Paying for my fun

While there was some word this morning, it did probably help me, the trip home was much harder. First and foremost… The trip home is harder. No questions asked… It is harder. Today, most of the way, I had a flag straightening wind to the the face. Couple that with getting off work late and you have a recipe for pain and suffering. I made it in time, sort of… It all worked out, but I am smoked. Good for me!

Hap would be proud!

Some will know this, otters will not. My grandfather went by “Hap”. He was a great man. A minister, father, slow driver in the left lane and perhaps the worlds greatest at diagnosing “kneeitis”. Some of my best childhood memories are with Hap. There is not a human on earth that he would not have tried to help.

Having said all of that, Hap had some unique quirks. He lit a pipe. He never really figured out how to smoke it, but he could shoot fire out of a pipe. I thought that was cool. He also had a strange portable cauldron that he carried around. He put coffee, tea, and who knows what else in it. It was an ever evolving concoction… Anybody who ever sat in the room filling red beast know of this cup of oddity.

Scroll forward … Eh… 35 years? I have started using a similar device in my life. I have a Tervis Tumbler that I have started drinking my coffee in. Well, I learned from Hap, I am sure of this. After work, just poor some iced tea in there and keep right on going! He really was onto something!

I hope reading this helped you to remember one of the best men I ever had the privilege to know. If you didn’t know Hap, remember somebody you knew… somebody you loved! I am happy to say that Hap shaped my behaviors. I don’t see myself going 45 in the left lane lighting a pipe, but every time I fill my “sport cauldron” I will probably think about Hap!

Better

I wouldn’t call either commute today good, but neither can be described as bad. By simply stating both commutes, it implies I didn’t ride in somebody else’s vehicle which is cool.

Work was hectic, but after a few trials and tribulations my team rocked the house and we got the primary task locked in. The change we had tonight is cancelled… I think i can relax!

Not what I planned

Well, that isn’t what I planned or wanted… My ride to work basically sucked. It was foggy, humid and I felt like crud. The fog was the worst. Ever teen in a cloud with elephants chasing you? Think about it… I made it safe, and even saw my crossing guard friend along the way… But it was not my best ride. Work really sucked yesterday. When you work in support, problems are what you deal with. Yesterday was just ugly. It happens… Then, I had to grab a lift home. I don’t like doing that, but it was nice to have the option.

So… 32 tuned into 16. Frustration filled the work hours. My head wanted me to eat eat eat… I wasn’t great on that, but I did realize I was being stupid and quit eating. I guess I would call it a 5 on a scale of 1-10. So what do I do now? Feel sorry for myself and drive? Nah, I am going to rally. Time to ride. Maybe my legs will work better today. The work forecast is mostly cloudy…tacking on big W errors to existing problems means life could get nasty!

Here we go!

No time like the present! Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I am going to start it off with a nice walk to school (Wednesday). Following that, a nice ride to work on this fixie! No excuses, just doing it today!

I hope you can find time to get in. 30-60 minute workout today! It doesn’t have to be miserable, do what you love and you will love what you are doing!

Blog Barometer?

If you look at the calendar on the right side of my blog, you can almost see a calendar of my mental state.  Sure, some of the things I write are about bad or grumpy issues… things that upset me, but if you see 1, 2, 5… days of blog posts in a row, you can probably assume I am motivated and doing good internally.  If you look at the last week, you can probably guess – something is going on. What is going on?  Old Scott is COMING BACK!  Not the “good o’le Scott” either…

In the past 10 days of my life I went from record setting riding to record setting excuses and it’s MAKING ME MAD AT MYSELF!

Last week I rode to work ONE DAY!  Why?  ”Weather is _iffy_.”  ”I am tired”.  ”I am too busy.”  Excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses.

Last weekend was ROUGH!  We had a mega-ton of stuff going on.  Max had soccer on Saturday.  Sarah had to work all day… Derek had a sleep over… we went out with friends, Church, meetings, double dip soccer games on Sunday.  There was quite literally NO TIME for riding (or was there?)

Now – you know I’ve been working on my eating healthy?  BAH … if i’m not riding, I’m probably EATING!  Seafood.  Lots of it.  No wait, that’s SEE food.  I see food.  I eat it.  UGH!  I’ve gone back to post Thanksgiving, Pre-Christmas – Scott.  I don’t like that guy.  He is planning to do it right “tomorrow”.  No I do not want to be that guy.  He is still holding out for free crabs at Joe’s Crab Shack.  (Okay – that was BAD).

So … Every time I eat something, it is an opportunity to make a GOOD decision.  I am going to start trying to make that decision RIGHT!  I am going to focus more on saying YES … I can commute.  I often brag about my INCREDIBLE support system that includes Sarah, my co-workers, my neighbors the crossing guards, the chaplain… The strangers!  I am missing an opportunity to wave and make somebody smile.  I feel like crap, I feel like my “purpose” is fading.  I’m losing sight of what I want to accomplish and before I throw it all away and go back to “good o’le obese Scott” it’s time to kick this trend in the jimmy and rally!

So… there you have it.  If you don’t see an update on how this is going – I here by authorize you to be my own personal accountability partner and call me out!  Time to get out of this low pressure zone… Time to put the pressure back on!  BRING IT!

Weather

It just isn’t cooperation with my commute schedule. Kind of a bummer, but at the same time I think this rest is good. I have been so tired lately. The last two nights I slept like a baby. My legs are feeling fresher this morning. Today, commuting would probably cause added stress. Max has a game, Derek has practice, busy times.

I hope you guys all have a great day. Remember that the issues and challenges you face today are just opportunity popping up! Make the most of it. Live, learn, love and GROW!

Facebook does it again?

The other day, I noticed a seemingly cool feature on FB and thought “Facebook is upping their game”!  I was seemingly happy as Google was lacking social in their social network.  I even blogged about it about 12 hours ago.  Well, then I got bored watching Biggest Loser and started reading posts on FB.  I realized they had decided to change things without any warning and you know what that means…. many people will be posting about this for days to come!

Now, I sit here … pondering, if you will.  Is this the thing that will push people from the FB monopoly to the Google realm of oddity?  Perhaps!  I will stick to my guns and tell you that G+ is a much better website – much easier to use and control!  I’ve got 150 invites available and would be more than happy to invite you.

I hope you all find peace an harmony in whatever social network you use… I will tell you that I purged about 100 people from my list of people I follow on Twitter and and really am enjoying that again.  Less is more?  Maybe I just need a few quality peeps on g+ to make it fun!

Google plus… Or google flop?

So, when it came out, I was all up on Google plus. I thought WOW! The software is so much better than facebook, the integration with android, the app, the auto upload, the circles…. Man, this rocks!

Well the page is built, the thing they left out of their social network is the social. Which would you interact with more? 750,000,000 users or 20,000, 000 users? Now I know I am not that popular, but g+ is really boring. Couple that with them flicking google apps users (again) and it kind of seems like g+ will go the way of google wave, google buzz and the buffalo.

I still have hope, but facebook has turned up their game. Maybe some good will come out of this?

Not a good gone

Ahoy me hearties. I was hoping to continue my streak of fun and postings about the joys of commuting, but I think the winds of change just kicked me in my man bits. Today I felt like I was riding in pudding. The only thing that went well was my bike seemed to fit like a glove. The wind was terrible. Gusty and moist. I really didn’t have much fun, but I made it, didn’t get a flat and didn’t get squished… And I didn’t drive, and i got to work on time and I might have a tailwind on the way home. I guess that is a lot of good, if I could just take off the pessimism panties….

Well, a quick shout out to 8-bit who told me my blog is bookmarked and J-airy who busted out a ride on his favorite trail this weekend. The virtual peloton is growing!