Shaun Hoggan

This thanksgiving weekend the family and I had a great time visiting with Dave and Sterling’s family in Antioch.  Getting together with them reminds me of the great family I source from.  On Friday we went to the railroad museum in Sacramento.  Amazement crept into my soul admiring the huge engines and the fantastic work the museum had done in restoring the historical significance of these engineering feats.  Getting such a huge machine to push down the tracks at speeds in excess of 50 miles / hour is nothing less than a miracle.  The inefficiencies of those engines which ran on steam is incredible compared to the diesel engines of today. 

Doran lent me his treadmill from the eminent death most exercise equipment suffers in many garages around the world.  After loading the beast into the truck and hauling the monster to the our home in Pleasant Hill, I spent a couple hours cleaning off the cob webs and dust on the under used machine.  Taking the Edith chest and sitting chairs out of the office the treadmill fit nicely in the corner.  I was even able to put the Edith chest and two out of three sitting chairs back into the space with the pivoting tread in the up position so I only lost one sitting chair which never was used anyway.  To put the tread down I only need to move the remaining two sitting chairs with is not a big deal.

I have learned a sad truth which typifies my pitiful life.  Running seemingly was a chore before having the treadmill.   Deep concern set in knowing it was possible that an important communication might come across my email or a phone call would be missed.  Now that the treadmill is in my office the stress level has gone down because my computer and phone is within my sight. 

Ran 3 miles yesterday and 3 miles today, I am starting to think that I would like to run a marathon in the next year.

There was a time in my life where I could eat just about anything and it would either be converted into energy or just come out the other end.  After several months of eating ice-cream floats I have learned a great truth about the human body.  When a human enters this world their stomach is lined with a special non stick Teflon coating which lets the good stuff through and kicks out all the bad stuff.  Over time, the special non stick Teflon coating wears off and is not as effective as it was during ages 1-30. 

If you have ever go to your moms house and see the Teflon coated pan she received as a gift for mother’s day 10 years ago, which is still being used to cook eggs a couple times a week, you will know what I mean about the Teflon coating wearing off over time. 

It would seem that the older I get my body seems to retain more of the bad stuff which previously slid right past my Teflon coated stomach lining.  The only logical conclusion to my weight gain is that the Teflon coating in my stomach is wearing out.  I have heard of this condition in other “thirty something year old” friends of mine.  I see many ads in my junk inbox for weight loss programs and pills I could take to lower my weight.  These are obviously supplements to replenish the Teflon coating on the stomach.  It is not my style to take pills to solve my problems so I went running tonight. 

Ran 2.5 miles tonight, temperature was 53 degrees.

After arriving back from LA today around 11:30 PM, a sudden urge to run a few miles hit after realizing the 6 candy bars I ate earlier in the day (to stay awake from an early start today) were weighing me down physically and emotionally.  When leaving the home, Amber won the coveted “best wife in the world award” for performing as the loving mother which she exemplifies.  While walking out the front door, I could hear her laughing with my kids on the back lawn while looking up at the stars.  First of all, the number of moms who would allow their children to stay up past 11:00PM are few and far between.  Second of all, a woman with 3 boys under the age of 8 who just spent the day painting the house among other duteous chores around the home and can laugh like she was at that late hour deserves an award.

Running seems like such a chore while at home.  The pain of leaving my family, considering the little time I spend with them already, is difficult to face and frequently prevents me from venturing out on the community streets seeking better health.  Despite the pain in leaving my happy family behind I discovered the DVC track which is walking distance from where we live. While reflecting on how much I enjoyed running around the newly discovered soft padded rubber track, I truly missed my family and considered inviting them to run around the track the next evening.  I think it will be difficult to get them to come but I don’t see any reason why we cannot make running a family activity.  The track was super close to our home, fantastically soft to run on and was completely empty of all unknown strangers.  The moment made me appreciate where I lived and how happy I was to be back home after many years abroad.

On the topic of wondering if moving back home was the best choice, I stumbled across Amber’s blog and saw this photo:
http://www.asistersvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/gold.jpg
I had realized when seeing this great shot that we could only get this living where we do.  Life is good!

What to people do with their spare change?

Having seen a broad spectrum of uses for loose change it is easy to understand that there are as many uses as their are coins in the world. Among some of the more interesting uses seen are:

-Storing them in a jar or bottle
-Flicking them across a school room at that boy or girl to get their attention
-Dropping them on the ground at the fast food drive in
-Putting them in a donation jar at the cash register
-Adding to the waiter or waitresses tip
-Squeezing them into a collectors book
-Rolling them into paper wrappers from the bank
-Donating them to the salvation army and Santa during Christmas
-Heavily used by the tooth fairy
-Dropped out of the car door when parking
-Vacuumed out of the car seats when cleaning the car
-Spun around on the table when playing finger games
-Stored in the living room couch
-Used to fill up the coin holders in cars that come with them
-Collected
-Retrieved in the ground by metal detectors

A financial adviser who I know who spends their time getting others out of debt made an observation of those who have lots of money laying around their home who all typically have financial difficulties. I have seen this in homes where I know there are financial difficulties and more often than not they will have small piles of change laying all around their home. The kitchen counter is one of the more popular locations.

Personally I am an anti coin guy. I am a believer that coins are there to increase the price of goods purchased from merchants. If an item costs 5.96 and we give the merchant 10 dollars we get 4.04 back. Is is likely we will save the $4 in our wallet or purse but what happens to the .04 cents? If the money gets lost, the item we just purchased cost 6.00 which effectively is an increase of the goods purchased. If this happens frequently than what amount of money is discarded every year in the US?  According to CIA.gov the estimated US population in July 2007 is 301,139,947. If everyone in the US discarded one penny per month that would equate to ~$36 million annually in lost coins in the US alone.

Today while running 3.5 miles I found a quarter and a penny which looked like they were discarded out of some ones car. The good news is that have added an additional .26 cents to my net worth. The bad news is that the poor schmuck who discarded this money is .26 cents poorer today.

Tonight while flying back to Salt Lake City I sat next to two women, a mother and daughter, who both were wearing these dark sunglasses which covered half of their head. As I have observed, these large, square shaped, with rounded corner glasses have become more popular over the last year. These are the type of glasses which will be seen on a VH1 program ten years from now where the show will whisk the audience back in time and highlight all of the silly and crazy trademarks of the decade.

It is not all that unusual to see a couple of women sporting a pair of fancy new sunglasses but what stood out to me as strange was the flight started out at 8:50PM when it is obviously dark outside. The flight gave me some time to catch up on a book I have been reading about Native American culture so I did not pay too much attention to the ladies on my right hand side. Upon landing and peeking across the two seats out the window to see the lights of the airport I noticed the two women were both still wearing those fancy glasses. I pondered for a little while why they were still sporting those huge glasses while it was dark out. Were they superstars who did not want to be recognized? Did they just have an eye surgery which prevented them from being exposed to extreme light without damage to their eyes? Were they hiding from some one else who was also on the plane? Were they aliens with strange pupil shapes and they did not want anyone to notice? Anyone’s guess is as good as mine. I still remain perplexed why both of them felt it important to keep their shades on after it was completely dark out. This is one of the mysteries I considered while jogging 3 miles tonight.

Starting out today felt like pushing a wheel barrow with a flat tire. After about a mile the wheel barrow felt as if air had filled the tire and the road was moving freely underneath my feet. After pushing myself up a steep incline the wrath of the incline came to bite my right calf on the way down the opposing slope. I am now limping around like a cripple.

It is not so bad that a good sleep tonight will cure my muscle ills. Stretching tomorrow should help so I can get back to the lonely wheel barrow and ensure the tire does not go flat anymore.

It is Wednesday and I am flying home after an already long week. I was looking forward to getting home tonight and gripping the pavement with my newly purchased, white, Nike, running shoes. As usual, I get to the airport right on time. To my surprise there was no reference to my flight on the departures screen. A moderate level of distress crossed my mind as I verified that my phone which was fixed to pacific time zone had not secretly thwarted my attempts to get to the plane on time. I went to the counter and noticed the same Polynesian looking fellow that is here every day that I take off from Salt Lake. He indicated the flight would not take off till 10:40PM. Seeing that I had an hour and a half. I called Amber indicating my changed itinerary.

My window of opportunity was shrinking for my fourth chance to free my mind from the oppression of being locked to a PC all day. Knowing that I had no control over the flight schedule, I made an empowered decision. I got my bag, strapped on my backpack and set off to briskly walk every terminal of the Salt Lake City airport. I left terminal B walked down A then,C, then D, then E, and then back to B where my plane was in the process of boarding.

Day 4, 30 minutes, estimated length 2 miles briskly walking

Changing a sprinkler head because of hitting the riser with the lawnmower can be a contra speed factor when doing yard maintenance. When in my teens, I mowed lawns all summer for my entrepreneurial brother who owns his own a landscaping business among other successful ventures. We would speed though the day starting out early in the morning to beat the summer afternoon heat. The goal was to get in and out of the clients homes before they realized that we were there. At times we would go so fast that we would accidentally hit sprinkler heads breaking them. The act of changing a sprinkler head would slow us down by at least 20 minutes which is the time it would take to perform maintenance on 2 small homes. Two broken heads could easily turn into an hour of lost time.

While running tonight I noticed the sprinklers turn on at the commercial parking lot where the lawn met the concrete parking structure. The risers were only coming up about an inch which is a sure sign that there is not enough water pressure to push the risers all the way up. I feel sorry for the maintenance company who is will need to find and replace the break especially if they are the ones that broke the head. They have some hot summer afternoons ahead of themselves.

Day 3, 30 Minutes. Estimated length ran 3.0 miles.

Felt dizzy after running, I am going to sleep well tonight

I am a human of simplicity. Unfortunately that also means simplicity with the food I eat and the time it takes to prepare.

Looking in the fridge there were several options of which I would have had to prepare for at least 5 minutes in the microwave. Looking on the door of the fridge I found an old friend which I had purchased several weeks ago. There was the Nacho cheese which I knew would taste really good with a bowl of tortilla chips. It did not take long to whip out a bowl and the bag of chips and after no time at all I was enjoying my dinner.

About 2 hours later I reminded myself of my commitment to jog regularly and tonight was no exception. After the second lap I was reminded of the nachos and cheese had shortly before adventuring out tonight. I don’t think that I will think of Nachos the same way I did before the jog yet, it was not bad enough to stop future nacho consumption all together. Perhaps I will reconsider nachos prior to my jogs.

Day 2, 30 minutes. Estimated length ran 3.5 miles.

So far so good!

Walking off the plane today was not unlike any other day walking down the jet way. It was just a week ago while sitting in my isle seat the bloke sitting next to the window extends his reach over his wife, pokes me and says, “you know who that is four seats in front of you”. Awakened from my daze of running to get on the plane only to find out it was late, I simply had no idea what he was talking about. He says, “That is Steve Young, the foot ball player”. Not really caring, I pasted on an interested look of wow, you don’t say while I watched him extend his cell phone camera up into the air to take a shot of the quarterbacks balding head.

It was just last week when I recall walking right behind the superstar foot ball player noticing he was wearing shorts and seeing the rock like chiseled calves just above his running tennis shoes. I reflected on how flabby my legs had gotten since high school when my calves would have looked similar to the retired foot ball addict. I had plans that week to go running but being buried in the mire of month end telco and mountains of homework I never seemed to get out. That has been the excuse for what has seemed to be an eternity.

At 11:45 PM I pulled into the office complex on the corner of 7th and 45th and pulled around back and ran for 20 minutes in the massive lighted parking garage. Smiling inside about the experience I am thinking, How many days should I run per week?