Open 4 Business

Well it has been a busy couple of months. We have spent a lot of time vacationing as a family (see My Life In Color...wife's Blog) and I have been transitioning into a new office while setting up a new mortgage business. Mix in a few rounds of golf, a holiday, some training time for running and doing some promo work for our men's conference at church and...well...the blog sort of falls out of the things to do bag.

So rather than catch up on the distant past...let's center in on the last couple of days.

Like I said, I have moved offices...which means my office is a desk and a bunch of unpacked boxes...I mean WAS. My wife and her Superfriend Betsy put their decorative genius to work on the night of July 3 and worked well into July 4 to give us boys a nice place to hang our hat during the work day. Without any decorative requests (like it would have mattered) they jumped in with both feet like the Wonder Twins of Boise..."form of, an interior designer"..."shape of, a new credit card with no set spending limit." We gave them a pretty free reign, and they did not disappoint. I like to think I did a good thing staying up with my wife all night before her furniture garage sale...she returned the favor I have to say. I saw it for the first time today, July 5...perfect! I look forward to going to work...it feels like being home. Thanks Wonder Twins!


July 4th...didn't start out as good, however. My running has continued as I am now training for the Portland Marathon with my friend from Portland. Wednesday was a "simple" training day. It was going to be hot so I got up early for me, 7:00AM. I have to be up at least 2 hours prior to running for my old body to get properly hydrated and warmed up. My plan was going along perfectly as I hit the trail at 9:00AM. It was a nice slow 1 mile warm-up followed by 3 miles at about a 7:45 pace, then another 1 mile cool down and a quarter mile or so walk to my final stretch out session. Just finished stretching and it's only 10:00AM on the Holiday...sweet! Now I just have to reach into my zipper pouch get my keys and drive home...doh! Key...she not there anymore. Cue red face, mass rewind sequence in head of past 5 mile run. Set-in panic mode...and finally begin denial sequence. No way this is happening!

May I tell you that that is the only key to the Expedition I own. I did take it off the key ring so at least the remote control is locked in the truck with the windows slightly down. For your sake, I will speed through the rest of my day. I am now cooled down and stretched having drank all my water on my run, but now begin running back over my trail and then back to the car for another 4 miles...no sign of said key. Since I can't get in the car I decide to run home...another 2 miles. I get home to my fantastic wife who had just been up the whole previous night putting my office together and tell her that I lost my key and have now ran 11+ miles on my "easy 5-mile" day. It is now 11:30AM. Sympathy and compassion have yet to wake up in our household due to the long previous night and I must have dropped patience and composure with my key on the trail, so I fix myself something to eat and then drive back to the truck with my son's plastic golf club in hand so I can unlock the door and see if by some chance of dumb luck I never in fact put the key in my zipper pouch. Note to self...I never benefit from dumb luck.

Drive back home. My wife convinces me to take the family for a "walk" on the Green Belt to look for the key. We can split up and look for it. She drops me off and I take the dog and go to one end of the trail. She and our 4-year old son drive to the other end for their start and we all set off for an afternoon stroll. It is now 1:00PM...temperature 100 degrees. Don't forget our friends are coming over for a BBQ and I have chicken (1 hour) and ribs (3 hours) to cook for dinner.

My son overheats at 0.7 miles so they sit and wait for me and the dog. The dog overheats after about 1.5 miles and literally lays down on the trail as we are walking. We are about 0.8 miles from each other. The trail has markers every 0.1 miles...this is how I know this. We keep calling each other along the way...no key. I stop to let the dog in the river about 4 times and finally make it to my wife and son. She has been pouring water on his head while they wait. Evidently his comments on the walk included, "How did daddy lose the key?" and "I would never do that." I then walk the remaining 0.7 miles back to the truck so I can drive to pick everyone up. It is now 2:45PM and I have logged another 3.0 miles in walking on my schedule for the day.

Time to go home and get dinner started. I get the ribs "rubbed" and started on their 2 hour sit while I cook the chicken. Our friends arrive and I sit down for the first time in the day while drinking ounces 160 and 161 of water for the day (give or take an ounce). Everything is finally slowing down...chicken about done...just have to go outside for the final flip. Why is the BBQ at 425 instead of 350? Open the lid...BONFIRE! El chicken, El no moro. Burn baby burn. Run over to the hose and run back to the BBQ, knock flower pot off table on the way so it shatters and throws dirt/rock all over the ground near the pool (that will be less funny later when Lori keeps stepping on pebbles at dinner time), hose off chicken from 10 feet away and salvage a couple thighs.

Time to cool down BBQ so that ribs can cook. With any luck, dinner should be ready by 9:00PM. Now as bad as my day has been...a good plate of ribs and good company can heal a lot of wounds...and it did. Dinner was great along with a portion of dump cake. Make me go night, night very well.

Wake up this morning to call the Ford dealership to find out I need to actually take the vehicle into the shop in order to have an extra key made. Hard to drive without a key. I figure that's probably a $200 tow. Naturally, I go back and spend another hour on the trail walking another 3 miles looking for the stupid key.

I get home and realize that we have AAA for the first time ever thanks to my wife's convincing me for our trip to Canada earlier in the year. She takes it from there and gets the truck to the shop and a couple of keys made. A simple $97 debit card swipe and I'm back in business. That's my truck going for a ride.

Days off are great!

Now you know why I don't blog more often....who wants to read all of that?!?

Oh, I almost forgot. If you haven't got a phone call from me in a couple of weeks it's because I dropped my BlackBerry in the hot tub while I was skimming it and lost everyone's phone numbers along with my portable email access. I had the joy of talking with tech support tonight for an hour trying to get it started back up and then another hour purchasing new phones...my warranty ran out 1 month ago. Dumb luck still hasn't stopped by for a visit.