About mid last week my boss wanted to speak to me. He mentioned they would be downsizing in the office. The economy has not been great to the fire protection business in the past couple of years, and we have seen it in our volume of work. Unfortunately my job is heavily related to the amount of work that we have come into the office, so he wanted to give me a courtesy and an advance notice to start looking for another position. Of course this really upset me for so many reasons. Since this industry (fire protection) found me, I have only been with Western States Fire Protection. I love my boss and all of the people that I work with, so I was not prepared to leave.
Sometimes God takes something away from you when you start to feel comfortable so you will move on your own, and I felt this was one of those times. My manager came back to me later that week and stated that he really did not want to lose me, but my position was going to be terminated, therefore, he wanted me to take over another position. I felt honored that he wanted to keep me, but the new position would compromise my family time and was not an advancement toward my future goals. I just felt like there was something better out there for me. It did not take long to find out that my next position would be with our sister company, VFP Fire Systems.
I truly feel like that I am leaving WSFP to advance my career, and as sad as it is to go, this is probably the best thing that can happen to me. I am looking forward to starting my new position as Estimator/Project Manager at VFP, and working under the direction of Mark Stein and his team. Western States has been my family for the past three years, and I will miss that, but I can assure you that I will not forget about the great memories I have had at WSFP.
Good Friday was not so good for the family. As first it was great because it was a half day at work, so I decided to take Shawn with me. We were having so much fun and it all started with the commute to work. We were singing and dancing in our seats. Shawn has recently started to pick up every word that you say, and I love it. He is finally saying his name, and that makes Rachel and I smile every time we watch the video. I guess I did not realize how much the small things in life would make me so happy like hearing my son say his name for the first time. It is just magical:
Once we got to work, I set Shawn up with his toys and Baby Einstein DVD, and he was so content. I was actually able to get a lot of work done before the weekend. We took some breaks together, and he acted like Daddy sitting in my chair, playing on the computer, talking on the phone. It was really fun for both of us.
As I was packing up and getting ready to leave, I receive a phone call from my alarm company that my alarm was going off. Normally that does not upset me, because the cats can sometimes set off the motion detectors in the house, but this time was different. This time the alarm was coming from the back door, and I immediately knew that something was wrong. At first I was hoping that the back door blew open because we forgot to lock it and the wind was really bad, but I called my neighbor to go check just in case. She called me back a few minutes later stating that she had seen two black men running from my house but it did not look like they had taken anything. Of course, I immediately rushed home to see what had happened. As soon as got there, I notice that the glass in our back window as broken and the door was open. I walked into find that my TV, XBox, Wii, and Computer were stolen, so I called the police to file a report. Fortunately some of my neighbors were able to help the police out by give a great description of the suspects and the get away car. In reality it is just "stuff", and we have insurance; but you still do feel violated when it happens to you. I believe the scariest thing was that we were about to head out of town for the weekend to meet YaYa for Easter. We decided to clean up the glass, board up the door, set the alarm, and pray that the buglers would not come back to finish the job. Praise be to God, but they didn't do so. In reality, I hope that they buglers get caught and I get the chance to meet them. I don't want revenge, but I want to let them know that I forgive them and I would love a chance to pray with them.
Fairfield, TX is such a neat little town about half way between Houston and Dallas. We find it to be a great place to meet my mother (YaYa) to pick and drop off Shawn, and/or stay the night and enjoy the Fairfield State Park nearby. I decided to take advance of the change of scenery to get a bike ride and run in the hills of East Texas. Of course I knew the hills were going to be a challenge, but I did not realize that there would be a sustaining winds of 20 mph with gusts of 30 mph all weekend. It was not fun trying to keep the bike on the road on Saturday. To top it all off, the final miles of the ride were mostly uphill and directly into the wind. At one time I found myself going 7 mph and giving it all I had. I was glad to see that 65 mile ride done.
For Easter Sunday, I had planned on leaving the hotel early and heading out for a run before I met up with the family. I found a route of country roads that would eventually lead me to Fairfield State Park. At first the run was going great through the quaint county seat, but as I left the security of the city, the roads started to change and I became a victim of inaccurate information from Google Maps.
The paved road became a gravel road, then a dirt road, then just a trail, and eventually ended at a dry creek bed. I was really upset considering that I was about 6 miles into my run and knew that if I turned around that I would never make it to the park on time, so I decided to turn into Bear Grylls and follow the dry creek bed with my trusty GPS on my iPhone in hand. I was not far from the main road that led me into the State Park, so I figured that the creek would eventually get me to where I needed to go. Of course as I was running/walking through the creek bed, I could not help but get the "Dueling Banjos" song stuck in the back of my head from the movie "Deliverance,"!
I wondered if I was going to be shot at for potentially trespassing or be stopped by someone because I had a "Pretty Mouth". I never did, and I finally made it back to the main road, or what I thought was the main road.
The road was paved again and had traffic on it. That is all that mattered to me, until I came up to another portion of unpaved road, and my heart dropped. I was clearly lost, my battery was going down on my phone, and there was not any service. I kept on going down the dirt road, and I am glad I did. I eventually made it to an open and picturesque pasture where the cattle started running beside and the deer were grazing in the distance. It really made the time get away from me. Eventually I found myself coming up to a main road. I looked to my right and I could see the entrance to Fairfield State Park. I was there at nearly perfect timing. Rachel, Shawn, and YaYa had just made it, and they were setting up the picnic and Easter Egg Hunt for Shawn.
It is hard to believe that we are only 20 days away from my first Ironman 70.3 event. As I sit here now typing this, I feel completely recovered and ready to run/swim/bike again. I could not have told you that just a few short months ago. I know that I will not be competitive on near a podium finish in Florida, but I do have the confidence that I will finish those 70.3 miles. I have to give a lot of credit to my coach, Dana Lyons, and Sherry with Advocare. I truly believe that the nutritional supplements that I have have been taking since the Kemah Triathlon, has really made the biggest difference in my performance and recovery. I never tire out anymore and I recover so fast because to the Advocare products. I will be posting later this week more about Advocare and what it has done for me.
Starting May 1st, I ask that you please dig down deep and give what you can to Texas Children's Hospital. My goal was to be half way to our $10,000 goal by the time the Rhoto Ironman 70.3 Florida got here, and we are currently sitting at $70. You don't have to give a lot. Even if you sacrificed that one cup of Starbucks Coffee this week and gave the money you would have spent on that it would make a huge difference in a child's life like Shawn's.
I can also assure you that none of the money that you donate goes to us. It all goes to Texas Children's Hospital Urological Research in honor of the Shawn's Ironman Project. Don't say to yourself, "There will be enough donations," or "I will donate later!" Later rarely ever comes.
