Favorite story...so far

I'll give you a little background into Wisconsin in general and La Crosse specifically. Ready? They love to drink, and drink a lot. The graph to the right shows that Wisconsin and SC have 50% of their car accidents involving someone legally drunk (blood alcohol of 0.08%)

So here's my favorite story so far. Last night I was in the ER when a patient came in with some belly pain. He was a middle-aged guy who looked in pretty rough shape; broken shoulder in a sling, broken wrist in a cast, recently detected broken hip, and recently detected broken heel also in a cast (which is a ridiculously difficult bone to break). He also had a number of bruises all over his body and a nice stitched up laceration across his forehead. Like I said, pretty impressive.
Here's the gist of the story. He was drinking ("a couple of beers" yeah right) and was driving home after a get together. He was "only going 45mph" and there were "brake problems" with his car, all of this caused him to crash.

You know what he crashed into? A barn! And it was 50 yards off the road! That's right, he got half a football field away from the road and crashed into a big barn all with only "a couple of beers". I still find it hard to believe and I met the guy.

Barefoot Running

I read a fascinating book recently called "Born to Run". The storyline is about these native Mexican runners called the Tarahumara who run amazing distances (50, 80, 100 mile races for days at a time) well into their 70s and 80s without many of the problems/injuries runners in America experience. They do this without the "benefit" of modern running shoes or anything other than a sole of leather or tire rubber for shoes.

So I thought I'd give it a try (the running without modern running shoes, not the 100 mile races). I actually tried barefoot running first, and loved it. I could feel the ground, my stride changed and I didn't have the big impact from leading with my heel (very painful doing that barefoot), and I could actually feel the ground. Unfortunately I was abrading off the bottoms of my feet faster than my calluses were growing.

Enter www.invisibleshoe.com. I stumbled onto this website where they sell Vibram (sole material for shoes) and nylon with Do-It-Yourself videos on how to make modern running sandals. I figured I could make those myself and went ahead and did so. It has been awesome. Same feeling as going barefoot, without the abrasions that were such a problem.
I get a bunch of funny looks from people when I wear them, but honestly they are so much fun to run in and it feels really fun to run again.

Conversation Yesterday

Me: We are moving to a place called "La Crosse, Wisconsin." Can you say "La Crosse."
3 yr old: "La Crosse." (Pause) Mom, did you know that is the same place Jesus died?
Me: No, Jesus died "on the Cross" but we are moving to "La Crosse."
3 yr old: Yes, I know. Jesus died "on La Crosse."

I guess she thinks we are moving to Jerusalem.