Doing my manly duty

It's that time of year again, when otherwise sane people leave the comforts of home opting instead for a "bed" on the cold ground after a nice meal of canned chili.

Count me among the insane.

I'll be heading into the great outdoors with my psycho brother for a week or so. Should this happen to be my final blog entry prior to my death from exposure, please know that I love you guys and that I've lead a full life.

I hereby leave my new wetsuit to Paul.

Meet one of my Heroes

Let me introduce you to Jessica.

She's as cool as it gets.

I've always dabbled with photography and am in awe of someone who has an eye for capturing things at just the right moment. She's one of those people. She has an incredible gift for capturing the most amazing still-life images, especially of children.

But as it is with most photographers, there aren't a great many pics of her since she's usually the one behind the shutter.

The pic above captures her in her native environment, standing just inside the kitchen, getting Paul lined out for the day. ;-)

I want to tell the world how proud of you I am, Jessica, you're the best!

They're so cute at this age!

Not to keep harping on this but . . .

Jake went so deep into "autograph mode" that in the fray he even signed his own arm, saying, "I'm going to tell everyone that Willie Nelson's daughter signed my arm and everyone will want to be me".

Even the most casual observer can see that the signature on the aforementioned arm reads, "Jake", which clearly isn't the given name of Willie's daughter. I said, "No one will believe that Paula signed your arm, that scribbling is ridiculous" He said, "Oh yeah? Watch this." He then proceeded to prove me wrong by saying to anyone who walked past, "Look, Willie's daughter signed my arm; what do you think about that?"

Those who weren't scared by his boldness actually said something like, "Oh, that's cool".

What a bunch of dorks.

Where do I put my Hands?

Last evening proved to be nearly my very last evening on this side of Glory. The mild-mannered kid you see next to the beautiful blonde happens to be my son Jake. Jake had me laughing so hard last night that I breathed a Cheeto into my airway and nearly died.

He saw a celebrity signing a man's shoulder and that sent him immediately into "autograph" mode ala Taledega Nights. He was offering to sign anything for anyone.

When an angry musician spurned his autograph signing advances, Jake promptly told the man that he could take the marker and sign his @$$.

What's a father to do?

Long way down

I found a very cool place to look down into the Grand Canyon just below Glen Canyon Dam. You can get right on the very edge of the red rocks and look 500 feet straight down.

It's pretty cool and scary at the same time.

If someone REALLY wanted to, I found a spot where a guy could climb/hike down to the river.

Who's with me?

Should I stay or should I go?

At the pool this evening, coach Kevin decides to introduce an entirely newfangled swimming stroke efficiency philosophy:

A
R
M

He told me what the acronym stood for but in my oxygen deprived condition I didn't remember, I know the first letter stands for "Anchor" but I think I already have that concept mastered. Swimming fast all the while being an anchor don't seem to be harmonious concepts.

Anyhoo

Coach said that the new philosophy will make me faster; but do I really want to invest the time necessary into it to make it work? I'm not a fast learner.

Maybe I'll take up an easier sport like drinking or collecting fridge magnets?

What could be better?

We go to our first triathlon and not only do we have a crazy blast of a good time, but we WIN.

I hope we can find some more mountains to climb.