The Caffeinated Chef: October 2009

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ahead By a Squirrel

For some time now I have been harboring feelings of jealousy towards my wife and her blogging skills. She always seems to have more comments, more visitors, better topics, better pictures, funnier stories and most importantly, more followers.

I lusted from the other side of the couch as I saw her follower total and hoped one day to match her or perhaps overtake and destroy her numbers. It never happened until today! I have pulled ahead and life is fantastic. What makes this day even better is the way in which I took the lead. The follower that put me ahead is a squirrel. Thats right, check out my followers and you will find a genuine squirrel blogger that has decided to join the ever growing, albeit slow, following that keeps me doing this. So thank you Mr. Squirrel, you have made my day!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

My Favorite Part Of Fall

This is what I've been waiting all year for. My favorite part of fall has to do with these tiny little nuts. Pine nuts hold a special place in my heart because of my father. More specifically they remind me of him. Every year, when the pine nut stands come out, I am reminded more deeply about my father.

It really isn't anything special about these nuts, just the fact that he had them. He always seemed to have some in his pockets. I looked forward to sharing these when we were outside doing something. I could almost always count on him having a pocketful at any given time.

My father passed away while I was serving a mission. Years later I borrowed his old hunting coat when I decided to go hunting again. There in the bottom of the pocket were a few lone pine nuts left over from who knows when. Each year this rite of fall gives me a chance to reflect and remember some special everyday events we shared. They also remind me that no matter how many great things we do for those we love, it will be the small and insignificant things we do on a daily basis that will be remembered long after we are gone.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

1/2 Inch From Dying

Through out my life I have had a number of near death experiences that in all reality should have taken me from this life. Many of them had to do with my inability to listen to others who knew more than I did, and some were caused by choices I intentionally made. I've had both of my parents and my wife and siblings involved in some way or another with helping me stay here.

I now just escaped death with another close call, I'm not sure how many I have left. My truck stopped working. One day it was running fine and the next morning, nothing, it wouldn't even start. we took it over and had it fixed and here's what happened.

The fuel pump had gone out, but it was more than that, the plastic around the wires had actually disintegrated to the point that the bare wires were exposed inside the gas tank! I was told that had they touched each other it very well could have blown my gas tank up. That didn't sound too appealing to me. I was then informed that someone must be looking out for me because these wires are only about a 1/2 inch apart and probably should have touched at some point in time.

I told my wife she had been a 1/2 inch away from being kind of rich, but she didn't find it as amusing as I did. I guess I still have a few things to learn here before its my turn to go.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Why I Run

I want to thank again all those who joined me yesterday for the marathon, it was great to have that support. I'm definitely feeling the effects this morning, but I'm looking forward to next year. I think I'm going to do a conventional race and try the training approach before hand.

I've had a lot of people ask me why I chose to do a race that far and I've been thinking about that since yesterday, and I have my answer. I do it because running has been such a help in my life over the past five or six years. For those of you who know me really well, you know the person I was back then, and the person I am now. I hope you have been able to see the difference between them.

Back then I hated any form of pain, mental or physical, it didn't matter, I hated it all and would do anything to avoid it. I used alternate ways of dealing with pain that only masked it temporarily. It got to the point that to even be around my family required me to mask that pain in order to be able to function and interact with them.

I met a Bishop that invited me to run with him. Every other morning at 5:30 he would pick me up and we would run. I was ashamed to be around people back then and he taught me that because of what the Savior had done for me I didn't need to beat myself up anymore. On these runs, I worked through my own personal repentance process and faced the one thing that had been my downfall, pain. I learned that I didn't need to run from pain but needed to embrace it and accept that it can and does make you stronger.

I learned that pain is only temporary, even if it lasts for the duration of this life, and that it meant I was truly alive. Masking it meant I wasn't living to my full potential. While I still don't like pain, and thought about quitting many times yesterday, I didn't, and that's something that those who know me from before can say wouldn't have happened back then. I would have quit at the first sign of pain, I probably wouldn't have even started in the first place.

So that's why I do what I do, to prove to myself that I am still a better person than I was before.

That's why I run.