Eliz and I are pretty non conventional people.  We don't adhere to typical gender roles, we attempt to be more nontraditional in interaction with people and general carrying of ourselves.  This has lead us to some pretty amazing an interesting places.  From coffee ground fresh on a Nicaraguan mountain, to the tuberculosis slums of South Africa, she and I like to get into the mix of the world.  We love to experience these cultural oddities together and feel it not only brings us together as a married couple, but opens our eyes the beauty of the world, while strengthening the bond we all share.  That bond of humanity.

We have found subcultural experiences even here in our own town.  Inner City communities accepting us as one, homeless men and woman sharing with us happiness and pain, wonderful taco cart eateries and Latino seafood restaurants where you have to order in Spanish, just to name a few.  But, recently we dabbled in the foray of Easter Medicine.  Acupuncture.

Part of a deal we found on Seize the Deal website, half off a session of Acupuncture.  It was a very interesting experience.  First, it was administered by a very tall, white man with over 15 years of experience.  An ex army man who dabbled in different disciplines of both medicine and meditation all of eastern descent.  He and his very Bavarian wife, were making a killing with this acupuncture using a Chiropractor's office on Saturdays.  He informed us he was in business of dealing with pain, but could work on other "issues" as well.

For me, being an athlete, and an aging one at that, I have some aches and pains from my unwillingness to admit my age, combined with being the oldest on my soccer team, a need to prove myself.  Along with my running this has left me with a tight and pained left hamstring, a sore right knee, and an odd pain in my right rotator cuff, when my arm is engaged in one motion for too long (like running).  These were the maladies I explained to him, for which he was hopeful some relief could be obtained.

He himself was a runner, and a talker.  This came with lots of time chitchatting, or in this case him talking to me with my monosyllabic grunts to acknowledge a partial participation in his conversation.  He put me in a room, had me to lie on the bed and begun sticking needles, with force, into my knee.  I waited for the relief, none came, but then he pulled out a Tinge machine and hooked it up to the needles and pulsed electricity to my knee.  Something he repeated with both my hamstring and my shoulder. As I lied there, feeling like a human pincushion, and wondering what my poor wife was going through, I found it to be no big deal.  Perhaps years of yoga and my preconceived notions of a Confucius type man centering my Chi and defining my shockras led to my lackluster approached to a modernized, ancient medicine.  But, I don't think it is something I will regularly do.  Plus it's damn expensive.  I will admit, however, I've run a few times since and have not had any pain in my hammy, my shoulder, or my knee. So, maybe there is something to it after all.

Here are some pics I attempted to snap off, kinda hard with pins all in you body, hard to move, but if you look close you can see the pins and the tinge machine's electrodes:

Fun with Filters

all photos taken with an Iphone 3GS and filters applied from the Instagram App.  

Faux Fall

Lately I've taken to running the trails at the Stoner Boat Launch.  Shreveportians are pretty lucky to have suck a great trail system so close to downtown,  (actually starting in downtown).  These river front trails provide for all types of biking and running.  They have an asphalt path, 5 miles one way, that can accomodate all runners and both mountain and road bikers.  It also had miles of trail for mountain biking and trail running, my favorites.  Yesterday, I took advantage of both the trail running and the mountain biking.

In the morning, around 6:30, when the sun was peeking through the trees, and we were was quietly running the trail with leaves falling and rustling below us, I felt at peace.  I sighed and took the time to look around.  It was gorgeious,  yellow, red, and green leaves falling.  A blanket of them lying on the floor.  For a moment I thought to myself, "Wow, this is gorgeous, fall like, wonderful."  Then relatity hit and said outloud,  "Wait, WHAT?  It's the middle of Agust, why the hell does it look like fall here.  Oh yeah, right, I know, because of the weeks of consecutive 105+ degrees of heat." Yeah, the damned heat wave has caused the trees and thier leaves to die, imitating an autumn jettison of their precious shade providing, food luring, leaves.  Sad really.  Once I realized the cause of this, I was less inclined to be so happy with the condition of the trees.  But, the paths are still nice.


This weather has been great for my tan...or lack there of.  I refuse to go outside and do things, course stuff is starting to pile up and I'm waging a loosing battle with my grass.  But, it is what it is.  At least the trails are fun and I can still find some things to occupy my time with.  Peace.

Birthday Fun Days

This weekend Elizabeth, Pico, and I went down to South Louisiana to celebrate a birthday.  Friday we stopped off in Lafayette to vist with Eliz's sister, brother in law, and their cute son, Rives.  He is two and you can tell.  We met at the rock climbing gym, Rok Haus, for some climbing and general fun and frivolity.  We were fully expecting Rives to be climbing up and down the walls, expending his energy as he went.  He has loved climbing at the playground and we were pretty sure he'd get a kick out this.  Turns out he was having more fun running around on the soft floors, playing with the ropes, and weaving through the feet and hands of the other climbers, then actually doing any climbing himself.  I know this is something he will enjoy, it just might take another year or so to get him into it.  We had a nice Thai dinner with them and went to bed early (as I seem to do more and more in my increasing years).

Saturday we ventured to Denham Springs, arriving in time to help set up for the party.  Annalynn's birthday is 8/9/10, but as days change, we celebrated on Saturday, the 6th.  Tony and Sarah did an amazing job decorating the house, and mom even helped preparing food and getting everything in order.  Guest came, AnnaLynn cooed, presents were open, it was a party.  Lots of fun.  Some highlights were Laura getting to join us via Skype.  It was nice to have her there.  She got to enjoy watching her favorite niece and everyone at the party got to see how Skype proficient ole AnnaLynn is, impressive by the way.  Also, in a year of her life she had never had cake or ice cream.  No sweets, no joy of knowing refined sugar, milk, eggs, and butter.  So she was able to celebrate with cake and ice cream.  We all took lots of pictures to document this occasion.  As she was winding down with the cake I noticed her mom had put grapes on her plate.  Annalynn was choosing them over the cake and ice cream.  Her daddy was proud of this, and I have to admit, so was I.  Good job to Sarah and Tony for instilling good eating habits at such an early age, now how you going to teach those to me?

Eliz and I spent the night in the house with them that night and we left out the next morning.  Not before, however, I got a good trail ride in and Eliz a good trail run.  We headed back home around 10ish with a stop back in Lafayette for lunch with Eliz's family and to pick up Rives to take him to Mansfield.   He was on his way to see his grandparents.

We stopped at this innocuous little place in Sunset, LA whose name I can't remember, Jacquelin's Diner I think.  It appeared, from the outside, to be a run down, greasy-spoon diner.  But, inside it was in good shape with an impressive cajun menu.  Entrees like shrimp and grits, softshell crab, fried catfish, and my choice, Tuna Steak with veggies and potato cake.  Nothing says yummy like a seared, cajun spiced tuna steak.  It was very tasty and I lamented it's departure after my last bite.  Definitely a place I recommend.  Eliz, Pico, Rives, and myself all loaded up the car to come back home.

You can see all three of them out

With in ten minutes there were three sleeping bodies in the car.  First one out was Pico, with a characteristic deep sigh and he was gone.  Then with a yawn and a tilt of the head Rives was out.  Eliz hung on as long as she could (like I said ten minutes) and she slipped into slumber.  I was able to crank the radio up, set the cruise, and relax in the quiet sunshine most of the way home.  As we took our exit Rives woke up, pleasant after a two hour nap, we dropped him off at Eliz's parents houses, spent some time with them, and finally made it back to our house.  A soccer game later that night kept me from going to sleep early, but nothing kept me awake after it was done.  It was a long, wonderful, and exhausting weekend.  I look back at it wondering where it went, but thankful for family and fun.

And the best gift...tinsel, that was used as a filler

all three, Sarah made the cake

Someone was caught talking on the phone in the "Reading Tent"

Dog and  Boy, sleeping

Cake Euphoria 

Balance

dLife is about balance. Yin and Yang. A deep cosmic righting of the world that evens all things. Balance is seen in everywhere we are, in everything we do. It can been seen in Buddhism, with Karma. It can be seen in Christianity with the Golden Rule, it can be seen in Muslim teachings as well. One can not live long out of balance with ones self. Balance is catching up with me, and I'm indulging in the oneness of this natural process. See:

Sunday-I wake early, go to church, come home, rest from a busy weekend (balance). Deciding to play in a soccer game at 9:50 that night. Monday, I awake, later than normal as I'm tired still (balance).

Monday-after rising late, I enjoy the morning, resting, drinking coffee, taking care of me. I spend the afternoon doing honey-dos and cooking lunch for my beautiful bride (balance). I go to the gym, deciding to lift weights after an absence, then I choose to play in another soccer game that night.

Tuesday-I wake early, I run 4 miles, I come home, I choose to drink coffee, make breakfast and relax. I load and unload a truck full of items for a garage sale, I spend an hour doing yoga. Afternoon is here, I'm sore, I'm tired, I beat. This the (Balance) from the previous 3 days of exercise and exertion.

But the true and intended balance is...I am a good friend, as such, one of my best friends chooses to stay with me when he's in town (balance). I have exerted myself so much over the past few days, expending so many calories, tonight, we will drink beer and stay up late (balance). Tomorrow starts another day of (balance) with a long run, but tonight, I will go to sleep even.

Balance is a delicate thing, teetering in the bounds of too much and too little. Running the errant path is what forces our hand to balance. Everyday is a mix of battles and balance. Those to be waged and won, and those in which truth is the victor.


(so, I poured myself a glass of wine from South Africa, sat down in front of my computer, and spewed into this blog. I realize it doesn't make sense, and I'm ok with that, for it is balance for the few times I do make sense. Cheers!)