I was in an accident and got wacked with some health problems at the same time about 8 months ago. I have been trying to get back to working out since then. I have finally been able to lift weights for the last month. I am also just learning to deadlift.

So my good news is yesterday I deadlifted as much as a fellow members 5' 4" 130 pound wife does. I pulled 300 pounds yesterday. It is nice finally being pain free.:)

That's great to hear Ben. Keep up the good work.

Good work man [emoji106]

I wanted to update this with some recent news. Started out bad but has become more positive as of late.

My father unfortunately suffered a stroke. It has been a challenging time for our entire family. For many of you that have older/elderly parents, or have gone through this experience, it's very difficult seeing those you care about encounter these sorts of problems.

However, it's been 10 days since this occurrence. My father is conversing with little, to no speech issues and is in physical therapy. He may need some sort of assistance for the rest of his life, but he is alive, talking and thankful.

Each day is a blessing, and there is always a positive to every situation. Life always presents challenges but we are able to get through them.

Very happy for your extra opportunities with your dad. Hopefully your dad clears these hurdles and gets another 10 years of quality living.

I lost my father 2 years ago. I understand your struggles.

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Appreciate the kind words and wishes.

I think this is one of the things I have struggled with the most. I feel like in many cases sons think of their fathers as pillars of strength. They always seem they're the strongest people in the world. Even as I see him now, I still see the man that raised me, more than I see how he is in his current state.

He's a good man, I feel terrible for the struggles he's going through. We've been talking plenty of baseball though lately, and a ton about cards. Somethings, thankfully, never change.

I hope the best for your father.

DONALD TRUMP VISITING
We got the BIG -DON coming to our town tonite!!!
Yep! downtown been shut down all day-- he is coming 5pm @ the forum
Probably no thanks to Majorie Greene, since she represents our town.
Folks been selling t-shirts & hats all week.

Health Update:
I have been unable to get my Mounjaro 7.5 for a month now...still waiting
Meanwhile i went back on the Metformin...defintly messed my stomach up and diahreaa.
I had to re-authroize it for 2024 for insurance...and they didnt tell me
Been a total mess and lots of phone calls every week.

That has to suck. Hopefully you can get back on it. For a friend it is a miracle drug. He just cares that he can drink and eat anything he wants. It not only lets him drink soda all day but also eat nothing but garbage food. His A1c is low and he has lost a ton of weight on it.

Ben-
thats is wrong that people are taking this for the wrong reasons.
Stars & Actors are doing this for weight loss...yeah it works for that
but some folks need this for blood sugar. Mine A1C is down to 6.0 and need to jump the hurdle and eat more veggies and be more efficient exercising...i do about 10-15K steps per day.
The testerone gel helps in the mornings to get me going..wears off at noon.

My friend has diabetes he just won't change anything and expects medication to do everything for him.

That is awesome you are doing 10-15K steps a day. Weirdly that is also my goal. I got a Fitbit a couple weeks ago to track steps and other stuff.

On a funny side note I now have 3 items that tell time on me. I have to put the Fitbit on my right wrist because of the one small tattoo I have on my left wrist. Then I have a real mechanical watch on my left wrist because I like man jewelry. Then of course my cell phone.

double post

My son's hockey season wrapped up. The local WHL team asks hockey players to sell tickets. if they sell more than 40 they get to sit on the bench while players warm-up. We got 5 free tickets. While on the bench, he got his favorite player to sign his poster. He was the only kid who brought something to sign and have a sharpie! Plus, Chiefs won 7-6 in a real thriller and clinched a playoff berth.
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Another piece of good news is my house remodel, kitchen cabinets were installed. While that is good, it's not the greatest news. Our contractor is assigning us errands so that we can stretch our budget (errands he doesn't want to do himself... like scrape popcorn ceilings which we completed in January). We took a HUD remodel loan, and the HUD agent gave a list of expected fixes not including our desired changes. Because of 60-70 degree temps (this is the good news!), we've been working on the house and these errands since Friday. Most time consuming is scraping and painting the base siding of the house. It did not have rain gutters and when it rained it splashed up and ruined the bottom panel. But we've been saving money on labor, and the contractor will reallocate that money somewhere else!
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I love painting, clean job[emoji41][emoji3589]

Congrats on the progress. Also congrats on finding a contractor that will let you help AND give you a better price for doing it. As a retired contractor in all honesty we will make the bill bigger IF the owner thinks they need to help almost every time.

I have kinda good news or I just wasn't cheap this year.:D I booked the Hilton beside the Strongest Man on Earth strongman contest in Loveland CO this year. The athletes stay there and since there is 3 full days of events it is easiest to just be able to walk across the street to attend the events.

Guys, i get that homeowners like sweat equity....but sometimes you say WTF?
Let them go ahead, but if the homewoner screws up, it will cost 2x as much :D
We had to do that on some of our commercial buildings, those that have in-house so-called maintaince men.

BTW- i had 3 teeth pulled last week...now i feel like hillbilly Joe with a gap.
Luckily i still have 2 baby teeth behind it to fill it in.

On a good note: Today i get text messages from Lara Trump to do a survey to support our Republicans.
Then shortly after, got another to tell the Democrats to keep hands of Trump towers. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Luckily I have prior experience with home remodeling. So removing garbage, painting, basic construction, deck building, scraping popcorn ceilings, taping drywall and plaster, laying pavers for sidewalks.... that's about it. But I also know my limits. Electrical, plumbing, tile and grout, all those are beyond my pay grade. I believe the last chore on my to do list is sloping the exterior away from the home.

Our contractor got a job with a commercial developer and has been given projects over in a development. I'm not sure they want to give us everything they have, but with a HUD loan there are time restraints (6 months max). So this is a simple way to keep work moving to keep HUD happy. But the contractor has also told us certain projects he will not allow us to complete. My sister in law said she can install flooring and our contractor quickly said no.

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^^impressive you can do all that
I work guys with 0 experience—you’re hired
Plus you look young and taking your time
To Make it right- Nice!!
When you go get done- you have satisfaction
Of a job well done and you done that
Makes you feel good

Thank you. I had zero experience when I took my landscaping construction job one summer in college (we built waterfalls), and zero experience when I took a home remodeling job the year after college. but my bosses liked me because I got to the job site on time every morning! Amazing how far basic responsibility can carry you in life!

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I went for a ride on the back roads of central Massachusetts today and saw something in the middle of the road. I thought it was a dead animal that someone hit. I started to go around it and saw that it was alive ! It was a very young porcupine ! I didn't want it to get hit. So I tried to get it to move. It came up to me and then tried to go under my car. Not what I needed. It started to move into the woods and decides to stop again. So I tapped it with my foot. It turns it's back to me and did the quills up threat. I have now been threatened by a baby porcupine ! :LOL:

An April update.

Dad has been home for a little over two weeks now. He is getting around with a cane, but is very determined to make a full recovery. His speech and cognitive function is more or less back to normal. He admits, that asking him too many questions at once confuses him but it's dissipating as time goes on. The human body is an incredible thing. He has many appointments lined up, but things are on the up and up.

That is great. Wishing him a full recovery.:)

Am wishing him a great recovery, he should do like a man and get well soon.....

Lol [emoji23]🥸

Sent.. from iphone

I posted a longer updated answer in another thread "Little League Donations," but today I gave away roughly 12k cards (40 boxes) at a little league celebration due to the generosity of collectors in this group and on Twitter.
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Very cool of you to do that Tim. :)

Need a good laugh, listen to this:
https://youtu.be/yuoFsi2iIi0
:D

Second and final baseball card giveaway this year. 52 boxes today, bringing a total of 92 boxes. Today's giveaway was during A Gonzaga Baseball game against Pepperdine. Kids were on the field for the national anthem. Afterwards they came to a grassy play area where I was set up. I think 70 kids were in attendance, so nearly everyone got a box.
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I really need to hear some good news. Anyone have any ? :o

The best I have is I recently got a front row floor seat at next years Strongest Man on Earth strongman contest. I also already have the room next door at the Embassy Suites reserved for 6 days. I also bought tickets for the 3 days of amateur mens and womens contest held the same weekend in the mornings before the pro show. Should be another amazing time at one of the best strongman contests of the year.

It does sound amazing. Where and when will that event be ?

August 15-17 2025 at the Blue Arena in Loveland Colorado. I have been to the last 3 and they have been amazing. When you buy front row floor seats they come with an athlete panel the day before the event. You get to ask the strongmen questions, they feed you a nice meal, and you get a very nice goodie bag. You also get a meet and greet with all the athletes after the show on Sunday night to get autographs and pictures.

The athletes also stay next door at the Embassy Suites so you see them all week long at breakfast and many other times. My favorite active strongman smokes cigarettes and I got to BS and have a smoke with him last year.

That sounds like a load of fun. :)

I was lucky enough to win an auction for a pair of tickets to the Jets/Patriots game a few weeks ago. I won them in a charity auction for the Make a Wish Foundation. They were 3 rows behind the Pats bench at about the 35 yard line and included a parking pass. I won them for $400 dollars.

I'm a Pats fan and have been since the late 60's. That was the closet, and by far, the best seats I ever had. It was a great experience. I got a couple of autos (Bourne, Pop Douglas), beautiful weather, great seats and a perfect outcome when the Patriots scored with 22 seconds left to win the game to beat our hated rival. I expected the Pats to get smoked quite honestly. This was a bucket list item for me. I'm starting to do them now that I'm getting older (66 tomorrow).

I did the "Wall" at Fenway in 2023 as another bucket list item.

A recent buy made me really happy. I bought 3 pinbacks on ebay for $16.53 including tax and shipping. I sold a damaged one for $250.00 and put the other 2 in an auction and hoping to get around $600-$700 each. So that's a nice profit.

Very cool. I've only been to one Patriots game. :o

Went to dr today
Bcg treatment works -bladder looks good
So doing 3 week treatment follow-ups every 3 months or so

Good to hear that the treatments are working for you. I completed 28 radiation treatments for prostate cancer on October 21st. The side effects are just about gone now.

Wishing both you fine gentlemen nothing but the best.:)

I agree 110%. Wishing you both a full and speedy recovery.

Thank you. :)

About 3 mos. ago I broke my left foot. Long story short, I have congenital issues with both feet and after 60 years on them, the 5th metatarsal finally blew out. A break called a "dancer's fracture", which gave my wife a good laugh since me dancing is like the Monster doing a soft-shoe to "Putting On The Ritz" in Young Frankenstein. Good news was that it has healed well and I got out of the boot and into a hiking boot a few weeks ago.

Three days after I got into the shoe, the 5th metatarsal on my right foot blew out. At least I had the boot. This one is worse, a Jones fracture, which is what they call it near the bone head, and it is a substantial risk for complications and surgery. Great news is that yesterday I went back for re-check expecting to be scheduled for surgery and instead heard that the bone is healing perfectly and faster than expected, and I don't need to go under the knife. I still have a long road ahead until the bones are fully healed and I can start PT and workouts again, but the surgery recovery is absolutely brutal and incapacitating, so being spared that is a huge win. :D

Just knock on wood that everyone here is doing fine

Adam, I hope you heal fast.

+1 I just hope you fellows will be okay.

To a fun note I had my first flower open on my Jade plants today. It is a very long slow process. The first signs of the flowers starting was 6 weeks ago. It will now be easily 2 months of the flowers opening.:)

I went to the VA a few weeks ago for a regularly scheduled check up. I go every 3 months for them. The last time I went my blood pressure was 200 over 102 and my doctor was very concerned, especially with me having a pacemaker. She put me on a blood pressure medication called Candesartan Cilexetil. I'm happy to report that after going there Thursday for a follow up check up, my blood pressure was down to 127 over 72. Much, much better!!

We started celebrating Christmas. Mannheim Steamroller came to Spokane. My retired mother is a big Christmas music fan. We took her to dinner and the performance. It was a good night.

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Great to hear that you're doing better. The VA pays 100% for all my medical issues. They are way better than they used to be.

Tim,

Is the Mannheim Steamroller similar to the Trans Siberian Orchestra ?