My time off and what I've learned

Today is the last day of my ten days off from work.  We're required to take ten consecutive business days off and I'm on my last day.  It's been a good break.  Lots of time with the family and had a chance to get some rest.  It's been good to decompress (not in a Southwest Airlines, ripping a hole in the roof of the plane kind of decompression, mind you).

If I've learned anything during this break, it is the following:  Daytime TV is a pox on humanity and it needs to be destroyed.  Now.

And the morning shows aren't even that bad.  I won't even go into all the horrors as there is no need.  I simply warn you - don't get sucked into the abyss of daytime television.  I was lucky.  I'm  glad I had the good sense to now get sucked into the train wreck.  Well, except for one.  This one:

This cavalcade of awesomeness has to be seen to be believed.  Based on a Japanese game show (so you know it's a lock for pain and humiliation.  And it is!  This show, making the rounds on MTV and MV2, never fails to bring out the 8th grader in me.  Yes, he's still in there and all it takes is the sight of the show's graphics to bring him out.  This show kills me.  And I can't get enough of it.  Ridiculous.

It's shortly back to work.  Glad I was able to meet the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML for lunch today on her lunch break.  I went back into her work space for the first time since she's gone back to work and it was cool to see her doing her thing, prepping for the afternoon patients and talking with her boss about the next set of procedures.  I'm proud of her.  Going back to work was a decision that we agonized over but it has been a real blessing to our family.  She's amazing.

The slog..it's getting shorter.

The slog I refer to is what I was hoping was my long slog into middle age.  That slog is getting shorter.  Precipitously.  And I don't like it.  I've spent the last couple of days of my leave bouncing from doctor to doctor for various check ups.  One visit ended better than I expected.  It did not involve, as I had feared, a scope where a scope really is not welcome.  Need I say more?

The other ended up with me getting these:

Readers, seriously...

Is it not enough that I already where bi-focal contact lenses?  No, apparently, it is not.  It is now necessary to throw readers on top of them as my eyes have decided to throw in the towel when it comes to reading while wearing contacts.    That's delightful.  No, it isn't.

Ah, middle-age?  I ask you the following:  Is this MY future?

I don't think I'm quite ready to embrace a mansierre (thank you, Kramer).  Really, I'm not.  I promise.

From the journal 25 years ago today: I am in the Hialeah Chapel listening to President Benson speaking (Editorial aside - it was General Conference, April 1986. He just posed a very good question: Is all well in Zion? It appears that things could be better...Pride really is dangerous says Presidente Benson.  It's looking after our very own interests an on one else's.

Well taught

This weekend has been where we've been well taught.  I speak of this weekend's General Conference of the Church.  It has been a time of teaching, pondering, and more than a little spiritual review that I sorely needed.  I am amazed at how the talks are harmonized, which is all together miraculous given that none of the topics are assigned in advance.  And what I heard loud and clear was family.  Honor your family.  Protect your family.  And don't treat it or our faith like an option.  Here's a sampling:

• Elder Quentin L. Cook said: "Marriage and family should not be a menu option.  Family is central to our Heavenly Father's plan."
• Elder Russell M. Nelson said: "Obedience is not a cafeteria option.  We must obey all the commandments."
• And then there was this particularly awesome comment from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: "The Church is not a fast-food outlet.  We can't always have it our way."  Brilliant! 

And then there was this from Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

"Turn it down."

He said, "Turn down the volume of the outside noise of the world to hear the prompting of the Spirit."  We are all entitled to those promptings and turning down the noise is great counsel, regardless of one's faith or the path that they've chosen.

If you missed any of Conference or are interested in hearing or seeing it, or reading about it, click here.  It's worth it.

So, a good weekend.  As for the week ahead, I'm on leave/vacation for three more days.  Don't go back to work until Thursday.  If the weather behaves, I'm hoping to get back out on some of the neighboring trails and running again.  Yeah, I need it.

So worth it

The title of this post says it all.  Our trip to Springfield was so worth it.  The Abraham Lincoln Museum was, in a word, amazing.  I can hardly do it justice in a post.  You need to go and see it.  It's worth your time.   The Museum is an impressive place.  The volunteers, whose average age must be about 900, are terrific.  They help you get your start.  The exhibitions are fascinating.  They've laid it out chronologically and it helps you to get to know the man, Lincoln.  Most touching is the final stop where you see an recreation of the room where his body laid in state in Springfield.  It's a reverent place.  The stunningly patient and mighty fine SML picked up on it immediately, as she is wont to do, as soon as we entered the room.  You truly got the sense that this man was ordained to do what he did.  I certainly believe that.

One cool thing we found out about while at the Museum is this new movie:

I'm very excited about this.  It's called "The Conspirator" and it opens 15 April.  It's about the assassination of Lincoln and the other hideous events that went down that fateful night.  It looks like a great movie and it's rated PG-13.  This means I won't have to have the taxing mental debate about whether I should see an R-rated movie or not.

The rest of Springfield...not so much.  As our fine state's capital, it's a mirror of our state's finances.  Which is to say most of downtown is boarded up, bankrupted shops.  Although the local Army-Navy surplus store seems to be doing a booming (pun CLEARLY intended) business.  When you are traveling with six boys 18 and under, such a store makes for an excellent diversion and a good negotiations tool.  I, however, did not go in.  I got the strong sense that the owners of said store can sniff out a faithful reader of the New York Times from 50 yards, and I just didn't feel up to be shot or tarred and feathered.  I hunkered down in the van and took refuge in the dulcet tones of NPR (while I still can, thank you very much, Congressional chumps).

So. I've given blood this morning and now it's time to settle down for a virtual Mormon Hajj to Mormon Mecca, Salt Lake City, for LDS General Conference.  I'm ready to learn.