the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it

Had some great days recently. Thanksgiving was relaxing with lots of good food, Thanks Dianne! Max and I went on a nice long bike ride the day after Thanksgiving. Weather was great and near record highs for all the days I had off so I got some more cedar siding work done on the house. Not done yet, but looking better little by little. Did some more clearing by the river, too. Max has been a great helper, helped snap a chalk line [he remembered it was chalk!], carried little logs up the steps, held up the end of long planks I was ripping, painted a birdhouse. He's great.

Found a funny quote that is so relevant to me with all the work I have at work... :)

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. - Mary Wilson Little

Restricting calories means you live longer

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/10/31/health/20061031_AGING_GRAPHIC.html

I love Camp Luther

tamara got a weekend cabin rental at Camp Luther for my birthday. Wow, what a thoughtful gift.

The weekend was awesome. We went for a quick walk to Five Pines before dark on Fri night. Then spent the rest with a fire at the cabin and played games with Max. It snowed on Friday night a bit more and Sat am we woke up to another inch of snow on top of the couple they had the past few days. The woods was beautiful and peaceful. No other folks were at a cabin, just us. It was a different feel than any other time I was there. We went with a sled down the tube runs.... got full of snow. Max was the smart one since he didn't want to go. It was pretty steep. We did throw snowballs though and Max climbed up with me to the treehouses. He also like the Ark.

Dad and Judy stayed on Sat and we walked some more in the woods and had fun. On Sun am we made it just in time to the guitar church service. It was us and a few counselors and a few left over kids from the weekend retreat. Very nice. "'Bullfrogs and Butterflies', We've both been born again" is a song we sang and that sums it up. :)

I discovered the x-country ski trails on the far end of camp. Looked to be some logging roads converted. Those trails and the managed forest were so nice. It was slightly white and wonderful. Stunning to be honest. Some very nice older growth red pines and a few birches and white pine. Some conifers. And everything was thinned very well. I saw 8 deer 3 different times along with countless other tracks. Some bear tracks I'm sure, too.

A very peaceful and wonderful weekend! I'm getting on the list to get another weekend. Maybe early Sept or late May. This place exists for me to know God exisits.

What a day

I had one of the nicest days ever yesterday...

Started at 5am with duck hunting day 2. Day 1 starts at 9am and it was nice as well, but by the sounds of it, day 2 at dawn is a real _blast_. And was it ever. :)

Had gone out the night before with Steve and cousin Scott. Scott is a real party animal and it was an interesting time. I was driving so drank water at end of night and was fine in the morning. Steve was trashed and puked and had a rough morning.

But for my starting at 5am and getting into 'Oxcamp' before sun up was awesome. Got the decoys out and got to the blind as it started to get light. I bit of haze lifting off the water with the temp about 40. It was beautiful.

Then I heard a shot in the distance and another and I knew we would be starting soon. I heard Scott across the slew shoot and then Butch/Steve. And a few targets in the mist were moving around the lake. Nothing close enough to shoot yet. A few more minutes and a 'bill' was low moving right to left in front of Doug and I. He shot and I shot a split second later and splash, got him. Not sure if it was him or me, but I think it was me. Doug tells the duck: "Welcome to Oxcamp". I had led that one a little more than the ones I shot at on day 1. I think I might be getting it, I told myself. Wow it was cool. Then more birds. And like Scott said the night before... it will be 'fast and furious'. Yep.

A bit later, a couple more bills sat down right in front of us. We whispered, I got the one on the right, I got the one on the left. Aimed, pulled the trigger. 15 yards or so, mine was dead meat. Dougs was crippled and got finished off across the 'draw' and got shot by Butch and Steve.

A few minutes later, the moment.... 2 bills were coming at us from the main part of the lake, they ended up flying by me left to high about 45 degrees high and 20 yards. First one, aimed and led it a little, pulled the trigger and down it went. Tried another shot at duck 2 and missed, but wow, was that great. I had nailed 3 of the last birds I shot at and now I think I get it.

Things slowed down a bit after that, but a great thing was seeing 2 geese fly over head and Butch calling them and they turning and thinking about landing. They circled twice and were directly over me. I don't think they were that high either. 25 yards maybe. But Doug didn't shoot at them so I didn't either. We were thinking that they were going to land. They came lower into the Draw, but didn't land and then took off. They were looking for those decoys that weren't there I think. I was beautiful to watch them circle and try and stay hidden.

Duck hunting... can't believe I waited this long. I love it.

My neck hurts a little today... Time to buy a gun :)

And that was just the first few hours of the day. Then finished up and had a beer in the woods and made it back to the Butch's... Max asked how I did and I told him I got some ducks. Day is now sunny and 55 and looking great. Max and I played some football. We picked a 5 gallon pail of apples for applesauce. Then ate lunch with grandma and grandpa and headed for home. [ Tamara was on her way to MSP and then to CO for work].

Kept Max awake and stopped quickly at Menard's in Brainard and then headed to Mille Lacs. It was 70 by now and we saw a bunch of sail-boarders in Garrison so we stopped. Watched them and played in the sand picking flat skipping rocks to save and it was so nice out. Knew I wanted to check out the 'sand beach' on the north shore because the day was perfect for it. Drove there and a dozen folks on surfboards with kites were hanging in the wind. The sand bar there is un-believable. 20 kites total and some bikers and folks hanging around watching. I was great. Max and I played in the sand for a while and then Max took off his shoes and socks and ran barefeet into the water. Got his long pants wet at the bottom and then more and more wet. Then we was laying in the water. He was having a great time playing. Finally got him dry with new clothes and we sat in the back of the Aztek tailgate in the sun looking over the water in the sun. 75 degrees and windy so it was perfect. We were at that sand beach for 90 minutes before we finally headed home.

Max napped and so did I on the way home... :) So now it's me and Max for the week. I can't wait!

My B-Day, and religion

And Tamara was great. She created yet another fantastic dinner at home and breakfast too. And then we also went to a nice Jazz club for dinner in the Cities. The surprise was my 20 questions needed about 25] at dinner to find out what my present was. I was on the right track after 3 questions about vacation, on a lake, in a cabin... not sure why I even thought that. And Tamara thought I knew, but I didn't. Then the is it MN question made me think has to be WI and the earlier is it north of Duluth and Tam wasn't sure..... Duh, Camp Luther. So we have a cabin for the weekend there in the 2nd week of October. Awesome. It will be real nice to go there after a hectic Sept: New job for me with travel to NJ and Vermont, Tam with 2 trips to IN and CO. Crazy.

Different topic and a freak out... I have to think Max will read this someday and think dad, wtf? Growing up Lutheran made sense based on my German heritage, but for the last 15 years I've been wondering about religion in general and have done lots of reading... There have been those questions of how is my religion [what I was taught] better than someone else's religion? Many other questions that people have always thought about... where did we come from? our purpose in life? etc. These are the hardest questions in life to answer, bar none. I do believe in God. I'm kind of like Tamara in that she feels there is a God, but not sure exactly what that means. If you think like this and based on my strict upbringing as a Lutheran, then I would be considered a non-believer in a sense. Because of this, I don't quite fit into the strict Lutheran mold. But, I do believe in good and evil. I have no doubt. I know my upbringing has affected my thinking here, but there are things I feel that I _know_ in a spiritual sense, that you just can't explain. I guess this is one type of mysticism called Gnosticism. I surfed from Wikipedia topics on mysticism to Existentialism, Epistemology to Lutheranism.

I need to do more reading about religious studies [should have taken that course in college].

Here's the crazy part. Concerning this topic, I surfed into a link about "Synchronicity". I have read about this in the past with this word coming from Carl Jung. What got me there was how similar this is to my 'experiences' which really by definition are kind of mystic. I honestly do feel these synchronicity moments around generally topics of religion, faith, existence. I was listening to last.fm Internet radio and last.fm suddenly just stopped playing while I was reading about Synchronicity. Sometimes the connection to last.fm seems to get lost, but I still noticed it. I knew it was a Police song that was playing, but wasn't really listening until it just stopped. So I click on last.fm which was now blank and not playing and it took me to the song link on their website which was one from the album Synchronicity. Totally co-incidence I always tell myself. Here's the freakout. So as last.fm was in its state of not playing with the semi bad connection, suddenly, I hear part of a song play through with the connection being marginal. What was clear were the only words I heard: "Jesus Christ". Honestly. It was nuts. The words just came through the computer speakers and only those words. And the connection still was only partially there. Not sure the song, but I recognized it. Quite surreal at the time, and still surreal that now I’m writing about it. So there we go again, I just have these everything is connected sort of feelings. And to top it off, I take Max to daycare and come back home ready to start work this morning, I park the car and Cities 97 starts playing a Police song. It was familiar of course, but what song? The radio text shows the answer: Synchronicity Ii

Of course this has to be co-incidence. But, that is the crazy part of the mystic experience, you believe it, you feel like there's something, you can't explain it. Many people have had these experiences, or so they think. I had to write about this. ;-)

There is some kind of something out there in terms of God and there is some kind of communication that is trying to happen to me. It’s quite possible, its all in my head because I want there is be a God. But I know there is. There has to be. And I’m pretty sure Jesus Christ knew this too.

Strategic AND Tactical

So I started thinking about how my new job may be a step up with more strategic thinking involved. I ran into the terms Strategic AND Tactical, being a non military, non manager, I wasn't sure I knew what these really meant.

I ran into this excellent post describing this:
http://www.scottgatz.com/blog/2006/02/16/strategic-and-tactical/

With this copied excerpt:

big company managers routinely describe themselves as either “tactical” or “strategic.” Typically, those who say they are “strategic” talk down to those considered more “tactical”, directly or indirectly. This is wrong-headed.
…
I’m not saying that strategy isn’t important, just that strategy directly combined with tactical skill is the real killer combo.

I know I'm a great tactical thinker. I hope I can see bigger pictures strategy items, too. There may be hope for me yet.

Interesting commentary on Pension reform bill

Greed driving new 401(k) rules

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/2S6fwn4SfMW3JnWBf3ccxPn?siteid=google&dist=TNMostRead

It ends like this:

"
Medium speaking for future generations
Yes, a medium speaks as the final witness, as did the murdered Samurai in "Rashomon." From future generations we hear that: "In the first decade of the 21st century, you, our ancestors, leaders in politics, business and finance, were consumed by selfish short-range thinking."
"We now know that the zero savings rate in the early 21st century could not be reversed by such minor changes in 401(k) enrollments, not when fiscal and monetary policies heavily favored spending and debt over an overhaul of our nation's failing retirement system ...
"So, from our vantage here in the future we are sending back in time a cataclysmic event that will alter the course of history ... forcing you to deal with retirement savings ... the event will awaken you to the real meaning of life beyond personal greed ... awaken you not by any sense of principles, but out of economic necessity (which seems to be all you understand) ... the call will be so powerful, you will be forced to set aside your greed and focus on the collective good of the nation, as Americans have done so often in times of great crisis throughout our history."
"

Accepted a new job offer

Managing a complex system, managing coders, thinging strategy. Should be interesting.

Swamped the canoe in the Snake

So Tamara and I are going to enter the Snake River canoe race in a few weeks.

http://www.snakerivercanoerace.org/

And I thought it would be a good idea to scout out the race section of the river. We put in at the start and floated down river 14 miles to out house. We went through some nice class 1 rapids. One area was at least 1/4 mile of constant somewhat technical rapids and that was cool. Max got a bit stressed every time he heard the rapids [which we called 'bumps'] and would hang tight on to mom. We told him the Dad was pretty good at moving around rocks and even if we did fall in the water his life jacket would keep him afloat. He still seemed scared especially when I would scrape a rock. We kept telling him not to worry and he started to seem better about the rapids.

So we were only about a mile from out house at the congruence of the Snake and Knife when we got stuck on a big flat rock just beneath the water level. Really there weren't any signs of rapids here, but we were stuck right in the middle of the canoe [which has a flat bottom] on the mid part of the big rock. The current spun us 360 degrees and I started to bounce and pry the paddle to help get us off the rock... and suddenly we took on just a little water from the broadside of the canoe and the next second we were swamping it. The canoe started to flip on top of Tam and Max and they were nearly forced under. I tried to keep the canoe off of them and was able to right it in the water with all our stuff in the canoe with the water. Tam hurt her ankle, but was able to get Max to shore.

At the point before we swamped, there were 4 dogs that ran down from a home right in next to us on the river. They were barking like crazy and luck for us got the attention of their owner. A woman from the home saw us swamp and came to help Tamara and Max. Max kept screaming "Help us!". She then got her husband to help me empty the water from the canoe. They gave us some dry clothes [water was quite cold and it was a cool day at most about 50 degrees] and drove Max and Tam to our house. I then drove the canoe the rest of the way.

So ironically, Tamara found out on the drive home that the husband was a Psychologist in Mora with a private practice. I keep thinking, 'what a way to meet your peers and/or neighbors, just swamp your canoe out in front of their house'. :)

In the end, all I lost was my GPS unit [bummer!]. The cell phone dried out and so did our damp selves. It could have been much worse had we dumped up river since we would have froze. Max had a little horse voice by the next day, but is already over that. Turned out to be an interesting adventure and now Max really doesn't seem scared at all. I think the worse case fear of him falling in has come true and he survived it fine, so he's good to go. He's telling people how he swam with his arms and kicked his legs. :)

Tam and I are now ready to hit this race weekend after next! And I'm plenty interested in scoping out the Kettle and Snake areas where there are class II, III and IV [maybe not]. I know there is a section of the Kettle that is class I, II for a solid six miles.... that would be a rush!

How to Become an Early Riser - Part II

OK, seriously, I've got to do this. Of course it's 2:17am right now... so I know this will be a hard thing. But wow, would that be great.

How to Become an Early Riser - Part II

An early spring post

So I noticed that I just don't post enough about good things. Changing that today.

So it's March 1 and spring is just around the corner. This morning Max and I saw a skinny little chipmunk looking for food on the deck... his long nap is over. A sure sign of spring.

It's 35 degreees and feels beautiful outside. At lunchtime there were birds everywhere. I saw a dozen on the feeders all at one time. And one of the finches I saw is starting to get his yellow color back. Here comes spring.

And... I saw a little woodpecker on the suet feeder! He was not much bigger than the fat chickadees. Although he looked slightly different than the other birds, I didn't even know he was a woodpecker until I saw a little red on his head. This guy is tiny compared to the pileated woodpecker I saw earlier this winter banging his head around our front yard. First time I've seen this little one, but surely not the last.

Even though it's warm today and srping seems near, the March month in MN can be crazy. North of us they are getting 4-8 inches of show today. I want to head to Lutsen soon to ski once this year before it's all over. Lutsen has head quite a bit of snow the last week or so and had a huge fresh base in Dec so I think the conditions there will be great...

Max has been great. He's thinking well for himself and comes up with all kinds of things that make me sure he's a smart kid. Everyone that meets him seems to think he's a good boy. He's quite the charmer. We [mainly Dad] are playing with his Magnetix quite a bit. And once it's warmer in a month or so, we will be playing lots outside!

I had complained a bunch and been stressed with work and with thinking this house is too big, but today at least, work is fine and this house is a dream. Living here is really nice. I think getting the furnace filters cleaned and it working good now helps my attitude towards the house... this place is awesome. And there's nothing better than the 'northwoods' in the summer which is almost here!

Also Tamara and I are looking forward to a trip to Vegas in a little over a month. And perhaps a trip to Denver for Tamara for work and a trip to the UK for me for work... plus trivia in a month so I'm going to be a busy travel bee no matter what.

Tamara, Max and anyone from the family that may read this... I love you!