05.19.08
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!
05.13.08
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.
05.09.08
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.
05.08.08
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.”
05.05.08
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.
