This is the 7th Post from my blog “Be Encouraged!” It can be found here: http://urocktoday.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
Click the pictures for full-size
versions. The story sets up the
pair of videos at the end
If you follow my tweets on twitter, from time to time you may see me talking to . . . er . . . my diabetes. Taunting it. Challenging it. And telling it I am on my way to the gym, where I am basically going to kick it's _ _ _! For me, it works. It's one little way I try to deal with the fear that if I am not doing something to proactively maintain, and even improve my overall physical strength and stamina, then the 'betes monster will surely run me over like a bug in the path of a semi. I know that's actually a bit irrational. 'betes is gonna do whatever it's gonna do. My physical strength is absolutely no match. I was in awesome physical shape at age 17 when I became a type 1 diabetic. But it doesn't hurt to be in shape.
My desire to get into, and stay in shape has more to do with what I've been through this past year. It has been a year of recovery from an accident I will write about soon, as the anniversary of the accident approaches. In the meantime, here is a preview: think stairs, falling . . . er . . . flying through the air, many, many broken bones, surgery, months of recovery. Well, you get the idea. Anyway, during this past year, my attitude of "never, EVER giving up" in the face of whatever D wants to throw at me has been tested time after time. And I am glad to say that my 'tude is still very much alive and intact. But that leads me to the story of something that happened shortly before this accident . . . in May of 08.
One of my favorite places is Cloudcroft, New Mexico.
Through the years, it has been a place we have returned to time after time to relax and get away. A place simply to unplug and unwind. The cabin sits at approx. 9500 feet above sea level. In the winter it gets a ton of snow. In the summer, the temperatures on top of the mountain where Cloudcroft is nestled, are just incredibly awesomelicous!
This is the top floor of the cabin,
with one additional floor and a basement below.
Our girls, Amy and Amber, have grown up "going to the cabin".
Down the mountain from Cloudcroft is the town of Alamogordo, Holloman Air Force Base, and White Sands Missile Range. The temperature difference from the top of the mountain down to White Sands can be pretty extreme. In the summer, it may be 55 to 60 at the cabin, and way over 100 degrees out at White Sands. There is a part of White Sands, the National Monument section, which is open to the public. And it is there that we have gone to play in the sand dunes year after year. The dunes stretch for hundreds of miles. In fact, you can easily see them from the top of the mountain.
Yep, that's the view we see. Now you know why we love it so much.
Out at the National Monument, we love to spend all day climbing the giant sand dunes, and then sliding down on waxed boards. Check out the pics below showing Amy and Amber, both way back then and now, and then I'll be back to set up todays video.
I love sliding down the dunes as fast as I can go.
It's also fun to get a running start, and then throw yourself off the dune without a board.
Of course, then the sand has a funny way of finding all sorts of strange places to end up. (note to self: Dude, TMI! You seriously MUST learn to edit! Jeez!) Oh yea, I talk to myself sometimes too. :-)
Anyway, In may of last year, we found ourselves on vacation, out at the dunes. The video below tells the story of what happened, and then goes on to reinforce my idea that at least for me, I should never, EVER give up without a fight. No matter what!
Basically, at one point, I went incredibly low, while trying to climb a super high dune. At one point in the video, you'll hear some applause sound effects. Why? These are the sounds I hear in my head all the time, that I try to use to keep me going during a low. I imagine it's the sound of you guys, cheering me on! Oh yea, one more thing. I know that lows are serious, serious business. But please feel free to laugh at me. I do all the time.
Enjoy.
Video 2 The Rest of the day Music track "Without a Fight", by Hoobastank (LUV 'em! one of my favs!)
Link to the White Sands National Monument here.