On The Road Again!

OK, so I lied, last months trip to California was not the last one as I thought, the one coming up this week will. Seems that I will be receiving the new year there. I will be leaving Thursday right after work. For the record, I am being abducted, taken, kidnapped by a wonderful woman and I just couldn't resist and in my weakness I had to say take me, take me. lol Seems to me it will be a great way to start the new year.

Without letting old chapters in the book of life fade, I am ready to try and start writing some new ones. As life goes on it is my duty to make sure it is not wasted, we have only but one life and as I learned last year a fragile one at that. So as my sister in law stated the other day, I am ready for 2011. I am ready to see what adventures it brings, I am ready to enjoy it with my wonderful family, I am ready to open up myself to new horizons and to shoot for the stars if possible.

Life goes on and so do I. Being a "choir boy" at church has given me tremendous help in getting reacquainted with my faith, my church, but most importantly with my God. As crazy a fool that I am, I realize that without God we are nothing and being close to him made 2010 easier for me to handle, all of a sudden things were not as obscure as I thought they would be, and every day as I wake up I can totally see that there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel because no matter what the sun continues to rise every morning.

So it is with new expectations that I welcome this trip, going with my BF, one that has been a very important in my life throughout this year makes it so much sweeter. Now if she would only like to stop everywhere while traveling like I do it would be a big plus, but alas it seems that there won't be any detours or unscheduled stops because while I am a "the getting there is part of the experience" she is "the let's get there already... and fast". lol Ummmm!

Soooooo... I wish you all my family and friends a very Happy New Year! May it be full of nothing but good things, fun, health, love, peace. Let's pray for the economy to get better, and for the people to unite. Stop the hate, promote good will. In my experience these are key elements to having a good and happy life.

Love you all and have a terrific but safe New Year's celebration.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In many ways 2010 was a slow year for me but if I had to get a theme for what's to come, I think it would be this:

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again
And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way and our way

Resolutions

I am really looking forward to Monday. It will be the first day of work and after almost five days at home and great as they were I am ready to start the work year. I am going in with the "What can I do to make things better" mentality, God willing pretty soon I'll have a special interest in the company as I will be a small partner in it, I have always treated it like my own so can you imagine now.

It should be a good day since we have been holding lots of orders as the schools were all in their Christmas break but everyone comes back tomorrow. Also because we close the company between Christmas and New Year for inventory and cleanup all the trucking companies have been holding deliveries until tomorrow.

I am really hoping for a busy day and then I'm praying that the days that follow get even busier. I know that is every American worker's dream too.

So, I don't normally have resolutions but this year I am coming up with some and I hope to follow through with them. So, here they are in no particular order.

1. Have my car fixed so that I can be proud of it again.

2. Get my Harley going too. I miss the heck out of it and I'm not getting any younger.

3. Exercise more and get in shape.

4. Clean and organize the garage so that we can actually park our cars inside.

5. Tackle some home improvements.

6. Keep up with my "Joe Cool's Market Place" and share it not only with my family but with my blog family too.

7. I bow to continue both my blogs going at least for another year, as long as I have at least one reader I'm cool.

8. Keep walking during my lunch hour at least until the heat comes again and it becomes brutal to be outside.

9. Get a physical check up.

10. Just be COOL.

New Year's Eve Party

I know you were waiting to see some of the pictures from our New Year's gathering. Well wait no more, here are some pictures from that night.














Top Left: My older sister and I
Top Right: My daughter and her husband and their kids, and one in the oven.
Bottom Left: My daughter and two of my nieces.
Bottom Right: Mi chica and my daughter.

As I mentioned in the previous posts, we didn't have a huge gathering but still there were a good 20 of us, once again we had plenty of food and plenty to drink. We had ham, stake, rajas con cebolla y crema, shrimp, salad, salsas, smashed potatoes as I call them, and gravy, and to top it all off we had chocolate cake. Now you know why I am weighing 196 lbs.











Top left: My grandson and my son.
Top right: My grandson and I.
Bottom left: My sister and I
Bottom right: My daughter and my niece.


Me and my mom.