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By Neil, January 29, 2010 9:53 PM

Many strange things have happened to me during my 35 years. One particular strange happening took place when I was still driving a bicycle as my main mode of transportation.

In those days, I pedaled all around Kokomo with my friend Jeremy Kaye. We mostly liked looking at CDs, so our destinations would usually be the music stores in Markland Mall and Kokomo Mall or a Karma store. However, on this occasion, we headed to Kmart.

At that time, a Kmart store was directly east of Markland Mall. We would need to cross US 31, which is a four lane highway through Kokomo. For a reason that I have forgotten, we did not cross the highway at an intersection that day. Instead, we crossed about a quarter mile south of the nearest intersection.

Jeremy crossed first, and made it to the opposite side of the highway with his bike in good time. I was a bit slower crossing to the median due to traffic, but I was not nearly as slow as I was crossing from the median to the other side of the highway due to a completely different reason.

A single candy bar does not, usually, cause people bodily harm. However, if the candy bar is traveling inside an automobile, tossed out of a window and carefully plotted to impact with a “tender place,” it is now a weapon—avoid impact if possible. Unfortunately, I speak from experience.

When I arrived at the median, I quickly lifted my bike to the other side. I then climbed over the median and stood up. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I doubled over immediately. Jeremy, who was still standing on the other side of the highway had not a clue what had happened to me.

I do not remember how long it took me to gain my composure, and I do not remember anything that happened after impact that day, except for Jeremy laughing.

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By Neil, July 10, 2000 11:18 AM

The Grind 2/Indianapolis, IN

Everyone lives for the weekend, right? I have never believed that as much as I do now. The last few weekends have successfully pulled me out of reality for just the right amount of time to allow me to come up for air and then dive back in.

YL PROJECT ONE, as a whole, has been on an unscheduled break for three weeks now. Our scheduled rehearsal days have not worked out quite the way we had planned. Hopefully, we may resume rehearsals this week.

One major development on the PROJECT ONE front is the appearance of lyrics. OK. OK. Corey and I scrapped everything but four lines, of which we are happy with only three. That’s three more lines than we had before! It’s a start, right?

Swimming in the Lake

I spent my weekend in Rochester, IN with a group of friends. Saturday we floated around in a pontoon boat on Lake Manitou and caught some sun. The majority of the group abandoned the boat to cool off in the lake. Some had more fun in the lake than the law allows. Some burned until they were crispy. Some chilled out on the boat. Others drank themselves silly. All had a good time despite the ‘Titanic Incident’. BALANCE! WHERE’S MY WALLET? BALANCE! WHERE’S MY WALLET? BALANCE! GRAB THE BEER! BALANCE! MY SHOES ARE FLOATING AWAY! BALANCE! WHERE’S THE BAG WITH MY WALLET? BALANCE! THE GAS TANKS ARE OFF THE BOAT! BALANCE! No one stayed completely dry on this trip! We had no human casualties. However, we did lose a cell phone, a camera, a shirt and a few pounds each.

Neil Performs with Tilt-A-Wurl

Later that evening, the lot of us piled into the Dam Landing to see Tilt-A-Wurl. Another great performance! I made a guest appearance during their version of the Hootie and the Blowfish song ‘I Only Wanna Be With You’. Alan took in a record amount of candy that evening. If I remember correctly, there were 12 LifeSavers and one peppermint Altoid hanging out in his mouth while he tried to sing. Amazingly, it sounded really close to the Hootie version of the song! Mark it on your calendar! This performance was the first time I’d been on stage in front of an audience since 1998 when Corey and I performed at the Rock Lobster in Broad Ripple for research and development for YL PROJECT ONE! OUCH! I need get out more often.