A Sign of.....Change?

I have been very quiet these last few months since Obama was elected. It is true that I have been extemely busy, but also I have just been sitting back and taking everything in. I am just watching and waiting to see what happens next.

Obama's overall approval rating is still in the 50 percent range, but it is gradually declining. It could possibly just be the normal shift in support after the first few months of having a new man in charge or it could be something else entirely. I am sick and tired of the conservatives being so darn quiet. I am a conservative first over any claim to an individual party. It is too late to say, "I told you so," because this man is already in office. It pains me to think that there were so many warning signs during the election process showing how much Obama really is a socialist, but it was quickly overlooked or dismissed.

When the "s" word (and yes, I mean socialist not the other "s" word) is used to describe Obama, many people laugh or are disgusted at the suggestion. The common explanation is that Obama is not a socialist but just doing whatever he can to fix the mess that Bush left us. Whenever a president can force a CEO out of his position, we have issues. Whenever a president can attempt to regulate pay of banking officials, we have issues. Whenever a news network like ABC goes to the White House to assist Obama in making a case for one of his positions, we have issues.
Universal Healthcare should be the last thing on our minds right now during this recession. Nancy Pelosi says that healthcare for all is the biggest priority for us. Early cost estimates of healthcare is in the $1 trillion area. Why is this the top priority?

We shouldn't be talking about things that will cause taxes to rise... we need cuts! We need cuts in spending and also in taxes. Oh yes, we saw interest rates go down to 4.625% for a 30 year mortgage in the Spring, but they are back up to 5.625%. Sure we saw gas prices drop to $1.40 in the Spring, but they are back up to $2.50 or higher depending on where you live. The honeymoon is over and sadly I want a divorce. I got into this "arranged marriage" despite my objection but I am stuck.

Early projections of interest rates for mortgages are estimated to be between 7 and 8% by the end of the year!! Because the government has decided to print money so quickly, there will be no other choice but to increase interest rates. That will once again hault any improvement that we have seen in the housing market these last few months.

Sadly..... it has only just begun.....

Swamped

I did it again... I haven't blogged in over a month! I didn't do this intentionally. I just haven't found any spare time to log on and blog. So this is what I have been up to. When I haven't been working (which I have been doing a lot of), I have been working out (once again, something I have been doing a lot of), and spending some really good quality time with Alyson. We just got back from a wonderful trip to Chicago where Alyson had major surgery done. If you haven't read about it yet, check out her Blog. The reason for working out so much is because I have found a new hobby that I absolutely love!! Triathlons! I never knew that I could actually enjoy something so much. I am almost on the verge of saying that I enjoy doing more than basketball. For those who didn't know me prior to six years ago and even prior to Alyson, I felt like that basketball was my life!

These last few years I have played in some basketball leagues but I have been thoroughly disappointed with the quality of the players. I would get sick of ball hogs or people who thought they could really play but were just all out awful! Triathlons are for the individual athlete. You can train with other people or by yourself but ultimately your results are solely up to you. I will admit that I am not the best... yet, but it is so much fun! If you don't know what a triathlon is, it is a multisport event. You swim, bike ride, and then run. There are so many different lengths of triathlons that you can choose from, for instance, you have the sprint, olympic, half ironman, and then ironman. The distances for each sport are longer as you move from a sprint to an ironman.

When doing a triathlon you want to make sure that it is a USAT mandated event. This just means that they are following the rules and safety measures set by the USAT. To race, you need to either buy a year membership or a temporary membership.

One thing about this sport is that it could be very expensive. You need a good bicycle, a good pair of running shoes, triathlon shorts (they are like bicycle shorts but with a thinner pad in the middle to make it easier to run), and so much more. You could get by with these basic things, but if you truly are planning on competing, you want to buy better quality of stuff.

Here is an example of an incredible triathlon bike. This bike is reasonably priced at $2400!! I would love to have this bike, but I am doing just fine with the nice Fuji bike I bought off of Craigslist. Because I am so tall I have a limited selection of the bikes that I can buy. Fuji, the brand below, makes bikes large enough for me. These bikes are designed for triathlons. You can tell when a bike is a tri bike when you look at the handlebars. They aren't you typical handlebars like you would see on a regular mountain bike or race bike.

Here is a picture of the kind of shoes that I want to buy for myself. They are made by Zoot Sports. When doing a triathlon, right after you are done swimming, you are running to the area where you transition to the bike part of the race. You want to minimize the time transitioning so you don't have time to dry off or anything. These shoes, which can be bought for $110 are running shoes that you can wear without socks and while wet. These shoes have little holes in the soles that allow for water to drain out and also have a zip string instead of shoe laces so you don't have to bother tying your shoes laces.

Of course you can't forget to race or train without a trusty heart monitor. You need one of these to be able to see how hard you can push yourself.

A bicycle helmet is required in races but that is a boring picture. =)
I have only done one triathlon, but everyone who has done one is absolutely correct when they say it is very addicting. I believe I have found the sport that I will be involved in for the rest of my life. Because training is such a mandatory thing for these races, it is easily to stay motivated to stay in shape and continue to train. I started training for my May triathlon back in November, right after Thanksgiving. When I first started, my waist size was back and forth between 42 and 44 inches and I weighed 280 pounds. Since then I have dropped about 40 pounds and now down to a 36 inch waist. It is true, what they say, that it is absolutely amazing what you can accomplish once you put your mind to it.

I finished at the middle of the pack in my first triathlon so I know that I only can improve.

All you can do is tri...