Since I Have A Minute...

Time is always a precious commodity.  Any spare minute should be invested wisely.

But I've had a hard time doing that lately. And it comes at a time when capitalizing on "free time" is of the utmost importance, because "spare time" is in short supply.  I do not have a free weekend for the rest of the month--including the one after Thanksgiving--due to basketball tournaments.  Every week day I go to work at 7:00 or 7:30 and leave around 6:00 or 7:00, due to basketball practice.

But today practice it out early because we are hosting a volleyball tournament game.  So I sat down to make up work I missed today (did I mention I was out on a field trip and so I'll be playing catch-up) and thought, "I have a little time to myself."

Immediately, I remembered that I still have to vote, still have to workout, and have some tasks to catch up on at home.

So is life.  For those of you waiting on an update about the Maine trip, or just hoping to get caught up on the happenings of my life I'm afraid you'll just have to wait.  Sorry.

T Minus 8 Days and Counting

In the final weeks leading up to the Maine Fall Fling I have had some awesome developments.  I have secured lodging for the first night of the trip: a campsite in Acadia National Park (did you know that Maine has a fjord?!  It's true.  Somes Sound fits the description...and I'm going to see it).  I've also found a spot for later in the trip (I'm intentionally keeping this leg of the journey a bit more fluid).  Herring Cove Provincial Park (actually in Canada--not sure if it's New Brunswick or Novia Scotia, but up there.  And actually, it's in the Atlantic.) closes this coming Saturday.  But the lovely woman I spoke with told me I could stay there anyway, and that she would try to arrange for a fire pit and some fire wood to be left for me.  And the best part?  Chances are good that I'll be the only one in the whole park.  How awesome is that?
Other things seemed promising, but did not materialize.  Machias Seal Island is the summer nesting ground for Atlantic Puffins...but they're already long gone.  I was so excited to see a puffin, but alas, for this trip it is not to be.  I'm starting to feel like this is a place I might like to visit again in the future, though, so I'm tucking it away for later.

The Herring Cove campsite got me thinking: could this be the north-eastern-most extreme I've traveled to in the United States?  So I looked it up.  Eastern: yes; Northern: not even close.  So I charted out my travels to America's perimeter and this is what I've found.
Farthest North (in ascending order):
Calais, ME: 45.1889 degrees N
Duluth, MN: 46.7833 degrees N
and the winner...
Seattle, WA: 47.6097 degrees N
(If I include international travels the list continues:)
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: 49.883 degrees N
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 52.3700 degrees N
and at the top of my world travels (literally)
Laide, Scotland: 57.850 degrees N

Curious about my eastern travels?  I was.
New York, NY: 74.0064 degrees W
Boston, MA: 71.0603 degrees W
Manchester, NH: 71.4553 degrees W
and the eastern champ (soon to be declared)...
Calais, ME: 67.2792 degrees W
(here again Laide would win if international travel was being weighed: it's just 5.5420 degrees W of the Prime Meridian.)

Since I was on a roll, I went onto south and west.
Farthest South:
San Antonio, TX: 29.4239 degrees N
Siesta Key, FL: 27.3017 degrees N
(I didn't dwell on the south too much.  I am, after all, a northerner at heart.)

Farthest West:
San Diego, CA: 117.1564 degrees W
Los Angeles, CA: 118.2428 degrees W
Portland, OR: 122.6750 degrees W
and just edging out Portland for the victory...
Seattle, WA: 122.3331 degrees W

So I've been to the south-western corner of the country, lived for a summer at it's northern-most point (St. John, ND),  and will now see the north-eastern tip.  How cool to remember all those trips and the great memories associated with them.  How blessed to continue to have more travels and stick more far-flung pins into the map!

525,600 Minutes

I have a friend who teaches Show Choir and helps with the school musicals and is big into musical theater.  Based on her recommendation, I just recently watched the film version of the musical "Rent."  On the whole, "Rent" is (and I know that die-hard fans would stone me for saying this) not that great.  It's okay.  But I much prefer oldies like "Man of La Mancha" and "Pippin."  To me, the story has to be significant.  Even if "Rent" had more of a plot than "disenfranchised bohemians deal with drugs, AIDS and...life" the music isn't exceptional.  Some songs are quite good, but others leave me cold.

HOWEVER (and it is a big however), I absolutely love the show opener, "Seasons of Love."  If I listen to it there is a strong chance it will get stuck in my head and I'll sing it over and over for days.  Great tune.  Great message.  Perhaps what I like most is its question, "How do you measure a year?"

I've written elsewhere about my frequent annual meditations: New Years (obviously), my birthday, the end of summer/start of a school year.  Well, with this song running through my head I keep thinking about how I would measure this last year.  One of my most often-repeated mental exercises these days is to think back on what I would have been doing this time last year.  This was especially true when I was contemplated being married vs. being alone.  But enough time has passed that I am now comparing the early days of being alone to what it is like now.  The big difference at this point is my workout regimen.  Unlike last year, I am not working out at all and eating as rarely and as lightly as I can.  For fun I thought I would do some general numbers to "measure the year."
Time spent eating: 65,700 minutes (6 meals a day, 30 minutes per meal)
Time spent lifting: 21,900 minutes (an average of 60 minutes per day)
Do you want to hear a really depressing figure?
Time spent painting: 6,000 minutes (just 10 hours)

So I'm reevaluating my goals.  I'm looking at how I'll spend and measure the next year.  One big (anticipated) highlight will be the Maine trip.  In one year I will have visited two places (Europe and Maine) that I've wanted to see for a long time.  Also, I'd love to have more "cups of coffee" with friends, see more "sunsets" and meditate on God's creation, savor both the laughter and the strife, and enjoy everything that God brings into my life.

A Brief Post from the Front

It is not my habit to blog while at school, but I am overcome with excitement and thought I should jot a quick note.

One month from now I will be riding a motorcycle along the coast of Maine.  I called today to finalize all the necessary reservations and I am so pumped.  It's going to be awesome.

So...what to do for the next month?  Well there's school.  Another awesome school year is already in full swing.  I am loving my job.  There's also days of 100+ degree temperatures to endure.  The big highlight weather-wise?  I dip to the high 80's this weekend.  Oh well--it's better than nothing.

I'm excited.  Look for countdowns leading up to the trip and updates following!

Ok, ok, ok...Just ONE More

Subtitle: The First 100 Miles

Several divergent thoughts came into my head as I was waxing eloquent about summer, but they didn't fit the flow of that writing.  So before I take a break from blogging in favor of preparing for school, I'll jot them down here.

As you can see, I purchased a motorcycle this summer.  I really didn't intend to.  I took a class in the late spring to get my license, and it was a blast.  I got my license in order to take an autumn trip to Maine, during which I would ride a motorcycle along the coast.  The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to ride here, now.  So When I found a good deal on a bike I really like I jumped at it.  It came slightly used, and in a short period of time I put one hundred miles on the bike.

I'm also thinking of a metaphorical "first one hundred miles."  I have been "on my own" now for just over a year.  Heather moved out last July, and although I earnest hoped to be reconciled, by the beginning of the new year it was obvious that was not going to happen.  After that realization set it, and after the pain of the events surrounding the separation began to lessen, it was a bit like emerging from a bomb shelter.  True, when I first picked my head up and looked around, the world seemed barren and charred.  But as my eyes adjusted to the new landscape, the lack of houses and trees and the discernible world that I knew, I saw opportunity.  I actually feel guilty saying this.  I feel like I should still be sad that I am divorced, but I am not.  I feel like I should lament the loss of a very real and very large dream for my life, but I have done that and I don't particularly want to go back.  Call it looking on the bright side, call it moving on, call it whatever you want....I'm living again.

This new life is a curious one.  I'm sad I don't always have my kids.  The house can be lonely at times.  But (I believe I've written about this before) there is a certain joy and liberty in not having to care if "she" likes my clothes, or my motorcycle, or my hair, or my beard.  There is greater flexibility to run off to a new, far away destination or hang out with friends when it is "her" week with the boys.  This summer with my sons, without relational drama or being in a one-sided marriage, has been one of the most enjoyable in recent memory.  And true, a lot of that has to do with another perk of not being married: a new relationship.  I understand that many will consider that I am moving too fast or I am in denial of what has happened, but I'm happy to be dating my wonderful friend Brandi and we have really enjoyed the summer together.  As my friend Michael would say, "It makes a big difference to go from having someone in your life who doesn't really like you that much to someone who really appreciates everything about you."  It is true, and for that I'm thankful.

So there it is.  The first one hundred miles has been a bit bumpy, but the road has emerged onto a coastal route with what looks to be a magnificent view.  Time to start a new school year and see where the road leads.

A Season Comes and Goes

(I was unable to create my fourth post yesterday, but here is my annual meditation on summer.)

Each year, when this point comes, I start thinking that I need to capture my thoughts about summer.  Each year I forget that I have already done this (as in here and here).  But that's not necessarily a bad thing, because each year I feel something slightly different about the summer months.  

One thing that surprises me about my forgetfulness is what has become an annual climax to summertime: the Perseid meteor shower.  If you read the posts from the links above, you'll noticed I started trying to observe this phenomenon in 2009.  My memory is sketchy, but according to the posts there have been good times and bad times.  I didn't write it down, but there was one year when I took a piece of rhubarb pie and a Lienkugel's Berryweiss to the hill in Bear Creek Park and had the greatest star-gazing experience ever.  It was probably a combination of the (relative) cool of the night, the celestial activity, and the delicious food and beverage, but I recall it quite fondly.  Even if there are no shooting stars to be seen (like last night), it's an important ritual that I like to observe.  It brings a punctuation mark of the paragraph entitled "Summer" in each year of my life.  

But I digress.  The main theme of my writing this year centers on how absolutely fantastic summer is, and how the songwriters get it exactly right.  I'm thinking here of the line from "Summer Lovin'" in "Grease," "summer days drifting away...", or the Beach Boys "won't be long 'til summer time is through" from "All Summer Long."  Can you think of another moment/season in your life that brings such enjoyment and yet while you are enjoying it you are aware that it will soon be over?  I don't think it's the same with Advent or Easter, because with each there is build-up and a culmination.  For some reason most people long for the rains of spring to blow away, or the frost of winter to retreat.  No, summer is special, and I think it is precisely because it is so sweet and so fleeting.  Shouldn't every experience in life be lived like summer?  "Let's enjoy it now, because soon it will be gone."  Summer is a seasonal reminder to savor each lick of ice cream, to embrace your children every chance you get, to smile and thank God for his blessings, because each will be gone before we realize it.  We don't like to think that.  We want to enjoy the good things in life as much as possible, and so we block from our minds the fact that it won't always be as it is now.  Saints of old employed the "Memento Mori" to meditate on death and remind themselves to live.  I love summer for its slowness--days that stretch forever, filled ease and recreation--and yet it is also often noted for its swiftness as it speeds away.  The beauty of that has really hit me this year.  

This is the perfect song for this post, I think.  My first memory of really engaging with this song is from my Grandma Asp's funeral.  We were driving back from her gravesite to where we were staying and I played this on my ipod as I watched the golden Minnesota landscape slide past in that beautiful and sacred hour of dusk.  The song is beautiful and melancholy.  It is an ode to summer's end.

Each summer is bound to end.  The best we can do is not to cram it full of activity, or waste it away, but to live with its end in mind.  Savor the slow, sweaty, golden moments.  And when the meteors begin to shoot through the Perseids, look up, smile a thoughtful smile, and agree with the Beach Boys: "we've been having fun all summer long."

A Tour of Texas Lakes

This is my third post of the day.  In a previous post I mentioned hurting my arm while throwing the boys into the water of the lake/pool.  This post builds on that memory by taking you, faithful reader, through the last week with my sons and I as we toured the aquatic wonders of the Lonestar State.
(A fourth and final post should be forthcoming, with my meditation on the close of summer.)

Lake 1: Grapevine

This was not actually a part of the scheduled tour, but it is one of our most frequented and favorite lakes in Texas.  This shot shows Brennan dragging me by my now injured arm.  But really, it's more a picture of the fun we had at the lake that day, as we so often do at this beloved spot.  

Lake 2: Eagle Mountain

Another short trip away, we struggled to find a public access point for Eagle Mountain Lake.  Once we found this park, though, we were on our way.  (Next to Aydan is Nick, a friend staying with us for the week while his parents are out of town.  Next to Brennan is his best friend Justen.)

The lake was about a mile hike from the entrance to the park.  It was a beautiful trail, and we had it all to ourselves.  Even better, it was overcast, so it wasn't mercilessly hot.

 Within our first ten minutes of arrival, Nick caught a sizable bass.  Aydan handled the dirty work of unhooking it, since Nick doesn't like to touch the fish.

 Lake 3: Texoma

 Two hours north, on the Oklahoma border, is Lake Texoma.  It is known for its excellent striped bass fishing.  This destination was entirely the brainchild of the boys, as was the pontoon boat we rented (with the financial backing of money saved from their allowance).

 I am not a fisherman at all, but I did enough research to know that we needed live shad or shiners to have a chance of catching a bass.  Even with this bait we were unsuccessful.  Still, the boys had a great time.  Their favorite activity was to jump off the boat while running at top speed.

Lake 4: Whitney

Two hours to the south is Lake Whitney.  We went there with one purpose in mind: to jump off the cliffs.  The lake was created by the Army Corps of Engineers, and therefore has dramatic drop-offs into substantial depths.  In the picture you see, the kids jump from approximately 20 feet up into water that is 80 feet deep.  I could post more pictures, but it was pretty much more of the same for hour after hour.  It was a blast, and perhaps my favorite trip.

But how can you have a favorite when you get to enjoy so much beauty and fun with your favorite people in the world?  I love my boys, and we had a great time.  It was the perfect end to a very enjoyable summer.