It has been 3 weeks that I underwent Cardiac Bypass Surgery in our wonderful Cardiac Unit at The Jubilee Hospital in Victoria BC.

I've been laying low during my recovery - no lifting more than 5 pounds for 3 months until my sternum knits together properly. So no golf nor motorcycle riding this summer, sniff.

I've been following the threads here but haven't felt up to participating, but I'm back now.

Anyway, it is slowly getting better everyday; however, sneezing or coughing is still not pleasant, ha!

TAM

Hope you fell better soon Tom!

Good to hear your feeling better, lots of walks and fresh air.

Welcome back. Hope that your recovery happens quickly and easily from here on out.

I don't have any excuse for not participating around here. Just been busy. Work has me traveling more than usual and I put in about 60 hours minimum a week (yay for salaried job where I only get paid for 40 hours of work) since September with no signs of getting better.

I also have started a Winter project. I know, it is May 10th. Winter is (finally) over, but my project was supposed to be done by the end of 2017, and I am only behind by about 5 months (4, plus the fact that I am gone most of May). It is a fun project, but everything is just taking so stinking long to get done...

So what is my project? See below.

Here is where I was back in early December after a lot of planning and hardware gathering that started in early November:


Oddly, it wasn't until around Christmas before I had a "box" put together...


Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, and this is where I am at with my project:




4K primary display, 1080p backbox. Super fast PC on the inside. Lots of force feedback. Actual nudging and working plunger too. Will have full color DMD (score display) and addressable LEDs plus an LED "matrix" to fill the gap above the playfield (which isn't as big as it looks in the photo). All software controlled. I am at the "wiring stage" now, but haven't done any wiring in a few weeks. Maybe it will be ready by the end of THIS year...

Look great Nick , and btw thanks for making me feel inadequate.

nick:

Well, how cool is that??!!

TAM

So sorry to hear Tam. Glad your doing well hope the rest of recovery is a breeze.

WOW Nick that is so cool!!!
Are you going to have multiple games on it or one favorite?

@brendo
I will have maybe 75-100 games on it. Some people load theirs up with every pinball table that they can. I just want ones that I think that people would actually play.

I should really do that with my M.A.M.E. arcade too (clean up the number of games). It has over 6000 different games, but I skip over 98% of those because they are of no interest to me or my family.

Hi TAM.

We live in an age of miracles. Best and warmest wishes for a speedy, complete and pain free recovery.

I guess you will be listening to a lot of music. Enjoy the down time
Then, get up!

Hope you're feeling better, Tom. Good time to enjoy your system!

Awesome project, Nick!

Since I'm basically a 'slug' for the next couple of months I've been watching a lot of Blu Ray movies & listening to my favourite CD/SACDs on all 3 of my Axiom systems.

This has gotten me out of heavy duty gardening this spring, ha!

TAM

Always look at the positives....

I didn't need this during my healing period. One of my favourite cats - Tuxedo - succumbed to an aggressive form of cancer this week. Three weeks ago he seemed normal & vital, then two weeks ago he started limping with a sore right front leg. He was gone last Monday. We couldn't believe that it went so fast.

He adopted us & became a wonderful companion over the 13 years that he spent with us. We miss him dearly...

TAM

Sorry for you loss tam, pets are family at least at my house. When our dog died my dad vowed never to have another pet until it could outlive him.

Yup, I hope that my 3 remaining felines can outlive me as they often can make 20 years.

One is 13 so probably has 7 more good years (hopefully) & there is a good chance that at least 2 of them will as they are only 7 years old. If the life expectancy stats are correct, I expect that my wife will outlive me & will be with them till they are gone...

TAM

Well no one knows for sure. My dad got cancer 5 years ago and is 80 now and still rides his BMW MC regularly. I fear he may outlive me LOL.

May you all outlive your pets.

Holy crap - a couple of weeks ago I suffered a 'stroke'. I experienced several 'brain pharts' over a day that included some memory loss, unable to type & some speech anomalies etc.

Luckily within a day everything started coming back to where I'm fully back to normal as far as I can tell. My personal nursing staff (wife & daughter) advised that only 10% of stroke patients come out unscathed so I'm indeed fortunate.

Unfortunately my new motorcycle with only 3 trips on it had to be unregistered, although it seems that I'll be back in the saddle within a month...

TAM

Wow thats crazy tam, glad you got through it what a ride this has been for you. Is there anything you can do to prevent further strokes. My aunty had one and she did not fair so well. I hope you can get back to riding before you cant ride anymore. My dad has had to stop riding (83) and his 45k beemer is now worth nothing, people just aren't that into cycles anymore. Keep us updated so we can keep you in our prayers.

I've already been on Aspirin & now added Plavex to the mix for 3 months.

These 2 meds should decrease the chances of any further clots in the brain. Anyway, all is well for the time being...

TAM

A year later now. How are you feeling?

Thanks very much for asking.

I waited a year before swinging a club so I just started golfing again last month. I wanted to make sure that my rib cage was all knitted together rather than risking dislodging something in there. It didn't improve my game though!

Furthermore, I've been riding my Volt Bike Yukon 750 electric fat bike since Christmas that gives me daily cardio workouts - when I so choose. It is really easy to use the Pedal Assist feature if I get lazy, ha! Similarly I finally got my wonderful new Yamaha T-Max 530 motorcycle running again after a year lay off & have been enjoying our fabulous riding weather on VR Island this spring.


So, all in all, things are going very well. It is quite amazing what our medical folks are doing these days to keep old pharts like me upright & mobile for a little longer...

TAM

That is really good to hear. I hope it's a great summer on the island.

This is awesome news TAM. So now you get to ride your motorcycle to the golf course on Vancouver Island. I am not sure it gets much better! Fantastic news!

I rode down to Qualicum Beach yesterday(about an hour each way along the beach) & had an excellent hot dog there right on the beautiful waterfront there. Nice sunny weather so far this spring.

Yup. Life is really pretty good...

TAM

Congrats Tam glad your doing better. Those E bikes look like so much fun, plus they haul. Here on the mainland I see people riding from say SFU to UBC in like 40 mins, would take longer on the bus or even rush hour traffic.

I ride a 29er quite often and there's no way I can keep up with an E bike. They just fly past and they're barely pedaling.

Since we are quite hilly here in the Comox Valley, there is no way that I would even attempt riding here without a Pedal Assist electric drive. I often see many people pushing/walking their bikes up the hills here.

My VoltBike fat bike will hit 30+ Km/Hr at the 500 Watt setting (Canadian rules); however, at the 750 Watt setting (US rules), it will do over 40 Kph. For the type of riding that I do, I leave it at 500 Watts that is more than adequate, plus it saves the battery. I've never come close to draining down the battery even after a couple of hours of riding because I probably use Pedal Assist only about half of the time.

Great fun plus it is good for the heart...

TAM

The 750W setting is handy when you strap on your M22s and twin 800s.

I've seen some videos on the youtube of guys in the U.K. adding more battery power to their E bikes. One was some ridiculous 90kmh or maybe higher.{Death wish guy} Supposedly if the law finds out of such mods.they've got really hefty fines.

People probably realised 30 to 40KMH is already dangerous enough on a bicycle. As to why it isn't in the news so much now.

Tam - Thrilled you are feeling better. Next year is the 40th anniversary party. Hope to see you there!

TAM, you can ride your eBike over here, we'll hop in my bLuLu, and ride all the way to Dwight in retro style! Waaaaahoooooo!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxTe-z9ctC7NdzgtS3M5cUZVdFk

In stodgy, over regulated Canada, only 500W is allowed legally for ebikes; however, it is easily changed to 750W by a software setting on the trip computer.

I've been able to hit 40 Km/Hr coasting downhill on some of the hills around here but even that speed is getting uncomfortable for me - it just doesn't feel safe even though my bike is heavy (70 lbs) & very stable. I'm getting old & wiser I guess.

I'm not sure on the 40th anniversary yet. Perhaps I'll plan on taking Via Rail east bound this time from Vancouver as I haven't been that way in a while...

TAM

Wiser is better

Lucky fat wheels make ease of most obstacles and a bit more on the ground. 40 K is a lot even wearing a full motorcycle get up.