Helmets Continued

Shortly after my fall, I took about two minutes to figure out where I was. I don't think that I was fully concussed, but my bell was definitely rung. Then, I jumped back on the bike and continued. Every few minutes, the whole crew would stop and make sure that everyone was still on track. When they saw me, they had quite a laugh.

In all, the trail is about 10 miles. I made it five miles in and our group of seven turned into a group of four. Three others turned around early. About half way back to the start, I look down to see that my front tire was flat, and it was starting to get dark. Great!

I walked it in and took some more clever insults from my buddies. All this said, I think I am going back in two weeks. With a helmet.

Once I got home, my ear was in need of cleaning. I jumped into the shower and rinsed off as much as I could. Then I asked Carrie to clean my ear with peroxide. She did a great job, but there was one area she didn't clean. A small chunk of my ear had dirt underneath it. She just couldn't do it. By the way, I hope you don't have to feel the pain of someone rubbing a Q-Tip on a messed up ear...it hurts.

Then, I had to call my mom. Mom can do anything. She came over with a whole kit of first aid supplies. She laid me down on the couch and went to work. She pulled back the chunk of my ear and cleaned inside. By the way, that hurts. All this said, I am very thankful to have friends that think enough of me to invite me mountain biking. I am thankful for a wife that watched my baby and let me go, and did as much first aid as she could handle. Finally, I am thankful that my mom drops everything to come over at 9:00 at night to fix me up.

Helmets Are For Wimps

Tonight some friends from work invited me out to go mountain biking. I've never been mountain biking, but it sounded fun. By the way, I haven't been on my bicycle in around 10 years. Again, sounds like fun. Riding a bike is like, well, riding a bike.

As we all meet up at the trails, I notice that everyone has two things that I don't. Helmets and water. I understand the water, and I just forgot. Next time I will surely bring a water bottle. I grew up riding bikes. My brother and I probably logged 1000 miles on our bikes as children. Mom and dad would give us a ride to some places but the majority of our travel to school, the pool, the park, or to friends houses was on our bikes. All of this riding, and I never wore a helmet. Helmets are for wimps. Also, I consider myself a bicycle expert - mostly based on my experience as a child.

The trail started kinda rough. It took me a while to get used to the gears and the braking, but I quickly got into form. There are a couple of accomplished riders and they take off and get way ahead of us. I settled into the middle of the pack. I wasn't the slowest nor the fastest. About 10 minutes into the ride, DK, the guy that organized this ride, wiped out right in front of me. I made sure he was OK, then I pointed and laughed. Apparently, when mountain biking, wipeouts are very common. We stopped and (they) got some water. We chatted and laughed at DK for a moment, then took off again.

Right when we took off, there was a giant downhill slope that was all gravel. The slope was so steep that I had to lean back in my seat and ride low to avoid flipping over the handle bars and I zoomed up the other side. All of the fast riders were on top of the hill to see who had the guts to attempt to ride down this hill. This guy did!

A couple minutes later, there was another steep hill and I again zoomed down it...no problem. Then with all of my accumulated speed, I climbed up the other side...problem. Right at the top of the incline, there was a large tree root, so I was just going to jump it! Well, that didn't happen. My front tire hit the root and stopped. Problem is, I was still moving. I flipped over my handle bars. When you ride, most of your upper body weight is on your hands, so when you flip over, your hands are under you and there is nothing to break the fall. Well, nothing except the top your head. The first part of my body to hit the ground was my head, just over my right eyebrow. Then my right knee, right shoulder and finally right ear. That's right, my right ear:




Be sure to check out the ol' blog tomorrow to read the rest.

Father's Day

As Father's Day approaches, I took a second to reflect on being a dad.

I know it is impossible to believe, but there was a time in my life when I wasn't the best athlete around. My freshman year of high school, I went out for the freshman basketball team at Southwest High School. I made the B team. The B team is for the the 13th-24th best players. Unfortunately, the B team only plays a few games each season. After our B season, ended, I was good enough to be called up the to show! I was put on the A team. (not he cool one with the van). My dad went to every game. (back info, my Dad hates basketball). While on the A team, I never got to play. Literally, there was a stretch of several games that I never played a minute but my dad was always in the stands.

One time I told my dad not to come to the game that night. The game was an hour away and I hadn't been playing. I remember it like it was yesterday, he told me that he was going to be at every game because he wouldn't miss me getting on the floor. Well, that night, I didn't get a chance to play and my dad was up in the stands. He paid the two bucks to enter the gym, drove an hour away and watched me sit on the bench hoping to play, but he was there. By the end of my freshman year, I played a few games and became a capable backup post player, and he was there.

Just to feed my ego, I want to tell you that I worked my way to a starter by the end of my sophmore year on the JV team at Southwest then ultimately made the all district team at Crowley High.

Whenever I think back at all the thousands of things my dad did for me, the top of the list is always his attendance to a sport that he doesn't like, to watch me sit on the bench just in case I got a chance to play. I know that no matter what Emily does for fun, I won't miss a game, match or meet. Let's just hope she plays a sport that I understand. Swimming, Volleyball, or Basketball.

Thanks Dad,

BW

Growing

We're in Trouble

Saturday night, I got to see a old buddy. You know, the kind you don't see for two years, but when you do, it was like only a day or two had passed.

Before I go, I had to stop by the gas station and gas up. While in line to pay, the lady in front of me was asking the cashier for some cigarettes. First about her. Short, young, and overweight. The cashier carded her for cigarettes, so she looked like a late teenager maybe young twenties. Her order: Marlboro Reds, two boxes. After getting her ID back, she slides her credit card in the machine and it gets rejected. She acted like there was something wrong with the machine and tried again. Rejected again. She looks at the cashier as he shrugs his shoulders. Then she grabs a second card! Swipes and and shocker...rejected. So she tries it again and again it was rejected. Then she leaves with her smokes still on the checkout counter.

In this day of healthcare debate and taxes on the rich and such, I learned a lesson from this girl. You can't fix stupid! If you have zero dollars in your account and are over you credit limit, do you need to be spending $11 on cigarettes at a convenience store? Let's break it down.

1. She's overweight, clearly she was not taking care of herself physically. Especially considering her age. Are you ever going to have more free time to exercise than you do at that age, and is it ever easier?

2. She's a smoker. Probably not helping item #1 by the way. I don't really have an issue with people that smoke as long as it isn't around me. I think it is nasty, but don't we all have a habit that someone else thinks is nasty? I wonder if she read the warnings on the side? Isn't that the solution to our healthcare problem...warning labels?

3. She's out of money. Not only is she out of money, she is clearly living on credit cards and credit card debt. If she was to shred those cards and live on cash, she'd know that she was out of money. More concerning is that I'm sure she knew that she was low on money, yet she had $11 to spend on smokes. Not milk, or bread or diapers or soup, but smokes! So, she is mounting debt and wasting money.

4. She is shopping at a convenience store. About a quarter mile away is a giant Wal Mart (with significantly lower prices), yet she chose the most expensive place to shop. Maybe this feeds into #3. I've never priced cigarettes, but I'd be willing to bet they are much cheaper at Wal Mart than Shell. Any bets?

What I quickly realized is that this girl is most likely in poor health (or soon will be) and has no money...HELLO HEALTHCARE, and HELLO TAXES! There are tons of people out there who make responsible decisions that just need a little help, but this girl just feeds my cynicism. How can I gladly pay my taxes, when I know people like her are taking them to buy smokes at Shell? Maybe she does deserve healthcare, but what if her health problems are self imposed? Should I have to ante up for that?

Maybe in my land of rainbows and unicorns, she left the Shell and said, "what am I doing?" Shortly after that, she threw away all her cigarettes and lighters and such. Then she used the money once wasted on smokes at Shell and started paying down her credit card debt. She also started walking 2 miles 4 times/week. Two years later, she was down 35 lbs. and paid off, then shredded her credit cards. Good For Her!

You write the end of this story...I want to, but don't believe my ending.

I'm Right! You're Wrong!

I was listening to two people argue over some political stuff (we've all done it). Then I realized that nothing ever gets accomplished in these arguments. Just to make the point, find someone with an opposing viewpoint on abortion. Now I have heard lots of people argue opposing sides of this subject many times, and after the first such argument, I have never heard a new thought. Yeah, it's still the woman's body, and yeah, it's a living thing. Then why do we argue these things. Have you ever known anyone to say, "wait, you're right, abortion is wrong! I am against it now." No, nobody has ever changed their viewpoint..at least not based on your thoughts (things can happen in their own life that alters their beliefs).

One day I was watch that silly new show, The Marriage Ref. It is dumb show that will be quickly cancelled, but it does have an interesting idea. Choose a winner! So I decided to make some rules to decide how to pick a winner of an argument. Here is how to determine the winner:

1. Once it gets to name calling...you lose. Here are some common examples. "you're an idiot", "racist", "loser", etc. At this point it is no longer about the issue, and you've clearly made it personal...you lose.

2. If you tell someone to put their mouth on part of your body. "Eat this ", "kiss that..." for example. Once it gets here, you've ran out of good points.

3. Finally, if it gets to cussing and/or screaming. Pretty self explanatory.

Here are some fun topics to try this out on: Abortion, Death Penalty, Health Care, Religion, Israel vs. Middle East, the bailout, Gay Rights, Welfare, and there are many, many more. Enjoy!

Just Close Your Eyes!

Lately, Emily has been either sleeping great or not at all. Just once, I'd like to crawl in her little head to figure out why she does what she does sometimes. Why does she put everything in her mouth? Yesterday, we couldn't get her to open her mouth for food, but I was playing with her outside and she put a bunch of dirt in her mouth. Why?

Saturday night, she started crying around 11:00 or so. Normally, we let her cry for 5-10 minutes to see if she will put herself back to sleep. About 75% of the time, this works and she will cry for a minute, then fall back asleep. Well, Saturday was the "other" 25%. Once she gets a good cry going, it is hard to listen to. She sounds like she is in such pain. Like she was sleeping on a bed of fire ants.

I walked into her her room and she was rolling around in her bed just screaming. I picked her up and held her to my chest to comfort her. Most of the time, she'll quickly calm down as she is being held. Most of the time... This night was different. As I held her, she would kick me and push herself away from me with her legs and scream. Then, I would move her legs and pull her in again, but she would push with her arms and legs (trying to get free?) I never could get her under control and had to call in the big guns. Carrie. For whatever reason, when Emily gets completely out of control, only mom can soothe her. So I bring her to Carrie and a few minutes later, Emily is asleep.

Now I can't sleep. I am a bit upset that I'm not what she wants. I understand that babies always have a natural bond with mom, but I want some of that too. As my mind wonders, I think to myself:

"The sad part of all of this, is when she is older, she won't realize the sacrifice of time, money and sleep. She will be upset with me because I told her to change her clothes to something more appropriate. She will be upset because her curfew isn't where she wants it. I just wish that I could video all of these moments when we are up late on a Saturday night and all we want to do is calm her down and let her sleep peacefully. Let me record Carrie changing her sheets at 4:00 in the morning because she threw up in her bed. Fact is, we will never get full credit for these moments, nor should be expect credit. We aren't raising this girl for credit."

Then I got a backfire....Do I appreciate my parents enough, because they did these same things for me. Having a kid gives you perspective on a lot of things, but strangely, I got perspective on sacrifices made 36 years ago through a 7 month old baby. Thanks Mom, Thanks Dad.