The personal writings and photos of Jonathan Smith.

Today I had my final follow-up visit with my doctor to discuss my injuries from my motorcycle accident and to see my cholesterol results from my most recent blood test. My cholesterol looks fine. That’s the extent of the good news. Now for the bad news. Well, my ribs are fine. Nothing broken or fractured, just bruised. BUT, my doctor noticed that I have a 4cm spot on my left lung. She said it’s probably nothing to worry about because it’s only 4cm, but I will need an additional cat scan within the next 6-12 months to make sure it does not grow. If it grows, it could be cancerous. That was totally NOT what I was expecting to hear today! I don’t smoke, but I do have asthma. So anything involved with breathing or my lungs I take very seriously.

On top of this, my uncle was buried today. Going to his viewing last night was emotional enough for me. Looking mortality straight in the eye has had my mind racing lately. I’ll admit, I’m scared.

On the other extreme, my cousin Jeremy is getting married at the Outer Banks this weekend. Some of the family is already down there and so could not attend the funeral today. His father was here for the funeral today and will fly down on Thursday for his son’s wedding.

There’s just too much going on lately that I find myself in a rut. Whether people notice it or not, I’m not sure. I like to be happy but I find I’m probably hiding a lot of emotions and thoughts and not letting them out. I don’t think I know how to vent these feelings.

My vacation time was just approved so now I’m going to start planning my two motorcycle vacations.

First I will be going to the BMW Finger Lakes Rally in Watkins Glen New York over Labor Day weekend. I’ve heard good things about this rally and have been asked for two years to attend. This will be my first motorcycle rally. The BMW Dutch Country Riders will have a cabin but I’m planning on taking my tent and sleeping bag in case some people are too loud and obnoxious. Can’t wait to ride into this part of New York!

Next I will be attending the Rally in the Poconos being held by the Black Diamond Beemers from September 25th to the 27th. This rally will be held at Indian Head Camp near Lookout, PA. Again, the BMW Dutch Country Riders are planning on having a lake side cabin here so I will take advantage of that.

After driving my 1998 Honda Civic for 10 years and racking up 200,000 miles on it, it was time to say goodbye to that car. I ended up selling it on Craigslist in just two days for $2,200.

Then I shopped around for VW’s. At first I wanted a Jetta. But after much looking I found this Passat and liked it much better than the Jetta. The CarFax report on it was clean and showed it was a leased vehicle in New Jersey. At least there were no accidents on it. This thing is loaded with leather seats, heated seats, sunroof, in-dash 6-disc changer, satellite radio, cooled center console, cooled glove compartment, automatic, 16″ alloy wheels, trip computer, steering wheel controls for the radio and the computer, in-door umbrella compartment with drainage, and options for the built-in hands-free phone system. It also has the 2.o turbo motor which is quite fun to drive!