If you're going to ride my ass.......

at least pull my hair. This is a bumper sticker on the back of a girl's truck here on campus. It's so funny, seeing this really sexual sticker on the back of this big truck with MT plates. Somehow the truck makes it funnier to me, almost because you expect a guy to get out of it, I guess.

I haven't really been up to too much.I took the week off from working for Habitat forHumanity because my back was so screwed up I could barely tie my shoes. I'm just not smart enough to stop when I start hurting. I have to try to work through it and end up hurting myself more. I'm feeling much better after a few days rest and an hour long massage by a professional. I'm going to go back to the site on Wednesday, but I'm going to try to take it a little easier and see if I can do it without hurting myself again.

I'm planning on getting back into the gym now and see if, since I've given myself a couple of weeks off, I can get back into the groove of things. I'm still slowly losing weight and I'm almost down to 235, only 35 pounds more to go! We'll see how the layoff will affect my runs.

My friend D is trying to convince me that I need a MySpace page. Now granted, most of my friends have one, so I'd be able to keep in touch with them, but I feel that it'd just be one more thing for me to ignore, like email. That's the whole reason I started this blog, so I could update everyone on my world without telling the same story ten times. I'll have to look into it a little closer, but maybe if I just had a page with a link to this blog, I could probably handle that. Let me know if any of you have any thoughts about it and I'll talk to you soon.

Crazy Pickle Mustache Man

So, I did take off early on Monday and went fly fishing for a couple of hours. I had a good time, the weather was gorgeous, but I didn't catch anything. That's all right, but eventually I'd like to get back into catching fish, instead of just casting for a couple of hours. I've been tying flies in preparation for the summer months and am looking forward to when it stays light longer so that I can go after work for a couple of hours. Just for the record, I have a couple of extra rods and reels, and enough flies to outfit a small guide service, so feel free to come out and give it a try. This summer, I can practically guarantee that I'll put you into fish and you can get a temporary fishing license out here pretty cheap.

I went back and worked on the Habitat for Humanity site on Wednesday. We were laying the sheeting for the floor and I had a pretty good time. The only bad thing was that I fell really hard about twenty minutes after getting on the site. I was helping move sheeting from the trailer onto the foundation when I got tangled in some plastic and went down. I hurt the hell out of my knee, but was able to get up and work all day. I got home though and couldn't move my head because my neck and shoulders were so messed up. A hot shower didn't help and I couldn't get out of bed the next morning. I felt bad about it because I planned on working on the site the next day, but I couldn't move. My wife rubbed my neck and shoulders with IcyHot for the next two nights and I feel much better, with only some slight stiffness, but I was pretty bad for awhile.

Past that, I haven't been up to much. Just wasting my days at the job and spending time with the wife, which has been nice. I think that we really need to take a couple of days and just escape to somewhere, but I'm so short-handed at work I can't take any vacation time and she's so close to done with her PhD, she'll not go anywhere until it's finished. I really need to win the lottery. Anyway, I hope all is well in your worlds and I hope to hear from you soon.

Random thoughts

Few things in this world are probably better than the Rockridge bonfires of our youth. Hayrack rides, ridiculously large fires that probably could be seen from space, burnt on the outside, cold on the inside hotdogs, flaming marshmallows of death, hooded sweatshirts full of hay the next morning, knowing that everyone at the fire has known you since before you were you. God I miss that. October, 2006

I wrote this in response to a post on a good friend's blog. I was bored this weekend, so I started reading her blog from the beginning and found some amazing posts by her, absolute poetry. I also read all the comments and found this one. The thing is, I can still see all of this in my mind, still smell the smoke and see the people that helped raised and sustain me. I don't know why this jumped out at me like it did, but there it is anyway.

Other thoughts:

As much as my wife and I talk, I still wish she had a blog I could go to, to learn about her thoughts, dreams, etc. I just think when writing things down, you're better able to just live in that moment with complete honesty, not worrying about anybody/anything.

For that matter, I wish I did a better job of living in the moment when posting. Might make what I say mean more, without the filters.

Come to think of it, all of you need a blog, even if you never give out the address to anyone. If for no other reason than to pour your heart and mind out in front of you and see what's going on in there. (I suppose a journal would work just as well, I just type a lot faster than I write and am better able to keep up with my brain.)

Moo.

I'd like nothing better than to take the rest of the day off and fly fish. It's sunny and supposed to be 55 degrees here. The mountains are still covered in snow and it's just too pretty of a day to be working. (or at least stuck in the office)

I love all of you and I wish you were here so that we could spend the day together, enjoying the scenery and the opportunity to hook each other out on the river.

I'm sooo bored!

I think my computer just told me we've hit the end of the internet. It's a freakin' gorgeous day outside, and here I sit, trying to not to start making up calls for my lone officer to go out on. Every once in awhile you have to do that, or they get complacent. I was seriously thinking about trying to send out emails to everyone in my contact list, but decided I didn't have it in me right now, and with nothing really going on in my world, it would mostly be a list of questions about your worlds and the happenings in them. So instead, I'll just randomly ramble on about things that are going through my head. No, I won't, that might start to get really weird and I have a feeling that it will start to come around on itself and in the end I'll actually say nothing, kind of like this post.

The unfortunate truth about polling

Habitat for Humanity

On Wednesday and Thursday this past week, I got to work on a jobsite for Habitat for Humanity. They're currently building a duplex in Bozeman with plans for another two in the same block. While I was there, we installed almost all of the floor joists for both halves and started laying down the sheeting for the first floor. It was really a good time and I learned quite a bit from the guys working there. I'm planning on going back this coming week and for as long as they'll have me. I think it will be pretty cool to have a hand in giving a family a home, plus I'm sure that I'll keep picking up little tips about various aspects of the project and be able to carry it over to all of the building that I do. If any of you have a chance, give it a try, if only for a day. You might find that helping on a project like this can be really rewarding.

I haven't been up to much else. Still working out and trying to get the last of the weight off. I actually gained two pounds this past week to put me back on the wrong side of 240, but I expect to lose that and more back this week. We'll see, but until then take care.

Things are looking up!

I did it! I finally broke out of the 240's! I weighed in at WW on Tuesday at 239.0, which is the lightest I've been in a very long time. I'm hoping to keep up the weight loss as I've lost almost six pounds in the last three weeks. Apparently all of the yoga and working out are starting to make a difference.

In other news, I'm not sure why the server ate my picture, but I'll dig up another and replace it. It wasn't a great picture of me, just a recent one. If nothing else, I'll have Sy shoot a new picture of me and we'll post that one.

Sy and I went to an artist reception at a gallery downtown. It was for an artist whose work I've been admiring for awhile, and it was pretty cool to get a chance to talk with her about her work. We bought a print of one of my favorite works and had a nice evening out. It was nice to hobnob with the "beautiful people" and pretend to be yuppies for the night. Aside from that, not much else new around here.