The river of time…

The river of time is not something anyone can slow.

I had that driven home this morning after my optometrist appointment. After twenty years of not needing glasses, the doctor is strongly recommending them for distance. While the prescription is low enough that I don’t need them for driving, again, she is strongly encouraging them.

After having glasses through my childhood, I had PRK laser surgery on both eyes in 2000 or 2001. I haven’t needed glasses since. According to the doctor, your eyes start changing after the you hit age 38, a number I’ve passed by several years.

Oh well, needing glasses are not the end of the world, though they will be a pain in the ass to get used to again. I need to head back into Stettler sometime next week and pick out some new frames.

The reason for today’s appointment was my annual diabetic check, and since it’s been a couple years since my last full exam, one of those as well. The good news of the day is that the diabetes has not affected my eyes at all as of yet, which is something I hope to avoid for as long as possible.

I’m hoping that getting back into my workout routine will help with that. My plan on that front is to ease back into daily workouts by doing a week worth of cardio every day, then get back into the weights as well. I need to make a change. I need to make a change, and actually stick to it. I had a goal of going for 90 days straight back in the fall, which was aborted due to an ankle injury. I’m looking at setting that as my goal again.

I know that I’m in my forties, and that from here on out things will be in decline, but the more I am able to do to get my ass in shape, the better the long term effects.

I managed just under two miles on the treadmill yesterday, and I managed just over two miles on the treadmill today, which felt good.

Otherwise, today was fairly low key. I didn’t really get up to much today as the eye drops they put in my eyes screwed with my vision for a few hours. Still, the day wasn’t a complete right-off. I spent a couple hours in the basement getting my new office set up. It is a significantly bigger space than the office I am currently in, and it won’t have a bed in it which frees up even more space. The only real downside to the space is it is in the basement in the corner of the house. That being said, it has windows on two sides, so the light will be significantly better than the space I am currently using.

It’s going to be nice to have a purposeful space for my ongoing work and schooling. Once things are said and done, I’ll actually have room to store my gear, without the space feeling cluttered. The room used to be an office, but over the last few years it has been relegated into a store room, which I have begun to clear out. I’m hoping to have it ready to move into by the end of next week. I’ll definitely post some photos when I get it done.

Speaking of schooling, after a conversation I had with Lynn this morning, and some research online, I may be pivoting slightly. When I went back to school, I started on a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English, with a minor in history. Since I’ve only done a couple of English courses, which are cross listed, I’m seriously debating whether or not I should switch over to a communications program instead. Truth be told, if I had realized that the school had a communications program, I might have started on that path instead. I need to talk to an academic advisor on Monday, but it definitely seems like a good alternative, and generally more useful in the long run. All of that being said, I’m not on a huge time crunch to make the decision, as I haven’t even started my next history course, which is going to run until the end of August. The soonest I would start any communications courses would be September first.

It definitely gives me a few things to ponder.

The biggest thing that sucks with all of this is the fact that I feel like I am playing catch-up. Most people have gone through university in their twenties, and here I am in my forties. Then again, most people haven’t been through the trauma or dealt with the mental health issues that I have over the last twenty or so years. In some ways, mentally speaking, I feel like I am in my twenties. I definitely feel like a late bloomer, but that’s not entirely a bad thing.

Yes, in spite of a somewhat successful EMS career, the last two decades have pretty much been a train wreck. However, even in that mess I’ve learned things. I’m going into my studies with skills and knowledge that I wouldn’t have had in my twenties. Yeah, I carry my fair share of scars, but each one has lead me to this point, and I don’t think I would change a thing.

With everything that’s changed in my life over the last few years, I look forward to the future more than ever. Just because the early parts of my river of time were painful, I feel like I am through the worst, that I now know how to navigate the rapids, and can make the next two decades the best yet.