I don’t know where the time goes. I’ve heard that the older you get, the faster time seems to fly — and as the years pass, they surely do seem to be flying faster and faster. There must be some way to slow it down again….right? Not sure.

Forgive me for sounding a bit clunky, or rusty. It’s been a while since I’ve written. 2024 started out okay, I was exercising daily and was not in bad shape for someone….my age….but then I strained the muscles around my right elbow and I had to put a stop to my rowing streak. (I had over 300 days in a row on my rowing machine and before my injury, I was rowing at least 4.5 to 5 miles a day, and on some days closer to 8-10).

Okay, so the rowing machine was out. I know, I’ll just get on my treadmill…. Nope, plantar fascia pain reared it’s nasty, ugly head again and I was suddenly sidelined.

Now, the problem with going from exercising quite a bit every day to not exercising at all and making the mistake of not reducing one’s food intake means the extra weight I had been keeping at bay joyfully jumped all over me. And boy did it get me! Seemingly overnight, I got big. And uncomfortable. I was miserable. Plus, I wasn’t sleeping well. I thought my Fitbit had stopped registering my sleep — only to find out near the end of 2024 that nope, it wasn’t the Fitbit that was failing. It was my health. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and severe sleep obstructed apnea among a few other things. I basically was having over 85 episodes an hour every hour I was trying to sleep. “Episodes” basically means I was stopping breathing for 10 seconds or more or snoring and pretty much not having restorative sleep for most of 2024. When my Fitbit was saying I was getting maybe an hour of sleep a night, it really meant I was getting maybe an hour of sleep a night.

After some tests and waiting for the insurance company’s approval (enough said about that for the moment), I finally got my BiPap machine (yep, a regular CPap machine wasn’t strong enough to counter my severe sleep obstructed apnea), and I’ve been using it now for about 6 weeks. I’ve gone from having over 85 episodes every hour to averaging less than 2.5 per hour, and the past few weeks I’m often under 1.5. I’m actually sleeping 8 hours or so a night. And with this restorative sleep, I’m feeling healthier, I’ve already lost 25 pounds and the brain fog that was crippling my thoughts for most of 2024 has cleared.

Which means, I’m hoping to return to writing soon. I can actually sit and type without drifting off. I can write a paragraph and by the end of it not forget where it had started. Now, I did attempt to write some stories during the brain fog period, but I have very little memory about what exactly I wrote–I can only presume it is an incredibly ROUGH, rough, rough first draft which may or may not be worth anything, though at some point I’ll have to dig it out and attempt to read it. And at the very least, I hope to get a really good laugh out of it.

I’m still working on a few more health issues, but I’m currently feeling better than I did for most of 2024 and once I overcome the last issue or two, I look forward to charging along the road to a full recovery. Meanwhile, as I attempt to ease back into writing, I’ve found that I’m at least able to read more again (without drifting off a gazillion times as my eyes glaze over and I am forced to read the same sentence a half dozen times because I can’t make the words make sense). In years passed, I attempted to read a certain number of books each year. I’ve met my Goodreads reading goal every year for the past 10 or so years (even last year, but a lot of that was listening to audiobooks). This year, I decided to make an easier goal, but I’m going to try and tackle some books I’ve been meaning to read, but never got around to them. One of these books is Shōgun by James Clavell. My paperback copy is roughly 1200 pages, and it’s been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for years. (Wow, could I use the word “year(s)” any more in this paragraph?) I made this decision while I was recuperating from a medical procedure done on my heart last month. I was watching the Hulu TV series, Shōgun (I’m not done with it yet, I think I’m at the beginning of episode 6, so no spoilers!) and I thought, if I love this show this much, the book must be amazing! (With very few exceptions, I’ve found that books are generally better than series or movies — and while I do love Tolkien’s written work, I absolutely LOVE the extended editions of the LOTR movies!)

Anyways, I’m rambling. But then, does anyone read blogs anymore? I’m not sure. Heck, I think I read somewhere that something like 50% of Americans don’t even read a single book in any given year. And if you read over 50 books in a year, you’ve read more than 99% of other Americans. I don’t have a link to back this up, and in a way, I wish and hope it’s actually not true. As an author, even if I haven’t written much recently, I’d like to think that people read books–even if there not mine. (Naturally, I’d love to have more readers, but that’s another story! LOL). And as it’s starting to get late here, it’s time for me to put an end to this blog post. Will I write more? Maybe. Soon? Who knows. I’ve said before I’d like to write these entries regularly, and then years pass me by. Speaking of which, I’ve also heard that time flies when you’re having fun, so if I have to be bored to slow down time, I’m not sure I’m willing to make that tradeoff.

Have a good night!