Friday, October 05, 2012

Farewell Chuck

My buddy Chuck died last week. His service was today in Sydney, Australia. In lieu of showing up, I spent some time out at Lawrencetown Beach, contemplating my connection to him. He was a good man by any measure and had been lucky enough to meet and marry a good woman (Flora) a few years back.

I stayed with him for a week while on my Hobo Track tour and we have kept in tough since. Unfortunately, he got sick last year...and last week, it took him out. So sad. He deserved a better fate in life. If you met the guy, you liked him and he was a great storyteller.

Really glad that I got to meet him and Flora and hang out for a bit. I will miss him.

Take care. Bruce

Monday, February 20, 2012

Sucks to your Ass-Mar!!

I read an interesting science fiction story last week. Time travel concept. The person could move 20 years forward or backward in time, could even interact with older, younger versions of themselves...but could not really affect any change in their lives or the lives of others. The draw was that they could acquire more depth, especially concerning happy or tragic events in their lives.

This got me to thinking back over my life. If I could visit traumatic times in my past, would having another look or looking at a moment with 20/20 hindsight, change how I viewed that event. Now, I have done this countless times with the breakup of my family...when we finally left the old man to his own devices..and the end result is always the same...still the happiest day of my life.

After reading this sci-fi story, I went back to another part of my life. I deal with asthma in my life, both now and since I was an 8 year old kid. It is no fun having asthma, or the usual allergies. Having your breathing compromised is always a tad scary and because you can't always control your environment, some part of you is always aware of this dangerous weakness in your immune system.

When everyone around me started smoking back in the late 60's...it really was not an option for me. At that time, I was missing chunks of school, the fancy bronchial dilators, like Ventolin, had not been developed and any sort of attack meant a minimum 1/2 hour wait for some level of relief. My system got stronger as I hit my late teen years and I put these worries behind me

When I moved away to university, the immune system took another hit and asthma became part of my life again. I was a runner at that time, based on cross-country running in junior and high school. My doctor at Dal Health (Rosemary Gill - a very good doctor) convinced me to keep running, telling me that this would strengthen my system overall. Ventolin was available by then, and I could deal with any serious breathing difficulties, so I continued running, and playing all sorts of sports.

Back when I was a teenager, everybody smoked. The crowd I hung out with in high school all smoked, and those that are still alive, still smoke. Needless to say, they don't run. Me, I am in my late fifties, still a runner, generally fit and never a smoker.

You could argue that asthma has had quite a positive effect on my life. Interesting, eh?