I guess it all depends on what you think of hermitville and what it should be.
Does it mean I just hide in my house and talk to no one, see no one, communicate not at all? Well, I suppose it does, and I’ve known shut-ins with that life, at least for periods of their time.
That’s not very practical for me though, I have to work, I have kids, I have goals and aspirations.
For me hermitville means being alone in my heart, the sexual one, not the other one. It means no girlfriend. It doesn’t mean no sex, although I suppose those are sorta related unless you are into regular short term relationships and a never ending series of lovers… where was I again?
I’m not actually, I did enough of that when I was younger and have sewn my wild oats, and some of yours, his and hers also.
It doesn’t mean no friends. I have those, even if I’ve avoided having any for the past bunch of years. I was far more of a hermit then than I am now. Self imposed stupidity. I’ve caught up with some old friends, and I’ve started to develop different relationships with a couple of them. Not better, just different. I’ve even made a couple of new friends and that’s pretty damned cool too.
It doesn’t mean no life. My life is a little two dimensional still, but I have one and it is becoming richer. I started to ‘have a life’ a couple of years ago training. But it wasn’t filled out. It was just a new goal. Now I’m starting to train again, but it is different. I have the same speed goals, the same distance goals. I have drive, I have commitment and I have energy. But I have more. I have time for friends outside of just training. Hell, I’m even learning to golf (and having a blast at that)!
Most important, it doesn’t mean shutting myself off from my kids either. I’ve always wanted to be involved with the kids, do things with them. But I’ve always had a hard time doing things that I just don’t like doing. I don’t like watching sports, of any kind, really in any way. I don’t like standing on the side lines in the rain. I’m not a big fan of rap music, and heavy metal has gone way downhill since the late 80s. And I’ve never been able to consistently drag myself through these things on a regular basis, even if it meant spending times with the kids.
I think I’m learning though now, even if it is a slow progression. I want to spend time with M, for example, just to spend time with her, even if it’s doing something I don’t overly enjoy. And I know I’ll be able to extend that out to C and G as time goes on. That way we can enjoy time together not just doing something that we both enjoy. And I think I’ll be happy with that in later years.
Anyway, hermitville for me is a pretty good place right now. I’m getting a life, I’m not getting wrapped up in a relationship right away (and that consequently is having a positive effect on my libido), and I’m enjoying being a dad.
Could be worse.
S
15
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
There should be a website “cheers.com” and when you login the first thing it does is announce your name to the general chat “Norm!” or whatever.
That would make you feel welcome.
You could even have different social (for net geeks like me) areas for different types of folks.
A Cliff Clavin trivia area, a Norm drinking spot, a Frasier self help area and a Sammy pick up joint. hell there are worse ideas on the net.
S
The MS Bike Tour was this past Sunday in beautiful Vancouver and I had a fantastic time.
After the folks at the office jammed on me a friend still decided to come along and keep me company and together we raised $390 for MS!
The 33.45km trip through the Kits and UBC areas was beautiful and the weather stayed just the other side of perfect for the entire duration.
At the end there was a fantastic BBQ that fueled us up and left us feeling that it just isn’t that hard to want to raise money for a worthwhile charity. Really, it was a nice way to feel virtuous.
The bike ride inspired me though and I decided to put my ass on the seat for as much of the work week as I could, and I have. Every day so far.
The work trip varies a bit in distance, but is generally around 9.5km each way. My goal has been to get to below 50 minutes total time.
Monday
- 26:31 in
- 27:14 out
- 53:45 total
Tuesday
- 25:15 in
- 26:05 out
- 51:20 total
Wednesday
- @26:00 in (not really sure, forgot to turn off the stop watch so I’m guessing a bit high)
- 25:18 out
- @51:18 total
Thursday
- 24:03 in
- 25:46 out
- 49:49 total!
To be honest, I didn’t expect to make my goal this week.
I’m feeling rather chuffed about that.
S
Once again I’m doing the MS Bike Tour this year raising money and awareness for Multiple Sclerosis research in Canada.
I had thought this was my 3rd year, but looks like it’s my 4th, wow.
I can’t say how much I look forward to this each year, this is a great cause for which to raise money and just a great way to be out in the city I love.
How can you help?
Anything over $20 bucks gets you a tax receipt.
Sean
Well, almost. I did some time on the treadmill, but that’s best for me just starting out.
I figured it would suck some, and it did, but I pushed through and did a lot more than the doctor cleared me for. I know I over did it, but I just needed to see how out of shape I’d gotten and now I have my answer. Pretty damned out of shape!
I was supposed to do:
(30 seconds jog (slow), 4:30 walk) * 5 for a total of 25 minutes and 2:30 jogging.
I didn’t. Instead I did:
12 @ 6/km, 1 @ 11/km
3 @ 6/km, 1 @ 11/km
3 @ 6/km, 1 @ 11/km
4 @ 6/km +, 1 @ 11/km
+ 90 second cool down
I wound up at 4km in the 25 minutes, so an average of 6:15/km for a total of 21 minutes running. It sucks but I’ll take it.
BTW, I know folks that get pissy when someone says jogging instead of running. I’ve often heard; “There is no such thing as jogging, it’s all running, just at different speeds!”. Periodically said with vehemence.
For me, and it’s just my opinion, 6 minutes / 1 km is the lower range of running. Anything slower is jogging. Anything that speed or faster is running (just at different speeds!).
For perspective, this is 6.2 miles / hour (close enough) or 10 km / hour.
It’s why I aim for that speed when doing a light run and I base my times on that. A 10 km/h speed would give you a marathon in something like 4:13:12.
I need to put my legs up and ice them now after making a relatively healthy dinner of jerk chicken breast and rice.
’nuff said.
S
sigh.
On Friday I went to the orthopedic surgeon again to find out if I was cleared for running.
Turns out that I am. This is a good thing right? I’ve been bitching and complaining about not being able to run for over 3 months!
Except.
The weekend before I went to see said doctor I twisted my ankle pretty nastily at Buntzen Lake while hiking around. Coming down a hill just near the start, a little bit faster than I should have been going, I twisted it on a rock. Dumb ass that I am I continued on and finished the last 8km of the 9.5km loop.
That night I was in pain. The next day I could barely walk.
A week later and my outside left ankle is screaming at me from walking to / from Kits beach from the Safeway on 4th (to watch the fireworks, of course).
I can’t start running yet. Or I could, but then I’d be back on my ass not doing anything.
What’s worst is that I deserve this one. If I hadn’t been going at a light jog down the trail I wouldn’t have twisted my ankle.
Karma, she’s a bitch. heh.
S
Up until yesterday, this is as much as I knew about golf… and really all I cared about it.
Yesterday I ‘had’ to go play as part of a work thing.
We played a game called Texas Scramble and I’ll be honest, I had a blast.
My mechanics were so bad that I couldn’t appreciate the physics of what I was doing (although I could enjoy watching others and working things out that way), but I did manage to get a couple of nice shots off myself including a longish put.
Wii golf just isn’t that challenging after playing the real’ish thing.
I may make it to the driving range this week with some of the guys from the office just to see if it’s still fun or if it was just a one time event.
I don’t have the money for a new hobby, lol.
S
Seems like that is me.
I’m not sure in this case that a picture is worth a thousand words, more like about a dozen 
S
hermit
n 1: one retired from society for religious reasons [syn: anchorite]
2: one who lives in solitude [syn: recluse, solitary, solitudinarian,
I won’t claim religious reasons, but I will happily claim to desire a year of solitude.
Actually, that really isn’t accurate. I intend to spend as much time with the kids as I can, and I will hang with the work mates and my friends. But, I am not planning on ANYTHING resembling a relationship.
I need a year off.
S
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin’ on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.
I moved. And while I wouldn’t call the place deluxe, it’s nice and has a great view.
Change. Is. A. Constant.
S