1st day of school

We just dropped the kids off for the first day of school. Dede was first. No issues. Then we dropped off Emma. Very excited. Next was the hard part. We got Jax to his Kindergarten class. We hung up his backpack. Put his lunch box on top of his cubby. We found his desk and put his name tag on. He looked so proud. He already had a worksheet on his desk to start coloring. He started to work without a second thought about us. I was very proud of Beth for keeping it together. As we were leaving Jax’s classroom, we noticed that Ollie was crying. That was all Beth needed. We are about to go to breakfast and spend the day making Ollie feel special. More to come later.

Vacations and broken bones

It has been a while, so let’s see what we have missed.
1) I broke my wrist. I am now wearing a brace that is a pain in the butt.
2) I have not run since I got the brace until today. Not a god excuse. I know.
3) I am on vacation for the next two days. Gotta love forced vacations.

I don’t have much time now. I’ll be back.

thoughts at 32k feet

I am on the plane back to Austin. The pilot said that the ground temperature in Austin was 91 when we took off from San Jose. That’s really hard to imagine after leaving Sunnyvale with temps in the 70’s .

Beth sent me a video of the kids on her cell earlier today. I have only been gone a couple of days, but I miss them terribly. Only about two more hours until I sneak into the room to kiss them good night.

I am really looking forward to this weekend. We are heading down to Galveston and won’t be back until Tuesday. The kids love to fish, swim, and play. This brings me back to the importance of play. Jack Nicholson provided his commentary the lead character in the Shining: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I am not saying that the movie is a realistic example. There is some truth in it though. You will lose your mind if work is what life is all about.

You should value the things that value you. Take your company and your family for example. If you were hit by a truck tomorrow, which one would be affected more severely? Your company would send flowers to the wake with a nice card. Some of your coworker might attend the service. Six months down the road, your position is filled and you are no more than water cooler chatter.

Your family on the other hand will never be the same. Your spouse will be left to handle alone everything you once shared. Your kids will have lost one of the most respected and influential person in their lives. Six months down the road, the pain of your loss will still be intensely felt.

I need to keep this in perspective. I’ll be back for more later.

Running and Being

The problem is that I have done much more being than running lately. I am still on the road. I am eating more than I should and not exercising. This combination is not a good one. I am having a great time, but I miss the family. I wish they could be here to see all the sights I am seeing.

Thursday night, I’ll be on a plane back to the sweltering heat of Austin, TX. I just got off the phone with my wife. In less than 24 hours, I’ll be asleep in my own bed.

Life is going great and I think it all has to do with perspective. I choose to be happy in what I am doing. I love my job. I am learning something new everyday. I have a bunch of kids that still think I am great. I have a beautiful wife that adores me. I have in-laws that I actually love to be around. I have nothing to complain about. All is good.

As part of my reading, Dr. Sheehan wrote, “Shakespeare was wrong. To play or not to play: that is the question. Anyone with a sense of humor can see that life is a joke, not a tragedy. It is also a riddle and, like all riddles, has an obvious answer: play, not suicide”

What he is saying is that the question “to be or not to be” is nothing more than an eloquent contemplation of suicide. You are. In other words, if you are reading this you have chosen “to be.” Good choice. In his interrogative: to play or not to play, Dr, Sheehan is pointing out that we have a choice how we spend the time between being and not being.

The person in the most perfect form is the child. The child doesn’t “know” enough to think of himself as foolish for acting on impulse and imagination. The child is not inhibited by social etiquette that limits volume and speed. My kids play at full speed until they drop. My youngest is the best example of this. We find him asleep in some of the strangest places. There is no moderation. 100mph until you run out of gas. That’s the joy of acting like a kid.

I get the same feeling from running. There is no work, no deadlines, and no politics to distract me when I am running. There is only me and the road. Sometimes I listen to my mp3 player, but often I run without it so I can hear the birds, my feet hitting the pavement, and the other sounds that people in their cars just don’t hear.

I’ll be back for more. For now, I am heading to bed.

Six Flags

It’s been a while since I have posted. I have not made the time. I am sitting in the LAX airport waiting to board my flight to San Jose. I have nothing but time for the next 30 minutes.

The running program has not been what I had planned. There are excuses, but none of them good enough to share. Because of travel timing Beth and I did not run the Moonlight Margarita run as planned. Instead, I took that day off and took the girls to Six Flags in San Antonio. Just the four of us had a great time. The girls rode the Boomerang. It has two loops and a corkscrew. They were terrified, but they made it.


More to come.