Caught up

Before I get started I neglected to mention that when I got back from my PA trip Cindy had a very big present waiting for me, she repainted the master bathroom a very peaceful gray color.  We had talked about repainting the bathroom for awhile.  I thought it was very nice of her to take the initiative to take it on while I was in PA.  It really looks good.

Ok so on Friday I had a heavy EUC day.  In the morning I took the wheel to North Collier Regional Park.  While I was in PA I had the idea pop in my head that I wanted to make an EUC tips video where I put a number of tips that helped me during my learning process in one video.  I thought it really turned out well and so far others seem to agree.

I also did an EUC experiment I had been curious about, a pedal swap between my Msuper and MCM4.  One of the primary things I like about my Msuper and dislike about the MCM4 are the foot pedals.  The MCM4 pedals are too small and cause me a lot of foot pain while the MSuper has some of the biggest pedals around and feel much better.  The mounting brackets for the pedals on both wheels looked identical so I was curious if the pedals themselves were swappable.  Well I was happy to find out the answer was YES.  The big pedals do fit on the MCM4 so I ordered an extra set from the same guy in the UK I got my Msuper from.  In addition I did a pedal calibration on the MCM4 which seemed to help the overall riding characteristics of the wheel.

On Friday I also got around to finally installing a replacement security camera out in the coop so we now have a full set of 8 cameras once again monitoring the chicken stomping grounds.  I should sleep better at night now.

We were leaving for Miami in the early afternoon to attend Cindy’s brother’s wedding.  Ali and her boyfriend were nice enough to agree to watch Elsa for the night.  We figured having Sadie there would help ease whatever nervousness Elsa would have from being away from us.  We spent the morning getting everything ready for our brief getaway.

When we dropped Elsa off at Ali’s it was funny.  You could tell she was excited and scared at the same time.  We brought her crate along so she would have a safe haven to retreat to if necessary.  Cindy of course was nervous about being away from Elsa for the first night ever but Ali assured her they would take good care of Elsa which I had no doubt about.

Katie was hitching a ride with us to Miami.  When we got back from dropping off Elsa we did a quick car load  and were pretty much ready to roll.  The trunk of the car also had two electric unicycles in it and one Minipro.  We hoped to get out to ride on Sunday morning somewhere.

During the roughly two hour drive to the hotel I noticed I wasn’t feeling quite right.   I had some weird soreness in my throat setting in and I just felt off.  I hoped it was just me feeling the effect of drinking two large coffees in the span of three hours.  Unfortunately the feeling kept ramping up throughout the day.

Cindy reserved a room at the Aloft in Dadeland, the same chain we stayed at for the Tampa Comic Con so I already knew to expect a hipster experience.  Katie was staying in the room with us.  I was not excited when I found out the two beds were doubles instead of queen size.  Over the years I have had some very bad sleeping experiences trying to fit my dimensions in a double with another person.  Other than that the room was very nice.

All three of us did our prep for the wedding which was around 5PM.  We arrived at the church with about 15 minutes to spare, saying hi to the familiar faces of Cindy’s family and friends.  We got premium family seating the the third row for the ceremony.  The “I do’s” probably took maybe 20-25 minutes to complete.  There was a cute and touching part where Cindy’s brothers two kids read a passage.  Owen, the little shy boy was especially cute as he read his verse out of sight behind the lectern.

This church was a one stop shop which was very cool.  After the ceremony they had drinks and snacks out on a patio and then at the other end of the complex was a large hall that was being used for the reception.  Cindy and I were summoned to be in the official wedding photos of family that were taken in a scenic area outside.

The reception hall was very nicely decorated.  Each table had a beautiful floral centerpiece.  I had started a pretty steady stream of beer during the cocktail hour and continued it into the reception.  I somehow hoped the alcohol would make the incoming illness feel less shitty.  Instead I just sort of felt shitty and drunk.

JP and Amber front loaded the reception with all the formalities to get them out of the way.  In the first 20 minutes the garter was removed, the bouquet was tossed and the cake was cut.  This was the first time I ever saw it done this way but I understood the logic.  They wanted to make the reception just about everyone having a good time.  I would say they were successful in that goal.

As the night went on the sillyness amplified.  I eventually had enough alcohol that I made a brief appearance on the dance floor.  Towards the end of the party things got really silly when we decided we would go get out the wheels that were stored in the trunk and ride them around in our formal wear.  It looked pretty damn silly I am sure but we had a lot of fun doing it.  I totally forget about feeling shitty during those few minutes.

So the reception ended around 10.  Cindy drove us back to the hotel.  I took another shower hoping it would somehow wash the illness from me.  At that point I had soreness and blockage in my right sinus that did not want to clear even with high effort nose blowing.  After cleaning up I crawled into bed hoping for at least a half decent nights sleep.  Instead I had one of my most indecent nights of sleep ever.

I honestly think I did not actually fall asleep at all the entire night, instead laying there with my eyes closed.  There was a combination of factors contributing to my insomnia.  The clogged nostril and restricted breathing was the first sleep obstacle.  I got up to blow my nose a couple times and it didn’t help at all.  The double bed with two people made it just impossible for me to find a position of long term comfort.  I was constantly adjusting myself while trying to not impose on Cindy so she could at least sleep.  Finally there was a lack of consistent white noise which is something I normally require to sleep.  Total silence strangely is an awful sleeping condition for me.  The AC was cycling on and off creating temporary white noise.  I normally set it to keep the fan on but forgot to do so before going to bed this time.  At one point I even briefly tried to sleep in a chair in the room, I was that desperate.

So anyway as you can imagine, I awoke feeling absolutely terrible.  The lack of sleep, illness, and slight hangover left me feeling like a pile of dirt.  We packed up the room and checked out.  Right across the street was a place called Don Pan, a cuban bakery/breakfast place that Cindy loved from her days of living in Miami.  My “cuban breakfast” was good even though I had very minimal appetite at that point.

Even though I felt terrible I wanted to still get our ride in.  We drove back near the area the church was located as it seemed scenic and a good place for one wheeling.  We had a nice maybe hour long ride taking in scenery we normally don’t get the opportunity to see.  Katie was scanning values of the houses as we rode by them.  They were very, very expensive.  Katie also showed off some her new wheel riding skills.  She can now ride one legged quite well, at one point holding the position for a good 30 seconds.  She is officially better than me now.  That didn’t take long.

After the ride we headed to Amber’s house.  We were picking up Cindy’s niece to give her a ride back to Naples.  They were also having a day after wedding party at the house.  Since we had the chickens to care for and Elsa to pick up we only stayed for a short period of time before heading out.  I was not feeling up to eating or drinking at that point.  I spent most of the time helping Cindy’s nephew work on his activity book that had stuff like word searches, connect the dots and other fun kid stuff in it.

Cindy drove home, not wanting a sleep deprived person behind the wheel.  Taylor and Katie were in the back seat acting silly most of the drive home making me smile and laugh a few times despite feeling progressively worse.  When we got home we unloaded the car and I stayed there while Cindy took Taylor home and picked up Elsa.  While she was gone I went out and cleaned the coop.  It is always more labor intensive cleaning the coop later in the day as the piles of excrement has had more time to harden and dry, requiring more scrubbing instead of just being able to hose it off, fun times.

Outside of the coop cleaning and unpacking luggage I went into vegetable mode mostly for the rest of the day.  I spent nearly three hours watching Batman vs Superman for a second time.  No it didn’t get any better the second time around but it didn’t get any worse either.  I still love that Batman does Crossfit to toughen up to fight Superman.

I caught the end of the Cowboys/Packers game and was very happy with the outcome.  Must suck to lose as the number one seed in your first playoff game.  Poor, poor Cowboys….

I took Nyquil to knock myself out last night and am happy to say it worked.  I still feel lousy today but at least I got some sleep to help balance things out.  Today is my last day off officially although if I still am in the meaty part of this illness tomorrow I don’t have any pressing things I have to rush back to work for.  It certainly has been a full twelve days of vacation.  I wouldn’t mind another twelve.