Just a couple of pics for all to see...

Following are a couple of fun pictures ... the first is me standing beside George Brett (KC Royals and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame) and the second picture is of a Dancing with the Stars professional dancer... can you name her... I saw her at a recent event - she sings country - and pretty good I might add.

Dad update...

 

Isn’t it funny how you see a picture and think – that is me – that is my life.  Well this picture represents the year for my family and me... We started out strong, we got worn down, but we did not break or fall apart.  To put it simply - what a long 2008. This has been an emotional roller coaster of a year.  For those who have been following along, my dad has been wrestling with the fact that he was diagnosed with stage 4A squamous cancer in January.  When I say that he has been wrestling with it, I should also include my family as well.  Throughout this process, we have all worried about dad's health.  We each tried to help and cope in our own individual ways.  This was not something that you can look at and say he should have done this or that and everything would be okay. No, cancer is not like that – it attacks anyone and everyone.  So we were left standing, looking blankly around, asking why.  Dad was left there surrounded by all of us - doing the same but promising to fight this.

Throughout my dad’s treatment I have tried to relay to you what has happened – the good and the bad, the challenges and accomplishments.  This email is no different, dad took another step in this journey – in dad’s follow-up visit the doctor said he is happy with what he is seeing.  There is only one little spot left on his tongue that he is going keep an eye on, but the medicine is still working and it is small.  Dad is eating better as well… so what is next, well the next visit is in 2 months.  Baby steps… baby steps.  Hopefully the spot will be gone, the feeding tube will not be needed, and we will all keep taking our baby steps.

So in conclusion, all this leads me back to the coffee cup.  Last week, after all those weeks of trying to keep that sagging cup upright, we switched cups - and now we have a newer, taller cup.  Our spirits were lifted when dad got great news about his cancer.  Life is good… in fact life is great!   

Michael

Cool web page

You have to check out this website... this is so cool... just click on the left and right side and move your mouse over the picture... 

http://www.arseiam.com/eyes_frames.htm

My daughter

Just thinking about my daughter today... I really wish I could run like her (#203).  When she started running cross country, I could see that this was something she was going to love.  Sure enough she did.

But what makes her so special is how she treats other runners.  No matter whether they are "better" or "worse" than her, she is cheering them on.  I cannot tell you the number of times that she finished a race then went to the finish line to cheer on another friend.  

She is definitely special.

bike ride

Just touching base regarding my mountain biking... I thought that I would throw out the fact that I went on a bike ride this past weekend.  The trails were closed, but there were some old railroad track roads out there to ride on so I finally got the bike dirty... white bike turns brown... Yeah!  I also got to see how badly I needed to ride.  The ride was great for reducing the stress in my already overloaded stressed out life - my way of closing out the problems I have (or at least forgetting about them) is to ride until I am dead.  But, after an hour of riding, I was beat and slowing down the guys that I was riding with.  The legs were gone, the lungs were begging for air, the heart was pushing out of my chest, life was far from being a joy at that particular moment in time.  So much for the stress reducer... now I was stressing about how slow I was, how out of shape I was, and how I was slowing down the other guys.  Basically by the end of the ride, they left me alone to grind up the last big hill back to the car.  Last year, generally it was me leading the pack or at least staying right there.  Revenge on their part?  Not sure.  (Smiles I am sure...) Humbled rider on my part? yes... The best part though was being able to eat some fantastic food Sunday evening...Cinco de Mayo one day early.  Calories going out means calories can go in.  This summer... more riding and a better fitness level are in order.