Day Fifty Four

OK...so my back is finally feeling better. It's still a little tweaked out, but it's definitely better. I got out to work aroudn 6am and tried to get on the bike, but it was hurting, so I walked around for a while. I put a new printer in and installed some new peripherals on the shop computers in the hangar. Had a nice conversation with Shalene this morning. She always brightens my morning. It's just nice having a conversation that doesn't make me wanna reset my brain to get rid of the garbage for the day. :) I made some more ID badges today for some employees and we took some pictures of a customers instrument panel because it is without a doubt a work of art. We had a decent lunch and I worked on some more stuff for our new clients in the corporate office. I'm always looking for a new project. I love projects. I was looking to find something to do this weekend. I don't know what to do. I wanted to go to Rockford to see a friend's band play, but I've got no one to go with me, so I'm gonna skip it. Maybe I'll go to the flying field and hang out there during the day or something. We'll see. Tonight we went to Outback with my mom, dad, Megan, Josh and Matt. Was a nice dinner. When we came home, they all wanted to go out for ice cream, so I took them to Oberweis. It sucked watching everyone eat delicious shakes...oh well. It really sucks when they all go "Why didn't you get something??" It's so embarrassing to say I didn't want anything because it's making me fatter, but it shouldn't be embarrassing. I should be proud of it. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning. I don't want to get up before 9am. I'm debating on going to get an eye exam tomorrow so I can get the F rid of these god damn nerdy glasses. Every time I look in the mirror, I see the face that I can't stand looking at. I HATE the way I look in glasses. I am tired of the nerdy look. I wanna go get an exam and get contacts. I only got these glasses because I couldn't afford contacts. I can't afford them now either, but I really need to get rid of these...they're just getting on my nerves. Well, I'm going to bed. I'm crabby and tired! :) Been up since 4am, I deserve a good nights sleep and some peace and quiet tonight. :) Goodnight friends. Catch you on the flipside.

Day Fifty Three

My back finally feels better today. I am so glad I'm feeling better. I still have spasms here and there, but they're manageable. I got a lot done at work today. I started making ID badges for all the employees so that took up a lot of my time. At the end of the day, I went over to the corporate hangar and finished setting up the new office for our new tenants. I got to finally mess with VLANs! I love VLANs...so much easier to deal with! It allows me to create a network within a network without extra hardware. I love it...yes, I'm a nerd. Bite me. :) I am planning on riding in the morning...after I take some ibuprofen! After I got done with that, it was late and I headed home. I'd had enough with my head of hair this week and decided to stop and get a haircut. Feels and looks so much better! On the way home, I called Butch and we went out and had dinner to wind down from the day. I hope this weekend is decent...I'm looking forward to relaxing because I know next week I have to work all weekend. We'll see what this weekend brings! I'm off to bed...gotta be up early! Hope you all have a great night. It's cold out! Stay warm tonight. I'm going to bundle up in my pillows and double blankets tonight. Good sleeping weather! Goodnight, friends...catch you on the flipside.

Day Fifty Two

Today was pretty rough again. My back feels better than it did yesterday, but just about every hour, I would have these horrible spasms and my back would totally tense up and just send pain thru my whole body. It was bad. I was on my feel a lot today trying to stretch out because the more I sat in that stupid office chair, the worse the pain got. I ended up staying the whole day, but I was dying to go home around noon. I managed to get a lot done, but the fact that I'm still in pain and not able to workout is really bothering me. I'm so upset that I can't keep the momentum up that I had going this week...I was on a total roll! I have a great support system at work. Everyone is rooting me on. Even Al came up to me this morning and asked why he hasn't seen me riding my bike this week. Man, I wish I was! I really do. Maybe Friday I can start riding again...I have a feeling tomorrow will be bad again, because laying in bed is just not working either right now. I'm still having some bad spasms every now and then. I took some ibuprofen and I'm waiting for that to kick in. I know I should take it slow, but damn it, I want to lose more weight. Now that I've had a taste of it, I can't help but feel like I'm not losing it fast enough. I know that's not a healthy situation to be in I guess, but it's how I feel. There is so much I want to do...I feel like it's Christmas week and the week is going SOOOO SLLLLLOOOOWWWW. I'm kind of hating my drives to and from work. Too lonely. I just have all this time to think about this journey and how I feel like I'm going to be alone until I get in shape. I hate that I feel like that. I really do. So, I turn on the radio and listen to sports talk...yikes! I just wanna make someone really happy and I guess I'll get that chance someday, but man...it sucks to wait! I don't even have prospects! So sad...:) Well, I'm going to put my mask on and hit the sack. Goodnight, friends...catch you on the flipside.

Day Fifty One

One word today...pain. I am going to make an appointment at a chiropractor tomorrow. I laid in bed pretty much all day long and watched TV and just tried to rest my back. I stretched as much as I could and took a super hot shower. That seemed to help. I have been taking lots of pain meds to keep from going insane, so it's feeling better now. I finished fixing Emily's laptop tonight and dropped it off tonight. I hope tomorrow is better. I kinda hate being at home with nothing to do. Too much time to sit and think about what I need to get done. I'm going to cut this short tonight so I can do some laundry and get to bed tonight. I will write a lot more tomorrow night for sure. Got lots on my mind. I just want to get back to my workouts and keeping my mind focused on that...

I hope you all are having a good night. Goodnight, friends. Catch you on the flipside...

Day Fifty

I can't believe it's been fifty days. I started the day off by waking up at 5am and looking out the window and seeing lightning...no bike riding for today! :( I went right back to sleep and woke up at 7am. I got up, dressed and went to work. When I got to work, I went to step out of the truck and heard a pop in my back and almost collapsed from the breathtaking pain. I don't know what happened, but it was pretty painful! I stuck it out as long as I could at work and went home to lie down. When I got home, no position felt better to lay in so I popped some more ibuprofen. I'm hoping things feel better in the morning. I want to get back to riding and walking. I don't want to stop. I had a dream last night that made me really feel happy. Brought back some good memories and I want to be healthy so I can achieve some new things. I know, it's going to take time, but I just want it so bad. I'll get there. Well, here's to feeling better in the morning. If not, I'll probably stay home and do some work from here. I just want this to go away. I hate feeling like an old man! Damn it, I wanna be in awesome shape so I can run around again.

Hope you all have a good night. Goodnight, friends. Catch you on the flipside...

Day Forty Nine

Slept until 10am this morning! I was up most of the night though...I couldn't sleep and actually came downstairs and slept on the couch for a while. That didn't work too well either. I got up and we had a nice breakfast. Josh, Matt, Megan and I drove up to Volo to look at boats today. Josh and Megan are thinking about buying a new boat for next year. We had a nice long drive. 3 hours! We came up to watch the Bears game and then headed back here for dinner and had brats. It was a very uneventful day for sure, but I'm hoping to get some decent sleep tonight. I'm not off to a great start as it's 10pm and I'm still not in bed yet. :) I hope you all had a great weekend and I hope you have a good night. I'm off to bed. Goodnight, friends...catch you on the flipside.

Day Forty Eight

Well, not much to write about today. I was pretty boring today. I woke up late and had breakfast with Matt. Matt, Megan and Josh went to a party, so I was on my own all day. I went and got new tires put on the Suburban. I didn't really have the money, but it really needed to be done. I guess I'm better off this way. I got a decent deal on them, so... I came home and picked up Josh and Megan's dog and took him home. I decided to go to the flying field to see if any of my friends were out there and there were a couple, so I figured I'd stay and chat for a while. I ended up flying two airplanes that weren't mine. Every time I go out there, everyone begs me to start flying again because they miss me out there. Next year I will...My friend Ernie was there and he noticed that I'd been losing weight. He was really happy that I've been working on it. That was pretty cool. Came home and watched a little tv and had a sandwich for dinner. I'm watching Erin Brockovich and then I'm off to bed. I hope you all are having a good night. Goodnight, friends...catch you on the flipside.

Day Forty Seven

So, I got about 10 hours of sleep last night and woke up around 5am. I had taken a shower last night, so I got up, dressed and went to work to ride. I did 13.6 miles today. I was pretty proud, yet I ran out of time...that was disappointing, but it's my longest ride yet. Felt pretty good. Work was pretty uneventful today. I got some loose ends tied up and then worked on a friend's computer after work. I ended up sticking around a little later and talking with a few of the pilots that were waiting for their passengers and had some good laughs. I can't wait to fly. I can't wait to get in shape so I can find that guys inside me that's ready to settle down and date again. I've been lonely lately and would really like to find someone. Other days I can't even imagine it and feel like I need to just get myself into a normal position physically before I try anything. I missed out on a lot in my last relationship because of my weight and I don't want to do that again to anyone else or myself for that matter. Oh well, I'm on that track, it would just be nice to have someone to talk to about my day and go hang out with after work again... I just miss it so much. I know, I'll get there, just going to take some time. Tonight I had dinner with Butch and my brothers and now I'm home writing and working on a friend's laptop. Seems like that's all I do anymore is work, but I guess it's better than sitting around being miserable. I'd rather be busy. Well, tomorrow is a lazy day I think. I hope you're all having a good night. Catch you on the flipside. Goodnight.

Day Forty Six

I guess things have a way of working themselves out. I started this day at 2am by coughing and sneezing so much I couldn't keep my CPAP mask on. So, my sleep sucked again. I plan on going to bed super early tonight. I decided to stay in this morning and relax. I felt like I was getting a cold, so I took some airborne on the way to work and got some breakfast. I had a pretty tough day at work, but we got thru it all. I got some backups restored and then went to the corporate hangar to wire up the wall jacks for some new clients. Really happy about getting that accomplished so I don't have to go in this weekend. They're moving in next Friday I think. Tomorrow, I plan on getting up super early and hitting the bike hard. I was pretty disappointed that I didn't feel good enough to hit the bike, but tomorrow is another day. I have been feeling pretty dehydrated lately and I think I'm going to start drinking water like crazy and give up Diet Coke...we'll see how that goes. I'm a little broken up today because I'm pretty sure I drove someone away from me by opening my big mouth. I said something I probably should have kept to myself and I'm afraid I drove them away for good. I guess I'll know if I never hear from them again... :(

I'm off to bed. I need to sleep this sickness away. I can't believe I'm going to bed at 8pm...I must be crazy, but I'm tired! I hope you all have a great night. Catch you on the flipside.

Day Forty Five

Well, I had a pretty damn good day today. I got up early and got moving. I felt like crap when I woke up, but I think it's because I didn't do well with my mask last night. I woke up without it, so I think I slept pretty bad. Took a shower and headed out at about 6am. Got to work and took off on the bike immediately. I got the first two laps out of the way and my legs got past the fatigue soreness and the rhythm started. Before I knew it, I was 6 miles into it and stopped to adjust my shoe. When I checked the telemetry on my phone, I realized it was about 7:15am or so. I figured I'd ride for another 20 min and then hit the shower and change my clothes. So, I started a timer on my phone and THOUGHT I hit the start button. On one of the laps, I noticed one of our mechanics pulling into the parking lot and I know he doesn't usually get to work until around 8am, so I looked at my phone and to my surprise, it was 7:57am!!! Holy crap, how far did I ride?!? I went 12.4 miles! Holy crap, longest ride yet. If I hadn't realized it was 8am, I would have kept going. I felt great! So, I rode back over to corporate...took a quick shower and got dressed and went to work.

I had a great day working and had a pretty good day conversing with my friends at work...one of those "Fuel each other's fire!" kind of days. :) She knows who I'm talking about. LOL. After lunch, our owner came walking across the parking lot. He is pretty amazing. I gotta explain something about him, when I was 17, I was under a Cessna degreasing it with a bottle of degreaser, a brush and a hose and I was covered in grease at about 8pm and Bernie came out of the office(he was working late that night) and told me to get out from under the plane. I was certain I was in deep shit. He handed me an envelope and told me to make something good happen out of it and told me I had qualities that reminded him of his late son. I didn't open it until I got home, but he awarded me the scholarship that they always give out as a memorial of his son. I never had applied or anything...I was dumbfounded. He's always been one of those men that I look at and think "Some day, I want to be just like him and be as honest, caring, hard-working, and generous as he. Anyways, I haven't seen him in over a month...I don't think I've seen him since I started this new lifestyle. He walks in and jokingly says "Who's the skinny dude in the corner over there? Doesn't Mike work for us anymore!?!? Huh!?" as he was kind of laughing. I knew he was messing around. :) He came in and patted me on the back and he said "I saw you riding today, and you keep doing what you're doing and everything will fall into place. You're doing great as usual and you're gonna be very happy!" That was probably the best thing to happen to me this summer. I just couldn't do anything but smile all day long.

I drove home and enjoyed the air. I had the windows down, sunroof open and the music up. We had Jersey Mike's for dinner and watched a couple of episodes of House and watched the new episodes of Modern Family while doing some work for my second job. Now, it's time to do some laundry, take a shower and go to bed. Can't wait to sleep. Believe it or not, I'm not really tired, but I'm going to go to bed anyways.

Hope you're all having a good night! Goodnight all...Catch you on the flipside.

Day Forty Four

Well, I waaay overslept this morning. I didn't wake up until 7:15am! I was so pissed. So, I got up and ran into work. Every day I'm crossing my fingers because I'm scared that my tire is going to blow out. I need to get it fixed this weekend. I came across a weird problem at work today. We have two computers at our front desk and I use one machine to share a printer. Well, the one that uses the shared connection couldn't print to the printer. I tried everything, rebooted switches, repaired connections, re-installed drivers on the one machine...everything! When I had checked the event logs, I saw a time service event, so I decided to check the time on the machine. If time doesn't match the server time, network problems occur bigtime. The computer I was using was correct, BUT the one hosting the printer was two days off! Someone changed the time and date on the hosting machine. I was so pissed! Who does that!?!? It was the last thing I would have thought to check, but believe you me...I will be taking that into consideration now! I swear...if there is a place to really learn about computers, it's where I work. Everyone makes you think because it never ceases to amaze me what they can do to a computer. Really.

When I got home, I took Matt over to the new HHGregg store to get an Apple TV. That thing is pretty cool! Really neat features for sure! Play videos from your iphone or ipad and pictures and stuff...pretty awesome. I'm off to bed now. Wanna get up early and ride! Can't wait to start another day. I might write more in the morning. I have more to say. Battery is dying on my laptop though. Goodnight friends! Catch you on the flipside...

Day Forty Three

Woke up around 5am this morning. I had to put a new computer in Dustin's office and make sure that it was running before he got back into work so he could work. I got in, got out and had it running before he got in. Damn, I'm good. Although it doesn't change the fact that I had to work all weekend. I really want to take a day off this week to make up for it though. Had lots to do today and got a bunch done. I left an hour early to go get my tire looked at. It's had a slow leak for about a month now and they told me that it was to a point that it needs to be replaced. I can't believe tires are so damn expensive for my Suburban. They want $200 per tire...I think that is absolutely insane. I would be so much better off buying two tires and having a buddy put them in for me. I gotta look around. They told me that a blow out could happen at any time, but I don't have the cash to buy new tires. They wanted to sell me two new tires and I would have done it if I had $400 to blow, but I don't. I'm trying desperately to get my damn money under control and pay off everything I have under my belt. We'll see what I can find. Dan and Emily had a dead wireless router in the house and they had bought a new one and Emily's laptop gave up on her. Needs a new hard drive. :( I got the router fixed and took the laptop home to see if I had a spare hard drive laying around. I guess I don't. I gotta keep looking. I hate seeing my friends have issues that I can help with. Hope I can help!

Time to go to bed...I'm tired. I feel better than I did yesterday, but I'm still getting thru things. Hopefully I have a good workout tomorrow. I need one bad. I really need to make sure things keep on track. I want this...I NEED this. It's a moral imperative. ;) (Name the movie)

Hope you're all having a good night. Goodnight, friends. Catch you on the flipside...

Day Forty Two

Hmm...not sure what to write about tonight. I feel like these posts are starting to be repetitious and maybe it's time for a break, but I think this is something I need to stick with. I had kind of a weird day today. Got up and took a shower and got dressed. We went out to breakfast with Josh, Megan, Matt and Mom and Dad. We went out to Eggsclusive out in Sycamore. It was great. Never bad. I drove out there by myself because I had to go out to work to work on a computer that had to be reformatted by tomorrow. The drive time yields lots of free time to think. I think about me, my quest to be healthy, the past, the future...It kinda sucks in a way. I weighed myself this morning. I lost the 4 lbs that I gained last week, but I feel like I've lost more than that. I can feel it in my clothes. My jeans are falling off of me and I had to drill a new hole in my belt this morning. I think I'm going to start weighing in every two weeks from now on...seeing the scale be stationery sucks and I get down on myself. I had one of those days today where I just miss a lot of the past. I miss how my life was when I was with my ex girlfriend. I had so much to do all the time, I had that family feeling, I felt like I was making someone really special very happy. That's all I want to do is make someone great really happy and have a wonderful family. Most days, I do just fine and then I have one of those days where I just completely miss her and her daughter. A part of me was brought out by those two that I never knew existed and now that part of me has gone back into hiding and I want him back sometimes. I know, it's been over two months and it's time to move on, but then days like this just creep up on me. Oh well, tomorrow is another day for sure. On a separate note, I have a slow leak in a tire on my truck and I need to get it fixed tomorrow. I can probably go to work safely with it, but it needs to be fixed on the way home for sure, so I made an appointment to get it fixed. I have warranties on my tires, so let's hope they cover it. I don't feel like shelling out $120 for a new tire. Bears disappointed today, but that's ok, they'll bounce back! I hope this rain goes away so I can walk/ride tomorrow morning. Emily ran a half marathon today and I'm so proud of her. One of these days I'll be able to run with her. Well, I'm off to watch some Sunday Night Football and do a little laundry. I hope you all had a great weekend, and hope you have a great night! Goodnight, friends. Catch you on the flipside...

Day Forty One

Slept in a little bit this morning. Got up and realized that I had broken my CPAP mask in the middle of the night. I ripped the front piece out and threw the mask across the room. Again! I don't remember doing it, but I remember having a recurring frustrating dream and I was probably upset. Anyways, it's fixed. Got up and went to breakfast with Matt and came home to clean the yard. We borrowed Josh's tow behind yard sweeper. That thing rocks! Made the yard look amazing. I am looking forward to using it after all the leaves fall. After that, Matt went to work and I took a nap. I haven't napped in over two years! After my nap I went to work and reorganized my electronics rack in the data center because it's been driving me nuts. It looked so horrible and I have been wanting to reorganize it badly for some time now. Did that and came home to help Matt powerwash the driveway and some other stuff and had dinner with my family. We sat outside tonight and had a fire. We're going out for breakfast in the morning, so that'll be good. Looking forward to another night of rest. I'm exhausted! I hope all of you had a good night! Goodnight friends... Catch you on the flipside.

Day Forty

Well, today was kind of boring. Had this lonely feeling today. Just felt like there wasn't much going on all of a sudden. Probably because I had so much work to do. Got a lot done today for sure. Lots of stuff to do tomorrow too. Went out to Outback tonight with a friend, my brothers and sister in law. Had a lot of fun. When I got home, I could just totally feel that I've been losing weight. Before I started this journey, my jeans were always really tight and I had one hole left to use on my belt. today when I was walking into the house, I found that I had to hold my pants up... And that was with the belt as tight as it will go. So, I know it's disappearing! Slowly but surely. Just thought I'd share the info. I'm sorry I'm not writing a lot tonight. I'm really tired tonight and can't wait to hit the sack. Hope everyone had a great day and a great night. Goodnight friends, catch you on the flipside.

Day Thirty Nine

Frozen!!! I'm still cold! I got up nice and early, but didn't get out to the bike ride until a little after 6:30. When I took off, my boss was out on the road running, so I followed him. He did great! Kinda cool to know that there's someone else out there working hard too. I did the lap up to the Honda Ramp and back and did about 4 more laps around our ramp befor I was completely and utterly frozen to the core. My hands were blue and my eyes were tearing up. When I got inside, I started coughing so hard I almost passed out. I guess my lungs just were not up to this cold just yet. I worked pretty hard today on those hills and I was breathing pretty hard, so my lungs got a good workout. I coughed until like 2pm...horrible! Had some good laughs with Al today. What a good buddy. He's the man. He needs to hire me for line service. He would have me slimmed down in a heartbeat! When I got home, I went for a little ride and then hung out at Josh's for a bit and now I'm home working on some stuff. I'm STILL cold! Can't wait to go up and curl up in bed and crash. I really want to sleep in tomorrow, but maybe I will do that Saturday morning. :) I have to work this weekend, but oh well. Just let me sleep in a little! :)

Hope you all had a great day and are having a great night... goodnight, Friends. Catch you on the flipside...

Day Thirty Eight

Great day today. Started out with a great bike ride. I rode 10.3 miles today. Kept a steady pace and did it with no problem. Yep, I was tired, sore and had a hard time finishing, but it was good. I felt really good about it. Got into work and got a new product added to the store and put out some releases. A buddy at work bought me lunch for helping him out with some stuff at home with his computer. We had a nice talk. Talked about the events over the summer, what his brother and sister have been up to...good talk. His sister and I were very close a few years back and there are days I still miss the talks she and I used to have. She was my biggest fan. :) After we talked, I got a few more things done and went back to the office. I came back to seeing Tex, one of the pilots at work waiting for me in my office. When we talked, he said it looked like I've noticeably lost some weight...that's two people in two days that have said that to me...I must be doing something right! I left work and grabbed a sandwich for dinner on the way home and did a few things on the computer. I'm watching a few episodes of House and then I'm off to bed. I hope all of you have a great night tonight! Thanks for reading my ramblings again...catch you on the flipside! :)

Day Thirty Seven

Life has some interesting moments. Little things here and there remind me of who I really am and who I really strive to be. I never realized how addicting exercise could be. I took off on my bike this morning and headed for a loop around the airport. Went from the Mike ramp parking lot all the way over to JA and did a loop and went back. Only like 3.5 miles, but the bike broke as I got back around the truck, so I had to stop. Walked a little and then went to work. I have a new project to take care of at work now, so this weekend should be interesting. I have a lot I want to do to the rack in the IT room, so this weekend may be a perfect time to get it done. I was supposed to go down to Monticello this weekend to help out with a contest, but I need to get this project done and I have to do it alone, so I guess I'm staying here. Shame, cuz I was really looking forward to going down there. :( I really need to take some time off soon I think. I need to do some more soul searching and relax.

When I got home this afternoon, I went and sat outside with my mom and talked. When I walked up, she had asked me how much weight I've lost and I said "I don't know the exact number, but why?" She said "I can tell you've lost weight!" That felt so good to hear. I haven't heard it from anyone else really voluntarily out of nowhere, but it felt good to hear. I can't wait to get to bed tonight...I'm so tired. I feel like the days are going by so fast...almost like I'm losing time and I can't get enough done during the day. Is that normal? It's almost like I've found myself with so much time that I am trying to overfill it so I have no time to reflect...probably not healthy, huh?

Well, I'm off to bed, friends...have a great night and I'll catch you on the flipside. Goodnight. :)

Day Thirty Six

Had a long day today. Got up early and went into work. I really felt like crap all day today. Probably had something to do with my lack of sleep last night. I didn't ride the bike today because I just felt totally nauseous. Started working and finally got the new hard drive for our server in this morning. I really needed to get that in...the server has been driving me nuts with access problems and data problems. So, getting that new drive in today was critical. All my log files had been getting to be overfilled with errors and this seems to alleviate the problems. It finally rebuilt itself by like 8pm tonight. A restart of the box and it's good to go. Working nice and quick.

Had one of those moments today where I was regretting something. I had a chance to do something this weekend and never took it. I should have done it, but as usual, I'm a big chicken shit and was afraid to open myself up to failure and rejection. What a bunch of crap! Maybe someday I'll quit being such a nerd and just learn to live and have some fun for once in my life instead of playing it safe all the time.

When I got home from work, I changed my clothes and we cooked chicken on the grill. It was great! After dinner, Josh, Matt, Megan and I went to the new HobbyTown USA store that moved and checked it out. I bought a few wooden models, but they kinda suck, so I'll have to do something else with them. They were only $3 each. Oh well. A little graphics design work and I'm off to bed.

Hope you all are having a great night. Goodnight friends. Catch you on the flipside...

Day Thirty Five

It's late and I'm really trying to get to bed. I just took a shower and did some laundry. Pretty discouraged right now. I got on the scale after I took a shower and it says I gained 4lbs. I busted my ass this past week and that's what I get? :( I guess I just have to try harder. Maybe the biking is really building lots of muscle. I did stop taking the diuretic I was on too, so maybe water has lots to do with it. Been stressed at work as well... Who knows! All I know is I have to try and sleep this off because I'm really upset about this. Just gotta get up, dust myself off and keep going, right? Oh well... Goodnight friends... Catch you on the flipside. Goodnight.

Day Thirty Four

Where to begin today... I went to the Waukegan airshow this morning. My friend Kellie wanted to come along, so we headed out. Stopped to get lunch on the way and got to the show around 1pm. Traffic was worse than we thought. The show was great! Vlado Lenoch was there with his P-51, Dave Dacy and Tony Kazian wingwalking team, F-18 and A-10 demos... Pretty cool! It was really nice to have some free aviation time. We had a great time. Had Chinese for dinner and saw Columbiana at AMC. The movie was great, but the two girls behind us would NOT stop talking on their phones and yapping at each other. Ergh! Why the hell would you spend $8 to go to a movie and sit and talk on your damn phone the entire time?!? Idiots! :) Today was a good day. I can't wait to have a great nights sleep tonight! Hope you all had a great day today! Goodnight friends! Catch you on the flipside...

Day Thirty Three

Another day in the books. Today was great. I started the day by riding 6.8 miles on the bike. Good air, good music...I just felt great. Rode for a while and then started at work...seems like the days are being pretty monotonous, huh? It's a routine, but it's going well. Yep, I need to do something fun, crazy and unlike me. Suggestions? :) Not much to say tonight, except I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow morning. 7am will feel awesome! Waukegan airshow with an old friend tomorrow. Hope the weather is good! Hope you all are having a great night. Goodnight friends, catch you on the flipside. :)

Day Thirty Two

Well, today I felt better than I have in a long long time. I feel so strong now. I rode almost 8 miles on the bike today. I rode all over that damn airport today! :) I went down the access road, all the way over to the North Mike Ramp and back and did laps and laps around our ramp. I found myself just messing around on the ramp with the bike weaving in and out of the pillars of the canopy and just enjoyed it! I felt like a little kid again! I really can't believe I'm changing like this. I walk around feeling so much better than I have in years. I've realized a lot of things in the last couple of months about life and about myself. I truly have come to understand that only I have the power over everything that happens to me. I never thought I'd be riding around on a bike like this...so much fun. Not a whole lot to say today...I'm gonna keep a lot of how I feel today to myself. My feelings are just for me today. There's so much I could say right now, but it's for me and my heart. Today was just a good day and I'll leave it at that.

Day Thirty One

Hey! Well, this has been a long, but good day! Started at 4:30am... Up, shower...at work by 5:15. Today, I decided to do something a little adventurous and probably a tad dangerous. I rode my bike up and down the runways at the airport this morning. I had a radio with me to listen for traffic so I didnt end up with a Learjet up my ass, so I was taking the proper precautions. It was fun being out there! So cool and quiet and calm. I did take a minute at the end of 15/33 to take a picture and listen to how quiet it was. Totally great morning. I got back and did a bunch of laps around our ramp and did a total of 6.4 miles. Not bad! I am looking forward to hitting that 10 mile mark and more! I can definitely feel myself getting stronger! Feels amazing. Haven't felt this strong in years. I just know things will be great soon. I watched that movie on YouTube entitled "My 120-Pound Journey" again this afternoon. It just makes me cry everytime I watch it. I feel just like that guy and the song just totally hits home with me. The dude loses a ton of weight and finds love and happiness again after losing a relationship and being so sad. He's a total inspiration and as sad as that video is, it gives me a boost of hope and inspiration. I'll get there, just gotta stick to it. I feel good other than being exhausted all the time, but it will be worth it. All this weight, sadness and boredom will finally materialize into happiness, love and a new life. All because I finally focused on myself for a change. Can't wait to get there. Thank you my friends for your continued support. I love you guys/gals! Time for bed! Catch you on the flipside... Goodnight, Friends

Day Thirty

Well, I screwed up today...I overslept bigtime! I woke up at like 7:15am! I didn't get to fall asleep until like 2 or 3am. I was just inundated with thoughts last night about everything! I had this elaborate plan to go ride somewhere cool on the bike this morning and I had no time now...ugh! Work was ok today. I had a lot of time to work on a new laptop for a new employee. Other than that, today was pretty uneventful! Not a whole lot going on. When I left work, I decided to just go straight home and start doing some more work. I have a ton to do for my other job, so I had to get started on that. We had Jimmy John's for dinner. I got a letter in the mail today that really stressed me out and now I have to figure out what to do about that and I don't know what to do... :( Ugh...more shit to worry about. :(

Anyways, more work tonight and then off to bed as soon as possible. I have to do some laundry tonight and then I'm going to dreamland...provided I can actually sleep tonight. Hopefully I won't have that problem again. Goodnight, friends. Catch you on the flipside. :)

Day Twenty Nine

Well, today didn't start the way I had planned, but it definitely turned out great! I planned on getting up super early and heading out to work to ride my bike, but I ended up over sleeping until like 8am!! Yikes! I must have really needed it though. I got up, took a shower and weighed in. Now, since I have been riding my bike like crazy and working out as much as possible, I had figured that I had lost a lot of weight, but I only lost 4lbs. Now, I say "only", but Luciana made a good point when she reminded me that I could be building muscle as well. Good point, Lucy! So, 4lbs...I'll take that.

Finished getting dressed and came down to breakfast being cooked. It was nice. A family friend came by for breakfast so we sat out on the porch and enjoyed the weather and we talked for a while. At about 2pm, Dan and I went to HobbyTown and picked up a new little plane for him and then went out to the Fox Valley flying field in St. Charles. We had a great time. Saw some old friends and had a lot of laughs and a few beers. It was fun. My buddy Dave Gustafson let me fly the sequence with his 40% Extra 300. It was sweet. So much fun. I felt like I hadn't lost the touch. Brought back some old memories man...that was fun. I took Dan back home and came back out to hang out some more and ended up staying until past dark BSing with Dave and Doug. What a great time. Even just hanging out with those guys is enough to want to get back into the hobby. Now I'm home and ready for bed and ready to get back to work in the morning. Hopefully this will be an awesome week. I have plans to go to the airshow in Waukegan on Saturday and can't wait. C'mon week...let's "fly" by!!

Hope you all had a great Labor Day and hope you all get a good night sleep. Catch you on the flipside! Goodnight, friends...

Day Twenty Eight

Slept in a little again today. I was up at 7:30am. A year ago, I wouldn't have considered that sleeping in, but times have changed! I got up, took a shower and headed out to the model airlane field to see some friends. I still have nothing to fly, but I like the friendships I've developed out there. I know everyone and everyone is always happy to see each other and catch up with each other even if it's only been a week since we've seen each other. Nicest people in the world out there for sure.

At about noon, I decided to go get some lunch, so I went to Portillos and grabbed a salad and a diet coke and decided to go out to the field in St. Charles and see if any of my friends were out there too, but there wasn't anyone there at all! Surprising considering the weather. When I got home, I couldn't stand seeing how long the grass had grown in the yard, so I went and got gas for the mower and came back and mowed the grass. It looks so much better. I don't know why, but taking the time to mow and make the yard look better gives me some kind of weird satisfaction. After I mowed, I went over to Dan's to hang out for a bit and we played some MLB and had a few beers. Now I'm home and ready for bed. I'm going to get up early (Yes, even though it's a holiday) and go out to the airport and ride my bike and come back home. There's something I want to do and it might be kind of fun ;)...yeah yeah...I'm a geek, but you all know that. Hope you all are having a nice weekend and you're all enjoying yourselves. Have a great night and I'll catch you on the flipside...

Day Twenty Seven

Today was a great day. Started my day by biking. When I woke up, I really was looking forward to laying in bed, but I also wanted to do something different. I decided that I NEEDED to do a bike ride. I knew my best friends, Dan and Emily, were having a garage sale, so I thought it'd be perfect to go visit on the bike. So, Matt and I took off on the bikes and went up the bike path to Kirk Road and north to Tyler to Madison and cut thru the side roads. It was a good ride! When we pulled up, Emily seemed so excited to see me on the bike. It felt good knowing that I rode all that way! We talked for a bit and laughed a little and then Matt and I road back home to get the Suburban and breakfast. After breakfast, I went back over to Dan and Emily's to pay for the bike that Matt bought at their garage sale and to hang out a bit. I ended up staying for quite a while. Dan and I went and got lunch and I hung around and chatted al afternoon. It was great. I gotta tell you. I love those guys. It's so nice to be able to spend some time with great people. I always have a good time over there and they're definitely family to me and I love them a lot. They've always been huge support for me in everything and are the first ones to offer a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen. The last two months for me have been pretty hard and they've really helped me see that the best thing to do to cope with everything is to focus on myself. Since I've started doing that, I've felt pretty good. When I decided that I can't move on with my life until I can get my weight under control and back to a manageable number, things have been a lot better. Things will definitely be good sooner than I think. I think about the future every day and try not to think about the past too much. Being around for everyone I know and for those I haven't met yet means a lot to me and I do nothing but look forward to those days, but right now I have to enjoy my life with my friends and my family. I can't say enough about my friends and family supporting me. I even had one of the girls at work tell me they were going to come in early and ride bikes with me in the morning and one of my buddies said he's even come and run with me one morning. How cool is that? I guess I never really realized how much my friends and family really loved me until recently. I mean, I knew everyone loved me, but I guess the kind of support I'm getting now just blows me away and I'm truly humbled. Sometimes I feel like I'm not worthy, but if I had a friend that needed me a lot like I do right now, I'd be there for them as well. I guess it goes back to saying "You get what you give."

I love my friends...they absolutely mean the world to me and I can't say enough good about them. Thanks to everyone for everything...the love, the laughs, the support and most of all, the life that am bringing back for myself that I had forgotten I had stored up inside me. Love you all. Hope everyone is having a good night. Catch you on the flipside!

Mikey

Day Twenty Six

Woke up a bit late this morning. I was up at 5am and out the door by 5:30am. First time on the new bike seat, so this was going to be interesting. It's definitely different for sure, but 300% more comfortable than the old one. I'm so glad I bought it. I started riding down the parking lot and went down to Rt. 30 and then thru our corporate gate and onto the ramp. I did a lap from our ramp to the Lumanair ramp and back 3 times. That comes out to be 4.5 miles alone. After the couple of laps, I got off the bike and walked a lap around our ramp just to loosen up my hands and arms and just get a different workout. After my walk, I jumped back on the bike and did one more lap around the Luman ramp again and down the access road. Best I can calculate, it comes to about 6.5 miles. Not too bad!! I'm feeling really good about it. I am so happy to be riding that bike!

Work was nice today. Had a lot to do and got to start setting up a new laptop for our new installation guy. I'm excited to see how he does. Should be cool! I had plans to go to lunch with my friend Kellie because she was going to be in the area visiting everyone at JA. She worked here for 18 years or so. A couple of our other friends, Michelle and Erik joined us with their 5 month old son, Ian. It was fun. Michelle worked in our maintenance department and Erik is our chief pilot. They're great and we had a lot of fun. It was good to see everyone. I see Erik all the time, but Michelle and Kellie have been away for a while. After lunch, I finished setting up the laptop and got some things done on our online store. I got home and wanted to take a big nap, but I ended up heading over to Josh's to hang out a little and then Matt and I had dinner. It was a good day and I am grateful that I got to work as hard as I did and got to see some old friends. I am so thankful for all my friends that make me smile every day. I really had a great week overall. Couple bad days, but today made it all worth while. Al, Shalene and Megan at work had me laughing pretty hard today at the front counter and believe me, I needed it. So glad I have so many people that truly love me. I thank God for them every single day.

I hope everyone has a great night! Goodnight, friends. Catch you on the flipside!

Day Twenty Five

Rolled over to turn my alarm off around 4:30am again this morning. Boy, it would have been really easy to say "screw this...I'm sleeping in today", but I got up and made the best out of my day. I took a long hot shower this morning and got dressed. Watched the news for 15 minutes and headed in. I beat Al to work! Holy crap! That's a first. Usually Al is the first one there to open everything up. :) Got into the office and set up my iPhone band and hit the ramp. My back was really hurting this morning, so I decided to do a lot on the bike this morning. I rode a little over 5 miles this morning. I figured out if I ride a lap from our ramp across the airport to the other ramp and come back, it comes out to be 1.5 miles for one lap. So, I did that and 7 laps around our own ramp. My butt was so sore from that seat, but I made the best of it. It ended up feeling really good to ride that far. I was extremely pleased that I could go that far. I don't really coast that much either. I pedal pretty consistently! After that, I went to the FBO and had my morning chat with Shalene and had a few laughs. That's always good for the soul in the morning. :) Work was pretty good today. Had some nice sales, got a lot done and had fun today. I love my job. Yeah, it's a pain listening to everyone complain, but I love solving problems and being needed. Got some new employees set up with new email addresses and am preparing for a new employee as well. We're very excited! When I got home, I saw a box for me from Amazon.com. It was my new bike seat! Sweet! I ran out to the garage to put it on and try it out. It's SOO much more comfortable! I can't wait to try it out in the morning. I rode over to Josh's to show Megan and they wanted to go out to dinner. So, Josh, Megan, Matt and I went to Chili's for dinner and now I'm at home ready for bed. Watched a little of the Bears and as soon as I'm done writing, I'm heading to bed. Had a pretty good day today, friends. I'm starting to get that drive knowing that whatever I'd doing will lead to me finally getting that chance to fly an airplane on my own soon. I want to fly an airplane by my 31st birthday. My buddy Ben is really looking forward to being my flight instructor. We'll have a blast flying together. I can't wait!!

Hope you all have a great night. Tomorrow should be a good day. Lunch with a great friend I haven't seen in a long time and I plan on totally sleeping in this weekend. I need a break this weekend for sure.

Goodnight, friends! Thanks for reading again! Love ya!