Goals for the Steve fiscal year:

1. Stop sweating the little things – I had a realization that I can decide whether or not to stress myself out about things. I can’t help the physical reaction to stress, but I can decide to let it bother me or not. I found it’s also OK to be in a happy place – Leigh told me that when we were out driving the other day.

2. Say hi to more people – I am a shy person, but it feels good to say hi to random people every once in a while.

3. Serve Leigh more – Well, at least do more around the house.

4. Be a leader – In the words of Bob from What About Bob, “Baby Steps”. I think this is a goal for me every year. Maybe writing it down will help accelerate the process.

5. Go back to school – What fun =)

Those are my goals for the year. I heard that if you write your goals down, you have a much better chance of actually reaching them. I made it easy for myself and didn’t put measurable values on all of them (notice the use of the word “more” in some of them).

OK, bye bye.

I don’t like that it is getting darker out earlier. We took Berrie on a walk tonight and I made the comment that this weather is depressing. What I really meant was that the nighttime depresses me. I don’t know why this is. I used to love it when it was dark. It seemed like going out with friends was only fun if it was at night. Leigh was just like, dude you have got to stop thinking like that. I would really love to stop thinking like that…I really would.

You know the other thing that is really depressing? The fact that I am sitting in the coffee shop formerly known as Scottie MacBeans and they are playing horrible Avril Lavine music. Now, if you want something to be depressed about, that will do it. Maybe as the days get shorter we will spend more time here and life will seem better in comparison.

I had a lady in the elevator yesterday almost get off when I was getting on (she thought she was at her floor already). She looked kind of embarrassed, so I told her that I do that all the time. She laughed and told me to have a nice day when she got off at her actual floor. It’s nice when strangers talk to you.

My favorite thing in the world is to tell someone…”oh yeah, you have one of those Indian beards”. They always laugh at that point, but that’s not really the punchline – they are suppossed to laugh when you say “Apache here, Apache there”. Sort of like telling someone you need a honeymoon salad. They will laugh and then think about it and say, what’s that. “Lettuce alone”.

Let me start by saying that I hate clutter. Well, at least clutter that I have to see on a regular basis. I was listening to a podcast the other day that was debating the merits of keeping your inbox at zero or not. Now, I don’t need to have my inbox completely empty, but it does begin to bother me when it starts to have any more than 15-20 messages in it. However, what I can’t stand is to have any unread messages…those could be email or unread items in my RSS feeds or whatever. Even as I’m writing this, it bothers me that I see a “Google Reader (9)” in the tab to my left. That means that there are nine items in my craigslist motorcycle feed that I haven’t looked at yet. What if one of those is the perfect motorcycle at the perfect price? I did go and test drive a Yamaha XS1100 the other day…it made me feel pretty powerful to be on that big of a bike (although, the guy didn’t like my offer). Oh well, I guess the fact I am that obsessed about my news feeds must mean I am OCD. Why wasn’t I ever in special ed as a child?

It also bothers me after a while when things are cluttered at home. I can usually stand it for a while, but then one day it will just really get to me…usually when it’s hot and muggy outside and I’m feeling constipated and the whole world is against me..or whatever.

Another area in life that I don’t like clutter is in the area of unfinished business. You know, those little projects that haven’t quite been taken to completion. Or better yet, those conversations that I was supposed to have, but was too timid or embarrassed to talk about. It always feels so much better when I finally do get them off my chest. I always wonder why I didn’t just have them sooner. So, would I say that clutter is more acceptable in some areas of life than in others? Well, I would definitely agree that I tend to put up with the clutter in certain areas longer than others. I guess it is like the situation of the frog in the boiling water. The uncomfortableness comes on slowly enough that it doesn’t bother me enough to do anything about it for quite a while. I would like to be more consistent about the clutter cleanup in every area of life.

Do you ever remember searching for the smiling man in the white and red stripes? He would show up in all the strangest places. On one page, he would be in a museum, and in the next he’d be on the beach. He could travel to all kinds of interesting locations on the planet – places I always wished I could visit. It was always that nagging feeling that if you didn’t find him, you would be forever wondering where he was that got you to see the other things on the page. I think life lessons are often learned in a similar way. Experiences happen, whether seemingly bad or good at the time, while trying to reach a goal or meet an expectation. When the goal is finally attained or the task accomplished, it feels sort of anti-climactic. However, looking back later, it’s always the little things that happened along the way that I remember. It’s those things that I have learned from.

I’m thinking back on a particular hiking trip we took up a mountain. I don’t even remember the name of the mountain we climbed. I remember the view being beautiful when we reached the top, but I couldn’t describe to you what I saw or what it felt like to get there. Regardless, two things about that trip really stick out in my mind. One is that the macaroni and cheese spilled all over the ground as we cooked it over the fire. I learned that a little bit of dirt won’t kill you and that you should always have a good clip-on handle for the pot. The other thing I learned was that toilet paper is as much of a necessity as food on a camping trip.

The next time you are looking through a Where’s Waldo (or I Spy) book, pay attention to how you do your searching. Do you look only to find the red and white stripes or do you find enjoyment in each piece of the scene?

Andy went running with me in the morning. Yes, finally a sport that I can excel at. He actually did well and we were forced to keep running because the bugs ate us when we were just walking.

Leigh and I led the Bible study this morning which was kind of fun. It rained for much of the morning, but in the afternoon we went out into the lake. Today was also our turn for dinner, so we made some BBQ chicken with orange sauce.

The troops were all getting restless and wanted to see some civilization, so we all went out to Parry Sound to check out the town. It took about 15 minutes to walk the entirety of old Parry Sound, so we decided to drive to the new end and check out Wally World. Leigh tried on a lovely mumu. I wouldn’t let her take it home.

I have just two things to say about my run this morning. 1. I miss running on the flat Ohio terrain. The hills here can be brutal. 2. I think the mosquitoes were trying to tell me that I need to shower.

After breakfast, we cut up some firewood to fill up the wood pile.

After resting somewhat yesterday, I decided to give the slalom skiing another try. Andy and I both did some of that as well as wake-boarding which I had never done before. It is a lot easier to get up on a wake board than on the one ski.

We went into Rosseu in the afternoon and checked out their antique store. Leigh and I almost bought this sweet gothic cross but decided against it after seeing that they were asking $700. Jocey’s birth certificate also arrived in Rosseau, so we know she was actually born now and can hopefully get back in the country.

Later that evening, we had some s’mores (roasted over the firewood we cut up earlier) and Korey caught a big fish that he actually kept after hitting it on the head with a hammer…bam!

It’s been 4 days now since I have taken a shower. We’ll see if I keep this up all week. It’s kind of nice for me…I’m not sure how the people around me feel, but nobody has mentioned the smell yet. The lake washes off most of the dirt, right? Speaking of which, after my run, I went down there this morning and read through the third chapter of Colossians. It seems there is a lot in that book about getting rid of the old life in which you used to live and living in ways that Christ would like us to live. It talks a lot about putting off the old sinful nature…a lot of which includes anger in addition to other things and putting on love. We talked yesterday about getting angry and impatient with people when we don’t spend much time in prayer or in the Bible. I thought that was an interesting insight.

Today was a restday…at least for me. About the only active thing I did was to swim a half-mile across the lake. Andy and Dad swam the whole mile (across and back) and then Andy and Korey did some tubing after that. Andy also figured out how to get up on the wake board which was pretty cool.

We did some more fishing in the evening and then Sarah beat me once again in chess – on a lucky move. Oh well…I guess it is about time to brush up on my chess skills. I also got a little bit of filming of the fishing in of Korey “Bear Grylls” and Andy “Ty Pennington”.