My Double Standard

I think I may have blogged about one of my double standards before. But since it keeps rearing its ugly head in my life I probably should keep confessing it. It plays itself out in my life something like this:

This morning I was skating and coming down the home stretch to my house, rounding the last corner. I usually take the corner slow because sometimes there is a car coming but then I crank into a sprint on the straight away for the last half block. Today a car was approaching from the opposite direction. As always my attention focused on the driver's head and eyes so that I could discern whether they noticed me. This lady obviously did not see me. I could tell by her left-over-right hand movement on the steering wheel. That's a racing grip. When I do that I am bearing down to make a tight corner. She cut over into my lane and dug in - she obviously planned to turn so tight so as to rub the curb. This left me NO room. I had only bad choices. I entered into my "what the heck am I going to do now" problem solving process. My choices were A) Grass roll B) Flying body block into the street sign, C)Sqeeeezze by in my 1 inch lane, or D) Take the car on. I thought "Ah, it'll be just like a hip check from my hockey days". But I chose C.

The lady noticed me finally after my waving hand slipped into her cab and almost smacked her on the nose (I had no evil intentions.) I said "Hellloooo!!!??' and squeezed by without even a misstep. She kept right on going.

Immediately I thought "Man! I suppose if I were that driver I'd be thinking "What a stupid skater, he needs to be more careful. One wrong move and I'm plowing him." and the next thought was "As a skater, if anyone ever does hit me, I'm suing big time. Some drivers are just mindless morons."

You see? It's torturous. There are so many conflicts. I simply can not hold to both beliefs at the same time. Something has to be done about it.

Last Words

I can read this list and imagine the scenes. Hilarious!

* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

* Trust me.

* Wonder what this button does ?

* You jump down and distract him, and I'll shoot him.

* Well ...., I'll touch it again

* It's probably just a rash.

* Are you sure the power is off?

* Yeah, I made the deciding vote on the jury, so what of it?

* The odds of that happening have to be a million to one!

* I wonder where the mother bear is.

* I've seen this done on TV.

* These are the good kind of mushrooms.

* I'll hold it and you light the fuse.

* Let it down slowly.

* Rat poison only kills rats.

* It's strong enough for both of us.

* This doesn't taste right.

* I can make this light before it changes.

* Nice doggie.

* I can do that with my eyes closed.

* I've done this before.

* Well, we've made it this far.

* That's odd.

* Now watch this.

Phew! I have said more than half these myself. My favorite is "Well...., I'll touch it again." What other famous last words have you heard before?

Love Song

Happy 14th Anniversary Carla!

Love Song by The Cure. One of the greatest songs ever. Carla and I dance the night away to this song 14 years ago today. Carla, sorry the guy looks so scary but I wanted good sound and live sound. I will always love you!



Another great song we played at our wedding.

Cross My Heart by George Straight

Electro Man - More Power Than A Microwave

Another appliance bites the dust.

Yesterday I was doing my typical pressing the microwave buttons at the speed of light behavior. Its a quick shooter instinct. I like to see how many time combinations I can cycle through and still arrive at my standard cook everything at 3 minutes setting. As soon as I hit the enter button on my last iteration all my senses were rocked by four intense crackling pops, like fire crackers inches from my nose. Strange. No sparks, no smoke, no smell. Being shell shocked, and a software trouble shooter by day, I tried to reproduce the problem. Nothing. The microwave powered on but it sounded a little different and upon further testing I declared it dead.

With each instance I am slowly accepting my power.

Electro Man Ready To Ride The Lightning

This time next Sunday I will be heading out the door to the St. Paul Inline Marathon. I am ready to go after my goal of finishing in 1:40 or less. Although, I still do not have the skin suit so many of my "loyal" fans have promised me. I have been expecting something like....



Skin suit or not I will ride the lightning.

By the way, I did fall yesterday. After 10 miles at 15 mph I slowed to almost a completed stop at my driveway and raised my left leg to step over the small curb and down I went. No drama, no skidding, no major intense moment, just an embarrassing crumble over a 1 inch step...to keep me humble I suppose.

Profiled

I submitted my "racer" profile to Inline Skate Minneapolis and they posted it today.

Click here: Racing Profile

Take Financial Peace University Online

If you can't find a local session of Financial Peace University, enroll in the online version.

My wife and I took the classes locally through our church. I liked being with other people going through the sessions together, but yet I found the small group times to be less than I expected. I suppose it comes down to the leaders and the willingness of each participant to truly commit and be real in the groups. I personally was almost sleeping each night by the time the groups started as Wednesdays at that time were very long days for me.

One aspect I really like about the online version is that you don't have to wait for each weekly session (I think). I believe you can watch as many sessions in a row as you'd like.

25.8 Miles this morning and St. Paul Marathon is 29 days away

My training plan told me I was to skate 24 miles this morning. I was up late last night celebrating the 4th with my family and ate one too many hamburgers. This morning when the alarm screamed at 5:00 I was not thrilled with what I planned to do for the next two hours. The pain in my neck that has persisted the last few days was also trying its best to persuade me to just stay in bed. I got up, stretched a ton and headed out.

In 1 hour and 58 minutes I was rolling back down the block toward my house after skating 25.8 miles. I went on my south route which is 18 miles and north which is 8 miles. I kept thinking 18 + 8 = 24 so I was determined to just finish my route. During the last 2 miles I realized my elementary math skills were off. Fine with me.

It was a great skate. Now I move in to tapering down my long distances over the next three weeks and focus on resting and staying flexible. I am also going to eat better by increasing protein and consuming only fruit and veggies.

A Story of Real Freedom

Real freedom in Jesus