OK I napped...

Let's see. I woke up at 6:15, took Anthony to the bus to get to his XC meet today, then went to the meet, came home and relaxed a bit. Then went to get Anthony, came home, he went in the shower, I mowed the front lawn. Came in, showered, started watching the AR/AL football game (we lost, no surprise). Decided about 4pm to go lay down. Woke up at 7:20 when wife came home with food for dinner. I hardly ate. Why do I nap so much better than I sleep at night?

Anyway, I told you last week about Anthony's XC meet and we didn't know the time. Found out earlier this week. 14 minutes 1 second. Where the hell does this kid get it from?? I am very proud of him.

Today, he had another meet in Siloam Springs. The hills on this course are HUGE. They go about 30 degrees up I guess. Please understand, at the pace he's been improving, he should be able to run the last 2 mile course of the season faster than I would be able to drive it! I also didn't tell him, but I knew with this race he was going to hit the wall. There's no way he's going to continually improve at this pace the way he's been the past couple of races. Well, I was "kinda" right. He didn't do better time wise. Today his time was 14 minutes 39.8 seconds (yes POINT 8, I timed it this time). And he was feeling sick to his stomach when he was done. But he still did very well, and finished under 15 minutes.

I remember this course from last year, and it took him well over 16 minutes to finish. He did a fantastic improvement from last year, which is what I hoped for. I also remember last year, we took him home directly after his run, and he was sick then too. The hill is very hard for him to run, but he was fine after resting, doing the cool down run, and having fluids put back into his body.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully will sleep before the sun rises. TTFN!

What a day...

As you may remember me telling you in previous posts, Anthony is running Cross-Country with school. Last week he ran his first meet of the season, a 2-mile run, in what is officially 14:57. Not bad at all. His BEST last year (the last race) was 14:22 and that was the EASIEST course of the year. The rest of them he was over 16 minutes in each.

OK, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Today, Anthony had a meet in Elm Springs, and had to be at the bus by 7:30am. Ann, my wife, worked from 7am until noon. The NW Arkansas Naturals played in Game 4 of the best of 5 series of the Texas League Championship. Game started at 1pm in Springdale. The Arkansas Razorbacks are playing their SEC opener at home against Georgia tonight, and the game started at 6:45pm, nationally televised (thank you!) So here's the plan. Drive Ann to work at 7, come home, pick up Anthony, get gas for the car, get him to the bus for 7:30am. Went to Wal-Mart and walked around for a little bit. Then went home, watched the last episode of Season 3 of Heroes (now I'm ready for Season 4 on Monday), then go to Elm Springs to watch Anthony run.

OK, so Anthony ran. The course is very hilly. Still 2 miles, but decent hills. Going down is easy, going up is a bitch! I didn't time him, and then found there was no "official" clock at the finish line! How in the hell are they supposed to know their time?? So, I will not know how he did until Monday, but I can say he did better than last week, which is exactly what I ask of him. Just improve each week. So far so good. When they were done, they did their cool down thing, he got his stuff, I checked him out and we came home. It's now 11:45am, he goes in the shower, and I relax a few before going to get Ann at work.

I get to her job, and she can't leave. Her coworker is late (naturally!) so she didn't come out until 12:15pm. And, it's drizzling. Great! Get her home, we do a quick "get ready" and head out to Springdale to watch the Naturals play. They are down 2-1 going into this game, they win today and we go back tomorrow. Long story short (12 innings) and we lost 4-2. CRAP! We had a 2-0 lead in the 9th, an error by the pitcher, next hitter 2-run homer. Tied! Twelfth inning, another 2-run homer, we lose, wait until April 8th, 2010 for the start of the next season.

Got home at 6:10, 35 minutes until the football game. Right now we are winning 21-17, 3:14 to go in the first half. We look really good!

When do I get my nap???

We will never forget...

I still remember, 8 years later, that fateful day in 2001. I was driving to work listening ... wait, did I tell this story last year? nope, didn't start blogging until October ... to the radio. It was a station from the city, played top 40, did comedy skits. One of the DJ's stated that there is a report of a plane hitting the World Trade Center. They were just coming out of another skit, so the first thought that crossed my mind was "this is the worst joke they could ever do" but the DJ's kept talking about it. Then I realized they weren't laughing. I listened a couple of more minutes, and decided to change the station to an all news station. They were reporting the same thing. I went back to my regular station, trying to get some comfort from what I was hearing. Familiar voices can do quite a bit. When they began talking about it, they weren't sure what type of plane hit, and for that matter WHY it hit. The day was beautiful and clear, no fog to cause issue with a pilot's vision. As I pulled into the parking lot of my job, at 9:02am, they yelled "Oh My God! Another plane just crashed into the other WTC building! We are under attack!" I sat there for a moment in shock, deciding whether or not to even go into my office or just leave and go home. I decided to go in. My co-workers were listening to a local radio station, and when they saw me, I asked if they heard about the second plane hitting. I got a shocked "NO!" They all heard it from me.

Over the next couple of hours, we were instructed to "try to work" but were not allowed to leave. We worked right across the street from an airport, which also housed a small military facility, and safety said stay in the building. When we finally got to leave, I went to my son's school (he was in 2nd grade) and took him out. We left the school, and were standing in front on the entranceway. I grabbed him, hugged him, and lost it. I mean LOST IT! I was crying worse than a child who had their favorite toy taken away and smashed right in front of them. A woman coming out of the school with her daughter saw this, came over and kneeled with me, holding me while I cried. I never found out her name, I couldn't tell you what she looked like, but I will never forget the compassion she showed me in those few moments.

The balance of that day was spent at home, watching the news, getting as many updates as I could, trying to make sense of it all. At one point in the early afternoon, after the FAA grounded all flights in, out, and around the United States, I heard a plane flying overhead. I ran outside, kept the family in the house, and met my neighbor out there who had the same idea I did. Find out who or what was flying overhead. It was gone by the time we got out, and assumed it was a plane involved with the Armed Forces.

It is now 8 years later, and I still remember that day very clearly. I will never forget. We will never forget.

The end of the summer...

Yep, it's that time. It really didn't even feel much like summer this year. Yeah, there were some days that were rather warm, but not like it has in the past. I saw on the news that in 2000 the record temperature a little south of here hit 109 degrees. Now THAT'S a summer! I don't recall if we had days of 100 degrees here this year, we may have had one or two. Well, we are at the start of September and the temperature is not going higher than 85 if we're lucky.

Anthony seems to be doing well with Cross Country practice. He has no problems getting up at 6:10am. I, however, have some complaints! I'm used to sleeping until 6:30 or 6:45. That 20 minutes is something I could really use back. But it's the weekend now. Hopefully I'll get some of that 20 minutes back. Monday he will be running a 5k race in the morning. Then next Saturday he has his first cross country meet of the season. I'm very proud of him.