Get set for what I believe will be another transformative step in my life, and specifically, my life on two wheels.
This is a video-free and photo-free post. A rarity of late.
But this is more about philosophy. About a life well-lived. About my humanity.
Even though images may be worth a thousand words, in this case, I think less may be more. It's complicated, as you'll soon see. Bear with me please.
In large measure, this post is about some things. To be clear(er), some things, not something, or some things.
Things - inanimate objects - are not supposed to be the focus of our lives. At least... not if our goal is to rise from infancy to maturity, and enjoy a life well-lived.
That said, I can definitely point to a few things that transformed my life. They changed the way I relate to the world, and ultimately they defined much of what I am today. These few things helped me to build the part of me that explores, that cherishes independence and freedom.
This post is also about health. My health, and Susan's health.
I'll get the health topic out of the way first, so that we can then focus on fun stuff.
The reality is that I'm getting old.
As I write this, I am 68 years old.
For the past few years, maybe even longer than that, there have been aches and pains. Mostly in my left leg, my knee... no surprise.
When I was young and crazy I skied. Not always very well, or safely. My left knee has suffered sprains, twists, major impacts. So when it acts up, well that's the toll that my youth is taking on the present me. More recently, if I sit or lie for more than a few minutes, when I stand, for a few moments or so I am stiff, and I hobble like... an old man. But... I am an old man, so suck it up, smile, grin, and bear it buttercup!
Back in mid-July I did a stupid thing.
It was pointed out to me in a loving way that the push-ups I do, from the knee, are less than manly.
I have been exercising at least five days a week for the past three years or so. Back five or six years ago I received a gym membership as a gift. When they evaluated my fitness level it turned out that I could only manage two guy-pushups. Pathetic. So now, I naturally wondered, how many of those genuine pushups could I manage today?
I did five. I could have managed a few more, but I stopped. Thankfully.
The next day I had a nagging pain in my left calf. I tore muscles there in my 30's, lifting too many cement garden tiles. I figured it was a strain, and in time would pass.
In mid-September it wasn't getting any better and was actually starting to get somewhat worse.
I went to see a chiropractor. I had a positive experience with chiropractic in 2018 when I messed up my neck as a result of way too much desk work while I took six months to write the Ontario Bar Exams.
This time however, the treatment had the reverse effect. The pain became much, much more severe. No position allowed relief. I couldn't sleep.
After a trip to the E.R., consultations with our family doctor, a cocktail of pain meds, and an ultra-sound, I managed to make it to an appointment with the physiotherapist our doctor strongly recommended.
One session later (at this point I have had four, more to come), I was all but cured.
Not only that, but last Sunday our kids were over. I was sitting in the living room. I got up to get some water in the kitchen. Three steps into the kitchen, I suddenly realized, shocked, that my old-man-stiffness hadn't happened. It's now gone, a thing of my past, no longer in my present!!!
It turns out that virtually all the aches and pains I had taken as an unavoidable consequence of my advancing age were no longer there.
I have now pledged to make twice-yearly visits to my now-beloved physiotherapist to ensure that slow creeping posture issues are caught and cured before they get a chance to hobble me again.
That's one fascinating transformation. Bit of a fluke really.
Now let's focus on those things.
A staple ingredient of my past major transformations has been the wheel. Sometimes four, most often only two.
The shiny red single-speed pedal-brake Raleigh I got for my seventh birthday was definitely the first thing. It seemed impossible to ride, until magically one day I could. It transformed me and became the thing that allowed me to explore my world from our freshly-paved driveway, to the freshly-paved roads of our burgeoning suburban subdivision, to the tractor roads, dirt tracks, and trails among the fields and woodlots that seemed to stretch from our front door to the horizon and beyond.
Then there was the ten-speed well-worn, second-hand bike that let me travel well beyond my neighbourhood, literally hundreds and hundreds of kilometres each summer from that same driveway at 7:00 a.m. to my summer factory job, on to Vanier College for evening classes, and back home by 10:00 p.m. or so: 25 kilometres a day, five days a week, from June to August: 1,375 kilometres, for three years. More than 4,000 kilometres in the saddle of that bike.
That was followed in 1973 by my 49cc Velo Solex moped. I wore that bike out, riding back and forth from home to university, and way up north to visit friends.
An 18-speed Norco featherweight road bike is my most recent bicycle. I received it as a gift from my mentor (later my partner) Bernard Reis in 1986. Right now it sits underground on P3, seven stories below my desk, securely chained to a bike stand, its tires long since deflated, unridden for far too long. What a bike though. I rode hundreds of kilometres on that bike too.
Later on in 1993, I purchased the best car I will ever own: my 1989 mid-life-crisis-red Mazda Miata. I rocked that car for 20 years and it never did anything but spark joy until...
... that fateful day in 2010 when my Miata lost the battle for my heart to a second-hand 2006 dragon-red Vespa LX150 motor scooter. Italian beauties nearly always prevail in a battle for your affection, don't you know, but not before the spring, summer, and fall of 2009 when I pedalled close to 1,000 kilometres on Montreal's innovative Bixi bike-share bikes.
It was that 2006 red Vespa that jump-started this blog.
In many ways that was the biggest game changer since that first red Raleigh.
Learning to ride a real motorbike, learning to commute on one, graduating to a black-and-chrome Vespa 300 GTS in 2013, exploring Montreal and its surroundings like never before, road trips to Ottawa, Toronto, State College, Hartford, and Portland, moto-camping, riding in Vancouver, the Tuscan countryside and the Florida Everglades, all of which ultimately led to another dragon-red 2016 Vespa 300 GTS with ABS and traction control just last year.
That bike has already taken me from Montreal to Toronto, to Montreal, and back to Toronto in the short time I have owned it.
As I write this, I now know, with certainty, that my red Vespa GTS will not be the last thing to transform my life.
I may not truly spill the beans for a while.
No, it's not a mobility-scooter, or a walker, although... perish the thought.
This new wonder-thing will definitely not displace my Vespa, that much is crystal clear. The reality is that they will conspire with each other to expand my ability to explore my world to a whole new level. I am very excited. You have no idea.
This time, unlike with all the previous transformative things, Susan will be along for the ride.
Our orders are in, our deposits are down, our spots in the production line are booked, and the clock is ticking.
Did I mention I'm excited? You really have no idea!
I can't wait.
