THE NEGATIVE REACTION

FREE TIME MEANS ITS TIME TO UPDATE!

I had some extra time, so I thought I might tackle some of the topics I touched on in my last post. I only have about 30 minutes, so we'll see how much we can get accomplished before I have to bail out.

1) My son came up for a week after getting his foot operated on. He has something called hyperpronation in his ankle and after several years, it was starting to takes its toll on his ankles. They needed to repair both of his ankles so they got in both ankles before he came up. We had about two weeks before we were going to the Dells (even after our scenic" lake emptied). A few days before we were going to go, we went to go see "Wanted" (which was an ok movie, I wasn't impressed at all, but I think my son liked it). He shouldn't have been walking on it, but told me it felt ok. Of course, about 1am he called his Mom and told her he could feel the stint in his ankle. She came over the next day (thankfully, she was still in town) and got the instructions from the doctor on what to look for. It was pretty bad, she said he would need to come back so they could re-operate and move the stint back into the proper place. So that was that. About a week or so, then he was gone for the summer - which really bummed me out. We left a few days later for our vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. It was a great week and I got to take in several water parks. I know I would have enjoyed it a TON more if could've come with. Oh well, I told him next year we'll go again and then we can both enjoy it.

2) The not so glorious end of my soccer career? Yeah, after having one of the guys on another team punch me in the face, I sat down and did some serious soul searching. I decided I have to much to lose to have some idiot put in a hospital for any duration of time. The guy barely grazed me, but it was a wake up call. So no more outdoor, but I'm still going back and forth on playing indoor. Simply because I'm much better at playing indoor and I tend to score quite a bit more. Another indoor session is starting so we'll see soon enough. The other major factor was just trying to stay healthy on a week-to-week basis. It just alwasy seemed like I was nicked up, bruised, tweaked, or just plain sore. I think at 37, it was an easy decision to walk away from the outdoor game.

Time to fly - more later!!

Updated - 08/22/08

One brief note before we get back into it again. . .

A) My birthday came and went htis week and it appears I survived another year. It actually turned out to be a good year (thus far). A job change and some other major life changes have me enjoying life and still dumbfounded I am where I am considering my bleak past (which has been well documented here) and morbid nature I have about everything.

Alright. . more updates. . .

3) Oh yeah, the construction has really picked up the last few weeks. It's been a dirt road outside of our house for so long, I wasn't sure we'd have asphalt before the snow started falling. That all changed today. Not only was our driveway put back together (exposed aggregate trim and all) but we got new curbs (which we did not have before) and now some fresh blacktop. It was nice to finally park in my garage again. It was funny to hear the neighbors finally enjoying getting out and walking in the neighborhood. It seemed all the BS we put up with for so long might actually be worth it. Of course the other major road project is still giving me headaches and slowing me down on the way to work - so the bitching aint over yet!!

4) Being a developer totally kicks ass. I'm learning so much and just trying to absorb it all right now. I'm getting a LOT faster and finally have a decent system to march through my integrations. The real challenge now is to try and pick up design support which is the cutting and coding of sites designed in Photoshop. Once I learn this, the sky is the limit. I've been checking out some tutorials online and am also interested in using my Linux machine for doing some design work. We'll see. I also know my manager has told me I have incredible drive and was a great hire. I've really meshed well with the group and feel like I'm really at home with all the cool stuff I'm learning and finding out about. When you have so many who are plugged into the web - I mean REALLY plugged into the web, there's so much cool stuff out there!!! What I really want to do is get my freelance stuff going soon. I have some projects I want to start up, but finding time right now is hard. Looks like something is going to get sidelined in order to so this - we'll see.

5) Oh shit, changing my blog. Yeah, I've had a few templates, but nothing ever really jumped out at me. Now that I have some programming experience, I might actually try and design a template. Again, finding the time is the key. I might just go Tesla on it and stay up for a few days on end till I get the thing done - who knows. I have a ton of ideas so we'll have to wait and see what happens, no promises!!

6) Mountain biking? *sigh* I think I might have to take a few days off to get this done. I JUST pumped up the tires on my bike this Tuesday and took a few laps in the driveway. Man do I miss riding. After next winter, it will be back near the top of my list since Soccer will be out of the question.


Well, that;'s about it for right now - I'm going to blast out another quick post about some other stuff still on my mind.



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