Hey everyone. Hope your day has been wonderful so far. Mine has been spectacular. After some very wet weather, the day dawned bright and sunny. Whenever I see a brilliant blue sky I think of Becky's bright blue eyes. And whenever I see the sun shining, I think of her warm smile. It seems that since Becky's passing I've learned to love more deeply. My children mean more to me than ever before. God's creation has taken on a whole new significance. The arts and music capture me as never before. I feel I am more alive than ever. So it was a no-brainer to decide to get in a run today at Farmville and enjoy the day that the Lord made.
All of creation declares his glory and goodness, and even though the Appomattox had overflown its banks, no property was damaged.
Earlier, I lifted. For those who are curious, this is the specific workout I did today at the Y. First, some lat pulldowns to work my back.
Then several sets of standing dumbbell curls to work my arms.
Finally, I got in a few sets of seated dumbbell presses to work my shoulders.
I know it's the oldest cliché in the world, and I cringe every time I hear it, but I just don't know where the time has gone. This year seems to be flying by. We're almost halfway through January, which means I have less than 3 months to decide (in consultation with my mountain guide) if I will attempt the Allalinhorn in July. It's such a strange thing, knowing you're in God's will but wanting so badly to do something unusual, crazy even, with your life. I'm not sure I have it all figured out, but I think it's called obedience, and I am sure that whatever happens it's going to be so much better than I could have hoped.
Before signing off I thought I'd share with you an observation about Spanish. As you know, I've been teaching myself to speak Spanish from a series of Youtube videos recorded in German. Today I happened to stumbled on this one.
This video was hard but funny. My brain got fried watching it. It's something I noticed even today when I had lunch in a Mexican restaurant in Farmville. Native Spanish speakers speak about 25 percent faster compared to native English speakers. To my ears their Spanish sounds like a machine gun. Of course, any language you don't understand very well sounds like it's being spoken at the speed of sound. I'm sure my spoken English sounds just as fast to a native speaker of Spanish. I notice they seem to drop the "s" out a lot. Gracias becomes gracia, and adiós becomes adió. This is like leaving the "g" off "-ing" words in English I suppose. What's even more fun is trying to learn Spanish from a German speaker. Actually, German has many similarities with Spanish. In German you see "hab ich" for "habe ich" and "ich geh" for "ich gehe." "Wir gehen" becomes "Wir gehn," while "Was is das" is used for "Was ist das?" The key is thinking in the language, and not having to translate in your mind. One way I practice this is by using English words but with German grammar. In fact, I have this video with a friend shared. His face looked totally funny out, because I everything understood have. What for a fun video! Okay, I'm getting carried away. This is one time I really do wish I had the gift of tongues.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to clean the kitchen. Hope you have a beautiful afternoon.