Some Changes on the Way

10 days.

10 intense days from the first pain in my back to yesterday's good news. From "You have cancer" - among the most feared three words in the world - to the presumptive all clear.

I can't help but take this as some sort of a cosmic wake up call. A reminder that life is short and could be shorter than you expect so it is time to get around to all of those things you've been planning on getting around to. I made one big change last fall when I left Microsoft and started working at DeepRockDrive but now it is time for a few more changes - some big, some small and some I won't even know about for months to come.

#1 Better Exercise.
Last summer I bought a cool new bike and started riding to work. I love the freedom of continuing on past the cars stuck in traffic. I love that my commute became my exercise time (how efficient!). I even liked that this meant that I was exercising twice a day. Today, I joined the Cascade Bicycle Club and signed up for the RSVP. The Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party. It's gonna take a lot of work to get there but it sounds like a blast and should be fun to train for.

#2 No More Diet Soda
I've been quite hooked on diet cola for many, many years now. On a slow day, it's 2-3 cans. On a big day it is much more. It was my source of caffeine. I always figured, though, that it had to be bad for me. It is just a bunch of chemicals - nothing natural in there. I have no proof that it causes kidney cancer but I also don't have proof that it doesn't impact it in some way so I'm dumping it. Now, I'm in the market for a new beverage of choice. I'm trying to like tea but that is slow in coming. Current leader - water. Suggestions?

#3 Less Intensity, More Intensely
I've often been an all or nothing kind of guy. When I started a project that was really exciting to me, it would take a huge amount of my focus and other things would fall to the side. In this new post-mutated world I intend to better balance my interests and my relationships. This doesn't mean that I won't get a bunch of things done at work on tight schedules, but I will be more deliberate about how I balance my time and energy between all of the things I'm involved in.

This definitely means making more time for family and friends. The support I've received over the past 10 (11 now) days has been so incredibly touching and meaningful to me and I am sad that many of the people who have been there are people I haven't seen for a long time. That I hope to change.

It's kinda handy that this happened at the beginning of the year. I didn't have any New Year's resolutions this year and perhaps these will fill that role but with a much more sobering initiator.

Comments

[Laurel]

Hey there - pretty amazing - all of this. I'm so glad that things are looking so good. Biking to work? That's awesome! I wish I could do that!

Ok, so my contribution here is....tea! Tazo Awake Tea. Starbucks brand of choice but you can get it at most higher end grocery stores. Yummy english breakfast style black tea. I put half and half in it and enough Splenda to make it nice and sweet. Just like the english do. It's delectable.

:)

Lo

[Tony]

Psyched you'll be joining us for RSVP. Should be super fun.

[Angie]

Wonderful to know that the mutation has not only imbued you with super-powers (soooo looking forward to checking those out) but super-sense. Great revelations, my friend. Through adversity all becomes clear. See you soon!

[rick chinn]

I've had kidney stones. The one thing my urologist and my GP told me is to drink water; lots of it; more than I can really handle in reality. As an older adult, you spend a lot of time peeing anyway, and if you drink as much water as they recommend, you'll be allatimepeein. I call it, "The European Diet." (say it fast and don't enunciate well and you'll get it) It's at least on a par with drinking beer (you don't buy it, it's a rent and recycle deal).

But seriously, I find I enjoy just plain water better than most other beverages, and I've made a point to drink water with my meals. ALL other beverages have something in them, and your kidney(s) have to work at filtering that stuff out. Water, OTOH, the universal solvent, just flushes things out and keeps them clear.

--rick chinn