I’m not a very religious person, but just wanted to wish Happiness to everyone.

 I received an update on my friends daughter, who was hurt in a car accident last month. She is slowly and steadily recovering! She is a very lucky woman. It appears she has good doctors and so many friends sending positive vibes.

My recovery is slower than I like, but I’m just about back to normal. I haven’t been able to get back to really working out, but will start again in the next week.

I have cousins in Florida from Jersey for the holiday week, so I ’ll be spending some time with them, on the west coast.

Last but not least...The Orlando Predators are playing  their second home game tonight!   GO PREDS!!

Not for me, but for a friend's daughter. Pam (some of you know as PBJP) has a teenage daughter, who was in a single car accident last weekend. She sustained serious head injuries and the last I heard is in an induced coma. As someone who had a head injury last summer, I know how serious this can be. I was fortunate to be back to a daily routine in a short amount of time. I couldn't stop thinking about this, and thought I'd post a little something to help Pam and Becca.

Hang in there Becca! There are alot of friends and family pulling for you to have a full recovery!

I  made an emergency appointment to see the surgeon because of some uncomfortable swelling and saw him this morning. He assured me everything was normal and I had 2 hernias next to each other, he needed to repair. Holy cow! I was working out for over a month with the pain, and only thought it was gas pains! lol... so he's telling me to see him again in 3 weeks and I should have clearance to go back to normal life by then....Woo HOO!

No, not a vasectomy... I went for my hernia operation yesterday. I'm now 18 hours post surgery and only feeling slight pain. I have my friend vicodin close by!

I apparently got it from working out. The pain started back in late November, and I didn't realize what it was until I went to my doctor in mid January. He told me I had an inguinal hernia and needed to see a surgeon.

I'm happy this surgeon seemed to know what he is doing. For the 1st 12 hours after the surgery,  it was hardly painful at all. I guess the area was still numb. Today it is a little more  tender, but not too bad. I've been mobile since I left the hospital without much problems. So, at least it is repaired and I'm ready to get back to having some fun again! I hope to be back on my motorcycle by the end of March at the latest. My recovery time will be 3-4 weeks according to my surgeon, but we'll play it be ear.

I'm missing the Daytona 500 campout this time :( I so wanted to be there for the 50th running. I talked to my friends in the infield yesterday, and it sounded like another great time. Next time I go, I WILL not ride in a golf cart!

In other news, I've joined an new group of people to do fun stuff with. Everyone seems really cool. It figures though, when I joined is when my hernia became more painful, so I haven't been on many outings with them, yet. I'm looking forward to a fun spring and summer!

I went on a group ride today, to benefit Christmas toys for poor kids. I wanted to do something charitable, and needed to get on the bike and ride for a while.

Yesterday, I was running some errands and accidently threw away my new registration and sticker for my motorcycle...... I didn't realize it until a couple hours later, while cleaning the bike. I thought, well, I could go rummage threw trash cans at Walmart, or cancel going on the ride today. I chose to cancel the ride and do Christmas shopping today.

So, this morning, I woke up too early, decided to wash the car, and do some grocery shopping, before the department stores opened. After washing the car, and grocery shopping, I looked at the clock. It was 8:25. I checked to see when the ride was leaving from KMS, which was 10:00. If I was going to make it I'd have to get moving.

I changed clothes, went to pick up the bike, stopped at Walgreens to buy a teddy bear, and hauled ass at between 60-80MPH down I-4. I knew I could possibly get stopped for an expired registration, but it didn't matter. I was on a mission... HA!

I got to 528 by 9:20 and to KMS on John Young Pkwy, by the 417 by 9:30. I talked to a couple people, one of which told me to XYZ. Holy shit! I laughed it off and ate a muffin and drank a cup of coffee. By then, it was time to leave.

The instructors for the Osceola MSF class as well as members of COBB did an excellent job of blocking intersections in the escort to Tavares. Our route took us west on 192 to 545 ( almost to HWY 27) then north on 455 to HWY 19. I may be missing a couple roads, but it was a great relaxing ride on mostly two lane roads. The ride last 1 1/2 hours, and was theraputic. We ended at a restaurant called The Harbor Side. It was on a canal and Lake Dora, I believe. It was a great time, and I got home early enough to still do a bit of gift shopping. Here are a couple of pics....

This one is telling me I have lost too much weight and look sick. Time for me to start adding calories again and working out harder.

This next one is of us heading to our bikes to begin the ride

Even a few women rode their own...

And then we had lunch.

Another great Sunday afternoon on the bike....

I had two Thanksgiving celebrations this year. The first one was at Alexander Springs on the weekend of  November 16-18. Damn, it was cold on Friday night! It was 34 degrees up in Ocala. We had a great time, eating well, laughing, talking, and drinking various beverages. Here's a couple of pics

We call the annual campout "Campsgiving".

Then, instead of flying to Philly for Thanksgiving, my sister decided to have my parents and I fly in to her place in Charlotte. It is a big house, and they are not even settled in to it yet, but it was nice being someplace different. Here are a couple pics from there.

I'll be headed back there at Christmas. It actually was easy flying in to the airport there, at least compared to flying in to Philadelphia for a holiday weekend. I hope you all had a great weekend too!

Today's ride took us up to The Loop, in Ormond Beach. The weather couldn't have been better. Finally, a beautiful Sunday autumn day to ride. Sue and I met up with a friend of hers, and took the back roads up to Ormond, to do the scenic ride. The ride through the Tomoka State Park area was incredible, but a little chilly for me, since I wore a T shirt. In the sun, it was perfect, but I could feel the difference in the shade.

I  took the bike out last evening to the jazz concert in College Park.  It was a great band, and the preppy College Park crowd was a trip to watch. People with dogs were all over the place. I almost got to see two of them fight! Ha! Jim Philips' head would have spun around, if he had seen it.

And on Friday night, I took the bike to 1st Fridays at the Mall at Millenia. The band was lead by a guy named Jamie Williams. I don't know if he was the sax player, but the guy who played the sax was a skilled craftsman. The band played some "smooth jazz", which I'm not a big fan of, as well as some pop tunes played on 103.1, but the band made a very positive impression on me.

If you've been keeping up with my saga, I lost my sense of smell, last summer, which in turn took away my sense of tasting any flavors of food. Don't pity me, I'll be ok. But, I decided since I can't smell anymore and  I hardly have cravings for food, I might as well start working out.

So on September 20th I started Super Slow workouts. I'll be doing the workouts for 3 months.  I also joined Planet Fitness to do more than just the two a week workouts, if I have the energy! HA!

Me exercising... who woulda thunk it! So anyway I started out at 204 lbs and felt I wanted to lose roughly 20 lbs, by the end of the workouts. My trainer suggested I work on getting down to 175lbs then start gaining again, but with muscle weight. He gave me a diet to go by, which is a laugh when it comes to weekends. I'm still drinking at bars and eating some bar food, while watching the football games. During the workweek though, I try to follow the diet. As of tonight, I'm at 191 lbs, so I think it might be working. I'm not trying to be a he man, just felt I needed to make something positive, out of this change in my life. So far, it is working....

I woke up early to go on a ride with two of my friends, who ride. We met in Lake Mary and decided to go to Mt Dora. We let Sue take a few minutes to ride around her neighborhood, to get her skills refreshed.

When she came back, off we went! The roads weren't crowded and weather wasn't very warm, yet. Once we got to Mt. Dora, we decided to hit a place for a drink, and a bite to eat. We ended up on Donelly in downtown Mt. Dora.

While we were sitting there talking, at an outdoor table,  we saw this long Mercedes with all of this stuff attached to it. It was being staged on a side street. The people next to us informed us of the Car/Art show going on this weekend.

After we finished the drinks, we took a walk.... here is some of what we saw

The Mercedes

Next is a VW bug with cigarette butts glued to it....

We met up with a friend named Mt. Dora Dave. He met us on his bad ass scooter! Here is a pic of our bikes..

It was a great time!! After being there a while, it started getting hot, so we headed back. Can't wait to ride with more people. Maybe next time, I'll have a female rider to ride on the back of my bike with me...

After one and a half months of recovery, I'm finally going back to work on Monday! I got the release from my doctor today. I celebrated by going to the benefit for the victims of the plane crash fire, in Sanford. It was a great event and a good amount of money was raised. Even Gus the camel was there. 

I rode my motorcycle to the event. It was the first time I've ridden any distance, since July 1. I took the windshield off, just so I could feel the full effect of riding again.Winding out the engine, took my breath away. I can't wait til Sunday morning, when I'll be joining a couple friends to go riding together.

Well.... I'm still alive! I'm feeling like I'm so ready to go back to work. I've been acclimating myself to the heat again. I've been going on bicycle rides and walking.  I did some charity work last Saturday with a group from work, cooking and serving 500 burgers and 500 hot dogs to inner city folk, at the school supply giveaway. I guess the homeless heard about it, because they got fed also. I was out in the heat, on the asphalt for about 4 1/2 hours. I was tired afterward, but so was everyone else!

I had another CT scan done last week. I also had a procedure done, which seemed to cure my dizziness problem. This Friday is finally the appointment with the neurosurgeon. I plan on him telling me everything is looking great and I can resume motorcycle riding and going back to work. There's still no sense of smell or taste, but I try to stay positive.  Keep your fingers crossed.

To the infield for the Pepsi 400. Long story short, I fell out of a moving golf cart, fractured my skull, had some bleeding on my brain and a bruise somewhere else on my head. A week later some of the headaches are subsiding... FINALLY! Now all I need is to get back to normal so I can hop on the bike again! HA! Damn it man....

I took a trip to visit my Mom for Mother's Day. It was a great spending time with her, and enjoying her cooking again. I haven't been there since Thanksgiving, so I couldn't wait to taste her macaroni and meatballs again! ha!

I lucked out and got a fun car to drive.....

Here's a little video of me "barrelin ass" as a friend would say.....

I took my Mother to Atlantic City for the afternoon/evening for some action. We parked at Trump Plaza, a decent hotel. She went her way to play video poker machines and I headed to the roulette wheel, to judge if I would be lucky. As I was having NO luck there, I went to play some blackjack where I won some of my money back. I met up with my mom after a couple hours and headed out to the boardwalk for a beverage. Here is a pic of us together...

After the refreshing beverage I took a couple of other pictures. Here is one from the entrance to the beach looking back to the boardwalk....

Here is a video of Bucket Man playing percussion....

It was a great place to sit and observe people....

This weekend is a no work weekend and maybe a ride on the bike to Daytona... Stay tuned!

I spent about 6 hours commuting back and forth to Leesburg this weekend and enjoyed each time! It was Leesburg Bikefest, and man was that place crankin'!

Friday night, after the rain passed, At about 7 p.m., I hopped on the bike and headed up there for some night time entertainment. The place was packed with people. I  heard 2 great bands. Confederate Railroad, a country type band and The Bobby Blackmon band, a blues band. Both bands played into the hands of their audiences. I forgot to take my camera, so no pics are from Friday night.

However, I did bring it yesterday and today and I will treat you to some of my favorite views.

On Saturday, I met up with a high school friend whom I hadn't seen in years. He saw my pic on my profile of classmates.com. I rode up to Sanford and we rode out to Leesburg. He plays in a band so he was hungover a tad, but was a trooper and had a couple beers with me. lol. Here's a pic of him with his bike.

This bike was on the front lawn of a funeral home. Ha!

Here is a Yamaha VMax with a nitros bottle for each cylinder.

This next bike was probably the nicest stock bike there! HA!

After Bob left, I went looking for other friends who showed up for the Monsters performance.

The beer man showed up....

So did the Geico caveman,

Glenn, the ultimate Monsters fan, and his sidekick, Lonewolf

I had to get one of Tiffany's ass

After the Monsters show, I checked out some of the bikes on Main St. but didn't take many pics. I headed home at about 10:00 p.m.

This morning, I joined some others for an organized ride to Leesburg, from Seminole Power Sports in Sanford. I got there at 10:30, had some complimentary coffee and donuts, and basically bullshitted with the others. They gave us all a bikefest Tshirt, and a voucher for free beers and food at the Rat Hole bar, when we got there! The ride was great! We stayed off of 441 with the exception of about 1 mile. I walked around with the group ( about 10 of us), enjoying the scenery. The it was time to for me to take some pics, so I ventured off on my own.

Now without further hesitation.... The girls on bikes!

This girl happened to be posing for a guy...

And this is how I spent the weekend....