It was our second night in San Diego and I woke up at 12:30 am with what I thought was really bad heartburn. As someone who gets heartburn when I drink beer and also as someone who just started a much needed vacation, it all made sense. It wasn’t the stuff you see in the movies, with chest clutching and arm pain – it was more like burning in my wind pipe and occasional radiation of discomfort in my lower jaw. I didn’t know this at the time… and I bet you didn’t until now… but the jaw pain is a known symptom of a heart attack. The pain was significant, but not unbearable, and I spent two hours in the middle of the night trying to find ways for the “heartburn” to stop. Eventually the pain subsided and I went back to sleep until morning. I woke up with the same lower level of pain and elected to stay back in our rental while the family visited the aquarium. About five minutes after they left, I decided I was going to call 911 in case I was having a heart attack. The family returned to the house, the fire department arrived, and I was transported to the hospital for tests. Melissa was unable to ride in the ambulance due to COVID restrictions, but she met me there via an Uber. We were lucky enough to have childcare on our trip with us, so Dom and our nanny continued on to the aquarium while we figured everything out.

The ER nurse also thought I might be experiencing acid reflux, as my cursory diagnostics did not show any obvious signs of a heart attack. A blood test confirmed the presence of an enzyme that showed my heart had experienced distress at some point and from then on out, the conversations with doctors and nurses changed. With my pain mostly controlled by nitroglycerin and no significant signs of heart failure, there was no guarantee I’d get in for an angiogram that same day. I would eventually be wheeled into a procedure room later that afternoon, where they’d stick a catheter in the artery in my wrist all the way up to my heart. Some numbing meds, contrast die, and a whole bunch of controlled breathing exercises later (yes, I was awake during the whole thing) they’d identified a lesion and partial blockage in one of the main arteries of my heart. With the blockage at 22%, the head doc placed a consult call to a colleague and decided to place stents after clearing the blockage. Doctors try to avoid placing foreign objects in your heart if they can and my case was borderline, but they made the call for reasons that weren’t explained in detail. The balloon and stent experience was unpleasant, to say the least, and I found myself doing some meditation on the procedure table to cope with the disturbingly odd feelings in my chest.

I spent the next 24 hours in the hospital recovering. The first few hours after the surgery were fairly painful and I talked my nurses into some sort of opiate to address the pain. My hospital stay was relatively uneventful, if you don’t count having to be moved to a private room because my roommate was somewhat demented and set off his bed alarm by trying to get out of it roughly every 7-8 minutes. I wasn’t allowed to get out of bed for anything, I only got about five hours of sleep, and I had nothing to pass the time except my phone and hospital TV. I watched Fresh Prince of Bel Air and bunch on the start of the luxury auto industry 100 years ago. Riveting stuff. By the time Tuesday afternoon rolled around I was exceedingly anxious to be discharged. Dom was not permitted to visit me in the hospital because he’s unvaccinated, so I spent more time alone than I probably would have liked. Oh, and I also wasn’t permitted admission to the hospital until I tested negative (I’m a month removed from my second dose). The hospital wasn’t particularly forthcoming about my status, but I was doing well enough that they did discharge me that day. Despite the lack of info, I have to commend UCSD Hospital and the medics on their attitude and level of care – most everyone was a delight.

Our family spent the next five days laying low in our rental and rearranging plans to accommodate my recovery. We did get out of the house, but nothing strenuous and no meals out as I didn’t have much of an appetite. I have a bunch of medication I’m on now; some of it will be for the next year and some will be for the rest of my life. I have to see my GP and a cardiologist when we get back to Seattle to formalize a treatment plan that will include a stress test and physical therapy to rehab my heart. My current heart function is slightly below acceptable range, so I have some work to do. My consumption of vices has gone to zero for the time being and my relationship with food, alcohol, and all types of drugs (including ibuprofen) is likely forever changed. We ate pretty well to begin with, as most of our meals were home cooked, but my physical activity had gone to near zero with some of my mental health challenges and a continuing WFH period during COVID. That will have to change now. I get tired really easily and walking too fast does cause discomfort in my chest, so I’ll be taking things easy for awhile. No idea what comes next, to be honest. I’m guessing the cardiologist will be more than happy to inform me.

People have asked if I’m going to take leave from work. I really don’t feel it necessary, especially since I’m not commuting or walking to meetings all day long. I’ve also spent enough time not being at work over the last two years and it’s not like we’re going to use the opportunity to travel the world. I guess I could use the time for doctor visits and/or exercise, but I have enough flexibility with work that I can take half days or just go upstairs and lay down for an hour or two if I don’t feel well. There’s something to be said about feeling useful when you’re in recovery, too. Suffice to say, I probably won’t stress about things at work as much as I used to. If I’m honest, I also feel a greater sense of general warmth towards other humans now too. We’ll see if that lasts… especially after a day traveling the skies back home.

In hindsight, I’d had a few warning signs over the last month or two. I experienced that same chest discomfort a handful of times before, but it always disappeared within a few minutes. I’m lucky that neither those episodes or the most recent one were enough to kill me, as the outcome could have been exceedingly worse. Widowing the mother of your child and a leaving a 4.5 year old without a dad is no bueno, if you have the choice. Suffice to say, I strongly recommend not ignoring any new or unusual discomfort you experience with your body. It’s easy to explain things away or think you’re over-reacting – absolutely no one I’ve spoken to since my heart attack has agreed those are valid reasons for not getting checked out. In fact, most people at the hospital gave me shit for not calling 911 earlier. I distinctly remember deciding not to call at 2 am because I didn’t want to scare my family or disrupt their sleep for what might be a stupid reason. There are no stupid reasons when it comes to your health, I can assure you. I got lucky.

Cheers to another 30 years.

I don’t think any of us had been on a snowmobile before. We figured if we were going to make the drive (2.5 hours from Seattle; 4.5 from Portland) we’d pick the longest tour the guide company offered. It says advanced riders, but we all felt comfortable with our mix of ATVs, mountain biking, wilderness experience, motorcycles, and snow sports to skip the beginner stuff. In hindsight, we made the right choice. If you’re intimidated by machinery or speeds approaching 50 mph while sitting on a bench feet off the snow I’d probably recommend dialing it back a bit. All the tours are on private or public snow machine trails (love Washington does this!) and with a guide, so the whole thing is very approachable regardless. The guide tailors speeds to the group and she said were faster than most. That’s not a #humblebrag – I want to contextualize what “advanced” really means.

I absolutely loved the experience. The snow was still 4-6′ deep up on the mountains and even though we were on groomed trails, there was some STUNNING scenery. Imagine riding down a heavily wooded path with snow everywhere, including on the branches of countless evergreen trees. Oh, but that’s not all. The wind was blowing, so snow dust was falling from the branches and refracting the sunlight while you rode through it. It was like snowmobiling in a glitter bomb and it was magical. No shame in my game. There were several times when I really wanted to capture what I was seeing. Then I decided those memories were just for me and I soaked as much of it in as I could. Our group agreed we didn’t feel the need to jump back out there the next weekend and do it again, but that’s probably more of a function of being with a guide on not making fresh tracks in untouched powder.

I was surprised how physical the activity was. The machine is constantly jumping from tracks to tracks on these groomed trails, especially if you’re following someone, which was surprising. The guide cautioned us and told us not to fight it and she was absolutely right. The quicker you learn to loosen most of your muscles and allow your core to act as a stabilizer, the easier things become. I would actually liken it to riding a galloping horse. My dad had a horse farm when I was younger and I’ll tell you this – I much prefer machines because horses have wills of their own. For both activities (and I guess most activities in general? lol), form really does make a difference. I’m certainly not current on my physical fitness, so my quads were pretty cooked by the end of the day. I sweat way more than I thought I would and rode most of the day with the zipper open on my (provided) snowsuit.

We also drank beer at night in Leavenworth. Probably too much beer. No ragrets.

Anyway, this time is a trip we took in 2018 for three days rafting the Arkansas River in Colorado. I’d been there the decade prior and wanted to get back out there for my 40th, so I put the same trip together. If you’ve been following along, you know annual trips have been my thing for 10-12 (?) years, so it was awesome to get some east coasters from the olden days meet us there.

We got burned like hell in the sun, rode some big waves, and slept outside in 40 degree weather for a couple nights. Did I mention there were no campfires because of a burn ban due to a large wildfire not far away? Everyone went to bed right after the sun with no campfires. It’s warmer in your sleeping bag.

Colorado is a great place to visit… or live… so I hear. Not all the water was awesome, but it’s difficult to get really big water for three days straight and still be accessible to weekend warriors like us. I’ve used AVA Whitewater both times I rafted there and been happy with the experience both times. Our guide, who name now escapes me :-(, was great. Check out Leadville too!

Some pictures courtesy of other guys and footage courtesy of Matt, with my edits.

Pictures courtesy of their respective owners.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, last month marked another year of me organizing some sort of river-based dude weekend. This time around we rafted the White Salmon and Kickitat Rivers, just north of Hood River, Oregon. Two friends and I loaded up in the swagger wagon on Friday morning; meeting Mike and another friend late afternoon in Hood River. We ate vittles and essentially brewery hopped until it was dark – which is about 10:30 pm during the summer in this part of the country. Hood River is about what you expect of a PNW town where young families go to escape the city and work their tech jobs remote. I was surprised the breweries weren’t all HOPS HOPS HOPS and was able to find a good many beers that I liked. Given most of the breweries are walkable and there are so many great nature things to do in the area, I can definitely see vacationing around them parts when Dom is a bit older.

Saturday we did a half day on the White Salmon, which was a fairly quick river squeezing down a sheer cliff canyon. This river had bigger waves with lulls in between, but I really like the closed in feel with all the greenery seeming to reach in on us. I think we did pretty well that day and no one fell in the drink, which they’d drilled into us that morning due to the somewhat dangerous and inescapable nature of the canyon. The video below is 15 minutes of highlights from this day – hit up the full youtube link here if you want a more detailed description. Also, we jumped off a 20′ bridge into the water near the end of the day. I almost chickened out, because I was afraid of falling off the bridge while climbing up to stand on the side, but I managed. Unfortunately, my gopro battery died by then.

Saturday night we camped up on a mountain I can’t remember at a campsite I can’t remember. Not everyone was super excited about the campsite, but I thought it was super quiet and backed up to a small river. We found a great little deli in the tiny town of White Salmon and treated ourselves to a quality dinner and breakfast. I don’t think I’ve ever had shrimp while camping, which is surprising and something I plan to change in the future. The downside to one night of camping and rafting the next morning is you set it up for about 14 hours. It was actually pretty chilly up on the mountain, despite it being June. All in all, a good night.

Sunday was a full day rafting the Klickitat. This river was wider, the waves were a bit smaller, but it was nearly non-stop action. It was actually a bit like riding a horse at time, with the constant bobbing on the waves mimicking cantering on a horse. The Kickitat also had a lot more to look at given it was surrounded by basalt formations created by volcanic flows before humankind was even a thing. We liked our guide from Saturday and had requested him on Sunday, so we went into the day already meshing well as a group (we didn’t share a boat either day). This river is safer and our guide already knew we all could manage ourselves, so we spent a bit more time goofing off on the river and sightseeing. We actually dumped two swimmers in the middle of the tamest rapid; hitting a random lone rock in the river while our guide was trying to point out an osprey nest. Everyone was able to swim back to the back and re-embark without dying, so all’s well that ends well.

I’d totally raft both rivers again… and we just may do them next year. Oh wait, maybe not… I want to raft in Colorado again for the 40th birthday.

In the meantime, here’s the video and pics.

Enter the D610*.

I actually wasn’t sold that I was going to upgrade, but some passive shopping let me geek out about it. I’m generally pretty tight when it comes to buying myself things, so I mulled it over again and again and again for months. One thing led to another and I convinced myself that were there ever a time to upgrade, it was before I had a kid (more on that over at family.derecola… eventually). I have to admit that hearing a few people tell me I should do it helped. Like I said, I don’t really like spending money on tangible goods just for me. I ordered the camera late last week and, in an amazingly coincidental fashion, it came the day Dominic was born. I was actually paranoid about going into the long weekend without it. Turns out I was right, because Melissa’s water broke a mere six hours after it was delivered. Just long enough to charge the battery! After using it a bit during the birth, I have to admit that I’ll need to read the directions on this one.

I don’t think I’ll be taking concert photos any time soon, but I’m looking forward to taking pictures of family adventures. Cell phone and Facebook make a good combination, but there’s something archival about having a cluster of photos from a significant event in your life that you don’t immediately upload. I think, for me, photography has always been about telling a story. Hopefully I can tell some good stories about raising my son in a beautiful part of the country. I forsee a lot of shallow depth of field pictures of Dom with nature in the background.

*If you want to know all the reasons I picked this model, other than it being FX, read this review. Ken Rockwell has helped me picked most of my gear over the years, so I trusted him to guide me through this purchase as well. I’m not sold on mirrorless… yes, I understand the benefits… so it was a cheaper FX Nikon dSLR for me.

After a few years of settling into our new city, and feeling the need to set up a new tradition before we had a kid, I decided to set up a rafting trip. Not only is canoeing uncommon in the icy mountain rivers of the Pacific NW, rafting opportunities abound. A bunch of emails later, there were four of us headed down the southern Oregon for two days on the North Umpqua River.

Day one was cold and rainy, but a fantastic representation of spring adventures into nature for this part of the country. The sun did break a few times to warm us up, despite the 50° water temp. Sunday was much warmer; warm enough that two of us tried out an inflatable kayak and I took a (short) swim in the river. Two days of quality, moderate white water and an evening of dry camping… including a wicked sweet turnaround of our campfire situation… made for a pretty good Father’s Day weekend that will be my last as a non-dad.

Here are some photos – a video or two will be posted next.

So why does a 38 year old man, who has better things to do, care so much? To me, Apocalypse is the epitome of my childhood. I’m gonna get a bit deep on you to tell you why. Back then, I was an overweight kid… who wasn’t coping with his parents’ divorce that well… and who spent gym class trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid getting his ass kicked. I hated the world. Then, along came a character who knew so much about humankind’s real nature that he wanted to end it all. Apocalypse wasn’t evil, he was knowledgeable.  For better or worse, I identified with him and became subsequently fascinated by the idea that what he knew could be so massive as to warrant destruction. I outgrew that part of my life, but not before some version of his name became my online presence. Back before Facebook, I was most often known on web forums, etc. as Apocalypse or Apoc. To this day, my Xbox Live gamertag is Apoc24 and people call me Apoc in-game. Yeah, nerd stuff.

In the physical world, I have a small bust of the character but never anything remarkable. I’ve never really looked, but always wanted something. Imagine my delight when I saw a 1/6 scale statue of him in Prague a few months ago. I debated that purchase for 45 minutes, but would have no way to get it back on a plane and the shop tenders didn’t understand me when I asked if they could ship it. I was bummed, but it was what had to be. One decent Ebay deal to the rescue! This thing is currently in storage, but one day it will get displayed. In the meantime, I’ll have to hope the movie can hold me off. The truth is I’ve avoided really thinking about the upcoming movie. When I realized how far off his physical appearance was, I knew I needed to not form an opinion and go in totally open minded. I’m not greedy – all I ask is that it be decent and not corny.

My back is a lot better lately (not perfect by any means), so I’m getting back on the horse by training for the STP in four months. STP stands for “Seattle to Portland,” and is a ~200 mile ride… you guessed it… from Seattle to Portland. It’s a very popular ride in an area where there are a lot of rides and I’ve wanted to do it since learning about it a few years ago. A friend of mine, who rides like it’s his job, did it a few years ago and wasn’t crazy about it. I think partly because he decided to do it in one day 1.5 weeks before the event, but also because it’s really damn far. I know someone else, similarly trained as me, who did it for the first time last year and will be doing it again. Weighing those items, I’m choosing to believe it’ll suck and I’ll be glad I did it. I have a habit of signing up for things that force me to motivate; this is one of those times. The good news is I’ve already proven this works when I did 50 miles nearly three years ago. The bad news is I think that’s the last time I was on my bike.

It’s still the rainy season in Seattle – how you gonna train? Technology! My momma got me a brandy new smart trainer for my birthday, which is a cool piece of kit that attaches to your bike and controls the resistance to simulate elevation. Pair that with a training/simulation program like Zwift and you’ve got the closest thing you’re going to come to riding outside on a budget. I really, really do want to go back to crossfit at some point this year, but I’m going to use this over the next few months to turn the weight tides in my favor. I can toughen up my coccyx, get used to clipping in again, and do it at any time schedule permits. It’s gonna be a hectic summer, so I like having access to exercise in my basement. Only 130 days to train!

Pro tip: You can, in fact, fall over while clipped into a trainer.