Prompt #2 - Listen to your mother

I've got some time today so I figured I'd do another prompt. I plan on working on my cards most of the day but I figured I'd take some time to do this before I get going on that.

#556 - A time when you should have listened to your mother.

I could probably make a huge list for this one but I don't really remember one specific time as in her actually telling me not to do something. That's probably because I generally did things and then she told me why I shouldn't have because like most teenagers, I didn't ask my mom for help because I knew everything.

I can give you all kinds of instances where I should have listened. Quitting basketball tryouts would be number 1, because I still hear about that to this day.

She always told me that my skipping school would reflect on my working career. Technically she was right, I used to skip work all the time as well. That has changed though, pretty much when I started having kids, funny how that happens. Now I get a certificate every month at work for perfect attendance. I usually have to fight my group leader to throw it in the trash because she likes to hang them on the wall. They are my certificates however, so I win that battle every time.

I don't really have a ton of regrets, because I'm one of those the journey that got you there. The only thing I would really change about my life right now would be if I didn't have to work. I hate going to work everyday and if I could afford not to, I wouldn't.

Do I regret my first marriage? Yes and no. Yes, because I feel like I wasted a lot of years with someone who I'm not sure ever really loved me. On the other hand, she gave me 2 great kids and those 14 years we were married was building me up to who I am today and that person won over my current wife, whom I love. So by that logic, you can see why I have little regrets.

Even the whole quitting basketball thing. Do I regret quitting tryouts for the high school team? Yes, because I could have at minimum, gone to college for free. But would I have ended up with my wife or the kids I have without it? Probably not.

To sum all this up, I asked my mom why she didn't tell me to not get married the first time, she said, you wouldn't have listened to me if I did. She was right.

I don't know if I ever really answered the question, but I got a post out of it, so there is that.

Day 119, Tomah, WI (391.4 Miles)

I'm making my way across Wisconsin but I'm really not close to anything and won't be for awhile. It's cold and rainy today so I doubt I get much in. I'll be lucky to get 1000 steps today.

A long (sorta) walk

I was sitting around this morning, playing around on my laptop and trying to catch up on the DVR and was thinking, I really should go for a walk. I also decided that I was hungry so I figured I'd throw those together and walk somewhere for some lunch. I Googled a few places to make sure they weren't to far, I'd hate to have to call the wife and say, um, can you come pick me up? I picked 7-Eleven, which for those who don't know what that is, is a convenient store. They have great hot dogs (3/4 pound) as well as Taquito's but I was really wanting the Hot Dog. I Googled and the closest was down by the Walmart but the road there has a little bit of a hill which on a car you barely noticed, but walking is a different story. As easy as it is for me to get out and walk, I still have leg and back issues to where walking up and down a hill is a problem. So I chose the second furthest location and set out.

Part of my walk is down a fairly busy road, actually most of the walk was and I passed someone who acted like they knew me. She got excited and waved. I have no idea who it was, I didn't recognize the car and being as they flew past probably doing at least 50 mph, I didn't see her either. I haven't heard anything via text or Facebook yet so I wonder if it was somebody from work. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.

I walked all the way there and I really didn't want to stop, I felt like I was on a groove so I went in, grabbed a dog and a Gatorade and ate it on my walk back. It was a little difficult being as I have breathing issues through my nose and it's a little difficult to breathe and eat, both with your mouth, at the same time. I did manage though.

About 3/4 of the way back, I was getting tired. I was starting to feel it in my legs and just wanted to get home. I also noticed that my hands had swollen up. I wasn't sure what to make of that and what it meant. I was a little worried that it was a medical issues but my wife Googled when I got home. Apparently it is common and has to do with blood flow not getting to your hands as well because it's pumping harder. Common, maybe, but it's never happened to me.

I set a new high for miles for a walk, not for total steps in a day or anything but the longest for getting out there and walking. I actually blew my old high by quite a bit.

Not to bad considering I hadn't walked in 3 weeks. What's funny was when I got home and looked at my phone, my mom had invited me to a daily showdown on Fitbit. Little did she realize that I just did this walk so I clicked join and bam, I'm up already by 9,000 steps. She picked the wrong Sunday for that.

Day 112, Mauston, WI (364 miles)

Maybe I can keep walking this week and get out of the middle of nowhere so I have something to share of.

Prompt #1 - Something I made by hand

I have a list of writing prompts bookmarked and I random them all to see what I write about.

#239 - Share something you made by hand.

Well if you know me, then you know this will be a short post. I am not handy, at all. Sure, I can use tools and figure stuff out, I'm not a moron. Contrary to what some people think. If you sit me down and show me how to do something, I can probably do it. The question is, do I want to do it?

I was taught how to do an oil change and even though I never did one one on my own, I'm confident I could probably do one if a gun was held to my head. The difference is, I would rather pay someone else to do it. It's not something I enjoy so why would I want to do it?

I can and have used many power tools but to this day, if family sees me using something, they are shocked. I've worked in factories for years, I drive a forklift for a living now, but if it comes to working with my hands. Nope, nobody thinks I can. Even though I have helped family put up roofs and siding, put up fences and put down flooring, poured cement, put together shelves and other such things. Oh, I also used to work in steel construction but I can't use a wrench, oh, okay. Do I know how to do any of those things? No, not really, but all you have to do is show me how and I'll go to town.

As far as something I created by hand, I can't really come up with anything. I'd rather purchase something then make something. I get that from my mom. I don't have the patience to put something together. I don't really have the patience to fix things either. My wife usually does things like that just because she gets mad at me because I get mad at whatever I'm fixing. People, all the patience in the world. Things, no patience what so ever.

Day 111, Mauston, WI (362.5 Miles)

I haven't been very good at walking this week. Some overtime at work but mostly just lazy. I didn't even really have any good days at work. I think the only day I hit 8,000 was yesterday and I hit that right before bed.

I'm out in the middle of nowhere at the moment so nothing special to show. I'm still around 200 miles from my next destination so nothing definitely going on that's to exciting.

I was going to go walk today but I got roped into doing some yard work, it got me some steps but not many. I really need to get in the habit of walking again. I take one day off and I'm done, it's rather pathetic.

State of the Blog

I know, I've gone missing again. I'm still doing the walking thing as far as keeping track of my steps. I haven't, however, been very good at going out walking after work. I've been doing just enough to get my 8,000 during the week. I've been working a little more which was partly the cause but truth be told, if I had the motivation, I could have gone for at least a lap in the neighborhood most days.

I want to post here more often but to be honest, I don't have much to talk about. My life is pretty boring. For the most part, I work and sit around and home, that sums up the majority of my days. I don't like to talk about work here because I've seen to many people get fired for posting on social media about work. If I was completely anonymous, I would take the chance but I'm not. I don't even post on my personal Facebook about work even though it's set at Friends Only. I'm not one to talk a lot about work anyways. I generally forget about work when I'm not there. I come home, talk about it for a few minutes with my wife and then I'm done. I don't know why people carry that baggage home with them every night.

At home, I sit around and watch TV and play around on my laptop. I'm usually working on my baseball card blogs as I'm trying to log in every card I own, along with photos and descriptions so needless to say, that takes a long time. I've been working at that for over a year now. Most days I just log in what I got that day and then my weekends I tend to go nuts and spend hours working on them. This weekend I didn't as I drove up to Ann Arbor (2 1/2 hours, one way) for the Michigan spring game so that took up my whole Saturday. Sunday was Easter and I spent most of the day at my moms so I haven't done much of anything this past weekend.

I used to do a lot of posts about music but I have a whole blog for my music now. I also used to post about theEx and the JackAss (click the labels on the right side) and for the most part, I don't deal with them much. The kids are older now and have their own cell phones so she usually contacts them and asks if they can come over. She hasn't paid support in 3 years so I make her pick them up and drop them off here so I don't have to deal with waiting on her at a meeting place anymore. My daughter just says what she wants to her so I don't have to stand up for the kids when they are over there anymore. So that topic has also fallen by the wayside. I still read but it's down to less than a book a week because of my job change (I only read on breaks at work) so technically, I could still blog about that but it still wouldn't be often.

   

Last night, I read where a blogging friend of mine found some writing prompts to try to get herself writing some more. I've done the A to Z Challenge for a couple of years but I just don't like being told I have to post 6 days a week. The 2013 one I had the kids write down a word and wrote about it, 2014 I did my music tracks but again, I have a whole blog for my music now.

So I googled blog writing prompts and started taking a few off of a couple of lists and was making a list of my own but then I came across a list with over 600 prompts on it. I said, screw my list and just bookmarked that page. Now my goal will be to just random that page, and write about what comes up. I won't be posting daily by any means but I will post more often. I would like to do a couple a week, at minimum.

Plus, with blogging every few days, I can update the walking stats on the bottom of those posts so there's that as well.

So that's a state of the blog kind of post to let you all know what's going on here. Let's see how well I keep to it, that will be the real challenge.

Stadium Tour #6

As I said yesterday, I got a walk in yesterday and ended up with over 3.5 miles for the day. I know it doesn't sound like a lot but it was a Sunday, usually I'm lucky to get a mile and a half on Saturday and Sunday combined.

Day 90, Madison, WI - 293.8 Miles

My stadium tour continued. I'm not hitting every stadium out there, just the ones I happen to think of at the time. Mainly MLB and Big Ten college stadiums.

1. Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago White Sox)
2. Soldier Field (Chicago Bears)
3. Ryan Field (Northwestern University)
4. Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs)
5. Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers)

I didn't show Ryan Field so you'll just have to trust me when I say I walked past it. Today, I'm adding this to the list.

Camp Randall (University of Wisconsin)

I have an idea where I'm heading next but I'm not positive. After passing the stadium, I headed South so we'll see from there.

Week #13 of 2016

I actually had a good week, walking wise that is. I went walking after work on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I got over 8,000 steps (my daily goal) every work day this week. Monday was a nice day so I headed out after work. Tuesday was chilly and windy so I opted out. Wednesday was nice again so I went but on Thursday, it was chilly and windy but I had to take my car in to get looked at and rather then just sitting in the lounge waiting, I brought my walking stuff, dropped off the car and went for a walk. The route I picked ended up being 2.4 miles (I usually walk a little over 2 miles). It kicked my ass but it wasn't the extra mileage, it was using a sidewalk and for part of it, I had to walk through grass and avoid water areas. The concrete they use on the sidewalks doesn't agree with my shin splints. I seem to do ok on asphalt or whatever else roads are made of, but the sidewalks didn't agree with me.

On Friday, I had to stay after work because the 2nd shift guy didn't show up, plus it was chilly again so once again I opted out. Saturday, however, was sunny and in the 60's but we know I never walk on Saturday. I decided to get my ass out there and go. I walked down to my mom's house, which ended up being 2.7 miles. She then drove me home since I had to go pick up the kids and she was heading towards my house anyways.

Since yesterday ended up being 2.7 miles, I decided to up it today and walked a 3 mile route. I had to walk past my house about 100 feet and back just to get the 3 miles but I got it. I haven't decided if I'm going to stick to the 2 miles after work or do the 3. I'm definitely doing the 3 on days I don't work but since I get so many steps at work, I may only do the 2 on those days.

Day 89 (Madison, WI) - 290.2 Miles

With my 3 mile walk today, that should put me where I wanted to walk by in Madison tomorrow, so maybe I'll even get a post out.

This was posted to my Random Thoughts Facebook page.

Apparently I didn't tweet so much this week.

My wife hates being called that so you know I'm going to teach them. I already told the 2 kids that live with me and told the oldest daughter and they all agreed to teach their kids to call her that.

Hard To See by Five Finger Death Punch

Lick It Up by KISS

What's It Like by Everclear

Supernatural by DC Talk

Crazy Bitch by Buckcherry

Prayer by Disturbed

Always by Atlantic Starr

58,336 steps isn't the most I've ever had in a week but it's been a long time since I've had that many. We'll see if I can't beat it this week.