Thankful

So, today was Thanksgiving, the day we gather to stuff ourselves full of food in recognition of the things for which we are thankful. Lately, I've been talking via email with a bunch of friends from high school. We really enjoy talking about old times, and every once in awhile, someone will produce a picture that will jog someone's memory or start down another pathway of reflection. This morning, I woke up in my old room at my dad's house and stumbled onto some old photo albums from the exact times we've been reminiscing about.

I started flipping through them, and as the memories came rushing back, I was reminded of how much I hated it when my mom (that's her in the top pic from 1993) was always around taking pictures. Now that I've got these photos to look back on, it doesn't seem like such a bad idea to have taken all of them. The older I get, the wiser my parents become. I've scanned in about 150 photos today and am very much looking forward to sharing them with everyone and enjoying the stories that will no doubt come from that.

I had Thanksgiving lunch at my cousin's house. My Grandma, in the second pic, who had a stroke over a year ago and has been in the nursing home since, was there for the meal. My uncle picked her up and brought her out. She sat in her wheelchair and fed herself most of the time. She's still got quite a bit of brain power up there but has trouble getting the words to come out. After the meal and subsequent grazing, I sat with grandma, asked her questions, and tried to make the most I could out of her gestures and sounds. She got tired and said she wanted to go back. I rode along with my uncle and cousin to spend some more time with grandma. We got her to the nursing home and took her inside. My uncle had to go back out to the car to bring in some things he had forgotten. That gave my cousin and me more time to push grandma around; she loves to go for a stroll in the halls and knows everybody. After my uncle got back, we all sat in her room for awhile and just kinda hung out and joked around with grandma. She still likes a good joke even though she can't tell any of her own. I'm thankful she's around and for the time I got to spend with her today.

It was my friends who started this whole trip down memory lane and subsequent introspection. I'm thankful for them, the times we had together, the times we had apart and lessons we learned in those times. Here's a pic I found of us after our last high school band banquet. We turned out to be a pretty decent group.

Breakfast with Friends

I'm in Mayfield for Thanksgiving. I came into Carbondale on Amtrak last night, and dad brought me the rest of the way to Mayfield. As has been my personal Thanksgiving tradition for about 3 years now, I went to the Dinner Bell for breakfast. They've got a $4.95 buffet that opens at 7 AM. Byron and I rode together and met Andy, Lori, and Clay for breakfast. It wasn't anything out of this world, but it's always nice to see friends, bat the breeze, and eat some deep fried bacon. We were there for a little over an hour, eating, swapping stories, and just catching up. The line of the morning came from Lori's husband, Clay, who is a chef by trade. He was sitting where he could see the door to the kitchen and at one point commented "It's not every day you see someone walk in the kitchen with a lit cigarette." ...or something like that.

I'm back at dad's now, have completed my railroad work for the day, and am ready to rest up for Thanksgiving lunch at my cousin's at noon. Byron said he wanted to see a picture from breakfast, so here it is. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

58:04 means The Stairs are Climbed

I climbed the Sears Tower steps last Sunday. All 103 floors, all 2109 steps.

Larry and I left his house around 5:30 in the morning. Our climbing time was 7:10, and we were supposed to be there 30 minutes before. We got there around 6:30, parked and went inside. The building was just opening and people were still rushing around getting things ready. We checked our bags and found a place to stretch. He’s a big stretcher, I might do a calf or a hurdler’s stretch if I’m lucky. I just listened to my iPod and watched all the other people getting ready. There were all kinds of folks. Some were casual climbers in cotton pants and a golf shirt (older folks mostly), but most were pretty serious about the task before them. Just watching their warm-up exercises was making me tired.

The first wave started at 7:00. They had all started by 7:04, so they let us get started. Everyone lines up, and one-by-one, the starter gives you the ok to proceed. He’s doing that in seven second intervals to provide adequate spacing. Larry wished me luck, and off he went, seven seconds later, it was my turn. The starter gave me the go-ahead, I walked across the timing mat and into the stairwell. I had forgotten how steep those damn steps are. I liken the starting experience to shoving off of a dock and swimming across the ocean. I was just over the starting line, and it seemed there was forever in front of me.

This was my second stairclimb. Much like the first one, it didn’t take long for me to question whether I really wanted to do this or nor. About 3 floors into it, I was looking for the exit. I got to the 5th floor and remember saying to myself “OK, 20 more, just like that one!!” Easier said than done, right? The first water station was at the 10th floor. Last time, I regretted not making the first water stop. I have this thing against drinking while trying to climb steps, so I stopped at the 10th floor and took a few sips. I greeted the other climbers as they passed, thanked the folks manning the water table and went on my way. I climbed another 5 floors and took another breather. I knew the next water station was at the 23rd floor, only 8 more to go. Maybe I could do 8 floors and stop at the next station. At the 19th floor, I said to myself “This is halfway between 15 and 23, why don’t you stop here?” My stomach was feeling a little wobbly as well. From that point on, I never did more than 4 floors at a time without stopping. It was OK, though. I enjoyed taking my time and not over-doing it.

I got to the 59th floor and reasoned that there were only 11 more sets of 4 until I would be finished. From there on, I just counted them down. I don’t know if it was fatigue or what, but around 8 sets of 4 to go, I couldn’t do the math to figure out how many floors were left. Anyhow, I made it to the 99th floor. I could hear the noise on the 103rd and feel the fresh air coming into the stairwell. Did that inspire me to keep going? Absolutely not; why mess with a good thing?!? I took another break then pressed on to the top. They announced my name when I got to the top; at least I’m told they did. I went over to the window, looked out on the city and chest heaving, lungs burning, sweat dripping, thought to myself “I got up this b%t(h all by myself”

After that, we took the elevator down to the lobby. The organizers had set out bananas, apple, water, muffins, water, and juice. I had a banana while we waited for our team photo. Then I ate an apple while we waited for the photo to print. I had a bagel while Larry was in line to pick up the photo. Obviously, my stomach was feeling much better. The ham and cheese omelet, hash browns, and pancakes we later had for breakfast didn’t hurt things either.

All in all, I’d have to say it was definitely a great experience. My time wasn’t as good as I would’ve liked, but for my size, I’d say it wasn’t too bad either. The winner did the thing in 13:42. I saw him before the race, and he’s maybe half my size. The top lady was a 38 y/o woman from Indy who made the climb in 15:01. Larry finished in 26:16.

The next climb is on 1/27/08 at the Aon Center in Chicago. It’s only 80 floors, and I don’t even know if I’m going to train for it ;-)

Change of Scenery

I followed the link to my own blog from Andy's blog and was quite startled to see the picture of that shower. It's a real attention-getter. As striking as it might be, it's time has come and gone. To answer a few questions about it: it's not mine, I found it on flickr, and I did not crap in it.

Five weeks ago, I mentioned training for a little stair climb thingy I'm doing next week. The training was slow going at first, but it has come along. Highlights include: not going to McDonald's in the last 5 weeks, having a Diet Coke a week ago, but no other carbonated beverages, and maybe one or 2 pieces of red meat during the whole time. I got on the scale yesterday, and I'm down 15 pounds. The usual stuff has happened, pants fit better, face is a little thinner, etc.

The climb is next Sunday. My start time is 7:10-7:20 AM. My friend Larry and I are on a team, so we'll be climbing together. He's a stair climbing machine, so my goal is just finishing. He should be finished and have the car out of the parking garage by the time I'm done. There was talk of going to Chinatown for Dim Sum, but we may be finished climbing too early for that.

Anyone see this? That's pretty scary.

Last but not least, I've included a little piece of my training motivation.