It's Come Down To This

Pretty sad that it has come down to this. My family that is. I always believed growing up that I had a close family. A family that cared for one another. Apparently I was seriously wrong. We are no different than any other television drama show. 

It was just eight short months ago we were all together in our home town burying our mother. All were friendly. All were accommodating one another. I guess that was just a show. 

Once my father passed away the separation began. Somewhere between my father's death and maybe 12 years ago the fall out begin. I don't think I know why or really never understand. My sister stopped talking to my mother. My mother argued about my sister. My oldest brother helped my mom. 

Same time neither my oldest brother nor my sister ever talked with me. My brother visited with us once when he drove mom out from Oklahoma. Otherwise neither of them called, wrote or came over when we visited home. 

Really not sure what I did. Maybe I was just naive about it all. 

Today I received a voice mail that really cuts to the heart. Maybe they don't care. Maybe I shouldn't either anymore. Maybe it's time to fade back once again and disappear. They don't want me our my family apart of theirs. 

Sad. Hurtful. 

Run Run Run......so where are the results?

I RUN to stay healthy. Not so much physically fit, or slim or anything related to my looks. I RUN because I'm a diabetic. And I run because for me it is the best way to control all the factors of diabetes. Or at least that is the plan. 

To loose weight regardless of what some may say, it is always about diet and excercise. ALWAYS!

Being a diabetic is always challenging because the rules (for each person) are always changing. Once you think you figured something out that works, you body goes ahead and switches up the rules. NOT FAIR! In March my numbers for A1C were down to 7.4 which I was a bit surprised at how good they were. Still not great but improving. Improving enough that the doctor took my off one of the meds.

Nearly five months later and 250 miles of running and my A1C is up to 8.2. A real bummer because this time I felt like I was really trying hard. Weight was up......I knew that. I can see that on the scales. But other signs like my daily blood sugars seemed to be really good.

Frustrating.......depressing.......infuriating!

I could fall back to one side of the war and just retreat saying to myself, "who cares anymore?" However the stubbornness inside makes me want to fight back. So how? 

RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN

Eugene Thompson

ET This I Believe.

Twenty-Six Point Two Years

It's a marathon marriage. This weekend my lovely wife and I celebrate our 26.2 years of wedded bliss. Yes you read correctly.....point two. May 7th is our anniversary and this year we have reached a marathon milestone. A few months ago my wife said something that made me think about it. This year also happened to be the year I ran my first marathon.....and my second....and potentially more by the end of December.

Once I thought about this once in a life benchmark, like Haley's Comet or something, I knew what I had to do to commemorate it. Yep, run 26.2 miles on the anniversary. After all it only happens once! It was great that mathematically it worked to land on the weekend. July 19th exactly. So it had to occur on that exact day. No exceptions....I'm a bit fanatical that way.

It would have been nice if there was a local race that I could enter. However after searching the internet every where nothing really worked. That figures. I guess I could just run somewhere around here.

When I shared my agenda with my wife, she thought I was crazy. But that isn't really anything new.

However I had to add just a bit more craziness. A found a route that would fit perfectly. There is a loop around the lake in our neighborhood that I could run around a few times.......37.4 times to be exact. Yes, I wanted to run the .7 mile circle almost 38 times to total the full distance of the marathon. Now she thought I was off my rocker......that wasn't really anything new either.

She couldn't understand how I could just run the same loop over and over again. That had to be so BORING. Not so. You see there was a reason why I wanted to run this route in celebration of our 26.2 years. The loop, although it may seem like it is just the same thing over and over, it isn't. Each loop symbolizes each day, each week, each month, each year. Everyone of them different. Everyone of them special. Everyone of them I couldn't live without.

Each lap, although the scenery looks the same, just like each day of our lives, there are differences. Different cars from time to time, different people working out in their yards, even the temperature changes from the first lap to the last. Some laps are easy. Some laps are more difficult. Just like our lives. But certainly not BORING.

I broke the run into four individual races. Each race also had a symbolic meaning. They were to represent each of our four children.

The first race began at 8AM. I got to tell you my knee really hurt starting out. Thankfully it worked its way out. Not a bad run, my wife even ran some with me. 26.2 minutes worth! And then joined in later with the dog. That wore him out.

The break in the middle was a bit troublesome. I took my insulin afterwards and my blood sugar dropped to 34. Really had to stuff my face with some food to bring it up. Not really my ideal situation just before my second run. My wife wasn't really excited about me heading back out and said I was crazy......yes, I am!

The second race began at 1PM. To begin running again wasn't easy for me not to mention with the food I ate to bring my blood sugar up. Oh yeah, it started raining some too. Just great. Actually that only lasted a few laps. My wife brought out the dog again and my grandson in the stroller. We did a fast pace walk for one of the laps.

Another break for lunch and protein before the 6PM run. It rained a little more during the break because when I went out it was crazy muggy. A generous application of biofreze on my knees and shins. I have never really ran before at this time of day so it was tough, not to mention another seven miles after the first fourteen......and some more rain.

I lost track of the laps but the Runkeeper kept me straight. Getting really tired now. It's going to be a shorter break but the last run is only 5 miles beginning at 10PM. That is seven and a half laps.....in the dark! My wife said it wasn't important and not to worry about it......come on! Really!? Of course I will do it.

Really tired and not so much ready to head back out in the dark at 10. Muscles in my legs are all sore and tired. Shins hurt the most. Pinky toes don't really appreciate all this running. This last one, even though it was only five miles, was more of a trot than a run. The last five miles of a marathon is always the most difficult and painful no matter how you break it up.

Came back and crash at 11:30, I had did it. I certainly wasn't really ready to run a marathon but I wanted this bad. I wanted to do something crazy, just like my wife said I was......but again we knew that already!

Running around the neighborhood has some advantages. The first being very familiar with the surroundings. Second my neighbors now know I am crazy too. A few of them admired me of my running all day. Lastly, because I was able to break it down into four races, I had a fresh set of clothes for each leg......and a shower after each. Four sets of clothes, four showers, man I really piled up some laundry!

But I did it sweetie, yes it was crazy. It was silly. I could even be call absurd. Running from 8 in the morning until 11:30 at night. I did it not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I wanted to share with the world how much I love my wife. How much she has put up with me all these years but most importantly how much crazy fun we have had.....every minute, every week, every month, every year......absolutely every moment. They all have been a blessed dream. 

Thank you for all the adventures my love. I'm looking to creating many more memories in the next 26.2 years. LOVE YOU FOREVER!

This my friends is what I believe.

PS: I DONT plan on running an ultra for our 50th at age 72.......just FYI

Eugene Thompson

ET This I Believe

Remembering Father on Father's Day

A bittersweet day that has become increasing difficult for me these days. So thankful that I have my kids and now grand babies (soon number two) to enjoy and make me smile. That usually makes the day barable. However it often makes me reflect on what I have missed out on all these years. My father passed away between my first and second year of college. A heart attack that was brought on my the same disease that curses me, diabetes. He had it for years and there just wasn't as much understanding of how to aggressively treat it back in those days as there is now. Not that is any much easier to deal with now. It is still a hurdle everyday.

This year it is a bit more painful since my mother has also left this earth last December. I realize now my connection between my parents has been completely dissolved. Dissolved by time, distance and now death. Mother's Day was hard this year and so is Father's Day. I was able to gather up many photos of my parents through the years, many from before I was born and many others from our journeies and adventures when I was a kid and teenager. He did pass on the history of the goofiness for me to share with my kids. So many stories that I have probably failed to share.

One story that surfaces is all about the history of my father's business, KENCO. He had a tax and insurance office for twenty years in my home town of Bartlesville OK. Once even expanded to Skiatook and Owasso. His office in Stillwater never really got off the ground. He had passed away too soon to get it running. It was opened primarily because I was in college at Oklahoma State.

His business was opened in 1966 when I was only a year old. I grew up in the office. Started out in the back in a crib. Later earned money by doing simple chores like cleaning the bathroom, filling up the old soda machine, vacuuming the carpet and even raking the shag rug. Yes, I said raking. All for a quarter each chore. Also I had to provide my dad with an invoice listing out each chore completed totaling up the fee. He was an accountant that was for sure. Probably also passed down my entrepreneurial spirit.

Later on my chores changed to preparing taxes. First short forms and by the time I was a senior in high school I was preparing long form taxes and even a few corporate returns. My father saved me from ever having to work in a fast food joint.......funny now I design fast food joints!

What you may not have known was how my dad came up with his logo and developed his marking schemes. I was gifted with doodling cartoons even at a young age. My involvement with helping the creation of the "Blue? Man" came from a sheet out of my comic books. I was drawing pictures from a page in the ARCHIES and my dad had over looked what I was doing. I think he swiped up my comic and my doodles setting out to create his business logo.

Taxes are never anyone's favorite thing to deal with (unless you are an accountant) and my father knew that. So he tried to make it fun. He put a spin on it my making up a sad blue blob of a man with with the phase BLUE? Written across his belly.

Over the years I continued to doodle the character in different scenarios as the hero. My dad continued to swipe them up and take them to a marketing firm to clean up the sketches for his marketing scheme. Some of my ideas were cleaned up some were just tweeted a bit. My dad always found a way to add a corny quote to them. But that is what dads do. Now my kids know where it came from. And even why my own marketing schemes for my own business are always so silly.

Below are a handful of marketing trace files (old school methods) of designs I helped with and maybe even started a bit that my dad had used on billboards around town and flyers that went out to his clients. I had thought these were lost after so many years. You can imagine my joy when I found them in a pile of photographs at my mothers house. Sweet fond memories.

Things that I have mimicked in IONIC that originally came from my father:

The IONIC "Blue" was originally the KENCO "Blue".

The shape and IONIC logo was a morphing of the Blue Man.

IONIC used many of the same letters as KENCO. The N anchored the middle.

My father had many "creations" in his office. Crafts and knick knacks. I have tried to do the same.....just slightly better.

Love you Dad. Miss you lots.

My friends, be sure to take time now as is doesn't always exist if you wait too long.

ET This I Believe

Eugene Thompson

LIFE: Rollercoaster or Bumper Cars

Life is a rollercoaster. Or at least my life feels like one. I cannot really control the twists or turns but rather must just react to what is thrown my way. But at least I'm on a track, so maybe it's more like bumper cars? I'm just cruising along and I get slammed into from every direction by everyone in my life. I'm not really reacting.....just having to brace myself and bounce.

Here comes another life challenge....SLAM! Somebody else wants something of me or from me....BAM! I want you to do this for me......SMASH!

Traffic on the bumper car of life can be ...... Shall I say! BUMPY. It's hard enough going through all the decisions we have to make during our life span. There are many choices we make, some are good, some are bad. Some we are rewarded for later in life. And yet others haunt us. I don't think any of us really choose to make poor decisions.....we are just ill-advised, immature, uneducated.....okay...stupid!

I've always tried to help people, take people for their words, trusted...sometimes to a fault. And then they expect more and more. Ask for more and more. Need I say demand more and more.  I'm expected to give more and more. I'm expected to just go with everyone's flow. Well if you haven't noticed, I'm not much in favor of following others. A bit of a rebel in life I guess. I like to do things my way....without interference from others, without conflict or criticism from everyone....just do it off to one side without a lot of hoopla or fan fair. However when I do that, pull away, now I'm told I have an 'attitude' or 'in a mood'. People just shut up and leave me alone. You don't really care about my feelings or opinion so don't start acting like you do now.

Not sure how I became everyone's keeper, rescuer, banker, confidant or even waterboy. Yeah, that's how I feel sometimes. Like the Waterboy trying to please everyone and make everyone happy. Everyone's own thoughts and beliefs are being shoved at me to accept. "Don't you want to think like this?" Sure, I guess. What choice do I have. Do what you want and I will go over here and do "my thing" by myself......."Hey, what are you doing? Don't you want to do it this way?" No not really.

I really don't like running. I would prefer not to have to run to stay in shape or control my diabetes. What I do like is that mostly I'm by myself. I run fast enough (barely) to stay ahead of some and slow enough (mostly) to keep away from the rest. I stick my earplugs in and tune out the rest of the world. Lost in my own head with my own thoughts listening to my own tunes. Just my aging body that fights me.

So, is it a rollercoaster? Flips, turns, ups, downs, overs, unders, fast with a bit of screaming along the way? Yes, certainly the path I've placed myself on. Or is it a bumper car ride? Most diffentately, strolling down the freeway of life and being slammed into every side by malicious do-gooders. Sometimes I feel it will be most welcomed to see everything come to an end. Less drama, less demand, less of me having to comply or make any more decisions. Is that so bad? 

From a confused and somewhat depressed individual. You got to know that diabetes in itself makes my emotions a rollercoaster. Up one day and down the next. Sorry about the rant my friends.

Eugene Thompson

ET This I Believe

I would like to sleep too.

Keep the Dream alive: hit the snooze button.

You can't keep me up late fussing about the decisions, indecisions, expectations and directions YOU need to make in YOUR life and then drop off to sleep. I'm left here to ponder for the next two hours what I should do then end up with a terrible night of unrest.

Wilderness Vacation: Day Four

Another evening adventure to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The wife had to go, so I might as well get up too. I've been procrastinating. Since we both are up Mavrick decides he needs to go as well....so it's a family pottie adventure. Back to bed!

We wake up to the sound of brewing coffee.....and it brews...and brews.....and brews....and brews. "Hey isn't it supposed to stop making that noise?" It's all plugged up and got stuck and made a mess. The coffee gods have struck back for our blasphemy actions of taking the sacred Hamilton Beach Brewing Vessel into the wilderness. This is a real catastrophe for my wife....she cannot live on bread alone......she must have coffee. She fiddles with it for a while to drain out several cups from several pots. I have a feeling that if she cannot resurrect the coffee maker we will be driving into town today!

It's Monday and it should be a work day. It will really be a test of my resolve to put all the world behind me. Not sure that is possible.

Breakfast feast of pancakes and turkey bacon starts the morning off right. This was one of the kids favorite breakfasts when we went camping. There is a whole lot less cooking I am doing for the two of us. (Excuse me....and Mavrick). I miss the kids and those camping adventures.

Well she tried to clean out the coffee maker but it was down for the count. We couldn't help ourselves, off to town we went. Mostly wondering thru back roads because we still had no signal or GPS. Where was the nearest town with a Walmart? No clue! No worries, just a nice drive looking at mostly dilapidated barns, houses, sheds and various other structures that were in serious disrepair. Yes, the question popped in my mind.....what could I do to rebuild this?

Finally we found a big enough civilization to contain a Walmart and with it a new coffee maker. During this journey we also made it out of the dark territory and received connection to the Internet. With it came 81 emails and 5 text messages. Yes I read them....but didn't respond to any.....we scurried back to the darkness towards our cabin.

The rest of the day we really did nothing. I mean nothing on top of nothing. We had grabbed lunch in town because it was getting well past noon so we did cook any lunch. Another wonderful afternoon nap.....those are the best....and then more of nothing.

We continued playing Word on the ipad....I think she is addicted to it....and just laid around. The weather was much warmer so we enjoyed some sun in our chairs by the campfire.....but no campfire. We really weren't hungry when it came to dinner either. A few snacks but mostly sat in bed playing Word until it was time for bed.

A really boring last full day of camping but then again we didn't want an agenda or things we must do. Sure we brought paperwork and laptops but we never touched them. We talked about getting them out but never did.....feel kind of guilty about it too.....naw, not really.

The end is here. The last evening. Did we accomplish what we set out to do? Did we relax? Did we rest? Did we replenish? Maybe a little. I'm sure the mounting stress will heap back upon our heads once we renter civilization. But we knew that already. But for tonight, we rest.