It can be a sad day in a person’s life when he or she realizes that they are not achieving their dreams. It can be a great day in a person’s life when he or she sets out to right the ship. When I awoke at 4:45am yesterday to the sound of hard rain hitting the lean-to in which I was sleeping, and I made the decision to drive home over the mountain through darkness, rain, and thick fog, I came to the conclusion that my ship has veered off course.
You’ll see April goals at the bottom today. Some of these goals my involve a major life change. Some of these goals my cause me to spend fewer hours with my friends. All of these goals will start pointing the bow of my life’s ship in the right direction. I will not be perfected at the end of April, but if the discipline necessary to achieve these goals has been reintroduced into my life then I will be a shitload happier than I am today.
The Long Weekend Which Wasn’t Much Of Either
I had been looking forward to this camping trip for a long time.
When last we met our hero he had posted a brief entry on Friday. From there I killed a little morning time in front of the tv and headed out for the camping trip. After stopping at my friend Phillip’s house to drop off something I had borrowed from him I jumped back into my car and nothing happened. It seems that my car’s battery decided it had enough and died. At first I was ticked but congratulated myself for becoming a AAA member last year. With my briefcase in my trunk it was going to be easy to pull out my membership card and call roadside assistance… except my card wasn’t in my bag.
Have you ever had one of those moments of clarity where you can visualize exactly where something is when it is not where you expected it to be? Yeah, me too.
AAA was nice enough to get a service truck out as quickly as they could even though I didn’t have my card on hand. Thirty minutes later I was off to Goodyear where I spent the next forty-minutes getting a new battery.
Remember how I expected to add $200 to the cost of last Monday’s 60k service? I suspect they just missed adding this $95 item to my bill then.
After eating lunch I took a slow drive, some of which was thanks to the road construction near Clayton which has seemingly been in progress for the past five years, and made it up to camp by 4pm.
It was the most non-relaxing weekend of relaxation that I’ve had in some time. The details are boring, but in summary I was unhappy, didn’t feel like drinking beer (which didn’t stop me Saturday morning), was cranky, didn’t get enough sleep, and didn’t run the hash.
ITP Flickr Pic
Spring flowers were starting to emerge in Black Rock Mountain State Park.
Including this little whatchamacallit.
Baseball, Apple Pie, And Income Taxes
Last night marked the beginning of the Major League baseball season with my beloved NY Mets playing against the defending World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. You may remember that the Cardinals had the last laugh at last season’s end by beating the Mets in the National League Championship and then winning the World Series.
The Mets’ victory last night didn’t wash away the memory of last year, but it did start this year off on the right foot.
Now if only I could get my taxes started out on the right foot as well..
It’s A Rematch!
It’s deja vu all over again. Tonight the Ohio State Buckeyes will once again get a chance to beat the Florida Gators for a National Championship. The only difference this time is that it is in Men’s Basketball.
I didn’t want it to come down to this because if my beloved Gators lose tonight some of the shine gained three months ago will be tarnished. It will sound like sour grapes if they lose when I say that football is a much bigger deal for me, but truth be told it is. I’m happy that my Gators are National Champs in football, and if they can pull off the back-to-back basketball championship as well I will only make me that much happier.
Good luck boys, you have once again done the University proud.
Oh, And I Watched Both Hours Of Amazing Race
But this post is already too long so I’ll chat about it tomorrow…
Out Like A Lamb, Mmmmmmm Laaaaamb
Here is my March Madness roundup
1) Lose two pounds. (starting weight ~205 lbs?)
The scale this morning read 202 lbs. I don’t believe it since my pants are still too tight.
2) Run no fewer than thirty miles.
I’m not sure that I ran once (besides a hash) in March.
3) Do twenty push-ups and fifty sit-ups at on Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays.
I am sure that this didn’t occur.
4) Finish February’s book and read at least one more.
See the answer for #3
5) Take Marta to work at least ten times.
I think that I got this one. My reporting technique, while accurate, doesn’t have an extensive report generator so I don’t know off hand.
6) File my Income Taxes.
Arrgh, this should have been done.
7) Wear “nicer” clothes to work at least one day a week.
Okay, I got this one. It didn’t hurt that certain activities around the office force the issue a bit as well.
Overall the first quarter of 2007 was a flop. That’s all now history and all that I can change is still ahead of me.
And Now For April
A lot of repetition exists, including more targeted information
1) Lose two pounds. (starting weight 202 lbs?)
2) Run no fewer than thirty miles.
3) Do twenty push-ups and fifty sit-ups at on Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays.
4) Read three books, specifically
4a) “722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York”
4b) “Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job”
4c) “The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers”
5) Take Marta to work at least ten times.
6) File my Income Taxes. (since they are due in two weeks I better get this done)
7) Wear “nicer” clothes to work at least one day a week.
8\) Cook dinner at home at least two nights a week.
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – forgetful
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing The Arcade Fire– “The Well And The Lighthouse”
Website Of The Day – All winter long I’ve been keeping up with the Mets’ activity thanks to Brooklyn Met Fan.
Exercise (b)Log – none
April Goals
1) Lose two pounds. (starting weight 202 lbs?)
2) Run no fewer than thirty miles.
3) Do twenty push-ups and fifty sit-ups at on Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays.
4) Read three books, specifically
4a) “722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York”
4b) “Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job”
4c) “The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers”
5) Take Marta to work at least ten times.
6) File my Income Taxes. (since they are due in two weeks I better get this done)
7) Wear “nicer” clothes to work at least one day a week.
8\) Cook dinner at home at least two nights a week.
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I’m not sure what the whatchamacallit is, but it’s cute! Speaking of, do you remember whatchamacallits? Those were yummy.
I hope you were at least able to take some good photographs at the mountain! I did think of y’all this weekend — especially after the rains on Sunday. Ugh! I always loved the BR camping trip, but it’s just usually too cold/wet/enter bad weather here for me. I would have been miserable. Any reason you didn’t do trail?
You must have one super-duper battery now. $95 dollars? Wow!
And, hey, if it’s the cooking 2x a week at home is part of what would keep you from friends, I have nooooooooo problem coming to your house for dinner 2x a week. 🙂
Go Gators!
Do you think if we went down to the game and begged we might get a ticket for less than 500 bucks? Oy. I remember not being able to GIVE away Gator basketball tickets.
Sorry you had a blah weekend at BR 🙁 It happens. I’ve heard that from others, too. Since I missed about 75 percent of the action I was hoping for better stories than TLS jumped over the fire. Again.
I can’t say this was my most favorite hash camping weekend either. It was good time for the most part and the boys enjoyed themselves but something seemed to be ‘missing’ this weekend.
I’ll try to get my pictures posted tonight.
Unfortunately I didn’t get many good pictures up there. Weather was a factor. Beer was a factor. Sleep (and lack thereof) was a factor.
Beer and laziness was the reason I missed trail. Also, once I found out that the start was at the lake, we’d have to be carted to the start, and that meant that trail was mostly up hill, never leaving camp seemed like the best idea.
The weekend just didn’t do it for me. On top of everything I was confronted by someone who was mad at me for not interacting with her much. She pulled out an even which happened at Hedon two years ago as well. WTF? Strange days. Strange days indeed.
Ah, yes! The infamous “buns of steel” trail workout…I did it only once and then stayed in camp. Most of them folks are in waaaaaaaay better shape than I. 🙂
go mets!
saturday, i spent so long at the chophouse getting drunk i didn’t even notice the game had ended. oh well. i hate the braves anyway.
I am going to avoid trying to get drunk on Friday night. I think the fact that it will be cold as all get out might make the concept of drinking cold beer less desirable.
I think she wants you.
Interesting, the Fancy Honda dealershiip was more than happy to allegedly test my battery and sell me a new one when I was last in for service.
wow – I’m way behind on the adventures of Paulie (going on vacation & not messing with a computer to read up on blogs) – a girl mad at you about something that happened 2 years ago? Wow……. Now I’m just curious as to who this could be. Martha said something that weekend was missing, I could say it was Service & I, but I highly doubt that was it.
I concur regarding Black Rock…something was a bit ‘off’ this year.