This is a beautiful day. Alaska never ceases to amaze me with the way beauty can just jump up in front of you and snap its fingers and make life smile back.
Blue skies, white snow, green trees, and a backdrop of mountains. All at a tolerable 26 degrees F. With the sun so bright the inside of the cars is a nice warm 65 F. Perfect for a comfy little lunch hour nap...which I indulged in.
Fresh air, sunshine, and comfy reclining seats in my truck. What more could a man ask for?
Sphere: Related Content
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A Good Ending
Last weekend I returned to my old home town. The place I was born, Salcha Alaska.
I always love returning home. Its quiet and peaceful. It’s a calm place with little noise and no bright city lights. I feel refreshed after just a day or two there.
The reason I went though not so pleasant. My Uncle had died. His was one of the fast and unexpected deaths. A brain tumor that snuck up on him and by the time it was diagnosed it was too late, he died within a week.
He was a testament to what it is to be a good member of the community. He owned the general store in Salcha for 38 years. Every member of the community had walked through his doors at some point, most of them at least once a week. He sold them milk and fresh eggs, canned soup, meat and boxed cereal. He fixed their tires and gassed their vehicles from the lone pump in front of the store. He also delivered heating oil to the majority of residents.
The store was run the old fashioned way, still is now by his son. Most residents were allowed to keep a monthly tab at the store, some even longer than that. He delivered groceries to the homes of some of the elderly. If he didn’t see someone come in for a long while, he might drive out to their place just check on them and make sure they were alright.
My Uncle was a man who never bragged, or talked about himself. He could laugh deeply and work long and hard whether in the store, in the garage, in the potato and hay fields, or on any myriad of building projects, digging projects, earth moving, lumber felling, road grading…whatever. He did it and he enjoyed it.
He was a man whose life was well lived, and he left a great impression on his family and his neighbors.
I count myself lucky to have been among the last to see him alive, and talk with him not long before he left. He was ready. He had no fear. The end was mercifully swift.
I only pray that I too may have as good an ending. Sphere: Related Content
I always love returning home. Its quiet and peaceful. It’s a calm place with little noise and no bright city lights. I feel refreshed after just a day or two there.
The reason I went though not so pleasant. My Uncle had died. His was one of the fast and unexpected deaths. A brain tumor that snuck up on him and by the time it was diagnosed it was too late, he died within a week.
He was a testament to what it is to be a good member of the community. He owned the general store in Salcha for 38 years. Every member of the community had walked through his doors at some point, most of them at least once a week. He sold them milk and fresh eggs, canned soup, meat and boxed cereal. He fixed their tires and gassed their vehicles from the lone pump in front of the store. He also delivered heating oil to the majority of residents.
The store was run the old fashioned way, still is now by his son. Most residents were allowed to keep a monthly tab at the store, some even longer than that. He delivered groceries to the homes of some of the elderly. If he didn’t see someone come in for a long while, he might drive out to their place just check on them and make sure they were alright.
My Uncle was a man who never bragged, or talked about himself. He could laugh deeply and work long and hard whether in the store, in the garage, in the potato and hay fields, or on any myriad of building projects, digging projects, earth moving, lumber felling, road grading…whatever. He did it and he enjoyed it.
He was a man whose life was well lived, and he left a great impression on his family and his neighbors.
I count myself lucky to have been among the last to see him alive, and talk with him not long before he left. He was ready. He had no fear. The end was mercifully swift.
I only pray that I too may have as good an ending. Sphere: Related Content
Thursday, February 5, 2009
I bench press 420 lbs.
No joke.
At least I recently could bench press 420 lbs..
I could also dead lift 520 lbs and leg press 970 lbs.
The amount of weight I was pushing, distances I biked and ran, hardcore activities I stayed active at never bothered me in the past. At 35 I could work harder and longer than most 25 year old men. At 39 the same held true. I spent 2 hours in the gym everyday, worked two full time jobs, took care of my kids (although I think I should’ve spent a lot more time with them), and still repaired things around the house, wrote four books, podcasted said books and still kept my wife maritally satisfied. All that with an average of 4-6 hours sleep every night for nearly twenty years.
Then all of a sudden the fountain of youth spigot from which I have been imbibing all these years ceased to flow.
In a six month period starting last spring things quickly unraveled. I couldn’t stay awake at night. I got confused and missed appointments. Then my back went out while doing a heavy dead lift. My knees got really stiff after every leg press session. I couldn’t squat anymore, even without weights. My shoulders started to ache.
Then to cap it all off, I went skiing with my teenaged son and came home with a busted shoulder. Torn ligaments from the armpit to the top of the shoulder…really bad.
About the only thing that still works as well as ever is the marital duty (if you want to call it a duty…like how breathing is a duty)…but the pain killers from the shoulder surgery are starting to cause even the continuance of that to be called into question.
What happened to cause all this you ask?
Simple.
I got older.
I’m not complaining now. I am certainly not saying I am old by standard means. I think I am merely starting to act my calendar age instead of running like a man with half as many years.
My dad told me that after 40 everything starts to fall apart.
I just didn’t realize he meant it would happen the day after my 40th birthday.
Sphere: Related ContentTuesday, February 3, 2009
Simply Hilarious... Laughing you could ever not bleen in heart fuller
As you can tell by the title sometimes things just don't make too much sense. Well, the battle of the languages is pointed out with tear inducing wonder at this site I discovered today.
http://www.engrish.com/
For a good laugh check it out, but not if you plan to do any productive work after.
Let's woolly and have fork needles happily sing dawn cheer, friends heart.
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