PONDERING REALITY

Tropical Storm Sara letting her
lingering presence be known.
TAKEN: NOVEMBER 16th, 2024

I took the beautiful picture I am sharing mid-morning yesterday. About twelve hours after Tropical Storm Sara hit our large resort compound with some serious authority.

Now, some may ponder the odds of heading to a resort in the Mayan Riviera and getting hammered by the weather like we did. Not us. When we began getting the alerts, we simply felt it was an extension of the storm that has surrounded us this entire year. 

Feeling a tad exhausted and somewhat defeated, I wandered down the beach and I posted a social media video story. I scanned the miles of high waves, to which I opened with... "Oh 2024, how you've challenged me." 

Now, you know I am all about the optimistic thought process of, 'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.' But this has been such a crap year, I am almost ready to hold our next citrus offering up and squeezing the juice into my eyes; it may be a tad less painful.

Though I kid, my thoughts and glass half full of lemonade is focused on the up coming November 31st. 

That will be the day that my travel buddy hubby's brain will officially stop trying to heal itself. Whatever stroke symptoms he has will remain and be a part of our day-to-day reality.

At this point the right arm seems to have corrected itself but there are still lingering speech issues. 

His right-side leg is the one he had emergency surgery on to stop his internal bleeding, so I don't think we will ever truly understand which percentage of his challenges will be accident related vs. stroke related. What we do know, is that he will never walk as he did before.

Anyway, as I sit and type and ponder in Mexico, I feel I can sum up everything I know about life. 

Which is the fact that will always be always be tough, right up until the minute it isn't.

TRAVEL DAY DROWSY

The three of us, in the air mid flight.
Just look at my sister on the end.
Adamant that she was unable to sleep on a plane!
TAKEN: NOVEMBER 13th, 2024

When it comes to taking a vacation, coordinating great flight times has become an obsession of mine. Simply because we discovered more than a decade ago, arriving into YYZ in the middle of the night was a hard NO for my travel buddy hubby and I; no matter how big the savings were.

Now, when my sister decided she wanted to join us at our favourite Mayan Riviera resort for a week, I warned her of our early departure intentions, which in turn secured us a midday return flight the following week. 

Her big concern was, "...I can't sleep on a plane." In her defense, we are far more seasoned travelers than she. We can fall asleep as soon as those booming jet engines are engaged before we back away from the gate.

Staying at a hotel close to the airport the night of the 12th to be ready for a 5am Air Canada check-in, her travel anxiety was firing on all cylinders and she was up all night. 

When we woke early on our travel day morn, she was curled up in the TV room with a blanket. Once again anxiously reaffirming to us, again, "...I can't sleep on a plane."

Knowing we were dealing with her lack of sleep, her next hurdle was to adjust to the fact that the Toronto airport is one of the most technically savvy in the world. Your cell phone and your airline app, have essentially replaced paper for a swift progression through check-in, customs, and security.

Not to judge, rather paint a digital technology picture, my sister has an old school flip phone. One she is very proud of I might add. So, we hooked her up with an older android phone we had, and as uncomfortable (and overtired) as she was, she was good to go. 

So much so, that as soon as we checked in to our very large resort, I made sure she was comfortable calling us using a VoIP app I had set up for her. As I wanted to make communication between our rooms worry free.

On a final note. I wanted to touch on the fact that the word 'can't' has never been one I have ever embraced. For me, my mantra is really 'die trying...'  and I always seem to figure it out!

That said, I wish my sister would delete the sucker from her thesaurus, or at least aspire to try to minimize its use. 

Because, as you can see in my photo above... She really CAN sleep on a plane!!

WE RESCUED STELLA!

Stella, who? 
Can't you see the yellow football? 
...We had a great day!!
TAKEN: OCTOBER 5th, 2024

Well, with the weather on our side, we headed to the cottage Saturday morn to begin the ritual of shutting it down.

Up the hill went a 42” Roku TV I’d used as an office monitor the last few years, as well as any/all perishable food we wouldn't need. Items of clothing that weren't officially labeled ‘cottage’ were packed for the season, including all my Quintana Roo appropriate swim wear. 

It was a long day, considering any other odds and sods that may freeze and make a mess when we open next spring we also packed and hauled. As a bonus, our washing machine was also drained and stored ahead of schedule.

The last thing we tackled was securing my beloved Stella (a.k.a the floating picnic table).

We had put her into Orillia Lake the long weekend in May, then three days later, all hell broke loose and my travel buddy hubby landed in St. Michael's hospital trauma unit for three weeks.

I know to most, pulling an old picnic table out of the water may not be considered a mentionable accomplishment. But, the fact that my guy could do the stairs and the ramp to help me pull Stella out of the lake and safe for the winter was amazing. When he made it to the first landing, he looked over the railing, acknowledging that this was 'the first time I have been down here all summer'.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention a more significant milestone. Last month, the stroke clinic assured him, his hard work was really paying off. Did you know that if you suffer a stroke, your brain only tries to heal for the first six months?

Though I worried he was pushing it, him doing the stairs at the cottage actually worked in his favour. 

Him not being a quitter, has 95% of his stoke symptoms gone; the 5% remaining are very minor, and we have 54 days left on the calendar for  those to subside. We are grateful.

Here's looking to next year, and Stella getting the workout she has in the past. 

Stella and me both!

STORMY WEATHER REFLECTIONS

Only once, in all of our holiday travels, have I been scared. 

We had arrived in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico, and in the middle of our first night and for the entire second day, an unexpected storm causing a flash flood ensued. We were hunkered down in our room, completely blindsided and pretty much gobsmacked at what was swirling around us.

By the time the sun rose, the pools at our large resort were overflowing, the roads in and out of the 1000+ room hotel were washed out. We were officially stranded.

This, in a lot of ways, is how both my travel buddy hubby and I have felt the last five weeks since his accident. And what we did then, is what we are doing now. 

Grabbing on for dear life, keeping the other safe, inserting a ton of humour into the situation; while exploring everything as much as we possibly can.

Rhondi Rule #506: When caught in stormy weather
... Just go with it!

Top Photo: The night before the storm hit
TAKEN: November 27th, 2019

Lower Photo: Just hubby and me on the beach !!
(Mid afternoon during the storm)
TAKEN: NOVEMBER 28th, 2019

My personal struggle in both situations, is that I have an extreme fear of the unknown. As a result, in my current state I am not sleeping as I should because my mind simply won't shut off. To compound things, I work from home, and my husband is housebound here as well. 

The truth of the matter is that we are both going stir crazy. Only being able to access two of our three floors, our living quarters are close. So, today on my lunch break, we began watching travel videos on YouTube. Not because there will be any travel in our future but because we are of the mindset that we will never say never.

On a more comical positive front, this morning we both laughed a hearty belly laugh as I cracked my first joke with regards to our situation at hand. I know we will be A-OK, because he also laughed then commented...

'Here we go', he said.  Already starting with the stroke jokes!!'

#yagottalaughaboutit

BORINGLY NORMAL NO LONGER

As the saying goes, life as we know it can change in a heartbeat. And in the last month, my travel buddy hubby and I are living proof that one day life can be boringly normal and in a nanosecond, it can be anything but.

Nothing prepares you for a life altering change. At one moment, my husband was kissing me goodbye on an early morning. 

Then, before we knew it, we were waiting for confirmation when he would be air lifted to St. Michael’s Hospital trauma unit. 

He moved, and once he arrived, he had emergency surgery to stop the internal bleeding, and by 1am the following morn, we knew the left leg would be saved and we were ready to boldly face the next hurdle. 

With his severely irregular heart arrhythmia challenges and no ability to administer those drugs with the brain bleeding still on the table; the worst fear was he’d have a stroke

Sunday led to Monday, and good progress had us out of the trauma unit the following Thursday, with him moved into a room. 

We had been nine days in the trauma trenches and survived, when early morning call came the following morning.

“During the night (at approximately 3am on May 31st) Mr. Peacock suffered a stroke.” The stroke team neurologist shared. 

“A blood clot left his heart and travelled to his brain. His right side and speech have been affected,” she continued. Not even remotely prepared to hear the words, I went numb. Again, we were back together, with me witnessing he was both physically and mentally spent.

Just a little over a month since our 'boringly normal life changed', we couldn't help but reflect this morning on the fact that tonight we were to be at Soldier Field in Chicago with 70,000 other Kenny Chesney fans to enjoy his Sun Goes Down Tour.

Thought we aren't in Chicago, we decided to blow the doors off and tour the local grocery store circuit together. 

We did a solid double header (in reference to the fact that we had tickets for Wrigley Field yesterday). 

First up was Food Basics, then we opened the sunroof and cruised to the other side of town to hit Wal-Mart. Radio blaring, no pups to worry about, we were hitting our semi-normal stride.

Kenny vs. Recovery. 
Thumbs up says it all!
Left - (c) Kenny Chesney Instagram
Right - TAKEN: June 15th, 2024

Because I am listening to Kenny live on #noshoesnation on Sirius as I type, I am sharing where our seats would have been for the concert tonight with a yellow dot on the left. 

Impressive, but it is the photo on the right that truly makes my heart swell with joy, as he is officially out and about and ultimately on the right side of the soil.

That said, Lord knows if that sexy cart he was navigating today was a four-wheeler, he probably would have immediately rolled it in the produce section... taking out all of the organic tomatoes!

Too soon?

#yagottalaughaboutit

X IS FOR X-PERIENCE

Photo copyright: Wrigleyville - Chicago Neighborhoods

As I've mentioned, my travel buddy hubby and I prepare to head to Chicago in June for our anniversary. A huge baseball fan, a trip to Wrigley Field was definitely on his list of things we had to do.

With great tickets set for the Friday afternoon game, I wanted to share a link for a video I found when doing my transportation research.  It shows just how this neighbourood and the ballpark have thrived as a landmark all of these years.

A truly amazing drone footage x-perience that is worth the watch. I promise you will feel like you're actually there.

Thanks, YouTube. 

ENJOY!

LINK: Wrigley Field Like You've Never Seen It Before

(Drone fly through of the neighbourhood, ballpark, clubhouse, fly behind the iconic scoreboard and much more)