Mike’s blog

Whats Krakin’ peeps? I have been on here vary scarcely I know! After a month of taking a break, I feel good and motivated to hit the gym again. Now, don’t think I was completely sedentary these last five weeks. I wish I had a removable SD card on my phone so I could upload the pictures I took on this site. We had a sidewalk poured behind our house. When the builder graded the land, the uncovered some pretty big stone. This stuff was so big that it stopped the bobcat they were using in its path!! Instead of removing the stones, they graded over top of it. Now this causes two problems: 1) Grass will not grow on rock!!  2) How can you dig holes for a fence post when you have large stones in your yard?  Solution? I dug the bastards out!! Me, a truck, and an iron digger! You should see these stones. Three were so large that me and two other guys could not lift them. thats were the log chain came in handy!! Hey, i am holding a stone lifting contest in my yard this weekend!! Haha! The builder did agree to regrade my land and remove the stone I got out of the ground….I got it in writing!! Other activities include helping my sister in law move into a 2nd story apartment, more yard work, and I will soon be helping my father build his house! woohoo! That means some extra money to pay off that car loan. Then I’ll get my Tundra!

Anyways, I am feeling very excited about hitting the gym again. Everybody is asking where I have been. The kids are doing very well. My little boy was told that he is too smart for preschool. I think he is very bright but that there decision is a crock of crap because you can not teach a child the environment of a classroom in your house!! At least we are doing something right huh? I will be catching up on your blogs soon!

I know it is a little late for an update but here it goes anyway.

On the Fifth of July I went to my first fat wedding. I know this sounds very cruel but I have no other way to explain this. My cousin just married a man that is 10 years older than her. The age thing does not bother me as long as he treats her right. Anyway, both are extremely over weight. The guy has to have a plan to get out of a chair. It is pretty sad. They love each other and that is all that matters. I tried looking on the bright side of things and thought,"hey, there has to be good food at the wedding…they are big people!" Yes I know, sad again. And did I mention I was wrong in that assumption? Try sandwiches that included a white castle sized bun and one slice of meat….and nothing else. No cheese. No mayo. No lettuce. NOTHING!! They had fruit. I love fruit!! and cake. Do you remember what the Lego dudes looked like? You could take their hair off and switch hair styles around? That is what the icing on the cake reminded me of. It could pop right off! LOL…..

That night we went to a party. Had  a PPV fight on TV. Went to a friends house that has a little girl that my boy knows. They played all night long. Never whined or cried. That gave me a nice break. Got to hang with some friends, my wife socialized, and I got drunk. I know…shame, shame….but I had a great time!

Let’s back track a day shall we? On the 4th, we went to my mothers house. Had a nice cookout. Played with the kids. Caught up a little bit. We then went outside to light fireworks. it was very humid that day so the smoke from the fireworks stayed pretty low to the ground. We had children friendly fireworks like those snaps and smoke bombs that had different colored smoke. Apparently we had irritated a yellow jacket nest while setting off these smoke bombs. I am just very thankful that my wife had taken my little girl inside to eat. The yellow jackets stung me three times, My little boy got stung five times. Three times in the ankle. I had never heard him cry like that. My moms boyfriend got it three or four times. We ran into the house and they were all on our clothes. This was a very traumatic experience. My mom sent me an email one day saying to stick a penny on a sting because the copper will pull the poison out of your skin. I guess it worked….I don’t know. I still have a nice size irritated spot on my back but my other spots are gone. That about sums it up.

I had heard a few good things about the MAP products so I decided to start with the pre workout drink NO Plasmacore. I read about it and it sounded promising. I ordered some…from BB.com…and received it on a Friday. I only work out through the week so I had to stare at it for two days! LOL. Once I opened it, I smelled it. YUP! A true supp whore! Man, smelled like my boys koolaid! Got the fruit punch. Filled it with the recommended water amount. I went to take a big drink (it smelled good, must taste good too right?) WRONG!! I started gagging! This crap tasted like regurgitated Vicks Nyquil! NASTY! regardless, I choked the rest down hoping for some promising results. Energy? NOPE. Pumps? Minimal. Focus? I couldn’t stop thinking about the taste and the money I spent on it! I decided to finish the container since I did spend the money on it. I tried it with 2 and 3 scoops. This stuff does not compare to Superpump or Fusion Force. All in all, I believe it was a waste of money. And the taste! I tried different water levels. I even made it thick and drank it from a shot glass! No kidding! LOL… I can get more energy from a cup of coffee. Buyers beware!! If you like spewing up your NyQuil, you may like the taste. ROFL!! Just my 2 cents!

1. Do you regret not starting 20 years ago?  Dude, I would have been 4! LOL

2. Are you at least happy that you did eventually start?   Yes

3. Is it harder than you thought it would be?  Yes

4. Is it WAY harder than you thought it would be?   HUh? I guess

5. Is it the hardest thing you’ve ever done?  No

6. Is all the time/pain/hassle it worth it?  Yes

7. Do you usually love it?  Yes

8. Do you ever hate it?  Only when I get hurt for being stupid

9. Do you ever get annoyed by it or ever have days where you don’t feel like going to the gym? Yes

10. Do you ever skip workouts because of that? admittedly, yes

11. Do you usually feel great afterwards (especially when you didn’t want to go)?  absolutely

12. Do you hate working legs?  No NO NO

13. Do you really hate working legs?   Love squattin’

14. Are you doing things now that would have been unthinkable to you a year ago?  Yes

15. Are you doing things now that would have been unthinkable to you six months ago?  Nope. I set high goals!

16. Are you happy with how you look?   No

17. Are you satisfied with how you look?  No

18. Did you use to feel anxiety when at the gym?  Nah, I am a gym slut!

19. Is that still a problem?  I didn’t answer yes to the last question.

20. Do you see yourself doing this for the rest of your life?  Hopefully. I need to be bigger than my daughters boyfriends!

So, here we were talking about vacations and such with other co-workers when Jeff decides to tell us that he has never been on any real vacations. A guy I work with then said,"You have never been to the beach?" His reply was ROFL…,"well, yeah, I went to a beach once when I was in Vegas." I laughed and reminded him that Las Vegas was in the middle of the desert. He was persistent.."No, I am pretty sure we went to the beach when I was in Vegas." LOL!!! This guy is freaking lost! LOL!! I then said,"were you tard?" ROFL!!

Story number two!

We have parts delivered to us at scheduled times. Each part is labeled with an ID of some type. In this case, Jeff was running out of pipes with the ID "C" on it. We have pipes labeled with "C", "T", "F", "05", and "10". So he calls our boss over and says (in his southern accent) "I need more C’s."  My boss replied,"T’s?" Jeff then answered, "No, C as in Kite." Bwahahaha!!! Everybody standing around that heard started laughing. Poor Jeff had no clue again. My boss was laughing so hard that he was crying. He then informed Jeff that Kite actually began with a "K". Jeff was just like…"Ohh." "I still need them!" ROFLMAO!!

What is there to say about Jeff you ask? Well, sit back and relax. The story starts a few months back at work.

I was running a process at work when a group of new temporaries started walking by. It was a normal day. Three of the temps were given the fate of working with me in Chassis. Out of the three, we have one left standing…..Jeff!

Jeff is not your normal, everyday guy. Example you ask? For starters, he grew up in a very small town on a farm. He has the VERY VERY southern accent that you just can not ignore. This guy has never had a root beer float! He has never had peanut butter and jelly! If that is not bad enough, he only eats fried chicken, mashed potatoes and beans. That’s it!

Since I work with Jeff, I talk to him. It gets boring when you work without talking to anybody. Let me just say that he has his own word for everything. For starters….He calls a nut, a bolt. He calls a bolt, a screw. He calls a rubber exhaust hanger, a rubber. He calls extra sealer on the body of a car, rubber! Ohhh…and get this…he calls hole plugs….rubbers! LOL…I told him he’d better not ask our boss for a box of rubbers! LOL!! Besides his own language, his accent makes certain words sound like something else. Another example? When he is tired he tells me that he is "tard". And of course his father is "retard"…ohh…I mean retired! LOL!!! And a wire is a "war". You get the point.

The other night we were talking and that song "My baby loves the hanky panky" came on the radio. He started singing it. I cracked up laughing. He then informed me that his baby does not like the hanky panky. I asked him if it was because she was "tard"? LOL…he was like,"It could be. I am tard all of the time."

"It must be hard being tard all of the time." I replied

"Yeah, when I am tard, I can’t even function." He informed me.

"Is your Dad tard?" I asked

"I don’t know. He sleeps a lot though."

"Doesn’t he work?" I asked

"No, he is retard." He replied

"So he is tard?"

"I don’t know!" he said

"but you just told me he was retard." I informed him. "Is that where you get it from?"

At this time he had the most puzzled look on his face that I had ever seen! It was so hard not to laugh!! He finally understood what I was doing and we enjoyed a good laugh. Now whenever he says says "war", I always jump in and say,"what is it good for? Absolutely nothin." ROFL.

Okay, there may be a second edition to this little story but as of now, It’s bed time!!

I finally hit my goal. Though, I thought it was unachievable for a long time. Patience is a virtue my friends! I got 405 lbs on deadlift tonight! I was so psyched that I tried 415 only to fail! LOL….But 405 happened! No straps! Just chalk and a belt. Felt very good. Now that I know mentally I can do it, I am going to up my reps for a couple of weeks. The next 2 weeks is going to be 4×6 on deadlifts and squats. On the third week, I will work on increasing my reps on my max lifts. You know the feeling when  a big burden is lifted off your shoulders? That is what this felt like tonight. I was so close I could feel it. I pictured myself lifting the weight first and then BAM! I got it!!

On another note, I mentioned before about people telling me how much they USED to be able to lift and what not….Well, guess what? That phase is now passing and it seems that people have to compare themselves to me now. This is getting old fast!! There are three new guys at work and the first thing out of one guys mouth was,"I used to be big like you…hell, my arms were bigger than yours." OKAY….This is not how you make friends. I just ignored him in the beginning but he kept talking about it. Finally I asked him what he was trying to prove. He told me "nothing, I was just saying." I snapped back,"Who’s bigger than who now?" I think he got the point. Though I don’t believe for a second he ever lifted weights. Guy number two was pretty much the same way. Why do people have to belittle other people? Can’t we talk about something else? NO! apparently not. We have to talk about how much better I USED to be! F*CK that sh!t!! LOL…Guy number three…"I know a bunch of guys that are bigger than you." My response…"WhooptyF*ckinDoo! I never said I was big…nice to meet you too f*cktard!" LOL….Can you sense the sarcasm? Anybody else ever experience this? Why must people be threatened by other people. I never said anything to belittle anybody else and now all of a sudden I am a target! I guess all of this adrenaline I have from tonight is going through my head right now but seriously…what gives? One guy told me that he used to lift weights all of the time but it got too heavy! I cracked up laughing in his face and called him a pansy. Who lifts weight for it to be light? My opinion…he was ego lifting like the other f*cktards that can’t keep a hobby….or a job! Hope everybody is having an awesome week! Going to my first Stronman competition on Saturday. My buddy Fogg82 is competing….send him some support!

short and sweet! I deadlifted 395 lbs tonight…no straps! Just a belt and chalk! Man I am psyched! 405 lbs. is next! I am planning on getting that next week and once I do, I will try to work on 405 for reps. My goal is 5 reps….just to throw it out there. By the way, My wife’s birthday is May 1st so go wish her a happy birthday!! smeyer41

Last night my buddy took a half day from work to work out with me. We did a lower body routine strong man style. Interesting workout. Deadlifts and leg presses…that’s it! Every lift was heavy though but the reps stopped at 2…yeah I know! I have never done sets of 2 before but I think that was just the type of shock I may have needed. We started out with some interesting stretches (That caught a lot of attention of the by-standers). I just laughed and said we were getting ready for Richard Simmons and Suzanne Sommers to teach a class! LOL!!!! Anyway, Most of you know I have had that gripping issue for a long time…it seems like an eternity!! First set (No belt, no straps, no gloves) 135 lbs for 5…easy; 2nd set (no straps, no gloves, no belt) 225lbs for 3…easy; 3rd set (belt and chalk only) 315 lbs for 2…fairly easy; 4th set (belt and straps) 365 lbs…NO GO! I was pissed!! My grip kept slipping. I was getting discouraged when I realized that my whole grip felt different without the straps. I went down to 335 and did 2 fairly easy (belt and chalk, so on the next set it was back on to 365 and guess what!!? No straps and I got it 2 times! Last set was 375, Only wearing a belt and chalk and I got it 2 times. I felt very happy about the end of the deadlifts. Next week I am going up to 385 lbs to see how that feels….who knows, that 405 lbs for reps is just around the corner. It is very interesting because last week I was having trouble repping 315 with straps and this week I could get 375 without them….who knows! Straps are going in the closet! LOL. Finished up with 4 sets of leg presses with 780 lbs. a new PR for me!

On another note, had to get new brakes and rotors put on the car…$311.00!! OUCH!! I guess that’s why you save up for a rainy day huh?

I am very proud of myself. Not really an accomplishment to most but like I said before, I am allergic to cardio! I ran a mile! A whole mile! After the first turn I realized why I hate cardio! But like my friend said, "mind over matter…If you don’t mind, it wont matter." Good advice! I have also been working abs religiously for the last week. I need to get those things up to par….well…then again….I need to get a lot of stuff up to par. I have an idea for my wife’s birthday present. I will post a pic to see what you guys think once it is ready. Be honest! I Have enjoyed the Dark Matter thus far. I actually feel different the day after my workout! I think my chest grew over night! I hope! LOL….stupid chest! The only complaint that I have is that it mixes really thick so you need to use more water than what you would normally use. Other than that, it is not as sweet as I thought it would be either….I know what you are thinking but it is actually a good thing! That’s it for now.