Family | Richard's Ramblings

Well, Whattaya Know – 3/4 of A Century

So, today I made it to three quarters of a century.

With all the talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) lately, I thought I would have some fun.

First, I asked ChatGPT to provide the meaning of 75 years old.

Following that I asked ChatGPT to provide the meaning of three quarters of a century old.

It seems that they are not the same, however both are interesting. You can read them here.

I will rejoin you below.

Turning 75 years old carries multiple layers of meaning:

Longevity: Reaching 75 is a significant achievement in terms of longevity. It reflects a long life, often filled with rich experiences, and is celebrated as a mark of resilience and vitality.
Wisdom and Experience: By the age of 75, individuals typically have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and life experience. This age often signifies a deep reservoir of wisdom, shaped by decades of personal and professional experiences.
Reflection and Legacy: At 75, people often reflect on their life’s journey, accomplishments, and the impact they’ve made on their families, communities, and beyond. It’s a time to consider one’s legacy and the contributions they’ve made throughout their life.
Family and Generational Connections: Many individuals at this age have witnessed the growth of their families across generations. They may have children, grandchildren, and sometimes great-grandchildren, making this a period to celebrate family bonds and the continuity of family traditions.
Health and Well-being: Health becomes an important focus as people age, and reaching 75 often involves managing health conditions and adapting to changes in physical abilities. It’s a time when maintaining well-being and enjoying a good quality of life are priorities.
Cultural Significance: In various cultures, turning 75 is celebrated as a major milestone. It’s often marked with special ceremonies or gatherings that honor the individual’s life and contributions.
Reflection on Societal Changes: A person who is 75 years old has witnessed substantial societal and technological changes over their lifetime. Their experiences offer a unique perspective on how the world has evolved over decades.

In essence, being 75 years old is a time of celebration and reflection, honoring a long life lived and looking forward to the future with appreciation for the journey so far.

When someone is described as “three quarters of a century old,” it means they are 75 years old. This phrase adds a layer of formality and historical depth to the age. Here’s what it conveys:

Historical Context: The phrase highlights the span of 75 years as a significant period in history, suggesting that the individual has lived through a considerable portion of modern history, witnessing and experiencing many changes and events.
Significant Milestone: It frames the age as a noteworthy achievement, emphasizing the milestone of reaching 75 years. The term “three quarters of a century” underscores the considerable duration and the importance of the individual’s longevity.
Reflective Perspective: Using this phrase often implies a reflective perspective on the person’s life, acknowledging the depth of experience and the impact of their journey over a substantial period.
Formal and Poetic Tone: The expression lends a formal or poetic tone to the description of age, making it sound more grand and significant compared to simply stating “75 years old.”

In essence, “three quarters of a century old” celebrates the achievement of reaching 75 years with a sense of historical and personal importance, highlighting both the length of time and the depth of life experience.

I have to admit, that I do like the poetic aspect of “three quarters of a century”. It has a bit of a ring to it don’t you think.

Reading these items does indeed cause me to reflect.

I won’t go into great depth today but would like to highlight a few things.

Reflection: It has been an interesting journey thus far with still more to go. My intent is to share some of my life’s journey and accomplishments using this blog and other parts of my Wee Internet Empire, as I have done already to a degree with more to be forthcoming.

Family: As some of you know, I have, for many years, been working on our family history, and am now back to the early 1600’s. Learning where one comes from and where the extended family comes from is quite facinating. As far as the current group, Kim and I have a blended family. Three daughters, one son, one cat, one daughter in law, two sons in law, four granddaughters, three grandsons, three grandcats and one granddog, spread across England, Canada and Malaysia.

Health: Generally things are going along pretty well, although it seems I’m slowly becoming more bionic with a hip replacement last year and an implantable cardiac device just recently. The idea is to say around for a while longer.

Societal Changes: I certainly will have to write more about this subject. We are all familiar with the current technology, and for comparison, I can remember when we got our first huge sized black and white TV. It would seem there is much inbetween. Then we have the myriad ways that the world community has changed and modified over the passage of time, some ways good, some ways not so much. Yep, to look back is quite something.

All in all, the fact that I am on the good side of the grass, am able to do more or less what I want, with whom I want to, and am in a position to help and support others, means things are going pretty well, and I am thankful for that.

As always, any thoughts or feedback that you might have are greatly appreciated.

Thanks for visiting, take care of yourself, and when you get a chance, look out and take care of others.

1413 Days

In the middle of March 2020, due to the beginning of Covid, we were forced to cut short our visit with family and friends in Malaysia. We made it back to Canada just in time, although we did have to go into isolation for fourteen days. Two of Kim’s brothers, who were also in Malaysia, were not able to return to Canada until several months later.

Today, 1413 days later, we begin our journey back to Malaysia to see our daughters and grandchildren, having missed nearly four years of their lives.

Oh sure, we have maintained contact with them via electronic means on this thing called the “world wide web”, however as anyone can figure out, it’s not the same as being with them in person. It’s not even close.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, this has become another blog post stretched over a period of time. In this case, about six days, or maybe five, depending on how one looks at it, because the International Date Line is involved.

At 1600 hours on 30 Jan, we left home and headed to YEG to begin our journey.

Okay, if you know me, I use military time, the 24 hour clock, and write my dates different from some folks, and use airport designators. I write my blogs and you read them, that’s the way it is. <<Grin>>

So, off to the airport we went, have to get there a minimum of two hours before the flight, as everybody knows. Check-in was good, four checked bags, all comfortably under 23 kg, so no issue there. Then it was off to security, there we had a bit of an issue on a couple of fronts. Going through the detector, I beeped. Was asked if I had a hip replacement, said yes, so secondary it was. Hmm… there I beeped all over. It seems that the buttons on my cargo shorts are metal, so you guessed it, I beeped. Okay, got that sorted out, only to discover that my backpack had been pulled aside. Hmm… seems somebody had not emptied out his water bottle. The security chap was kind and did it for me so all was good. Nobody arrested me or even yelled at me, they were very good about everything. Away to the departure gate, waited a while and boarded the aircraft. At 1935, on schedule, we lifted off for YVR, experiencing a relatively uneventful Westjet flight, getting our glass of non-alcohol drink and bag of tiny pretzels enroute.

Now in the interest of transparency, I need to let you know that for this journey I am still having some issues with both my legs so am listed as requiring assistance, meaning a wheelchair. Having heard tales in recent months about folks with disabilities and the issues they have had when flying, I was unsure as to how things would go. I must state that for me on this trip, the service I got was exemplary from start to finish with the various airlines and airports doing exactly what was required. And I thank them for that.

Back to the journey. Upon arriving in YVR it was necessary to make the trek, and it is a lengthy trek, from the Westjet gate to the EVA Air gate. Thank goodness for golf carts. Once there, we had an almost three hour respite until we boarded the aircraft. At about 0015, on 31 Jan, we were ready to taxi away from the gate. I say we were ready, however Mother Nature was not. Vancouver had been experiencing a couple days of an “atmospheric river” and there were so extremely high gusting winds. After a half hour or so, Mother Nature said that we could go, so we did.

It was our first time flying EVA Air, I found the economy seating on the Triple 7 comfortable and the flight attendants were very efficient. Even so, it was nice to arrive at TPE thirteen and a half hours later. Once there it seems that connecting passengers have to go through what amounted to a mini security screening prior to heading to their next departure gate. This made us quite confused, however through we went. Our water bottles didn’t have to be emptied and our laptops, tablets and phones didn’t have to be removed from the bags. Personally I’m still not sure of the purpose of this process. Guess there must be some reason for it.

Then it was off to the departure gate for another close to three hour respite. I should mention that there was quite a distance from the arrival gate to the security to the departure gate, all done by wheelchair, no golf carts.

Boarding time came and there was a problem. Passngers were there, flight attendants were there, aircrew was there, but oops, seems there was no aircraft there yet. It appeared realatively quickly, however it had to be prepared for us to board, which took a while. Okay, then we were ready to load, but wait, it seems there was a passenger who had to be escorted on first. We don’t know what her situation was, but she didn’t want to go and was carried on by four or five people, while making quite the disturbance. Kim and I noted, although there was certainly a major kerfuffle, and while people were certainly paying attention, we didn’t see people videoing the event with their phones and we appreciated that folks seemed to be respecting her privacy.

Eventually we boarded the aircraft and departed just over an hour later than scheduled. Our flight to KUL was four and a half hours. The economy seating on the Airbus was not great and for some reason my seat would not recline, making it rather uncomfortable, with the result I was fairly sore by the time we landed. Once again the EVA Air flight attendants were highly efficient, although I will say that on both flights they were not all that friendly, basically just business.

Arriving at KUL was uneventful, deplaning went well, and then the KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) trek began. At KUL we land at one terminal, however customs, immigration, baggage, and passenger pickup is all done at another terminal. Joining the two terminals is normally a train, but currently it is under long maintenance, so buses are employed. Not horrible by any stretch, however they are less efficient in moving the people. Once again there was an extensive wheelchair trip. A bit of a wait for immigration as it was quite busy, then baggage was acquired and contact made with our arranged ride who had been waiting patiently. Wait you say, what about customs. It seems that you only go through customs if you are selected, randomly or otherwise. I’m sure that baggage is screened on arrival. We try to do things properly and, I guess, have been successful thus far as I’ve not be called for customs on this, or previous, arrivals.

Now we are talking about baggage, this is a good segway to an action I took prior to this trip. One always hears horror stories about travel and baggage. Things like “I flew from YEG to YOW and my luggage went to YYC”, or worse “my luggage has disappeared”. We make sure that our bags are well marked, strapped, and we also place sheets inside providing information on our destination and contact numbers. In addition, for this journey I decided to purchase Samsung Galaxy SmartTags for each checked bag. It was kind of cool, at each stop, I would check my phone and see if all our bags were still with us, and they were. On a couple previous trips we had been short a bag upon arrival, but in both cases the bag had decided to spend an extra day in HKG. Both Cathay Pacific (our airline for those trips) and KLIA, preformed admirably and the bags were delivered directly to us the next day. To have the SmartTags was reassuring however, and according to reports, they, along with similar other tags, have proven their worth when baggage goes astray.

Once through all the process at KLIA, we also picked up Malaysia SIM cards for our phones, we connected with our driver and commenced our roughly two hour drive to Malacca and our accomodation provided for us by our granddaughter. The drive was uneventful other than a brief rain deluge and the ever present traffic.

Bottom line for the journey. We left home at 1600 on 30 Jan (Edmoton time), and arrived at our destination at 1930 on 01 Feb (Malaysia time). We essentially skipped 31 Jan entirely due to the International Date Line. Total time from door to door was thirty-six and a half hours, which was considerably longer than any of our previous flights, all of which were with Cathay Pacific through HKG.

So, 1413 days between trips, but now we are here, we have reunited with some of our family, a number more to go, and and are making contact with friends so as to arrange visits. Now we must make the most of our time here, but that is another story, or should I say, blog post.

Thanks for reading, catch you next time. Look after yourselves, and look out for others.

My Name I Ponder

Yesterday I read an interesting post by Waking up on the Wrong Side of 50, a fellow blogger. Her post, entitled Name Game, was asking about the name one was given at birth and the name one goes by now.

That got me thinking of my own name and its transitions.

At my birth I was given the first names Richard Linnaeus. Richard having a long tradition on my paternal side and Linnaeus being my maternal grandfather’s name.

Up until I began school I was known as Linne, short form for Linnaeus. Once in school I was often teased, even bullied, for having a “girl’s” name, so I started using Richard, which, at some point in the process became Rick. That stayed with me through high school, technical school, university and into the military.

During my military career I began using Richard more and, depending on the activity I was involved in, would answer to either Richard or Rick. This carried on after my military retirement into my business activities. Eventually Rick all but disappeared, and for at least the last 20-25 years I have gone by Richard.

Now comes the crux of the thinking brought forward by the blog post.

Over the years, many years, I have often mulled in my mind about reverting my name to Linne. I must say that it has bothered me at times that I gave in to the teasers and bullies (these are similar but have different processes). I have determined that my grandfather went his entire life known as Linne to many, and he was a highly successful, accomplished person, becoming very well known in Great Britain.

During my life I have learned much about names, how important they are to us, in meaning, in family, and in history.

Even though I’m blogging about it, my situation is but a very small scale issue in the grand scheme of things.

However, there are many people who have had others literally rename them. People who are born here, or come to Canada from another country will be “renamed” by acquaintences, co-workers or employers, who, for one reason or another, don’t (or won’t) make the effort to say the person’s name properly. As a result they are given a “Canadian” name that is easy to say and/or spell. I need not provide any examples because I’m sure that each of my readers will know of someone in that situation.

So, getting back to my situation, I have often thought I should change back, and then I hesitate, wondering about any issues it would create. Even now, as I type this, I have stopped to ponder. If I change, how would I do it, how much would I change. Would I leave all the “official stuff”, passport, drivers licence, healthcare, and so on, the same (actually for most no change would be necessary). Probably just change the day-to-day usage, social media, that type of thing.

It is indeed something to ponder. What will I do? What would others think? What do my readers think? Feel free to let me know.

Regardless, life goes on. Be assured that I will continue to provide blogs, podcasts and more, through my Wee Internet Empire, irrespective of what name I choose to call myself.

Until next time. Take good care of yourself, and look out for others.

Birthday and Calendar Contemplation

Well, they tell me that I’m a year older today than I was yesterday. Now if that isn’t some high power time shifting, then I don’t know what would be. Seems it’s some curious occurence called a “birthday”.

This auspicious (??) event put me in a bit of a contemplative state, particularily after receiving a multitude of congratulary greetings from family and friends around the globe.

Those who know me in real life understand that I like math and science and consider many things in a precise fashion. I have at times been accused of as “being anal” in this regard.

With this in mind, in reality, I am now a year older than I was 365.2425 day ago.

((Note: The Gregorian Calendar is the dominant calendar used in most countries around the world today. Officially introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in October 1582, the calendar was simply a modified version of the previously favoured Julian calendar. It reduced the average year from 365.25 days to a more accurate 365.2425 days.))

Now my contemplation grows as I feed Otis the cat and then have my morning coffee (notice the order, it is very specific).

You will likey all be familiar that in order to account for the extra portion of a day each year, the calender makers simply added an extra day every four years. It was decided that this extra day would be tacked on to February and would be called “leap day” indicating that a person’s age would just leap over that day every fourth year.

Now I won’t go into a long dissertation about calendars, how there were originally ten months, that a year was 364 days, how the Romans added January and February to account for more days, and that February was chosen because it would host the Roman rituals honouring the dead and to make sure that the first day of spring was always aligned with the right time. Oh, I guess I did, a little anyway.

So, on my birthday, why the fascination with February 29. Well, it just so happens that my wife Kim is what’s known as a “Leapling”, a person born on a Leap Day, one of an estimated five million around the world.

The anniversary of my birth occurs annually, whereas hers technically only occurs once every four years. Hmm… does that mean that she is a teenager four times longer, that she has to wait sixty-four calendar years to get her driver’s licence? In both these circumstances we could probably say “thankfully no”.

But as a result, every four years we do try to put a little extra emphasis on her actual, this is the real day, birthday celebration.

Next year is one of those special birthdays, February 29. 2024, and we will be celebrating in Melaka, Malaysia, where Kim was born and where we have our second home. Interestingly enough, in 2020 we celebrated there as well, and in 2016 she celebrated while she was there visiting family (I was in Canada for that one).

I realize that this is not the typical type of contemplation that most (perhaps read normal) people would have as they annually celebrate their earthly entrance, however I am well known for being slightly (okay, a lot) different.

Here endeth this particular contemplation (undoubtly there will be others).

Moral of the story: People are often similar, however if we were all the same, how boring it would be, so remember to be unique.

Same Thing + Different Circumstances = Different Feelings

After having a seemingly empty brain with my social media “Wee Internet Empire” since just prior to my surgery three weeks ago, over the last couple of days I found myself to be quite reflective. Ergo, a blog post appears.

During the past three years I have gone through several phases of doing the same thing, however each phase was for a different reason.

The same thing that I have been doing is staying home, keeping to myself, doing little or nothing with others and even, at times, doing little outside my home office, or at times, in my home office as well, by myself.

So… the first circumstance is probably the most obvious one to most of you. Covid, the pandemic, whatever you want to call it.

Upon returning early in March 2020 from our trip to Malaysia we went immediately into lock-down, or was it locked-in, or perhaps locked-up. Regardless, the aspect of any form of personal contact with others, even family not in the same domicile ceased to exist, we all became persona non grata, pariahs, potential carriers to be avoided or even shunned.

Sure, I could leave the house, but couldn’t go anywhere there were people. It seems that effectively narrowed it down. As the summer weather arrived I would go for the occasional solo motorcycle ride to nowhere, meaning I would ride out in some direction for a while, then turn around and head home. Later on I was actually able to ride with a few fellow veterans. On these rides we would usually remain on our bikes when stopped, maintaining a two metre spacing between us.

For the first year, the weather was pretty agreeable and I was able to ride from about mid May until December. Yes, my last ride of the year was 06 Dec.

Winter then put a kibosh on things, particularly as many restaurants were shut down and the usual family Christmas was by phone.

With the weather being accommodating, I was back on the bike by mid-March, with the summer becoming more or less a repeat of the previous year. Then the bike developed a serious ailment and was at the bike doctor for two months.

It was about this time that the first circumstance was winding down. Covid was still present, however generally society had adapted and some semblance of routine was beginning to emerge.

For me however, I was preparing to enter my second circumstance.

My hip was now bothering me more and there were often times when I would not even attempt to ride my bike as it was painful to do so. This resulted in the bike going into hibernation in September and remaining there until April of the following year, 2022. After that for the next few months, outings did occur, however were very sporadic and the bike was returned to hibernation in September.

At the same time, a combination of factors caused me to be in a very bad head space. On the medical side, I was going through some problems with my lower legs resulting in hospital visits and regular home care visits, all of which had placed my hip surgery on indefinite hold. Mentally, the aspect of not being able to physically do a variety of things I had been doing all my life, combined with the feeling of being a burden with others having to do things I should be doing, had me basically isolating myself at home and partaking in few activities. Interestingly, I knew that these events were part of life, and that I shouldn’t be having negative thoughts about what I was going through. The problem was, knowing that, but not doing that, made things worse as I would beat myself up for being such a dolt, and, as most of you probably know, nobody can beat me up any better than I can.

Anyway, that was basically the second circumstance.

The third circumstance is happening now, as I write this blog post.

On 27 April I finally went in for my total hip replacement surgery. The surgery was successful, I came home the next day, my recovery started, and at this writing (23 days later) is progressing very well. So I am required to use my crutches and walker, exercise and am instructed not to drive for about six weeks. As a result I am dependent upon Kim to drive me to appointments or any other outings, requiring her to take time off work or change her work schedule, to do so. This is something I try to avoid doing, so I am home most of the time with Otis the cat.

This was the point where I became reflective about the three times l was more or less isolated at home, each for different reasons. As an aside, while reflecting on this I was reminded of a 1963 hit song (Alone) In My Room by Willie & the Walkers, a popular Edmonton group that I enjoyed while growing up.

So… three times I did the same thing, staying at home for an extended period of time. Each time was the result of a different set of circumstances. The first time due to the Covid pandemic, second due to my mental state, and the third due to my surgery. Not only was there three sets of circumstances, I realized that there were three completely different sets of feelings.

Cue the feelings comparisons.

Circumstance Number 1 (Covid) – During the pandemic, collectively we had a most serious situation, and staying home was one of the ways that I could support addressing this situation. I wasn’t fussy about it, however I did feel it was something that could help. I was also introduced to the previously unknown term “Zoom Call”. Basically my feeling was, this is not great but it is necessary, so let’s deal with it.

Circumstance Number 2 (Head Space) – During this period I would have a variety of feelings. I would have periods of low self-confidence, low self-esteem and even low self-worth. I would have periods of self-pity, but more often I would be mad and frustrated because I felt I was causing a burden to Kim and others around me as they had to do extra work and I felt I could not do activities which I considered it was my responsibility to do.

Circumstance Number 3 (Post Surgery) – Physically after the surgery I’m feeling fine, I like not having any pain, I feel my mobility getting better all the time. I know that I need to follow the post-surgery instructions, and pretty much am doing so. So what are my basic feelings? I’m bored and lonely. Everything is in place for me to be out and about whenever and wherever I would like except for that one thing, post-surgery instructions.

So how do these three sets of feelings compare.

I much prefer Circumstance 3, as I know the future is good and I just need to be patient.

Circumstance 1 was not a fun time, however it was something shared between millions of people and, in my view, was most necessary. Let’s work on not have to do something like that again.

Circumstance 2 was an unpleasant time. I know it’s also a type of time that many people go through, in some form or other. To let people know they are not alone in that regard was one of the reasons for writing this blog post in the first place, and sharing some of my not so happy feelings. Thank goodness Kim was able to deal with my mood swings, it was difficult for her for sure but I’m blessed that she stuck with me.

Well, there you have it. A few snippets of my life over the past three years. Of course I have not done “chapter and verse” of absolutely all that transpired. I just wanted to pass along some basic circumstances and the feelings associated with them.

Thanks for reading. Catch next time. Please take care of yourself and look out of others.

So… What’s Up, What’s Happening, What’s Going Down

This morning I was starting to put together my latest newsletter (you can subscribe here), and I was going to use the words above as my lead in as it’s an expression that I have been using for a great many years. Then I thought about it and decided that I would write a blog post with those words as the title.

Just for interest, I then Googled them. The first things that came up were a 1992 song from 4 Non Blondes called What’s Up? and a 1966 song from Buffalo Springfield called For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey What’s That Sound).

As it turns out, as an old fart, both of these songs are quite familiar to me, and both have developed a large following, being considered as either a protest or an type of anthem by those at the time.

For myself, I feel that both could be entirely applicable to events of the current times.

That being said, these songs were not what generated the thought process for this blog post.

Rather, it was a bit of contemplation of recent personal happenings.

Top of mind, yesterday, along with several Kiwanis colleagues, I attended a memorial service for a friend and long time club member. Ed Bean was a member of the Kiwanis Club of South Edmonton for sixty-five years, caring deeply about anything which would benefit young people. More than that, he was a pillar of the Edmonton community. He helped create and maintain Crystal Kids, an organization teaching, mentoring and nurturing at-risk, inner city kids, named after Crystal Glass, a company he formed in 1949. He was involved, over the years, in a great many community positive happenings as well as being a member of the Edmonton Investors Group which owned the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League from 1998 to 2008. A true people person, Ed will be sorely missed, however his heritage will live long.

I recently set up and started a private family Facebook group, designed to introduce and acquaint diverse family members with each other. Like many families, as time has passed many of us are not familiar with distant cousins, and even may not actually know that we have these cousins. (And no, I’m not providing a link for this blog post, that’s what private is all about.)

As I’m working on this group, I have been delving more and more into our family history. It keeps getting more interesting, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the odd time someone shows up that I knew about, but didn’t know we were related. I do imagine there are many families which may be like that. Check into yours, never know what you’ll find.

Another thing going on, there is a chance that I may actually have my hip replacement surgery on the horizon. As a result, I’m once again going through a battery of tests, procedures and activities in preparation. Perhaps this time it will actually happen. Fingers crossed.

There are a few other things going on that I won’t bore you with. Be it known however, that snow, ice and cold weather are still “in vogue” here in Edmonton and as such the trike and SLK are still ensconced in the garage. (Now I’m making a sad face.)

Bottom line… life is proceeding in it’s unique fashion and our job is to do our best to adapt to it’s flow. It seems to last longer that way.

This Retirement Thing

Today I have been thinking.

Now, to some who know me, that would be considered a dangerous thing.

Perhaps not, today anyway. However it has been an interesting thing for me. A bit interesting that is. You see, it’s a holiday Monday, here in Alberta it’s called Family Day.

One might imagine that due to the day, I would be thinking about family, and I did a little, however my main thinking has been about my retirement, and some of the factors which have been affecting it.

It is no surprise that topping the list has been COVID. I use capital letters here because that was the way it arrived. Now it has become more like #@&%*$ Covid.

For millions of people, the ramifications of Covid threw the proverbial monkey wrench into the system. My thinking today is more limited to retired folks, because I are one.

Back in late 2018 I retired for the final time, and yes, I even had plans. More than just plans, they were being put into practice.

For a good portion of the winter I would be in Malaysia, based at our apartment, spending time with family, friends and just doing some traveling around. My wife Kim would join me for part of the time as she was still working. The late spring, summer and early autumn would involve quite a bit of time on my motorcycle, going on rides with mates and fellow veterans, or just by myself touring around Alberta. On the weekends my wife and I would relax and travel around a bit, as well as being involved in weekend motorcycle and other community events.

For 2019 most went according to plan. I spent three months in Malaysia, Kim with me for a month. Summer saw some 6000 kilometres put on the bike and we were involved in various activities most every weekend. Right up to the end of the year we took part in both Kiwanis and veterans events. Life was doing okay.

2020 started out quite well, however there seemed to be ominous rumblings. Mid February Kim and I were off to Malaysia for six weeks. For the first three weeks we were joined by our daughter and her husband from Edmonton. For me this was a big event as she would meet her two sisters in Malaysia, in person for the very first time. (If you have been following my blog posts over the years you’ll know we have a blended family.)

After we arrived, the ominous rumblings increased, and people started talking about this Covid thing. The first three weeks went well, daughter and her husband headed home, and the rumblings increased. After another week they were more than rumblings and we reluctantly made the decision to err on the side of caution and headed back to Edmonton ten days earlier than planned.

Turns out, it was a good decision, as air traffic was essentially shut down shortly after we got home. We had to do our two week quarantine and then Kim was laid off as her workplace was shut down (only for about three months it turned out).

I’m sure that everyone is pretty familiar with what followed for the remainder of 2020 and basically all of 2021, so I’ll just talk about how this affected the retirement thing.

Now is a good time to touch on another factor affecting retirement, that being my health. I have always had a pretty robust immune system, however I have had some mobility issues, particularly in the last ten years. I was diagnosed with a bad hip and the decision was made to put me on the list for a total hip replacement. For those who have experienced this, it is an interesting process. Immediately I was scheduled for a whole battery of tests, including, but not limited to x-rays, heart tests, lung tests, dental tests, nervous systems tests, and more. These are all intended to determine if I was suitable for surgery.

All the tests were completed, however our friend Covid had laid a beating on all scheduled surgeries. Then, towards the end of 2021, I was notified to expect surgery in January 2022. About the same time I received a small injury to my lower leg and it was slow healing, which they thought likely due to me being diabetic. Injury, small or not, has a risk of infection, hence the surgery was cancelled.

Turned out that over the years I have developed poor circulation in my lower legs, causing my legs to be discoloured, and have extremally thin skin, which can be easily abrased, and any wounds would be very slow healing. Following that determination, there came extensive treatment by the wound clinic and home health care (kudos and thanks to these awesome medical professionals). End result, I will now be wearing compression stockings for the remainder of my time.

Good news is, the surgeon seems happy with my condition now and I may be looking at surgery in April of this year. After still more tests of course.

Now, back to this retirement thing.

Of course, any social activity had become a non-starter during 2020, so it was just me, or Kim and I, for the majority of the time. With my hip issues, I made the change from two wheels to three and bought a trike to ride. This made Kim happy and she now rode with me quite a bit. Between the two bikes I managed to put on over 8000 kilometres in 2020. As well the weather was helpful as Kim and I had our last ride of the year the first week of December. Throughout the year our riding was mostly solo. On the odd occasion we rode with others, whenever stopped we would be outside and maintain the suggested two metre distance.

For 2021, social activity remained at a minimum. Kim would go to work and get groceries, being masked and maintaining her distance at all times. Basically I would just stay home, so much that even Otis the cat was getting tired of me. Between the weather, a blown radiator and my leg issues, less than 4000 kilometres was accomplished on the bike. Veterans gatherings were almost nonexistent, while Kiwanis took on an extremely low profile.

2022 was more of the same, however we were starting to get out for our weekly dim sum, socially distanced of course. For me, I think Otis was starting to maybe like having me around, or not. He’s a cat so go figure. Very little riding this year, only about 4000 kilometres again. For my legs they were doing regular appointments as well as home care, so I had to be cautious and was not able to plan much. Come summer our veterans group was having weekly gatherings once more, however they were socially distanced in a parking lot. Oh well, at least we were getting together. Then in the fall, we were able to get together, actually inside. With some of our members being immune compromised, they were not comfortable attending. For Kiwanis, meetings were by Zoom only.

In September, we were lucky enough to add a vehicle to our garage. Defined as a Classic is our 1999 Mercedes SLK 230 sports car. For the next couple of months it was able to steal a few thousand kilometres from the trike, however they seem to get along well anyway. The nice thing is that it expands our ability to have some fun travel, day runs on the trike and longer with the Merc.

So now, here we are in 2023.

Soon it will be three years since we have seen our daughters and grandchildren in Malaysia. Otis and I have held down the home front with me getting out of the house for a few hours averaging one day a week. On occasion maybe two. Right now, this is retirement for me… my house. What day of the week is it? Oh it must be the weekend because Kim is home on Saturday and half of Sunday, and sometimes on a holiday (she works most holidays).

But, things are looking up. As I mentioned, possible surgery in April. Late last year I had a coffee with a friend, then with another friend in January, and now one tomorrow, this with a regular coffee mate from before Covid, but now for the first time in about two years or so. The two “summer rides” are resting in the garage, awaiting Spring and the opportunity to get out and about. An increased level of activity with Kiwanis is being contemplated. Our veterans group is getting together more often. And… we hope to be back in Malaysia about a year from now.

So… the retirement thing, what’s it all about. My experiences have been up and down, back and forth, good and bad. Well, that’s what life is, not only for me, but for every person experiencing the retirement thing. We are all different, not better or worse. All unique!

I’ve thrown a bit of light on my retirement thing, how is yours going?

Want to share? Please do! It would be great to hear from you.

Until next time. Ciao!

Thoughts and Considerations

Nine years ago this week, Kim and I left Malaysia after a six-week visit. It had been my first time to Malaysia, and it was a most wonderful experience.

Not only did I get to see, for the first time, the country and city where my wife had been born and grew up, I got to meet, in person for the first time, the two daughters from her side of our blended family and our grandchildren. That was so special to me.

Since then, I have been back to Malaysia four more times, in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. Kim and I went for four weeks in 2015, in 2017 we flew over together with Kim staying four weeks and me for eleven. In 2019 I was back in Malaysia for eight weeks by myself. Kim and I traveled for six weeks in 2020 and were joined by daughter Anita and her husband Aaron for the first three weeks, allowing her to meet her sisters in person for the first time.

And then came Covid-19. And it came fast. We actually had to cut our visit short by ten days so that we could get home. Then we had to isolate for two weeks and then Kim got laid off. But that’s a story for another time.

It is now closing in on three years since we’ve been to Malaysia. And we really have no idea of when we’ll be there again. No idea of when we’ll see our daughters and grandchildren in person once more.

Now I started this blog post more than two weeks ago and walked away, leaving it uncompleted. Following that it just sat when my brain kinda went blah. Until today.

To be honest, I have been feeling great frustration within myself. I have things to do, why am I not doing them! I created this “Wee Internet Empire” thing so that I could keep myself involved in something. So what if few people seem to pay much attention.

In reality it’s more than that.

Yes, I want to be in Malaysia, see our daughters and grandkids, but even more I want Kim to get to be with them. She worries so much about them as they have struggled through Covid (most of them actually caught it at one time or another) and the economic turmoil the pandemic caused throughout Malaysia.

And still more than that.

Pre-Covid I had been placed on the list to have a complete hip replacement. As the medical system was stretched so thin during the pandemic it took quite a while to work my way through all the required tests and procedures to be ready for my surgery to be scheduled. At the end of 2021 it was. However, just prior I had developed a bit of an issue on my lower leg and the surgery was cancelled until it could be dealt with. Long story short, ten months later we are still dealing with it. Once dealt with, I’ll have to begin redoing some of the tests and procedures to prepare for surgery as they must be done within a certain time period pre-surgery.

Don’t get me wrong, all is not doom and gloom.

We have been out on the motorcycle over the summer (limited a bit by my leg condition) and have enjoyed traveling around in the Mercedes convertible. We often enjoy our regular dim sum and get together with fellow veterans on occasion. We see our daughter and husband here in Edmonton, my sister from Calgary, while our son from England and his wife came for a lovely visit.

I guess it kind of boils down to the lingering cloud of uncertainty. It seems to fluctuate between shades lighter and darker grey, never becoming black however white remains elusive.

We are trying to make some decisions. Do we hold off on traveling until all is complete, leg issues and surgery. Or do we call our travel lady and book a trip. Certainly something we are trying to work out.

Our future path remains to be seen. I am hoping though, that by sharing these thoughts with you, my readers, it will help me get back on track doing some of the other things which I should be working on.

Thanks so much for reading. Your feedback is always welcome, as is your support.

If you have not already done so, you can keep up with my “Wee Internet Empire” by subscribing to my newsletter, “Old Guy, New Tricks“.

Until next time, be well and take care of yourself.

虎年 – Year of the Tiger

2022 年 2 月 1 日

February 1, 2022

新年快乐！恭喜发财!

Happy New Year! Wish you prosperity and wealth!

对于我们家来说，农历新年是按照中国传统来庆祝的。我们是一个混合家庭。我的妻子是来自马来西亚的华人，我们有两个女儿，他们的孩子住在马来西亚。在我这边，我们有一个女儿和她的丈夫在加拿大，一个儿子和他的妻子在英国

For our family, the Lunar New Year is celebrated with Chinese traditions. We are a blended family. My wife is Chinese from Malaysia, on her side of the blend we have two daughters, with their children, who live in Malaysia. On my side of the blend we have a daughter with her husband in Canada and a son with his wife in England.

由于农历新年对我们家来说是一件重要的事情，所以我选择用中英文写这篇博文。我使用谷歌翻译，它做得非常好（虽然不完美）。

Due to the fact that Chinese New Year is an important event to our family, I have chosen to do this blog post in both Chinese and English. I use Google Translate which does a most excellent (although not perfect) job.

在新的一年里，我代表我自己和我的家人，向所有人致以健康、幸福和成功的祝福。愿我们在和平、和谐与理解中生活在一起，共享这个地球。

For the coming year, on behalf of myself and my family, I sent along wishes for good health, happiness and success, to all. May we live together, sharing this earth, in peace, harmony and understanding.

谢谢！- Thank you!

Melaka Home – High Waters

As I spoke about in my podcast earlier this evening (link here), our second home is in Melaka, Malaysia. I am retired and my wife is close to retirement, but still, since 2015 we have been spending part of each winter there, except for the last two years (thanks to Covid). With children and grandchildren in Malaysia, it is a natural place for us to go, not to mention all our friends, and oh yes, the food. This photo is a selfie of me standing on our balcony in 2020. Behind you can see the small farm I talked about and in the distance are the buildings of downtown Melaka.

Recently, Melaka, along with much of Malaysia, has been receiving a great deal of rain, very much more than they have seen for many years, particularly when one considers that January is typically one of the driest months of the year, whereas November can be one of the wettest.

What I have done here is to provide you with a number of photos taken around Melaka and posted on the Melaka Facebook Page, so that you can see the impact that the flooding has had.

While many in Canada or the US would typically experience vicious storm conditions associated with flooding, that is not always the case here. The flooding comes from a large amount of rain, causing the rivers to overflow their banks. As well, Melaka is a coastal community, hence ocean tides can have an impact also. The lunar new year is approaching, and generally this is the time of the year’s highest tides.

Regardless of whether the water comes from a storm surge or constantly rising levels, it manages to do a considerable amount of damage and create many issues. The photos in the gallery below will certainly give you an idea of that.

I know a number of the areas shown very well, and am hopeful that our family and friends will not be greatly affected.

With Covid still playing it’s games, we have no idea when we will be able to return to our second home, however we have been assured by our daughter that all is well there up to this point.

Thanks for reading this blog post. I do appreciate any thoughts or comments you may have, so please do share them. I also invite you to visit my web page and check out some to the other sites that I share.