You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You’re gonna find, yes you will
That you're beautiful as you feel

Carole King

Spent the better part of last week in Florida visiting my parents. And, of course, brought Wisconsin weather with me as Florida experienced its coldest temperatures in over a decade. Flew and experienced no problems with new security. Experienced the same problems with wedging myself into the plane. Drew the last row on both flights and while the ass fits better the legs just have nowhere to properly go. Thankfully, the person in front of me thought it would help if they reclined into my lap for their comfort. Speaking of flying after getting good news from the mechanic ( their fault) I am back to driving out to Utah. Should get on the road next Sunday and heading the southern route west going through Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff and Vegas. I may spend a few days in that last city prior to reporting to the ridge on Sunday the 31st.

My father had to spend some time in hospital but has been released and is doing much much better. Here's a shot of my brother Jay, who flew down from St Louis, and I wearing the plastic scrubs, masks and gloves that we had to put on each time we went into my dad's room. I seriously thought about taking a box of these gowns with me to Utah for extra sweating as they were hot as could be. I should have worn that thing every second I was in the hospital and on the plane because I brought home some sickness with me that has kept me coughing all weekend. It had been way way too long since I had seen my parents and my brother so even though the circumstances of the trip were far from ideal it was wonderful to spend time with my family. And I promise them it will not be 15 months until I see them again.

I did get some outside work in while I was in Florida and it sure felt great to walk outside for the first time since mid-November. It was nowhere near the challenge of the stop sign, and the Florida residents, who were bundled like they were in Alaska, seemed bewildered that I was out in shorts, but it was warm to me. Here's a shot of me sporting the new Sunshine Daydream sweatshirt on the Venice Beach pier. We had lunch on the beach there and it was nice to have some seafood that wasn't frozen prior to making it to my plate. I have a feeling the next picture of me you see in that sweatshirt it is going to be a whole lot sweatier.

I picked up some concert tickets this week for a show in May. First off tickets have just gotten ridiculously expensive. The two tickets cost me a total of $290. That was the bad news. The good news is that thanks to the Internet and artists using it to identify their best fans the best tickets are ending up in fans hands and not ticket brokers. Thanks to my fandom of James Taylor I now have tickets in the first ten rows for James and Carole King. Now I have seen James in concert easily 20 times but this will be my first ever Carole King concert. Can't wait to see the Tapestry creating songstress live in person.

Made my packing list for the trip to Utah. It's long!! One good thing about driving is I get to bring a lot more stuff. More sweatshirts, more shorts, and a few t-shirts I want to fit into before I leave. One thing for sure is the weather will be much different at the end of my trip than it will be at the start of my trip. Have some new music and lots of old friends for the drive west. Have a couple personal training sessions this week, some swimming sessions and treadmill work planned but no hiking up mountains in high altitude, that comes in two weeks :) And I haven't told my rear end yet but there's a lot of bike seat time in its future. Hope all's well wherever you are reading this and I hope to see some of you in Utah. Peace, Jim