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a daily dose of toni

30 Days About Me. Day 19: Special Talent

August 20, 2011 by robertforto Leave a Comment

I am participating in a blog challenge this month. It is 30 Days About Me from the blog, a Daily Dose of Toni. In the past few weeks we have discussed wedding talk, our favorite songs, quotes and artists, and places we would like to visit.

Today topic is a talent or hobby that I have. 

I am involved in a lot of things. As many of you know I am a musher and training for long distances races like the Iditarod. Dog sledding isn’t as much of a hobby as it is a lifestyle. It consumes every waking moment. When you are dealing with 50 canine athletes it is a full time job. Think about just how much work your little house dog requires–taking him outside, walks, exercise, feeding, training etc.

Now multiply that 50 fold. You get what I am saying.

So I  guess a talent I have is what my 14 year old daughter, Nicole, affectionately calls a head full of useless knowledge.

I guess she is right. I have an impeccable memory. Not only to I remember crazy things like the presidents of the United States and the Emancipation Proclamation,  but also the countries of the world and stock symbols for most of the major companies.

I will admit it Wikipedia is my best friend. Err… at least my best app on my iPhone. I use that and the IMdB (movies) app all the time. In fact I read the “Today’s Featured Article” every morning before I get out of bed.

Today, I learned about The Metacomet Ridge in southern New England.

I know boring right? On the contrary. I have found this bank of useless knowledge almost like my federal reserve. With all this stuff floating around in my head I can carry on a conversation with just about anyone on any topic they care to talk about.

I have carried on conversations about religious freedoms in the sauna at my health club to a debate on the status quo of aging baby boomers on a an red eye flight from Alaska.

Makes for a great ice breaker when meeting people and networking for my business. At least I am not like a car dealer.

You know what I am talking about. When you went in to buy your last car I am sure they guy in the plaid jacket and the cheap pleater shoes talked all about how he grew up in the same town as you, loves bagels and lox, and is a monthly subscriber to Cosmo just like you, right?

So anyway, I don’t know if it is a talent or maybe even curse but that is what makes me unique.

What do you want to talk about? 

 

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

Related articles
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Filed Under: 30 Days About Me, Daily Post Tagged With: a daily dose of toni, Emancipation Proclamation, Iditarod, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, iphone, Metacomet Ridge, postaday2011, robert forto

30 Days About Me. Day 18: Wedding Talk

August 19, 2011 by robertforto 7 Comments

This month I am participating in a blog challenge. It is 30 Days About Me from the blog, a Daily Dose of Toni. While I think I am the only guy participating I have met a lot of great people by reading what they have to say.

The point of any blog challenge is not necessarily the topics, at least not to me. It is about the story that you craft and mold that makes you unique.

With that all being said, todays topic is Wedding Talk. Now, like I mentioned, I am guy. Guys don’t talk about or care about weddings. We show up in a rented tux with a couple of our buddies as our best men and hope that the ring fits. Sure it is a special day. It should be unless are Billy Bob Thornton (5 wives include Angelina Jolie).

I take all that back. My wife is going to kill me!

What amazes me is that today there are more than 1000 online dating sites with an annual take of more than $932 million dollars. The most popular are Match.com and eHarmony.com.

Before I continue I need to rant just a little about eHarmony.com and their pitchman/dating guru Neil Clark Warren. I mean come on, The only people on this earth that use their full name, including the dreaded middle name, are reports about serial killers on the nightly news,

Internet dating weirdos like Warren,

and your mother! I don’t know how many times my mother stated my full name but I know when she did I was in BIG trouble.

Robert Nicholas Forto get over here right now! You better get over here or wait till your father comes home!

I can safely say I didn’t have to wait for my dad to get home too many times. I knew if mom included my middle name she meant business and I had better do what she said or else.

Now back to the freaky online dating world that we live in. Did you know that 30% of America’s baby boomers are single? That seems like quite a few. I guess that means if you are single that one in three friends of yours are too and you should have a pretty good chance of hooking up.

But hold on a sec, now these dating services are offering webcams for dating. Webcams? And the new thing is virtual dating. Akin to the video game The Sims—that is just plain wrong.

Come on people–why is it so hard to get in the car, drive over to the club, coffee, shop, pub, dance hall, discotheque, wine bar, cocktail lounge, dive bar, piano bar, spots bar, ice cream social, Tupperware party, or speak easy and introduce yourself?

If you are a guy–change your shirt, shave your whiskers, comb your hair and splash on a bit of Brut or Old Spice and go out and meet a “nice lady”.

Quit sitting in front of a computer screen hoping to meet the woman of your dreams. Not only is it just plain wrong, it’s creepy.

The reason you are single in the first place is probably because you sit at home in the dark in your ‘man cave’ playing video games and talking to people on Facebook you don’t even know.

Or it could be that your chosen aftershave is Aqua Velva or always wearing Crocs with socks.

 

 

I’m just sayin’…

So while today’s topic was supposed to be wedding talk, I have probably scared every red blooded American male into submission and they are all running down to the WalMart Supercenter to buy a new brand of “smell good stuff”.

If you are a lady, I firmly believe it is you that wear the pants in the family. Always have, always will. There is nothing wrong with that. Heck, we buy you flowers and chocolates and take you to the nicest places for dinner and may even serve you breakfast in bed. What do we get out of it? A new weed eater for our anniversary and a honey do list hanging on the fridge.

Seriously folks, my sarcastic humor gets me into trouble sometimes. But my wife loves me for it. We have been married for ten magnificent years and I am happy to call her my bride.

Tieme se mmhalla, Michele.

 

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

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Filed Under: 30 Days About Me, Daily Post Tagged With: a daily dose of toni, Aqua Velva, Billy Bob Thornton, blog challenge, Dating, Neil Clark Warren, Online dating service, postaday2011, Relationships, robert forto, wedding talk

30 Days About Me. Day 16: Craziest Thing

August 17, 2011 by robertforto 6 Comments

I am participating this month in a blog challenge brought to you by the blog a Daily Dose of Toni. It is 30 Days About Me.

We are all doing this with hopes of meeting fellow bloggers as well as let our rabid readers learn a little bit about us.

Today’s topic is a good one it is: who do you do the most crazy things with OR what is the most crazy thing you’ve done?

I have done a lot in my forty years on this third rock from the sun. I have swam with sharks–luckily they weren’t man eaters–in the Bahamas.

I have attempted surfing and hang gliding on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I have bungee jumped several times…

I have ran sled dogs for years.

I have been on the business end of at least 1000 bites in my work with violent and severely aggressive dogs.

But probably the most crazy thing that I have done is skydiving.

What started as a fascination in the early 1990’s with an all day school and a static line jump in Wisconsin, turned out to be a life long passion.

Over the next decade or so I jumped 169 times. Yes, out of perfectly good planes. Heck, if President George the first could do it as a senior citizen I don’t see why I would let him show ME up.

But let’s talk about the first jump for just a minute.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember driving over 100 miles to the airport and the sky diving center in rural Wisconsin, about an hour from the Twin Cities.

Over the next few hours the instructors taught the class of six or seven of us all that we needed to know including a very complete classroom session. After lunch we harnessed up and “practiced” on one of those bungee-type contraptions you have probably seen at the county fair.

After all of us were full of confidence–yeah right– and we loaded up in the plane and took off.

We climbed to a height of about 3,500 feet. Before we left the instructors attached our chutes to a little track on the floor of the plane. That is the static line.

Buy the time we reached our prescribed altitude our instructions gave us some last minute instructions and pep talks and said see you on the ground!

I was due to be the second guy out. Actually a middle aged lady jumped before me.

What happened next changed by life forever. It is difficult to describe but what I did first was step out of the open door of the little plane and looked down. It is so loud and the wind is hitting your face at what feels like 100 miles and hour. After one foot is out on the little step you reach out and grab onto this diagonal brace-type thing that attaches the wing to the plane.

All the while you know that this is the point of no return. I remember looking down and seeing the airport and the surrounding farmland. Everything looked so small.

We were instructed to hang on to that brace and let our feet go so you were sort of flying like Superman hanging onto the wing of the plane.

Once your body is completely horizontal you let go! At this very moment a mix of fear and adrenaline surged through my body like I have never felt before. It is said that this feeling is like no other feeling in the world. Some say it is better than sex others say it is better than any drug.

I would have to agree. 

Over the next several seconds–maybe 10 or so, you are still attached to the plane by the static line. The system is designed to break free of the plane and deploy your chute.

This 10 seconds or whatever it was felt like hours while you are free falling towards earth.

My chute deployed and  looked up and the lines were wrapped around each other. Our instructors taught us that this can happen and not freak out. But I did. Think about it folks, the lines that are attached to your chute–we call it a canopy–were wrapped around each other. This could mean certain death!

Somehow my mind kicked into high gear and my training–all 3 hours of it–assessed and fixed the problem. You sort of kick your feet so that your body twirls around un-wrapping the lines.

After the canopy was full the next few minutes were one of the most surreal and beautiful experiences of my life. As I floated toward the drop zone–a large area with a huge red circle that we could see from the plane– I steered my chute by pulling up and down on these little straps that guided me left and right.

I hit the ground hard coming in a little hot (fast) and felt my legs buckle as I hit. It was a force I wasn’t expecting after these several minutes of feeling like I was floating on air.

I let out an oomph… as I landed and my training kicked in again. We were taught to gather up our chute and get out of the zone as quick as we can because the next diver is just a minute or so behind.

After we were all on the ground we all shared a beer, our crazy stories and exchanged tall tales of this event that somehow united us all together in this bizarre brotherhood.

We basked in our glory until the sun set and all of us promised that we would do it again.

I did. I jumped at that drop zone (D.Z.) more than 70 times over the next few years and several times in Arizona and Georgia and Florida.

Now I’m 40 and tell my kids of my jumps often and they both want to do it some day. We  just have to convince mom…

 

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

 

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Filed Under: 30 Days About Me Tagged With: 30 days about me, a daily dose of toni, Bahamas, North Carolina, Outer Banks, Parachuting, postaday2011, Recreation, robert forto, sky diving, Wisconsin

30 Days About Me. Day 15: Dream House

August 16, 2011 by robertforto 7 Comments

I am participating in a blog challenge this month. It is 30 Days About Me from the blog a Daily Dose of Toni.

Today’s topic is describe your dream house.

As many of my rabid readers know, I bought a cabin last summer that we have affectionately names, Fortos’ Fort.

But if you know me, you know that I am always looking for something a bit outside the box.

Contrary to my wife, Michele’s wishes and a resounding, NO WAY!

This is my dream house:

 

Follow my news and updates on Twitter, my whereabouts on Foursquare and  relationship status on Facebook. Or send me a telegram.

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Filed Under: 30 Days About Me, Daily Post Tagged With: 30 Days, 30 days about me, a daily dose of toni, alaska, blog challenge, postaday2011, robert forto

30 Days About Me. Day 13: Huge Impact

August 14, 2011 by robertforto 16 Comments

Ineka

This article was originally written on July 14, 2010 but today’s topic was someone of something that has had a huge impact on my life. It was my dog, Ineka.

Some would say but he’s just a dog…

It is with a sad heart that I have to report that our dear friend, Ineka passed on yesterday, July 13, 2010. I want to personally thank all of our friends, family and fans that sent such kind words and support during this difficult time in our lives. It is funny how dogs affect our lives like they do. Ineka touched so many lives in is ten years with us and I want to share his story as a tribute to him and all those he made smile.

It was a cold and snowy morning in Denver in March of 2000 when Michele and I arrived at the cargo area at Denver International Airport. We were picking up a dog that we had rescued from a foster family in Washington State. We were expecting a white Siberian but we were mistaken, it was a striking black and white male with ice blue eyes and missing one of his long canine teeth.

In 2000, email was not the preferred communication medium yet and Facebook was not even heard of, so when we contacted the foster family in Washington it was almost by accident. While we shared many email messages and phone calls and when Ineka arrived we had no idea that this dog would change our lives forever.

We had already named Ineka before his arrival. His name, pronounced (IN-eck-A) means rescued friend in a Northern Native American dialect and he truly lived up to it as soon as he arrived. Michele and I loaded our new dog, who was supposedly four at the time (but we soon found out through a dental exam he was closer to two) and drove up the mountains to our Bailey, Colorado home. We were in the process of starting training for an Iditarod attempt in 2003 but I had not moved here full time yet from Minnesota and our dogs were just beginning their racing careers. I guess you can say that we were a work in progress.

We had a rough and tumble batch of Siberians in Colorado, most of them rescues and B-team members from other mushers. We had started training on the cart on the dirt roads in our neighborhood and when we arrived with Ineka we were thankful for the fresh snow on the ground.

I have owned a lot of Siberians over the years, starting with my first one, Axl in 1987 and then Rutgrr and Ryche that I purchased from a kennel in Georgia and becoming hooked on the sport of dog sledding when the breeder said, “Do you want to go for a ride?”

We hooked up a team of Siberians and off we went through the Smokey Mountains. But for some reason Ineka was different. He captured my heart from that first day and we quickly decided that he would be the house dog. This holds a special place for a sled dog because many never get to feel the comforts of laying in front of the fireplace or an occasional scrap from the family leftovers.

The next morning, we took the dogs out of the kennel, put them in harness and hooked them up for a run in the fresh snow. We brought Ineka out and put on a black harness and he went wild. I am a firm believer that Siberians were born to pull and Ineka was no different. We hooked him up into team position right in front of the wheel dogs and away we went down the road. Ineka was a natural. He pulled like he had been doing it for years. When I barked out the commands: Gee and Haw and Hike and Whoa his ears turned back like he knew what I was talking about. Could this dog have been a sled dog in is previous life? Could he be a lead dog too?

Within days Ineka was settled into his new home and quickly became what we called him for the rest of his days–Sergeant Ineka. He was the Sergeant of the kennel constantly breaking up scuffles and keeping the dogs in line when they chose to goof off. Ineka seemed to possess that rare trait of a true alpa dog and for what ever reason every dog that approached him showed him the utmost respect. Its hard to describe in words but if you have seen it you know what I mean.

The days passed with me working in the office and training in the night hours with Michele and the kids following me in the van while I was traveling at break-neck speeds on a three wheeled cart on a sheet of ice. What stories I could tell. After our runs I would always go to the fridge that we had in our basement where I kept my cheese stash and Ineka and I would share a hunk. I quickly learned that cheese, pizza and spaghetti were his favorites and we made it a point of our daily ritual all the way up until the day he passed.

Over the next few months, spanning through the summer and into the fall and early snow of winter, Ineka was placed in all the positions in the teams, both the A-Team and our B-Team of ragamuffins and he seemed to excel at all of them. He soon began running in lead and training puppies to learn the ropes in harness. That winter we started running our first races as a team and didn’t do well. I had always been a mid-distance musher and ran, mostly recreationally in Minnesota up to 45 miles at a stretch. I had no idea how to train or run a sprint race and we were sorely beaten by every team. But it sure was fun!

We introduced our three kids: Kyle, who was eight at the time, Tyler (5) and Nicole (3). While Kyle and Tyler were away at school Nicole would help out in the kennel and Ineka was always there to protect her from the other dogs should they come to close. Nicole was introduced into the dog training world and quickly became quite the little handler. All three of the kids ran races that first year with Nicole competing in a 100-yard dash with her “lead dog” Tamaya.

Over the years we got out of mushing for what I like to call “life getting in the way” and Michele taking a job in Denver as a paralegal. I was completing my doctorate research and was soon defending my work for my dissertation: Chasing the Dream: A Study of Human-Canine Communication in the Sport of Dog Sledding. I moved full time to Denver in October 2006 and joined Michele and the kids and soon opened Denver Dog Works.

Upon opening Denver Dog Works Ineka would come to work with me every day and he would continue his task of keeping all the dogs in line during playtime in the dog yard and we used him constantly in our growl classes and any time we needed a dog to demonstrate with or be a decoy for. He earned his keep and was paid handsomely in cheese and affection. About this time Michele grew tired of the mundane work of a paralegal of a big time law firm and soon quit to work with me full time at Denver Dog Works. She began to utilize Ineka as a “therapy dog” when we found that he had tremendous patience with a gaggle of kids during our sled dog presentations at local elementary schools.

In July 2009 we moved into our new location on Parker Road and Ineka was starting to show signs that he was not feeling well. After numerous trips to the veterinarian we concluded that he was most likely suffering from an illness closely related to Alzheimer’s, commonly called canine dementia. Ineka didn’t go to work with us much any more, but my tasks had changed a bit and I spent more time at my home office promoting Denver Dog Works and our new business Twine Group Media, a publishing company for my new book, Run With Poodles.  I spent my mornings with Ineka by my side until the symptoms of his illness started to worsen. The most visible were the almost constant pacing and inability to settle down.

In the fall of 2009 my vigor for running the Iditarod re-surfaced having invited veteran Iditarod musher, Hugh Neff to speak at my daughters middle school. After the school talk Hugh and I had breakfast at a local restaurant and talked dogs. I told him of my intentions and we agreed to stay in touch.

In March of 2010, I was in Anchorage for a conference put on by Chris Fuller of Iditarod Leadership and I met Hugh for the ceremonial start. I am eternally grateful for Hugh allowing me the chance to handle for his team and to see him off on this latest attempt at the Last Great Race. I met a realtor while up in Alaska and exchanged information.

Over the spring my motivation was to do what ever I could to start the process of training for the Iditarod again. I had decided to name my team after my good buddy and run from this point forward under the Team Ineka banner. Michele and I had decided long ago that if Ineka could not be at the finish line when I crossed under the burled arch in Nome that we would spread his ashes along the Iditarod trail.

The next few months took me to Minnesota, California and Alaska (twice) looking for a property that would allow us to build our dream and have the ability to run sled dogs again. Living in the suburbs of Denver with a yard that you could literally spit across and an HOA restriction of just three dogs and absolutely no barking, it was time to move. On a whim I contacted my realtor friend in Alaska and he found me a place. It is an Iditarod veterans home that is within miles of the official start of the Iditarod in Willow, Alaska. My daughter and I flew up over the Fourth of July weekend and started the process of buying the place.

On Monday July 12, we officially signed the paperwork to own the home in Alaska. Later that day, some time while we were all at work, we think that Ineka suffered a stroke. When we returned home he could lift his head but he seemed to be paralyzed. One of his eyes was dilated and would not retract. I spent the night with him on the floor of our bedroom and cried while holding him in my arms. By the next morning Ineka had gotten progressively worse and we decided to take him to our vet, Dr. Holly Cogswell of Aurora Animal hospital.

We had decided long ago that we wanted to make Ineka’s last days as comfortable as possible and not to intervene with treatments that would most likely just make him more sick. By this time his dementia had gotten worse and we think he had cancer on his thyroid. We spoke many times to Dr. Cogswell and we had her on our radio show to talk about Canine Dementia. We felt that the only person in the world that could guide us in our time of need was Dr. Cogswell. Ineka passed over the rainbow bridge at our veterinarian, and also now our dear friend, Dr. Cogswell’s office. Michele, Tyler, and Nicole took Ineka inside and stayed with him during his passover.  Tyler was steady and strong for his mom and little sister, but eventually broke down.  Ineka had been their best friend for 11 years of their short lives.

That afternoon I was a wreck and I could hardly contain my emotions. It is funny how much our dogs hold on to our heartstrings so tight. I drove to Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado, almost 140 miles from our Denver home. The site of our first sled dog race in Colorado and officially the start of the Team Ineka legacy. I performed a Native American ceremony for my dear friend helping him cross safely into the spirit world. I was amazed how vigorously I sang the songs and how much passion I had in my voice. I hadn’t sung those songs in years and it was like I read the lyrics yesterday.

I held my composure until I made it back to I-70 near Copper Mountain Ski Resort and I completely lost it crying my eyes out all the way to Georgetown, some 50 miles away. I regained my thoughts and quickly realized that Ineka knew it was time to go. It was bizarre–we had just signed the papers on the house in Alaska the same day he let go and it was like he was saying– “its okay my friend, I have done my job, now go do yours.”

I quickly emailed my good friend, Sid Korpi in Minnesota that had recently wrote a book on pet loss: Good Grief: Finding Peace after Pet Loss. She and I corresponded many times over email that day and she had emphasized that pets have an uncanny ability to know when it is time to go. Ineka did.

In August I will be heading to Alaska to start my racing kennel with hopes of running the Iditarod in 2013 under the Team Ineka banner. It is just something I have to do. I have thought about it since that first day with a dog team in those Georgia mountains. I know a lot of mushers have that dream and many pursue it. Many call it the Musher’s Bug. Once it gets in your veins its hard to contain. My plan (at least for now) is to stay in Alaska six months a year and the other months in Denver. We plan to keep Denver Dog Works in operation and spend our summers here at least until Nicole, now 13 and wanting to be a veterinarian, (do you think those early years in the kennel had anything to do with it?) goes to college. It will take me at least a year to get the house in order up there. It is truly a musher’s cabin with a working outhouse (that we can use in an emergency, if we need to) and high speed Internet. All the luxuries of home right? But I have tremendous drive and motivation but no carpentry skills. Luckily there is DIY Network on DirectTV. Michele and the kids will stay back while this chapter of our lives continues to be written. But one thing is for sure, Ineka’s spirit is in our hearts.

Being so close to the Iditarod trail will allow me to fulfill my promise to spread my rescued friend’s ashes in the spot that we have talked so much about over the years and then Ineka’s spirit will make the stars shine just a little brighter to guide all of us on our way to never forgetting your dreams.

On this day Ineka, my dear friend, wear your silver harness with pride and we will see you on the trail.

I am participating in the blog challenge this month–30 Days About Me from the friends at a Daily Dose of Toni

Thank you for reading…

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  • The future of Iditarod dreams? (teamineka.wordpress.com)
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Filed Under: 30 Days About Me, Alaska, Daily Post Tagged With: 30 days about me, a daily dose of toni, alaska, denver, dog, mushing, Pet, robert forto, Sled dog, Team Ineka

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