First and last?, Sully, No ride, Fun ride, Learning

So Friday night Cindy and I went to the Tarpons opening game of the season.  Like I mentioned I did not buy season tickets so we had to wait in a surprisingly long line to buy tickets on site.  We managed to get seats in the same section and same row as our old season tickets, ironically.  Even though the parking lot seemed fuller than I was accustomed to the arena itself only seemed a little more full as a result.

We were wondering if things would be any better or worse this season since the team is once again in a different league, an annual occurrence.  There was one big change this year, fans are no longer allowed to keep footballs that go into the stands, something that ALWAYS was a cool perk, dating back to my days as a Florida Firecats season ticket holder.  I laughed when I heard the announcement about not keeping balls, a further testament to just how strapped for cash the team must be.

The game itself was closer than any game we saw last year (Tarpons won), but I think it was more because the Tarpons aren’t as good this year, not because the team they were playing was very good.  The team from Alabama had generic uniforms with absolutely no logo or branding anywhere.  They also had noone on the roster that knew how to kick a football.  Each kickoff after a score was a hilarious spinning top that would go a few feet in the air.

We loaded up on shitty stadium food that included beer, pizza, nachos and ice cream.  The combination left me feeling gross afterward.  So I found this years Tarpons much like any other season, mildly entertaining at times but a little sad as well.  I’m not sure if I will be attending any more games this year or not at this point.

On Saturday I kept myself busy in the morning with to do’s.  One particularly frustrating task was replacing the screen in the pool chlorinator. There is a small plastic screen at the bottom that is used to keep the 3 inch chlorine tablets slightly elevated above the outlet that connects back to the water line.  The old screen broke a long time ago and since then I noticed it takes forever for the chlorinator tablets to dissolve.  I theorized that because there is no screen anymore the tablet itself was blocking the hole, not allowing the tablets to dissolve.

So the problem was I had to remove the three tablets that were already in the tube.  This proved to be VERY difficult.  I spent around 20 minutes with two long screw drivers shoved into the tube trying to carefully lift the tablets out one by one.  It almost felt like I was playing a game of Operation, one slight move and the tablet would go tumbling back to the bottom.  I refused to give up and eventually fished all three out and was able to install the new screen.  After all that effort I certainly hope it fixes the issue. I was buzzing around the property pretty much all day attending to things both inside and out as Cindy was gone the majority of the day.

At one point during the day I had the wheel in the truck  with the intent of going on a ride.  For the first time ever I did not follow through on that intent.  I just did not feel like riding as my mood was very poor.  You can get a good sense of my state  of mind from this fail video I posted.

I also worked shaving my head into the mix, something I last did around Thanksgiving.  It was long overdue.  I was running out of ideas for head shaving videos so I totally flipped the script, doing it outside with the chickens.  It was logistically difficult but it was nice to not have to worry about cleaning up. The chickens seemed confused.

Saturday night we watched Sully on DVD.  I was very surprised by some aspects of the movie.  I never knew that Sully was actually criticized at first for the decisions leading up to him putting the plane into the Hudson River and was being investigated for negligence.  The movie had me putting myself in that plane and imagining the absolute terror that everyone was feeling when they knew they were going down.  To have every single person survive is truly incredible. It was a good B+ true life story.

Despite daylight savings kicking in, obliterating an hour of sleep, I got up without an alarm a little after 6 and headed to the track to run.  The full moon was bright in the sky as I started running.  Things did not start out well.  My right IT band was hurting, a lot.  After two limp filled laps running counter clockwise I was actually considering bagging it, something I despise doing.  Once I mentally commit to accomplishing something, quitting is just not an option.

Instead of bagging it I decided to reverse direction after completing lap two.  Running clockwise makes the corners less painful on my right leg.  I was still limping more than a mile into the run but eventually the pain subsided and I was able to finish up the roughly 5K run.  I was glad I endured but hope this won’t translate into another round of chronic IT band problems.

When I got home I headed immediately out to the chickens to do their daily maintenance.  While I was out there I attended to a few minor repairs/upgrades to the chicken accessories.  I redid their ladder that is used to get on the perch, tightening up the rungs, many of which were spinning freely which is dangerous.  I also built a small stand for their large 5 gallon water container that is kept behind the coop, keeping it off the ground enough to minimize the amount of dirt and debris that gets into it.  The chickens seemed thankful for my efforts.  I enjoy being out there with the birds, it’s relaxing and simple.

I went out on a long solo ride on my wheel.  I decided to go somewhere totally different and parked about a half mile from the beach.  I had a great time exploring the coastal area and I think it reflects in the video.  I told Cindy I could even see a scenario where we park off the beach and then ride the wheels there to chill for awhile.  It could be fun.

I spent a good portion of the rest of the day multi-tasking, playing WoW and watching Man in the High Castle episodes.  My current goal in WoW revolves completing a long, boring grind involving fishing.  Yes, you can fish in WoW.  So anyway on one screen I had WoW up while the other had my Amazon Prime Video playing.   It made the mind numbing task of leveling fishing much less arduous for sure.

In the last decade of my life there have been a lot of lessons learned and knowledge gained.  Those lessons never stop being taught.  Life rarely goes in the direction intended, no matter how tightly you grasp onto the wheel.