(2) Participate in the Great Cycle Challenge plus vastly exceeded the goals I set for myself,
(3) Make the full transformation into a MAMIL (explanation below).
The daily routine didn't change much but the vacuum created by the absence of daily writing was so tangible that I have decided a return to the keyboard is order ... and let's be honest, I still have loads of opinions to talk about!
Navigating my little publishing venture turned out to be a bit of an escapade as it proved to be fraught with technical glitches, publisher woes, and some soul searching on what cost could best be justified for the finished product. In the end, decisions were made and the book is in production as you read. Actually collating the 100 Blog posts into a single document was as simple as copy-paste from one Word document to another, but the formatting for publishing proved to be a massive source of frustration. It turns out there are a number of businesses that exist who will publish a single copy of a book, some in the USA and some in Canada. I felt strongly that choosing a Canadian company was the prudent choice, for a lot of reasons, but the more I researched it, the more I realized that they couldn't offer the service I wished at the price point I could justify. The final choice was a company out of Arizona called the Book Patch.
Participating in the Great Cycle Challenge might seem like an easy decision ... on the surface ... but it required far more thought and contemplation since I have a strong aversion to coercing others to support causes, even worthy ones like Sick Kid's Hospital and it's crusade against childhood cancer. Joyce and I make decisions each year about the charities that we feel strongly enough about to funnel support toward, and invariably, it is a joint venture weighing the pluses and minuses of how much it touches our immediate family. We felt that the GCC checked all of the boxes plus it was centered around my newly minted passion for cycling. When it was all said and done, it proved to be an extremely rewarding experience when I was able to crush my personal distance goal (1114 km vs goal of 800 km) and deep gratitude to my friend's charitable generosity ($599 raised vs goal of $500). If you wish to know more about my GCC experience, CLICK HERE.
My personal transformation was both physical (I've lost 60 lbs to date) and attitudinal (I've embraced what I previously scorned). The physical change came in a long line of roller coaster rides (CLICK HERE) I've participated in over my 57 years on this planet. The attitudinal shift was a pleasant surprise considering my previously vocal opposition to the cycling craze that had hit many middle aged men and women over the past couple of decades. I have previously shared (CLICK HERE) that I never dreamed I would embrace cycling as my choice for exercise, but here I am, dressed in Lycra, wheeling my way around the local countryside, and loving every minute. I have truly become a MAMIL ... Middle Aged Man In Lycra! The bottoms are a necessity now that the km's have started to mount. The seemingly innocuous padding in the hind end makes a world of difference to the pain threshold of supporting my still prestigious girth atop a little perch of plastic and foam. The tops are both form (I admit I am showing off my hard work) and function (the heat management is significant) since my rides now regularly last 2-3 hours.
I've already started to amass a lengthy list of potential topics to write about, and I have to tell you that some of them spark a boyhood giggle. I think that I will aim for weekly posts this time around, partially because the point of writing is no longer tied to a timeline like the final year of teaching, and partially because the reality truly is that "Less is More" when it comes to ventures like this, at least in my opinion.
I hope that those of you that followed the previous 100 will find some entertainment and happiness in the next 100. Thanks for being interested enough to check out some of my many thoughts and opinions.
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