Being Persistent, not giving up

September 24, 2012: This date shall be marked & celebrated. History was made on this day, the undone was done. Overall 2012 should be marked for quite a few good things so far.

1.       During Memorial Day Weekend, for the first time my wife went hiking. We drove for about 12 hours from Des Moines to Estes Park, CO, stayed at a cabin by the Colorado River. From there we hiked the Rocky Mountain National Park. And she did it while she was having the time of the month and in the Colorado cold.

2.       Last month for the first time in her life, my wife went camping. Granted we were only 15 miles from home at the Saylorville Lake. But we camped for two nights. She braved the dark nights, all the raccoons, noises, a little bit rain, super heavy wind and the cold.

3.       Yesterday after trying for about two hours, and not giving up my wife finally started pedaling. For the first time in her life, she started riding the bike. She rode the bike on the Windsor Heights trail. The day before we went out on the trail. I put on a new, plusher seat for her and was able to take only one pedal off. That evening she only practiced rolling, tippy toeing. Yesterday I put the pedal back on. We hit the trail. She kept trying to roll while raise her feet to pedal. I realized than how challenging it is for someone who’s never done it before. For those who know how to bike, it’s like swimming. And that’s why we never realized how hard, daunting it can be for the newbies.

The magic happened after about half mile down the trail. There’s a pretty good slope after about half a mile and I told her to use that to her advantage. She kept trying and trying. She kept on it for at least an hour if not more. While I was at the playground with our daughter I saw her trying to pedal back to us and just being all over the trail. I was quiet upset to tell the truth. You see, just before that Siana (our daughter) fell off the slide and hit the ground pretty hard with her butt. Poor kid got hurt bad, I was scared and in agony for her. So naturally I was getting upset with my wife even though she didn’t have anything to do with it.

And then we saw it. She pedaled from the bridge to us keeping the bike straight. Needless to say, both me and Siana, we were static. We were screaming with joy. For a while, Siana actually forgot all about her pain when she saw mommy biking. If I am not mistaken, she even said something to the effect of ‘abbu, ammu is pedaling.’ I couldn’t agree more.

4.       This year, last Thursday to be more precise, I finally did it. I went out and bought the Kawasaki Ninja 250R. Nabanita has no clue, nobody knows so far. And it is due to be delivered today. I am excited, sad and scared at the same time. Excited about owning a bike that I have feared & loathed for the longest time. When I was taking the Basic Rider Course, I remember thinking how come I haven’t done this before. Sad, the winter is upon us. So, it will be a short season for me. Scared, cuz the sheer power the bike has. The thrill but also the danger that comes with it.

Omaba, Smoothie, and more

It has been a busy week one after another. Last week (08/27 – 08/31) was super busy at work. After that on Saturday, wifey left around 7am to get the first row to see Obama. I left around 10.30am to catch her with Siana. She waited 7 hours and we waited 5 hours until he came out around 1.30pm. We had underestimated the amount of people & the heat. Within less than a 2 mile radius, 10,000 people are not a joke. It was hot and we were exhausted.

The next day we just stayed home cleaning and chilling. I made some pita bread and a homemade smoothie. It was really delicious and we all liked it quite a bit. Both me & Nabanita, we were surprised how good it actually tested compared to store bought/fast food stuff. For the homemade strawberry smoothie, all I did:

1 glass of whole milk,

1 tablespoon sugar,

6-8 strawberry and the blender. And that’s it.

Here’s a picture of our daughter’s happy face after the smoothie.

 At a later point, it did get us to think how fattening & unhealthy the fast food stuff must be. Most fast food makes their smoothies with ice cream. No wonder we can never finish it & it always makes us feel bloated afterwards.

We also sent our daughter to the daycare for the first time. As much we wanted to put her in Montessori school, we missed/passed the deadline. For first day, she was only gone for about 2-3 hours. I went to pick her up after work, and poor kid had this demeanor, expression on her that broke my heart. She was just standing there, not moving but slowly stepping towards me. It was like she couldn’t believe we left her there for this long. Of course, dear mommy had a different but equal reaction.

Getting ready to go camping with Nabanita & Siana for the very first time. I have two tents. One is the Ozark Trail 4 person and the other one is the Coleman 3 person tent. Laid both out last night to test for any cuts & such. Siana was super excited. That made me quite excited too, really looking forward to our little camping trip. I may (mostly likely) have to spend a little more than I had anticipated. I thought I could reserve the sites today. But what do you know? They are all booked up. All the first-come-first-serve is open but chances are we won’t be able to get them if we wait until Friday morning. So, I would have to do it tomorrow at the least and they are $18.00 per night. So, we would have to pay for one night that we won’t even use. That’s a big bummer.

UPDATE: I was just able to reserve a spot at the lake. Not the best place on earth, not exactly where I wanted either; but beggars can't be choosers...sometimes. I kept checking the recreation.gov site hoping for a cancellation. And there it was. One site came available. I immediately called my wife to double check if she had made headway with her phone calls to all the shelters. By the time, I am about to get off the phone, someone else picked up the available site or that's what it seemed like. Of course, wifey mad on the other side. In vain, I hung up the phone & tried one more time. And viola. The same site came available.

And on that I gotta thank Google Chrome for saving all my info. As I went through all the fields to register with recreation.gov, I couldn't thank Google enough for making the whole process faster.