July 18, 2025 Missing in Action: Continued September 4, 2025

I’m calling this blog “Missing In Action.” Because that’s what I have been.

Missing.

Too busy living and working to continue pursuing my passion and my goal. A goal I set for myself five years ago. 

Five years. 

Time is flying along, while at the same time, those years went so slowly in the moments. At least part of me feels that way. I began writing this blog as a way to document the crazy times our world was going through. 

Then it all got so crazy that I felt like a deer in the headlights. And my writing withered down to dribs and drabs. 

And life keeps flying by.

I came across a memory today. Five years ago, it was an outdoor party at our home. We had fifty of our closest friends all “social distancing.” Jon Bos stood up on the hill, and we all watched him play guitar – mesmerized by the simple connection we had in our yard that day. It was my fiftieth year on the third rock and my wife’s birthday as well(Not gonna say the number:). 

“Social distancing”, a term I’ve not heard in quite a while. In those days, I felt the world was more connected than it is right now. 

It’s crazier now as well.

With all the threats of tariffs and annexation by our ominous and messed-up neighbour to the south, things feel a bit surreal. Meanwhile, across the globe, war has broken out, with no end in sight. More people have died in war in the last five years than died from COVID-19. If we spent half the effort on stopping war as we did on COVID, peace might be attainable.

Alas, that is a fantasy.

So why have I grown silent and stopped writing? I wish I had an easy answer. I have a lot of excuses. I’ve been busy on the boat, on my business, renovating my house. Busy. Busy. Busy. Yet I find time to go down the rabbit hole of Facebook. Excuses.

We all have excuses. What I need to do is push past all the negativity. Let go of all the bad energy that’s sucking away at my soul. Find a way to cleanse the soul because the world outside feels like a dark and scary place. 

I embrace the beauty that surrounds me. Paradise is a boat ride away. 

There really is no excuse not to love life. I’m close to getting my book self-published. I need to push through and pursue my goal that I set for myself in the darkest days of COVID.

September 4, 2025 

What the hell happened?

I got to that point in my blog, and then something came along and boom, six weeks have screamed by. I don’t even know what took my attention away. Yet here I am finishing the blog I began 48 days ago. 

At one time, I was writing this blog every day. Then life got in the way.

A lot has happened in the last month and a half. Where to begin?

Luxury Lake Tours has taken up a large part of my life, and so has work on my other business. When I began my blog five years ago, I intended to transition to being a writer. You know what they say about the road to hell and intentions…

My personal hell has been that I’ve been way too busy living life to actually live the dream I created for myself. A dream that I still plan on making real. 

Three weeks ago, my life went upside down when my boat sank in three feet of water(that’s a story for another blog). So there is that… That was the day before I was to meet my writing coach and publish my book. So much chaos ensued, including a very bad cut to my finger and a bruised heel. 

I pushed through everything, and inside that chaos, I found a peace of stability. Death In The Window is now officially a reality. It is no longer a dream or a hope; it is 333 pages of paper with words dancing on the page. Words I wrote. A story I finished. A feeling of accomplishment that filled my being with a desire for more.

One week from today, September 4, my lovely wife and I will be traveling across the globe to return to Greece and join another writers’ retreat. I can’t wait to leave the chaos behind and join the writers on the beaches of Tolo, Greece. I hope to gain inspiration and insight. I hope to move closer to my goal of becoming a full-time writer. 

A dream no more. It needs to be a goal. I need to find a way to escape the daily grind and the feeling that I must work to survive. 

I have my responsibilities and my share of debt. I also have an amazing daughter whom I just took to Vancouver to continue her studies at UBC. 

Despite it all, I must take care of myself. Every day, time keeps marching on. I know that to feel fulfilled, my next goal is to publish book two – Death In The Streets, within the next year. 

One moment, one day at a time. I will push through. Even finishing this blog is a step in the right direction. I hope lots of people enjoy my book, and then the next one when it’s done. One day in the not-too-distant future, I will look back on these days as days of growth and learning. 

Death In The Window is only the first step on my journey in this game we all play – the game called life.