Hey you all and good morning carpet bagger here coming to you live from home I uh just got back from the doctor’s office and it was a good it was a good visit to the doctor I went um to the doctor in June um prior to that
I’ve not been to the doctor for over 2 years um and June got some got some lousy news it was a lot of lousy news um my uh my diabetes had gotten out of control um several other things I was having problems with it was the probably the
Most unhealthy I’d ever been um I had been pretty bad um about taking care of myself uh when I was on the road um you know I got tons of excuses it is difficult on on the road to eat healthy it is difficult to take care of yourself when you’re constantly driving
Constantly moving around it’s harder than just if um you you know are one place and and have a home but at the same time you know it is an excuse because you know I was making the decision um like I said I’ve said before I was probably eating fast
Food meals two or three times a day I was constantly eating junk from gas stations I remember like I would go to the gas St probably go to a hotel I would stop at the gas station get a couple of candy bars couple of full-size candy bars I would eat multiple candy
Bars a day it was really kind of spiraling because like I I I used to not eat that bad but something about being on the road I know a lot of times it just with the fast food it would be like getting out of uh like especially like
Haunt season got really bad because I would get out of the hauns late and McDonald’s would be the only thing open I don’t even really like McDonald’s that much but I would end up eating it and um I was always in such a hurry cuz I was
Always on to the next place I was always just looking for places that had drive-through windows so I could get the food as fast as possible and shove it in my mouth as fast as possible and previously I had um you know I’d managed my diabetes my diabetes was on track
With my medication but I was not being checked not keeping up with it um not going to the doctor it got to the point where the doctor um they were pretty much threatening to like not give me my prescriptions anymore if I didn’t come
In so it was June of this year that I that I finally uh came in um got the bad news and and made some choices made some choices made some changes um what was it was prescribed some medication to uh to help me out and fortunately um
Medication also helps me lose weight but at the same time I um changed my diet pretty very drastically compared to how I ate I’ve changed my diet very drastically I’ve um tried to get to eat as little carbs as possible try to avoid sprad try to avoid um sugar and I do
Want to say like I’m not giving advice on this channel on how to live healthy how to eat well I’m just explaining how I do it you know a lot of people um have made comments like you shouldn’t eat that way it will it’s bad for your
Cholesterol it’s bad for this I’m kind of tune something that like plays to my strengths and and and you know overcomes you know my weaknesses um I don’t have problems with my cholesterol I don’t have problems with my with my blood pressure that’s all just genetically
Taken care of very well um not because I’m good about it just because that’s my natural um genetics my natural body the way it works I just don’t have problems with those things um the things I do have problems with is you know I am diabetic and those things so the cutting
The sugar cutting the carbs that works really good for me I would definitely if I did have advice it would be um it would be to to to do the research and find something that you think you can do there’s lots of different ways to live healthier
Um most of them work if you can do them um but just be reading realistic to yourself find one that you think you can do you think you can follow through with and um not give up on and I think it’s important to give yourself leeway too if
You I think a lot of people if they don’t do it perfectly they give up and that’s one thing that I’ve decided is is it’s okay like it’s okay if I want to have a meal if I want to have a doughnut hot dog at the uh at the state
Fair then um then I’ll do it um but uh at the same time you uh you know you don’t do that every day you don’t just eat garbage every day because you’re in a hurry um so i’ I’ve slowed down try to eat eat better when I
Can um when I want to eat something bad I make sure it’s something I really want to do and not just something that I’m doing just because if that all makes sense I got some good news today um my blood sugar is down it’s an excellent place um I am
Going going off one of my medications I’m staying on one of my medications but going off another my cholesterol is good I’ve lost about 30 lbs um I lost a lot of weight right off the bat um and then it’s kind of evened out I don’t know that I’m even losing weight
Anymore but that’s okay because I’m not really concerned with just being thin or my you know physical appearance I think I look fine um I’m happy with my looks I just my health is what important so that means a lot more to me getting the uh getting the good news um from the
Doctor’s office um having my doctor be happy with me having you know that encouraging uh feedback so uh yeah so so that’s all good news and and and and and I’m happy that I’m finally going down the the right path after a couple years of really really being off track um and I
And I just you know for what it’s worth um I would just encourage people um take care of yourself I did not take care of myself um I made excuses and um now that I’ve been better to myself now that I’ve taken care of myself I feel better I’m more awake my
Mood’s better it it it really does a lot it really is beneficial um and I thought for years that I couldn’t do it that I that I couldn’t bear that I was addicted to food that I that I needed to eat whatever I wanted and I
Just think it’s it’s just a few changes from so from June I went from being in a very scary place with my physical health to now being in a very good place with my physical health that was that was June what is it now it is November so it was
Six months six months I was able to turn things around very drastically and I think um I hope that can be encouraging to other people out there who may be um you know kind of going down a path of making bad decisions to know that you can turn it
Around and you could turn it around in a in a fairly short period of time if as long as you take it serious as long as you’re willing to prioritize it because um I want to live as long as I can I want to be healthy um and I want
To feel good I I I there was a period of time past couple years where I was just feeling exhausted all the time and I’m just able to get more out of life because of uh because of some changes so hope hope can hopefully that can be
Encouraging to someone out there but um let’s just take a quick peek there’s you know not a huge update on the house but I’ll just take you guys up uh upstairs and uh show you uh where we’re at with the see moving in okay so obviously things are all a
Skew um still been a lot of unpacking going on but the important thing is we at least have an area in which to live got the uh living room set up the uh the cats are doing better the cats seem to be doing good how you doing
Cammy tell the people how things are going you doing okay they hid they only hid for about a day or so you of course they had their uh tumultuous Adventure in the car but they’ve been exploring they love all the boxes they love climbing on the boxes climbing inside of the
Boxes I don’t know Scarlet’s off hiding somewhere she tends to to go into hiding for a good portion of the day but yeah we have our living room set up I got Jen that the other night when I was coming back from uh from uh Gatlinberg stopped
At bies and got her that pillow um decided to move the fish tank up here to the living room I wanted to move it up upstairs and it was Jen’s idea Jen moved it over into this corner and I think that’s the perfect location for it I’ll
Just have to get that cleaned up and get um get some fish oh and I did want to thank uh a handful of people in the comments section um I did a video showing my old uh old family photos and I was picture of me as a kid holding this Gremlin I
Had no idea what it was but several people were able to identify it it was part of the black star toy line it is known as the space demon and um I had fond memories of the space demon as a kid so I hopped on eBay and it was uh a
Little under 10 bucks and just ended up ordering it for uh for Nostalgia St sake so have the uh the space demon as a uh as a house Waring gift to myself what you doing Cammy Cammy and Scarlet both have been enjoying their gingerbread house this is
Uh of course Jen’s the Big Star Wars nerd so we got the uh Star Wars gingerbread house there hey Cammy you enjoying the new place no I don’t know I thought you were doing pretty good and now the Scrambler is inside we do plan on
Setting it up as a piece of furniture um I want to put something underneath the prop it up just a little bit maybe like a stack of boards or something to to just give it a little bit of height so that the the foot thing can dangle a
Little bit now I posted a video I shared a video of the uh the Scrambler from uh from Coney Island from Dino’s wonderheel Park which was previously the Scrambler at um astroland in uh in Texas and it’s it’s possible cuz what was told to me was this possibly came from Cone Island
There’s there was a possibility and it looks it’s exact it’s the same model it’s unquestionably the same model whether or not it is the exact Scrambler I cannot I cannot say there’s no um serial number that I’ve been able to find on it but if you look up footage of the old Scrambler
From Dino’s uh Dino’s wonderheel amusement park on on on Coney Island in New York um you’ll find uh a near identical Scrambler and that Scrambler’s gone I I looked it’s no longer listed as an active ride so it is possible which would be so cool if this was from Coney
Island and ask land that would just be so amazing I just don’t know if there’s a way that I can ever pin it down 100% to uh to say uh if this is that Scrambler I’ve I’ve talked to uh to Daryl who gave it to me he was going to
Do a little bit of a detective work to see if he could get a little more info maybe we could pin it down but um yeah any help I can get out there if anyone try to help me uh positively identify uh this Scrambler I’d love I’d love the
Info I can’t take too much of the credit for getting things unpacked uh Jen has been hard at work I’ve been uh doing a lot of filming I’ve been trying to get back out there and filmed some things I went over to uh to Gatlinburg the other
Day um I went last night I was in uh went out to Carowinds to film Winterfest so Jen’s been hard at work in the meantime while I’m out there trying to uh to keep this channel running she’s been uh unpacking in and uh organizing she’s much better at that than me
Anyways I I I I I I I I get really stressed out it’s like where do where do these things go where all these boxes go I get very overwhelmed too trying to unpack boxes and um and and figure out where everything goes so uh yeah she’s
Been doing a great job getting the house ready and um it’s really really starting to come together of course it’s it’s a lot of stuff and I had a lot of stuff and she has a lot of stuff and we’re we’re finding ways to to intermingle that and I’ll keep you guys updated
Especially uh when we get everything put together I’d love to give you guys a uh a house tour but um tonight tonight my plans are to go to the Waynesville Christmas parade um it’s kind of a uh a small town tradition here in the South to have Christmas par
Raides um they do it on Main Street so we’re going to head out there in uh in just a little bit here we are Main Street Wayville North Carolina about an hour before the parade starts you can see people already getting in position getting their chairs ready you can see the street
Itself has been closed off so technically I’m walking down the uh center of the street yeah the past two years I’ve been on the road so much I feel kind of detached from uh from Waynesville you know back in the day when I worked for child protective services I was you know
Much more involved with the community much more involved with the going on in this small town so I figured now that we’ve moved back in now that me and Jen have our home here in way left you’re come down here to uh to Main Street take in the Christmas parade you know local
Businesses local people create floats and Float them down Main Street here Jen wasn’t uh wasn’t feeling very well this evening she decided to uh stay behind but I still wanted to come out and uh and enjoy the Christmas parade and this Christmas Parade’s kind of a uh kind of
A I guess a southern tradition you know most places of the country it’s just too cold was too cold to do a parade um in December but I was fascinated when I moved here to the South the idea of the Christmas parade in fact there’s four different Christmas
Parades in this County in this County alone and um I just I love going to these when I first moved here you just see such Ingenuity such creativity with the floats such quirkiness with what uh ends up coming down the street here and uh actually one year
Couple years ago I forget I wish I remember what year it was but I actually decided I wanted to be a part of the local Christmas parade so actually uh built a float a uh a uh friend of ours had an antique fire truck and we built a
Float for the carpet bagger Channel and I uh rode down Main Street here with with my kids with uh my daughter-in-law and we uh we wrote down and it was it was fun it was a lot of fun it was just it was cool seeing the parade from that perspective yeah in an
Hour these streets will absolutely be packed be lined with people coming to enjoy the Christmas parade I’m curious though just asking people out there wherever you’re from our Christmas Parade’s a Thing If just let me know where you from and if you have Christmas parades cuz you know Christmas is really
You know it’s really a you know a lot of places have parades but Christmas has you know all that all that magic with it that really I think adds to having a parad leave a comment in the comment section where you from do you have Christmas parades do you enjoy
Christmas parades yeah Main Street Waynesville I tend to come down here and film sometimes just when I’m just when I’m thinking just when I have something to say or I used to do a lot of live streams back when I did more live streams I’d
Like to come down here to Main Street to do those live streams it’s fun being able to walk in the middle of the road they they they’ll they close us off quite a bit down here whenever they’re having a festival or a parade and um give the people the
Ability to prance around in the street of course looks like most of businesses are open for the parade there’s Kilwin’s chocolate there this uh Davis Home Furniture I um bought a lot of furniture that I used at my house here of course I don’t have it anymore my
Ex-wife took it but it was nice furniture while it lasted of course the most iconic things here in the town of Waynesville is this uh music maker statue um uh the iconic banjo player and uh washtub player there you this area has a huge history in uh in Mountain
Music blue grass and uh definitely love I remember when they brought these sculptures in absolutely love them a little closer look here love their their faces yeah down here a lot of people a lot of people down here are ready for the parade they got their chairs set up here in the
Streets I was really sad when the uh the movie theater shut down the Strand now it’s a uh a real estate office which is fine I’m trying you people people need to buy houses but you know I already have a house I want to I want to watch movies
This uh bagel shop here Time Square Bagel so I used to be a quilt store and I remember I’d come out here when I do my live streams at night and they always had uh this little cat that lived in the window it would always say hi to sadly
They closed down no longer quilt shop now a bagle shop uh hopefully hopefully the cat’s doing well somewhere else down on the end here we have the Smoky Mountain Dog Bakery a bakery for dogs not of dogs down over this way they have Town Hall that giant Christmas tree out front
Also the police department is uh stationed in this building and I have not noticed this before let’s take a peek there’s a statue here of some sort of uh mountain lion oh that’s been that’s been added fairly recently I’ve never seen that before Oh no looks like the uh teddy
Bear Museum down here is uh is gone yeah I would have shown you guys but uh you know they didn’t allow uh they didn’t allow filming before the parade started I figur I’d walk down here and uh check my PO box at the uh post office oh look what’s that crammed with
H with junk what’s this what’s this always great coming down here and getting my mail the sun is starting to set here on Waynesville you see people crowding the streets order to get a good seat for the parade and everybody knows the parade doesn’t start until the popo shows
Up there’s the Grand Marshall of the parade Captain Frederick mvin Hall AKA Freddy it’s the teddy bear there strapped to the honor guard van it’s like Christmas Fourth of July all wrapped up in one oh look at that that uh that van has shark teeth fire trucks very
Loud kids kids love the loud fire trucks oh jeez there you go you see a guy dressed like a Christmas tree there Merry Christmas got some uh roller skating these are various Town officials here Merry Christmas yeah there’s some more Town officials there in that uh SUV there the fifth grade spelling B
Champions you can tell because they have antennas like bees no not the bees that dog’s just like a be too oh love the costume characters they thrown out candy see we have a a Christmas tree with presents on their feet some snowmen look at this happy bear here hey
Bear I think fire trucks kind of the backbone to any small town Christmas parade oh jeez Merry Christmas Oh my gosh that one’s loud and hypnotic with that twirly thing on [Applause] the the tow truck the different local businesses of course Advertiser businesses through the parade floats got Rudolph right there have the Grinch mobile there it’s Haywood Lodge and retirement Center parade has uh apparently caught a log Jam down here so I’m going to I’m going to go walk down here and catch up with the parade okay the parade must have got slowed down because they were having to stop to do dance performances down here oh look at this some roller skate
Break dancing going on that’s pretty awesome oh wow mer [Applause] Christmas [Applause] wow there’s the giant roll giant inflatable roller skate rolling down the street There who’s that who’s that little piggy back there more more fire [Applause] [Applause] trucks here we have a Christmas story themed float that’s pretty cool they have the the leg lamp also the slide gu Mountain Pediatric Group God’s very creative oh look at this we got a little tiny little tiny
Horse there that’s uh waynesville’s version of little Sebastian see a Special Olympics there they have the Olympic [Applause] torch there we got the uh the Grinch on the back of the truck there look at that there another Grinch Happ there be two grinches it’s the US Farm labor float
Look at that love the energy here we got the Peanuts characters Dancing Away amazing there’s the 828 Bail Bonds again featuring featuring The Grinch hope no fugitives are out here watching the parade or they might find themselves in trouble oh look at that we have Grinch Grinch number
Three this is always a crowd faser the Remax float have the hot air balloon torch oh yeah look at that feel the heat that’s a lot of fun could it be could it be oh there we have it Grinch Grinch number four generally in Christmas parades
There is a standing rule that there is one Santa the parade usually ends with Santa no one one within the parade is to dress like Santa in order to avoid any confusion on who the real Santa is this apparently does not apply to the Grinch four grinches okay I guess make that
Make that five grinches five grinches what’s he grinching at barking I guess you can never have too many grinches grines I’m oh look at this they’re blasting blasting the crowd with snow over here this way yeah shoot some snow this way oh there we go last little snow in our Direction can we own that a Domino’s car looks like they’re throwing candy out though instead of uh instead of
Pizza okay I have officially I have officially lost count of the number of grinches lurking in this parade so here comes what what Grinch are we on oh look at that it’s it’s a grinch I swear I swear they’re multiplying the Grinch it’s the Habitat for Humanity
Float he even built a little tiny habitat house for the back oh that’s interesting for the Maggie Valley Restaurant in hillbilly Jam you can see it actually looks like a Christmas tree made out of a moonshine still oh look at those people in the strange squirrel masks up there
Just for sewer rat drain cleaning oh look at that Cousin Eddie there with his uh with his RV that he is uh he is currently emptying they actually did pump pumpa clogged uh drain in my house once they uh they did a good job there’s Smiths grading and Excavating and they’re pulling behind
The danger oh look at this look at this happy lion hey lion oh there he goes oh trying to trying to scare us oh look there’s a uh semi with the Joker on it where are we at on grinches is that Grinch number six seven 8 n not sure but
I you know what what I say the more grinches the better the only thing this parade needs is more grinches and the only correct way to end a Christmas parade is with the man himself Mr Santa Claus Santa Santa so thank you for joining me here tonight for the
Waynesville Christmas parade always love to see the the the Ingenuity and creativity that that home spun style that goes into the uh local Christmas parade is always a treat to come out here maybe someday I will get I will apply again and be a part of this parade
Cuz it looks it looks like a lot of fun and uh you know when I maybe if I get my float we’ll we’ll bring bring about five grinches along with us so appreciate you guys uh watching this video uh if you like this Channel Please Subscribe I travel around the country filming
Roadside attractions amusement parks museums haunted houses and other fun stuff if you’d like to help support the channel consider contributing to patreon $3 or more we get you a postcard once a month from me to you also uh selling enamel pins if You’ like to get an
Enamel pin for Christmas they’re in the Etsy shop also doing personalized messages I can do Christmas messages birthday messages Anniversary messages any message you like on Cameo if you like a personalized message from me check the description of this video and of course all that helps keep this
Parade on the track it’s float in the water and this Grinch high in the air until next time my friends this one’s in the bag
source
