Sometimes I do more than wonder

This morning I went to the gym. I'm maintaining a good regiment during the summer in spite of a different schedule. This mainly being that Amanda is not in school. She has been cooperating a lot better this summer as compared to the past few years and it has made a difference.

This morning she was to get her shower and get dressed while I was at the gym. I took a $1.50 with me to buy a Powerade from the vending machine and planned on doing my 40 minutes of cardio on the AMT. Well the machine was empty of both flavors of Powerade, vitamin waters and Smart Water and it gave me back my money. I was pretty put out because I am what can be called a "sweater." After 20 minutes it just pours from me. I tanked up like a small camel at the water fountain and then did my work out. Afterwards I headed home, very very thirsty.

When I arrived Amanda was having a fit about "NO SHOWER!" Tina said she couldn't get her to calm down and the two just agreed to disagree until I got home.
I tried to reason with Amanda at first. I explained that yesterday she went swimming and helped wash the cars and she was pretty stinky. She didn't want to hear it. So I stood her up off the couch and walked her down the hallway, the whole time she was pleading, "NO SHOWER!" Then I reached in my pocket and pulled out the six quarters that came back from the machine. I said, "Look at this, somebody drank the last drink at the gym and the machine kept my dollar bill and gave me all these quarters."

Well, that did it. She yelled out, "CALL COP!" Cop is the husband of her best friend and sitter who Amanda has a crush on. He is a cop and she thinks that is so cool. I said I would when we got to work but first we both needed to get our showers because we stink. She took a shower without difficulty after that and in fact she didn't even want to get out but I told her, "NO SHOWER!" and she just laughed.

Now, typically the machines are full at the gym, but this time everything was empty and I just have a hard time beilieving in coincidences.

While this was going one Tina made me a GREAT breakfast and I do love breakfast, it is one of my five favorite meals of the day.

It was nice while it lasted

Amanda had been released from all clinics at Arkansas Children's Hospital for an entire year. This was the first time in ten years we had such a break. But alas, we found a new little situation that has us in yet another clinic. Without going into too much detail, Amanda now has a nephrologist, yes it is a real word in spite of what spell check says, and it is a kidney specialist. Her condition is none threatening but needs to be monitored so once again we are back under the umberella of ACH. It was so nice not having to see: endichronolgy, dermatology, orthopedics, growth and development, dental, GI or vision any more. We were either released or found closer specialists, all of which has made our lives easier. But Amanda travels better than ever and we just do what we have to do.

fun through superior fire power

We're in the pool last evening and Amanda had her new squirt gun. This purple blaster known as the Helix Supersoaker turned out to be a piece of firefighting equipment and Amanda quickly turned it on me. This souped up piece of plastic shoots a double stream of water in an ever twisting and widening cone and simply blows the sunglasses off of an unsuspecting father's face. The most disturbing part is how much Amanda enjoys dishing out the pain, much like Tom Cruise's character in Taps when he is firing the .50 Caliber machine gun and screaming "It's beautiful man!" The only difference is when Amanda's gun runs dry she sweetly says, "Help me." So like a sucker I fill it up and she blasts me again.

These guns have come a long, long, long way from when I was a kid and it didn't matter how big it was, it shot the same weak stream about 10 feet.

Cargo shorts and civil responsibilty

I have a strong belief that people who don't iron their cargo shorts' pockets do not contribute to society on a regular basis.  Maybe if they are an organ donor or buy lottery tickets, but that is about it.  

I ironed five pair this morning, it took about 15 minutes and now I don't look like I have been camping for the past two weeks in the high back country.  It really isn't that hard, and it says, "Hey, I don't sleep in my clothes and I have at least some sense of  hygiene  and pride."

Not ready for normal

School is out and Amanda is loving it. The stress of not attending school every day is really allowing her to relax and thrive. She is speaking more clearly all the time and what she has to say makes so much sense that I'm not always prepared for it.

The best example is from last weekend. Tina and I were working in the backyard pruning, raking, moving large rocks (she would point and I would lift), cleaning the pool, patio, and staining the deck. Now, seventeen plus years of marriage has taught the two of us one thing, we don't work well together in the yard. The reason for this is simple. In the house Tina is in charge and I help by doing whatever she asks because she is the expert and I am clueless. In the yard we both assume we are in charge and neither will do what the other person asks without at least a debate. Christmas lights being the worst because she won't climb a ladder and I am a visionary.

But this weekend was different and we hope a start of new trend. We worked like a well oiled machine for two days and brought the backyard under control. Late on the second day is when Amanda popped off this little gem, "Amazing, no fight."

Can't say that I was ready for that one and it made us both feel a little guilty.

Returned and recharged

There is a cliche' that says on vacation a person needs to "recharge their battery." Well, before my vacation my battery was like one from an old laptop that I still use that must remained tethered to the wall for power. But unlike that old machine I did the right thing on this trip, I threw out the old battery and put in a new one.

The trip was nearly flawless. The only exception was a small cut on the tip of my middle finger which I received when getting a bag off of the carousal at SFO. It stung a little for a couple of days but is all better now and didn't deter any activities. Afterall, it was just a little deeper than a paper cut.

We saw a lot of Union Square, the Financial District and the Warf on this trip. We also spent an afternoon in Saulsalito which was very pleasant. Without getting into particulars of the trip, as this is not really a travel blog, Tina and I did what we wanted to to do. We spent uninterupted time together. We weren't parents, I wasn't a sales manager, and we weren't worried about anything. And we did something we both really needed to do, we walked. We walked everywhere we could and we walked out our pace, not Amanda's. We stretched out our legs and on Wendsday alone we walked seven miles. We walked from east of Pier 1 to Pier 39 at one stretch. We made a loop around Saulsalito the same day and walked from our hotel on Powell and Market to 525 Market, back up four blocks and then down to the Ferry Building. In fact, if you reverse the order in which I just typed that was our actual Wednesday. The walking was something we both craved and we satisfied the need.

Really, the whole trip was revitalizing. Yesterday was the first day we spent apart in the past week and Tina said she just felt lonely. I missed her too but had a 75 line item quote to keep me busy.

The trip was what we both wanted and needed and while we didn't do everything we set out to do, everything we did was satisfying and memorable.

Updating

I've been pretty busy the past few days getting ready for an actual vacation. Tina and I are getting as far away from TXK as possible both physically and culturally by going to San Francisco for 4 nights to celebrate my 40th birthday. Amanda is looking forward to it as much as we are because she will be spoiled by my mother who to date has never said no to a female child. There is no telling what I will come home to other than a huge smile.

I had a long day yesterday. It was necessary for me to drive to Ft. Worth, protect the company from a contractor who does not believe he is capable of making a mistake. Actually that was redundant because I've never met a contractor who has admitted to a mistake. And then drive home. 430 miles isn't a hard day by any means, it was just the 4 hours in between where I had to channel my inner asshole that left me a little drained.

The swine flu has caused the Texas Special Olympics to cancel this weekend's regional event in Dallas so we didn't have to drive back to Dallas today. Amanda took the news very well. A lot of people, myself included, were concerned about this. Even recently Amanda was capable of a fit that would leave the a hole in a concrete slab. But she took the news well when Tina told her she could have a cherry icee and come into my office in the afternoon. Tina said there was a brief moment when she was terrified. Upon hearing the news the event was cancelled Amanda's nastagymus stopped. That is a very scarey moment for anyone who has ever seen it. Grown men, not me, have been known to crap themselves at the sight of this prelude to a China Syndrome meltdown. I may have exagerated that, but I know somebody farted once.

All that being said, I am so looking forward to my trip.