Zorro…

Semester number eight down. One more to an Bachelors. I had seven classes this semester for a total of nineteen hours, I would not ever wish that on anyone. Assignments where so chaotic and extremely difficult to keep straight as to what went where and what was due when. Down the homestretch of the last few weeks everything was coming due and it was a complete madhouse. I am not real happy with my grades, they are not what I think that I deserved compared to the rest of the class, one in particular, but they will suffice to my end goal. Seven classes are as follows

Construction Law                                             A

Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Systems     B+

Scheduling                                                      B+

Construction Administration                              C+

Principles of Electricity                                      B

Introduction to Operations Management             B

Professional Development Seminar                    A

I now have a cumulative 3.50 GPA and am set to graduate in December 2009 after an eighteen hour semester. Will update on other happenings in life in a different post.

The end of my third week of this semester… still exhauseted every moment of every day. I’m trying to get as much sleep as I can but it is proving to be difficult. Even though I am only working till midnight three nights out of the week I have been having troubles falling asleep the other four.

I took the motorcycle up to Lynchburg today. Gorgeous weather. Havan, myself, and a few others went to the Jack Daniels Distilery and went on one of their tours. It was interesting, and free… lol

Havan and I did the “Dragon Dance” at the Discovery Center on friday night. I think this is our fifth or sixth year doing it. We didn’t really have any time to prepare for it this year but I still think that it turned out ok. We are both pretty sore from it now because it is a basic equivilent of ten straight minutes of squats while jumping around at the same time…

Still looking for a roomate and another job. One of the biggest problems with looking for either of these is a complete lack of free time in order to do so.

I haven’t updated in a while. I have been incredibly busy. I didn’t have a real Christmas break. I was working on a project, we started on it right after I finished the Habitat for Humanity house and we finished priniting everything for the project the Monday after Christmas. We basicaly worked in the computer lab on it 9am to 5pm, 7 days a week once our last final was finished. Once we finished printing it we had to prepare a presentation for it and the third week in January we went to Las Vegas to the International Builders Show and presented it at the competiton there. We came home with the 2nd place plaque and a couple names to send our resumes off to. School had started three days before we left so when I got home I hit the ground running once again. I have a really full and hectic schedule and I am trying to figure out how to organize it. I am taking 19 hours this semester. Three of my classes are online, this is my first semester to have a online course and I do not enjoy them. I go to class MWF from 8am to 12:30 and TH from 4:20 to either 6:30 or 7:30 depending on when the lab is for that week. MWF I go from school to start work by 2pm and work till midnight. THSS I have to do my online courses and any work with our houses, as needed. Just now starting my second week of this schedule and I am entierally exhausted. Hopefully things will lighten up as I figure out a good process to get through the week.

I have a room for rent if anyone knows someone who needs a place. It would be really nice to get that filled. Also if anyone knows of someone hiring I would like to get a different second job. I do not enjoy the one that I have now.

Have to run to class now….

I can not lie… this made me feel good

Construction and Materials II                                                          A

Residential Codes, Regulations, Specifications, and Plan Reading      A

Architectural Computer-Aided Drafting and Design                         A

Introduction to Microcomputing                                                      A

Elementary Spanish I                                                                     A

Something I have always tried to do is to be prepared for everything and everything (Scout Motto: Be Prepared) for this reason I spent the time and money in order to obtain and use a handgun carry permit. I hope that I never have to use it but I would rather be able to protect myself and those I love if the need arises than not. Today I realized that I am not prepared in other ways though, fairly simple ways. I was driving home from my sisters birthday party (Happy Birthday MB!) when I passed a wrecked car deep in the ditch. I immediately pulled over at the next shoulder available (I didn’t want to get hit by a vehicle coming around the corner) and walked back to the wreck. I couldn’t see because of my lack of having a flashlight in my truck (Be Prepared fail #1) but as I walked up to the wreck and called out I received an answer. The guy was ok, he had bit his lip pretty bad but was up and walking and had already called 911. This was good news, but had it been otherwise I had nothing to deal with any emergency situation (Be Prepared fail #2). This wreck was really bad, the ditch was twice the height of the car and the car had hit a tree full speed (no skid marks) less than eight feet from the edge of the pavement. The guy is incredibly lucky that he could even move. Now had the situation been more serious I could’ve handled anything less than life threatening bleeds and a broken back because of the many first aid sessions that I have been in and have taught but I had no supplies at all to deal with anything serious. No gloves, no gauze, no tape. After I left, I had the guy wait with me in my warm truck till the cops arrived, I got to thinking about how I spent so much money to be able to carry in order to protect but I haven’t ever spent anything in order to insure ability to help in such situations. So this week I am buying a couple of good flashlights and some well equipped first aid kits for all of my vehicles (bike included) and I would encourage anyone who reads this to not only do the same but also take some courses for first aid if you haven’t already. There are some really simple concepts that you don’t really think about until they are brought up in these types of lessons/settings than can seriously affect a persons future when an emergency situation arises.

So I have been pretty busy lately. Heres what has been going on.

Builders Blitz: The Rutherford County Home Builders Association did a blitz with Habitat for Humanity to build two houses in two weeks. They asked me to be the onsite superintendent for one of them. I was onsite every day coordinating and overseeing the project. Starting from a slab I obtained my CO (Certificate of Occupancy, which means that you can move in) two days ahead of schedule, in nine working days. Here are pics, my house is the one on the left. http://www.rchba.com/Habitat%20Blitz%202008.pdf

The Judgement: Kenny found out that one of his actors would not be able to perform in all the shows so he asked me to fill in. For those of you who would like to come during a showing that I will be performing in those dates are the 25th, 30th, and 31st. http://judgement2008.com/

National Competition:I am one of six people chosen from the students in the construction department at MTSU to compete in a national competition. We are designing a subdivision of townhomes in San Antonio TX. This will basically be my life till feburary. http://www.buildersshow.com/Home/Page.aspx?pageID=1

Surgery. I am going in on the sixth to have surgery again on my thumb. He is going to fuse it so I will not be able to bend it but I should be able to use it without any pain. As the first surgery was to allow it to bend, which it won’t, the only thing that will be different after recovery from now is the absence of pain.

I got my pistol this past week. The XD .357 SIG is incredibly accurate (pistolwise) and has surprisingly little recoil for the caliber. There are some issues/views that I previously knew but now that I am a carrier have a greater clarity because they actually affect me. Being a firm believer in our second amendment rights I don’t like the fact that I cannot carry on campus or in restaurants. The whole idea to carry is to be able to protect yourself and I don’t like not being able to do that if another Virgina Tech incident happens. I also am surprised at how many people are against the right to carry because it makes them “uncomfortable”. This concept is completely foreign to me. I can understand that some people are uncomfortable around guns and so they shouldn’t handle them, but when they argue about how I shouldn’t be allowed to carry on campus or in a restauraunt I can’t seem to follow their logic. The reasons that they give seem flawed. It’s frustrating to have them completly ignore what you are saying just because they think that guns kill people when really it’s not the gun it’s the brain behind it. Here are two links of some great arguments…

http://www.the-eggman.com/writings/you_dont_know_me.html

http://www.the-eggman.com/writings/joes_gun.html

if you are interested this guy also has a bunch of other good stuff on his site…

I got my cast off yesterday and I get my stitches out on Tuesday. After that he said we wait. At five to seven weeks from now he will take the pin out and see how it looks. With the amount of damage and bone loss he is not sure if the joint will be able to properly work pain free. If it doesn’t work correctly he will cut the joint out and fuse the two bones directly together which will cause an inability to bend my thumb (obviously). The track record for joint replacement in fingers is very poor and the doctor thinks that it is not even worth trying.

We just got back from vacation in NH. It was fun. I haven’t really done much updating recently because it is very frustrating to type. I have an appointment tomorrow with the specialist and I will let everyone know what he says.

I was at the hand specialist for most of the day today, no surgery yet. I had more x rays done and with the new ones we found out that it is worse than first thought. The blade went diagonally across my knuckle about 3/4 of the way through my thumb, destroyed about 40% of the joint, and the last 1/4 fractured. I am going in for surgery tomorrow morning, surgery starts at nine, the doctor is going to repair my tendon, put some screws in the bone where he can to prevent further damage, clean up the unusable bone fragments, and put a temporary wire in to keep everything rigid while healing. He said that the wire will come out after eight weeks. There is not a lot that can be done about the bone loss if it doesn’t heal it could cause the thumb to bend in the wrong direction. If the bone doesn’t heal, even with the surgery, then the only other option is to fuse the joint. Basically cut the joint out of the bone and fuse the two ends together causing a loss in mobility…

please pray for the joint to heal properly.