Brandon is home!

Picked Brandon up from camp last night and it was great to see him. He said he had a decent week, though was frustrated at the younger kids for not listening and messing around when instructions were given lol yeah that happens.  Next year he wants to attend but as a leader in training instead, he saw a few of the older scouts doing that and thought it’d be fun.

Before I picked Brandon up though I went for a walk with Mike, he wanted to explore the trails at Edward Gardens so I arrived an hour early to take a picture of the bugs and they did not disappoint!

I was using the Canon RF 100-500mm lens and it’s macro capabilities aren’t bad at all at 0.33x magnification (though I’m not selling my Canon RF 100mm macro lol).  As for the park, when Mike arrived, we walked down the main path down to Sunnybrook park.  He wasn’t feeling super hot though so we turned back soon but it was really nice to get out and walk around at least.

With Brandon returning home, I slept much better last night.  He has a lot of experience outdoors so I was not worried something would happen but still I feel better when he’s around.  I’ll sleep the best after Maggie returns from China, right now that looks to be around middle of August but we’ll see.

Brandon’s gone too. :(

Before I get to Brandon being away, let me make a post about what Brandon did 2 weeks ago.  He did equestrian camp at Wake Robin Farms and he quite enjoyed it.  The boy loves animals and while he was the oldest (and only boy) attending he said he had a great time.

At the end of the week long camp, the kids put a show on for the parents and that’s what I took pictures of.  Brandon mainly rode a horse name Texico but he was unavailable for the last day event so the horse pictured is named JJ.  If he wants to do it again in the future I’m definitely game, I think it’s a wonderful thing to learn and I’d love to do horse back riding as well.

Today I dropped Brandon off at Scout camp, it’s Pokemon themed and he’ll be gone the whole week so it’s just Slinky and I.  I’m sure he’ll have fun and he’s very familiar with Woodland trails and I have the week off lol.  Frankly I’d prefer everyone to be home, this week I’m sure I’ll just be an introvert and stay in.

Maggie’s gone to China

Maggie left for China yesterday and is currently waiting on a connecting flight in Seoul, South Korea.  Her father has a massive blood clot in his brain and she felt it was best if she returns home, he’s a good man so we all hope he pulls through.  He’s not that old, early 70s but has lived a hard life and this isn’t exactly a surprise but sad none the less.  He’s alright right now, I’m not sure if he’s had surgery yet or is still waiting but yeah scary stuff.

It’s just Brandon and I at home for the next month to month and a half, I guess we’ll see how things play out but my father in law is in our thoughts.

Getting closer

Last weekend (yeah I’m behind) I went to Toronto Airsoft to pick up some BBs.  I still have some of my old BB Bastard stuff but most fields now require bio BBs so I’ll try some of TA’s house brand to see how it goes.

Hehe Slinky always has to investigate when I’m going to take photos and made himself at home laying on his back and taking a nap while I did my thing. 😉  Picked up 0.28g BBs for myself and 0.25g for Brandon to use with his CA MP5, I also got a bag of 0.2gs for chronying.  The CA MP5A3 came in at 388 fps which is perfect for outdoor play while the PTW with the blue cylinder shot 390.  Glad after all these years of storage it still has a good seal…

There’s a local airsoft outdoor field within 30 minutes of my house and the next time they have a newbie game, I’ll attend with B.  Can’t wait to share the hobby with him, it’s going to be great. 🙂

Post herpetic neuralgia

Went to see the doctor this morning and she says that while my shingles infection has ended, I have post herpetic neuralgia.  I still have pain where the rash was and on my back it’s very itchy which is all normal and should go away in a few months ugh!  Looking online, if I’m really unlucky this could last the rest of my life!  She prescribed me a cream for itch however it’s harsh and she said not to use it for more than 2 weeks and that she could prescribe me a nerve pain killer or narcotic to help with the pain which I passed on.  I don’t particularly like taking pills and will just deal with it…

Sigh what a nightmare this has been but at least I have a great support group at home and at work…  I think what I’m most annoyed at is the fact that this happened in the summer, I don’t feel so bad about staying home all the time in the winter but when the warm weather is here I prefer to be out and about. 🙁

Old is new?

The Canada day long weekend has been going well, I’m still recovering from shingles, the rash has gotten much smaller but the pain has remained and sometimes there’s a sharp stabbing pain from the right side of my toros which is pretty annoying.  Hopefully when the disease subsides completely I’ll be back to normal.  Friday & Saturday Brandon had some friends over, end of the school year and he did well academically so it was hard to say no.

Yesterday we didn’t do much, went out for lunch then relaxed at home.  Since I’m not sleeping well, I’ve been taking naps but not being a nap person, I sleep too long and am groggy afterwards. 🙁  Today Maggie went to play badminton and we all met up to have some dim sum which was great.  I guess I’m the biggest reason we didn’t do anything, driving is difficult due to the abrupt bumps in the road, when I hit one there’s quite a bit of pain so I’m trying not to go anywhere really.

In other news, I picked up a Classic Army MP5A3 for Brandon.

He’s turning 13 in August and I wouldn’t mind playing airsoft with him, he seems interested so why not.  There’s a local field in Clarington that’s around a 30 minute drive and they have newbie days, when I’m fully recovered we’ll give that place a shot and see how it goes.  The MP5 was one of my first guns (albeit I had a TM) and I really love that platform so it’s quite nice to hold one again. We’ll see what the future brings but I stopped playing because of my fatherhood duties, perhaps now that he’s older I can get back into the hobby. 🙂

A quick walk

So shingles has been kicking my ass and this morning I decided I wanted to go for a walk in the park and took Brandon along with me.  The walk itself wasn’t too bad but the bumps on the road as I was driving was quite uncomfortable…

I still love my 3 year old Canon EOS R5, in the first two photos the foreground is quite busy but the camera could still snap onto the subject perfectly!  I tell you animal eye AF is like cheating…  Nothing spectacular but it was great to get out and shoot something, I haven’t done enough of that in the last little while and quite enjoyed this.

As for my issue, the rash is no longer growing but it’s pretty deep red and it feels like I got beat up.  According to the NIH website I’m at #2, and this is definitely going to last more than two weeks… 🙁

ugh shingles?!?

Saturday night on a night vision walk with Maggie I noticed a small but sharp pain on the side of my torso, feels like when you pull a muscle or sleep wrong.  Anyway I figure it was nothing but the next morning it was there and by Monday the pain started to spread to my back and I noticed a small pink spot at the spot where the pain started.  I wanted to go to the doctor yesterday but there were many meetings during the day and Brandon’s BJJ class so I went this morning to see the doctor and after listening to the symptoms and looking at my torso she said I had shingles.

Apparently if you have the chicken pox as a child the virus stays in your body but lays dormant and can flare up at any moment.  It’s not dangerous just painful and it is contagious if there’s skin to skin contact so it’s back to hand washing and distancing for the Sun family.

At the Shoppers Drug Mart while I was waiting for the prescription to be filled, the digital kiosk next to me was talking about the Shingrix vaccine which gave me a bit of a chuckle.  I mentioned to the pharmacist that I thought shingles was an old person thing, he then asked me how old I was so I replied 43 and he just nodded so I guess that means I’m old lol.  I was given a week’s worth of valacyclovir in 500MG tablets which I’m suppose to take 2 tablets 3 times a day so hopefully by this time next week I’ll be back to tip top shape.

Just annoying and painful, oh well gives me an excuse to get out of my chores right? 😉

 

Happy father’s day!

Or at least happy belated father’s day to all the dads out there.  I reflect often on my life and one area I hit it out of the park with is marrying Maggie, she gave me our wonderful boy Brandon.  Being a dad is the best thing ever and I enjoy every moment of it.

Brandon is 12 now and knows that it’s these types of gifts that really do it for me and I treasure all of the cards and drawings he has done for me over the years.  Brandon is the best son a father can ask for and I’m so damn lucky to have him be my boy.

Thank you

I received this email yesterday and it was such a nice touch.

It’s been a while since I talked about the hobby airsoft and I had some great times showing new players what I’ve learnt over the years.  With airsoft getting a reprieve from the government (it was slated to be banned), I’m glad people will still be able to enjoy the hobby.  In fact I’ve been thinking about getting back into it myself, Brandon is old enough to play now and some of his friends have been talking about it, what fun that would be to experience with my boy.

Needless to say the sender made my day and thank you, I’m happy I made an impact and glad that you can share this wonderful hobby with your boy too!