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Family

Ready or Not, Here I come…

I was playing hide and seek with Zander today – actually for the first time.  He had this idea that he would hide and call out to me – “come find me”.  At first I was caught up in getting things done for work so that I could take the next week off without ‘too many’ worries. I didn’t want to stop to play with him, but reluctantly I did.

After a couple of half attempts to ‘find’ him and get back to my computer, he comes to me and says, “your turn daddy! Go hide!”.  I realized that he has never played hide and seek and came by the game naturally.  So I turned off the monitor, stopped being annoyed, and started to cherish the moments I had with him.  I explained to him that he had to count to 10 and then come find me.  He counted, then ran straight to me – I was ‘hiding’ down the hall.

So being ‘it’ I told him to go hide, while I counted to 10.  I shouted out, “Ready or Not, here I come!”  Then despite the fact that I knew he was hiding in the den, I walked around the house, jumping around corners shouting “Gotcha!” then in a disappointed tone I would say, “No, he’s not hiding here”.  Each time I would hear Zander giggle in the den.  Finally, I got to the den and he took off running.  I chased him around the house, both of us laughing and sliding in our socks.  He naturally ran to ‘base’ where I had counted.

Then he started, “1, 2, 3…”  I started looking for a place to hide. “4, 5, 6…” I decided on hiding behind the kitchen island. “7, 8, 9…” My heart was racing, “10! Ready or Not, Here I come!”  Zander copied my example to a tee – shouting “Gotcha” and “Nope, you’re not in here” as he want around the house.  Then he jumped into the kitchen and the race was on!  We had a lot of fun and I’m glad I took the time.

Well, Zander isn’t the only child of mine shouting “Ready or Not, Here I come!”  Today is the eve of the BIG day!  Dianne is coming over around 6:30 am to watch Zander.  Stephanie is packed.  The appointment is at 8:00 am.  Everything is set, everything is ready – well… not everything.  I’m not.  In less than 24 hours I will have a new child in the world, and a daughter at that!  Alexis Carol Sackrider is almost here.

I look forward to many great moments with her like I had with Zander today, but I also dread the first time she falls down, the first time she is disappointed, the first time she is embarrassed.  I don’t even want to consider first boyfriends, first dates, first kisses.  Ready or Not…Here she comes!

Categories
myThoughts

When do the Sea Shells get here?

The main character, John Spartan (played by Stallone) in the 1993 film Demolition Man, is cryogenically frozen in 1996 and thawed sometime in the 21st century. Shortly after he is thawed, nature calls and he is confronted with the fact that in this future world there is no toilet paper. Instead there are seashells in the bathroom where a roll would normally be. Spartan asks about it and is taunted that he ‘doesn’t know how to use the seashells’. On a regular basis in the bathrooms at work, the toilet paper rolls conspire against me. You know what I’m talking about – you are done with nature’s call and reach for the paper only to tear off a half a square. No matter how slow you pull the roll, you just keep making confetti! When you finally do manage to pull enough off in a single connected string, you pull hard to tear it off and instead of tearing, it rolls out enough paper to clog the Colorado River. This is almost a daily occurrence at my job — I know I’m not the only one because I see the confetti left from the last occupant of the stall. I’M READY FOR THE SEA SHELLS…

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D-Tour 2007: Glendale, AZ to Del Rio, TX myThoughts

OK — that’s better…

It felt like I couldn’t get on the road for anything the other day. I had a flat tire Wednesday morning that I didn’t discover until after I had suited up for a bike ride, packed my work gear into my pannier, and headed out to the garage. I drove the car to work that morning but not until after I fixed the flat. That night I was determined to ride the bike for at least a few miles. I grabbed Zander, put him in the baby bike stroller and hit the road. After I got a couple of miles from the house – the wind picked up – going in the ‘other’ direction and the bike stroller acted like a big parachute. I only got about 7 miles like that.

So I brought the bike in the house, put it on the bike trainer and rode another 5 miles. The next morning I rode the entire 19 miles to work AND I took the long way home for another 21 miles. Now that’s more like it! After this week on the cruise (whaaaoooo!!!!) I only have three weekends left before my 1000 mile bike ride. One of those weekends, my Columbus friends are headed to Vegas which is only a five hour drive — I really want to head that way but that would take another weekend out of my training time. We’ll see — in either case, I have a lot of riding to do between now and May 26th.