Wanna See What it Looks Like When I Run?

I have been a sports fan my entire life. I can't remember a time I didn't root the Huskers on to victory, and sometimes, defeat. I remember getting up in the middle of the night with my dad in 1976 to listen to the Nebraska at Hawaii game on the radio. I collected NFL football cards starting in 1981. Then in 1985 I started collecting baseball cards. That really became my main hobby. By the time I was a junior in High Skool, I had enough football and baseball cards that when I sold them, I went on a 7 day trip to California, and buy a really nice baseball bat and new glove when I got back. When I was a kid, I liked to play football a lot. One time, one of my grandma Lilly's house cleaning jobs gave her some football uniforms, complete with pads and helmets. There were 4 sets. I was supposed to share two of them with my cousin, but don't tell him, because being an only child, I didn't want to share them with him. Plus, he didn't like sports. He was a country boy. He liked fishin' and killin' stuff. Therefore, I wanted to share them with my friends. Because my cousin wouldn't have strapped on the pads with his friends and ran at each other as fast we could and slammed into each other over and over again. Each time my friends and myself would always say, "Wow! It doesn't even hurt! This is great! Let's do it again!" That's the joy of being a kid and not having a whole lot of weight behind you to make you or your friend experience pain. Then, as I got older, and stopped being afraid of a baseball, baseball became my sport. Most of my friends at that time liked basketball, especially since Michael Jordan was huge then. But, I am 5' 6", and at my peek, I only had a 30" vertical, at the absolute most, and that might be stretching it an inch or two. So, baseball seemed the logical choice. I was good enough that the baseball coach saw me play softball during gym class and asked me if I wanted to go out for the team (baseball team, not softball). I wanted to, but I had this problem. I couldn't stand the jocks on the baseball team. For some reason, they were the most foul people in school. They all chewed tobacco, and seemed to rarely shower. The last thing I wanted was to be around them any more than necessary. Later on, I realized that even short people can be good at shooting the basketball. So I started to enjoy basketball a little more.

So, what makes me bring all this up? Well, I have a fantasy football team that needs a quarterback. So I was looking to see who was available and I came to Kerry Collins. I thought to myself, "Wow, that guy has been around forever, he's got to be older than dirt by now." Much to my dissatisfaction, I looked at his stats, and he is younger than me by 3 months. It was an awesome feeling...NOT! But, it made me reflect back on my "career" as a sports enthusiast. And, I don't think I am done. I really feel like I can get back in shape. I have lost 10 pounds over the past 3 weeks, and have an incentive to lose more for my SCUBA trip. I also would like to request that you help me. Each day from here on out, I will give you an update on if I went to the gym, what I did there, and what I ate for the day. This will give me some accountability since I am not going to want to give myself a bad report. I have 13 days before I leave for my trip. I think I can lose at least 6 more lbs. Actually, I would like to lose 10 more, but that is probably not too healthy, so as my aunt Diane would say, "I am keeping it real! Keepinitreal! Keepinitreal! Keepinitreal!" (She has crazy amounts of energy. )

We will start with today. Since I didn't know I was going to do this, it's not going to be the picture of what the next 13 days will be like. But here it goes. I had a chicken sandwich with french fries and a Diet Coke for lunch, from McDonald's, of all places. What's sad about this confession, is I literally go to McDonald's once a year. Today just happened to be the day. Then I had a hamburger for dinner. Protein shake for a bedtime snack. For exercise today, I did 100 crunches, 40 push ups, and about 20 minutes of cardio.

What I need to do starting tomorrow: I need to start having about 3 protein shakes a day, starting with breakfast. I usually don't eat for a few hours after I get up. That's not good. After all, after lunch and dinner, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. (If you can tell me what movie that is from, you win a prize!) I should have some snacks in between meals, like veggies or some fruit. Fiber is important. A nutritionist once told me that the shorter period of time your food stays in your body the less time your body has to draw out all the fat in the food. Yep, a daily poo is very important. I need to do at least one hour of cardio a day, at least 100 crunches a day and work out a couple times a week.

Well, I will let you know how it goes. Check in tomorrow to see how I did.

Go Green!

You know, I am the kind of guy that likes a nice warm and sunny day. But, I think every once in a while, a dreary, rainy, dark day is called for. Number one, it's excellent for either sleeping in, or naps, or better yet, BOTH! I'm getting drowsy just thinking about the symphony of sounds that rain makes as it splash lands on the earth. It reminds me of an old "Frazier" episode where Niles is spending the night with Frazier. Frazier has his bedroom window open and Niles asks him to shut the window because the sound of the rain was keeping him awake. Frazier obliges him and shuts the window. No sooner does Frazier have the window shut, Niles turns on his sounds of nature CD with the sound of, you guessed it, rain. However, unlike Niles, I prefer the real thing. It puts me out like a light!

Not only are rainy days great for sleeping, they also bring out the green of nature. We used to have this spectacular tree in our backyard. It was a Hackberry. It was very old and very big. It had a split in the trunk so we ended up having to cut in down before it fell down. (The one shown in the picture is not ours, but it was the same size and age as ours.) I counted 98 rings when they cut her down. But, when it was still alive, when it would rain the moss would practically glow it was so green. Today as I was driving around in the rain, I was reminded of that old tree. I would look at the trees as I was sitting at a red light and notice how green the moss growing up the side of the trees was. It was pretty amazing. It's what I imagine being in a rainforest would be like. Looking at how green everything was today, it was hard to believe that in a few weeks, the only green we will be seeing is green olive in our martini. So, in a way, it seems like it was the last hoorah of summer in all it's splendid greenness. Sadly, another summer is just about to transform into fall. But what a beautiful summer it was!

#85

For my 85th post here at Stinkin' Lincoln, I decided to update my page and give you something fresh to look at. I have been wanting to change my look essentially since day one. I have always felt like a big copy cat. You see, a buddy of mine, (You know who are, at least I hope you do, otherwise who would you think you are?) he started his blog before I started mine and we had the same template all this time. Sometimes I didn't know if I was looking at my blog or his. Actually, it was pretty easy to tell them apart. He is a better writer than I am and typically more upbeat. If you haven't noticed, I can be a bit of a downer. But, that's because I am using you all as therapists. And just because I said that, I don't want to be receiving bills in the mail from you. It will just go in the paper shredder like the rest of them. Anyhow, I am now an individual. Just like all those individuals with the same tattoo of the razor wire around their arm. Yep, I am sure nobody else on Blogspot.com has chosen this same template. Well, that's my lame post of the day. Enjoy the scenery and come back and see again real soon.