Hometown Happenings

This is the ironically named "Tall City".  It is so named because the huge 13-story buildings tower over the incredibly flat landscape.

I'm up late listening to my hometown hockey team on the radio.  No, I'm not that fanatical, but it's the playoffs and it's going into overtime for the third game in a row on the series.  Good stuff. The thing I hate about hockey is that there is so much time between periods.  I want to sleep, but I hate to leave now.  Every time they drop the puck a fight breaks out, guys are getting ejected left and right.  I only wish I could be there to see it.  As you can tell, I'm a sports fan.

So, on my plate for this weekend, some great stuff.  In the morning (which is sneaking up on me really quickly) is trash pickup.  Cade and I will be joining the city-wide Keep Midland Beautiful campaign tomorrow with all the people from my office and their families.  I'm anxious to get Cade christened with his first community service project.  It's really a joke because Keep Midland Beautiful is a sad misnomer.  The combined metroplex of Midland/Odessa has 200,000 people and about one oilwell for each person.  The landscape is desert, mesquite and tumbleweeds.  We have miles and miles of flat, dry grass lined with barbed wire fences.  Those fences proudly display a wide array of plastic bags that flap wildly in the strong west Texas winds.  All of that to say, there is nothing now nor has there ever been anything beautiful about this city.  There is no keeping it beautiful, there is just minimizing the eye sore.  So, Cade and I will be Minimizing the Eyesore of Midland tomorrow.  More good times.

After that I will be joining my parents and some friends to make some sandwiches and take them to the local park where the homeless hang out.  I can't decide whether I want to take Cade yet because he is still at that age where he asks embarrassing and inappropriate questions.  I don't want him to hurt anyone's feelings.  Plus, I am quite inclined to sit and talk with these people for ages.  They have the most interesting stories.  Their lives are little different in their starts from my own or anyone else's.  It's usually a tale of mental illness gone awry (which I understand all too well).  There are Vietnam veterans, wonderful men with incredible dogs and ingenious setups of grocery carts.  It's something I am really looking forward to.  The only thing is that my heart breaks and I want to do so much more than hand out one meal.  I want to bring them all home.  I want to spend every day just listening to the stories.  I want to fix their situations and I hate the helpless feeling that I am left with.  But I know that my helplessness holds no candle to what they live with daily.

Finally, I plan on a weekend of running.  I skipped a lot this week because I have been so worn out.  I have to get back on the horse.  Everything I have read mentions that the killer of marathon training is loss of motivation.  Initially my motivation was my new running shoes. There is nothing more fun than breaking in a new pair of shoes.  I wish I could get a pair a week. Ooh, and new running clothes!  I think that shallow tendency defeats the self-improvement aspect I am going for with the running, so I'll have to find something else.  

Well, my melatonin has clouded my mind and my team just won in sudden death, double overtime tying the series and heading to game five.  Good night to all and I hope you have wonderfully productive and exciting weekends!