Today was a good day in a lot of sense. I brought in my 50th birthday....first without my dad....but I know he was with my in spirit....miss you dad. I did however, hit the gym at 6:00 am for a good cardio workout and came home for a good breakfast and then hit the Neon plant early before the heat overcame me. Had lunch with my brother....worked some more....and dinner with my family and mom. Got a great report from my sister regarding my Nephew's Leukemia and I am ready to crash. Got a full week next week and I am looking forward to my ONLY week off during the 4th of July week. My family will invade the beaches of Daytona, Florida for some R&R....Keep my mom on the prayer list.

49 and Holding

Today is June 21st.....This is the last day of my forties......ouch....Tomorrow morning when I wake up, I will be 50 years old. Since I took the last ten years off, I will start my next half century off with a good lift and cardio at the gym. Perhaps I can begin to get myself in some sort of shape for the coming years and what lies ahead. The last 10 years in the neon business has been an adventure to say the least. With the emergence of LED being the king pin in channel letters, neon opportunities have shrunk considerabely. My business model however, has enabled me to carve out enough money to survive. I still get a considerable number of requests for custom neon signs and fortunately for me, there are just not that many folks out there who still do this kind of work. Last year, I shipped signs to ALL 50 states. That was a first. This year we have shipped to 36 states and still have a half a year to go. Perhaps we can repeat last year. Gotta scoot back to the plant.....keep those orders coming.

All Alone.......

Well it's been a long time between posts and three weeks and two days since the death of my father. Although my dad fought a tough fight with Lung Cancer, he like many others before him, eventually found the tough road to Heaven. My life hasn't been the same since he was diagnosed three years ago and certainly not the same since May 27th. I will celebrate my 50th birday Friday. There are already a lot of firsts.....I celebrated my first Father's Day on Sunday....with my dad.....and I will celebrate my first birthday without my dad on Friday. I suppose one day I will once again begin to look at the Sabbath Day as a time for celebration, but for the time being, I still see Sunday as the day my dad died. I hate to dwell on such a tough time, but quite frankly it does me good to express how I feel. Shrinks say reflection is a good thing. I have been walking around in a fog long enough, and tomorrow I will try and take the first step toward celebrating the investment my father made in me and try not to grieve so much. Those of you who stopped by and read this post, send up a few words of prayer for my mother. She and dad would have been married 53 years last week. This is the first night she has been by herself since Dad's death. My siblings and I will take good care of her.....We promised Dad we would.