Spending Time

Happy that my son is now back living in California.
There's a lot that I could say about non-ideal situations, the struggles that have been (and are being) endured (sometimes rather poorly) and all manner of.....

Well...

What I'm really keenly aware of right now is how much I'm enjoying getting to spend so much more time with my son. We've been building things, throwing frisbees, playing in the sand, exploring the beach, swimming, fixing toilets and just, in general, enjoying being together. And I'm so grateful that the time of being apart so much is now over.

New Music

Ran across this today and thought it was worthy of sharing.

Uh...with the complete absence of people who will read this.

Damn.

Anyway....here it is:

The Sad Carnivore

When I lived in Montana I started hunting. It was a mix of "I want to eat meat" and "I want to get outside so I don't go crazy" and "I like walking around the mountains with a rifle."

I moved back to the SoCal last year and the hunting culture is...not as prevalent...as in Montana. But there is a season and normal people can get deer tags so I got one and went for a walk in the back country looking for some food.

It was nice getting out. Didn't see anything that I could shoot but I'm starting to connect with the land here in some new ways.

Still...it'd be nice to make some deer tacos...

Abiding

It's been an interesting few weeks and I'm actually contemplating writing some more in-depth (somewhat revealing) posts about a few things that I'm dealing with right now. But just to stave off the urge to not post ANYTHING unless I have something monumental to say....well...just thought that I should try to get into the habit of writing SOMETHING. Then, perhaps, my great works will follow...

As for now:
Enjoying the sun when it comes out. I've been on some new medication over the past two weeks and I think that my body/brain is starting to adapt to it. So it's a little easier to get motivated to head out and I've been trying to get into the ocean as much as possible. I hadn't surfed since I moved back to Cali in spring '10 until about two weeks ago. I'm trying to paddle out every day (or at least every couple of days). Waves are small but crappy and I couldn't be happier to get out into the water again.

Abiding, indeed.

Reading

I'm not a prolific reader compared to other cats out there...hell, I barely read books these days. But I do knock off a few each year and I definitely have my favorites to which I return from time to time.

A few days ago I got the urge to revisit an author. Ernest Hemingway has the distinction (to me) of being probably the only author whose work I was ever assigned to read in class that I actually still feel compelled to read every year or so (Twain should also count...but I read him long before it was ever assigned).

I've read most of his things and relate to characters in several books. Writing of trout fishing in Spain sparked my interest in the country (and I actually DID fish a river in Austria that he had written briefly about). But it's his short stories...man...good stuff.

So that's what I'm digesting these days. Revisiting the complete canon and trying to pick out something new that I can apply to my life right now.

To the Tunes of...

This past weekend was a good one for musical entertainment. Friday night I accompanied a friend and a couple of uber-excited high school kids to a Skatalites show in Ventura.

Okay actually my friend was the uber-excited one. I was stoked to tag along and hear some new music. And the In & Out Burger en route was good, too.

Really glad that I went as the music was top notch. My first time hearing the band (I think my first time hearing ska at ALL...so sorry "going to college in the 90s"...I was on a somewhat regrettable music bender at that time).

Saturday night I went to a Peter Gabriel concert at the Santa Barbara bowl.

Oh. My.

To say that the experience was incredible would be more than an understatement...perhaps by a few orders of magnitude. I've listened, practically fed on, Peter Gabriel songs for the past 16 years and they've always had their places in steady rotation on my "favorites" playlist.

Gabriel was playing with an orchestra rather than his "usual" band and I thought that I wouldn't feel the same connection to the music. I can't even say "in spite of that"...because the experience was so great, the music so deep, the visuals and performances so engaging...can't imagine it being any better.

Running Away

My legs are sore this morning.

Last night I ran in a 5K race. "Race" isn't necessarily an appropriate descriptor for me as my goal is usually just to finish with a somewhat respectable time. I typically average a sub-8 minute mile and my goal for the season is to hit a 7 minute pace (my best time last season was a 7:11).

This isn't remarkable in the world of runners...and I see all ages and shapes of people pass me on the course. But it's significant to me in that I was (a few years ago) quite out of shape and wouldn't have imagined that I would actually LIKE to get out and run. In the past few years I've run in several races - ranging from 5K to half-marathons (including a fairly gnarly 13K trail run at altitude).

I write this now because my legs are sore and I've been lacking motivation (for the past few months) to really get out there and run on a regular basis...and I have all but stopped cycling. Granted, I've been swimming a lot...but I need to start pushing it a little. Put them all together and I've got a triathlon.