Month: November 2012

exercise, diet, and the holidays…lets be realistic

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The other day I saw an article about ways to avoid eating at a holiday party.  One suggestion was to eat before you go to the party.  Please!  If I do that then I will just eat two meals.  I mean who wants to avoid eating during this time of year.  Part of the fun this time of year is getting together with others and getting together usually involves food, drink, and staying up late.  None of these help diet or your athletic life at all.  Continue reading “exercise, diet, and the holidays…lets be realistic” →

hidden places

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I’ll admit it, I’m slightly obsessed with caves.  It’s the adventure of it.  Traveling deep into the earth, not knowing what you will find.  Often these caves are hidden in plain sight.  Exploring them is like being let in on a secret not known by many.  So, when a friend of ours offered to take us to one of these hidden caves we jumped at the chance.

 

 

My family met up with our friend and his son, jumped in a car together, and drove the short distance to a pull off along the road.  It’s a busy road, connecting two major roads in our county.  I drive on the road quite often, zipping past homes, lakes, restaurants, and a school never realizing there is a large cave  just out of sight.  The trees are dense here, but this time of year, with the leaves all long gone you can peer back into the woods and spot tall cliffs.  In front of the cliffs the ground heaves up creating small berms and rocky rolling hills.  These berms hide the secret of what lays beyond the road and forest. Continue reading “hidden places” →

where the family tree don’t fork

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I live in New Jersey.  Now I know what you’re picturing when you hear “New Jersey”: big cities, lots and lots of people, gangs, the Thruway, garbage, the mafia, etc.  This is not the New Jersey I live in.  I live in rural New Jersey.  No, this is not an oxymoron, it really exists!  Way up in the Northwest corner of the state is farmland and mountains and lakes and…people without teeth!??  You see, while the rest of the country laughs at New Jersey, New Jersians laugh at us!  According to them, my county has more cows than people, family trees that don’t fork, and the dirt roads are full of lifted pick-ups with gun racks and dead deer hanging out the back.  In other words, we are a bunch of rednecks! Continue reading “where the family tree don’t fork” →

hurricane…nor’easter….what’s next… locust?

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Today I drove down a road that cut through a large section of pine trees.  At least 75% of the trees lay on the ground, snapped by the winds from Hurricane Sandy.  Electrical wires were everywhere, entwined in the branches.  It was a very strong reminder that we have a long way to go.  “Normal” is a long way off.

Snow covers the ground today.  Snow!  A Nor’easter a week after a hurricane.  I heard someone joke that next week is the plague of locust.  It can feel that way.  Many many people still do not have power.  Gas lines are still long.  Schools are still closed.  Yet I have witnessed a lot more positive than negative. Continue reading “hurricane…nor’easter….what’s next… locust?” →

life after sandy

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Hurricane Sandy and I now have a one week relationship.  It started last Wednesday down in the Dominican Republic.  We were touring a school that the mission I was down there with ran when the rains came.  Monsoon like white sheets of driving rain.  The noise was deafening on the metal roof and the streets were almost instantly flooded.  We spent the next day and a half trapped in our hotel  due to flooding, wind, downed trees, and overflowing septics. Continue reading “life after sandy” →