Saving my life

There's nothing like having a parent pass away to focus one's mind on one's own mortality. It's no coincidence that soon after dad passed I bought a boat here in Florida. There were plenty of reasons for not buying a boat. I didn't even know how much it would cost to finalize dad's arrangements. For me, it was not the time to be overly prudent. The boat was important to my life goals.

Here's the thing, I want to live. I want more days in my life and more life in my days. Two years ago my lovely wife and I spent 10 weeks on a small sailboat and I loved it. Even better, I felt great after that trip. I'd gotten a lot of exercise and even took off a few pounds.

Since I've been on the new sailboat I've been a very happy man. Sure there are challenges. Not everything is sunshine and beaches. That's life. Actually, what's life without a few challenges? I know I feel pretty good about myself when I overcome them. Fortunately I can also laugh at my mistakes so I never lack for entertainment.

My lovely wife and I are having a good time. If she wasn't also into the lifestyle it wouldn't be much fun at all. Good thing she's as crazy as I am. (maybe more so, at times!)

As for my health . . . well, I've got a really good tan. My vitamin D levels must be right up there. Back home in the frozen north I'd be taking massive doses of D3.

My exercise level is way up. Take today for example. My wife had heard of a good landing for the kayak. It was much further away than we thought. Of course, then we had a long walk into town. The whole process had to be repeated to get back to the boat.

We are eating less. To start the day we each had a little oatmeal. Later in town we split a doughnut and a sandwich. Back at the boat we each had a hamburger and some fruit. If I'd been stuck inside a house doing nothing I'd have eaten a lot more out of boredom. We aren't suffering. Now and then we go out and have a real nice restaurant meal. However, when we do, we've usually had little else to eat that day.

My lungs were damaged when I was a firefighter. Cold dry winter air is hard on them. It would not be uncommon for me to get a bad cough in October and have it linger until May. Thanks to the warm moist air of Florida that hasn't been a problem this year.

I didn't know there was swelling in my legs, but I guess there was as my ankles haven't been this slim in years.

On the downside I have a bunch of new scrapes and bruises. It takes time to figure out how to move on a new boat. Space is cramped, there's a lot of hard pokey bits like cleats, rigging and anchors. Seas can be rough, tossing us around some. My lovely wife had to dig a splinter out of my foot that was causing me to limp. It healed up fine. In fact, all my little cuts and scrapes are healing well. We pay close attention to them as we don't want any nasty infections.

I don't know if this lifestyle will help me live longer. After all, there are some real hazards out there. At any rate, I certainly am getting more life out of my days.

-Sixbears