So....it is getting a little better....

I've set out many times to write the "I now love my bike" blog, and inevitably each time something ridiculous would happen and I'd go back to hating my bike.  I think I've realized, both through my own experiences and listening to others, that bike riding just means weird and uncomfortable things are going to happen.

Since I started riding my bike in June I've ridden almost 500 miles.  Let that sink in.  500 miles.  I don't even like to sit in a car for 500 miles.  The app I use says I've burned 36,000 calories.  It seems a little inflated, but whatever the number is, it is more than sitting on a couch.  I fell once.  I tried to stop too fast and the bike stopped, but I didn't.  The best part of it was a car across the road that got to see the whole thing!  I've stopped getting lost. Admittedly, I take almost the same route every ride, but at least I'm not taking the same route and getting lost!

During the week I'll ride 10-25 miles after work a couple days a week.  Saturday mornings are for the l-o-n-g rides.  A couple Saturday's ago I did just a little bit over 50 miles.  It is crazy.  I never would have thought this would be something I could do.  I still get a little panicked thinking about the weekend of the event I have to do 75 miles the first day....and get up the next day (after camping for the night!) and do it again.  There is still time though and my body has stepped up to the task by giving a little bit more with each ride.

I no longer take it personally when the wind blows and slows me down!  In the beginning I was certain the wind was following me personally, changing directions as I changed directions with the sole intent to slow me down.

I see so much more around me and the area I live.  Experiencing the world on two wheels gives you time to see, feel, smell and absorb what is around you.  I notice streams, and barns, and the smells of farms, and swamps and flowers I never paid attention to before.  The absolute worst is being at the end of a long ride.  Tired.  Thirsty.  Hungry.  And driving by a house that is grilling meat.  Is always smells so good.  I wonder how amused the homeowners would be if I rode in and asked for one of whatever they are grilling.

And I'm fast.  So fast.  So very fast that I worry every time I see one of these,

I wonder what happens if I exceed that speed and there happens to be a cop in the area?  I worry a lot that I'll get a speeding ticket on my bike.  I'm kidding of course.  I'm not fast.  Going up hills I almost manage negative speed ;-) 

The very best though is to struggle up a hill and think you do not have one more pedal stroke in you, and cross the top to the point where you can coast for a bit.  Every time it is magic.  You settle into you bike, feel your tired muscles recover and enjoy the reward of the hard work getting up the hill.  It never gets old.


The joys of the ride though are not the point.  Raising funds for cancer research is.  Thanks to all who have read so far.  Thanks to those who have generously donated.  Please keep reading and if you are comfortably able, please consider donating to cancer research.  Copy and paste the link below.  It feeds right into my page for the event.

http://dc14.ridetovictory.org/site/TR/Events/2014WashingtonDC?px=1214699&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

How many ways can I get lost on a bike?

I decided to throw caution to the wind tonight.  I did the route from Saturday backwards.  I still wrote all of the roads on my arm to make sure I didn't get lost.  My reasoning was that the route felt uphill the ENTIRE way, so if I rode it backwards it might be downhill the whole way.  I found out quickly that was stupid.

I'm carefully watching road signs and making my turns. I have one more to hit before I know I won't get lost.  I'm riding.  And riding.  And riding.  I start thinking, "Wow.  I didn't notice that pond the first time."  "Never saw that house."  "That fence looks new".  For a person who has spent most of her life being lost you'd think that should be a sign to start asking questions.  Nope.  I made it a full THREE miles past my turn before I noticed the sign on the road went from 600 S to 650 S.  I needed 350 S.  So I turn around.  When you are on a bike and three miles past your turn there is nothing else to do. I found my turn.  I can see now why I had trouble with it the first time.  It is fairly hidden, and covered.  Here is the sign.  You can see why I missed it.

Maybe I was just going to fast I couldn't see it. 

So I make it the rest of the way home and am within a quarter mile of being able to stop.  The part I love because I can coast most of the way.  My reward for the rest of the ride.  I see this:

No problem I think.  I'll just ride up to it and lift my bike over it and keep going.  Nope.  The tree is laced with live electrical wires. For a moment I think, "If I'm really careful I can lift around it."  I decide not to be foolish.  My reward for not being foolish is two more hills.

I'm beginning to think I'm too stupid to ride a bike.

The bike and my struggles though are not the point.  Raising funds for cancer research is.  Thanks to all who have read so far.  Please keep reading and if you are comfortably able, please consider donating to cancer research.  Copy and paste the link below.  It feeds right into my page for the event.

http://dc14.ridetovictory.org/site/TR/Events/2014WashingtonDC?px=1214699&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

On getting home.....

The last two rides have been rough.  Thirty five miles between the two days.  In order to avoid getting lost again I did this before leaving.

It did the trick.  These were the road I had to turn on.  I take great pride in the fact that I risked not writing a R or L by each road and still made it home.  Thankfully the direction part of the ride was early because part way through it rained and washed off all the ink.

At about the last 2 miles I decided that I didn't want to be on the bike another minute.  If I thought I could have walked home I would have thrown the bike in the ditch and done it.  I was so tired that I knew I couldn't.  Everything hurt.  I was hungry.  I was done.

I set out today to on an easy, flat stretch and was just going to do 10 miles or so.  The first half was perfect.  I was composing my blog in my head as I rode.   I was going to force myself to look at the positive and write a blog entry about only positive things.  I was foolishly optimistic.  Then I turned around to come home and realized I was riding straight into the wind.  Wind strong enough at times to feel like I was going backwards.  I struggled through it talking myself into being content with the slower ride. The very end of this route ends in a pretty steep hill, but I know once I get past it the last mile is fairly flat with a couple of spots where I can coast.  I got past the hill and did something wrong with shifting into a lower gear.  All of the sudden I was pedaling but the pedals were just spinning.  The chain had slipped off.  I have no idea how to fix a chain so I got to walk the bike the last mile or so home.  So.  A trip to the bike shop tomorrow, and a request to teach me how to maintain the my new toy.

Not going to sugar coat it.  Right now I hate the bike.  :-)  Later I won't.  Later I will like it again.

The bike and my struggles though are not the point.  Raising funds for cancer research is.  Thanks to all who have read so far.  Please keep reading and if you are comfortably able, please consider donating to cancer research.  Copy and paste the link below.  It feeds right into my page for the event.

http://dc14.ridetovictory.org/site/TR/Events/2014WashingtonDC?px=1214699&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

And then there was wind....

I wanted to just do a normal, low drama ride.  Ten miles or so without getting lost or running into a gigantic dog.  I accomplished it for the most part.  Went to a road I knew and just went straight.  One thing I discovered was that the only time you encounter a car on an abandoned country road is when you come to a stop sign.  There can be no cars for miles, but pull up to a stop sign and suddenly there are three or four.

The first part of the ride seemed nice and low key. I enjoyed the gentle breeze.  Rode past a patch of pine trees and loved instant smell of pine.  Then I turned around to head home and realized the gentle breeze was no longer at my back.  I was riding into it.  I know that for most folks who have ridden a bike in the last 30 years, this comes as no shock.  Not me.  I'm new and learning each day.  Apparently wind is a factor

At one point on the ride I saw a bug coming towards me.  Keep in mind that I ride at such a blistering pace that I can hardly avoid bugs every so often. Kind of like windshield on a car, that is how fast I pedal.  (Note the sarcasm)  So I see this bug and since it isn't heading toward my face or mouth I ignore it. It runs straight into my arm and I felt it hit and bounce off, but didn't think anything of it.  I'm still not sure what it was, but now my arm looks like this:

Strange.  It kind of looks like teeth marks from a human bite.  (Well, a human with no upper teeth).  Perhaps Luis Suarez was out on the road and I was going too fast too notice ;-)

11 miles tonight.

Please join my journey by following my blog, and please consider donating for cancer research.  All money raised goes to benefit cancer research.

http://dc14.ridetovictory.org/site/TR/Events/2014WashingtonDC?px=1214699&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

Sometimes you can't go forward and you can't go backwards

I did not mean to ride 15 miles tonight.  I had a rough idea of where I was going, but in true Marti style got myself so turned around I might as well have been in Michigan.  A lot of bizarre things happened on the ride.

I discovered there are actual DIRT county roads.  When you look on a map it does not reveal the dirt-ness of the road.  Dirt roads are hard to bike on.  There was also a hill that went up at about 90 degrees.  I may have been able to get up it, if it had been pavement  but the muddy dirt was making it too hard to ride.  So I thought, "I'm in the middle of nowhere.  No one is going to see me.  I may as well walk the bike up the hill."  As I get near the top, OUT OF NO WHERE, the two most incredibly fit men breeze right past me.  One is on a bike.  One is jogging.  I had to let go of my idea that it was not physically possible to ride up the hill.  Up until that point it was what I had been telling myself.

Then, I see this:

An entire flock.  In Indiana.  How have I lived here for 15 years and not know there was a peacock farm down the road from me?  This guy was showing off for me.

I finally got off the dirt road and crossed state road 15, which is a busy road.  I realized I had no idea how far the next road I needed was.  And there were 50 more hills, and oddly they never seemed to go down hill. I just got the UP hill part. I soon realized I really didn't know where I was or the best way to get home, but that going back would have been longer so I kept going forward, turning at what I was hoping was the general direction to get me home. 

I was coming up another hill and rounding a corner and I heard it before I saw it.  The deepest, lowest bark you ever want to hear while on a bike, going up a hill with no steam left.  I look to my left and there is a gigantic German shepherd.  I'm not kidding.  His head was almost as high as my handle bars.  The only reason I'm not dead is that he chose not to kill me.

Then.  It started to rain.

I finally came to a road I knew, which was state road 15 again by the high school.  To go back on the country roads would have been 13 miles.  I knew home was about 2, but on a busy state road.  I didn't care.  I took state road 15 home and road as close to the edge as I could.

Here is one of the reasons I'm doing this:

A dear friend, Tracy, just lost her sister Allison to pancreatic cancer.  While Tracy was helping Allison in her last weeks, my friend Sue asked me if I wanted to do the ride.  Cancer is terrible.  Cancer has invaded all of our lives.  We've all lost someone.  Please join my journey by following my blog, and please consider donating for cancer research.

http://dc14.ridetovictory.org/site/TR/Events/2014WashingtonDC?px=1214699&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

What do I do with this?

A few weeks ago a friend in Baltimore sent me an email asking if I wanted to join her team on a ride against cancer. I laughed. I Thanked her for thinking of me and said, "I'm pretty sure I cannot do that, but appreciate that you thought I could". Now. I own a bike, and I ride it. There is a lot that happened from that moment to this moment and in time I'll catch up on all of the good stories. For now, here is the boiled down version. I haven't been on a bike since high school. When I pass people riding bikes I think, "Poor biker. I wonder if their car doesn't work." I did not own a bike. The only thing I had going for me was that I knew HOW to ride a bike.

So here I am. I have a bike. I'm going to join my friends mid-September on a 2 day, 150 mile bike ride. This is a ride to raise awareness and money in the fight against cancer. Please join me by following my blog. Have you ever wondered what it takes to go from couch potato without a bike, to being able to ride 150 miles on a bike, in 2 days? Wonder no more! Just follow my blog and I'll update from time to time.

 The ride is September 13-14, and on the 13th before the event begins there is a ceremony to pay tribute to those we've lost to cancer, those who are currently battling cancer, and those who have conquered cancer. I know too many people who fall into those categories and will pay tribute to them in the ceremony. If you want me to add a name to my list, please let me know.

 There are 8 people on my team, and together we've pledged to raise a minimum of $20,000 that will go towards cancer research at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. My individual goal is $2,500. If you are comfortably able to donate, please consider visiting my home page and donating. No amount is too small. Any donations will be appreciated. 

http://dc14.ridetovictory.org/site/TR/Events/2014WashingtonDC?px=1214699&pg=personal&fr_id=1070


 When I purchased the bike I set out to send a text to my two friends that I'm riding with. I took a picture and excitedly sent a text. I wasn't paying attention and sent it to a different friend, who was not aware of what was going on. She wasn't able to pull in the picture so all she received was a cryptic message from me that said, "Oh my goodness! What do I do with this thing? It is now in the back of my car and coming home with me after work!" When I told her it was just a bike she was a little disappointed that it wasn't more interesting. On Saturday I took my first big ride--20 miles. I even had a pair of wild turkeys come out to cheer me on. By cheer me on I mean they came to the road and one ran at me with his wings flapping and beak open as if to kill me. Turkeys are funny in how they emote. As soon as he saw I was 10 times bigger than he was, he backed off. I just thought....who gets attacked by a wild turkey while riding a bike? Just another day in the heartland.

Join me! Cheer me on! (not like the turkey) Support my cause!

A very special Father's Day.

I called my dad to wish him a happy Father's Day today and this is how the conversation went.

 Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

 Dad: Hello?

 Me: Happy Father's Day! What have you done today?

 Dad: Your mom and I went to Famous Dave's for lunch, and then dropped the van off to have some work done on it and now we're on the way home.

 chit chat.

chit chat.

chit chat.

 Dad: We had an awful lot of rain yesterday, I think your mom told you that right?

Me: Yeah, she told me. We really need some here. Too bad it didn't make it as far as here.

 Dad: Yeah, that is what Marti has been saying. Indiana is really dry.

Me: I am Marti. Do you mean Jami?

 Dad: (pause) Who am I talking to? Oh, this is Marti?

Mom: (overheard in background) That's not Jami?

 Me: Yes, this is Marti. The older one. The one who lives in Warsaw.  Dad, you have caller ID to prevent this kind of thing!

 awkward conversation fumbling.

 more chit chat.

Me: (joking now) Well, nice to talk with you. Can you give the phone to Dad so I can talk to him also?

 Dad: (handing the phone to mom) Here's your Dad.

One of our more poignant conversations!

No conflict now, it isn't on the schedule.

Things at work right now are crazy. It is a statement I've said before and it translates roughly into something like, "Wow that was a busy week. Sure wouldn't want to have a couple of those in a row." Oh, how I'd love to trade the current crazy for what I've called crazy before!

 We are undergoing the biggest transition I've experienced in the 16 years I've worked there and when it is done it will be glorious. We are getting a tricked out new system that will do all the things we've hoped for from our old, out-of-date system. We're organizing warehouses and talking with companies whose product will increase our productivity. We're revamping the main warehouse so my department will all reside under one roof. When it all said and done there will be much rejoicing in the streets. We will pat each other on the back and say things like, "It already doesn't seem like it was that bad!" and "Ah, wasn't that worth it!" But in the mean time we are all sagging under the unbelievable pressure we've been under for several months.

Today started off with a bang when one of my employees said, "Do you remember I'm out of the office from 9:15 until 11:15 today?" Well....now I do. I thought through the rest of the morning. She and I are the only two that answer phones so if she's out, I'm on phones. I was double booked since I had a management meeting at 9:30. I was irritated with myself for not planning ahead and realizing I was going to disrupt several schedules, so I fired off an email to the other managers explaining the situation and asking if we could move the meeting.

The subject line on my email read "Scheduling conflict". What I meant was "I have a scheduling conflict", but if you read "scheduling" as a verb it takes on an entirely new meaning. My boss sent me back a light hearted email that said something to the effect of, "I had to laugh when I saw the subject because I thought, Marti, are you that much of a control freak that you are now trying to schedule when there is conflict?" Ha!!!!!!!!!! It was the funniest part of my day. I wrote back and said something to the effect of, "Never thought about it but if I could schedule it I would and I'd do my best to schedule it down to zero."

I chuckled the rest of the day thinking of scheduling as a verb. When the printer jammed I thought, "Nope, you can't do that, I didn't schedule any conflict for this part of the day." I thought the same thing when the printer wouldn't work, and when the customer called whose package didn't reach him due to a bad address. "Not right now, it isn't time for conflict" I scheduled conflict for between 3:00 and 3:05 and it isn't time yet.

I usually get to work before most people in the business. I think tomorrow I'll schedule conflict from 7:20-7:21, long before everyone gets there. It might be a rough minute but should make for a smooth day.

You can't make this stuff up....or....my yarn is still missing

I frequently order yarn from a company in Turkey. Even with the ridiculously high price of DHL shipping their yarn is still considerably cheaper than some domestic sources. This company is always quick to process my orders, provides an email with a tracking number, has beautiful yarn and as long as everything goes well with the order things are good. But when there is an error, forget it. Convincing them to provide instant, derriere kissing, Amazon style customer service that American consumers are becoming used to is nearly impossible. And yet, the prices and selection are good enough that I go back.

 I recently placed an order and paid the exorbitant amount DHL charges so that I could have hassle free, quick shipping. As I tracked it I knew something had gone awry and I gave it a few days to see if the package arrived. It didn't. I contacted the yarn company and asked them to research the issues. I had an email back right away stating that DHL had been contacted and he would get back with me as soon as they knew something.

And I waited.

Five days later, I hadn't heard anything so I sent another email asking if someone could tell me something about my package. The response: Your package is delayed.

Well, thank you very much. (In fairness, they did tell me SOMETHING, it just happened to be what I already knew.) Note to self to be more specific in my future requests.

I finally got tired of waiting on the Turkish customer service and contacted DHL myself to get the ball rolling. The customer service rep from DHL called and asked me to describe the contents of my package. I said, "Yarn". He was stunned. "Yarn? From Turkey? Why do you need to order it from Turkey?" It never occurred to him that there is yarn beyond what is sold in Wal-Mart's craft section for making afghan and dish clothes. He asked me to describe it. "Some are orange, some are purple, some are pink, purple and white, some are blue and black variegated, some are brown and gold." He then asked if that was all on the same ball. Um....no. I can't imagine what that would look like.

A day or two later my DHL person called me again to tell me they found some yarn that went to lost and found the same time my yarn went missing. He thought it was mine but wanted to send me a picture so I could identify it. Great. Let's get me my yarn. I gave him my email address and waited for the picture to come in. The email came in. I opened it, and this is the picture:

Seriously? I wrote back and as politely as I could told him that he sent me a picture of a bag, and if he wanted me to identify the yarn he would need to send me a picture of the yarn. That was Friday. No more emails or phone calls since.

Go figure.

For the past couple months the theme of my life has been the proverbial 1 step forward, 8 steps back. Sometimes it is THINK about 1 step forward, 8 steps back. I know there will be a point where there is a pay off for the recent struggle but right now I'm just flat out exhausted from the effort it takes to conjure up the enthusiasm to keep taking that 1 step knowing the inevitable backwards steps are coming.

 I'm not trying to be dark or moody. I'm not dealing with death or illness, or pain. Just worn out and tired. And it will pass.

 Mother nature has never been one to check with me to see if I wish to participate in the annual spring yard clean up. Try as I might winter always turns to spring and with it mowing and cleaning out flower beds and dead branches in the yard. I always wonder where mulch goes between seasons. I buy a multitude of bags of mulch each year and I only stop because there are better things to spend money on! So, in all my spare time I've been working on getting my yard ready for spring and I  get my front walk way looking like this:

The little solar lights are new. I bought them on a whim at a grocery store for a whopping $2.50 each. I've always liked the look, but wasn't holding my breath that they would really work. And despite the lack of logic in which I buy something not thinking it will work but *hoping* it will, I put them in the ground and waited for dark. Lo and behold the little buggers worked. When the sun went down I was rewarded with this:

And they cast a pretty cool shadow:

There have been so many things recently that should have worked and didn't, despite hours and hours of effort and these cheap little yard ornaments that cost $2.50 fire right up the first time with almost zero effort. Go figure. But I'll take it!

The bad new is, you have diabetes.

So after a long while of successfully playing keep away from all things medical and doctor related I have amassed a long enough list of things "I should probably get checked out" that I decided it was time to do the responsible thing. Funny how when you turn 40 suddenly your body doesn't snap back from things the way it used to! Being diabetic and being unreasonably afraid of doctors is a bad combination :-)

With much fear and trembling I made an appointment. Emphasis on the much. My blood pressure at my first appointment was 170 over something. I lamely looked at the nurse and tried to explain that I knew I would epically fail this test and that I would rather be any where else in the universe then right there. I was very fortunate to get a doctor I connected with on the first try. I ran through my list of concerns and she barely batted an eye at any of them. Not that she wasn't concerned, but she just wasn't impressed. Personally, I thought she was going to tell me to get my affairs in order, go home and enjoy what was left of my life. The more relaxed she remained, the more relaxed I was able to become. I did however get her to be a little impressed with a spot on my leg. She looked and looked and looked and finally said, "Well, we can either watch it and wonder if it is pre-cancerous cells or we can make an appointment to cut it out the next time you're here." Yeah, let's just cut it out, like I'm an apple with a bad spot! Only the apple isn't a big baby when it is in a doctor's office! But she's right. Better to cut it out then wonder.

I was supposed to call today for the results of some blood work, and I did. The person on the other end of the line pulled my chart, and I could hear her reading through things. "Yep, that is fine. Yep, that one was normal, and so on. Then she stops and says, except. And pauses. Here is comes. The one where she says I have 2 weeks left. Finally she goes on. "Your blood sugar is high". I tested myself right before going in and it was 124. (80-120 is normal for a non-diabetic). I thought, "Great. So along with skyrocketing blood pressure my blood sugar also spikes when I'm in a tense situation. I'm imagining it was 300 or 400. I didn't say anything and waited for her to go on. She waits a little also. Finally she says, "Your doctor will probably want to discuss a plan with you" Then it hit me. This poor woman doesn't know that I know I'm diabetic. I quickly let her off the hook and say, "I'm a diabetic." I could hear the relief in her voice and she says, "Oh, then you already have a plan." Yep, I've got a plan.

I guess if the worst news I got today was that I was diabetic, I'm in pretty good shape!

We got our money's worth.

I was going through some stuff today in an attempt to weed out junk I do not use and came across this gem.



At first glance it is just a score card from a (semi) local putt-putt golf place. It is so much more though. It is testament to what an adult experiences when you take a 5 year old putt-putting. Mom, Dad, and I took Colby and Kate to Paige's Crossing a couple of years ago. Kate would have been around 5 and Colby would have been around 7. If you've ever putt-putted with a 5 year old, none of this will be startling or revelatory. But. Have you ever recorded how a 5 year old putt-putts? All of the agony of standing around waiting for them to finish a hole kinds of fades once you are done. You file it away and the specifics blur.

I opened the card to see if there was anything worth saving. I don't remember doing this, but it was so funny to see how I recorded the day. Here's the score:



I'll translate in case it is hard to read.

Hole 1, Colby 2 Kate 20

Hole 2 Colby 5 Kate 30 (picked up)

Hole 3 Colby 5 Kate 17

Hole 4 Colby 7 Kate 19 (push 1 pick up)

Hole 5 Colby 4 Kate 7 (2 pick ups)

Hole 6 Colby 5 Kate 8 (wind blowed it--apparently that is what she reported)

Hole 7 Colby 4 Kate 4 (1 pick up and put in hole)

Hole 8 Colby 5 Kate 5 (kick and roll)

Hole 9 Colby 8 Kate 9 (pick up and put in hole)

Hole 10 Colby 8/pick up Kate 50 (2 carry 1 push)

Hole 11 Colby 10 Kate 15

Hole 12 Colby 4 Kate 40

Hole 13 Colby 7 Kate 9 (1 kick)

Hole 14 Colby 4 Kate 6 (kick, carry)

Hole 15 Colby 5 Kate 8

This one is my favorite....
Hole 16 Colby 7 Kate 2 (started at hole)

Hole 17 Colby 5 Kate 9 (started 4 feet from hole)

Hole 18 Colby 3 Kate 27

My conclusion is that with nearly 400 strokes between the two kids our golfing was much more cost efficient than the people that strive for par which would have been 82. If two rounds of golf cost $10, we paid about 2.5 cents per stroke. The golfer who made par paid about 12 cents per stroke.

My Nephew's Sister.

From the minute Kate came out she was a mystery wrapped in a riddle. She marches to her own beat, but that beat seems to be one only she can hear. Funny and smart and coordinated and clever and.....not interested in the spotlight one bit. I've watched her brother enter a social situation where not a single person in the room is the least bit interested in him yet somehow he can insert himself into whatever is taking place. He doesn't need or wait for that social queue that tells you that you are invited. He just likes people and can't imagine that they aren't going to like him back.

Not Kate. I've seen people approach her and fuss and gush all over her. She gets the deer in the head light look, and leans into her mom for comfort while staring back at the person as if she is deaf and didn't hear a word they said. I've seen times when impromptu jam sessions breakout where her brother is hopping around like the village idiot, happy as a clam. Kate is doing something really creative and controled (not just spaz dancing) and if she catches you watching her she freezes up. It isn't an attention thing. She just doesn't like the spot light.

On Saturday Colby hurt one of his fingers in his basketball game. Jami's been trying to decide the extent of his injuries. With her background in athletics and injuries she (and Jake) have tried to tell him that sometimes with a jam you just need to pull it and get it popped back in place. Mr. Histrionics wasn't convinced and has been content to live with the pain and an immobile finger. Until Kate fixed him. He wanted to play with something of hers and she bargained the toy away with the contingency that she could try popping his finger. He agreed. She pulled. It popped. The finger can now bend.

I have no idea what was going on in that little head of hers. While the finger drama is going on around her she just sits back, listens, assesses the situation and inserts herself at the right time. I suppose it could be selfish and ugly and just a way to inflict a little pain on her brother. It could be that she was just tired of the finger being an issue. But for now I'm going with the idea that she knew enough of what motivated Colby to know that he'd never pop that finger on his own but with the right leverage she might be able to help him. She has always been a gifted button pusher. She knows exactly what buttons to push to drive a person crazy. Jami and I have always thought that if she could harness her powers and use them for good and not evil the world would be a better place. Perhaps today she did just that. Or who knows. Maybe it was just the chance to make him cry. That, is the mystery of Kate. I love being her Aunt.

Hmmm....I wonder when they came up with that?

I'm still doing the juicing vegetable thing. When I open my refrigerator I see the vegetables in it and wonder if someone else has moved into my house that I do not know about. I must admit, I get a little rush when I go to the grocery store and actually pick things out of the vegetable area. One time a year or so ago I bought a couple peppers to put in a sauce to marinate some meat for chicken kabobs. Other than that I can't remember ever buying a vegetable in my life. (Other than carrots, corn and potatoes which are more of a starch than a vegetable.)

I've always wanted to be the person in the grocery store with vegetables in her cart. When I walk in the veggie section I feel like I need to tell the other shoppers, "I'm somewhat of a fraud. I'm going to juice these, add some apple and ginger and then DRINK these. I'm not as healthy as it appears." I don't, but feel like I should.

So I get all of my vegetables, which are organic. That doesn't really matter except for you need that piece of information for the rest of the story. I'm looking at my cart, and thinking happy thoughts. I'm not sure if anyone else does this, but I always wonder if other shoppers (and cashiers!) are looking at what I'm buying and thinking....now that is the biggest cart of junk food I've ever seen. I go to the check out and still feel like con artist because I don't even know the name of some of the items I'm pulling out of my cart.

The cashier gets to the beets and is looking all over for the sticker with the number to tell her how to ring it up. She looks up and says, chuckling under her breath, "I don't know if these are regular beets or organic. Hmmmm.....they are organic. Well, what do you know. When did they start making beets organic?" Her tone of voice implied, "Those crazy farmers. What will they come up with next?"

I didn't know what to say.

It reminded me of the time I was knitting what would be a sweater when all the pieces were done and put together and someone looked at it in semi-amazement and said, "A sweater? You can make those?" (Still thinking) "You mean like what you get in Wal-Mart in the clothes section?" Ummmmm......yeah. I guess she thought that sweaters grow on a sweater bush, and Wal-Mart harvests them when ripe and takes them to their stores to sell.

I suppose there are times when I casually listen to the radio and take for granted that the songs coming out of it didn't arrive fully formed. They were written and performed by a human who studied music. That being said, if you show me a saxophone my reaction wouldn't be, "What? You can play a song? Like what you hear on the radio?"

I'm still having fun conjuring up images of farmers sitting around scratching their heads thinking, "Now what haven't we made organic yet.....ah, yes. Beets."

Colby makes a basket. Or three.

I'm not sure when my nephew became old enough to be on a basketball team. In my head he is still a little boy. He plays in a league that is named Upwards. Upwards does an amazing job of taking a wide variety of little kiddos and plugging them into the most non-competitive sporting event I've seen. There were basketball teams and cheer leading squads. The cheer leaders just stayed at one end of the gym and cheered their little hearts out for no one in particular. They aren't assigned a team to cheer for, they just cheer.

Sadly, even at this age you can already see who should and who shouldn't be encouraged to pursue sports :-) There is plenty of time later for real life. Right now these kidlets get to cut their teeth in the world of sports in a very positive environment.

Props go out to the referees. They are the real heroes of the day. Quite a bit gets overlooked and they have the the tricky job of being part coach, part encourager, part cheer leader, part rule enforcer, part "point the kid in the right direction". They have to decide that perfect balance of when to enforce the rules and when to let a struggling player "bend" the rules a bit. I'm too rule oriented. I'd have all those little squirts crying because I'd have to call every infraction I see :-)

Colby's team ended up with 18 points, 6 of which were from Colby. On the first basket he had a tiny celebration, looked towards Jami and I to make sure we noticed and went right back to playing. When the second basket went in his arms went up. You could see the joy on his face, and he again looked over to make sure his people were cheering. After the third basket his arms went up again, but as they came down he struck a pose that looked something like this as he looked over to make sure we were celebrating with him (not exactly, but this is the closest picture I have):

On the way home from the game he got to hear what the term "show boating" means. And that sometimes when professionals do it they have to pay a lot of money to the league. Thankfully young Mr. Murray didn't resort to this level of celebrating:

Colby had one other quirk that we discovered while watching him. Colby loves people. He doesn't know a stranger. If you are near him, he'll talk to you. If you are playing on the playground, he'll join you. If you listen, he'll tell you all about whatever movie he watched or book he read. If you fall down on the basketball court, he'll stop to make sure you are OK and help you up--whether you are on his team or not. It was so sweet to watch. Mr. People Person in action without regard to the competition going on around him.

Colby had a huge advantage on the court. He was one of the tallest out there. At this age their heights are all over the place. He looked like this compared to a lot of his team mates:





His team didn't win, but as far as I was concerned it didn't matter. He played well. He was confident, coordinated and cared about his fellow teammates. I love being his aunt.

Off the hook....

Bernie Madoff may be sending up prayers of thanksgiving to whatever deity he prays to. I think this guy:

will be soaking up some of the spotlight the press reserves for "least liked guy in the universe". I think Mr. Madoff may have held the title prior to this maritime tragedy.

If I'm ever the captain of a huge cruise ship, in charge of the safety of over 4,000 lives, I hope I do not have the incredibly bad luck to get thrown overboard and OOPS! fall into a life boat. Because that just doesn't look good.


What a terrible, senseless loss of so many lives. My heart goes out to the confirmed dead, the divers searching the ship, the husband and wife now known to the world as "the couple from Minnesota who are still missing", and the grieving and anxious families waiting for news of their loved ones.

Sheeple.

Let me start by saying that there are probably many times on my life I've been a sheeple. I claim no superiority in this story other than in this case I was the sheeple shepherd. Sheep are known for their willingness to follow the sheep in front of them even if sheep number one is doing something stupid--like wandering off a cliff. People who do the same are known as sheeples.

On the day after Christmas we have a few stores we usually try to hit. There is a Family Christian Bookstore that always has their Christmas goodies 50% off (on the 26th) and they always send out a 25% off coupon that applies to clearance items. In the past I've picked up some nativity sets at a pretty good price, but there are only so many nativity sets you can accumulate. This store isn't my favorite. I like looking around but it isn't a store I *need* to go to.

Jami wasn't sure what time the store opened. She thought 10:00, and our plan was to arrive around then. We were driving past the store a little before 9:00 (en route to other shopping) and decided to see when they opened. Turns out they opened at 9:00 and we were there at around 8:47. There was one lone car sitting in the parking lot and the woman in it kindly rolled down her window to let us know it opened at 9:00. We decided to wait. It was cold'ish. Drizzly or snow-raining, if I remember correctly. A few more cars pulled up and everyone stayed put in their warm, dry cars. At about 8:55 I looked at Jami, sly grin in place, and said, "Want to see a bunch of ladies freak out? I'm going to go wait at the door."

There was nothing in the store I really wanted to be first in line for, and mostly out of wanting to do something with my boredom while I waited, I decided to jump out of the car. Sure enough. All the sheeples followed suit. I could hear car doors opening and shutting left and right. I wouldn't call it a stampede but there was hurrying. I was the only one who knew she was getting out of her car when she did, but somehow several people managed to beat me to the door. There was no roof over the door, which meant there was this herd of sheeple standing in the drizzle.

So at this point I'm feeling some vague feelings of remorse for causing the pseudo stampede and then the person in charge of opening the store comes to the door. Now it is 8:58 by my cell phone. She is clearly not that happy to see us despite the fact that we are standing there wanting to throw money in their cash register. She says in a very un-Christmasy voice, "I still have 5 minutes before the store opens, and I'm not ready for you yet, but since it is rainy and cold I'll let you in." I again briefly decide whether or not I should feel bad for leading the sheeple to the door and adding to her lack of joy.

I don't have time to decide. The sheeple push me in to the store, and hey! there is a ceramic baby Jesus in a manger marked way, way down that has my name on it. And look! Santa is bowing in front of the manger, because he knows the true meaning of Christmas. The only thing standing between me and this masterpiece is an elderly woman on a portable ventilator. No problem, I can take her. Just kidding. The story is entirely true up to the point of spotting the bowing Santa.


But that little gem really does exist. In many forms. Here is one of them for only $6.95. And notice Santa is respectful enough to remove his hat before kneeling.

Lace up those skates, Lucifer...

....hell just froze over!

I just consumed a vegetable. Three of them to be precise.

To explain why this would be tantamount to hell freezing over, I must back up a bit. I've had vegetable anxiety my entire life. I cannot eat them. It was never a control thing that I tried as a little kid who wanted her way. Physically I cannot get them in my mouth and down my throat. There are many foods I don't care for that I can still manage to get down. Not vegetables. There are several Marti versus vegetable stories that end the same way. Regurgitation.

My most memorable one was my first camp experience. I TRIED to tell them it wasn't a good idea to make me eat tuna salad with onions. They wouldn't listen. I did my best to do what I was told. Got to the end of the sandwich and....you guessed it. It all came back up--right on the table. Oddly though my memories are not those of shame and embarrassment (although I felt those). I just remember thinking....I tried to tell you this wasn't a good idea. The other factor that made it memorable was that the shirt I was in was the only shirt that I had with me that had sleeves on it. Despite the fact that it was the middle of summer in the Florida heat we couldn't wear tank tops. My mom didn't get that memo because she sent me to camp with a suitcase full of sleeveless shirts. In one terrible, brief moment the rules about tank tops and eating what was served no longer applied to me. (This came in handy because believe it or not liver and onions was on the menu a few meals later. Seriously. What camp serves liver and onions to 5th graders?)


I can remember being quite young, and being at a friend's house whose mother took it upon herself to make peas AND beans part of my supper. (See above paragraph for how this story ended) After that event I lied to another little friend and told her my mom said I couldn't go to her birthday party. I was afraid the Birthday meal would include something vegetable in nature. Our mom's straightened it out and I was assured that hot dogs were what was on the menu.

The majority of people I encounter have no idea what I mean when I say "Are there vegetables in that dish, because I do not do well with vegetables". I usually get one of two responses. Yeah, but they are so big you can pick them out. Or. Yeah, but they are so small you'll never know they are in there. Believe me. Big or small, I'll find them. I cannot tell you how many times I've been at a pizza place and the pizza ordered is completely vegetable free, except the blade used to cut the pizza was used on another pizza that had peppers or onions on it. The rogue onion or pepper will jump onto the blade and then jump onto my pizza and inevitably be on the piece I choose.

I've learned there is a very specific way to ask waiters/waitresses if a dish is vege free. I've found that "does this come with any vegetables?" can be heard as, "are there vegetables on the side". Or I will ask "Are there vegetable in the enchilada?" If they say "no", it can mean there aren't any inside it, but they are all over the top of it. For the most part I now ask, "Are there any vegetable anywhere on the plate?" If they hesitate I ask again and list things that could be a vegetable to help them think it through. Overkill? Perhaps, but I've been in situations where I'll ask if something has vegetables in it. I'm told no. It comes to me full of onions and I'll ask and the response is, "Oh, I didn't realize you meant onions when you asked about vegetables." Sigh.

So....I've spent my whole life avoiding them but knowing they are pretty good for you....providing you can get them in and keep them down. A few days ago I watched a video on juicing. I'm not sure why a light bulb went off in my head. I've heard of juicing before, but I thought....maybe I could get some (I know not all) of the benefit of some vegetables by juicing them and mixing them with some fruit. I got an inexpensive juicer and some vegetables. It was strange standing in the supermarket in the vegetable area and actually putting some of them in my cart.

Tonight I tried it out.



A beet, cucumber, apple, lemon, celery, and ginger.

When juiced it looked like this:



While drinking it all I could taste was the lemon and ginger. I put too much of those in. I couldn't taste the beet, cucumber or celery while drinking it. Later I swear I could taste the beet but I'm not sure if it was real or imagined. I know a juiced cucumber is not as good for you as a whole cucumber, but it has to be better for you than nothing. I'll play around with the combination and see what my threshold is for the smallest amount of apple is that I can get away with before my mouth realizes what it is drinking is a vegetable. And I know there are are probably vegetables with more nutrition than celery. At some point I'll see if I can sneak some spinach or other leafy greens in. For now I'm just enjoying the fact that my insides are experiencing little bits of beet, celery and cucumber for the first time ever!

How'd they get there?

I can't take any credit for this first pic. A friend of mine, Andy Kerr, noticed it,
tweeted about it, took the pic, etc. I drove by it and saw it, but can't really take credit for it. As soon as I saw it I thought it would be great to add to my pic coming later.



A house in Winona Lake was recently torn down and all that remained is the fireplace, upon which someone hung a single stocking.

As I was driving home a few weeks before Christmas there is some farm land (the farm with the fuzzy cows, for those of you who are local) that stretches out as far as the eye can see. Along the side of the road is something that isn't quite tall enough to be a patch of trees, and not short enough to be a patch of bushes. In the winter without the benefit of leaves it is just spindly, woody, stick like clumps of ugly. I noticed that someone had decorated the clumps with about 30 Christmas ornaments. I go past this part of the drive at 55MPH so the first time I saw it, not knowing to look for it, I just wondered if I saw what I thought I saw. The next day I paid a little more attention and sure enough. Out in the middle of no where someone had taken the time to hang Christmas ornaments on this little patch of scrub.

This is on a stretch of 15 where the cars go by pretty fast. There is very little shoulder. I occasionally do see people walking on it, but it is a couple miles from "town" and several miles until you hit anything else resembling a town. I cannot think of any reason (although I'm sure there could be a few) that anyone would non-nonchalantly walking down the road, look down in their bag and realize, "Oh yeah, I've got some ornaments. Maybe I should make this stretch of 15 look Christmasy". I suppose it could have been some sort of youth group event where teams had to go out and do crazy stunts and capture it on camera. It is not an area I'd risk life and limb to hang some ornaments.

I pulled over a couple days ago with the idea that I would get out and take a few pictures. As soon as I pulled over I realized it was a dumb idea. The shoulder wasn't wide enough for me to safely pull over and get out of the way of other cars. There was no way I was leaving my car once I felt the car shudder when the first car hurtled past it. There were a few areas I could have pulled up to, or turned around and parked on the other side of the road but I decided I would take one quick snap through the window and hope for a good one.

The ornaments turned out fine, but you really don't really get the perspective of just how there is nothing around here. Whoever did it made a point of it.
I suppose I'll have to be content to just wonder how they got there.

Go in love.

I had a really great time at Christmas. A good blend of old traditions and new experiences. One event combined both. For the past few years we've found a Christmas Eve service to attend and it has been at a church that Jami/Jake do not attend. They've involved a lot of the ambiance of Christmas Eve. Decorations, good music, the Christmas story. This year for the first time J/J's church had their own Christmas Eve service so we went to that one. You just never know when you are going to walk into one of those situations that hits you right between the eye.

To begin with, their church is new. No building yet, so they are renting a building. The building they are renting is a :





Their sanctuary looks something sort of like this:




This isn't new to me, nor is it the first time I've been in their church, but for some reason that night it was really tripping me out. I grew up a card carrying member of the GARBC, in Florida no less. (General Association of Regular Baptist Churches) The only thing more rules oriented then the GARBC, was the GARBC in the south. The rules never made a lick of sense to me. I couldn't follow them. They seemed random. I heard a joke once that I thought summed it up. Q) Why don't Baptists like premarital sex? A) It might lead to dancing or playing cards! (If you don't get it, you weren't raised Baptist!) There were no rules about how to treat each other, or how to support each other, but there were rules out the waz--zoo about church attendance, reading your Bible (as long as it was KJV, otherwise it didn't count), sex, alcohol, drugs, rock and roll, cards and movie theaters.

If you played UNO, it was OK. If you played with a regular deck of cards it wasn't. If you smoked a cigarette it wasn't OK, but if you brought a dessert full of fat, sugar and sodium (which is just as bad for you) to a pot luck it was OK to eat it. If you rented a movie and watched it on your VCR it was OK (sometimes it was even called Youth Group), but if you went to a theater--not OK. Really not OK.


I didn't go to my first movie theater until I was a sophomore in college. I wondered if I'd be able to enjoy it, or if whatever evil a theater contained would be waiting to grab me. No problem. Loved it. Wondered what the big deal about movie theaters was.

I realize that rules can be a good thing. I realize that there are some things that are too highly charged in current cultural events to participate in. I'm not even saying the rules were necessarily wrong. It was the inconsistency that I could never wrap my brain around. It was the eagle eye sharpness to monitor a few select "sins" and the willingness to ignore others that drove me crazy.

So, back to Christmas 2011. I'm sitting in a theater, trying to wrap my brain around why, 25 years ago being in one was one of the worst things I could do and now it is OK to hold church in a theater. I'm sandwiched between my 8 year old niece, and 10 year old nephew silently thanking God that they are growing up in a different church environment then I did. I'm listening to music that includes drums, which in my opinion is the only way to conduct music in church. I'm watching this group of white people sing in a way that doesn't sound like a funeral dirge. There is movement and clapping and hand raising as much--as white folk can do those things. (Have you ever been in an African American church when the Spirit moves them while singing? I have, and that is a spiritual experience!)

As the pastor closed the evening his final words to the congregation were, "Go in love." It summed it all up. A positive command rather than a negative command. Relationship over rules. A piece from my past healed that night. Why was it OK to have church in a theater? Because it was never wrong in the first place.

"Go in love" is one of my personal goals for 2012. That, and putting all my tax information in the zip lock baggy during the year :-)