Tomorrow, February 23, I turn the big 50. It’s not that I mind turning 50 but it just a new number and it make me just a little bit older. We all get there so it’s nothing new but dam…50! I honestly never imagined myself being this old. When you are younger old is in the 30’s…LOL

When you’re 15 – 25 or so you are immortal, after that you just don’t think about it and then at 50 you feel so mortal again.  I have some friend that it seems as soon as they turned 60 they just went to hell. I guess we all fear that to some extent, but I have a 1 1/2 year old baby girl to raise. I don’t want her growing up without a Dad!

When I turned 21 my great uncle Ed told me that the days will start flying by…I thought oh yea right. Now I can remember that day as plain as yesterday… oh my God does time fly by. It seems as if I just turned 40, we had steaks and potatoes up at the office. Now it’s the big 50! Well I can’t stop tomorrow from coming so goodbye 40’s and HELLO 50’s… Welcome the new era of time! The rockin’ 50’s are here for me!

I need to start photographing strangers and finish my “100 Strangers” project. I’ve got 4 so far but need to get at least 2 per month. It does a couple of things, one it gets you used to talking to strangers and getting their photo and two helps you with portraits.

I really love photography…probably to much. I look back and growing up most all of our pictures would fit into a few albums. I have 25 or more albums full of pictures of the family. It’s to a point when I print photos I look and think do I really want a hard copy of this. Is it worthy of print. I know growing up there are years that their is not one picture of me. It goes from like 5 to 9…WTF, and then skips to 12 and then to 19 or so. No photos of me in high school, no photos of me getting my drivers license, or going on my first date. I have photos of every event in my children s life. Hey I lost my first tooth…got it. I got my drivers license… documented for the future. So at least they can never wonder, I wonder what I looked like at 13 years old.

I think I’ve over documented the life of my family. My future relatives are going to look back and think… wow, great great granddad really took a lot of pictures of everyone! At least that is my hope.

This is for Febuary 20. I guess I was so tired I forgot to press the publish button?

I’m trying to decide is the new iPhone 5s worth the $200 ? I already have an iPhone 4s and it’s working fine. So the decisions is should I upgrade or not. I really hate change and I’m cheap. Poor is more like it…LOL

Whoever has upgraded email me and tell me your thoughts. Was it a good idea or not much difference that the old phone. If I upgrade I will have to upgrade my wife as well so that’s $400 instead of $200

It makes my head hurt just thinking about it…lol

Our IT guy fired himself the other day. He left a note saying that he was unable to perform his work, and he should be escorted out of the building by security, and then said he was fired?

He’s been whacked out for awhile now. He had some medical issues a couple years ago and the drugs they put him on just pushed him way over the edge.

Last year he came in a smacked another Instructor across the face and challenged him to a duel. Now he should have been fired then but everyone just laughed it off and said he was on drugs or crazy that day. I’ve known him for almost 20 years now and saw him progressively getting worse and worse all the time.

Sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don’t.

I use to make fun of the “Conspiracy Nuts” out there. The older I get and the more I learn I start to realize maybe they’re not the nuts that I once thought. I’ve seen the government go after someone to discredit them to make them look like a nut.

Back in the 1986 or 1987 we were on a training mission in Germany with the US Army. A terrorist threat came down and they came took our M16’s , because we had NO ammo anyway, and left us to defend ourselves with axes, shovels, and different hand tools. I could only think at the time what it would say in the paper if we had been attacked. “US Army soldiers defend themselves with screwdrivers from terrorist”. We then moved position and sat in a farmers frozen turnip field and couldn’t move for a week because it started to thaw and if we would have moved we would have destroyed the crop. We ran low on water and had to eat MRE’s most of the time… what a cold nightmare of an experience.

A couple weeks later an article came out in “The Stars and Strips” telling what a success the exercise was. It told of event that never happened? This was about the unit I was in…WTF?

Then it made a big deal out of the US ARMY disarming itself and that we signed a treaty with Russia to get rid of all the Pershing Missiles. The only thing is we didn’t have any… we had Pershing 2’s but we (US ARMY) had given all the Pershing Missiles to the West Germans a couple years before. That lead me to think that most of what I what reading in the paper was only part true. That’s when I realize that what I read I could really believe the full story.

The worst thing about the entire experience was it now has me questioning most things in history. Some things we’ve been told about people or events may only be “PARTIALLY” true.

My wife and I had a great ride today. We rode through the country, stopped and ate at the Masaryktown Restaurant. It really was a great day. I wish I had more day like this. It was the first time I’ve had a good ride on the motorcycle in a long while.

It’s the first time my wife has been on her bike in 3 years or so. We had to have the carburetors redone it had been so long.

I saw this hog head hanging on the bathroom wall at the Masaryktown Cafe. It sort of scared me at first, not expecting a hog head over the shitter. LOL

Her bike has been down for almost 2 years now. But now it’s up and running and she is ready to ride. So IF her tag was renewed last year and IF the weather holds good we are going on a few hour ride. It need blown out a little bit and rode hard. I know how the bike feels. When I’m not ridden in a while I get cracking and don’t want to do anything either.

She has a Honda VLX 600 Deluxe and I bet it doesn’t have 10,000 miles on it. So this is the year I want to put a few thousand on it. I ride a Harley Davidson Electra Glide 2003, Anniversary Edition. I love to ride but sometimes just feel that we never have the time to do it anymore. With an 8 year old and 1 1/2 year old baby added to the picture it’s hard to breakaway.

I’m going to break away and go riding in the middle of nowhere. Find me some back roads and turn on the tunes and ride. Everyone have a great week this week.

I honestly hope everyone had a great Valentines Day! I’ve been telling my wife how much I love her a little extra each day…because I Do Love Her!  I hope those people you don’t have a Valentine but want want spent the day in search of one!

I tell my sons that special someone is not going to come and knock on their door asking is there the love of their life that lives here. They have to get up, turn of the Xbox and put on their sneakers and go find that special someone. You have to go on that chase. It may take a year or more but someday, somewhere, when you don’t expect it… she or he will just appear. You’ll look at one another and know.

I’ve heard but it won’t last… maybe it won’t but you have to try. You don’t want to miss that feeling… or the dance. Love and Heartbreak are both part of the game. Without heartbreak you wont know what real love is. Look for someone whom you can laugh and play with. Can you imagine yourself in 50 seating in rocking chairs and reaching over to hold hands. He or she is out there, so go find them.

Some days I don’t know why I’m so so tired but today is one of them. My tooth and shoulder both hurt and It’s like I’m just exhausted. I slept good last night and got plenty of rest. I took all my vitamins and haven’t been eating a lot of sugar. Maybe it’s because I’m getting old. I will be 50 here in a couple of weeks…. LOL

I saw some old friends today and wow… how depressing. This one friend was always SCUBA diving, fishing, going to pawn shops, boating, artifact hunting, etc. His entire life he’s always been one of those people that was always doing something. He would always get up at 4:30 am, read the paper, eat, drink a pot of coffee and out the door by 5:30 or 6 am. He’d run all day doing things. Now he’s using a walker, lost a lot of weight, and doesn’t even look like himself. I know it happens to us all and I really pray that he gets better, it was just a shock to see him.

I hope when I loose my heath and when I’m in my final days I hope my family will remain close and happy. I don’t want to go with any bitterness between myself and any of my children. I sort of hope it’s quick as well. I don’t want to lay around and decay in front of everyone’s eyes.

God Bless You My Friend and I pray you get well soon!