Farewell

It's been a pretty fun ride while it lasted, but truth be told my blog is less than I thought it would be........comment wise, response wise, or other wise. I mean why does one blog anyway? My guess is that for the most part, to have family & friends see what your up to, and also make it interesting enough that you discover new friends. Well I don't seem to have any of the aforementioned family and friends go to my blog, but definetly have made some new friends. Which is all well and good, but on the other hand it's kind of discouraging to put time and effort into a blog only 4 or 5 people read......what's the sense in that. So I'm done with a personal blog, I won't delete this blog because from what I can tell it's a major PITA....and maybe one day I'll get back to it. I'll still read the other bloggers that I'm faithful to, and continue my comments, if that's ok with y'all.
On the other hand I'm not done with blogging. I'm going to start a blog for The Armory, where I train. I'm going to do it with a friend of mine who is getting a website up to get his new martial art gear going, and he wants me to blog using his website. I'll send you that blog address to each one of you when that happens....not that you would be interested in that particular blog, but just in case.
Fare thee well my fellow bloggers.........until we meet again!
Cody

Broken

My body is broke :(

I push myself quite a bit. Between my Crossfit workouts and my Jiu-jitsu, and of course there is my occupation, I try to exceed what my body can endure, especially at the ripe ol age of 50. I hurt my shoulder back in May while rolling around on the mats. Right before that I broke two toes. But still, much to my wifes chagrin, I push on. I've had joint problems and such not, since I started working out back in my early twenties. Throughout the years I have done much trial and error...........from resting to PT, chriopractics, modalities, you name it. I've leard that to get through injuries, especially nagging ones, you need to a little bit of everything. I've also learned how to work around injuries using different lifting techniques, wraps, anti-inflammatories, ect.., whatever it takes.
In May, after my shoulder injury, I had an MRI. I found I had a bone spur in my rt. shoulder. Nothing has helped. As a matter of fact, now my left shoulder is hurting as well as both wrists..........
So for the 2nd time in my life(first was like 24 years ag0 on my wrist) I'm going to have arthroscopic surgery to remove the bone spur and hopefully alleviate the chronic inflammation and pain I'm having. I've continued my workouts and such, but on a limited basis. I'm tired of being limited and unable to give it my all. I have no torn ligaments or tendons that can be seen on the MRI, so hopefully, I'll be able to resume normal activity in 3-6 weeks.
I get very passionated about things that I love to do. I still love my Vespa and now the weather is conducive to ridng again. It also helps keep me sane. But, even more than riding I love individual sports. The Crossfit I started 8 months ago has been the most comprehensive workout I've ever been involved in and the most challenging. The Jiu-jitsu is even more challenging, due to the fact that you have to think, as much as do! The bad news is, starting these endeavors at the age of 50 is quite humbling. The body gets hurt more often, less flexibility, the injuries don't heal as quickly, many injuries become chronic. Longer periods of inactivity waiting for your body to heal..........in short, a very frustrating process!
But still I press on, feeling that pain relief and the whole healing process is just around the corner. It's the only way I can deal with it, the fact that I believe I'll be back in the game and off the injured reserve list. When I can say..."Put me in coach, I'm ready to play"!

Sometimes the Fire breathing Dragon wins!

Sometimes my job is pretty unique, I was at this fire. The bad news: at least half of his inventory died. I hate when any living creature loses it's life to The Dragon!


Fire reveals 100-plus snakes
Monday, September 17, 2007
DELRAY BEACH — The hissing coming from the smoky warehouse Sunday morning wasn't from fire.

When firefighters, responding to a 1:31 a.m. call, forced the door open, they found more than 100 boa constrictors and pythons - some on the loose.

Others were in metal, glass and plastic cages that had started melting when firefighters arrived at the warehouse at 340 N.E. Fourth St., Battalion Chief Russ Accardi said.

The boas were about 8 feet long and the pythons 12 to 17 feet, he said.

The big ones weighed about 200 pounds. Some of the smaller ones were dead when firefighters arrived.

Nobody was injured, but one of the firefighters came across a large snake, grabbed it to get it out of the way and wound up wearing it.

"When he came out, he had this boa all wrapped around his neck," Accardi said.

Using shipment information on one box inside the warehouse, authorities were able to notify Craig Bryant, 33, owner of the snakes and renter of the warehouse unit.

The reptiles were being bred for sale to retailers, he told authorities.

Calls to Bryant were not returned Sunday. Authorities could not reach the building owner, Carole Properties and Management.

It took firefighters 30 minutes to put out the fire, which did not appear to be suspicious, Accardi said. Wires in the back of the property might have caused it, he said.

The nature of the incident caught everyone by surprise, Accardi said.

"It just looked like a normal warehouse. It just points out, firefighters never know what they are crawling into!

Never forget.......9/11

There were 2740 Americans killed :(
343 of those were Firefighters
75 of those were Police

Please take a moment and say a prayer for all, including those who have lost their lives overseas................

And the Summer Vaction photo winners are.....

The lowlights and highlights of our trip

Well, we are finally back from our long road trip...this part will be written in black as this is the lowlights section of our trip. Most of it all on our last week of the trip. In order of unfortunate negativity...drumroll please......the number 1 worst lowlight.
1-Our cat Molly, escaped from our cabin that is on the 22 acre estate of Michelle's ex in-laws. I'm sitting in the cabin when Michelle and her daughter, Megan come through the door. All of a sudden I hear the worst screaming in my life, and it was coming from Michelle! Molly had gotten out the door and was promptly set upon by two lab mixes with bad intent! Michelle had given chase to save Molly, screaming for me in the process. I bolted out the door and in the woods 50 feet behind me I see Molly being mauled and Michelle going off! I quickly run down and pull the bigger dog off of Molly and Michelle grabs the other one and Molly makes it too a tree within our reach. Now I grab both dogs, and Michelle grabs Molly from the tree and promptly receives a number of bite from a now traumatized cat!. She gets inside and I release the dogs and go check up on Michelle and Molly. Michelle is bleeding heavily and Molly is going into shock. Michelle goes and finds a emergency vet and I examine Molly. She is soaked with dog saliva , but miraculously, unharmed. We take her to the vet and she checks out find..used 8 of her 9 lives, but otherwise OK. Michelle, on the other hand is bitten all over her hands and has sprained an ankle. She goes to the ER where she is given antibiotics and an air cast . I've worked Fire/Rescue for 26 years and never heard or experienced something so traumatic as this ! It really hits home when it's your beloved pet in mortal danger, but it was even worse hearing the screams of anguish coming from my bride!

2) The day before started off great! We were with our new found friends, Brian & Shannon. They had ridden the Dragon with us and we became fast friends. We were tubing in a creek in Bryson City. Michelle and Shannon were sunning themselves on a big boulder in the middle of the creek next to a small waterfall. Brian and I were in the water. Shannon had gotten up and walked over on some rocks and then slipped and face planted on a big boulder. She was pretty banged up. We got her to the ER where she was pronounced A OK, ie no broken anything. But she felt she was beaten by a baseball bat. It was really a scary moment and shook us all to the core. She is blessed not to have snapped her neck at the least. Brian, understandably was very shaken to of seen his new love interest get hurt like that. For me, my training took over, but afterwards........I too was pretty shook up!

3)Just a week into our NC part of trip, I crashed on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I wasn't badly hurt, but the Vespa took a powerful hit. So did my ego, but that's another story. I was without it for two weeks while I brought it down to Vespa of Charlotte to be repaired.

4) Our Chihuahua Lulu Belle, had a bad reaction to a Lymes booster shot. She was really sick for 3 days and Michelle got so stressed she also got sick, causing us to.....

5) miss our opportunity to meet with my blog friend Biker Betty(BB) in Dollywood. I've met and talked to quite a number of bloggers and Modern Vespa folks. BB was one of them. She lives in Colorado and was going with her husband , Bill, to see his sick father. We had big plans to meet and it all fell though at the last minute :(

6) On our way home yesterday, Michelle got food poisoning from a Subway tuna fish sub. Just to add to her long list of ailments with the cat bites and sprained ankle. Almost forgot to add the poison oak to her list.

7) We got lost going to Robbinsville. It was night and we were towing our bikes. We made a wrong turn, it was dark and we ended up getting stuck on a dirt road in the middle of the forest and could not to forward or backwards. It took us an hour and a half getting the bikes off the trailer, unhitching and moving the trailer so we could back up downhill. All the time using a flashlight and trying not to get eaten by nearby coyotes....no kidding!

ok................now the good stuff...the highlights!

1) Our cat Molly is ok, and Michelle is my hero! She was Momma bear and her cub was being attacked and she showed her grit..........God, I love my woman!

2) Shannon is beaten up, but nothing else.what a trooper!

3) Michelle, again, showed her grit when she did an outstanding job when we were stuck in the woods!

4) Seeing my family, especially my parents, and my childhood friends, who helped me celebrate number 50!

5) The Vespa riding though some of the most beautiful countryside in Michigan and in North Carolina.

6) Having Vespa of Charlotte come through and repair my Vespa in time for The Dragon! Thank you Steve and Shelby!! Also a shout out to Vespa of Toledo who also helped us along our travels from MI to NC. Thanks to Mike and Joe!

7)The Tail of the Dragon was a challenging and exciting ride, but the real fun was meeting the Modern Vespa folks who came from all over the country to ride the Dragon with me. A ride I started planning in January. You could not get a finer group of riders together and it was cool to see the looks of folks who haven't seen a group of scoots ride the Dragon before. For pics, go to my link on this blog to Modern Vespa and go to rallies and events and look for the post to The tail of the Dragon this summer. Go to pages 6 and 7.

8)Being away from work this long and the anticipation of moving to NC(Vespa heaven) in less than 3 years. So many nice people up there and a whole lot less human inhabitants.

9) I rode by myself one day for almost 200 miles. Great scenery, saw a black bear, jumped off a waterfall , met some great people, .........and didn't crash lol!

10 Have another addition to the family.Cooper, the kitten we rescued...lord help us, two Chi's, two cats, and a bird...just call me Noah:)

11)Celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary my 5oth BD, and my 10 year cancer free anniversary while on this trip!!

12) The Blue Ridge Parkway! Hands down the most beautiful place I've ever seen, I rode her for 125 miles before the crash, worth every bit of aggravation i had to endure after the crash:)

All in all it was a good trip, I can't say it's good to be home, so much work to do and bills to pay, plus it'll be hard to get excited riding hot, flat, and straight Florida, after all the cool, curvy & twisty treats I got up in MI and NC. The rudeness factor here in FL is 20-1 over those aforementioned places.............But truly, Michelle and I are blessed to have been able to go on such a trip and we did enjoy ourselves, plus we definitely learned some things about each other and about ourselves. God has held us in His good graces, He just doesn't always make it easy and we are better for it.
Today was all words, first time no pics. Those will come this weekend. Vote for your favorite one(s)
Peace!
Cody&Michelle

Animal rescue league we are

While on this extended vacation, it seems we have been rescuing animals along the way. It started as soon as I was on the Vespa, I've pulled two turtles out of harm's way on two separate occasions.
Then the other night as Michelle and I were in our vehicle, we saw a Manx(tailess) kitten patially hidden in the bushes at the entrance to the subdivision we are going to build in, Cooper Cove. He came to us crying for food. We took him home and quickly fed him and of course named him. What else of course, but Cooper. This morning we began introducing Cooper to the rest of the tribe. Our black Chi ignores him, our chocolate Chi, plays with him, and our cat is still evaluating the situation. All in all, not too bad.
Also yesterday afternoon, there were no less than 17 hummingbirds around the two feeders out on our porch. This morning when we woke up, there was one that was trapped under the porch area that seemed to be in trouble. We don't know if it was blind or what, but it could not stay away from the ceiling or escape. Michelle came up with an idea of using a broom to see if it would land on it. Sure enough.......it worked. I put the broom up towards the ceiling, the hummer found it , landed, I lowered the broom and stuck it outside the porch area and off it flew.
We definitely have a soft spot for all animals, and it sure is a good feeling to help critters of all types out. Not quite sure what we are going to do with Cooper yet.........so if anyone wants a kitten, let us know:)