Today, I watched as my Grandfather passed away.

Monday, June 28th, 2010 at around 12pm my wife, Sara, called me at work to relay a message that the time was near for my Grandfather and that as soon as Ian (my Uncle) arrived from Nanaimo, he would be taken off oxygen. My Mother had left the message and the gist was that if I wanted to be there for his final moments I could. It took me a while to gather the courage but I headed to the hospital to be there, where I had some private moments with him as he lay unconscious with my sweet Grandmother who was always at his side.

At the hospital, time seemed to move as a ball might on an irregular, steep, yet thickly viscous surface; one moment time seemed to barely move, and at times it flew but always with a sense of foreshadowing. Nearer to his passing time seemed to disappear altogether in a peaceful way. I won’t share any further details of his passing other than it was all that any family-focused person could hope it would be, because he was surrounded and held by his loving family to the last moments.

What I do want to share, are a few memories of my Pa (as my brother and I called him) that I treasure.

To begin, I want to preface everything about my Pa with one simple fact – I have always been in awe of his powerful bond with life. I imagine that sounds really cheesy but consider this: my Pa, Ken MacNeill, barely survived Polio as a child, had diabetes, suffered multiple heart attacks resulting in open heart surgery and yet, he made it to his late 80′s and he was still walking (partially) up until just a few weeks ago when the Post Polio Syndrome took his legs. Count the fact that he helped raise 4 children, built the house he lived in from the ground up and was a wonderful, active Grandfather to his many grandchildren… need I say more?

His strength and tenacity aside, my Pa and I spent a lot of time together when I was young. He and I would take his dog Freckles for a walk through the woods nearby his home and he would regale me with stories of the area and how different things looked. I was a very willing ear. In fact, I loved his stories because I was fascinated with old Victoria, BC, and what it must have been like to grow up when the city was so much smaller. You see, my Pa was born and raised in Victoria, BC, and had some pretty great stories about growing up around the very area that I grew up in.

Pa and I would also go fishing together in my small boat or his, and on other days we would go for a drive and he would take me duck watching. In most cases, I did these things with Pa because I wanted to spend time with him. I would never have admitted this to him, but I was never very interested in ducks, and when we went fishing he almost always picked the same fishing spots that I knew (or soon knew) were no longer worthwhile. That didn’t matter though, I just wanted to be with my Pa to hear his stories and be close to him. It was always worthwhile.

Now this eulogy of sorts would not be complete without a couple quotes/beliefs from my Pa that are still with me to this day:

• “Be kind to others”
  When I asked him at one point to tell me what words of advice he would want to pass on to future generations, he deliberated for a moment and that was his answer. There is no doubt, this is far from unique but there is a reason for that.
• “When going outdoors, always wear more clothes than you need, you can always take some off.”
  My Pa always said this to me before we went fishing and to this day I hear him say that every time I go outdoors. It is amazing how simple and obvious, yet helpful such wisdom can be. I can say with certainty that his wisdom has saved me from some very uncomfortable hiking conditions more than a few times in my life.

There are many more fond memories, thoughts and feelings rushing throughout my mind right now but I think I will stop at this point. Suffice it to say that I loved my Pa very much and I am so very glad I could be there for his final moments. It was hard getting the courage to be at his bedside but once I was there, it was clear to me that I was in the very place I should be to pay my respects to my truly grand grandfather.

I am very glad you got to meet my little boy. Rest in peace Pa.

Ever since I watched the incredible adventure-documentary movie Sharkwater I have been profoundly motivated to do whatever I could to help save sharks. In fact, the very same day I watched the movie I purchased a few domains with the intention of creating at least one website to do my part and raise the awareness of shark finning. Well the day has finally come. The site isn’t perfect by any means yet but you can visit AntiSharkFinning.com to get regular updates on shark-related news and the fight to ban shark finning world wide. I hope you like it.

If you find yourself overwhelmed and dying to help out please check out the following websites to learn more about what you can do:

• The official site of Sharkwater the movie
• Save the Blue
• Oceana
• WildAid Shark Conservation

On July 21st, 2007 I was fortunate to marry my greatest love and soulmate Sara Martin. This is the video of our wedding, I hope you enjoy it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our Marriage on July 21, 2007

I hope you enjoyed the video and I want to thank Mark Planiden for helping us with this great camera work. It turned out extremely well and we really appreciated his talent!

Photos of the wedding taken by our photographer can be found here and are available for orders from the photographer – let us know if you would like a copy of a particular shot.

How times have changed since I met Matt in grade 9 and all of that has happened since… and now a proud father with a beautiful wife and child. Good work my friend! You are going to make an amazing father! Huge grins

Okay, I am officially buzzing with positive energy Morgan Williams (middle name will be added later) was born this morning, Feb 2nd at 6:05 am as I was just told a few minutes later by her proud father and my dear friend Matt (I got to hear her too!).
This marks the first baby in the ranks of my closest friends and I can’t be happier.

CONGRATULATIONS MATT & CARLA and a big HELLO to Morgan from a friend for life.

Love
Rossco

It is rare to find a charitable organization where 100% of your donations is guaranteed to go to the charities. GiveMeaning.com appears to be one of those organizations.

Here is a link to GiveMeaning.com’s “About Page” where this incredible company is well described. In addition, here are some inspirational success stories from GiveMeaning.com.

Normally I am simply not a person who promotes this kind of thing… I guess I am just too busy and a bit suspicious of large charities. I am normally more interested in local charities like the Mustard Seed. This one, however, really inspires me and I felt it was important to share. Here are some recent projects that were completed thanks to the generosity of users:

Most Recent GiveMeaning.com Fundraising Projects

• Sending a Sudanese Refugee to Medical School in Uganda, Africa
• AIDS relief for women and children, through sports and leadership training.
• Orphanage needs minibus to get children to school
• Gigi Climbs Kili for Family – Grandmothers to Grandmothers C
• Sponsor 100 Orphan Children in War-Torn Iraq

What I find really different about this project is that if I wanted to I could create my own project to raise funds for a charity of my choice. Lets say, for example, I felt particularly interested in raising money for Multiple Sclerosis. I could simply create my own project and then GiveMeaning.com (after approving the project) would handle all of the logistics of handling the money, charity receipts, and making certain the funds got to the appropriate charity. So in a sense, GiveMeaning.com acts as a charity administrator thus allowing me to focus on the more important aspects of fundraising – promotion! But it doesn’t stop there! GiveMeaning.com even provides excellent tools to help you get the word out – all free of charge.

Check it out and tell me what you think… personally I think it is an awesome concept. Heh, probably one that has been around and I didn’t even know about it. Well call me enlightened now

Anna-Marie is an inspiration… yes I am sure she gets that one all of the time but it doesn’t make her any less worthy. I have known Anna-Marie since Grade 8 and she always stood out as a friendly person and a star student. Throughout our years in High School I also became aware that she was also a fierce sports competitor; by listening to the morning PA in TAG and hearing about her extraordinary field hockey exploits. Anyway, here we are today with Anna-Marie kicking arse in the world of rowing. Over the past couple years I have been lucky enough to be on her personal email list where she recounted her struggles over mind and body to become a world champion rower. Everytime I read her emails, and I mean everytime, I was absolutely startled by the commitment that she had to a sport that was relatively new to her; she was originally a field hockey star and found rowing late in her University days (at least I believe that was how it happened).

Well her hard work has paid off this Tuesday, November 7th 2006; Anna-Marie edged out famed Olympic athlete Buffy Williams as Canada’s Singles Champion. Congratulations seems a weak word in the face of her latest feat. But CONGRATULATIONS ANNA-MARIE!!!

Here is Anna-Marie’s email, I hope you will find it as inspiring as I did because it says a lot about human nature and what it takes to overcome intense physical and mental adversity. Hell, I found myself breathing hard just imagining the intensity of the race. Well done!!!!!!!

Holy crow! What an amazing race. Buffy Williams and I, side by side for 7:51 seconds. They took a long long time to decide who’s bow ball actually crossed the finish line first – I ended up edging Buffy out by 0.14 seconds at 7:51.40. She finished at 7:51.54. We didn’t know officially for over an hour who had actually won the race. One of the coaches biking along the path beside the race said that he swore that there wasn’t even 3 strokes in a row the entire race (probably about 300 strokes give or take in a W1x race) when our bow balls weren’t jostling for position out in front. All I knew is that Buffy wouldn’t let up, and I certainly wasn’t going to!!! Even after we crossed the line and heard two incredibly tight blasts of the horn indicating that we had finished we had no idea who had actually finished first. As I was cooling down, I realized that it really didn’t matter at that point – whatever the outcome of the race, it couldn’t possibly top the excitement and intensity of the race itself.

To give you a bit of an idea, the speed of a rowing shell depends on a few basic things – stroke rate (how many strokes per minute) and power through the water. In 2005 when I raced internationally in the single, my stroke rate for a 2k piece would be around 32-33 strokes per minute. I’d feel as though my muscles would explode or that I would ‘hit the wall’ if I tried to push it up to 34 strokes per minute. Today, I never went below 35 strokes per minute – with the first and last 500m averaging about 37-38 strokes per minute. I was blown away when I reviewed my speed coach computer this evening after the race. I had no idea I was holding those rates. Buffy said something after the race that I fully agreed with – it’s been a very long time since somebody has pushed me so hard!

The gold medal and the title of 2006 Canadian Champion in the Women’s Single (and the $650 cheque) are simply icing on the cake. I honestly felt so incredibly ecstatic with the whole process, that the result is really just a bonus. What a neat idea. After a summer and early fall of really feeling like I was struggling with everything about training, competition and this lifestyle, I finally came to the conclusion, thanks to my Sports Psychologist, Dr. Sean Richardson, that basing my feelings of rowing and training on my results (whether practices, time trials or races) really wasn’ t a productive way to go about it. Especially when the results I wanted weren’t happening. I began to lose my motivation and started seriously questioning my desire to continue. I knew what I wanted from myself and what I wanted to achieve with rowing, but really felt like I didn’t have the energy to pursue it. The goals I had set were too lofty or too easily achieved, so I rapidly lost motivation to continue.

I started to look at why I was really doing this. I came up with something so simple, that it got lost in the intensity and competitiveness of this environment. Over the past 6 months, my ego has been attempting to stay alive and healthy by winning and being the strongest, fastest, fittest out here. I had lost sight of the most important aspect that I wish to gain from this whole experience – to become the type of rower I would like to race against. I want to become the type of rower who can win or lose gracefully – without excuses or an over inflated ego. I want to be the type to be able to appreciate when somebody else has a fantastic day, even if mine was horrible. I want to be the type to recognize when I have a good day and somebody else doesn’t. I want to be the type of rower – and more importantly the type of person – who is approachable, can honour somebody else’s skill without necessarily comparing it directly to mine in a sense that one is better than the other. Don’t get me wrong. I love to win. I love that feeling of being the fastest, the strongest, the fittest. It’s a pretty sweet thing to come out on top – especially after a season of struggling. But for me, that alone cannot sustain me in this sport. The process of this goal is the key – because each day, each practice and each race will challenge me to become the rower I want to become. It’s almost like making a lifestyle out of it.

I realized this evening that the whole process of the race – loving each stroke (even though I wondered WHEN ON EARTH is Buffy going to drop off and when on earth am I going to finally pull through her) was what really made it a great race for me. Each time I glanced to the side and saw her still sitting right next to me, and I chose another technical focus to work on for just ten more strokes because maybe THESE ten strokes will finally put me ahead just a little bit… only to look up in ten strokes and see her in exactly the same spot to go through the exact same decision making process of “ok, maybe these next ten for ‘core’ will really put me ahead”. Over and over and over… all the way to the last 20 strokes when I really wasn’t even sure what I was doing anymore, just that I had imagined this scenario over and over in my head and I knew that I could do anything for 20 strokes…. Then even minutes after it ended, knowing that regardless of the result, I really enjoyed it and had given it everything. At the line, it was really just the fact that my boat surged at the right moment to put it over the line ahead of hers. I felt a brilliant moment of clarity to realize that it didn’t even really matter to me the placing. Or perhaps, better stated, I had decided how I felt about the race before the results were ever official.

On a side note, my goal earlier this year was to be able to finish 10-15 seconds ahead of the next woman at Speed Orders in June 2006. I wasn’t able to compete at that regatta in June due to my rib stress fractures, but Buffy (who wasn’t competing this summer)and I finished 13 seconds ahead of the next woman today. I achieved that goal…. a few months late, but I can now check it off. I’ll still have my result oriented goals, however the process oriented ones will be the daily challenges!

Thanks for hearing me out on this long email!

Anna-Marie
2006 Canadian Champion
W1x
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can’t tell me that you were anything short of inspired by that email right?!

Well the weekend getaway at Pacific Sands Resort went off without a hitch. There was some concern when the weather was a bit dodgy on Friday but I am sure it would have done nothing to sway Jason and Nyssa’s thirst for adventure. After all, they wanted a wedding that reflected their west coast passions… what better than a Tofino downpour! Although perhaps the white wedding dress might have proved more revealing than desired

Anyway, the accommodations may have been luxurious (this was our sexy villa) and the drive a bit pressing on the arse but the wedding was well worth it. Jason was dashing and Nyssa was ever the princess on this fine day at Cox Point in Tofino.

When the opportunity was afforded me I never found the voice to say much in the way of words about my long time friend Jason and I imagine I will regret that for a time. That said, if there is one thing worth saying it is that there is no question of his deep love for Nyssa. Ever since he met her he has been by her side, be it in Victoria, Vancouver or even Montreal. And moving to Montreal is saying a lot; I was in french class with Jay and know first hand that his french is merde!

In short I would like to wish my old friend and his gorgeous bride a wonderful Hawaiian honeymoon and a long and happy life filled with joyful anniversaries, lampoon vacations, stinky diapers and many well-basted shish kabobs.

Sara and I both look forward to hanging out with you soon. Here are the few pictures I got of your wedding if you want to see them… although it appears you will have a couple thousand to wade through. That was a ton of photos your photographer took for you… kudos on the deal.

Cheers,
Rossco

I am sitting here preparing to continue writing an SEO article I started on Sunday and I just can’t get over how little time I seem to have to chill these days. It seems that life, although good, is requiring more and more time. Heh, I guess I will have that redefined when Sara and I have kids in a year or two. Yikes… time will really be redefined then. Anyway, I felt like ranting a bit.

Sara and I just got back from taking a nice evening stroll and we are both on our separate computers now doin our thang. Now I need to get my head into Yahoo again for this article I am writing. Well at least it will be a good one – I think

Have a good night all.

Rossco

For those who have not been fortunate enough to meet My Sara, check out this small Sara & Ross gallery; we are one happy couple