Summertime...

Man, I dunno' what the weather's been doing where you live, but here? Dude, it's SUMMER!

We've really been enjoying record late-spring weather and embracing our second full 'warm season' in our house. I think we feel truly 'at home' now and are doing our best to really settle in and take care of the things that need taking care of with a house like ours.

Sarah (eldest daughter) beat us all out of bed a couple Sunday mornings ago. I found her in the living room, reading her book, enjoying her customary glass of morning chocolate milk.

Niki is working almost 3/4 time hours as a personal trainer these days so that means I'm at home most mornings getting the kids up, dressed, fed, and off to school. Last week I came down to the breakfast table and found the above drawing sitting on it. Turns out our youngest daughter and Mommy had been doing some artwork together the night before. Pretty sweet.

The famous pool. I feel like an alchemist, constantly working on the thing, doing my best to keep the water crystalline. We often comment that it must be a certain kind of person who likes a pool 'cause it's simply true that they're a lot of work. If you didn't love it, you wouldn't want to do it, that's for sure. Me, I treat cleaning and tending it as a meditative exercise, a chance to zone out and focus on one simple task.

Triathlon training is going well. I've trained MUCH harder for this one than I did the last time. I'll fill you in after race day for sure. My first race is next month then Niki will join me for one in August as, it's our hope, that her badly sprained left ankle will be healed enough to allow her to do the run by then. Our friend lent her a race bike to start training though and the above picture was taken on our first test ride together. She did really well. Surprised me actually with her confidence.

And, finally, yours truly on my two or three times a week 5.5km run. Figured I'd try to capture a shot for you and this was the best one of six or seven exposures I took.

All told our days are full and fulfilled lately.

Possible BIG news on the work front later this week with a couple potentially very significant deals pending. If either of them should close I'll be sure to mention it.

Hope your summer is shaping up well.

Peace,

T

The COST of joy...

It's been a busy couple weeks.

I've been toiling.

Now, I realize, doing some of the work I've been doing could be seen as 'play work' but it would only seem that way to those looking at it from the outside, not to those doing it.

(and I have been really busy writing and then presenting pitch after pitch after pitch this spring)

See, it's Spring around here and that means I have lots of prep work to do. Both at our house (pool, grounds, etc...) and with the boat.

First I had clean it out, check all the rigging, then sand all the woodwork, wash the hull, then wax it. 

This took two days. 

Step One...

Then 'Lift In' day came. This entailed getting to the yard, getting the engine (which I'd had overhauled) onto the boat along with the gas tanks, getting them connected, as well as making sure all the rigging was ready to go. I spent 6 hours at the yard on 'Lift In' day waiting for my turn.

Step Two...

Once the boat was in I had to to motor over to a guest dock to wait for 'Mast Stepping' day (the next day). So, come Monday, I was back at the yard getting the boat ready to have her mast stepped. My appointment was at 4 so I got there at 2 and spent two hours prepping.

At 4 the mast went on, then I motored back to the guest dock to complete the rigging process. Shrouds tightened, fore and back stay adjusted, sails up and on, sheets on, properly rigged and working, then I washed her down.

Step Three...

The next day (Tuesday) the Fam' and I moseyed over to the marina (after dropping off one car at our home harbor then driving to our guest harbor in the other vehicle) hopped aboard (with all our soft goods) and sailed home. We covered 20 miles in just under 2 hours which meant traveling just about as fast as our wee boat can go.

Sam took the helm for the last 30min or so.

Step Four...

To see video of the trip, click HERE.

We got home and fell right asleep. As we were drifting off I said to Niki, "See, even the things you LOVE require TOIL in order for you to get JOY out of 'em..."

So, keep toiling friends. The horizon is calling.

T

Not so random beauty...

Snapped this on the way to the studio last week.

It was shoot day as usual but there was nothing 'usual' about this tree. This tree is a symbol of life, new life. This tree is (to me) a symbol of Zion, The Eternal City.

This tree is a promise.

That life will (and does) come again.

I need that this year.

Oh yes I do...

T

The week that was...

Another photo recap for you this week...

My new bike. Thanks Mikey. It's an '87. 

When I took it into our local bike shop for new tires and a tune up the owner of the store started laughing. "Well, that's a classic..." he said. Positive guy that I typically am, I assumed he was giving me a compliment. Turns out it was a pretty good bike in its day. I'm told it'd be a $1,000 bike today. What I found most interesting was that he said that this (classic) bike will be 10 times better than the mountain bike I had been training on and that, if this year's triathlon goes well and I end up wanting to keep at it which might mean buying a new bike, I will find that today's version of my 'classic' will be 10 times (again) better than this one. 

I was amazed. 

"How could that be?" I asked. "It's got two wheels and a chain, how different could it be?" He smiled knowingly at me, shook his head a bit, and told me that someday I'd understand.

Progress.

Got me thinking about the man I am today versus the man I was ten years ago. 

Have I progressed anywhere near as much as bike technology has?

Hef.

Crazy.

I interviewed him last year and, just now, we're completing his episode. T'was pretty cool to see the interview cut down and packaged. Tells quite a story. I look forward to you being able to see it sometime later this year.

Main thing I took from my time with him is that passion and drive coupled with hard work and perseverance still tell the tale. Mr. Hefner comes across as a man possessed. He had a very clear vision of what his life was supposed to be about and his just went and pursued it.

Very informative to sit with him and measure (in the silence of my own heart and mind as we chatted) my own passion and drive against his.

Pool time. I've been emptying ours. What's interesting about this is that my Father in law offered me his amped-up Honda pump which, he told me, would empty the thing in an hour or so compared to the week it would take for my little submersible to do it.

I decided (mostly 'cause I was afraid of breaking his pump) to use mine. Took a week with me having to work at it a little each day. Interesting lesson there.

You don't have to have the best tools to get the job done. A little bit of simple, humble, consistent work can go a long way.

I guess you could say 'size' isn't everything after all!

My two littlest babies. 

Love this shot.

Sitting in the empty pool waiting for summer.

Sitting together.

It's important to make sure you don't spend your life alone (despite how much sharing your life with someone will cost you) because waiting is much better when you're not alone.

Another mastering session downtown.

I continue to be humbled to find myself working in the industry I set out to find myself working in ten years ago.

I am very grateful.

I remain very hopeful.

I was so inspired by the above image. Everything looks better on a big screen. Well worth the work and wait it took to get it up there.

Ah yes, 'Date Night' at THE WELL.

Once every two months we book our city's best indoor playground and provide free babysitting and free admission so our people can invite their friends out for a 'date night' knowing that their pastors will be watching their kids for the night.

Kids went wild. The new parents, dropping them off and picking them up, were amazed that a church would do something like this.

Cool.

A good week all told.

T

Sunday...

I've started my day weeping.

(for joy)

This is why...

www.marknbarbie.tumblr.com

That's Mark and Barb Jurgens, our friends, and one of our associate pastor couples at THE WELL, and they've had TRIPLETS today. I was so moved reading through Mark's blog posts from last night that I just kept crying and crying.

Did I mention they already HAVE one-and-a-half year old TWINS?

This should make for a pretty wild day at church.

Please spread the word about their blog and keep praying as their 'littles' will have some hills to climb in the next week or so.

But for now, God be praised, all three delivered and well, and Mommy too!

Hallelujah!

T

Practice...

My littlest daughter's been teaching me something lately.

See, she discovered this thing called the 'cartwheel' last week. I think it was our neighbor's kid who showed her.

Wouldn't you know it, Zoe's been practicing it, and I mean non-stop, for the last week. We're out front relaxing, she's cartwheeling. We're watching a movie downstairs, she's on the other side of the movie room cartwheeling. I watch her at recess (the school's right behind our house), you guessed it, cartwheeling.

She won't stop practicing 'till she nails it.

Pay attention you writers and preachers and assorted dreamers.

Practice makes perfect.

Sure, I've heard that before, but a five year-old beauty is teaching it to me all over again.

T

What you got(s) to do...

Directing today.

With a sinus infection.

So I'm directing from a prone position on the floor. It would be funny (it it wasn't so crappy) to look back and actually count how many days I've spent directing while feeling so sick I can barely function. One time I directed (a feature film) through the night after totaling my car that evening. I couldn't move so they rigged my monitor on the ground, covered me in a sound blanket and away we went.

Sometimes you just gotta' do what you gotta' do regardless of how you're feeling.

This is especially the case in show-biz where budgets and timelines and production schedules conspire to become an insane pressure cooker that forces you to do things no sane person would (or should) do.

Like direct with a sinus infection.

T