Our 2008 Christmas Tree

The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect!”
~ Charles N. Barnard, American author, travel writer.

I just got back from my 2nd run of the year.  Thanks to the reader who said they’d help remind me to get out there and “Just do It”.  (Note to self – next time you write down your resolutions, tear them up and burn em).  It definitely was the weekend to start throwing out the Christmas Tree.  I counted 118 trees on the sidewalk during my run.  We could have left it up but the weekends are getting booked up already with travel, basketball games, holidays and parties!

No Christmas tree counting is not what i do when I run, but it sure helped to make tonight’s run a little different than the more than 300 other runs I will have this year.

We had a pretty active weekend.  Since I won’t be able to attend my son’s Little League Skills Assessment this year, we went out and played catch and hit a few balls.  I love sports, but I am not one of those crazy parents (I hope I’m not) who people can’t stand at the games.  My son is so focused anyway that sometimes you can scream at him and he doesn’t flinch.  Last year he ran through my stop sign at third base when I was the third base coach.  I had a good laugh with the other parents afterward and got a lot of ribbing about having more discipline at home and wondering if he would have stopped if mom had been there instead of me.    Seriously though I have a son who has decent capability to play any sport although I’m not sure where he got the talent from.  I have no visions of grandeur though as he definitely got his small stature from his parents!

We also got out as a family to spend time at the park and get some fresh air and exercise.  My daughter called it her highlight of the weekend which made me feel good.  My wife is still limited with her stitches so she and my daughter went for a little hike to a lookout point near our home overlooking the San Francisco Bay.  In fact, one of the stitches seemed to maybe have come out too soon and she might have to go back in early this week to have it fixed.  After our family meeting at dinner tonight where we talked about our schedules and highlights for the week, my wife and I had some alone time to talk about how we are doing.  She laughed at me.  She was the one in college who was going to be a bio major and I’m the one who runs at the sight of blood.  She was quite amazed at how I was able to deal with all the tubes and procedures she had to go through when she was ill.  I told her I sucked it up, and kiddingly told her to promise to never make me go through it again.  Well this little stitch is causing some fluid to run out.  Oh my…..medic! 

She did thank me for being her rock.  I had to do a lot of research for her as she was overwhelmed and frankly quite scared to read everything online and also had selective hearing when it came to what the doctors were telling her.  Depending upon her mood, she’d only hear the good things sometimes and other times only the bad things.  She’s better now and is able to even go online and meet some of the people I met online who gave me lots of advice.  I think it is great that she is now able to converse with some of these people and join the sisterhood of survivors.

Back to normal life?  Well maybe it is with the regular TV season coming back on.  We’ll be able to have our banter about Desperate Housewives, Lost and everyone’s favorite, American Idol…