It is beginning to look like this blog has less and less to do with boating all the time. Actually... looks can be decieving. I knew from the minute I bought Mary Lee that I had my work cut out for me. Not the boat work. That is just labor. I have worked on and fixed things for as long as I remember.

The work I talk about here is rebuilding my body, mind, soul, etc. I have devoted so many long and hard, suffering hours to this. I have yet to have a good day. I just do the best I can with what I have.

A little bragging is in order though. Over 6 months off pain pills. I take nothing at all for pain anymore. Still have pain...but I finally have a handle on it.

I ride bike just about every day. Seems odd...but I have less back pain sitting on a bike than laying down or sitting on a couch. Go figure!! So I ride a lot. 20 mile days are pretty regular. 30 mile days are happening more often. I cannot do these rides all at once. It takes a few tries. Legs are always exhausted. Similar to what I went through in Thompson Falls. I just keep pushing.

I thought I would throw in the shot of odometer. I had never ridden 60 miles in one day before. Took about 5 and a 1/2 hours. I may have over done it. I rode 20 miles a day for each of the following 3 days and ended up sick. I never knew you could get sick from over doing it. That put me pretty much out of it for a week. I still did enough to keep the blood moving but I realized that I needed more information.

Off to Barnes and Noble for a book. This is where I read that by overdoing it you can lower your immune system and can catch cold. Who knew??

But I am also in the gym 5 days a week. Seems like I need a better plan.

This guy trains Olympic athletes. He ought to know more than I do. I have been lifting weights with the techniques he describes and I am certainly seeing a difference. I am supplementing and eating correctly so I am getting plenty of good fuel for my workouts.

Everything is part of the search to find why I am still so exhausted. Upper body is not. It is getting stronger all the time. I am gaining definition and strength. Legs still feel like I can just barely lift them most of the time. I have improved much. No question that I am stronger. My quads are getting quite hard at this point. I have just started using calf and hamstring machines. I suspect poor circulation from spending all those years mostly on my back. But just in case it is nutrition.

I decided to get the opinion of someone who works with professional athletes. I just got this and the first chapter alone was worth the cost. I am not backing down from what I have started. I will recover. Why such a hard push??? Remember Mary Lee?? Just single handing her down the ICW wears me out. I physically am not capable of what I have planned. I am getting closer to my goal.

Once I get all the atrophied muscles strong again I want to take a scuba class. I have tried just swimming and am not able to swim but a few strokes. It still hurts my back. I have a plan for that.

I start my month at South Carolina's voc rehab center on Nov. 4th. Just week days. They shut down on weekends. One of the things I will be doing is swimming. They are going to get a kick out of me. I doubt they get many people like me going through the program. I am still trying to decide if I should take my bike. I could get in a ride before breakfast and after dinner.

So what are my plans for after the assessment center?? Job search. I have decided Florida is best. I want to work on the coast so I can go out on Mary Lee when not in gym or working. There is more to this plan but I will save that for later. I have a lot of sailing and refitting to do on Mary Lee before I am competent to do what I want.

Soooo.... Even though it looks like I am not on track for a life of boating. I am all over it, so to speak. I am dead serious about being fit enough to do anything and everything I want. My goal??  I want to be as fit as I ever was.

Funny how we plan things sometimes and fate intercedes. I  finally eased back on pushing myself into boating before I am ready. Whether you believe in it or not. I realized after a time that fate had plans for me that I could no longer ignore. I could not make that boat go where I wanted. Everything went wrong until I finally decided to just work on me and open my eyes to what was around me. My life has changed in ways I could never have seen coming. I am still the same me. Yet somehow I am different. I won't go into the changes. No need. They were for me and me alone.

I will be moving Mary Lee further south this winter(I think). Unless something comes up here that I cannot pass up.  Vivian and I will figure out how to spend time together. She has vacation time to use up. Gonna miss her a lot. Vivian is so special to me.

 I miss all the friends I have made. People are important to me. How strange sometimes to look back at how this all started.

My 49th birthday has come and gone. I am happier now than I ever remember. Jump back in time to the beginning of this adventure.

The day I bought Mary Lee I was a total wreck. 120 mg. of oxycontin a day and I could not hardly stand upright with a cane. I rode the wheel chairs through the airports and was nothing but a gob of atrophied muscles wracked with pain. I was sick physically, mentally and emotionally. When I finally drove back out 3 months later to start working on Mary Lee I almost sold her. I was so hurt from the drive I just wanted to puke. It took several days just to drive the last 400 miles.

My friends gave good advice. I knew I had to do this. It was about saving my life. I knew it would be the hardest thing I had ever done. It has been. I left everything I knew behind. The people I have met along the way have made a difference. I love the boating world. I know I belong in it. Barbara...a very good friend...told me that of all the people she has ever met. I would be the one who could pull it off. She also told me that I had a knack for putting myself in a corner so I had to fight my way out. That is what I did here. I dove right in. Do or die.

It turns out I am still as capable as ever. Maybe I am still not as strong as I need to be yet...but I will be.
The only guarantee we have in life is what we already did. what we do right now is all that we know we have coming. Because nobody said tomorrow was a sure thing.

I am just getting rolling again and the rest of my life will be the best of my life.