Aging Thoughts

In BS this evening, the guy who is over 80 mentioned again about how things are just getting worse and worse.  It seems like this is a common thought pattern for many people as they get older.  Even a couple guys who sit next to me at work will often talk about what things were like when they were young and how it's just not the same anymore, etc.  For sure it's not the same.  It's not even the same as when I was a kid.  But does that mean it's worse?  I don't necessarily think so.  I think it's just different.  And when we're a kid, maybe we don't realize how bad some things were because our parents didn't mention it or let us see it because they were protecting us.

When I happened to listen to Rush Limbaugh at lunch one day recently, he was talking about how between the approximate ages of 24 and 54 you are in your prime.  You know you're the target audience of most things, and it helps to give you confidence.  I think that's probably true.  I have noticed a lessening of confidence in some people I know who are in their late 50's and older.

On the way home from BS today, Meeting Man was talking about some of the people he goes to visit in a local nursing home and how one lady has a daughter who rarely visits (she lives 2-3 hours away), and now the daughter is moving to Texas.  And it made me sad to think about all those people tucked away in nursing homes who don't get visitors.  And it made me thankful for good examples when I was a kid of going to visit family and friends in nursing homes.  Do I do enough for the elderly that I know?

When we were in Idaho, we had a conversation about how some people fear getting old, and the spiritual battle becomes all in your mind battling against doubts rather than battling with more tangible things like jobs, kids, and other sources of stress that try to steal your time and energy.  The other thought I had was that maybe what makes it seem like the world is getting worse for some is as we become more of a stranger and a pilgrim, the world becomes stranger to us.  On the flip side of that, as we get older shouldn't it improve our outlook on life because we can see the goal more clearly?

I don't have any definitive answers here, but as we've heard before, we want to become a gracious and faithful person now with the help of God so that we can be the same gracious and faithful person when we're old.

Good Advice

I didn't make this sign, but I sure like it.

Extreme Adventure

Last weekend we lived some extreme adventures vicariously.  Several of us met in Chicago to see the Banff Film Festival World Tour.  It's two evenings of films full of outdoor and extreme adventures along with a few cultural films mixed in.  I quite enjoyed it.  During the day on Saturday we did some tourist stuff like eating at farm-to-table restaurants and going to Millennium Park.  It was a good weekend, and Jenx was our kind host.

We visited an apartment that had roof access with a view of the Trump and Willis (Sears) towers.

"The Bean" - classic Chicago

The videos evoked some contemplation.  Why do people go on extreme adventures?  To feel more alive because they're closer to death?  Because they don't feel alive without some adrenaline?  Do they feel like doing these extreme things will help them understand the meaning of life more?  I also noticed that lots of "epic" trips are two people by themselves doing something extra strenuous that seems beyond what is humanly possible.  I think two people travelling is often a common denominator for strengthening and growing friendships.  I think it probably encourages emotional intimacy.  I think it can also reveal large holes in a relationship if the relationship isn't very strong or is headed in a bad direction to begin with.

Some of the videos were more of a history lesson, but I enjoy a good history lesson when it's presented in such a creative manner.  On a few of those videos I felt like, "that's not for me."  On a few of them I wondered if I would have the stamina (mental and/or physical) to do something like that.  I think I like the idea of doing something really extreme like that, but I also think it's quite possible that when it came down to actually doing it that I might get cold feet.  For one, maybe I'm not willing to risk that much physical pain. Or I'm not willing to take that much risk period.  I also think that I might struggle with feeling like I wasn't doing anything useful with my life if I spent 6 weeks or 6 months doing a crazy extreme adventure.

Are the people doing crazy extreme adventures today the same people that would have lived in the Wild West 200 years ago?  I think they might be.

If you want a preview of some of the things we saw, here are several.  I don't have links here, but we also saw videos about rock climbing, bike riding, kayaking, and a monk who has a orphanage in the Himalayan mountains.

And Then We Swam - a story about two guys rowing across the Indian Ocean for 116 days.  I think this was one of my favorites.  This is the link to the trailer - the actual video is more than 30 minutes long.

Into The Empty Quarter - two guys pull a cart 1000 miles across a desert in the Middle East.  This is the trailer, and the full video is more than 30 minutes long.

Delta Dawn - Documenting a time last year when the Colorado River flowed into the ocean for the first time in more than 20 years.  This is the short version again - the longer version is more than 30 minutes long.

Touch - An awesome 5 minute video of some extreme paragliding.

Afterglow - What's more awesome than ski videos?  Ski videos shot in the dark with the skiers wearing light suits.


P.S.  Uncle Bex said she refused to row across the Indian Ocean with me.  Can you believe that?

Challenge Problem

A guy from work sent me this riddle today.  I'll post what I think is the answer in the comments.  Let me know if you think differently and why.

Albert and Bernard just met Cheryl. "When is your birthday?" Albert asked Cheryl.

Cheryl thought a second and said, "I'm not going to tell you, but I'll give you some clues." She wrote down a list of 10 dates:

May 15 - May 16 - May 19

June 17 - June 18

July 14 - July 16

August 14 - August 15 - August 17

"My birthday is one of these," she said.

Then Cheryl whispered in Albert's ear the month and only the month of her birthday. To Bernard, she whispered the day, and only the day.

"Can you figure it out now?" she asked Albert.

Albert: I don't know when your birthday is, but I know Bernard doesn't know, either.

Bernard: I didn't know originally, but now I do.

Albert: Well, now I know, too!

When is Cheryl's birthday?

Cheesing with the Rellies

A week ago I went over to the cheesy state to see Jeddles and the family.  Plus, Muggles came over with Boopie too.  It was a good weekend filled with playing with the nieces and talking to the siblings and SIL-Lan.  Including:

1. Horseback rides for the kids.
2. Hunting easter eggs.
3. Go cart and dirt bike rides.
4. Playing kickball.
5. Swinging.
6. Playing restaurant.
7. Dying eggs (some hard boiled, some hollow shells).
8. Playing Phase 10
9. Online robot competition watching.  With my one niece asking, "Is that your robot?" frequently.
10. As I said goodnight to a couple of my nieces on Friday night, my one niece (whose bed I was borrowing) told me not to let the bed bugs bite.  She told me she doesn't let them bite her.  Then she told me I should be OK because her heart sheets keep the bed bugs away.  Whew!  Itching avoided.
11. One of my other nieces made a nice bar graph chart during meeting relating to total number of people, number of males, number of females, number of kids, and number of adults.  That's a girl after my own heart right there.
12. My brother's youngest was wanting to get into the salad and pick out the cucumbers before we sat up to the table for Sunday lunch.  I looked in the salad bowl, and the cucumbers weren't easily spotted, so I told her the cucumbers were hiding in the salad and that we'd have to pick them out after we sat up to the table.  Then for the next 5 minutes I heard several times that "cucumbers are hiding".  Yes, yes they were.
13. A nice long road trip.  It had probably been 4 months since I had driven more than an hour at a time to go somewhere on the weekend.  During the drive, I realized that I kind of enjoy some extended drive time alone.  It's a great way to contemplate life.  And hear some talk radio.  And hear some country classics from up there in the north woods.  And bee-bop to some of my favorite songs on my CDs.

The "horse" was allowed in the house to give horseback rides.

Jeddles gives his littlest girl a ride on Evan's dirt bike.

Part of the restaurant eating area.

Melting hearts everywhere they go.

Dying eggs.  They even did one tie-died one and a couple with glitter.  I should have tried to nix the glitter, but little girls have powerful persuasion skills.

All the siblings except Ananias

Cuteness on the couch.

Extra cuteness on the couch.  ;-)

Change the Game

MelB Marvis walked into Dunham's last Saturday while on an errand excursion.  She browsed the sale racks and found a pair of court shoes (good for racquetball) that were her size and very similar to her current ones but in red.  They were deeply discounted, so she decided to buy them even though her current pair hasn't worn out yet (they will be held in reserve until the other ones wear out).  Then she asked the shoe department clerk to get her all the Asics running shoes the store had in her size.  There was a grand total of two.  She tried both pairs on and made the quick, decisive decision to go with the ones that fit the best.  She threw caution to the wind when it came to the color.  This helped to achieve the goal of saving anguish and time spent dithering  That's what being bold looks like to me.

On the left:  The court shoes that were on sale.  Top right:  New running shoes.  That's right - with mint green laces and hot pink accents.  Lower right:  The running shoes being replaced.

P.S.  I tried to look up how old my current tennis shoes were, but I couldn't find a post for them.  I can't believe I slacked off that much.  I found a post from January 2010 where I got new tennis shoes, but those were not the ones I have been wearing.  So I'm guessing I got the ones I just replaced in 2012 or 2013.  And it felt like I had purchased them just yesterday!  Except that the soles were all worn out and they were making my feet hurt sometimes.

Potatoes and Cowboys

Two weekends ago I took an extra long weekend to go out to ID/WY for some snowboarding.  We were right on the border there, so we crossed the line once or twice a day.  Jax and I met in Denver and flew into Jackson together.  Here are the highlights:

1. Getting special treatment at the B&B we stayed at.  One of my friends helps to run it and my sister knows the other couple who runs it, so we got some extra bacon during some of our breakfasts.  I would highly recommend the Fox Creek Inn if you're out that way.
2. Seeing Ananias for a couple of days.  She made the drive down from MT, and we had a few good talks.
3. Spring snowboarding at Grand Targhee.  The snow was decent (not great), but they have some nice terrain to explore.
4. The last day the weather was a little too warm for snowboarding, so we decided to go cross country skiing instead.  I learned the skate-ski style.  It was a bit challenging at first, and I may have almost regretted my choice to rent that kind for the first half mile.  After a few pointers from Mr. John, I was able to get the hang of it.
5. Warm hospitality.
6. Meeting new people who share some great stories about their faith.
7. The breakfasts.  Delicious.  Baked oatmeal, scrambled eggs, local sausage, bacon, oatmeal pancakes with huckleberry syrup and real maple syrup, cream cheese french toast casserole, sauteed steel cut oats, etc.  They all were delicious.  Oh, and the breakfast included a smoothie every morning.  Made in a Vitamix, so it was super smooth.
8. Good talks with Jax.
9. Fellowship.
10. No flight delays!  That hasn't happened for a while.

And some pictures from the trip:

This is almost worthy of its own bathroom observation post.  Beware the sensors and their assumptions!

From the chair lift at Grand Targhee

A great view of The Grand Teton from the ski slope on Friday afternoon.

Key points:  Do not trust altitude instruments.  Pilots will not wear spurs while flying.

Snow king:  allegedly the steepest slope in America.  It's where the locals in Jackson ski.  Teton village is for tourists.

We participated in a Flat Clayton project on Sunday.

Can you see the mountain sheep?  Watching them made it clear where the expression about climbing like a mountain goat came from.  Assuming sheep and goats are similar of course.

The tetons.

Jax, Mex, and Dana. With antlers. 

Jax on classic cross country skis.

Mr. John, teacher of skate skiing.

Flat MelBMarvis made a brief appearance to check out the Big Hole Mountains.

Some special friends - Jane, Bonnie, Dana, Ellen, John, and A-aron.

Bom dia, Goedemorgen

About two weeks ago, Uncle Bex and I took a scuba diving trip to Bonaire.  For those who don't know where that is (don't feel bad because most people don't), it's an island just off the northern coast of South America in the Caribbean.  It's part of the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao).  It was a lovely vacation.  I did the usual stupid thing and wore myself down to a nub before we went, so of course I got a cold the day before we left.  Sudafed was my friend when trying to dive.  But still, it was a very good vacation.  It's a little bit of a mixed up island.  It's part of the Netherlands, but their official currency is the U.S. dollar.  Here are the highlights.

1. Breakfast buffet every day - it included nice, thick bacon and ridiculously fluffy croissants.  With cheap chocolade pasta and cheap peanut butter.
2. Most common animals roaming the island:  goats, flamingos, donkeys, and iguanas.  They even had signs warning about donkey crossings.  And Scuba Steve crossings.
3. We saw two sea turtles one day while snorkeling.
4. Our first night dive - it was cool!  We saw an octopus swimming on the ocean floor.  We saw a moray eel out of his coral home.  And giant tarpon came in close to use our light for hunting fish.  Some of the tarpon were bigger than a person.
5. Shore diving - that's pretty much why we went.  Nine dives total.  We didn't quite double our total number of dives, but we came close.  After the second dive, we learned an important lesson:  scope out the entry/exit point first to prevent difficulties.
6. Lovely Dutch accents.  You can go see da fish , and two is bigger dan one.  On a tropical island, it's amusing when the largest grocery store is called Van Den Tweel Supermarket and a native island looking lady gives you a cheery "Hallo."  They also like the word "transport".
7. It took several nights, but I finally got the proper night sleeping conditions dialed in:  AC on at 24 degrees C, ceiling fan on low, and only a sheet for covering.  That was just about right.
8. Salt flats - very interesting to see a giant field of pink water.
9. Daytime diving - we saw lots of coral and fish.  Purple tube coral, staghorn coral (Bex's favorite), fan coral, wire coral, brain coral, lettuce coral, etc.  Stoplight Parrotfish, midnight parrotfish, queen parrotfish, French angelfish, queen angelfish, spotted drum, yellowtail snapper, yellowstriped goat fish, gold spotted eel, sargent major (including males guarding eggs), brown chromis, blue chromis, spotted trunkfish, blue tang, bluehead wrasse, lionfish, schoolmaster, a giant puffer fish, sea urchins, trumpetfish, barracuda, filefish, squirrelfish, and so much more!  The world under water is fascinating and full of awesome color combinations.
10. If I were going to write a murder mystery, I think I might set it on Bonaire.  One day when we were out driving and touring, my mind was thinking up all kinds of good mystery scenarios.  I wonder if the Hardy Boys ever went there?
11. Eighty-five degrees every day with very little rain and a constant breeze.  Who can argue with that?  Coming back to the frozen North didn't even make me depressed because I knew I could endure a few more weeks of winter before spring came.
12. A few lazy talks on the veranda with Uncle Bex.  The veranda is also a good place to read your bible in the morning and chill out in the afternoon as part of an extended surface interval.
13. Sipping some rum punch while discussing diving with the Pink brothers.
14. Two-track trail through the national park.  Bex had to show some city slicker tourists how one should really drive on those rough roads.
15. Fresh guacamole every day.  Yum!  They had some avocados that were nearly as big as a cantaloupe.

That's enough bullet points.  I'm sure you don't want to read any more about the minutiae of the trip.  You want to see pictures.

Our wheels while we were there - it came with the room rental.

Wheels (of cheese) at the grocery store (Van Den Tweel Supermarket).

Slave huts.  These were built 13 years before they abolished slavery there.  Before that the slaves slept out in the open in their salt-soaked clothes.

Red slave - I think that was the name of the dive site nearby.  We didn't happen to dive that one.

Your eyes are not deceiving you - that truly is pink water.  And part of the salt pier.

The east side of the island was rougher.  There were very few dive sites on that side.  You can see why.

Underwater at the salt pier (not in the pink water part).

Now that's a lot of conch shells.

 

Bex goes to talk about our accommodations and diving.

Watch out for Scuba Steve crossing the road!

Right before our last dive.  The yellow rocks are out by every shore dive site they have on the island.  This was the dive when we turned around at half our air as usual, and Bex could smell the oats and was headed toward the barn at a hasty clip.

The desert blooms as paradise.

Cactus cap.

Free range goats.  We also saw free range donkeys, but they aren't shown here.

Cool bird.  Maybe an egret?  Not sure if they do salt water or not.

More wildlife.  ;-)

 

Pelican dive bombing some fish.

Hey.  Give me some food.

Pink flamingos in the national park.

Cactus fence near the "country club" - these fences were cool to see.

The smooth part of the off-roading experience - before Bex got all wild and stuff.

Near the blow hole.

Spring and Stuff

It's feeling like spring around here.  The sun has been shining the last couple of days.  The sun has some heat behind it now.  Forty-one degrees is downright balmy.  It's such a nice feeling to be able to drive around town with the windows down an inch or two to feel the fresh air coming in.  I like the changing of seasons, but there is something kind of special about spring.  New life and fresh air and all that stuff.  Dreams of kayaking.  The sun setting much later in the day.  Somehow it inspires a feeling of freedom.

The squirrels were out in force yesterday - they know it's spring too.

Robotics competition season has started.  More about that in a later post.  This week I was thinking about people being robots or not being robots, however you want to look at it.  I think the training on trust may have brought it to mind again.  Five or six months ago I went through phase for a week or two where I wistfully wished that I could be a robot.  I was weary with dealing with feelings.  And Uncle Bex pointed out that feelings are part of what make us human and interesting.  And, feelings are often what bring us closer to God.  That helped give a different perspective.

Someone from work also remarked this week about how if you can't communicate that you become severely limited.  And after the trust training I was thinking about how most things are based on trust, and trust is a feeling of sorts.  No matter how intelligent someone is, a lot of the time a person's success depends on their ability to communicate and create trust.  I've also been observing this with a guy that I sit nearby at work.  Often times he knows what the problem is from a technical standpoint, but he can get wrapped around the axle because he can't figure out how to communicate the problem in a concise way.  Or, he chooses to communicate verbally when what might be called for at the time is to write it down.

Anyway, I was thinking some of that in the back of my head this week.  And then in meeting yesterday someone mentioned Isaiah 63:17.  "O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?  Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance."  We know that God doesn't "make" us make mistakes.  This verse seems to be asking why God made us capable of erring and hardening our hearts, doesn't it?  It's kind of like asking why God didn't just make us like robots or animals where we always do the right thing.  Instead, God gave us the freedom of choice.  Because it brings so much more joy to choose the right thing than to have it programmed into us from birth.

I like this daylight savings thing in the evening, but the morning is a little bit rough.

Trust

Today at work I took an online training course about building an environment of trust.  The material didn't cover anything revolutionary, but it was a good reminder about a few things.  There are two elements of an environment of trust:  being someone people feel they can trust, and trusting others.

I think I know and live many of the things related to being someone people can trust:  doing what you say you will do, being honest, being consistent, etc.  There are definitely a few things in that category I need to work on still - like acknowledging my weaknesses and sharing my feelings.  They hit the nail on the head when they said that sharing feelings is the most risky.  That seems like a universal truth.  I wonder why that is?  Is it only because it's our feelings that are more easily hurt?  Or does it have something to do with them being the part of us that's closer to God?

Part of building trust is having the ability to express empathy.  Empathy doesn't mean you have to agree with someone, it's more summarizing and understanding what someone is feeling.  A good template is "It sounds like you're feeling ________ because of ___________ ."  It seems simple enough, but I think it's difficult to do, especially if you don't feel the same.  It's also pretty clear that the best manager I've had in my career was one who was very skilled at empathy.

The other part of an environment of trust is trusting others.  This I find to be more difficult.  Maybe it's because of my personality and my desire to challenge things, but this is tough for me.  I feel like I've learned some about extending trust in the last year, especially related to trusting God.  But there is still a lot work to do here for me.

Does everyone have the same struggle to trust, or are some people the opposite?  Do they easily trust others but find it a struggle to be trustworthy themselves?

That's your Thursday food for thought.

The Past Week's Crumbs

Hi Peeps!  I saw a link to a website that sounded interesting.  The guy has now written a book (what if?) based on his website.  https://what-if.xkcd.com   The website addresses random questions in a scientific way.  For example, what if you took a swim in a nuclear reactor’s storage pool, where discarded fuel is kept for years until it’s not so radioactive anymore?  The creator, Randall Munroe, would then address this question by analyzing how long someone can tread water, what temperature the pool is, etc.  Based on all the science, the answer is you could survive in the pool for 10 to 40 hours.  He then called a friend at a nuclear power plant to verify his calculations, and the answer was that you’d die before you even got into the pool because you’d be shot by security.

I read Psalm 27 sometime in the last two weeks.  I thought of 4 hymns.  I asked Uncle Bex to read it and tell me how many hymns she thought of.  She thought of 4 as well, but only 2 of the 4 were the same as me.  How many different ones do you think of?  I’ll leave my 4 in the comments.  Don’t cheat and look at those first before doing your own reading!

I went sledding and shopping today.  I did a big haul at Eddie Bauer.  And I used up a gift card at Columbia where I only spent $10 and got more than $100 worth of stuff.  The sledding at the local state park was fun.  Part of it was crazy steep and fast, but fun.  We did more tame sledding as well.  The "tame" sledding did include catching some air as we went over some small sand dune bumps.  It was only about 5 degrees Fahrenheit today, but once we got all warmed up hiking up and down the sand dunes, it didn't feel cold at all.

See those tracks?  Yeah, those are ours.  Then we went sledding down the back side.

View from the top of the dune.

It was a super long hill.  We only did the whole thing once because it was super steep, icy, and fast at the top.

Ready to take the plunge down the luge chute.

And!  I finished my Ukraine scrapbook this weekend.  A snow day is good every once in a while.  Now I just need to get it uploaded and ordered.