For the first time, I’m starting this post a week early because I know it’ll be a week or more before I finish it. I’m not 38 (yet) but after 38 years, one more week is such a short time relative to my life on earth that I don’t imagine that much will change between 8-16 and 8-26.
However, my 37th year on Earth was personally the most change I’ve ever experienced. There are many years where professional changes were vast but personally, I consider my life a slow evolution measured in decades instead of years. But at the end of my 36th year and the start of my 37th, things really changed quickly.
36th year to 37th:
- Heather was pregnant I had already started my weight loss journey
- My shoulder was healing after rotator cuff surgery
- I had scheduled my ankle surgery
- I listed one of my motorcycles for sale and moved another one back to our house up North
- I bought season tickets to the local minor-league football (soccer club)
- I began to get back into firearms as a hobby / sport
October 21st, just 2 months after my birthday, Matilda was born. I’ve shared a couple of posts already about this so I won’t go on too long but this is a big moment in my life. I’d be a crazy person if it wasn’t but somehow, I managed to become a Father and still become someone better than I was before she was born. It’s wild because I was of the opinion that becoming a parent will temporarily put your entire life on hold. I was told over and over that this was it. For the next 20 years, no vacations, sell all of the motorcycles, give up all hobbies…you’re a father. I was able to be a Dad and, I believe, do a great job caring for my child and she’s made such immense progress this year now at 9 months old, crawling, walking around assisted using couches and chairs to get around, saying now 5 words and doing high fives, waving and playing monster with us oh and eating many solid foods and being insanely reactive to everything so she’s on a great trajectory. Heather takes much of the credit but I still kept a child alive, raised her and she’s progressing well so surely I did something right.
At the same time, I became a whole new person!
After I turned 37 and a month before Matilda was born, I got my first Tattoo. The reasons are documented on this blog. This was a huge moment for me especially being there with a childhood friend and my father in the same room. A month later, I got Lasik and fixed my nearsightedness. Then I concluded the process of straightening my teeth with Invisalign.
October and November remain a blur due to becoming a dad but I know based on my calorie tracker and fitness apps that I kept hiking, running and working out. I’d wake up early and hike with the dog then go to the gym after Matilda went to sleep. Soon, I started carrying her in a hiking backpack with Heather and we’d go on family hikes. Then started running. Nothing big just 1-2 miles a few times a week.
From 2023 to now in 2024, I’ve lost 70 pounds. Maybe more but I haven’t been on a scale in a month even though I can say the pants I just bought are already hanging off more than they did in the store a few weeks ago. Yeah, I went from a 38/39 waist to now a 32 waist. From a tight XL shirts to a medium. yes seriously, a medium shirt in every single brand I’ve tried on. They fit a little tight but they fit really well and I feel awesome in them. This means I had to buy all new clothes. Today in Paris, I went to a leather shop and bought new belts that were fitted to me and hand made. It’s really amazing to experience that sort of thing. I guess that sounds super elitist but I was in Paris and I really needed new belts.
There’s excitement to becoming as thin as I was at 20 years old when I moved from Florida to San Francisco and then gained 70 pounds in 18 months then kept it on for 17 years but here we are. Many years later, I have finally found my 20 year old body again. WOW.
The weekly hiking journey I started the middle of my 36th year has cultivated my first 4,000 footer I completed just a week before my birthday. A 3,000 foot climb over 11 miles in New Hampshire. NH has over 50 4Ks so this just being my first, I look forward to more ahead and maybe even completing all 50 of them within a couple of years. Despite doing just one, note that I wasn’t in the kind of fitness to perform such an action before and I’m so proud of myself to have accomplished this. Those who read these birthday posts casually over the last few decades know that fitness was never a part of them. It is now and in a big way. I am still going to a gym but the ability to hike 11 miles up hill and back down is amazing. The veins in hands and feet are pronounced. My podiatrist ( who I need to visit for ankle reasons) is really happy with how strong my ankles and tendons are.
I have also started running. Started as in I have been doing run/walks with my dog for over a year. Never more than a mile of total running. I decided to actually run….I did 2 miles without getting out of breath. So I’m going to buy running shoes (not trail shoes) and start running 5 days a week. I find running incredibly boring but keeping my heart healthy while burning 200-500 calories is a great start and will keep my cardio up there as I devote more time to muscle building.
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This year, aside from Matilda and my weight loss had many more exciting moments. I paid off two motorcycles, sold two motorcycles (My R18 and R1200GSA) and bought an R1250GSA. It’s the final year of this bike before moving to a new platform and I saved big bucks and have a platform that I can rely on and many of my accessories moved right over from the 2018 to 2024 model. I then proceeded to take an 11,500 mile trip to the arctic circle. Wait what? Yeah, new dad, cross country trip to the arctic.
My 37th year had a few trips. First, a month in New Hampshire for my employer’s work from anywhere month followed by a trip to Las Vegas with Heather as a “baby moon”. Then we took a few months off to have a baby and I took 4 weeks from work. Coming out of the slumber, I went to Miami with my friend Ben for Ultra Music Festival. We haven’t been in 10 years and it was my 6th time going to this event. Heather’s mom came down and I spent a week in Miami. I did a motorcycle trip to West Virginia for Fasnacht Day. And I went to El Salvador! I still had 3 months left to take off of work for having a baby so heather spent 12 full weeks in New Hampshire living at our lake house and seeing family and friends. She suggested I take 4-5 weeks off and take a long motorcycle trip so I did. My bike was brought to Oregon for me by BMW North America (just perks of the job) and I flew out for our national rally in Redmond Oregon (more perks) and hopped on my motorcycle going to the desert of Oregon, then Washington coast, Vancouver island, Whistler, BC, Yukon, Inuvik to the arctic circle, over to Fairbanks, across Yukon, BC, Alberta to Jasper / Bannff and then crossing into Montana, SD, NE and finally home. I took just over 4 weeks and visited many national parks and honestly….it was heaven.
I need to share a blog post about this experience but I’ll say this. It takes 14 days to become YOU without work and responsibilities. Your mind has to completely disconnect from not only the routines but also the required things. Picking up groceries, paying a bill, checking your stocks, getting gas on a certain day of week or, in my case, the bedtime routine of my 6 month old (at the time). I instead just had to get up every day, throw a leg over the bike and ride. I’d get gas when the light came on and I’d find a place to sleep in the woods whenever I was ready. I did this for 4 weeks averaging 400 miles a day but mostly doing two or three 600 mile days followed by a few shorter days with a rest day where I would remain in one town for 2 nights. I’ve learned every 10 days, a rest day was essential to keep me from making dumb mistakes. This was the largest trip I’ve done and by the 20th day, I was in the mindset of being able to keep this up forever. So long as I kept having money, I’d just stay on the road. Of course I missed Heather and Matilda but I have the best BMW touring motorcycle and the best camping gear and riding gear so things like being cold, wet, bad night of sleep weren’t really an issue. I felt amazing and happy. I swiped my credit card to get gas and breakfast and then I’d just ride all day. I saw every animal I can think of and met some really interesting people. It wasn’t the trip of a lifetime because I’ll be doing more like this every decade until retirement when I make it a full time experience but wow….it was really something special.
A week before turning 38, I hopped on a Delta flight from Boston to Paris with Heather and Matilda. She has her passport now and aside from a day trip we took to Canada for Poutine and a photo of Matilda by a Canadian Flag (country #2!) this is a big trip for her. Heather has been to Europe 8 times at least. I’ve been here a few dozen. Matilda, just once so far. We sprung for a business class experience and a direct flight. We picked up a car in Paris after a night by the Louvre and then headed to Champagne and Luxembourg and Germany and Belgium. I wanted to add Italy and Switzerland to this trip but we wanted to be cautious of Matilda’s sleep schedule and see how it went and while it wasn’t without challenges, she did so well on this journey. Having a baby makes a trip like this roughly twice as hard but Heather and I travel so easily together than this means it was a Europe trip experience that probably most couples have if they go for the first time. Euro-Travel is easy and having the baby made it slightly slower and a few more complications but she did really well and I learned I can give her a baguette and she’ll chew on it for hours. She loved natural yogurt and fruit smoothies and did really well overall. She has now visited 5 countries before turning 10 months old with some passport stamps and great photos. This isn’t a Matilda post but it’s still really a part of my journey as an adult to integrate her into our lifestyle. So far, no allergies and she has had a very diverse range of food from all over the place and hearing new languages, meeting new people. It’s really great.
Slight digression to say that I was born in a single wide trailer on a dairy farm in Florida. I didn’t have a passport until I was 25 and it was necessary to get one for work. I get a little emotional thinking about how special and awesome it is that my daughter will have a better life (financially) than I did. My parents were great but they have very limited means and I am aiming to give Matilda both the time and knowledge my parents passed down to me along with these experiences that will make her a very unique person in the world. She won’t be going to private schools or getting fancy anything but she’ll have wonderful experiences that my parents couldn’t afford for me and that means a lot to me. Heather got her all kinds of baby books in different languages (French, Dutch, German) and this trip just means so much. I’ve been to Europe so much but I want her to both feel the accessibility of travel without having a mindset of going to Europe is just normal. It IS special and privileged to travel. You should find that these trips are unique and worth cherishing but you shouldn’t also be afraid of them. Nothing is too much to experience but always be grateful for what we have and don’t take it for granted.
I wrote about this a few months ago but when Matilda was born, I reset myself a bit with hobbies. Sure I still bought a motorcycle this year but I didn’t have much time to think about a hobby that was most fun when traveling when she was born so I jumped back into firearms as a hobby which meant, competitive shooting, range visits, hunting and collecting. No need to re-hash much of what was said but I did go a bit overboard this year and will be tamping tings down a bit now that I have a clearer picture of our finances going forward. I want to acquire a few more suppressors and short barrel rifles as well as a few competition pistols but at this moment, money is tight and I am prioritizing saving for an upcoming house project that will quire full monetary investment to get things the way we want. I will say that the highlight was in May when I won the local Glock competition and that entitled me to a free pistol from Glock. So exciting and it was validation for all of the practice I performed the first half of the year to get really good at shooting particularly out to longer range. I’ll continue to practice so I can keep that muscle worked. I have to be careful because once you win 3 matches, they bump you up to a masters division and those shooters are amazing as in they score perfect bulls-eyes every time. So I want to be good but not THAT good. Best to remain where I am as an amateur while of course still balancing family needs. It’s why though that I joined a range that has 24/7 access so I can go even when Matilda is asleep and after the gym closes.
This wasn’t covered above but how could I ignore the fact that my 37th year also included earning certifications in my trade that out weigh having been to college. I’m sure recruiters still pass me over for not having a college degree but these certifications are specialized accreditations that endorse the fact I know what I’m doing and I still have a few more to acquire.
First, I gained my PMI-PMP. This is a test I began studying for 10 years ago and never finished. My employer covers the boot camp and testing fees so I went for it and by August of last year, I had passed. Joining a few hundred thousand people who also have a PMP wasn’t exciting or sexy enough even if it does get me through to recruiters and set me up for more consulting work. I wanted more so I kept studying and I applied for my PMI-PgMP certification. This is the major leagues or really the hall of fame because it requires 12 years of experience, proven experience backed by references followed by a panel review of your background where you have to defend the work you did and then finally a 5 hour long test with hundreds of scenarios which your answers are graded by another panel of experts. Less than 1400 Americans have the PgMP certification and I acquired this in December after 4 months of studying (some of which while on my 1st month of leave). Following this, I got my Agile Hybrid Pro, Agile Certified Practitioner and Certified Scrum Master certification. I’ve now applied for and paid for the Risk Management Professional Cert & Professional Business Analyst cert. These are highly specialized and the studying alone is what helps me hone my knowledge. The license just proves I learned the material and can apply it. After this, I’ll branch into other areas of study but I’m thrilled that I was able to achieve these knowledge areas in the same year Matilda was born and of course I have Heather to thank.
It wasn’t until December that my physical therapy for both shoulder and ankle finally concluded. My shoulder is 100% now. Seriously. It is stronger than before I injured it. My ankle on the other hand is not. I no longer have a bone-spur in my ankle but the tendons surrounding the top of my foot are stiff and rigid and unhappy in many positions. I will scream in pain on a hike when I roll my ankle. I can’t sit on my legs with my ankles pointed out. I have restless leg syndrome when trying to sleep and my ankle aches and pops in new ways. I think I have myself to blame for a failure in my physical therapy journey but I’m going to see a new podiatrist to get a second opinion. I don’t want another surgery but this stiffness will get worse. If all is well and I just need a renewed PT referral, I’ll do that. Luckily, my employer’s insurance is remarkable and I can go to unlimited visits for $20 to get things in order.
The final year 38 awesome news comes around our house in New Hampshire. We purchased it in 2016 for a steal and put money into remodeling it which was money well spent. However, we can’t imagine moving back to New Hampshire in its current state because it’s a 2 bedroom with 650 square feet of living space. We need a garage and 2 more bedrooms to make it work so we had 2 choices. We could sell it and wait for our eventual move back north or we could remodel it. Remodeling isn’t easy. It requires a zoning variance to build up a level and increase the footprint as well as approval by the state of NH’s department of environmental services group to approve the work because we’re on a lake. Heather has worked with a builder to achieve what we need out of this property last many more decades for a rough cost of $300,000. Note, we paid $94,000 for the property and put $70,000 and owe $100,000 today. The estimated value after remodeling would be around $700,000. We currently cannot sell our house for more than $500,000 and then buy a lake house with the amenities we need and size for just $300,000 in new investment so obviously remodeling this place is the best course of action. So, the design is set and I went before the zoning board of adjustment in our town last week to request 2 variances (footprint + height restriction) after 90 minutes, I was granted both. HUGE win. I can’t believe they approved both. I told Heather that if I were on the board, I would have denied one of them (footprint) but this means we can stay in our home in our town and we’ll be in a brand new 3,000 square foot home with a garage for just a $400,000 mortgage ($300K + $100K we owe). Huge and doable with our finances without really stretching things. There is still the state approval, financing approval and then construction (which will start in 9-12 months) but this was a great success and I’m excited to one day be back in New Hampshire in this new space. Obviously, my job and our house is still in North Carolina but I’m now 1-2 years away from a change. It’s not one I want to just throw around out loud because I have an amazing job but unless they allowed me to perform it remotely, I’ll have to change in a couple of years which is going to be really difficult. I celebrate my 2nd anniversary at my job in October. 3-4 years will have been a good run but nowhere near the 12 I spent at TomTom. The thing is, I actually prefer in person work. I am more motivated by working alongside my team. I’m not pro-remote but my heart is in New Hampshire and so is Heather’s so we’ll have to make our way. Back eventually.
The last thing I’ll mention this year just as the life time capsule is I did have a vasectomy. It was completed when Matilda was 2 months old. I always wanted one but Heather and I wanted one child so I delayed the procedure. Once Matilda was a healthy baby and developing fine, I booked the appointment, paid the $20 copay (my insurance is awesome) and heather joined me in the operating room (like I did for her delivery…although not much of a direct comparison) and I made stupid jokes to the doctor while he completed the surgery. It was pretty routine, pretty easy and a solid recovery.
In total, Heather and I billed $180,000 to insurance in 2023 (shoulder, ankle, vasectomy + Baby delivery + Physical Therapy, Nutritionist, chiropractor) and I paid $2600 out of pocket for my premium and $2,000 for co-pays for various visits and surgeries. That’s it. My employer is contributing over $30,000 per year to a top-tier insurance plan and like my professional development, I’m taking full advantage to get a lot of medical issues fixed now while I can. It’s worth it to do this before I go back to having something like a $5,000 out of pocket max which was my last insurance and far worse coverage.
I think that covers it. With just one week left before I’m officially due back at my day job, I’m planning to camp this weekend at a national park and do it with the dog as I make my way back south from New Hampshire to North Carolina. I have to be here for work and Heather will join me in a week or two but that’ll enable me to do maintenance on my motorcycles and truck, get the house organized, mow the grass, edit many photos and videos and just ease back into my routine of gym in the morning, dog runs and getting my life back together after 3 months off from work. The 4 months I had off this year with having a baby paired with certifications, new hobbies, trips, training, weight loss, running, hiking…..it was such a huge year for me personally.
Frankly, the most change EVER in a single 12 months. I know the 38th year on Earth will not be as exciting but I’m prepared to be amazed at what happens next.