Reigning Princess

Yesterday was kind of a break in the action.  We had a couple events on behalf of one the newest chapters, Central Illinois, in the afternoon/evening so the morning was free.  We got to sleep in!

I made it all the way to 6:18 

woohoo.  

On the plus side, I found a lovely little locally owned coffee shop in downtown Urbana and enjoyed coffee and free Wifi to craft yesterday's work of art.  I'm here again today too.  Cool old building with tin ceilings and 8" heart of pine wood floors.  Of course when it was built I'm sure they never envisioned aging hipsters and college students sipping latte's and listening to new age music, but hey, any port in the storm, right?

So as to yesterday.  The events weren't spectacular, but you can't hit a homer every time, you know?  And, one of the things we do on tour is to help promote chapters, so I think we definitely helped in that regard.  We also took part in the ceremony put together for C IL's first fire truck, soon to be a pink one, donated by the Rantoul FD and that was nice.

But here's the thing about yesterday.  Two of the families involved in the chapter had their kids with us for one or two of our days here in the CU area.  Four little girls, cute as buttons and as sweet as can be.  But there was something more about them that struck me personally and almost immediately.

One of the little girls bore a striking resemblance to the Blond Child.  And another looked so much like the Reigning Princess that, last night, at dinner, when I showed her Mom a recent picture of the RP, her first thought was to wonder where HER daughter had gotten that outfit.  The really funny thing though was that, although the younger daughter also looked a little like the RP, her personality was spot on.  So much so, that about 20 minutes after meeting me, the littlest one came sprinting across the sidewalk and launched herself at me, arms raised, looking for a hug.  

Exactly like the RP does.

The Reigning Princess stole my heart right from the first time I saw her and she knows it, lol.  This is not to imply any kind of favoritism with the grandkids either.  They all have their own truly unique characteristics and each of them charms me in their own way.  Maybe it's a "first granddaughter" kind of thing with the RP, I'm not sure, but that little girl has a special place in my heart and always will.  

So to see these little ones running around the last couple days brought many smiles to my face.  

Many memories too.

Some good, some sad, all cherished.

I'm debating if I want to put pictures up here of my new friends.  I didn't think about it last night while I was hanging out with their parents, so I didn't ask their permission.  But it's not like this mess gets a lot of traffic either.  The only people that would recognize any similarities are my kids and a handful of friends.  

Moving on...

Tomorrow's day includes getting on the road by 6:15 for the two plus hour drive to suburban Indy for day chock full of stuff around Leslie's home town.  

The person, not the truck.

Leslie Hulce was from Fishers, IN and the tour will be there Friday and Saturday.  I'm looking forward to seeing her sister Lisa again and meeting her Mom.  I've been in contact with them since we got Leslie and they've always been very sweet.  I'm so glad we got the opportunity to bring the tour back to town.

One of the events scheduled for us on Friday is a concert.  The headliner is...

Wait for it...

...

...

Eddie Money!!!

Sigh.

I guess Meat Loaf was busy...

Lastly and for the record, Mike is a quitter.  We're taking him to the train station today, his time on tour is done.  Mike's jump on board this particular crazy train was completely spontaneous and a lot of fun for all of us.  He's a really good kid and he did great on tour.  He produced some lovely works of art yesterday, but more than that for the last week he's produced many fond memories and good vibes for a bunch of people that had no clue how loved they were by people they had never met before and may well never see again.  Whether he realizes it or not, they gave back to him as much as he gave out.  He's a good kid and I wish him much success in whatever he chooses to do...

Of course, I'll never tell him that.  Instead, I'll continue to call him a quitter.

It's what we do.

Peace.

Champaign. I think...

I have to say right up front, we've all been really impressed with the reception we've recieved to this point in central Illinois.   Two days in and both days have been filled with warm, welcoming people, support from the local FD's and firefighters and various local support groups.  And some great visits.

Like this one.

I mentioned it briefly in my last post, while waiting for a table for dinner at Black Dog Smoke and Ale House I got a text from my friend Melissa back in DG.  She asked if I could do her a favor.  Gladly, I told her, but I'm downstate.  She said that actually plays in to the favor.  As it turns out, Melissa's best friend Kelly is a charge nurse in the ED at Carle down here in CU (localspeak for Champaign Urbana) and a dear friend and coworker of Kelly's, Sarah, just finished with Chemo for breast cancer.  Could we do a work visit for her?  

Well, who am I to say no?

I asked Melissa to give my number to Kelly, Kelly called me, and before we were seated at our table (the wait was a bit on the long side, but still) we had a surprise work visit set up to honor Sarah and Kelly started working on getting us in to the Carle Cancer Center, something the FD tried to do, but got stonewalled on.  That's not uncommon btw.  And in no way a reflection on the efforts of the Champaign FD, Chief Ludwig is a huge supporter of Pink Heals, having spent seven years at Memphis FD and seeing what Todd Conklin does over there.  And we really were impressed with the support the guys on shift gave us today. 

But back to the visit.  

We explained the scenario, how it came to be, to Chief Ludwig at our morning meeting with the FD and he allowed two on duty companies, an engine and a ladder, to come with us for the visit.  Kelly took care of EVERY. THING.  The woman is a force!  Security had cleared spots for us by the ambulance bay, she even got a construction crew to delay pouring concrete for an hour and a half so we could pull this off.  

That's no small feat.

We pulled up to find around 50-60 friends and supporters of Sarah's waiting for us.  As we got everyone in place, Kelly went in to find Sarah and this (sorry, I couldn't get rid of the ad) is a small sample of how it went.  Great visit!  Kelly, you rock!  Melissa, thanks so much for connecting us!

But that's not how the day started.

WCIA (either a hat tip the to Central Illinois Area or the worst example of a "secret" government agency conducting a covert operation) brought a crew (slogan, "Watch us.  Because we're watching you") to do a couple live spots on the local TV morning show.  The reporter, Jasmine Anderson, did a really nice job, asked relevant questions, and after we finished wrote a very touching note to her grandmother on our vehicles.

The remainder of the day involved a few different stops, a little back and forth across town, and ended with all of us attending the Village Council meeting.  The Mayor presented us with a Proclamation naming yesterday "Pink Heals Initiative Day" in Champaign.  A really nice thing.  She handed me the microphone to say a few words (I know, a few words? From Me?) and as I started in to mention how great our reception was, I got a little rambley (Me? Ramble? With a mic in my hand? Huh.) and proceeded to tell everyone there and watching on local cable access how great I thought Springfield would do with their own chapter.

Do you see the slight problem there?

I'm thanking the Village Council and assorted members of the community including about a dozen members of the FD and the Fire Chief that Springfield is a wonderful town.  

While standing in Champaign.

D'OH!!!

Everyone there was very gracious, thankfully, although the rest of the night young Michael kept throwing Springfield at me.  

Rotten kid.

Not really.

I mean, yes, he kept throwing it at me, but he's not really rotten.  

Maybe a jerk.

But not rotten.

I think.

Peace

Yaay, it's Laundry Day!

Here we (that's the royal we, I'm actually sitting by myself) are, in the lobby of our home for the next four nights in beautiful Champaign, Illinois.  It's 10:00, we just got back from dinner (I highly recommend Black Dog Smoke and Ale House) and I just started my laundry.

This actually qualifies as a laundry emergency, since I used my last clean pair of socks, clean t-shirt and clean boxers (successfully installed again I might add) today (I guess there's no "might", I did literally add that) and if I don't do laundry tonight, well, let's just say tomorrow might take an ugly turn.

I think I'm being interviewed in the morning by the local morning news gig about why the Tour is in town.  So, you see, clean shorts (and boxers) and shirts are kind of an essential part of my morning.  Plus we're meeting the Village Council and Mayor tomorrow so... while I might be able to get away with that in DG, my plan is to wear pants that don't smell like feet.

Always thinking about others, that's me.

As I write this, Sean is trying to teach Don the wonders of his smart phone.  I really am trying hard not to eavesdrop, they're far enough away from me that I can't hear them but I know that's what Sean is trying to do.  Don is not what I would describe as "tech-savvy"  and I don't say that to slam him, I genuinely love Don.  I think it's a generational thing.  He's got me by quite a few years and while technology is not always my friend, I don't think Don has ever made it's acquaintance.  

This was a day of teaching, as it turns out.  Dave, if you're reading this, close your eyes...

We finished up our day and as we were getting ready to drive to our hotel, the kid asked if he could drive the engine around the parking lot.  If you had seen the look on his face, the pleading "I promise I'll never ask for another present if you just get me this" expression, well, you would have caved too.  I yelled at him that he'd better not hit anything and Ray took him for a tour of the (unoccupied except by us) parking lot.  He had to make a three point turn to et started and he reminded Sean and I of a 90 year-old man trying to back his car out of a parking place at the mall.  Three points devolved into 14 or 15 but he didn't hit anything and that's all that matters.  The grin on his face as he came around the corner towards Sean and I was a megawatt gleam that could probably guide ships at sea.  

It made his day (a plus) but now he's convinced he's an expert (a negative, he's not, sorry to break it to you kid) apparatus driver.

Ok Dave, you can open your eyes again.

Today was one of those days that got thrown together pretty last minute, but ended up surprisingly good.  Through the fault of no one in particular, this stop kind of fell through the cracks locally until a few days ago.  We were in Bartlett when I got a call from the President of Bloomington Local 49 asking me what we needed and what we usually do and how do we do it.  I met John last spring at the AFFI Legislative Conference through a mutual friend and I liked him right from the start.  Today just confirmed for me on a couple different levels what a good dude he is.  

John got us parked in front of the local Kroger store for a few hours, set up two home visits and got us to the local Cancer Center for three hours.  All in about two days.  As far as the other level, well, some things just need to stay where they are and not see the light of day.  

But John is a standup guy.

Long, busy day tomorrow, including a last minute, surprise work visit.  I got a call from a friend from DG while we were waiting to be seated at the restaurant tonight.  Melissa grew up down this way and asked me if we could do this for a friend of her bestie.  

Well, of course we can.  

I told her to give her friend my number and we'd work out the details.  Done deal.  We all know the best part of what we do is the home/work visits and we'll do them every chance we get.  Especially when they're surprise visits.  

We drove by the location we'll be visiting on the way back from dinner and sized up what we can do, we're gonna rock this one out of the park.  

Is that mixing metaphors?  I feel like it is, but it feels kind of ok too.  

Hmmm.

Sigh.  Time to go fold my laundry.  

I miss having people do that for me 

Peace

An Army travels on it's stomach... or something.

Well, I started jotting down notes on today this morning and "somebody" forgot to save them.  It was really good too, probably the best stuff I've ever written.  In my entire life.  

Not really.

Besides the day took kind of a turn anyway.  More on that later.

For starters, we got on the road around 6:30 this morning, which allowed us to take the scenic (no snark here, it's really beautiful) drive up Illinois Route 2 from Dixon (still the boyhood home of the worst president ever) to Rockford.  

Once we got into town, we dropped the vehicles off at one of the firehouses and went over to a wonderful restaurant called the Stockholm Inn.  We were treated to breakfast (emphasis on treated, this place is amazing) by the Rockford FD and we all loved it.  

Let me just go on record here and say I love maple syrup.  I mean, appropriately, of course. I don't put it on everything, only pancakes or french toast, but I typically will not waver when presented with choices from the world of syrup.  

Stockholm Inn blows that little foible of mine out. of. the. water.  Let me just say one word to you.

Lingonberries.

If you've never experienced them on pancakes, you're cheating yourself.  And your stomach.  Besides, it's a Swedish restaurant, and as the old saying goes, when in Sweden, do as the Swedes do.  I think that's how it goes anyway.

Speaking of which, lest you think my stomach is the primary organ that moves me, let me tell you a little about my heart.

It broke a little today.

After breakfast, we were escorted to Swedish American Hospital Cancer Center for a static display.  A really great parade that included about 20 motorcycles, a couple cars from the Rockford PD, truck 5 and a chief officer from Rockford FD and the local chapter of PH (shout out to Marcy Johnson and her people!) led us to Swede's for the event.  There was a pretty good crowd there and we were very well received.

We also had two home visits set for the day.

I want to tell you about the second one.

As we were driving in to town this morning, Marcy called to tell me that the woman we were supposed to visit this afternoon had passed away last Friday.  The family asked if we would still stop by however, as this was something Susie was really looking forward to.  Well, of course we would.  I got on the radio and told Don, Sean, Ray and Mike what had happened.  This stop just sounded like the kind of thing that, if we hadn't known about it beforehand would have been very difficult for us to deal with emotionally.  

I don't care why you take part in something like what we do, if you're not emotionally invested, you won't last because it just isn't for you.  Having said that, if you let your emotions get the best of you every time, you won't make it either.  You'll be too much of a wreck to function.

So by giving ourselves a little heads up, we can prevent losing it in front of everyone.

As we pulled onto the street, I saw a crowd of people and announced it to the guys.  

I had no idea how big it was.

There had to have been, literally, 200 people out on the street and in the front yards of several homes.

We got out and gathered together and met Mike and his kids.  I shot a little video for the PH page and took my place in line to hug them.  I said something to Mike and his kids about how there were thousands of people they had never and would never meet sending them strength and love and to please keep that in mind over the days and weeks ahead.  

And we moved to the side so everyone in the convoy could hug them.  I asked one of the guys if he had a marker, trying to focus on the task at hand, and he had one.  He handed it to me.  I could see in his face the emotion was getting to him.  So I took the marker from him.  And as I started to tell the guys what we would be doing next, I heard my voice break.

And I felt a tear well up in my eyes.  

Just like now, as I write this.

I did my best to recompose myself.

Just like now, as I write this.

And we moved to Mike and his kids to escort them to the trucks so they could sign.  Don moved up and walked with Mike, our Mikey walked with the daughter and I walked with the son.  I told them that right now these trucks aren't ours, they belong to them and to take as long as they like to write as much or as little as they wanted to, to memorialize their Mom.  

As I stood back and watched over the daughter's shoulder while she wrote, I had to fight back the tears.  

I lost.

But I did my best to pull myself together and, I think, pulled it off.  

As Mike and his kids were pulled in another direction, for more pictures and hugs from friends and neighbors I had a chance to reflect on August of 2006 and I knew I wanted an opportunity to speak to Mike alone, away from the crowd, to try and share some of what I learned with him.  

As this was all spinning around my brain, someone came up to me and asked if they could buy some t-shirts from us.  They appreciated what we were doing for the family and wanted to thank us.  I told them we'd be happy to help them, but that the family comes first and until they're taken care of, until we've done everything we can do for them at this visit, we won't sell shirts.  

I found Mike, and as he finished with a photo op, I asked him if I could speak to him for a minute and took him to the bus.  I wanted the chance to speak to him uninterrupted and this was it.  

I sat down with him and told him that I had lost my wife nine years ago.  The circumstance was different, but that I'd learned a few things about grief and I wanted to share my thoughts with him.  I told him to make sure and take time for himself, that even though he needed to be strong for his kids, he needed to let his own feelings out from time to time.  I told him too, that in my opinion, grief was a lot like being a recovering alcoholic and to take one step at a time.  And I told him to never let someone tell him there was a finite time to grieve.  

About this time his kids came on the bus and joined us.  I told them that in the years I had been traveling with Pink Heals I had done hundreds of these home visits and that this was, by far, the biggest crowd I had ever experienced.  I told them that it was a testament to the love and respect everyone had for them and for their Mom.  That brought a brief smile to their faces.

After they left the bus, we opened it up for anyone that wanted to get a shirt or hat.  I decided to sell from inside the bus rather than set up the tables.  We've done that before, if the crowd is going to be smallish it's easier this way.  

Sean rang up the purchases, I pulled stock and Ray acted as the doorman since the bus gets crowded quickly.  We were in there for over an hour.  

I've never seen anything like it.

I think we sold more stuff at this home visit than we did at our display.  

I was stunned.  

I think now, almost four hours after we left Mike and his kids, I'm finally coming to terms with my emotions.  This one hit me and it hit me hard.  

And that's ok.

Peace.

PS.  kudos to the Oldest One and the Heir to the Throne.  They came out today to see us at Swede's and ended up going on the home visits with us.  And they did great.  I'm very proud of them both and I'm so fortunate to have them.  I always say I feel like my life has been blessed, no matter the adversity we may have faced and today reinforced that.

Again, Peace.

RAWK Falls

Long day today.

It's currently 10:51 PM and I'm sitting on the lobby of our hotel in lovely Dixon, Illinois (boyhood home of the worst president this country has known) having concluded a long but by and large good day.  

I figured I'd come down to the lobby rather than bother my roomie, Ray from Kokomo (can you guess the favorite vowel of the founding father of that town?) Indiana with the nonsense you're about to read.

So, where to begin?

How about this?  Less than a mile out of our hotel in Elgin, Don comes on the radio with "Joel there's smoke pouring out of the back of this thing"

Not a good start.

We got over on the shoulder and got  out to see what the problem might be.  The air brakes locked up.  

Of course they did.

There's a direct correlation with Dave going home for a few days of R&R and one of the vehicles breaking down.  Long story short, it was a relatively easy fix (huge props to Rockford FD for the repair) and although Don was stuck on I-90 in Elgin for a few hours and had to miss the home visits, he joined up with us around 5:00 tonight, in time to grab some food and finish off our day in Rock Falls.  

I think I set some kind of personal record tonight.  Between 5:00 PM and 8:00 PM I spoke with the local news paper reporter, a television reporter from the Quad Cities and two local radio reporters.  

Apparently I need to obtain many leather-bound books and make my apartment smell of rich mahogany.

From a bill paying perspective, we moved a lot of t-shirts and hats.  But the most important  part is that we met a lot of great people.  We gave a lot of hugs, helped correct someone else's faux pas and generally felt and shared a lot of love.

That's kind of one of the recurring themes I talk about when I'm interviewed for information about the tour.  Love.  It should be so simple.  If we spent more time focusing on love and the things that draw us together, we wouldn't spend so much time focusing on hatred and the things that divide us.  

That's probably far too simplistic of an idea but Geez Louise, why can't we at least try it for a while.  I love Steve Earle, always have, and one of his songs has the line 
"I don't remember learning how to hate in Sunday School"
and man it just makes so much sense.  I think by and large Rock Falls "gets it" but they still connect themselves to an event that rhymes with Belay for Fife and the large corporate charity that runs those events stopped giving money to everything but research.  

That's right, they stopped supporting the social services and support services for people fighting for their lives.  The skeptic in me thinks they did that because it's harder to trace money given to research.  I don't know...   

Ok, here's what I do know.  Sleeping Beauty is now on the TV here in the lobby.  I don't know why, so don't even ask.  

Also?  I'm tired.  And I stink.  I desperately need a shower.  It was a tad on the warm and humid side here in Illinois (that's not a complaint btw, I'll take this over winter EVERY day) and even though I didn't get in the gear today, I still managed to work up a good sweat.  I don't think I would've hugged me today, so kudos to the ladies that braved my funk towards the end of the evening.

And, on that note, I bid you

Peace

Lighten up Frances

When the Oldest One was significantly younger (though still the Oldest One)(obvs) she played softball.  For quite a few years, up until, I think high school.  And on one of her last teams, R. was the head coach and I was the assistant coach.  

The Oldest One was the catcher (oddly enough, the Heir to the Throne is a catcher now) and the pitcher was R's daughter M.  The Dragon Lady (btw, I don't really feel that way about the kids mother, but it's a catchy name that I stole from a dear friend) and I were, obviously, at every game as was R's wife P.  They were great people, we hung out together a little bit, but as often happens, after the girls grew up we fell out of touch with each other.  

The last time I saw R and P was about fifteen years ago, just a brief passing at the gas station in Burlington.  

That was the last time.

Until today.

While I was working with some local contacts to set up the events for today, one of the emails mentioned a home visit.  Regular readers will know what these consist of; a coupe guys get dressed up join pink turnout gear and we pull up to a house with lights and sirens and give a lot of hugs.  And sometimes flowers.

As I read the email regarding the home visit, P's name was on it.

The problem, according to the email, was that the original time for the visit wouldn't work for them.  They had previous commitments today and the afternoon was out.

The email asked if I could call P and see if there was anything we could do.

So I did.  How could I not make this home visit happen?

I called P yesterday, and when she answered, I identified myself.

Her response?

"Who is this?"

I laughed, gave her my name again and told her why I was calling.  This time she recognized my name and we had a really nice, if brief, chat.  And we rescheduled the home visit for 11:30 today.

It was really great.

P, R and M were all there, we took a bunch of pictures, gave many hugs, and did everything we could do to brighten the day for a family that's had better ones.  P is in her second go round against breast cancer and R was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  So they both really appreciated the visit.

The other two events were at the local hospitals and they were pretty awesome too.  Especially the second one.  Sean, Don and Mike got dressed and went in to the treatment area to visit with some of the patients that weren't able to come out and see them, all three of the guys said it was extremely emotional and they were visibly touched by what they experienced inside.

Me?  I got to chat with a beauty queen.  So yeah, that's a win in my book...

The Boy Child and the Beatle Baby (he's not a baby anymore, lol) came by for a visit as did my local niece (with her ADORABLE daughter) and nephew (thanks for buying a shirt, sorry I didn't get a chance to say bye) and that's always pretty cool.

All in all a pretty good day.  It would have been ideal if we could have sold more t-shirts, (got to keep fuel in the trucks) but we'll work a little harder this weekend and hope for the best.

Ok, about the title.  When the girls played softball, M would occasionally get in to trouble on the mound.  She was a pretty darn good pitcher, but stuff happens, you know?  R would go out to the mound to try and get her focused, light a fire under her.  And usually it would work.  

But not always.  Sometimes it would have the opposite effect and you could see the pissed off look on her face.  So, to break the tension and to try and get her to relax, I'd yell to her from the dugout

"Lighten up Frances!"

A great line from the movie Stripes and invariably she'd loosen up and find the strike zone again.  

Pretty great day today.

Peace

Bartlett is a wonderful town

Ok, Yesterday was kind of a weak effort on my part.  It was late, nothing great happened and I hadn't posted the day before so I figured I'd better throw some kind of slop out there.

And that's exactly what I produced...

So let's kick this one off with a bang.

I put my boxers on backwards Monday.

That got your attention, didn't it?

I'm rarely shy about poking fun at stupid things other people do, so it's only fair that I take shots at myself when I qualify.  And I did just that with my own personal wardrobe malfunction.

Also?  That's not the first time I've done that...  I didn't realize it (duh, nobody intentionally wears their boxers backwards) at the time, and the only way you discover something like that comes about when you have to, well, uhhh, you know... use the facilities.  This results in, for the uninitiated, in an awkward moment standing at the urinal.  Your reach in for something that you know is there and should be within easy reach and... there's no there there, so to speak.  I mean, the fly portion of the boxers is supposed to be right there in the front for easy access to your business.  And when the boxers are in an other than optimum position, well, you end up grabbing fabric.  This complicates things, at least momentarily, and results in a lot more finagling than a man usually has to go through at your standard urinal (why on earth does "urinal" autocorrect to "unreal"?) and the extra maneuvering involved in a situation like this occasionally draws sideways glances from one's neighbors. 

Well then.

Today was the third year in a row we made a stop in Bartlett and my guy, Stevie B. and his guys put together a really stellar day for us.  They made us out to be kind of a big deal and did a great job spreading the word around town.  We had maybe eight or ten people come up to say hi and /or take pictures with us because they'd seen us in the years past and wanted to see us again.  

This, btw, is awesome.

Dave and I talked about how great it was to see so many members of the FD there helping out and I can only attribute it to a strong working relationship between the firefighters union and the FD administration (looking in your general direction DG) because the Chiefs were all there too.  And they fully support what the guys in the local are trying to build in the community.  I don't know if Steve picked up on what Dave is trying to evolve Pink Heals into, but he's got the town headed in that direction, whether he realizes it or not.  Getting the local merchants on board with supporting their goal of helping the community is a big part of what Bartlett is doing and it showed today.  

Plus today was good because it had a little taste of the "Joel's Pink Heals Homecoming Portion of the Tour" too.  I've known the Chief, Mike Falese, for almost 25 years and I have a lot of respect for him, one of the company officers I've known since high school (Jesus that was a long time ago Jeff) and I saw the husband of one of my nieces (Morgan, I warned him he'd better know your size...) so that's always nice.

The not so nice part came when one of the afore mentioned return visitors told me she had just had a biopsy done this morning and was waiting to hear the results.  

Please keep a positive thought for her if you're so inclined.  Or even if you're not.  Send her a little positivity anyway because it's the right thing to do.

We added two drivers today, Sean from AZ and Ray from IN, so I'm only going to say nice things (snark alert) about those two states from here on out.  

Probably. 

But they both seem like good guys.

Oh bonus!!!  I had been telling Dave a few days ago I had hoped one of our events would have a massage chair booth because my back and neck have been bothering me lately.  Mid event he walked up to me and told me to come with him.  We walked about 50 feet, stopped, and he told me to turn to my right...

A MASSAGE CHAIR!!!

One of the local chiropractors had set up shop at the event for the day and he hooked me up.  Thanks Doc, you were awesome.  You too Dave.

Uhhhhhhh what else???

Oh yeah, I talked to Tommy P. today and I promised him one last Vinnie story.  So here goes.

One of the guys we met while he was out with us had, shall we say, a penchant for going in to great detail as he gave us a tour of the area where we met him.  It wasn't so much that he had a fondness for big words (that would be me) but more that he would take, for example, 15 minutes to describe something that most would find needed no more than two of three minutes.  

This does not generally go with with the Great Vincenzo.  Although I had to admit the guy, while very nice and completely genuine, kind of got on my nerves a little too.  

So because of this man's ability to irritate Vin, I did everything I could to make sure he rode with Vinnie if we went somewhere and that he sat very near to him if we went out to eat.

Hey somebody's got to keep him in check, right?

Ok, I feel a little bit better about this one.

And always remember, Chicks still dig Vin.

Peace