We went camping for the first time over the weekend on Friday. On Wednesday evening we noticed that the leaf spring on the truck was broken and we had to get it fixed. Surprisingly we managed to get it fixed that evening and had the truck cleaned on Thursday morning. A friend of ours drove us to pick up the truck at 10pm and drop it off to get cleaned. It is wonderful how we always have people around to help us out with all of that. While we were there talking with the owners I noticed that he had a picture of a young kid as a goalie and I asked him about it. He mentioned that it was his nephew and he was approximately the same age as Xavier. He played rep in Sudbury but he could not remember the name of the team. The number of goalies around the same age that play rep hockey in Sudbury is small and all of the goalie parents know each other. I asked him what his name was and then he told me his brother co-owned it. I have spoken to him on numerous occasions and never put two and two together that this was his business as when I normally see him we talk about hockey. It is a small world and everyone is so interconnected. A lot of my coworkers think that I know a lot of people at Vale. I just have spent time getting to know people and maintaining connections. I know quite a bit about a lot of people here and have a connection with them that is not just not work related. It has taken time to build up the relationship and I always help them out when I can, and it is reciprocated which makes things so much easier. Thursday we realized that there are some issues on the trailer. The slideouts were not working and neither was the fridge. On Friday when we arrived at the campground we managed to get it working somehow but the slideouts still blew a fuse once we brought the slideouts in. Tomorrow it will be brought in to get looked at. When Melanie called about some of the issues the person taking the call was not super receptive or helpful, but we have built a good relationship with some of the other staff and will follow up with them to see if they can be a bit more helpful with what we have going on.
Over the course of the weekend I tried to push myself a bit more. Traveling there I was not too fatigued but coming back on Sunday I did not realize how exhausted I was going to be. We took our time and did not rush coming back home and ended up leaving the site at around 1:15pm in the afternoon. By the time we got home it was around 4:30 and I had to take a quick nap before dinner. We set up the trailer and I did some physical labour with it and took plenty of breaks. We have one more trip at the same campground with her parents before we go on our own for a week in July. I had gone out on the water in a canoe with Melanie and Xavier and I was not as exhausted as I thought I would be. It is nice to see that things are getting better, but I still feel very tired prior to me after I do this for a while. Last week we had to attend an event, so we had dinner early, at 4:30 and were at it until 7:30. I then realized too late that I did not have any extra food on me. At that point it is a bit too late and it is extremely exhausting for me. We left and I ate some food but the exhaustion lasted until the next day. I was in bed by 9pm, and it took the next day for me to recover. During the fall and the winter it was not much of an issue as I always carried food and chocolate in my jackets. Now that summer is approaching and it is a bit warmer I do not wear a jacket so I found one of the crossbody slings that we bought to go to Disney and make sure I have food in there. Now I just need to make sure I grab that whenever I go out and have a supply of food at all times.
I am taking more time off this summer than I have ever scheduled off in the previous several years. I need to make sure that I schedule time appropriately because I am very tired when I come back from these events. Mostly because we need to do some physical stuff and then I need to drive. I swept off the roof of the trailer before we put things away and when I was going onto the roof I noticed I was tired. Melanie does not think that Xavier is old enough yet to go up and brush it off on his own as of yet. That is ok though. I think that if I did not have to drive all the way home it would not be as bad, but I need to pay attention to that.
I went for an eye exam and I need new glasses. They were supposed to be available last week but they are not ready yet. Some of the fatigue that I experience may be due to that. Last night I thought to myself that I should figure out a way to push through the tiredness and develop some better techniques to cope. I was told throughout the journey last week to rest and not push myself and I did not really listen. It is much harder to do things and push yourself when you are fatigued, but I think that I am going to try. Last year when I was told that I could not do something I would not listen…for some reason this year when they tell me that I can not do something I agree and say ok. I think that the difference now is that when it hits me, it hits me very hard and it takes me a long time to recover from it. I want to build back some of the muscle that I have lost. I do not think that I will get back to the size I was before, but I think that my goal will be to try and reach 195lbs by July 1st of 2023. Once I figure out a way to increase my caloric intake I think that I will be able to bulk up a bit.