Six long years ago (though it doesn’t feel like it’s a long time ago) Christian was having a horrible experience with T-Ball so I let him quit --- and then he decided that he would love to RACE kids in the water! The timing was right and we joined the Folsom Sea Otters at 5 years old.
I still remember his first day of practice… It was a chilly day with a decent wind. Borderline raining, but it didn’t. For whatever reason the practice was 1.5 hours long (a long time for a 5 year old!) mostly in the water. After one hour Christian needed to go to the bathroom and when he came out he started crying. He was FREEZING from the wind and he did not want to get back into the water. That’s when Rick, the president of FSO at the time, kneeled down and talked to Christian, telling him how awesome he’s done and telling him that he doesn’t have to get back in… He should go home, warm up and be ready for a fun time tomorrow! That made Christian’s night. The rest of the week I saw similar acts of caring from the board and that’s when I realized the Folsom Sea Otters CARED about their young swimmers. It wasn’t about the fastest, the best or winning – it was about the swimming experience and having fun.
He was so small back then he was barely taller than the starting blocks --- compare that to last year:
After swimming with the Otters for five years Christian wanted to Level Up and instead of just doing clinics in the off-season he wanted to switch from summer rec to year round swimming. He did well, wasn’t near the top of his age group but was learning a lot --- and it was a lot of work. We started with the Sierra Marlins but after some issues with the head coach and board we went with several other families and were founding members of the new Folsom Wahoos swim team. He made Jr. Olympic cuts and was doing well. When I saw this picture I took for the first time I had to double and triple check that this young man on the block was indeed my 10-year old son, swimming was a good workout for him!! (Again compared to 2009 when he first started).
But low and behold Christian got tired of swimming --- too boring at practice to just swim laps back and forth. He lost interest. We took a while to be sure he really wanted to quit and in December (2014) he stopped swimming. Since then whenever anyone asks him the answer is always the same, he’s not interested. He misses his friends but he does not miss swimming at all.
We’ve talked about other options, Water polo, diving, returning to swimming recreationally or year round and the only thing that piqued his interest was Springboard Diving --- so he took a camp over spring break and enjoyed it --- and wants to continue to do it.
It was only a month ago when I talked about summer swimming with Christian and after looking at our schedule he said he didn’t want to do it. He wanted to focus on Boy Scouts and that would mean missing too many meets and the meets were important to him.
So it came as a total surprise when a couple of days ago Christian told me he wants to go back the Otters. Once again we reviewed the schedule and discussed things and now his mind has changed and he wants to do summer rec swimming again… Thankfully there was a spot open in his age group, so now we’re signed up and back in the water starting tonight!
It’s going to be interesting, I got spoiled with year-round swimming as there is only one swim meet a month and for the younger swimmers it is usually in the afternoon… Now we’ll have a swim meet every Saturday and they start early!! Oh well, we’ll miss a bunch of them because of scouts so it won’t be too bad!
It was a little over one year ago when I flipped the switch turning on the solar panels on my roof... And, wow, am I glad I did it!!
Average monthly amount paid to SMUD prior to solar: $210
Average monthly amound paid to SMUD now: $4 ($14 solar fee - $10 average per month power generation credit)
Average monthly amount for solar panel lease: $100
Average monthly savings: $110 .... Yes, $110 savings PER MONTH! Less than 50% of what I used to pay!!
Out of pocket expense for installing solar: $0
Incentive Credits received for going solar $500
Yes --- Basically I was paid to have the panels installed which resulted in me saving even more money!!
I really see no reason not to put solar panels on a home (after a consultation to make sure it'll work)...
You will be using 100% green energy!!
You will save money
Solar Panels are quite common these days and don't look out of place
I have not verified this, but I would imagine that solar panels would make your home more appealing to buyers if you choose to sell (and if you do, how the panels are managed is fully laid out in the contract)
Did I mention that you'll save money while using 100% green energy!!
They'll also work with Home Owner Associations if you're in one... Solar panels are usually approved when installed properly.
Here's what my power generation looked like over the past year, kind of what you would expect given the cyclic nature of the seasons:
If you want to give Solar a try give Bobby Romitti from Solar City a call at 916-746-8046 and let him know you heard about my savings and wanted to see if you could save too! They're a nation-wide company, so even if you don't live around here you can reach out and see what they offer in your area!
Well, we’re home a day early from vacation --- and you might think that’s a bad thing but quite the opposite. Our vacation didn’t go as planned but if you ask Christian, this was the BEST vacation ever! We all had a great time, but more on that later, first the boring stuff about the vacation.
The impromptu plan was to head to places we could bring Chewie with us --- that brought us to the Blue Lakes (near Clear Lake) Wed/Thurs and leave on Friday. Then on Friday head up to the Avenue of the Giants (specifically to Leggett since they allow dogs to roam freely) to check out the drive-thru tree and the giant redwoods. Finally we would head over to Fort Bragg/Mendocino for the remainder of Friday, Saturday and Sunday… At least that was the plan!
I booked a room at The Lodge at Blue Lakes and we arrived on Wednesday. It’s a GREAT little place right on the lake. The lake was great too… It’s a no-wake lake so all boats must go less than 5mph, but we rented one anyway. Our room was a mountainside (aka parking lot view) room, but it wasn’t a big deal. On Wed and Thurs I TRIED to book a room in Mendocino, Fort Bragg, Little River, Ukiah, Leggett, etc… NO LUCK! Everywhere was booked! And I mean EVERY room, every hotel!! I ended up looking up events in the area and it looks like in Fort Bragg they had a Pro-Am Golf Tourney and in Ukiah they were hosting the Babe Ruth Little League West coast championships games. There was NO way we were getting a room! But we were having such a great time at Blue Lakes and they had 1 room available for Friday night (nothing on Saturday though), so we extended our stay at Blue Lakes one more night and then came home on Saturday. We still made it out to the Avenue of the Giants on Friday, but instead of moving on to the coast, we returned to the lodge. Coming home a day early turned out to be nice so I could unpack and clean up and get organized before returning to work. Also made time to take Christian to see Guardians of the Galaxy!
So what did we do while at the Blue Lakes?? Each day Christian would wake up around 7am and go to bed between 9 and 10 pm and during this stretch how often did the subject of video games come up?? NONE!! How about TV??? NONE! From the time we arrived through the time we left, he never once mentioned wanting to play video games or watch TV!! He would get up in the morning and the first thing he would want to do is to head out to the lake!
When we arrived at the lodge on Wednesday Christian was… Christian --- meaning he went out and found other kids to socialize with. He went swimming and met four other kids, all younger, and they played in the water a couple of hours. They were leaving as we were heading out to dinner. When we got back, Christian went back outside and met another kid --- a kindred spirit! For the next three days they became very close friends, swimming, fishing, crawdad hunting, kayaking, rope swings, boating, etc… They became inseparable – and now Christian has a pen pal as we exchanged contact info so we can all stay in touch. Meeting his new friend and hanging out with him is what made this trip the best ever for Christian.
Fishing was good, kind of… No big fish were caught, though we did try a little bit. However, about 20-30 blue gills were caught – so as far as Christian is concerned this was the best time fishing ever! He even cut up some fish for the first time (they used it as bait in a trap for crawdads).
Crawdad hunting was something new for Christian but he loved it. Toward the end he was picking them up himself without getting pinched! Over the course of the three days they probably caught at least 30-40 crawdads (probably more). Christian and his friend also made Claw necklaces.
Boating was also fun. Even though there was a slow speed limit, we still towed an inner tube behind the boat and it was a barrel of laughs!
This vacation reminded me a lot of the days when I was a kid and heading up to Clear Lake. Enjoying the lake, fishing for small fish and loving catching them, swimming and having fun. There were no roller coasters, rides, video games, TVs --- just playing outdoors with friends and family and LOVING it!
Oh, how did Chewie like his first family vacation and how did he do?? He was AWESOME! He was mellow, quiet in the rooms, but playful when people wanted to engage him. The first night there he met a friend and they played Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Chewie even swam in the lake and I got him to walk from shore into the lake on his own (a big step since he has been terrified with water). When we went out for dinner we sat outside and they brought us a bowl of water and a dog biscuit at the Blue Wing Restaurant in Upper Lake. Being a puppy, Chewie slept the days away, but he had a blast too!
If you have me as a friend on Facebook then you already know that in the middle of June we got an awesome new dog --- and if you don’t have me as a friend, why not?!?! On Facebook I said there’s a story behind how we picked up Chewbacca (Chewie) and here it is…
Once upon a time (April 2014) in a land far, far away (okay, not so far away) I decided I was ready to bring home a new bundle of joy --- a puppy… While I’m okay with small dogs, my preference was to get a medium to large dog and there are so many dogs that need a good home I knew I wanted to rescue one, it’s the right thing to do… I started to browse various rescue sites and after looking at the different dogs that were listed I figured I either wanted a shepherd mix or a retriever, or something similar. Since I work from home a lot over summer I wanted to wait for summer to get a new puppy but I was browsing the sites anyway.
In early June I started to look with the intent of brining a dog home and the Sacramento Independent Animal Rescue Society (SIARS) had several puppies, plus they used to have a shepherd mix I was interested in but he had already been adopted a month ago. They have a great facility out there in Grass Valley, a large operation with good people. The puppies they had at the moment were either going to be on the small side or were too young for us to meet (but they invited us back the following week after the puppies had their shots). So we left excited that we’ll come back the following week, but also sad that we didn’t come home with a puppy.
A friend had shared an event that the Front Street Shelter was putting on and that led me to review their site of available dogs and they did have a shepherd mix puppy that looked cute. After leaving SIARS we went to downtown Sac to meet the dog; I even called them as we were driving down to verify the dog on the website was still up for adoption --- and he was. We arrived at the Front Street Shelter 10 minutes before they opened; we were the first in the door and went straight back to look at the puppy. He was still there!! We found his paperwork on his kennel and it said --- Adopted!! Damn! I was not happy, but I nicely went up to the front desk and verified the puppies status --- and sure enough the viewable status said Available but a new owner had already paid and the puppies actual status was adopted!
So I looked at Christian and said, “Sorry, bud, looks like we came all this way for nothing…” The staff at the shelter was great and asked what were we looking for, so I told them a shepherd mix puppy and they got excited as they explained they just had a shepherd mix puppy returned to them 30 minutes ago and the only reason the puppy was returned is the spouse was allergic to him. They went on to say how great a puppy he is and asked us if we wanted to meet him. Of course we did!! After spending 10 minutes with him, Christian and I both knew that was the puppy we wanted. It was meant to be.
[This is the first post in a series of updates I’ll be making that are LONG overdue]
After six years and three teams, I think I am finally starting to get this whole swim thing down!! Rather than waiting until the morning of a meet, I’m starting the night before packing things together for swim meets a staple of supplies beyond the obvious of swim gear and clothes appropriate to the weather --- if you know me then you know preparing meals and such ahead of time is something I struggle to do... Here's what we currently bring to meets:
PB&J Sandwiches for the big breaks
Fruits – fresh sliced fruit and other things like dried mango
Applesauce (Frozen in summer)
Various bars (often Nutrigrain cereal bars)
Water, water and more water (in the summer some frozen and in the winter some hot)
Powdered drinks to mix with water (Gatorade and/or Hot Chocolate)
Hot hands (hand warmers) and cup-o-noodle for the winter
Trash bags, napkins, etc
Legos, books and other games (and sometimes video games though we are trying to do more without video games)
Now that he’s swimming more events in a meet than he has in the past it has become even more important to find what works to replenish the body quickly without weighing him down. This has always been the biggest challenge for meets, we used to buy food from the snack bar to support the local teams, but the food is rarely good food for an athlete during competition so now we bring our own and then once he's done swimming we usually buy something tasty from the snackbar.
And then there is the “camp” setup… We have transitioned from old slant-leg canopy to a new commercial grade straight leg canopy with walls for the winter. We have weights for the legs in light winds and buckets of water with rope when something more is needed. We also switched from chairs to loungers… Have picked up a small table, blanket, etc… And how do we get all to camp?!? Stacked high in a wagon and tied down with bungee cords! [though sometimes we make more than one trip to get stuff to camp] We’ve done meets in the rain, wind and summer heat, and I actually feel prepared to handle it!
Of course, as he gets older I'm sure I'll have to tweak what we bring, so while I feel good about what's happening today, doesn't mean I'm done adapting --- I'm sure our list of supplies will change over time.
