could they tell me how the account was changed out of my husband’s name into mine. They refused to let me speak to a supervisor and every request I made to rectify things was met with ‘we can’t’. At the end of the call I asked how I could put in a claim for compensation as dealing with this had prevented me from putting in billable hours and it was going to take me a significant amount of time to deal with people/organizations getting bounce backs from my email address. I also said I wanted to make a formal complaint about all of this and I was told I couldn’t do that and that they would give me a $74 credit on my next bill. Seriously, now 4.5 hours of my time and that is the laughable offer? By this point I was done.
I lashed out in a DM on Twitter to Rogers/Shaw because I was disappointed that after 30 years of being a good customer this is what happened but I was also admittedly frustrated and angry. Later in the day I saw they had sent a response but I stepped back and took a breath and decided not to even look at it. I want to deal with this in a professional manner and make sure that this company understands their absolute failure in providing any sort of customer service and I couldn’t do that in the headspace that I was in. I know none of this was my fault and that I made very clear what I wanted and my expectations. I also know that at no time did I give permission to have the account set up in my names which I believe in itself nullifies the 2 year contract they are going to try and quote if I decide to cancel and go to another provided. I have opted to wait until I am fully in control of my emotions and their responses can no longer trigger how I am responding.
It’s the right thing to recognize when anger and frustration are getting the better of you. Stepping back, taking a breath and waiting until you are fully in control is the best response and that is exactly what I did.
Oh, and you may want to stay away from Rogers/Shaw if you don’t want to have the same experience that I had. In my opinion since the merger their services have apparently eroded to the point that they cannot handle a simple request without making a significant mess of it.
I had planned to do a major rant today based on a really bad experience yesterday but something happened that changed my mind (the rant will be on the next blog). I was checking Facebook yesterday when I read something that made my heart break, a colleague had apparently passed away. I immediately sent a message to the poster to find out what the hell happened. Soon I was seeing information all over social media and this morning even in local papers. This brilliant young woman had suddenly died I am sure making all of us who knew her cry.
In 2019 I had just started my pre-retirement leave. I was probably at the lowest point in my life. During the previous 4 months I had dealt with nearly losing both my siblings, finding out my health had also become very precarious and leaving a job that had left me beaten to the point of being mentally broken. I was asked if I would be willing to start a business and do some work for a union helping them with some financial processes. I decided that would be something that might help me to start to heal so enter Gwenne Farrell Consulting.
I met Kim my first day at that union. She was the newly acclaimed president of the union and was also the first female in the role as well as the youngest person to run the union. My short consulting gig went on for about 18 months as my role expanded several times. I worked with Kim to dramatically improve not just the financial processes and policies of that union but also to improve their financial health. Kim was constantly appreciative of what I was doing and I heard frequently about how valued I was. I noticed within a few months that I was feeling so much better about myself and realized it was from being given respect for my knowledge and expertise. About 6 months ago Kim asked me to do another small project and when I praised her for how the union’s finances had turned around under her leadership she told me how much my comments meant to her.
My understanding of what happened is that a little over a week ago Kim suffered a brain hemorrhage and died at home surrounded by her family this passed weekend. She leaves behind not just her partner in life but also 2 young sons. I was so devasted to think of how horrible this must be for her family, her staff and the members of her union as well as the people in our labour movement. There were even several social media posts from politicians including our BC Premier talking about how great she was. Today a notice came up on Facebook that today would have been Kim’s 39th birthday. My heart broke again for what today must mean for her family.
But this was a heavy reminder, life is precious and we need to cherish each and every day. There is no excuse for putting off reaching out to family and friends that mean something to you, this just demonstrates they may not be there tomorrow. Today I ask that you hug those around you and appreciate that you have them. I know that is what I plan to do.
Today we are heading downtown for our weekly restaurant treat. We are trying a restaurant that we found on our last trip but didn’t have a chance to try. First however will be a quick trip to 5th avenue looking to replace my missing Day of the Dead dress. For the life of me I just can’t figure out how I lost that dress.
But today I am feeling pretty good. Because of the timing I don’t do bootcamp on Saturdays while I am here (the class is at 10:30am which is far too late into my day). Instead I opted for a long walk which I haven’t done in 2 weeks now. Starting out my ankle was a bit sore but then it seems to be that way at the beginning of each walk. It wasn’t until about 3/4 of the way into the walk that it started twinging a bit but even that was fairly minor. The swelling has gone down and in general it feels pretty good even after a 10 km walk. Tomorrow I am only doing 5 km and if the ankle is willing I will start to slowly increase my higher impact exercises. Makes me happy that I have been giving it the chance to heal but I know if I keep my patience in check I’ll be back to full force in the near future.
While knowing I am healing is great (the dermatitis and heat rash are also clearing up nicely) that isn’t what has put me in my happy place. Rather, it is coming home with both pockets pretty empty of treats. I’ve posted before that while I am down here I carry both cat and dog treats in my pockets to hand out throughout the complex. The cat treats are the most important as there are a number of feral cats around here and I want to make sure that they have food (note the cat treats are actually Whiskas cat food). All of the dogs that I provide treats to are out on a walk with their owners (and I always ask when I meet a new dog if I can give them a treat) so I know they have a home.
What really has thrilled me the past couple days are the dogs and cats that recognize me from our last trip. The first was a yellow lab who saw me a good block away and started dragging her owner towards me. She did that lab wiggle where their entire bodies are shaking and had a huge grin on her face. Of course she got extra treats because I adore her. Today it was a miniature schnauzer who is not the best behaved dog but he saw me and came screeching over (his owner is not good at keeping him on a leash). Even though he had 2 treats he tried to steal the one I was giving to his Yorkie friend.
My favourite though is a white and orange cat. I walk by her house twice when I do a 5 km walk and of course since it was a 10 km today it was four times. I haven’t seen her all week and was afraid something had happened to her but today she came running at me and immediately dropped to the ground for a tummy rub. She patiently waited for me to come back each time then greeted me with meows and leg rubs. I also suspect she has told all the other cats in the area that I was back with my treats because I went through more cat food on my walk today than I ever have.
And so that is my happy place, out for a long walk petting and feeding cats and dogs. While it doesn’t make up for missing my pets at home, it still put a smile on my face when I got back to the condo and showed my husband my pockets were pretty much empty. When you find your happy place, it is no longer working out, it’s just enjoying life.
So if you are on a health and fitness journey, find your happy place. It will just make your journey so much easier and enjoyable.
I am so happy! The remote for our a/c unit in the living area of the condo died meaning no a/c. This is particularly problematic when I am doing my online workouts. The past 2 days by time I finished those workouts there was not a single spot on my body that wasn’t covered in sweat. Yesterday our neighbours took us to Home Depot where we were able to buy universal a/c remotes (we got a 2nd one because there has always only been 1 remote for the 2 bedrooms which causes issue when we have guests). Took some time to get them programmed but they are now working! Because of the cost of electricity here we agreed that the main a/c unit will only be turned on when I do my workouts but it will make my life so much better.
We have done well setting up my online classes for when we are down here. However, there are often challenges. Because I don’t like the idea of doing workout classes on my iPad we have a webcam and Mac Mini attached to our 55 inch TV. Using a big screen TV to me makes it feel like I am more a part of the classes. While we have fibre optic wifi it still can go a bit funky so sometimes I am disconnected then reconnected to the class. Fortunately if I miss anything the instructors always have their iPads pointed at the class during sets so I can usually figure what I need to do.
Today things went frustratingly south. We have had to reposition my workout space because of some issues that have developed with our tiled flooring. That also meant having to adjust the webcam but my husband is usually well equipped with gadgets so he put together a tripod to hold the webcam. However, the Mac Mini was cranky today and wouldn’t log me on to Zoom. Eventually when it hadn’t connected by 10 minutes into the class I decided to give up for today and we will try again tomorrow.
But that doesn’t stop me from getting in at least 2 hours of working out. I had already done a 1 hour morning walk (and ran into my favourite neighbourhood dog who got treats from me) so already 1/2 way to the daily goal. We are heading to a beach club later this morning and I thought well it’s about a 20 minute walk each way so if I do that I just have to find 20 more minutes and I am good. So, out came the mat and weights and I put in 25 minutes of strength training. Only 35 minutes to go and mission accomplished for the day.
I am refusing to let anything stop me from working out every day the month of May as I have started the Workout to Conquer Cancer challenge (at least 30 minutes working out every day in May). I will always have a backup plan in case technology isn’t working in my favour. I am well aware that even with good wifi in Mexico it can be unstable so alternates need to be in my back pocket.
My ankle isn’t holding me back so neither will technology. I will meet my goals even if I can’t do bootcamp classes or run. There is always something else I can do to maintain my fitness and quite frankly raise money for an awesome cause.
I decided to join the online strength class this morning. No, the ankle is still not where I need it to be but I figured the strength class would be a good test for what I can tolerate. While there was the occasional twinging going on it wasn’t too bad and I admit I felt so much better for working out. Next I’m going to try a gentle walk for up to an hour. I am keeping things on the light side until the swelling has completely gone but if I can do some walking this week without irritating my ankle I will be happy.
I confess that I am a bit obsessed with X (formerly known as Twitter). I tend to focus on politics both in Canada and in the USA and can often be heard shouting at my iPad screen. As things like wars have been added to the mix I started following what I call happy posts, usually involving Corgis but also other animals. These help me look at posts that aren’t quite so disturbing as some that I see.
The other day I was scrolling through X and a post popped up with a picture of a large woman who appeared to be a nurse taking care of a patient. The poster said the following ‘any person who looks like this has no business giving health advice or medical care of any kind’. WTF!!! Who the hell does this person think they are. Publicly body shaming anyone is NEVER acceptable! The poster has no idea about this persons life or what lead to her size. As someone who was obese I didn’t need others to shame me, I could do enough of that on my own. So let’s push it to a whole new level and get the world to comment on someone’s size. Please tell me how we got to a society that people think this is ok.
It made me question where did kindness go? Why couldn’t the poster look at that picture and see what I saw, a dedicated health care worker taking care of her patient. Why couldn’t they be thankful that a caring person was looking after someone’s parent, grandparent, sibling, child or friend? To me that is what the picture was about not the size of the care giver. I’m glad I have not developed so much cynicism in my heart that I can’t still look for the good in people.
The post made me think of my brother’s wound care nurse who is a sweet Jamaican lady. She also happens to be quite large but neither my brother nor I care about that. You see my brother just spent nearly a year with her being treated for a diabetic ulcer. I was very concerned about coming to the condo for 7 weeks and another one happening or the one being treated still needing work. This lovely lady heard my concern and sent a huge amount of medical supplies for us to bring with us just in case. She also made sure my brother fully understood what he is to look for on his foot and how to immediately treat it. That is kindness and caring and has absolutely nothing to do with her size.
For the poster here’s something for you to think about, there is a shortage of health care workers across the globe including North America. Do you really believe your post helps recruit and retain these workers?
And so I say we all focus on finding the kindness in this mixed up world, look for the good and don’t criticize people based on their looks. Funny, I find that when I do this the world looks a little better even if it is only for a short time.
Well we successfully made it to our condo in Playa del Carmen. Yesterday was the usual big shopping day where we stocked up on essentials (note beer and tequila are essentials) and got more than enough food to last for a couple weeks. I am hoping for a trip to Costco next week to get some real milk and then we will be all set. I’m already planning the meals for the week and while I try to keep them as healthy as possible I know there will be some a little off my usual diet but that is ok.
I am still dealing with the ankle issue though it would probably heal faster if I stayed off it more (walking through large airports and then a couple hours shopping yesterday didn’t help). I have convinced myself that today and tomorrow I really need to just give in and enjoy some down time. As a matter of fact after doing some meal prep I plan on spending the rest of the day just laying by the pool. Any of you who know me realize that this is actually going to be a major task for me. I’m not good at doing nothing but I am going to give it all my best effort.
I do admit that when I try to take some down time I start to feel really guilty. I know there has to be things I need to do. For example, it is just after 8am here and I have already been doing some things around the condo (I even hemmed some shorts, ok by hemming I mean used sewing tape and an iron). Next I’ll be on to making egg salad and chicken salad for lunches for the next few days. But then I am going to work really hard on doing nothing. I’m working at getting my head wrapped around the fact that by doing nothing I am giving my body time to heal. If I let myself heal then I can get back to my exercise routine. I am going to try an online bootcamp class Monday (I can modify the higher impact exercises to protect my ankle) and then I will do a good workout in the pool. Hopefully I can get back to my usual level but you know what, I will be happy with just keeping moving the best I can.
And so I am going to do everything I can to enjoy the down time over the next couple days. I’m in a beautiful location with great weather, who could ask for more.
My sister and I have decided that we need to go back to doing family fun days which we did with our brother during the pandemic. Now we will also include my husband which makes it a bit more challenging because he does not necessarily like the same things that we think are fun. We started this past Saturday with my sister and I going out for lunch and to see Legally Blonde The Musical performed by a community theatre group. It was absolutely fabulous and it was a great time. While my husband, brother and I are heading to Mexico for 7 weeks, I have committed to one day a week when we return we will pick something off our extensive list of fun things and make sure we do it.
Yesterday things went a little south for me. I got home from bootcamp and realized my left ankle was a bit sore. Cognizant of the fact Mexico is only a few days away I decided not to do a run but instead do a long walk. About 6.5km into the walk I felt a pop in my ankle and then shooting pain. Oh, oh, I thought, this can’t be good. Realizing I was not going to be able to walk home I called my husband to come pick me up.
This is where I have to do some heavy mental deep breaths. My head immediately went to oh no, I am not going to be able to workout, the world is coming to an end. I tried to convince myself that if I just stayed off it for a day all would be ok. Seriously? By the end of the day I realized this was not going to happen so I canceled this morning’s bootcamp and slept in. While it is slightly less swollen today it is still sore and thus another day of not working out. I am applying my prescription anti-inflammatory cream and I have some that I will be taking to Mexico with me.
It is hard for me to have to stop exercising all of a sudden especially when I had been pushing myself hard these past few weeks but I am being realistic. I highly doubt I will be able to do much this week other than walk through the airports. But really, is that going to significantly impact me? No it is not. If the ankle isn’t feeling completely healed by next week (and I do mean completely healed) I’ve already got a plan in place. While my original plan was running, bootcamp and walking for a total of 3 hours each weekday (I drop the bootcamp on weekends) I will be able to do a couple hours of ‘aquafit’ in the pool each day. I then can spend some time using my weights and doing some core exercises. Using the pool should allow me to get in some good cardio without adding extra pressure on my ankle. I think if I can pull it off it will be a good alternative.
The important thing is that I have realized I need this recovery time. I don’t know how I hurt my ankle (I suspect it might have been when I tripped over a branch when walking on a path on Sunday) but I do know that if I want to be able to continue to keep myself fit then I need to give that ankle all the recovery time it needs. And so I think I have now given myself permission to do so without feeling guilty. Instead I am going to enjoy a couple days of not getting up at 4:15am. Besides, stepping back from 4-5 hours of workouts each day frees up more time for me to prep for Mexico.
As Thursday is our travel day I will not be posting again until Saturday. Hopefully by then I will have a positive update on my ankle.
Yesterday I wore a pair of my new runners all day. By the end of the day I had walked 41k steps and run/walked 28 km. I have to say they are so much more comfortable than my previous runners. Tomorrow I will start breaking in the 2nd pair which I hope is just as comfortable though they should be since they are the exact same runners. I now kind of regret that I tolerated the old ones for so long. I had to laugh though, the company from whom I purchased the runners sent me an email with a receipt telling me the runners should be good until April 2025. I don’t think they get that I put 120+ km on them every week.
Today was Circuit Saturday at my bootcamp class. The trainer had set up 10 stations where you would perform an exercise before moving on to the next station. One of the exercises was a ball pushup for which you do a pushup with 1 hand on a medicine ball then push the ball over and do a pushup with the other hand on the ball. When the trainer demonstrated this exercise she did the pushups from her knees (as did all of the other participants). The problem is I can’t kneel so that kind of pushup for me is out. I spoke to the trainer and told her that I was concerned about this station because I would be doing a full pushup from my toes which is what I do now (as opposed to doing a pushup at a bench). She suggested I give it a try but maybe widen my stance a little. Guess what? Not only was I doing a full pushup with one hand on the medicine ball but it wasn’t overly challenging.
I then did some reflection as to what I am actually able to do without modification in the circuit that had been set up. I did have to modify the step ups as you are supposed to step up onto the bench but my right knee simply doesn’t bend far enough to allow that so I use a lower platform. Everything else in that room I could fully do. On top of that I am challenging myself more. When doing the push press I chose the heaviest bar to use. For the tricep dips I put my legs straight and go almost completely down to the floor making it much more difficult. Doing the Romanian twists (you are on your butt on the floor leaning back slightly and have you legs bent in front of you and holding a weight you twist side to side) I bump it up a level by taking my feet off the floor causing my core to have to kick into overdrive.
I decided as I left the class that I have got to stop underestimating myself. Maybe it is because of so many years of thinking my injured knee could only hold me back. Or perhaps it is because for a very long time I was made to feel I was inept. Whatever has been causing me to not have faith in my capabilities has got to go. I am strong, fit and healthy! While there are always going to be things that I simply cannot physically do, I think there are far more that I can do and until I know otherwise I am going to try all new exercises without instantly thinking that I can’t do it.
The time to stop underestimating myself starts now. Having said that, when I looked at my stats for yesterday I realized at 41k steps I was about 7.5k under my best day ever and that best day had me at about 48k. So new challenge, sometime in the month of June I am going to pick a day where I don’t have anything else planned and I am going to get in 50k steps. No question that this goal is not underestimating what I can do.
I was going to write an entirely different introduction to today’s post but I am just so excited. I went to a local footwear store (the kind that make orthotics) because I just couldn’t wear my NB running shoes any more. It wasn’t so much because they were worn, though they were getting there, but rather I have disliked them since I started wearing them. This is the 3rd different style of NB running shoes that I have tried and while I wasn’t a big fan of the first 2 styles these were the worst. However, because of the cost of them I was reluctant to swap them for new pairs until they were wearing out. The only reason I stuck with that brand was because it was recommended by my podiatrist. Today they gave me a wide size of Brooks (they were originally my favourite brand before the podiatrist got involved) and I almost heard angels singing when I put my feet in them. I can’t wait to break them in so I can take them for a run.
I have been really trying to push myself in my fitness classes these past few weeks and it has been paying off. Tuesday it appears I have finally mastered a single leg deadlift which when I started doing them I thought would never happen. Today I was doing full on pushups, you know on my toes not on my knees. I had been doing them against the bench all this time because I can’t drop to my knees to do them but today I figured let’s go for and I can actually do full on pushups. I was actually pretty proud of myself.
Yesterday though I really put myself to work. This included trying to deadlift about 100lbs. I was able to do it for 2 sets before I realized my back was starting to twinge so I dialed down a bit. But still, 2 sets were accomplished. It was in fact a brutal workout yesterday but that’s ok, I want to keep moving forward.
But then I tried to get out of bed this morning and went oh, oh. This is the first time that I have really felt the results of a workout. Don’t get me wrong, my muscles are often doing some complaining to me about working them too hard but today was more than usual (my lower back was sore but it was very obvious to me it was muscular and not due to a nerve issue). And so, despite being able to do full on pushups and having to do the Thunderstruck cardio I opted to just scale back a bit. My shoulders and upper body in particular were struggling so sometimes I dropped down to lower weights than I would normally do but that is ok, at least I tried.
It is alright to realize your limitations and let your body recover a little. The thought in my head was it’s only 7 days until Mexico, don’t screw things up. Does that mean I will back off for the next week? Hell no, I just will let my body tell me when It is ok to go above and beyond what it wants to do.
gwennefarrell 