Back a few weeks ago when I created this blog, I made up my mind that I’d only make posts related to the house project. It was easy going keeping to this and I could probably keep going that route, but this weekend was so amazing I find it hard not to write up at least a short glimpse.
Living up in this part of the country it’s so easy to sometimes feel isolated, like there’s nothing to do, and, frankly… (especially after a long bout of rain) that this place isn’t so cool. Well, after this beautiful summer, and especially after this fun packed weekend I couldn’t think anything is further from the truth. It has been so beautiful all summer long, and really there’s been so much to do. Take this weekend for instance, I actually had to choose what fun I was going to do. Go to Portage to enjoy the beautiful weather and lake, the Fat Tire Mountain Bike Festival, the Northern Maine Fair, truck pulls, mudruns, and the Loring Air Force Base land speed trials.
So what did I decide? Saturday morning started with breakfast with my grandparents, hitting Mardens to look for good deals on home stuff, the Fat Tire Festival to spend a beautiful afternoon with many of my past mountain biking buddies, the truck pulls with dad… then to Sunday it was the Land Speed Trials at Loring where I got to meet a couple very inspirational/awesome people, back to the fair for the end of the car show… man do I love hearing all those hot rods leave, the horse races with my grandfather, and back home to pass out/cool down from heat exhaustion. What an great weekend! And to make things even better there is now a skid steer and roller parked on the land!
I wanted to mention something else about my time at the fair Saturday evening. While walking around I had something very awesome happen. This cool dude and his wife chased me down to say that they had read the blog (another one of my buddies had forwarded it to them) and that he works for a security/automation/media integrator company and would like to get involved in the project. Can’t say enough how amazingly cool I think this is, but it’s going to be so great to get another mind, from somebody very enthusiastic about this whole thing involved. Can’t wait to see all the good things that come out.
And some pictures and video of the Loring Air Force Base Speed Trials just because they are so dang cool!
Definitely my highlight of the afternoon was meeting a guy named Mike Roman who is going after the land speed record with his supercharged 750 cc aerodynamic vehicle sponsored by the Wounded Warrior Project and a bunch of others. The totally inspiring thing about Mike is his personality and attitude towards life.
Several years ago, while working as a surgeon himself, he underwent a minor knee operation that got infected with an aggressive form of staph. Over the course of the next 10 years he underwent 38 additional surgeries, spent over $1 million in medical bills, and eventually lost his leg. After going through all this awfulness he had extreme phantom pain in his leg that wasn’t there. After years of fighting with this pain, getting addicted to morphine, and losing his will to push on Mike was a candidate for a new form of treatment called a spinal cord stimulator. The device tricks the brain by intercepting the pain signal as it travels up the spinal cord and replaces it with a pleasant signal. Instantly Mike’s pain was gone and his life dramatically changed. His “Race against Pain” is his wayto raise money and bring awareness to a condition that faces many who’ve suffered traumatic/life altering injuries.
I got a few pics of Mike, me, and of his ride.
From all this, what really makes me step back and be thankful for everything I’ve got is realizing that I overcame my own aggressive staph infection just two years ago. I never truly realized how serious and possibly life-threatening my infection was until I learned about everything Mike went through. His infection required them to amputate his leg… don’t think them amputating what’s attached to my neck would have had quite the same result. Fortunately it was just replacing the hardware and having a very talented/innovative doctor in Boston try something new.
Okay, that’s it for this post, but expect another one immediately following showing all the cool things that happened today. EARTHMOVING!
Mike, you are such an inspiration to me. I am so proud to have you as my brother. You have touched so many lives throughout the past 3 years…..
Awwwe ;-)… my sister getting all mushy on me… but what about the other 25! Ha! Just kidding!