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August 29, 2010
A Pirate Looks at Forty

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I've never been a huge Jimmy Buffett fan but like many people of my (and several other) generation, I went through a phase and got to know his most popular music. I turned forty yesterday. I woke up with the title song in my head not having given it a thought in maybe over a decade. I worked it out on the guitar and came across a decent version of Jack Johnson covering the song. Nothing especially profound about the song itself, but did you get that? I turned forty yesterday!?

Since the last update, there are pictures of a bunch of different activities. Libby's parents visited us and helped out with a bunch of home improvement tasks. A hiking excursion just south of Boston in the Blue Hills. Luke and Ben are taking guitar lessons with a real teacher and doing really well. Something about Dad not having the right approach I guess. Libby's brother, Josh, and their family came out for about a week. We all had fun, but the cousins really enjoyed some beach time. While they were here, Luke had his summer league hockey championship, which was amazing. They began the season 1-3 as the most penalized team in the league by a mile after four games. They hung in there, made some adjustments, and never looked back with some real quality hockey along the way.

Finally, on my birthday I ran the Spartan Race. Click on the home page for an entertaining video of the event. In short it's a 5K trail run with some crazy obstacles along the way. Fire jumping, cargo nets, wall scaling, barbed wire crawling, spear throwing, etc. Just my kind of entertainment. I've been excited all summer for the event, but I didn't really train too hard mostly due to lack of time. I figured I'd do fine because my running wasn't that bad, and I'm an obstacle course kind of guy.

So I ran the event pushing myself pretty hard pretty early. I leapt the file and front-handsprung over the cargo net with no problem. Then came the mud bog where I managed to lose not one but two shoes. I was barely able to find them in the knee-deep mud, but I did pull them out of the muck and continued on in my socks. As the discomfort and uncertainty were peaking in this surprisingly long stretch of bog, I got a bee sting on my right hamstring. Dang! That hurt. How much worse could it get? Zap! Right on top of the head in a spot that I never even knew had flesh. I was no longer worried about running through the woods in my socks. Eventually, I cleared the bog and ran for about a half mile in my socks. Then I lost the socks and put my mud-filled, lead weights...I mean shoes back on. The rest of the course was treacherously steep on the downhills immediately followed by punishing, never-ending hills. The obstacles were tough but very fun. I finished strong and felt good about my effort.

There were 10 heats of about 200 people. I was in heat 4 at 1130a, and when my time came in (34:17) I was feeling really proud. Top 10% or better for an old guy with minimal training--not too shabby. Shortly after I returned, Libby thought what the heck, she might like to do it, too. There was an available slot so off she went. The happy, prancing pixie returned 32:56 later with no consideration for her husband's pride on his birthday. She was the 9th woman and 107th overall, putting her in the top 5% of all contenders. I was 152nd just under top 8%. What can I say? She's so much younger than me...and she has the gift of speed.

We wrapped it up with a nice dinner at the The Black Cow in Newburyport right on the water on beautiful day. August 30th is our 13th anniversary! That's something to cheer about. I'm a lucky man. Enjoy the photos.

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  Archive  
 
  • FALL 2010 RECAP
  • November 21, 2010
  • A PIRATE LOOKS AT FORTY
  • August 29, 2010
  • MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME
  • August 22, 2010
  • THE WINTER CLASSIC
  • January 2, 2010
  • HAPPY NEW YEAR!
  • January 1, 2010
  • P-TOWN GRAD TO HALLOWEEN
  • November 4, 2009
  • NEBRASKA, BEN'S 6, JAMES IS CUTE, AND RUGBY
  • August 10, 2009
  • CUTTER'S PAL
  • June 7, 2009
  • JAMES CLAYTON FOSTER
  • May 25, 2009
  • DISNEY WORLD
  • March 8, 2009
  • PEARL HARBOR DAY + III
  • December 7, 2008
  • SUMMER UPDATE - BASEBALL, RUGBY, HOCKEY CAMP, TRIATHLON, SOCCER
  • October 11, 2008
  • TWENTY YEARS AND GREAT GRANDPARENTS
  • July 20, 2008
  • LUKE IS 7, BC, AND MARTINDALE'S IN MA
  • April 27, 2008
  • BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU
  • April 10, 2008
  • SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
  • February 3, 2008
  • HAPPY THANKSGIVING CATCH UP
  • November 21, 2007
  • MAINEDEPENDENCE DAY
  • July 29, 2007
  • SUMMERTIME, NEW ABODE
  • June 24, 2007
  • NINJUTSU AS EASY AS RIDING A BIKE
  • May 28, 2007
  • SIX, SOX & T-BALL
  • May 13, 2007
  • HOCKEY SEASON OVER AND A YANKEE IN VT
  • April 22, 2007
  • CHRISTMAS TO NEW YEAR
  • February 4, 2007
  • HOCKEY SEASON
  • November 28, 2006
  • GRANDPARENT VISITS
  • October 9, 2006
  • 50265
  • July 20, 2006
  • 21 SECONDS
  • July 11, 2006
  • KNIGHT'S KINGDOM III
  • June 30, 2006
  • RED SOX, ROCKPORT AND SPORTS
  • June 25, 2006
  • 5 OAKLAND EASTER
  • May 7, 2006
  • SNOW SPORTS
  • April 8, 2006
  • WINTER UPDATE
  • March 5, 2006
  • HAPPY NEW YEAR--2006!
  • January 1, 2006
  • PIRATES OF NEWTON
  • November 13, 2005
  • ANOTHER SUMMER GONE
  • September 11, 2005
  • PRE-SCHOOL GRAD, 2ND B-DAY IN PHOENIX, TRI, AND POOL PARTY
  • July 20, 2005
  • ATL-ANNA
  • May 25, 2005
  • LUKE TURNS FOUR!
  • April 23, 2005
  • AWC, UPDATE, RAWLINS
  • April 4, 2005
  • XMAS/NEW YEAR RECAP
  • January 23, 2005
  • THANKSGIVING IN NEWTON
  • December 12, 2004
  • PRE-HOLIDAY '04
  • November 20, 2004
  • USAFA 10-YR
  • September 25, 2004
  • COUSINS ON CAPE COD
  • September 15, 2004
  • SUMMER FUN
  • September 8, 2004
  • ONE TO TWO MILES HIGH
  • July 27, 2004
  • SUMMER ACTIVITIES
  • June 20, 2004
  • BOLANDER WEDDING
  • May 10, 2004
  • III
  • April 10, 2004
  • TO MOVE OR NOT TO MOVE?
  • March 16, 2004
  • HOLIDAY PRIMER
  • November 30, 2003
  • THE WHOLE ENCHILADA, CANDY AND P. DIDDY
  • November 9, 2003
  • AHMANN WEDDING
  • October 21, 2003
  • END OF SUMMER PHOTOS
  • October 05, 2003
  • SUMMER UPDATE
  • July 29, 2003
  • BCF
  • July 01, 2003
  • END OF AN ERA
  • June 26, 2003
  • LOOK WHO'S 2
  • May 24, 2003
  • 13� X 59�
  • April 20, 2003
  • PALS AND PROJECT COMPLETE
  • March 8, 2003
  • POST-HOLIDAY PICS
  • February 8, 2003
  • DEJA BOY
  • February 8, 2003
  • THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS
  • December 7, 2002
  • SOMETHING IN THE WATER?
  • December 7, 2002
  • CATCHING UP
  • November 9, 2002
  • RESULTS AND RANDOMITY
  • October 17, 2002
  • SUMMERTIME
  • August 19, 2002
  • INDEPENDENCE DAY
  • July 7, 2002
  • ROCK AND ROLL MARATHON
  • June 13, 2002
  • 365 DAYS
  • April 16, 2002
  • A PLACID NEW YEAR
  • January 5, 2002
  • CHRISTMAS AT THE SAUMS
  • January 2, 2002
  • BANDWIDTH LIMIT EXCEEDED
  • 12 November 2001
  • FALL FOOTBALL
  • 10 November 2001
  • TRI AGAIN
  • 19 August 2001
  • TRI-ING TIMES
  • 06 August 2001
  • GLOBE TROTTERS
  • 22 July 2001
  • CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'
  • 04 July 2001
  • CAN'T SIT STILL
  • 16 June 2001
  • THE GODPARENTS
  • 9 June 2001
  • GRANDPA BRYAN
  • May 25, 2001
  • FOUR GENERATIONS IN ONE HOUSE
  • 21 May 2001
  • ARE YOUR TAXES DONE?
  • 15 April 2001
  • APRIL ANGEL
  • 12 April 2001
  • GRANDMA & GRANDPA SAVE US
  • 18 March 2001
  • HONEY, HAVE YOU SEEN MY BASKETBALL?
  • March 8, 2001
  • IT'S A...?
  • 24 December 2000
  • HOME S#!T HOME
  • 22 November, 2000
  • SIGNS OF LIFE
  • 07 November 2000
  • ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
  • 9 October, 2000
  • A KID TURNS THIRTY
  • August 28, 2000
  • PARENTAL AWARENESS DAY
  • August 17, 2000
  • AZ TRIP
  • August 10-13, 2000
  • IT'S A BOY!
  • August 6, 2000
  • CONDORMAN!
  • July 24, 2000
  • LA TRIP
  • 20 July 2000
  • I'M A TEACHER! I'M A TEACHER!
  • Summer/Fall, 2000
  • SPRING AT STOWE
  • April 2000
  • SPRING BREAK 2000!
  • March 2000
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