I just came home from work this morning and had the inexplicable urge to reconnect with the Pleonast community. I’m sitting in our hand- me- down armchair at the moment using the fantastic I-squeeze foot massager that I got for for Christmas this year. What a great feeling at the end of a twelve hour shift to get a little foot massage. I highly recommend these things, especially if, like me, you are on your feet all day.

I’ve been working the night shift at work for the past few weeks. I only signed up for six weeks but now I am trying to decide if I want to stay on nights or go back to days at the end of my stint.

Here are the pros and cons as I see them.

If I work nights I get about 15% more money; don’t have to work weekends ( I have to work every third weekend on days); I get a much slower paced, relaxed shift; and I like my job better when I’m there. I also might have some negotiating power with my boss to get some extra time off or flexibility since they need nurses on nights.

The cons: I find that it often gets really hard to stay awake around 4 am; its hard to go back and forth between nights and days; I miss out on things that are going on in the evenings; and I miss out on most of three or four nights a weeks with Rachel.

Its kind of a tough call. I think my sleep schedule might get easier if I stayed on nights, but it still just feels kind of odd to come home in the morning. As I drive home in the mornings, the sun is usually just rising and there’s a really nice, soft light in the sky. Everything about those first rays of light speaks to beginnings and possibilities of a new day. I always have these urges to just keep on driving past my house and out to find what adventures the day might hold. Instead, my mind always drifts back to reality, and acknowledges that no sleep will make Jack a very dull and miserable boy. I choose sleep.

In other news, Rachel and I recently survived almost a whole week without power with subfreezing temperatures to boot. It was fun for the first day and then got really old about the time we both started getting sick. Its no fun to come home to a freezer with no lights and no hot food. We pretty much ate out all week and look for warm places to kill time. Thanks to John and Laura for feeding us dinner and giving us a place to hang out for one of those nights. I sure do feel very blessed now to have electricity. Florida sure does seem appealing this time of year.

I’d love to hear from all you guys that I haven’t talked to in ages. Peace, love, warm thoughts and cold toes.

Cooler weather is finally arriving in Evansville. It’s so wonderful to be outside when the weather is this perfect. The weather has put me in the mood to get active.

On Friday I worked on prepping my kayak to go out on the water and Rachel promised that she would go paddling with me Sunday afternoon.

This particular kayak has very interesting history. I bought it on EBAY and then made a short road trip to Bowling Green to pick it up. I happened to mention to the seller as I was there loading the kayak that I went to school in Florida. When he inquired as to where I mentioned USF and told him that I also went to a small Christian school. He said, “It wasn’t Florida College was it?” I said, “actually it was.”

Come to find out, Kirk Slavey’s wife, Stephanie (Barclay) Slavey went to Chicagoland camp with Rachel back in the day. What are the chances?

I’m looking forward to nice weather and some time on the water tomorrow.

My wife requested that I update my blog; so tonight while she watched a movie I wasn't interested in, I decided to try to bring my Blog up to date.

So much has happened this past year. Rachel and I moved to Evansville, IN, we both got new jobs, made new friends, became members of a new church, had many new adventures and have changed our focus from “me” to “us.” Rachel works for CABAT properties managing about 200 apartment units and I work as an RN on the Cardiac Floor at Deaconess Hospital. We live in one of the apartment complexes that Rachel manages and I often work in the office with her on my days off.

Marriage is a wonderful thing. I am thankful to have a wife that takes the extra effort to make me feel special and to let me know everyday that our love is not mere words- but attitudes and actions. I am thankful to have a wife that lets me know when I am wrong and isn't afraid to tell me that I messed up. I am thankful to have a wife that uplifts me and shows me that the Lord comes first in her life by the way that she lives. I am thankful to have a wife who I never am bored with. I am thankful to have a wife who cares so much about keeping our passion alive. I am a lucky man.

I have been getting more and more comfortable with nursing. The first couple of months after orientation were an especially stressful time as I tried to learn how to prioritize (or sometimes juggle) all of the things that have to be done during my shift. I still have some stressful days but now I am able to prioritize and use the resources that I have more effectively to get the job done.

My worst fear at work is having a code on one of my patients. That still has not happened- knock on wood. I have sent a couple to the ICU and have also participated in codes with patients of other nurses. I’m working on trying to make myself useful during these situations- and feel like I am progressing.

I like nursing now most of the time. I work three twelve- hour shifts a week so I end up having some time during the week to do other things and to travel- which has been very nice. I occasionally pick up some overtime at work as well.

At the moment Rachel and I are on vacation in Canada at Fairmont Hot Springs. We went to my cousin, Brandon Flint’s, wedding on Friday and have been doing some sight seeing, hiking, and of course soaking in the hot springs.

The hot springs are fascinating to me. They originate in underground springs warmed by geo thermal activity in areas where magma is close to the surface. At Fairmont Hot Springs they simply pipe in naturally heated water coming to the surface through springs. There are 4 partitions in the pool heated anywhere from barely hot to barely can stand it hot by mixing the heated water with cool water in different ratios. It has been in the 60s during the day and colder at night making the weather nice for soaking. The mountains in the background have a fresh layer of powder on top from snow that fell up there a couple of days ago.

On one of the trails just farther up the mountain from Fairmont leads to an older facility comprised of several bathtub- sized basins for soaking. These are obviously from a much older time but still function as they did when they were constructed. Hot water bubbling up from a little spring is channeled into the tubs with little open canals maybe 9 inches wide. The water flows out of the tubs through a hole on the downhill side keeping fresh water in the tubs at all times. The simple engineering used to make these little tubs is amazing. Rachel was unwilling to try out the old school hot tubs with me so we spent our time at the new pools.

I love the Canadian Rockies. There are few places more beautiful, rugged, and majestic than the mountains I am viewing right now. Their expanse is beyond comprehsion. I got on Google earth to see just how far I could go without leaving the mountains I am looking at now. I ended up on a coast looking at the Arctic Ocean.

Its on to Banff tommorrow to check out Lake Louis and possibly hike up to the teahouse.

Marriage is great. Today is two weeks since Rachel and I were married and I have loved every second of it. I love not having to say goodbye at night, hearing my last name attached to Rachel and to getting to introduce her as my wife. I’ve also really enjoyed getting gifts that do not belong to her or I, but to both of us. I get great satisfaction from seeing the unity that I have felt with Rachel for so long acknowledged and expressed by others.

I’ll leave it to Rachel to describe the details of our wedding decor. I will say that although the time leading up to the wedding was stressful, I enjoyed the actual event immensely. It was so nice to get to see so many of the people who are important to my life and Rachel’s life together in one place. It seems almost surreal to look out over the sea of faces and to remember each person and what they have meant to me. Most of all, it was just awesome to commit myself to someone that I love so much for the rest of my life. At times, I wondered if I could ever make such a serious commitment to anyone. I’m so blessed to have found a woman worthy of such commitment, with whom I know I will be a better, more faithful person than I would be alone. God’s plans for me never cease to amaze me.

Our honeymoon was beautiful. We went to Cabo, Mexico, which is at the tip of the Baja peninsula. We stayed at the Hacienda Del Mar resort. The resort was right on the ocean and had beautiful grounds. Almost every time we walked outside there was someone working on the landscaping or sweeping the walk. Since they use all hand tools there, we didn’t even have to listen to the drone of motors that usually accompanies such work. Our suite was equally nice, with two sinks in the bathroom, a hot tub, a small kitchen, and native Mexican décor.

My favorite place that we went on our honeymoon was on a mini-road trip up the Baja peninsula. Most of the area is desert with saguaro cactuses stretching as far as the eye could see. After about 30 minutes of driving we ran into mountains where we enjoyed sweeping views of the ocean below for the next hour. The cactuses grew even on the mountain- tops. We kept looking for a road down to beach, but found none.

Eventually, we found a dirt road heading down to a beach. We figured if we paid for full-coverage on the rental car, we had better get our moneys worth. The road twisted and turned and finally dropped us off at a beautiful white sandy beach that was nearly empty. Only two or three other vehicles, obviously belonging to the natives, sat next to ours in the sand.

Rachel and I parked and then hiked about a mile and a half down the beach to a rocky alcove were we sat for a while and enjoyed the crashing waves and the wilderness around us. It was so nice to have the whole beach to our selves. Time spent in a beautiful place with a beautiful woman is hard to beat. The trip was wonderful. We ended up accumulating a little sea glass collection on our walk, which we took back with us. Other than the scorching heat, the trip was perfect.

During our honeymoon we also had the opportunity to, as the brochure said, go “horseback riding on the beach and in the desert.” It turned out that the beach part of the trip lasted about two minutes and that the word “desert” referred to a jaunt through the local landfill. Even so, I think I enjoyed this horseback riding experience more than any previous because it was just the two of us with the guide and because we didn’t have to do that hokey one behind the other thing.

Other highlights included two meals at a Mexican taco stand that were better and about 1/10 of the price of the two mediocre meals we ate at the resort; bartering for silver with the curio hawkers, a beautiful sunset cruise in the company of a drunken mob, and most of all just relaxing on the beach with Rachel.

We had a great honeymoon and really enjoyed ourselves. It’s a bit difficult to go back to the real world after honeymoon life, but we have had fun using some of our gift certificates (especially the REI ones) and putting together our house.

My life expectancy is 82 years. Whats yours? Your life expectancy