Just get a new one

We live in a disposable society. Look at some examples; If our computer or TV messes up a bit, we just get a new one. It is very hard to even find a place to get one repaired. Furniture, clothes, shoes, you name it don't get repaired any more. We would rather just dispose and get a new one. More and more we seem to live in a disposable society. Things that are no longer shiny and new have little value. I am often shocked by the amount of trash I see people putting out every week.

In today's society, I think this has spilled over into attitudes about people and life. We endeavor to reuse and repair as often as possible but it is often easier and less expensive to just replace. Now how does that relate to life issues. Well, let me attempt to tie it all together. Some in this world promote the ideas of Euthanasia and abortion of eliminating people that are not "up to standard" in the name of humanity. But I think it is more like a lack of humanity. My kids when given a choice of cookies or pretty much anything will go to great lengths to make sure they bet the biggest and best.

How many of us in our social circles always look for others that are at least equal if not socially above up. Everyone wants to move up the ladder of prestige. Jesus, however, made it a habit of reaching down to pull others up. How often do we fret over not being invited to an "A" list party? I am not saying these gatherings are inherently bad. As usual it is more about our hearts and motives. We strive to instill in our children, proper christian values. But we still have to deal with our kids saying things like, "I like so and so, they have the next cool toy".

I do feel though that as long as we keep trying to instill these values through our words and actions, they will pay off in the long run.

Cub Scout Camp

This week is cub scout camp. It is a week met with incredible excitement and major apprehension. Excitement from my son and apprehension from me. As excited as he is, I was equally apprehensive. But, I have found the ability to not only meet the challenges of leading 12 7 year old boys but now I am sharing his excitement. Each day is filled with activities that teach science, leadership, teamwork and being physically fit. I am proud to be involved with my son in scouting. It is something that we will be able to remember for the rest of our lives.

I was pondering on this experience and comparing it with other activities like sports. While I think sports are good, they often only involve watching our kids play. Scouting gives me the opportunity to teach and grow with my son, the skills that will carry him well into adulthood. Today, he and I both had to cross the monkey bridge. The monkey bridge is a bridge made of 3 ropes; one on the bottom and 2 on the top. A person must cross the bridge walking on a single rope while holding onto the 2 top ropes.

Tomorrow should be fun. I have become part of our lunch time skit. I will be appearing as Darth Vader in our lunch time skit. I hope the Ewoks do not attack me.

I'm Free! I'm Free!

Well, fast forward 5 weeks and here we are. I have now been release from my brace/cast. Rehab is starting and I feel pretty good. The last 5 weeks have been a good lesson in humility. I have had to deal with limited mobility which has given me some insight to how people with physical handicaps must feel. I even had to get someone to help put on my socks and take them off. I am now down about 28 pounds. It feels really good.

The support of my family through this has been amazing. I give them many, many thanks. Rehab has just started and is starting well. My biggest issue now is slowing myself down. The brace slowed me down. Now, I must slow me down. This is much harder. I want to start right back at full speed. Like I said, I did pretty well yesterday with my official work. Then last night it started raining and I had to go out to clean out the french drain so the driveway wouldn't flood. This put a bit too much stress on my knee as evidenced by the knee pain this morning. Not a lot of pain but enough to where I will take it easy today.

Onward we move. School is almost done. Yeah!!

Midlife Crisis Update

It has been almost a month and I am down about 17 pounds. Oh yeah! Everything was going very well according to my plan. I was playing basketball 3 days a week and weight lifting on the off days. Feeling really good. Then came spring break. Diet, obviously, was not strictly adhered to but I didn't veer too much. On vacation, we decided to not go skiing as we didn't want to get hurt. But we thought, why not go ice skating what can happen there. Well, I fell. I landed on my right knee. It felt pretty bad afterward but I just pushed on hoping it would go away. I finally decided to call the doctor about my 'popping' knee. He said I should come in for an x-ray. X-ray lead to an MRI. Initially, I was restricted from playing basketball. Boo!. After the x-ray, i was told to not do any type of leg exercises but an exercise bike would probably be OK. Well, that is better than nothing. Stationary bike went well. Then the results came back from the MRI and they said I needed to get into a brace. I went by to get my brace thinking, OK I will wear the brace and I will be able to still exercise. Wrong! My lovely brace is more like a removable cast that I am even supposed to wear to bed.

I don't know what I am going to do now. I will continue the weight lifting and try to watch my diet. Hopefully, this will not set me back too far.

Wearing this 'brace' has been a challenge. It is nearly impossible to drive. With a large family this is a real problem. I had been doing a lot of the taxi driving to help out my wife. Now, it looks like she will have to take over most of it for me. Boy, I sure love her.

Mid-life Crisis - The Aftermath

Well, the seminar was a few days ago. First, let me say that it was well worth the effort and highly recommended. Linda and I are both excited about making changes in our lifestyles. A healthier diet is probably the first step. We are working our way toward that right now. I have already lost 3 pounds. I realize that this is mostly just the gimme weight and it will get harder as I go along.

I have been playing basketball for the last several years and this has been good for me. However, this alone has not been enough to keep my weight in control and I have developed numerous aches and pains over the years. Back pain. Shoulder pain. You name it I probably had it. One morning I looked down at the number of different medicines I was taking for my aches and pains and took it as a wake up call. I stopped taking all of the medicines and decided this needed to be tackled a different way.

This takes us to the second part of my motivation. I have decided that I will try and tackle my aches and pains through exercise. I have added weight training to my routine. While it is still early the results look promising. My back is not hurting and neither is my shoulder. I think my knee is getting better also. Last night I was able to say well I only did 20 ab crunches. For those of you who know me this is phenomenal. In the past, the thought of doing more than 5 crunches was a laugh. Now I look forward to it.

With all of this training I am doing, watch out basketball dudes. Here I come.

Mid-life Crisis!

So, like, I have been trying to have a mid-life crisis. It should be pretty simple. You hear about it all the time. But I just can't seem to do it. Try as I may reality always gets in the way. Sports car or braces? Motorcycle or summer camp for kids? Big screen TV or replace old carpet? Fishing trip with the guys or college tuition? I think you see the pattern here. I am truly grateful and happy to be able to take care of my family but darn it, I just want to be irresponsible sometimes. A good priest friend of mine once said that we all want to be irresponsible sometimes and we should praise God that we are able to say no to those feelings. We will all fall on occasion but that is what the grace of God is for.

About once a year, I talk to my lovely wife about my desire to have a "mid-life" crisis. This year she got me. She was talking to her doctor the other day and the result was an invitation to attend a wellness seminar. One, where I would learn to have a "healthy" mid-life crisis. While I don't think that is entirely fair and certainly not what I meant, we will be attending this seminar this Saturday and maybe I will learn how to have this elusive mid-life crisis and at the end I may come out a better person. I will let you know how it goes next week.