Leading a good life

I saw this on hacker news:

@newsycombinator: How to Cure Deep Procrastination http://j.mp/oleHU7
When I started reading, I almost dismissed it. Then I saw what the article was actually about and it resonated with me. I love this part:

“Why should I expend all this difficult energy?”, it asks once again.
“Because it’s part of a well-thought through plan for leading a good life,” you now respond.
“Sounds good,” it agrees while you head to the library.

Previously, the answer I would give would be related to a medium-term goal: such as have a happy job or I can pay off my mortgage earlier, or I can go on this vacation with m y family. I love the [obvious] extension here into the more important: leading a good life.

Summer begins

So, summer began officially last week with the Summer Solstice, school ending, and surely now with the passing of June 2011 into memory. So far things have been really going well. Weather has been good, kids have been having fun with their friends, and we’ve been getting outdoors a bunch.

June saw many track meets and I got quite the tan just by sitting in the stands for 6 hours at a clip. Marco finished Lacrosse camp this week and it looks like we have a new favorite sport for him. Antonio started to get interested as well. I hope they both want to play in a league next spring. I’ve been trying to get them to play for years and it came down to downright tricks just to get them to try it. Now it looks like they’re hooked. Oh, and don’t let me forget about Serafina. She was right out there with the boys and she is able to scoop and throw like she was born with that lacrosse stick in her hand. It was amazing. I am definitely going to do my best to get her to sign up for a league next year!

Football season starts in a little over a month and I’m looking forward to that. LI Broncos football takes a lot out of our schedule, but the games are exciting to watch and the organization is well-run. Lots of cool people are involved and last year we had a blast.

We’ve been doing a lot outdoors, too. From playing in the front yard, to diving into the pool, to fishing at the Marina. I did a fishing clinic with Marco last week out east in Wading River. We learned a lot and the kids loved it.

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy Independence Day, enjoy the long weekend.

May Flowers

So, May is here and it’s finally getting warm and oh, shit, I forgot to plant my hot peppers. I don’t have a garden, per say, but I did plant in pots last year and produced no more than a measly patch of hot peppers. This year, Lisa went and used my pots for flowers so I need to get new ones. I’ll start this weekend with some new pots and pour all kinds of growing chemicals that are at least not proven to cause cancer. Then, hopefully, they will all grow to a nice radioactive red before the cold grip of fall withers them to mush.

I don’t know where all of the time went, well, maybe that’s a lie. Last weekend I ran in an overnight relay from new Haven CT to Boston MA… or Yale to Harvard as some are fond of saying. This, my friends, is the Ragnar Relay New England version. The pictures are on flickr, go check them out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickcody/sets/72157626792594846/

My favorite comment on the photoset was one of my friends on Facebook, “Are you sure you guys ran? Cause it looks more like a party.” Well, yeh. It was a pretty damn awesome time. This year, we made 3 major improvements over last year and each contributed to this year’s awesomeness:

  • Paid for volunteers so we didn’t have to do it ourselves. Last year, we had to volunteer for three shifts and it was a miserable time of no sleep, driving  back and forth, and general paranoia.
  • Got a hotel mid-race. Van 1 slept there at midnight and handed the keys to Van 2 slept there from 5-9.
  • Stayed in Boston and partied righteously. Last year we had a beer in Dobbs Ferry and simply left after an hour or two.

I’m not a good runner, but I barreled through it as best I could. My Garmin runs are here: Leg 1, Leg 2, and Leg 3. I ran a total of 13.5 miles. One of the legs, my second, was brutal as it was a constant incline for 5.6 miles. That sucked. the highlight of the race, though, was running with my dad’s picture next to my race numbers. Here is a picture of it:

Miss you dad!

Looking forward to two track meets this weekend. One tomorrow and one on Saturday. Last week I missed the regionals. Antonio didn’t make the Regionals and the coach didn’t run him in dashes, which was a bummer. Antonio is wicked fast and certainly deserved to make it to the CYO championships. Giovanni is running track this year, too, and didn’t medal either. But such is life. Marco may have made it. He placed gold in his heat, bronze by time, and we’ll see if his time is good enough for championships soon. Serafina runs track too! She’s pre-k and ran with the 2nd graders in the regionals. She’s really wicked fast for her age and has a naturally strong, long stride. I can’t wait to see what she does with over the next few years.

Looking forward to the long weekend! Hope yours is happy and safe.