Describe a family member.

Daily writing prompt

This one is difficult. My gut instinct is to respond that each member of my family is brilliant and kind and loving and amazing. It’s going to end up like that, but maybe not quiet so explicitly?

Let’s start with my wife, Jen. I have never met anyone so capable. Her brain is breathtaking. Her intelligence is staggering. Professionally speaking she can do anything. Managing people or architecting software systems or implementing code solutions. All of it. I can’t tell you how many of her co-workers have told me how she continuously amazes them. She is also kind and sweet and supportive and loving. I have had a few difficult situations in my life that I do not believe I could have handled without having her with me to help me through them. All of my life I imagined what the perfect life-partner would be like. Jen is it. She checks all of my life-partner boxes. Before I met her I was convinced that I would never get married and never have a family. Then she came along and changed my entire outlook on life. She is a shockwave to my system that changed every aspect of my life for the better. She is the single most amazing human being I have ever encountered and I love her with every fiber of my being. I cannot believe she found me worthy of sharing her life with. I don’t know what I did to be so lucky. I don’t think I will ever figure it out, but I will eternally be thankful I did whatever it was I did.

Next up is my step son, Harry. He’s a 20 year old junior at the University of Vermont. He is the single most generous person I have ever met. His selflessness borders on astounding. He has also had to deal with some serious health issues. Years ago, when he was still a little guy, he developed type one diabetes. His body stopped producing insulin for some reason and he got incredibly sick very quickly. We almost lost him. His response after recovering from the initial issues has been nothing short of incredible. He took up the challenge of managing his disease and has kept himself healthy ever since. I try to imagine myself in his shoes and I just can’t see myself handling my blood sugar as expertly as he has. We had that one horrible hospitalization before we knew what was wrong, but in the nearly 10 years since there has never been even another scare. Sure his blood sugar spikes and dips from time to time, but he reacts to it swiftly and accurately and always brings it into line in short order. Even the medical staff who oversee his diabetes management are a little in awe of how well he has done. He is an inspiration as well as being a kind and loving step son. He is amazing.

Finally there is my step daughter, Bellana. She is a 22 year old recent college graduate. She is working in medical research these days, but graduate school is in her future. She is working toward getting published in a medical journal and is hoping to achieve that before starting a Masters program. I expect there will be a PHD in her future at some point, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. To say that Bellana is brilliant is a massive understatement. She is also the most driven person I have ever known. She wanted to be first in her class in high school and she pulled it off. She wanted to graduate from college with honors and she pulled it off. She decides what she wants and she forces her will upon it and makes it happen. It’s amazing to watch. She is also just as kind and loving as can be. Just like her brother and her mother, she is amazing.

On top of all of these things about the three members of my family, they are also hysterically funny. The sense of humor these people have… we spend so much time together laughing. Again I have to ask, what did I do to deserve having these people in my life? What did I do to make them let me stay around? I will never know but I will forever be grateful.

So there you have it. Descriptions of my family members that cover maybe 0.01% of all of the things that I love about them. I have barely scratched the surface, but it’s still enough to give you an idea of why I love them so much.

Three days in a row without the daily writing prompt being pulled into the daily writing prompt reply post. Come on, folks. Can we fix this bug please?

What is your favorite form of physical exercise?

I answer this question with a question: Is favorite the proper word to use to describe exercise? Shouldn’t we say something more like, “what is your least hated and awful and depressing and intolerable form or physical exercise?” Something more like that?

I woke up with a ton of back pain eight days ago and decided to help the healing process by not doing my daily exercise for a week. I marked Monday October 30th as the day I would start back up again. Then on the 29th we get this question? I sense a conspiracy here. They’re guilting me into exercising again, aren’t they. Jerks.

Okay, so my actual answer to the question is probably going for walks outside. That would be the “favorite” form of physical exercise. Walking outside in the woods, maybe… or at a Disney World theme park… just me and the Mrs, spending a little time together.

The most common, and therefore probably most effective and least intolerably awful form of exercise I’ve practiced since having the gastric bypass surgery is the silly little faux jogging (pronounced “yogging” with a soft “j” a la Anchorman). I go down into the cellar first thing in the morning and just run in place for half an hour or so. My heart rate goes up and I work up a little sweat and I feel like I am starting the day off right. I don’t know if it’s having any great effect on me physically, but I probably have a couple of super strong ankles now. I just have to get back to it tomorrow.

I also need to something about my very flabby looking arms. The post-gastric bypass surgery loose skin issue is definitely a thing for me. I need to do more exercise to deal with it in places that folks can see it. My arms are the main point. Also, I used to be able to fling heavy things around like nothing, but after losing all the weight I am noticeably weaker than I used to be. I have weights in the cellar that I can use to work on that issue but I don’t, even though I need to. The doctor recommended it and for some reason I can’t figure out how to work it into my daily routine. I will try to do something about it when I start yogging again tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow… back on the wagon tomorrow. Until then…