Alaskan Pack Fodder

Things in my life have not gotten any less hectic recently. The wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and sleep for me and my wife (mostly her) has been pretty sporadic. Skiing season is here, which means my daughter and I are back with the Hillberg Youth Ski Team. Add in my usual bike trainer workouts, and I am barely keeping my head above water.   I'm getting too old for this.   The lack of sleep, increased workload, and a casual disregard for diet has also meant my weight has been creeping up steadily. This is not what I want to see, but I'll try to reverse that trend in the new year.   I did it last year. I can do it again.   I think.

It's been a while since I added another post, but something always got in the way.   I had recovered from my bout with bronchitis and was getting into the swing of the trainer, when a SUV plowed into the back of my car. I don't remember it happening. The first thing I remember is waking up in an ER with techs putting IVs in my arms and telling me I had whiplash and a pretty severe concussion.   Weeks of losing my balance and falling face first into stuff, intermittent fogginess, minor speech issues, and fun junk like that followed. As soon as the traumatic brain injury specialist said it was OK, I was back on the trainer. My recovery went into overdrive, and the symptoms are mostly gone- or at least I can see them coming and take precautions. They said 6 months is about the shortest I can expect my recovery to take, and we'll see what the long-term prognosis is then.   In the meantime, I replaced my totalled dark blue, 2006 Toyota Matrix with a dark blue, ...