What a Week. What a Year.
The numbers are too high to grasp. Even the videos don't capture the true extent of the devastation of this past week. The same earth-moving forces that created the Himalaya Mountains caused a mountain of ocean water to rise and wash away the land. Unfortunately, over 100,000 people were not able to get out of the way....
What a Day, What a Night
I'm out there mountain bike riding 3 hours today. Two rides actually. A warm up ride (a little over an hour) followed by a night ride. Yes, that's right. A night ride, in the woods, on a mountain bike. 10 watt light (helmet mounted) to illuminate the trail with arm warmers to keep my hands warm. That's all there is to it. The helmet light can keep light on the trail no matter where the trail turns to or what direction the bike is headed. At night the roots don't look as bad (difficult to see) so speeds at least the same as daylight speeds are easy to achieve.
Incredibly Sad
Tsunami. A sea wave of local or distant origin that results from large-scale seafloor displacements associated with large earthquakes, major submarine slides, or exploding volcanic islands.
In this case the cause was an underwater earthquake that measured 9.0 on the Richter scale.
The loss is immeasurable.
37 Degrees at 8:30 am
Not only that, it had been sprinkling for 10 minutes before I arrived at parking area #3.
I have not ridden in thirty-seven degrees before, however, I did fine over 18 miles. Just one layer of clothes were needed once I warmed up. I spent today in the woods with sounds of gunshots in the background. (Small game hunting season until January 6 up
there.)
The temperature was 45 degrees when we returned to the parking lot at 12:00. Those are cool temperatures for Florida. Something to do with thinner blood from the normal heat of the state. It will be warmer tomorrow.
10 Things We Learned About Blogs
I started this blog back in May of this year.
My first post was an attempt to learn the answer to "What is a blog anyway?". Tired of the standard "anything you want it to be" answer, I set out on my quest. I posted as much as I could, maybe not as much as I should have but I even posted during hurricanes. Now, more than 7 months after starting, I am still trying to answer that same question. Looking for alternate opinions, I asked several member of my family to check this site out and report back. "What's the point?" and "Why would you put such things on the internet?" are valid questions to which I have no real answers. Yet, I see other blogs with similar thoughts and ideas. Most blogs just march confidently on without ever considering the question.
Then comes this article "
10 Things We Learned About Blogs" where the same question is in the background. I found it in the blogger news section of the dashboard page. (Click the "Blogger" button at the top left corner of this web page). The article doesn't offer an answer to "what is a blog?" but it does talk about what results can be found from 10 (or more) blogs.
Maybe that's all it is, just a medium that we still need to figure out. Like writing a song or creating a poem. Some new way of communicating to be sorted out. Will blogging be as popular as television turned out or will it go the way of passing fads? Only time will tell.
However, I no longer feel bad about not knowing the answer. In fact, I think I need to do more research.
See you again in seven months?
;)
Spanglish
The
movie. Deborah Clasky: Played by Téa Leoni.
I think she did a great job with a tough part. The character's manipulation of other family characters (while appearing oblivious to repercussions) was hard to portray and sometimes felt exaggerated but was mostly understandable. Few things in life are as obvious as some of the character stunts pulled in the movie but many can be just as disruptive.
In fact, just after the movie, I was treated to a real life "it's all about me and your views don't occur to me in my world" altercation over a bottle of water. Sure, there are two sides to every story but no matter how hard you try two people can't see the same thing when looking at something at the same time. The point of view is always slightly different. Nothing more and nothing less than "different".
Midnight Mass
Why am I thinking about the people who come in late and leave early? I'm not talking about those people who "oops traffic was bad" were simply late for "midnight" mass. I'm talking about those folks that not only arrive late but also leave early. They know who they are. It might look a little "iffy" to me but I feel no thoughts of judgement. I really do not care about the answers of why they are late. I wonder more about all the other questions it brings up.
In the overall jigsaw puzzle of life how much is good enough? Does it matter?
Happy Anniversary
The Flinstones World Anniversary. Check it out.
Happy Birthday
Today is your special day! Enjoy it.
The Osborne Family Lights at Disney MGM Studios
What an impressive display of over 3 million lights. This spectacular is a regular at this theme park. I took some time today and walked through this area.
Two days later and it's still "ouch"
Ok, so move the red lines up a few ribs and it will match my "discomfort" area.
You see, I didn't tell all about my
Sunday ride. Early in the ride I took a right instead of a left at a corner I'm not familiar with. I didn't know the right line to ride and I wasn't familiar enough with the new bike to get up and over a tree trunk without slipping the rear tire. I went down on my left side and hit a root with my rib cage. During the ride it hurt to breathe deeply but I kept on riding. Today it still hurts.
Looks like I'm in for a few months rib healing to look forward to.
Can True Balance be achieved?
I keep telling myself it's important to "find the balance point" where everything important receives equal attention. Today I'm convinced that balance can never be reached. At least not by me and especially not in a timely manor. Remember my post about messages being understood only over time? It's like that. If I knew then (when I was younger) what I know now.....
Let me explain.
I learned about myself today by watching my sister try to have conversations with visitors while her kids were playing in the room. It was not easy to do, especially with active kids in the room. I thought my sister was paying too much attention to her kids and thus lost a lot of the adult conversation she was trying to have when sister pushed brother (or similar). While thinking about this "imbalance" I was reminded of my past. I have previously seen my grandkids do the same things I saw today and none of their parents seemed to pay attention. I would jump in before anyone "got hurt" but I really don't think I stopped anything and it was just my worry that prompted me to intervene. My "balance" is not the same as the "relaxed" parents nor is it the same as the attentive parents. (Keep in mind that no kids were harmed at any time during this example.)
I don't think I paid enough of the right kind of attention to my own kids. I recently heard a transcript of a conversation I had with my ex-wife back before the divorce was even filed. This forced me to think back. I couldn't change fast enough to keep up with how fast my kids were growing up. By the time I figured one thing out, my kids were already on to another phase and I had to start learning again. Once I learned "everything", my kids were gone and living lives of their own.
I often complained "Why can't someone tell me how to do things so I can avoid some of the pitfalls of learning the 'hard way'?". Today, I thought about telling my sister some of the cool things that I know about kids growing up. That was just before sister yells at younger brother and mom jumps to attention...and my train of thought disappeared.
I learned today that true balance is an illusion. With only 24 hours in a day we each pay attention to what we can with the experience of what we know at the moment we choose to act. And just like that, things have changed again.
Am I ready for this week?
Have I ever ready for "the last week before the end of year holiday" week? Hmmm...
I sure started out right, or wrong depending upon your viewpoint. 4 hours of mountain bike riding. Well, four hours out on the trail. That doesn't mean I was riding all that time though. My heart rate monitor says I rode 2 hours and 23 minutes but I noticed several times (at rest places) that I had paused at the last stop and forgot to start it back up. So, some time is not included and I estimate I missed about 40 minutes of riding.
Even still, the unit tracked some interesting things. My maximum heart rate during the ride was 168 beats per minute. My maximum heart rate (all out, 100%) is 174 bpm. I'm told you should never exercise at a rate higher than 85% of max for much longer than a few minutes. 168 bpm is about 96% of my max. During my tracked ride I had a total time OVER 155 (89%)bpm being 45 minutes. That seems way too high and way too long considering how much I have NOT been exercising lately. It was a fun day but, during the ride, I had little idea my body was working so hard. (I heard the 'over max' alarm but never looked to see how high it was)
The place is called Alafia and it is a really great state park with some beautiful mountain bike trails.
So what does this have to do with "this" week? I don't know. Maybe that's why I'm not ready for this week.
Which "Donnie Darko" character am I ?
Good Morning Mrs. Pomeroy. As a teacher, you're
amazing. You actually care about people and
want to get them away from the effects of
apathy and this "perscribed
nonsense". You know how to really
comunicate with kids and are a very liberal
person. You and you're love interest, Dr.
Monnitoff make for very interesting people. But
your interesting ideas and takes on life make
you none the less human. I mean, we all need to
scream every once in a while. At least you
allow yourself the release.
Which Donnie Darko Character Are You? brought to you by Quizilla
Happiness, like meaning, is not found in a moment
It (happiness or meaning) is found by putting together the pieces between each moment. Interpreting thoughts behind words and images. Words can't convey my message, they can only shed light or suggest meaning. Like many movies you have seen, interpretation is left to the viewer.
This time of year is exciting. The air crisp and clear, with the sun low in the sky. Evenings are wonderful to look at. The sky reminds me what a cool place this is. I love looking at the moon where the brightest sliver allows you to see the full outline of the moon. The night sky, after sunset but before the light completely fades ... thrills me. I don't know why but that, with all the deep blue color and bright white of the moon, is one of my favorite moments.
I Love this place.
What's Behind Shouting on Cell Phones?
I've often wondered why people talk louder on cell phones and now I know.
It's because you can't hear yourself through the cell phone. Listen to the full NPR story
here.
. 
. 
