Eat one live toad first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

Here's Team MacDonald before the start of the triathlon.

Part of Team Pathway. Matt is off somewhere, probably greasing his thighs.

The men all started together. This is the middle of the pack a little after the "gun." I'm the gray-haired guy in the white shirt on the far side a little to the right of center.No pics of the bike portion. Marcie, our photographer had no way to get out to the bike course and back to the pool in time to cover both.
Waving to Marcie and their daughter Caroline in the backpack, 25m into the swim. The smile will be replaced by a look of panic about 10m from now.

On Thanksgiving Day I am grateful that I emerged from the pool without the intervention of a life guard and crossed the finish line under my own power. Note the disappearance of the smile!
As I look back on the event I am more disgusted with myself for my failure in the swim portion of the event. I've ordered "Total Immersion" which is, by almost all accounts, THE book on swimming. (Yes, Brandie, I should have done it back when you suggested it.) I could have had a respectable time for the tri if I had been able to swim the 400m without stopping. I entered the pool in 5th place in my age division, which warrants a medal. I finished in 9th place, dead last in the division.
This event is held again on March 8th. My irritation translates into Swedish stubbornness and the refusal to consider this effort acceptable. I WILL read the book, I WILL become a reasonably proficient swimmer, and I WILL drop 5 minutes off that segment. No way I should take longer to swim 400m than I take to run 1.5 miles.

If there's a flaw in my plan it's the surgery on the 9th. I don't know how long that will keep me from training - riding, running and swimming. March 8 is only a little over three months away, and if I lose a week or more in recovery it would cost me some conditioning and slow the learning curve on the swimming bit. But never underestimate the force of the stubborn Swede.

I did some more reading on hyperparathyroidism today and was a little disappointed in what I learned. The acid reflux will disappear in a day or two, almost as quickly as serum calcium levels drop. The psychological symptoms and energy levels, however, take one to two months to improve. Days like today make me especially eager to get that stage of the "recovery" over with.

Did you listen to "Car Talk" today on NPR? You don't expect anything approaching poignancy out of Click and Clack. I love the show, but while Tom and Ray are brilliant in many ways, they're not known for their sensitivity. Nobody has ever confused them with Dr. Phil.
Near the beginning of the show they read a letter from Lea, a college freshman who asked for advice, not about her car but about her life. Her degree track didn't fit her interests in life, college seemed like a waste of time and money, and she wondered if, because they seem to know so much about so many other areas, they had any advice for her. After reading the letter they speculated that she probably suffered from homesickness and would feel better with time.

At the very end of the show she called in. The three of them talked for several minutes.
If I were still teaching my B.Th. guys headed into pastoral ministry I would get that tape and play it for them: "Listen, really listen to this conversation! What do you hear?" Tom and Ray nailed it! Because they do everything with humor and with their contagious laughs I wonder how many listeners caught the power and sensitivity of their interaction with her. They heard not just her words but her heart. Tom, who often plays the role of the dim bulb, reacted to her with sensitivity and remarkable insight, and gave her some spot-on advice. Again, I think their light-hearted demeanor may have masked it for many listeners, but her response (she accepted an offer that they clearly made in all sincerity) tells me she felt it in the bottom of her heart.

Wanna hear it?
Car Talk Central
On the left hand side, "Listen Now"

How often do we listen but not hear?
Lord, help me hear others.