The woods called to me like flies on stink

I will remember our first house in Athens growing up forever. It was a duplex and the dude that owned had finished the basement so it was the only duplex in the neighborhood that was two storey. It had a spiral staircase leading downstairs and a small deck off the kitchen up stairs. It was set on a hill so the back of the house and the downstairs was downhill from the front. Our neoghbor was a crazy cat-lady named Miss June who was a smoker and a teacher.

Behind the house was some woods with a creek in them. The woods ran parallel to the back of the house with the creek running the same direction. Going out the front door of the house and turning left took you to the end of the cul de sac. If you passed the house there, you go through a small patch of woods that shielded the homes from the railroad track. This track ran perpendicular to the creek. It had a phenomenal tressel to bridge the creek (it wasn't anything special to most, but to a 9 year old boy it was fantastic).

Abe and I use to love to enter the woods behind the house, bushwhack to the creek and then make our way to the train track via the creekbed. There was sandbars, logs, barbed wire fence and of course the creek. We could seem to make it to the train track without gettig wet and muddy. This of course, was part of the adventure. We always made it, but we were always wet and muddy. This was not a problem for Abe and I.

What was the problem was that mom was very specific about us not being allowed in the woods. There was nothig inherently wrong with the woods, save that we nearly ruined whatever we were wearing when we entered the woods. This is why mom forbid us in the woods. At the time it was beyond my ability to comprehend why she would not want us in the woods, even if it meant ruining clothes…

We went down to Ron & Deb's for new years. Deb got the boys cowboy boots. They have been wearing them nonstop. They were trying to wear them to do flooring work at Ron & Deb's. They also were crawling around on the floor scraping the toes of their boots up. They couldn't understand why I didn't want then to crawl around and scrape up their boots.

I then understood the ban on the woods when I was 9.

-- Eli


-- Eli

The Xmas curse

This marks the second year in a row that Ronda and I have been sick @ Xmas. This is rapidly making Xmas move lower & lower down the list of my favorite holidays. Based mainly on the sickness factor. We are at Keri & justin's for a few days. We are playing by ear.

I think I need to rest.


-- Eli

The New Year

I have never kept a New Year's Resolution & I highly doubt this year is gonna be any different. Therefore, I'm not making any New Year's Resolutions.

What I am doing is resolving to do something that is within my capability to accomplish. Let me rephrase that, I'm not resolving to do it , I'm just gonna do. I have decided to do it. 

In 2k10 I'm gonna be the best Eli that I can be. That menas many things on many levels to me. How that will play over the next year will surface in various forms. I got ideas but I'm not gonna share them right now.

Suffice it to say, 2k10 is the year of Eli being the best Eli he can be. 


-- Eli

This time last year…

As I ran on Saturday through 'my woods' my thoughts wandered to last Xmas. We were in Georgia. I had just finished another term at school, having told my classmates not to expect to see me again as j was moving for work. I had a start date planned fo a new job (which was actually an old for a second time). Life seemed good from the vantage point I was at...

I remember my New Year's Resolution being I wasn't going to have another crappy year (as with all resolutions, that didn't go as planned). It seems that life has a way of working itself out. Dr. Ian Malcolm would say that 'life finds a way' due to chaos theory. I would say that God finds a way... Maybe through chaos theory as well.

The outlook for 2k10 is much better than 2k9.

We live in a different town. We both have jobs. We are having more family time. The family time we have is more enjoyable. It is hard to complain at this time.

We are not where we want to be and our hopes for this coming are high. I do believe we are in a place in our lives thAt we are going to be able to make our goals come true. It is going to take hard work and determinAtion along tons of prAyer, but it is possible.

I'm not resolving to not have another crappy year in 2k10, that's impossible ( as fAr as my power to control or effect it… although with God nothing is impossible, which is why I say as far as my power). My resolve will be for something that I can actually do…

-- Eli