It's been a while...

For three summers, '98, '99, & '00, I worked at the Boy Scout camp - Camp Tukabatchee. Before working at the camp, I spent many years as a camper, enjoying the finer things of camping out in the woods during the summer months.


Summer of 1998. The first summer there. I taught rowing, swimming, small boat sailing, and assisted with the lifeguard training. It's hard to tell, but that's me on the front row, third from the left.
Summer of 1999. This was the last year that we (the scouts) used the camp for the Boy Scouts. Instead, camp was moved a few miles down the road, a new camp was opened up, and the old camp was turned over to the cub scouts. The new camp, kept the same Camp Tukabatchee name, while the old camp became Camp Hobbs.

I did the same in 1999. Again, first row, third from the left.
Unfortunately, the first summer at the new camp, 2000, just didn't happen. The photos either didn't get taken, or have gotten misplaced.

Either way, it's still fun to think of the times there...

Who doesn't love numbers

So this morning, after my run, I sat down to log my run data in and was a little shocked by some of the stats I saw, regarding my training gear.

Most of this stuff is either in my gym bag, or the back seat of my truck, so it's there, and apparently, put through it's paces.

For the swim:
Goggles - 133mi
Training trunks - 16mi
Swim paddles - 112mi
Swim fins - 95mi
Yearly Total - 141mi

For the bike:
Bike - 884mi
Bike shoes - 801mi
Yearly Total - 1093mi

For the run:
Shoes - 247mi
Yearly Total - 268mi

Looks like I made my 1500mi goal for the year - and I still have 3months!

Congrats to Kym & Michael

Some congratulations are in order for some really good friends of ours. This is their countdown week to the big day!

Congratulations!

We're both looking forward to celebrating the big day with them! Hopefully, they'll let me share more photos of the event itself.

Should be a great weekend!

Alabama vs Virginia Tech photos

Just a few random photos from our weekend in Atlanta, Ga for the Alabama vs Virginia Tech football game.

I know, I'm slow...but enjoy anyways.

From the seats:

The pregame festivities included Chick-fil-a flying their blimp around, while dropping little cows amongst the fans. It was pretty cool.Of course, Bethany was ready for the game to start.

Let the game begin!

We landed some pretty good seats and enjoyed quite a great ball game. The only problems that we ran into were the issues with the hotel..

Back on my feet

So, I've finally managed to kick the crud to the street. It's out. As a matter of fact, Bethany's finally kicked hers out to the street too.

It's about time too!

Unfortunately, the flu (or crud or whatever it was) has not been fun. It took me out for almost a week. In the big scheme of things, that's not too long, but in the short term, that's awful. I went a week without doing anything. No running. No biking. No swimming. NOTHING.

This week, getting back, has been just as bad!

Tried to swim on Monday - we called it "preventive drowning". Tough. No form. No lungs. Nada.
Tried to run on Tuesday - Not too bad. 3mi. 3 long painful miles
Spent yesterday recovering
Finally ran again today - 6mi. A really good 6mi.

So, it's taken almost another week for me to recover from this crap and get back on my feet! Now, if the sun would come out, I may be able to get some miles on the bike, and we'll see how well that goes!

Oh, speaking of getting back out - Bethany's finally getting back to the office. Not sure why, but the dr.'s actually quarantined her for 5 days due to whatever she had.

I hate being sick

I don't get sick very often. Usually it's the yearly sinus infection (fall & spring) and then the occasional cold. Nothing bad.

However, this one is horrible.

Went in to the doctor yesterday with a fever of 102.7 and all the signs of the flu - sore throat, vertigo, coughing, fever, chills, and a headache. Luckily the flu test came back negative, but they aren't taking chances. I've been told to stay home, drink, eat, and take the meds.

Oh joy!

UA vs VA Tech weekend recap

Part of our holiday weekend included us going to Atlanta, Ga for the University of Alabama vs Virginia Tech football game. And what a great game it was!

The great football weekend went a little something like this:

Sat - noon
Left home heading to Atlanta, GA. Driving straight to the stadium and getting ready for the game. The excitement was awesome.

Sat - 3:30 - 6:00pm
Arrived at the dome, found our parking spot and decided to make our way to the "festivities" throughout the area. We passed on the "fan fare" this year, just because we went last year and really weren't impressed with everything. So, instead we sat around waiting for the dome to open, while watching the GA vs OK State game.

Sat - 6:00pm
Started heading into the dome. Just walked a couple of blogs, down some stairs and into the gates...Pretty easy. Oh, and this year, they let me take my camera into the stadium (unlike last year)! Once inside, we found dinner and watched the pregame warmups!

Sat - 8:00pm - 12:15am
Football. Good football. Excellent seats. Yea, we had fun. We'll post some pictures soon.

Sun - 12:30am
We showed up at our hotel (The Emory Inn) to find out our reservations had been cancelled! That's funny because just earlier this week, I called to confirm the room and the late arrival. Guess that didn't help much!

Did I mention the activities in Atlanta over the weekend? Try a NASCAR race, the football game, DragonCon Sci Fi convention, a parade, and a womens conference. Yea, the hotel was booked out, and there we are with our reservations that now don't exist!

Sun - 1:00am
The Emory Inn has managed to call their sister hotel (The Emory Conference Center) to get us a room. We'll have to drive, park in a seperate deck, walk forever, but we'll have a room. For that hassle, it would almost be easier to drive back home.

Sun - 1:30am
We're in the new room. Wanna know what that hotel had some vacancies? They were the handicap rooms. Guess by 1:30am, they can rent them out...

Sun - 2:00am
Finally, able to go to bed! Awesome. I'm wiped out.

Sun - 10:30am
Heading home. Breakfast at the "Original Pancake House", a stop by Trader Joe's, then the interstate home.

A little taxing and nerve wrecking, but still a great weekend!

Roll Tide.

Football Week

College Football is starting. The countdown is almost over. This weekend is it...

Alabama vs Virgina Tech - Atlanta, Ga


Roll Tide!

Installed...

...with a few modifications of course.

Seems like we've been having to make some appliance upgrades lately, and the washer and dryer were no exception.

Our washing machine has been trying to "fly" as of late. When entering the spin cycle, it sounded as though an airplane was flying through the house. We could shut the doors and still hear it throughout. Something was amiss and it was letting us know.

The dryer, well it was over 10yrs old, running on it's second heating element and didn't always get everything dry. It was nearing the end of it's life too.

Luckily we came across a deal and found a few replacements.

The Washer & Dryer:

They were delivered today, without too much of an issue...

First off, after the dryer was installed, we checked the clearance to the doors and noticed the doors wouldn't close. The dryer was too deep. After looking and investigating, we realized we could move the doors (track mounted) out about a half inch and it would work.

The delivery folks made note, removed the doors, installed the units, then told me how to move the doors and make it work.

Appliances delivered - Problem in progress.

After about 30mins, we managed to move the doors forward and reset them as needed to make them work. Bethany was determined to have new appliances. Now though, looking into the room, we have just about a half inch from the face of the washer and dryer to the inside edge of the door.

Talk about cutting it close!

(We're actually going to research some wider doors, do away with the track mounting, and see if that will increase our clearance any)

New ride, new route, new rules

I went on a new local ride through Birmingham this week, and made the realization, that I an nowhere near the cyclist I thought I was.

I joined the Vulcan Triathletes for a ride on Tuesday and learned real quickly, in a race, they would have absolutely smoked me. And smoked me bad.

We took out from the parking lot on a 30mi medium intensity ride. When we left, there were close to 30 of us heading out. As we progressed further and further, the group started dwindling as they took different routes through the city. I stuck with the original group, and this is where I probably went wrong.

Once out of traffic, we started climbing. I'm weak in the climb, so I tucked in behind a fellow rider and just held in the draft. As I looked down, I noticed we were moving pretty close to 17mph, which was pretty tough. Just as I realized this, the ride leader makes the announcement "Now is generally where we pick up the pace some..." Great.

Less than halfway through and they've picked up the pace to near 18mph in a climb. It was all I could do to keep 10ft between me and the next cyclist. The struggling was obvious.

As we pushed on, yes, the distance increased. I just realized I needed to pedal, pedal hard, and try to at least keep the others in my sights. And this is where this ride differs from the other rides. Most of the other rides I go on are sponsored by the bike shop. They are determined to keep everyone together and keep an easy pace. The Vulcan guys, not so much.

After the climb, we even out, get on a nice 4 lane and I manage to recover a little. A little! I start closing the gap, feeling good, only to realize I'm closing the gap on a different group of cyclist and these folks aren't heading back to my starting point.

I've been dropped. Somewhere out by the Birmingham race course, and I'm by myself. Halfway knowledgeable about where I'm going and desperately hoping to beat the dark. After a few wrong turns, some backtracking, and luckily catching up with the original group again, I was back on track and heading home.

I pulled into the parking lot probably 10-15mins after the main group and happy to have completed the ride.

Total - 30 miles, 1hr 35mins,

Call me crazy, but I'm going to do it again this week....

Moving to the dark side

We've moved to the dark side, and now I wonder what's been taking us so long to make the switch.

Bethany and I have been talking of an Apple for the last couple of years and now that our main computer croaked, we decided we'd investigate properly.

Off to the Apple Store. There happens to be an Apple store just a few miles from us, so we paid them a visit. Where else are you supposed to hang out on Friday afternoons? We looked at the iMac's, the software, talked to some of the specialists, got some prices, and moved on.

They have a current "education" special that's pretty hard to beat right now too. Between $50-$100 off the price of the computer, a free 8gb iTouch, a free all-in-one printer, and a discounted 3yr service plan.

We liked what we saw, but we wanted to shop around.

Off to Best Buy. Call me crazy, but I like Best Buy. I always have. They seem to do pretty good and doing me right and helping me out. Well, knowing they were an authorized retailer of Macs and PCs, we did some side by side comparisons. The desktops were not near as neat and clean looking, and we needed something with more horsepower than a laptop.

We questioned the "education" special to see if they'd honor some price matching...

This is where things went odd.

The ever abundant Geek Squad approached and offered his advice and expertise. Our conversation went a little like this:

ME: You're an authorized retailer, and Apple has an education special going on which includes $100 off the computer, an 8gb iTouch, a free printer, and a 3yr warranty plan; will you honor that?"

HIM: Have you thought about the warranty? Our Black Tie Protection? It covers better than the Apple Plan. Ours is accidental too. (Their plan was twice the Apple Care plan)

ME: Yes. I plan on using the one included with the education plan. Do you honor it though?

HIM: I'm not sure. I'll have to check with a manager. We have printers for $30 too, so I wouldn't be too concerned over that.

ME: I'm not. It's just in their package.

HIM: Ok. I'll be right back.

*Queue the Jeopardy theme music

HIM: Ok. The best I can do is knock $150 off the computer price. The rest are rebates and we don't match it.

ME: But you're an authorized retailer. You can't match the adds from your supplier?

HIM: Nope.

ME: Well, sorry we're not buying it here.

Needless to say, we went back to the Apple Store. And since this is a personal blog, I'll write my feelings about them too.

I waited WAY TOO LONG to make my purchase. I knew what I wanted, yet I found it odd that I had to wait as long as I did to seal the deal. After nearly 30mins of toying around, we were finally seen and given our merchandise. Once helped though, it was a breeze!

Walking out, it felt like we had hit a gold mine. Our loot:

a 24" iMac

an 8gb ipod Touch

an HP all in one Printer

a 3yr Apple Care Warranty

I'd say it turned out pretty well! And now the desk is clean and neat, and nothing could make it too much better.

When it rain...

...it pours!

So far we've had the misfortune of running into some problems throughout the week, and they just keep getting better...

#1. Our computer hiccupped and died. It won't boot.

Not sure what's going on, but I woke in the middle of the night to see the infamous "blue screen" and upon restarting - nothing. It goes to the welcome screen and stops. There's no telling what the culprit is. The highlight - I luckily backed up the MyPhotos and MyMusic folders to an external drive a few days prior. Now to go computer shopping.

#2. Our Jeep is having issues...again.

Seems that it's about time to have more car issues. The electric motor that holds the driver door window up broke. When it broke, the glass went down with it. Apparently, it's a pretty common problem in the vehicle. And seems that Chrysler hasn't done anything to help fix the problems that everyone's facing.

#3. Glass is fragile.

Remember that window motor that broke? I attempted to do my part and slide the glass back up in place for the night. Well, since it was in the door, I used a small pair of pliers. In doing so, apparently, I pressed too hard and shattered out the driver side window. Now, I'm out a window motor and a window...

That's three. Hopefully we're done for a while!

Performance

It's all about Performance....




Everybody needs a good laugh on Mondays.

Catch up

Quite a bit has happened lately. Guess it's time to catch up a little...

#1. I'm home.
The FEMA assignment is over for my part and I'm heading back into my normal line of work. The trip was good and I was able to work with a great group of guys. We made short work of the disaster and got our applicants back on their feet. Win - win situation. Now, back to a normal routine

#2. My yard is a disaster.
It's been tough for Bethany to keep up with the yard, entertain guests, and come south to see me at times. She's done what she could, and I commend her for it, but the yard still looked bad when I showed up.

For one, she hates bagging grass clippings, therefore, she cuts it high to keep the clippings to a minimum. I'm the opposite. I ended up mowing the yard nearly 6hrs just to get the height down and all the grass clippings up. There are 10 bags of clippings on the street.

#3. My honey-do list has been significantly reduced.
Mow & edge the yard - DONE
Repair/Replace rotten porch column - DONE
Trim hedges - DONE
Repair/Replace rotten screen porch door - DONE
Expand patio and create french drain for drainage - NOT YET

#4. My sister graduated from The University of Alabama
She graduated on Saturday, so we spent the weekend in Tuscaloosa watching her ceremony and enjoying the reception afterwards.
Congratulations, on a job well done!
Heading to get the infamous "cardboard in a nice sleeve".
It was a blast getting to see her walk across the stage and get her diploma (even if the real one is in the mail!). She worked hard and deserved every minute of it!

#5. I'm getting sick.

I'm supposed to start back with my normal routine on Monday. I think this head cold I have is trying to change my mind. The first time this whole year, and now I'm battling sinuses.

Freewheeling 'Four-Wheel Bob'

Remember Bob Coomber from a while ago? Well ABC news has finally found him too...

Freewheeling 'Four-Wheel Bob'

Talk about dedication...