P90X

I officially started Power 90 X today.  I have ordered this before and tried it but I thought that 90 days of straight workout days was a little excessive.  Anyway, now I have time to accomplish such a task.  I obtained the copy from my borther-in-law who burned me a copy to some blank disks.  I will hopefully be ripped and lean when this thing is over with but we will see.  That is all I have to say.

Me and my Banjo

Okay,  for Christmas I got a banjo.  I think it was the greatest gift ever on the face of the planet.  So I have been recording some things and I have a rough, rough copy of Blackberry Blossum that I am going to try to post soon, if I can figure it out.  Anyway, I wanted to post something new because I have been receiving complaints that I don’t update this enough, but if you visited my other blog you would know that I am busy doing a lot of other updating.

New Holster

Today, I spent the majority of my morning working on a new holster for my state-issued firearm.  This is the third prototype that I have made so far, and I think that it is turning out very good.  I am hoping to use this holster to strap to my calf since we must keep them concealed.  Originally, I was planning on making a good inside-the-pants holster with a flap of leather that you could attach your badge or cell phone or pager to in order to conceal the hand grips from view, but I have an idea for an ankle holster.

The typical ankle holster is fastened to the calf with strips of velcro just below the knee and right above the ankle.  Unfortunately there is still a lot of give and the gun flops around whenever you walk and especially when you run.  My design involves a sleeve that you slide over your whole leg.  You would somehow slide the holster into a pocket in the sleeve.  Hopefully I can find a material that is durable enough to withstand a heavy handgun but doesn’t slide down the leg or cut off the circulation.

Enjoy the photos!!

New Blog

I have started a new blog called My Corvair.  It is dedicated solely to the restoration of my 1966 Chevy Corvair.  If you would like to visit and read up on its progress just visit mycorvair.wordpress.com.

Thank you and enjoy,

John V.

Another Corvair Over There!!

It is time for another one of my four-day weekends. It is a hard life to live when you get four-day weekends every other weekend. Anyway, I decided to drive my Corvair to Kokomo to show my parents and family. I hadn’t been in town for 3 hours and I and my brother saw a 66 Corvair sitting in the parking lot of an Auto Zone. It was the most random thing ever. When I approached the young kid, I asked him if this car it was his. He confirmed it and it seemed that the only acceptable response was laughter. We just laughed.

66 Corvair Pair: four-door, bench seat. Nice!!

It isn’t very often to see these cars let alone randomly run into one on the street like that. About 2 hours later I was at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts and was talking to an older gentleman about my car. He mentioned that he had a nephew that had a Corvair. He wasn’t sure of the year but I inquired further and concluded that the this was the kid that I had just seen earlier that day. I proceeded to ask him what his son’s name was. He replied “Josh,” and I said, “Johnson!” Without missing a beat the older man said, “that’s him!” I’ll be darned if I didn’t just run into him not 2 hours before. What I small freakin’ world. Maybe that is a sign of things to come!

1966 Chevy Corvair

Yesterday was a great day for me.  I finally bought my first classic car.  It is a 1966 Chevy Corvair.  It is a beautiful car and runs very well.  I will post some pictures now and in the future.  It is going to be a great beginner restoration and I will continue to post images of my progress.

Doug Thompson Leadership Camp (Part II)

I decided to post some pictures of the trip to West Virginia for the annual Doug Thompson Leadership Camp.  Enjoy

Saturday: Evening Arrival

Awesome Ultimate Frisbee where many injuries occurred

Lance's Burnt Pudgie Pie

 Sunday: Canopy Tour

Morning Chow to prep for the big Canopy Tour

A good way to get injured right before a cool day

Awaiting our fateHigh above the trees

Jeffro

Monday: White Water Rafting

Fearless Leader: ChadThe Mystery Hole?Gabe, Eddy, Jeffro, Will, Ryan, Chad, Michael, Dr. Greist

Tuesday: Ride Home

Exciting!It got to me too!

The annual Chinese buffet visit

The End

Doug Thompson Leadership Camp 2008

Today is my first day back from the Doug Thomson Leadership Camp in West Virginia.  I was reviewing the photos from the trip and I have determined that whenever a camera flashes I turn into a complete idiot.  It’s like I have an epileptic seizure for that split second and I go back to normal when the flash disappears. 

Anyway, the trip was completely awesome and I would love to do it again.  I hope they ask me to do it again next year because I would love to do it.

#2 Worst Date Ever

Last night was yet another defining moment in the life of John.  I met with a young lady who I had previously met at a friend’s wedding.  If anyone has read the previous posting they would know that I called her by the wrong name on the dance floor.  Anyway, I managed to get together with her, where we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse.  I wasn’t sure how to approach this situation because texting was the only form of communication besides one short phone call.  Was it a date or just “hanging out?”  Well, I wanted it to be a date simply because I haven’t been on one in such a long time.  I followed suit by purchasing flowers to give to her, I drove from 45 minutes away to pick her up, and I paid for the dinner/dessert.  I don’t think she was looking for a date, and that was the starting of a long, uncomfortable ride.  I knew as soon as I gave her the flowers that she just wasn’t into me like that.  Wishing at that moment that flowers were the sign of the end of the date and not the beginning, I didn’t realize that it would all be over in just an hour and a half anyway.

If we were just hanging out, it was one of the worst “hang outs” that I have had in a long time but that can be explained by the misdirected notion that I thought it was actually a date.  If for some odd reason she thought it was a date, then it ranks as #2 on the worst date experiences list beat only by a date that lasted only about an hour because I told my incredibly incompatible (but hot) date that I had to go home and sleep.  I have never had that hard of a time trying to get someone to talk.  I felt like I was blabbing on and on about myself the whole time.  When she was asked about her life and things she likes, she gave me real simple answers.  It was like pulling teeth to get her to talk and the awkward silence between each corny little question didn’t help.

I was pretty nervous going into the evening, and the tension continually raised as the night went on.  Swallows of saliva lumped down my throat, and trembles shuttered through my fingertips from anxiety.  She walked way in front of me everywhere we went.  And when people she knew started greeting her at the Roadhouse she seemed ashamed.  Finally dinner wasn’t punishment enough I just had to take her out for ice cream afterwards.  One hour and 30 minutes later it was all over.

I just want to thank the beautiful Stephanie/Jennifer (Stephaner) for the wonderful evening, and making it another memorable story.  Unfortunately, our different views on the evening were drastically different.  It makes a top ten worst date experience when one person thinks it’s a date and the other person doesn’t share the same desire.  That plus me looking like an idiot helps!

Black Market Blood Products

On a muggy July evening, I discovered something that I never would have dreamt in a million years.  I was sitting in the back seat of a silver car, when we pulled up to the front of an apartment building.  There were no street lights around so the lighting was dim.  A gentleman wearing black clothes and a shaved head approached the car with two Ziplock bags in hand.  His elbows leaned up against the window during the whole transaction.  Nonchalantly the front seat passenger handed him $80 in exchange for the two baggies.  The clear bags had small white boxes in them, and they were stuffed full with about ten or twelve boxes combined.

I knew it wasn’t illegal drugs like weed or coke in the bags.  It wasn’t until I was introduced to the man in black as a fellow hemophiliac that I realized what was traded was a couple bags of Kogenate, a blood clotting product.  I had just witnessed a black market transaction of recombinant Factor.

For those who aren’t familiar with hemophilia and the healthcare costs, hemophilia is second only to multiple sclerosis in costs of healthcare coverage, ranging upwards to $200,000 per year, assuming nothing is wrong physically.  And I came to find out later in the evening that the man receiveing the products had just lost his job and his insurance.  I was under the impression that there were many programs in the state of Indiana that allowed hemophiliacs to continue to receive Factor even if insurance was not available, but I guess he had already exhausted most of those options.  It is just too expensive to go those routes despite Indiana being one of the best states to live in if you have hemophilia.

All I have to say is that this really sucks.  I could gripe and moan about how society has messed up because we concentrate more on leaving no child behind but can’t provide honest healthcare for everyone, but I don’t think that will help me this time.  I hate to see people hurt and he was really in need of this Factor.  He was icing his swollen ankle the whole time we were over at his place, and he in infused as soon as we got back.  It sometimes sucks to be a bleeder!!