Blah Blah Blah

well for starters Caitlin and I got a new dog. His name is blue and we have had him for about 3 weeks now. He is incredible and we have bonded big time. We rescued him from a local shelter and I love him BIG TIME. As such, more of my time has been hiking and running with Ol' Blue and less of it has been riding. With an extremly tight schedule at work and home something had to give a little and unfortunately it has been the bicycle.
On the flip side though I have started racing sailboats. While sailing is nothing new to me (I spent quite a bit of time on a sail boat growing up) racing is. It is really great learning to read wind lines, proper trim etc...

I have completed 3 wed races as well and this Sunday did the Goleta race out the Goleta Pier and back to the Yacht club. This Sundays race was spectacular. We made a few really good tactical maneuvers that paid off big time. However we are still learning and between the moments of brilliance was shear uncertainty and inept handling of the asymmetric. We lost some time on the the downward run and 4 boats passed us... But we finished about mid fleet. Not bad when you consider that our water line only runs 17 feet!

I have also made a pledge to "do-with out" or give up certain habbits which seem to be a time suck. I remember when I was younger feeling "bored" on a saterday with noting to do and no where to go. Inevitably I would complain to my mom and tell her I was bored and she would send me "outside" to go play: build a fort, roller blade, go to the park etc. TV was never an option and computers were not the fascination that they are today because of social networking etc. I guess the point was that being bored was not necessarily a bad thing because out of that boredom came creativity and imagination. When I think about all the time I spend checking facebook/twitter/email/games on my phone etc and start to add it all up it is some serious time. Time that could be spent bettering the lives of myself or those around me. These two blogs posts have been particularly inspiring to me as of late: Zen Habbits & Ridiculously Extradonary.

Its funny how the only way I have been able to change my thinking is through action. Its very counter intuitive but I find that Ive never been able to think my way into right action but I have been able to act my way into right thinking.