https://chadballay.com/tags/personal/Recent content in Personal on Chad's SandboxHugoen-usSat, 11 May 2024 00:00:00 -0500https://chadballay.com/pi-hole-happiness/Sat, 15 Apr 2023 17:36:00 -0500https://chadballay.com/pi-hole-happiness/Definitely noticed that internet surfing has improved. I mean I knew it would but not to the degree it has.https://chadballay.com/step-2-get-a-dog/Thu, 13 Apr 2023 06:36:00 -0500https://chadballay.com/step-2-get-a-dog/Bit of a non-technical sidestep…. I got a dog named Lafayette. A Great Pyrenees mix to be exact. Jesus, I forgot what its like to own a dog. To be able to talk to the creature and know that it understands nothing of what you are saying and yet if…https://chadballay.com/actions-not-words/Sat, 25 Mar 2023 07:54:00 -0500https://chadballay.com/actions-not-words/I’m going to start this off with the main point. I love this realization for my mom. In a very real sense of the world it reassures me. I’m too damn old though to not realize that the tone of what I say leaves this too nuainced to properly convey…https://chadballay.com/a-mind-is-a-terrible-thing-to-waste/Sun, 26 Feb 2023 10:28:00 -0600https://chadballay.com/a-mind-is-a-terrible-thing-to-waste/My laptop has started getting flaky. I would be go along using it and then a random crash would occur. Or a reboot would fail. Etc, etc, etc… Confirmed my suspicions by running a memory diagnostic and found that the RAM is failing. $100 or so later and when the…https://chadballay.com/big-feelings-with-big-songs/Tue, 03 Jan 2023 16:05:00 -0600https://chadballay.com/big-feelings-with-big-songs/I have had to explain why I like musicals on a few occasions. Usually a soft pause happens in a conversation where that is revealed but occasionally a direct question is asked. It is always a weird one because I have to guess what level of info do I reveal.https://chadballay.com/derailed/Sun, 06 Nov 2022 15:56:00 -0600https://chadballay.com/derailed/I married a goddamn musician. Ain’t no way to make that shit right. - Ladonna, Treme S1E1 “Do You Know What It Means” There is no way to pussyfoot around this. Last couple years went south for me as it did for many. COVID sure as hell contributed but in…https://chadballay.com/endobariatric/Sun, 11 Aug 2019 15:52:00 -0500https://chadballay.com/endobariatric/I’m writing this as I sit in the Endobariatric Hospital in Piedras Negras, Mexico awaiting surgery tomororw. I’m on the cusp of turning 40 and my midlife crisis is yielding a vertical sleeve gastonomy to help me overcome my weight. Harnessing this nervousness led me down the path of putting…https://chadballay.com/weight-loss-surgery/Fri, 19 Apr 2019 21:42:00 -0500https://chadballay.com/weight-loss-surgery/I’m a big old boy. No doubting it. Six foot six inches and a weight that fluctuates from 360lbs to 410lbs. I’ll never be a small man but I’m looking at 40 and realizing that I miss out on shit. Airplane travel, riding carnival rides with the kids, swimming with…https://chadballay.com/do-you-know-what-it-means-to-miss-new-orleans/Sat, 30 Mar 2019 16:15:00 -0500https://chadballay.com/do-you-know-what-it-means-to-miss-new-orleans/That’s Empire, Louisiana and that’s my home town. A small town that is an hour’s drive outside of New Orleans. It’s where I actually grew up but let’s be honest, which are people going to know? Most people’s visual memory of New Orleans in the media probably stems from the…https://chadballay.com/miles-and-miles-of-corn-with-a-beer-finish/Mon, 18 Feb 2019 21:43:00 -0600https://chadballay.com/miles-and-miles-of-corn-with-a-beer-finish/The route My physical stretch goal this year is to ride my bike across Iowa. I’m stoked to do this after watching all the various recap videos but my biggest fear isn’t the ride itself. It’s the 8,500 strangers and the sleeping outside in a tent. Not gonna lie, those…https://chadballay.com/riding-in-the-rain/Fri, 07 Jul 2017 07:44:00 -0500https://chadballay.com/riding-in-the-rain/Due to a series of (un)fortunate events this evening I had one of the best nights in a while. One of those nights that recharge you. Powers your spirits enough to lift those around you as well. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying out this whole bike…