Stable And Happy And In Balance

The past few days have been incredibly busy work wise, but somehow it is OK.

After a long and extended and painful process there is finally someone in a position that needed desperately to be filled, so although I am still busy I am no longer responsible for holding down two positions.

To say that I am relieved would be a huge understatement.

And now I can begin to focus on doing the job that I was hired a year ago to do.

To say that I am behind on what I was hired a year ago to do would also be an understatement, but now I am at least (if not totally) at least mostly able to focus on my own responsibilities.

I have had evening meetings the past couple of nights that have both run longer than expected.

With busy days, darkness coming early and evening meetings, there has not been much time for picture taking.

These pictures were taken downtown before an evening meeting I had a couple of nights ago.

The picture above was taken at a downtown park.

Juneauites eat lunch outdoors here during the summer when the days are warm and dry.

A bear was accidentally locked into this park one night last fall until someone saw him, reported it to the city police and the unexpected visitor was eventually freed so that he could move on.

And at this time of year this lovely little park is decorated with a beautiful Christmas tree........

Juneau does not decorate a whole lot for the holidays, but the lamp posts look beautiful when they are lighted.

This one was taken close to City Hall and Marine Park, but they are located throughout the downtown area.........

One more Christmas tree located in a newly landscaped space in the center of town.

Until this past summer, this area was nothing more than a huge, boarded up dirt hole.

Now it is filled with a large variety of plants that should make for a beautiful, green and growing place during this upcoming summer.........

By 5pm in the winter almost all stores in town are closed - some closed for the season and the remainder simply closed for the night.

What remains open are bars.  Lots and lots of bars.............

One more view of the urban park in town...........

The Hearthside Bookstore is one of those always-busy small-business-owned stores that is beloved by locals and enjoyed by tourists.

I have visited this store a few times and have had interesting conversations with the very friendly and personable owner.

The Hearthside is also the place where Juneauites commonly buy tickets for local events...........

After work tonight I went to the UAS Recreation Center, purchased a 10-punch pass to work out, and spent the next ninety minutes moving from stationary bike to stair climber to weights to situps to pushups to stretching.

I wore tights and running shoes and a technical shirt.

Looked the part and felt the part, and tried to remember what it was like to feel like an athlete again.

When I was 11 years old I was an extremely introverted, overweight, quiet, unathletic person living in Australia.

The typical dorky loner book-nerd that always got picked last for sports teams in school.

I wanted to learn judo because my favorite TV show at the time was the Man From UNCLE - a show about an American and Russian spy team.

Well........my mother signed me up for jazz ballet classes.

Me.

In jazz ballet.

I took it for one class and hated every second of it, but there was a judo class being held down the hall at the same time as my awful class, and after that first day I skipped jazz ballet and walked down the hall to watch the class that really interested me.

My mother eventually found out, and resigned to not having a lady-like dancing girl in the family finally signed me up for judo.

And I was a natural.

Good, competitive, strong, soon unbeatable.

Judo moved to karate moved to distance running moved to weight training moved to swimming moved to adventure racing - which gave me all kinds of activities to do.

Running was always the fall back activity though (I have always gravitated back to it over the years) and I loved, absolutely loved, trail running.

This past year, since I messed up my knee and recovered from knee surgery and then moved and started a new job and then got caught up in ever more consuming work, saw a halt to actual "training".

I've managed to stay reasonably active even through the craziness of work, but hope and plan and really want to begin working out again.

Exercise has always been an important part of my life and this year my resolution is to find my way back to it again.

It's part of what keeps me stable and happy and in balance............

And one more bar..........