Tag: nashville

Saving Money + Healthy Living

I’ve always been pretty active. My wife will tell you I can’t sit still, which isn’t far from the truth. I completed my first half-marathon this April. On Saturdays, I’m always working in the yard, on the house, or on the pop up camper. I started thinking and then talking to a few coworkers about commuting to the office on a bicycle.

When I was a kid, I biked every day to school. It was about four blocks of freedom. I knew every crack in the sidewalk that created a mini ramp and every curb that would jolt me through the bike frame. I’ve always loved bicycles. I searched online for several days and found a good road bike in good shape for a good price.

Last Saturday, I took a test ride from home to the office. I wanted to make sure I could do it, and I needed to know just how long the commute would be. It took me just over an hour – only 20 minutes longer than it takes to drive. I couldn’t wait for Monday.

Monday I made it to the office, and I felt great! It was a long, hot, sweaty ride, but I felt great that I did it. On the way home, my chain popped loose, but that was an easy fix. It delayed me only a minute or so, and I was back on the road.

Tuesday came around, and I had to stop by the jewelry store to pick up my wife’s ring that had been repaired. The store is only just off my route to work, so I biked again. As I left the store, I decided to take a shortcut through the local college campus. As I turned into the parking lot of campus, I couldn’t hit the curb head-on. This popped the tube in my back tire. Luckily, the first thing I did when I got my bike was to purchase a helmet and a repair kit for my tubes. A couple minutes later, I had a new tube installed, and I was once again back on the road.

Today I drove to the office since an early meeting would have had me waking up too early to make the trek via bicycle. It has also been a welcomed day of rest. Tomorrow I’ll be back on the bike.

Doing some math, I save almost $7 per day that I ride my bike. I also get a killer workout. I’m hoping to keep biking about three days a week. I want to the bike to pay for itself, then start saving for A/C for my truck. I get some savings, I get my workout, and I save on my carbon footprint. Hopefully I can keep it up for a while.

It Just Feels Right

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I hope you experience times like I experienced yesterday – it was a day where I felt I was doing something I was created to do. Yesterday, I was in the studio playing and recording music.

Growing up in Nashville, I never thought I would be any good at playing guitar. There were too many stellar players around. However, I later came to the realization that every guitar player starts out the same way – not knowing what he is doing. At that point, I started thinking I could do this for a living…

Yesterday was the day my wife would go into the studio to record 3 new songs that will be released as singles in the coming months. She had done a fabulous job writing these songs. Now it was time to bring them to life.

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With the help of our new producer, Neilson Hubbard, and his talented friends (Evan Hutchings – drums, Dean Marold – upright bass, Will Kimbrough – electric guitar and mandolin, Josh Britt – assistant engineer), we got some really great stuff recorded. In a short 6 hours that just flew by, we got pretty much everything except background vocals for the three tracks. The whole time, I was thinking just how lucky I was to be playing guitar all day.

There’s something special with music, and it becomes almost magical when you play music with friends. Here is just a little snippet of one of the tunes we recorded yesterday.