I love you, Dad

Over the years, my dad has taught me more than anyone else I know.  I guess this means that he's largely responsible for how I turned out, which may be more responsibility than he wants to accept!

Thanks Dad, for always being there when I needed you.  I love you!

The Law of the Garbage Truck

A while back, a friend sent me an email containing "The Law of the Garbage Truck".  I was going to post the tale here, but Googled it first, and found that it's a real, copyrighted story, so it's not right to republish it.  Check out the story here.  It's a short read, and well worth your time.

All day long I've been feeling prompted to compose this post, and I think it's just because Heavenly Father wanted me to re-read that story, and open my eyes to the garbage trucks in my life. I spent yesterday in a heap because of one, and so I really needed to remember the moral of the story:

"Successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day."

Time to take out the trash!

Titles

I always hoped to be known as Mom-who-must-be-obeyed.

Instead, I find myself as Mom-who-will-be-ignored.

How many more days until school starts again?

Pedal & Paddle 2011 Highlights

Here are some highlights of my recent Pedal & Paddle experience; a more detailed blog post is forthcoming.

• I left on Friday around lunch, and returned Monday after dinner.
• Had a great drive up with Clarinda - didn't get lost, stuck in construction, or run out of things to talk about.  I was, however, guilty of almost scaring the bark off a tree.  It lived.
• In spite of packing the morning of departure, I didn't forget anything major, like... pants.
• Everyone from last year's adventure returned for more fun, and we added one more - Clarinda.  It was really incredible how well everyone got along.
• The weather was wonderful the whole weekend.  It only rained for about 10 minutes at 3:30 in the morning the first night, when I was the only one up to hear it.  (Guess how I spent my night after drinking 4 or 5 bottles of water in as many hours).
• Kayaking was amazing - I paddled a single this year (rather than sharing a double like last year) and I think I did really well for the whole 5 hours.  Everyone said I totally rocked the rapids.  It was awesome!
• I cycled a metric century - 100K (62 miles)!!  This was much longer than I had intended, but plans changed, and I went with it.  (Yes, me.  Being all flexible and stuff.  I'm not lying.)  I felt really good at the end - a little shaky, but 6 hours on the bike will do that.
• I kayaked for 5+ hours one day, cycled for over 6 hours the next, with no injuries and very little pain.  I then proceeded to injure myself while sleeping.  No, that wasn't embarrassing at all.
• The food was really, really good.  I even tried Crawfish Étouffée, and liked it.  I will admit, however, that I got the reputation of always being the one asking "When are we going to eat?"... I think I'm a little more schedule-oriented than the other Wahoo Women.  An 8:30 pm dinner simply doesn't exist in my world.
• We had some really, really interesting conversations about underwear, the lack thereof, and all kinds of other topics that I'm sure made Dave wish that he had never agreed to be the chef (and lone male).  I believe he may be permanently scarred.
• After leaving camp Monday morning, Clarinda and I explored Split Rock Lighthouse and Gooseberry Falls State Parks.  Had lots of fun hiking and checking out waterfalls.  No visit to the North Shore is complete without a stop at Betty's Pies, so of course we just HAD to stop for a late lunch.
• I was so tired the night I arrived home that I didn't even want to spend time on the computer.  That's TIRED!

Off We Go!

Well, I'm leaving in four hours to pick up my friend Clarinda to head up north for our Pedal & Paddle 2011 adventure!  I should be packing, but here I am, blogging.  This speaks volumes as to (a) my level of procrastination and (b) my degree of computer addiction.  Is there a 12 step program for that?  Maybe I should google it... *grin*

Anyhoo... here are some pics from last year's event, which was fabulous, even though it rained pretty much the whole time.  I strongly recommend Wahoo Adventures if you're in the market for outdoor fun, and, honestly, I don't just say that because my picture happens to appear on their homepage...

Our first adventure day was 5 hours kayaking on the Cloquet River.  That's me in the purple, shooting the rapids.  Betsy and I made it through without a hitch, then had to try and paddle back upstream to help the next person who got stuck on the rocks.  That's the downside to sharing a kayak with one of the guides... :)

Day two was a tour on the Mesabi Trail.  That's me on the far left.  I only made it for the first 27 miles, then had to quit.  (I had a chest cold with a terrible cough - that's my story, and I'm sticking to it)  This year I'm bringing my own bike, and I'm confident I'll make the whole 45 miles.  I may look out of place on Old Blue - everyone else will be riding hybrids - but will be much happier on a familiar bike.

Can't wait to see what this year will bring!

Mobile Blogging

Good news!  Google has introduced a beta version of mobile blogging, which I have enabled for this site.

What does this mean for you, dear reader?  Well, if you are checking this site from a mobile device (Gary, I'm talking to you) you'll automatically get the mobile version of my site.  It's much easier on the eyes than trying to view the full version in teeny tiny print.

So go ahead, check it out!  Since it's still in beta, there might be a few kinks, but it seems to work great on my iPhone.

Thanks, Google!

Endorphins and Creativity

I swear to you that I compose the best blog posts while I'm out riding my bike.

It gets a tad boring logging all those miles, so I start "mental blogging".  Since I am riding, I obviously can't write anything down, but it seems to flow, and I just can't wait to get home and write it down.  Must be all those exercise endorphins everyone raves about.

Trouble is, I lose about 60% of that wonderful post just in the time that it takes to park my bike and walk inside.  I sit in front of my laptop, and .... blank.

Everyone gets writers block, I know.  It's just more frustrating when you know that you once had something incredibly witty to say, but simply can't remember what it was...

I need to figure out a way to safely do hands-free voice memos.  There's got to be an app for that, right?