The Harley Cruise

Again it has been a really long time since my last post. I thought I might try it one more time. I just moved to Winchester, KY and it is just beautiful here. My friend Tony came up to visit and we took a couple of Harleys for a ride of about 250 through the mountains of Eastern KY. Man what a place to ride. I have lived here for two months but hadn't gotten out much. Every weekend I would return to Indiana where the rest of my family resides so I had gotten to ride around here much. So when Tony said he would come to visit I decided to stick around for a weekend. I am so glad I did. There is a lot to see here in KY. I understand why they call it the promise land. It is absolutely breath taking.

I have one grand child now and boy does that put things in a new prospective. I really didn't want to be a grandpa but that little girl has been such a blessing that I can't believe that I didn't want to be a grandfather. It really wasn't that I didn't want to have grand children I just didn't want the stigma that goes along with it. "Grandpa" yuck. She calls be Paw Paw so I guess that's ok. Any way she is so precious that you wouldn't belive it. Now, I have two more grandchildren on the way. I am not sure that my back can take being wrapped around the little finger of three beautigul grand-daughters. WOW!!!!!

As you can tell I am having flight of ideas here tonight. I am sitting here watching the most famous of all biker movies, "Easy Rider". I never realized that I hadn't seen the whole movie before. There are lots of parts that I don't remember. But what I do remember is that they traveled acrossed the country free as birds. They are doing what I hope to be doing next year and that is riding cross country. I just hope it doesn't end up the same for us. Tony and I are planning a west coast ride next summer. This summer is a shorter ride just to the Georgia coast and maybe a ride later in the year down to Florida Keys. Stepping stones for the big ride. The longest ride I have ever taken was around 700 miles one way. We plan on doing around 2400 in two weeks next year. I can hardly wait.

Well it is getting late here in KY so I really must head off to bed. So if you happen to read this I hope to add to it in a couple of months to talk about the trip to Georgia. So until then keep it between the lines and shinny side up.

The Atlanta Cruise

It's funny the only time I think about blogging is when I spend a little time with my best friend Tony O'connor who now resides in Atlanta. It's been a while since my last entry to this blog, over two years to be exact. So those few who did check in occasionally I appologise for not keeping this thing up to date. For security reasons I had to delete one of my entries here. But now I am back.

My friend Tony has a really nice 1996 corvette and he really loves the that thing. He knows that I have always wanted one all of my life. So he has been inviting me down to go for a ride a long time. Well I finally got to meet up with him and ride in the vette during our Nashville tour back in 2005 when I first started this blog. Well it is a little over two years since then and now I have my own vette. I just recently purchased a 2007 Atomic Orange Convertible and I drove down to visit with Tony. I let him drive most of the time I was there and he fell in love with my car. I finally sold him on the idea of getting a convertible in stead of the hard top.

Any way the trip was pretty much uneventful on the way down and on the way back. I didn't get stop once. This car gets almost 26mpg even at 80 mph. And it is really comfortable. I was not tired at all when I got there. Well that's enough about the car I'll talk more about it in another post.

This was very therapuetic for me. Like I said before Tony and I have been friends along time. It is so good to be able to look back from where you came from with a friend. We shared old memories of friends and loved ones. We even talked about the long lost third musketeer who really did nothing to try to remain friends. We both decided that that was his loss not ours. It has been a very good 35 years with Tony as my friend.

Tony said something to me that even now strikes me funny. He said "I don't really know why we became such good friends." And when I look back I don't really understand it either. When I was about 10 years old tony lived across the street from me and he was sort of a bully. Now those of you who know Tony will find that hard to believe. But bare with me for a moment or two. Tony is a year older than I am and I was small for my age at that time. Now I am 6'2" and weight 220 be difference from way back then. Any way I used to save coke bottles to make a little money and stored them on our back porch and Tony and his brothers would come over and break them. I didn't do anything about it because I was afraid of Tony and his brothers. Of course there were three of them. Anyway one day we ended up wrestling in the front yard and I actually was able to beat him one day and I never was afraid of him again. I am sure that remembers this differently than I do but it happened this way. Anyway we moved shortly after that and I didn't recognize Tony when we first met at a Nazarene Church in North Little Rock, AR. Tony and I had a mutual friend mentioned earlier as the long lost Musketeer. So we ended up hanging out together. Can you see why it might be hard to understand why he and I are the best of friends? I think it is because we had so much in common.

I wouldn't want to go through life without a friend like Tony. There have been other people that we were close to that we both wish were still a part of my life but at least Tony and I have held on to a wonderful friendship. I look back at our other friend and I still feel really sad that he is not a part of this but I am said because of what he has missed out on more than I am sad for me. The funny thing is it would only take a phone call from him to rejoin the three musketeers. Maybe I should have called this the 3-Musketeers cruise. Well until next I hope you come back to my blog.

Back to the Cruise

Well it has been a while since I posted anything here. Not that it really matters, noone ever reads it. There are times when I wish I could write well enough that others would want to read what came out of my mind. Other times I couldn't care less. Anyway the cruise continues on course. I assume it's on course, I haven't run into any road blocks lately.

I have been extremely busy these past few weeks, which is why I haven't been blogging. I have been on my new job now for just over 3 months and I have to admit I didn't think it would be this big of a challenge. I didn't go in with my eyes completely closed mind you. However, I didn't really expect things to be quuite the way they were. There have been many days when I wish I could renegotiate my contract. Then there are other days when I have so many people tell me that I am doing a good job that I think I really am making a difference.

I think most people want to feel as if they are making a difference some where. It's a good feeling to be able to think you are making a difference. People tell me often that things are so much better now that I am there. It really is an ego boost. And believe me right now I could use an ego boost. Several actually. I am actually begining to think it is worth it. I like every one I work with without exception. That is very unusual. I feel very blessed in that aspect. I have a couple of assistants that have been a God send to me. With out those two ladies life could have been a lot worse.

It is also very nice to be involved in a unit that is growing. Being the manager of one of the very few profit centers in a county hospital adds pressure to the position. The growth helps ease that pressure. In this day and age when you are being asked to do more with less it is nice to be able to do more with the same. At least I haven't had to cut any positions. That would really cause problems. So I guess I don't have anything to complain about. I really should feel better now.

Now that brings me to the close of the day. I hope this finds all of you well. Have a great time with your cruise.

The Band Cruise

This cruise started on Thursday June 30, 2005. We left Columbus and spent the night somewhere in Tennessee. The rest of the band left on Friday. It was a long trip for the band, they left at 6:00pm and arrived in Hot Springs, AR at 5:30 in the morning. After getting everyone to bed we started planning the day.

Around 4:30pm the band is all packed up and ready to go. We leave the resort and head to Jacksonville, AR which is about an hour and 15 minutes from the resort we were staying in. We arrive in Jacksonville at 6:00 to set up for the next day. The first concert was set for Sunday morning at 10:00am. After we had everthing set up the band practiced the set before leaving. Chris had every one prepared as he always does. After practice we loaded everyone back into the RV and headed back to Hot Springs. We all got to bed about midnight. Most of us had to be back up again at 6:00am.

Getting everyone up and running turned out to be alot easier than I had expected. The band members left an hour before the rest of the crew. This made logistics a little easier. However on the way to the concert in Jacksonville, AR the generator went out in the RV. The Church that we went to that morning was awesome. Their was a member there that wrote the band a check for $700 to pay to fix the generator. God is so good. The pastor announced from the pulpit that the generator had died and this memeber of the church felt lead to give to this cause. The Band is so blessed. The concert was great and the Folks at the First Church of the Nazarene in Jacksonville, AR liked us enough to invite us back for next year.

From Jacksonville in the morning we went to Levy to the Grace Church of the Nazarene. This is the church that I grew up in. It had been 30 years since I left this Church to move north. I had been back a few times in the past but not on a regular basis. I was worried about how the band would be accepted here. I was really pleasantly surprised. Xtremity was very well accepted. The rock and roll sound was applauded. Grace Church has also requested that we come back next year.

This Concert was over around 7:30. After loading up all of the equipment we were blessed by the church and its members with a pizza dinner at the local Pizza Hut. This was very nice it gave the band members a chance to mingle with some of the church members. There was a good time had by all. We got back to the resort around midnight again. We were worn out.

Monday was an everyone for themselves day. Our family had a family reunion. My mom's birthday was the 4th of July. So we went back to Jacksonville where we were blessed with an indoor facility. Much nicer than what we had done in the past. With the temp near 100 and the humidity near 90% we were all pleased to be able to beinside in the airconditioning. We did however go ourside to play a little basketball.

Aaron and our drummer Q had an opportunity to witness and lead someone to Christ during this time on Monday. You never know when one might get the opportunity to share. If for no other reason this made the trip worth while.

Tuesday ended up being some what of a bomb. A few of us went to play golf and the rest just played aroung at the resort and were planning on going to a water park in the afternoon only it started raining so that was cancelled. We still had a good time, we went and purchased a Texas Hold-em Poker set. That gave us plenty to do. The nice thing is everyone got to bed at a decent time that night.

The next day was another opportunity to play around of golf. The rest of the gang was free to do as they pleased until 1:30, which was when we were to leave for the last concert of the trip. When we first decided to go on the trip, I don't think anyone realized how much work was going to be envolved. We all worked very hard to make this tour work. It turns out that it was well worth the effort.

This concert did not go off without a hitch however, when we arrived at the site of the concert it was discovered that Chris had forgotten the key to the trailer. All of our equipment was locked in the trailer. We had someone go to a nearby factory to see if they had a bolt cutter they did and very graciously offered to let us use it. After that small set back the concert went very well. The youth pastor at the Marshall Road Baptist Church had invited several other churches to the concert and there was a great turn out. Several of these churches expressed interest in having Xtremity at their church the next time we are in town. It is hard to say which concert was the best, God was present at all three.

Thursday turned out to be the highlight of the non concert days. It started off with a round of golf at the Belvedere golf club, a beautiful course. The after noon was the actually highlight. We rented a pontoon boat and two deck boats. Everyone got a chance to ski and to tube. It was a great time. Even my sister was on the tube for a while. It was great fun.

Although I am glad to be home, I really hated to see the week end. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and worship. Everyone is already looking forward to the trip next year.

Aaron's Cruise

My son Aaron is in Fort Benning, GA going to JumpSchool. He had his first jump today. The jump itself was great. He can't wait to do it again. The landing on the other hand was a little rough. He sprained his ankle really bad and may have to stay another week. I miss that kid. I was really looking forward to him coming home Friday.

Aaron and I have always been very close. I feel very responsible for him being involved with ROTC. He wants to be alot like his father. I am in the Army reserves so he is following in my footsteps. He didn't want his mom and dad to have to pay for his college so he tried out for ROTC and won a three year full ride scholarship. That was a nice little windfall. Fortunately the college that he attends, Olivet Nazarene University accepts the scholarship and then covers the room and board that the scholarship doesn't cover. The kid is really blessed.

Speaking of being blessed, he one very devoted Christian. He puts most adults to shame when you compare his spititual life with that of most Christian. He not only lives it at home or at church but also in the Army and every where else he goes. A father could not be more proud of his son than his mother and I are of him. God has truly blessed us. If you have the time say a prayer for Aaron I know he'll appreciate it.

The Techonology Cruise

My buddy, Tony has the really cool phone called Treo 650, that thing is amazing. I will have one of those one day. I have my lap top that I take just about everywhere, but can't really surf without a connection. The Treo is cellular so as long as you have a few bars you are set. Wish I was set.

This technology cruise has been very interesting. It all start for me about 10 years ago when I got my first PC. I lived in a very small town that only had dial up and it had such terrible band with that only a few people could be on at a time. Sometimes you couldn't get on until like 2am. Then there was the speed of the processor. It was so slow that I send you something snail mail it it might get there faster.

Even with all of the draw backs it was still very exciting. I remember using a sevice called VoxPhone to actually talk over the internet. I even talked to people in Australia. It was amazing. No with cable modems and DSL and processors that are 4 or more ghz. It really is vertual. Some of my family members are still in the dark ages and don't even have a computer, I would hate to be without mine. Communications are so much easier. I would venture to say that because of the info highway I have more friends than I ever would have otherwise.

When I go places on my Harley and meet new people, I stay in touch via the internet. I am certain I would not otherwise stay in touch. I talk to people that I have never meet and may never meet but my life is better for it. When I first got my computer, I was a little like Larry the cable guy. That's right I felt like I had just spent $2700.00 on a very expense deck of cards. I spent a lot of time playing solitare and freecell. Now I do so much more. Of course it would be impossible to go to school like I do without useing the internet. I love technology.

The Harley Cruise

My life is pretty much crazy most of the time. Here it is 11:55pm and I just got home form work. I have to be back in at 6:30am. I work hard and I play hard. I have a Harley Road King Custom that I love to ride. I am planning on going to the HOG Ralley in Chattanooga, TN in August if I can find some one to ride with me. You know the riding is going to be great. And the bands are unbelievable. It is going to be one rocking time. Bands include Trick Pony, SteppenWolf, Sister Hazel, Shelly Fairchild, Cowboy Mouth, Jason D. Williams, Mustang Sally, The Rounders, Collins Brothers Band, and No Axident. Ride all day Rock alnight. What a time this is going to be.

If there is anyone out there looking to ride with some one to this ralley please leave me your email. It promises to be a great time. I have been to several HOG ralleys in the past and I have always had a blast.From the rides thru the mountains to the wonderful Rock and Roll.

The amazing thing about HOG ralleys is that everyone there is instantly a friend. HOG or Harley Owner's Group really is like an extended family. I have meet people several different states and I stay in touch with most of them. I have called ahead to a HOG group in Nashville to see if I could hook up with them to go to the National Ralley in Atlanta. I spent the whole weekend with those guys and I still talk to them today. Some of the nicest people in the world ride Harleys.

Ya'll have a wonderful day and remember to keep the shiney side up.

The Work Cruise

Imentioned in my profile that I am a nurse and work for a small Rural Hospital in Indiana as the manager of the surgery department, I love my job. Today was our HFAP survey which made for a very interesting day. HFAP is our accreditation body. Anyway if you have ever been thru this process you will understand how stressful it can be. Today was especially stressful for me because I have only been on the job a month and a half. I was pretty much lost thru out. I was very fortunate to have someone from administration to help out. the process went so somthly that I can't believe I was so stressed.

I have to admit that I wasn't the only one that was stressed. My counter part on Med/Surg was beside herslef. She was really stressed out. But, from what I hear she and her department did great. We do have a great staff and administration. How many times have you ever heard anyone speak well of administration? Not very often I bet. Well it's true, at least where I work.

This is my first attempt at management in the nursing field. I have experience in other fields mainly retail along with owning my own business for a while. People are people no matter what field you are in. There are always personalities to deal with. I am very fortunate to have a very talented staff to work with. What's different is the paper work and all of the regulations that you have to deal with in the healthcare field. There are also numerous reports that have to be generated every month. It is taking some time to get it all down. Fortunately for me the previous manager is still with the organization and has been a great help to me.

Before I took this position I work in a different small rural hospital in Indiana where I was a surgical RN. I had a great shift, I worked three 12 hour shifts. I only had to work Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. I always had a 4 day weekend, who could ask for anything more? I traded those three 12 hour shifts for five of them or so it seems. I know I make less money per hour than I did in my previous position. Sometimes we should be careful of what we ask for. My problem is I find it difficult to leave if a case is still going on. I suppose I'll get over that someday, I hope.

Anybody else out there a nurse?

Nashville Cruise

Well obviously this is my first ever blog so I won't go into that. My Best friend Tony and I decided that since it had been so long since we have seen each other we should meet half way and spend the weekend together. Tony, who some of you may know from Bad Monkey No Banana, lives in Atlanta, GA, I live in Columbus, IN. Seperated by 500 miles. Needless to say we don't get together very often. He is busy with his career and family as I am with mine so it is difficult to find the time for our friendship. It is pretty amazing that we have remained friends for all of these years. There were times in our lives that we were seperated by far more than 500 miles. Tony spent eight years in the military and was shipped over seas and I was terrible about writing letters, but our friendship remains. A tribute to the both of us.

For years Tony and I have talked about going into business together and haven't been able to come up with the perfect plan. Well we think maybe we have come up with something that we both can agree upon. I am a nurse and I am the manager the surgery deparment in a small rural Indiana hospital and Tony is a manager with an international software company. A far cry from each other. But we both think that some type of service entity would be something we could do together, so we are investigating coffee shops as a possibility. So this trip to Nashville is basically two fold. We came here to spend some time together and to scope out coffee shops in the Nashville area.

It has been a very cool trip for me at least. When Tony and I would get together on that rare occasion, we would not talk to much about our past. We both had a tough childhood and we just didn't talk about to much. I look back and I think that was more of Tony's idea, he was really trying to move on because we had a great future ahead of us. Both of us have far exceeded anything that was expected of us growing up. Anyway, on this trip we have talked more about the happier times in our past than we had in of our previous encounters. It has really been an emotionally uplifting trip for me, and I think for Tony as well.

If you have been reading Tony's blog you know about his brother with cancer. This has really hit Tony hard(keep him in your prayers). I have never seen him as depressed as he has been over the past few months. I don't think he has ever felt so helpless in all his life. This in turn has made me feel like I wasn't holding up my end of the friendship. I haven't been able to help at all. So I too have felt very helpless. It is very difficult to sit by and watch someone go thru what he and his family are going thru. I believe this trip has been a God send for both of us.

Here it is the last day of the trip and we are sitting around talking and blogging and I feel very sad. It is always tough for me to leave not knowing when we'll get together again. Tony's friendship has been a blessing in my life and I would hate to think about what it would be like to not have him in my life. This time we are making plans for our next trip. He and I both are interested in Corvettes so our next trip will be to the Corvette museum in Bowling Green, KY.