The not so great reset.

Getting used to being me again after a stroke.

Organizing my first few project tasks.

Working out some different priorities.

Firstly though, a note to readers : up until last night I had several weeks worth of new posts all written,edited and scheduled for public release ; in fact I was then looking for the best one (IMO) to use as my Monday morning post this week when I realized that none of them would do the job. Most of my new output is health related and as you can imagine none of my posts up until a week ago could predict that just a week later I have had some kind of minor/major event and my health priorities are now somewhat different – yesterday, for example it took some 8 takes before I could get one acceptable clip for my next video because I have developed ‘phat fingers’ and somehow, accidentally switched off the autofocus on my video camera. I think it took me most of the day to do one simple job which was basically to empty and prepare the dry compartment to become a home for the ship’s batteries.

Yesterday, I kind-of gave myself one practical job to do – and film it, and then one ‘search’ job which turned into 2 search jobs of course : one for which batteries to buy and one for alloy tube to make a new mast out of. By the end of last night my brain was continually circling around the 2 basic problems and mostly going nowhere…..maybe one problem at a time is enough for the software to cope with ! My ‘phat fingers’ also dramatically alters my dodgy typing such that even I don’t understand my own spelling sometimes and it takes an age to finish a post.

Most of my readers will know by now that a few weeks ago I had a stroke, I wrote about it a few times from different perspectives and don’t worry – i’m a bit ‘so over it‘ as yoof tend to say. The last things I really want to say are that I had a very kind discussion with one of the practice GP’s this morning and aside from a technical discussion about medicines and controlling my blood pressure most of what we talked about was my highly labile and unfiltered emotional mental state which she said was completely expected. The thing is…..that it’s not all tears and drama…..at least some of the time I find quite small things hilariously funny and equally I find the ‘unfiltered’ state of mind a bit refreshing.

Although I am working through the stroke experience most of my focus, right now, is recovery rehabilitation and minimizing the chance of a repeat event – my late parents for example both had repeat events and both of them died what Peter Attia would call ‘slow’ deaths after years of deterioration. I’ll soon be back on the fitness trail as that could be one of the biggest influences on my long term survival but why I started this post is discussing what I should spend my time doing – and I happen to think that the simply selfish reason of going sailing doesn’t fit the bill.

Day one, week one,month one.

I think it’s even clear to me that I am reorganizing my everyday life one day at a time but I also have in mind that it’s still useful to have a goal for the week and the month ; beyond that i’m not so sure. On day 1 for example i’m glad that I remembered to take my morning medicines (but forgot about my evening meds) did remember that I had to phone the practice to try and get an appointment with my GP – that’s what became the telephone call with a very kind female GP – we now have a hot date for a repeat call in 4 weeks 1. On day 2 I went for a walk in the great outdoors, that went well except that it reminded me that I needed to carry a mobile phone with me routinely and buy some new walking trainers – both done as day 3 tasks. Today, day 3 I didn’t get to the trike jobs – that’s one of my 2 main goals for the week because the trike, I think, will become the most useful tool for exercise post stroke.

Goal two was to get out to the boat and think very loudly at it ! – actually to work out what it would be useful to do now that I am banned from driving for the next month : I think this month’s project will be to add batteries, build a basic electrical system for the boat and then fasten the battery/mid stowage compartment lid down as that was the one job that I hadn’t got to in the winter due to having a nasty chest infection.

I would like to re rig the boat as a lugger, in fact iv’e already started to write about the job/s in draft form ; it means building a new and lighter mast and then some major surgery to take the roof off – that part isn’t strictly necessary and then support the mast in place. I made moves towards acquiring the Douglas Fir staves I would need but John the timber guy also seems to be MIA at the moment.

As it happens I think month 2 project is likely to be my first try at making a soft top (shelter and sprayhood) which obviously involves fabric work (canvaswork) and bending up a couple of lengths of stainless steel tube for it’s frame – iv’e never had to do that but one of my friends has talked me though how to do it.