Memorial Day - 2014

Last year on Memorial Day I wrote about some friends who had served in the military at the same time that I did who are no longer with us. As we get older we obviously start losing more friends. As I wrote in an earlier post this year I was saddened to hear of the loss of Rob Sissung another of the five of us who enlisted in the Navy together in 1968. I have written about the loss before and shared pictures of Rob and his wife Jenny and talked about the hospitality they showed to those of us stationed in Millington, Tennessee when they were. There home was a great place to get away from the hectic day to day Navy school life. I wanted to honor Rob on this Memorial Day.

God Bless you Rob! We miss you!

While sorting the pictures that I mentioned in a previous post I came across pictures of a young man that I also want to honor on this day of memory. Lashon Robusky was a member of the cross country and track teams at Sierra High School. I had the privilege of coaching Lashon in cross country his senior year when he led the boy's team to their first ever trip to the State Championship meet. Lashon placed 7th individually, the first and one of only two cross country medalists in school history even to this day.

Lashon was serving in the Navy after graduation when he was tragically killed in an automobile accident in Japan. He was a fine young man and I'm proud to have known him.

My granddaughter Haley sent me new Red, White and Blue "Bracers" for my Memorial Day races.

I ran two races this weekend both wear established to honor veterans on Memorial Day weekend. The first was a race on Saturday that I also ran last year in Modesto, sponsored by the Shadowchase Running Club and benefiting the Modesto Vet Center. It is a very nice event.

Sunday I ran the Wounded Warriors 5K in Manteca, it was the first time I ran this one but I would certainly do it again. They had an entire day filled with tributes to veterans past and present. It was just a nice patriotic event that brought out a lot of veterans and supporters.

While it is a solemn holiday I am grateful that we have Memorial Day to help us pause and reflect on those who have served.

Catching Up and Organizing

The catching up part of this post is documenting another race. For the second year in a row I ran the 1 mile race at the Chocolate Festival in Oakdale, California. Oakdale calls itself the "Cowboy Capital of the World" but that's a story for another time. Each year they close off a major part of downtown for their Chocolate Festival and they they hold a race as part of the festivities; the race is part of our running club's Grand Prix series.

Each time that I have moved since April 2006 I have gone through my things and downsized until I really have eliminated a lot of "stuff". One thing that I always have a hard time getting rid of are old pictures. When I ask other people what they think the almost universal response is, "they don't take up that much room". Another is, "Maybe you can give them to the people in them".

Let me respond to the second one first. In December 2009 I went to Dallas, Texas to run a half marathon. While I was there I had dinner with one of my former athletes who still stays in touch with many of my athletes from the late 70's and early 80's. I took a large mailing envelope full of pictures from then and offered to leave them with her to take with her the next time she went back for a visit. "No thanks". Keep in mind, she was in many of them and the others were her friends, teammates and even family. So 5 years later I still find myself with them.

In response to the first comment about taking up room, that really isn't the issue. What they do is make it very cumbersome and time consuming whenever I want to find a specific picture or pictures for use in a blog post or to share with someone on.

The point that I am getting to here is that I finally started purging pictures. If a picture is fuzzy, blurry or any other way imperfect, it's gone. If it's not obvious who or what the picture is really of other than generic track or cross country meet pictures, then the picture is gone. I hope to do another blog eventually geared towards my 30 years as a coach and I expect to use a lot of pictures when I do. I can't continue to waste time looking through pictures that have no meaning to anyone. With that said, here is some of my first day efforts.

And that's just the beginning of trying to get better organized.

While going through pictures from Sierra High School where I coached for 20 years I came across two that really demonstrated an example of taking something for granted. In 1990 both my boy's and girl's cross country teams qualified for the state championship meet which was held in Boulder that year. It was the first time that a team had qualified from Sierra. Here is a picture of the send off that they gave the team the morning that we left school.

You can see the band, the cheerleaders, the mascot, football players, staff and students. The next year, 1991, we qualified again. Here is a picture taken from the same place the morning that we left.

A pretty sad commentary I would say. One year it's reason for a huge celebration, the second year it's expected and taken for granted. Our girl's team qualified for 9 years in a row from 1990-1998 and that send off was never repeated. And I can guarantee you the kids knew when they were taken for granted. After 1998 we qualified individuals to state but it was a long time until another team made it and there has certainly not been another 9 year streak of team qualifying.

My message here is simple, enjoy things when they are happening, don't let good times pass unnoticed because you never know when or if another one will come along. To quote Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened". It's a lot easier to follow that advice if you make the most to enjoy it while it's happening.

Wanderlust & Home

Wanderlust is a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world.That's the definition from Wikipedia on the internet. I've been able to satisfy my personal wanderlust most of my life. While I have still not done everything that I would like to or been everywhere that I would like to go, I have been fortunate to be able to do what I already have so far.

The title of this blog; Railroads, Rivers, Route 66 and Running, actually comes directly from the idea of wanderlust. I have already shared some of my Route 66 stories in this blog as well as the blog; Still Running After 50 Years and I have shared some river stories in this one as well. I haven't said much about my love of train travel yet and may or may not do so in this particular blog but I will get to it at some point. The highlight of my train travel was a trip with my wife and daughter that originated in Denver, Colorado and went east to Washington, DC and Boston and then south to Waco, Texas. That'll be a story or stories for another time. And if you've read either of my blogs to date you know how my wanderlust is fed by my running travels both local and long distance.

The poet Robert Service wrote a poem called The Wanderlust and I clearly remember the first time that I heard it. I was on a river trip with the Sweeney's and others on the Green River and we had all the rafts tied together like a barge floating through the Great Meander, talking and telling stories on the slow moving section of the river. We were always told to bring something to read or share with the group on river trips and this was an occasion to share. Brian Sweeney pulled a copy of the Service and read it to the group.

I have always enjoyed Service's poems, my father-in-law-, Sam Stout used to recite them a lot. I looked for a book of his work every time I went to a used book store and even at the new bookstores and I finally found one that was comprehensive enough to include The Wanderlust, so I bought it. I am going to share just the first two stanzas here because it really does explain some of my thoughts on, Railroads, Rivers, Route 66 and Running.

THE WANDERLUST

The Wanderlust has lured me to the seven lonely seas,

Has dumped me on the tailing-piles of dearth;

The Wanderlust has haled me from the morris chair of ease,

Has hurled me to the ends of all the earth.

How bitterly I've cursed it, oh, the Painted Desert knows,

The wraithlike heights that hug the pallid plain,

The all-but-fluid silence,--yet the longing grows and grows,

And I've got to glut the Wanderlust again.

Soldier, sailor, in what a plight I've been!

Tinker, tailor, oh what a sight I've seen!

And I'm hitting the trail in the morning, boys,

And you won't see my heels for dust;

For it's "all day" with you

When you answer the cue

                  Of the Wan-der-lust

It goes on for another 8 stanzas but I'm sure that you get the point. It's all about travel and the happiness that it brings. 

The flip side of my love for travel is how much I enjoy returning home after a trip, no matter if the trip is a few days or a few weeks, it always feels good to get home. As long as I'm using poetry to try to explain myself here is another old poem this one by Edward Albert Guest.

HOME

It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home,

A heap o' sun an' shadder, an' ye sometimes have t' roam

Afore ye really 'preciate the things ye lef' behind,

An' hunger fer 'em somehow, with 'em allus on yer mind.

It don't make any differunce how rich ye get t' be,

How much yer chairs an' tables cost, how great yer luxury;

It ain't home t' ye, though it be the palace of a king,

Until somehow yer soul is sort o' wrapped round everything.

Like the Service poem there is more to this one as well but I thing this much gives a sense of the message.

So, Wanderlust or Home, I feel Blessed that I am able to travel where and when I can and I feel Blessed that I always have a home to return to. 

I don't know if this particular post helps make more sense of the title of this blog but it made sense writing it.

Goodbye Sophie - Hello Charlie: Unconditional Love!

I've written in previous posts about how we may think we make plans and we are in charge of those plans and then something comes along to show us just how little control we have over some things. We have always had a lot of dogs here at the 2BarM Ranch and I have written about some of them from time to time. The general feeling was that as the older dogs left us then we wouldn't get anymore because they really are a lot of work and always have to be considered when any of us try to make plans. Add to the seven that we had in April, my niece's four that my sister helps with when my neice has to be out of town and it really is a huge undertaking.

On April 22nd we lost Sophie the Tibetan Mastiff that was a rescue. She was a big, sweet dog but her hips finally got to the point where she could no longer stand or walk. She has had hip problems for a long time but everything was done to keep her with us while she was still able to get around and wasn't suffering any pain. Unfortunately the morning of the 22nd she could no longer get up. Her last years were good years though because she was rescued and came to life here.

SOPHIE

Then on May 5th I saw a small dog laying by the ranch sign out by the road. I figured that he was probably a stray and would wander off. As the sun moved and the shade moved around the base of the sign he moved as well throughout the day. He would wander next door and stay in their trees from time to time but he would always come back to the sign.

The next day he was still there but would run off whenever I tried to approach him even if I had treats. I left the treats by the sign and he eventually ate one of them. I also put a bowl of water out because it was getting really hot. He still wouldn't let me near him. (I say him but at the time I thought it was a girl). Later I put a bowl of food out as well but he wouldn't let me get near him.

This was stressful because I sleep with my window open and it seemed as though every time a car drove by at night I would hear it and cringe automatically expecting to hear the dog get hit. The 3rd day was no better as far as trying to get him to come to me or allow me to get close enough to pet him. He was never aggressive, just standoffish. That afternoon we had some guys working in the yard and he came closer to the house and even wandered into the yard for a brief time. My sister coaxed him with some treats and he would eat them as long as she backed off. Albert, one of the guys working in the yard tried talking to him in Spanish just in case that's what her owners spoke but that didn't work either.

For three days and nights, every time a car would drive by he would look like he was expecting someone to stop and pick him up. The bottom line is that I think some low life simply dropped him off and fortunately for him he wound up here. On the fourth day I went out, opened my truck door and got him to come close enough to pet him. He let me pick him up and take him in the house and the rest is history. Initially his name was Rosie but upon closer examination the next day he became Charlie.

I waited a week to see if anyone came looking, checked the lost and found in the local paper two weeks in a row and knew at that point that he was mine. Tuesday he was taken to the vet for all of his shots, micro chip and neutering. The past couple of nights and probably the next few sleep is taking a back seat to making sure he is ok throughout the night. The other six dogs accept him so as soon as he's back to normal he'll be back running with the pack of, Maddie, Sassy, Sly, Sadie, Jordan and Ella.

I guess we don't always get to choose when we are going to become pet owners.

CHARLIE

Hard to believe that he is the same dog who wouldn't let me get close to him for three days while he lived right next to a busy street.

My daughter Stacie sent me this the night that Charlie became part of our family.

So is Charlie our last dog? Who knows? One thing I do know is never say never.

Lessons on the River - San Juan 1996

I don't think I ever went on a river trip that I didn't learn something. Whether it was a one day float trip with very little whitewater or 16 days doing over 200 miles on the Grand Canyon, there was always something new. If someone was to see a list of all the multiday trips I was fortunate enough to participate in because of my friends Joe Gross and Brian and Kathy Sweeney they would probably guess that my most life changing trip would have been the Grand Canyon the summer of 2000. While it was a great trip, a trip of a lifetime as a matter of fact, it was not my most life changing. I'll blog about the Grand Canyon trip in the future.

My most life changing trip without a doubt was a trip that I took in 1996, it was the first time that my daughter went on a multiday trip with me. The fact that she went is what made it so life changing. I learned so much about what a strong independent young woman she was becoming even at that young age. I was so impressed with how she interacted with adults on the trip and how much she pitched in and carried her weight throughout the entire trip. What made it equally special was that the Father's Day occurred during the trip and several other guys had their sons and daughters there as well. It was fun, plain and simple.

The life changing part though was learning to trust my daughter's independence and not hold her back simply because she was my "little girl". I grew up with a Mom who because of her own upbringing always saw the risk in everything and expecting that if anything could go wrong, it would. Because of that I became an overly cautious person and was certainly that way where my sons and daughter were concerned. While everything Stacie had done on this trip showed me that she was strong and smart I was still a "hovering" parent to the point where I'm sure that it drove her crazy. I still remember the specific event where I learned that it was ok to back off. Whether she realizes it or not that was a turning point in our relationship. I learned to trust her judgement and to allow her to take reasonable risks.

That specific event was when she wanted to take one of the rubber kayaks and run Presidents Rapid by herself. When she asked everyone said sure except me. I said "no". There wasn't going to be any discussion, just "no". I could see from the expressions on the faces of some others and the disappointment on her face that I was probably wrong and after watching a few others run the rapid I relented. She ran it as if it was something she grew up doing not as though it was her first rapid in a solo kayak. Although I probably didn't realize it right away, I learned to not put my fears on her. I had to learn to trust her and allow her to challenge herself. The result is a strong independent woman who is a great wife and mother.

Did I become a perfect parent as a result of that? Of course not! I did however become a better parent and had a much better relationship with her through all of the outdoor activities we shared together from then on. 

Here are a few pictures of that trip:

See why I was nervous - She was my baby!