Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Could you make a game winning pool shot facing this kind of distraction?

Well, this is my ol buddy Aaron Dimmitt, and his best efforts at weirdness not withstanding, I did make the shot after a few tries. Aaron and his brothers own Allsis, they provides great hosting services (you are viewing a site hosted by them) many of my web design clients are hosted there, and I heartily recommend this exceptional bunch of fellows.

Every place in this world has something that it does uniquely well, some aspect of life that is simply outstanding in its own way. In Fort Collins, Colorado, that hometown gift can be found while playing pool with good friends, & drinking micro-brew beer late into the night at Coopersmiths (ok, after my 3 hour workout that day, I managed about 1/3 of a glass before I felt ill). This is Aaron and his exceptionally cool girlfriend Laura. We laughed and laughed till our heads hurt from it.

I wondered in a previous post “How many “homes” does a heart have room for??”. (in my heart right now, its 5 so far) It’s a good, hard question, this last weekend Jessica were in Fort Collins, Colorado. I lived there for 8 years. It was interesting to be back, to suddenly reopen a Rorschach-esque street map of a town and the associated memories.

I had some of the hardest and most challenging years of my life in Fort Collins, but they really shaped who I am in a tremendously positive way, so I would not trade those hard times for anything, but even so seeing Fort Collins itself again was a mixed bag. It was good to be there with Jessica, for whom Fort Collins is the first two years of our relationship together, and her memories are much happier than mine. We really enjoyed driving by our first house near city park, and walking through Old Town. I walked with her memories this last weekend more than I did my own.

I also got to see my dear friends Evan and Susan, and their 2 kids, Ben and Ellie. As a very wise woman I know says: “Children are true wealth” Evan and Susan are quite wealthy, I have known Evan for 16 years (!!!!!!). Once we were 2 poor bachelors/bike-trash/racers living in a microscopic apartment with 6 bicycles. Now we are happily married men with big houses and waaay more to our lives than can be packed into a hatchback with a roof rack. He is a terrific father & small business owner (of the amazing Evan’s Front Range Salsa).

We stayed really late one night comparing what life is like for each one of us now. We compared the views from the radically different mountains we are climbing. In many ways, his life has changed more than mine has, as fatherhood is a bigger jump of horizons than my shift from being bike-trash to being skate-trash. I think that it takes a radically different kind of strength & endurance to be the father of a 3.5 and a 2 year old (even a super cute 2 year old like ellie here) than it does to try and be a world class speedskater, but at the end of our days, we are both men who crawl into bed exausted.

Evan, I am so glad to have met you that rainy, slushy day 16 years ago on that mountain bike trail in Massachusetts, how far we have come, and miles still to go, miles still to go.

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