scary cool

I started a new job this past September in the Underwriting Department of one of our nation's major insurance companies.  It's a new experience for me to be working for a larger company, but I'm settling into the "cuberhood", and striving to excel in my new position.

My company is pretty proactive with various health initiatives throughout the year.  Whatever they are doing must be working.  My health insurance benefits commenced immediately, so I began paying my contribution toward the premium in September.  October was our open enrollment period, so I had to re-select my coverage options, even though I had just made the selections a month before.  Guess what... the premium decreased!  Decreased!  Yes, that's right, it got cheaper!  What the heck...

So, proactive health initiatives look pretty good to me... sign me up!

One of the initiatives is Destination: You, in partnership with GobalFit.  It involves a step tracker that attaches to your shoelaces and records the date, time and number of your steps throughout the day. For incentives to get out and move, my company has established goals, contests and prizes centered around the step tracking program.  Since walking and hiking are among my favorite activities, this is right up my alley!  I signed up and my tracker was delivered to my cubicle last week.

It's a pretty cool setup.  There is a data access point at the entrance of my building.  Every time I walk past this access point, wearing my tracker, the data stored in the tracker is automatically transmitted and downloaded to my account on the GlobalFit website.  I can log on at any time and see my activity and compare it against the average of the company participants.  It's all automated... all I need to do is walk.

Cool... but, scary at the same time!  I find myself wondering how else this technology could be used?  Am I the only one that thinks this way?  With all the technology that we carry around these days, what information about us does it contain, and who could potentially download our information "automatically"?

I'm pretty sure my step tracker is harmless fun... and I am having fun with it.  The main company goal is 2,000,000 steps from July 11, 2011 to July 11, 2012.  Since I was hired in September and got my tracker in January, I'm just a little behind... OK, I'm half a year behind.  So, my personal challenge is to see how close I can get to the goal in just half the time. (I DO like to walk!)

doing the 100

For my age, I consider myself in fairly decent physical shape, and I think my lifestyle affords me a fair amount of exercise.  Walking is my exercise of choice.  I often take evening walks (in all four seasons) to burn off some stress and clear my head, and I also sneak in some short walks on my breaks at work.  Some of my favorite activities, hiking and geocaching, also involve getting outside and moving.  I've never had a gym membership, and I'm not involved in any formal exercise regimen, per se, but I figure I'm doing pretty good just by staying on the move.

However, most of this activity involves cardio and lower body.  I consider myself to have pretty decent leg strength, but I have always been disappointed with my upper body strength.  I have always been a little self-conscious of my stick arms, making me feel like a girlie-man (to be read with the appropriate Austrian accent, of course)!

At risk of sounding conceited, between Jen and I, I always viewed myself the more physically fit of the two... until recently, that is!  With Jen's recent discovery of Zumba, her fitness level has undergone a pretty extreme makeover, leaving me sometimes feeling middle-aged, spongy, and balding.  I'm okay with the balding, I can't do anything about the age... but I can follow her inspiration and work on a little more fitness.  (No, I don't think my body is made to Zumba!)

With that in mind, one of my favorite radio stations recently caught my attention with their "website of the day", when they featured the site titled, "one hundred pushups".  Intrigued, I visited the site and it is just what it sounds like... an online fitness program to build you to 100 consecutive pushups.  I liked the site design.  It is pretty simple, and it isn't written for some muscle-bound jock-type, but the average girlie-man (or woman), like me.  It offers various training levels for age and abilities, and it is designed around a six week (three days per week) schedule (although some training levels may require longer than six weeks).  It discusses variations on the traditional pushup for those who may have physical limitations, and it assesses your starting level with an "exhaustion test", which is simply, "how many consecutive pushups can you currently do?"  Throughout the program, a retake of the exhaustion test is built in, to make sure you are continuing to train at the appropriate level.

Now, I don't know about you, but I can't drop and do 100!  And, frankly, (no offense) I don't think I really know many people who could.  But, it would be kinda cool...

So, I decided to take the 100 challenge!  Why not?  Pushups are a natural exercise, you can do them anywhere, they're free, and they target my girlie-man lack of upper body strength.

I'm in my second week.  I figured if I went public with my pushups, it's harder to quit, right?  I won't tell you where my starting level was... but it was a long way from 100!  I think it may take me a little longer than six weeks, but that's okay... I've already increased my number, and I'm only investing a few minutes, three days per week.

So, how about you, blog reader... can you drop and do 100?  Wouldn't you like to?  Any takers on the 100 pushup challenge?  Let me know in the comment section if you decide to take the challenge!  I'll let you know when I complete my 100!

By the way, there is also a site for two hundred situps.  Hmmm... after I reach the 100 pushups, maybe I should work on some ab flab...

walk in the park

Marriage experts advocate continuing to date your spouse after marriage and children.  This is easier said than done... especially with four kids between the ages of two and ten!  Although it's difficult, I am recently realizing just how important it is, and how lax I have been in continuing to cultivate my relationship with my wife.

Yesterday, I had Jen arrange to have her Mom come over, after church, to stay with the kids for the afternoon.  I made sure the kids were fed, and put together a simple picnic lunch for the two of us.  I took Jen to the gardens at a local metro park, where I think I had only taken her once before, when we were dating.  It was nothing fancy, and we had no agenda, but we enjoyed the afternoon strolling the rose gardens and doing some streamside hiking... and Jen even found her first geocache. 

The afternoon went way too fast, but it was the kind of days we used to have when our life was much simpler.  It is sometimes hard to appreciate each other in the throes of daily stress and chaos that has characterized our life for the past years, but yesterday reminded me of one simple thing... I really enjoy my wife's company!

It had been so long since I had actually put time and effort into planning a "date" with my wife (instead of the typical "what do you want to do?", "I don't know, what do you want to do?"), that it felt a little like a first date all over again.  (In fact, I'm hoping she'll go out with me again!)

I'm a protective Dad, and I'm not about to just dump my kids off at any opportunity, with just anyone who will keep them... I have way too much invested in them for that style of parenting.  But, at the same time, I need to put more investment into my marriage.  I need to arrange more opportunities, like yesterday, to slip away and just be a couple.. even if it is just a simple afternoon walk in the park.  Thanks, Jen, for a great afternoon!

I have often considered myself to have an eye for photography... at least I used to think so.  Anymore, it seems my mind is so cluttered with other things, that I don't slow down enough to notice as much as I used to.  The opposite has happened with Jen, however.  She never used to have an interest in photography, but since getting our digital camera, she has developed that interest, and most of our nicest recent pictures have been a result of her sharp eye.  She could probably have spent several more hours walking these gardens looking for photographic opportunities, but (except for the obvious few I took with her in them) here are a few of her pics:

did I miss spring?

Not sure about where you live, but in my area of Ohio, yesterday's weather went from weeks of chilly rain straight to summer.  Temps were near 80, with wall-to-wall sunshine.  It was the kind of evening that we just had to do something.

We live within a couple miles of a few different state parks.  We favor one, because of the selection of hiking trails.  The other, though, has some nice paved walking trails, and that is the mood we were in last evening.  After dinner and homework, we drove out to the park, which had something for everyone... a stroll and a bench along the lake, geocaching, and (for Dylan and Zachary's benefit) "recycling" cast-off and tangled fishing tackle.

nice evening for a bench by the lake

"treasure" seekers in action

Dad made this discovery (#29)

ain't he charming?

Lily, sporting her fresh spring haircut

of witches and slugs

I enjoy living in a region of the country where the four seasons are very distinctly diverse, and I love to hike in all of the four seasons.  Although it takes more motivation to get out in the cold and hit the trail in the dead of winter, it can be one of the best times.  Think about it:  The woods are very peaceful, the trails are virtually abandoned, you can see so much more without leaves on the trees, the weeds and underbrush are sparse, and bugs are non-existent.  On the right winter day, the cold is actually refreshing and, if dressed in the proper layers, the body heat you generate makes an afternoon on the trail very comfortable.  Today was one such day.

I hadn't planned to go hiking today.  The thought really hadn't even occurred to me.  But, it was a beautiful sunny day in Ohio, and Zachary asked to go hiking.  I checked the forecast:  Sunny, with a high of 27 degrees (F).  Cold, but with no wind chill, not bad.  Of all my kids, Zachary is generally my best hiking buddy, so I hated to discourage him from joining me in an afternoon of my favorite activity.  Dress warm, Zachary... a hiking we will go!

Zachary, my best hiking buddy.

While we were on the trail, Zachary commented, "I've been sitting around the house playing video games for days.  I wanted to get out here with you, so I won't be a slug when I go back to school tomorrow."  I can't argue with that, Zachary!

Hiking is my drug!

We found this cool stream cascade that we had never seen before.

Icicles on the rocks by the flowing stream.

Green ferns growing on rocks in the dead of winter.

I am always in awe of trees growing on the side of rocks such as these.

We discovered this huge hollow tree trunk.

Zachary discovered this uprooted tree with a hole through the upended earth and roots.

This used to be a road before the state took this land for a State Park.  Now it is the main artery through a snowmobile/mountain bike trail system.

Zachary enjoys discovering the foundations of old buildings when we are hiking.  He was excited when our hike led us here... that is, until I told him... the story.  He asked me why there was a bunch of candles and wax on the stones of this old foundation.  That's because, Zachary, it's supposedly not a foundation... but a gravesite!  Its after dark popularity is pretty well-known among local ghost hunters, teenage thrill-seekers, and would-be devil worshippers... hence the evidence of the candles.  Known as "Witch's Grave", this is the site of a well-known local legend.  Although not acknowledged or publicized by the State Park, popular legend says that these woods are haunted by the ghost of a female who was accused by locals of being a witch.  The story maintains that they killed her and that she was buried at this very plot (before the State Park owned the land).  Many locals claim to have seen a ghostly female figure in these woods.  We didn't see her today (not that I wanted to!), but there is a stone within these stone walls that is very indicitive of the base of a headstone.  The actual headstone is busted off and missing.  I suspect, as I told Zachary, that this is just an old family burial plot... but then again... I prefer to get out of these woods well before dark!

my kind of day

Sunday was one of those days that might have been the perfect autumn day in Ohio... sunny, dry and breezy; with temperatures in the upper 60's and leaves near their peak color, both on the trees and crunching underfoot.  After church and dinner, it was obvious that hiking would be a must.

We used to live in an area that was abundant with local hiking options, but when we moved here (only about 40 miles) we discovered that we are in a hiking dead zone.  With few trail options under a half hour drive, we get a little bored with the same trails.  I got on the internet to search for more options, and, to my surprise, I found something I had previously missed.  Less than a half hour from our home, I discovered a large property, owned by a private college, but open to the public.  With two main trails, the shorter of which is 2.4 miles, it seemed worth a try.  The GPS took us straight to the trailhead, and we loved what we found... a mature forest of maple, beech, oak and evergreens, with well maintained trails and no crowds.

Benny usually rides in the backpack carrier, but I decided it was a good day to introduce him to actual hiking.  We hiked the 2.4 mile trail and I started off with the carrier empty to see how he would do.  Jen was a little aprehensive about letting him roam on his own (his walking and balance is still delayed and he is fairly unsteady on his feet).  But, since he goes to physical therapy sessions two days per week, I figured we'd do some physical therapy, Daddy style.  After all, what could be better developmental physical therapy than negotiating the tree roots, dry stream beds, inclines and declines of a hiking trail?  I held his hand only when I felt it necessary for his safety, but basically let him hike and explore on his own.  He fell many times, but he had a blast.  He loved the crunchy leaves and stopped to explore many aspects of nature along the way.  It was so fun to watch him come alive in the woods, and he hiked over 3/4 of a mile before I put him in the carrier... not bad for a just-turned-two year-old!

golden beeches

my little hiker

Not sure who uses this fire pit in the middle of the woods?

walking the log

really large chicken feet?

nature's playhouse?

my favorite people

ahhh...saturday

Saturday is a good day to shop for a car.  I, therefore, have worked every Saturday since beginning my current job.  However, since I'm coming up on 6 months of employment, I figured I was due to ask for a Saturday off.  And, I did just that.

I originally took it off because my extended family had an annual fall hayride and weenie roast today.  We planned to go.  The weather was great.  But, life is generally busy, Benny had a slight fever yesterday, and we were just in the mood to spend a beautiful Saturday closer to home.

Since Jen wanted Benny to get a good nap this afternoon, and Lily was on the whiny side around lunchtime, I decided to spend some needed quality time with my two oldest sons in the afternoon.  I asked them what they wanted to do (outside), and, of course they couldn't choose the same activity.  Dylan has been bugging me to take him fishing for months, so he, naturally, requested fishing.  I don't really fish, but he likes it LOVES it.  Zach fishes a little, but he's not crazy about it.  He chose hiking.  So, we did a little of both.

The leaves were starting to get colorful at a state park near our home.

Silly boys...

Sillier boys...

Come on guys, give me a decent picture!

trail time

My boys are getting big

And, we finished the afternoon fishing at a friend's stocked pond.

Labor Day hike

We all went out for a Labor Day hike yesterday.  It was a beautiful day, but as dry as it has been here, I was surprised by how many mosquitoes were out in the afternoon.  We didn't have any bug spray with us, so we did a quick couple miles and got out of the woods. 

We didn't have a tripod, so it took 2 shots to get everyone.