OUCH!  I’ll start with what’s happening this very minute. It is obvious my parents mis-named me by not having my middle name be “klutz”.  As I type this post I’m trying hard not to get droplets of blood on the keyboard since I just ripped half the nail off my index finger. This “ouch” comes just 12 hours after I splattered hot grease on my other hand and upper leg. I’ve got a blistering blister on my leg right now. They say things come in threes so I’m a little paranoid now about what’s next.

6am Serenity:  I enjoy  my early morning walks with the dogs. Daylight is breaking, birds are chirping and it’s generally pretty darn quiet in my neighborhood. Not quite that way this morning. Huge dump trucks were pulling into the subdivision turning onto my street.  I’m talking maybe 20 or more trucks, with loud engines and squeaky brakes.  It appears they’re doing more work at the retention pond at the end of my cul-de-sac. Get past that, I’m walking past a house – keep in mind it’s about 6:15am – all of a sudden the front door of the home we’re in front of,  bursts open and two guys (not men, not boys) storm out yelling at each other. “You’ve got to be f—ing kidding me.” shouts one of them. The other guy tries to calm him down but the shouting continues.  I now want to run from this heated situation but the dogs find something intriguing to sniff in the grass, delaying my swift departure. A) I don’t want to hear their fight B) In today’s world I’m fearful one of them is going to pull a gun or weapon on the other.  I just want to go home.

Tiger Squats:  Monday I tweeted about my encounter with the Tiger Woods at my gym. This was actually the second time I’ve seen him there in the past few weeks.  I had just finished my cardio workout on the treadmill so keep in mind I’m pretty darn grimy at this point. My hair is up in both a clip and a pony tail. Sweat – oh – everywhere. No make-up. Not a pretty sight.  After the treadmill I head over to what I consider “my” corner of the gym.  To give you more perspective, my gym is fairly small, 2 stories, and on average there’s only about 5-6 people there at 6:30am.  This little section of the gym has a set of free weights, an ab machine, squat machine and a few other fun machines. I call it my corner because there’s rarely anyone else there.  As I walked up to “my area” I noticed a backpack sitting in the middle of the floor with no-one around. I stepped over it and started my work-out with squats. As I squat into rep #12, I looked up and see a man wearing a baseball hat approaching me. Yeh – it’s Tiger.  He reaches down to the backpack right in front of me and checks his cellphone . Then he walks over to the squat machine right next to me. Thinking I need to say something since we’re standing withing 5 feet of each other I come up with the fabulous opening line:  “Am I in your way?”  Tiger: “No you’re fine, thanks.”  We proceeded to do our individual squats, kinda together but not really. I’m doing squats holding a 25-pound weight and he’s doing the big manly machine using 5-billion pounds of weights. I realized I was up to rep #22 which is painful for squats without a break, so I had to stop and rest.  He breaked soon and we both grabbed our waters. Feeling the need to say something more and hopefully something slightly intelligent, I then said “Hey, congratulations on your win yesterday.”  He beamed a smile and said “Thanks.”   Feeling a loss of words of what to say next and definitely not wanting to say something stupid, I got up and left.  And that – ladies and gentlemen – is my encounter with Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods - My squatting buddy

Today I found a medium sized rust colored snake swimming around my pool.  The same pool where my dogs dive for balls and I dangle my feet in the water.  The snake must go. I hate it when snakes are in my pool. It makes is so much more difficult for me to come up with a killing plan. Today with the 14-inch (or more) snake slinking around I had to make decisions on what to do.  I could try to scoop it out with the net, but I worried it would slither up the pole and come at me.   So instead I used the net to bat at it a couple of times hoping to stun it, then scoop it and throw it out the back door.  But my plans changed. I was able to stun it by hitting it with the net, then I hit it with the blunt end of a big axe. I am not embarrassed or ashamed or the slightest bit guilty about killing snakes, rats, roaches and spiders.  I will kill a snake and did today.

The Snake!

Yuk!

The reptile is in snake heaven tonight where he’s not threatening me or my dogs any more.

Unfortunately, more bad new than good news:

1. My mom’s hairdresser of 20 years died unexpectedly at age 58
2. Mikita had more stomach/digestive problems
3. A co-worker’s mother-in-law passed away
4. A colleague I’ve worked closely with for 3 years is gone
5. My sciatic nerve kicked in to teach me a lesson for working out
6. Adjusting to Daylight Savings time

And it’s only Tuesday night.   There have been some upsides like: meeting with Brigitta of the Moms Panel (‘08)’ for a pleasant update on her life;  a great birthday greeting to my friend Mike in California.

My job for the remainder of the week: be gracious and tough. Figure out what needs to be done and do it. Be thankful for everything I’ve got and pray for others. 

Looking forward to Saturday.