Tag: Wellness

Shhhh, it’s a surprise

My wife and I decided this year to do something a bit different from our usual tradition.

Each year our son’s birthday is a pretty big production.  Cheryl is amazingly gifted as a planner, organizer, and she absolutely delivers the goods.

Don’t know how she does it.  Seriously. She works harder at her job than just about anyone at Disney.  Biased?  Of course.  But you know me by now, I calls ’em likes I sees ’em.

Anyway, there isn’t going to be a big par-tay this year.  Chapin is cool with that.

But there will be a big gift.

We got it today.

At the Apple Store.

I planted a seed with him today, “I’d like you to think about ways you can make money.  I’d like you to think about ways you can help me with my retirement business.  If you do, I can pay you”.

His eyes lit up.

The world is changing.  No secret there.  What I will not wait for, is to find out how it’s going to change.

Instead, I’m determined to write my own ticket, so to speak.

“If your goal isn’t impossible, you’re not reaching high enough”. — jeff noel

That’s right, many people think a young child can not help an adult build a business.

People say a lot of things can’t be done, mostly because of doubt, fear, jealousy, guilt, etc.  I get that.  Been there myself.

But not any more.  Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂

Suomi

Met Yuri, 18, a Finnish Ski Jumper and watched the ski jumpers practice for about an hour. Yuri began jumping at age nine. He was very friendly, and humble.

Afterwards, I hiked to the top. All these Suomi flowers were along the path. Suomi means Finland.

Yes, the last picture is from halfway up the steps beneath the middle ski ramp. I was about as high as the top of the shortest ramp, which you can see to the left in the final photo. Very high indeed.

Know What All These Blogs Have in Common?

What do Lane 8.org, Mid Life Celebration.com, jungle jeff.net, jeff noel.org all have one thing in common?

Together, they form the foundation for the story I’m writing.

Similarly to the way Randy Pausch wrote, The Last Lecture , for his young children. I am writing for our son.

And no story is complete, in my opinion, without pictures:

What a GREAT day it is!

We have all heard that every day is a gift. If you think about it, it’s one of life’s great truths.

It’s completely humbling to be in Finland, to have a Family that loves and supports me, and to simply take it all in. There is so much here that is the same, and so much that is different.

Here are some photos from yesterday’s gift:

Zombie, or just tired?

Totally zombie. Only two other times in my 50 years can I recall being this tired.

The first was driving a Washington State University professor’s pick up truck from Pullman to Seattle, twenty-five years ago.

The professor was relocating and driving his U-Haul moving truck.

We volunteered to drive his pick up, on one condition.  We could throw our two 18-speed Trek touring bicycles in the back.

My wife was a WSU Residence Hall Director for several years.

Upon returning from our cross-state bicycle Honeymoon, we’d have to load our 48 boxes of “stuff” on a shipping truck and then drive our green Mercury Monarch to Orlando.

Before our Honeymoon, we had to be completely packed and moved out of the Coman Hall apartment.  It took all night.

Then, we had a six-hour drive across Washington.  Let me tell you there were some terrific, wide-open spaces.

The kicker, Cheryl could not drive a stick shift at the time.  Otherwise we could have taken turns.

Cheryl loves to tell the story of me howling like a dog, and other assorted crazy things to stay awake.  It was torture. I could not stop.  The professor needed to be in Seattle.  If he only knew….

We made it.  Finally.  Got a great night’s sleep in our tent, and then started our bicycle trip through the San Juan Islands of the Puget Sound, before hitting the North Cascades Highway east, over the Cascade Mountain range, back to Pullman.

I was too poor to give my wife a traditional honeymoon.  So, one year after we were married, we took that cross-state bicycle honeymoon.

It was the best 17-day honeymoon money could buy.  Seriously.  Seventeen days of world-class honeymoon.

The other kicker, even back in 1984, that $200 wasn’t very much money.

Carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂