Swept Up

Post #18
Weeks of training complete: 18 weeks, 1 day
Time until Ironman: 13 weeks, 6 days
Miles swam: 70.254
Miles biked: 1,046.52
Miles run: 275.98

Fundraising goal: $5,000
Total money raised: $720

My wife has made me start sweeping the floors on an every-other-day basis (we take turns). At first, I bristled at the notion. With cooking, cleaning the dishes, putting the kids to bed, getting ready for the next day, there's already so much to do that sweeping the dining room, kitchen and living room floors just seemed like another pain-in-the-ass aspect to finishing out the day. Just another obstacle to those precious 15 minutes of "me time" before bed.

But between the time of her request and now, something has happened. I kind of like sweeping the floors.

The crap I sweep up is, literally, a trip through memories forgotten from days past. You know how they say technology speeds up our life, makes us forget about the small things, the simple things we see when we slow life down?

The vaccum cleaner does it, too.

Take today, for example. While sweeping the living room, I swept up, and then remembered, the following:

• An unpopped popcorn kernel: Reminded me of Friday night when we had friends over for dinner. We drank beer, while our kids and their kids watched a movie in the living room. Good memory, it made me smile.

• A red sequin: Reminded me of our trip Sunday morning to the Phoenix Children's Museum. Beck and Brody made a wide variety of things in the art studio. Beck an Olympic flag, with 28 rings (6 blurred and smudged), as opposed to the standard 5-ring flag. Brody, various pieces of felt and rubber glued together into a 2-inch thick blob and held together with 17.5 times the necessary amount of Elmer's glue. There were sequins on both of their projects, too. Some obviously fell off in the living room: Good memory.

• A "sausage" ball from a $1.99 frozen pizza. Sunday night, I was craving really spicy food, so I opted to marinate some pork in chipotle, cumin, chili powder with onions, garlic, carrots and various peppers in broth until it thickened. I knew the kids wouldn't eat it, so I let them eat frozen pizza, in the living room, while we all hung out together. Good memory, again. The day-old "sausage" ball was pretty gross. Still edible, though, I bet.

• A string cheese wrapper: One day Beck will learn how to use a garbage can.

So you get the idea. Of course, these trips down memory lane don't always apply to the kitchen and dining room. Half the time I don't recognize what I sweep up there. Seriously, I swept something up today and I couldn't tell if it was smushed cantaloupe or the tail of a shrimp.

Heidi just read that and said, "Eeewwwww." What until I tell you guys about "meat juice" - something I have to drink for really long distance Ironman training sessions. That's a post for another day, though.

In other news, time is creeping up on the donations deadline. I've still got $4,280 to go and just under 14 weeks to do it. They'll be a few charity events coming up in the near future, so keeps your eyes on your e-mail inboxes for invites.

In the interim, if you're interested in donating, there's a direct link to do so by credit card on the top of the sidebar on the right.

Until next time,
Ed