Got this run in earlier today as the kids didn’t have school. So enjoyed this casual, slightly on the cool side with shorts run.
📷 Photoblogging: Day 04 - Really not much foliage on any of the trees but give another month and I feel like this path alone will start to change.
I had exactly 45 min to get this run in before the next meeting. Not bad overall as I gave myself a couple min to cool down as it was much warmer out than expecting and for me… I over dressed but glad to have the sun out and a little warmer weather.
Still Sticking with the USB sticks I see...
I am baffled by what has been happening as I posted in December last year when I purchsed some picturs and was handed a USB stick. I am not quite sure what is happening that some companies resorting to sending (or giving) people pictures on USB sticks! Isn’t this the age of highspeed internet, almost unlimited data, and cheap online storage? I thought this was long dead but to the point, I now have in my position two USB sticks from the same orginization that we purchased pictures from from our daughters dance competiation almost a month back. The first one that we recieved 2 weeks ago was corrupt so they had to mail us another one 🙄.
The best part is for people to view the pictures to let the company know what routines your daughters are in (by a number system) you log into SmugMug where they have all of these photos by routine. So then after they email you they load the routines on a USB stick, put them in the mail and hope for the best.
I am so confused on so many levels about what had happened.
On a positive, the pictures that they got of my daughter look really good! Also, I really can’t complain about the color of the USB sticks… 🧡
📷 Photoblogging: Day 03 - Just a couple of important cards to keep around the office 😏
📷 Photoblogging: Day 02 - With this strange Spring weather the only flowers found were fake ones inside 🤷♂️
Running street hunter edition… It got dark quick so I decided to use my time to pick off some streets I have not run and boy did I find elevation and some interesting places I need to circle back to at some point. Especially that trail that I didn’t dare go down at the late hour it was.
Is it important?
A little word of advice, but honestly it just seems like common knowledge…
If you are trying to set up what you deem as a very important meeting that needs to happen face to face and is urgent, I would expect some confirmation in return when I send you over a time that works based on the initinal email you sent that had big blocks of time. Maybe I should just assume that the time is going to work no matter what time I choose as I choose a time from your list but it makes me uneasy not getting a confirmation due to the fact that it seems of the utmost urgency.
So here I am wondering after 18 hours have passed with still no response and the meeting that requires me to leave work early, drive to a meeting with a very cryptic topic of discussions has me confused at how important this meeting is.
I should clarify that this imporant meeting is being requested about an activity my 9 year olds is doing. Yep, you read that right.
📷 Photoblogging: Day 01 - Big Darbs looks longingly at his Toy…
Even though it was overcast today the weather wasn’t bad out for my run. I like having slower Mondays at work from a meeting perspective as it lets me reset for the week ahead and go a little longer running to as I just put more work time in later in the evening.
Decided to do a short Easter run today in order to hit a smaller millage goal of the week. Also, felt like with the amount of snacking and food in my future today this will be a good start. Looking at this dock I feel like it is placed out further than before but I could be wrong. 🤷♂️
The Return of Record Monsters..🦖
Well not really the return of the actual company or products but as I was looking at past blog posts today I found My First Post that was posted on March 30, 2011 about an interesting Kickstarter called Record Monsters (well that is as much as I had retained to this point). I probably would haven’t backed it at all but back in the days of earlier Twitter one of the creators Andrew Hyde and I followed each other as well as exchanged some messages from time to time. So sure enough when I saw him and another guy were doing this I figured why not support it. Not only becasue I knew one of the two and appreciated what he was doing on the internet at the time but also because it was a really cool idea to create 3D dinosaurs puzzles out of old records.
So I not only backed the product but since they actually did create it and ship it I got my set of 5 Laser Cut Vinyl Record Puzzles in an amazing box set of Bruce Springsteen & The Street Band. Fast forward 12 years now and I still have not put them together but since being reminded of them knew exactly where I could find this amazing box set.
I do remember I was thinking I would wait at the time until my son was a little older and put them together with him but I packed it away and kind of forgot about it. So now I am debating do I actually break into these amazing things or let them sit for a while longer.
Picture of one of the cut records and the diagram included so you have an idea of how it should go together.
Either way, I am again reminded how fun it is to Blog Garden and find small posts like this bring up memories and remind me of some interesting things and people I have come into contact with along the way.
Had fun playing this older game we would play with the kids when they were little called The Bernstein Bears Learn to Share. We had fun and I always find it interesting what games our kids remember and still love to break out to play.
Friday morning unplanned half that included Ridge Road. I might have choose one of the more hillier routes to run today for no good reason at all.
From the top of Ridge Road
From across Christmas Lake looking back at Ridge Road
Had to take it slow with a number of ice spots out there today. Also, the route I ran got interesting as I came to some sections where the sidewalks were not clear and I didn’t feel like running on a busy road.
We Escaped the Room tonight playing the box escape room game called Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor. We even competed the whole challenge in under the allotted time. It was a good way to spend a snowy night as all activities got canceled.
Took the “Bear” (Big Darbs) for a walk in the snow tonight on some trails near the house. I think he really enjoyed it and felt at home blazing a trail through the snowfall.
Compared to yesterday today’s run was rainy. I thought I found a break in the action only to find myself out there getting poured on. Just amazing change in weather 24 hrs later. 🌧️
What better kind of run to have than a trail run while the snow falls. Not bad for a birthday run this year. 🥳
Forty-Three
What another year it has been. It has been an interesting year and still busy as always. I keep thinking to myself that I should start these days, if not a month or so before my actual birthday but I feel there is something blocking me off from this time to reflect quickly and jot some things down. It is not to say I haven’t thought about it but I also don’t want this to feel like work or something I have to do. I want it to be something I want to do, so that is why I am doing it now while watching some snow fall and drinking some coffee.
This year was a really fun year at our seasonal camping spot. Between my wife and kids, I feel like someone was there as much as they possibly could be all summer long. I came back and worked from home during the weeks, typically with a kid or two (depending on activities), and went down earlier on weekends or sometimes took a Monday off and came back Monday night or Tuesday early. It has been a really enjoyable time down there this year by having more space in the new to us camper and just giving us a place to get away and not worry about things in our actual house. It then really feels like a weekend with no plans, versus if we would have been around our house, I would find odd projects and feel like I need to get stuff done there.
Another quick fun thing that happened this past year was April’s brother got married and we all were able to spend time as a larger family for a weekend. Not only was that awesome, but the wedding was at April’s parents’ house overlooking the pond on their property. Besides the sweltering heat, it was just a lovely time.
Down in Ollie, IA for April’s brother’s wedding at her parents’ farmhouse.
As of the first of this year, my parents moved up to Minnesota which has already been great. We have been able to see them more, and they have been able to come to so many more kid events than before they would not have been able to. I don’t think they will be busy anytime soon with 6 grandkids in all kinds of activities. It was a little strange when I was back at my parents’ house in December, knowing that this town I grew up in and this house I grew up in will probably be one of the last times I am here. Not that I won’t go back for my reunions from time to time, but other than that, I have less of a pull to head back that way. I am good with closing that chapter of my life and excited that my kids will have a new different relationship with my parents as they live so close. Now I just have more boxes of stuff they have dropped off and I am slowly working throughout in my shed office.
For me personally over this past year, I don’t have too much to report, as I didn’t really do much but try to keep running as I have but didn’t really do any big races but found a trail race in the fall that was just fun as there were no expectations. As I type this today after a really long run yesterday, I actually don’t have any plans for the upcoming year, which I know I really need to start thinking about. I guess for now I will just refer back to Brendan Leonard of Semi-Rad’s philosophy called The Zen of Running I will “put in the miles so I can…. put in the miles so I can…”
Last year this time I was thinking of focusing on connections, and I am not 100% sure I really did it complete justice at this point. However, from a work perspective, I have over the course of the last couple of months been trying to double down on it. I think it is the one thing that makes 100% virtual work hard is you can’t have as many chance visits. So, starting and since my visit in December, I have made it a point to find people in the office and/or let some of the local people know I am around. I need to force myself to do this with some friends of mine, as sometimes in the throes of the weeks I can still make too many excuses.
For this next year Resilience will be the theme, and my family has taken a liking to it as well. I actually a couple weeks back wrote this exact quote down on a piece of paper and put it in the kitchen for the kids to see every day (well and myself).
“Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up." Mary Holloway.