Men, Boys and Yogi's


Last Night was the big Boys Club Pinewood Derby at church. It was quite a spectacle when it got going. It's all automated now including split second timing, software telling personal best times, automated results, the whole smash. Of course there were the technical glitches that go with any first time endeavor like this. The funniest of them though was the first race. With all of the build-up of "the first Boys Club Pinewood Derby in the history of Boys Club", none of the cars in the first race made it to the finish line. It seems that oil is an integral part of pinewood derby racing. Hey, we're all new at this...
Once the cars were all lubed up, the races went much better. No more cars failed to finish across the finish line. Oh there were a few fiery crashes, but no lives were lost in all of it. The boys (and boys disguised as men) had a great time and all came away happy. Ben even managed to win a trophy for "2nd place Best Design). So, all that hard work and angst put into building the cars actually paid off in the end.
In keeping with my intnetions of accomplishing some goals this year, I enrolled in a Yoga class. I did it with great trepidation and am still not sure what i've gotten myself into. The class meets twice a week, at work, after work. Of course I'm the only man among 12 ladies or so. I knew that would happen. I've heard so many people recommend it to me for everything from carpal tunnel to my back to just feeling better.
The first session was pretty funny from my perspective. Funny because though I'm in shape, I'm NOT flexible at all. I knew this going in, this course just confirmed that. Furthermore, I figured I'm in pretty good shape, so I can take a little stretching, no prob. Well the Yoga I saw that night was a whole lot more than a little stretching. Can you say muscle spasms? Shaking legs and trunk? Yeah, that was me.
The upside to it all was that when it was all over and done with I felt great! Absolutely euphoric, in a way that's hard to describe. Maybe I'm reading more into it than what's there, but it was good, whatever it was. So, I plan to keep it up for the 6 weeks and see what comes of it. If I turn vegetarian and start talking about feng shui, feel free to stage an intervention. The only thing worse than a yoga wierdo is a preachy-yoga wierdo.
More tomorrow I hope. Now I need to go chant. Ummmmmm...
Blogging off...
Jim

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Portal To The Past

Image
It is a warm August evening in 1989 and my girlfriend and I are sitting at the bar of Wolski's Tavern on the lower East side of Milwaukee. We are awaiting our friend, Bill, for a couple of drinks and maybe a game of darts, the real steel-tipped kind with chalkboard scoring. The music system, complete with octagonal shaped speakers that hang from the ceiling, belts out hits of the day by REM, New Order and The Cure. Flags of foreign countries and other places cover the ceiling in parachute fashion and the cash register is the old fashioned kind whose keys requires a two handed forceful push, followed by the drawer opening and a ca-ching. Everything about the place has an old Milwaukee feel to it and it is a recent favorite haunt of mine since I moved to the East Side. I am drinking a Point Beer because it's cheap and a nice change from Miller products. Donna is on her second or third Gin and Tonic and is getting that dreamy look in her eyes. She has a bit of a grin on her face
Read more

Genetically Blogging

Image
It seems I have another book in the books, so to speak. I finally got my cover for my newest chapbook, Genetically Speaking: Poems on Fatherhood , from my publisher, Local Gems Press. After the last of my textual edits, they've sent it off to press and I should be receiving my copies in three weeks. Huzzah! For those who don't know, my other collection, Thoughts from a Line at the DMV , came out a couple of weeks ago. (It's been a very good year). I was waiting for this one to come to completion so I could schedule a dual-book release in November. Watch for details on that, tentatively pending for Nov. 16th or 23rd. The book came about through a NaPoWriMo contest by Local Gems Press back in April. Poets are encouraged/obligated to write a poem a day for the whole month. Then, at the end of the month, we were supposed to submit our manuscripts for consideration. I was a "honorable mention" that also got an offer of publication. Thus, Genetically Speaking was
Read more

A Day Unlike Other Days

I celebrated my 58th birthday a few days ago. As one gets older, birthdays are more and more just another day at work, albeit with a little special edge to it. This one was no different. It was one of those days where work was one meeting after another with a holiday party thrown in at the noon hour to make it just a little more upside down. The nice thing about the busyness was it made the day go by quickly. But as I said, there were some things that made it special, like: Cupcakes from my wife for both the GIS staff and the County Christmas party. Everyone deserves cake (or pie) on their birthday.  A text from my daughter wishing me a happy birthday. A call from Ben in Madison, wishing me the same. When I got home a gift from Sarah awaited; a much-needed pair of slippers! Over 100 Facebook birthday wishes. There is much to hate about social media and Facebook in particular, but it does serve this purpose very well. I very much appreciate my Facebook friends and love scrolli
Read more