Category: Life

“You rode like the wind! Even on that dinosaur of a bike.”

That’s what a man told my son last weekend. My son just finished the Copper Triangle, a very challenging 80-mile race up and down three Rocky Mountain passes. The comment was made by a man who had a multiple-thousand dollar bicycle. Jay’s Mercier (less than a year old) cost all of about $350. Jay was able to complete the course with a significant margin over the fancy-bike man.

It’s all about the rider – and not the bike. This concept applies to just about anything. A true artist can make an amazing painting with house paint and dime store brushes. Many wanna-be artists spend thousands on supplies, only to produce paintings that are only seen in their own living rooms.

This is just a quick reminder that you need to give yourself a break. And even a small break is better than no break.

A few weekends ago, Heather and I took a one night break from normal life. It was so refreshing. Just being in a different place than our suburban home was enough to refresh our souls. We took the opportunity to talk about things that wouldn’t fit into normal days’ discussions.

So if you haven’t taken a break for a while, do whatever it takes and get away. You won’t regret it.

I snapped this photo in the “back yard” of the place we stayed. It was part of a huge sundial that someone built more than fifty years ago.

The shootings at a theater in Aurora were tragic. A man with untold problems decided to take the lives of many innocent people. My first reaction was that if gun control laws were more restrictive, the killer may not have been able to get the gun he needed to kill so many people.

A very good friend believes the opposite. He would argue that if a sane person in the theater with good marksmanship skills were carrying a concealed weapon, that person could have killed the shooter before all his killings were completed. We argued extensively about gun control a few years back and finally realized we could not convince the other to change his mind. We put the argument behind us and our friendship has grown deeper.

I am not going to argue here about gun control. I will say that with great freedom comes great responsibility. As the parent of two teenagers, I know the feeling of handing over the keys to a car for that first solo run. Anything could happen. As a society that has handed the controls of lethal weapons to nearly anybody, anything can happen.

My son went to a midnight showing – the same movie on the same night, at a different theater 15 miles from the tragic location. My family is not very different from some of the families whose sons and daughters were killed. My son could have been killed. Your daughter could have been killed.

I am thankful for our freedom – but I am sad for the frequent abuses of that freedom. I would be willing to give up a little freedom in exchange for a little more sanity.

Life just gets to be too much at times.

I was going to do a presentation at Ignite Denver 11 called, “Why You Should Drive a Small Car.” I was really looking forward to presenting. However, I am deep into the first term of a graduate degree program (two courses at once) and am continuing in my responsibilities as a dad to three kids, a husband to one woman and doing a good job for the clients of my business.

So I am hoping that I can do the presentation after the degree is finished. I’ll graduate in December 2013, if all goes as planned.

Thanks to all my friends who kindly gave me “yes” votes to allow me to be one of the Ignite presenters. I hope to call on you again after the grad degree is in the bag.

A store in our neighborhood closed. I was really sad. Though I was not a big patron of Jo-Ann Fabrics, it will be missed. I don’t know of any new tenant taking over the space, which was a Safeway supermarket many years ago.

Our kids would ride their bikes or walk over to get some candy. Though there’s a convenience store a block farther, it’s just not the same. I feel bad for the surrounding businesses. They will miss some of the “halo” effect of customers Jo-Ann brought in. I am sad for employees who lost their jobs. A few may be hired at the three other locations in the Denver area. And local fabric enthusiasts will now have to travel further to get their thrills.

What recently closed business do you miss – and why?