Mix of work and play

We have really been enjoying getting to spend some time outside with a variety of activities lately.  One evening we headed out on a bike ride together and it was just a gorgeous evening.  What little wind there was was blowing from the east so we took a different route than usual which included a few hills but some beautiful Flint Hills scenery.  After our biking we stopped at Sonic for dinner since it was 50 cent corn dog night-- do we know how to have a good time or what?  There were a few other cyclists at Sonic who told us about the best routes to ride in the area so we have lots of new rides we can do over the next few weeks.

The next evening Regional track was being hosted three blocks away, so of course we had to go.  It was raining lightly off and on made it a perfect track meet day for runners at least.  I am informed that throwers don't appreciate wet conditions.  Arthur enjoyed a few hours of discus throwing while I watched track events.  My brother is a track coach at one of the schools that were participating so he hung out with us some off and on between getting splits and yelling at his athletes.  I love a good track meet.

Alex asked me (Arthur) to insert some thoughts here about high school athletics.  While she is a physical therapist and thus much more informed on such issues, I think she is looking for a testimonial from a former high school athlete to concur with her point.  Whatever the case, as I was watching the discus throwers, I was shocked at how weak they were.  That may seem a strange thing to say about track athletes at least good enough to be taken to a regional meet, and indeed, the manifestations of weakness I saw would not normally be called weakness, but so much of the balance issues, poor throwing posture, and improper mechanics are signs of weak, or at the very least, unbalanced musculature.  

Now don't get me wrong.  About everyone I saw throw could probably bench press his body weight or better, but something that you learn about living with a physical therapist and having an interest in athletics is functional movement screening, a sort of testing that can be done on an athlete that indicate how balanced his body is and whether he can use his strength functionally; a much better indicator of athleticism than what he benches or his 40 time.  The strength and conditioning coach for Stanford University's football team is really big on this, and his unique training regimen has a lot to do with the success of that program over the past several years.  (Alex: Arthur read this article about Stanford and asked if I had ever heard about Functional Movement Screening.  Oddly enough I happened to be a secondary author of a research paper that was recently published looking at normative values in runners of different age groups for the Functional Movement Screening test.  This was my topic for my capstone research project in PT school).

All that to say that watching the discus event, I saw those concepts on full display.  I do not know if I would be a successful throwing coach, but if I were in that position, I think I would tell my athletes before the season began that before they would be allowed to throw, they would have to meet certain strength goals.  I don't even know if I'd be allowed to do it that way, but teaching throwing technique to someone who isn't strong enough to perform the technique is a waste of everyone's time.  It's like trying to teach calculus to someone who hasn't had algebra.  Anyway, those were my reflections at the track meet.

Saturday morning we headed to my parents' home for the weekend.  You know your parents have gotten over being empty nesters when they decided to leave town the same weekend their kids are coming to visit.  I guess a weekend at a condo in Branson was a good deal.  When we arrived in town I took Arthur to the town's science museum/coffee shop.  The owner is a 92 year old man who was the former high school science teacher.  When he retired he started a science museum.  (I think his wife probably told him he couldn't keep all of his equipment, experiments, etc in their basement and he needed a building.)  You can get a cup of coffee for 75 cents as well as look at the WWII memorial displays he has.  The tour started with him telling us about his B-17 getting shot down over the North Sea and he and one other man were the only ones from the crew to survive.  Then we move to the demonstrations about electric currents, Model-A alternators, Tesla coils, etc.  Arthur can explain more.  He did spend a little bit talking about how much of science is "unseen".  You can't see electrical currents or magnetic fields but you can see the effects.  It is very similar to faith-- you may not "see" God but you can see the effects all over creation and individual lives.

Arthur again to talk about the museum.  It was awesome.  Most of the experiments were meant to teach younger children, but some were thing that I, as an electrical engineer, had never seen.  He had  a display explaining how cathode ray tubes work, which was fascinating.  CRT's were used for several years in electrical equipment like oscilloscopes before equipment went digital.  We have several CRT oscilloscopes at work actually, and up to this point I did not know how they worked.  That display and his demonstration helped me fit the final pieces together.

After our trip to the museum we spent most of the afternoon in the garage working on finishing our table-  the main objective of the weekend.  After a final round of sanding we cleaned everything off and started the process of pre-conditioning the wood and staining it.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that every couple should go kayaking or canoeing in pee-marital counseling.  A patient recently told me that if a couple can survive a home improvement project together that should also be a good indication of the health of the relationship.  I think we did a fairly good job working together.  Arthur was in charge of using steel wool between coats of poly and making sure the legs and base were done.  I took the table top and the edges-- divide and conquer.

In between each coat of poly during the weekend we had to let it dry for 2 hours so we had a lot of time to sit back and relax as well.  We spent a while reading some of my favorite books about a fictional church congregation that in some ways was so true to real life.  We caught up on some tv.  I picked and stemmed some strawberry.  (It can't be May without picking strawberries.)  There was a good mix of work and play.

Monday morning after our last coat of poly was put on the table we got the bikes out and biked to the next town over.  It was a wonderful morning (we have hit the jack-pot lately on good biking days- except for the bike ride where I had to ride in the rain for 4 miles but we won't count that).  Our turn-around point was a coffee shop that many of the ladies from the church I grew up in work.  We got vanilla bean chai freezes which really hit the spot before riding back home.  Altogether it was 24 miles which is probably our longest ride of the season so far.  On our way home we stopped by the cemetery to pay our Memorial Day respects with a jar full of peonies and took some of the back roads home just enjoying a drive through the country together.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Hello Summer!

Once in a great while one of those perfect summer evenings comes along.  This year it just happened to be the "first" summer evening after we kicked off the season with Memorial Day weekend.  I made dinner and was able to use some of the first produce from our garden-- parsley sprigs for our salmon patties and a Swiss chard salad.  There is just a certain pride about eating something you grew even if it is just a sprig of parsley.  I then headed out to enjoy such a perfect evening on a bike ride.  (Arthur had a somewhat miserable evening in the basement watch the Spurs lose to Oklahoma City and was beginning to develop conspiracy theories about the series being unjustly prolonged to generate money for large corporations.)  The temperature that evening was perfect and there was no wind (this was probably my favorite part).  The cottonwood trees are shedding poofs of cotton that just kind of hang suspended in the air making it seem as if gravity or time has slowed down or even stopped.  On my bike ride around town I ran into a few of the high school girls I mentored and chatted with them for  little bit.  I then continued on past the crowds at the baseball diamond cheering on kids partaking in America's favorite pasttime.  There were a smattering of people walking home from the swimming pool that just opened for the season.  The drone of lawn mowers was in the air all over town along with the smells of fresh grass and people grilling.  Everything is so green following the recent rain we got and everything is in bloom-- roses, iris, and peonies all across town.  I would like to say we topped off the evening with strawberry shortcake but instead we had a delightful apple crisp that has been in our freezer since the fall-- still wonderfully tasty.  Just one of those perfect evenings you want to replay over and over.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

The lastest happenings

Here's the update on what we have been up to the past few weeks:

NBA playoffs: Arthur is a pretty big fan of the San Antonio Spurs which means from April to June every year Arthur is following basketball games about every other evening.  The Spurs have been playing some pretty good basketball games lately and at least the conference finals this week are all central time so the games are not starting at 9:30pm.  Arthur is usually a pretty happy camper if the Spurs are playing well.  If they don't play well, then...

When Arthur isn't watching the Spurs he's been biking quite a bit in the evenings.  I haven't been joining him as much because I'm not tough enough to ride when it is as windy as it has been lately.

This past weekend my brother got married so we have been busy with some "wedding responsibilities".  Arthur went to the bachelor party and played basketball well into the night and into the morning and was sore for a few days.  He thought the teams were a little unfair in favor of the groom whom he had to guard.  I put together a slide show of photos of the happy couple.  During this project my computer was on the verge of cratering.  I finished the slide show and had it saved on a flash drive setting on the shelf to take.  After work I was getting everything together and couldn't find it anywhere.  Arthur got home and I asked if he had seen it.  He had a concerned look on his face.  He had picked it up and taken it to work with him.  He was almost ready to drive back to work to get it since it had the stuff for the wedding but I did have an extra copy on a CD.  What I don't understand is how his duffel bag had been in the floor of the living room all week and he hadn't picked it up to take it another 15 steps to the bedroom but a flash drive that isn't his sitting out for a few hours ended up at work.  I love him but sometimes I don't understand him.  The wedding was beautiful and we were glad it wasn't us, going through a wedding once is more than enough.  Arthur ushered with the best of them while greeted guests signing the guest book.  We also had a good time catching up with old friends at the reception afterwards and dancing the night away.

We finished up our drawing class last week which was a foray into colored pencils.  A good time was had by all.  Arthur gained a greater appreciating of technique.  He also said he learned how CAD programs work and how forensic evidence can be taken from photographs based on the horizon line and vanishing points.  I learned how to use perspective and shading.  I also got hooked on drawing again.  I did quite a bit growing up and then picked it up again while listening to online lectures in grad school because I needed something more entertaining to do than listen to my computer speak to me in a monotone about administration and management in physical therapy so I drew. We had a wonderful time learning these new skills together during the class.  We are trying to decide what to learn next.  Some of the ideas tossed around include brushing up on our dancing skills or taking up karate (this could be influenced by the fact that Arthur watch a few of The Karate Kid movies this weekend).  Omnia Vincit Amor. 

Honeymoon wrap-up

The drive to Petit Jean State Park was beautiful.  Alex had warned me (Arthur- it's been a while since I have contributed a post) that we would be driving on mountain roads and I was anticipating drop offs much worse than we actually saw—quite a relief to a nervous driver such as myself.  The area around Petit Jean is sparsely populated and to our surprise there really wasn’t an accessible place to eat.  Fortunately, my ever prepared Alex had enough packed to feed us and a small battalion.  And while I would have rather not have dined on such gourmet items as peanut butter and banana sandwiches (editor's note from Alex: when asked about the worst part of the trip this is what he listed), it was good to have our bellies full.

  After lunch we started out hiking the area in Petit Jean.  This being our last day we knew there was no reason to try to save ourselves for future excursions.  And thus we went all out.  Starting at the Mather Lodge (named after the gentleman who first proposed making this area a park) we went down the roughest trail we had yet encountered.  This trail took us through some of the most picturesque scenery of the trip, including a waterfall, a scenic river crossing, and extraordinary rock formations.  There were areas where trees was all the eye could see, so thick that no one could ever deviate from the trail, almost claustrophobic. 

One of the more memorable stories to come out of that hike was our adventure at Bear Cave (there were no bears or caves that we saw).  It was a group of rock outcroppings forming very narrow gorge-like passages.  Sound carries differently in such formations.  That combined with the thought of bears tucked in our minds was enough to make the sudden flight of a couple pigeons quite a startling event.  Combine with the three snakes I almost stepped on throughout the time on our honeymoon, I spent a good portion of the time quite kerfuffle. But the entire hike was extremely enjoyable. 

When we return we were exhausted.  Alex went to check us in at the lodge for the evening and I grabbed the bags from the car.  The walk from the parking lot to our room seemed like a long way after 9 miles of hiking.  After showering we headed to dinner in the lodge dining room overlooking the canyon to celebrate our 10 month anniversary.  I don’t know what was better-  the view while eating, the food, or the company. After getting back, me with a noticeable limp, we were once again ready for a night of being slugs.  This was made even better by the fact that the Spurs were on TV and that my wife didn’t have a strong preference for another program.  (Alex did make me go outside to watch the sunset and enjoy a little more nature.)

After a refreshing sleep and no longer limping we made it bake to the dining room for breakfast before hitting the road home.  As you can imagine the day was mostly uneventful, save for dinner with a good college friend whose hometown we passed through.  Probably the greatest point of conflict during the entire trip was happened getting to the restaurant to meet my friend.  With just an address and not enough information on the map I pulled out my “cursed talking black box” as Alex would call it though, you dear reader, may know it as a GPS device.  Ceding control of her location to a non-sentient entity is something Alex is just not comfortable with.  I do not share this need for control since I hardly never know where I am anyway.  Frankly, I have a difficult time understanding Alex’s animosity.  Soon we were on the road again so Alex could pull out her blessed road maps and put the blasted thing back in the dark console where it belong.

In closing our honeymoon consisted of 16 hours’ worth of hiking covering an approximate distance of 35 miles and 1 hour of kayaking.  The weather was completely cooperative and my wife as always was completely stunning.

Hiking right out of our boots

We were less sore than expected Monday morning and were ready to go at it again.  We headed down to the marina on the lake to rent a kayak.  We wanted to go for half a day but since the wind was supposed to pick up we could only take it out for an hour.  This meant we had to get a lot of kayaking in a short period of time.  The lake we were on is narrow with lots of little fingers and coves so there was a lot to explore but we also wanted to make sure we could find our way back.  We decided to kayak down to where the waterfall we hiked to the previous day emptied into the lake.  As a married couple we have been together in a boat a few times.  I think all premarital counseling needs to include either canoeing or kayaking to see how well a couple communicates, works together, and gives or takes directions.  After kayaking for an hour my arms were shot but Arthur who has arms that are thicker than some trees would have liked to gone longer.  

That afternoon we headed into Hot Springs to explore.  Hot Springs as a natural hot springs which has made it a tourist destination for years for people with ailments to bathe in the warm water.  We went to a small museum about the history of the area and a model of what a bathhouse would look like.  We decided that Arthur wouldn’t be able to fit any the changing stalls that were built for men not exceeding 6 feet tall.  I was also interested in the vintage physical therapy equipment which included lots of machines that massage or vibrate the body to build muscle.  They also had an elctrohydrotherapy tub.  This no longer flies because electricity and water together is a bad idea.  I think we both enjoyed the vintage gymnasium which included a lot of ropes, hanging rings, and weighted clubs or medicine balls for strengthening.  No treadmills or bench press there. 

 While the museum was okay (the National Parks Service needs to update their educational films from the 1980s.) we decided to hit the trails.  We crisscrossed several trails on Hot Springs Mountain.  While the mountain is basically in the city you would never realize that because of all the trees (I guess those trees may be all right).  We were interested in how the trails and landscape were so different compared to we were where the day before 20 miles away.  There were less rocks and the undergrowth wasn’t as thick.  After a few hours we had to call it a day since Arthur’s hiking boots had literally fallen apart so the majority of the sole was no longer attached and he had some pretty good blisters going on.  This called for a shopping trip.  Arthur is not a big fan of shopping.  At the sporting goods store we searched high and low for hiking shoes that were size 14.  When Arthur shops his primary consideration is not what shoe he likes best but which one comes in his size which narrows down the field of options considerably.  He found a pair and was then a happy camper since we went out to eat at Stubby’s BBQ Pit.  One of our rules for this trip was eating at local restaurants and no chains.  We actually found some pretty neat places to eat on our culinary adventures.  That evening involved more slug time as we watched Toy Story 3 and ate a container of cookie dough ice cream.   

Our Honeymoon Trip (better late than never)

This evening we are lounging and relaxing on the last night of our honeymoon. We spent 20 minutes watching the sunset over the Cedar Creek Canyon valley.  It probably goes down on the list of top places to sit and reflect on the day as the sun sinks low over the cliff. (Of course once the sun set we returned to our room to watch the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA playoffs --I am winning big wife points).  We have greatly enjoyed our week in Arkansas.  It has been beautiful weather and glorious scenery.  

Our adventures began Friday after we got off of work.  We met back at the house and did a final check to make sure everything was unplugged—the last chore on Arthur’s checklist.  The drive through the Flint Hills was beautiful.  All the pastures that were burned in this past month were a fresh new green.  The sunset silhouetted trees and cattle.  It was too bad that the sun went down and we had several hours to go in the dark.  On our trip we listened to Zorro on audiobook.  All weekend I wanted to blurt out Spanish phrases.  The first night we stayed at my grandmother’s house and visited with her some the next day. 

Saturday we headed in a southerly direction to Bentonville, Arkansas.  First we made a stop at the Arkansas Visitor Center and got maps and tour guides.  I have a deep love of maps, ever since our section on 4^th grade on cartography.  At one point on this trip the passenger seat of the car was covered in a layer of maps strewn about four or five deep.  Arthur also lets me carry the maps and navigate—he gets husband points and we get lost less.  In Bentonville we ate at a Thai food place—Arthur’s used his one free pass to eat Asian early.  We also walked around the town square and saw the original Wal-Mart before making our way to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  

Since we are taking our drawing class we were able to analyze the use of shading, perspective, and line in the pieces, except for abstract art where all the rules just get tossed out the window.  The exhibits included American art over the past 250 years and it was interesting to see how the subjects of paintings has transitioned from primarily portraits to landscapes to artistic representations of culture and society (i.e. Rosie the Riveter) to abstract.  There were also several pieces by famous artists.  In addition to the museum the grounds had been landscaped and had hiking trails.  Sculptures were placed on either side of one of the shorter trails.  We ventured out on to the trails for a few hours.  Everything in Arkansas is green and leafed out like it is already the middle of summer.  Some of the dogwood trees were still in bloom.  We had to mosey on towards Hot Springs for the evening and became acquainted with highways in Arkansas—curvy, hilly, and tons of tree.  I am sure all the vehicles that got stuck behind the slow car with the Kansas tags were trying to hold back road rage—oh well.  We finally arrived at Lake Catherine State Park and settled into our cabin. 

Sunday morning we rolled out of bed and enjoyed eating breakfast on the deck of our cabin that overlooked the lake.  Our cabin was originally a fishing barracks built in the 1930s that had been remodeled but still had a rustic feel.  Our morning’s activity was going to the Garvin Woodlands Garden.  This was a large botanical garden showcasing woodland flowers.  It also had lots of trails and water features.  One of my favorite parts was the children’s adventure garden.  It had mazes through boulders, a neat bridge, and a cave that allowed you behind a beautiful waterfall.  There was also a beautiful chapel at the gardens that was primarily glass so when inside the building you still felt like you were in the middle of the woods.  We had a peaceful lunch while watching the action at the model train garden and the peacocks that roam the grounds.  

After a nap we decided to do some more hiking on the trails at the state park.  We hiked up to a waterfall which was neat but a little crowded.  We decided to go on up to the mountain loop trail which was definitely less crowd.  My only compliant with Arkansas is there are too many trees.  We were up on a ridge above the lake which probably had some great views but all we saw were trees, (and a little green snake Arthur about stepped on).  After walking about 10 miles that day we crashed for the evening and were just slugs.  We ate spaghetti and watched old TV reruns of Boy Meets World.  

Experiments

Last week I got home from work and noticed a box on our front steps.  Neither of us had ordered anything recently so I was slightly puzzled.  On the package I saw a label saying Caution: Live Contents.  Random packages with caution labels should have caused some red flags to go off in my brain.  Instead I looked at the return address: Uncle Jim's Worm Farm.  This brought great excitement.  Arthur and I have joked and discussed having a worm farm (like an ant farm) for about the past year.  One of my friends finally got tired of us talking but not doing anything and ordered a pound of earthworms for us.  That evening there was a flurry of excitement trying to prepare a home for our new family member(s).  Arthur didn't even change out of his dress clothes before he was drilling holes in a plastic container for ventilation and drainage.  We dumped the bag of worms into the box and waited for something exciting to happen.  Worms really don't do anything exciting.  Ever.  We go down and check on them periodically and most of the time we won't even see any worms but just dirt and shredded newspapers.  Supposedly, over time the worms will eat scraps from the kitchen as well as paper and make wonderful compost for our still non-existent garden.  This process is suppose to take several months.  Right now there is no sign of anything happening.  We'll keep you posted on any excitement from the worm farm-- but don't hold your breath.  Arthur did name the worms (collectively) Dennis.  They are named after Dennis Rodman, the somewhat eccentric NBA player, whose nickname was "The Worm".  Dennis is the prefect pet for us right now.  He needs fed on occasion and he can be left in the basemen for weeks completely happy being ignored.  This whole experience is kind of an experiment to see how composting with worms works.  

So right now we don't have a garden to use any of the compost Dennis produces.  However I went to a class on container gardening this past week which caused my spring fever to jump up another notch.  At our current abode there isn't any garden space so I have been trying to figure out how to meet my need for chlorophyll and dirt under fingers.  I have a few tomato plant seedlings started under the kitchen window but that's not enough for me.  But after this class I learn how you can grow almost a complete garden, at least enough for 2 people, in a few containers- Bingo, gardening problem solved.  I think it will also give us an opportunity to experiment with growing a few types of vegetables I never had before.  This also means probably some experiments in the kitchen using vegetables in cooking as well.  More on this too-- this news may be more exciting than worm updates.

Our other big news is that we got a new mattress!  Our original mattress was one Arthur used in college that he had gotten as a hand-me-down from some relatives.  It was adequate for the first several months and we were thankful to have it but it began to resemble a sink hole in the middle.  You really have no idea what you are missing until you get a good night's sleep on a new mattress.  We woke up refreshed and ready for the day without an alarm at 6:15am on a Saturday.  It is wonderful and now I don't get bounced around anytime Arthur rolls over. 

While it has been an exciting week for us we are headed on our belated honeymoon this upcoming week.  We are going to do some hiking and hopefully kayaking and celebrate our 10 month anniversary-- time flies when you are having a good time.  Omnia Vincit Amor.