Talking Back

Greetings, Readers. And particularly Butterfly and Debi. :-)

I noticed a couple comments on my previous post, and thought I'd compile my responses into a new one, since they started to become a little lengthy. (Then again, when was I ever known to be brief?) So, here we go.

Butterfly - My mom's roof is all tarped up last I knew, and they're going to need it totally re-done, which falls just under their deductible on their insurance, so they're going to have to shell out full price from their own pocket. Over at my house, we've still got the damage we had before with the siding, but the real ugly parts have been boarded up. And that's about it. My aunt has never been too hasty about taking care of non-vital repairs. (i.e.: Anything short of full loss of power, water, or phone service, or damage to kitchen or multimedia appliances, or air conditioning.)

As far as riding my bike to work, it has its times. On the way to work isn't much enjoyable, since it's in the middle of our hot and humid Florida nights, and there's always the pressure to get to work on time. But, on the way home, when the weather is about as cool as it's ever going to be during the day, and I don't have to particularly worry about getting anywhere at any certain time, it's rather nice. Distance is a little over 3 miles, and I usually cover it in about 30 minutes on the way there, and sometimes as short as 20 minutes on the way home. (A lot more uphill going to work than from, if Florida can be considered to have "hills".) Like I said before, it's nothing I've not done on a regular basis in the past, it's just been awhile. Also, my self-maintenance level isn't where it used to be either. (A couple co-workers of mine have told me that in the past 3 or 4 months that they've known me, I've lost a good bit of weight. Starting from 6' 0" and 135 lbs. at last check, that's not a good thing.)

Probably the most riding I've ever done was one trip home from another job, when I'd missed the bus on a particularly nice day. It would have been an hour to wait for the next bus, and the weather was nice, so I decided to go crazy and ride my bike all the way. Why crazy? Because (now that I look it up) the trip was about 23 miles from work to home. And that would be if you're taking the Interstate, which of course I wouldn't be doing on bike. So, with all the detours, (plus a few long-sustained wrong turns) my ride was probably more like 36 miles or so, and took about 3 hours. If I got back into the shape I was then, I think I'd do it again sometime just for the fun.

Meanwhile, in my current shape, my body screams for mercy every night. This truly brings me to the awareness of how not well my body actually is. I used to be able to do this kind of ride to and from a job, (or double the distance, to and from school) and do my work in between, and not physically feel bad at all coming home. Not a good change at all.

Debi - Thank you for your prayers, they are always appreciated, and particularly now they are hitting directly on my current needs. Strength is a rather obvious one, given my recent change in travel mode. Wisdom is also going to be needed to get me through just handing the mess of thoughts in my mind right now. There's so much that I can feel that I'm thinking right now that I don't clearly know what I am actually thinking. Also, with my wife and baby away, many temptations have - and more will - come into play that normally don't have as much strength against me when my wife and daughter are here. So, the battle of flesh vs. Spirit rages on harder.

As far as me going up to Illinois to see her while she's there, that's pretty much out of the question. It's financially un-feasable to start with (her mother's paying for her trip as it is), and even if we did have the money to get me there and back, we couldn't afford for me to have the time off work. So, nice idea, but it just can't happen. :-( The peace and quiet around here is nice though, when I'm sleeping. When I'm awake and I notice it, however, it does bother me occasionally. Fortunately I have a handful of good friends and family members that will drag me out of the house as they see necessary to keep me "alive".

In other news - I'm considering starting another blog. There's a lot of times that I just want to totally vent my frustrations, but that's not what I intended to have this blog for. So, I'm thinking about making a separate one just for when I want to gripe about various things. That way people that like to keep up with this journal here can do so without having to see my "ugly side" if they don't want to. However, it may behoove anyone wanting to truly know me - all of me - to go ahead and read both. I will warn that, if things get really nasty some days, there may end up some occasional "colorful metaphors" on that blog, (For which I'm considering the title: "Blog, Moan, and Whine") although I will try to refrain from their usage in general. The separation of the blogs should also help keep any remotely harsh language further off this one. Yeah, I know it's not good of a "Christian" to swear, and it's something I'd like to say I'm working on, but when it comes to venting - for me - those rules just end up out the window sometimes. Hopefully some day I will be able to say I'm entirely free from it, but meanwhile you have been warned. I'll post when the new blog is up.

- Iszi