Sorry for the lack of blogging over the past week or two, I have found it harder than I expected to find stuff to write about now that I am home.  

On Friday, I attended the home school group monthly get-together.  We've been members of it ever since I can remember (I was home schooled from first to twelfth grade), and I can remember many fun times growing up and going to it.  Anyway, we played some Frisbee, I watched all the kids give their presentation (the activity for this month) - some were pretty cool: valence electrons, organic polymers, piano recitals, and other, various, cool presentations.  We stuck around as the mom talked throughout the afternoon, played some soccer in the parking lot (not quite as fun as "real" soccer), and got home around 6.

On Saturday, we participated in the Bridge the Gap.  It is a running race that we have done before, which is pretty cool because it goes across one of the Quincy bridges and back on the other.  It's a fun little 5K, but I always underestimate ho hard it will be.  The first mile is easy: you start going up this steep hill, but it's only about 2 blocks and the rest of the mile is mostly downhill as you cross over the first bridge.  Thus, I finished the first mile in a blistering 6:30 or so.  The second mile, though, entails crossing back over the second bridge.  And, it is all uphill.  Literally, the entire mile is a pretty good uphill climb.  Anyway, I finally finished the second mile (at which point I was right at a 7:00 min/mile pace) and went down the hill after the 2nd bridge and onto the (relatively) flat last mile.  Unfortunately, I was "recovering" from the 2nd mile and didn't ever bump up the pace like I wanted to.  Either way, I made sure to stay up with this other guy who appeared to be near my age and managed to spring the last tenth of a mile or so and pass him.  I got 2nd in my age group and 8th place overall (surprised myself with that one!).  I finished in 21:52 (something like that), which is a 7:04 min/mile, and which also is about as fast as I've ever run a 5k.  I think I may have gone a bit faster in some of the training runs for the half-marathon, but those were probably a good bit more flat.  Ah well, I think I could have gone a bit faster, but in hind site I always think I could have done better, so there you go...  

On Sunday, we did Mass at St. Rose, where I was recruited to serve - no biggie...  That afternoon we started packing for vacation.  As a family, we try to go on a vacation (almost) every year.  This year, which is "bigger" than normal, we are going to Yosemite.  So, we decided to start the fun a week early and begin to pack what we would be bringing.  Of course, seeing it as a challenge, my goal is to pack everything in a bag that can be carried on the airplane (they have a specific size that you can't go over).  Anyway, this gets a bit more difficult when you try to fit a back-pack, hiking shoes, a laptop, and the clothes in the carry on bag...  Have no fear, I'll get it in there, but I sure hope I don't have to open it until we get there.  I can zip it up right now, but still need to fit in another pair of shoes, the computer, and a shirt.  

On Monday, I started my summer job over at Titan Wheel.  It isn't that there is less going on...  The job begins at 7:30 AM, so I go to Mass at 6:30 AM every morning.  So far the job has been pretty good - just getting back into the swing of things from last summer - we'll see how it develops.  I get done at 4:00PM and then we usually have something going on that takes up the rest of the evening.  If we don't have something going on, I typically manage to waste the evening hours before hitting the sack around 10 PM so that I can get several hours of shut-eye before the alarm goes off.  

So there you have it, the last few days have been non-stop stuff to do.  (did I mention I had to sign up for Spanish on Thursday, or the packet pick-up for the race on Friday, or the after-Mass group we went out for lunch with on Sunday, or the mowing I helped out with on Monday...)  Don't think that I am complaining - but I am busy...

OK, all that writing leads me to what I actually wanted to get to.  Today, mid-day prayer, which I prayed during my lunch break, had this as its concluding prayer:

God of mercy,this midday moment of restis your welcome gift.
Bless the work we have begun,
make good its defects
and let us finish it in a way that pleases you.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
– Amen.

I thought that the entire prayer was such a beautiful thing to say in the middle of a busy, tiring, sometimes annoying and frustrating day.  Yesterday, I was going around to the lock-boxes around the plant and checking to see if all the locks were present and working.  Anyway, this one box was inside an office of sorts and while I was checking out the locks, a few guys came in off the paint line, where they had been working, and the one guy said to me "you have a pretty tough job there don't you" - briefly the thought of how greasy the locks were, or how many different boxes there were to audit, or how long it would take me to type up the results popped into my head - and they I looked over at him sitting there peeling off the plastic suit that he had been wrapped in (it was probably 80 out) while spraying paint, and it hit me that just maybe his job was more tough than mine.  You know, how I got to take the golf cart around to the different boxes, or how I could sit in an air-conditioned office for most of the day, rather than just my lunch break...  You know, how my job was plush compared to his, and I had no reason at all to complain about it...

I thought this prayer was such a beautiful way to remind ourselves of the gift that every day truly is.  How each and every moment, those of rest, those of work, those of fun, those of sorrow, can be seen as an opportunity to grow closer to God.  To thank Him for the good, to ask His help through the laborious, to see His love in the joyful, and find the path to Him through the sorrowful.  "and let us finish it in a way that please you." - It is incredible when you actually pay attention to the prayers that we say each day.  Seriously, I say the prayers of the Mass every day, I (try to) say the prayers of the rosary every day, I say the Divine Office every day, and yet these beautiful reminders of God's love, mercy, aid, generosity, and everything else are so easy to miss.  You know, it's going to be easy to see that when on vacation - when everything is fun, and there aren't any worries - but what happens when I get back?  When Monday comes around and I have to go back to work.  That is when it is more important than ever to see God's presence, and love around us, and use our everyday lives to grow closer to Him.  I think it was in the Gospel today when Jesus says that whoever isn't against me is for me.  I think that that can also be said of everyday live - it doesn't have to lead us to Christ, but it sure can if we let it...  Just a thought.  My hope is that by trying to find Christ everywhere, I can find more to blog about as the summer goes by - we'll see what happens when Spanish gets started in a few weeks...

"Grant this through Christ Our Lord - Amen"