Random Thought 5

I've realized that I can locate particular people by smell. This both amazes and disturbs me. Hopefully it can be of use in the future.

I Can Be Your Hero

So, over the past couple of months I've began to play racquetball pretty regularly with a couple of other guys on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 5 am. I'm at least moderately athletic, and after a couple of weeks I was able to get close to their level where I was at least competitive. Over the last month or two, I've noticed that I am almost on equal playing level with them (which to me just means that I win games pretty much as often as they do). It's a lot of fun, and a great workout, as I always come out drenched in sweat after about 75 minutes of playing in the morning. My wife can describe it as me looking like I just climbed out of the river, while the other two guys don't even look like they've broken a sweat. Endearing, I know...

Well, even though I feel like I'm improving, I still do stupid stuff and make erroneous plays basically every time we play. If nothing else, I'm good for a dose of comic relief. You see, I basically have to levels of athletic play in me. 1) The level that I play at for competitive sports, such as football, basketball, baseball and track that I competed in during high school. Competition was important then, and I tried to have fun. 2) The level that I now find myself playing basically all things at. I play for fun, for the workout, and to generally improve at whatever I'm doing. Similar to the weekly Thursday night sand volleyball games that I participated in during high school with my friends. We were out there for bragging rights and the glory of the moment, not to try to when games on a school team.

Anyway, back to the humorous events during racquetball. I've recently been successful at running into the wall while not looking at it, hitting myself in the face with the ball (thank God for goggles), hitting myself in the mouth with the ball (swollen lip from that), tripped over the lines on the floor (yeah, read it again - you'll know what I mean), and lastly the moment I've dubbed as the "Slow-Motion, I Can Be Your Hero, Baby" instance.

The ball was bouncing high, over my head, and I was backpedalling to get into position, and at just the right time, I leapt as high as I could and took a mighty swing at the ball... and whiffed. Completely, 100%, I might as well have been trying to fan Cleopatra whiff. I have no idea how far off I was from making contact, but after it happened, I could only imagine what it must have looked like - and in my head it was in slow-motion, and Enrique Iglesias was belting out his oh-so-over-played ballad. But hey, no matter how sad that was, wouldn't you be intimidated by the guy below? :)

Random Thought 4

In the future, it would behoove me to NOT hit myself in the face with a racquetball.

Random Thought 3

I think the Roomba is a pretty sweet invention, but I don't see why we don't expand... I'm thinking the robot that mows your lawn - The Lawnba.

Random Thought 2

I wonder why humans never domesticated the hippopotamus? Just think about it... it's a good idea through and through.

Random Thought 1

Wouldn't it be more efficient if those gigantic windmills you see alongside the interstate that are used to capture wind energy had more than three blades?

Slacking Off

Well, my wife has built another one-of-a-kind entertainment venue that make people around us go, "huh, what is THAT thing?" Let me tell you...

Mary-Jane, who if you didn't know, is really in to anything rock climbing, has constructed a slack line. It is a useful tool that rock climbers practice with to improve their core balance. The slack line is made mostly of 1-inch climbing webbing. One piece is wrapped around a tree and tied together with a carabiner. What is a carabiner you might ask? Well, it's that clip-thing that I have my keys hanging from on my belt loop. But don't get me wrong, these carabiners for the slack line are heavy duty, able to withstand multiple hundreds of pounds - my key carabiner would most definitely not. When wrapping the webbing around the tree we are sure to place rugs between the tree and webbing so as to not damage the tree. Just ask Mary-Jane, they are the most beautiful rugs ever (Actually, they are the $1.00 rugs I purchased for the floor in our bedroom that subsequently got "demoted").

Anyway, the the other piece of webbing is also wrapped around a tree about 15-20 feet away and is stretched toward the first tree. The two ends of webbing (both containing a carabiner) are connected with a cum-a-long (a ratcheting tool used to bring two things closer together-think "portable winch"). Now, as you get on the slack line, is stretches, so if you are having trouble imagining this, just think if a tightrope and a trampoline procreated... the offspring would be a slack line.

Now, getting on the slack line is quite the animal in itself, let alone REMAINING on the slack line. Enjoy the posted video of me proudly showing you how difficult it is to stay on the slack line. My personal best is about 2.5 seconds (give or take 1.5 seconds). Mary-Jane has balanced for 47 seconds! Of course, it may be longer now... she is out working on it as I type. Either way, I could go on and on about this, but just wanted to give you a taste about it. Ask me more about it, and I'd be happy to share. Apparently it's called the world's thinnest trampoline... I don't see it, and as far as I can tell, all we built was a human slingshot.