Reflections on Aging

From 2009-12

Winter came to České Budejovice this last week.  Snow and finally a killing frost.  Here are some highlights.

After dropping out of potty-training a month or so ago without so much as a single success, Silas started up again last week and graduated.  He got so good, in fact, that he would only pee little small amounts at a time because every time he successfully deposited pee in the potty chair he got a treat.  He went from wetting his diaper four times a day to using the potty eight times.

Lucy and Caleb had the week off from school.  Frankly, that's usually not pleasant.  People get bored, they bug each other, they fight.  Monday was bad, but then everyone settled into a routine, doing some homeschooling in the morning, completing chores each day, and generally staying pleasant.

Caleb had a concert on Friday.  Due to illness, he was the concert master.  They played nicely, much sharper even than their concert a couple weeks ago.

Caleb and I participated in a little informal fencing tournament yesterday.  Real swords, mask, pads.  They put me against this big kid for my first one.  It was tough to get used to the limited vision, the flex of the sword, the ill-fitting pads.  I beat him.  Then Caleb went against a guy about my age and beat him soundly.  In both of our matches, the form wasn't there, there was an awkwardness, poor lunging, poor parrying.

Then Caleb challenged me.  This was fun.  I tried my move of whacking his blade out of the way before lunging.  He did his favorite, the disengage.  I got a touch.  More battling, I got another touch.  All I needed was one more, so I took a more defensive role to wait for an opening.  Then, Caleb swung his sword around and whacked me upside the head.  That drew cheers from the crowd cuz it was so unexpected.  Fighting again, another touch for Caleb.  By now I am breathing hard.  I had some nice parries, looking to do a parry of prima and counter attack.  A couple of my lunges were over extended.  Then, another rounding blow from Caleb glanced off my shoulder and hit my head.  He won.

I celebrated my 40th birthday yesterday which caused me to contemplate what I'm making of my life.

I set the next year's goals on my birthday.  I'm a big believer in goals.  We set a goal to come to the Czech Republic to live - boom, we're here.  Lucy set a goal last year to be able to pass each of the arithmetic timed tests (add, subtract, multiply, divide, 100 problems, five minutes, no errors) - zing, two weeks later, she'd passed them all.  Caleb made a goal to do eight pull-ups - whoosh, he's hit his goal and got six pack abs in the bargain (a dream that slips farther and farther from my grasp with each passing bowl of ice cream).

So I reviewed last year's...
- Move to the Czech Republic - done
- Learn Czech - nope
- Get Hwy. 169 pre-design wrapped up - done, and then some
- Get decision on location for Hwy. 14 New Ulm to Mankato - done
- Establish daily writing habit - got it
- Write something good - still working on it.

Then asked Kristine and the kids what my biggest character flaws are.  No, not a complete list, just the biggest.  Okay, never mind.

And set this year's goal...
- Learn Czech
- Finish writing book
- Bike to Alps
- Get touch on fencing instructor (we didn't have time to fight last night)
- some other personal ones too.

Then I spend some time wondering if I'm in the right job.

Then, I think about getting older.  I've got some nice role models for how I want to age...
- When I'm 50 I want to be like our friend Wes.  He's always learning new things, stays fit, seems like he's just bumping up against 40 really.
- At about 60 I want to be like Marc at work.  He is a mentor for the young engineers and student workers.  He shares his experience with them and seems to get energy and different ways of looking at problems from them.
- At about 70 I want to be like my parents.  They still have jobs and so are keeping active physically and mentally.  I may not be at Mn/DOT anymore, but I would hope to be serving a mission with Kristine somewhere.
- At about 80 I want to be somewhat like Brother Christopherson (before he died).  He rode a three wheeled bike all over town, including up Madison hill.  He was on a first name basis with our friend Ross in the emergency room.  Stay active or die trying.

Lucy made a little ceramic mug the size of a shot glass for me.  I drank my plum flavored non-alcoholic beer in it at dinner last night.

So, Caleb asked if I had a nice birthday.  I told him that when you have a life like mine, surrounded by family and good friends with opportunities for learning and adventure, every day is nice.

Peter