Looking Ahead…

Weight: 346 pounds. 34 pounds down since 2/1/2013, 50 down since 11/29/2012

It has been just over 7 months since I made the decision to change my health. Looking back, it was the biggest, and best, choice I have ever made. Instead of going to bed every night wondering if I’ll wake up the next morning, I wake up every morning looking forward to what the day will bring.

So what will the future bring? I don’t know for sure. I’ll eventually settle on a weight that I am comfortable living with for the rest of my life. I will then spend the rest of my life maintaining that weight. I know that I will never reach a real end of this journey until I reach my personal “Dead End”.

I’ll spend the next 30-60 years tracking my food. I’m sure I’ll eventually get to the point where I don’t have to put everything into a computer, I’ll just know the numbers in my head. But gone are the days when I ate what I wanted, calories be damned. I might go on a binge if I ever get the 3 month warning, but I think my friends would be OK with that.

I will continue working out. I’ll eventually find a way to fit Basketball back into my life on a regular basis, but I’ve also grown to enjoy a good morning jog. Let me say that again: I, Steve Young, like to jog. My oldest friends know how shocking that is to read.

I guess what I want to say is that once you get on this road, it never ends. The best journeys never do.

OK, gather round kids, time for Old Man Young to tell you about how it used to be in NE Polk County. You see, Highway 65 hasn’t always been a big ass 4 lane expressway north of Bondurant. For most of it’s life, the main connection between Des Moines and Marshalltown was this strip of two lane blacktop. The two-way traffic started just outside of town and stretched all the way to Highway 30. On a busy day it was like something out of Smokey and the Bandit, with some serious oncoming traffic and a convoy stretching for a good mile. But those days are gone, and this strip of asphalt is as quiet as can be.
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OK, gather round kids, time for Old Man Young to tell you about how it used to be in NE Polk County. You see, Highway 65 hasn’t always been a big ass 4 lane expressway north of Bondurant. For most of it’s life, the main connection between Des Moines and Marshalltown was this strip of two lane blacktop. The two-way traffic started just outside of town and stretched all the way to Highway 30. On a busy day it was like something out of Smokey and the Bandit, with some serious oncoming traffic and a convoy stretching for a good mile.

But those days are gone, and this strip of asphalt is as quiet as can be.

oldtimefamilybaseball: Hello, Albany! We are Justin Turner Overdrive, upstate New York’s ONLY premiere BTO-slash-jam band cover group! That last song you heard was Let It Ride (Ride on, Man) and this next one is a real favorite: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet (Far Out Space Junk).  12 minutes of 70s rock and noodling guitars later. Thank you! You’re beautiful! See you next time and don’t forget that we’ll be taking care of business (aka slinging merch) in the supply room past the men’s bathroom! Also, if anyone could give me a ride to Shea Stadium tomorrow morning, that’d be rad. Goodnight! 
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oldtimefamilybaseball:

Hello, Albany! We are Justin Turner Overdrive, upstate New York’s ONLY premiere BTO-slash-jam band cover group! That last song you heard was Let It Ride (Ride on, Man) and this next one is a real favorite: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet (Far Out Space Junk). 

12 minutes of 70s rock and noodling guitars later.

Thank you! You’re beautiful! See you next time and don’t forget that we’ll be taking care of business (aka slinging merch) in the supply room past the men’s bathroom! Also, if anyone could give me a ride to Shea Stadium tomorrow morning, that’d be rad. Goodnight! 

The Beauty of Natural Iowa

Nature has an amazing way of dramatically changing itself in just a few short months. I was reminded of this today, when I paid a visit to the Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt, a country conservation area about 10 minutes from my home.

I had last visited Chichaqua back in October, and I was shocked with what I saw. The oxbows that weave in and out of the landscape were bone dry, suffering from the effects of the hottest, driest summer in years.

Well, I am proud to report that this is no longer a problem, thanks to a wet winter, and a few good long rainstorms.

Dear Dad

I thought about you in Denver.

Actually, I thought about you before I even left Iowa. You first crossed my mind when I was getting ready to board the Zephyr in Osceola. I thought back to the first time I rode the train, when you and Mom drove me all the way down there. The train was 3 hours behind, but you didn’t leave until I was well on my way. You were the last person I saw leaving, and the first one I saw arriving.

My first meal in Denver was breakfast at an old downtown diner called Sam’s. You would love this place, it reminds me so much of the old 76 truck stop. Ryan Hawkins joined me, and we did our own mini version of the Old Farmers Table. It made him late for work, but he didn’t care one bit. It’s nice to have friends like that, isn’t it?

There is so much to see in downtown Denver, and it’s all a free bus ride away. Everywhere you look there’s another statue of a cowboy, or a mountain man, or some other great man of the land. There’s an entire museum dedicated to firefighters, I made sure to take lots of pictures of that. I even bought a t-shirt of one of the fire stations, it has a sexy devil woman on the back. I guess we both know by now that I got a little bit of your dirty man side.

We went to Red Rocks. The rocks are so big. No, big doesn’t do them justice, no word in the English language does. The view from the top of the Amphitheatre is breathtaking. You can see for miles, all the way to the Denver skyline. I didn’t think I’d be able to get up the stairs, and when I did I felt like I had conquered some great challenge. Dad, in just over 6 months your son went from barely being able to walk up the street to walking up 80 steps in Colorado.

Ryan took me up the Pikes Peak Highway one morning. You thought the Needles Highway was crazy, but it has nothing on the Peak. We went from 50 and sunny at the toll gate to 20 and blowing snow at Glen Cove. There was so much snow that we couldn’t even do the last 6 miles to the top. Oh well, there’s always next time, right?

I went to my first NBA game, and it happened to be military appreciation day in Denver. I couldn’t help but see you in all of the soldiers. Every time I see a veteran on the street, or at the mall, I shake their hand and thank them. I guess I’m thanking you at the same time.

It started to snow on my last day in town. I don’t know if it was the snow itself or just the fact that I was in the middle of my first Denver snow, but it looked so beautiful. It was like I was in the middle of a living snow globe. We ended up getting close to 6 inches, but it didn’t feel like that much.

I flew back to Des Moines, so I could be home in time for work that night. It was a direct flight, no Concourse Sprint this time around, and it was only a few minutes late. I had a window seat, but the darn clouds kept me from looking for Edna’s farm.

When I saw Mom and Angie waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs at DSM, I couldn’t run fast enough to get to them. I know you would’ve been there to greet me if you could’ve, and you would’ve made sure your face was the first one I saw.

But you didn’t have to be there to greet me, because you were my travel partner the whole time.

Your Son,

Steve