A Personal Expression

About a month ago, one of my favorite recording artists - Kenny Chesney - came out with a new album.  There is a song on that album that happens to hit home with me and a current situation in my life.   I listened to it over and over and realized that I needed to put visuals with the music - as a kinda therapy for myself.  I shared it with my brother and sisters to make sure they were okay with me making it public.

I'm not looking for any comments or support, I'm just wanting to share.


*note: you can click the arrows beside the word vimeo to expand it

For me - by me. from GW Meadows on Vimeo.

Chillin' in the 386

My Sunday and Monday have been good.   Sunday (yesterday) I started off at SERENITY where I had to install the AC unit (again) after the technician was done working on it (again).   I started off early to try and beat the summer heat that builds up in a boat without AC.   I got it all installed, wired it up and plumbed it up.  It started up perfectly and then shut off after about 4 minutes with the 'high pressure' code showing on the controller.   I think I have a bad high pressure switch on it now.  The tech is supposed to go by the boat and check it out sometime today.  He's not super dependable, so he'll probably get around to it sometime this week.   Anyway, by the time I was done I was completely drenched in sweat from working down in the bilge of the boat.  Hey, it's Florida and its fine when you emerge from the boat and into the sea breeze all wet like that.

I then gave Serenity a good bath and dried her down.  She looked happy.

A clean sloop and a sweaty owner.

I got a little business work done throughout the day and then went for a bike ride on the beach at low-ish tide.  Enjoyed the sounds of the Zac Brown Band and reconnected with one of their songs that means a lot to me :  "Quiet your mind".  It's worth a listen.  If you don't have it on your iPod, I'd recommend it.

I hear the waves
Sun beatin' down on my shoulders
It's a near-perfect day
Wishin' I wouldn't get any older
They say that it's gone 'fore you know it now

Quiet your mind
Soak it all in
It's a game you can't win
Enjoy the ride

I feel the change
Goin' on all around me
It's strange
How I'm taken and guided
Where I end up right where I'm needed to be

Quiet your mind
Soak it all in
It's a game you can't win
Enjoy the ride

At the end of the water
A red sun is risin'
And the stars are all goin' away
And if you're too busy talkin'
You're not busy listenin'
To hear what the land has to say

Quiet your mind

I hear the waves
Sun beatin' down on my shoulders
It's a near-perfect day
Wishin' I wouldn't get any older
They say that it's gone 'fore you know it and
Soak it all in
It's a game you can't win
Enjoy the ride



I spent some time finishing up a video I've been working on this week.   I'll likely share it here soon.

Today, (monday) began with an excellent bike ride on my Trek 7200 (hybrid bike).  I picked a great set of songs and had my heart rate over 140 for the entire ride - over 150 for about 30% and peaked at 165! It's all about the tunes! The B-52s, Limp Bizkit and Pink helped me crank it up well.  It was a good hour+ long ride.

After my second meal of oatmeal, I headed over to the beach with the cruiser again - but noticeably earlier than yesterday and the wind conspired with the clock to have the tide too high for a beach ride.  Probably just as well because a nasty line of thunderstorms was trying hard to push east against the sea breeze and I probably would have been a few miles down the beach when it hit.

The beach near a local park.  You can see the thunder storm line trying to push eastward.

So, with that plan scrapped, I started my planning for leaving town tomorrow and decided to go get some new shoes.  I wear the same model of New Balance sneakers (when I wear shoes).  I have a pair for work and a pair that look nicer.  When the work pair starts to look bad, I rotate the other pair - to be work shoes and buy a new pair.  (It makes sense to me).    Other than that - flip flops and boat shoes are my main choice.   Anyway, they didn't have my size, so the shoe shopping will have to be continued at some point in the future.  

Another active day

Keeping with my promise to myself of more activity,  today I decided to partake in 2 separate sports.  The first one was a good 'carve boarding' session on the only hill around here.

About 10 years ago, Jan bought me a carve board for my birthday.  A carve board is sort of a cross between a skateboard and a surfboard.  It has big grippy tires and it 'carves' like a surf board.  It's a lot of fun and I used to ride it fairly often on the hills on the Outer Banks.  

Once we moved to Florida, I didn't ride it again until today!  It was a fun - thigh burning workout and I hope to make it more of a habit.

The video below is a music video of carve boarding that I made for The Pit Surfshop on the Outer Banks.  The band is Fighting Gravity and all the footage of the band was shot at The Pit.

Fighting Gravity

The Pit | Myspace Video


In the afternoon, I took the beach cruiser bike over to the beach and had a good hour long ride while listening to some good tunes.

Afterward, while sitting on the beach looking out at the waves, I was reminded of what a good life I have.  I hope I don't ever forget it.  I am a fortunate fellow.

From there, I headed up the beach and checked out the new roof top bar on the pier.  I've been having some more problems with my stomach and so I thought it was time to do a medical test to see if my stomach could handle beer.   I'm happy to report that it all seems just fine!

The view from the roof-top bar on the pier.

For anyone who's interested to know, I'm still getting plenty of 'house work' done as well.  I got some work in the yard done as well as some work in the garage.  It's not ALL fun and games!   :)

A 3 Sport Day

The 'toy box' on the beach today.

While I was in New Hampshire last week, I made a commitment to myself to get more active.   I've noticed a vicious cycle of being fatigued and not getting enough exercise.  The only way to break that cycle is by getting out there!

I got back on the bike this week and have 3 rides under my belt since tuesday and plan to get 2 more in before heading off to Indianapolis on tuesday.   Today I had a nice ride down through Ponce Inlet, around the lighthouse and back to my car up in Port Orange.   

For the first time in a long time, I also got back on the surfboard.   I let other things get in the way of that over the last year and I need to not let that happen any longer.   I'm happiest when I'm out on/in the water.    Today was no different.  The surfing was not good - little 2 foot mushy waves,  but being back out on the board was great.  It's clears your view of things.    

I had a great dolphin encounter while out there - with a pod swimming all around me chasing bait fish.  Most were adults but there was one little baby dolphin.  It almost looked like a toy.    Some teenage boys saw the dolphin swimming around me and started swimming out to where we were.  As they approached, the facial expression on one of them changed and he looked at me and said "Those ARE dolphins aren't they".    It made me laugh out loud.

Not from today - but similar (including the flat water).

I also went to the driving range to hit some golf balls, but I picked a pretty stupid time to do it - around 4:30 in the afternoon - in July - in FLORIDA.    I didn't even finish the bucket of balls because of how much I was sweating.     Still, a good trend was started today - doing fun stuff to stay active.  

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse