A good start to the day…

As part of my new regimen for the past several months I have: 1. Eliminated caffeine from my system altogether (something which was not all that hard, much to my surprise), 2. Cut my alcohol consumption by probably 2/3rds (not so easy and definitely less fun), and 3. Started exercising in a pretty disciplined manner, when home on the farm, at 5AM almost every day. While away from home here visiting my folks though I’ve been able to make the morning aspect of that whole regime much more enjoyable by waking up @ 6 AM, hopping in the car with my parents and driving down to one of the many excellent beaches here on St. Barths. I’ve also bribed my kids into coming out and either walking with us or just hanging out and playing on the beach by then promising to take them to the bakery on the way back home. Hey, it’s a French island: the pastries are dangerously good!

The boys, as seen below from earlier today, also have skim boards that they bring to the beach with them to idle away the time while the adults march up and down. I first tried skim boarding about five years ago and in what was one of my spazzier moments took a wipeout on their board that was reminiscent of someone’s first time walking on ice. I still remember sitting back down next to Jen shortly thereafter and mentioning with a slight edge of panic in my voice that I thought I was having chest pains…

“You know honey…just an FYI that I might be having a heart attack.”

“Oh yeah? So it hurts when you turn to the left, how about when you turn to the right?”

“Umm, no…”

“You pulled a muscle wiping out, I think you’ll live. I’m gonna go back to reading my book now.”

Needless to say that after one feeble attempt at trying Sam’s board a few days ago, the memory of that wipeout all those years ago had me quickly retreating back to the beach chair and my book.