Almost in the New House

When the house is finally done, things will be better. There will be more room to store stuff. I will be able to move around easier, making chores a bit more doable. And so, I will be a more positive influence in keeping our things tidy and in order. Our scheduling, and filing will fall into place, because we will have office space, and less clutter to bog us down.The kids will have a large place to play, and we wont be tripping over ourselves all the time, or slowing each other down by being in the way. Additionally, the winter is forbidden till December, and exits March the second on the dot. By order, summer lingers till September. And the rain may never fall till after sundown, by noon the morning fog must disappear. It'll be great when the house is done, it'll be like a mythical kingdom ....from England I think. Maybe we can see Richard Burton...

Yeah, its funny what anticipating something will do. Somehow, the completion of the house will mean Camelot. As if all the problems will just -poof- fade away.

It is so great to have time in the day where we don't need to concern ourselves with the whereabouts and activities of the kids. We know where they are, and know where they will be, and that someone is watching them. At least, we trust in the system that has them. We hear a lot of stories from around the country, which means that you cannot keep an eye on things, but really....I mean people get hit by lightning... The kids seem to be doing well in first grade, at least it is still adventure. They approach school days with that adventure attitude. Only occasionally do we get the dragging of the feet in the morning, but those sluggish attitudes quickly fade. The drama that comes with who is friends with who is in its infancy. So far, it is real innocent. The world is still perceived as good, and we have no real fears or prejudices yet. Riles however has written two letters to a boy in the class, using words like hugs, and love, in the body of these letters. ugh is the best thing I can come up with to say about that. ....and maybe step up the teaching sessions on pressure points and stress positions.

Keelie is beginning to look like she is from West Virginia, or maybe England. Her teeth don't seem to be on the same schedule. Right now, she has two bottoms, one of her top front in position. And instead of the other top poking through, she has some bottoms pressing to make their appearance. I'm not sure if that is normal because I am new to this whole dad thing....oh wait... Funny how the twins teeth progression does not stick out in my mind. She also seems to be bigger than the twins were. And talking more, and developing...well, now I am talking about subjective things. Size and teeth are measurable, and speech and thinking are a little more vague. So, when I look at the photos we have from four years ago, I look more for cues on the twins size than I used to. It is pretty cool seeing her grow.

It is interesting how much like a tackle dummy Keelie appears to Ethan. That is the only explanation I can think of. Of course, Sarah is quick to say: "Apple doesn't fall far from the tree." which seems like a non sequiter statement. I mean, she has to be talking about Ethan acting like me when he tackles Keelie, but I don't tackle Keelie. I might pick her up once in a while, maybe give a big bear hug, but trip and tackle? ...cant think of an incident...

Anyway, we will be moving into the house very soon, and I will be away at Fall ski camp.

Hat in the Ring

The kids are growing.
No really?
Yeah. Serious.
weird
I know! You would think they would want to be kids all their lives.
Yeah well, what are you gonna do?
Not sure, but you know I wanted to stay 11yrs old, and look what happened.
Dude. Tell me about it.
I would, but I would rather go in this direction, conversationally:

Keelie is taking her first steps. If I knew what I was doing, I could post them. But I don't, so the only way you can see the video is to either be here, or get them in an email from me. Anyway, the number of steps, when we count, has gotten up to about eight steps. My earliest recollection of her steps was when we were in Seattle, so maybe Aug 18th. She seems real proud of herself when she takes steps, but she still knows that she is more solid crawling, so she has not given up on the crawling thing yet.
She his experimenting with crying intensity. It seems we have reinforced this behavior by responding to intense cries. Originally, these cries were the result of pain from falls, or other such things. Now, she is trying this out for lesser things like, toy being taken away by sibling, I'm not sitting in this chair anymore, etc. The fun stuff.
Riles is doing cartwheels all the time. Then she goes to gymnastics, and "has a headache". Not sure if I know what is going on there, but it does not sit well with me. She does not respond well to the stop whining, and suck it up shtick. I'm going to blame it on the Washington genes, and pay the price when Sarah reads this. Still, at the pool today, Riles was nothing but go. Swim here, throw me there, jump in, go under water, on and on. Compared to Ethan who was on the side of the pool doing the iguana. So, Riles has this endless energy, then balk, and I have yet to figure out the rhyme and reason.
Riles listens to my ipod all the time. And when she is not listening to it, she is asking me for it. On the plus side, she seems to enjoy "For Whom the Bell Tolls" off of the album Ride the Lightning. And she appreciates Shane McGowan, and Flogging Molly. This only encourages me to hand over the ipod, and we lose Riles for a while.
Ethan, while on the side of the pool, became interested in another parties game of throwing a ball. He joined in uninvited. Very un-Halsted in my opinion. Apparently they are his friends now, so it is OK. What are their names Ethan? "I don't know" -in the "what difference does that make?" tone.
The two of them are all into racing each other all the time. Though they know that Ethan is faster. So, it usually involves the announcement of the race, by Rileigh, when she has half the distance to reach the goal as Ethan. Then there is competition until the outcome appears to go in favor of Rileigh, and a whole bunch of whine/deal/excuse/cover-up ensues.
The two of them have not been able to sit near each other for at least two years. This is still true. By themselves, they can quietly engage in a myriad of activities. Together? Chaos. It usually involves throwing stuffed animals, or pillows. However it can also involve hitting, and other WWF type stuff. Riles has to choose underhanded tactics, as she has not been able to match Ethan physically. ...which usually leads to escalation, and then pain, and crying to Mom and or Dad. During school they were not allowed to sit next to each other. In the Sienna, they are not allowed to sit next to each other- they must be in separate rows. On long trips, the isle separation proves to not be enough. Still, we have yet to threaten to stop the car. In the theater, I sit in between. Growing up, I remember having a pecking order- we fell in line behind Clark, and the poo poo rolled downhill. Teasing did not occur unless someone was bothering someone else. The youngers did not push the olders because the outcome was a done deal. I don't ever remember chaos. Is that because age plays a factor? or is it the male /female thing? Could it be genes? And now I'm thinking of rose colored glasses. There was harmony when we were growing up, but certainly not all the time. ......still.
While we were in Seattle, I wish I had the microphone running the whole time. So many phrases lost due to my humming bird brain. Still, I do remember one:
We are eating at the Crab Pot on the waterfront in Seattle. They serve meals as "pots": throw a bunch of ingredients and food stuffs into a pot and boil it. Sarah and I are having the bay pot (or some such thing) which has, among other things, full shrimp in it. So, I am taking the heads off the shrimp, and the legs the shell and tail, which the kids have not seen yet. So, needless to say, they are intrigued.
Riles: "With their little eyes; they are so cute. So, you pinch the heads off?" -all in that oh so matter of fact even tone.

July is almost over

Keelie has two teeth. It seemed to take forever for those two to finally punch through, but we have them now. And her gums show signs of the others arriving any day, but I think we have a few weeks, if the first two were any indication of how things were going to go.
She gets up on two feet a lot. Still holding onto whatever is in front of her for stability. One of her favorite stabilizing devices is my wheelchair. She seems to think the big round wheels are going to stay in place. And she hits her finger with that proverbial hammer over and over. Keelie: these wheels roll. And then whatever I am doing is disrupted, because now my world stats to move erratically. Maybe like being on a rocking ship. When she grabs the frame, right by my knees, that is when she (and I) are the most stable. I also can see her, and have a good guess as to her intentions at this point. I think she likes this spot for the added benefit of getting more of what she wants, it is closer to the lap, and we have eye contact. Thankfully, the spot directly behind me, is not one of her preferred holds. On the occasions when she felt that was the only hold available, I was rendered immobile. There is almost no way for me to move that she will not be trampled by the wheels. Frustrating for me, because I also cannot reach her to move her, when she is there. Try telling a toddler that they need to move, so that I can see to their needs. I will sum it up for you: frustration.
A cool recent development, is that she will let go of her stabilizing devices occasionally. She has done this of her own free will. Sometimes it is because she is moving on to another bomber hold on another device, but I have seen her do it for no apparent reason. I have seen these moments growing in Frequency and duration. I think we will have a walker on our hands sooner than we think.
She "dances" to music, and she is not picky about the source of the music. She has danced to cell phones, the CD player, the TV, but always tunes. Unlike Ethan, apparently there is no sound track in her head. Most of the time this dancing involves bobbing up and down. Were I able to, I think she would have picked this up from me, but it is not because she has seen me do it. So maybe there is a genetic predisposition to this sort of movement....?
When the twins are in another room, she is crawling across the floor, to get to said room. It seems as though she has abandoned the low crawl.
Rileigh has lost a tooth, week or two ago, one of the front lower ones. The one next to it is lose, as both the replacements are in; giving her a sort of "shark" mouth. I'm hoping the one comes out soon, as the longer we have too many teeth in the mouth, the more money we spend on straightening her teeth. We lost the tooth that came out, it was not in a secure place, and was washed down the sink. Rileigh does not seem to be negatively affected.
Ethan's same teeth are lose, but so far, losing his teeth seem farther down the road. All his baby teeth are separating, so he has many gaps now. ...Maybe he is English...?
Sarah and the kids were kind enough to waste their weekend following me on the Seattle to Portland. All our plans went out the window when: 1. I got to Spanaway before 10AM (I was shooting for noon). 2.Sarah was going slower on I-5 than we were. Apparently traffic was horrendous, and this is not just from a Spokanites perspective. So, instead of getting to play in parks, and whatever else, the kids got to sit in the car all day Saturday. But they got out once we hit Chehalis, and they went to the spot I was spending the night, which happened to be the parents house of one of the guys I was riding with. So, I say in the car all day, but that is not entirely accurate.
Sunday, they simply headed straight for Portland. I got there a little before noon, and they had been there for a while. We chose not to push our luck, and instead got in the car soon after I was finished and tried to find I-5. This was "fun". Sarah's phone was less than helpful. Usually it gives good directions, however on this occasion it lost its mind. Maybe the buildings, I don't know. Add to the fun a sister in law who "knows" Portland, only to let you know you missed the turn, or there is a sign over there. Both Sarah and she were great at criticizing what was done, but were less than helpful with what to do. AND it seems EVERYONE wants to go north from Portland on a Sunday. And they all seem to be going to Seattle. I appreciated having Johanna help Sarah, but the salt in the wound was that we had to go to Seattle to drop her off. Oh to have taken the turn east towards the Dalles. So then we decided to spend the night on the road back to Idaho. I am not lamenting the decision, but it was not easy. Sarah drove from Ryegrass rest stop. The guys I rode with are excited to do this again. As am I. I wonder if the family is as excited...

A few things

Keelie has one tooth popping through. She has three just waiting to pop out any day now. If I mention: "she has a tooth popping out", Rileigh chimes in:" my tooth is getting loose". She has one of her bottom teeth coming in behind the child tooth that is there. I'm not too scared yet, but maybe this means she will need braces...? What is real for now, is that the kids are getting to the age where being aware of others in our space is in session. Learning community?
The pool is not open due to some repairs being made. So, our summer has not been like the summer from last year. The longest day has passed, and we have not spent any time at the pool. We have not gone out on the kayak either. We have been on a bike ride or two, through the neighborhood.
I have caught most of the games of the world Cup though. It was real exciting when the US was still in the running. Now I get to enjoy the games more, as I don't have "that much invested" in them. The games were just too nerve racking before.
We go over to the new house occasionally. Anxiously awaiting the house to get done. We are getting a little impatient, and it is not as though our builder is going slow. It is simply that we did not have a good idea of how long it would take, and it is hard to be this far along and not done.

Choppin' brocco-lahh

She was cold as ice. Paradise. and the feeling was nice.

A while back, one of my Air Force buddies commented that any time you have to get up is too early. I thought that was an interesting way of looking at things. He was saying that in terms of waking up, say, when you wake up for a 10am show time, it still is unpleasant. Contrasted to when you have your own timeline, waking up happens more pleasantly. Early show times are difficult, but relatively late show times are not all a bowl of cherries either. When you are woken by your alarm, no matter what time of day, it can be a chore.

I have also noticed that being awake is a state of mind. One thing wakes me, and keeps me awake, and something else just puts me to sleep. For example; class puts me to sleep. Skydiving wakes me up. And that is related to the having to get up thought. Waking for class is a whole different thing than waking for show time for skydiving.

I have the luxury of waking when I want. I mean, the kids have to get to school, and Keelie needs, to eat and get changed, so I can't sleep all day. But, I can get up at 0500 to work out, or watch the morning, or I can get up at 0700 to get the kids up and ready. So I have to answer "why am I getting up right now?". Part of me cherishes the freshness of the morning (or something like that). Another part of me could get more sleep (stay in bed all day). I have thought that I could get up with the sun. -Not necessarily engaging in the day, just get up. I could sit by the window with a cup of coffee or tea, a lite bite, and simply watch the morning for a while. Enjoy the morning and sort of meander into the day. In my "on the dole" existence, where I don't punch a clock, I have had the opportunity to test this theory, this plan, out. Most of the time it ended in going back to sleep. If I got up to actively start the day, it took a lot of motivation to get up, but once up the day was all go. When I woke to sit by the window, it was easy to get out of the bed, but also easy to slip back into slumber. It seems that having to get up is too early, and that having to get up, is what gets us up.

Believe it or not, but I think most of this brain stuff from inside my head that I am putting in the blog stems from a blue sky morning this morning. Yesterday was not as blue sky, and over the winter, blue sky doesn't happen until at least 8 or 9. Blue sky this morning started well before 0500.

We are chomping at the bit to get into the house. When it was a hole in the ground, I could be patient. Even when it was just the frame. I think progress was more dramatic. Now the progress is more tedious -wiring and stuff. So I am impatient.

The kids are enjoying spring, Ethan in soccer, and Riles in Gymnastics.

Keelie is low crawling across the floor. She still tries to get up on all fours and is wobbly. Apparently the low crawl is not sufficient.

The twins are constantly picking her up, and playing with her. I think they are advancing her development.

Got a Haircut

I should've taken more pictures of their hair cuts. I should've woken up earlier and had something for the kids to do so that we could get ready for school. And then there is an echo in my head, developed a long time ago. It may be genes, that I am genetically predisposed to have this phrase ring in my head. It may be that hearing something enough leads to ...well this echo. "You can't of anything". Well, so one can't "of" anything....how do you pronounce "ve"? We are allowed to shorten words once in a while. Have is not a hard word to say, that is true, and woe the day we lose the integrity of words, still, there is simply a tendancy to simplify syllables.
Rileigh had her hair cut short yesterday. That was her idea - maybe influenced by the hairstyles found at Funtastics.






Ethan had his haircut too. And in this instance, he did not take the first look at himself in the mirror and say: " I look rediculous".




Rileigh can carry Keelie now. She takes every opportunity to carry her from one place to another.
Keelie has no teeth showing yet. I'm ready to feed her solids, but she rejects them sometimes.

On the way to Midnight

It is funny what happens to me when I am trying to get to sleep. I have to mention that I was dragging all day, that I was looking forward to studying the backs of my eyelids all day. And then when it came to it, all of a sudden I was looking at midnight. Not what I had envisioned earlier in the day. The kids got to bed around 8:30, which is pretty good, and I had decided not to watch Sports Center as I have been disappointed in the hockey coverage, and frustrated with all the other stuff they cover instead. My prospects for an "early" bed time appeared to be good.
To catch the results, I looked up the score online. OK, got that the Coyotes lost. Fine. Somehow that led to Wikipedia. I think I was curious about who/what an octagon girl was (Arianny Celeste)? Now I know. huh. Interesting, and there is a lot out there that means a whole lot to people that I have no idea exists.
Which leads me to my next search: the USS Alabama. Yeah I see the link too. Obviously my search leads (yeah leads, there is more) with the 5th ship to be christened the AL (BB-60). "Obviously" because I passed by it many times when we would drive to New Orleans from the Heart of Dixie - Montgomery. I got caught in catching up on its history, as part of a screen for various fast carrier groups. A fast light battleship? I did not catch that, so maybe I need to go back and read some more. Anyway, turns out, the AL was decommissioned at Naval Station Seattle. (Seattle?) Apparently she then spent some time at the Bremerton ship yard "in reserve", alongside the Mighty Mo I suppose. The Navy let her go in the '60's, and she was towed to Mobile Bay, where we saw her often - on the drive to NO.
So that lead to looking at all the Naval stations in the Puget Sound - because there are many and it is interesting where they pop up. In the process I find that Bangor and Bremerton (along with Keyport and such) are now referred to as: Navy Base Kitsap. So, that leads to looking up what is at Bangor now. SSBN's, SSGN's, and an SSN actually. About eleven boats in all. As for Bremerton, there is a carrier home ported there. That surprises me, I guess because I thought the only ships in the Bremerton harbor were on their way to the scrap pile. Au contrer mon frer. CVN-74, Stennis a Nimitz class carrier, operates out of Bremerton. That and two SSN's! I guess I thought all that stuff went over to Everett.
At this point, I am knee deep in all this cool stuff, just begging me to go further. I mean, who flies off the Stennis? And a Marine squadron? do they always fly with Navy Wings? It's two anchors come from the Forrestal? Why could I have not found this stuff out in the morning, to get me out of bed? Glance at the clock...just because, I mean, it should be like 9PM or something. Ha! Midnight!? OK. Guess all that cool stuff is going to have to wait. Good on ya Sean for recognizing that waking for the kids is more of a priority.
Keelie was the first up today. Good for her, as she does not need to get into school clothes or anything like that. She also did not give us a completely restful night.-bonus points- Riles was up next, and ready to eat, only took a little coaxing to get into school clothes. Ethan was less than enthusiastic about the whole process. Actually passed on eating breakfast, but was fine pulling out toys to play with instead of getting dressed. The kids made it to school on time, none the less, no issues, other than Ethan had an unorthodox breakfast. I was off to the pool to get in my hour of swimming. Hopefully there will be another break in the rain this afternoon, so that I can go for a ride and not get wet.

Spring Travel

I watched a duck land on the pond this morning. Man, those guys come in hot sometimes. It is contrasted with the geese, who land mostly flaps down, and nearly stalling out. And then, the geese usually land in a large gaggle, whereas the ducks land individually. Pretty cool on many different levels, and lots to watch. For my purposes, I'll focus on the hot landing ducks. Last night, I think one of the ducks was piloting our plane. Well, we had a dramatic stop. I don't know maybe I'm painting the wrong picture. Anyway, it was no emergency issue, I think it all had to do with the runway we used. The main runway ( 3/21) is being worked on, so we landed on 7/25, which is shorter. Also, landing that way (7), we run out going away from the terminal. So, I think the pilot wanted to keep the taxiing as short as possible. So, we hit the ground, and put on the brakes. I think we used less than half the runway. We were in an Airbus 319, so midsized plane. I have been in a C-5 (much bigger plane) that performed a similar maneuver. In other words, I have been through this before, and not concerned. The only discomfort was that Ethan, sound asleep, was falling in his chair - no longer comfortable, due to the quick deceleration. Riles had a better seating position, and was unaffected. Funny thing was that he woke for a moment, and then lights out again. We had to wake them up after all the passengers got off and I got my chair. Fun, and awesome that the kids fly so well.
We were flying because we had gone to Vail, to participate in a fund raiser for the Adaptive Ski Team. There are plenty of activities provided for the kids to do, under supervision, its really cool, and opens up opportunities for Sarah and myself. With all the skiing Ethan has done, I did think we could handle a little skiing ourselves unassisted. Apparently standing up on skis is harder than I remember. That and what looked like cat track, had areas of more steep than he was ready for. And we had a cascading effect, where fear, fatigue, and frustration added up and took over. Thankfully, Vail is used to this sort of thing, and there were plenty of employees on the hill, who stopped by to help us out. He made it up the hill on the chairlift, and cruising the cat track quite easily so I was impressed. His command of the snowplow, however, was not enough to overcome some of the pitches. So, that ended our ski adventure, and next year, we will sign him(and Rileigh) up for classes. That left us with activities other than skiing. We swam in the pool, and played on a nice playground city park. They also had a movie night, and a Disney party. Sarah and I had dinners and socializing with NBC higher ups, and other benefactor types.
We were not scheduled to leave Denver until 9pm. And because we can't think ahead all that well, we played that day by ear. Which meant out of the hotel by noon (a challenge for us any day), then to the playground again, then into Denver where we decided to try out the aquarium. Add to the fun, we got stuck in traffic as the I-25, I-70 interchange was closed due to an accident. Raise the level with a little of Keelie needing to eat, no water, and she had spilled a little on herself =uncomfortable baby, uncomfortable family (stressed Dad).
It is cool to see how well the kids travel. I get a little unnerved as we mingle in crowds, and Ethan likes to play hide and seek, but all in all, they do what we say, and we have fun.
The comments were: "It is good to be home" "I like VailDenver (its what they call it), there is lots of cool snow."
I'm ready to stay home for a while, but that is not to be.

a quick note

-Written from Whistler Paralympic Village-
I am in an amazingly interesting place for a number of reasons. We all know this place has a physical beauty. Most of us are aware that the price tag for all the beautiful green is all the rain and wet. That is fine, a little wet goes a long way in green, and cool rivers. Anyway, the dramatic topography makes up for any inconvenience of wet.

I think all the energy expended here is what is really amazing. Not referring to the athletes, coaches and athletic work put in to being invited here. There is an army of volunteers making this "thing" go. Medical staff, janitorial services, transportation, and the list goes on. I think the amount of support staff doubles that of the athletes.And then you have all the paid staff, who make the food and clean up, and also drive and such. Where else does this occur at this level? I mean, we (the non pilots) supported pilots in the AF, but not like this. I have my choice of food to eat, and it is all food that I would pay money for. That being said, I have paid money for some of the food I was fed in the Military, but this is a different entity all together.

As an example, last night we watched Star Trek in a home theater style room. There were three staff there to make sure the equipment worked to our desires. There were bean bags on the floor to sit in. And they wanted to help. We were not an inconvenience to their solace.
-And I guess I ran out of time and motivation-

I went to Aspen for a week, invited to the Winter Sports Clinic by the Paralympic committee, from the request of Secretary of the VA Shinseki. I was a VIP as they say. A strange position for me. Management whisked me past any staff who needed proof I was signed in. I needed no participant number, even though I was asked for it a number of times. I was also handed the microphone during opening ceremonies -apparently they wanted to hear me say something about what the WSC meant to me. It all related to a nice week of skiing, hockey, and talking with the participants (I got to ski with some Olympians Bode included). It was a fun week.

Ethan had his first soccer game yesterday. Riles went to Gymnastics. After breakfast at Grammies, Ethan went with Grandpa and I to the soccer field. Riles went with Sarah and Keelie to Funtastics. We got a few snow showers, and Ethan got to chase a soccer ball around for two games -"My team mates and I scored three goals"

Is'nt it Trent?

As you drive along hwy 53 (it starts as Trent in Spokane), as you enter Idaho on your way to Rathdrum, one passes a house of interest, which makes my mind go in all directions at once. I pass by the house every day as I drive up to Mt. Spokane to get on snow. There is nothing about the actual structure that stands out. It is a basic frame, the yard is surrounded by a fence which is mostly chain link. It is a house along the highway after all. It is not an expensive house, it is not a dilapidated falling apart thing. Quite middle/lower middle class average home. What really gets my thoughts in motion is that there is a large piece of plywood attached to the gate in the driveway. On this plywood, the owner of the house (I would imagine) has spray painted a message. The letters were painted in a bright red, surrounded by black. -so this message was intended to be seen by all passers by. I will also commend the author on his spray painting ability because it is quite neat and legible- but it is spray paint none the less. I should take a picture for the full effect, but it is rather difficult to think of taking pictures while I am driving to the mountain. It says something like: "My next door neighbor ran me down in my driveway and got away with felony hit and run" (I had to paraphrase somewhat because -I am driving by at 55mph). There have been additional messages making further accusations, calling "his neighbor" a perpetual liar and such. One thing that surprises me, is that there is no: "No I'm not!" spray painted over the message. I also find it interesting that the author has the power to convict his neighbor of a felony. -I thought that was what the courts were for. I mean the writer could have been run down, but it is not a "felony hit and run" until a jury of his peers decides it is so. I mean, even if the jury gets it wrong.... whatever, I'll let that go. I also question the use of the word neighbor. If someone runs me down, that is not very neighborly, they are not really my neighbor. I don't care how close they live to me. For weeks there has been additions every coupled of days or so. Recently, the author has chosen to write a more extensive message requiring him to write smaller -so I totally miss out on more definition of his neighbor. And the latest is that the signs are down, and there is a For Sale sign on the fence.

Bottom line is this basically defines the populace of Northern Idaho. "Interesting" people who take things into their own hands. Effective or not, logical or not. And I had to share, maybe to get it off my chest, but also to share in my experiences.

Himmelreich

I am so jealous. The East Coast gets another dose of snow, and what do we have? Spring. In February! that is so not fair. And to add insult to injury: Dallas gets like a foot of snow. DALLAS! Yeah the Texas kind ....I don't know of any other Dallas. So we get to sit up here -WHERE IT IS SUPPOSED TO SNOW- watching everything melt. You would think it was April. Its a travesty...and a sham.....and a mockery. A travishamockery!
I'm back from my little "vacation" to Europe. It is interesting; when I told people I had to go to Europe to compete, the reaction from them was not the emotions I felt. "They" get all glassy eyed, and ooh and ah. Me? I dreaded the whole thing. No, not the whole thing. I was looking forward to the competition, I just hate having to travel so far to get there. And forgive me for not being able to pick up languages at the drop of a hat, but I hate being in places where I can't communicate. I'm a grumpy old man at 39yrs of age.
Compared with some of my friends, a 9 hour flight across the ocean is a drop in the hat. For me however, it is something much more. I am grateful that we have technology such as hand held TVs and digital recording devices. These tools are essential for such an experience. Still, the airplane seat is nowhere for me to be for that long. I'm going to blame the SCI for that. Comfort is the last word I can think of when I am on the plane.
I also seem to feel every one's anxiety. I get into the airport and I just feel rushed or something. I "see" everyone trying to race for one spot ahead in the line. And all that racing and trying to get ahead of "that guy" occurs all the way until I sit in my seat: the walk to the gate, sitting at the gate, when they announce the boarding, and then when everyone is loading. I get this sort of "it would be better if most of these people weren't here" kind of feeling. Definitely not your love for your fellow man type thoughts. I attribute these thoughts that I have, to me projecting signals that other people are sending off. (I may be way off base, but this theory seems solid to me) So, all the people who are in the airport, are sending out vibes that resonate anxiety in me, as I react to what they are sending.
So, I am all edgy due to the travel.
On the other side of this coin, it is eye opening to be in another country. A whole different way of thinking. To see a Euro version of a van, a Euro version of a rest stop on the highway, a Euro version of a highway, etc. Accessibility is a whole 'nother issue as well.
The French alps are grand. Switzerland is amazing as well. And the Black Forrest region of Germany has its own charm. The France we were in, was Mountainous on a jagged scale. Blue skies, the ground covered in snow, sharp cold air, very dramatic. Germany was ....grey. We got there right after a snow storm, so we were introduced to more white. But the next day it started raining, and the true Germany came out. Western Oregon with less sunlight. It does not surprise me that the story Hansel and Gretel came from this area. Thankfully, our skiing was up in a pass, so the snow stayed there. Added bonus: the sun came out for my races. -on two separate days. I can thank my lucky stars, because it could have snow/rained on us.
Now I am home, and getting back in the swing of being Dad.