What do you look forward to?

I went to a retirement party this week for a former colleague who is basically my age. He's got younger kids and a wife that brings in enough money that he doesn't absolutely need to work. I was talking to another friend at the party about how much I was looking forward to retirement, an obvious topic of discussion at a retirement party.

He looked at me very seriously and said "you can't look forward to retirement, you have to live NOW!". It really stopped me in my tracks and made me think hard about it. I really try to seize the day whenever I can, whether its a ride, climbing, playing music or just hanging out with the family.  I need to realize how special those moments are and make sure they happen more and I cherish each and every one of them.

My friend's comment made me realize that while I'm very active in my life, I need to let the little things go more and really challenge my overall view on life.

This is it, take every moment.

This same kind of thing came up yesterday when we were having lunch with our daughter - she was commenting how cluttered (bordering on messy, ok it is messy) our house is. We could spend all our time cleaning up and making our house a museum or we could go climbing, riding or play music. Judge me on the cleanliness of my house if you want, but I won't judge myself that way.

I had a great ride this morning on snowmobile trails in Union. It was a fast crank for 12.5 miles, so much fun flying into the corners - lots of ups and downs to play on. I absolutely love that new fat bike, its so much fun.

Shoulders and more zipper riding

I've had this nagging pain in my shoulder for the last 2-3 months. I've been using the age old remedy called "ignore it and hope it will go away". That worked great for a little while, but its getting worse, I think I need to get it looked at. I'm hoping its just a strain and backing down a bit from climbing and biking will let it heal, but I guess I need an MRI to rule out any damage before I go down that road. I hate being injured. Right now biking and climbing (and physical exercise in general) is a huge part of my life. Obviously I know I can live without it, but psychologically I'm in a much better state when I get out in the woods and get my blood pumping. More to come on that I guess.

I got out for a solo ride at Case last night - once again I could ride on top of the crust, it made for a great ride just cruising among the trees, I had to ride some trails which were very bumpy, that definitely did NOT help the shoulder situation.

First band practice tonight in 3 weeks, I can't wait.