Play set

We bought a play set for the backyard. It's one of those kits, where I only had to by a few of the bigger pieces of wood. We have been doing some work on the backyard, so I've had to wait to start putting it together. We've added some mulch. We'll need to add a lot more. We also got rid of both of the older play sets that we owned. We made profit on both of them, which is kind of amazing to me. [Begin Advertisement] Thanks Craigslist! [End Advertisement] So I've been spending a little bit of time here and there putting the thing together. This this is definitely not a one man operation, but I've been trying to clump all the things that require more than one person, so that I don't take up too much of other peoples time. I'll post a picture when it is done. I should post updates to it regularly to see the progress being made. Maybe I'll do that.

Away

So time ticks on. I go through phases of interest in things. I have been meaning to write something on this site for a while now, but can never seem to think of something that I feel like writing about. So maybe I'll just write about not having anything to write about. Sometimes, I go through a train of thought that involves whether or not to put anything too personal in these blogs. Also, should I talk about my family at all? And if I do, should I mention names? Or even ages or sex? My wife is one thing, but children are an entirely different issue. With more technology comes less privacy, it seems. That correlation may not be direct, but that's now really the point of this entry. And I would hate to inadvertently put something on a blog that might end up giving too much information to a person that might wish to do harm to others. It always seems to me that things like this didn't used to be an issue for parents to have to deal with. For one thing, information wasn't always right at your fingertips. But because of that, parents may have felt much more safe than they actually were. In this day and age of too much information, there are news channels that "have" to have news 24 hours a day. So if there isn't any big national news, then why not find something at some local level that will make people watch. It used to be that you would get what, maybe an hour of news a day, and usually it was only 30 minutes of new news during that time. So national headlines could easily fill that time slot. So are things really any more dangerous than they used to be, or are we just exposed to much more "news" than we used to be?

on Cars

It's still amazing to me how much it can cost to fix what seems to be a very small problem with your car. And on top of that, you have to figure out if it's worth letting the insurance company handle any of it. Money wise, that is. Not that I'm going to get into what happened, because that's not really the point here. Having a car can be such a convenience. The ability to just jump in your car and go wherever you want, whenever you want. Of course, that's not REALLY true, cause for me to go anywhere I really want to go, I'm gonna have to get on a plane. But again, I digress. When you really learn to count on that car being there all of the time, to cater to all of your needs, it can really be an inconvenience for that car to develop a problem. Not to mention the costs always associated with it. Whenever something like that happens, it never ceases to amaze me that my parents were able to get by on one car until I was somewhere around 11 years old. Would that even begin to be possible for any long period of time for my family now? We did manage to get by using only one car when I didn't have one for a month or so. But we borrowed other peoples cars constantly. I think the truth is that it has become such a part of our lives, like cell phones and computers, that we couldn't do without. Are we better off this way?

olen

I love reading your blogs. It's like you have a little editorial column in the newspaper and you get to comment about whatever you like. And you definitely dont have to be PC - what a PLUS!
I think you are doing a great job - your writing style is easy to read and I love it and I love you!

Heroes

There are several shows on TV that I like to watch. And I hate to miss an episode of these shows, cause then you might miss some important plot line. But, for most of these shows, if it went off the air tomorrow, I'd really just want for them to end it well, then I'd mostly just forget about the show. Every once in a while, a show comes along that just grabs your full attention, and won't let go. This year for me that show is Heroes. During every episode, I feel the intensity of that show like few other shows I've ever watched. And when the episode ends, the preview for the next week just leaves me shaking my head in amazement. Lost is probably the last show that came close to doing that, but while I still like that show, a lot of the magic behind it is, for lack of a better term, lost.

Running

I've never been a person who likes to run. I've never really run more than a mile in my life, at least without stopping 20-30 times. So yesterday I get to the Y, and every bike in the place it taken up. So I'm wondering what to do. I look around, and find that one of the treadmills is free. I hate running, but since I really need to get my cardio going, and that's all I have to pick from, I decide to at least walk for a little while. I was wearing Cross-Trainers, which are not the best things to run for long distances in. But I got on, and after getting adjusted to it, I picked up the pace, and soon was running. I ran a mile and a half before I slowed the machine back down. I have to say it was quite a rewarding experience to realize that the cardio I have been doing up to this point is actually working. But once I got off the machine, I felt like I was moving really fast, and it kind of freaked me out. So I don't know when I will get back on that beast. Maybe when the weather gets better, I'll go out to the track near the school and see how far I can run. But first, I had better go get me some new running shoes.

Fitness

Hazel and I joined the Y last night. I have to say it was quite a nice experience to work out with my wife. I didn't really know what to expect, but I feel like she pushed me pretty good, and I hope I did the same for her. It always helps to have someone else to go with. It keeps you honest. :) On a similar note, I finally did something I have wanted to do for so long, but it's just been so hard to do. I dropped my Bally's membership. And the person on the phone didn't give me a hard time at all. Probably because they weren't getting very much money from me in the first place. Bally's just sucked so bad. I've been a member there since 93, and they haven't added one new thing to that place in the last 13 years. On the opposite side of that coin, the Y we are going to has been open for a relatively short time, and has already undergone one expansion of it's facilities. How nice to know that they are trying to make things better for the people who give them so much money. Tonight we are planning on trying out the childcare services provided at the Y. Hopefully that will work out seamlessly, and Hazel and I will be able to go there together whenever we want.