So I've sort of had some time to process life post-college. Ideally, I'd like to say it has been relaxing and in some ways it has, but soon after for whatever reason Amy and I spontaneously got a dachshund puppy. In hindsight, not the best time or the brightest of ideas, but she's a cute pup and we love her to death (though some of her more recent antics have emphasized the "death" part of that phrase... just kidding folks, but she is a handful). Despite the frustrations, it has been a nice glimpse into parenthood and how easily free time and sleep turn into luxuries rather than everyday things. I'm still glad to not be in school, but looking forward to when Molly (the dog) is a little more mature (trained) and can do her own thing and allow for more free time for Amy and I.
If a puppy is a glimpse into parenthood, then my next venture is a glimpse at my own lack of youth... or less youth than I once had. About a week ago I saw this really awesome YouTube
video via '
Epic Win FTW' and just because, I did a Google search on the guy, Damien Walters, just to see what he was all about and his background (martial arts, gymnastics, etc.) and ran across the term '
free running' which led to the term '
parkour'. Like any good Googler, I followed the rabbit trail from there and learned about Parkour, what it was about, what it involved and even found an organization in Texas (
Texas Parkour). Long story short, I got really excited and thought, "Heck, maybe I could do some of this stuff!". So after several YouTube videos (informative, insane, and disasterous), I looked more into the group here in Austin and found a group that meets a few times a week. Now, the debate was on. Could I do this? Was I too old --having seen many of the forums littered with young teens and pre-teens? Well, this past Saturday morning this old man of 26 gave it a shot and it was really fun. While I'm no where near what you might find on YouTube, I did learn some of the basics and only suffered a couple of cuts and bruises. The only down part is that even today most of my body is "holy crap" sore. So until I get better and more conditioned, I think I will just stick with Saturdays.
So yes, an "old dog" can learn new tricks, now I just need to get the new dog (Molly) to learn some tricks --like only using the restroom outside and not inside or in her crate and realizing she is not abandoned whenever we leave the room and thus does not need to whine her head off.
