Colter Shaw describes himself as a rewardist — one who seeks rewards that are offered for finding people, things, etc. He only gets paid if he is successful, and he doesn’t go after criminals for law enforcement; he’s not a bounty hunter. He likes the puzzle-solving aspect, and in this book, he is looking for a missing girl in Silicon Valley.
What I Liked
I tumbled on to the series of books from a new TV series called Tracker, starring Justin Hartley (aka Oliver Queen from the Smallville series). Sometimes, he simply tracks people lost in the woods; others get into trouble and need someone to help extricate them from a situation.
I really liked the premise of Colter, aka a Western, riding into town, solving a problem, and riding off into the sunset, which is not dissimilar from the Reacher series by Lee Child. The background is that Colter grew up on a compound as the son of a former professor turned semi-paranoid survivalist. The two parents, plus two sons and a daughter, grew up relatively off-the-grid with lots of tests of how to survive on their own. As an adult, Colter drives around in an RV and helps people who offer rewards, although he’s often more interested in the puzzle than the money.
In this first official novel (there’s an earlier short story), Colter responds to a father living in Silicon Valley whose daughter has gone missing. The tale eventually grows with video game bigwigs, CEOs, thugs, many techno issues, and many odd IT specialists who might be involved. The book ramps up the action throughout, with more people going missing and a puzzle modelled after an escape-based RPG action game.
A cute twist added at the end reflects Colter’s financial situation (he is relatively wealthy and hence can afford to roam the country doing low-paying work).
What I Didn’t Like
A popular plot device is to start a novel in the middle of some large action scene and then rewind to the story’s beginning to show how the characters got there. The downside to this approach for the current book is that there are about four other scenes before that in the story where you know that they’re not really that significant because they don’t involve the same scenario from the big ending. For example, he goes to rescue a guy, and it COULD be the end of the story, except we already know that the final scene is about him rescuing a woman, so it isn’t that tense.
On a related note, the pacing was off. The mid-parts of the book lagged, partly because of the lack of tension and partly because there were just too many red herrings. One of the characters appears almost like some mystical IT Jedi, half Elon Musk, half cult leader. Very odd.
Lastly, there is a larger mystery that Colter is working on related to his father, who died 15 years before, and whether it was an accident or murder, and if he was murdered, was it by his brother or persons unknown? Unfortunately, Colter keeps jumping in and out of the longer story, and each time, the main story grinds to a halt.
The Bottom Line
Love the character, but uneven storyline and pacing
The second book in the Maze Runner series focuses on Thomas and the survivors who escaped the maze. They are taken to a compound and wake up in a hospital-like ward, just the boys. Eventually, they are told to exit through some tough routes and make their way to a distant location through the hot sun of the open earth aka survive the Scorch.
What I Liked
The initial hospital area is very reminiscent of the initial arrival at the Maze, and the escape feels like they are just continuing their last trial when they escaped the maze, so it is good for continuity. Eventually, they come to a new city that has partially survived the climate catastrophe, with predictable freaks and geeks who are somewhat interesting.
What I Didn’t Like
There is a long segment of whether Theresa is betraying him or not, and the opening seems dull and repetitive, and the new “additional” characters are rather predictable. Some parts of the city seem ridiculous. Overall, the segments are not horrible, just not very interesting or entertaining with some very obvious segments.
When my dad and mom passed away, I did the eulogies for them, and while the first one for my dad was mostly from “me”, I made the second one more inclusive on behalf of the family. I then wrote subsequent follow-ups that were more just my thoughts. And both of those seemed natural…my parents, my thoughts.
When my brother passed away earlier this year, I started to write about him, and I struggled at first. It was like writing a eulogy, yet I could not and should not have tried to capture his role as a son, father, husband, and friend. I could only really write about him as my big brother.
Andrea’s grandfather, Doug, passed away this week. He was born in ’26, and whenever I spent time with him, it felt very much like my parents would have seemed in outlook. My father was born in ’27, my mother in ’29. They lived very different lives, but as I never knew my grandparents much (they were mostly gone by the time I arrived on the scene), he seemed more like a half-step past parent rather than a full “grandparent” to me.
Of course, he wasn’t “my” grandfather. At first blush, mostly I feel gratitude for his love for Andrea and Jacob, and so thankful that my son will retain that long-lasting memory of GG (great grandfather). A few years ago now, but the photo below has GG with his three grandkids and four great-grandkids.
A little over ten years ago now, I helped create a photobook for Doug’s life. It was for a big birthday, 85 I think, and the idea was a collection of photos from across his life. Some early days as a child, photos throughout his life with his siblings, entry into the Air Force as he finished high school, photos with his wife and then children, later shots of various houses etc., and then even later shots of him alone. I never met Andrea’s great-grandmother; I met GG at her funeral, as I recall. It was shortly after Andrea and I started dating, but the details are fuzzy.
When I met Doug, I felt I already knew him. While the mannerisms and personality were completely different from my father, I always feel a certain reverence for men of “a certain age”. They lived through the Great Depression, seeing their family stressed and struggling. They lived through WW II, and even enlisted as the war neared the end, even if they never saw combat. Doug learned to fly in Canada, my father made it as far as Halifax, mostly cutting hair in between drilling. I loved hearing Doug’s story about the end of high school, and how there was an exhibit of some sort with the names of people who had enlisted from the school aka patriotic nudges to encourage others to enlist and do their part. A glimpse into the routine of life, not the parts that make it into the history books.
A number of years ago, I was looking at music on the first of the Billboard lists and its predecessors. I had a blast chatting with Doug about some of the songs, and he practically chortled at the memory of “Is you or is you ain’t my baby”. 🙂
After the war, men of that age started to figure out their lives and what they wanted to do, who they wanted to be with, when to start a family. And with the memories of the Great Depression and WWII, how they would pay for having that family. I remember hearing the same story from Doug on several occasions of his first job, first apartment, interactions with his bosses. Again, the everyday parts of life that stay with you, that you remember, even if they were small at the time, but that you can remember.
I think that I remember most his stories about work in the production side of the newspaper business. Checking out why newspaper boxes weren’t working the same way in Ottawa as they did in Toronto. Flying copies of each morning’s publication to various parts of the country. Switching from multiple editions per day to just one. Moving from everything being printed in Toronto to local printings across the country. Trips that he was given as rewards in his career for big projects successfully delivered or on retirement.
And then, in the middle of one such story, he says, “Oh, yeah, that’s when she got shot.” I was like, “WTF? How have I never heard THIS story before now?”. They were travelling in the Caribbean, walking down the street, and Andrea’s grandmother got shot in the leg by a kid with a BB gun (probably deliberately trying to shoot the white woman). Don’t worry, she was fine.
Doug’s goal in recent years, a bit glibly, was to be the last remaining veteran from WW II. In 2021, there were about 20,000 veterans; by 2023, that number was down to less than 10K. He didn’t quite make it to that goal but he is in good company.
While I enjoyed Doug’s memories, my lasting images of him are likely to be playing cribbage with Jacob at the cottage or in Peterborough, or showing him around the house in Lindsay. If there is an afterlife, Doug, and you meet my father, he’ll be up for a good game of cribbage too.
As I say goodbye, and mentally shake your hand, I want you to know with all my heart, love and respect, the honour was truly mine.
It would be nice to start this post with a clear statement of the problem. A diagnosis of a pinched nerve, sciatica, a lower lumbar misalignment, something clinical. Definitive.
I don’t have that.
What I have instead is a collection of symptoms.
Traditionally, I have had upper back issues, often tied to ribs being out. A good adjustment by the chiro, some massage release of tension, and I’m good to go. I had some back exercises to do, and when I did them, my upper back stayed okay. Then I would feel better, stop doing them, slump and slouch more, and bam, back to massage and/or chiro to get me going again.
In the spring of this year, something else happened. I didn’t tear anything, I didn’t move anything and feel intense pain, I didn’t fall, I wasn’t in a car accident. I just woke up one morning and the lower left part of my back was spasming a bit. I thought maybe I just slept on it wrong. In the past, I’d had pain there before but it was usually a “walking” discomfort…I would be walking along, and suddenly I’d get a tightness there. If I leaned into it, or stretched my thigh muscles and IT bands, it would lessen, and I could keep going. Weirdly, if I had my shirt tucked it and it was pulling somehow, the pain would get worse. However, this morning, I had no “cause”. It just hurt.
As the day went on, it got worse. Until early afternoon, I was trying to go to the washroom, stood up, and my whole lower back felt like it was in a vise. It was brutal, fast, unrelenting. I literally screamed. I couldn’t get it to stop spasming. I eventually had to have Andrea come down and help me. In the interest of full disclosure, and embarrassing myself to ensure I never repeat these issues, I needed her to help me wipe my own butt cuz I could not bend or reach. I got my pants and underwear on with help, and then I sat down in the basement on a bench. It seemed okay. Until I got up and tried to go up the stairs. It was brutal again.
I booked a registered massage therapist who refused to treat me until I saw my regular doctor and got some X-rays. The regular GP said it seemed fine, which was easy to say as it subsided to dull pain for the next two weeks. No need for an x-ray unless it didn’t respond to massage and osteopathy. Fast-forward another week, and I had another complete breakdown. It spasmed and I couldn’t stop it. It was excruciating, the worst pain I have ever felt. I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t breathe when it spasmed. We attempted an ambulance but when they came, they just had me walk out to the van rather than trying to put me in a gurney, and the ride to the hospital was more like a bus ride…I practically held on to a strap the whole way to steady myself, feeling every bump along the way. I know the next time to just take a taxi; it would have been way faster and more comfortable, damn the pain. I spent the night in the ER, about 8 hours for someone to actually look at me and get x-rays, etc. Nothing structurally wrong, got some meds, and generally got told I completely wasted their time. The only thing that really helped is that I had ordered a back brace from Amazon, and it was giving me enough support to function.
Over the last six months, osteo was helping for a while, and then it really stopped helping. Certain movements were more clunky and painful, so I’m mostly relying on release through Chiro right now, more about my upper back than anything. Hence the need for back rehab. The only thing that is going to work is a systemic series of exercises designed to stretch certain muscles and to strengthen others.
I have a long regimen to work through, divided into three main stages. Back rehab, let’s go.
To start with, I’m supposed to do two sets of ten reps daily (or hold for 15-20s) within a pain-free range and only do what I can tolerate. There is an initial list of eight exercises but I’ll start with Group 1, then add Group 2, then Group 3:
Group 1
General Exercise 1 — Knee raises to chest (either alternating or together)
Lower Back 1 — Hip rocker A (side to side)
Group 2
General Exercise 2 — Knee rocking (laying flat on back, knees bent to 90 degrees, rocking side to side)
Lower Back 2 — Hip rocker B (forward and back)
Group 3
General Exercise 3A — Modified cat / cow exercise (smaller range of up / down motion to avoid pain)
Lower Back 3 — Mackenzie side wall (elbow at 90 degrees, healthy side only toward wall)
Piriformis 1 — Ankle pull (Knee to chest, close hand on knee other on ankle, pull towards opposite shoulder, 3 reps, 10s hold)
That will likely keep me going until at least January.
Stage 2, ramping up (February, March, April)
February is where I start to do a bit of growth, not just getting it back to where it should be already. I should be able to drop a few of the initial exercises though as I start to add in the new ones.
Group 1
General Exercise 2 — Knee rocking (laying flat on back, knees bent to 90 degrees, rocking side to side)
General Exercise 3A — Modified cat / cow exercise (smaller range of up / down motion to avoid pain)
Lower Back 1 — Hip rocker A (side to side)
Lower Back 2 — Hip rocker B (forward and back)
Piriformis 1 — Ankle pull (Knee to chest, close hand on knee other on ankle, pull towards opposite shoulder, 3 reps, 10s hold)
Glutes 1 — Standing Glute Pulses – backwards
Upper back 1 — Doorway pushups
Hamstring 1 — Straight leg raise (strap around ball of foot, pull up with leg straight until feel stretch)
Group 2
Quadricep 1 — Straight leg raises (45 degrees, slow and controlled)
Group 3
Glutes 2 — Standing Glute Pulses – side out (abductor)
Upper back 2 — Upright row (not until all lower back pain is gone)
Quadricep 2 — Toes on board, toe raises
Stage 3, strengthening legs and knees (May, June)
By the time I get to Stage 3, I should have most of the regular exercises down, and then I’ll have to decide if I’m going towards mostly Bowflex exercises (which I feel are really good for the upper body, but a little more complicated for the lower body), or repeating stage 2 with some additions from the list below of lower body work.
Quadriceps:
Abduction raises, bottom bent 90 degrees, foot horizontal
Adduction raises, bottom straight and raised inward pass back leg that is raised for stability
Heels on board, vertical squat, knees over toes (not out or in) — 10 reps … can use chairs to push back up
Band resistance squats (pushing the bands outwards with thighs)
Power band side steps/walks … Band around ankles, help hip stabilisers
Power band leg extension backwards … behind thigh, start knee bent, extend leg to push back
Hip abduction, adduction — sideways away from you (narrow, wide), towards you (wide, narrow)
Box steps — step backwards., to side
Box assisted squats — sit, stand (use lower box later)
Onward!
I have some cardio and upper body stuff to add to the plan with the Bowflex, but most of what I need to do is the exercises above to fix my back. When I get that under control, I can expand outward. But I can’t keep dealing with ongoing spasming and pain. It’s just too limiting. And, reluctantly, I have to stop using my back brace as a metaphorical crutch. It helps, but it is not a cure, just a temporary, well, crutch to lean on. It gets me through bad days, just as taking the anti-inflammatories does. And I need to stay on top of the meds while I’m doing the exercises.
Onward, as I said. Except I know this is not a simple “do it” type item for my to-do list. A simple checkbox or schedule won’t cut it. I need some extra help / enhancements and in fact, I’m going to combine seven to help me stay on track.
I will use the checkbox, scheduling, quantity (min 1 set per day), chain tracking, public announcement, formal accountability (reporting every two weeks to my chiro), and a simple yet large reward…my reward will be that if I can get my back sufficiently rehabbed in time for my birthday in June, I’ll reward myself with starting the process to choose a kayak (trying different types, renting different places, etc.).
In month 1 of my preparations for retirement in three years, I covered financial, legal, and end-of-life issues, and then I covered all my travel plans last month. I had intended to do health stuff, a natural progression from the EOL stuff in month 1, but I was slowly getting drawn into all the info on campers and RVs. And I went with the passion.
As I mentioned in previous posts, pre-planning for retirement is about seeing if I’m making the right “investments” in the various “areas” of my life, just as you would for financial planning. The biggest one that most people talk about, even if they don’t use those words, is health: “Are you making the proper investments in your health to smooth your transition into a healthy, active retirement?”.
Now that I’ve blasted through all that fun stuff, this month’s focus on health is likely to totally suck mentally and emotionally. Part of that is my historically dysfunctional emotional, intellectual, spiritual and physical relationship with health, nutrition and fitness. Part of that is optimism tempered by a reality check that will hinder my efforts. Part of that is the fear that those big travel plans I mentioned in month 2 are only possible in their current form IF I can make changes before I retire; if I don’t make them, many of my retirement plans fall away. I will have failed to invest adequately to do what I want and need to do.
But the biggest challenge is that my health planning differs from almost all the other “areas” I’ll blog about within this first year. On most of them, the goal is “pre-preparation”…for example, on travel, I didn’t have to decide yet whether I would travel in an RV, campervan or towed trailer, I only had to decide what the big options would be for later. The detailed implementation planning can happen in the first year after I retire to “start” the trip about 11-12 months later. I don’t have to DO the planning work now, I just have to come up with a viable framework. If, however, I’d discovered in there that I needed to do some advanced driving course before I even get there, sure, I’d have more work to do in the coming months or years before retirement. Instead, for the most part, most of the planning stuff is to monitor developments in the industry and options for the future, handle a bit of savings to ensure I have the money if/when I need it in retirement, and then hit it hard after retirement.
By contrast? The health stuff starts now. I’m not just building a framework for the future, I’m building the framework and full-on implementation plan now. I’m jumping out of the airplane and sewing my parachute together on the way down. I don’t have time to wait, I need to start now. And if I’m totally honest with myself, I’ve tried some of this before, and failed miserably. I can’t afford to fail this time. In many ways, it feels like my last chance.
My starting point
So how’s my health? Well, generally, it sucks. If you compared it to financial planning, I would hit retirement with very little health assets to support me in my aging years. That’s a bit overdramatic, but well, not completely.
At the moment, my back is in rough shape. I did something to it about six months ago, and it has been terrorizing me ever since. I’ll bop along for a couple of weeks, seems to be going well, and then one morning I’ll wake up, roll out of bed, and it starts twinging like an SOB. When it “killed” me the first time, I had never experienced that kind of pain from the spasms. I literally was crying and occasionally screaming. Six months later, I know how to control the pain, keep it down to a dull roar, and I have a back brace to use when I need it. Massage helped, and I thought osteo was helping too for a while, but then it stopped helping at all.
Right now, I need to focus on three things:
Taking my over-the-counter meds to reduce inflammation…I confess I really don’t like taking pain meds of any kind, they can make me kind of foggy or loopy at times, but I need to get over my reluctance and take them regularly to reduce the flare-ups;
Actively do my back stretches and strengthening exercises, increasing into the more advanced ones; and,
Continue my chiro treatments.
I’ll also consider some myofascial release (after Christmas) or increased regular therapeutic massage.
After that, there’s my weight. It’s stable, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. I have plans, and most of those right now are around getting a solid workout routine going. Even if it doesn’t reduce the weight for now, it will give me more strength, energy and flexiblity for the future.
And then I need to get moving again. I’d love to start kayaking next summer, but my back needs to be “fixed” first.
What comes next?
I don’t know exactly all the “pieces” yet for my plans.
I want to look at the roll-over elements from my End-of-Life work;
I’ll be doing a full physical this fall, including A1C numbers, BP, colon, prostate;
I want to get hearing aids or at least have my hearing fully checked and evaluated;
I need to get some dental work done;
My feet have the same issues most diabetics have, so I’ll get that looked at, see if there’s anything to worry about;
I need to work through a full assessment regimen for regular evaluation of my fitness level;
I’ll start looking at flexibility, strength, movement, etc; and,
I’ll need to do a bunch of work on cognitive functions as well as mental health.
I confess that I’m not fully ready for the work I need to do this month. And, as I said, it’s not just the framework; it’s the full implementation plan or at least the pieces I need to do now to support my back rehab and be ready to move into the strength and energy levels work in about three to six months.
But the hardest part will not be that part of the equation. The most challenging part will be figuring out how to harness all the rituals and enhancements I came up so that I’ll stick to the plan and make it work. As I said, it feels like a last chance to get this right before I retire.
If I succeed, I will have the health foundations to do what I want to do; if I fail, well, that is a much more sedentary and disappointing retirement than I want to contemplate yet.
