Random thoughts for an October Sunday

This morning I was up early to get some coffee at my nearby Starbucks and then go to church with my family (we go to different churches, but they are near each other). On my way, I saw this wonderful site from the road and had to stop and take a picture.

It just made me think of how beautiful nature can be.

In church, the gospel from a few weeks ago was Luke 16, 19-31 which I'll reproduce here:

Luke 16:19-31New International Version (NIV)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Now, why would I bother with a gospel passage? Well, I did not remember ever hearing this particular passage and it's very compelling on several fronts. One is that we all have had "pacts" with someone that if they die first, we'll come back and tell them what the other side is like (hopefully while not scaring them). Per this passage, that won't be possible and based on this passage, it's unnecessary. I love the cynicism of Abraham here towards humans: even someone coming back from the dead won't convince people (and Christians believe this has already transpired once!).  There's also no way to help those in hell, even if you're in heaven at the right hand of the Lord. That's disappointing.

While at church, St. Rays in Joliet, I saw this display in the foyer of the church: 

That Cardinal, Daniel Kucera, is the one who presided over my confirmation. Just an interesting note.

While Marissa was at school one morning last week and I was on daddy duty, I sat out back with coffee while Thomas sat out back on the stoop with a snack. It was a good morning.

Another day this week, Thomas and I took in some TV while trying to get ready for the day.

It's Bears season and even though they aren't good, we do have fun tailgating!

Me, E-Money and Chrizzo at the Bears/Lions game....only our second win in the last 12 home games.

I've added a touch of class to the tailgate! A tablecloth!

Okay, it's not MINE, but I am able to use it regularly. Good advertising for the company!

Reversing Time

 

This weekend we had our World Series of Softball in Columbus Ohio. The organization was GSL, I do not know what it means, but the USSSA World Series is in Disney, a much better but costlier trip. Columbus is only a 6 hour drive, so that’s not bad. All beside the point. I started playing with a new team this year as my old team went up in competition and I needed to go down. Also beside the point. Our team finished in 5^th place out of 68 teams from around the country (though mostly Midwest). Also, beside the point.

 

The blog post is to document my year physically and set goals for next year to be better.

 

The year started off bad with knee surgery on February 2 that turned into microfracture surgery and had me in a bed for 22 hours a day for 6 weeks. I wasn’t able to work out in any normal fashion really until May, which was when we were buying and moving into our new home. Preceding the move, I developed a sinus infection that morphed into an ear infection by moving day and really didn’t clear up for almost a month. Though I played softball, I really didn’t have the time or energy to workout, not to mention that I have not as yet joined a gym locally. During one of those softball outings, I caught a ball on the ankle which shelved me for two more weeks, during which, while painting my kids playhouse in the back yard, tore my meniscus in my left knee. Again, no working out. So in total, since last November when my meniscus in my right leg was confirmed via MRI, I’ve probably worked out 3 or 4 times, and all very mildly. That’s not good for a man who turned 50 over that span.

 

 

So I have surgery scheduled for November 1, with explicit instructions to NOT do microfracture surgery. Hopefully come December, I’ll be able to resume workouts and hopefully hit a gym for some upper body stuff before the surgery even. That’s the plan. I want to really commit to getting into better shape for next year, even if I don’t play softball, so I can reverse the effects of this bad year on me physically. It’s doable!!

 

A day of accomplishments

 

I should probably add some pictures, so I'll see what's on the computer. Today was just a good day, full of accomplishments. These days haven't been frequent enough because of a number of things: moving, preparing the condo for sale, doing showings at the condo, selling another condo that's about 45 minutes away and helping someone buy a condo about an hour away from me. So all of those trips take roughly 3 hour chunks out of my day if I stay for an hour. That's a lot of time.

 

Today was not like that though. Today was "productive". Those other days are productive, but this is better productive. Things were done around the house that made it better to live in....THAT kind of productive. A gate I installed at the top of the stairs to keep Thomas from falling down them had come loose. Doesn't seem possible since I used toggle bolts (3 of them), but there it was...loose. So yesterday I realized the toggles never deployed! They were just sitting inside the hole in the drywall, unopened and provided some support initially. Eventually they worked themselves loose though. When I saw the toggles not deployed, I knew what happened. User error, which is usually the case in DIY projects. This time I did it right though and that gate is definitely secure now!

 

We bought two toilet seats with inserts that come down so Marissa can start using the "big girl" potty. I installed two of them today and she immediately said "I am NOT going to use them!" Fortunately, that was incorrect and she even used it before the night was out. Very happy. Laura is REALLY happy.

 

Downstairs we have many boxes left to unpack and put away. The thing with moving every 24 years is that you accumulate a LOT of crap. Or maybe just stuff. Some crap, but lots of stuff. So there's about 18 boxes of stuff that we have NOT unpacked at this point. Today I decided I would unpack one box a week until they were all unpacked. That was before I realized there were 18 boxes so maybe I'll do two a week. Today I did two or three, so that's a great start. I also put some carpet samples up in the attic storage in the garage, which made the garage a little easier to move around in. I moved some other stuff around and it was even easier. Then I pitched some things and it was even better! Progress!!

 

Due to some problems with our movers, we blew them up on different websites and got them to settle with us at a number 10x what they initially offered (a laughable amount). Today we got the release document signed and the last of the websites to take down the review I wrote. That paves the way for payment.

 

For work, I followed up on a real estate lead and dug for information from a website that paved the way for me to help them out in the spring. Good stuff!

 

Every day has lots of interaction with my kids and Laura, so that's always good. Today we took a nature hike after dinner along a paved trail across the street that winds through some woods and a few ponds. I try to point out nature things and animals. We saw three deer, some yellow finches and we found a few acorns, which I was able to secure a good shell and made a super loud whistle out of it the first time I tried! It was awesome.

 

This Saturday is our 5th wedding anniversary and also a Bears home game (preseason) so I listed the tickets on Stubhub. But I also emailed two buddies to see if they could use them in the event that they don't sell.

 

And now I've written a blog post. That's a good day!!

 

 

  

Before pictures of the playset in the back yard. I have some blue painters tape around some things I couldn't remove or wanted to protect. I didn't remember to take "before" pictures right away. 

 

 

 

The rusty rungs.

 

 

Now they are spray painted forest green!

 

 

 

Look how rich and nice it looks now! My neighbors had one that looked like my "before" picture and after I was done with mine, they just tore theirs down. Already improving the neighborhood!

Trip to the Bay, Thomas Baptism

 

The spring real estate market this year brought three transactions my way, which is right around where I wanted to be for a year. If I did 3-5 possibly, that would be dandy for now: it pays all my real estate fees and covers my Bears season tickets plus a new appliance or three. Most importantly, at that transaction level, it doesn't hinder my quality of life. Plus I was made a partner in the company, which, while financially insignificant currently, is nice to have. Here's yard sign from my first listing, which sold in 10 days!

 

Of course, we had Thomas' baptism and a trip to Chesapeake Bay MD, about 45 minutes east of D.C., planned in the two weeks after after the accident. They never occur at a good time do they?? Anyway, the baptism went pretty well and the dinner that followed at Sapori Trattoria was awesome. For the trip to the Bay, we upgraded our Sonata to a Town and Country van, packed it to the gills and made the 12 hour drive in about 14+ hours (not bad with two kids!). Thomas was a champ as he slept for two almost 5 hour stints. Marissa was great too and she was much more cramped than Thomas. 

 

 

 

I'm still playing softball, but with the addition of 4-5 people during the offseason and my skills diminishing due to not being in as good of shape (since I can't work out nor sleep as much as I'd like) my playing time has dropped dramatically. While I still love going out and taking BP and infield practice, it's tough if all you get to do is pinch-hit periodically. I don't blame anyone as it's no one's fault really. I'm older, can't blame me for that. Other guys are younger and better, can't blame them. Can't blame the managers for playing the younger guys. I just have to decide for myself at what point do I draw the line. We'll see.  Golfing more looks pretty good though!

 

Back to Writing

 Ahhhh, back to writing, if only temporarily.

 

Lots to write about, but this entry is solely about looking at the bright side of things and recognizing the positive things that happen.

 

We bought a new house in the far southwest suburbs of Chicago and have had a few issues: one of the stoves suddenly didn’t work, the dryer wasn’t drying, the kitchen sink was clogged at 5:30 and wood boring bees had infested the play set in the back yard. That’s a lot to have happen while you’re trying to unpack and settle in. None of those things created the impetus for this entry though. Here are some pics FROM the house, but I couldn't load a picture OF the house. It will come. 

My car, a 2002 Camry, has had its check engine light on for about 6 months. Initially I thought it was due to topping off the gas, which has led to a sensor being tripped in the past (an ongoing problem with that model of car from that time frame).  It was time to change the oil though, so I took it to Pepboys to get that done and see if anything else was the matter. They wanted several hundred dollars to fix one of the oxygen sensors. This was a big problem as I couldn’t renew my license plates until my car passed the emission test, which wouldn’t happen with the check engine light on. Ugh.

 

Then, later that day after the oil change, the light went off! Yay! I couldn’t get to the emission testing facility for 3 or 4 days, but I went as soon as I could and the car passed. The next day, the check engine light came back on. Wow. That was really fortunate and saved me a bunch of money.

 

But what about the dryer, sink, stove and bees?? How are those things positive? It’s not so much that they are positive things in and of themselves, but you can look at them two different ways. I chose to see the bright side. The dryer didn’t work because it hadn’t been used in seven months and was 10 years old. Before I had the necessary part replaced, I pulled the dryer out to see if it was venting properly or if lint had clogged it up. I found the hose leading to the vent had fallen off and any lint making it past the lint trap was going under dryer, not to mention the hot air filling the upstairs. Did I mention our laundry is upstairs? It’s very convenient, but would be dangerous if not vented properly. Anyway, the dryer not working led me to find and fix that problem, which could have caused bigger issues. So that was a positive.

 

The stove worked at our inspection, but the next day the cleaning crew used the self-cleaning function and overheated the thermostat. Since the stove is built into the wall, it doesn’t vent quickly enough to use the self-cleaning function, which I don’t normally use anyway. Good to know! Fortunately, we have two stoves in the kitchen, so it was a minor inconvenience and now we know not to use that function. We’re fortunate to have two stoves and fortunate to not be entertaining when it went out. It’s all good!

 

The bees. Well, the bees are these wood boring bees who chose to take up residence in the playset that came along with the house. The guys are about the size of your thumb or maybe a slightly smaller. Like a flying smokey-Joe hot dog if you know what those things are. Formidable to say the least. However, they don’t sting, except for the queen. So you can use insecticide or a tennis racket to get rid of them. They make really cool, perfectly circular holes, which is kind of shame to remove them. I wouldn’t mind them if they were in someone else’s wood!!

 

So that’s my entry for today: make lemonade out of lemons, see the bright side of a situation, realize that sometimes bad things happen for a reason; you just need to take the time to figure out what that reason is. 

 

And now, some family pics!

The Family

Me and Pops!

Young Thomas in my folks' backyard.

Sweet Marissa, exploring the backyard.