Jim's Place

My famous camping CDs...

Happy Wednesday guys! Are we having fun yet?! Why wait until the weekend?! That reminds me of one of my old favorites - "Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy. I really loved the music of the early 80s, but when MTV came along, the song itself became secondary to the music video. After that, it seemed much harder to find music that I liked. The popular stuff on the radio just seemed like noise...

Since then, it's been on ongoing project to find music that I liked - which was rarely what was popular. I was baffled at how hard it was to find a song that had a nice melody. I still liked my oldies from the 70s and 80s, but I really wanted to listen to new music. Most of the time it was a challenge to be able to fill a cassette tape, later a CD, with current music that was "killer not just filler". A lot of my friends of similar age also expressed the same frustration and disenchantment with popular music.

That led to one of my traditions. Before the illness really started to cramp my style, I frequently went camping with my close friends. For most trips, I'd create a compilation of my favorite current music and hand out the CD to everyone after we were all set up at the campground. I'd put my heart and soul into the artwork of the CD label, jacket design, the case insert, etc. - including pictures from previous camping trips, info about each song, etc. The idea was to make it a memento and souvenir of our camping trip.

Camping in my tent trailer has rarely been on my radar screen in recent years, but maybe I can squeeze in a trip before too long. So what am I listening to lately? Mat Kearney, Lifehouse, Five For Fighting, Vertical Horizon, OneRepublic, Michelle Branch, Colbie Caillat, Rob Thomas, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Natalie Imbruglia - to name a few.

I have several hundred CDs, but now I usually buy my music via a download from Amazon MP3 or the iTunes store. For so many years, finding just one decent song meant hours of perusing through CDs at Tower Records. There's no way I'd even be physically up to doing that nowadays! But when I discover a great song amongst the thousands online, I still get that same feeling of excitement, as if I'd found a buried treasure...because, in my book, I had!

I still enjoy a good movie or TV show now and then, but mostly it's still all about the music... :)

My "Camping Prayer"

"Lord I praise Your holy name and I thank You for the friends and family that You have so abundantly blessed me with. Let us grow in Your love and wisdom. May we be a bright light in a dark world. Help us live our lives with the joy of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, even in times of sorrow and long-suffering. May the legacy of my life be based not so much upon what I have done, but rather what You have done through me... Amen."

Jim's Most Excellent Camping Trip

Went camping at Lake Jennings (4/26 - 5/8/2010). It meant a lot to me to be back in my tent trailer on my favorite site - #94 - overlooking the lake. The video includes many of the photos I took of the beautiful scenery.

Camping at Lake Jennings

I've been camping at Lake Jennings for several days and wanted to say 'Hi'.Haven't been feeling too well but still have enjoyed hanging out in my big tent trailer overlooking the lake.

Check out my slideshow from Lake Jennings!

I created a slideshow from my recent Lake Jennings camping trip. I think it gives you a pretty good idea of why I like perching my tent trailer on site 94 overlooking the lake! I think you'll really like the song I chose for background music. Click on the link to play it from the Yahoo Video website.

Lake Jennings Slideshow

Update video from Lake Jennings (April 28)

Hi gang! I'm just a bit late updating my blog! Oh well, it doesn't look like too many people are reading it anyway! I went camping at Lake Jennings April 17-29 and made an update video the last night I was there. I really enjoyed camping but it was nice to get back to my condo. A couple of friends from church came by the last night and we had a great time hanging out around the campfire. Who knows...maybe the next time I go camping I'll have a whole new crew to camp with! That sure would be nice... Click on the link to play the video from the Yahoo Video website or you can play it from the thumbnail in the right column of this page.

April 28 update

My big secret!!!

Here I am late at night...camping at Lake Jennings... Having a great time not only being here and enjoying my tent trailer but also feeling quite jazzed about life in general! To some people it might seem that I should feel less than thrilled about life than I do...

"You know Jim, with a chronic illness, you have to face the harsh reality that maybe you'll never be able to achieve your dreams..."

"I know you are a good man, but what kind of woman wants to be with a disabled man...a man who can't even earn a living..."

"Come on Jim! How in the world can you continue to live with such childlike enthusiasm and optimism? Especially when you have suffered through one setback after another...year after year?"

Well, gang... I can certainly understand how people can be puzzled by my endless optimism in what might appear to them to be a dire situation... Understandibly, if someone truly knew the adversity I went through starting in 1993 when my wife took off with my best friend they might have a hard time believing  or even accepting that I've still been pretty much a happy camper since then... And please don't misunderstand! There were so many times when I couldn't believe how far I was being pushed...On the edge of tears for over 2 years after she left...doubtful that I would ever make it through the storm... That as strong as I believed I was the frightening truth was I actually was scared that maybe I might have reached the the end of my rope... I desperately clung to my optimism but yet I questioned if I could still hang on...

Reading these words all these years later makes me a little concerned that people might not fully grasp the incredible impact of my victory over what at times seemed to be the end of the line for me...  I know that seems so dramatic of a portrayal to many, but the truth is that for years I was so devastated that I couldn't see a way to survive the storm... Not exactly what you would expect from the guy who so many have thought of as an optimist and the ultimate trooper...

But the thing that carried me through...the ONLY thing that I could count on when my world had been destroyed...when so many things I believed in and built my life around turned out to be a lie...was my faith in God. It turned out to be all I could depend on...my only option to triumph over a life destroyed by deceit, evil and betrayal... I never had imagined that a good man like me would ever have to face such darkness...

I've been pretty much on my own since then but ironically I've been much more content and happy than I ever was when I was with her... I don't regret those times with Patty but I still am so grateful to not be with her... She was like a cancerous tumor... It was terribly painful to have it removed but it was what was necessary for me to survive...  It's illuminating to realize that the person I was convinced for so many years I couldn't live without was actually the kind of person I could never really live with...and be the person I aspired to be...

I think I now know the real truth... That despite my willingness to settle for less than I could be, that God stepped in with bigger plans for my life. Even though my wounded past tempted me to settle for a life of escape, that He decided to intervene and chart a course far more ambitious and meaningful than I ever envisioned... He moved profoundly to inspire me to step up and become the kind of man He wanted me to be rather than let the world hold me back from being the best I could be...

I hope that my very personal diatribe illuminates where my greatest strength comes from... I'm certainly not going to tell anyone what they should believe, but despite my reservations and confusion about religion for most of my life, I've come to a point where I'm convinced that without faith in God your dreams will never come true. That without the strongest of faiths you will be consigned to living a life of pain, fear, regret and loneliness... I challenge anyone and everyone to show me a better way...to convince me that by counting on only the things of this world they are truly fulfilled, happy and content... I know the truth... It will never happen...

So gang, therein lies my secret... I'm so blessed to tap in to something far bigger than me... That no matter what adversity, suffering or disappointments may come that I am still able to experience the joy of the Holy Spirit... It's amazing because by any 'logical assesssment' I should be depressed but I guess I'm just a rebel! Don't get me wrong... There are so many times when I hurt deeply, wanting to just be able to be well enough to pursue the life I dream of... But, ironically, even in my most difficult times I still experience far more joy than I ever did before I was challenged with so much adversity... Go figure!!!

Jim

Pictures straight from Campsite #94

I'm camping at Lake Jennings right now at campsite #94 and took some pictures this afternoon. Since I have my new Gateway laptop tablet PC and an internet connection using my cellphone, I was able to edit the pictures and send them to my website. This is so cool!!! Click on each thumbnail to see a bigger version. Notice that I have a pretty dern nice view up on the hill looking down at the lake. And as you can see I'm fully equipped. A great tent trailer, my beautiful candy apple red road bike, my iPod boom box, my laptop PC and a hot woman... Uh..scratch that last item...that's my NEXT camping trip!!! And as you can see I've started writing my book. Notice How I can switch to portrait or landscape mode on the screen. And being able to write directly on the screen and have the PC convert my handwriting into typed text is pretty dern sweet! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures and if you happen to be in the area, drop by! I'll be here until November 23. OK, signing off from campsite 94...over and out.... 
 

New photo album - Camping at Lake Jennings

Just got back today from camping at Lake Jennings (again!). I was in site 94 overlooking the lake. I came in on July 6 so I had a good stay. It was pretty dern hot the last couple of days, but I was gone during the day mostly. Brought my Rocketwing and rode it a lot. Last Saturday I rode it up to Alpine. It was about 10 miles of climbing to get to Alpine and then downhill most of the way back. Last Tuesday, I went to Fiesta Island and began my time-trial training by doing a 10-mile time-trial. My goal is to compete in the 20k race being held on Sept. 11.

Rosario, Brianna and her friend Courtney camped in the tent in site 20 last Friday and Saturday. The kids really had a lot of fun! Talk about some crazy bike riders! This trip was kind of a way to celebrate achieving my goal of completing the 4th of July 50-mile bike ride. It also was rather necessary because the roofers are still working on my condo building and I wouldn't have been able to sleep past 7AM !!! Click here to view the photo album.