The bloody toe

Last night, in a hurry to prove that my blood pressure was just fine, I ran over to Rite-Aid to take the chair test.  You know, the blood pressure chair by the pharmacy, in the dark corner?

I failed.  Over and over.  Take a look for yourself:

So it wasn’t looking good.  I needed to get my blood pressure down to about 120/80 or so.  I just couldn’t relax.  There is a lot on my mind.  The dentist, this weekend’s upcoming 1/2 triathlon, my job, and of course, my blood pressure.  Sort of a vicious cycle.

So I left Rite-Aid a little dejected, feeling that I was going to die in the chair in the morning.  That night, I took one Valium at 9 PM.  (I took another one, 12 hours later before the dentist’s appointment).

My friend, Jason Harris’ sister, Jen (who is also an old friend from Convergys) picked me up in the morning and drive me to the dentist.  I made my way to the counter, signed the I Won’t Blame You if I Die papers, then trudged over to The Chair.  I sat down and they started the gas.

One thing I remember when on the gas, today:  Richard Marx’s Hold on to the Night was playing and I thought to myself how beautiful of a song it is.  I was so taken by it that I knew I was out of my mind.  It’s not THAT great of a song.

The dentist drilled, poked, drilled some more.  At one point I saw a torch being held by his assistant.  The gas told me that a torch in the dentist’s office was perfectly normal, so I brushed aside any protests that I might have uttered.

It, all in all, took about two hours.  My tooth is better.  I can floss between it an its neighbor without any issues.  I’m happy to be done with it, for now.

Honorable mentions:  Patrick Phillips picked me up from the dentist and we went to lunch, then to work.  Paul Penrod drove me home, after work.

Justin at Checker’s Auto in SLC (just North of OC Tanner on State Street) was kind enough to help me in cleaning battery terminals and cables and install a new battery.  I’m logging this so that I can keep track of how often I’m changing out the battery.

In church. The girls come home, today, which is great. Can’t wait to be together, again. Very tired.

Yesterday, Lynn, Jeff, Mike and my buddy, Patrick Phillips and myself ran the Provo Half Marathon. Afterward Patrick and I biked 20 miles to the Spanish Fork Reservoir and swam in some very cold water (about 1/5 mile). Then we biked 20 miles back to my house where the ordeal ended. It was exhausting and today I’m very sore.

Today, I pulled the largest zucchini out of the garden. Huge. I wonder what it will taste like.

Went to the Rush concert tonight with Rob Plowgian and his brother, Jeff. Concert was awesome.

Wendy just texted to let me know that that Buddy is back.  He’d been gone for over 4 days.  I was starting to worry about him.

Recently, when Reagan prays, her prayers are approximately 8-9 seconds.  Tonight, when she prayed, she went on and on about Saint George, her bedroom- everything.  It was really cute.  Roxie said a nice prayer, but there was nothing out of the ordinary with hers (they are always a little long and interesting).

I spent a little time with Lucy, tonight, playing with her.  She chased the TV and cable remotes from one side of my legs, to the other.  As soon as she’d get within reach, I’d slide them other my legs so she’d have to move again.  I think I wore her out.

I read a few books to the girls, tonight.  They seemed to enjoy it and I did, too.  Everyone is now asleep and things are almost back to normal…Wendy is at the Twilight: Eclipse movie with the Langford girls, tonight.

Today, after work, I met Patrick, Camille, Wendy, Roxie, Reagan, Lucy, and Addie and Lizzy (the Phillips kids) at their home.  We had pizza and then left for the Living Planet Aquarium.

The aquarium was fun, but while we were there, a boy (probably about the same age as Roxie) walked straight over to her and pushed her.  It was completely deliberate.  For some reason, it didn’t knock her down.  Her little mouth dropped open and she just stood, shocked that this had taken place.

The parents of this kid (who looked even rougher than the three year-old bully) took no action.  They just said something like “Don’t push, now” and went on their way.  Roxie still stood motionless.  She probably had a lot of the same questions that I did.  What just happened?  Who would raise a kid to do something like that and not say “sorry”?  Who wouldn’t spank their kid, then and now, for doing something like that?  I wanted to give that kid a little message, but even more, I wanted to just let the parents have it.

Instead, I picked up my little innocent Roxie and held her so that she’d know that I loved her.  I’m not sure if this is going to be a common thing in Roxie’s life or not.  She’s so tender and soft-spoken, that I can see people taking advantage of her.  If anyone does, I’ll just step in and even things out.

It really made me mad.

When Wendy says “mama”, Lucy says “dada”.  But last week, she finally managed an “uh-oh!”  She has also begun to clap her hands when Wendy says “Yaaaaaaay!”  Lucy is a fast learner and is also now able to get up on all fours, although I don’t think that she’s technically crawled, yet.  So we’re waiting for that, now, Lu.

Wendy asked me to look up some tax information on our now former mortgage company.  After 10 minutes of discovering how to reset my old TBW password, I finally got in and clicked on “My Account”.  This screenshot is what I got.

Keep “perfecting the art”, Taylor Bean!

I called dad, this morning.  Yesterday was the Bidwell Classic.  He told me that after the race, he’d been chatting with a nice family.  He noticed that the man in this family had some type of springs on the bottom of his shoes.  Dad told him, “That looks like cheating!” (jokingly).  The man pulled up a leg on his trousers and said, “It helps with my prosthesis.”  They continued to chat and it seemed that the man took no offense.  I think that it sort of embarrassed dad.

He called it his “FooPah”, as in “faux pas.”  Classic dad.