25:01

It was a cool, not cold, morning yesterday at 8:00am for the start of the Gamecock Gallup 5K run.  There were likely 250 – 300 runners there and I started beside our neighbor Andy, who I only met after we returned from Thailand.  Andy works at the Depot and appeared to be in pretty good shape.  He told me that he usually runs his 5K’s at around 24 minutes, which is close to what I run mine when I am in my best shape.  That was hardly the case yesterday morning as there were several small hills to scale and two very large ones that had made me want to throw up by the time I had reached their summit.  Unfortunately, after scaling the second hill, I still had about 1 mile left to run.  Andy had passed me and started putting good distance on me just after the 1 mile mark while we were going up the first major hill and I didn’t see him again until after I passed the finish line.  As for reaching that finish line, I summoned everything I had inside me to pace myself for a strong ending – it worked as I made it in at 25 minutes and 1 second, but as I crossed the finish, I was sure that I was going to throw up.  Thankfully I didn’t.  Considering that I haven’t run at all since I have been back from Thailand and that there were two major hills to traverse one the course, a 25:01 time is phenomenal for me.  If you recall, the only other 5K I ran this year was back in March and I did that in 27:23.  Even though it was a pretty good time (less than 1 minute from 3rd place in my age group), I felt a little cheated.  If I had this performance without training, how good could I have done if I had kept running as much as I had done in Thailand?  Maybe that regret will help fuel me to my next runs.

We have the fall festivals this afternoon, so that should be a bit of fun.  I took Ben to church with me today for the first time.  I figured Jet would not want to go as I am sure that she would have been very bored.  Can you believe it, I was able to sit in the pews with Ben on my lap the entire time!  I think it was the new surroundings, all of the people, and all of the singing that likely made Ben afraid, quiet, and motionless for the whole hour – who knows if he would do that again the next time I take him.

Ben has been on a huge Thomas-the-train kick over the past two weeks.  Every night before he goes to bed, he insists on watching Thomas or “choo-choo”.  Actually, Ben pronounces it more like “shoe-shoe” to which Jet and I joke that he is starting to speak Chinese.  Before this recent Thomas kick, Ben loved watching Barney.  Jet was happy when Ben stopped watching Barney because she felt that the young children in those Barney videos were a little too fake, cheery, and annoying.  One of those Barney videos is very timely because it involves Barney taking the kids to a farm to see animals and pumpkins.  To show how committed Ben is to Thomas right now, I tried putting on the “Barney Goes to the Farm” video to mix things up while Jet was away at work, but Ben got very upset and pointed to the TV repeating over and over “shoe-shoe … shoe-shoe”.  At least those Thomas videos are not annoying; those little engines like being useful, reliable, and are always up for “important” work even though they always seem to wreck every episode.  Jet came back yesterday morning from Kohls with a Thomas bed set for Ben and you should have just seen the excitement from Ben.  Thomas certainly has a special place in Ben’s heart right now.

Slow Week?

Over a week since the last comment on the blog?  Has it been a slow week?  Not much to report on down here.  Jet had off from work at the Olive Garden last night because they were cutting back shifts.  I guess business has been slow the past few weeks, not only at the Olive Garden, but at other restaurants too.  With the bonus evening at home, Jet invited friends Matt, Amber, and Olivia over for dinner.  A cold front moved in yesterday dropping the temperatures into the 60’s for highs, which really gave it an autumn feel for the day – despite most trees still being green down here.  With Jet working at the stove, the cool weather outside, and company on the way over, Jet said that it felt like Thanksgiving.  It seems like a strange comment, but having guests over for a special meal has been a rare occasion at our house and likely hasn’t happened since before we left for Thailand.  Hmmm …. maybe we should have another pizza night.  The last homemade pizza event we hosted was for Ben’s first birthday party way back in January!  Have we just shut ourselves in lately?

With the cold weather and rain outside today (Friday), I don’t expect us to be doing much.  We are planning on lunch with Donald and Linda at China Luck today – the best Chinese food I have ever eaten.  As for tomorrow, I have my first 5K run since returning from Thailand.  I was up to running 10K 3-4 times a week before I left Thailand, but I have only been running once since I got back home.  Things have been just too busy around here that everyday I leave for JSU well before it gets light out, and when I return home, I only have a few hours of daylight – which I usually spend with Jet and Ben.  I have played a few Aussie Rules matches, but that doesn’t help much when it comes to running a 5K.  Jet and I have been walking much lately, but walking is not running.  I thought about running a bit this week to help get into some kind of shape for the run tomorrow, but my mind got too much into the mix.  I was able to convince myself that I would likely do better in the run without any preparation than if I had spent time preparing this week and had sore muscles.  This is one case where I might very well have over thought the situation for my own detriment.  Regardless, I face a 5K tomorrow at 8:00am that goes through JSU’s campus and will have several large hills to scale and descend.  Maybe a little part of me has not prepared because I just didn’t want to think about having to run those hills tomorrow - I really prefer flat courses.

There are a couple of fall festivals happening on Sunday.   We went to our first fall festival last year and had a good time and I am really looking forward to this year’s.  Most of the larger churches down here have these “fall festivals” with free food, games, prizes, pumpkins, rides, and fun as a safe alternative to trick-or-treating.  On Sunday from 3-6pm is the fall festival for both Grace Baptist, the large church nearby our house, and Antioch Baptist, the church that Donald and Linda (and occasionally me) attend.  Last year we attended the Antioch Baptist festival and had a blast.  We are thinking of starting off at Grace this year and ending up at Antioch.  It should be a lot of fun and the weather is shaping up to be great – sunny and in the 60’s-70’s.  Hopefully that all pans out.

Fun Weekend

What started out as a ho-hum weekend with rain all day Friday turned into a pretty good time.  Linda gave us a call on Friday night and let us know that there was a 5K run planned at the Janney Furnace out in Ohatchee (about 30 minute drive).  Although I did not have much interest in running, we found out that there was a lot of extras happening there.  First, finding out that there was a Confederate Memorial at the Janney Furnace, that there would be a civil war cannon shot off every hour on the hour, and that there was a pumpkin patch were all things that got us interested in taking the drive out there.  We walked around a little bit, took a small train ride, took a hayride, picked out a small pumpkin to take home, watched the sheriffs from Calhoun and Cherokee counties participate in a shooting duel, and felt the loud “boom” of the civil war canon shake the entire place – and we were a good 400 yards away!  A pretty good time indeed.

We left at 8:00am on Sunday morning for the Thai Temple in Atlanta, which was having a celebration that marked the end of a Buddhist holiday that began when we were still in Thailand.  We had never visited a Thai Temple in Atlanta, so we didn’t know what to expect, but the Temple itself was only 5 miles away from where I practice playing Aussie Rules with the Kookaburras in Atlanta.  It was the biggest Thai event that I had ever attended in the U.S. as there had to have been nearly 1000 Thais there walking around.  The Temple did not look like any Thai Temple I had seen before and was simply a small log-cabin building, but the masses of people were mingling about around outside.  There were a few people there selling Thai vegetables, drinks, snacks, and food, but the best part of this event was that it was a pot-luck event where everyone got to eat as much of the food brought in as they wanted.  The food was delicious and I ate way too much.  We also met up with a Thai woman that Jet happened to run into at TJ Max a few weeks ago.  She lives with her American husband and 3 year old daughter in Pell City (about 30 minute drive away).  The Thai woman was only a few years older than us, but her husband was in his mid-40’s.  They were nice people and her husband actually works for the state department and does a lot of international travel – telling me that he has traveled to nearly 180 different countries.  So we had a great time with them and it may give a chance for Jet to have someone else to hang out with that is Thai and lives nearby.

Wet Weekend

It has been gloomy and rainy all day today (Friday) and the temperatures have barely reached 70 – what a difference from the last few days that have been sunny and in the mid 80’s.  On days like this, you just want to sit around and do nothing and that is pretty much all we did today.  It should stop raining for the rest of the weekend, but the temperatures will still only be in the 70’s.  Another big change is gas prices.  On Monday prices were still $3.55 a gallon.  By yesterday, prices were under $3.00 everywhere – the cheapest I have seen was $2.85.  What a difference a couple days can make.

There is not much planned for tomorrow.  Hopefully it will be dry enough so that I can cut the grass.  On Sunday, we will be traveling to Atlanta to one of the Thai temples, which will be the first time that we have visited one there.  Jet has met another Thai woman that lives about a half-hour from us that will be going there for a big celebration on Sunday morning.  It should be fun.  We were planning on stocking up on groceries afterwards because Jet had her first Thai Cooking class at JSU scheduled for Monday.  Jet found out earlier in the week, however, that her first class was cancelled (as were several other classes offered by the school of continuing education) because only 5 people had registered.  I guess it might be the economy that is keeping people away this time.  Oh well.  Jet’s second class is a couple weeks later in November, so we’ll see what happens for that one.

Wednesday Work

Just another busy day at the office.  I have been running around a bit extra today as I went to turn in my registration for the “Gamecock Gallup 5K” which will be next Saturday.  That should give me extra motiviation to get some good running in before then.  Jet’s computer (Sandy’s old laptop) was also running at a snails pace, so I brought it with me to school, wiped it clean, and I am now finishing installing new software.  I am also working on getting the final details together so that Sup can teach here at JSU in the spring as part of a “faculty exchange” program.  We finally got an approval letter from the university President and a source of funding, so now it is just shoring up the paperwork to get his visa.  Things are looking good, but you never know what may happen.

On schedule, Ben got over his fever on Sunday and was back to his regular self that evening.  Ben has more than made up for the lost eating over the weekend (for the first time he has had a craving for hot dogs every day) and has had an unusual bad attitude since he has recovered.  Even worse, Ben has been very attached to his stuffed bear (“Buddy”) and pacifiers.  Last night during our walk, we did not get far without Ben crying so hard that he literally was choking himself.  Jet took Ben out to the local pumpkin patch this afternoon, but there were no large groups there at the time they arrived, so they missed out on the hay rides and story telling.  Jet said that they picked out a pumpkin, but Ben was more interested in the nearby playground.  Oh well.  At least Ben is feeling better.

Waiting … and Hoping

Well, today will be the third day that Ben has had his fever, and if history holds true to form, it will be the last day.  Here’s hoping and wishing.  Ben’s fever was managed by alternating between Motrin and Tylenol every 5-6 hours or so, but all of that medicine has had its effect.  Ben still has barely had anything to eat (a couple pretzels in the morning and animal crackers in the evening), didn’t want anything to drink, and didn’t even want to wake up yesterday from his nap – a first.  He had already been sleeping for 3 hours yesterday when I walked in his room, rubbed his back, and asked him if he wanted to come with me.  Usually I don’t even have to ask him as he will jump up ready to be picked up from his crib.  Yesterday, he just gave me a “no” and rolled back over.  I came back 30 minutes later, same result.  Another 30 minutes – this time I made him get up.  Even though he did get “up”, it was like he was still sleeping for the entire afternoon/evening.  He did not want to get up and about, and when he did, his balance was not the best as he would constantly bump into things.  At around 3:00am this morning, the fever came back – not unexpected, but disheartening.  Hopefully it will finish running its course this morning – both Jet and I could use the sleep.  When Ben sleeps in our bed, he sleeps as if he were in his own crib still.  He shifts around a bit … well, he shifts around a lot.  WIth all of that movement, it makes it very difficult to sleep.  I finally had enough at about 5:00am this morning when after very little sleep since 3:00am, I opened my eyes only to find Ben’s feet in my face (his head adjacent to Jet’s).  That guy loves to shift around a lot.

I hate to only talk about Ben feeling bad.  Ben has been picking things up very good lately.  Jet is teaching him more and more words to say – our favorite is when he will hide and peek out from somewhere shouting “I” to everyone instead of “Hi”.  Ben loves it when I read him stories from his huge library of books (thanks Dolly Pardon and your Imagination Library!) and even will bring me the same books over and over to read for him.  His favorites right now seem to be “Mary had a Little Lamb” and the talking vegetable book Steph gave him last year for Christmas.  Ben also loves his picture books that have pictures of animals.  Ben is at the point now where I can ask him where a certain animal is (e.g., cat, dog, elephant, horse, etc.) and he can point it out to me.  If he can’t remember the animals name when I ask him to find it (e.g. elephant), I can just make animal noise and he can understand which one I am referring to.  The most interesting development about Ben, however, is how he can get so excited to see Jet and Linda.  Whenever he sees them, usually unexpectedly, he will scream in a high-pitched voice and shake his arms wildly.  The best way I can describe it is the way “Bobby Hill” from the cartoon show “King of the Hill” gets excited and gives out a girlish scream.  It is absolutely hilarious and just burns a smile on your face for minutes afterwards.  I hope Ben will be back to that after today.

Another Weekend

Wow!  I just can’t believe that there were so many comments from the last post.  I guess that was a topic that everyone just had something to say.

Ben has had a fever since Thursday morning – the same type of fever that he has had so many times before.  In addition to the high fever, he doesn’t feel like eating and he just wants to cuddle.  Poor little guy.  You can just tell that he is not his normal self by looking at him and how he just appears like he is having a really rough day.  He was really hot on Thursday night so Jet called the doctor yesterday (Friday) morning to get some feedback.  The nurse said that if he had a temperature of 101 or 102 that he should come in.  Jet and I were sure that he was at least that high so we made a trip to the doctor to get him checked out.  We took his temperature just before we left – 103.1.  The doctor did not notice anything wrong in his ears or with his throat, and since Ben had a low white-blood cell count, she figured that he might have a some sort of sinus infection.  I just figure it is the teething again, and if it holds to form, sometime tonight or tomorrow Ben should be feeling much better.  I really do hope so because it is just a sad sight to see Ben suffer like he is.  At least it happened this weekend and not last weekend when Dad was in town for the races.  That would have changed our plans.

We did not go to the pumpkin patch on Tuesday, but instead took Dad out to eat with Donald and Linda at “Top O’ The River”, which is the best seafood place in town.  Great fried catfish and Mexican cornbread.  We were planning on going to the Old Baker Farm tomorrow, about an hour drive away, to pick pumpkins and cotton, but with Ben in his current condition, that will likely have to wait.  There is another patch that opens next week, Camp Lee, which is only a few minutes from our house.  We may do that one instead or in addition to the Old Baker Farm.  These places have hayrides, games, and storytelling that go along with picking pumpkins, so it should be a lot of fun for Ben - but also Jet and I!

Visitor

It has been great to have Dad around for the past few days. The races on the weekend, fixing things around the house yesterday (Monday) and today. What more can you say about a guy than what everyone likely already knows? He can be just a tad too loud in the morning getting up which wakes up Ben in the morning (the guest room is just across from Ben’s room), he loves to watch old black-and-white TV shows and the music channels before he goes to bed, he falls asleep without any warning at all times of the day, and his hearing can be hit or miss. Jet and I will just look at each other and smile after I ask him a question over and over without a response while he just stays focused or “zoned-in” on something else (a house that we are walking by, the TV, etc.) as if I never said a thing to him. Can’t forget the tree frogs too. Dad hasn’t been too bad around the house, but at the races, that was a different story. There was one time at Friday’s ARCA race where he conveniently got up and left for the bathroom but left his mark behind. It was so pungent that the group of ten shirtless, sun-burned drunks that sat five rows behind us almost came to blows trying to pinpoint which one of them was the culprit of that awful stink. Oh such priceless memories made all the more memorable because Dad wasn’t there to witness it. But you just cannot talk about a visit from Dad without mentioning the huge pot of potato salad that he made on Sunday or the equally huge pot of chili that he made yesterday, which he prepared both for hours the night before. Or when just Dad, Ben, and I were walking around Oxfordfest and I came across an unfinished furniture booth that had a table and two chairs not unlike those that Dad has in his house. Jet has raved on and on about getting a similar set that we can pass down to Ben when he gets older. Dad, Ben, and I were just about to meet up with Jet so I could get back to selling BBQ at the lodge when I explicitly told Dad that if he walked by this booth again with Jet to NOT let her buy the set as I was planning on doing it as a surprise. About an hour later, Dad walks into the lodge fully exhausted carrying the table and chairs himself as he bought them for us. I would say that you take the “good with the bad” when it comes to Dad, but there is just no bad.

Dad’s flight is tomorrow, but we don’t know how to get him back just yet. I had planned on Jet, Ben, and I taking him back just as we picked him up one week ago, but I have a department meeting at 3:00pm that my department chair had just asked I give another presentation about my Thailand trip. It could still work out, but that would mean having to drive to and from Atlanta, then rushing back to JSU. It can still work. As for the Thailand article, it is a technique called “ghost” writing – I write the article and someone else gets the credit. The PR department here at JSU had asked that I just write a story about myself and what I did in Thailand, but I wanted to use the article as a chance to promote our department instead. Oh well. Besides, that may have been the only bit of writing that many of you have ever read of mine, which is funny since I make half of my living doing just that. In all fairness, however, most of my writings are quite boring and are likely about things that you don’t care much about.

So what will we do with our final hours with Dad? The early plan is that Dad will continue fixing things around the house. After class today (2:00pm), I will head back home and we will go out to a pumpkin patch. Dad is also planning on baking a pumpkin pie for me before he goes. When it comes to Dad, there is just no bad.

Jacksonville News

The following is a story that I wrote that appeared in the October 1 edition of the Jacksonville News, the local newspaper:

Dr. William A. Meehan: Jax State reaches out to Asia

Over the past 20 years, Asia has been growing substantially in importance throughout the world with respect to their economies, population, and political influence.

This was illustrated in spectacular fashion at the Olympics that recently concluded in China and is a reason why Asia has been an important target of recent international partnerships efforts at JSU.

These opportunities for the JSU community include student and faculty exchanges, joint degree programs, as well as other research and project collaboration possibilities.

Dr. Guillermo Francia, III of the Department of Mathematical, Computing, and Information Sciences (MCIS), who was part of a delegation that traveled to China this summer to promote JSU and initiate collaborative academic programs, feels that developing educational partnerships with Asian institutions will bring JSU “to the forefront of an active movement that provides educational initiatives to the service of a ‘flatter world.’ These academic partnerships are a step towards JSU’s goal of meeting the educational needs of students in a rapidly advancing global society.”

Dr. Andrew Ciganek, also from the MCIS department, sees an opportunity for JSU in Asia after recently returning from teaching MBA classes, conducting research, and initiating partnership discussions in Thailand.

“I have heard from several Thai administrators that felt that American universities, unlike others throughout the world, have not pursued productive relationships with them,” he said. “Consequently, JSU can distinguish itself though lasting partnerships that will enhance our international reputation, which began in 1946 with the founding of the International House.”

Dr. Ciganek reflected on a few of the experiences he had over the summer in Thailand, which is commemorating 175 years of diplomatic relations with the United States this year. “Learning and teaching in a foreign country was the quickest way for me to both understand and appreciate cultural differences,” he said. “For example, Thai students typically do not like to challenge authority, which is considered disrespectful.

“This caused problems as students were unwilling to let me know if I was speaking too quickly or if they were unclear about content that I covered in class.

“So instead of enforcing the same expectations I have for my students in the US or teaching the same content that I teach American students, I adapted my style and my comfort zone to match the needs of the Thai students.”

For a JSU student, many of which rarely leave Calhoun County, living and learning in a different country brings new abilities and experiences in assimilating to a culture very different from their own.

These skills are essential for our students as our local economy becomes increasingly global and shaped by Asian influences, as evidenced by the recent influx of major manufacturers such as Honda and Hyundai.

Such skills cannot be imparted from a textbook or by “Googling” them online.

If we want our students to be successful in business with other countries, they need to understand those cultures. International partnerships are just one way that JSU is providing that crucial experience that will serve them well long into their professional lives.

Dr. Andrew P. Ciganek, Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems, contributed to this article. 

Dad’s Here

We picked up Dad this morning without much fanfare.  His cell phone stopped working for some reason so after we got back home, Jet hit the phone lines trying to see if it could be fixed.  It could not and would need some extensive repair.  So Jet asked about getting a replacement phone, but Dad still has 1 year left on his existing contract, so they said no.  After another half hour of wheeling and dealing, Jet was able to get them to mail Dad a new cell phone for free, however, he may be out of cell phone service for the next few days until he gets his new phone.  After leaving the airport, we stopped off at the International market for some groceries and then ate some Korean food for lunch.  It was a quick drive home that everyone slept through.  Dad was the first one out and was like Grandpa Simpson the whole drive back.  He would sleep for about 20 minutes, wake up for 30 seconds and make a comment about something (e.g., “geeze, that’s a strange car”, “what kind of gas mileage does the car get?”) and then fall back asleep for another 20 minutes.  That went on for the whole drive home.  Jet and Dad stopped off at Lowes in the afternoon to pick up some instant concrete to make some stepping stones, but Jet also suprised me by picking up a bench.  I guess it will go in our front yard, perhaps in front or in our front flower bed.  We’ll see how that goes.  I will be at school all day tomorrow and Jet works at 4:00pm, so Dad will be baby-sitting Ben for about two hours until I get home.  I hope that works out well.