tosabarbell

A few weeks before school was out for the summer, Oz asked me to drive him the next morning. Umkay, that’s kind of weird because he loves to ride his bike to school. I say something like ‘Sure bud, why?’ He comes back with something like ‘I want to do a combat roll out of the car.’ Made perfect sense.

So day one with the combat roll out of the car was fun and the Mom behind me had a WTF! face that was priceless. But it didn’t get on video. And you know the rules, if it’s not on video…it didn’t happen. So Combat roll take two only this time we both rode our bikes up to school and I brought the camera. Here it is:

Now the combat roll and run into school had me cracking up pretty good. Then as I watched the video, I noticed a little dude running into school behind Oz and that got me thinking…did I ever “run” into school? I think the last time I liked anyplace enough to “run” into it, food and alcohol were involved (as in me getting there fast.) I started watching the kids after that and sure as shit, most of them run into the school. It’s awesome. Bigg told Oz they would have a combat roll/run off at some point…stay tuned for that video.

Which brings us to the screaming. Our new home is a house away from an Elementary school and the Cheesehead kids are still cooped up, poor things. While I was just sitting here enjoying my steak and eggs and French press coffee, they seemed to take an impromptu recess break (I’m guessing more for the teachers.) Heh. Anyways, the screaming coming from the playground was epic. I’m quite sure not one of those kids used a voice resembling anything other than a shrill, “I must be louder than everyone else” sound. Which got me thinking again, when was the last time I screamed with such abandonment? Can’t remember but it was probably at some type of hockey game or other sporting event (and yes, alcohol was probably involved.)

So here’s my challenge to you (the few anyway reading this), in the next week go ahead and Roll, Run, and/or Scream. Oh, screaming at your kids doesn’t count, that’s too normal. Go ahead, I dare ya. Run into work. Roll out of a conference room chair. Scream while running (no, you can’t scream at your kids’ soccer and baseball games, that just makes you a douche’ sport parent.) This is about you. Do it. Report back.

Misha Koklyaev is one of Bigg’s favorite Strongman to compete with. Misha trains and lives with dedication, tenacity, and joy. Yup. Joy. Bigg says that whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it with a smile. He loves training and competing (and family time but Bigg’s experiences involve competition) and his love for life shines through in everything he does.

Personally, I think that’s pretty cool. Here he pulls 753# for a set of 10. WHAT? Yup. You can even hear a little chuckling afterwards. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

On a side note: Congratulations to Bigg who has been invited to Poland for the Champions League in Europe. (Yes, originally he was asked for Portugal but that won’t work out.) Unfortunately, Poland is a week before America’s Strongest Man so that may not work. Stay tuned. In the meantime, see past pictures and event updates here: http://www.strongmancl.com/website2010/.

Our move is officially in the books, thank gods. It actually went very smooth, no travel hitches and I’m thankful for that. We also made it through a fairly stressful event and arrived still liking each other so that’s a plus.

It’s been a few days of unloading (and reloading into storage), returning trucks and trailers, unpacking boxes and reality is setting in. Reality that tosabarbell is currently a holding tank for the remainder of the siding that is going up this week (which is why our new B&R bar is in the living room.) That I’m going to have to find some imaginary space for the rest of the boxes to be unloaded and reality that there’s a lot of work to do to make this feel like home.

There’s also the reality that we have an entirely new support system in Bigg’s family; that his brother and Carpenter extraordinaire would walk through fire to make things nice around here for us; our new community (with high’s in the low 50’s by the way) is adorable and feels like home due to it’s similarity to Minneapolis and that being together each day is much better than e-mailing from 1000 miles away.

So it goes, when reality isn’t quite what you envisioned, you adjust and refocus. The good news is that I know where the good grocery store is, where to get excellent Bourbon, how to get to The Brickyard so I can train during this adjustment and that I have Bigg right here to help with it all.

Deadwood quote of the day:

Jane: Why is everybody fucking whispering?!

Moving week, therefore packing week. Be there shortly. Until then, The London Souls.