Patience & Perseverance

Since the incident on my bike, I haven't been able to go for a run. Hell, I could barely walk anything more than quarter mile.

Immediately after the incident I could barely walk. It would hurt to sit. Driving was hell. Slowly after doing all the ice & heat treatment and burning my skin in the process I started to recover. I still ride and it feels great. Though not too fond of the cold, riding in the cold. But I also missed running. I am not the kind of person who can sit still. I move around and have to move around. Without being able to run, I have been miserable.

Last two days I have focusing a lot on stretching. My good old friend stretching. To this day, I credit my stretching and giving myself ample time to warm up, for my awesome, amazing runs. Ha...the days of Los Angeles. How I miss you?? I tried going for a run on Monday. I could barely walk, it was painful. I was sweating crazy even though I was tippy-toeing and it was cold that evening. I couldn't manage to cover even a half mile. I dragged myself back home all broken & frustrated.

Next day, I went for a bike ride. My knees were in pain. I could also feel a little jolts of pain on the back of my thigh from time to time. But I didn't give up.

Finally this morning, I was contemplating on working out when I had the feeling I could go for a run. The simple thought of running was getting me really worked up. Laced my shoes, put on the jacket with the hole on the back and head out the door listening to Deadmau5 "The Veldt." At the beginning nothings hurting. I am getting more excited. But slowed myself down not to get hurt again. From time to time, felt uncomfortable, at times it felt like learning the whole running all over again....

But such is life...

3 lesson

October 16, 2012. That was Tuesday. It was around 4.45pm. I had left work a little early. Took the Westown Parkway to get home. Usually the traffic on that road tends to be light after work hour and it has some nice twist & turns, love it. So, here I am at the end of the ride, I pulled into our driveway on my bike (Kawasaki Ninja 250). As I am coming in, there's some overgrown weeds on the driveway.

The Weed Story: It was a mistake moving to this place. Should have done a little bit of digging on the landlord. According to our lease, his son suppose to be taking care of the lawn. But I haven't seen Mitch since mid summer. The weeds in the driveway, the grasses in the backyard are over grown. He did show up once to do the front yard so as to avoid getting any notice. This place is falling apart. It sucks. After much complaining, Doug's sister and his brother-in-law came over to take care of the backyard and the broken branches, but not the weed on the driveway.

Back to my story: I am pulling in and turning to stop the bike at an angle so as to back it up in the garage. When the unthinkable happens. Being on top the weeds at an angle, the bike gives out on me. The front tire slipped and the bike starts to fall on my right. Caught off guard, I try my best to stop it from falling. And that's when I feel the pressure & pull at the same time on my right leg. I could tell, I am hurt but I was concerned about the bike. The bike checks out fine. I come inside, and immediately take 2 ibuprofen for the pain that's developing.

By that night, it is bad. I can barely stretch or move my leg. It's obvious I've strained my muscle. On Wednesday, due to the severe pain and irritation, I emailed Doug and he hasn't even replied yet. I am amazed.

At the moment, Saturday morning, I tried going for a run. The initial muscle pain has subsided quite a bit. It still hurts if I am sitting too long. But when I tried to not run, not jog but simply tiptoe, it hurts. I feel a sharp pain on my nerve. I may need to talk to the doctor who saw me on Thursday or see an specialist.

This is just like the time I twisted my ankle. 3 lesson while I was dealing with the emotion of not getting a single fucking call or reply from Doug, and also not being able to run either.

1. Take it slow, this is going to take time
2. Don't give up, keep trying.
3. Always be humble.

I will write more later. Gotta go to MN for apartment hunting.

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.

Just saying, you know...

Recently I saw a post on FB that went something like “I am gonna miss you Ramadan.” Immediately the question popped and I had to restrain myself from commenting….”What for?” Did you/your husband lose any weight, learned any lesson or did anything for the humanity, society or the planet you live in? Anything?

Hell, I might find that post and put it up here. And here it is:

The same way another friend related some Quran verses about the differences between mumin & munafiq. As I was reading the verse, I couldn’t help but think…I thought religion teaches you to be merciful, tolerant, and compassionate. But here is the word of God (Allah) himself saying how the believer will mock & laugh at the non-believer or the overtly devout.

So I guess when it’s another race/religion/gender it is OK to do so?

Religion is a tool. First and foremost, it is a tool to feel good about yourself. It is so easy to say something like Ramadan teaches you how the poor feels not being able to eat vs. actually feeling their pain & suffering. I wonder which one is more genuine.

 It is a tool to validate your thoughts/ideas/opinion against others without any factual backing. Ever notice how every single conversation/debate ends with ‘you just have to believe.’

Religion is also a tool to control an individual or a mass. Lazy but effective. What better & easier ways than saying ‘God says so’ to your wife, children or the whole damn country?

By Chance

Yesterday me & my daughter we walked over to the Fitness Sports to try the Nike Air Pegasus+ 28. Right now, Nike has the 29 out for $100.00. If you ask me, that's a lot of money especially in today's economy. My timing couldn't have been perfect. I called Fitness Sports to see if they had the Pegasus 28 on sale. And they did.

With tax, my total came to $75.00. Still cheaper than $100.00. And it was an upgrade from my 27. After getting the shoe, as we were walking back this young kid came up behind us on his hybrid bike. We stepped aside to let him go. Few yards ahead, I see him getting off his bike & checking his tires out. As I walked past him, I said something to the effect: "Looks like you've got a flat." He replied, his tire came off.

Minding the hot weather & the sun, I kept walking. After we got home though, I see the guy outside on our lawn. He's sitting down, drinking from his bottle. I go outside and inquire again. He says, his dad is on his way to pick him up. So I leave him alone. The old lady next door comes out to check on him as well. By now, he's on the phone. I chat with her for few minutes and then go back inside to making a "Lock Lace/Runner's Tie" on my newly bough Nike Air Pegasus+ 28. In the other room, my wife is getting ready so we can go out to do some much needed shopping.

The guy rings the bell. I open the door. He ask if I he can borrow my bike patch kit so he can fix the tire to get home or at least try to fix it. I can see the kid is becoming exhausted from the heat and I don't have the kit. I tell him since we are going out, I can give him a ride. He seems relived & happy to get a ride. So, we load his bike up in our trunk and then drive him over to his place.

His place wasn't really that far from ours. But I can understand, relate to his agony. It was hot, muggy. It's hard enough to think straight in this heat, plus if you are running low on your water things can get ugly pretty quick. Had he choose to walk home (about a mile) he would've had to walk uphill for the most part and that would have been more challenging.

So, why am I talking about it here? Well, sometime among all the noises we forget to stop & help others. Let's not be one of those to turn our back.

Review of The Dark Knight Rises

Ah, the much waited, anticipated Dark knight trilogy. But I was utterly disappointed. I had high hopes for this one. We even held out on going to any other movies in anticipation of the Dark Knight. So, Saturday Tina went with couple of her friends while we watched the kids. Well, to be exact it was only three kids including our daughter.

Sunday I woke up first around 7.30 am. Looked outside to see what appeared to be a beautiful morning. I was feeling really sluggish. Made some coffee. As I was drinking the coffee, I decided to go back to bed. So, I woke up again around 9.40ish determined to hit the trail. I rushed out the door by 10am for a 2 mile run since we gonna try to catch the 12pm show. After the run, as much as I wanted there wasn't enough time to take a shower or eat anything. I changed and headed out. As beautiful as it was, being hungry & the heat kicked by butt really well during the run.

On the way to the theater, I stopped at the QuickTrip to buy a Cool Ranch & a Gatorade. Stuffed them both in my cargo pockets, bought the tickets, waited for my friend and then the show begins. Well, not immediately. For the first 20 or 30 minutes, it was all previews. Somewhat hopeful about Total Recall, although I can't remember the plot or anything from the first one except for Jamie Curtis's dance scene from one of the movie with Arnold.

The first half hour of the Dark Knight Rises seemed to be dragging on. The first appearance Batman makes to save the frightened, terrorized Gothamites from the evil Bane is to say the least mediocre. From time to time, it felt like Transformers: Dark of the Moon. A lot of focus was on the relationship between Bruce & Alfred just as Sam & Ron. Also just like Sam, Cat woman can't seemed to decide if she's deep down good or bad. Bruce seemed like an old, worn out character who's trying to make a come back but rather not. Christian Bale didn't seem that much into his character as he was on the first two and on Terminator. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Blake/Robin did a great job. He seemed more serious, into his role.

As a kid, I remember being frightened by Bane and being in love with Uma Thurman. But this time round, what happened to Bane at the end. So Batman just pushes him into a building and that's it? And even after the truck jumps off a freaking highway with a nuclear head inside the trailer Commissioner Gordon is just fine?

And I can just go on and on about the mishaps. At the end, this is a movie not worth going to the theater but waiting for the DVD.