Thursday, August 30, 2007

My Hero? Tarzan.

I just spent most of the day driving out to the field job site, sitting in meetings and day dreaming...alot.

My childhood hero was Tarzan. OK, Tarzan is STILL my hero.

I lived in Ethiopia for 4 years as a child and my family would often travel to Kenya. We spent many weeks on camping safaris and I think that explains alot about me, my lifestyle and my personality.


The first Tarzan I remember watching on TV was Johnny Weismuller. The 1924, 1928 Olympic swimming champion. He was "considered one of the most perfectly formed men on the planet." And his beautiful costar, Maureen O'Sullivan. What more could a man want? OK, maybe a loin cloth and a big knife, but that's it.

Who could forget the Tarzan call? "Victory cry of the bull ape." I spent many childhood days running around with bare feet, raggety cut offs, and a pocket knife doing my best to imitate the Tarzan victory cry.

Then it was Denny Miller who played on the Hollywood Tarzan sets. His boyish looks and a full head of blond hair was more of a surfer looking dude than I cared for.



Lastly, from my childhood memories, came Mike Henry. An ex-pro football player with 8-pack abs. Well spoken and crossed over into the color TV scene.

My imprinting was complete. I wanted to be Tarzan. I believed I was Tarzan.

Tarzan got to live in the jungle and was lord of all the apes and other creatures.
Tarzan always saved the day, saved the river, saved the mountain, saved the jungle, saved the girl.

Tarzan got the girl.

Tarzan was THE multisport athlete. He could swim, man could he swim! He could run, jump, swing, dive, climb, wrestle, flip, throw, shoot a bow and arrow, stab, and, if he had one, I bet he'd bike like Lance.

I spent most childhood summers shirtless and bare foot and I always had a pocket knife with me. I'd have had long shaggy hair too but my dad always clipped me pretty short with his home barber electric clipper. It wasn't until my teen years that I was allowed to let me hair grow longer. At one time, it was nearly touching my shoulders. Man, that was cool.

And now.
Instead of a loin cloth, I sometimes wear a speedo brief.
Instead of bare feet, I sometimes wear Teva's.
Instead of a knife, I have a nail clipper in my shave kit.
Instead of long hair, I use my dads old clipper and buzz it off every 2 weeks.

Who were your childhood heroes? Tag, your it.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Arrrrgh, I've been caught!

Tagged by TriGirl and Wylee...first. And then tagged by a couple others, so...


Jobs I've Held:
Newspaper boy
Neighborhood lawn boy (mowed lawns for $2.50 an hour)
Lifeguard (many years at local pools and beaches)
Swimming instructor
Naturalist, Florida gulf coast
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist, Florida gulf coast and Minnesota
Environmental inspector; MN, MI, WI, ND, WY, MT, WA, OR.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Environmental Monitor; AL, CA, AZ, MS.
Environmental Manager for private consulting company

Places I've lived:
Stillwater, Oklahoma
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Minnetonka, MN
Big Sky, MT

Movies I can Watch Over & Over:
Stripes
Napoleon Dynamite
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
Bull Durham
For Love of the Game

My guilty pleasures:
I don’t do guilt.
I do pleasure.

Shows I enjoy:
I usually only have time to watch the news but:
Lost was favorite series
The office

Places I've been on vacation:
Several “summer vacations” all over the USA
My favorites were; Montana,
Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area. Many times.
Quetico Provincial park, Canada
Wyoming
California
Colorado
Vermont
Maine
Maui

Switzerland
Canada, many places
Bequia, SCUBA diving
Granada, sailing
Bonaire, swimming and diving
Bahamas, sailing
Provo, Turks and Caicos

Favorite Foods:
Pasta, Pasta, Pasta
Stir fry
Salmon
Wild game
Deep dish Pizza with everything

Websites I visit Daily:
google
your blogs

Body Parts I have injured:
From top to bottom;
Brain (concussion)
Broken Collar bone
Shattered wrist
4 cracked ribs (2 in front, 2 in back)
Cracked Ishium
Cracked Patella
Cracked Tibia
Sprained Ankle
Hyper extended big toe

Awards I've won:
None. Still hopeful.

Nicknames I've been called:
Schultzy
Shitsy
Snoopy
Jethro
Woody

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Ah, sweet relief...

From the heat and humidity finally came today. After a couple good storms last weekend, this morning it was 65 degrees. I slept with the my window open for first time since this past May.
Lana in Tennessee gave me this idea:

The summer heat. The humidity. It's all coming back to me now.

Reminds me of helping mom hang out the wash to dry in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The dry season in Ethiopia and Kenya when we'd go on camping safaris and the wind would blow up dust devils in the dry river beds and my brother and I would run through them yelling " I caught you devil".
Reminds me of family gatherings with all 30 cousins at Lake Watab.
The dog days of August at Shady Oak Beach to cool off cuz we didn't have air conditioning.
Reminds me of my bedroom in the basement that was always cool and quiet.
Flipping the pillow over to the cooler side.
Running through the lawn sprinkler with all the other neighborhood kids cuz some of them didn't have air conditioning either.
Reminds me of riding our bikes all day to feel the wind cooling our shirtless sunburned bodies.
Jumping on the trampoline for hours.
Reminds me of shacking up most of the summer at my best friends house cuz he lived on the lake and it was always cooler by the water.
We water skied, sailed, swam, paddled, fished, jumped off bridges, midnight boat rides with our girlfriends...our bodies were bronzed like Greek Gods.
Steamy windows from making out in the back seat of her station wagon.
Reminds me of life guarding at the beaches around the lake and making enough money to buy my first real 10 speed road bike...and my first car that cost me $400 bucks. A Datson F10 hatchback with a kick ass Jensen stereo...tape deck.
Showing up at college 2 weeks early for my job as an RA and the dorms were not air conditioned.
Summer job at Dauphin Island, Alabama and helicopter transport to the offshore lay barge where the temperature on deck was always over 100 degrees.
Hurricane season.
Reminds me of working in the Mojave desert...115 degrees at 10 o'clock in the morning.
Learning to surf in Cardiff at turtles...no wetsuit.
Reminds me of training and acclimating every afternoon, the heat of the day, for my first half ironman during August in Iowa.
Last week when the temperature at sunset was 92 degrees, 70% humidity and the storms were rolling in from the west.
Being woken up by thunder and looking out the window at the flashing display of ribbons of lightning through the black clouds and smelling the ozone and dampness of the pouring rain.
God how we needed that rain.
Feeling relief.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Quatro Quatro!

I have no idea if that's proper Spanish for 44 but that's my age as of last Friday.

I had a really fun weekend at the lake with some tri buddies and made some new friends too.

Arrival late Friday night we were lakeside by the fire and having a drink. Being the athletic group that we were, we all crashed by 11 o'clock.
The decompression was beginning.

Saturday was BIRTHDAY CAKE DAY!

We ate cake for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Yum Yum.
4 August birthdays.

Oh yeah, we also did a brick bike run and swam across the lake to a bar for drinks and appetizers.

Late night around the fire with homemade music (drums, shakers, sticks, and a didgeridoo).



Decompression nearly complete.

Sunday morning was cool and overcast...perfect for a long run. I went solo to the opposite end of the lake and back. EZ pace, good form and focus on cadence. It was a nice run through the country passed horses, corn fields, wild turkeys, and alfalfa fields.


Decompressed.






Friday, August 3, 2007

A visit from Laura



The First Lady, Laura Bush, must be in town right now.

I know this because my office window is about 5 blocks from the I35W bridge collapse and there are Army helicopter gun ships buzzing over head.

Well, it's been a busy week and I'm a bit emotionally stressed out so I'm gonna ditch the office a couple hours early. I'm gonna pack the my truck with water play toys, wake board, bike, and dog. Then I'm gonna pick up a few tri friends and we're headed up north to a cabin on a lake and celebrate our August birthdays...redneck style. Yee Haw!

B-double-E-double-R-U-N!

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Lucky or...I just don't know.



The local news last night was horrible and tragic.

I'm working in MN now and typically cross that bride 2 or 3 times a week. Last night, I left my office early to take care of some personal business and bypassed the bridge 2 hours prior to it collapsing.
When I turned on the news last night, I was frozen. I literally felt like I was in suspended animation. I nearly lost my breath. I don't want to over dramatize my personal experience here or make it sound like I'm lucky to be alive but the magnitude of this slammed me right in the chest. I'm praying every few minutes that none of my coworkers or friends are among those still missing.
I just hate it when the media say things like "it could have been much worse" or "imagine if this had happened when..."
Shut the eff up. This is bad, period. I'm venting a little here.
There is no 'worse' or 'imagine if'. It was 6pm rush hour and cars on the bride were bumper to bumper. Many of them fell 60 feet and some toppled into the river. There are no rescue efforts going on now. It's a recovery. It sucks really really bad.
I'm counting my blessings. Please do the same.
Talk to your loved ones, hug your kids, be thankful for every good thing.
Peace.