Interesting development

Yesterday was spent, in part, at a pig roast, where I got to help de-bone the meat after roasting. I enjoyed the company of friends as we prepared to celebrate one friend's 40th birthday and graduation from college. It's always inspiring to me when folks go back to school and further themselves. This friend dropped out of high school and never thought he'd amount to much in his life. He was inspired by service with Mennonite Voluntary Service and eventually went to college. He was voted student of the year in his discipline this year and his field instructor patiently waited for him to make other job decisions before hiring him with a few years experience credits and multilingual capacity. What a great story! Did I mention he's the first person in his family of origin to graduate from college?

What was amusing/interesting to me: I took my bongo board along to the roast. I've been using a homemade bongo board (1" x 12" x 30" shelf quality board with grip tape and a 4" OD PVC pipe about 18" long) to work on my balance and core strength. I also bought a wobble and balance board for use inside with my kids a couple of months ago. Along with all the biking I've been doing, my legs are getting pretty strong and my sense of balance is getting pretty good.

Back to the roast: I broke out the bongo board and invited some friends to try it out. I demonstrated for a while, not realizing I was keeping the board off the ground for an extended period of time. I also shuffled my feet in to center myself while I had my hands in my pockets (I was a bit chilly). My friends joked I was making it look easy. I wasn't trying to - I was simply doing what I do. Well, just about everyone else wound up see-sawing side-to-side, banging the board hard on the sidewalk. One friend took quite a flyer and, thankfully, didn't get hurt. I had no idea I'd gained that strength/capacity. I later took the bongo board to the real party (many guests and lots of great food). The board was great entertainment for kids and a few adults.

Total mileage yesterday: maybe 2 miles. The weather was very blustery and colder later in the afternoon. We would up using the cars in the evening.