Well… today was eventful.  The H.S. Boys Basketball team is in the District finalS for the first time since 2001.  The final will be Friday night at the “Grand Canyon.”  This made for a very UNeventful evening at work.  From 7pm-9pm, I probably could count the number of customers I had on one hand.  I then walked home and listened to the final quarter of the District semi-final.

About 9.30, I traveled to B-town and took a nice long walk with Megan.  About an hour and 15 minutes after, we made our way back.  As we passed another friend’s house, we wagered who would be bold enough to go and knock on the window.  After we both thought better of it, I did make a loud “HALOOOOO” sound, but apparently not loud enough.  So by 11.15, we made it back and the light misty rain made it wet enough that it was time to wrap it up.  Fun time and good exercise walking at a nice, brisk pace.  Good companion who kept up with me at what others have often complained is too fast a clip.

GO BULLDOGS!

Call it my resolution for the year if you want but it seems that I have been walking a bit lately.  Last week being my vacation, I walked a lot.  Monday on the zoo excursion I’m sure was good for my daily walk (like to get in a mile or two a day).  This Monday was my longest one yet.  The weather was still nice so I grabbed my ipod and headed north along 49 and turned down a country road, walked to the next road going west and eventually walked a good country block heading up River Street back into town (that was a good 4 miles).  I then continued walking through town in a roundabout way to eventually end up at the post office.  Then back home.  I must have gone at least 5 miles.

Tuesday was another story entirely.  This time, I headed south on 49 and got about a mile out of town when I decided that it was just crazy cold.  I then turned around and stopped by my oldest brother’s house to go in and warm up a bit before going home.

The long walks really are helped with my ipod mix.  I have it on shuffle so that when an album that I really like comes on, I will switch it to play straight through.  Before you know it, an hour and a half has passed.  Particularly good when I downloaded one of my favorites that I had on cassette (there it is again) back in the day.  You know one that you play continuously, rewind, fast forward, and then get it caught and eaten and there you go, no more tape.  Oh, the recording: the 20th Anniverary Recording of the London version of Jesus Christ Superstar.  Paul Nicholas as Jesus, Claire Moore as Mary Magdalene, and Keith Burns as Judas Iscariot.  My favorite piece has to be “Could We Start Again, Please?”  Upon hearing the song, it quickly became a favorite… maybe that’s why the cassette got eaten.  Of course, another highlight is “Herod’s Song.”  The entire recording is good for at least an hour and a half hike.

Hopefully, the temperature outside improves from the 19 degrees of today quickly so I can take another long walk instead of the walk to and from work.

Recently I purchased a pedometer. According to a large amount of literature, a person should try to walk 10,000 steps per day to stay healthy. That is roughly 5 miles per day. Now I thought I walked a lot every day, but apparently I’m not reaching my 10,000 steps.

If I attach the pedometer first thing in the morning, I will have 300+ steps by the time I reach my desk at work. I could try to add to that by parking farther from the door, but our parking lot is only so big. By going to get coffee, or walking to someones desk instead of e-mailing or using the phone, I can have 1,000+ steps by lunch time. That will give me around 3,000 steps when I head to my car in the evening. Only 7,000 steps to go….

I’ve been walking at lunch for about 20-30 minutes and that adds about 2,000 to 2,500 steps to my daily count. So only 4,500 steps left. On most days, this is almost all the steps that get counted. Even roaming through the Walmart store, or other shopping that I do, only add about 1,000 steps. Making dinner, catching up with the things I have to do at home maybe 1,000 more. So I’ve usually been 2,000+ steps shy of 10,000 every evening. I guess I could do less internet surfing and reading during the evening hours, but that is how I relax after the day. I’m not big on doing the exercise bit, never have been, and even though I know it would be good for me, I resist. I guess I will have to see how many steps I get when I do things like cut wood this winter. I always thought that was good exercise when I did it, but I never knew how much I walked to get the wood back to the house. I will find out soon enough….

Today there are no worries about getting my 10,000 steps in. I almost accomplished that at work today. In our work move, some of the extra furniture was stored in two meeting rooms. Today was the day to get 1 of those rooms in order. So, by moving stuff from one place to another I managed to hit 7,000 steps by 12:00 pm today. With all of the other walking I did, I only have 500 to hit the magic 10,000 mark. And since I’m in a play, I guess I will be adding some daily pacing to my other walking activities.

Oh well, I need to be off to pick up my youngest. A few more steps out to the truck…

We were grocery shopping the other night and my 9-year-old daughter was jumping around and telling us about some kind of dance she was learning in gym class.  “And then you dance with the pole…”, she said, and that got our attention – pole dancing in gym class?  She then went on to explain that they have 2 little poles (closer to stick-sized, it sounds like) the kids dance with…  but you can see where I’m coming from.  In this day and age, pole dancing has a much different meaning.  It’s something popularized in the adult entertainment industry, and because I’ve heard that it’s recently found its way into normal (?) families’ homes as a form of exercise.  Not that I know of anyone who actually exercises this way (and if any of my friends or family reading this have taken up pole dancing, I really don’t want to know about it, even if it is just for exercise!), but for a minute during my daughter’s story, I was worried that this form of “exercise” had become SO mainstream that they were teaching it in the schools!  I couldn’t be happier to be wrong, but the misunderstanding makes for a funny story!

I did something to my shoulder to re-aggravate an old injury. For the first three days of this work week, I was unable to lift my left hand over my head without pain. Back to starting the old rehab exercises. Turn my head one way then the next, lifting up that ol’ soup can (1 1b weight to start). Keep stretching and moving…. Not too much weight, you can re-injure that thing. Trouble was I forgot them.

Yep, all that stuff used to be in my head. There was a sheet of exercises that I was supposed to do to keep the shoulder in shape. Me, I stopped doing them when the shoulder felt better. I kept up with a couple of the stretching routines, because they helped with headaches too. I did the ones I remembered, but I know there were another couple on the routine. Oh well, I guess I can try to find the list again. Maybe the rehab place has a website? Or I can just stop in and ask for another sheet…

Anyway with a bit of patience, lots of heat applied, and a few exercises, I was able to function at around 90% today. I was able to pull on a shirt, brush my hair with my left hand, type all day at work. and my shoulder is only starting to complain. I think before dinner, I’ll apply a bit of heat again.

I would say that this is a getting old problem, but mostly it is an out-of-shape problem. I move wrong, or sleep wrong and I put the shoulder out of whack. I am hoping that my trips to the “Y” will help with this, but I haven’t been able to get much exercise in since I joined. Just after I joined, I pulled some leg muscles that kept me from doing a lot there, and now this. I know I can’t push myself on exercise equipment, when it just hurts (like crazy) to move. I can’t say the “Y” did it either, I wasn’t there both times I was injured…. Just plain dumb luck and my body trying to move like it was in better shape than it is….

Maybe next week….

And this was the reason why there hasn’t been a post since the weekend. I have one more post started, but never finished it. I’m not a one handed typist.

Since I joined the YMCA (Anyone Feel like dancing here???, not me thanks!), Thursdays has been one of the days I stop after work to get a little exercise in. Today I just could not see dropping in. It was just too nice out. Still I needed to get a little exercise in and still enjoy the fall evening.

My youngest and I took a quick trip to Harrison Lake State Park and took a stroll around the lake. Roughly 3.5 miles of hiking. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. There was a cross-country meet going on, so we had to find an out of the way spot to finally park. We were able to avoid most of the runners (not get in their way) and we had a good time walking.

The walk around the lake reminded me of the last time I took the full trip around the lake. It was quite a few years ago. My daughters always liked picnics at the park for birthdays and such. Since 3 out of 4 were born in months when picnics are in season, we did it quite often. Harrison Lake was one of the many parks we went to (They have swimming there). My wife and I made the trip around that lake once. That was some 15 or 16 years ago. I’m not sure why we never made the walk again, but we didn’t. I remember that walk because I had 1 of my daughters in a baby carrier on my back. One of the best ways ever devised to carry children (except for the hair pulling). When the 2 in the middle were young enough, I remember having one in the back pack and one in a front carrier. That actually made it easier to walk. More balance.

Anyway back to the first walk some years ago. I remember we didn’t know the park very well, and at one point we thought we were going through peoples’ back yards. At the time we may have been, but as of today, the park seems to own most of the trail around the lake. There were two stretches of the walk when we had to walk on the roads around the park. Slight safety issue for those trying this walk with children, but it is minimized.

One more thing on the runners, that will never be me…

There have been recent stories in the news about some extremely overweight people. One is the world record holder over 1000 lbs, another hit the scales at over 900 lbs. Sadly, the 900 lb man died from heart failure today. It simply astounds me that they could get that large.

I have a problem with both of these men reaching such weights. Both men were bed ridden, they could not get out of their beds. Both men gained weight after being bed ridden! I can see how they got to the point of being bed ridden. They could feed themselves at that point. I do question how the people taking care of them would not get help to make sure these men lost the weight once they could no longer move. Did they pay people to feed them?

No, you wouldn’t want to starve them, but calorie content could be reduced. I’m not sure I would ever want to take care of someone who put themselves into that situation. Hard decision that. Once the person is stuck in their bed, they become wards of someone else. Should we as a society hold these people responsible? Who would make such a call?

Just some thoughts as I try to get this nearly 50 year old body back into shape so I can at least play one more game of softball.

I had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend.  We decided to celebrate Saturday in order to avoid the crowds at all the restaurants and other establishments; also it worked out well because my kids often need all of Sunday as a rest day to recooperate from the previous week and the weekend before returning to school on Monday.  So, I slept in Saturday until I was awakened by the idyllic crow of a rooster…  wait a minute… we do live in a rural area, but that was no rooster – it was a screaming parrot and it wasn’t the least bit idyllic, just horribly annoying and not a fun way to get woken up.  But, it was nearing 10 am, and I figured I had left poor dad with the kids long enough.

I was making myself some oatmeal for breakfast when I was greeted in the kitchen by cute little girl #1.  “Happy Mother’s Day Mom!”, she said, and gave me a stuffed animal she had found in her room.  I find the re-gifting really cute; it’s her way of sharing what she has and also displays her thoughtfulness in wanting to get me something but being too little to go out shopping on her own.  She also gave me the most adorable essay she wrote in school – I will share, though it’s much cuter to see it in 8-year-old handwriting:

Happy Mother’s Day!  I love my mommy for many different reasons.  One reason is that sometimes she gives me what I want at the store.  Another reason is that she helps me do stuff around the house like make soft crunchy cookies.  The last reason is she lets me have fun a lot like at the park!  I think that my mommy is triffic, wonder ful, and vary funny.  by Taylor

Daughter #2 was next, and she handed me a singing gorilla from her room.  “Happy Val-tine’s Day, Mom!”, she said, hugging my leg.  She is almost 4 and apparently forgot the name of the day, only remembering that she was supposed to give me something and be well-behaved, but that’s all that mattered to me!  Don’t be fooled, however…  they are not perfect angels ALL of the time – my kids’ Mother’s Day sweetness was promptly followed by a HUGE knock-down, drag-out, screaming at the top of their lungs fight…  The first of many throughout the weekend.  We still had a great time though – my husband always does a great job of keeping his cool which is more than I can say for myself…  but there was something going on with my oldest this weekend, and it showed!

Next, we decided to go to a neighboring city to go swimming in a hotel – my husband can get GREAT hotel rates online for most places, and the overnight getaway was exciting for the kids and around the same price as driving somewhere far away (insert gas price gripe here) and spending $ for other entertainment.  Besides, being in the water felt WONDERFUL for my aching pregnant body…  I would love to have access to a pool during a whole pregnancy sometime; it’s amazing how the sensations of all the aches, pains, and extra weight just melt away when under the water.  The kids had a great time, and we all got some exercise also, plus when we got home on Sunday, they all took at least a 2 hour nap – can’t put a price on that!  My husband of course, catered to their needs all day too, so really I got a whole Mother’s Day weekend out of it – 2 days when I was supposed to get 1!  I only hope I feel up to it enough to give my husband as great a Father’s Day as I got a Mother’s Day.  But since I’ll be even more pregnant by then, we might have to reschedule…  ever heard of Father’s Day in August?  😉 

Yesterday when browsing my kind-of-local WalMart store in Defiance, OH I noticed something…  They didn’t have the DVD player I wanted.  But what they did have was far more magical, far more elusive, far more expensive…

The Nintendo Wii

Was I dreaming?  Was I hallucinating?  Or was I in reality about to make a big mistake?…  Yep, the third option.

You see, although I was an early critic of the Nintendo Wii (even having never played it — I thought it seemed like Nintendo built a system around what could have been simply an add-on accessory to any system), I have recently been longing for a fun way to get exercise.  I work on the computer all day long and love to eat — and it shows!

I have been able to cut back on my bad eating habits; limiting my pizza intake, eliminating late-night snacking, and reducing my portions greatly.  However, on the exercise front I have done almost nothing.

Sure, my family does go for walks on most days, but not the kind that get the heart pumping.  The kind where you wait for the kids to catch-up and move at the pace of a pregnant woman…  That kind.

I suppose I could just do some standard exercise but I have very little “me” time so when I do have some, I really want to enjoy it and not run on a treadmill, do situps, or go for a jog.  That would just make me crazy.  I like to keep my mind active too!

So, the Wii seemed like the perfect solution.  Not only could I enjoy exercise — I mean REALLY enjoy exercise — but I could play with my wife and kids!  That would just be awesome…  Or so I thought.

So, I took the Wii home with me and and extra set of controllers.  And Mario Kart — my wife and I LOVE all the Kart games and still play them on my Xbox with a N64 Emulator.  Anyway, back to the Nintendo Wii.

We got home and after some time with the kids I excitedly hooked it up to our tv.  I put the batteries into the Wii remotes and fired the little guy up.

SETUP SCREEN >>

Ok, this was expected.  So, I breezed through the setup screen which was simple enough and was ready for some action!

My first game — Wii Sports of course!  This was included with the Wii so it was the obvious choice.

WII SPORTS

The first game we tried was baseball and well, as I already knew, the Wii graphically looked like a last-generation gaming system.  On par with the PS2 or Xbox, although not even that good.  Of course, this was the included game so the graphics on the Wii were probably not being utilized too well.  Back to Baseball.

I was batting first and my wife was pitching.  She made a simple throwing motion and the ball was on its way.  I swung the Wii remote and saw my litte “Mii” swing his virtual bat…  STTTTRRRIIIKE!  It was going to take a little bit to get used to the controls and timing.

After an inning we both had them down pitch…. HIT!  Although this game was very basic, it had some fun to it.  The novelty of the Wii was “hitting” home (sorry for the bad pun).

Next we tried Tennis.  Same thing, different graphics.  Swing the remote, wait, swing the remote.  This is when I began to notice that the Wii remote was more of a gimick than a serious VR interactive device.  I could basically swing the thing any way I wanted and get the same effect — tennis ball hit or missed based mainly on my timing.  Nothing else really.

On to Wii bowling.  Here, the Wii showed me that it was doing more than just sensing if the remote was moving.  The Wii wanted me to make a particular motion and when I did not, it corrected me.  That being said, the bowling was left with a simple make a “bowling like movement” and watch the Wii do the rest.

Boxing however was probably the biggest disappointment.  Why?  Because I had read raves about what a good workout it provides and how fun it is.  To me, neither was true.  I don’t know about anyone else but I could jab and hook my arms forever and they were not getting tired.  Even adding the ducks and weaves were not really a great cardio fix.  But the worst part was the fun factor, or lack of one.  The game only seemed to respond to particular jabbing movements and not to different punches and moves.  If you got really into it, the nunchuck cord would get in the way.  It was very annyong and simply no fun at all for me.  Plus…  I didn’t come close to breaking a sweat.  I guess I might have after playing for 3 hours straight but who has that kind of time.

Wii Fit is due out in a couple of weeks and that is supposed to be all about the fitness; hence the name.  However, at this point I will probably not own a Wii by the time it comes out.  Considering I can score a Xavix system on eBay for under $100 which includes the major workout titles of Jackie Chan J-Map Fitness Studio and Jackie Chan Boxing I don’t see the Wii as being the answer for me.

In the end, the Wii has potential as both a fun gaming system and a entertainment-fitness machine.  However, I am back to my original opinion — if this was a controller for the Xbox 360 I would probably buy one.  The best of both worlds; good graphics and motion-sensing controllers for new interactive gaming.  But for now, the Wii seems to be to be…  Well, old.  Last generation’s graphics and motion sensing technology that was probably already surpassed by the EyeToy.  Yes, I know it is not the same.  But the new 3D ZCam, which will be under $100 and work with real next gen systems will make the Wii look like it already plays — weak.  Take a look at the ZCam…

The Wii uses REALLY OLD technology to track movement.  It really seems like it was a system from 5 – 6 years ago.  I will give it a couple of more days but if something doesn’t change and make me suddenly a “Wii Addict” I am bringing this back to the store for a Wiifund!

I think my lack of any exercise this winter has caught up to me.  I am having a very hard time sleeping lately.  I will go to bed, usually at a reasonable hour, and I’ll be able to fall asleep, but then throughout the night I will constantly wake up, then lay in a state of semiconsciousness for a bit, finally fall asleep and start dreaming again, then the process will repeat for several times during the night until I finally get up still exhausted.

I found a site that gave some tips and people seem to have had good luck with keeping a window cracked open for fresh air so I will try that tonight along with turning my fan on.  Yes, even though the outside temperature is under 40 degrees.  For the long term I guess I will have to start walking more and see if that keeps things under control.  I’ve already told people in my church small group so they will be praying for me as well.  Between all of these, emphasis on the prayer, I should be back to normal eventually.  I really hope I don’t have sleep apnea- I understand my dad had it.  If I have developed it then these little cures won’t really help.  Except for the prayer of course.  Well, I’m going to keep this short so I can get to bed sooner.  Goodnight…