Senior Olympian Sprinter

I travel Internationally for work  at least annually and the chance of something going berserk is pretty darn good.   Last week I was in Puerto Vallarta for a sales meeting and I got the 'call'.  Linda was just ready to leave the house and heard a very disturbing 'boom' and then water blasting out of the wall from behind the toilet!  What??? Yes, a water line exploded and water was literally gushing out of the wall. Of course, I was in a meeting with my phone off, what kind of husband am I?    Linda was not able to find the water cut off valve to the entire house--because the valve is in a horrible location for access.  So water was just gushing into the bathroom.  Linda was able to get the neighbor on the phone and he found the shut off valve and got the gusher stopped. Thanks John. She also diverted the water from the rest of the house with some towels to the drain in the floor of the bathroom area--it is a stone flo...

  This picture of June  just makes Christmas worth all the effort.   All the wonder is rolled up into this shot with Rudolf and the tree.   June  will be going through her first Holiday Season and I hope she has a blast just like the rest of us.  The dress she is wearing was used for her baptism a couple weeks ago.  She will be our star this season!!  Josh Simon married Betty and Linsi and also did the baptism.  I would say this is the first fruit of his marriage ceremonies.... Josh is finally graduated from school and is now ordained and will  start building his flock in Vermont very soon.  He is a great person and we wish him the best of luck. He is one of Betty's friends from high school who would occasionally hang around our farm house with the other kids.  What a great story!  Josh is batting 1.000...... This next photo is an absolute classic.  While waiting to see S...

If the Canyon was not enough torture I ran a 5K on Thanksgiving morning.    I run this race every year to support the local charity --Graceworks and to remind myself of why I am a sprinter.   I am a sprinter because I cannot get enough air into my system to do longer distances....period.  This year we did run the complete 5.0K course and I finished in 30:56, which was 13 of 43 in my age group.  I have always be trying for beating 30 minutes but I have too many excuses this year, and they do not matter because they are just excuses.  Last year they cut off a section because the lead out people screwed up badly.   We ran a 4.45 K last year and I was really fast in comparison!  The weather was substantially cooler this year with a race time temperature( 8:00 AM)  of 30 degrees and clear. There was over 3000 that started the race and it grows a little bigger each year.   The event is well organized and is easy...

https://youtu.be/OyK1yZz56zg This YouTube link is to a 10 minute video of our group finishing the Rim to Rim hike.   I was wearing my GoPro on my head and tried to give a flavor of the scenery and the physical nature of the hike.  The person behind me is Patrick Church our guide and we were yapping about various stuff as we finished up.   https://youtu.be/z4qB0ZA5G14 This link is for the trip to Plateau Point and Colorado River view Enjoy

I just finished a fantastic adventure when a family group hiked the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to the South Rim.  The group was 7 hikers and two guides.  The guides Chad Teerink and Patrick Church were fantastic hosts and a lot of fun to boot.   Good Morning at Phantom Ranch The hikers were my daughter Rosemary, step son Aaron, brother in law Buck (aka Glen) and his daughter (Heather) and her friend (Leslie). Emily was also added to group and she fit in very quickly to the quirky fun.   Emily was trying to go on another trip but her tent mate was having a melt down and just could not make it and she jumped in with our group because she was serious about getting to see the Canyon.    The actual hiking is done over a four day period and is a great way to see the Canyon.   We used Just Roughing It outfitters from Phoenix to guide our trip.  In the past we had stayed at the Phantom Ranch near the ...

Life is a journey.   Some people make many trips, some people never come back to the same place twice and others will stay in one place and make a different in that place.  I have moved around a lot in my life chasing opportunity and I am very satisfied with that life.   I went to a funeral over the weekend of someone who stayed put and was a big influence on my life and was a neighbor for over 30 years when I lived in Cooperdale, Ohio.  Judy Cunningham was 75 years old and died last week and was someone who made a difference.  She had 6 kids, a throng of grand and great grand kids, was involved in building one of the best Brown Swiss dairies in the world and was a giver in the community.   She was also a fantastic neighbor and will be missed by a lot of people, including me.  I could ramble on about her cooking and chocolate chip cookies, but some people lead by example she could walk the walk.  Life in Cooperdale was be...

Life and Art are hopelessly intertwined and that is how is has always been.  The cavemen drew on walls with charcoal to celebrate their bounty and lives.  Fast forward to today and we have digital pictures in our pockets and purses by the billion--celebrating our bounties--this will never change.  Pictures of kids, pets, loved ones, beautiful sunsets, friends, parties, medals from track meets--this is a running blog.    Family portraits have always been a staple of "normal" life.  Every parent and grandparents have the head and shoulder portrait that they had made at the local Olan Mills.  These pictures were retouched to eliminate any defects and highlite the stuff that needed to be highlited.  I have some in my attic right now from deceased family.   Linda and I have never had the family "portrait" done because we just were not ready to take that plunge.  I had some work commissioned a few weeks back of Linda and it was s...