Endurance Racing

I'm a race fan. No secret there. Mostly IndyCars, but I'll watch nearly anything. This past weekend was the annual kickoff to a new racing season with one of the most intriguing events of the year, the 24 Hours of Daytona.

This race takes place before all the other major series get their seasons going, so it attracts a unique mix of some great drivers. Dario Franchitti. Scott Dixon. Jimmie Johnson. Juan Pablo Montoya. Ryan Hunter-Reay. Sebastian Bourdais. Justin Wilson. Jason Vinkemulder. Who? That's right, my former boss' husband got to run in it for the second year in a row. I just think that is really cool to see the name of someone I know scrolling across the screen. From what I hear, their Corvette's transmission gave out sometime in the night and they didn't get to finish, but still what a cool thing. Of course, the only time I actually saw the car on screen it was sliding into a tire barrier. Oops! I don't think Jason was driving at the time.

Anyway, I got thinking last night that parenting is sort of like an endurance race. I should preface this by saying we've been very lucky and have two girls who sleep all night. Usually. But last night was not one of those nights. After playing around in our room until 9:30 - well past bedtime (with Claire being a total ham and smiling up a storm), then chattering away in their room until well past 10, Kate decided she just didn't want to sleep. She wanted to scream and fuss. (Teeth?) Sarah sat with her for a while, then I took the midnight to 1 shift. Just sitting in the La Z Boy. Hanging out. Quietly looking around in the dark. Leaning back and snuggling down. Playing with the blanket. Finally zonked out close to 1 and I gently got her back in her crib and got some sleep of my own. But man, was that alarm jarring at 6 a.m.

So now I know how all those drivers prepare for races like the Daytona 24. At least the ones with kids. I wonder how the others do it?

Snot Fountains

That's the term used by my darling wife to describe the current status of the twins. And a descriptive term it is! Poor little things. Claire tries to suck on a bottle, but can't breathe because her nose is so plugged up. But, oh, the screams when we use the booger ball to try to clean her out! Kate is not a heck of a lot better off. Teething isn't helping matters.

But we fed them chicken noodle soup, and they've been getting lots of sleep - and quality time in the La-Z-Boy with mom and dad.

And that's the way things are.

I'm a bad blogger

Wow, August? I haven't posted since August? I know fall is always one of our busiest times of year, but sheesh.

So to recap:
Fall: Busy with babies, leaves (and more leaves), football, and leaves.
Thanksgiving: Turkey! Yum!
December: Holiday activities, shopping, snow.
Holidays: Running around, getting the babies off schedule - and paying for it later. And coming down with a nasty cold that lingered around for a bit.

Which brings us to January, and a period of relative calm. This past weekend the biggest adventure was going to Kmart, which is actually more than we did the previous weekend. We've been unmotivated, lazy and generally lacking in energy. That's what winter is about, right? It's a good time to just plop on the floor and let the girls crawl around on us. Yes, they are both crawling. I really need to summon the energy to get that baby gate put up.

Well, it is Monday morning after all, and I need to get to work. While I can't promise daily updates, I'll try to do better than every five months!

"Daddy, can I have a horse?"

So I didn't exactly hear that. But I could see it in Kate's eyes.

We went to the county fair tonight. A couple kids in the neighborhood have horses, so after checking out the sheep, goats, cows, pigs, ducks, turkeys, rabbits and other barnyard critters, we gravitated toward the horse barn. We ran into the boy on the next street with his horse, and as we stood chatting, Kate was mesmerized by that horse. The horse kept nuzzling down toward the stroller, then would lift his head and look around. And Kate's eyes followed his every move. It was pretty cool. Claire? She was pretty happy to sit there and make her little squeals. But not like a pig. :)

Then it was off to make a circuit of the rest of the fair, see the Tiger show, cruise the midway, worry about the girls turning into one a teenager. You know the drill. And a cinammon roll. Gotta have one of those.

At least I didn't have to tell them "no" tonight.

Was that it for summer?

Watching the weather forecast this morning, I'm seeing low 70s for the weekend, and mid 70s for next week. And the week after that it will be September. So it looks like we got about one week of summer last week, with the 90 and humidity. Oh, well. I've been too busy to notice much about the short summer anyway:

1. Started the new job. So far, so good!
2. Went to cross country camp last week. Yes, it's true, after four days on the job, I took a week off. But camp went well, and the babies did fine. Sarah will miss some things about coaching, other things not so much.
3. I became an uncle. My sister had her baby early last Friday morning. As we suspected, it's a boy, Brendan Lachlan. She wasn't due until Sept. 18, but mom and baby are doing fine, and she was home by Sunday afternoon. We're still wondering how we ended up the way we did, but all we can say is all's well that ends well.
4. Took the babies to see grandma and grandpa on Sunday, where they got their first dip in the pool! I need to get some pics up on fb of that.

So after all that, we're starting to stare fall in the face. Sarah goes back to work on Aug. 31, with the first day with kids on Sept. 7. 2009 has been anything but business as usual from the beginning, but maybe after that we'll get back into a routine. A guy can hope, right?

A new chapter

Well, that was a short-lived career as a freelance writer.

This morning I was offered a full-time position, and I accepted.

As with all changes in life, there are many things to be excited about, yet at the same time a certain level of sadness, too. It's always easier to maintain the status quo rather than venture out into uncharted territory, but that's just how things worked out. Without my previous job, I never would have met my wife, which means I would never have had my two girls. So it will always be a big part of who I am.

I must admit I did not expect to be gainfully employed again so quickly. Sort of negates the whole original direction of this blog, no? But as life has led me in a new direction, surely this blog will follow along.

It's always an interesting ride.

If I ever get back to Georgia...

No, I'm not from Georgia. I've been to Georgia, though. Mostly just through it on the way to Florida, which seems to take forever. And I'm not a big fan of Atlanta traffic, and I still begrudge Georgia Tech a certain basketball game nearly 20 years ago. But that's another story. Overall, though, I like Georgia all right.

So what has that got to do with this post? Well, I was a fan of newspaper columnizt Lewis Grizzard once upon a time. And one of this Atlanta writer's books about his wanderings was aptly titled "If I Ever Get Back to Georgia, I'm Going to Nail My Feet to the Ground." I've been thinking about a portion of that book the past few weeks. You see, at one point in his career, Lewis found himself out of work in the newspaper business. So, he set out to be a freelance writer. For some reason, I've always remembered what he said: "I had no idea how to become a freelance writer except to say, 'I'm a freelance writer.' So that's what I did." So, that's what I'm doing.

I have my first assignment, which I should be working on instead of blogging, but there you go. The move did not turn out to be a very lucrative one for Mr. Grizzard, and he ended up back as a newspaper columnist and eventually churned out a few books. Given the current situation at casa de macwriter, it's going to be a tough row to hoe here, too. But it's worth a shot, right?