My Journal

AM:
we needed to travel on to the next destination today. We set out and eventually stopped in Tennessee for a 2 mile hike in a state park. After that we cruised to our destination of Gatlinburg TN. On the way there we drove through Pigeon Forge. That place is like Las Vegas! Flashy billboards, themed hotels and restaurants, cheesy places all over. We did not stop though, we wanted to get in another hike!

We made it to the Smokeys and hiked at 2 different locations. I am beat! Gatlinburg reminds us of Sedona and Oak Creek in Arizona. It is very walkable and has a little bit of everything. Our kind of place.

AM:

3 mile hike at Natural Bridge

We did get a short hike in before the rain. We did a driving tour in the mountains and enjoyed that. We traveled south some more on I81 but did not make it to Tennessee yet. While stopped at a hotel trying to get a deal we struck out. As I was backing out of the spot and talking to my wife I hit a truck. The guy was in the truck! Fortunately I am a lucky guy sometimes and my bumper hit his tire so no damage. I was lucky.

Again no pictures since the internet is slow.

AM:
Super hiking on Skyline drive.

We started with a 2.85 mile hike though the back country. the trail was tight in parks and the hills were tough. We ended up walking back on the road. I was beat!

Next we went on a water fall trail. This one was killer! we hiked down hill for 1.5 miles! That meant uphill for 1.5 miles! The up hill portions were tough on my breathing and my heart raced between breaks but the down hill was tougher on my knees and ankles. We have some amazing pictures but the internet at the hotel is not cooperating with the down loading so I will need to do a picture day when I have a better connection.

AM:
45 min elliptical machine

Work today, I tell ya! I needed to have a meeting with 3 engineers and my coworker to explain to them WHY what they are asking for is wrong. I should never be telling engineers how their work or planning is wrong. I am not even sure they all understood the concept or redundancy. all connections can not go to one point. If that one point fails the whole system fails! 2 individual connections going to two separate places doing the same thing. REDUNDANCY!

Looks like they will need to order an expensive expansion card to make it happen. Yep, someone is going to have some ‘splain’n to do.

AM:
hack squat
90-12
180-12
270-12

Standing shoulder press
95-5,6,7

Leg press
360-15
450-15
540-15

bench press
135-15
185-8,8

15 min elliptical trainer intervals

One more day until vacation time! Woohoo! I need it too. the engineers at work are blazing new trails into the incompetence. Maybe it is not their fault. Maybe they don’t know any better, Maybe they just don’t care. Well info was wrong again and they are redoing something that should be simple. I just can not wrap my brain around the idea you have a new piece of network equipment. You know how many copper and fiber connections it needs to provide the services you are setting it up for. You know what other equipment it needs to talk to so it can do what you need it to do. Then why the frack can’t you list what connections need to connect to what ports? Like if you have a garden hose, an extension cord and phone cable all that you need to hook up. you know the phone is for conversations, the hose for water and the electric plug for power, then why are you having me try to hook the hose up to power, the power up to the phone line and the extension cord to the water spigot? I just don’t understand why this seems so difficult for smart, college educated, experienced engineers to do.

On a completely different note, there has been many professional athletes getting caught committing felonies like beating their girlfriends, drug charges, even murder. So to add some humor to it here is a picture and caption to make you laugh.

AM:
leg press
270-15
360-15
450-15
540-15

EZ Bar curls
60-10,10,10,10

30 min elliptical machine

PM:
24 min elliptical machine

I feel so much better today after a great night of sleep. We are still planning out our vacation. Looks like we are skipping PA for now. It will be colder and rainy. We are going to head south instead. Tennessee, and maybe some Kentucky or North Carolina. It is still supposed to be rainy, but it will be warmer!

AM:
3 mile jog with my wife!

I was so tired today. Totally worn out. I went to bed at 6pm and woke up 9.5 hours later and was still tired! I even skipped doing the blog last night because I was beat.

AM:
15 min elliptical trainer intervals

incline bench press
135-10
155-8
175-5
155-8
135-8

Body weight squats
10,10,10,10,10

Dumbbell bench press
55-8
65-8
75-8
65-8

Body weight squats
10,10,10

I was solo at work today. The day was quiet until 30 minutes before it was time to go. I had to go and move some cables for an engineer and that had me working right up to the closing bell. I will need to finish up some stuff tomorrow when I get back from the offsite location.

AM:
3.3 mile hike

We did another loop at Scotts Run hoping to see the Virginia Blue Bells in bloom. No such luck. There were a few but not like we were used to seeing at Turkey Run. We may have missed the opportunity this year since our next 2 weekends are all booked up with fun already.

AM:
2 hour 5.67 mile hike to see the Cherry Blossoms at 5:30 AM!

Yeah, it was pretty sweet to see the cloudy sunrise over the Monuments and the Cherry Blossoms. We parked at the Pentagon and walked over the bridge and into DC to see the Cherry Blossoms around the Tidal Basin. Fantastic way to do it.