365 Day Photo Challenge 217/365 “Oncologist Appointment Today”

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

https://tchphotography.smugmug.com/Botanical-Gardens/i-LpJ69bk/A

I spent the afternoon at my oncologist today.  I never really like going there because it breaks my heart seeing all those people sitting on those recliners getting their chemo treatments.  Not knowing their situation I always fear the worse for them.  My blood work for the most part turned out ok.  However, they won’t get the results from the main test for at least a week or more.  The toughest part is the waiting.

Going to the eye doctor tomorrow to get a new prescription for new glasses.  Since my eye surgery my eyesight has diminished quite a bit so I’m actually looking forward to being able to see again.

I was not able to ride tonight due to a scout meeting I had to attend.  With tomorrow’s eye appointment I’m not sure if I’ll be able to ride or not.  Wednesday looks good but Thursday is out because of another meeting after work.  The weekend looks good but there is a waterfall I want to find and photograph so getting a ride in on Saturday may not happen.  We shall see.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 216/365 “Big Dog, Big Headache”

Tags

, , , , , , ,

https://tchphotography.smugmug.com/Chicago/i-vtZ88pv/A

My GoPro was dead or else I would have a video of this huge dog coming out from nowhere and chase me up a hill today.  He came at me so fast that he couldn’t stop in time and hit his head on my back tire nearly knocking me off my bike.  I always look for this dog when I go down this road but today he had two friends about the same size as he is.  The one that hit me was taken back a few seconds giving his friends a chance to get at me.  Normally I don’t get too excited about the big dogs but today I was a bit concerned when I could see that for some reason they meant business and showed me their teeth.  As I reached the top of the hill two of the dogs lost interest but the one that got beaned still thought that he could get a piece of me and started nipping at my new shoes.  Of course by this time I’m standing up trying to pedal faster and get away from the situation.  As I make the top of the hill and start rounding the corner the dog finally gave up and went home.  The bad part of this was is that I have to go down this road twice on my route which means I had another round of this to look forward to when I come back toward home.  Thankfully, the second time around was noneventful.  The dogs stayed on their porch and didn’t give chase.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 215/365 “The Weekend”

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

https://tchphotography.smugmug.com/Chicago/i-f8C7xss/A

I had a very relaxing day here at the house today.  I got up and got the smoker ready and spent the majority of the day smoking a couple slabs of ribs.  All three of the kids were at work and the wife went on a shopping spree for the girls to purchase them back to school clothes.  In between the times I had to tend to the smoker I spent some time cleaning up some files on my laptop and removing unused programs to make room for more pictures.  I even got to watch some pre recorded Perry Mason shows to help pass the time.

Tomorrow will be spent much the same way except I have plans on doing some riding tomorrow being that I won’t have to be tending to a smoker.  The kids will be at work again and the wife will be doing some grocery shopping.  Nothing exciting but hopefully another relaxing day before the work week begins on Monday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 214/365 “Excited Girls”

Tags

, , , ,

_1TH0678

We don’t have a lot of money and having three kids, one in college and two being seniors in high school, makes it difficult “keeping up with the Jones”.  My twin girls share most things they have, including their bedroom.  We can’t afford for them to have a car so they drive my wife’s car to band camp.  They will walk to school once school starts. It’s unfortunate that they have to share so many things but like I said we just can’t afford it to be any other way.  Cell phones became an issue two years ago.  We simply could not afford to have them each have a smartphone, so we purchased each one of them a phone with minimal features.  They have complained many times saying that they can’t do school work and other things that their teachers want them to do. They each have iPods that they do some stuff for school on since they can hook up to the internet at the house wirelessly.  I’ve promised them that if we can afford it that I would purchase them smartphones when it’s time to upgrade.  We still can’t afford it but today their contract was up and I did what I promised them.  They don’t know it yet but they will be happy campers when the Fedex truck arrives on Tuesday.  I’ll have to made sacrifices but at least I fulfilled a promise I made to them.

365 Day Photo Challenge 212/365 “Took a Day”

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

_1TH8427

My truck had to be towed to the shop yesterday because my shift cable had broke.  I decided to take the day off even though I really couldn’t afford to take off just to have a break from my bosses.  Work has become a source of stress that I really need to get a handle on.  With that said I decided to take the day off and go visit my daughters while they were at band camp.  I figured that if they could march in the 95 degree heat I could at the very least go and sit and watch them for an hour or so.

My truck is finally fixed so I guess I’ll be heading off to work tomorrow. It’s just a day until the weekend.  No plans thus far for the weekend except to relax and spend some time with the family.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 211/365 “And It Continues”

Tags

, , , , , , ,

https://tchphotography.smugmug.com/Birmingham/i-H3RHVmb/A

Friday needs to get here quick because I can’t handle another day like I’ve had the past two.  Today, while on my way home from work, I stopped to get gas.  When I got ready to leave the gas station I put the truck in drive and nothing happend.  It seems that the gear shift cable broke.  I had to have my truck towed to a shop near my house.  It’s not a very expensive fix, about $300.00, but it could be worse I guess.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 210/365 “Is is Friday Yet?”

Tags

, ,

_1TH0650

This is only Tuesday and it feels like it needs to be Friday.  I’ve been so busy with work and every time I have plans afterwards something always comes up.  I might as well wear a sign telling everyone that I have plans and please do something stupid to keep me at work and away from my plans.  Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 209/365 “Hot Spots”

Tags

, , , , ,

4236065943_21f04728c9_b-1

I’m hoping that it’s just an adjustment but during this Saturday’s ride I had some issues with both my feet getting hotspots near the ball of the foot.  These are new pedals and new cleats.  I had a similar problem with my old shoes but just on my right foot.  I was told that the reason that I was having hot spots was because I was using the wrong pedals with the wrong cleats, so I changed.

I started having discomfort about 12 miles into the ride.  I decided that I’d wait until I got to the first rest stop to see if I could adjust the cleats.  When I arrived I stepped off the bike into a mud bogg.  I retrieved the allen wrench from my pouch and dug out the mud surrounding the screws on my left shoe.  I adjusted the cleat and tightened the screws down.  I set the wrench down to remove the sweat that was pouring from my forehead and onto my glasses and when I went to grab the wrench I couldn’t find it.  I searched for a few minutes and then gave up.  It was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.  I was mad at myself for losing it and really couldn’t see how I lost it in the first place.  I road the 14 miles back with the last two miles having the same discomfort that I had before the rest stop.

I’ve watched a couple of youtube video’s on how to adjust the cleats but some of the comments that I’ve read on each video has me questioning their method.  I guess a phone call to the bike shop should be in order.  I may give them a call tomorrow.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 208/365 “Busy Weekend, Hating Mondays”

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

11181282_586773794795838_4466828473927251645_n

I really loathe Mondays especially since I had a busy weekend.  I did some things that I really enjoyed doing such as the bike ride but not being able to spend any time with my kids because their at work, well I have a problem with that.  I guess I’ll have to get used to it since they are old enough to work.

I got my son moved from one apartment to another today.  He’s moved into a one bedroom studio. He has a separate bathroom, a separate kitchen but the rest is open.  It looks really weird to see this sort of set up but I guess once you think about it what more do you need?  It’s a short term lease so he’ll be out in December and back home with us until he actually finds a job and moves out.

I’ve look through over a thousand pictures people have posted and this is the only picture that I’ve seen with me in it.  I’m the one on the far left with the bright yellow shirt.  It looks like I’m about to turn the wrong way.  I promise you I didn’t because I got the t shirt to prove it.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 207/365 “Hot Hundred”

Tags

, , , , ,

11755124_840183992731997_194960978969177423_n

They picked the perfect name for this ride because it was truly a very hot day today.  The ride started at 7am sharp.  I arrived a little later than I had wanted too so I was toward the back of the pack when the ride started.  It didn’t take me long before I was riding with the lead riders.  Not for long though.  It was a fairly flat ride but my feet started giving me some problems because I don’t have the clets set up just right.  I will soon enough thogh.

All the ones that preregistered got a goody bag which included your bib ID plus all you see in this photo plus a tee shirt.  Not bad.

The ride started off pretty slow.  I guess 700 riders leaving out all at once can’t be too quick.  Once I made it toward the head of the pack I was able to reach speeds of around 19 and 20 mph.  It was constant peddling though.  No hills to go down only a few to go up toward the end of the ride.  The ride was rough as the roads are were in poor condition in places.  I ended up having a lose spoke just before the first rest stop.  I didn’t have my spoke wrench so I had to listen to it all the way back to the start/finish line.  I’ll fix that problem tomorrow after I get home from moving my son.

“Life Goes On”