As we come nearer to the day that our next-door-neighbor will move to the Great Northwest, I make some mental cogitations about ways in which I will miss his presence. I enjoy his humor, and his understanding of technology, and generally just spending some time with him.

For the sake of specificity, I will write about a quirky thing that he is performing while I type. We are in the middle of a rare July thunderstorm – wind blowing, lightning flashing, rain falling, lawn-mowing. “Lawn-mowing?” you ask? You read it correctly. Kane is currently mowing his lawn while 2/3 of the world’s electric current rests about a mile above our general vicinity…just perched up there and ready to strike any foolish enough to challenge its authority.

This kind of thing will be missed. The unconventional approach to life that makes us giggle.

When Kane saw me gawking at this spectacle, he stopped the mower, and motioned with his hands as if to say, “What’s the problem?” My response was, “Don’t you want to make it to Portland? You’re gonna die right there!”.

Kane’s response was very Kane-esque. He said, “It’s [the lightning] afraid of me!”. Again, his humor will be missed.

As of the last few days, I have officially lost about 10 pounds. I began diet and exercise on January 7, and have seen slow but steady progress in this area. I prayed for this, and the LORD answered faithfully.

ONE

I have recently revived my desire to search for a new career. After talking with a few friends, I have come to the conclusion that all I can do is try. Forget about how hopeless the economy seems. If I don’t do something now, I may regret it later. With toes on the edge, let’s jump.

TWO

Push ups are once again a part of the regime. My cousin gave me a set of the perfect pushups thingies and I have enjoyed using them. While I may not be pursuing that elusive 100, I am getting in better shape by consistently performing push ups.

It’s true. I have officially taken more than a “break” from the push up program. I am not discouraged with this, though. I have been working out consistently for a few weeks now, and am feeling really energized. If anything, the push ups got me going on the exercise kick.

I reserve the right to go back to the program at any time. I’m just not sure when that will be.

Yesterday I began Week 4 of the push ups program. I am surprised at the increase in strength I have experienced, but I am still not sure that I will be able to meet the 100 consecutive push ups goal. I was thinking about doubling back to week 3 in order to buy some more time, and gain more endurance, but I may see how week 4 goes.

I share a problem with a friend that also tried the program. That problem is with breathing. I am finding that at higher reps I am having considerable difficulty processing enough oxygen. It may be that my friend and I are both lacking in the cardio-fitness area. I would not deny that for myself. I am hoping that with increased cardio workouts, that will change. We’ll see!

Just a few evenings ago, my wife once again surprised me with just a small bit of comedy. Her whole family was at our house for Christmas festivities, and we were all getting into our vehicles to go out to eat.

Now when we are with her family, all of us number to 23 persons, so it can be quite an adventure no matter what we do. Getting into our respective vehicles is at the top of the list of excitement. Inevitably, someone wants to ride in the car belonging to another family, so we take great care in counting heads to make sure that everyone is with us. We have all seen Home Alone.

We were in the process of getting into our vehicles. Everyone was accounted for except CC. She was still in the house, when CC’s sister came to me and said that I could leave since she had room for CC in another vehicle. So I did.

Just as I was leaving, CC was coming out of our home, and caught sight of the Suburban pulling away. Thinking she was being left behind, and not wanting to be left behind, she did what any grown woman would do. She ran as fast as she could in hopes that she could get my attention.

What focus! She didn’t even see the van waiting for her in our driveway. But the occupants of the van saw her, and enjoyed every stride she took. Just another family memory that we can all recall and laugh about!

My need for more water has come to my attention lately. So – I have, in the last week or so, consumed about a gallon of water each day. Some benefits?

• Fewer hours of required sleep. Since I have kicked up my water intake, I seem to be less fatigued than normal. This is something that I have desired for some time. I have thought that I would just have to accept my sleep requirement of 8 hours as genetic, and thus, a fact of life. Maybe this is not so. Time will tell.
• A general feeling of greater well-being.
• A sense of accomplishment for having achieved a goal – 128 ounces a day. Now to string this goal out into a long-term habit.

For those of you who say that you could never keep this kind of water consumption up (because you have things better to do than visit the bathroom all day)…I have read that after increasing your consumption for about 3-4 days, your body compensates, and visits to the restroom level off. My experience in the last week bears this out as the truth. A win-win situation!

I completed Day 1 of Week 2 in my push ups saga. Not too difficult.

I successfully finished week one of my push ups program yesterday. I have noticed an increase in strength and more of a steadiness as I do each push up. Day 3 of week one was actually easier than day 2 of week one. I am going to take a two day break, and then start week 2 on Saturday.

Saturday, I began a push ups program that promises to enable the faithful to perform 100 consecutive push ups. I eagerly emailed Kane about the program, because I know that he is interested in fitness, and to my surprise, he responded something like this – “Tried it last summer – doesn’t work!”

Hopes dashed – dreams ripped to shreds. Anyway, after recovering from a burst bubble, I realized that even if the program doesn’t deliver as promised, it should still allow me to pursue better health.

Kane’s criticism was that Week 5 of the program was impossible. I have to admit that Day 2 of Week 1 was quite a bit more difficult for me than Day 1! Still encouraged, though.

One little discovery made is that I have started thinking about doing something similar with other exercises like sit ups or crunches. We’ll see how it goes…