As you may recall, daughter Miranda is an accomplished triathlete, coach of other triathletes (www.mirandatomenson.com) and RMT. In fact, when I post her race results on social media (proud papa that I am), I get somewhere in the vicinity of 1000 views, compared to my only receiving a meagre 150 or so for my lame attempts at blogging about wealth management related things. Ha! Just shows how interested my readers are in my chosen career path.
What couldn’t be more exciting?
Well, as I frequently suggest, investing should be boring!
But, I digress. Two years ago, Miranda finished a close second at the Ironman Maryland race, which qualified her to compete at the October, 2020 Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. Covid forced that race to be cancelled, but she was deferred until the October 2021 race. She trained hard throughout Covid, improvising as best as is possible: when indoor pools were shuttered, she bought a Canadian Tire issue kids pool, put it in her garage, tethered herself and swam in frigid 12 degree C temps to train for her swim! Dedication? Wow.
In preparation for her 2021 Ironman World Championship race, she braved the U.S. / Canada border in April, headed for Tulsa Oklahoma to successfully compete in the North American Ironman Championship:
Needless to say, she was ready.
We were booked to fly to Hawaii on September 23 (Miranda’s races have always been our excuse to follow her around the globe to offer whatever support we can), for the October 9th race date.
Then, another wave of Covid hit…
On August 23, Gov. David Ige called upon Hawaii residents and visitors to delay all non-essential travel through the end of October 2021 due to the recent, accelerated surge in COVID-19 cases that is now overburdening the state’s health care facilities and resources.
The race was cancelled.
We cancelled our flights, our car rental and our Covid tests (required by the state of Hawaii for admission to the islands), however our VRBO rental’s cancellation insurance (CSA Travel Protection) did not cover the cancellation of the race, nor the Governor’s “recommendation”. So… back to Air Canada, Payless/Budget car rental and Life Labs / Shoppers Drug Mart for Covid testing. We were not prepared to forgo a few thousand dollars of house rental!
And… 24 hours, door to door (it is still off-season for Hawaii travel: Toronto to Vancouver, to San Francisco, to Kona and Hawaii’s Safe Travels Program protocol), here we are.
Now I understand what our Vancouver clients rave about. It is truly spectacular!
High Rock (for me) is not snow capped peaks for the next couple of weeks, but Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea!
My office view overlooks the beautiful blue of the pacific… my new remote office hours will, however, be very sporadic (unless Paul authorizes a full-time Kona office, but the SEC may have some issues with that). Nonetheless, as is always the case, I will still be paying attention.
And, as always… standing by.
Mahalo