Home All Week

I'm not used to being home everyday so Stacy and I are adjusting. It's really great because the screen room is finished and it's relaxing to just sit out there, talk, have dinner, listen to the birds sing and watch the sun go down.

I have a honey-do list and actually have time to do the stuff on the list.

I love being home, we have needed this for awhile. All the girls are grown, involved with significant others and no longer living here.

It's our time now and we're going to take it.

It's Riding Season

I've been riding motorcycles since high school, Stacy rode with me. Then Stacy and I got married and had the girls. Stacy and I would never let our girls ride a motor at all with anyone. Period. My girls could never understand this since my parents and Stacy's parents let us ride. Our explanation was that our parents didn't love us.

After the girls grew up and left the nest, I got the opportunity to ride again, thanks to my buddy David and Stacy. He was selling his pristine VTX1300c and Stacy was letting be buy it from him.

When I got the bike it had about 2,850 miles on it, it now has over 19,000. I put the bike to good use on business trips to Memphis, Chattanooga, Johnson City, Knoxville, and Rockford TN, as well as just cruising.
Got to hit Sonic.

Deal's Gap, North Carolina. 318 curves, 11 miles, 650 pound bike. Had to come back down, 736 curves, 22 miles, same 650 pound bike. Felt like a total body workout when I finished.

I love it when Stacy takes trips with me. My biker babe, I'm lucky, she loves to ride.

Road trip back from Chattanooga.

Got to stop and get some coffee, listen to tunes and answer email while on the road.

Some of the best places to stop and relax, grab a bite and fill up are small roadside spots

Just get on, hold on, and shut up.

If you see this bike, stay back, stay away, or I will kick your door panel in.

Screen Room Installation

Stacy has wanted a screen ever room since she first saw Don and Bonnie's who live across the street. So once we saved the cash. Don put a plan together and we decided to go forward.

The trusses were ordered and delivered, from this point on, no turning back.
We had to knock down the rails on the deck, get building permits and get ready to go.

David was a big help, he worked with Don when I was traveling.

David and I both learned the business end of a hammer, I loved the pneumatic nail gun.

Don't try this at home, standing on the top rung of the ladder, while balancing something four times your weight is not a good idea. But we did it, so it's OK. No really, don't try this at home, one of the three in this photo is a trained professional. (Don)

At this point I was starting to feel good about the project.

Trusses in place,roof and gutters installed.

The real deal. Planted some more trees for shade.

Reclaiming some space from the sun. Making a nice place to read the paper in the morning or to work.

I want to thank Don and David, their sweat, love and yes blood, build this room.

Forever greatfull.

After Nine Years-Finally......

I left the house on Monday for a whirlwind tour of my east Tennessee accounts for the last time. It was bittersweet, I was saying goodbye to my clients in those markets and introducing them to the new operations manager I hired to take over the area.

I have a great bunch of employees in the Chattanooga/Cleveland/Knoxville/Rockford markets and made a lot of friends in the past nine years in these towns. I also ate at a lot of places all along the way as well.

I finally convinced our new district manager and our corporate office that I could no longer give the customer service needed for 5400 hours per week of coverage while I traveled so much of the time. I was doing, each week between 1200 to 1500 miles of Tennessee interstates and back roads. Being required to make off hour visits/penetration tests, and clients visits twice a month was a monumental task in itself, add in problems, recruiting, hiring and training I was gone a lot.

My new area is middle Tennessee, I'll have 3180 hours per week and 375 miles round trip, all straight line mostly. Instead of I-40, I-24 and I-75, my area is now I-65, straight up and down the short part of the state.

I could not have maintained the level of service needed to do this job without the support of Stacy. I will be the first to admit I was committed to doing my job, that I would come home and start right back to work when I got home, staying up until I finished.

She was patient, she was kind, no matter how much I would snap at her because of the stress, she would smile and still give me encouragement. She went out of her way to take on the stuff around the house so I would not have to deal with it, and I love her to death.

I have said it before and it still rings true, without her, I am nothing.

I'm looking forward to being home each night and giving her the only thing she has asked for, me.

Looking at Adding a Hobby

I have hired someone to cover East Tennessee, and my area has been reduced to middle TN and Northern Alabama. From 5,600 hours a week of coverage to 3180 a week. From 1200 miles round trip, to 320 round trip. ( my car is so happy).

My nights away from home for business have come to an end as we know it. Where one to two days a week in East Tennessee have been the norm, now one day a month will be the norm.

Our food budget will rise as I will not be eating out on trips, the biggest adjustment will be Stacy/I cooking more each week.

So I have to find a hobby, since I was told I can't join the Bass Master's circuit, I need some hints. I have asked some blogger and face book friends for ideas. But they were lame, so here are some of mine.

Ride more, a lot more. My ideal trip would be to ride to Key West or to San Diego.
Workin' on this one.

Riding some more.

Find and restore a 66' Mustang, this is my dream.

Really..... girls father's day is coming........

Been a Long Time

We have been real busy over the past two months to say the least. One of my peers at work was terminated and his load was spread out between the three of us Operations Managers. It added northern Alabama to my area along with coverage to Bristol Virginia.

We have been building a screen room on our deck, Stacy loves to have her quiet time on the deck in the morning. But the angle and direction the sun sets makes the deck hotter than you know where in the afternoon. This will allow us to use the deck all day any day and give me a nice outside place to fire up the Cubans.

We also took a 7 day Caribbean cruise, the preparation for the 7 days out of the office had me working long hours.

I'm happy and elated to report that I have hired an Operations Manager who will be responsible for all of East Tennessee and will free me up to cover middle Tennessee! My overnight travel will all but stop and my work load will be reduced in half. The screen room addition, complete with two ceiling fans for the afternoon heat.The screen panels are actually screen doors and fit right into place and can be replaced easily if damaged. When finished, it will be time for Stacy to start buying more furniture because for some reason, we gave our deck furniture to Mandy and David. Lisa got the old porch swing. I think it was an excuse to buy more stuff, she's worth it.

Then it was cruise time, we started and stopped in San Juan, Puerto Rico. San Juan is a beautiful place.
St Thomas ocean kayaking.

St Maarten, dive helmet diving.

St Lucia, pirate extravaganza.

St Kitts, zip lining above the tree line.

Dominica tubing on the island's longest river. Dominica has 365 rivers on the island.

Barbados catamaran trip.

So to say we have been busy is an understatement.

I hope to be able to update this blog on a regular basis.

It's like therapy for me, and you all know I need therapy.