August 26, 2008
What could happen in 70 days?
Alert, alert, the summer is now over. Vroom, it went by and I really don’t have one complain at all. I think one phrase that would sum up the experience would be
From trash to treasure.
There just seemed to be many days that eventually went my way. Let’s see, first there was finding a CD on the side of the road during a bike ride. Lucky me it was Paula Abdul’s first CD. I had to laugh when a friend of mine mentioned that it surely would have been weird if you happen to get hurt on your bike ride and people found that CD in your pocket. Then there was using my credit card points for a gift certificate at Home Depot so that I could buy my first grill. Turns out that they did not have the one I wanted. So, I bough some accesssories, such as the Beer Chik-can. I would have never bought that crazy thing but now I am so glad that did because I have now eaten many delicious chicken meals. Then there was my other grill. My teeth, which had been neglected for the past four years, finally saw the dentist. Thank Buddha that I don’t have to deal with the gap in between my molars anymore. However, I do have to get a crown for one of the molars. Perhaps that idea of trying to save money and not go to the dentist was not as good as an idea that I thought to believe. Then there was finding a different day care for Charlie that was $30 cheaper a week, 20 minutes closer to our house, and even nicer too. Overall, I am sure that there were many other “Trash to Treasure” events during this summer; these just happen to be the ones that first cross my mind. TIme to discover the jewels of the upcoming fall. No need to rush though, still have four weeks of summer to soak in.
June 15, 2008
Dada’s Day with many special surprises.
I am enjoying my 3rd Father’s Day – that is if I am allowed to count the one when Charlie was still in the womb. Oh well, the more the merrier. We just returned from going out to eat with her side of the family, which was about 40 people. About 10 minutes from home, I had a quick flashback to the good ol’ country of Indiana as fumes of fresh farm wafted into my nostrils. To my surprise the smell was something different. April looked back at Charlie in his car seat to see his hands covered in poo. Clean up time was spectacular and my wife summed it well, “Happy Father’s Day!”
April gifted me a very sweet present. It was a frame with a poem and Charlie’s footprints. Here is the poem.
Someday I’ll walk through the woods or even run a race,Someday I’ll fix a buckle or even tie a lace,Someday I’ll walk across the street or even into space,Someday I might even try to walk my daddy’s pace.
Someday I’ll climb way up high in a big huge tree,Someday I may even hike the big ole P.C.T.Someday I’ll walk to kindergarten and learn my ABC’s,Someday I’ll walk around at a university.
Someday I’ll ride a tricycle and then I’ll ride a bike,Someday I’ll call you, Daddy, for some fatherly advice.Someday I’ll walk beside you , and I will say this twice,“Thank you Dad, Than you Dad, you are the sunshine of my life!”
June 13, 2008
Summer Sizzle
Summer is almost here but we have been sizzling from the heat already. I have no idea what I mean by that. We have had some super duper great days and some poopy days. Those poopy days, I mean that literally. I am talking about Charlie’s poo all over his crib in the morning type of poopy days. What would life be with out poopy days? They are always such great stories! The warm weather has brought back camping weekends, which are some of my favorite times. Hanging out in nature and being active with family is a blissful experience. For example, watching Charlie catching a butterfly with his bare hands and then almost putting into his mouth. As we told him no, he let go and the butterfly flew away. A rock was not as lucky; he swallowed a small pebble and no I did not look for it in his diaper. Thus, this summer will have some new experiences now that Charlie is bit bigger and able to walk around. We bought a small pool for the backyard and attached the baby bike seat that was given to us by our baby-sitter. However, we might have to get a new one because, well, to make a long story short, it is very dangerous. And you know me; Safety First! Finally, Charlie had his last day with the baby-sitter yesterday. April will now take over that role and then Charlie will begin attending a daycare in late August. Today, though, I am the baby-sitter for Charlie. My sister just corrected me; I cannot be a baby-sitter for my own child. Well then what is it: son-sitter? She says it is called parenting. Oh yeah that is right. I am a Dad and Father’s Day is this weekend. Yahoo, time to start celebrating of another great year being a Dad and getin’ my parenting groove on!
May 19, 2008
Back to Back
We have had two great weekends back to back. The first was a festival, Lake Eden Arts Festival, and the other was a hiking celebration, Trail Days.
LEAF-This was probably the most of I have had to “work” at this festival-that is if you call volunteering at the drink booth working. The past years I have had a laid back weekend enjoying the soaking of sunshine, listening to world music, and simply letting the time roll on by. However, this time Charlie was up walking around, which meant that I had to keep up with him every second of the day. This was Charlie’s 3rd festival and the previous two he pretty much laid around on a blanket or slept in his stroller. This meant we could go on with all of our normal festival activities. No more though. I am making this much more dramatic then it actually was. I had just as good of time as the other times; the only difference is that now I am truly participating in a family festival. Soon we will all be at the drum circle dancing around with the hippies. Till then I will savor up the kids tent, kids market, and face painting. Kids first, mama and dada second.
Trail Days. I wrote about Trail Days last year (Click here to read it) and it was pretty much the same. Again, Charlie did not come with us; April and I had our only little weekend. This year I was able to see a movie premiere, documentary on the Continental Divide Trail by the guy who made Appalachian Impressions. It was very inspiring. Plus, they gave away free popcorn in a box. I mean when was the last time you had popcorn in a box. We also saw slides of Mount Washington in the winter (click here to see their web cam) and show clips about National Parks in the USA. Overall, just like LEAF, being around people of who share common interests is like no other. Hike on…
To cap on our wonderful back to back weekends, we biked a portion of the the Virginia Creeper Trail. I shot some video of our trip. Click here to watch or just watch it on my blog. Time to get ready for another weekend. The summer has just begun!
May 13, 2008
No Way Subway
Today is my last day off before heading back for summer semester. Soon I’m head out to play disc golf. Here is a short story were the reader gets to figure out the ending.
I drove down to the Charlotte area to meet a friend for an afternoon of disc golf. I told him that I would pick up a $5 sub from Subway for a lunch snack. According to Google Maps there was a Subway right near the course; perfect! The exit off of I-77 was packed with retail. I saw a Wal-Mart and figured that must be where the Subway is. I was correct. Unfortunately, the time was lunch rush and only two workers were there to handle the business. After waiting in line for about 5 minutes, I ordered a the baja steak with pepper jack cheese on italian bread. (Hmmm….that sub is good.) The worker says, just before putting on the toppings, “Wait, you wanted the baja. I gave you the philly steak.” I replied, “Ahh that is all right just put the baja sauce on it. It will taste the same.” Probably with the long line behind me the worker had no objections not having to take the time to make another sub. But he still said, “Are you sure?” and I confirmed, “Yeah, no worries.” Next the toppings, lettuce, tomato, and onion finish up the sub and I am ready to pay. I did not want any chips or drink however I still did want to pay for two cups. The cashier looked at me wierdly and said, “Okay, your total is $10.23.” At this very moment, chemicals that trigger every bit of my frugalness flush through my body because the only reason I came to subway was to buy a bargain $5 sub. Hoping there might be a mistake I timidly say, “I thought the sub was $5″ ”They are but you got the philly steak which is double meat so that is not $5.” My facial expression is blank, mouth is wide open, and about five times I look over at the line and the back at my sub questioning whether I want to wait in line all over again. Also in this brief five seconds of WTF, I think about how they made the mistake but I said it was okay and should I really get another sub but then I would be wasting that sub. In the end though, I shrug my shoulders and say….”__________________”
If you read this blog or simply know me, then you probably know what I said and how the rest of the story turns out. I amaze myself daily how so many small things run the larger scheme of my life. Perhaps this make sense though because billions of cells collaborate to run the The Reality of Selfwalker. There is no way to escape the union of micro and macro in this universe.
May 9, 2008
Happy Mother’s Day
I know the holiday is not here yet but I am not going to be around a computer this weekend. We are attending the Lake Edan Arts Festival (L.E.A.F.) A big THANK YOU goes out to all the mother’s across the globe. I hope your day is special.
May 8, 2008
Motivation
A new buzz word in my reality is “change”, and yes this easily could be a conformational bias. For instance, I frequently hear/see a change to be more green and a change in presidency. Change happens; that is the way this universe has been working for 15 billion years. Change, upon more change, and change again. Thus, I wonder what will be the consequences of my changes from a year, 10 years, or 50 years from now? Sometimes a certain change can seem so obvious, so important, so needed but the following consequence can be hidden. Here are couple of stories that come to mine. (I am unsure about the truth of these stories.) In some USA city, the cameras on traffic lights drastically changed the number of drivers running through red lights. The city was then faced with a dilemma of whether or not to remove the cameras because they were no longer receiving the financial benefit of ticketing these drivers. Another USA city in a drought stricken area encouraged its citizens to change their water habits. The people responded by conserving water. Actually, the response was so great that water company had to raise its prices due the thousands of lower water bills. These stories could be false but they seem to be some type of fable. The moral for me is
Be careful what I change for, because I just may have to change again
I question the idea of forcing corporations, they are such easy targets, to change so that I don’t have to. Should there be a law against lending companies providing shady mortgage loans? Or should it be my responsibility to critically analyze the proposal? Should there be laws enforcing higher fuel economy or is it my responsibility to organize car pooling or support mass public transit? Do I want a political leader to force others to change so that I do not have to change my own life? Now, these questions do sound rhetorical but I honestly do not know what type of change I want to bring in my life. I do know that I am the type of person who needs more outside motivation than personal motivation to stimulate a change in my life. Many of my students appear to be the same with math. They need a motivation to face the change the mathematics is presenting in their lives. Hopefully, I can make a change and be a larger motivation for my students. The only catch is this: I am ready for the change if all of my students were to become motivated in math? Well, all I can say is “Selfwalker *maybe that is way it is* so be careful what change for.”
May 5, 2008
FINALly FINALs
“FINALly FINALs” is what I wrote on my message board outside of my office. Finals for the Spring semester were last week and that was just one thing that has been wrapping up around here. Here is a quick run through.
- Spring semester is now over and I now have two weeks before the Summer semester starts. I work the same amount of hours, yet there are packed in differently. I will teach from 8 to 12 Monday through Thursday for 10 weeks. So even though I don’t officially have the summer off, it is sort of like working half days.
- April ran another race this weekend; this time a 25K. She finished second in her age group with a time of 2 hours and six minutes. Click here to see the results.
- I made the final payment on my car, Elementone. This was mostly possibly because of my tax refund check; thanks Charlie for the extra dependent bonus. Now, I still have major college loans and of course a house mortgage to pay off. However, hopefully these will be all on gone by time I am 40. Taking three years off to hike the AT, be a waiter, and attend grad school full-time were broke times and further into debt times but I am so glad that I did it. I think there is a saying that goes “Do it now and ask for forgiveness later.” Well I would change it to, “Do it now and pay the major interest later.” Note that this motto should not be applied to credit card spending
- NC president primary yada yadaness is coming to a close. We were fortunate to have Bill Clinton speak just two blocks away from our house. He spoke from the porch of a local resident and spoke about why we should vote for Hillary. This was my first political rally and I thought it was a really neat experience.
- Charlie is getting closer and closer to saying good-bye to crawling. He still falls down often and cannot stand up on his own. We were at our local green way yesterday and bet Charlie walked close to a total of 75 yards. I wonder what the equivalence of his walk would be for me? Miles?
As with many other ending, there follows a new beginning. And so another Chapter in the Life of Selfwalker continues.
April 26, 2008
A fresh new me
When I was in high school, the Smashing Pumpkins came out with a song called Zero. (Click here to watch the video) I still listen to this song once in a while and with each listen I am taken back to those golden years. For example, this song was blasted in van on a Physics field trip to Six Flags. I chuckle now just thinking about this adventure and the sleep over at the teacher’s house the night before. One section of the lyrics are great – perfect for a rebel teen to shout when trying to shock any surrounding adult
Emptiness is loneliness,
and loneliness is cleanliness,
and cleanliness is godliness,
and God is empty,
just like me.
These lyrics have been going through my head this week because I am taking antibiotics. These pills are cleaning and emptying out all bacteria in my body. I also gotta make sure that the lonely surviving bacteria are refilled by some probiotics. Life is all about returning to that balance, Aho! Finally, you know that time when you clean out a car or clean up a kitchen and for about a week you want to keep it clean as possible. Well that is how I feel about my body right now. I would not say that I am “dirty”, I am sure many would disagree with this statement, but a few extra germs here or there are no big deal. However, this week I have been washing and cleaning much more of things I come in contact with. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Have fun filled clean weekend!
April 24, 2008
A new era
Don’t ask me how I know this or why this is true. I know I could be wrong but my parenting instinct seems to be alerting me of this. The alert is not like tornado warning informing me that a disaster is on the horizon. The alert is more like an alarm clock signaling that a new day has come and it is time to face new opportunities and challenges. So, I am now going to state it and say nothing else.
The toddler years have officially begun.
