Have a Good Life

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It is amazing how easy it is to ride my bike when I am not kneeing myself in the gut with every revolution. This picture is my phone's view as I am riding. I use MapMyRide.com to track my distance, pace, speed, and calories burned. I rode home from the dinosaur museum today after going there with my kids. I thoroughly enjoyed riding again, and it seems like it is has been forever since I have been able to ride. I bought a long-sleeve compressor shirt for $5 at WalMart the other day, and it worked flawlessly. Last year, I only had a sleeveless shirt to wear when riding, so my season ended pretty early as it was too cold to keep going. 

Last summer, my first ride was on March 15th, and I ended on September 13th. I rode 588.4 miles (or 562.54 according to MapMyRide.com in that time. My goal this year is to ride 1000 miles before I am done. I am pretty sure I can do it. I am going to ride the ULCER this August, which is 100 miles, so that will pad my numbers pretty easily. Last year, I also did a lot of rides with the kids in tow, which caused me to do short, 6-mile rides. I won't be towing them this year as it cost me too much money in wear and tear on my bike. 

I am really excited to see how I do this summer. I am looking forward to spending a lot of time on my bike. I enjoy it so much, it doesn't even seem like exercising (except when I am going uphill, that isn't as much fun).

This morning I was at 217 pounds, which means that the weight is finally starting to come back. I need to keep it off, and this exercising will certainly help that. 

For the last few years, probably since my freshman year of college, I haven't believed that I could run, unless I have been playing sports (i.e., running with a purpose). My lack of belief in myself is probably one of the major reasons for my obesity since college. But, recently, as I have shown myself that I can lose all this weight, I have come to realize that I really can do anything I put my mind to. That is truly fascinating to me. I have always believed that my mind is the most powerful thing in me, but for some reason, I have been afraid, or whatever, to actually put that into practice. I have avoided letting my mind be in control. I have made excuses for why I cannot do something.

So, we needed some stuff from the store tonight, and I still needed to workout, so I decided to go on a walk. When I realized the store was only about a mile away, I decided to run to the store instead of walk there.

So, I bought the lactose free milk for the baby and some Fels Naptha for the homemade laundry detergent, and then ran back home with it. It was more downhill on the way home, but I still ran pretty much the whole way. It was still hard, but I did it, and sometimes that is what really matters.

Have a good life.

When it comes to a father-in-law, I really got the cream of the crop. He is such a good man, and I am really lucky to have the opportunity to learn from him. He is extremely patient, doesn't lose his temper, and is always polite and cordial (sometimes he even gets in nice fights, a term I "coined" but luckily UrbanDictionary is the true definitive source). 

Ralph knows how to get people to do what he wants. He is not pushy in the slightest, but he is incredibly wise and you can almost see that wisdom exude whenever he starts to give his experienced opinion. He is such a good salesman because he 

1. Is not pushy.
2. Has a wealth of experience.
3. Sets you up.

When he thinks something should be done a certain way, he tells you. But, he is ever so careful to extremely sincerely say, "Now, I don't want to tell you what to do, but..." From some people, that could come off as "I don't want to tell you what to do, but I am going to anyway, and you better follow it because I am a genius!" That is not how he says it. The way he says it is more like, "You know, my good friend, I'd hate for you think that I see you as anything less than a genius, because I don't. You are so smart, and you probably already know everything I can think of, but I am going to tell you this anyway, mostly to reaffirm for your how intelligent you are..." I am not kidding, that is how he is. The way he introduces his ideas is so humble and stand-offish that the result is truly remarkable: I want to take his advice, at least most of the time. 

His ideas are usually based on a great amount of experience. Therefore, they are typically well thought-out, effective, and simple, so it would be a good idea to take them regardless of how they are presented. He doesn't need to be nice about it; he could just say it, and it would still be good advice. But his delivery is so effective that it doesn't even seem like a suggestion for action coming from him. 

It is inspiring to see how he operates. He would probably be horribly embarrassed if he saw that the title of this post said salesmanship, as he would likely consider my analysis of him a major insult. That I am even associating his communication style with something as connotatively horrible as "Salesmanship" would no doubt make him blush. 

And that is just something else that is good about him. 

Have a Good Life.

See that tag? That is an "M" …for medium. I haven't worn a medium sized shirt in a long time.

The ~220 pounds of pure Utah Beef, filling up our freezer.

So, I have wanted to use the precision editor in iMovie ever since it was introduced in '08. The only problem is that I never use 2 cameras to shoot the same thing. Well, finally, I found multiple views of the same event, and so I gave it a shot. Here it is: