40 yard dash

I can still tie my soon to be 12 year old son in a short race. 

I can beat him if he looks at me and starts laughing.

It’s hard to swim when you’re laughing

Something I often remember in the deep end when wrestling with my boys.

Last night we found out it’s also hard to throw a basketball.

I wish I had a present that would make me run

Said my wife.

We got our 18 year old son an iPod for Christmas, and he’s been out running (4+ miles) every day since.

Grocery Tetris

During an unexpected opening in my schedule, I was able to join my wife in shopping for groceries – more or less as a “date”.  Having been in this situation before (shopping with her), and realizing that as long as I don’t know what we’re looking for and thus don’t know what to do, it’s very easy for it to look like I’m not very happy about it all.  I have learned that it is not a good idea for me to scuff along behind her acting as if I’m being “dragged along” – as she calls it - because that only leads to trouble and can spoil the “date”.  So, I offered to push the cart.  Soon thereafter, however, I noticed that the cart was not being loaded efficiently, and that if the frozen items were closer to each other – they would help one another remain frozen – and boom!! – I was “in”. 

Loading groceries in a cart properly is really quite a challenge, and the variables involved are satisfyingly diverse; shape, temperature, crush-ability, food group, ultimate storage location, and potential chemical reactions – just to name a few.  Much like the computer game “Tetris”, you never know what shape is coming next, so you have to plan ahead a bit, but be willing to change the plan. 

I also soon discovered that grocery stores are not organized in an order that would optimize my cart arrangement schema and it turned out to be a fairly significant crisis when near the end of the trip I suddenly had to pack an entire gallon of white vinegar and two gallons of milk!  More than once I think I saw my wife roll her eyes in admiration as I was feverishly trying to rearrange things in the cart while she’s already half way down the aisle with a handful of items that I haven’t let her give me to put in the cart yet. 

I’m cool, though, real casual and inconspicuous about it all – even though I did take several photos of the process with my cell phone – just to show the “guys” if it ever comes up in, you know, a conversation.

I was rather successful overall in my mission, and I’m sure I was also a pleasant and charming companion during the shopping date.  Having played the game well, I’m looking forward to my next opportunity.  But, I’ve also learned some things for next time; for example, God made groceries to not fit together so well so that the typical shopper would sooner recognize that the cart was indeed full and thus the budget for groceries already consumed.  You see, my overly efficient storage methods pushed our total bill 30% over expectations, and it took a lot more conveyor belt at the cashier than we’ve ever used before, and the cashier wasn’t nearly so careful so to pack things as I was, so it took more cart(s) to get the items away from the register than the one it took to get them there. 

Next time…

I sure know how to pick ‘em

I’m fairly famous for having picked out the exact same ring as a Christmas gift for my wife two consecutive years in a row.  The worse part being, of course, not having remembered that she already had that ring.

The other day when looking for my new b-ball shoes, I was only able to find two lefts – exactly matching with no discernible differences.  Apparently, I replaced my two year old shoes which were hurting my feet with exactly the same shoe – size, color, make, the works! 

Strangest of all, I can’t tell them apart, but the new pair don’t hurt my feet as much as the old pair.

Riding with the Brakes On

I just got back from 2 hours of bike riding – pulling my littlest boys with the bike trailer.  I know I’m in bad shape – but this was unbearably difficult.  Then I discovered about 75% of the way through that my rear brakes were out of adjustment and one of the pads was pretty much “on” all the time. 

No wonder!

A cold wind blows…

My son’s high-school track meet was canceled today “because of the wind”.  Apparently they don’t want the pole-vaulters blowing around.

I don’t suppose the sub-freezing wind chill factors have any thing to do with it.

Duck Hunting with Grapefruit

I found a rotten grapefruit in our fridge, so I went out on the deck and tried to show off my throwing arm by chucking it into the pond/puddle behind our house.  I shorted it pretty bad, so I looked around for another one that was sort of rotten and challenged my 17 year old son to try to hit the pond.  He accepted the challenge.

There were a couple of ducks on the far side, and we could tell early in the flight that it was going to be a lot closer than he had intended.  At the last moment, the ducks jumped/flew out of the way, avoiding the descending grapefruit by inches.

It was a great throw.

Track Damage

My 17 year old son had his first track practice yesterday.  He showed me a skid mark on his knee.  “Did you get a ‘track burn’?”, I asked him.

“No”, he replied, “We we’re doing push-ups and I collapsed on the carpet.”

2 in 24:40

I’ve progressed from two miles in 30+ minutes to 2 in 24:40.

That’s the problem with exercise – you keep having to work harder.