So what?

I fully admit that I monitor the Feedjit app that's on the side of this page.  Hey, a guy needs to know if his readership has increased to double digits yet or not. (Doubtful).  I know who most of the regulars are from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Washington.  There's one in Michigan I'm not sure on but I could make an educated guess about it.  I no longer have that one guy from Finland who was showing up pretty frequently for about a month.  I guess my posts just stopped being interesting to him.  However, about a week ago, I had a visitor from Indianapolis (not sure who, but I have a guess), who specifically was directed to one of my posts through google.  Namely, it was my post about East of Eden and timshel and achieving greatness.  I didn't think much of it, but if someone's going to see just a random post, that's one I would happily share.

The timing of this actually became pretty coincidental when AU had their Special Olympics chapel and had Carl Erskine (as in Anderson resident and former Brooklyn Dodger great Carl Erskine) give the message.  For a dude that's approaching 90 with a couple of world series rings, he's doing pretty well and he has a heck of a lot more general life experience than I do. His message was on the same topic, albeit much better spoken.  His main topic was "So what?" From all of the things from his life, what was it that truly had meaning and made a difference.  He brought this up as his youngest son has Down's Syndrome and he compared the increasing acceptance of handicapped athletes to watching how Jackie Robinson and non-whites in general were eventually accepted in MLB.  With this though, he reminded us that people aren't going to remember what you did or what you said, but they'll remember exactly how you made them feel.  That got me to thinking about how I'll be remembered, which isn't something a 33 year old really worries about too much.  On that day, I wasn't really sure. I've had a few students come back and tell me good things, but self doubt always creeps in a little bit during the rough patches.  Yesterday though, I got to celebrate my birthday with my family and Lindsey and just being around people like that that love me dearly was enough to put those doubts back for a while.  It was a good day all around.

Also, a quick update on my goals.  So far, no epic life moments yet, but the half dome permit lottery opens tomorrow so cross your fingers for me.  Pushups and pullups are going pathetically.  I'll finish February doing less than half of what I should have for the month so I'm even further behind.  Running was going well until I tweaked my ankle last week.  I was able to get out this morning and knock out four miles so hopefully I can get back on track fairly quickly.  The 10 days off though probably cost me about 30 miles.

I think I'm on a roll

I never post enough when I'm happy.  I don't know why, but it just always seems to work out this way.  The last two weeks have been rather good.  I did well on Valentine's Day, well enough, in fact, that at lunch today, the married guys told me that it was a rookie mistake and now big things will be expected of me on future occasions.  The school year has been a little bit of a grind, but that was expected based on the dryness of the classes I have this semester, but so far, they've all gone at least as well as expected with a few being better.

Since this is life, none of it has been perfect obviously, and there are still some bad things, but they all at least have silver linings.  For example, all of my medical bills have come due and February has just been ridiculously expensive, but there is the upshot of the fact that I wasn't killed by roast beef and further, it looks like this year may not be too bad.  Instead of hitting my maximums like I was thinking might happen, there's a good chance I can keep this year's medical expenses under a grand.  Perhaps I can get a little bit more traveling in after all (or maybe not as there's a lot planned already).  I've documented that my auto expenses have been up over the last little bit as well (replaced headlight, brakes, battery; my struts aren't looking real great either), but as my Caliber has about 85000 miles on it and this is only the second time I've really had to do any maintenance with it, I'd say that's pretty darn good.  I am breaking my body again as I rolled an ankle pretty badly at volleyball on Wednesday.  It's turned a very lovely shade of purple right now.  This knocks me out of running for probably at least a week, but if there was any week for it to happen, this would be the week, because HAHAHA, there's absolutely no way I'm running in wind chills of 20 below.  Even I'm not that dumb - well, maybe I am, but now at least I have an excuse to not run and I don't feel bad about it.

In completely random news, no-booze February has become no-drinking-by-yourself February.  I'm also reading Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep which is one of the essential hardboiled novels, you know, one of those you should be drinking with a whiskey in hand.  I have most of a handle of Whiskey available, but since I can't drink it during February, I have a conundrum.

So yeah, things are good.  I'm happy.  I am getting that spring break itch going though...

Then you'll know what Nitro means

A quick update on everything:

First, I got my car checked out and now the noises have stopped.  Somehow, it was being caused by my brakes being trash, as so aptly described by my mechanic.  That set me back a tidy little sum, but its better than having them fail.

Second, health stuff is starting to all come together.  I had a get to know you meeting with my doctor, but hey, at least I have a personal physician now.  I'll have to go back and actually get a physical and a tetanus shot soon.  She referred me to a GI doctor and I have a meeting with them on Wednesday to see what's causing my EE.

Third, classes are in full swing now.  I gave my first Stats exam on Thursday and will be grading it tonight.  The first Discrete exam is Monday while Finite gets an exam on Thursday and Algebra gets one on Friday.  That'll make for a fun weekend.

Fourth, I've given up booze for February.  At least, I'm trying to.  So far, so good.  Hopefully, this gets me to drop a few pounds.  The body still looks pretty good even though the pushups and pullups are still going very poorly.

Fifth, I think I figured out spring break plans, assuming the weather isn't awful.  I'm hoping to hit up Hoosier Hill, the highest point in Indiana and I'm pretty sure its on a farm somewhere which tells you all you need to know about how I feel about Indiana hiking.  After that three minute stop, I'll be heading on to Conkles Hollow in Ohio for an afternoon before heading out to Virginia to hit up Old Rag/Humpback Rocks/Crabtree Falls/The Devils Marble Yard.  If that doesn't happen, I'll need to take on some project here else I'll get super bored.

Sixth, I don't think there's a sixth.