I have emerged from a 10 day whirlwind, more or less intact. After returning from a work conference in Orlando Wednesday evening I had to turn around and quickly prepare for the fantasy football draft party that I have hosted for more than two decades.

My preparation was sort of thrown together and I had a new layout of furniture this year since I have a different sofa and the addition of a kitchen table. It turned out we had a couple less people than normal so almost everyone set up around the big dining room table. Only one guy was on the sofa and the kitchen table that I brought over was unused.

For whatever reason the draft went faster than normal with us finishing up well before 10PM which was nice. This year I had the first pick of the draft which is always nice but potentially annoying as sometimes there will be multiple players recommended as the first pick. Luckily this year it seemed there was no contention, everyone agreed Jahmyr Gibbs, a running back from the Lions would be number one, so I picked him. The other part of being in the number one draft position is subsequent rounds you wind up making two picks in a row since we do a “snake” style draft.

Because of the lack of prep I did even less studying of who to draft this year than normal. Somehow I came out of the draft with an A+ rating, the highest in the league. The rating is based primarily on making good value picks where you grab players later in the draft than they were projected to go. I never had an A+ rating of my draft in the 21 years I have been in the league. Hopefully it translates into a successful season.

We departed for our second trip to Disney in roughly 5 weeks on Friday afternoon. You may ask why in the world I would want to do this after I had more than my fill of the “Disney experience” the first time? Well when we went the first time we were offered significantly discounted two day passes. Instead of costing $220 each they were $40 each, yay. In retrospect it may have not been the best decision, although at least this time I had the trip from late July as a frame of reference. I knew what to expect, more or less.

I again went the AirBnB route for our lodging as opposed to a hotel and I again was very pleased with the choice. The townhouse we stayed at is a full time AirBnB rental and seemed to be almost brand new. It works out well as my girlfriends daughters have the entire second floor to themselves. It was in a similar location as the last place meaning anything I needed was close by.

So we were doing something different this time, visiting two parks on consecutive days. The last time we stayed an extra day and used that day as a buffer/recovery day in between park visits. We did not have that luxury this time. The girls decided they wanted to do Hollywood Studios the first day and Magic Kingdom, again, the second day. I was excited to do Hollywood Studios because of the Star Wars section of the park which is amazing.

Like the last trip my girlfriend and I just sort of followed the girls lead as to where we went. Her oldest daughter was locked into the app to direct us. The first day at Hollywood Studios my two favorite rides were the one Star Wars ride, the only one we did, and the Tower of Terror, an oldie but goodie. If it was me I would have spent a lot more time in the Star Wars part of the park but none of the girls are big Star Wars fan as I am. To me, both trips primary intent was to be fun for her daughters so I just went with the flow.

I was surprised the girls wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom as this was the park that inflicted the biggest misery toll for me the first time because of the pain in the ass logistics of getting in and out of the park which requires either a ferry or shuttle train to reach the main parking lot.

We did get to experience Tron, the new roller coaster that we did not get to do the first time. It’s ultra modern and cool to even stand in line for. The coaster is unique because you are in a position like you are riding a light cycle, on your stomach with feet behind you, a less than comfortable position for me because my right knee was feeling very stiff and painful from the day before. As I was standing in line I was actually doing some stretches to get a little more ROM in the joint. The ride was very cool, probably the coolest experience I had over the two days. We did have to stand in line for roughly an hour on that one.

All weekend it was uncomfortable to downright painful to sit in certain rides. The most painful of all of them ironically was Small World, a ride that opened with the park back in the 70’s. The seating on these boats definitely did not seem to be made with people taller than 6 feet in mind. The entire ride I was shifting around trying to find an angle for my right knee that was not painful. I never found it.

My girlfriend’s oldest daughter wanted to stay for the Magic Kingdom fireworks again. We stayed for them last time but had a terrible viewing spot where we were mostly obstructed. Evidently if you want to get a good viewing spot you have to plop your ass down early and that we did. The fireworks/light show does not go off until 9:30. We claimed our spot at 6:30, a full three hours early which is insane except we were far from alone. The best viewing spots already had people in them, even that early. Our spot was good enough though as we could sit on a ledge instead of standing packed shoulder to shoulder like most people in attendance.

The show is really, really cool with it’s amazing combination of projection, fireworks and laser lights. Being able to see it all clearly made a big difference, but, there is a price to be paid if you stay and watch the fireworks. That price is being immersed in a crazy river of humanity that is trying to leave the park afterward. We waited for over an hour to get on one of the ferries that take you over to the parking area. To stand in that mess after a very long day of standing in lines in oppressive heat and humidity is simply miserable. I will never feel the need to have to stay for the fireworks ever again.

All in all I tolerated the parks better than the last time but I couldn’t help feeling distaste for people with double wide strollers and electric mobility carts, especially those that are on them simply because they are morbidly obese. Nothing gives you a more clear picture of how fat Americans are on average than a trip to Disney. Doing Disney two times in 5 weeks is something I never have done before and will never do again. It’s too much. Ali and Shuggs watched Elsa and also Mia this time, the first time for that. Mia appeared to do very well and fit right in by all accounts. Elsa really enjoys her visits there as well.

We took the Tesla this time. It performed great, driving us there and back almost entirely in FSD mode. Despite having a lot of stuff we managed to get everything into the car without major complications. With this new Tesla driving to or back from Orlando on a single charge is not a big deal since it has a bigger battery and is more efficient than my 2024.

I am looking forward to getting back into my normal routine which has not been the case for a couple weeks. It helps keep me sane.

I just returned from a four day work conference in Orlando. The conference from an IT perspective had less content than prior years so there were multiple examples of dead space for me during the day. One of the times I used that time to supercharge my Tesla. Other times I just relaxed in the room. As usual the conference included more drinking and much more eating than normal which always leaves me feeling a little bit gross.

I did use full self driving for almost the entire drive up and back to/from Orlando which was a godsend. Allowing the car to deal with the three and a half hour drive makes such a difference in how you feel by the end of it. Sure you need to keep aware of the road around you but you are alleviated of the stress of dealing with traffic, making sure you don’t miss a turn and instead get to have an experience more akin to being a passenger. I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles in my lifetime. I’m here to tell you that FSD makes my life better.

So after arriving home last night one of the tasks I had to do was get the living space ready for the fantasy football party I am hosting tonight. Everything feels rushed, hopefully I don’t forget something important. The living space looks different than prior years since I have a different sofa. I also am utilizing the kitchen table which I did not have last year at this time either.

So after an expected late night tonight where I won’t get to bed until close to midnight I took tomorrow off to prep to drive back to Orlando for a quick Labor Day weekend Disney trip. We will get there Friday evening and come back Monday so it will be a pretty busy weekend with us hitting two parks during that time period. Luckily I also took Tuesday off to give me a day to recuperate from what will have been a very busy 10 days.

Alison is once again watching Elsa for this trip but this time she is also watching Mia, my girlfriends dog. The two of them are together pretty much every day so we think it will be better for both of them. Ali and Shugs love dogs and Mia is very friendly so I don’t think it will be too bad at all.

While I was away Elsa’s health was pretty much the status quo of some good and some not so good. Once I get through this crazy period I will be contacting the vet to give us an assessment of where we stand.

The last couple days Elsa has been very picky with her eating. It’s like throwing a dart at a dartboard and hoping you hit a bullseye as to whether you are going to get her to eat or not. She has always been a somewhat fussy eater unlike most dogs that inhale whatever you put in front of them but it’s gotten worse since her kidney disease.

There is special food you are supposed to give dogs with kidney disease that are lower in protein and phosphorus which are more difficult for the kidneys to process. I have tried several variations of this food and Elsa has hated each and every one, refusing to eat it. So we have just been trying to get her eat, period. I just spent $250 on four bags of this freeze dried food that she has mostly liked over the last 6 months however recently she has been ignoring this as well. My girlfriend cooks her fresh chicken pretty regularly which she eats most of the time but last night she wasn’t even interested in that. The only two things she will always eat are certain treats and peanut butter. If I added up how much I have spent this year trying to find the magic food that Elsa would eat consistently it would be well into four digits.

I had a wake up call last weekend on just how bad it’s getting. I have been able to see that Elsa has lost significant weight. However the one day she was being disagreeable to getting up and going outside to go to the bathroom, ignoring me as she laid on my bed. I went over and picked her up and immediately noticed how much lighter she felt. In addition she is clearly weaker than she has been her entire life. All of this is tied into her kidney disease.

We will keep trying to manage her needs the best we can. It’s hard because there are moments where she almost seems like her old self. We took her for a walk last night and she seemed happy but then we get home and she walked away from a plate of food that we prepared for her, after eating a treat. It’s frustrating and sad. We have no choice other than to keep trying.

I have a pretty brutal stretch coming up. On Sunday I leave for a work conference in Orlando which I return from Wednesday evening. Then after working Thursday I host the fantasy football league party at my house that evening. On Friday I load up the car to take my girlfriend and her daughters on another trip to Orlando to utilize the extra two day passes we got at a discount the first time. We return from that Monday evening. It’s going to be quite the grind.

When I return I plan to book a vet appointment for Elsa to have all of her numbers checked. I am not expecting good news, at all.

I did find time to install/document a few more accessories for the new car.

I could not believe the video of the flash flooding in Nepal yesterday. It legit looked like a scene from an end of days film. The speed, volume, and violence of the water crashing down the mountain was insane. In the videos you would see people running frantically to escape the water only to be swallowed up moments later. The original explanation was it was caused by an earthquake but later it seems to actually be what the earthquake caused. Supposedly a huge piece of a glacier broke off and free fell somewhere around a kilometer before exploding into a body of water below. Just imagine how much speed it picked up falling that far. What an awful tragedy.

Despite not taking any sort of nighttime cold medicine or Unisom, I woke up this morning feeling like I took both. The desire to stay in bed and sleep for a couple more hours was almost overwhelming. I feel like the illness I have been dealing with for a week or so has really kicked my ass. Despite this I was back at the gym on Monday and Tuesday which included deadlifts followed by my first pickelball session in a week yesterday. It’s a weird dynamic that in order to maintain some degree of mental wellness I require physical activity/wellness. One doesn’t exist without the other.

I have noticed my brain cycling through a lot of negative thoughts mixed in with anxiety about several things in the last day or so. When I let the dogs out last night I looked up and realized the moon was approaching it’s full state. Almost without fail, when I feel most negative and irritable it is in the couple days leading up to a full moon. Sometimes this time period comes and go without any major complications but sometimes my mood turns extra dark, this feels like one of those times.

Yesterday the big headline was that Canada walked away from what seemed to be a ridiculous list of demands in the proposed trade agreement with the US. Every day there is some ridiculous scenario playing out that has big D’s fingerprints all over. This is not an exaggeration, it’s every, single, day. I saw a psychiatrist speaking about the absurdity of our new reality of daily outrage with no tangible consequences. He said that in order for the human brain to cope it will attempt to normalize the abnormal. That is exactly what it feels like.

I have become numb to it all, perhaps my version of normalization. Despite constant discussion about how Trump isn’t allowed to do this or that, it continues, unabated. This has become one huge, yet awful psychological experiment where we are seeing the end results of non-stop propaganda and it’s effect on the people subjected to it. This playbook has been used repeatedly throughout history for one reason, it works. The world is a dark place and it gets darker every single day this is allowed to continue without checks and balances.

I was talking to my one buddy about this. We agreed that if you still are blindly supporting Trump at this point you either have some sort of condition that makes you susceptible to brain washing or you are the type of personality that just can not tolerate admitting you made a mistake.

I am slowly moving out of the ravine of illness. It seems like what I originally thought was just a cold early last week turned into some variety of flu. Both Thursday and Friday I missed work and did very little at home. I felt hot and cold at the same time, my body had a tingling sensation and my energy was very, very low. I went through at least a box of tissues and enjoyed random coughing fits. I had a very similar round of sickness last year. Thankfully on Saturday the dial started to slowly reverse direction. I still did very little, pickelball was off the menu all week but I could tell I was past the worst of it.

On Sunday my improvement continued, enough so that I was able to finally install a number of accessories for the new Tesla which have been sitting in the living room in boxes all week. I installed new wheel covers, mudguards, sunshade and a headliner that allows me to close off the glass roof if desired.

The glass roof on Teslas are cool but to be honest, I basically never look out of it. Plus it is a source of heat and UV. It might not be a coincidence that in the 7 years that I have owned Teslas I have had 6 or 7 skin cancers removed, all on my head/face. The clip in headliner has a two way shade that allows you to fully close off the roof, expose just the front half, the rear half or be fully open. I love the flexibility of it.

I also am hoping that the windshield shade and headliner will cut down on how hot the car can get while baking in the Florida sun. Last week I saw interior temperatures that exceeded 140 degrees. I will be monitoring the results this week.

Elsa has been doing pretty well health-wise recently. Last night/this morning though she gave me some excitement. First she got me up at 4AM to go outside but all she did was pee, no big deal. The problem is when she gets me up in the middle of the night I struggle to fall back asleep. When I got up at 5:30 she had more waiting for me.

First I saw her jump on the couch and start her throw up routine. It looked like her plan was to puke right on top of the pillows. I chased her off and she wound up throwing up a very small amount on the floor. I cleaned it up off the hard surface and thought she was good to go. I went to the kitchen and started packing my lunch.

She walked past me to go to the office looking guilty. I thought it was about the throw up. I patted her on the head and told her it was ok. She wagged her tail in response. Well a few minutes later as I walked towards the bedroom I saw what she was actually guilty about. There was a massive turd now on the floor, about as big as I have seen her make. I was glad it wasn’t diarrhea but based on the size I wondered if she was constipated. I engaged my mouth breathing mode which insulates me from smelling disgusting things, a skill I honed during my years of chicken care. I cleaned up my second mess of the morning and again told Elsa it was ok. After almost 9 months of her having these health issues I just deal with whatever comes and keep moving forward.

Despite my bitching and complaining about the reality of last Disney trip I am locked in to go back there in a couple weeks with my girlfriend and her kids. When we went last we took advantage of a promotion Disney had where if you bought normal two day passes for roughly $220 each you could buy two more days for like $40 each. The only catch is they had to be used by October 3rd. So the long Labor Day weekend worked out to be our best option to use these. I think my experience last time will better prepare me for round two as realistic expectations can be set. I reserved another cool looking Air BnB at least.

Unfortunately my girlfriend got sick from me. She has the same symptoms but her worst days were Saturday and Sunday, just as I was starting to improve.

My uncle sent me a picture of himself, my other uncle and his wife yesterday. Randy (center) and I are Facebook friends so we have kept loose tabs on what each other has been doing for many years. However I have lost touch with Wellington decades ago. I believe the last time I spoke to him was when my mom died. I am pretty sure I have not seen him in person this century. It was a bizarre feeling seeing his present day picture. He is in his late 70’s now and walks with a cane. He was a very high level basketball player in high school and college. He is/was 6/7″, Randy is in the neighborhood of 6’5″.

When I was growing up my brother and sister were very close to our cousins. We used to go on vacations together and spend a lot of time at their place. Back then I knew Wellington as Uncle Butch, the nickname he went by his entire life that I knew him. When he divorced and married his second wife she did not like the name Butch and insisted he goes by Wellington. He still is and always will be Butch to me though. Once the divorce happened things changed and we drifted apart from our cousins.

Anyway it was yet another reminder of the unrelenting march of time and why I need to continue focusing on enjoying whatever time I have remaining.

Yesterday I had my physical, a bi-annual requirement for our insurance plan. Like anything medical I was not looking forward to it, especially while I was carrying my blood test results which were ok except for a pretty significant increase in my LDL and total cholesterol numbers which I can only attribute to stepping off my pescatarian diet in 2024. I was prepared to be strapped up to an EKG and potentially get “the finger” which has happened at all of my physicals since I was 40, except my last one two years ago. None of it happened.

Instead my physical was very casual. There were a lot of Q&A about different aspects of my health but the actual exam was very minor. I removed my shirt but only to allow the LPN to listen to my lungs and heart. She recommended I do a follow up cardiac screening since my last one was roughly 5 years ago. The cholesterol she said I can address via my diet, which I already have started on since I got the bad numbers in June. Other than that it was wham, bam, thank you ma’am.

On the surface I was happy that the physical was “easy” and non-invasive. However there was also part of me that felt like at my age a more thorough exam would probably be a good idea. Regardless I was out of there in 15 minutes. I do plan to follow up on the advice to get another cardiac screening. With my mom dying of a heart attack at 67 and my younger brother already having had a mild heart attack recently I would be ignorant to not take precautions.

So I started feeling something in my throat Sunday evening. I have felt somewhat sick all week but my voice sounded worse than I felt overall. Well that changed overnight. I woke up this morning feeling worse with a clogged head, coughing and feeling warm. I was anticipating waking up today feeling better. I felt bad enough that I called off work. Not only because I felt like shit but I did not want to get others at the office sick. There are already a number of people at work that are sick. Maybe that is how I got it in the first place.

Regardless I am hoping for a rebound in 24 hours that allows me to go to work tomorrow. I hate wasting PTO hours on anything but vacation.

I had a pretty low key weekend. I discovered that Saturday was National Relaxation Day so I tried my best to celebrate after I got my two hours of very sweaty pickleball in. Only a couple of the accessories I ordered for the new car showed up so I didn’t get to knock those installations out as I hoped.

I got some bad sleep Friday night so I thought I would pop a Unisom Saturday night to knock me out. Unfortunately Elsa had one of those nights where she got me up 5 or 6 times. We need to try to make sure she doesn’t overeat during the day. If she does this is often the result although the throw up and diarrhea were both on the minor side. The good thing is when I am on Unisom I can fall back asleep almost immediately if Elsa gets me up. If I was without a sleep aid I would have been awake most of the night.

The Unisom also resulted in a pretty crazy dream. I was in a world where people were disappearing. Some of them would erode away into dust like in Avengers End Game. Others would just blip out of existence. As you can imagine the world was in utter chaos as there was no rhyme or reason as to who was disappearing. It didn’t happen all at once either. I would be talking to someone and they would disappear. Eventually it felt like there were a lot more people that were gone than were still here, with me being one of them, for some reason.

I remember at some point I ran into a woman I am friends with from my days of playing volleyball. She is religious. She told me that the Rapture was here and that is why all of these people are vanishing. My mind was blown. The dream never had a definitive conclusion and continued through the various interruptions I had during the night. The fact that I even remember it is odd in itself. Most dreams I have no matter how vibrant can’t be recollected.

After a late start Sunday thanks to a Unisom hangover I got to the gym to shake off some cobwebs. Late in the day my girlfriend and I went for a ride, me on a wheel and her on her E-bike. One of the spots we rode was Sugden Park, a place I have frequented many times over the years. As we were coming up the one side of the lake we saw an older couple getting out of the car. They were setting up two chairs, side by side in the shade, facing west looking over the lake. Although sunset was probably not for over an hour I believe that was their plan, to just sit there and enjoy watching the sun drop over the lake. It touched me, enough that I am recalling it now. That’s what life is about, shared experiences of simple pleasures and beauty.

Last night I started feeling the unwelcome feeling in my throat that can be a precursor to illness. Today I still don’t feel normal but I am hoping my body can fend off whatever is knocking at the door.

Every other year we are required to get a physical for our health insurance at work. This time I have been dragging my feet. I always dislike any and all things doctor related but this time I have even more reason to not want to go. When they did our comprehensive blood screening it revealed that my overall cholesterol number had climbed significantly from my last test two years ago. Although my HDL and triglyceride numbers are good, the LDL is not. I can only attribute it to going off my pescatarian diet during that two year hiatus. Since receiving those numbers I have been doing some diet modifications that will hopefully start trending that number back down. I don’t want the physical to spin into a round of other medical testing. I do however need to be careful as my mom died of a heart attack and my younger brother had a mild heart attack within the last year as well. I am however more active and in better overall health so I am hoping that stacks the deck more in my favor.

Speaking of activity, yesterday at the gym I did something that I am pretty sure I have not done since prior to covid, barbell deadlifting. One of my old calisthenic buddies, Fi, a woman over in the UK posted a picture of her deadlifting recently. Like me, she was once very hardcore into strength training and calisthenics but scaled back over the years. Well anyway seeing her pull heavy weight off the floor stuck the idea back into my head of “I wonder if I can still deadlift”.

The last time I tried to pull heavy deadlifts my lower body had significantly less aches and pains than it does now. When I did the first warm up set of 135lbs my body gave me sort of a “WTF are you doing” reaction. However I kept adding weight as I tried to remember some of the form that helps you stay safe in the movement. The rubber plates at the gym are fat, making my efforts look far more impressive than they were.

I topped out at 275 pounds which I did for two sets of one. When I used to deadlift sort of regularly my all time best was 390 pounds. When I could do that I used to be able to do 315 pounds for 5-6 reps if I recall correctly. 275 pounds felt heavy but I was pleased just to be able to lift it cleanly without injuring myself. I am thinking about adding it into my rotation of things. Deadlifting hits your entire body and is one of the best exercises you can do. I’m not sure if it’s the best exercise to do at 58 years old, but we will see.

Yesterday I was doing my home delivery order for Costco. The site popped up a Jackery Solar Generator deal they were running. It included the 1500WH battery system along with 100 watts of portable solar panels. It’s a great deal at $599. Normally this combo would cost closer to $1000. After doing some brief inner deliberations I added it to my grocery order.

You may or may not remember I had a Goal Zero solar generator at the old house in the chicken coop. I had solar panels connected to it that would charge it during the day and the box would power devices in the coop during the night. That was only a 1000WH unit and it cost me somewhere around $1000 just for the box alone with no panels. With the Jackery having 50% more capacity at a drastically lower price it was too good to pass up IMO.

You may ask what I need it for? I no longer have chickens and I have a portable gas generator. This gives me a safety net and flexibility in the event of a power outage. Despite it’s small size the unit can power high amp devices like a microwave, window AC unit or an air fryer. It is advertised to be able to power a fridge for two to three days. In addition to being able to be powered by solar you of course can plug it in to charge as well. I went from 25% to full in about an hour. Hell I could put it in my office to serve as a super sized UPS for every day use until I need it for something more urgent. It’s a great little unit.

This weekend is another free flowing type. As long as I am not too sore from dead lifting I would like to get a Saturday pickleball session in. I also have a number of 3rd party Tesla accessories incoming so depending on their arrival I might be doing a lot of car installation projects as well. So far the only additions I have made is getting the front windows tinted and installing a charging hub in the console that adds even more RGB coolness to the interior.

Karoline Leavitt is stepping down as press secretary. Her claim to fame is being the youngest and possibly most annoying version ever of that position. She would parrot Trump’s lies like they were spoken by Jesus himself. Maybe she is stepping away before the shit hits the fan, pun intended.

My Tesla purchase was silky smooth yesterday. I was in and out of the place in 15 minutes, even with having a trade. I was the only person in the delivery bay which helped move things along as well.

I was a bit surprised when I saw just how much of my old car was cloned into the new one. All of the control customization had been moved across including my seat position, control preferences, screen layout and even my home and work address. I was really surprised when I later realized that even the streaming profiles were cloned across. I was able to access my Netflix and Apple music accounts without needing to re-authenticate. For some people having Tesla be in possession of all of this data would be worrisome. For me it’s just a shoulder shrug as I gave up on having any real degree of privacy a long time ago.

I really like the new car. I have never had ventilated seats before and thought they were sort of a gimmick. I can now tell you they are not. Once they clicked on it made a big difference in my comfort level in the middle of a hot August day.

I have already ordered a number of accessories for it. Most of what I had for the 2024 Tesla does not fit, which is not surprising. I am also getting the front windows tinted today to match the rear, a near necessity with where I live. I am very happy with my transaction. I also got the added bonus of paying less per month to own the 2026 which is sweet.

I am looking forward to getting settled into my new wheels. There are a few differences that take some getting used to but I am confident the adjustment period will be very small. Although I lost my respect for Elon in the last few years there is no denying that his company makes a very, very good car.

Here is the video I shot about my initial thoughts.