#noticethesimplethings gooddistractions tigerking elephantmtn patience adjusting leaningin

[mubal4]

Noticing’s

 At this time, it is easy to get distracted.  There are certainly good distractions and there are bad distractions, ahem…..#TigerKing, and we will get to that in a minute. Instead of distractions, I am using the terms, “noticing’s,” well, because that is what I see these things as.  Over the last few days I have noticed quite a bit of strange & unusual things more than just the obvious stuff.  I wanted to throw a distraction into the blog and steer away from what has been encompassing us and share some of these “noticing’s.” But, what I really wanted to do is through some humor out there and have a few laughs.  There may be some areas that seem like me on my soapbox, and maybe it is but it is again, just what I’ve noticed and I am reporting those findings 😊!!  

 First off, I love getting out to the trails with my wife Robin.  Again, would love to have the girls join us but 6am hike on a Saturday morning for 2 teenagers isn’t something that is on their radar 😉!  The pictures included here are all from our hike/run at Elephant Mountain up in Cave Creek, AZ.  Been hearing a lot of this loop and the views.  I tried to get up there a couple of weeks ago but the rains we had washed out all the river crossings.  This past Saturday I decided to head up and Robin wanted to join me.  About an hour in she may have been second guessing that decision 😊.  It is a tough trial, both uphill’s and downhills are challenging and incredibly technical.  But the views, well, you can see some of them, they were stunning.  Definitely a new area that I will be adventuring to more often.

 While on the topics of the trials (soapbox #1), this virus must have caused people to lose their trail etiquette, as well as general counting & number skills. I don’t know, maybe we have parts of AZ that are transitioning to the metric system and have lost the understanding of what 6 feet means? Maybe they think it is really 6 meters? Also, groups of 10 doesn’t mean groups of 20.  When you have a group of 5-6 people on a trail and you are made aware of people passing you “ON THE LEFT,” get your ass as far to the right as possible.  That goes the same for people you are approaching; move as far over to the right as possible or even step off the trail if you can.  I understand these are different times but Christ folks, pay attention.  Okay, moving on from there and I will say the trail run I did yesterday the people were much better.  I will just chalk it up for us all adjusting and adopting the new ways of life right now. Patience is key right?

 These times have certainly changed what our trip to the grocery store looks like.  Once again, outside of the obvious things, but we went from tons of fruits and veggies to incredibly amounts of processed carbs and red meat.  Oh, and beer, lots of beer.  Seriously, I need to start social distancing myself from the fridge. We keep telling ourselves that we will start a cleanse on Monday, but we are just not identifying what Monday at this time 😊.  Interestingly enough though, I am still feeling good on my runs and staying consistent. That said though, my feeling is the big race I have on the calendar for July will likely be canceled or postponed. Most ultramarathon’s and races in general, are being canceled or postponed, good for them too, so like most things, we will wait and see how things play out over the next few months. Whatever the case, with all this stuff now, we have a few ideas and plans up our sleeve. At least for this week though, cereal, pasta, bread, chips are continuing to be consumed along with copious amounts of beer!!  We are making a lot of stuff from scratch though and grilling out more which is fun. What is sort of disturbing with this dietary change though, our groceries are noticeably less expensive!!! Scary!  We did decide that this is the last week and next Monday we will begin our cleanse………. stay tune for that – LOL!

 Even though we are throwing a bunch of nonsense in our heads we are all staying consistent with exercise.  I am so proud of our daughters for getting their “required” workouts in each day.  It is cool to see them get their stuff in at the house.  Also, Robin started “teaching from home” today; ironically, as she was gearing things up to start, we got an announcement that school is cancelled for the rest of this year so everything will be done online.  This morning was pretty cool though, as I was on and off conference calls myself in my office, Robin, who set up shop about 30 feet away from me in our “dinning room,” was having classes with her kids.  I listened in to some of the conversations and 1) it was awesome to experience the engagement and relationships she has with her students.  2) It was also incredibly funny hearing them working to adjust to the new way of things.  They are leveraging WebEx for classes so getting use to turning on/off mute, the camera feature, and adjusting to new technology was cute to listen in on.  I did hear a couple “haven’t been doing too much the last 2 weeks and this is really early to start.”  Not ideal for many of us these days but I am certainly getting some laughs out of this.  While this was all going on, both daughters were in their rooms getting their online learning in as well.  Shockingly, Alaina, our soon to be 14-year-old, felt being in school would be much more organized and actually said, “yes, I would rather be in school.” That warmed my heart 😊.  I am going to refer to this blog come next year when the “I don’t want to go to school today” comes up!!  

 Strangely enough, I am not going through withdrawal from sports.  Sure, it would have been great to see the NCAA Wrestling Championships, March Madness, and the start of baseball happening right now, but well, it pains me to say a bit, but they are distractions.  Of course, they are but what I mean is that they have distracted us (Robin, the girls, and I) from spending time together.  Robin and I were having this conversation yesterday and I did note that this would have been different if it was college football season. I would be likely sitting on the TV watching replays of any college football game I can get my hands on and again, consuming large amounts of beer. 😊  Now, not so much.  We’ve been enjoying games of Ping-Pong and delving into new shows.  Alaina got Robin sucked into Stranger Things and I would be lying to you if I haven’t enjoyed a few minutes of it 😊. However, I am, like much of what I’ve been learning out there, drawn into and captivated by the disturbing ridiculousness of the Tiger King documentary on Netflix.  Holy shit!  I think it was on Friday, as a couple of my buddies and I were checking in on each other, that they suggested I tune into it.  It was described as a complete train wreck that is alarmingly hilarious. After asking what it was about, I respectfully declined but they kept sharing little nuggets with me.  Then on Saturday, our oldest Isabella, after watching the first episode, said we have to watch this today.  I told her that I wouldn’t “waste my time with that nonsense” but she was telling how much I would like it.  So, Saturday afternoon we watched the first episode and I immediately felt dumber from the experience.  

 Dramatic Pause!!!!!

 As I began to get dinner started, Robin, once again sucked into another show, wanted to watch the 2nd episode, so we did and then all shit fell apart and I was sucked in myself.  So much so that we finished the rest of the episodes on Sunday.  What a shit show but freeking hilarious. Talk about a distraction from what his happening throughout the world.  The timing couldn’t have been better for these guys &, if want some extra added humor, go to Facebook or Twitter and search for #tigerking. The comedy scale is meteoric.  

 I know there will be folks out there that will take umbrage with others making light of things.  My comments to them, “lighten up.” I think we all understand the severity of what is happening throughout the world but that doesn’t mean we can have laughter, distractions, and “notice” things.  We are living in a time when much of what we are doing right now is unnatural.  We are all adjusting to what is a new way of living and it is taking time to create those new routines.  I don’t believe all hell is breaking lose or anything like that.  Yes, my actions are not characteristic but there are also things that I am staying consistent with.  

 There are several things that I am doing that aren’t typical for me.  That’s okay. I will forgive myself.  I will transition back to my everyday routines, and things will be just fine. We will figure this shit out and in the meantime, if I want to soak in some Joe Exotic for a laugh or two and suck down a few beers and a steak at the same time, I am going to do.  And yes, then I will get up and run 15 miles the next day.

 Let’s do our part to stay safe, stay well, and lighten up a bit; this shit won’t last forever. 😊