Through Gary

Well here I sit watching January just about to end, and I can’t help but wonder how time can fly by quicker when you are older than when you were a kid.

Another year went by, and yet another stack of personal promises broken.

I do feel that I have greatly turned my life around in the last couple of years. I have found a great church family (okay my sister found them and introduced me). For the first time in my life, I enjoy going to church and have truly accepted God into my life and I am still learning how to let go and let him show me the way. Kind of hard for a controlling person like myself to accept. But I have to a certain point, and it has paid off greatly.

Well, I just got my web server up and running (again due to a dead machine) and I just wanted to post something that was on my mind.

Chow for now.

After a very grueling year and a move to a new house, I have the web server back up.
Boy since I wrote last, we have a new president, Arizona Cardinals went to the Super Bowl (What???), we are in a recession and President Bush is being accused of it all and Obama is going to rescue us all by adding more government, spending billions of dollars, taxing the rich who already pay most of the taxes and oh BTW, while doing this he is going to cut our deficit in half by the end of his term.

Sheesh the ol’ Ubuntu Server had a cow when I added it back to the internet; it thought it was in another world. Well back to work. Still unpacking.

198 –(Yes anyone paying attention or know what this number is can see I lost 32 pounds in 8 months. If I feel like it later, I will mention how I did it. Not through Gym or eating right either. Let’s just say I would not wish this method on anyone)

When it is an election year you always hear a lot of trash from all camps involved. This election year is no exception. Though it is getting very tiring hearing the liberals cry racism when ever any negative thing is said about Obama. The conservative side is spending more time defending their morals against these tactics then actually defending their views on the issues.

I am not naïve enough to think that there will be no racism involved in the booths in November. There are plenty of racist people out there (not just in the south) that simply will not vote for a black president. However, I do believe there are enough Black Americans out there that will vote for him just so we can have a black president. This may offset and even tip the scales to even out the racist white people. The issue here is that it seems every Obama backer that calls in to radio talk shows, which lean on the right side of the isle, claim that the host does not like him because he is black. Then you have to hear them say again how they are not racist that they do not agree with Obama’s socialistic views.

The more conservative of these hosts take their defense one step further to declare that they are not very fond of John McCain and have and will keep voting for Alan Keyes even though there is a zero percent chance that he will win. They do not care what color his skin is, just that they agree with most of his views.

Other misinformed Republicans say that if Condoleeza Rice would run, they would vote for her. That would take care of the first woman and black president in one shot. A lot of republicans like her and would love to see her in the big chair. I have not jumped on that band wagon yet because since she is not running, we have no idea what her views are of domestic policies and where she stands. Besides, I heard an interview with her in California where she has no intention on ever running and does not want the job (this was in 2005)

So what is the answer to the question? I believe that currently there is a race issue, but it is coming from the liberal side of the isle that cannot imagine that White America can actually vote on issues and not the color of ones skin.

I am not even going to get into all the press of how Obama hates America and whether or not he should even be considered black. That is all media hype. I go by issues and issues alone. On that note, for now I am going to go back to an old Richard Pryor movie called “Brewster’s Millions and vote “None of The Above!”

230

Wow, my favorite time of the year. Our neighbors come out of hibernation, the children start playing in the Cul-D-Sac, Barb-B-Q smell every night, warm cozy evenings, and plenty of beer.

The trouble with this time of year is that it makes wanting to get up early to go to gym and go to bed early, that much harder. It is even harder to stay coupe up in my home office doing homework. I fell behind in going to the gym and in school work. Most people gain weight and lose muscle mass during the winter, I am the opposite. I am definitely and outdoorsy kind of guy that has to be outside enjoying it all. I decided to take a quarter off of school and enjoy my summer. It will make finishing school take that much longer, but to me it is worth it. I can bust my butt for three quarters a year and take one off to rejuvenate.

My first week off of school, I took my family to Ocean Isle for a couple of days and had a blast. It was the first Family vacation we ever went on. Sure we went places with my other family members, but this was the first time that it was just me, my wife, and all my children to do what we wanted to do. My wife and I still haven’t even had a honeymoon yet!

Sarah loved the beach more then anything and spent the entire time in the ocean. Joshua and I went fishing on the pier for a couple of hours. I caught one fish and Joshua caught two. The second one was actually the last one because it was a huge one that took the line under the pier and finally snapped his line. The excitement on his face as he was trying to reel it in was priceless. Hannah-Marie saw the ocean for the first time and was not to keen on the waves and kept her distance. She did let me take her in for a few minutes before she had enough. It was quite entertaining watching her stand next to her brother and sister and then when the waves sent water her way, watching her run away from the water. Angela and I just enjoyed some downtime and watching the kids have some fun.

I think we are going to make it a priority to do that at least once a year. Maybe next year we will rent a house on the ocean and stay for a full week.

231

Might as well hand cuff me now!!

When my kids are old enough to graduate High School, this country better have made some improvements!! I will tell you one thing, after a parent raises their child, spends 13 years getting up with them every morning to ensure they are ready for school, help them with homework, discipline them when they misbehave, spend hundreds of dollars on fund raisers. Volunteer hundred of hours for the school. The very least this idiotic system can do is let the parents stand up and scream HOOORAH and clap when their kid gets their diploma. Who cares if there is a total of 2 seconds per kid extra??? Parents and family want those 2 seconds to stand up and yell with pride to their child to show how proud they are of their kid. For a class of 500 students, you are looking at an additional 17 – 20 minutes. If you ask any parent if that is a problem, most will say no. If they say yes, they want to get out as soon as possible, then that 2 seconds of pride means nothing to them and as a parent, I don’t respect their opinion anyways!

Every year at graduation time it is the same thing. Whether it is telling these proud parents to shut up until after the last person goes up, or telling valedictorians’ not to mention God or whatever. Lighten up people!!

Well, I blew my simple goal of at least one post a month. Blame it on my very demanding professors! Man, now I remember why I left college.

I have also been working a lot on my yard. I spent my stimulus check (Thanx George!) ($2100.00!! Thanx Kids!)on getting an addition added to my patio and a very nice hexagon shaped Gazebo over my patio. It is one of those clothe ones that you see in Wal-Mart or Lowes Garden Centers. It is 14 feet and plenty of room for a table and chairs and even a potted Tree. It is amazing what such a simple thing can do to a patio. It also is totally covered with a net so the bugs stay out.

After the Gazebo was set-up and the new patio was laid, I realized there was a problem that when I step out of my gazebo, I still had to walk on the grass to get to other side of the Gazebo. I decided that a nice half moon extension made of fancy stones would look nice to connect the two. That way I walk out and step on the stones and walk over to the other side with out getting my socks dirty. I cut everything out myself and laid a 2.5 inch concrete slab. Then the next day I poured the concrete and laid the stones evenly and nicely. Well, that was the last time I listen to the weather report. The storm that was going to stay north of us, hit us. It filled the patio and rinsed a big chunk of the concrete. The stones dried all crooked and uneven and stained with concrete. I was not a happy camper!!. It still looks okay, but that is the last DIY project I do!!

227

That’s right, I am alive. I have not felt this good in a long time! Exercising, not smoking, limited drinking, getting up early and watching what I eat really pays off. I think this is the first time I actually stuck to a schedule and it has almost been log enough to call it a routine.

I am still at the “Y” first thing in the morning ready to go. I was sick for two days and actually felt guilty for not going. I made up for it on the weekends.

I had Sarah and Joshua sign up for their weight room and start a program. They really need to exercise everyday according to their instructor. I will be satisfied if they at least go 3-4 times a week. That means though Angela will have to take them at least 2-3 times because I can take them on Saturday.

Sarah oddly enough loves it and has fun doing all the exercises on the “paper” and then she gets a sticker or stamp. Joshua’s room actually has a kid nautilus weight set which is really cool and he likes working out with the weights and spending some time on the treadmill. Joshua is the one I am concerned about because he is finally eating (after being moocho skinny his whole life) and now it seems all the food he eats sits in his belly. So he needs the extra work out. He is only 10 and actually getting food is a new concept for his stomach so I will cut him some slack, for now.

I still owe my blog some juicy rants and I still intend to post those, but like I mentioned earlier last month, going to school is dominating my free time. (oh and the fact that Joshua and I are addicted to Pirates of the Caribbean online game!!)

Oh and I am going to start tracking my weight at the end of each Blog. Why? Because its my blog and I want to!:p) Just give me a break, I was 232 a month ago and I am 6’5” so 227 is not that bad, but all the extra weight I do have is in my stomach!

Back to work.
227

So I was on vacation last week and even though I only went to the gym twice, I actually got up early every day but one. It feels real good to get up early and I get a lot done.

The reason why I did not go to the gym was I was getting enough exercise doing work around the home. I finished my split rail fence that I built by attaching the chicken wire all around it and my neighbors helped me make the gates for it.

I also created a 200’ x 3’ garden all around the border. So needless to say, my body was plenty sore because of this.

My only issue I have is that I am concerned that I am still always tired. I went to bed around 9 PM last night and got up at 4 AM. I was at the “Y” when they opened at 5 AM and worked out until 6 AM and sauna’d, showered and then went to work. I am sitting here taking a quick break and feeling awfully tired and sleepy. I am writing this in hope that I wake up!

I know exercise can wear you down, but how am I supposed to continue this if it makes me want to curl in a ball at work and go to sleep!

I am taking vitamins and eating breakfast when I get to work. I am hoping everything is alright, because I really love my new routine.

Good news! Well good news for me, bad news for the tobacco business. I finally officially kicked the habit! It has been 2 months to the date since I quite smoking!

I feel great! The trick for me to finally kick it was to experience pain in my chest first lol. It really sucks that it took an extreme measure to get me to quit, but whatever works. The problem I was experiencing was constant chest pain and it was getting harder and harder to breathe in. The funny thing is that after one month of not smoking, I was still experiencing the symptoms and it turned out to be a mixture of stress and poor lung capacity (most likely caused by smoking and not exercising at all.)

I went to the doctor to get a physical because I wanted to start going to the gym and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to drop dead from a heart attack. I mean really, the only exercise I get is walking to my car, and walking a little bit around work. The heaviest thing I lift is no heavier then 12 ounces. So I wanted to make sure that I was okay and also to talk about the fact that I run out of breathe just walking to my car. The doctor gave me some medication that I took for about 2 weeks and that seemed to clear my lungs and I am now going to the gym.

That is the hardest routine to get used to. I am trying to keep a schedule. I finally have the perfect schedule that works fine for me. I wake up at 4 am and I am waiting for the YMCA to open at 5 AM. When they open the doors I get busy. Working out and showering takes exactly 1 hour and 15 minutes. I then go straight to work. I want to do this 5 days a week.

I have read in several places that it is best to stay on this schedule even on the weekends and even if you do not go to the gym. That way your body just gets used to it. I will try to do that this weekend. The real test is next week, I am on vacation. Let’s see if I can keep it up without having an excuse to get up.

We will see.

Joshua asked his mother why they call a zipper a fly. Then almost immediately he answered his own question. He exclaimed, “Listen mommy!” He then started to zip his pants up and down. It sounds exactly like a fly zipping around. Hey who really knows? He very well may be correct.