So I went to this "body age assessment" that my gym had and here's what I found out:
Body fat % (skin fold test) 17% Optimal (way up over last time I checked)
VO2: 44.4 ml/kg min, Below Average (what the crap? I'm supposed to be a runner!?)
Bicep Strength: Great 103lbs (one pound from being in the highest "excellent" category)
Flexibility: Average
Body age: 19 (I guess thats good?)
So anyhow I was asking my trainer about the VO2 and how I could run better than most people I know with such a sucky VO2 level. He was wondering that too (he had asked before hand what my workout schedule looked like) and told me about AT (aerobic threshold) this is where your body stops using fat for energy and starts using glucose and carbs. You get more energy for longer when you stay below your AT. This is usually a number; your beats per minute when you cross that threshold. Someone in shape will have an AT of anywhere between 160 and 175 is what he said, and told me that his AT is at 178BPM.
I was curious and asked how to get my AT. He said that we could strap a heart monitor on me and hit the treadmill. At first he just kept me at a brisk walking pace and raised the incline every few minutes, he said that was enough to get most people's AT. After about 15 minutes of walking straight up and carrying on a conversation about being a personal trainer with the guy he gave up and started running me. My heart was beating pretty quickly when I was finally at a perceived point of aerobic threshold: 198BPM.
He went on to explain as he shut the treadmill down that I was one of the highest AT's he's ever seen or tested on a person. "one of the most aerobically in shape people I've met, have fun with that" He called as I was heading for the weights.
So.... uh.... I guess I'm in OK shape overall, the really high stats balance the really not so good stats.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
Feelings From the Past
I got back from Tahoe and a lot of fun skiing. (I'll save that for another post) Maybe thats what I needed but I am actually feeling pretty good right about now. My guild respects me as one of their top damage dealers in raids (yes, I am a massive WoW playing dork, and yes, Ret Paladins are most certainly raid-viable), I have joined Lifetime Fitness, and things are looking up. I feel...I feel again. I can almost let my heart get caught up in things again.
My friend Mike is back in town and I'm pretty stoked. He's been gone for nearly 3 years in Hawaii. Truth be told, I missed having him around, we think alike on a lot of stuff. He's gotten himself a 93 RX7, and thats promised to be a lot of fun to work on if I get the chance.
I hung out with the old crew last night, we went out for some drinks, caught up a bit, got harassed by the bike mounted popo, the usual stuff.
Lifetime Fitness is great, but I would never dream of paying their exorbitant fees were it not for my Dad helping out on the fee. Me, Irene, and Dad have started training for an upcoming triathlon, which is why hes helping with the fitness fees. Its just a sprint (.5 mile swim, 20k or so bike and 5k run at the end) but it should prove to be a blast. The only thing thats really got me biting my fingernails is the swim. I am a good runner, and by extension I cant be a bad biker. I am not familiar (at all) with long distance swimming. I am actually a very good swimmer, I just never have done any kind of distance swimming, and getting my movements in the water fine tuned is something that I've been working on. Swimming is HARD. 45 minutes of stop and go swimming (doing sprints in the pool, just figuring out what my pace should be for the .5 mile) Got me more tired than a 1.5 hour run. I feel that I'm being very wasteful with my movements and I'm contemplating talking with someone who knows a lot about competitive swimming and asking for some pointers. Getting in shape feels good too, I've been disgusted looking in the mirror as of late, WoW and beer have caught up with me. I'm eating (for the most part) much healthier as well. In joining Lifetime I got a free "body age assessment" and one hour with a personal trainer. Expect the results of that to be posted soon. I get to find out my VO2, body fat %, and go through a gamut of strength and flexibility tests. I'm actually kind of excited.
All this good stuff. Oh, and my car is the biggest piece of crap I've ever seen or driven. Right now I think my water pump is bad, and is leaking a large amount of water as I drive (and while it sits, to a lesser degree) the best part is what leaks out. Its like sludge. I think that somewhere along the line my sister may have mixed the orange and green coolants. Its like sludge-rust coming out and its staining the concrete where I drive and where I park. Also, the hood doesnt pop correctly due to Kalie rear-ending someone and me (instead of taking it to some professionals) bent the hood back down and latched it on with a come-along. The latch sucks to take off every time I need to add water. I'm starting to think that going to Tahoe wasn't the brightest idea, maybe I should have picked up that 240sx with a CA18 I was looking at.
Oh well. You're only young once, and I am going back to college next semester, making me much less likely to afford any ski trips. (or anything but ramen, really)
I get to pay taxes, rent and bills, then I go into super-save mode. My goal is to have a nice, well running 240sx by the time I go back to college. Maybe I can work out with Alex some way to work part-time while I go to school...we'll see how that all pans out, but I really want to have some decent suspension under it before college as well.
I got a facebook. Meh.
Read your bibles.
My friend Mike is back in town and I'm pretty stoked. He's been gone for nearly 3 years in Hawaii. Truth be told, I missed having him around, we think alike on a lot of stuff. He's gotten himself a 93 RX7, and thats promised to be a lot of fun to work on if I get the chance.
I hung out with the old crew last night, we went out for some drinks, caught up a bit, got harassed by the bike mounted popo, the usual stuff.
Lifetime Fitness is great, but I would never dream of paying their exorbitant fees were it not for my Dad helping out on the fee. Me, Irene, and Dad have started training for an upcoming triathlon, which is why hes helping with the fitness fees. Its just a sprint (.5 mile swim, 20k or so bike and 5k run at the end) but it should prove to be a blast. The only thing thats really got me biting my fingernails is the swim. I am a good runner, and by extension I cant be a bad biker. I am not familiar (at all) with long distance swimming. I am actually a very good swimmer, I just never have done any kind of distance swimming, and getting my movements in the water fine tuned is something that I've been working on. Swimming is HARD. 45 minutes of stop and go swimming (doing sprints in the pool, just figuring out what my pace should be for the .5 mile) Got me more tired than a 1.5 hour run. I feel that I'm being very wasteful with my movements and I'm contemplating talking with someone who knows a lot about competitive swimming and asking for some pointers. Getting in shape feels good too, I've been disgusted looking in the mirror as of late, WoW and beer have caught up with me. I'm eating (for the most part) much healthier as well. In joining Lifetime I got a free "body age assessment" and one hour with a personal trainer. Expect the results of that to be posted soon. I get to find out my VO2, body fat %, and go through a gamut of strength and flexibility tests. I'm actually kind of excited.
All this good stuff. Oh, and my car is the biggest piece of crap I've ever seen or driven. Right now I think my water pump is bad, and is leaking a large amount of water as I drive (and while it sits, to a lesser degree) the best part is what leaks out. Its like sludge. I think that somewhere along the line my sister may have mixed the orange and green coolants. Its like sludge-rust coming out and its staining the concrete where I drive and where I park. Also, the hood doesnt pop correctly due to Kalie rear-ending someone and me (instead of taking it to some professionals) bent the hood back down and latched it on with a come-along. The latch sucks to take off every time I need to add water. I'm starting to think that going to Tahoe wasn't the brightest idea, maybe I should have picked up that 240sx with a CA18 I was looking at.
Oh well. You're only young once, and I am going back to college next semester, making me much less likely to afford any ski trips. (or anything but ramen, really)
I get to pay taxes, rent and bills, then I go into super-save mode. My goal is to have a nice, well running 240sx by the time I go back to college. Maybe I can work out with Alex some way to work part-time while I go to school...we'll see how that all pans out, but I really want to have some decent suspension under it before college as well.
I got a facebook. Meh.
Read your bibles.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Life? what life?
Epic problems bounce off me like bullets off Superman.
Since mid-Friday, I've been working on a seemingly simple issue for work (of course not on the sabbath) the details of which are too drab and boring to get into here. I guess my question to the internet is this; Do normal people let stuff like this get them down? I've known some people who put a lot of themselves into their work and identify themselves through it. I can't say that I'll ever do the same. With problems like these cropping up every week, and my only action in them is to say "I don't have a clue as to what you are talking about" (making me feel utterly useless by the way) I would be a madman if I identified myself by simply being the medium which true tech support goes through. While the simple problems no longer give me too much issue, I still cannot diagnose and solve any real problem. So in the end, I really don't let it get me down.
Is that a good thing? It certainly doesn't make me feel good to hardly know what I'm doing on a day to day basis, and though I'm learning, I get no satisfaction out of it either. It seems that for the past months working this IT job I have just stopped fully feeling anything.
Maybe thats why I stoically let my most recent relationship fail. Maybe thats why I don't really put myself in my own prayers anymore.
Like every time in my life before this when I notice fruitlessness, I'm going to have to make a major change. Going back to college is something I've thought about for about a year now. It looks like Radiology is just way too long of a hike for me, so I'll be going (God willing) to UTD to get a Geology degree. Maybe there I'll get a sense of direction. Maybe its green enough grass over there to keep me satisfied.
I've thought of why I do this so frequently, from High school to college, to the Air Force, to college again, to a semester off working 3 jobs, to full time college again, to quitting the military, to community college, to working various places for a year, to now. I think I need the change. I've grown up around change: My parents moved from place to place never staying longer than 3 years in my childhood, due to my Father's military career, they then got divorced when I was 13 and I finally stayed somewhere. Here in Texas. From there my Father got re-married, divorced, re-married again, and settled down, here in Texas. The change didn't stop there, I went from being a dorky introverted out of shape kid to a dorky extroverted runner. I went from knowing nothing of cars to loving all things dealing with nuts and bolts, trying to understand the world through physics and mechanics. I went on to make the biggest change in my life by coming into the Church, and the Truth. Changing almost everything I did in life, from the way I talked to the way I thought about God.
Change change change.
Now that I'm in a sort of lull in life, and I've done the same thing for roughly a year, (while still managing to change myself into a computer-nerd) I've gotten antsy.
I don't know why I'm writing this, all I know is it feels good to get it out. Off my chest.
I don't think I'm unhappy, in fact just the opposite. I'm just getting kind of restless. Like I don't know what to do with my hands in front of an audience, or like I've been on a bus taking me somewhere I didn't even want to go, and my butt just fell asleep.
I just realized that the next semester that I could sign up for doesn't start until after summer.
And I don't feel a thing.
Since mid-Friday, I've been working on a seemingly simple issue for work (of course not on the sabbath) the details of which are too drab and boring to get into here. I guess my question to the internet is this; Do normal people let stuff like this get them down? I've known some people who put a lot of themselves into their work and identify themselves through it. I can't say that I'll ever do the same. With problems like these cropping up every week, and my only action in them is to say "I don't have a clue as to what you are talking about" (making me feel utterly useless by the way) I would be a madman if I identified myself by simply being the medium which true tech support goes through. While the simple problems no longer give me too much issue, I still cannot diagnose and solve any real problem. So in the end, I really don't let it get me down.
Is that a good thing? It certainly doesn't make me feel good to hardly know what I'm doing on a day to day basis, and though I'm learning, I get no satisfaction out of it either. It seems that for the past months working this IT job I have just stopped fully feeling anything.
Maybe thats why I stoically let my most recent relationship fail. Maybe thats why I don't really put myself in my own prayers anymore.
Like every time in my life before this when I notice fruitlessness, I'm going to have to make a major change. Going back to college is something I've thought about for about a year now. It looks like Radiology is just way too long of a hike for me, so I'll be going (God willing) to UTD to get a Geology degree. Maybe there I'll get a sense of direction. Maybe its green enough grass over there to keep me satisfied.
I've thought of why I do this so frequently, from High school to college, to the Air Force, to college again, to a semester off working 3 jobs, to full time college again, to quitting the military, to community college, to working various places for a year, to now. I think I need the change. I've grown up around change: My parents moved from place to place never staying longer than 3 years in my childhood, due to my Father's military career, they then got divorced when I was 13 and I finally stayed somewhere. Here in Texas. From there my Father got re-married, divorced, re-married again, and settled down, here in Texas. The change didn't stop there, I went from being a dorky introverted out of shape kid to a dorky extroverted runner. I went from knowing nothing of cars to loving all things dealing with nuts and bolts, trying to understand the world through physics and mechanics. I went on to make the biggest change in my life by coming into the Church, and the Truth. Changing almost everything I did in life, from the way I talked to the way I thought about God.
Change change change.
Now that I'm in a sort of lull in life, and I've done the same thing for roughly a year, (while still managing to change myself into a computer-nerd) I've gotten antsy.
I don't know why I'm writing this, all I know is it feels good to get it out. Off my chest.
I don't think I'm unhappy, in fact just the opposite. I'm just getting kind of restless. Like I don't know what to do with my hands in front of an audience, or like I've been on a bus taking me somewhere I didn't even want to go, and my butt just fell asleep.
I just realized that the next semester that I could sign up for doesn't start until after summer.
And I don't feel a thing.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Finally. A day worthy of a blog post.
Sundays always start in good spirits.
I had been invited out on a "couples only" boating excursion by my good friend Byron, and the "couples only" part is in quotes because neither he nor I cared one way or the other if we had dates, we just want to be out on the water.
Jason, a good friend to both Byron and I since high school, has married and had a kid. The family man incarnate. In fact, he and his wife Yvonne are the reason this day was dubbed "Blahblahcouplesonlyblahblahblah."
Jason is quite a stubborn and good-hearted fellow. He (just by my assumption) feels kind of subverted as the man of the family because Yvonne makes all the money. This leads to him wanting to be manly and learn to drive the ski boat while were out there. No harm, Byron and I are both well decorated boating masters, and teaching is something that comes natural to us. (especially when we're together)
I promptly show up to Byron's house at the appointed time of "anywhere around 11 to 1" and Byron and Andrew (the roommate of Byron) are still at church. I make myself comfortable on the front porch with my newly borrowed Dark Elf Trilogy book. Jason and Yvonne show up about 15 minutes later, with Yvonne's friend Lauren. (meant to be Byron's "date") I introduce myself to Yvonne and Lauren, and re-acquaint myself with Jason as I haven't seen him in over 3 years. I then proceed to climb up the back yard tree, deftly jump onto the house roof and sidle over to the window that is never locked on the second story. Letting them in, we prepare the boat for the day. Loading every option I could think of into the boat seemed the right thing to do at the time, since Byron and I like to change things up on the lake. I loaded two wakeboards, two slalom skis (for Byron and I's inevitable doubles session) a lame ski for the two skiers, a knee board, and my newly acquired trick skis, which I've never tried as was very anxious to see what I could do with them.
With the food and drinks on the boat, all that was left was to wait for the two people who actually live at the house to show.
Byron arrived with his brother's truck and we hook on the trailer. Andrew is going to wait for his date and will call us to come pick him up at the dock. We're on the road to the put-in when I call Sheri, my date to the lake that day. She'll be off of work around 3-4, so she'll call me when she's ready.
As Byron sees me put my phone down he realizes that he's left his own phone and wallet at home. Not really a big deal to him so we continue on.
The boat ramp is PACKED by the time we arrive. More people than I've ever seen at this particular ramp, but thats to be expected, only a week previous did it re-open, and this is Sunday after all.
After a short wait we get the people in the boat and the boat in the water. Byron likes it when I back the trailer in, so thats my role in all of this. Once the boat is in the water I get the pleasurable task of parking about 1/2 mile away and trotting back to the dock in sandals.
A very normal very fun day begins to unfold as I watch the group dynamic, of which I must poll every time I go out on the boat with new people because, well, I like watching people I guess.
Lauren sticks out in because of one simple oddity. She brought a magazine to the lake. How boring does she think we are? When she pulled it out Byron and I met glances and he smiled as I let my disappointment be known with a hand and the forehead and a sullen shake of the head. She even leafs through it for about an hour as we attempt to teach everyone to two ski. Yvonne goes first and all while we are fitting her in the skis and telling her what to do out in the water, I can see fear building in her eyes. She certainly married the right guy. The truck ride up was mostly filled with Jason asking how bad it hurts when you fall, and what the chances of injury are.
The moment Yvonne gets in the water and holds the ski rope in her hands, she calls out "I don't wanna do this!" Byron and I didn't just invest 30 minutes of lake time teaching her to ski for nothing. We cat-call back the usual encouraging remarks and line her up to ski. Seeing she has no choice, she concedes to try it once. After 3 failed attempts to get up, she calls out that this is her last try (I like to see that 'never give up' attitude.) the fourth try she lets the ski's split (again) and does something remarkable. She holds onto the rope. I let out a long belly laugh and watch as she finally lets go, about 100 feet from where the skis are. I told her to let go if something goes wrong.
She says that she wants to see someone get up on two skis, just to observe how its done, and I take pleasure in giving that show. Since two skiing is kind of boring unless I'm trying something stupid like jumping a tube being pulled by the boat, I put all my weight on the good slalom ski and kick off the learner, tucking my foot in the back boot. I think of how I lost the other learner ski and shrug. I come back in after a few cuts, wanting to give others a try at it first. We managed to find the ski this time, too.
Next up is Jason, more of the same tutelage, more Lauren reading her magazine, which by this time is wet and soggy from us running over our own wake several times. (an intentional move by Byron) Jason, who's foot cant be any larger than my own, has the hardest time in the world getting into the boot of my favorite slalom ski (admittedly difficult, the boot is meant for competition slalom skiing, making getting into it a low priority and control a high, but with a little sunscreen lube I can get into it in about 10 seconds.) We lube the boot up real good and both me and Byron use all of our strength forcing his foot in there. That alone took about 10 minutes. The other ski is just the lame learner ski so Jason slipped right in and we shoved him off the boat. Jason nearly got up the first time he tried, and on his 3rd though 7th try he actually did get up, but ignored us when we told him to keep his arms out straight in front of him. (when you pull in on the rope you loose a lot of your control and often topple over backwards, which he did) Finally he made it up and was going quite well until we crossed the wake of another boat and threw him off.
After his slight victory, Jason moves on to being fascinated with learning to drive the boat, but refuses to actually pay any attention to what Byron and I are telling him (unbeknownst to us). Smooth control of the throttle, always go right of a boat thats heading for you, never get within 100 feet of another watercraft, etc. (the last two quite applicable since its hard to see even a drop of water left in the lake that doesn't have a boat on it. While we are teaching Jason (mostly for selfish reasons, as Byron and I needed a driver for when we both slalom together) Andrew, who couldn't call Byron since his phone was at the house, showed up next to us on a random person's boat with his date, Brenda. They thank their taxi drivers and wish them a safe day.
Brenda is a huge ball of flaming energy. Things like "OOOO I LOVE that" and "wow! I really love you girls, you're SO awesome!" came out of her mouth probably every 4 to 7 seconds.
We decide that Andrew should learn to two ski, since thats the flavor of the day, and he's already really good at knee boarding, so this should be a cake walk. But then Byron lets Jason take the helm. We run through the rule list of do's and dont's and what to do when a skier is behind you, oblivious to the fact that Jason doesn't hear a word through his nods and "uh huhs" Andrew, somehow, to his credit gets up on his first try even though Jason really didn't hammer the throttle down like we told him to, and when we told him that 40 is really too fast for a skier, he immediately slowed to 15. Poor Andrew, who somehow manages to keep balance decides to go outside of the wake. Meanwhile Byron and I are both in Jason's ear about smooth throttle control. I notice that Jason seems to want to aim directly for a large peninsula, and right in his path is the branches of a tree sticking out of the water. Incredulous I tell Jason to steer left and avoid it. Not listening, he keeps right on trucking. Flustered at this time I grab at the wheel and yell at him to turn left, the tree approaching. A small side note, not only was the water too shallow where he was aiming, but thinking of the number one priority, the skier's safety, a tree would really hurt to fall on. Byron notices our impending doom and joins the chorus of me screaming at Jason to turn. Jason finally gets the message and hits left. Hard. This slows the boat enough to sink Andrew finally. We clear the peninsula, thank the Lord. Byron and I, with full loads in our shorts, fill them even more when Jason puts the skier on the wrong side of the boat. Something that should be fresh in Jason's mind is "Always put the skier on the driver side of the boat, so you can see them better, and keep from running them over." No one said this was a perfect world. Jason manages to not kill Andrew and he turns in the skis for his knee board. Byron takes the helm back aggressively. Andrew has some fun showing off his knee boarding skills and takes a decently nasty fall after attempting a jump. With that, he turns in.
By this time I am getting quite hungry, and I remember to check my phone. A few perturbed messages from Sheri waiting around for us in Lewisville (since she doesn't know where the dock is) prompt me to call her. I give her directions to the bridge that we've been skiing next to all day and tell her to "jump off the bridge" Something Lacey and I did when we met up with Byron on the lake last time we were out. We eat a little, go under the bridge and tie off in the middle. Byron and I clamber up the tower on the boat and climb onto the bridge, ready to jump. Unfortunately we cant see where Sheri should be walking by, and she ends up walking the length of the bridge looking for us. A few jumps off the bridge later, we phone her and she walks down the rocky slope on the side of the bridge to hop in from there. I swim her over to the boat and I introduce her to the crowd.
I decide to make an executive decision and have Sheri two ski, since she has once in her life already. After a few failed attempts (she was really close to getting up, too) she decides to come in to allow some other folks to give it a go. Byron and I get our turn on the slaloms.
Stupidly, we give the reigns back to Jason and tell him what to do. The first try, he didn't hammer down the throttle and leave it, like we told him to. (for those who don't know, getting up on a single ski is pretty hard, and even harder without an experienced driver) I veered off to one angle too badly to recover, and Byron got up, so instead of keeping Byron on the line and bringing him to where I am so we can both give it another go, he tows Byron for a while and stops. Ah, well whatever. So he comes over to me and I tell him to let me get the rope and tow me over at idle to Byron. He tows me alright, but not at idle. I end up swallowing a gallon of water and let go before were all the way there. He goes and gets Byron and finally gets what "idle" means and we meet up again. We both get up this time and find that our ropes are too similar in length to cross paths, and instead of going straight, Jason veers around the lake like its Formula One. We get to the other side of the lake and I intentionally let myself fall victim to a wave, so we can tell him to go straight, and to have someone take a rope in enough for us to criss cross (will make you shout, shout). Jason explains that he'll do a U turn when we are both up and head down the coast line. We tell him to just go straight and when he runs out of room, then U turn and go back. Right off the line, I see the boat in a hard turn. I think I should reiterate that a slalom ski is hard to get out of the water, even in good conditions. I open my eyes after about 7 seconds of agonizingly slow dragging through the water to find myself encapsulated in a perfect bubble of water. It was actually pretty cool. In between my shouts for Jason to die I could hear Byron yelling for me to stay with it, funny how we could both be pulled like that and carry on a near-conversation. So finally as Jason straightens the boat out we get some speed and Byron and I exchange surprised glances and start laughing maniacally. We have enough fun criss-crossing each other and give up.
Heres where the day really got better.
We come back to the boat and blow up the tube, now that the ladies would like another go. First out after some deliberation is Jason's wife Yvonne, and guess who wants another crack at driving. Yea. Yvonne gets pulled at a pleasant speed for a while, just what you would expect from a caring husband right? Well he ramped up the speed to near full throttle. As to be expected on such a busy day on the lake, there is another boat, heading right for us. I tell Jason, "remember, in this situation you always ALWAYS go right. Just like on a road with traffic." The boat is far off enough for me to remain calm and explain as Jason begins to turn left, "Right, Jason, right." and grab at the wheel. He fends my arm off. The boat coming ominously closer, and fearing for our tuber, I begin to fret. "Right Jason! Right!" He begins to understand that its english that is his language of choice and makes a slight movement right, but thats only enough to get us back on course to crash into the oncoming boat. "RIGHT JASON!" as I paw uselessly at the wheel. He gets it, he's in trouble. Hard right it is, captain. He veers right hard enough to send his wife flying off the tube. The other boat is at this point confused enough to start slowing. Byron notices that Yvonne has fallen off the tube and is now directly in the path of the oncoming boat and tells Jason to go back for her. Instead of doing the normal, sane thing to do, which in this case would be turn the boat around and go over to our lost tuber, Jason FREAKS out and slams the boat in reverse. This is from a speed of over 35 miles per hour, by no means slow on the water. Well as expected Byron and I start screaming at him to put it in neutral, and as we begin to smell the poor boat frying something and begin to eat the rope that the tube is attached to, our voices get even more shrill. All the while, the oncoming boat has stopped to see this spectacle, and Jason gets up from the driver seat to yell at the oncoming boat (no longer oncoming) to stop. Byron and I cant reach the throttle soon enough as the tube nears the back of the boat. Jason finally hears our girlish yelping and puts in in neutral. Jason now wants to put in forward gear to go get his wife, at which time Byron gets Jason out of the driver's chair and turns off the injured boat. Jason goes to argue "what about her? I have to go see if she's ok!" Byron looks sternly at Jason and says "you've got two legs! GO SWIM!" Jason grabs a life jacket to swim to his perfectly safe wife.
Miraculously, when we go to pull the rope out of the prop, the rope had somehow navigated under the steering fin and over the prop, and no harm came to it. We get in and start the boat up. We get underway only to feel that something is terribly wrong. Any speed on the prop and it just bogs down the motor. Feeling really bad for Byron I make the obvious call, "lets just limp it back to the docks and call it a day." Agreeing a somber Byron sets the boat at a little over idle and makes his way back to the docks.
We all settle in for the long but calm drive back. Andrew, Sheri and I take the front and have a good conversation. Byron's spirits are getting higher and is able to laugh about it. A yacht passes from quite a ways away and we see the waves coming. The unexpected happens.
Water from the first wave comes into the boat, more that I had seen before, but nothing the boat couldn't handle, but the second wave combined with our slow forward momentum drives the nose of the boat down. We were sinking! I tell Byron "give it some speed!" knowing that the buoyancy of the boat will win out, but we need to use the shape of the boat to shed some of this water. He does as instructed and the motor bogs. Crap, didn't think of that. Its funny, I was calm enough to look at Byron's face to see his reaction to all this and it was priceless, a panicked look combined with looking back and forth. He shouts all of the sudden "get out of the boat!" knowing that our weight in the front wasn't helping anything, I jump ship. The rest of the crew follows suit a few seconds later when they realize he was serious. The boat gets very low on the water as we see its momentum carry it away from us. The boat was seriously 6 inches from being completely submerged, aside from the glass and the tower. Byron manages to get over to the cooler and dumps its contents into the lake. He starts paling the water out as fast as he can. I begin to swim to catch up with the boat so I can help. Finally I arrive at the boat and begin scooping water with a Pringles can that I dumped out. Byron after about 15 minutes of paling that huge cooler, with Andrew's help, begins to see progress. The bilge is on, but thats a pretty small pump. About 5 boats stop to watch us desperately trying to get the water out of the boat. I take a shift on the cooler and we pail for about 25 more minutes and finally see (semi) dry carpet. Crisis averted.
Opening the engine hatch, we notice that its still flooded down there, so we cant start the motor with it like that. we decide to let the bilge do the rest and start swimming the boat back. The girls flag down a boat (even after we tell them not to) to tow us. I explain I didn't like the idea of towing the boat because we still have alot of water inside and waves could come back over the bow and do the same thing again. After some deliberation, we decide to go for it and let them tow us back to the dock. As a precaution, I sat everyone on the back of the boat.
Getting the boat on the trailer was easy enough, I skipped the line since we were already taking a slot on the ramp. I make sure that Jason has pulled in the boat enough with the hand crank and get back in the truck. Thats when a fat man on a Kawasaki bike pulls up (obviously drunk) and starts telling us what-for. I ignore him for a while, there is a more pressing need at hand. I pull the boat out and get up to the asphalt and the tires begin to spin. The fat man remarks loudly, enough to get my attention, that "AH TOWYOOTA TUUNDRAA WOULLLNT DOO THAYAT!!!" I begin ignoring him again. He loudly claims as I put the truck back down on the concrete grippy surface that the limited slip would engage on a toyota tundra and we wouldn't have this problem. I begin to seethe. I've had a long day. I get a good run up to the asphalt and the wheels spin again. The boat still has a ton of water in it, making it way heavier than normal. "TOYOTA TUND...." starts the fat one. "SHUT UP!" I yell as I lay some rubber down, knowing that the heat will eventually win out over the slick wet surface. Some white smoke later, we've gotten the boat off the ramp.
Later that night Byron and I were able to joke about the whole thing. We tried starting the boat but there was water in the cylinders. I luckily had my tools with me and pulled the spark plugs out. While we were turning the starter over I did notice a little water come out. Put them back in, and she was running like a champ again.
Upon inspection, Jason had actually bent the prop. That hard reverse from 35 was such a huge shock to the drive train that something had to bend or break.
A microwaved lasagna later and some water, Byron and I knew that we'd never forget this day.
And I never got to try my new trick skis. Blast.
I had been invited out on a "couples only" boating excursion by my good friend Byron, and the "couples only" part is in quotes because neither he nor I cared one way or the other if we had dates, we just want to be out on the water.
Jason, a good friend to both Byron and I since high school, has married and had a kid. The family man incarnate. In fact, he and his wife Yvonne are the reason this day was dubbed "Blahblahcouplesonlyblahblahblah."
Jason is quite a stubborn and good-hearted fellow. He (just by my assumption) feels kind of subverted as the man of the family because Yvonne makes all the money. This leads to him wanting to be manly and learn to drive the ski boat while were out there. No harm, Byron and I are both well decorated boating masters, and teaching is something that comes natural to us. (especially when we're together)
I promptly show up to Byron's house at the appointed time of "anywhere around 11 to 1" and Byron and Andrew (the roommate of Byron) are still at church. I make myself comfortable on the front porch with my newly borrowed Dark Elf Trilogy book. Jason and Yvonne show up about 15 minutes later, with Yvonne's friend Lauren. (meant to be Byron's "date") I introduce myself to Yvonne and Lauren, and re-acquaint myself with Jason as I haven't seen him in over 3 years. I then proceed to climb up the back yard tree, deftly jump onto the house roof and sidle over to the window that is never locked on the second story. Letting them in, we prepare the boat for the day. Loading every option I could think of into the boat seemed the right thing to do at the time, since Byron and I like to change things up on the lake. I loaded two wakeboards, two slalom skis (for Byron and I's inevitable doubles session) a lame ski for the two skiers, a knee board, and my newly acquired trick skis, which I've never tried as was very anxious to see what I could do with them.
With the food and drinks on the boat, all that was left was to wait for the two people who actually live at the house to show.
Byron arrived with his brother's truck and we hook on the trailer. Andrew is going to wait for his date and will call us to come pick him up at the dock. We're on the road to the put-in when I call Sheri, my date to the lake that day. She'll be off of work around 3-4, so she'll call me when she's ready.
As Byron sees me put my phone down he realizes that he's left his own phone and wallet at home. Not really a big deal to him so we continue on.
The boat ramp is PACKED by the time we arrive. More people than I've ever seen at this particular ramp, but thats to be expected, only a week previous did it re-open, and this is Sunday after all.
After a short wait we get the people in the boat and the boat in the water. Byron likes it when I back the trailer in, so thats my role in all of this. Once the boat is in the water I get the pleasurable task of parking about 1/2 mile away and trotting back to the dock in sandals.
A very normal very fun day begins to unfold as I watch the group dynamic, of which I must poll every time I go out on the boat with new people because, well, I like watching people I guess.
Lauren sticks out in because of one simple oddity. She brought a magazine to the lake. How boring does she think we are? When she pulled it out Byron and I met glances and he smiled as I let my disappointment be known with a hand and the forehead and a sullen shake of the head. She even leafs through it for about an hour as we attempt to teach everyone to two ski. Yvonne goes first and all while we are fitting her in the skis and telling her what to do out in the water, I can see fear building in her eyes. She certainly married the right guy. The truck ride up was mostly filled with Jason asking how bad it hurts when you fall, and what the chances of injury are.
The moment Yvonne gets in the water and holds the ski rope in her hands, she calls out "I don't wanna do this!" Byron and I didn't just invest 30 minutes of lake time teaching her to ski for nothing. We cat-call back the usual encouraging remarks and line her up to ski. Seeing she has no choice, she concedes to try it once. After 3 failed attempts to get up, she calls out that this is her last try (I like to see that 'never give up' attitude.) the fourth try she lets the ski's split (again) and does something remarkable. She holds onto the rope. I let out a long belly laugh and watch as she finally lets go, about 100 feet from where the skis are. I told her to let go if something goes wrong.
She says that she wants to see someone get up on two skis, just to observe how its done, and I take pleasure in giving that show. Since two skiing is kind of boring unless I'm trying something stupid like jumping a tube being pulled by the boat, I put all my weight on the good slalom ski and kick off the learner, tucking my foot in the back boot. I think of how I lost the other learner ski and shrug. I come back in after a few cuts, wanting to give others a try at it first. We managed to find the ski this time, too.
Next up is Jason, more of the same tutelage, more Lauren reading her magazine, which by this time is wet and soggy from us running over our own wake several times. (an intentional move by Byron) Jason, who's foot cant be any larger than my own, has the hardest time in the world getting into the boot of my favorite slalom ski (admittedly difficult, the boot is meant for competition slalom skiing, making getting into it a low priority and control a high, but with a little sunscreen lube I can get into it in about 10 seconds.) We lube the boot up real good and both me and Byron use all of our strength forcing his foot in there. That alone took about 10 minutes. The other ski is just the lame learner ski so Jason slipped right in and we shoved him off the boat. Jason nearly got up the first time he tried, and on his 3rd though 7th try he actually did get up, but ignored us when we told him to keep his arms out straight in front of him. (when you pull in on the rope you loose a lot of your control and often topple over backwards, which he did) Finally he made it up and was going quite well until we crossed the wake of another boat and threw him off.
After his slight victory, Jason moves on to being fascinated with learning to drive the boat, but refuses to actually pay any attention to what Byron and I are telling him (unbeknownst to us). Smooth control of the throttle, always go right of a boat thats heading for you, never get within 100 feet of another watercraft, etc. (the last two quite applicable since its hard to see even a drop of water left in the lake that doesn't have a boat on it. While we are teaching Jason (mostly for selfish reasons, as Byron and I needed a driver for when we both slalom together) Andrew, who couldn't call Byron since his phone was at the house, showed up next to us on a random person's boat with his date, Brenda. They thank their taxi drivers and wish them a safe day.
Brenda is a huge ball of flaming energy. Things like "OOOO I LOVE that" and "wow! I really love you girls, you're SO awesome!" came out of her mouth probably every 4 to 7 seconds.
We decide that Andrew should learn to two ski, since thats the flavor of the day, and he's already really good at knee boarding, so this should be a cake walk. But then Byron lets Jason take the helm. We run through the rule list of do's and dont's and what to do when a skier is behind you, oblivious to the fact that Jason doesn't hear a word through his nods and "uh huhs" Andrew, somehow, to his credit gets up on his first try even though Jason really didn't hammer the throttle down like we told him to, and when we told him that 40 is really too fast for a skier, he immediately slowed to 15. Poor Andrew, who somehow manages to keep balance decides to go outside of the wake. Meanwhile Byron and I are both in Jason's ear about smooth throttle control. I notice that Jason seems to want to aim directly for a large peninsula, and right in his path is the branches of a tree sticking out of the water. Incredulous I tell Jason to steer left and avoid it. Not listening, he keeps right on trucking. Flustered at this time I grab at the wheel and yell at him to turn left, the tree approaching. A small side note, not only was the water too shallow where he was aiming, but thinking of the number one priority, the skier's safety, a tree would really hurt to fall on. Byron notices our impending doom and joins the chorus of me screaming at Jason to turn. Jason finally gets the message and hits left. Hard. This slows the boat enough to sink Andrew finally. We clear the peninsula, thank the Lord. Byron and I, with full loads in our shorts, fill them even more when Jason puts the skier on the wrong side of the boat. Something that should be fresh in Jason's mind is "Always put the skier on the driver side of the boat, so you can see them better, and keep from running them over." No one said this was a perfect world. Jason manages to not kill Andrew and he turns in the skis for his knee board. Byron takes the helm back aggressively. Andrew has some fun showing off his knee boarding skills and takes a decently nasty fall after attempting a jump. With that, he turns in.
By this time I am getting quite hungry, and I remember to check my phone. A few perturbed messages from Sheri waiting around for us in Lewisville (since she doesn't know where the dock is) prompt me to call her. I give her directions to the bridge that we've been skiing next to all day and tell her to "jump off the bridge" Something Lacey and I did when we met up with Byron on the lake last time we were out. We eat a little, go under the bridge and tie off in the middle. Byron and I clamber up the tower on the boat and climb onto the bridge, ready to jump. Unfortunately we cant see where Sheri should be walking by, and she ends up walking the length of the bridge looking for us. A few jumps off the bridge later, we phone her and she walks down the rocky slope on the side of the bridge to hop in from there. I swim her over to the boat and I introduce her to the crowd.
I decide to make an executive decision and have Sheri two ski, since she has once in her life already. After a few failed attempts (she was really close to getting up, too) she decides to come in to allow some other folks to give it a go. Byron and I get our turn on the slaloms.
Stupidly, we give the reigns back to Jason and tell him what to do. The first try, he didn't hammer down the throttle and leave it, like we told him to. (for those who don't know, getting up on a single ski is pretty hard, and even harder without an experienced driver) I veered off to one angle too badly to recover, and Byron got up, so instead of keeping Byron on the line and bringing him to where I am so we can both give it another go, he tows Byron for a while and stops. Ah, well whatever. So he comes over to me and I tell him to let me get the rope and tow me over at idle to Byron. He tows me alright, but not at idle. I end up swallowing a gallon of water and let go before were all the way there. He goes and gets Byron and finally gets what "idle" means and we meet up again. We both get up this time and find that our ropes are too similar in length to cross paths, and instead of going straight, Jason veers around the lake like its Formula One. We get to the other side of the lake and I intentionally let myself fall victim to a wave, so we can tell him to go straight, and to have someone take a rope in enough for us to criss cross (will make you shout, shout). Jason explains that he'll do a U turn when we are both up and head down the coast line. We tell him to just go straight and when he runs out of room, then U turn and go back. Right off the line, I see the boat in a hard turn. I think I should reiterate that a slalom ski is hard to get out of the water, even in good conditions. I open my eyes after about 7 seconds of agonizingly slow dragging through the water to find myself encapsulated in a perfect bubble of water. It was actually pretty cool. In between my shouts for Jason to die I could hear Byron yelling for me to stay with it, funny how we could both be pulled like that and carry on a near-conversation. So finally as Jason straightens the boat out we get some speed and Byron and I exchange surprised glances and start laughing maniacally. We have enough fun criss-crossing each other and give up.
Heres where the day really got better.
We come back to the boat and blow up the tube, now that the ladies would like another go. First out after some deliberation is Jason's wife Yvonne, and guess who wants another crack at driving. Yea. Yvonne gets pulled at a pleasant speed for a while, just what you would expect from a caring husband right? Well he ramped up the speed to near full throttle. As to be expected on such a busy day on the lake, there is another boat, heading right for us. I tell Jason, "remember, in this situation you always ALWAYS go right. Just like on a road with traffic." The boat is far off enough for me to remain calm and explain as Jason begins to turn left, "Right, Jason, right." and grab at the wheel. He fends my arm off. The boat coming ominously closer, and fearing for our tuber, I begin to fret. "Right Jason! Right!" He begins to understand that its english that is his language of choice and makes a slight movement right, but thats only enough to get us back on course to crash into the oncoming boat. "RIGHT JASON!" as I paw uselessly at the wheel. He gets it, he's in trouble. Hard right it is, captain. He veers right hard enough to send his wife flying off the tube. The other boat is at this point confused enough to start slowing. Byron notices that Yvonne has fallen off the tube and is now directly in the path of the oncoming boat and tells Jason to go back for her. Instead of doing the normal, sane thing to do, which in this case would be turn the boat around and go over to our lost tuber, Jason FREAKS out and slams the boat in reverse. This is from a speed of over 35 miles per hour, by no means slow on the water. Well as expected Byron and I start screaming at him to put it in neutral, and as we begin to smell the poor boat frying something and begin to eat the rope that the tube is attached to, our voices get even more shrill. All the while, the oncoming boat has stopped to see this spectacle, and Jason gets up from the driver seat to yell at the oncoming boat (no longer oncoming) to stop. Byron and I cant reach the throttle soon enough as the tube nears the back of the boat. Jason finally hears our girlish yelping and puts in in neutral. Jason now wants to put in forward gear to go get his wife, at which time Byron gets Jason out of the driver's chair and turns off the injured boat. Jason goes to argue "what about her? I have to go see if she's ok!" Byron looks sternly at Jason and says "you've got two legs! GO SWIM!" Jason grabs a life jacket to swim to his perfectly safe wife.
Miraculously, when we go to pull the rope out of the prop, the rope had somehow navigated under the steering fin and over the prop, and no harm came to it. We get in and start the boat up. We get underway only to feel that something is terribly wrong. Any speed on the prop and it just bogs down the motor. Feeling really bad for Byron I make the obvious call, "lets just limp it back to the docks and call it a day." Agreeing a somber Byron sets the boat at a little over idle and makes his way back to the docks.
We all settle in for the long but calm drive back. Andrew, Sheri and I take the front and have a good conversation. Byron's spirits are getting higher and is able to laugh about it. A yacht passes from quite a ways away and we see the waves coming. The unexpected happens.
Water from the first wave comes into the boat, more that I had seen before, but nothing the boat couldn't handle, but the second wave combined with our slow forward momentum drives the nose of the boat down. We were sinking! I tell Byron "give it some speed!" knowing that the buoyancy of the boat will win out, but we need to use the shape of the boat to shed some of this water. He does as instructed and the motor bogs. Crap, didn't think of that. Its funny, I was calm enough to look at Byron's face to see his reaction to all this and it was priceless, a panicked look combined with looking back and forth. He shouts all of the sudden "get out of the boat!" knowing that our weight in the front wasn't helping anything, I jump ship. The rest of the crew follows suit a few seconds later when they realize he was serious. The boat gets very low on the water as we see its momentum carry it away from us. The boat was seriously 6 inches from being completely submerged, aside from the glass and the tower. Byron manages to get over to the cooler and dumps its contents into the lake. He starts paling the water out as fast as he can. I begin to swim to catch up with the boat so I can help. Finally I arrive at the boat and begin scooping water with a Pringles can that I dumped out. Byron after about 15 minutes of paling that huge cooler, with Andrew's help, begins to see progress. The bilge is on, but thats a pretty small pump. About 5 boats stop to watch us desperately trying to get the water out of the boat. I take a shift on the cooler and we pail for about 25 more minutes and finally see (semi) dry carpet. Crisis averted.
Opening the engine hatch, we notice that its still flooded down there, so we cant start the motor with it like that. we decide to let the bilge do the rest and start swimming the boat back. The girls flag down a boat (even after we tell them not to) to tow us. I explain I didn't like the idea of towing the boat because we still have alot of water inside and waves could come back over the bow and do the same thing again. After some deliberation, we decide to go for it and let them tow us back to the dock. As a precaution, I sat everyone on the back of the boat.
Getting the boat on the trailer was easy enough, I skipped the line since we were already taking a slot on the ramp. I make sure that Jason has pulled in the boat enough with the hand crank and get back in the truck. Thats when a fat man on a Kawasaki bike pulls up (obviously drunk) and starts telling us what-for. I ignore him for a while, there is a more pressing need at hand. I pull the boat out and get up to the asphalt and the tires begin to spin. The fat man remarks loudly, enough to get my attention, that "AH TOWYOOTA TUUNDRAA WOULLLNT DOO THAYAT!!!" I begin ignoring him again. He loudly claims as I put the truck back down on the concrete grippy surface that the limited slip would engage on a toyota tundra and we wouldn't have this problem. I begin to seethe. I've had a long day. I get a good run up to the asphalt and the wheels spin again. The boat still has a ton of water in it, making it way heavier than normal. "TOYOTA TUND...." starts the fat one. "SHUT UP!" I yell as I lay some rubber down, knowing that the heat will eventually win out over the slick wet surface. Some white smoke later, we've gotten the boat off the ramp.
Later that night Byron and I were able to joke about the whole thing. We tried starting the boat but there was water in the cylinders. I luckily had my tools with me and pulled the spark plugs out. While we were turning the starter over I did notice a little water come out. Put them back in, and she was running like a champ again.
Upon inspection, Jason had actually bent the prop. That hard reverse from 35 was such a huge shock to the drive train that something had to bend or break.
A microwaved lasagna later and some water, Byron and I knew that we'd never forget this day.
And I never got to try my new trick skis. Blast.
Friday, February 16, 2007
FEAST or FAMINE.... Seriously
Ok so this happens every time. Pretty much with everything I do in life.
I now work for my friend Alex whenever I can, usually 2 days a week, and the rest is working construction and "facility management" (whatever that is) for my Dad. Alex has a friend looking for someone to help him with buying and selling cars on his dealer's license. Sound familiar? I'll end up doing something on a weekly basis with him too, probably.
So here are a few examples of this here feast or famine thing:
I had only had one girlfriend in highs chool. I didnt have any dates after that until Jessica came along. (about 3 years later)
when I was first starting to get interested in Jess, and her in me, about a slew (i didnt keep count) of women pounded down my door to see if i was available, and the list includes, but is not limited to: 2 girls from high school, a car show model (I'm not kidding, she called me and everything), a friends ex-girlfriend, my favorite restaurant's owner's daughter (half Japanese half Arabic! wow!), and other sporadically placed females. (there are more, i just cant remember how they knew me)
another example:
One semester i took off when i was 19 (after high school) led to me sitting around, no job, no nothing. The next semester I was in school and had 3 jobs. Military, Construction, and Goodyear Tires.
another: In high school, I had a 69 Camaro, 88 RX7, and a 95 B3000 (light truck) at my disposal, and just last year I didn't own a car for about 8 months. fun. biking isn't what its all cracked up to be.
yet another: I didnt drink a single drop of alcohol in high school despite all manner of peer pressure to the opposite. When I got back from military training, there was nothing else that touched my pallet.
So I don't know what it is God is trying to show me by having this funny tidal-like system around my life, but I'm looking hard to find what it is.
On a different note; I'm tired, and glad its the Sabbath.
I now work for my friend Alex whenever I can, usually 2 days a week, and the rest is working construction and "facility management" (whatever that is) for my Dad. Alex has a friend looking for someone to help him with buying and selling cars on his dealer's license. Sound familiar? I'll end up doing something on a weekly basis with him too, probably.
So here are a few examples of this here feast or famine thing:
I had only had one girlfriend in highs chool. I didnt have any dates after that until Jessica came along. (about 3 years later)
when I was first starting to get interested in Jess, and her in me, about a slew (i didnt keep count) of women pounded down my door to see if i was available, and the list includes, but is not limited to: 2 girls from high school, a car show model (I'm not kidding, she called me and everything), a friends ex-girlfriend, my favorite restaurant's owner's daughter (half Japanese half Arabic! wow!), and other sporadically placed females. (there are more, i just cant remember how they knew me)
another example:
One semester i took off when i was 19 (after high school) led to me sitting around, no job, no nothing. The next semester I was in school and had 3 jobs. Military, Construction, and Goodyear Tires.
another: In high school, I had a 69 Camaro, 88 RX7, and a 95 B3000 (light truck) at my disposal, and just last year I didn't own a car for about 8 months. fun. biking isn't what its all cracked up to be.
yet another: I didnt drink a single drop of alcohol in high school despite all manner of peer pressure to the opposite. When I got back from military training, there was nothing else that touched my pallet.
So I don't know what it is God is trying to show me by having this funny tidal-like system around my life, but I'm looking hard to find what it is.
On a different note; I'm tired, and glad its the Sabbath.
Friday, January 26, 2007
New Job--New Game?
So I had enough. I went to Big Sandy last weekend to hang with the Karlmeister, and I had enough. Enough talk of a certain online video game that I didnt understand.
Coming home, I promptly bought it. Bad move, I got hooked. Wednesday morning I bought World of Warcraft, and I get back home about 11:00am. I install it, and that takes about an hour, not entirely unexpected. I go to play it and when I signed on, I had to download a patch. Ok this is not entirely unexpected either, since the software was written 2 years ago.
well it takes nearly another hour to install the patch. I log in. Another Patch awaits. crap.
So another 45 minutes later I'm downloading the 3rd patch. which also takes about an hour to download and install. Furious that it has taked nearly 4 hours to install and get right, I log on.
Only find a slew of small update patches to install and download.
At this time, I took up the near floor-to-ceiling sized Sword lain against the wall and beat the crap out of my bed. I went downstairs where I could get a full swing in and did exactly that.
well the game installs and runs, and its half way through 3pm. I play untill 2am. This game is amazing.
enough of that: I'm working finally!
So on thursday I go to work, foregoing sleep, since my schedule was so messed up from many days of staying up past 4 am. I meet up with the guy I work with, John, and eat breakfast at IHOP. large breakfast, he unexpectingly pays for it.
Well we get to the place where my Dad's company had been storing a ton of lumber, and start loading up the trailer to move it all to John's backyard. The first load was probably about 7000 pounds of lumber, loaded by myself and John by hand into the trailor. I was using my back, apparently. The next load was about 8000 lbs of wood and most were trusses bolted together making them really heavy to only move one at a time. I used my back again, apparently.
well friday rolls around, and we have to move the company into a different bigger office. Lots of heavy stuff. I was using my arms this time around, I assume. A day's worth of moving later, John tells me that he needs one of the trailors full of wood unloaded because one is his, and he needs to use it this weekend. He tells me this at 4:10pm on friday. Hmmm sunset at 5:30 and we've got a ton of traffic to make it through. Well we get there and its about 4:45 or so, and theres a ton (or a few) of wood to de-load. Well I continue on helping him unload the trailer, and 5:30 comes, and lingers for a while. I contemplated going home, but John would have to unload the rest of the trailer himself, and I didnt want that. While I was unloading the wood, I told the story of the ox in the ditch to John, since we had been talking about religion and God for a while, and he was curious. He tells me he appreciates it. Then we're done and I get out of there.
well thats my story.
Coming home, I promptly bought it. Bad move, I got hooked. Wednesday morning I bought World of Warcraft, and I get back home about 11:00am. I install it, and that takes about an hour, not entirely unexpected. I go to play it and when I signed on, I had to download a patch. Ok this is not entirely unexpected either, since the software was written 2 years ago.
well it takes nearly another hour to install the patch. I log in. Another Patch awaits. crap.
So another 45 minutes later I'm downloading the 3rd patch. which also takes about an hour to download and install. Furious that it has taked nearly 4 hours to install and get right, I log on.
Only find a slew of small update patches to install and download.
At this time, I took up the near floor-to-ceiling sized Sword lain against the wall and beat the crap out of my bed. I went downstairs where I could get a full swing in and did exactly that.
well the game installs and runs, and its half way through 3pm. I play untill 2am. This game is amazing.
enough of that: I'm working finally!
So on thursday I go to work, foregoing sleep, since my schedule was so messed up from many days of staying up past 4 am. I meet up with the guy I work with, John, and eat breakfast at IHOP. large breakfast, he unexpectingly pays for it.
Well we get to the place where my Dad's company had been storing a ton of lumber, and start loading up the trailer to move it all to John's backyard. The first load was probably about 7000 pounds of lumber, loaded by myself and John by hand into the trailor. I was using my back, apparently. The next load was about 8000 lbs of wood and most were trusses bolted together making them really heavy to only move one at a time. I used my back again, apparently.
well friday rolls around, and we have to move the company into a different bigger office. Lots of heavy stuff. I was using my arms this time around, I assume. A day's worth of moving later, John tells me that he needs one of the trailors full of wood unloaded because one is his, and he needs to use it this weekend. He tells me this at 4:10pm on friday. Hmmm sunset at 5:30 and we've got a ton of traffic to make it through. Well we get there and its about 4:45 or so, and theres a ton (or a few) of wood to de-load. Well I continue on helping him unload the trailer, and 5:30 comes, and lingers for a while. I contemplated going home, but John would have to unload the rest of the trailer himself, and I didnt want that. While I was unloading the wood, I told the story of the ox in the ditch to John, since we had been talking about religion and God for a while, and he was curious. He tells me he appreciates it. Then we're done and I get out of there.
well thats my story.
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