Hertzler Outpost

Ted and me before the race

I’m sitting in my warm house now with a pleasant runner’s high, back from this year’s half marathon. It turned out far better than I expected; better weather, I ran better than I expected – fastest one of my last three years, and my knees didn’t hurt.

Learning to run barefoot paid off! Running in my cross country racing flats worked perfectly.

Andrew and Audrey

Andrew’s last first day of school. Audrey has a few more. This year school starts early again. They get to take the red bus in the background when I work from home.

Armadillo burrow

This is the hole that the same armadillo keeps burrowing under our backyard palm trees every few months. This has been going on for two years now. I fill in the hole, and he burrows it out again a couple months later. Got any ideas how to stop him from burrowing here, short of calling a professional pest remover?

Cottonmouth by our front door

Andrew walked out the front door today and nearly stepped on this guy. At first we thought it was a water snake, but then he opened his mouth and showed us his two fangs. Then we thought it was a copperhead, but he escaped into the bushes and rattled. And we could see his tail rattling in there, too. But then he escaped entirely, and we couldn’t figure out where he went. So we’ll be checking out the window first whenever we go out our front door for the next few days!

[We originally concluded it was a rattlesnake, but someone left a comment on this photo on Flickr.com saying it was a cottonmouth. He was right. It's a cottonmouth. This picture on National Geographic looks exactly like what this snake did when he saw us.]

Greg and I waiting for the start

This morning my friend, Greg, and I did the “Enter the Food Chain 1k Swim” with about 75 others at Lake Cane (and one turtle that I almost bumped into half way across). Lots of fun. Everyone who completes their first lake crossing gets to sign Lucky’s wall and gets a patch and bumper sticker. And they complete the first leg toward the 100k Club. There’s even a Wikipedia article about the swim. Here’s a short video of the start.

Lucky is just a nice guy who opens his boat dock every morning for a group of swimmers. If that wasn’t enough, he provides a patch and bumper sticker to every new successful lake crosser. He’s a generous guy.

I grew up doing lake swims at the family lake in Wisconsin (which is about as far across, at its widest, as Lake Cane), but this had to be the funnest one. And since Greg and I are getting ready for a triathlon we threw in a bike ride and run when we got home. That’s what I call a good Saturday morning!

Ted, Ben, me

I did the IOA 5k again this year and beat my time from last year. That’s always a good thing. Campus Crusade for Christ fielded a team of about 400! We had the biggest team in Orlando, won the best t-shirt design award, and our race director, Lorraine Hardaway, won best race director award. 11,000 people participated in the event in downtown Orlando, so our large group didn’t even seem so large. Friends who walked said they crossed the starting line after I had already finished the race!

Running with coworkers beats a Christmas party.

OUC Half Marathon Finisher’s Medal

Last Tuesday, at the end of four months of training for a half marathon, I pulled my hamstring. It was on a track at the middle school a mile and half away from home at night in, what is for Florida, cold weather (55 F). My walk/hobble home was very cold, but even more disappointing was the realization that the training may have resulted in not being able to run the race. My real reason for doing this race was to stay in shape, so I had actually already accomplished my most important goal. But I still really wanted to run that race!

The pain went away by Wednesday night, but by Friday night I was still not sure what would happen if I tried running on it again, much less running hard.

This morning I found out; my leg worked. In fact, after six miles of running easy I realized it wasn’t going to blow out on me, so I ran the rest of the race hard. It was fun passing all those people who had passed me earlier in the race! Finished in 1:43. Good enough for me this year with enough padding to shoot for beating it next year.

My friend, Ted, beat me this year by almost a mile.

Night Launch of Endeavor

On my blurry camera phone the launching space shuttle, Endeavor, and the full moon looked pretty similar, but in real life it was a spectacular site. This is one of the benefits of living in Orlando for sure.

If you click this photo you can see two more photos of the shuttle launching (lower right corner of page, click “next photo”).

At the Osteen Diner

Lunch today was at Osteen Diner with my friend, Dave. We got there on our motorcycles on a very warm Florida November day. Lunch was good. Travel was better. Dave let me ride his Harley Davidson back home, a bike twice the size of mine. Fun.

About ten minutes after I wrote my last post about being able to work like normal, they called my number. Seven hours later at the end of the day I was seated on a jery (mispelling intentional to prevent searches being associated with my name). This means I must be incommunicado until it’s done.

But here’s my observation on EVERYONE who commented about my jery duty. No one wants to do it, and everyone seemed to have an angle for getting out of it. As I went through the process myself, though, it developed more into an act of God. That is, responding truthfully to each stage of questioning resulted in the outcome I now must live with (being seated on a jery). Had I put an angle on it, I may have found an excuse, but I couldn’t do it with a clear conscience.

So now my American Government class will become more than just book knowledge.

Here I sit at the Orange County Courthouse doing my civic responsibility of jery duty (mispelling intentional). More than 300 people showed up mostly AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE today to provide a pool of jery candidates. The suspects we are to try may have stolen $500 of merchandise from a store (I have no idea which trials are on the docket this is just an example), but I guarantee you the value of what he/she stole from the rest of the county in lost work hours is far more. I was initially happy to serve my jery duty, but now that I see what this costs, I sure hope this is something more grave like a merder trial.

Meanwhile, I can keep working today as though nothing but my immediate surrounds were different. They called out a group of about 100 people already and marched them off for duty, and the remaining 200 of us wait like prisoners for our next instructions.

[After getting some instructions, let me clarify that nothing above constitutes the expression of an opinion based on any information about any trial. I have no knowledge of any detail of any trial on the dockets today. I could have written the above comment last night. I wouldn't want this whole batch of people dismissed because I expressed an opinion.]

Ben, Ted and me, CCC 5K Compatriots

Campus Crusade for Christ fielded a team of 326 (or so) runners and walkers for the IOA 5K tonight. It had been 8 years since my last 5K, so I wasn’t sure if I would be able to run it well. While I posted my lifetime slowest 5K time, it was good enough to beat my other 40 year old friends. Best of all was simply being able to run it and finish without injury. It’s been over a year since I’ve been able to run, and I thought I would have to give it up for good. But cross-training on my bike, weight lifting and chondroitin for my knees seems to have done the trick.

Block Party BBQ

Easily one of the most enjoyable things we’ve done since moving back to our old house in Orlando was the block party we had tonight with our neighbors. Of the 15 houses on our cul-de-sac, we had 26 people join us for a barbecue and bring-whatever meal. Many of our neighbors met each other for the first time, and we all got to know each other better than before. Most of the families on our court have lived outside the U.S. at one time or another, so we have more in common with each other than just our current residence.

Jerry Surfing

After four trips to the beach in unsuccessful attempts, I finally stood up on a surfboard and rode a wave today. Check that one off the list.

Today was Jim’s (younger brother) first attempt, and he had it on his fourth try.

Yes, Orlando in the winter has its advantages. Surfing the day after Christmas is one of them.

Tonight the results of the exit poll is clear one week after the vote; I won the election by a landslide. The vote was split 25% – 30% – 45% with the Hertzler campaign taking 45%. My platform was “I can see things from your perspective.” I borrowed that from Bill Clinton’s “I feel your pain” speech.

The election I won was to our neighborhood homeowner’s association committee. No one had previously volunteered, so I stepped up to the plate. 45% was actually just 9 votes; see the humor? And we are just one of many neighborhoods in our larger subdivision which has a total of about 60 such representatives.

My neighbor says he’ll start calling me mayor of the street.

Sandhill Cranes In Our Backyard

These two adult sandhill cranes (red caps) picked off a helpless baby snake from our yard this morning for their baby crane. From the picture you can see why these birds exist in plentiful numbers here in Central Florida. They aren’t intimidated by suburbia in the least, let alone a snake.

Everyone hates snakes which makes me like them more. I had one as a pet when I was a kid, so they have my sympathy and protection. The cranes have just lost both. (Yes, I know it’s the natural order of things. I’m just trying to keep the tabloid interesting here.)

I took two things out the back door when I took this picture; my camera and the dog. Rather than fly away like most backyard animals, they turned and gave me and the dog the once-over. Annie was even barking at them, but they didn’t flinch. I suppose if I had a beak like theirs I would think it might be fun sport to jab it into a yappy little dog like Annie. Especially after devouring a snake.

The Green Pond

Yesterday the retention pond behind our house turned a teal shade of green. It looks like the liquid in portable toilets. My guess is that the neighborhood association added weed killer – in enormous amounts. So far the fish have not died, so maybe it’s not quite as toxic as it looks. It takes a lot to really frustrate me, but this succeeded.

Swamp Blackberries

The wild blackberries are ripe now on the fringes of the cypress swamp behind our house. They’re not extremely sweet, but they’re worth fighting the thorns to get them. I like finding things that help me forget I’m buried in the middle of American suburbia.

Snake!

Today was Field Day for Trace Academy, the last day of school. Similar to Field Days at the kids’ school in Budapest, it’s just a party to enjoy the last day. Only Trace’s Field Day is better. Sorry ICSB. Here we rode jet ski’s on a lake in the Florida sun and gorged pizza for lunch. I took the day off and chaperoned. Rough assignment but some of the parents had to do it.

The highlight of the day was when Michael caught this rat snake at the edge of the lake in front of his neighbor’s dock.

School isn’t quite out for Andrew yet; he has two more days of exams next week. Today he took his first college level exam, and, while we hear that most people in his class fail this exam, if he does pass it counts for college credit. Our fingers are crossed.

Our Fountain
[click to hear it gurgle]

Today when I sat down at my cart it sounded like someone left a faucet running. I knew what it was right away because I have watched the assembly of this fountain in our work area for the last couple weeks, and I have known of its expected arrival for the last nine months. The background noise of this fountain is supposed to make us want to work together near it while at the same time masking the noise of the conversations we have around it. Sort of like a giant water cooler.

This seems like a logical place to put things, though. Like coworkers on their birthday. Or loose change from your pocket. Or staplers from your coworkers desk. Or food coloring. Or dish soap from the kitchen area. Or a flock of rubber ducks. Or goldfish. Or Fluffy.

Fluffy at Lake Hart

Occasionally alligators visit us in the ponds around Campus Crusade for Christ’s Lake Hart campus. Most of them are less than 6′ long, but all of them get named Fluffy. This one showed up today and floated quietly for all the photos I wanted to take of him.

I walked out along the shore to get closer to him, and all the while he kept his eyes on me. As I was walking back, he followed, too. I was amused, so I took more pictures. Then he swam all the way up to the edge of the pond where I was standing and kept staring at me. That’s when I left.

Having Fun at CKC’s Easter Celebration

Tonight our church, Christ Kingdom Church, produced a neighborhood Easter celebration, complete with jump houses and cotton candy. I offered to help setup, and before I knew it I was towing the church trailer behind my van with a load of sound equipment. Backing that trailer into place three different times was quite a challenge.

This little girl is the daughter of our friends and never fails to give me a good picture.

The Pile of Bricks To Move

Cathy and I have had plans for years for what we would do if we ever had a pile of bricks. Our friends recently replaced their brick patio, and they offered to give us all their old bricks for free! It all seemed so easy; just get the bricks from our friends’ house, put them in a pile at our house, and complete our various brick projects at our convenience.

Our old minivan can only haul about a quarter ton each trip, but that wasn’t the limiting factor today. I was. After four trips I was done. Unfortunately the pile of bricks in our friends’ driveway was not done. It was only barely smaller.

I also think we will end up with enough bricks to pave our entire yard. That would certainly cut down on lawn mowing, but it’s not what we had in mind. So I’m going to have to figure out just how many bricks we want and come up with a plan to fulfill my promise to my friend to get all the bricks out of his driveway!

On the left is what one of our brick projects will look like. On the right is the measly, small pile of bricks in our driveway that finished me off today.

Cathy left me today.

She left for a week-long NILD conference in Virginia Beach (National Institute of Learning Disabilities). Throw in some good friends from Budapest who are there, a room with an ocean view, and a meal package, and this is shaping up to be a great week for her. She deserves it, and I’m happy for her. The ongoing education will keep her teaching skills fresh, too.

On the home front things really aren’t bad for me. Andrew and Audrey could take care of me rather than the other way around, if necessary. After the leftover food runs out they might be.

Anyway, this afternoon Andrew came home on his own, did homework, then went skateboarding with some friends in the neighborhood. He was in his element; friends and skateboarding.

Meanwhile, I kept busy at the office until the end of the day. I left Lake Hart and went to retrieve my daughter from our friends’ house. When I got there I found them doing their homework in the sun on the roof!

This is when I began to realize how good my life is here. My whole family is doing things they enjoy, and I didn’t have to work to make it happen. Maybe that’s just being lazy, but it was a nice feeling anyway.

And yes, they had permission to be on the roof.

Blues legend and Grammy winner, Buddy Guy, came to Orlando for a free outdoor concert tonight. It has been a long time since I have been downtown at night, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Cathy and I went with friends.

Blues Concert Rocket Launch

The show began with a rocket launch. I’m sure it wasn’t coordinated, but it made for a spectacular beginning anyway; something you would only see in Central Florida.

A few songs into Buddy Guy’s concert he jumped down off stage and walked around with the audience, all while playing his guitar. We were off to one side when he headed over to where we were sitting. This was at least a hundred feet from the stage, but his wireless pickup kept working. I walked next to him while he played as the crowd closed in around him. This was an unbelievable experience.

Buddy Guy Blues Concert

Click here or on the photo to see a video of him playing off stage.

I think tonight was the most interesting thing I’ve seen since moving back to Orlando!

Later update: You can also watch this video on YouTube.com. Click below.