WOW, in only four days I've got this down to a fine science. Well, so to speak since Lent is about religion and not science, but then Science wouldn't exist were it not for Religion. Also, ...oops, sorry, got off on a little theological segue for a second. Back to how great I am. Said today would be Personal. Now even when we go to bed late at night, I'm still almost always up between five and six in the morning. Last night we took Matt to dinner for his birthday, and when Liz asked if we wanted any dessert Deb and I thought of today, and jointly said, "Let's get a Famous Dave's Bread Pudding to go!" Yes, after thirty years we have grown to think exactly alike on some matters. At the Ram, it's the Mile High Mudpie and four spoons. Oops, another segue. The point being we brought home the Bread Pudding and around 11:30 pm I hear the microwave, then Deb says, "You coming down and share this bread pudding with me?" That's the fastest I've hobbled since dislocating my ankle last week. But we won't go there! No, I wasn't eating the pudding out on the roof Kristen! SA!!!!!
Having consumed a dessert at 11:30p we didn't want to go to bed on full stomachs, so ended up sitting up until about 1a. Thus began day five of Lent on a very Personal note. After a two egg and ham biscuit by Deb, came upstairs to send an email coordinating my shift assignments at Birds of Prey. As I'm sitting at the computer, Deb walks in and tells me Karissa and Krieg are thinking about coming over for a bit and I might want to consider changing out of my PJs and bathrobe to something more -- stylish????? What the heck happened to Personal?
It ended up turning out quite well, Krieg was asked by his mother to fix her iPod so she could access her iTunes. Since I don't have one of those, I don't know anything about them. BUT, Krieg will drink a little scotch from time to time, so I opened the bottle I'd purchased to celebrate our newest grandchild's arrival. Now this is a lowland Scotch from the Isle of Islay. If you aren't Scottish, or don't drink scotch it means little to you. The Isle of Islay is due West of Glasgow and is approximate 25X20 miles and is reknowned for it's eight (count em 8) scotch distilleries. Today on Personal Sunday Krieg and I enjoyed a slightly smokey ten year old scotch from Laphroaig Distillery. For an island with only 3500 permanent residents, that's pretty impressive in my mind. The Isle though offers considerable beauty in addition to several outstanding producers of fine single malt Scotch Whiskies.
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| Rumour has it many Scots attend church here because they can't be cornered!!!!! |
Monday, 18 February - Physical, Positive, Prayerful.
I'd originally thought about doing Prayerful today, but decided I NEEDED Physical given my ankle and hip. I've also had a little philosophizing session while doing my exercises today, and am going to modify my 5P Program a little bit. Just like you don't always have the same food for breakfast each day, and like you may have a big breakfast, light or no lunch and a medium dinner, I'm thinking my needs with regard to Prayer, Productivity, Positive Actions, Personal Time and Physical Activity aren't equal each week. I know I want and need Physical at least three times a week to keep my hip mobility and strengthening improving (now would that also count as Productivity for Physical Therapy?). So, I'm going to look at this as the potential for Making My Living Habits better by using the 5Ps but accomplishing that through a mixture of them. May do Physical three times a week, but then maybe I can add in just a little Prayer everyday either during PT or separately. I also think it's important, at least for me anyway, to try to be more Positive about a lot of things, and on a more regular basis..
Today, I tried to remain Positive about my own attitude toward other drivers. Now let me tell you, in Boise that is a significant challenge, and would be a major outcome if I could accomplish that daily. I thought about telling you all the stupid things I saw just driving Deb to work and then coming home. But, that wouldn't be very Positive would it. So let me just give a couple of examples where I tried to be Positive. A majority (Positive) of the people going straight through a light tend to accumulate in the left lane, leaving the right lane for those coming up to turn. That way they can make their right on red and keep moving. Occasionally, there is the driver who forgets that, and then guns away on the green light to by pass a few cars and reenter the through lane when the road narrows. I'm trying to be Positive by giving that individual the space to get back in line, since it is possible he was just inattentive, or had a minor emergency. I'm trying to avoid thinking he is simply an ego-centric driver.
Tuesday, 19 February -- Personal, Productive
It's Tate Tuesday. He came in this morning all smiles as was Gramma. Today I'll leave a little early to go out to Birds of Prey, so he and Gramma have some time with just the two of them. He so loves to tease. Usually it's teasing Papa, but today for some reason he decided to pick on Gramma. So he comes over and sits with me, and snuggles in then kind of softly says, "Drahma". When she looks up he snuggles more then turns and gives me a hug. Of course for the one of us receiving the attention it's lots of fun and very special.
This Tuesday, before his mom picked him up I headed up to The Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey. Worked the Gift Shop today. This is clearly a Personal event. I love getting there a little early and going by the outside chambers to see the birds. My favorite is the Bald Eagle (or as Tate calls her, the Balden Eagle). She always remembers those of us who volunteer regularly, and greets us with her stutter-chirp call. Sometime she will get excited and fly up to the front corner, then hop up and down from the front perch to the ground and back. Last time I was there I came out of the gift shop, called to her since she was in the back of the chamber. She immediately flew up front and started her greeting routine. Just incredible!
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| Freedom when she was immature |
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| Freedom as a mature Bald |
We get to meet some great people too. We've had visitors from all over the world, and essentially from every state. Many come from places I've lived and it's always fun to talk to them about their home cities. Today we had guests from Oklahoma. It was a mom with her five year old and seven year old. Dad was in town working for the week. She home schools and so brings the kids, and tries to visit as many educational places as possible. A perfect candidate for our Museum Pass. It covers twelve different places and saves the individual a little over 50%. Was glad I found out what they were doing and was able to offer her the savings. Nice Positive for the day.
Wednesday, 20 February -- Prayer, Positive, Physical
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It's Tate Wednesday today. He comes over before going to Kindergarten. Gets here just prior to 8am, we urge him to have something to eat prior to going swimming (today it was Greek Yogurt and an Oreo), then headed for the 9:30 lesson at the YMCA. Home just after the lessons end at 10am picked up Drahma and ran her and her homemade Chili to work. It's Chili Cookoff Wednesday. Then it was home, a couple bowls of Top Ramen for lunch before school and we were all ready when mom arrived.
Once everyone was gone it was time for my exercises -- Physical. I'm almost excited I had to lay the bike down. He didn't really just say that did he????? Well, that's a Positive that I've always had, and it's seeing the beneficial things that happen in my life when it could very easily seem like times are at their worst. Deb has a little tiny frame (we are talking near postage stamp size) she keeps in the kitchen area. In that frame it says, "Faith is not believing God can, it's knowing that he will." (Prayerful) While many people still struggle to have Faith, to believe that God will, I've had so many events in my life that would have easily seemed tragic, but very good things became of them. I've seen that God will, and so Faith is pretty much a given for me. Wow, as I read what I just typed, it almost seemed a little bit of religious hubris. But, I've seen so many good things come of what seemed bad events, I've just got to call it like it is. Okay, by now you are getting used to the segues, right?
After the bike accident my family physician, one young Dr. Mike Kaylor sent me for physical therapy for the left hip on which I did most of the skidding, bruising and 'purpling'. In the process of working on the left hip, they also had me do the exercises on the right side to get a comparison of how much we needed to do on the left. OOPS! The injured left side was better than the right side. After discussion, and learning I'd broken the right hip some twenty years ago, and there was never any significant PT with the recovery they gave me several exercises to do at home. I've already seen improvement in the mobility and strength in the right side. Had I not laid the bike down, that would never have happened. Now THAT is a Positive!!!!!
Thursday, 21 February -- Productivity, Personal
Genealogy Thursday. Doggone, if it'd just warm up a little bit more, instead of getting colder it could be Harley Thursday. Maybe I'll go buy a small heater for the garage. After all it is only February. Oh-Mi-Gosh! It's almost March!!!!! I know February is a short month, but didn't think it was this short. Oops, another segue. So, if I have a heater, I can go out in the garage and be Productive at taking off old damaged parts and putting on new replacement parts. Now that is some Productivity I could handle!!!!! (Break Time). Actually I have to get ready to go to the Red Cross to do Afresis this week. If you don't know, they take your blood out, spin out the platelets, and every other time also take out plasma, then put the blood back in. Not as bad as it sounds, and for me -- I often get a nice two hour nap out of it. It most frequently goes to cancer patients, so serves a very good purpose. You are allowed to donate every nine days, I try to go every two weeks just to keep on a schedule. You really feel good when you come out of there. That is Productivity in helping to save someone's life.
After Afresis raced back to attend a meeting about the proposed Lacrosse Field addition to the Charles McDevitt Sports Complex on NW corner of Eagle/McMillan. Long story short the board passed the proposal 5-2. Yeah. Now the Lacrosse Community needs to get busy and start the fund raising to make it happen.
Friday, 22 February -- Positive, Productivity, Personal
Kind of excited about how today went. Started out taking Deb to work, then headed up to the World Center for the Birds of Prey. Started off the morning at the Archives. They've needed help for a long time. The Archives catalogs and stores a considerable number of books, manuscripts and articles. Researchers worldwide can email, write, phone, text the archives and request copies of articles. Today I worked on the article side. We take copies of articles, place then in plastic sleeves, and then file them numerically in a wall of four drawer file cabinets. They are working towards a quarter million articles. Managed to be Productive enough to clear off four large stacks. When the researcher requests the article, the staff looks it up, cross references to the number of the file, pulls it from the stacks, runs it through the scanner (which captures it as a pdf file) and then emails it off to the researcher.
The hard part was as I was placing them in the sleeves, I would see something very interesting and end up reading the article. Same thing happened when I was helping with the Idaho State Penitentiary files a couple years ago, but that is another segue.
Then went across the street and worked the gift shop for the afternoon. It's always such a Positive experience. You are near the outside bird chambers, so get to see three eagles from three different continents, and also greet visitors from all over the world. Not many volunteer opportunities offer such great experiences.
Friday evening we met Matthew at Famous Dave's to have a Birthday Dinner and chat. It was Personally uplifting to see him since he's on the road so much. A very nice evening.
Saturday, 23 February -- Physical, Personal
The first part of Physical today was to help the body recuperate. Ended sleeping in like I've not done in years. It was finally 11 a.m. when I pulled my body out of bed. But, it felt good, and being off my feet in bed so long certainly helped the ankle to start recuping. Got in my PT exercises in the early afternoon, and then Britt brought Taten over for a Saturday night sleepover. That was our Personal for the day, and well enjoyed.
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