Categories
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

Life comes at you fast…

Have ever seen the insurance commercial where some guy is trying figure out what a light switch does in his house and the garage door two houses down is going up and down, up and down, up and down on some lady’s car, as his flips the switch, then the voice over says, “Life comes at you fast”?  The guy asks his wife to look and see if any thing changes in the house while he is hitting the switch – and she just sits outside his view reading a magazine saying, “nothing, nope, I don’t see anything”.  Some days I relate this guy – having some switch in my life that I have no idea what it does, and no one is helping me to figure it out.  Today I feel like the old lady down the street.

My life is getting slammed over and over and with no apparent cause.  I just know that some guy two houses up is saying, “Anything yet honey?”.  Nope, nothing yet…  Look lady,  just get up and help the guy – we’ll all be happier for it.

BTW – TV Fast is still going strong.  I’m catching up on my reading. More on that later…

Categories
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.