This year I decide to do a birthday challenge. I challenged myself to a suburban hike to Almaden State Park in San Jose CA and back. And here are the results:

Duration: 2hrs and 2min

Distance: 6.65 miles

Calories Burned: 824

In all it was a good hike, and even took some pictures along the way. Now if you'll excuse me I am off to rest my feet, they are killing me lol

1) It used to be a rock quarry, and is really deep in certain parts. I will be coming back here soon, but next time I am taking a car!

 2) Back in Jersey I always wanted to stop and take pictures of all the roadside memorials I saw. And lets just say there are a lot of them in the part of Jersey I am from. This one is in memory of Ronnie Macdowell, may he rest in peace.

 3) I took this picture to help me remember the name of the park, I kept forgetting lol.

 4) My camera does not do this scenery justice, but you get the idea. They have fishing, boating, swimming and......well I forget what else. But I am going to come back as soon as my feet feel like they attached to my legs!

In all it was a great hike, but boy was I glad it was over! My feet are still mad at me for abusing them like that but it was so worth it. And it sure beats jogging, it might have taken longer to burn as many calories but at least I did get the dry heaves hahaha

Cali sun, fun and work

Ok, I have been in CA now for almost a month. The job hunt is slow going but it is going. There have been a few things I have had to obtain before I could really get a move on the hunt.
One: Get a Cali drivers license. Got that last week, I had to bring in my birth certificate and my old NJ license then take the written test. Yes, I had to take the written test, the very one I took when I was 19! I passed, it was not all that hard. Some of it was common sense and some of it was just......well, NO DUH! But I did learn that it is illegal to smoke in your own car if there are persons under the age of 18 in the car with you. I did not know that!

Secondly, I had to obtain a guard card. It is a card that says you have paid a large sum of money to a certified company to tell you what is on this state run multiple guess test. And once you pass it you then go through a background check and fingerprint check. And once all that is done you get this card that says you can go work as a security guard. To me it seems more like a tax for being 'allowed' to work as a guard and not so much a certificate of being competent.
Most of the questions were......well again NO DUH! I paid my $325 and passed the test for section one of three. I go back for round 2 next week to complete my training. The card is good for two years and after the two years the only thing I have to do is pay $35 to the state to keep the card in good standing. Again see how one could see this as a tax and not an actual certificate?

But anywho, that has been my world so far. I do have some friends out here that I hang out with whenever I can. Last weekend we went to Tahoe and did a little gambling, nothing fancy just a little road trip to blow off some steam and buy fireworks ;-)

And before I go here is a road sign I saw today just chilling by the highway. And yes I was a red light waiting to get on the highway. Oh and before I forget it got up to 107 today, no humidity.....thank god for that!

Well spank me stoopid........

I have finally gotten my blog back up and running, I am not sure if I want to keep this blog or if I want to start fresh, I have been with this one since 2005! And I feel that I have learned soo much since then; my writing style has changed, my look has changed, my life has changed and even my location has changed.

I have soo much I have to say that I am not even sure I can, I mean I know I can but I do not know if I really want to go back and do a years worth of recaps!! But I guess I can just do a fast and dirty version of what I have been through:

• Graduated college
• Hurricane Sandy beat up NJ
• The family has been doing well
• Lilian bought a new car, a Kia Serento
• The sister-in-law is now a nurse
• The wife now works in the corporate office of her job
• And I now live in San Jose, CA

Yes, I said I now live in San Jose, CA! We have been planning on this move for about three years now, and just this past July I made the move over. We packed my car and I drove from NJ to CA via route 80. It took me five days to complete my trip, I stopped four times along the way: Indiana, Nebraska, Wyoming and Nevada. I could have made it in four days but the wife found a super cheap room at Circus Circus in Reno and I just could not say no to staying in Reno!

It cost me about $305 in gas and about $210 in hotels. It also cost me a sore butt from all that driving lol! The drive was as smooth as anyone could have hoped for, only a small amount of traffic in Pennsylvania and a small bout of rain in Nebraska. Other than that it was smooth sailing.

Found a room to rent on the second day I was in CA and that has been home ever since. The only hard part about this adventure is that I miss everyone back home, I miss them tremendously. I underestimated how much I would miss everyone, but we knew this coming into this endeavor and I am not about to back down on what I came out here to do.

I have been out here for almost a month now and the job hunt is on! I have had two interviews and I have another one lined up this Friday. I have been applying to just about any place that I think my schooling and background fits, so wish me luck on the hunt for a job......no a hunt for a career!

I will be coming back as often as I can to post pictures, because I love posting pictures! Life is truly just the memories you make along the way, and I use a camera to help preserve them. And to end this post I think I will post a few of the ones I took on the ride over:


My last trip to double D's

 Yep its only 46 hours and 39 minutes to go!

This is pretty much what it looked like for 90% of the trip

 Here are my two travel buddies, well actually they belong to Seth and Lucas but they are mine now!

 And here is my other traveling buddy, and luckily it was only need to open bags of chips and beef jerky lol

 I stopped in Lincoln Nebraska at the Horizon Inn and next door they had the only 24 hour sex shop I have ever seen......and by the way if you are looking for a clean and cheap room in Nebraska, the Horizon Inn is the place. Great place in my book.

Other road shot

I found this gas station in the middle of fucking nowhere Wyoming and this was the sign in the bathroom. It was really off the beaten path but they had what I needed.

 This is the Tree of Utah, found right off route 80 in the salt flats of Utah. Not sure what or why but it sure made for a cool photo.

Usual gas station condom machines lol

 Breakfast at Denny's......I was really hungry!

 The room I found in San Jose, it might look small but it is all I need for the time being.

And that is it for now, I will be back sometimes this week to continue breathing life into this place. So many fond memories at blogspot with so many more to come.

Time time breath again.....

Well it only took me two days to get my blog back up and running, and a huge note to self: Put passwords to all email accounts and sites I belong to in one place!
It has been a wild time since last I posted; unemployment problems, financial aid problems, job hunting problems, living situation problems and just life problems in general. But those are things I am tired of talking about and that is not why I started blogging, I want to come here and post some of the rambling crap that seems to ooze out of my head. A place to kick back and just say things like, 'Today I saw a lady walking her cat, nothing to strange about that; other than the fact the cat was purple!'
And yes I did see that this morning, craziest thing I have seen in the ghetto this month. Hookers, pimps and crack heads have become the norm, but a lady walking a purple cat! Well, that about does it for me haha!

I grew a long goatee, then I shaved it off. I wanted to keep it until I got a job but it got really annoying and ended up shaving it off. I started running and lost just about 11lbs in a month, I am now back to working out again and it feels great. Yesterday I did pull ups and push ups and a three mile run. I still cannt do too many pull ups but the run was pretty good, I did three miles in 31:16. Took off almost 2 minutes from my last 3 mile run.
I also celebrated my 36 birthday in July, and to that my sister in law said; 'How does it feel to be almost 40?' And let me say I did not kill her, age has taught me that it is much more fun to kill them kindness that with a knife muahahahaah! And besides I know what makes her jump and scream, pay back should never be this much fun!
I am going to try and come back here more often now that I have all my sign on issues dealt with. I know I have said that before so lets see if I can keep that promise to myself because I really do like my blog and it helps keep track of all of life's ups and downs.

The Chase.....

I am not sure if admitting to breaking driving laws openly will get me into trouble so I am going to do this in story telling mode....*so wink wink* This is just a fictitious story about a man named CN and his adventure with da man!

The Chase

By

PL

CN was sitting in traffic when his cell phone went off, it was work again. He has been on this electric for almost 10 years now, and it is really starting to take its toll on his mental health.

"Hello CN speaking." He said with little to no emotion in his voice.

And just as he put the tool that is slowly giving him brain cancer to his ear, he saw the police car pass by him. Whatever the squawking employee was droning on about fell into the back ground as CN looked into the rear view mirror and saw the cop trying to pull a k-turn four cars back.

CN has seen this type of trick used more than once, the last time it ended with his car being towed and a ticket for 'unclear plates'. Which was contested and was thrown out; Cop one :Pissed off civilian one!

And this looked just like another one of those moments. Lets see what possible tickets CN could get:

Possible talking on cell phone while driving and a definite busted tail light.

But CN saw his ticket out, the light had turned green and the box truck in front of him was turning right. As he made the turn along with the truck he made his move, the street he was turning onto was a high bridge going over some train tacks; which would also play into his game. Now, it was late and the road he was on went one of two place, the main highway or the back poorly lit roads for the industrial side of town.

With less than 60 feet to make his move CN floored it, cut off the box truck just as they went over the bridge, banged a hard right that lead into the industrial side, killed all the light and slammed the pedal down as if he was aiming for the street! CN looked in his review mirror just as the cop cross the intersection heading toward the highway. He then turned the lights back on and eased up on the gas, he was coming up to a popular titty bar and there were always cops hanging out there. The last thing he wanted was a speeding ticket.

CN then turned off the main road and made his way back to the highway via the side streets. This was not unfamiliar territory to CN, the old cemetery, the refinery and the everyday blue color town was where he spent his jr. high years. There is no better way to learn the roads of a town than on a bicycle and this was where CN was.

Within minutes he was back on the highway obeying every single law that was ever written governing the rules of the police state in which he lived.

The Moral of the story, dont break traffic laws and never under estimate the power of a well thought out escape plan.

Now like I said this is just a fun story of CN and his brush with the law, and if you dont know who CN is then you dont know me very well. But Since I am in a good mood I will tell you......

CN is the greatest man known to man, he once explained sound to a deaf person! CN is Chuck Norris!