24 posts tagged “family”
Last Sunday Amanda and I set out for my Grandma's to eat our third Thanksgiving dinner within four days. However the real turkey turned out to be me! Grandma lives about 20 miles away but we only made it one mile...
Half an hour before we left it began to snow but the temperature was still holding at 35 degrees. Heading out of the driveway I stepped on the brakes to do a slipperiness test and yep, it was slick. Turning onto the two-lane state highway I took it slow, going 10-15 mph below the 55 mph speed limit on the unplowed road.
Still too fast, apparently. Barely one mile departed on our trip on a arrow-straight stretch of road, our car (a 2003 Honda Pilot) began to fishtail. Despite my attempts to hold the car steady in hopes of riding out the oscillations, the amplitude of each swing of the rear end progressively increased.
Right, left, right, then a big 180-degree swing to the left had us going down the road backwards! Looking out my driver's side window I saw us approach the edge of the road where a 45-degree, 12-foot downward slope awaited. I called out to Amanda "Hang on, we're gonna roll!" but secretly I hoped that the car, still riding backwards, would merely drive itself diagonally across the embankment.
Strangely - but not surprisingly if you know me - I felt extremely calm during the event. In high-pressure, high-action situations for whatever reason I don't panic. I simply observe and react, as if the world has just slowed down a few ticks and my logical reasoning deploys itself at a lightning-fast subconscious level.
My warning to Amanda was accurate. The left rear dug into the weeds and soft ground and the car began its roll onto the driver's side. Amanda screamed just like she did on our first roller coaster ride together years ago!
My eyes focused out the windshield I watched the sky roll around and felt my head clunk the B-pillar but instantly I knew it was a harmless knock.
The impact was harder when the roof hit the ground but I felt nothing, not even the seatbelt. Later I would realize that the minor bruises on my knees probably happened at this point. I noticed that the windshield shattered but remained intact and in place.
The roll onto the passenger's side was quite mild, and then slowly but somewhat jarringly the car plunked back onto its wheels and the accident was over.
I felt 100% OK and after double-checking for a split-second I concluded that I was unhurt. I looked over to Amanda and asked if she was OK and she muttered "Yeah, I guess" but didn't seem convinced. Then she says "I have blood coming from somewhere!" and I see blood on her right hand. Quickly I check her head and face but seeing nothing, I figure it was a cut finger from the shattered passenger's window. Luckily that's all it was.
Amanda had been on the phone with her mom at the time of the accident so I asked her if she were still connected. Amanda retrieves her phone from the floor and says "No, it hung up" so I urged her "You better call them back!" Even though we called back within a minute or two, her parents later would say that it felt like our callback took days!
For good reason - here's what Amanda's mom heard on her end of the phone:
Amanda: "Hold on a sec, there's a problem on the road..."
[pause]
Andrew: [in the background] "Hang on, we're gonna roll!"
Amanda: [SCREAM]
[call disconnects]
Thanks to our networked world Amanda's mom probably suffered the worst injury despite being over 100 miles away!
I shut off the engine and we got out - amazingly our doors opened just fine. Already there were four good samaritans checking on us! Two drivers and two neighbors, including the one who's field we ended up in. I assure them we're OK and the drivers began to leave.
Then a woman comes running up to me on the verge of hysteria and doing all she can to not break down sobbing. She explains that she had just passed us in the oncoming direction and then looked into the rearview mirror to see our car flipping over. She was certain we were dead - I guess the roll looked worse than it felt!
Although Amanda did suffer some injuries - mainly a mild concussion, but also some rather impressive bruises from the seatbelt and various other locations. My worst injury was a moderately strained rib cage but Amanda got the brunt of the impact - just the the photos below and it's easy to see why.
The homeowners were super nice and let us sit in their house while we waited and they even gave Amanda a bandaid for her finger. After being put on hold several times by Allstate's roadside assistance (yeah, thanks for the timely help... not) they finally sent out a tow truck. The guy was able to drive my car right up to the wrecker! I was surprised that it could drive at all, especially after getting a closer look at the windshield and seeing the extent of the damage.
My parents, brother and his wife arrived - they, too, were on their way to Grandma's and diverted to us when I called about the crash. They drove Amanda back home while I waited... and waited...
The police took forever to arrive. Not initially - within five minutes of the accident the Ionia county sherriff showed up but we were literally 100 yards short of the county line. Not that he wouldn't have helped if we were hurt, but there was a multiple-injury accident that he was heading to so he called the Lowell city police for us.
About 10-15 minutes later a Lowell officer arrives and guess what, we're just outside the city limits. He explains that he gladly would've handled our accident except that the Michigan state police called him off! Yep, the state troopers had the jurisdiction on this state highway and rather than elect to delegate to Lowell, they insisted on taking our case. The Lowell officer drove off and we waited for the Michigan trooper who was "on his way".
45 minutes later he finally arrives! The tow truck driver had to wait, too - everything was ready to go except for the police. I know it was a busy time with several accidents due to the bizarre weather but Lowell was more than willing to help. I just don't get it.
Anyway the cop sends me off with a "too fast for conditions" ticket because, he explained: "Obviously you lost control, so you were going too fast." Thank you Captain Obvious!
Actually it wasn't nearly so obvious. I was frustrated for the rest of the day trying to figure out exactly why we crashed - after all, I was well below the speed limit, the road was straight, and I wasn't doing anything stupid. After much rumination I think I now have it figured out, but I'll save that for Part 2 of this recap.
As your reward for reading all the way to the end, here are photos I took of the car today as it sits in the wrecker yard waiting for the insurance adjuster to declare its fate.
A few days ago Lisa wrote about choosing her "voting outfit", explaining a desire to dress according to the significance of her vote and the election. It was a new and interesting thought and in part, it inspired me to be conscious of my outfit this morning.
Imagine this: it's Michigan, it's November, it's pitch dark outside, and it's 50 degrees!
Taking advantage of the weather I decided to run to Lowell city hall to vote! In my own way, I dressed for the occasion wearing the same outfit that I wore for Bailey's Doggie Dash, minus the hat and gloves (and the dog!)
City hall is only half a mile from home but I took a slight scenic detour to enjoy the weather and the remaining brown shades of fall leaves. After voting I ran home for a total of 2.1 miles. Considering that I arrived at about 06:50 Eastern Time, I may well have been the country's first voter who ran to and from the polling booth!
Lowell has always conducted smooth elections, one of the benefits of small town living. In past elections I've arrived at 7:15 and was the 15th or so voter in my precinct. Today when Amanda and I got in line (Amanda drove and met me at city hall) I remarked to her that I estimated about 50 people in line in front of us.
Only 20 minutes later I was sliding my ballot into the machine, which reported back to me that I was voter #51... Am I good or what? My estimate was right on! :)
The coolest thing about voting this morning was that despite 50 folks crowded into a small hallway, everyone was friendly, helpful, and cheerful. There we were, roughly half of us about to "officially disagree" with the other half via our ballots, yet we were all neighbors first and Democrats or Republicans somewhere further down the priority list.
My dad has boasted of (and subsequently often playfully ridiculed for) his high school strategy for popularity: tell jokes. He discovered that even if only 1 in 10 jokes are actually funny, people will consider you a fun person to be around. Whenever someone tells a bad joke, we say "that was one of dad's other nine". :)
The relevance of this is that standing in line waiting to enter the doorway into the room full of voting booths, it reminded me of elementary school when some rooms were converted into "haunted houses" for Halloween - we were all standing there eagerly waiting our turn to enter this mysterious and magical area.
It must've been dad's genes - for some reason I expressed my observation aloud. To my surprise, everyone around me in line busted out into laughter! I hadn't thought it was that funny of a comment, but maybe it helped alleviate some of the inherent tension of the voting process by evoking a sub-consciously uncanny parody of our situation.
After all, there's an element of spookiness because the whole process is necessarily secretive. Yet we all are eager to participate, sneaking into our walled-off booth, inscribing our coded opinions, stealing glances at friendly strangers who may or may not agree with each other, and walking out into the real world to start a regular day at the office.
Boo! :)
Dreams are rarely run-of-the-mill and last night was no exception, but since I remembered so much detail this time I thought I'd write it down and share the zaniness. For those who were "victims" of my earlier dream about Vox folks, don't worry, you're only spectators this time. :)
It begins as I'm driving home in Amanda's Subaru Forester and the usually-paved road becomes increasingly rugged until it's all rutted dirt overgrown with weeds, yet there's still steady traffic. At the top of a hill I try to turn left but it seems as if the car got tangled in the weeds! I shift to neutral, drift backward, and then engage 1st gear hoping to muscle through. No luck - the wheels have traction but the engine doesn't have enough power; I'm dumbfounded that weeds could hold back a car like that.
By now I'm holding up traffic so I exit the car to investigate, only to discover that an electric cable is caught on the undercarriage! No wonder I couldn't break free. I walk up to the car behind me and ask the guy if he has any wire cutters. He opens the center storage console of his car and offers me a selection of a half-dozen styles of snipping tools! I pick one out, put on my winter gloves to avoid electrocution, and cut the cable hoping that I can drive away before the nearby apartment complex figures out what (or who) caused them to lose power.
The scene cuts to Thanksgiving dinner at my paternal grandparents' house - although everyone is from "present day" my grandpa (who died in 1998 in real life) is there, too. All of my family - brothers, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles - are there and we're just hanging out when the doorbell rings. I answer the front door and find a mother and her 10-year-old son, who say that they're here for dinner. I explain that they can come in but that they have to walk around to the back of the house and enter through the garage.
Grandpa then asks who they are. "I don't know, but they said they're here for dinner" was my reply. I knew that he and grandma had invited local boy scouts and girl scouts to join us for dinner, but grandpa explains to me that only certain scouts were allowed and I was supposed to ask their qualifications. I reasoned to grandpa that they wouldn't be here if they weren't qualified because otherwise they wouldn't have received an invite, but it's a moot point as it turns out the boy is one of the ones who were invited.
The boy, not knowing anyone, just stands around until my brother Eric asks him if he likes video games. Of course he does, so Eric shows him how to play Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo and soon all of us cousins are taking turns playing competitively. Finally we all quit and move on to board games when cousin Gabe starts to dominate the high score list.
[Real life note: Our first video game growing up was Super Mario Bros and Eric was the first one to win the whole thing; in fact he outplayed Ryan and I at every video game. Gabe, as the legend goes, had the highest Tetris score among his entire dorm and is probably the only person to get a higher score in Tetris than Eric.]
Another boy, 8 years old, arrives with his parents. Someone asks what he enjoys and he mumbles "stuffed animals..." My brother Ryan jumps up and says "Come on, let me show you all about them" and they run upstairs where all of the plush toys are kept.
[Real life note: As kids, Ryan was the sucker for cute plush animals. Eric and I had a dozen or so each but Ryan must've had 50, most of them smaller than a softball. Whenever he saw a small, cute stuffed animal in a store he'd say "awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" and start counting his allowance money.]
The last of the scouts arrives, a 12-year-old girl, right before dinner starts. After eating we go back to playing various video games, board games; or for Ryan and the little boy, playing with stuff animals. I tried to play Nintendo with Gabe but after waiting 15 minutes he's still on his first life (trying to set a record by collecting every single coin in the game, no less) so I decide to walk around. As I leave I hear the girl asking Gabe if he's seen the Aliens or Predator movies, but he's too busy concentrating to answer.
I watch the girl as she walks over to Ryan and the boy and she asks them about Aliens and Predator, but the boy looks scared and Ryan says that she shouldn't talk about such scary movies in the presence of a young kid. She walks away as Ryan continues to explain to the little boy how the stuffed animals could gang up and defeat any aliens or predators.
I mosey over to the board game where all of my cousins plus Eric are playing a raucous game of Money! Money! Money!, yet also somehow involving a deck of playing cards. Eric and Kevin seem to be exclaiming "Dang!" after every hand and have almost no money. Eventually I realize that the gals - Betsy, Kerry, Ana, Adrienne - are ganging up on the guys - Pat, Kevin, Eric - except for being nice to Eric's new 10-year-old pal who doesn't really know how to play anyway. As I walk around behind everyone to see the cards in their hand, I realize that Pat has the gals fooled. They *think* he's losing as badly as Eric and Kevin are, but he's bluffing and building up a "shoot the moon" type of hand.
[Real life note: We played Money! Money! Money! a lot when we were younger, and as teens we played the physical card game Spoons were Eric and Kerry infamously battled over the last spoon as if it were an NFL fumble. Nowadays we still play Euchre, Crazy Cards, and other games but we might be a bit old for Spoons!]
Later on everyone gathers in the family room (somehow we all fit comfortably) to watch the Detroit Lions. I'm lying on the floor next to the 12-year-old girl so I say to her "Why do you ask about Aliens and Predator?" to which she exclaims "That's my favorite movie!" Since there have been a few of them, I ask her which one. "You actually know that there are more than one?" Come to find out that none of this girl's friends know anything about those movies (probably because they're 12-year-old girls!) and I'm finding it rather odd that this girl scout is such a huge fan.
Then in a weird, poltergeist kind of way, she explains to me that I should understand her. She begins drawing with her finger on the carpet and when she does, red lines appear on the TV similar to John Madden's telestrator! She draws a smiley face on the TV and scrawls "Aliens rock!" but nobody else appears to notice. The girl explains that I'm the only one who can see it - "It's just like The Shining" she says. Stunned, I trace an drawing on the carpet of a dog piloting a flying saucer and sure enough, it appears on the TV screen but nobody sees it except for the girl.
Eventually the Lions lose the game and it's time for everyone to go for a tractor ride. Grandpa drives his green John Deere loader towing a wagon with all of the "adults" (i.e. parents) who want a shorter, slower ride. Kevin drives his dad's red International Farmall pulling a wagon full of us "kids" for a longer, wilder ride. My dad joins us to ensure we stay safe while Uncle Denny (Kevin's dad) joins us to ensure Kevin doesn't damage the tractor.
Along the way we plan to drop off the scouts but soon we encounter Amy Poehler in the middle of a dirt road intersection! She asks for a ride to her house, pointing along one of the roads. We tell her that we're headed in the opposite direction and she begs "but it's not that far!" We laugh and explain that we're not giving her a tractor ride all the way to New York. Finally she relents, but then hops in the wagon and says that she'll just go where we're going.
We were supposed to drop off the three scouts to their homes, but first Kevin takes us to a huge hill of dirt next to a gravel pit. Kerry explains that it's the highest point in the county and somehow we decide to all race each other to the top.
[Real life note: This reminds me of when Ana, Adrienne and I climbed the bluff at Sleeping Bear Dunes.]
I'm the first one to reach the summit and there I spot a Giant River Otter! It's not full grown but still about 50 pounds, and it seems a bit sick and deranged. I try to shoo it down the hill before the others get up there, afraid that it might bite one of the kids. However, it's a persistent little bugger - every time I push it with my foot it tries to grab my leg with its hands. Eventually the kids reach the top and when the otter moves towards them, I finally get a hold of it by the scruff but it somehow grabs my arm as well and I can't shake it off!
Now I'm walking around with an otter hanging off my arm trying to keep my distance from the curious kids while also trying to get someone to help me get the otter off. Eric won't come near - he doesn't want to end up smelling like an otter. Ryan refuses because of the claws. My dad is afraid of getting rabies.
Finally Kevin says "Look, it's just an otter" and he grabs one of the otter's arms. The otter looks confused and I'm able to pull my arm away, and Kevin quickly flings the otter over the edge down the side of the hill. It lands with a thud partway down and doesn't move, and I'm concerned that Kevin may have killed it, but then I wonder if it's laughing at us when I see milk coming out its nose!
I resolve to go check on the otter once we all go back to the wagon - when everyone starts hiking back down the hill I hang behind, and when they're out of sight I quickly run down to the otter... it's gone! Thankful that it appears to have survived, I dash around the side of the hill to catch up with the group.
The End
No worries about gas prices when running on human power!
For several years I've been hoping to go for an epic bike ride from my house in Lowell to my parents' house in Ann Arbor, a distance of roughly 120 miles. With my recovering hamstring preventing me from planning any running races, I thought that maybe this year I could squeeze in an all-day bike ride.
However, "real life" gets in the way as it often does and I wasn't able to put in enough training to prepare. Sure I could've pulled it off, but I figure that to do something like riding my bike across an entire state ought to be done right. For example, a decent road bike would help compared to my 6-year-old "comfort bike".
Yeah, that's what my Giant Cypress DX is called and it's since been "tricked out" with a new seat (twice), bar-end hand grips, new pedals and second-hand pedal clips, bottle rack, speedometer, rear rack, and a cheap bike computer. It has served me well over the years on the roads, mountain bike trails, and even in adventure races. But it's not a fast bike.
A few years ago I bought a 25-year-old Peugot road bike for $65 just to see what a road bike feels like. Despite being an old 10-speed I easily averaged a full 1 mph faster on my standard routes. That bike is now in need of repair so the Cypress is all I have, meaning that a 120-mile ride would take 10-12 hours including food stops whereas a nice road bike could shave a few hours off of that time.
Ready to ride despite the rain.
Instead I planned a ride that traveled 55 miles, starting near Lansing and finishing at my parents' house. Last Sunday Amanda dropped me off near Webbersville at the I-96 exit in a heavy, steady rain! I was standing in a two-inch deep puddle as I unloaded my bike from the car and got ready to go. Due to the weather I had to keep all of my gear in a dry-bag bungeed to the rack on my bike and I wore a rain jacket to stay warm. You can see what the weather was like in Amanda's video:
The first 15 miles of my ride were solo as I pedaled my way to Stockbridge where I would meet Dad. It took me about an hour despite a strong WNW crosswind on my southbound road and the steady rain blurring up my sunglasses. Believe it or not I found the glasses to be of help because they kept splashes and road grit out of my eyes, but also being polarized it really cut down the glare from the wet road.
No frogs here, yet...
Worse than the wind and the rain were the frogs - dead ones. The shoulder of the road was littered with hundreds of dead frogs! I don't know why so many were trying to cross and getting hit and why they ended up on the shoulder but I was constantly weaving my tires among the slimy amphibian bodies, not wanting to get a taste of frog leg sushi kicked up into my mouth!
Finally I made it to Stockbridge and rendez-voused with my parents. Dad's raincoat was rather heavy - it's meant for field work, not cycling - so Mom offered him the $1 "emergency poncho" that she keeps in her car. He was quite pleased although the poncho went down to his knees and he just about fell over trying to hop on his bike when the plastic caught on his seat! Mom had to trim off a foot or so of plastic and after the obligatory photo, we were on our way.
Dad and I are "waterproofed" prior to hitting the Lakelands Trail
Our route took advantage of the Lakelands Trail, a linear state park created as a Rails to Trails project. The first several miles of the trail were packed dirt that was rather rough in some areas due to horse traffic. We'd had several days of rain here in Michigan and the ground was wet but not soft. The bumpiness was pretty rough on me as Dad kept looking back wondering why I was lagging behind. I think his fresh legs had a bit more pep that mine after having ridden for an hour just to meet him!
Soon after starting down the trail the rain stopped and since the temperature was already 70 degrees even in the rain, we were plenty comfortable. It was actually splendid weather for a ride with overcast skies, a now NW breeze and warm air temps.
When my water bottle ran dry we stopped in Pinckney at a gas station to refill and we also chomped on some food: a Power Bar for Dad and some Clif Bloks for me. When planning the ride we talked about stopping here for food but we both were feeling very good and decided to just continue to our "dessert stop", a Dairy Queen in Hamburg.
For quite a while I was telling stories about the interesting politics I've been getting involved with in Lowell, only to be occasionally interrupted when Dad would point out one of "his" many projects in the area - a water tower, a subdivision, a boardwalk, and more - he's a land development civil engineer with lots of handiwork in Livingston County.
Suddenly Dad said "Oops!" It turns out he completely missed the turn for Dairy Queen! We'd been distracted by the conversation and since I've never been on the trail before, I was relying on his navigation. We only went about half a mile out of our way so it wasn't too bad, and when Dairy Queen is the destination you don't lose any motivation to get there.
At the DQ Dad got a large chocolate shake and I ordered a Blizzard with M&Ms, but asked if they could use chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla. The guy at the counter suggested their "Chocolate Extreme" flavor - chocolate ice cream with hot fudge syrup, fudge brownie chunks, and pieces of hard chocolate mixed in. Awesome! Yes, I love chocolate, but I also learned that even I have limits - a large Blizzard more than filled me up, but it was worth it.
Sitting at the outdoor table at DQ my dad whipped out his Blackberry and showed off some coolness, like how he can pull up a weather radar image. Days before our ride he had mentioned this and I teased him, saying "How would that help us on the ride? Are we going to see imminent rain and decide to pedal faster?"
We'd been riding precipitation-free for hours but looking at his Blackberry the radar image showed that a ton of rain was right upon us despite the bright but overcast skies. Wouldn't you know it... five minutes later as we pulled out of the DQ parking lot some big, fat drops of water started to fall! We could only laugh at the irony and besides, we'd been soaking wet since Stockbridge.
Soon we were at the end of Lakelands Trail and heading south on back roads near US-23 on our way home. The skies never did manage to open up - occasionally it would sprinkle a bit but then stop. Since the rain was coming from the NW and we were riding south I think we were keeping ahead of the weather.
Recharged with chocolate I was feeling pretty good but Dad was starting to tire out and we took a couple of extended water breaks on the side of the road to rest the legs. With about five miles to go our quads began to cramp up - both of us at the same time! Yet fortunately a couple miles later our legs relented and allowed us to finish our ride in comfort.
All smiles after dozens of miles.
But not in style - the first thing Mom said when we pulled into the driveway was "Wow, you're muddy!" Actually I didn't think it was that bad, but Mom insisted on a "rear-end view" photo nonetheless. Dad explained how only a two mile stretch of Warren Road was to blame - the rest of the entire route was paved or puddle-less dirt.
If Mom thinks this is "muddy", wait until we go mountain biking!
Dad and I also discovered that one or both of our bike computers isn't calibrated correctly - mine had logged a couple more miles than Dad's over the same course! I used MapMyRun to determine that my Webberville-to-Stockbridge solo ride was 15.2 "mapped" miles compared to 15.4 "computed" miles so it seems mine is a bit off. However, it's hard to say for sure about the rest of the ride since our double-back for missing Hamburg can only be guessed for distance.
All told my computer showed 55.3 miles, so assuming that it's off by 0.2 every 15.4, my total distance would be 54.6 - not a major error. I'll just call it 55 miles and be content.
Soon after getting home the "Blackberry rain" arrived and it began to pour cats and dogs. Two of the dogs were mine - Haven and Beacon arrived with Amanda and her parents, as did Ryan and Megan. We all (except the dogs) went to dinner at Red Robin where it rained even harder and the restaurant even lost power for a couple seconds before the backup kicked in! Perhaps it was a good day to not be riding 120 miles after all!
Overall the ride was a total blast and surprisingly "easy" if 50+ miles can ever be deemed easy. The route was pancake flat except for a few short hills between Hamburg and Ann Arbor and traffic on the non-trail roads was never a problem. My legs were sore for the next couple days but I never felt bonky or worn out. I'm already thinking about doing this again! But not this weekend. :)
...and I'm OK!
There's an impressive tree in our front yard, 80 feet tall and straight as a telephone pole. It's also every bit as alive as a telephone pole, so my dad brought out his chainsaw and we set to work enticing the giant relic to lay down.
Being so well balanced we were pretty confident we could get all 80 feet to fall at an angle that wouldn't hit any other living trees. My dad cut a classic notch in the "front", i.e. the side in the direction we wanted it to fall.
Once notched, we then did the back-cut on the "back" of the tree, starting above the notch and running down into it, figuring it would force the tree forward. We finally got the back-cut to meet the notch so we moved away...
...and nothing. There was a breeze yet the tree wasn't even swaying! Dad worked the chainsaw a bit more and finally the beast began to move. A few seconds later a thunderous CRACK blasted right through our earplugs as all 80 feet of wood hit the ground at once.
Amazingly there was a two-inch wide, half-inch thick piece of uncut wood in the center of the stump that had been holding up the entire tree! I counted the rings - 30 years old, give or take.
After cutting up the trunk and hauling tons of tree into the woods for "burial" we were too worn out to bother finishing off the stump, sitting still 4 feet tall, so my dad left his chainsaw behind for me to use.
A couple days ago I finally de-stumped the front lawn and it took me 1.5 hours in 90-degree weather to do it. First I cut off the top 2 feet which must've weighed 200 lbs. Then the bottom half...
The chainsaw is significantly shorter than the stump is wide thanks to the six "buttresses" jutting out. I had to make a cut around the circumference as deep as possible, then notch-cut away the buttresses so I could push the saw blade in deep enough to cut the center.
This chunk probably weighed 300-400 lbs but maybe it just felt heavy since I rolled the top half into the woods first and was pretty darn toasted by this point. I cut some slices into the top of the remaining stump (it's only an inch high or so) to help it decompose faster, and voila!
Michael Phelps is the new "Mike" and one of my favorite moments was his interview aired this morning on NBC when they asked Phelps about his plans. He said "I miss my dog! I want to go home and see my dog."
While Phelps has a good excuse for not seeing his dog, I don't have a good one for not writing. I've been in a prolonged writer's block in a way - not for a lack of ideas and topics as I have several half-written articles laying around, but in the evening when I have the most time to write, I have the least energy to do so. I can't figure out why, but one possibility is a lack of running has messed with my energy/metabolism/something in my system?
Anyway, for those who are curious, a chronological rundown of some highlights lately:
- 23 July - My last run; since then have only skated twice and cycled twice.
- 26-27 July - Along with Amanda, my parents, my uncle, and my cousins and aunt, we helped said aunt build her new deck. Two long days in clear-sky sun were pretty tiring and somehow my hamstring got sore doing this work, which prompted the break from running.
- 02 August - Amanda and I watched some of the Ada Criterium inbetween reorganizing the Critter Cottage. We moved literally 1-2 tons of food plus shelving, etc. That evening we drove to Kalamazoo to attend a party with one of Amanda's friends.
- 03 August - Amanda's parents drove out to help us finish up at the Critter Cottage, which looks amazing now that we've taken lots of products off of the floor and put them up onto the walls.
- 04 August - We took Haven and Beacon to the beach on Lake Michigan and had a blast. The dogs tried out our new Ruff Wear float coat and the liked how it keeps their head a bit higher above the water, especially with all the big waves. Haven joined me on the ankle-deep sandbar about 70 yards out and I learned that I'm no Michael Phelps - I raced Haven back to shore and she kept up with my freestyle!
- 12-13 August - Two all-day off-site meetings for my new project at work, which looks like it will be a lot of fun.
- 13 August - Attended a city council public work session with 50 other residents for a highly contentious issue about money, of course. When it was clear that nobody was moving towards a resolution I spontaneously stepped to the podium... Apparently I rambled a bit in my speech but it seemed to help everyone refocus and someone even suggested I run for city coucil!
- 15 August - Went inline skating with Haven! Using a new Ruff Wear roamer leash helped and Haven loved the fast running, but boy did she ever get tired! We managed 4 miles at about 8 mph average so she's been resting this weekend.
Nevada Mountain Bear tagged me from the world of Wordpress and it's about time I answered her:
**Note: I give up on the colors. Maybe someone from Vox can explain why selecting "green" makes things "blue" and only half the time...
1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? Usually either, but sometimes I like to get creative and use things like cereal boxes, the Sunday funnies, towels, or even crazier stuff.
2. Real tree or artificial? My grandparents used to operate a tree farm on their land and real trees are more environmentally friendly, so definitely REAL.
3. When do you put up your tree? Just a few days before Xmas, if at all.
4. When do you take down your tree? Certainly before New Year's.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but my mom wouldn't let us drink it as kids because she was afraid of salmonella.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My AT-AT when I was about 8 years old - it was a gift that changed my life. I used to insist that all of my toys were symmetrical - no kidding! I didn't like the Transformers with a single shoulder-cannon because of this, for example. I had wanted my AT-AT so badly, I just thought it was the coolest vehicle ever imagined, and when I got it I realized that small details (such as little hatches and ports molded into the plastic) were not identical on each side. I still loved my AT-AT so I decided that it was OK if things weren't symmetrical.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Amanda's parents. They always get her lots of stuff and they never want or need anything for themselves so we have to rack our brains for ideas.
9. Easiest person to buy for? Amanda, Haven and Beacon. :)
10. Worst Christmas gift you’ve ever received? The complete 1988 set of Score baseball cards. I had asked Santa for the 1985 Topps set, something I had really wanted since my first ever baseball card was a 1985 and because it had the cards for the 1984 Olympic Team. However, my brother was given the 1985 Topps set (even though he hadn't asked for it) and I got the far less cool (and less valuable) 1988 Score. Adding insult in later years is that the 1985 Topps is considered one of the greatest sets in our generation.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Snail mail; Amanda and I just finished writing them tonight.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? A Charlie Brown Christmas.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Not before December but I don't like to wait until the last minute, either.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Of course, but only token gifts.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My brothers and I used to always get boxes of Gerber baby cereal in our stockings and we'd eat it for breakfast Xmas morning. I still like to eat baby cereal on occasion.
16. White or colored lights? BLUE. Nothing looks more spectacular and serene than blue lights.
17. Favorite Christmas song? A Chipmunk Christmas.
18. Traveling for Christmas or stay home? Traveling locally.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers? "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all?"
20. Angel or Star on top of tree? We used to put our stuffed Ewoks on top of the tree!
21. Open presents Christmas Eve or Morning? Both. Xmas eve we got to open one present; invariably it was a new pair of PJs that we wore to bed that night, or sometimes new bathrobes to wear in the morning. The rest of our gifts we opened first thing in the morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Radio stations that forgo playing 80's music and start playing holiday tunes as early as October.
23. What I love most about Christmas? Today at the Critter Cottage a young girl donated FIFTY DOLLARS to Vicky's Pet Connection that she had saved up over the past year. She had allocated 10% of her allowance money to charity and decided on VPC as her benefactor. What I love most about this is that most holiday donations to non-profits are simply a decision of "how much extra do we happen to have that we can give away?" but this girl planned to donate long ago and stuck to her plan for an entire year. To me, this signifies that she was thinking about non-profits all year long and not just due to the influence of "holiday spirit". We were all very impressed.
It was also a bit sentimental for me. Back when I was 11 years old I donated $25 to the local Humane Society of Huron Valley where we'd adopted our second family dog. I remember that the lady who took my donation was utterly shocked. It never occurred to me that I should do anything else with that money - like today's young girl, I had been allocating 10% of my allowance for charity. Apparently inflation has had quite an effect; it took me several years to save up $25 while this girl raised $50 in just one year. :)
Last month my little brother Ryan got married; this past Friday my middle brother Eric said his vows with his new wife Julie. Some photos...
The church actually had a dedicated room for the bride and bridesmaids to wait in before the ceremony began; meanwhile the groom and groomsmen were relegated to the nursery! We made sure to enjoy it:
The beautiful couple:
Let's get away!
...that I went for another long run! Focusing on 5Ks this year has allowed me to neglect the weekend long run a bit too much. Since I'm signed up for a trail marathon in two weeks, I decided I better find out today if I'm still in shape.
Before that, I had a very busy schedule this weekend. Friday afternoon I left work early to drive two hours to my middle brother Eric's bachelor party where his buddies had rented a cottage on a lake. We fished for bluegill and smallmouth off the dock, tried out the canoe, enjoyed the sunset from a pontoon boat, and I learned to play poker.
I got home a little after midnight and six hours later I was awake and driving to the Critter Cottage with Amanda to open shop early for the expected crowds of the Ada Criterium cycling race. Unfortunately the crowds weren't nearly what we'd hoped due to a course change, but it was still fun to hang out with Vicky and watch some of the racing.
However we had to leave early to drive over to the West Michigan Whitecaps ballpark where my company co-ed softball team got to play an exhibition game on the professional playing field! My company bought 3,300 tickets plus BBQ passes at the 10,000-seat stadium and the Whitecaps rolled out the red carpet to ensure we come back next year. First at-bat I hit a 3-run HR over the outfielder's head! Rounding 3rd I saw that the cutoff man didn't have the ball yet and I was going to score easily, so I made the most of my opportunity to dirty my "uniform" with a head-first slide into home plate! Woo hoo!!! We won the game 6-1.
After our exhibition was the real baseball game, where we watched the Whitecaps lose to "Mantis Boy" quite badly. Amanda and I called the opposing starter "Mantis Boy" because during pre-game warm-ups he spent about 15 minutes repeating an exercise where he squatted, arched his hands like Mr. Burns and then walked sideways for about 30-40 feet. Being tall and lanky made it look even funnier, but apparently it worked. After the game we watched the fireworks before heading home, barely making it to bed before midnight.
Up at 7am this morning and two hours later Amanda and I were out the door for our long workouts. Amanda walked 7 miles in two hours while I ran 16.6 miles in 3 hours. It was my first double-digit run since a 10-mile trail run with Haven and Beacon six weeks ago, and my second since running 16 miles in the countryside back in April! Luckily it appears that I still have my endurance since I felt good the entire run; well, as good as "good" can feel while running for three hours but I was really enjoying the cool, misty weather. Hopefully this means I'm fit enough to survive a spontaneous marathon!
Finally after our workouts and some shopping errands Amanda and I were finally "free", so we plopped on the couch to watch Indiana Jones on DVD while I played my weekly baseball games for my fantasy simulation league. I also finally wrote a new article on Why Run about two runners of the Badwater Ultramarathon, so hopefully those of you who read that blog weren't getting too bored!
These are probably two of my mom's favorite photos of her three sons...
