We'll miss you Gerry

How quickly things change. The man I spoke about only this morning has passed away. Gerry had gone to the hospital with severe chest pain a couple of weeks ago. It turned out he had pneumonia and was put on a ventilator. When his blood work came back, he was diagnosed with leukemia. He left us yesterday on his 71st birthday.

Gerry was so full of life it is hard to believe he is gone. I was fortunate enough to meet him last July when I went on the Big Ride Pacific Coast. Gerry was a veteran of these fund-raising rides, and he welcomed us newbies with open arms. I very fortunate to ride with him for much of the second week and really get to know him. He had done the ride a couple years previously, and always knew where the next ice cream shop was. My wife got to meet him at the finish line in San Francisco, and latched on to him immediately.

I rode with Gerry again this year on the Big Ride Glacier trip. He helped to talk me into this ride, and I am so glad he did. It was another wonderful experience, and I got to meet more of his riding friends. Gerry did the Ride Across America a couple of times, so his circle of friends is large and spread throughout the country. I know he was an avid skier as well, so I know there are many more great friends of his I haven't met.

Gerry welcomed so many people into that special heart of his. He was full of positive energy and always had a child-like twinkle in his eyes. I am a much better man having known him and the world was a better place with him around. I am so glad you came into my life, and I will miss seeing you out on the road. I'll just plain miss you.



You can see the slide show full size here.

The Happy Totals

Well it is December 31st so it is also time to look back on how far I've gone (literally). I keep a log of all my running, biking and swimming both for historical record and to analyze for training and injuries.

It was a pretty full year. I completed my second marathon, my second and third half marathons, and took another week long bicycle ride to support the Lung Association. I shaved almost 15 minutes off my half marathon PR, and 35 minutes off my marathon time.

Being an overweight 40 year old and starting running later in life, I am still in that window of time where improvement is more dramatic. Knocking time off is going to become more difficult next year, and I think it is time to start taking better care of my body (better foods, losing weight, etc).

So here are the happy totals:

Running - 660 miles

Biking - 1346 miles

Swimming - 12.8 miles

I did more biking last year (thanks to a two-week trip), but added almost 300 miles of running to my total. The thing that really shocked me was that I ran 111 days this year. It didn't feel like I was running that regularly.

I've been slacking on the biking and swimming lately - I haven't done any since September. Unfortunately running is kicking my butt right now and I'm too sore to think about adding it back in.

Looking forward to another great year in 2008!

Turning the page

2007 is almost up. No big plans tonight to blow out the year, just going to a friends house for I am guessing a subdued celebration. Some livers are still recovering from the Year in Review party.

I'd say the year flew by, but that really isn't true. After compiling and watching the review DVDs, pieces of the year seem so far in the past. It still is a bit of a blur.

The wife is looking forward to the new year, as 2007 was a bit rough. Work has been frustrating, and it is hard to leave that behind when it is a third of your life and it follows you home on weekends. We lost a dear family member in September, another friend is recovering from breast cancer, and unfortunately another has been recently diagnosed with leukemia. We are lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives, and it is hard to see them suffer in any way.

2008 will bring a couple of weddings, a trip to see friends, and a tropical vacation is on the horizon. 2008 is also the year when someone new will take on the challenge of leading this great country of ours. I wish them well and hope that the coming years bring wisdom, unity and peace no matter who is at the helm. We are hoping work improves for the both of us, and wish everyone good health in the coming year.

When you climb out of the rubble of day to day distractions and have a chance to look around, this life is pretty wonderful. Thank you for being a part of my life, and for joining me on this journey.

Happy New Year

Feedback

If you ever wanted to give this guy a piece of your mind, he has enlisted his mac guide to get his comments turned on. Not only are macs easier to use, it looks like their operators are more PC savvy.

Year Reviewed

We had our Year in Review party last night. Another fun night with our running/biking crew. We showed up with all our hardware around our necks (3 - 5 medals). After a few cocktails, we watched Wendy's review DVD. She did a great job. Her version was definitely more creative with a touching introduction, and she did a great job of weaving videos and pictures together on the San Diego Marathon.

We took a break and filled our calendars for next year. We have plenty of new adventures planned for 2008. I have two marathons on my plate already, and we are trying to get some more runners together to do a 24 hour relay race. Everyone runs 3 legs of the race while sharing a van and trying to catch some zzz's when they can.

After a figuring out 2008, we plopped ourselves back in front of the big screen and watched my version of 2007. It wasn't quite as creative, but hopefully everyone enjoyed my take on the year.

We were up pretty late, and mildly hungover this morning. However three of us laced up our shoes and went for a run. My California friends say that during a run on the morning after, at some point in the run they feel the wine bottle fall out of their body with a thunk - hangover gone. After 12 miles I was still waiting for that feeling, but it ended up being a decent run anyway.

We are all looking forward to another great year in 2008!

What I don't know, what I believe, and what I'm reading

Unlike 90% of my known readers (I'm guessing), for me Christmas is not about the birth of Christ. For me it is about looking back on your year, expressing love to the people in your life, being a better person to everyone, being thankful for now and hopeful for the future. My understanding is that the celebration and the timing of the holiday are a union of both Christian and other traditions anyway. But this is beside the point. The point is I am a decided agnostic (not an oxymoron to me).

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." ~ Freewill by Rush 

This will not come as a shock to most of you (I am still guessing). I don't subscribe to any one line of thought or belief. There are certain problems for me with most any organized religion. Yet I do not lack faith or grace, and I consider myself a spiritual person. I simply don't know what ties us all together or how it all began, and nothing I have read so far rings true. I am not holding out for ultimate proof, but what I believe needs to make sense to me.

I believe that evolution is a driving force in our world and species, but don't discount something divine involved in the beginning. When I think about the world as a whole, I'm not sure it can all be explained by chance.

I think there is something that ties us all together, but I think of it more in a horizontal plane rather than looking to the sky. I believe in the human spirit more than any other.

I am always interested in knowing, but I am comfortable that there will always be the unknown. I don't know what happens when this life ends, and at this point in my life, I am OK with that.

I have a (strong) moral compass and I have often wondered where it all came from. I am sure there is some hardwired nature involved, but a good portion of it came through the nurture of my parents, relatives and friends. I was taught to think about others and the world at large mostly by the example and practice of my parents.

I honestly don't know what people think of me with regard to my lack of defined religion. I don't know if they think me damned or not. No one has tried to save me yet, so I suppose not. I clipped this out of the paper 15 years ago:

"I never told my own religion nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another's creed. I am satisfied that yours must be an excellent religion to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be judged."

~ Thomas Jefferson to Mrs. Harrison Smith 1816.

Religion has become a hot topic, at times so hot that people cannot discuss it. Along with politics, religion seems to be a taboo topic, at least outside party lines. Though this may go against the sentiment of Jefferson's quote, since I do not have a defined religion I feel it fair to share some of what I believe:

• I don't think things "happen for a reason". Things happen, and people try to find reason.
• Life is difficult. Once you accept this, you transcend it.
• If there is a higher power, he/she is not involved in day to day minutiae of our lives.
• I believe in doing what I feel is right because it is right. I am not waiting for my reward in heaven (or here for that matter).
• The long-term benefit almost always outweighs the short-term gain.
• The way you live your life is the best way to show what you believe.
• I believe in this world and I am not looking forward to the end of days.
• If there is a heaven, I don't believe there is just one. As most religions damn those that don't believe in their book/God, that damns us all.

I have intended to read the Bible for some years now. I purchased a NIV study Bible a year or so ago, along with the book "Don't Know Much About the Bible" by Kenneth C. Davis. I got started but didn't follow through. I will be joining The Weakly Sherpa from the Dawg Run in his structured reading of the Bible beginning January 1st. As the Bible is always at the top of "books to read in your lifetime", this is long overdue. I may or may not share this journey with my readers, but I'm sure it will be a worthwhile experience.

It all adds up

a little birdie forwarded me some stats from Starbucks:

In US and CANADA:
17 million drinks were served in personal cups in Fiscal FY06 (Oct 2005-Sept 2006), resulting in 674,000 lbs of paper saved from our landfills.

Saving some trees, less stuff headed to the dump, all while saving $.10 on your cup of joe. Nice.

Year in Review

So the DVD is finally done. This is the first year-in-review DVD I have done. A tip of the hat to Wendy who did one last year to get the tradition started, and to Sean for demonstrating what could be done.

There are two versions of the DVD - one for the running and biking group, and one for the wife and I with a couple extra chapters of our own. The personal version opened to rave reviews (well from the one person who has seen it). We watched it Christmas morning - could be a new tradition.

The running/biking group is getting together this weekend to watch the review DVDs and to plan our next year of events. We'll show up with calendars in hand, and this year's medals around our neck. It should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to seeing how Wendy put our year together. We'll have a lot of the same pictures, but I'm sure the finished products will be quite different.

Of course some new promises (drunken or otherwise) will be made.

I saw this comic Christmas morning. I have heard this same comment when working holidays at a restaurant, and I know my cousins have heard it while working at their grocery store.

I always wanted to reply, "you know if you weren't here, I wouldn't need to be either".

New favorite

I have a new favorite non-traditional Christmas song. I heard it last year and kept waiting to hear it on the radio this year. I finally heard it Christmas Day while heading from my parents to my cousins. I finally had a name and an artist so I could look it up.

For those of us without an Ipod, purchasing Mp3s online can be difficult. Amazon.com has stepped into the market, and they have a pretty good selection and simple buying process. The thing I don't like about Apple (Itunes) and Microsoft (Zune) is that you need to download their organization software just to buy a file. I don't need anymore software filling up my hard drive.

Anyway, on to the song. This is a live version I found on YouTube.

Christmas Day

It was another great Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve at my brother and his family's house. The wife was pretty happy to be able to open some presents before Christmas day (I can be a bit of a Grinch).

The wife and I had our own little Christmas together in the morning before heading to my parents house for the traditional gathering (and coffee cake). While we were there, it started snowing! It wasn't going to last, but it did stick around long enough to give us a brief white Christmas.

We spent the evening at my cousins with the whole extended family. They had so many decorations lit that when they turned on the coffee maker they blew the main breaker in fuse panel.

It was great catching up with everyone. Our extended family is 30+ so it can be tough to get all of us in a room at one time. Growing up we saw each other almost every month, but I think we've surpassed critical mass now. Now it is mostly around the holidays and for a week in the summer, so yesterday was a treat.

So the season is about over. We'll be in denial for a bit, leaving our tree and lights up for at least another week or so. It is about prolonging the season, not laziness. No really.

Now that's a Christmas card!

I love receiving Christmas cards from people, and particularly photo cards. In carrying on a Linden tradition, our refrigerator is covered with photos of friends and family. We rotate in the new photos each year. There are photos of kids at varying ages, friends in front of a decorated cactus, other friends in front of Mount Fuji, still others in costume in front of the capitol building.

I also enjoy the letters that some send out. We don't get to see some of our friends and family as often as we wish, so it is nice to get a brief peek into what their year was like. It is actually kinda nice to look back over our own year when we write our letter. In some ways it is hard to believe that another year has gone by. Now that we are doing the year-in-review DVDs, the photos help flesh out some of the details.

Anyway(s), we received this Christmas card from some friends:



Yes, that is really our current and former presidents and not a photo-shopped Christmas card. I had forgotten all about this, so the card was a fun surprise. Our friends were back east in August with family, and they were having their son baptized. Turns out they were at the family church of the Bush's in Kennebunkport Maine. Here is another shot of the baptism - click on the photo to enlarge (Bush family in the front row):


That is going to be a tough one to top next year.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve

The big day is almost here, and I am almost done shopping. Actually this year has been easier than most. Fortunately the family is pretty good at exchanging lists these days, so there is less standing in front of something thinking "will he dig this as much as I would?". Actually, it is largely a gift certificate Christmas this year. As long as you pick the right store (and we had hints) they're guaranteed to get something they like. On the flip side, they need to go out and get it themselves. I read this week that $8 billion worth of G.C.s were not redeemed last year. $8,000,000,000! Pretty good financial cushion for businesses.

The wife and I set a low budget for each other this year, so that did make shopping a little more challenging. If I had any artistic talent I might have pulled out the Elmers, macaroni and gold paint.

One of my favorite Christmas memories was during another lean Christmas. My friend Mike and I had an apartment together, and we were both working for McDonald's. We were probably both making less than $4 an hour since we started at minimum wage of $3.35. Not sure how we made it, but I do remember lots of Top Ramen.

A day or so before Christmas we were both working an evening shift. When we came home there was a decorated Christmas tree in our apartment. Our girlfriends at the time had sweet-talked a guy at one of the tree lots into a free or very cheap tree. They brought it over and set it up with some ornaments borrowed from their family trees. It was a wonderful surprise and one of the best gifts I've ever received.

Skipping Christmas

I read Skipping Christmas by John Grisham a couple years ago. Judging by the previews (haven't seen it), the book was made into a poor slapstick version called Christmas with the Kranks. It is an interesting read.

The story is about a couple that decides to bypass the holiday for one year. Their one child is in college and is not coming home this year. The couple decides to get away and take a cruise over the holiday. Their neighbors and community feel betrayed and angry.

Their neighborhood is one where everyone decorates their home with a Frosty theme and everyone participates. When the Kranks don't decorate, the neighbors turn on them. When the boy scouts come by to sell them a Christmas tree, the Kranks say no, but promise to donate the amount they would have spent on the tree. The boy scouts simply don't understand.

In the end, the daughter decides to come home for Christmas after all, setting off a mad scramble to get a tree, decorate, and provide a Christmas dinner. Friends and neighbors come to the rescue, providing the warm/happy ending. It is interesting the backlash the Kranks experience until Christmas is "unskipped". There is a lot of emotion wrapped up in the holiday, not all of it festive.

I've thought a bit about skipping Christmas for a year. In reality I just want to leave some of the craziness behind. I would like a holiday of just spending time with friends and family. No gifts, no time at the mall.

Christmas plugged/unplugged

A video from a couple years ago. In your face celebration:



A much more traditional (and fun) celebration, courtesy of "The Dawg Run":