I recently returned from a Disney trip where we stayed in a townhouse I found on Air BnB. Unlike previous Air BnB experiences, this place was pretty great. They took an old place built in the 90’s and did just enough updates to make it feel modern and cool. It even had a small pool in the back which I utilized a couple times.

During the trip we had two park days with a “rest” day in between which is needed if you want to retain any degree of sanity during a Disney vacation. The Disney days felt more like a test of determination, patience and endurance. To me it felt like something to be survived instead of enjoyed. I have a lot of thoughts about this so I will see if I can express them in a way that doesn’t sound like I am just complaining non-stop.

Let me start with positives. The management and logistics involved in running these parks is mind blowing. Coming up with solutions to managing the needs of thousands of visitors every single day is a monumental task and Disney has it locked in. You never have to look far for the next bathroom our food/drink possibility. The grounds are immaculate. If something gets dropped on the ground within single digit minutes there is a Disney staff member swooping in to clean it up. They allow very little room for guests to mess things up. They have staff directing you at every turn. Even when you get food there is somebody telling you which line to go stand in to keep things flowing as cleanly as possible.

The landscaping is beautiful. The buildings and rides are intricate, detailed and amazing. Walking through the circles of countries in Epcot is a prime example of just how much has gone into making the park a unique experience.

So you may say, wow it sounds like you are gushing with compliments about the parks. What is the issue? The answer is very simple, the hoard of human beings that are clogging every nook and cranny of the park. And before you say it, complaining about the people at an amusement park is like pissing in the wind. They are unavoidable, a truth you can not escape. Let’s break down some of the negatives.

How about cost first? A one day pass to Disney is $180 for one person. They give you a “deal” of $220 if you want to subject yourself to a second day. For for a family of four with a two day pass when you add in $35 to park you are basically spending a grand just to get into the place. This is only “standard” access meaning you get to stand in the “stand by” lines for each ride. The wait times on the rides varied from 15 minutes for the rides that no one cares about to two hours on the thrill rides, which is insane.

For people that have a desire to not stand in line for hours you can purchase a “lightning pass”. This allows you to bypass the majority of the line but for only three rides and one time per ride. This costs $35 additional per person. But wait, it gets better. The real popular rides with monster wait times do not allow you to use the lightning pass. On the second day at Magic Kingdom I paid for lightning passes after some miserable waits at Epcot Center.

If money is no object to you you can buy a “premier pass” add on This gives you unlimited lighting lanes access, sort of. It appears that they still could at their discretion block access to certain rides depending on conditions. The cost for this golden ticket? $400 OMG. So yea it gets crazy.

I made the observation to my girlfriend that most people look miserable. The park to me was a petri dish of modern society. Gluttonous obesity was on display everywhere. There were far more people that were significantly obese by BMI standards than not. Then we had the addiction to phones on display everywhere. People would be bumping into you routinely because they had their face down scrolling an IG feed, it was maddening. The kids walking around with souvenirs that will likely be stuffed in a drawer or thrown away once their magical experience was over. This was the ultimate display of consumerism and I here I was in the middle of it, contributing.

My lower body felt rather awful most of the time between walking tons on my aching knees to standing and shuffling in lines for hours upon hours. All of this was done with temps in the 90’s with high humidity so it was just not fun.

We stayed for the fireworks on our Magic Kingdom day. We did not get home until after midnight because of the frustrating way you have to access Magic Kingdom. There is a tram or ferry that takes you to/from the park and a shuttle that takes you from the parking lot. When we tried to leave after the fireworks we ran into a literal river of people all trying to leave. I was so done. mentally and physically.

I felt like the days in the parks was about completing a mental challenge. Just how much frustration. discomfort and misery can I endure while paying a premium price for the privilege of doing so? When the second day was finally done I almost felt like I completed a half marathon. I didn’t enjoy Disney, I survived it. I left the park feeling even less hopeful for the future of humanity than I already did, probably not the goal Walt was reaching for.

So of course after mentioning Elsa has been doing better the last few days she had another episode this morning around 4:30AM after having a good day of eating yesterday. She got up and I heard her so I let her out. She just peed so I thought that was it. However just after I got settled back into bed and was trying to fall back asleep I heard her doing the thing with her mouth when she is getting ready to puke. I quickly jumped out of bed once again and got her outside where she threw up most of her dinner. She also had a round of diarrhea, usually these two things go hand in hand with her current condition. After that we went back to bed for maybe an hour before I had to get up. Solid sleep is something I don’t get very often nowadays.

Once we got up and going Elsa hit the water bowl. She isn’t very good at drinking regularly. She instead prefers to drink a ton at once. Well with her already feeling poorly 15 minutes after filling her belly with water she threw most of that up as well. Again, none of this behavior is new. Before I left for work she got another drink but I stopped her from drinking too much so her stomach could settle. As expected she did not have interest in food outside of a couple of dry biscuits that normally help settle her stomach a bit. If things go as they normally do she will have a low energy day today and hopefully feel better tonight/tomorrow.

I went ahead and booked an AirBnB for our trip to Orlando last night. It’s a unique and cool looking place. I will do my best to enjoy it despite having thoughts of Elsa’s wellness on my mind on the short 4 night trip. I know Alison and Shugs will take good care of her and do whatever is needed including with dealing with the results of when Elsa doesn’t feel well.

Today I am making my return to the pickleball court, the first time in two weeks after injuring myself from a combination of playing and aggravating things at the gym. The swelling is under control and I can walk more or less normally. We will see how it holds up after three or four games.

Although the trip next week is only for a few days I actually have off until the 28th. I have a few things around the house I would like to tackle when I get back like replacing another section of fence boards that are on their last legs. I also need to swap out the broken Tesla motor cover that I broke when I zigged when I should have zagged. I am unsure if I will post during that time period or not. Stay tuned to see.

Oh I now have a rather large potential delivery window of the new Tesla of August 2nd to the 28th.

So Elsa’s up and down health situation was back on an upswing the last couple days. Starting Tuesday evening she has been upbeat, happy and most importantly eating without throwing up or diarrhea. Every time I see her acting more like her old self it makes me feel happy, grateful and gives me hope that Elsa will be around for awhile yet. When she has her pitfalls those feelings reverse.

So last week as I was driving the Tesla I saw a square of what looked to be a piece of black plastic in the middle of the road. It was not flat on the road but propped up at an angle. I made the split second decision that it was low enough for the car to clear it so instead of swerving I went over it dead center. Well I was wrong. I heard an unsettling bang as I rolled over whatever it was. When I got home I looked underneath at the battery, worried I did some damage. The battery looked fine, crisis averted.

Well yesterday was my first time on a highway since the incident. My girlfriend and I were driving over to the Sawgrass Mill mall. Once I got up to highway speed I started hearing a nasty vibration coming from under the car. I quickly pulled over, got out and took a look underneath, from the front instead of the side where I checked out the battery.

What I saw was a big hole in the front engine skid plate which is made out of some sort of plastic. A piece of it was loose and flapping in the wind at high speed. My quick fix for the problem was to just finish breaking the piece that was loose with my hands. I am going to have to buy/install a new cover on the car though since I am trading it in. Should be easy enough.

While sitting at the mall I saw a recent fashion trend that just had me shaking my head, man purses. I saw at least a dozen, maybe two dozen men strutting down the mall with their man purse slung across their chest. Maybe I am just old and conventional but I don’t understand the need for a man to carry a purse. This is one trend I will be ignoring, permanently.

So we were eating at Yardhouse. We timed it so we could watch the Argentina/England semi-final World Cup game. It looked like England was going to win as the game got deeper into the second half with them leading 1-0. Then all of a sudden all the TV’s went out, flashing the DirecTV signal lost message. There were storms overhead and evidently it was enough to hammer the signal. People were pissed.

However suddenly cheering broke out when someone saw on their phone that Argentina scored to tie the game. The place went crazy, despite no TV’s working yet. We decided to leave at that point and monitor the rest of the game on the phone as we took the long walk back to the car. I couldn’t believe that Argentina scored a second goal to take the lead and eventually win the game. I wish I could have seen everything transpire in real time. The finals against Spain should be very interesting.

So although the long road trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway is cancelled we may do a shorter trip to Orlando for a few days next week which will keep me close enough that I can cut it short if need be. Orlando is not a relaxing destination but we will make the best of it.

Last night I was hoping to get Elsa to eat a decent meal. I gave her the appetite stimulant and she appeared to be getting hungry but the thunder started booming which sent her looking for a corner to hide in. She won’t eat if it’s storming. It has been that way pretty much her entire life. When I look back at the timeline of when she has started having more issues it more or less coincides with the start of rainy season where thunderstorms are a near daily occurrence.

If I let her, she would hide in the bathroom an entire day. The thing is she will stay in there even well after the storm has passed. She has always been a bit neurotic in that way. However when this is combined with her kidney problems things get complicated very fast. I really would like to avoid taking her to the vet until next month when a bunch of things are supposed to get done but if I can’t get her eating better it’s going to have to be sooner rather than later. There is no cure for her condition, we can only keep trying to manage it. It’s a grey cloud that is consistently floating above me at all times. Not being able to “fix” her is a hard thing for me to accept.

Possibly as a retail therapy side effect of my dark mood about Elsa’s wellness I pulled the trigger on purchasing my fifth Tesla last night. Yes as usual it came out of nowhere. I have been looking at used GMC/Chevy EV trucks for a few weeks. I was thinking about the possibility of consolidating my two vehicles, the Tesla and the Tacoma into one EV truck. However even used, these trucks cost a bundle.

So yesterday I was watching a video talking about not widely known features on new Tesla’s. The Model Y underwent a refresh in 2025. I never paid much attention to the additions/changes with the refresh but the video sparked my attention. I realized there are a bunch of things they added to the new Model Y’s that appeal to me. So for the hell of it I went on the Tesla site to see what’s the current state of things.

I was not current with the offerings Tesla has now. They have a base model Y that starts just under $40K that is RWD. Then they have long range “Premium”models with some additional tech, the tech that interested me. These are long range models with both AWD and RWD versions. The RWD models are slower but they also get the most range, rated at just under 360 miles. My first two Tesla’s were RWD.

So I started running numbers. Tesla gives current Tesla owners a $500 spiff as well as offering .99% interest which is unheard of nowadays. I also got a trade number for my 2024 Performance Model Y. I wasn’t thrilled with the number but when I factor in the sales tax savings I get by trading the vehicle the number aligns with what I have seen elsewhere. Bottom line was I could move into the 2026 and actually drop my payment from it’s current level somewhat because I am stepping down in trim level.

I have done the opposite up until now, going up in specs/trim level with each purchase. I started with a standard range Model 3 in 2019. Then I went to a RWD Model Y in 2022 which was quickly sold to Vroom for a profit before I purchased an AWD long range Model Y later in 2022. Then in 2024 I again stepped up going to the top of the line Model Y Performance which has blistering acceleration. However I have come to realize that I basically never use that speed nor do I really care about or need it. All Tesla’s are fast enough for me so for the first time in 7 years I am going back down the ladder of specs in the Tesla universe and I am happy to do so.

The new car has a lot of cool additions on the inside including sweet ambient dash/door lighting, different steering wheel/controls, the front seats are now both heated and ventilated, a rear seat that is power both ways (open/close), the rear seat reclines, and there is an 8 inch screen in the back for rear seat passengers. On the outside the front and back end have been reworked visually although I am indifferent about it. The suspension has been improved which give a smoother ride and these vehicles have an additional camera in the nose that the prior gen Tesla’s are missing which gives greater visibility to the car and makes FSD which is already great, better.

Anyway, it seems like I have been on a regular 2-3 year upgrade schedule with my Tesla’s since I entered into their market. Even though Elon has gone off the rails it hasn’t changed the fact that I love my Tesla’s, despite his ridiculous behavior. The vehicle I will be buying evidently has not been made yet. It will be 4-6 weeks until I take delivery. As is the case with my last purchase, the prep for buying the car is done almost exclusively on the phone. I did everything that I could get done at this point already.

One thing that was extremely annoying was getting my credit freeze lifted temporarily at Experian. The credentials I had saved in my password manager did not work and trying to get in to unfreeze my credit was a monumental pain in the ass, consuming a half hour of my time. It’s all good now at least.

Ironically the features in this new Tesla would have made the road trip I was supposed to be taking more enjoyable. I guess we will get to test it out whenever the opportunity for another trip comes around.

I made it the entire weekend without popping any ibubrofen, the first time that happened in a week. The swelling around the knee has lessened which has both reduced the pain and allowed for more flexibility. It still is not close to good and my gait is not normal yet. I feel some additional soreness/pain from other areas of the leg most likely from walking abnormally for a week.

I felt good enough to rotate the tires on the Tesla which was for the road trip that I have subsequently cancelled, more on that later. I also was able to get out on the V14 Pro for a very quick ride to DD to see if the new shock I installed provides the softer ride I was looking for. Spoiler, it does.

I also watched the World Cup games on Saturday. At this point I am pulling for Argentina even though non-Argentina fans are whining that the games have been rigged in their favor. I also had two more robo-octopus’s printing, well one still is.

So Saturday evening/night Elsa had yet another of the increasingly common episodes where she throws up and also has diarrhea. Saturday night I got up with her four different times to let her outside. When this happens she is wiped out and she laid around most of the day Sunday. Seeing this cycle return made me pull the plug on the road trip. I just don’t feel good about leaving her for over a week with her roller coaster health issues. It feels irresponsible and selfish.

That being said I also feel guilty about canceling the trip as I was looking forward to it as was my girlfriend. It’s something that has been planned for close to 3 months. I have a problem not following through on something I say I am going to do but I still feel that postponing the trip is the right thing to do.

Yesterday was the first day that I didn’t notice a noticeable improvement in my knee pain. It’s better than it was but nowhere close to normal yet. When I woke up this morning feeling basically the same I knew that my decision to not play tomorrow in the pickleball tournament was the only viable choice I had.

Yesterday I received an email from Zillow notifying me that my old house was back on the market. It had been sold twice already but evidently those deals fell apart. I was a bit shocked when I saw the price of 589,900 almost 100K from where the price started at 9-10 months ago. Here is the listing.

Evidently a new realtor has taken over as I saw new pictures on the listing. I had to laugh when I saw the interior pictures. They evidently used AI to overlay furniture and accessories in the living space to make it look more appealing. When I saw some of the pictures of the outside it becomes clear the property has not been closely maintained in a long time. Landscaped beds are filled with weeds, the out buildings look like they haven’t been pressure washed since I moved and in general everything just looks a bit dilapidated. It makes me a bit sad to see the property I meticulously maintained for over 20 years looking like that. Hopefully it gets sold to someone willing to put in the work to keep things looking decent.

With the pickleball tournament crossed off the weekend calendar I will be focusing on doing some prep for the road trip, the road trip that is still sort of up in the air. I am going to do what needs to be done so we will be good to go. We probably won’t make a final decision till later next week. If we do go it will be with a very flexible mindset instead of having hard target destinations that HAVE to be reached each and every day. We will be taking the Tesla so I need to find a way to rotate the tires this weekend with a gimpy knee. I will find a way, I always do.

One of the cooler 3D prints I have done finished yesterday after more than two days of continuous print time. It’s a robo-octopus with incredible detail and articulation. I printed it on the Creator 5 Pro, my newest printer as a test to see if it could handle a long print. It passed the test with flying colors.

I officially had to tap out of playing in the pickleball tournament. My injured right knee is just not healing fast enough to consider playing Saturday as even a remotely good idea. If I tried to play in 48 hours a couple things would likely happen. First I would not play well. If you can’t move at least a little bit it’s very difficult to have any success playing. Right now just slow measured steps takes effort. Quick changes of direction that are part of every pickleball game would just not work. Second I would wind up injuring myself even more which could have more serious consequences. I am supposed to be rolling out on a road trip the following weekend. Trying to do that with a destroyed knee would be absolutely miserable.

The only reason I did not immediately drop out of the tournament was I felt an obligation to my partner Brian to give it a go. I HATE letting people down that I make a commitment to. So even though I hate to back out, I have to. I am frustrated that I ignored some of the signs that I should have backed off playing last weekend. If I did not play last Saturday I likely would have been good to go this weekend.

My Creator 5 Pro is closing in on completing one of my longest and most detailed prints ever, a robo-octopus. This articulated model has incredible detail and use of color. Even with the wonders of multi-head 3D printing this model will have taken roughly two and a half DAYS to complete. Yea, it’s a long print.

There have been some odd issues with the CP5 that I need to mention in my review video but the fact that it can complete a print like this is a big feather in it’s cap.

Elsa had another stand alone episode of diarrhea and throwing up yesterday. It seems to happen every 7-10 days, another side effect of her kidney issues. We just keep rolling along day by day with her dealing with the issues as they come. I wish I could wave a magic wand and roll back the clock to a time when she didn’t have to deal with such things. Every time I see her happy or excited nowadays it gives me more joy than normal.

My four day weekend ended with me hardly being able to walk. I played pickleball for a little over two hours Friday morning since we were off. I came out of that session with some mild pain in the right hip and knee but nothing that seemed out of the scope of normal for me nowadays after playing. If I got up after sitting too long my first few steps were “limpy” but again, that isn’t all that abnormal for me any more. I felt good enough Saturday morning to suit up and play again, after taking two advil of course.

I played roughly another couple hours and didn’t have any particular incident that felt like I hurt myself. However by the time Saturday night rolled around I was in pretty bad pain and was limping consistently. I still didn’t think it was that serious. I theorized that going to the gym Sunday to stretch my lower body and do some cardio would help loosen up my knee and lessen my pain. At the end of the session I had the bright idea to do the rower for 10 minutes which I think was the icing on the pain cake.

Walking became increasingly more painful Sunday afternoon/evening. When I woke up Monday morning walking was almost impossible. As I looked down at my right knee I saw it was badly swollen. It’s been a long time since I had seen the knee like this. This type of swelling is normally caused by some sort of inflammation or irritation in the knee joint and I usually would see it like this after volleyball sessions over the last 25 years. I spent my day off mostly sitting or laying in bed while pumping advil and icing the knee several times. By the end of the night I was walking but very slowly and still unable to put much weight on the right leg.

This morning I am still walking with a bad limp but feel a bit more mobile. I am angry with myself for pushing it too far and likely damaging it more at the gym. The anger is amplified by the fact that I am signed up to play in my third pickleball tournament Saturday. I have to do whatever I can to get the swelling down. I would hate letting my partner down.

So outside of my knee issues I had a productive weekend. I replaced the shock on the Inmotion V14 on Saturday afternoon, bad knee and all.

I watched more World Cup soccer this weekend. Unfortunately the two teams I was pulling for, Mexico and the US both got eliminated in their games. The Mexico/England game was crazy. Mexico had a ton of scoring opportunities they just missed and the game was filled with action in the 3-2 loss.

The US/Belgium game never felt that close. The US seemed out classed very early on. Belgium players seemed to press more defensively and had better ball handling skills, stealing the ball from US players routinely. The US also made some bad mistakes, the biggest being their goalie coming way too far out and turning over the ball in the process which lead to an easy Belgium goal. The game made it clear the US is not in the elite tier of world soccer yet in the 4-1 loss.

The 4th of July was another misery fest for Elsa. Firework zombies were firing off damn close to midnight. Elsa spent all night hiding in various spots around the house but her favorite is the guest bathroom where we run a loud vent fan to block some of the noise. I clearly recall thinking fireworks were awesome when I was younger. I now can say confidently I could never see/hear another firework in my life and would be totally fine with it.

I watched the US/Bosnia game last night. Even though I have seen a lot of World Cup I have not seen any of the US playing live because of when it came on. They came away with an impressive 2-0 win, the first time the US has beaten a European team in 5 years. The win advances them to the round of 16.

The win was more impressive because the US had a red card pulled on a player which seemed wrong. He clearly accidentally stepped on the opposing player which should be a yellow card. With the red card the US played nearly 30 minutes of the game with only 10 players. Even with that handicap they scored a goal while shorthanded on a penalty kick. I was genuinely into the game and now that I understand it more I appreciate soccer as a sport more. It only took 58 years.

I had a disrupted night of sleep after Elsa got me up around 2:30. I’m glad she did because she had do do a 1 and a 2. It was not fully diarrhea but it wasn’t solid like you want either. She then threw up but only a small amount. This was after she had a great day of eating where she cleaned her plate and bowl of every bit of food we had for her. This endless cycle of one step forward and a step and a half back is not fun to go through but the reality of her condition. The idea of going on an extended road trip in a few weeks is sounding less and less likely because I don’t feel comfortable rolling the dice that she will be ok for that long.

I have a long weekend ahead. We get off Friday for 4th of July and I took off Monday as well. I am sure the time off will include several hours of pickleball play. It will also give me an opportunity to shoot more V14 Pro content, address a few small to do’s around the house and do my best to keep Elsa calm when all of the backyard firework shooting crowd does their thing on the 4th.

For about a week I was getting a stream of notifications about user accounts being created on my WordPress blog installation. It didn’t make any sense because I have registration disabled. I would check my user list and not see any of these user accounts which were being supposedly created which obviously were not legitimate users. I was paranoid and unsure of what was going on so I installed a security plug in on the blog to keep an eye on things. I finally realized yesterday what was happening.

I host my blog with GoDaddy. One of the options they have is to create a staging site where you can try out changes first in a test installation before doing them to your main site. I evidently created a staging site years ago but have not touched it. It was this site that the bots found and were creating bogus accounts on. I addressed the issue by simply deleting the staging site, end of problem.

Mexico won their knockout game last night in the World Cup, the first time they have done it in 40 years. Sure I am pulling for Team USA but Mexico is my number two based on my girlfriends rooting interest.