I had time to mow my lawn tonight, but more than that, I had the distinct pleasure of mowing my lawn with the Lone Ranger at the wheel.  Of course everyone in our neighborhood recognized him and in my dreams I was praying for them to all say something like “And hi Tonto” to me, yet all I heard was “Good driving Curly Joe.”  So this is to say I must have looked out of character…….and whenever someone mistakes me for Curly, I take that as a compliment as I am a big fan of him….he is a comedic genius!!

But the cool part of my time was mowing with the real Lone Ranger.  And although I have not seen the movie, nor as a purist will I, I am betting that the Lone Ranger who was mowing with me was probably Clayton Moore approved, and quite honestly I can more than live with that.

And the yard looks great, even though it took twice the time to mow.  And hopefully, someday in the not so distant future it will be the Lone Ranger’s job alone (as soon as he can reach the pedals) but for now I will share these duties or do it alone.

Tonight however has been one of the days it has been great to be a dad.  I will not tell you why as to protect someones secret identity.  But I will say the extra time was well worth it.  Our Silver was orange and mowing far less exciting than fighting evildoers…….but it was fulfilling all the same.

I love being a dad, and I am sure if I live long enough I will love being a grandparent too.  The latter I am sure is what I was made for as I have spent a lifetime of living with my delusional children, and believe I was designed by God Himself to be the one to hang out and spoil the children He gives to torture them!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Well, well, well……no, not in a wishing well kind of thing, as I already have thrown away enough money in my life to understand that tossing it into a hole with water that I do not believe in has never gotten anyone anywhere, but I do mean well in terms of with my soul.  And that might surprise you as Everdry is still not finished with my house and is now digging up multiple well sized holes around my foundation.  (Fortunately I had already thrown that money away).

But I have a great sense of peace in that this too will pass.  I will have my basement finished (hopefully before I die) and we are trying to file charges (criminal – fraud) against this company as well as we will be suing them for damages to our home.  I however can get worked up about all that and be miserable, or just take a deep breath and hook my washer and dryer back up for the umpteenth (but final) time and pour me a nightcap.  And I will choose the latter.

And then on anther front, since I was stuck here yet again today, I spent 2 hours on the phone with Linksys about my “wireless bridge.”  No, this is not like Mackinaw, it is an electronic thing that connects EVERYTHING together in my office.  And after two hours what we discovered is that it was BAD!!!!  Go figure.  So this is to say that in the middle of all the dang nonsense with my house, my frustrations with restoring my computer and office after the mechanical failure of my hard drive were all being undermined by a bad bridge!

But I have a great sense of peace in that this too will pass.  I will have my office and computer restored (hopefully before I die) and we are trying to find a psychiatrist to make a diagnosis (stupidity on my part) for me as well as we will be mocking me for impersonating someone competent about computers.  I however can get worked up about all that and be miserable, or just take a deep breath and restart my blog posting for the umpteenth (but final, I promise) time and pour me a nightcap.  And I will choose the latter.

All I can say is that my life is interesting to say the very least.  Some people complain about the boredom and monotony, I however have nothing but pure and unfiltered drama.  And I suppose like Job (he is in the Bible, I swear) I could dress in sackcloth and ashes and lament my life, or I could pour me a nightcap and admire all the cool new wells they are digging in my yard…….

I will choose the latter.  Please enjoy this unrelated picture of Ben Tirman eating a sandwich tonight in our hallway.  He is our wishing well and we have tossed more into him that you could ever know!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yeah, at 52 I do not look like Vin Diesel, but I did ask my wife (who cuts my hair) to just shave it all off to at least SE

E what it looks like, and she did.  And you can enjoy the pictures of it as I waited for Ben to get up before posting them (he will be a welcome distraction I am sure).

But right now all I can say is that I am not too fond of it.  Yes my regular haircut is just about a quarter inch longer than this, but honestly I already feel like it is going to take forever to get there.  I do however have pictures, and I have done it…….so now I will know.

Ben thinks it is pretty cool and my mother-in-law and daughter seem to kind of like it.  Of course Steph is a 21 year old college student and probably prone to drinking and my mother-in-law likes me as a son-in-law which probably indicates poor judgment, but in all honesty I will take it.

So I will now look to get a bit of sun so as to make my head blend in a little better than it currently does.  I now at least know what it looks like, and if my scale were just working I would probably be excited to see the three or so ounces I lost in the cut.  Oh the life!!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Well with all the happenings, or non-happenings at our house if we are talking about Everdry of Northern Indiana, Steph and I decided to cut down a “mostly dead” tree today and burn it.  It was a far more extensive project than we had planned, but in all honesty, one that I am thankful to be done with.  And tonight’s picture is of Steph attending to
part of the fire (with a Blue Moon beer and her homework).  Yes, she is also taking a class online this summer, so in between all the “projects” she fits in 4-5 hours of homework a day as well.  She is a pretty hard worker.

But it is also fun for me to get to do stuff with her here at home.  Yes, I have an office here at home, and yes, I am working as much as I possibly can, but if I were not trapped here with supervising the waterproofing work, I woud not see Steph near as much.  So although I am frantically trying to catch up, I am at least getting some family/dad benefit from it.  It is the silver lining of a great big bowl of spoiled fruit I have to say…..but at least I get something from it.

So my picture is pretty sweet.  Behind Steph is my wife’s garden, so Amanda is pretty pleased, Steph has taken a shower and is out there now not lifting or hauling anything, and she is pretty pleased as well.  And I, at 52, am done with the cutting, hauling, and burning myself.  I too have showered off the smoke smell and took this from the balcony off my office that I can now stand on without falling through!  So I am, I suppose, as pleased as I can be.

I just have this burning desire to see it all done.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!


Tommy+

Well I need to confess that Ben at 6 (his birthday was June 30th) is no less weird than he was at 5, but I suppose if he were I would be disappointed.  And tonight’s picture is a cropped one of him at his birthday party with his friends at “Monsters University.”  His expression says it all.

No, I am no Star Wars geek, and I say that meaning no guile as all my friends who love Star Wars consider themselves geeks.  But I truly am standing by, and wanted to make sure I just checked in.  I have been dealing with quite a few personal crisises, all of which connect to the company Everdry of Northern Indiana, who is now ripping my house apart for yet a third time, causing lots of damage, and insisting they will not pay for any of it at all.  All the new carpet has been ripped up and all the new concrete where they replaced my system that “was not even connected and installed WRONG” is now being ripped up again and guess what??????  They have discovered that even the second time, I was being hosed.  So needless to say, I am watching this all very closely and in between reporting the guy who owns this company and is unbelievably dishonest, to every agency and place I can, including those who investigate crime.  I just want our house back, at this point I am not too sure what he wants.

But regardless, it has been difficult for me not to post as I not only feel bad about it, but I also have missed it.  I suppose I could have done something about it at anytime, but I justified my lack of posting by convincing myself that I was too angry to write.  And yes, I was and AM still very angry, but I remembered the great and wise teachings of “Skipper” the leader of the Penguins of Madagascar who always tells Rico, Kowolski, and Private to “wait for it, wait for it.”  And so I will.  Getting mad or blowing up, though I feel like it, doesn’t accomplish much.  Slow, steady, and methodical however will lead to making sure this guy doesn’t do this stuff to people in the future.  Yes, I want our basement fixed and restored……but more than that I want to do the right thing.

On the upside, I am enjoying having Steph and Ben around all the time, and Steph is doing work for us as she is home for the summer.  She is pretty strong and that has been helpful as she helped tear out all the upstairs carpet today and carry it down to the rented dumpster sitting in our drive.  Tomorrow in the afternoon she will help me take down two dead trees.  And she does all this without complaining or having to wear a superhero suit.

But I am back on the horse as they say, and when I say that I mean the people who apparently have horses and fall off them.  I am a tough old dog, and I do not tire or give up easily.  And yes, I am doing fine and moving ahead, so please do not worry.

I am just laying the foundation for the rest of my year and I am intending and expecting for it to be spectacular.  And as a gesture of good faith in all of it I present you with this fine picture of my two indentured servants, I mean kids, who are working with me this summer, and enjoying an ice cream together.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I have to say that it has been a rough day.  Yes, the waterproofing company was back again today and will be here again tomorrow as it has been determined that the system they installed (the second one) was not just far from finished, but that most of it, if not all of it on the INSIDE of the house, needs to be replaced.  It will (hopefully) be done tomorrow.

So I am not in a good mood, and more than that, neither is my wife.  We had a lot of the finish work done and it will need to be undone in some places.  I cannot tell you how stressful all this has been or how much time I have had to be here so they can work.  But hopefully today will be the end of it.  It will need to be though as I have told them that this is their last chance.

So I needed a win and I was reminded of my wife’s refusal of my proposition (no, get your minds in the right places) to start sharing my office with me.  Where my stroke-induced OCD makes me very controlling about space in my office, her OCD (which she comes by naturally) is the organization kind……she can’t come in here without moving things she feels are out of place and I can’t stand her moving them.  So rather than a domestic call to the police, as she is a yellow belt and I am ju
st a white belt, she graciously declined.

But Ben, who has a space to do all his “stuff” downstairs, didn’t want to be downstairs for most of the day.  He instead was in my office….yes, the one I occupy alone, but I am not bitter.  And he not only made a mess and got into about everything, but he also kept standing between me and my desk asking me to draw or print “just one more Ironman 3 picture.”  

So I decided I needed a win.  And I had what I am convinced was a God-given idea to make my day, and my life better.  So since he is in here all the time, I asked him if he wanted to share an office with me.

Needless to say, he was pretty excited.   I bought him a desk, brought a chair in from his room, and he started work as a very surprised, but very happy boy.  The picture is, of course, related.  And the second picture is of him staking his/our territory.  I now apparently work in a “lab,” which I think makes the dog uneasy as he is a retriever.  But I am enjoying it to say the very least.

And I just can’t wait until he has the security scanners installed.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Today has been an exceptionally important day for me.

First of all, I am happy to report that my computer issues seem to be a thing I can put behind me.  I have backed up copies of all the images and files that can be recovered and as I go through them, I will sort them out.  I hope to pare the whole thing down to do a “real” backup in about a month.  But for now I have two copies of EVERYTHING, including duplicates, backing up every day.

Two, although the files are still in quite a bit of disarray, I will certainly be able to pull enough together to get things in my job going in the right direction.  I have a lot to look after, and even with a good mind I would be hard pressed to remember it all.  The men and women in the Order of St. Michael however are an understanding and forgiving bunch.  I hope to have all this too settled within a few weeks.

But THREE and most importantly are the personal changes I am going through.  Steph is now HOME for the summer, perhaps her last here, but at least she is home.  And I am blessed that she is here as I will begin a BIG life change tomorrow as my medicines now have all been changed and increased (to their maximums) and it will be a full and concentrated effort to create, not a new life, but to regain my old life.  I intend to go down 40 more pounds and I NEED TO if I intend to live a long life free of the diabetes that runs in my family.  (my mom and her dad both had it)  The stroke has destroyed my metabolism (see my “I remember the truth” post 7 posts back to see and read the story) BUT enough is enough.  I AM IN THAT VIDEO, and the stroke has robbed me of that body and life.  Yet today I am declaring that to be but a temporary thing.  My metabolism may be gone, bootcamp may be gone, and my blood work for the first time in my life may be indicating a bad direction……..BUT I AM THAT GUY.  Underneath this stupid “husky” frame, is an athlete and a winner.  It is a race I promise I will not lose.

Depression from the stroke did not help.  The medicines I was taking did not either.  But after 30 years of working like crazy to not become diabetic like my mom and grandpa, I am testing close.  If it happens at 180 then I need to live with it (and it may), but if it happens at 220, shame on me!  I started this journey down at 265.  Tomorrow I begin to eat like a diabetic and I am going back to exercising like I was still in training.

I ask that you pray for me to do well.  I will not be going out to eat with my family for two weeks, and I have asked my wife to be on me like a hawk.  (no, not tearing my carcass with her beak, but to call me out when I look weak.)  In all honesty, my best coaches beat the hell out of me, and I hated it, but it was THE MODEL for me.  That’s part of why I wanted to enlist in the Marine Corps.  (I didn’t).  But pray for her too, as she is pretty nervous about this role.  I am a pretty tough guy and a hard sell….particularly when I am upset.  And these 40 will make being upset, most likely, a constant occurrence 

I will however, win.  Tonight’s picture is less than 8 months before my stroke…..185.  I will be better than this I swear. (and yes, that is Ben with me)

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tommy+ (starting the hard 40 at 220)…I was 222 this morning.

Da Agenda

The Passive Agressive Cake from Kayla

Pre Battle

Yes, today is my birthday, and when I have a birthday I take full advantage.  In fact, since I am not one to get caught up in my own self, I have often exploited the fact that “it’s your birthday and you can do anything you want.”  It’s a quote from my late mom, who probably never said it, and Lord knows never believed it, but who allowed me to get away with it nonetheless.  I still do to this day.

Movies

Menchies

Craft Store

Toy/Costume Store

But as I said, I am not really about myself, so as a dad I have used the day to give my kids a good time, and such was the case today.  And since Scotty and Stephy are not home I said to Ben and my niece Kayla (who leaves tomorrow for home) “it’s my birthday, and on my birthday I can do anything I want……what would you like to do?”  And I woke up to “the list.”

And quite honestly, it has been one of the best birthdays I have ever had.  We hit the movies, the toy store, the craft store, Menchies, in fact EVERYTHING on their list but the pool, which we just didn’t have time for.  And I ended the day with ice cream cake (which I only had a piece) and I got them all birthday cake pops.  Of course I also got Kayla and Ben silly string to get my wife and her mom, and as soon as they got them with that I gave my wife and mother-in-law squirt guns to dish out a little revenge.  It was a great night.

So yes, I have completed yet another year, but I am fine with it…..really.  I only wish Stephy and Scotty  could have joined us for the battle.   Maybe if I survive another year we can try to make it happen!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, this picture is of Ben, shortly (and I mean VERY SHORTLY) after he had come into my office to complain that his bedtime was just too early and that he was NOT TIRED.  He was told to go to bed anyway, and my guilt led me to go in to talk with him a few minutes later…….this is what I found.

But in his defense, he had a hard day.  He and Kayla have worn each other out, and how their grandma  (my mother-in-law) keeps up with them both at her advanced age (she can’t be even 40 yet, and looks even younger) (this is not my first rodeo).  I had a couple of appointments in Indianapolis yesterday and met them all at “Build a Bear” where the kids both made their own teddy bears.  It should be no surprise that Ben’s is of Ironman, and you can also see him in the picture (sleeping too, as Ironbear was not tired either).

In between all of the events of the day however I was able to make some progress on my computer.  I have seen a lot of articles lately that mention that a degree in Religion is worthless, although mine has served me well.  What I now regret is my dropping the other degree program as soon as I was approved for seminary (in the Dark Ages)……it was Computer Science.

Of course now I am too stubborn to give up on fixing this myself, and when I say that I really mean I am too cheap to pa
y an expert, you know, someone with a Computer Science degree (who however most likely does NOT have any Religion degrees).  So I will make my way through this alone.

But I am making progress.  Yet the biggest progress I intend to make is to join Ben and Ironbear in snoozyland.  Unlike them though, I AM tired………I need to file a complaint.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+