12K Miles

today

Greg Hill - Brothers by Choice

A few of you knew Greg, Greg and I were best friends since 6th grade. Those of you who knew him know he was a great guy. To me, Greg was my best friend, and my brother. We grew up doing everything together, from stealing road signs to family gatherings. Greg has fought Pancreatic cancer for over 5 years, and lost his battle yesterday. Words can not describe how I feel. I will miss my friend and my brother forever.

She Said............YES ! ! !

Maybe it's my winning personality, or my boyish good looks, but whatever the case, Last night I asked Misty to marry me and she said YES ! ! ! I'm not sure when, I got my part out of the way, now it's on Misty to take care of the rest... I'm kidding, but I don't have any further details as of now. I am one happy camper, the love of my life said YES ! ! !
Below is what I said to her, thought you folks would be interested.... I am no writer and yes I know some things are out of place and so forth, so no critics please.... remember, she said YES ! ! !

When we met in High School, I knew there was something I liked about you. You had my attention long before you knew me. Your gorgeous face, beautiful body and a winning smile was all I could think about. Once we started hanging out, and we got to know each other, I knew I wanted more, than to be just friends.

Over the past many years, you have always had a special place in my heart, I countless times would imagine what if…..and think, you were the one I let get away…. Life took us both down different paths, but has led us back together. Your sense of adventure, open mindedness to new things, your hard work ethic, dedication to family, your true sense of love….are all things I value about you, And I want you more now than ever… and know I want you to be mine forever.

I feel like I have a partner in life. Someone who genuially cares about me, someone to remind me of how un-important the little things are in life and tomorrow is truly a new day. I feel like you are interested in my well being as your own. I want to be there for you, during the good times and bad, I want to take care of you, to know you are always ok, to be sweet to you, and do those special things that simply say, “I love you” I feel we have been growing together in an effort to better each other.

Your patients, understanding, dedication, humor, giving, un-selfishness, and your outlook on life are a few more things I cherish about you and wish to be more like you.

I love the way you look at me, sparkle in your eyes when I see you each morning or after a day of work.
I love how I feel when we are together
I love doing things for you
I love the smell of your hair
I love your smile
I love how you can get me to talk in tuff times
I love that you want to spend your time with me
I love you because you let me be me
I love you because you take care of me
I love you because I am my best when I’m with you, even tho you know me at my worst
I love you because without words we still understand each other
I love you because you don’t look down at me, you understand my struggles and help uplift me
I love you simply, because you are you……..

We both want to be secure, not relying on a weekly check to be able to survive. we both enjoy going and exploring new things. We talk over problems, and work thru them together. One of us wants something, we talk about how to accomplish it. We both want eternal life with Christ our Savior, and for these reasons and many more is why I hope you’ll spend the rest of your life with me, Will you marry me ???????????

Cold Hands

Not sure u can tell from the photo, but that is one cold hand. Most people who know me knows that I positivily hate, hate being cold. After reading this blog the past few weeks u probabaly wouldn't think that, but I do. I would truly rather it be 100 degrees outside than 50 degrees. Most people know what being cold is like, but let me tell u, u aint felt cold till u ride a bike or in this case a scooter, bare handed at 70+ mph for over an hour in 45 degree temp with a windchill of 38..... Just so we are clear, IT WAS COLD.

So u ask, why ride in the cold? Ecspeially since u don't have too and it's only 5 miles from ur house to work? That is a very good question I am actually asking myself right now as I can barely get my thumbs moving to type this, so I will try to explain. I guess the only anwser is, I just plain Love riding, and if u ride, u understand, and if u don't, then u won't understand. As much as I hate the cold, my desire to ride far out weighs my desire to be warm :-D

And BTW: I have rode in 29 degrees down the interstate and know people who ride in much colder weather than I, but to my defence, I forgot my gloves and only had on a t-shirt and very light weight jacket, besides, I dont think anyone can hate being cold more than me.

Change machine

So, on 1-27 the change machine took my 5 dollar bill and gave me one dollar back. So today I start asking where my change is from the pressroom manager. He takes me to the front office lady and asks her. She claims I musta done something wrong, but then, "oh I remember, I gave it to the bindery manager and it's in his desk draw, I didn't know who it was" she said.
So, I've been here a year this month, and this lady doesn't know who I am? And BTW, I give this same lady inventory every month. I guess I don't leave much of any impression on people.

January Birthdays

Going all the way back to December, I had picked up the materials to bake Misty a Cake for her Birthday (the day after Christmas..... Yea I know... :-) anyway, we woke up that morning and went out and bought the new Guitar Hero World Tour game as you may have seen in a pevious post on this blog, well, as you can imagine, there was not another thing done that day other than playing this game, So no birthday cake. Well My birthday is only two weeks later, but I didn't want to bake my own cake and we had went to Olive Garden and they came out to sing to me and i got to blow out candles there. So Noelle's birtday is like two weeks after mine, but again no cake was baked. So finally yesterday getting ready for the Super Bowl we all wanted cake, so I mixed the cake, put it in the oven and while I put the pizza in the oven, Misty Spread the icing, we lit the candles and there ya go.....

Sunday Ride

Out for another Sunday Ride, Rick and I planned to met up again in Pelion, SC and head out. I left out of Columbia a little before 1pm and stopped for gas and went ahead and went to the meeting place and knew i'd be early, thinking ahead i just keep riding past the meeting point and noticed I was heading right for Rick's House. For some reason I can't ever remember how to get to Rick's place, I know you turn on hwy 113 and then somewhere there is a left. Well I missed the left (again) and just rode around for a bit. It didn't really matter that I missed Rick's Place, I was looking to put miles on the Scoot and only went towards Rick's figuring I could get in some extra miles if "we" rode back to the original spot together. If I really need to get to Rick's I do carry my GPS, so as you can tell, there was no real need to get there. Anyway, it was getting close to the meeting time, so i jetted back up to Pilion, filled my tank (1.39 gals) again as I had already been 63.3 miles and wanted a full tank as I figured Rick and I would at least turn 150 miles and didn't want to have to stop for gas again. I get around 45 mpg if you didn't want to take the time to figure that out and the Scoot holds 4 gals. When the light starts to flash I go ahead and fill up, and not until yesterday have i ever put more than 3 gals in, but yesterday morning I put in 3.34 gals.

This week we headed towards Orangeburg via hwy 178 then down hwy 21 over to hwy 321. These were some good roads without much traffic. Bout half way we stopped at this Hardees for a quick burger and some sippage. With the temps above 60 degrees I again opted for an icey Coke, but again that proved to be the wrong choice, as It felt like the temp dropped about 20 degrees. I just don't care for coffee and I don't think Hardees sells Hot Coco. Anyway, home by 5:30 or so with 191 miles for the afternoon.

Next weekend is looking good for another ride.........