I have been loving a lot of things happening around me lately. Just in case you were wondering what they are, I have compiled a list. If you weren't wondering, well, I still got this list...partly because I am not sure what else to write about and I wanted to offer something a little different, from a format perspective. (note: if you have some topic you are interested in hearing me write about...please let me know. As many of you probably know, I have opinions on EVERYTHING! and I think they are mostly well thought out, so, yeah...I can write about something random if you suggest it). anyway...
1) Storms- We had a crazy front come through yesterday. They kept saying it might spawn Derechos. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho) Or it was a derecho. Not sure which. The cloud turned crazy dark. The wind picked up. We could see it coming. It brought with it hail! And then it rained super hard for all of 48 seconds. A tree was blown down all the way across park rd (4 lanes). It was basically the end of times...and then it was over.
2) Rain, glorious rain, and the vegetables it helps to grow- my garden is doing well this year. Its still not perfect, but its doing much better than last year. As a result, I am slowly converting most of my grass to garden beds to grow more food. The peas have been really good. The lettuce is good too. The 'matos are growing well, fruits and all. And I bought two blueberry bushes and one peach tree. Probably going to plant one of the avocado trees tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. Might even be time to get the melon and gourd garden going. I need some sand for that, but it might be time!
3) Construction Projects- I got up this morning and went over to my friend Jerrod's house. And we built us a shed dang it! All we had was the floor he built last night when we started...but at the end of the day we had built and put up 4 walls, stick built and put up 7 trusses, sheathed the roof, and put up this really nice semi-interlocking siding OSBish stuff. Now, that man has a shed! No more cluttered garage. Makes me excited to redo my shed. First though, I have to finish up the full bath in the Ron Swanson Memorial Bedroom. I knocked out an interior wall and turned two doorways into one big one. Then I hired a contractor. So far he has removed the exterior wall. Monday he is going to install the floor and do a bit of framing. Then I am going to install a shower or tub and drywall the rest of the room. And then hang some really cool sliding doors. Its going to be epic.
4) Cycling (mountainous and street)- I've been in the saddle so to speak a little more lately. I really want to get out on the trails, but with the consistent downpours every 3 days, the trails are all closed. Tomorrow might be my day (cross my fingers). In the mean time I have been spending time on the road doing the Booty Loop. In case you're not in the know, The Booty Loop is a 4ish mile loop through Myers Park that all the cyclists love to go ride around. Around and Around. Its got some good hills, but more importantly its got some really nice wide lanes and cars mostly stay in the other lane. Plus, there are tons of GIANT trees, so much of it is in the shade. Its a little slice of cardio heaven.
5) Patios- I love eating outside. This being the south and this being summer, its always 50 degrees indoors. Its the dumbest thing. But outside...its nice. A little sweaty maybe...but nice. Nothing a margarita cant fix.
6) The LAST season without Hannah!- As many of you may know...my fiancey is finished with NCCC at the end of July. And its June already...meaning, only a little more than 1 month before I see her again and she finally comes back to the south. Can't wait! There is much hammocking and bike riding and cold beverage drinking and park sleeping and hiking and lake swimming to be had to makeup for lost time.
I love summer!
Dalen
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Sunday, June 09, 2013
Summer lovin'
Its already over a week into June! Holy cow does time fly. In just 14 days, it will be a month until I again see my lovely fiancey (a less pretentious version of the classic term fiance). As I was talking to her on the phone last night, she reminded me that I have strayed from the "schedule." According to our regularly recurring activities (phone calls, journals, and blogging), I had missed my blog post for the week. She of course didn't miss hers. Which, since the whole "lets schedule things so that time will fly faster and I can plan my life a little better too" idea was mine, it was important i get to it. So, here we go...
1) Hannah wrote a new blog post. read it here: http://hannahmraines.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/the-hottest-summer-that-ever-was/ Its hot there apparently.
2) My green beans are coming in and they are giant! I've always dreamed of growing my own food. Last year I grew approximately 3 tomatoes to eat. This year though...things are going well. I got beans! The size of my hands! Big enough to kill a small kid! Big enough to use as flotation devices in the event you find yourself in the ocean with nothing to help you...except my green beans!
5) My friend Conor came by this week. He was headed to a big event and was super underdressed. So, I let him borrow my clothes. This is apparently how I look when I am dressed up. Kind of surreal to see yourself in... errrr, to see someone else in your clothes.
1) Hannah wrote a new blog post. read it here: http://hannahmraines.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/the-hottest-summer-that-ever-was/ Its hot there apparently.
2) My green beans are coming in and they are giant! I've always dreamed of growing my own food. Last year I grew approximately 3 tomatoes to eat. This year though...things are going well. I got beans! The size of my hands! Big enough to kill a small kid! Big enough to use as flotation devices in the event you find yourself in the ocean with nothing to help you...except my green beans!
3) the remodelling is coming along...sort of. My contractor keeps forgetting to call me. today I am looking into getting another one. At this point it is really annoying me. Things were supposed to get done the last week in May. As time creeps on, I keep diving further into the project myself. I'm worried about getting to a point that I don't really know what I am doing though. So far though, I have removed a bunch of walls and moved a doorway over and made the opening wider. I moved the panelling successfully too, so that was a big win in my head.
4) In other fun house news, I secured some large rocks. Ben and Rene helped me move them yesterday. Now, I gotta figure out what to do with them. Any thoughts? My first idea was to build a mini stone henge.
6) My week ended up with a visit to the Men's Shelter to cook with Holy Comforter. This is pretty much an exercise in loving people. I go there because I love the people I work with there and I love the idea of loving those who need it by prepping food for Men who have seen better days. Love yourself, love the people close to you, and love those you don't know. I think that's in a book somewhere. Cant remember the name of it though. Some important book. hmmm, it'll come to me.
Monday, June 03, 2013
NAGA. The best way to get swords into the hands of highly physically achieving kids everywhere
This past weekend, the organization known as NAGA, was in town. And by in town, I mean they were at Cabarrus arena...which is really far away. Nonetheless, it was close enough for a day trip. NAGA stands for the North American Grappling Association. It is one of the big companies that hosts competitions for "grapplers"... aka wrestlers and jiu-jitsu players. Being a jiu jitsu person myself, i decided to compete. Contests are broken down by weight, age, experience level, and whether or not you're wearing a traditional uniform...also knows as a Gi. Because of there being so many divisions...
There are many winners! And many of these winners get swords! And many of these winners are kids! Which means at the end of the day, at any given NAGA event, there are lots of kids with swords running around. Every kids dream. Basically only a few steps away from being a full blown ninja!
Anyway...I decided about 3 weeks ago that I was indeed going to compete. Its quite expensive, so once i paid, i started training a little harder and more consistently and started to work on my weight. I wanted to compete in the under 140 lbs division. If you know me, you know there isn't a lot of extra weight on me to begin with. So, I had to figure out how to shed about 5 lbs. This basically meant eating salads and protein only for about two weeks and then nothing on the day of weigh ins. I made it though...weighed in at 138 the night before the contest. Weighed about 143 on Saturday during the comp and then about 147 later that night. Its all part of the mind game. "Making weight" they call it.
On Saturday, after not sleeping well Friday night, and after dreaming i had missed the whole thing, I show up to the venue. I run into a bunch of friends and other people and i sort of nervously pace around. I had been hungry for about two weeks, but after eating Friday night, that quickly turned to being nervous about competing. They call the first division and we turn in our cards to be put in brackets. Then, they specifically call me. Turns out there are no slim, inexperienced, oldish guys ready to compete in no-gi. I was a winner by default, but i paid to compete, so they were going to put me in another division. I had the choice to either go up a weight class or compete in regular Men's instead of Masters. Being annoyed at the weight issues...i chose to compete against a couple guys who were probably fresh into college. Which means i had "old man strength" against them...he hehe. I ended up getting the takedown in my first match (but couldn't get out of the guys Guard). So, I won 1-0. Pretty lame. For my second match, I got the takedown, passed Guard a few times, got caught in a reverse triangle (but wasn't close to being submitted) and won 6-4. Also not too exciting...but a big W nonetheless. There were only 3 of us, so i won the division. And my hands were exhausted. But the pressure was off. Nothing scarier than paying a bunch of money, only to lose and not get to compete again.
Flash forward a couple more hours. Gi time! Now, with the Gi, they had one other older guy for me to go against. So, it was a division of 2. One match only. I would have been annoyed at this (high $/ match ratio), but I was so tired already that I was OK with just a single match. Nonetheless, as soon as we started, I pulled Guard. This means I grabbed his lapel, grabbed his sleeve, and put my legs around his torso. From there I lowered my back to the mat, grabbed both ankles, and pushed forward with my hips causing him to fall down. He came back up first, so i didn't get the sweep, but was able to wrap a leg, hold a sleeve, and get a pendulum sweep to mount. From there, I tried a guillotine at one point but mostly just worked to north south and tried to stay out of guard. I didn't get a submission, but it was much more interesting than the no-gi matches.
After the match, I shook the guys hand. They announced I had won and Ryan Hoover had come in 2nd. "Wait a second. Are you THE Ryan Hoover?" I asked him. "yeah." At this point I got real excited. He runs a gym in Gastonia and is an authority on self-defense. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity. I proceeded to smile real big and say how cool it was to meet him.
And then it was basically over for me. I hung around awhile to help one of my coaches. I filmed his matches for him and kept time. I "coached" him by telling him he was doing well. He won his two matches. Then I walked to my car to go home.
My toes had been hurting a little, but on the way to the car i really noticed that things were getting worse. they were swelling and turning purple. I got two NAGA metals and two purple, swollen toes. What a day.
There are many winners! And many of these winners get swords! And many of these winners are kids! Which means at the end of the day, at any given NAGA event, there are lots of kids with swords running around. Every kids dream. Basically only a few steps away from being a full blown ninja!
Anyway...I decided about 3 weeks ago that I was indeed going to compete. Its quite expensive, so once i paid, i started training a little harder and more consistently and started to work on my weight. I wanted to compete in the under 140 lbs division. If you know me, you know there isn't a lot of extra weight on me to begin with. So, I had to figure out how to shed about 5 lbs. This basically meant eating salads and protein only for about two weeks and then nothing on the day of weigh ins. I made it though...weighed in at 138 the night before the contest. Weighed about 143 on Saturday during the comp and then about 147 later that night. Its all part of the mind game. "Making weight" they call it.
On Saturday, after not sleeping well Friday night, and after dreaming i had missed the whole thing, I show up to the venue. I run into a bunch of friends and other people and i sort of nervously pace around. I had been hungry for about two weeks, but after eating Friday night, that quickly turned to being nervous about competing. They call the first division and we turn in our cards to be put in brackets. Then, they specifically call me. Turns out there are no slim, inexperienced, oldish guys ready to compete in no-gi. I was a winner by default, but i paid to compete, so they were going to put me in another division. I had the choice to either go up a weight class or compete in regular Men's instead of Masters. Being annoyed at the weight issues...i chose to compete against a couple guys who were probably fresh into college. Which means i had "old man strength" against them...he hehe. I ended up getting the takedown in my first match (but couldn't get out of the guys Guard). So, I won 1-0. Pretty lame. For my second match, I got the takedown, passed Guard a few times, got caught in a reverse triangle (but wasn't close to being submitted) and won 6-4. Also not too exciting...but a big W nonetheless. There were only 3 of us, so i won the division. And my hands were exhausted. But the pressure was off. Nothing scarier than paying a bunch of money, only to lose and not get to compete again.
Flash forward a couple more hours. Gi time! Now, with the Gi, they had one other older guy for me to go against. So, it was a division of 2. One match only. I would have been annoyed at this (high $/ match ratio), but I was so tired already that I was OK with just a single match. Nonetheless, as soon as we started, I pulled Guard. This means I grabbed his lapel, grabbed his sleeve, and put my legs around his torso. From there I lowered my back to the mat, grabbed both ankles, and pushed forward with my hips causing him to fall down. He came back up first, so i didn't get the sweep, but was able to wrap a leg, hold a sleeve, and get a pendulum sweep to mount. From there, I tried a guillotine at one point but mostly just worked to north south and tried to stay out of guard. I didn't get a submission, but it was much more interesting than the no-gi matches.
After the match, I shook the guys hand. They announced I had won and Ryan Hoover had come in 2nd. "Wait a second. Are you THE Ryan Hoover?" I asked him. "yeah." At this point I got real excited. He runs a gym in Gastonia and is an authority on self-defense. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity. I proceeded to smile real big and say how cool it was to meet him.
And then it was basically over for me. I hung around awhile to help one of my coaches. I filmed his matches for him and kept time. I "coached" him by telling him he was doing well. He won his two matches. Then I walked to my car to go home.
My toes had been hurting a little, but on the way to the car i really noticed that things were getting worse. they were swelling and turning purple. I got two NAGA metals and two purple, swollen toes. What a day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)