A Year Ago Today

A year ago today I was in my car at this time driving to a lake north of my place to go fishing for the afternoon. Being the adventurous idiot that I was I decided that I was going to get one helluva tan, so I didn't take any sunscreen and decided I was going to keep my shirt off all day. It was a very nice day. I think that the temperature was around 80-85. The sky was clear and the sun was shining nicely.

I was out in the sun for about 4 1/2 hours floating around in my inflatable raft. I did catch about 13 fish that day, but I also got the worst sunburn of my life..only I didn't know that it was the worst until tomorrow, last year.

When I returned home my wife informed me that I looked like a lobster and she then scolded me for being so burned. She said that I was going to hurt and she was right, only she didn't know just how right she was.

I did wake up in the night several times with the cold shiver which is customary for bad burns like what I had. But the worst wasn't discovered until I went to get out of bed to go to the bathroom at about 7am. I put my feet down on the floor and tried to stand up only to find my legs in excrutiating pain. I couldn't walk. They hurt worse than ever and the muscles tightened up to the point where I couldn't stand.

To make a long story short, I couldn't enjoy our anual festival that we have in our little town every year. I finally was able to stretch the muscles out enough to walk, but it was really stupid looking and I had to use a cane. I couldn't sit down anywhere because I had to keep moving to keep the muscles from cramping up.

Thankfully some of our friends were up to see us and they were both med students. Well, Troy was med and Wendy was a nurse. They got me to start taking 800mg of Ibeuprofin every 4 hours. And then after the festival was over, I literally spent the next full week lying in the couch with ice bags on my legs. My wife was patient though and I haven't been as stupid since.

So this year I will be at the festival and I only have a slight tan on my arms but that was from one day outside mowing.

The worst lessons have to be learned the hard way.

Do you ever feel like what this picture shows? I do. That's why I picked it for this entry.

This time it's only about 2 or 3 weeks since I have blogged. Life has been so busy. I just feel worn out. I feel like I need about a 2 week nap.

It always seems like the summer months have the most going on. Between work, the kids, my wife, house chores, yard chores, family events and the rest there is just hardly any time to stop and breathe.

Work has been really frustrating. I won't get into all the details as to what I do now, but I'll just say that even though I am often at work for more than 8 hours a day, I just don't feel like I get anything done. Projects come and stay, deadlines come and go and there is just way too much on my whole department's plate. We all feel the constant pressure and there is seemingly no relief in sight.

My daughter will be 3 in a few weeks. She has grown up so much. We are having a lot of fun with her, but she is definitely in the tumultuous threes.

Spiritually things have been rough. I am going through another one of those times where the image of God is just blurry. Maybe it is because I listen to too much religious broadcasting. It is just so confusing to me how so many people can claim to possess the truth, and yet each of their versions are all so different. It just makes me feel like any time I come close to arriving at a certain conclusion about a matter that the harsh reality of my opinion being just on more in the barrell just makes it all seem futile. Lately I've listened to debates between Calvinists and Arminians, Open and Closed Theists, Classical and Process Theologians, and the list goes on and on. They all seem to be talking about different gods that just don't match up in any way. I just wonder why, if there is an absolute truth out there, why so many people differ on what exactly it is.

I really don't want to make this entry so short, but I have to for a few reasons-

1. It is now past midnight. I am surprised that I am still up. It is late and I am exhausted.
2. My back hurts and this setup that I have with where my chair is in relationship to my monitor is really uncomfortable. I am trying to sit up straight while I type as to somehow help improve my posture but it just isn't working.
3. My brain is fried. I am thinking about the weekend already and how we have 2 family reunions thiis weekend. They are both in Des Moines so that means that we will be spending Saturday night with my folks and I don't really like to do that but it beats driving back home just to go back the next day.

Anyways, I hope to find more time this weekend to write more. Especially since I've finally gotten my hands on a copy of The Da Vinci Code. I have read the book and now it is time to see the movie. I would also like to watch Wolf Creek and Silent Hill, but I doubt I'll get the time.

Adios for now.