"Feelin Lucky!"

Sometimes the little things work out. I didn’t get bumped to first class for my flight home but I think I got the best seat on the plane. Of course I always go online repeatedly to try to get an aisle seat and as close to the front as possible, but this time I managed to get the seat directly behind first class. Because of the seat configuration I actually have significantly more leg room even then the people up front, and to top that off the only empty seat on the plane is the one beside me! I have my entire belongings spread out, my music, my book, my water and my computer. And we actually left Monterrey early, so maybe I’m even gonna get home in time for a quick run.

Knowing I would not get anything to eat on the plane I made sure to grab something at the airport. Slowly, just slowly mind you, but undeniably I am starting to be able to eat more and more things that were impossible just 6 months ago. Today I had a very greasy, very tasty, guacamole, bacon burger! Woohoo! I’m not really hopeful but one of these days I may even try pizza again.

I guess that overall I have had lots of luck in my life. Those things that I grieve over are as much a result of my own stupidity as anything else, and in contrast most of the positive things in my life are primarily attributable to being in the right place at the right time. Take my job for example. I have worked for Magna for more than 24 years now and I literally stumbled into the opportunity all those years ago. I was working for myself and in actual fact didn’t even know the name of the company that owned the building in which I was working. Then of course there’s the fact that within a year of that, the love of my life happened to stumble into the very same building. If those 2 events combined don’t qualify as fortuitous then I don’t know what does. Since then there’s been so many little things that seemed to fall into place all by themselves. Like our house. All my life I dreamed of 5 acres in the country and suddenly there was this incredible place 3 minutes from town and 8 minutes from where I worked. Again we came across it accidently….we weren’t even looking at the time. And more recently to have the incredible good fortune that the house next door became available, allowing me to share so closely in the lives of my grandchildren. Again, just pure ,shit luck and nothing else!! I suppose I must also consider the big one, and that’s the escape I recently made from the grim reaper. While you may say that there was more than luck involved in that one, I have to acknowledge that living close to one of the best medical facilities in the world was certainly nothing to minimize from the perspective of travelling and coping with all the crap. And to think that that was the second time in my life that I was the beneficiary of this proximity to London….the first time being Michael all those years ago.

So I’m truly feeling lucky, anxious as always to get home and sleep in my own bed….maybe I’ll even get lucky eh??

I am of course stressed by 4 days of inactivity and I desperately hope that I get right back into the swing of it. I know it’s absurd but it seems like just a few days of doing nothing erodes my confidence so quickly. Tomorrow I will do some of everything. Swim in the morning, long bike ride(at least 100k) followed by a run, and then I will do my weights in the evening. Actually that sounds crazy doesn’t it? We’ll see what happens? Speaking of crazy, Brett asked me if I wanted to go run the last 30 k of the marathon course in London on Saturday morning. It seemed like a sensible thing to do until he mentioned 7 am!! I don’t think so Brett! The mans a lunatic with this obsessive training thing he does!

Of course I’m joking with Brett, but sometimes I do wonder about myself. There are so many other things that I could be doing with my time that I really enjoy. I love puttering around the farm, I love building things out of wood, and of course the model helicopter still sits in the basement un-flown. Committing 15 hours or more a week to training tends to put those things on the back burner. Instead I’m out riding my bike for 5 or 6 hours at a time. Sometimes I just wonder. I certainly don’t think a second ironman is in my future. Oh but don’t worry dear….your gazebo thing will be done before I leave town again…I promise. Or maybe I should say “if I get lucky”!!!

I wish to dedicate day 218 to good old Bob McCara who gave me the job I started on Jan 13th 1985. And before you ask, it was a Monday!

“A man on a date wonders if he will get lucky. The woman already knows”---Monica Piper

“The world is getting to be such a dangerous place, a man is lucky to get out of it alive”---W C Fields

“Just tell yourself ducky, you’re really quite lucky”---Dr Seuss

love
peter