Within the last month:

• My dog of 15 years, Zen, who I considered one of my best friends, passed away.

• My butt was probed in a sigmoidoscopy to once again prove that I have Ulcerative Colitis.

• Due to my increasingly worse Ulcerative Colitis symptoms I had to withdraw from competing at the RPS South Florida Conquest, which I was really looking forward to taking part in with the rest of the Orlando Barbell Team

• I have lots of people pissed at me for having to explain to them that our meet is full and I can’t let them or any more lifters in. (Remember when we had a meet go until midnight a few years ago when I let everyone in? Capping the meets benefits everyone involved to prevent this from happening again).

• I was rear ended a couple of weeks ago which ended up totaling my beloved Toyota Tacoma truck which was paid off. Now I’m going to end up with a payment again even for the same year, make, and model.

• Hell, even one of our fish died. This was no ordinary fish. He was one of the cool little bottom dweller catfish that we appropriately named sh*t eater and he lived for about 7or 8 years.

When things aren’t going well you can either wallow in your own misery and hate your life or you can do something about it. You can also change your perspective to realize that maybe things aren’t so bad.

• We gave Zen the best life we could, along with rescuing him from being abandoned in the streets and treating him for heartworms. We also have four other rescue dogs that we need to keep taking care of and we will continue to rescue more.

• Although we have Blue Cross/Blue shield insurance it only covers generic meds. None of the UC meds are generic so I did what was necessary to get on a clinical trial and have hopefully been given a med that will work.

• My symptoms will improve and I will find another meet. No matter how poorly a meet goes or what may prevent you from competing, there will always be another meet.

• As far as hosting meets goes, the gym would benefit more from having more competitors and getting more revenue. I’m trying to help the lifters and the OBB team who help at the meet by holding to the cap.

• Initially my idea to make a positive out of negative with my truck was to buy an old diesel to convert to biodiesel which I’ve always wanted to do. I thought this could be more eco-friendly as well as a good way to save money. Unfortunately a 2007 or earlier diesel with 200k miles would cost about 5k more than a Tacoma, so I’m going with the same make and model as my old one and will pay it off as soon as I can.

• We can always get another fish.

Things could always be worse and we’re all fighting our own battles. These are just a few of my current struggles. No matter what you’re dealing with, stay strong and keep on pushing forward.