A good day

I got to work this morning and climbed on my forklift to go to work. As I went to pick up the first skid, I realized, I had no brakes. I quickly pumped them to no avail. Luckily, I wasn't driving fast and just kind of bumped into the skid. I proceeded to check them and couldn't get anything. I figured out it was out of brake fluid so I added some, pumped them until I had brakes and went about my business. I parked my forklift for a little bit to do whatever and when I got on it and started to back up, I realized I had a huge puddle under the lift. I'm guessing there is an issue with one of the brake lines. The forklift guy came in but I didn't talk to him after he inspected it. I'm hoping it will be fixed in the morning.

Why did I tell you all that? Well, since I didn't have my forklift, I did a lot of walking. Normally, on a work day, I average between 6k to 8k steps depending on how much forklift driving I do. Today, however, I did a little more than that. I posted this on my Instagram when I got home after work.

We'll see how many more I get by the time I go to bed. Probably not a whole lot more, I'm being lazy tonight. Well, pretty much every night. I'd like to say I'll get 11k but you never know. I kid though, I'm pretty sure I've probably gotten that since I've walked to the bathroom a couple of times.

Day 30 - Whiting, IN (84.2 miles)

As you can see, I'm now in Whiting, IN. The only reason I know where that is, is because I Google map the trip. Normally, if I was going to Chicago I would take the toll road but since we're hoofing it, I figured I'd take a different route because otherwise, I wouldn't have anything to show but the side of the road. Which would be why I'm in a city I've never heard of. I should be crossing into Illinois in the next couple of days. Maybe even tomorrow since I had such a good step day.

This is where I'm at in Whiting. You can see a Little Ceasers up there to the left and a barber shop on the right. I'm not sure what's going on with the building next to it. It doesn't look to good.

Little bit of randomness

As per my usual, I disappeared through the weekend. Mainly because I haven't done anything all weekend. Like most weekends. Trevor is at his mom's and Samantha stayed with a friend all weekend so it's just been the wife and I and we've pretty much vegged out in front of the TV. We've been watching lots of new stuff as well as catching up with the old. I started and finished Westworld and today, we're probably going to watch come movies today. We're in the middle of Sully at the moment, I don't know what we'll watch next.

Day 28, East Chicago, IN (79.2 miles)

I haven't posted much on my trek because there hasn't been to much to see. I am in East Chicago, I've worked my way through Gary, IN so I'm slowly making progress. Obviously I'm heading for Chicago, it's my kind of town after all.

Stuff I've posted on my Random Thoughts FB page.

Bad start

So I decided to start off my day with a little McDonald's breakfast. As I've stated here before, I pretty much only go to McDonald's for their breakfast (and the McRib when it's there). I always get the same thing, I actually get cravings for the sandwich.

I ordered, Sausage and Egg McMuffin meal with a large sweet tea. Pulled up and paid, pulled up to the last window. She handed me a meduim drink so I told her I asked for a large. Mainly because I want the styrofome cup because my tea would stay colder longer while I was at work. She switched it out for me and I was on my way. As soon as I pulled out and got going, I reached into my bag and grabbed the hash brown, ate it, and then reached for my sandwich. Only my sandwich wasn't there, it was 2 freaking breakfast burritos. I was extremely annoyed, all I wanted was that sandwich. I ate the burritos anyways and when I got to work I poked my straw in to take a drink of my tea. Only it wasn't sweet tea and what was worse, it was freaking Dr. Pepper, one of my least favorite drinks.

So on my way in to the building, I threw away my trash and a full, large cup of pop.

Sadly, the Joe Pesci quote from the Lethal Weapon movies always runs through my head when someone screws up.

My day didn't get much better but I'm ignoring all that and starting my weekend. Hopefully, I'll see you soon.

Dog Sitting

I don't know if I mentioned this or not but we are dog sitting again, although, it sounds like it's going to be for 5 months so I don't know if that's considered dog sitting or getting a dog. Our daughter, who is in college and works a part time job, got a chance at a paid internship on her off days from school. She was thinking about turning it down because the dog would be home alone all the time so we offered to take him in because it was a good opportunity for her.

We've watched him a few times. Sometimes for a weekend, sometimes a week or more so he's used to the house. We think he loves it here for 2 main reasons. We have a good sized fenced in back yard (our daughter has an apartment) and there is almost always someone home (he doesn't like being left alone). We watched him for a couple of weeks at Christmas and the only time he had to go to his kennel was on Christmas day for a few hours.

He kept coming in from outside yesterday and he would be filthy. It looked like dirt all over his feet and nose and sometimes on his fur. We figured he must be digging somewhere so Cheri watched him for a bit and he wasn't digging, or at least we don't think he was, but it was where he was going. He was jumping in the firepit so it wasn't dirt we were washing off, it was ash. Like I said, he's been here a number of times and had never gotten in it but apparently this time he decided he was going to. We grabbed a piece of wood that was in the garage when we moved in and laid it over the pit to keep him out.

He also likes to sleep between us in bed so what we had to learn to do last time he was here is we both sleep with separate quilts because when we use one, he plops down in the middle and it pulls up on the sides so we end up with body parts sticking out which isn't good because we turn the heat down at night and those body parts get chilly.

Day 24, Portage, IN (66 miles)

I had a good day at work yesterday so I ended up with over 10,000 steps which equals out to a little more than 5.1 miles. It got me all the way to portage but once again, there isn't really anything around, unless you count the train tracks from the South Shore that travels from South Bend to Chicago. That's all it is though, is the tracks. I did however, see this while I was plotting the route.

What the hell is that? I Googled it and apparently it's listed as one of the scariest haunted place in Indiana. The write-ups I see about it make it seem really scary but they also sound like they were written to be scary so I don't know if it's real or not.

Better than average

I actually crashed last night just after 10. The 4 hours sleep the night before caught up with me. I was still tired when I got to work. I had a pretty boring day at work, there isn't a whole lot to do, We are about a week ahead so everything I do, I try to do slowly to make it stretch. It tends to make for a longer day but even if I'm moving slower, at least I'm moving otherwise the day would be really bad.

The good news, for me at least, the big customer that we have, cancelled their order today. All of their parts come down to shipping already boxed so it ends up being a lot of forklift driving. So instead, I did a lot on my own 2 feet, which means, I got more steps than I usually do. Of course, you won't know until tomorrow.

Day 23 - Burns Harbor, IN (60.7 total miles)

I walked 6,863 steps yesterday which is over my average during work. According to Fitbit, I average around 5,700 on work days. That put me in Burns Harbor, IN. Again, there wasn't much to look at where I finished but what I love about using my steps on Google Maps is that I end up playing around on it when I'm done.

I'm assuming all that is one company, that place is freaking huge. It's a metal place, you can see the name down there at the entrance on the bottom right. Where the name crosses the road down there, that's where I'm at. I also learned that Burns Harbor has an International Harbor. It's to the left of where the photo ends so you can't see it. Why there is an International Harbor on Lake Michigan is beyond me but what do I know about shipping via boats?

This past weekend

Nothing to exciting going on here. I had my usual weekend of barely over 1,000 steps for Saturday and Sunday combined. I did a couple of things around the house on Sunday, but nothing that really gets me a whole lot of steps.

It was a productive weekend as far as getting stuff done. I worked on my cards most of the weekend and made some good headway so there is that. I told my son on Friday night to think of something we could do on Saturday, a guys day. He came up with nothing so we did nothing. He said he forgot. He didn't forget, he just couldn't take his eyes off his games and YouTube.

My daughter stayed at a friends house over the weekend. They were supposed to go dress shopping for a formal that's coming up but they never did. I thought I was going to get out of dress shopping but maybe not. I still have nightmares from prom dress shopping with my oldest daughter. I'm pretty sure I was the only guy in the whole area of that store.

Went back to work this morning. I normally get up on work days at 5:15 am but I woke up this morning at 4:30 and my gut was hurting. It eventually went away but now with enough time to get some more sleep. So between going to bed just after midnight, and getting up that early. I'm fighting sleep while I sit here. I got the Michigan/Illinois basketball game on but it's not helping much.

Day 20, 21 and 22 - 57 miles

I did walk another 4.9 miles between Friday thru Sunday. Sadly, most of that was Friday, and I even worked overtime. I really should have gotten out and walked this weekend, but I have a serious problem with motivation. I always have.

I didn't screen shot where I was on the street because I'm just in a wooded area. As a matter of fact, I'm at the Indiana Dunes, which is where I go camping a couple of times a year.

See the little balloon type marker at the bottom right? That's where I am. See the campground in the middle of the screenshot? That's where we stay 2 weekends a year. It's nice right now because I know spots, a little more further West and I'll be lost and won't know what to show.

Going Nuclear?

It's been a long week at work. Our insurance changed with our buy out and all the smokers had so many days to quit or their insurance was going to go up. So everybody waited until just before the deadline to quit. So they are all quitting this week. Between all the crankiness and all the conversations about them quitting, I think I might take up smoking to relieve my stress.

Day 18 - Michigan City, IN - (49.2 Miles)

Now that I'm not staying on the most direct route and am traveling around, it's becoming harder to keep track of my full route. I found a way on Google maps to track where I walked that day, I just can't go back and look at how I got there. Oh well.

It's supposed to be in the 50's this weekend, maybe I'll go for a walk. Don't hold me to that though. Milo is coming back on Sunday as well, maybe he'll get me to take him for a walk. Don't hold me to that either.

I did finally make it to the destination in Michigan City that I was heading for. It's really the only place I go to there but it really isn't very often that I do.

No, not Eddie Bauer, that is the outlet mall to the left of this picture. There are a ton of stores there, including a Nike outlet. We've done our before school shopping there before. I took this screenshot because of what's on the right side. I always find it odd when I'm at this nice outlet mall and I look over and see that in the background. It just seems really odd to me.

You can see above how huge the outlet mall is on the right and also the Nuclear tower on the left. I'm kidding of course, I Googled, it's actually a coal burning power plant but it just looks odd in the background at the mall. See W 4th st there just below the cooling tower? That's where I would have ended up walking the 2.8 miles that I did yesterday.

This is where I ended up, I was sure to get the tower in the background.

We made it to Long Beach. Indiana that is

I had some thoughts on some extra thoughts for today but I ended up fighting sleep for to long, that I didn't get started early enough so you get nothing.

Yesterday and today were both busy forklift days so I didn't get to far on my steps. Thursday and Friday should be better.

Day 17, Long Beach, IN - 46.37 Miles

Yeah, I didn't know there was a Long Beach, IN either. Remember when I said I was taking a back road to get to the lake because I found a road that follows it a bit? Well, apparently that road is in Long Beach, which it just barely out of Michigan City.

Notice the beach drive, should have great views, right? I should have zoomed in closer, because this is the view of the lake that you get.

You can see it, kinda, back there in the back.

Day 16 - Michigan City, Indiana

Day 14, 15 & 16, Michigan City, Indiana

Yeah! I found a new cover for these walking posts. I didn't do a whole lot of walking this past weekend, Saturday and Sunday combined for just under 2 miles. The pathetic thing is that's more than a lot of my weekends.

I haven't completely decided where I'm walking yet but I did play around on Google maps for awhile last night. Looking at certain places and such so I have a vague idea, just not positive. I do know the foreseeable future as far as where I'm going just not any further.

Monday I went back to work but I've been doing quite a bit on the forklift so I haven't been getting really good mileage. To bad driving didn't count for miles, then I'd be crushing it.

43.4 Miles

As you can tell, I'm taking some back roads around Michigan City just so you all can see the view from the lake. I found a road that follows it for a bit so I'm hoping I can get some good shots for you. I'll also go by, pretty much the only thing I go to Michigan City for and show you that but that's a few days away, maybe a week at how slow I'm going.

Closer to Death

I made it to another weekend. As much as some of my work days drag right now, the work week seems to fly right by which believe me, I'm grateful for that, but I always go to that thought that I'm a lot older now and if I'm not subconciously realizing that. So my days tend to fly by now because I'm closer to death. You know, in the way that young people can't wait to get older and it seems like forever. Sounds like a mid-life crisis to me. I've also had that thought a few times of when I'm gone, it's just over, which I guess means I now officially know what I believe as far as the afterlife goes. Don't worry, I'm not dwelling on these thoughts, they've popped in my head here and there. Luckily, I'm to broke to go buy a convertible or motorcycle and I'm to much in love to get a younger wife.

I've also had some weird dreams as of late. Is that a sign of getting older that I missed? The other night I dreamed that my mom had disappeared. Last night, I had a dream where our whole family was sitting outside a bar/restaurant trying to get my aunt and uncle out of it. I couldn't tell you the last time I've ever seen them drink, let alone drunk, but here we were. My mom sent me in with a few dollars just to put on their table as a tip and to let them know we were outside. Like an intervention or something. Really weird, even weirder if you knew the aunt and uncle.

Day 13, LaPorte, IN

I took the time to check out how far I've walked so far up through yesterday. I've gone 38.2 miles since the first of the year.

I was sure to add the corner of that screen cap up there, that's Lake Michigan. I might alter my route some and go right up to the lake. I don't know, it'll probably depend on what kind of photos Google maps has for those roads, if they even have street shots. It might be kind of cool to see. I also might change my destination and just kind of wonder around the states and look at touristy places. I haven't decided yet. I also need to get a new cover picture before the walking stuff.

Here's where I would have stayed last night. I'm still on the highway but I'll be heading into a city soon so I'll have better screen caps.

We are going car shopping today so I should get more than my usual 1000 steps that I tend to get on the weekends.

Flooded

On the road that my job is on, there is a spot a couple of businesses down that floods anytime we get any kind of precipitation. Yesterday, we had a ton of rain, I'm not sure if even rained last night or not but when I went to work, it was still flooded. Now when I say flooded, I don't mean a little puddle of water. I mean, the kind where you drive in the middle of the road, slowly, so you don't end up flooding the bottom of your car. Anyways, I went to work and since I'm a little more intelligent then most, I drove through the middle and when I got to the other side, I tried to accelerate just a little bit since I crawl through the flood only it was solid ice from where cars fly through and drag the water out. Did I mention it was in the mid 20's this morning. I drove to work and parked. I generally park towards the end of the lot near the road and I get to work about 20 minutes until I have to be there and I sit, relax and listen to music. This morning however, I didn't put my head back and close my eyes, I sat and watched all the idiots fly past work. I watched all my fellow employees try to stop to turn in only to slide right past the entrance. The closer it got to 6, the funnier it got. I even saw one car fly completely past. Then about a minute later, they came back to it, in reverse.

I just found it really funny because from where the flooded part ends to the entrance at work, it really isn't that far, really no need to accelerate much at all, but most people do. I see this all the time on the roads. The light ahead will be red and people keep accelerating like they are going to get somewhere. I just don't see the point other than wasting your gas.

Day 10, Rolling Prairie, IN

I added another 4.9 miles today and I'm really getting in the middle of nowhere.

While I enjoy checking the map to see where I'm at and even enjoy checking the area for a place to sleep. The whole zombie thing isn't really much of the story line so I'm debating on continuing that. I'll still do the updates and check where I'm at, just don't know about the story part of it. We'll see. I'll probably definitely lean that way when I end up in these rural areas where nothing is around.

Still going

I did a whole lot of nothing this past weekend. How much is a whole lot of nothing? I walked just over 2,000 steps, both days combined. Basically on Saturday, the only thing I did was drive my daughter and her 2 friends back and forth to the mall. Sunday, I rarely left my recliner. Which is why I didn't bother posting my miles that I walked. Or should I say l, the less than a mile that I walked. I did work yesterday, so there is that.

Day 7, 8 & 9, New Carlisle, IN

3 days and only 5 miles. I had to hole up here just outside New Carlisle as a horde of zombies came strolling down US 2. I assume it followed me out of South Bend. Not necessarily followed me but more traveled the same route. I do envy that they just keep going even though they are falling apart, quite literally. I have troubling going to far without my knees or legs hurting. Anyways, I waited them out and decided it was safe to leave this afternoon. I got around 5 miles but I'm still on the outskirts of New Carlisle. I found a pretty great place to hole up for tonight. It's a decent sized house but what makes it great is there is little around and it's a little ways off the road in case another horde comes through.

 

Sunday funnies

Wow! Who would have guessed I'd start the year off posting every day for a whole week. This is just a quick post to let you know what's going on over at this blogs Facebook page. Part of the reason I wasn't blogging much is because I didn't have much to say or at least at length that I thought it would make a good blog post. Not that my blog posts are always that interesting but you know what I mean. So I'm trying to post my short blog post type stuff there and maybe get some interaction. It's been slow going so far but I'm making the effort. Here's what you missed this past week.

You people scare me

How much do I hate people? More than I like driving fast.

I'm a lead foot, I drive faster than most others on the road. However, I'm not aggressive, if I get behind someone going slower, I usually just slow down and get behind them. Even on 4 lane roads, if my next turn is a right turn, I get in the right lane and stay in it, even if I'm not turning for awhile and there isn't much traffic. Now I won't if they are ridiculously slow, but you know, around speed limit slow I do.

Today, I was driving my daughter and her 2 friends to the mall (which you would already know if you followed my Facebook page). The route there, I took the faster route. It was snowing, roads were a little slick at places but not real bad. I didn't enjoy my ride there at all. I just don't trust people, especially when conditions are getting bad. People are stupid and become even more dumb behind the wheel of a car. I've been in accidents and I know how I react, I trust my driving. Or maybe it has to do with my oldest being in a car accident yesterday, but I just didn't feel all that comfortable.

So on the way home (and there and back, when I picked them up), I took the slow route. Speed limit is between 30-40 and it is probably the most direct route. It's 2 lanes all the way up until the road the mall is on. Now remember where I said it was snowing and roads were a little slick. The faster route is pretty well traveled and also straight so the roads were decent where as the slower route is less traveled and curvy. Did I mention it's curvy because it follows the river?

The slower route was much more comfortable, despite all that. Why? Less people. I didn't feel like my head had to be on a swivel because I didn't have to watch as many people driving.

Maybe it's my old age, maybe not, all I know is how I felt driving today.

Day #6, New Carlisle, IN

I did make it another 3.48 miles yesterday. I ended up having to stay at a flea market. It was the only thing there, things are starting to get rural outside South Bend. It's considered New Carlisle but technically, the town is North of the highway I'm on. Which is good as far as the zombies are concerned, there is getting less and less of them.

I might take a couple of days out here just for a nice break (in the real world, it's the weekend and it's freezing out so I probably won't walk much).

So much for perfect attendance

My morning started off like any other morning. My alarm went off, I laid there for a minute before the cat started bothering me. I got up and did my usual morning routine, hopped in the car and drove to work. As I pull into the parking lot, I'm thinking "why is everyone here already?" I glance down at the clock, and it read 6:18. Um, I'm supposed to be at work at 6:00.

I have 2 alarms set on my phone. One at 5:15, which is the one I get up with, and one at 5:56 which is the one that I shut off the radio in the car and head into the building. I get to work around 5:40-5:45 and hang out in the car, slouch down, put my head back and shut my eyes and listen to music, until the alarm goes off. Then I head in and clock in at 2 minutes till. What I'm guessing happened this morning is my first alarm never went off (the cat would have woke me up if it had and I fell back asleep,) and when my second one did, I thought it was my first.

When I walked into work, my boss walked up and said "oh good, you're here." I explained what happened and then told her "I would have text you and let you know I was coming if I had actually realized I was running late."

Oops.

I don't know if it will affect perfect attendance or not since I did show up and still worked 8 hours. We have new owners so I don't know how they keep track. I had perfect attendance last year, I did call in once but they let me use a vacation day for it so technically, it wasn't a call in. The new owners don't allow that, you have to have 48 hour notice on vacation days.

Day #5, South Bend

I hit up the Goodwill this morning before I left. Changing my clothes which was nice after a few days.  I passed a supermarket on the way so I was able to stock up on some supplies. I had some trouble going under the bridge where the bypass goes over the road I was on. There was a big pile up and all kinds of zombies. I went up the exit and came back down on the other side. I was able to avoid most of them that way but I still had to dodge quite a few. When there is that many around I try to avoid rather than taking the time to kill one. All that dodging and running wore me out and I stopped for the night not real far after that crossing. I'm staying at a vet clinic. Luckily the animals were still alive as were only 5 days in but they didn't look good. I let most of them out of their cages and they took off. There was a small living quarter upstairs so at least I'll get a bed again.

Day #4 - South Bend, IN

It was a rough day today, I went through South Bend but I stayed more to the South of town so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I crossed some railroad tracks and debated on following them but decided to stick with the road. While I'm not real familiar with South Bend, I'm more familiar with the roads than the tracks, obviously. I found a plasma donation place to stay at tonight. I was hoping for a bed here but there aren't beds but more of a reclining chair. Oh well, it'll have to do. It didn't take real long to clear it out. The front door was open so there was only a straggler or 2 and they are in some offices at the front of the building while I'm hanging out in the back. I chose this building because it sits a ways from the road. There's a Goodwill next door that I'm going to hit at first light to see if there is anything I can use. I'm definitely going to be changing some clothes.

Total steps so far = 19,574

Total mileage so far = 12.62

Miles to go = 1503.38