I’m sitting here “in the dark” after a thunderstorm knocked out our power at about 12:00 midnight.  We’re going on 19 hours currently without electricity, and I’m using the last bits of battery of my laptop to type this letter and charge our cell phones so we aren’t completely disconnected from the world after the laptop runs out of juice!
It’s a hot day, and the house is really heating up!  To make matters worse, there’s no water in the house without electricity to power the pump.  No water means no dishes…no showers…no flushing toilets.  Fortunately, occasionally we can still crack the fridge to grab something to drink if we really get thirsty.  This “minor” inconvenience is a great reminder for me.  A reminder of the deplorable conditions that so many live in every day.  A reminder of why I run!

I’m now 6 weeks into my official training for the Chicago Marathon (26.2 miles!), running for Team World Vision to provide water and sanitation to communities that currently are lacking these basic necessities.  I will be logging around 100 miles in my training this month.  Next month will be a lot bigger as we approach the race on 10-10-10!

Lora and I will be traveling to Ethiopia twice for our adoption this fall/winter, which, as of today, we can officially announce that we have been matched with two handsome young boys!  If you would like more information on this, or would like to see pictures, let me know and I'll be happy to give you the latest!  We are in communication with World Vision to attempt to visit a community in Ethiopia where they are working.  We look forward to seeing with our own eyes the life change that it provides for the community.

A special thanks to those who have supported me already!  I have reached over half of my goal of $50 per mile ($1,310).  This will provide approximately 10% of the price of a well in a rural community in Africa.  If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to support, I’d ask that you would please consider supporting me for a mile, a half mile, or whatever you are able by visiting my “personal page”  at http://twv.convio.net/goto/chad_dykstra

Thanks and God bless!

Chad

Running 26.2 miles...in a row? Not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of miles and many months spent in training? What would ever possess a person to do such a thing? Read on!

I have engaged in this crazy act called a marathon once before, in 2001. It's funny what someone will do for love...and I must confess that was my driving force, though I wouldn't have admitted it at the time. It must have worked, because I'm married to my marathon training buddy today!

As great as it was to run the marathon with Lora, we were running it for ourselves. It was an amazing personal accomplishment, and there's nothing like the feeling of crossing that finish line! After it was over though, we put the shoes in the closet and went on with life...until now!  We are excited to have the opportunity to not only get back 'in shape' and feel that great sense of personal accomplishment, but we are especially excited about helping meet a very real need in our world at the same time!

I have developed a real heart for Africa over the past 18 months. As many of you may know, Lora and I are in the process of adopting two children from Ethiopia! We look forward to the day we get the phone call that we've been matched with children that need a family - but until that time we can't sit on our hands! That is where 26.2 for Africa comes in.

We were presented the opportunity at a conference in Chicago last year to run a race to support Team World Vision. After much prayer and consideration, we laced up the running shoes and began running! I have now officially signed up to support Team World Vision in the October 10, 2010 Chicago Marathon!

Lora and I have both been supporters of World Vision and the work they are doing around the world for those who are most in need for over 10 years. The money I am able to raise will help dig wells, provide clean water, and provide much needed sanitation in countries like Ethiopia.

Please note that your donations do not pay for my registration for the race, lodging, travel, shoes, or any other expenses that I may have through this journey. They are happily being covered by me as my contribution.

Would you consider making a tax-deductible donation to support my efforts? Together we can help change lives in Africa. Please visit http://twv.convio.net/goto/chad_dykstra to make a contribution and help provide clean water for communities in need!

'Tis the season for me to be in the woods whenever possible, and whenever I'm not to be wishing I was! 

I think my enjoyment of the outdoors in the Fall is really wearing off on my kids.  They've really enjoyed partaking in the fresh turkey and venison harvested this fall, and Abi seems to like venison jerky, even though it is "a bit burney".  If the kids are out and see deer from the car, they always get so excited and they need to hurry up and tell daddy that they found deer for me!  "Daddy, are you going to go shoot em?"  Sorry kids, it doesn't work that way.

At this point, they don't seem to be put off by a harvested deer hanging from a chain hoist...they even wanted to watch me process it, fully expecting to have to stand back because blood would be spraying everywhere.  Who knows where they come up with this stuff!

It's pretty funny to watch the kids get all excited about watching Michigan Out of Doors with daddy.  Earlier this week we gave the kids the option of watching a show before bed, and guess what they picked?  It wasn't Dinosaur train, or Bob the Builder, or any other kid shows they like to watch...you guessed it..."I want to watch that show with the deer that we watched yesterday".  Fortunately we have a couple different episodes saved on the DVR so mommy doesn't have to go crazy watching the same hunting footage over and over!

I'm sure hoping this stands the test of time, I'd love to take the kids out hunting when they're old enough and have them excited about it!

Lora and I helped to create the now locally famous ES 'Pump toppers' at the Big Curve gas station.  For those of you who haven't seen them or haven't seen the article, you can check it out on the Sentinel's website at the following link:

http://hollandsentinel.com/stories/110907/local_20071109001.shtml


It's pretty cool to have something that we designed featured on the front page of the paper...I guess we did OK for our first crack at graphic design!  Here's to hoping the 'good press' will help the cause and bring people in to Starting Point to check out what's going on. 

If you haven't seen the graphics...here's a pretty one that just happens to have my picture on it!   Just a disclaimer, this one didn't make press so you don't have to worry about seeing my mug at the pumps! 

Well, I've finally done it.  I've made the big time.  OK, maybe not. 

Anyways, just thought I'd post a little update to my interesting experience last Wednesday evening (since I linked to this from the front page and all).

We were out at Holland State Park on Wednesday (August 22, 2007) visiting Erin, Sarah, Emily, Rachel, Michelle, and Kara.  They were camping for the week and we went out to visit.  When we left home it was sunny and nice, but it became pretty apparent that there was a storm coming once we got there.  Eventually, there wasn't any doubt that the weather was going to get crazy really fast.  I grabbed my camera and a group of us ran down to the beach to try and get a few photos of the storm coming in.

I wasn't exactly planning on this kind of shooting, so I didn't have all the right equipment...no tripod and the wrong lens - rats!  I did the best with what I had, set my camera on a post, turned up the ISO on my camera, and started shooting .  For anyone who hasn't ever tried to take pictures of lightning, it isn't an easy thing to do!  Basically, you need to get lucky.  I took about 100 pictures and ended up 'getting lucky' on about 3% of them.  The hard work (and luck...mostly luck) paid off and I ended up getting one pretty nice lightning shot out of the bunch.

The storm was getting close and we were just about to leave.  Brad Tucker and I were the only two from our group still dumb enough to be standing there getting hammered by wind and blowing sand.  At Brad's recommendation, I took a few pictures of the lighthouse with the storm clouds rolling behind it.  Those were the most painful photos I've ever taken - with shorts on my legs were getting sandblasted by the 50+mph winds.  Only one other photographer was crazy enough to stay around taking pictures while I was there.  After we couldn't take any more, we both made a hasty retreat for the parking lot.

Once we got back to camp, someone recommended that I submit a few of the photos to WOOD TV and that they might get shown on the air.  That sounded like fun, so when we got home, I did some quick editing on the pictures and submitted them to WOOD just in time for the news.

I didn't figure much would happen, but just in case...I set the DVD recorder up to record the news.  It just so happened that they decided to show my lighthouse picture live on the air!  If you visit the Media page, you can watch the 30 second clip where they show the picture. 

I didn't see it personally, but I also understand they showed the picture and gave me credit again on the 12:00 news the following afternoon.  Anyone who TIVOs the 12:00 news, I'd appreciate a copy.  I would, however, want an explanation as to why you TIVO afternoon news...

15 seconds of local fame is small time, but it's kind of cool, nonetheless! 

OK, time to get back to reality...

I found a great use for old Technology today and thought I would share.

Such an odd post requires a little background information...I went out to use my grill a few weeks ago and much to my dismay, a bird had made a nest in it.  Grumbling, I cleaned it out, scrubbed it up, and grilled.

The next weekend, I went back to use the grill again, and the persistent bird decided once again to use my grill as a nest.  I had enough of this, so I put the cover on.  After the next time, though, we once again forgot the cover.  In only a matter of days, I noticed another nest being formed.  This time, I went out and there were actually eggs in our grill.  At this point, we just decided to let it be.  I'm not sure why, but I guess there's a little tree hugger in all of us.

In any case, today I got sick of surrendering my grill to the forces of nature.  I found a suitable replacement for my grill - an Ultra Pentium 2 Computer!  Now we're talking...

I removed the power supply to give the bird access to her nest.  I removed the hard drive cage and any cables to allow the bird room to move in and out.  Just for grins, I left the video card, processor, and two NIC cards in the system.  The only reason I did this is just to be a geek (see blog post #1).

You're still with me?  Great!  Without any further delay...here it is!  Who says old technology isn't good for anything...

The Ultra birdhouse!  If anyone would like to place an order, let me know.  You can be the only person on your block with a birdhouse that has dual NICs...unless of course you live on my block!

This just in!  I'm winning the 'Dad of the year' award!  I know, it's hard to believe.  You may even think I'm crazy.  I'm not!

OK, maybe I am crazy.   Abi and Daddy have had a rough month!  Now that we're recovered from our little incident involving a gaping wound on her forehead (see 'Abi's first Boo boo' in the picture galleries) we have injury round two!

I was putting something in my gun safe this morning and she snuck her fingers in the crack of the door by the hinges and got her fingers crunched by the GUN SAFE DOOR when I went to close it!

Needless to say, I didn't feel like "Dad of the year"!  Everything is OK though, we didn't lose any fingers or break any bones and Abi is just fine.  I guess I may not be dad of the year, but at least I'm not going to jail for chopping off my child's finger and splitting her head open!

I may need to recall my previous post where I likened parenting to playing guitar.  I'm either saying something about my poor guitar playing skills, or I'm lying.  I guess I'll let you be the judge.  

If you're here you already know that I'm a new daddy again.  I thought I would post my experiences the second time around and how they compared to the first time. The whole experience was much different than it was with Abi.  I won't say that it was less special, just different!  

The hour and a half of 'pushing' with Abi gave reality a little more time to set in than with Ben.  He was out in just over one push.  Granted, there were several hours spent laboring in the hospital, but when it came down to the time that really counted, we were done faster than you can get that supersized value meal from the drive through at your favorite fast food restaurant.  That was different than Abi, and certainly not what we were expecting!

Child number two also gives you a little less of the "my life is going to change forever!" feeling.  Of course, it's still there, but a lot of the unknowns of parenthood are already out of the way and you're a little more comfortable.  That's probably a good thing, because the first time around can be intimidating!  Parenting is like playing a guitar.  Some people make it look so easy, and some people are naturals, but sometimes there are people that just aren't up for the challenge!  It's nice to know the second time around that I can already play. 

All that being said, Lora and I are very happy and love the new addition to our family greatly.  I'm sure a week from now I will be a little tired and very thankful for the help we got from all the great doctors and nurses while we were here in the hospital.  For now though, we're doing great and looking forward to the challenges that 'number two' will bring!

Thanks for checking in.  Check back again!

 

Welcome to my blog!

I have been resisting this for so long.  I'm not exactly sure why - I guess I just figure that anybody who cares what I have to say will just give me a call.  This is 2007, and I am a geek, so I suppose it's about time that I hop on the blog bandwagon.

Where to start?  I suppose I could say something funny...let's give it a try. 

Three pastors walk into a bar...

OK...maybe not!  If you are looking for humor, I suppose you'd be checking Google for pictures of <insert politician here>  doing something stupid.  I find this one quite humorous personally...I'm not sure why exactly.

I've often though about having some sort of 'technical blog'.  I'm sure that all of you would be captivated as I drone on endlessly about the core clock speed of my video card (580mhz) or the cool new UV lights and modular power supply that I just had to have for my 'rig'. 

For those of you who may not know, a 'rig' is what people who have nothing better to do than play games or spend lots of money on a big fancy system call their computer.  For some reason, being able to call your system a rig justifies any expense.   If you'd like to see a picture of my rig, here you go!

Maybe someday I'll think of something clever and interesting to write about.  Who knows, maybe this blog will evolve into a humorous political satire column, or a witty tech blog.  Or maybe, just maybe, I'll do something crazy and talk about my family or something interesting.  I guess you'll just have to check back and see!