Blogged & Logged

Got an email from an old friend today, always welcome of course not to mention one of the best things of the internet, hearing from friends who are able to find us. Aside from the nice tidings, this friend was really writing to surprise me with her surprise at finding me. And of all places, on a blog ranking site one that I wasn't really aware of prior to this email, but a neat site now that I've found it. She was actually looking for another friend and found me "ranked" in the "personal blog" category.

Here's where it gets interesting. Apparently of the 10,197 blogs listed and ranked by editors by several parameters, the basics being design, content, writing style/ability, and frequency of posts PaynterinFlorida came in at 475th with a 6.8 ranking. Mind you, I would've appreciated a higher rating, though being 475th of 10, 197 started to sink in. I'm not sure how I got on this site, but it sure is professional validation for something that's really been a hobby and not really a serious committment. Or at least it hasn't felt like one writing about my life and events. That's cool-- it was a double treat, hearing from an old friend bearing good news.

I still have to read more to figure out how the site works, how they find you etc. But I have this sneaking feeling now I'll want to drive my rating higher, fear not though. I'm not selling out to almighty adsense dollar, even with the greater exposure PinF has enjoyed the last few months. This month alone has PinF coming in with the greatest amount of visitors in it's 29 months of existence. I would however recommend the site and I think I'll make a link too. The url is www.blogged.com.

Seeing What I Was Missing

Considering the amount of medical procedures and tests I’ve had performed over the past year; both recommended and self-initiated, you’d think I might have thought of it myself. This in turn got me thinking. Recently, PinF befriended a regular reader whom he had noticed had been visiting my world for some time now, mind you she never left many clues. She would just read her fill and then after vicariously participating in my many mundane or habitual routines, move on. Eventually she did leave me a message, solving for me what had become a kind of mystery—who was this person in Kennesaw, Georgia, ever so faithfully—albeit silently, reading the PinF?

As with all mysteries, I would come to find out that there was much more to this reader than words alone could convey. Or maybe I should say it is because of reading that this mystery conveyed that which we all too often take for granted, which leads me to my point. My new found friend and her husband, proud parents to two nice and interesting teen-age children are deaf. Mind you, I didn’t ask her about it, so I’m not sure if this is a life-long affliction or something that happened early on in their lives. What I do know is this; she wrote me to tell me how much she enjoyed PinF, and how she had been following Sophia’s musical progress. She then recommended a neat site about reading and then in a casual kind of way, mentioned that she and her husband are both deaf, and they had each recently been fitted with Cochlear ear implants, now allowing them to hear sounds.

The reason I know this was because she was listening to Sophia’s songs on her MySpace page, and though she could hear the gist of the music, she asked if I might send her the lyrics so she could truly understand all that Sophie was singing. How neat was this? I started thinking about this afterwards, wondering how much she might have missed of her own children’s songs and cries, and as happy as I was, I also felt a bit sad. Then I began to think how much we all take for granted that which makes our lives richer and ultimately, more enjoyable—our senses. I again thought about how often people who are deprived of sight or sound are often more attuned in other areas, as if they hone other senses to a higher degree due to their deficiency. Whether it be lip reading and sign language or having being more aware of nuances by way of sight or smell to make up for they cannot hear. Or as is often the case, the blind, the way they too seem to often “see” things the sighted cannot, and have much more developed sense of hearing. So it was that I began reading my new friends blog, recently reading this piece that her daughter had to write for a school project incorporating a famous quote, in this case Shakespeare. I found this quite touching, not to mention very mature of her daughter to use her parent’s as inspiration for her school assignment.

I kind of got sidetracked, but in a good way. I started out mentioning medical procedures, because I’m having another one tomorrow on something that I had taken for granted far too long. Never having had a problem, I never felt compelled to get a check up. Then again, I wasn’t having any heart problems either before discovering my awful numbers. Still, I noticed I’ve been finding it difficult to read smaller print, specifically when I was asked to read the number on the side of my prescription bottle….uh oh. So tomorrow I’m off again in search of better health, this time its ocular health. So there you have it, my deaf friend made me notice my senses, which in turn brought me to my "senses" and prompted me to make an appointment to get my eyes checked.

Sophia has already given me a list of “non-cool” frames and lenses to be avoided in the event that I do in fact need glasses. Thank God for me her fashionable "senses" are razor sharp.

Lucky Us

Have you ever travelled the same road day in and day out and maybe had to stop somewhere you never do along that route and noticed something or someplace that you had been taking for granted for months, maybe even years? Maybe it was a tree, or a house, or some other man made landmark. Perhaps it was just a pond, or a meadow that you had noticed, but had never really looked at?

PinF had such an experience today, reminding me just how special and often taken for granted our lives and surroundings are. Imagine if you knew this was your last day; it's a safe bet you would drink in ever last nuance of the most mundane objects, places, and things you had come to take for granted on a daily basis. Today Sophie and I were traveling home down US1 in Juno Beach through an area that is populated by scrub pines and typical Florida brush. Difference was this was all made in to a perpetual natural reserve just recently, and though I've driven past maybe a 1000 times I never really enjoyed it's real beauty until today. To my credit, it hadn't been a navigable area until only recently when county money was secured to purchase 578 acres of what would be considered prime real estate. Situated between the intra-coastal and the ocean this new reserve is an awesome testament to what Florida once was.

Sophia and I had pulled in on a split-second whim, and lucky for us. This park begins with a path lined with blooming wild flowers populated by colorful butterflies.....the paved path winds for 1/4 mile down ever so lightly in elevation until you come to man made boardwalk that then takes you over a salt water marsh. The area is teeming with hawks, foxes, rabbits, snakes, lizards and other birds of prey as well. As it was, Sophie and me were the only car in the park, and as we walked we became removed from the developed Florida, and walked as the Seminole surely must have a century and a half ago. This land was in fact a former battleground of the Seminole and US Army in the 1840's. Soon the boardwalk gave way to an incredibly fine, powdery white sand path that proceeds to disappear even deeper in the scrub for another 1.5 miles until you finally loop all the way around to where you started.

The day was a brilliantly sunny, warm one. And as we walked further and further in time and place we began to shed man's noises until you heard only the vultures, or a splash of a turtle. A really neat find this park, and one that I'll now visit more often using the loop for an exercise trail. As I looked in the view finder of my camera framing my beautiful daughter it occured to me how symbolic the path that lay behind her was, full of opportunity and untapped discovery. Upon walking out of the park together having our typical father daughter chat, Sophie and I realized and she commented, just how lucky we are. I quickly agreed and then added, that the trick in life is to always recognize how lucky we are.

I think she knew what I meant.

The State is Great in 2008

In an attempt to be as substantive as possible I have deliberately held back from making my New Year blog. I have no resolutions, nothing I want to quit. Instead I look to continue; changes in my lifestyle that (affect my health), continue trying to be a supportive dad involved and informed, and try to enjoy my life more. That's about it. So in this vain I shall take stock of the blog in my first " State of the Blog" here on PinF.

I'm happy to report the State of this Blog is quite good. Readership is at an all time high, a fact that saw the PinF blog reach it's diamond plateau of 25,000 readers as I now chug on to 30,000. At times I thought to leave it and just when I think I might something pops up worth writing/sharing about.

New Years Eve was spent chilling with my favorite girl--my daughter. We cooked her favorite dinner, drank from long stemmed wine glasses, and fired lots of fireworks during commercial breaks of the NY's Eve shows. Quiet for sure--though I was really never much of a NY's Eve person anyway, figuring it's much more important to spend the night with people who really figure to play a role in the coming new year as opposed to random unknown drunks.

Another reason the State of the Blog is healthy because PinF is healthy. Having faced a particularly precarious health scare in July, PinF has turned it ALL around. Ever so slowly, and yet very steadily I have maintained lifestyle changes, Incorporated 7 day a week exercise coupled with prescribed medication and I am happy to report I have reversed most all of my scare from 6 months ago. Have trimmed my cholesterol from 270 to a healthy 185, lowered my blood pressure, brought my triglycerides to a healthy acceptable level -- PinF is now a changed man.

Add to this, weight loss, muscle gain, and quitting smoking. I have a completely different diet, devoid of the many evils that had brought me to the brink of cardiac crisis. Now the changes aren't even missed, as I made the changes slowly and steadily as opposed to trying to do it all over night. I recently met a special forces Marine, home from his 4th tour of combat. He's a warrant officer, 41 years old with the body of a 28 yr old. He saw me working out one day and volunteered some advice. Not something I particularly care for in a gym, with an Ipod on, but I had noticed his chiseled physique so I accepted. He saw me benching about 170 lbs. and told me I would do my body a lot better good to lower that weight to about 70 lbs and do 9 sets of twenty, as opposed to 3 sets of 15 at 170 lbs.

He explained that though he had a rock hard physique, it had nothing to do with lifting heavy weights, as in his line of work it was all about endurance. So we trained together for an hour, and though some exercises I was only lifting 30 lbs., it was far tougher than my old work out. You would lift maybe 30 lbs, 100 times in 5 sets of 20. As opposed to 100 lbs in two sets of 12. So this too has been a big change for PinF, as my workouts are becoming more effective and increasing endurance---not sure for what I'll be enduring--but at least I'll be ready.

So, that's what's up in 2008. Welcome to PinF in 2008, where the state of the blog is just great.