GeoWHAT...

As one gets older, and officially obtains "Old Coot" status, there's not a lot left to do. I mean you can still oogle the babes, redheads in particular, but what else is there to do...really? So many sports/hobbies/timewasters require at least two or more for it to be any fun. Take sex, well, I mean you could go it alone, I think they refer to that as an "Organ Solo" in the symphony, but it's a LOT better with two. A hobby that you can enjoy solo or in multiple is GeoCaching. GeoWhat? http://www.GeoCaching.com will give you all the correct answers to your questions but basically you use a handheld GPS unit (mine is a Garmin eTrex Legend) and you use it to go forth and find hidden treasure caches that others have placed around the world. Do you have to travel, NO, there are 100 GeoCaches within 10 minutes of my house in Birmingham. They're everywhere! What does it cost? Well, a good handheld GPS unit can be had new for about $100.00, matter of fact Bass Pro Shops in Leeds has the newer version of my Garmin eTrex Legend for $99.99 everyday. Now that's a damn good deal too cause I paid $499.99 for mine the first month they hit the shelves. What treasures await me? As far as treasures go... Not much in the way of untold wealth and riches. And it's usually more along the line of Dollar Tree Trinkets to be quite honest. But as with life, it's not the destination so much as it is the journey that is the most rewarding. I still remember Joy and I trudging through a forest fire at Cheeha National Park looking for and finding the Kentuck ORV Cache. Sand even more so to my pleasure was the FatBoy TravelBug that we rescued from a fiery death.

So NO... You won't get rich, you won't have to be rich to get into the hobby, you won't have to drive to the ends of the world, just to play the game. You WILL... Get your fat ass out from in front of the boob tube, you will get a little bit of healthy clean air and sunshine, you will get in a little healthy walking, you will see babes in the park, and you will exercise your mind and eyes a little bit (may be harder for some than others...).

Today was the last day of 2010, and I wanted to do something, anything, that was a little more fun than I had done the previous 364 days, and GeoCaching was what blew my skirt up. My goal was to find all 3 hidden GeoCaches at the 3 parks on Highland Ave. I got Number 1 set in my sights at Caldwell Park and my GPS LED MY RIGHT TO WITHIN 5 feet of the hideyhole. A few minutes of looking around and damn, there it was right in front of me. If it had been a snake... I punched in the new coordinates for Cache at Rhodes Park and off I went. Now, this one was a little more difficult for my dumb ass to find, but find it I did. Punched in the coord's for Cache Number 3 at Rushton Park and off like a rabbit was I. And this one got the better of me. Not for a lack of skill on my part mind you, but a rather large lunch crowd at Rojo's had taken all the parking within about 4 blocks. So here I type... And as soon as I post this, I'm headed back to Rushton before the rain gets here and snag my last and final GeoCache for the day. But there are others close by if I get the time today before the rain hits. Wish me luck!

1 more day...

2010 - The Year of the Suggs...  I predicted at the close of 2009 that 2010 was going to be our year, The Suggs.  We were going to strike it rich, be famous, healthy and party like there was no tomorrow.  Well...  We ain't rich, infamous is a better description, and the parties have been pretty much nonexistent.  But 2010 in retrospect was indeed a winner for us Suggs.  We're all still here, a good thing considering all the other choices.  We're bigger, badder and better than we ever have been and it keeps getting better day by day!

We've all made new friends, slain a few enemy's along the way, hidden the bodies well, and in the end, we have bettered ourselves day by day.  It takes decades to build an empire, and that fact of life has not been lost on me.  So with the first decade of the 21st Century quickly closing in on us, we'll take the next step, together, as one, as family, and welcome in not only the New Year, but the second decade of the 21st Century.  What we do today, determines who we are and where we will find ourselves tomorrow.  That one has taken me a lifetime to learn.

Suggs, our family name.  Made up of many names from many different countries and cultures.  Mostly American Indian, English, Irish, Scottish with names like Barnes, Bishop, Payne, Sisson, Dunnaway in our pasts, we come from a proud heritage of loyalty, strength, and warriors.  My ancestors fought in Viet Nam, Korea, WWII, WWI, Civil War, The War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War.  I myself served in The United States Air Force as a cop from 1980-1986 and during that time we saw the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Communism and The Berlin Wall, and engaged in battle in Grenada and Libya.  So yeah, we've stood up and have been counted, the names of our family war dead are on a monument somewhere, and I'm very proud of the fact that we are some of the people that has kept America, my America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

As 2011 looms near, I like to think that I have not lost my warrior spirit and that I can still see the world through the eyes of my Indian ancestors and recognize what is truly important in life.  Cherokee, Blackfeet and Apache blood flows through my veins with every beat of my heart, put their by my Indian ancestors, and carried on in the blood of my children.  They know of not what greatness they are descended from.  It is for them to discover as have I.  And they will, in their own time.  Knowing who you really are, where you really come from, the battles that have been waged and won, and the blood that has been spilled, won't, change who you are.  It hasn't me.

For 2011, I'll trust it to a Gladiator's prayer and ask for little more.

"Ancestors, I ask you for your guidance. Blessed mother, come to me with the Gods' desire for my future. Blessed father, watch over my wife and child with a ready sword. Whisper to them that I live only to hold them again, for all else is dust and air. Ancestors, I honor you and will try to live with the dignity that you have taught me." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/quotes?qt0404409

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

56 Murders so far...

We'll... This is going to be my first blog post from the new toy! The jury is still out on the new iPad, but I'm really liking it so far. OK, as of Monday Dec 27th, we had hit 55 and 56 murders for 2010 due to a double homicide discovered Monday morning. And if you consider we are usually pushing 100 by Dec, looks like 2010 is going to be a good year. Unfortunately, when it comes to murders in BHM, there's always next year...

Now on Twitter...

With the recent addition of the iPad to our family of gadgets, I have decided to give Twitter a try and see what it might have to offer.  Still trying to duck my Internet stalker, so I came up with a real catchy name for my Twitter ID,  RiderBHM  I said it was catchy, right?  I have a select group of friends that like to catch up with each other over a cup of coffee and I thought Twitter might be the answer.  I mean we all need more coffee! 

So if you want to follow along with my wild and crazy adventures as I ride the streets of BHM, dodge Southside's famous and infamous bums, meet up for a cup-o-coffee somewhere or just see how close we come to actually crossing paths, then git yer butt on Twitter and follow RiderBHM.

Christmas Booty...

It's 4:30am the Monday morning after Christmas.  And I know some of you are already rolling in your beds dreading going back to work after a nice extended Christmas holiday.  But it's just another day, and another opportunity.  Truth is, for me anyway, it was a short holiday.  Joy had a nice long block of time off, and we had the Grandkids for almost a week. But Caitlin only had Christmas day off so it was up at the buttcrack of dawn for us both all through out the Christmas Holiday weekend.  And in the end, just another day.

Although I needed/wanted nothing, and specifically requested that no one waste their money on me for Christmas, Santa, the redheaded one,  decided to be a little on the naughty side and disregard my request and saw fit to leave an iPad under the tree for Joy and I.  I've played with the iPad here and there in stores, and Joy and I had talked about them numerous times and for what we use a computer for, an iPad fills that bill quite nicely.  Santa got us one of the 64gb iPads with BOTH WiFi and 3G capability, so I think we're maxed as far as hardware goes.  Now all we got to do is learn how to use the little fruit.

And I won't dive into all the ooh's and ah's the iPad has to offer, but I will say it's a Mac, and I'm not.  So it'll take a little getting used to for me.  Luckily I had gone off the reservation and played with Safari and Firefox as a browser so it was sort of like meeting an old friend for coffee.  But there are a lot of new things to be learned, at least for me.  Caitlin has a lot of time on a Mac at UAB editing video and other assorted projects so she's ambiputerous and can help this old dog learn a few new tricks.

So far, I'm impressed as hell with the iPad.  Battery is FANTASTIC and never fell below 40% after both Joy and I used it pretty much all day on Sunday.  It uses any available "open" WiFi signal it can find first and then switches seamlessly back and forth to the cellular 3G AT&T network as needed extending your cellular access time.  And now having a new and truly portable device will again open the wonderful world of coffee shops to my wit and charm.  Some of the negatives I have found for me are it's hard as hell to hold on to.  I need one of the Gel cases so it doesn't slip out of my hand, so will probably pick one up today before I drop it.  Another negative is there is no user manual.  So, if you really don't know what an iPad is, or what you can do with it and what nifty little features are built in to it, well... you still don't.  I can't figure out if the little fruit has a GPS chip in it or not.  Also I really don't appreciate the fact that the iPad is heralded for it's picture ability, but you don't find out until you are trying to plug your digital camera into it that there is no USB port, but guess what, they sell an "accessory" that replicates a USB port and a memory card reader.  So, all it takes is just a little more money...

Everything has it's own up's and down's and I doubt if our new iPad will be any different.  I am really excited about being able to be mobile again without having to either squint to see a microscreen or having to tow a trailer for all the peripherals and cabling.  And third party apps are just crazy.  Makes me want to write programs again.  I looked over a GhostHunter application for the iPad that was just insane.  It makes use of all of the iPad's built in sensors (light/sound/motion,etc.) and turns the iPad into a mobile paranormal lab.  Now a serious Ghost Hunter I am not.  I'm not even a serious believer in the paranormal, but I thought it would be a cool app to have and use with the Grandmonkeys.  Might even scare my wife under the covers with it?  And just for the record, I lean more towards the Bigfoot side of the "mysteries of the unknown" in my interests.  No, never seen one, never looked for one, HAVE woken up beside a few that resembled a Sasquatch, but I was really, really, drunk, and it was a long, long, LONG time ago and thank God they didn't have cellphone camera's back then!  But hunting down a "Squatchy" does hold some sort of allure for me.

So, I hope ALL of you had a good Christmas, got to spend some happy quality time with friends, family and loved ones, ate some scrumptious Southern foods and enjoyed the first White Christmas we've had in Dixie in many, many years.  We did!

Christmas Eve... Eve 2010:

The Christmas season has always been special to our family. It's always been a time when Joy and I could do great and wondrous things for our kids that would make their eyes pop open when they saw all the festivities that Christmas brings. The tables full of scrumptious foods, riding the hay wagon, hunting for and cutting down the annual Suggs Family Christmas Tree, decorating said tree, wrapping and stuffing the presents under the tree, having friends and family over, stringing lights here and there, and then... Christmas morning, and the discovery that Santa had once again, found our house AND had not found out about that bad report card a few months back leaving presents behind as he took to the sky again.
All good times and good memories for Joy and I. Wouldn't trade a second of it for all the gold in the world. And now we get to sit back and watch our kids do the same things for their spouses and kids. The same excitement is still there, the same wonder, and the same pleasure of giving to someone you love on Christmas day. The traditions you instill in your kids is the real gift that keeps on giving. Watching our 3 kids instill these same hopes, dreams and traditions in their kids and loved ones is something that brings a smile to our lips and a tear to our eye, year after year as we get older. A memory we both will cherish forever.

When it rains...

...it pours.  Looks like December is taking it's toll on the Suggs Family as far as bad information goes.  As you know, my Mother is in the hospital at St. Vincents with pneumonia.  Been there for a week almost.  And is doing better.  The antibiotics are doing their job and she is getting better slowly.  She's still very weak, and just about any type of exertion leaves her out of breath and near collapse.  They have determined as soon as she gets well enough, they are going to transfer her to a long term care/skilled nursing facility that has a physical rehab unit as soon as they can find a bed/room for her.  And on one hand I know in my heart that this is the best for her and exactly what she has been needing for many years now.  And their will be many benefits for her to enjoy as she gets stronger over time.  But the cold hard reality is that my Mother is no longer able to care for herself 100%, and that saddens me.

My Dad, whom I have never been close to, more of a "friendship" than a Father/Son relationship lives in Panama City, FL.  It's been well over a year since I have even spoken with him (my fault entirely), so I thought I would take the current situation with my Mother as a good enough reason to give him a call and check in and see how he, his wife Grace and his three kids and umpteen grandkids were doing.  After a few minutes of talking to Grace (she always answers the phone), I ask how things are going with Dad, and she tells me that he has, since I spoke with them last (almost 2 years), been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD) and is actually not doing very well at all.

I did speak to him, and although it was a nice conversation, with him even cracking a few jokes, I could tell it was hard for him.  Grace told me that his Doctor had prescribed some sort of new PD and that after taking it my Dad basicall turned into a Zombie and sat unresponsive in his chair drooling all over himself for a few days.  They have since taken him off that particular medication but it has actually made his symptoms more severe after being on it.  So disheartening news to say the least.  His wife said he could not drive anymore, had to be fed and dressed most of the time and had a lot of trouble walking.  She also said that he would often have spells of time where he was perfectly ok for a few hours at a time so at least he has a some good time.

I'd like to go see him soon, maybe this summer will work out.  I know that it will take a lot more than this to get the best of him.  It might be humbling, but I doubt if it will put much of a kink in his craw.

Joy, my wife, has lost her voice.  And I am experiencing "technical difficulties" with my ears at the moment, so she can't talk, I can't hear.  We just sit in front of the fireplace amidst the warm glow of smoldering hickory logs and flip each other off as neceassary.

Wes had to take his wife Tara to the ER tonight with breathing/coughing/fever issues, but according to his/her FB page it is bronchitus.

So, yeah, looks like a happy holiday all around!  Like I said...

When it rains, it pours!