though your promise count for nothing, you must keep it nonetheless

I didn't need to drive the kids this morning, and got this idea in my head that I'd head into work early to free up some time in my afternoon.  

Instead, I picked up the boy after school, stopped at the sporting goods store for a return, picked up some groceries, stopped home, got changed, topped off the oil in my car, out again for gas, grocery again for the things I didn't get the first time, made dinner, and....it's nearly 7:30pm.

I've been procrastinating with some stuff lately.  Reading, my business, writing, working out, house & yard.... Mostly things I can catch up on okay, but I've also been neglecting things I really ought not.  Like staying in touch with people properly.  I can chalk it up to being busy -- which is true -- but I'm really trying to keep a promise to myself to do a better job of it.

we go out of the gray and into the blue above

I am spending the day in Monument, at the last forensics tournament of the year.  If you don't know, "forensics" is the name they give to a public speaking/performance activity in middle & high schools.  We didn't have any of this when I was a kid.  Then again, we didn't have a football team either.  Or a middle school, for that matter.  The girls did this for years, and now Owen is in it.  If you've ever been to a tournament of any kind, you'll know that the vast majority of your time is spent waiting for things to happen.  One benefit, I guess, is being able to revisit your blog after five idle months.

So it's February already, almost March.  We didn't have much of a winter, and I'm anxious for spring to get here.  I might just take the bikes down and give them an anticipatory tune-up.  The stated goal is to spend as many days as possible biking or hiking this coming year.

With spring break coming up, and the rare opportunity to actually get "away" for a while, you might be tempted to head to warmer climates.  But we like it here, and it's plenty sunny.  So we're heading up to the mountains for our vacation, and it's going to be great!

been so long I felt this way...I'm in no hurry, no.

This month has been, and is, a little out of the ordinary. I have only had one hockey game so far this month, and other than one this Monday, i don't believe there are any more before the Vegas tournament. Oh yeah, I'm playing in a hockey tournament in Vegas at the end of this month. I've never been to Vegas, and honestly haven't really given it a thought. There's nothing in me that wants to gamble, and chances are there won't be too much time for much else. But I've declined this tournament a few times already, and this year it occurred to me that i'm not exactly getting younger, and I really ought to stop putting things like this off. I'm really looking forward to it.

 I have also made the possibly foolish decision to try to test for my 3rd degree black belt in October. Despite my own warnings to myself, I let the past six months pass without really focusing on my training -- my thought had been, "I'm not going to wait until the last six weeks". So the test is in fact six weeks from now. And while I'm nervous, I do know my material well, and I'm prepared for the physical demands. My main concern all along has been about being able to find, and commit, the time this will take. But I can do that, I have done so before and sure can do it again. The point is to do it. To that end, tonight it occurred to me that i had about a 35-minute window available to me to get to the dojo....so i went.

 And yesterday I got to spend time with some very great people from my company. If you haven't heard me mention it before, the company I work for is incredible. When you hear people talk about the culture some companies have -- genuine ambition, selflessness, integrity, and fun -- you may have pooh-pooh'd it; but I get to live it every day. And the proof's in the pudding: we're doing well, and we're working hard to make sure that always keeps happening. I'm constantly impressed, and humbled, and grateful.

what he's waiting for, I don't know

not my kids

Some things I know about Artsports.

The kids love it here.  They've been coming for tumbling classes, and are still not-sick-of-it enough to want to come to the open gym nights too.  It's two hours for me to sit next to cubbies full of shoes, watching my kids do potentially injurious -- but very cool -- things on trampolines.

The wi-fi is a little sketchy.  Too slow & intermittent to work on a website, which was the plan to make these two hours move more a little quickly.

And the benches one watches from are in a narrow walkway, where running children threaten to send one's laptop to the floor every few seconds.

Maybe next time, the kids get dropped off and I find a coffee shop.

must be in a good place now

What exactly is a vacation?
Deb & I somehow found ourselves completely sans-children on Sunday morning, each of them occupied with other activities outside the house.  In spite of the oppressive heat and threat of rain that has characterized the past several weeks, we took the opportunity to get out exploring.
One of our most favorite nearby places is North Cheyenne Canyon, so we decided to check out one of the trails we hadn't yet been on, Mt. Cutler.  Only a three mile out-and-back, but you climb about 700 feet to the top of a ridge with the most amazing view of the canyon and the entire city.  The weather really cooperated too -- it was hot up at the top, but most of the trail winds through the trees nicely.
With time left to kill, we had a really great lunch at PJ's Bistro in Manitou Springs: my highest recommendations.

You do it to yourself, you do.

I've been missing a lot of karate classes this summer.  Last week I had three hockey games, and missed both nights at the dojo.  This week, no hockey.  It really shouldn't be so rare to get to two classes in a row.

The thought has been crossing my mind to get myself ready to test for sandan in the fall, but I just don't know how this intermittent schedule will allow that.  But it seems like I do that with a lot of things: the VWs are a great example -- once I actually get off my rear, things tend to have more chance of getting done. 

The test for 3rd degree black belt is going to take a lot of work.  It's physically challenging, but there is a lot of mental exercise, preparation, and revision too.  And if I'm struggling just to make it to class, how will I find the extra time & energy this is going to demand?

Tonight, I'll go to the dojo.  That's a start.

can't hardly wait

This morning, I went outside to take another stab at getting that fanbelt to fit right.  It's still too tight, but I'm leaving that for later assessment.

Within a few minutes of me opening the garage door, Hannah was out there with me, asking "what can I help with?"  So we cleared some old junk out of it, I vacuumed, then she spent about an hour cleaning the dash, the seats, and the glass.  In the rain.

Giant smile on her face the entire time.