My So Called Life....

Despite my spate of recent posts, I am sometimes reluctant to blog because I'm not sure that I have anything that is particularly "blog-worthy."  When I read other people's blogs sometimes, it can be overwhelming when to see how funny, entertaining, and/or talented the bloggers are or how exciting their lives may be.

I think sometimes, however, we can be blinded by how mundane our routine tasks can be that we don't realize that we can still be uncommon despite the fact that we are performing common, routine tasks.

In addition, given that it's November, I've been thinking a little bit about gratitude.  So with that in mind, here are five mundane, common place things from "My So-Called Life" that I've been up to in the past week and that I'm grateful for:

#5 - Went To Church

We were recently released from our service in the Spanish Ward after several years.  Truth be told, I miss it.  Not necessarily the calling I had, but I miss the people.  Now that we are back in our "home" ward, I feel like I don't know a soul and I'm starting over.  It is very surreal.

Still, I'm grateful for the opportunity to go to church and for our friends  and neighbors who have been anxious to get us back (at least that's what they tell us!).  ;-)

#4 - Did Stuff With My Kids

I've been frantically working with R. trying to finish up the requirements for his Webelos Arrow of Light.  Poor S. keeps asking me when we are going to work on his Cub Scout stuff!  I told him that we still have months to his birthday so we're good.  R. has only another few days to finish up his last two requirements!  We are in triage mode here people!

As soon as R. finishes those requirements, we can spend lots of time teaching S. how to do really important Cub Scout stuff like a front somersault and how to properly tie his neckerchief!

I've also been spending some quality time with M.  We have a standing date pretty much every night.  Here's how it works.  He starts crying.  I go get him and feed him his bottle.  Then I change his diaper so it doesn't explode in the middle of the night.  M. cries because he hates his diaper getting changed.  However, once it's done he calms down and I put him back in his crib.  He goes to sleep. I pass out, but I am grateful for my kids.  They really are a true blessing.

#3 - Laundry

Is there anything more glamorous than doing laundry?  It reminds me of that quote from Christmas Vacation where Chevy Chase ("Clark Griswold") gets his Christmas bonus--a membership to the "Jelly-of-the-Month" Club.  To say that Chevy Chase was disappointed would be an understatement.  As Chevy prepares to go ballistic,  Randy Quaid ("Uncle Eddie") leans over and tells Chevy Chase: "Aww Clark, that's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year round!"

Laundry is kinda like the gift that keeps on giving the whole year round.  Just as soon as you finish one load, there are more dirty clothes!  I got all my laundry done yesterday, including folding it and putting it away.  I know, I know, it's a miracle!

Exhausting and unending as it may be, I'm grateful for a nice washer and dryer that make the laundry process as painless as possible.

#2 - Worked Out

I went running at least once this week!  It wasn't very far, but I kept up a decent pace and I wasn't too sore the next day!  Ever since the Pumpkinman, my race calendar for the year is pretty much done, so it's been tough to go motivated to go running--especially late at night when I usually have time to do it.  If I don't keep up though, I am going to look (and feel) like Homer Simpson at my next race!

Still, I am grateful for a body that allows me to do fun things like triathlons, races, play basketball with my brother (we played together in the championship game tonight and S. had 6 three-pointers, including 4 in the first half!), and keep up with my kids--even though I'm getting old and slow with every passing minute!

#1 - Got a Haircut

My haircut wasn't quite this short!  ;-)

Yes, this is incredibly mundane, but it can be a bit stressful.  I've never been able to quite find a barber/salon that I like in the city where I live, so I often find myself driving for what seems like hours to get a haircut at the salon in the town where we used to live.

Sadly, I feel like I've had some bad haircuts and it's not that fun.  I have blogging friends who have tried Groupons for haircuts and had bad experiences.  Mine weren't that bad, but I always worry that that's going to be the worst case scenario.

Frankly, I'm not sure what's harder...trying to find a decent salon or actually getting a haircut that J. thinks looks good.  The last time I got a haircut, she didn't even think that I'd gotten one!  Apparently, this one didn't make the grade either.  ;-)  Oh well, everyone's a critic!

I guess I'm just grateful that I still have enough hair to need a haircut at my age.  I can't say that for all of my friends or high school buddies!

My haircut

What mundane things are you grateful for?

On Volunteering

Ironman Florida Finisher Medal

I've blogged about how I've been inspired by the volunteers who help at the races that I do.  We really couldn't have the experience that we do--or even do the race--without those volunteers.  They are great and one of the reason that I love doing these Ironman races is because the volunteers make me feel like a rock star!

I came across this video the other day on the Facebook page for Ironman Florida.  I thought it was an amazing, inspirational video and I wanted to share it (partly because I can use some good news following last night's debacle!):

After watching this, I decided that I need to do something to give back.  It's a little early for a New Year's Resolution, but that's okay.  I want to find a race or event next years where I can be a volunteer and cheer on the participants.  Anyone have any suggestions?

A Midsummer Night's Eve

San Clemente Sunset

If you think of the summer as being June, July, and August, today marked the midpoint of the summer.  We walked out of a youth fireside tonight to see this scene from the parking lot of the Stake Center.  This does a fairly decent job of capturing the beauty as we enjoyed the view of Dana Point Harbor in the distance.

I couldn't help but think that as the rest of the country is melting in an unprecedented summer heat wave, we are so blessed to have moderate temperatures, cool breezes, and these types of views.

Andy Reid, Head Coach of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles

The speaker was Andy Reid one of the most successful head football coaches in the NFL.  His wife Tammy spoke with him and I was struck by what a dynamic, strong marriage the Reids had.  They have been married for 31 years and I loved how Coach Reid referred to himself as the "Head Coach" and to his wife as the "Head Coach of the Head Coach."

It was a really great fireside--funny, interesting, and spiritual.  Coach Reid and his wife even took questions (on any topic) from the audience for at least 45 minutes.  They were so gracious.  I had a couple of questions that I wanted to ask him, but I held off so that the youth would have plenty of chances.

I got a chance to thank both Coach Reid and his wife afterward and remind them that their daughter and my brother had served in the same mission in Florida.  Coach Reid posed for a few pictures and even let people try on his Super Bowl Ring (from the Green Bay Packers).  I may regret not having my picture taken, but if I do, it's only because I felt weird asking for a picture after a fireside while we were on the stand in the chapel.

Coach Reid and Sister Reid, in the unlikely event that you ever read my blog, thank you so much for coming to speak to us tonight!

Thank You St. George! (Ironman St. George 2012)

I participated in the 2012 Ironman St. George event this past weekend.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the outcome that  I hoped to have and I plant to do a full report on the race for this blog, but I feel like I first need to express my thanks and gratitude to the volunteers and spectators who came out to support the 1800 or so triathletes that competed.

The event started on Thursday when I had to show up to check-in for the race on Saturday.  I signed a couple of forms (probably promising not to sue in case I died) and got a blue wristband that I had to wear the whole weekend to signify that I was a participant.  From the moment that I checked in and got that wristband, I and my fellow participants were treated like royalty by what seemed like thousands of volunteers and people in St. George.

The volunteers came in all shapes and sizes--men and women, parents and kids, and young and old.  Yet there was a common denominator--they were happy, smiling, and enthusiastic.  Many of them were in the hot sun for hours--without complaint--just to help us and to make our day and our race go smoothly.

Volunteers wait to take the triathletes bikes as the athletes transition from the bike to the run

I literally thanked many volunteers during the race for their help and got the following response: "No, thank you!  You guys (i.e. the triathletes) are inspiring to us!"

Do you know what it feels like to be at the point of physical and mental exhaustion and get help from someone--a cold drink, a hand up, a kind word, someone to hold your bike while you use the Port-A-Potty--and be so grateful for such a small act and then have someone tell you that you are inspiring to them?

It is extremely humbling and a little embarrassing.  I certainly didn't feel worthy of inspiring anyone during that race (and know could not have inspired anyone based on my performance!).  And yet person after person, time after time, did small things so that I could have a fun experience doing this triathlon.

I mean, I wasn't curing cancer or bringing peace in the Middle East.  I was doing a race that I thought would be fun for me.  It's really pretty selfish when you think about it and yet thousands of hours were donated so that I could have an experience that I will never forget.

Here are some of the things that I experienced this past weekend in St. George and for which I am grateful:

• For family who literally opened their home to my brother and me--we love you Di and Chad! =o)
• For fellow competitors who loaned me their bike pump so that I could top off my tires during the pre-dawn darkness on race morning
• For a random spectator who helped my brother get a replacement swim cap (because he lost his) moments before we plunged into the water for the swim
• For a loving Heavenly Father who I believed literally answered my silent prayer uttered in the middle of the stormy lake



The Tempest Was Raging on Race Morning

• For an old mission buddy who I bumped into before the swim (and hadn't seen in nearly 20 years!) and who would later strip my wetsuit off of me after my 2.5 hour swim ordeal when my muscles were too cold, numb, and tired to have done it for myself.  (I'm sure it would have taken me at least 10 minutes on my own (that I didn't have) to do what he managed to do for me in two seconds flat.)
• For that same mission buddy who probably sensed how disappointed I must have been at that point and who whispered in my ear as I lay on the ground that I had done an amazing job just to finish the swim on my own power because over 200 people had been pulled out of the water in boats.  (Without that encouragement, I might not have had the heart to continue the race after being told that I had missed the swim cutoff by 7 minutes and that my race was now "unofficial.")
• For a volunteer who literally helped me get dressed in my bike gear, put on my socks and cycling shoes, and sprayed me down with sunscreen following the swim--then packed up my wetsuit and swim gear for me
• For another volunteer who helped me with my helmet chin strap because my hands just couldn't make it work following the swim
• For a fellow competitor (Go Iron Cowboy!) who rode with me out of Sand Hollow Reservoir and offered a few friendly words of encouragement and helped inspired me to keep going on the bike ride



Iron Cowboy gets his wetsuit stripped by a volunteer

• For race volunteers who offered me cold water, drinks, and food at the aid stations along the run and bike portions of the race
• For volunteers who held my bike for me while I had to use the Port-A-Potty (several times)
• For volunteers who had my "special needs" bag waiting for me on the side of the road when I rode up at the halfway point during the bike ride
• For a volunteer who held my bike for me while I made an emotional phone call to my dad during the middle of the race because I didn't think I could go on
• For a dad who probably panicked and feared the worst when he got an unexpected voice mail message from me during the middle of the race and couldn't get ahold of me afterwards
• For volunteers who fed me and gave me liquids in the tent following the bike ride
• For the enthusiastic volunteer who kept shouting: "Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro, Cinco...Cinco de Mayo!" in the T2 recovery tent (the race was on May 5th).  I think he came with another volunteer and he may have had some sort of mental handicap.  Although some competitors might have found it slightly annoying, I prefer to think that he was doing his best to share his enthusiasm with us.  And I made sure to offer him a sincere thanks before I left the tent to start the run with Scott.  =o)
• For fellow athletes who became new friends during the course of the race 



Team Skil shares a few steps with Ironman veteran and fellow ward member Doug D.
Thanks also to Royal for being behind the camera!

• For loyal friends from home who helped me train and prepare (both mentally and physically) for the race and who encouraged me along the way
• For a niece of my famous, game show champion brother-in-law who had an entire aid station cheering for "Team Dyer" every time we ran past (I still have no idea how she knew who we were!)
• For a wife who let me leave home and compete even though she was miserable and in extreme physical pain while taking care of the kids and holding down the fort back home for the entire weekend
• For a wife, mom, and brother who were watching the live feed from the race at nearly midnight and saw me cross the finish line
• For spectators who came out to cheer us on by the hundreds.  It really did make a huge difference!



I can't tell you how happy I was to be at this point--done!!

• For the volunteer (shamefully I never asked his name) who greeted me at the finish line, wrapped me in a space blanket and escorted me safely to the recovery area
• For literally thousands of friendly smiles and cheers from people all over St. George, Gunlock, and Veyo
• For sisters and cousins who told me that they would have come and watched me race if I had told them that I was doing the race (it didn't even occur to me that anyone would care enough to interrupt their Saturday and drive down to St. George just to see me and my brother do something that was obviously, in retrospect, crazy!)
• Congratulatory messages and kind words from good friends and family following the race and who never let me think I was failure despite the fact that I didn't achieve the goals that I had set for myself (literally, my cell phone was blowing up with supportive text messages when I finally turned it on at the end of the race)
• For my best friend and brother Scott, who literally did every step of the marathon with me, and who truly is an Ironman!

Like I said, it was truly an amazing and humbling experience to be treated so well by so many for doing so little.  The attitude of the volunteers is a true credit to the town of St. George and to the State of Utah!  It made me proud to be able to claim to have ties to the area.

I'm looking forward to being able to volunteer at another race or event in the future.  I hope that I can live up to the standard set by the amazing volunteers in St. George this past weekend!  Mahalo!

Rain, Rain, Go Away?

The View Right Now

It's raining right now.  Hard.  It's supposed to rain all day today and through the entire weekend.  These aren't the warm, tropical rains of Hawaii.  The rain is cold and wind driven.  It's probably from Alaska--which explains why it's so cold.  When I went outside to take this picture, I was quickly driven back inside.  You can see a spot of rain on the lens in the bottom right hand corner.

It's tempting to complain sometimes about the rain, but I never do.  Southern California is a beautiful place to live, but it is also a desert.  Rain is a precious resource down here and so I am always grateful for it when it comes.

When I was in high school (about 1991?), we were facing a severe drought in our part of Southern California.  Water restrictions were put into effect.  Our stake leaders promised us that if we worked on keeping the Sabbath day holy and fasted for rain, we would be blessed.  I remember they cited this scripture from the Bible:

"Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord."
If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit."
--Leviticus 26:2-4

I think they also reminded us of the story of President Lorenzo Snow who promised the pioneers in St. George that if they paid their tithing, they would receive rain--even though there hadn't been any rain for months.

I remember thinking that it was pretty bold to promise that if we kept the Sabbath Day holy and fasted, we would have rain.  But we did it as a stake.  The results were miraculous.  It seemed like it rained nearly every day for the next month.  We received enough rain so that the drought restrictions did not become necessary.  But it was an important faith-promoting experience for me and for many of the other members of the Stake as well.

So on this St. Patrick's Day, I will be thankful for the rain and enjoy the sound that it makes as it pitter-patters down on the roof and the windows.  I will be grateful for the sense of cleanliness that it brings to the streets and sidewalks.  And I will be grateful that, even though it's raining, the sun will still come out after the storm has passed.  =o)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My Good Samaritan

My "Mecca" - The Queen K Highway
(viewed faintly as the line on the right)

I had a couple of firsts today...here's one of them:

I went for a bike ride today.  I had been waiting to ride this particular stretch of road for quite sometime and then I got less than 2 miles into my ride when I hit a chunk of something in the road.  Even through my headphones, I immediately heard a loud hissing sound.  I had my first flat!

I stopped riding and set to work.  I still consider myself a novice rider--definitely not a pro, so I decided to look at it as a challenge to get this flat changed on my own.  Even though I've never changed a flat, I had seen Youtube videos of how to do it and I thought that I knew how to do it in theory.


I felt like I was making good progress when all of a sudden, I noticed a car backing up toward me on the highway.  It was one of the guys from the bike shop--my good Samaritan!  He gave me a few pointers and, because it was getting dark, offered to throw my bike in his truck and drop me off at the bike shop just down the road.

Not my bike, but you get the idea...

Even though I thought I was on my way, I was extremely grateful for the help.  It was actually a good thing that I ended up at the bike shop too because the impact had ruptured the sidewall of the tire--meaning that I would have to replace the tire as well as the inner tube.  It would have been unsafe to just change the tube and  keep riding.

So I was grateful for the help that arrived even before I realized how much I really needed it.  Sometimes I think life is like that.  We have a loving Heavenly Father that is willing to give us blessings even before we realize that we need to ask for them.  I really need to be sure to thank Him in my prayers tonight for sending Bob--the guy from the bike shop.

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Chrissie Wellington rides the Queen K

The stretch of road I was all pumped to ride is the site of the World Ironman Championships.

Participating in this race is on my bucket list.  The only way to get in to is (literally) win a lottery or qualify as an "age grouper" competitor.

Sadly, my odds of winning the Kona lottery (205 slots are reserved for more than 70,000 entrants in the lottery) are probably much better than my odds of qualifying as an age grouper. But that doesn't stop me from dreaming!  =o)

The nature of the race lends itself to great inspirational stories.  My experience today reminded me of one of my favorite inspiring stories and a great example of sportsmanship.

Chrissie Wellington is the Michael Jordan of the women's Ironman.  One year during the race, she got a flat tire.  (Maybe close to where I got mine?)

She went to fix her flat, but her CO2 cannister failed.  She had no backup.  She had been out in front leading the race, but now competitor after competitor passed her.  The spectators could not give her assistance or she would be disqualified.  Without a tiny little cannister of compressed air to fill her tire up, she would not even be able to finish the race--a major upset.

The only person that could provide her assistance would be another competitor.  But doing so might mean that that competitor might not be able to fix their own tire if he/she got a flat.  In addition, helping Chrissie might mean that the competitor might lose to Chrissie.  Finally, after what must have seemed liken an eternity--at least to Chrissie--one competitor (anonymous as far as I remember) tossed Chrissie a spare cartridge.

Chrissie finished fixing her tire, got back on her bike, made up the time, passed all of the other female competitors to finish first after the bike portion, and went on to win the championship!  Talk about inspiring!

But what was most inspiring was the example of sportsmanship from the fellow competitor.  It really reminded me of the story of Jesse Owens and Luz Long in the long jump competition at the 1936 Olympics.

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I know my story is not as dramatic as those of Chrissie Wellington and Jesse Owens, but I don't think you have to be an elite athlete to appreciate sportsmanship or to have gratitude for those people who unexpectedly appear in our lives to help us at times when we may need them most.