Archives 2004

It was a really draining weekend. Alison didn’t come back until Sunday evening so I was solo all weekend. Saturday was my volleyball tourney. I was up at 5am, took care of the pets, packed the car and was out the door around 6. Clearwater was a lengthy drive. This was the first time I have headed north on I-75 since Hurricane Charley. It was pretty scary. I-75 is several miles inland yet the results of the storm were clearly evident. All of the road signs were gone, the billboards looked like someone took a huge baseball bat to them and I kept seeing these bent over poles but didn’t know what they were at first. I realized the were the big steel light poles. The were bent over like plastic straws, amazing. You saw blue tarp covered roofs everywhere along with many buildings with even more severe damage. Huge trees were down everywhere. It made me appreciate how lucky we were even more.

I got 2 sets of directions to the tournament, one from mapquest, one simple abbreviated set from the tournament website. I decided the set from the tournament site would be better since they should lead me right to the playing area. Of course you know where this leads, the wrong way. The directions were intended for people heading SOUTH although there was no indication of that. SO I wound up passing where I could have exited and added another 45 minutes to my already long commute.

After the long drive I had to use the bathroom. The public restrooms at Clearwater beach are unique. They are unisex. It is a square of 6 toilets in a small square building, each with simply a toilet. Plus they are open at the bottom and the top so you can hear everything going on around you. Not an ideal arrangement especially if a guy/girl next to you decides to have a melodic number 2.

The tournament didn’t go well. I haven’t touched a ball since my last tournament which was almost exactly a month ago. It showed early. All phases of my game were off. We lost our first match badly to a team that we had no business losing to. Almost every game we got down early and then had to try to battle back. We had a 4 team pool and only went 1-2 in the pool. That sucks. The good news was we were tied with 2 other teams that were 1-2 so we had a chance to still make the playoffs. To do so we would have to win 2 mini-playoff games. The first was against the team that we beat in regular pool play, barely. We won that game 16-14 after being down 14-11. In the mini-game to 7 we got down 5-2 but somehow managed to come back on them again and win the game 7-5. The second mini-playoff game was against the team we lost that first game to. We got our revenge and took care of them pretty easily 7-2. So we managed to get off our net and into the playoffs.

Our first playoff game was against a team that I wasn’t very impressed with. Normally I would think we would take care of a team like this pretty easily. I had started to play better as the day progressed, being able to serve a bit better and hit for points. In the playoff game I hardly got to hit at all as almost everything went my partners way. Even so, we had a lead 2/3 of the way through the game. But then things went bad with a bunch of unforced errors that knocked us out of the tournament in speedy fashion. It was frustrating because I didn’t get served but that is part of the game. So we limped out of the tourney in 6th place, our worst finish since the very first time we played together. The last two tournaments have been pretty shitty. Hopefully the last one this upcoming weekend will wind up on a positive note. Here are a few pictures from the beach.

On the drive home I decided to use the mapquest directions in reverse to get back home. Traffic was bad. One of the early roads I needed to take was route 19. I was driving awhile in traffic and didn’t see a sign for 19 yet but I saw one for Alt 19. For some reason I figured Alt19 must get me in the same general direction as 19 so I would be smart and take that. What a dumb ass I am. My “shortcut” basically took me on a 45 minute circle that wound up putting me slightly north of where I would have been if I just took 19. I was furious with myself by the time I actually hit open highway. 3 hours later I was home. I was tired, dirty and bummed about the bad vball day when I got home around 8 pm. I had no inspiration to start cleaning up my vball gear and putting stuff away. So instead I just fed the dog and vegged, I figured Sunday I would bust out all that had to be done.

After yet another bad night’s sleep I was awakened by Nicki at 7. From 7:45 am till 5 I did non-stop house crap. Mowing the grass, removing the storm shutters ,weeding the garden, cleaning inside, blah blah blah. I was spent by the time came to go to the airport to pick up Ali. It was great to see her and she was very happy to be home. Sunday night I was so tired from the weekend, I showered early and was in bed before 10. However with as tired as I was I had a horrible time falling asleep and even once I did I think I woke up at least 10 times. I got up this morning feeling like death. The Eagles play tonight which means midnight at the earliest, damn………

After a good month or two of honing my online tennis skills I am finally able to win more than I lose. When I started I was ranked as high as 32,000 out of the 41,000 online players. Currently I am up to 2800 in the rankings. I really enjoy it. It’s funny how you can tell the difference between countries when playing online. Every single Brit I have played has been great. Every a-hole I have played is either Korean or American. Last night I was playing some kid that dropped racial slurs constantly, later I played someone who didn’t talk the entire match until after he beat me in a tough match. Then he popped on for a second to scream “WHO’S YOUR DADDY?!!” I just laughed and said “good game”. It’s cool that I actually know enough about the game now that I can offer tips and advice to the players ranked below me.

Alison is still out of town, she won’t be back till Sunday. It’s not much fun doing everything alone. Naturally it takes much longer to get the stuff done by myself. Nicki is depressed since Ali isn’t around. When I get home and let her out she sprints back to the door anxiously looking inside, hoping to see Alison there. She’s all bummed when she runs around the house and can’t find her. In mid-October Ali is going to be going back up to PA for almost 2 weeks so it’s going to be more of the same.

Last night when I got home, I noticed the drainage ditches in the front were almost dried out, meaning I could actually mow down the high, white trash looking, grass that was in there. I took the tractor down and went to work. After I knocked down the grass I noticed movement in the wet muck, more FISH! My property has this weird phenomenon where fish appear wherever there is standing water on the property. There were tons of catfish flopping around, trying to bury themselves into what was left of the water. Well of course I couldn’t just left them suffocate. I went and got my fish net and started retrieving them. 2,3,5,10…… I dumped over 10 of them into the goldfish pond. When I went back I saw a ton more. So I got a bucket, filled it with water and snagged a bunch more, at least 20. There were more but they were in areas that still had some water and were burying themselves deep in the muck so I wasn’t able to get all of them. I took the bucket out to the fill pit/pond in the back of the property to relocate them. I drove out there on the tractor. It was just about dusk. As I disturbed the high grass I set off a mosquito rampage. As I am trying to drive the tractor and hold the bucket I also am furiously trying to swat off the mosquitoes that saw me as dinner. I dumped the fish into their new home and felt happy for doing my good deed for the day.

My neighbors are going to be able to let out the dog tomorrow while I am in Clearwater playing volleyball which is a big relief. It is the championship weekend for one of the two Florida tours. I really want to do well but I haven’t played in close to a month so I am afraid there will be a lot of rust. One thing I am determined to do is keep my emotions under control. I don’t need any more embarrassing outbursts.

Yesterday I got a census from the Republican National Committee. It was basically a questionnaire on various topics asking if I agreed, disagreed or was undecided on a bunch of issues. I disagreed with more than I agreed. One question that struck me as odd was if I supported Bush implementing President Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile defense plan. I thought that idea was scrapped for good. At the end of the survey they asked if I wanted to donate money. I checked NO and instead wrote in “VOTE KERRY” I guess I need to get around to changing my party affiliation, Reagan was the first and only republican candidate I ever liked.

Yesterday the cat was still showing some disturbing effects from her trauma on Monday. She could hardly walk. She would take a few shaky steps at a time and then lay down to rest. However she was eating some and able to get in the litter box. This morning she was still walking funny but was able to do more of it so that’s progress.

After work I took Ali to the airport. It was sad to see her go. I know she is going to have to deal with an emotional mess up there with Pop Pop. Her flight on a new airline, USA 3000 went well. She arrived in Philly early and in one piece.

When I got home I had a ton to do. I was happy to see my hurricane-ready window unit air conditioner had arrived. I had to unpack my stuff, eat dinner, clean up, make Nicki her dinner and then tackle a mountain of bills/cc receipts. The bill paying process took over an hour and a half. I have redundancy in my record keeping which is good, but it makes things go slowly when paying bills. I pay the bills, normally online with my bill pay service. I record the transaction in the checkbook. Then I record the payments in a 3 ring binder that has all my budgeted categories. Then finally I reenter all those transactions into Quicken as well as any CC receipts. I only do this once a week so sometimes I get a pile to go through. Last night was about as much as I can remember having to muddle through at one sitting. Hurricane related receipts clogged my wallet. I finished up everything about 9:15.

About 10:15 I got a call from Ali saying her flight landed safely and everything was well. I am in a bit of a bind with dog care for this weekend. Before the vball tournament was cancelled the first time, our neighbors said they could come over and let the dog out during the day on that Saturday because we would be away most of the day. Since it was rescheduled, I called during the day yesterday and left a message on their answering machine about it, asking them to call me and let me know if they would be around to let her out this Saturday. When I got home last night I saw that they were home so I figured I would have a message on the machine. Nope. So I called their house again and they didn’t answer (they don’t like to pick up the phone) so I left another message saying how I was out dropping off Ali so if they tried to call I wasn’t home, but I was home now. I was doing that deliberate, drawn out type of message because I was expecting them to hear me and pick up the phone. Nope. They didn’t pick up and didn’t call back. This really buts me in a bind because if they can’t let the dog out I need to scramble and make some sort of other plans. It has me rather perturbed. I’ll try to get ahold of them tonight. Worse case I will have to kennel Nicki and pay 40 – 50 bucks to pick her up late saturday night. That would suck. Another side effect of Ali being away is Nicki has to stay home. I can’t leave her home for 11 hours without a bathroom break so I will be going home every day at lunch to let her out. When the drive is around 45 minutes each way it is a rather large pain in the ass. Luckily I have a very flexible boss and she is fine with it.

I got my first ever email from my Dad. It was rather strange. He and my step-mom just moved out to New Mexico to retire. After close to 40 years of working, my Dad finally has gotten the chance to live out his dream of retirement. I remember years ago my Dad talking about hopes of retiring by age 50. Well he is about 7 years behind schedule but I think it’s great all the same. He sounded very happy when I talked to him on the phone the other day. He actually has time to do things he wants now, even things like learn how to use email. It will be cool if he keeps with it. If he can use email, I will be able to communicate with him on a much more regular basis. The house they bought is beautiful.

I finally got to stop by the new World Gym that is under construction. They are selling memberships already even though they will not open for at least a month yet. They had blueprints up as well as pictures of the equipment they will be getting. It looks AWESOME! All brand new, state of the art stuff. Plus it will be cheaper than what I am paying at that dump, Powerhouse! The timing should be just about perfect as my membership is due to expire mid-October. Powerhouse is scrambling. The actually bought some new cardio equipment a few weeks ago and I heard reports they were closing for a few days at the end of the month to do further renovations. Too little, too late. All Powerhouse needed was someone that kept after the place to keep it clean and organized. Instead they have one person working there at a time that does nothing but sit behind the desk and surf the internet. Their fix for the chronically broken AC has been to buy 2 big, deafening industrial fans. They are in big trouble, this new gym will blow them out of the water. I can’t wait to join. The only negative to leaving Powerhouse is the few relationships I have with some of the regulars I see everyday. Hopefully I can convince some to jump ship with me.

These last few weeks have been very, very stressful. The 2 hurricanes and the threat of the third monster storm had everyone on edge. The mere mention of a possible hurricane instantly sets off a wave of supply hoarding which is annoyingly reminiscent of what I used to see up north when snowstorms were predicted, but worse. For snow at least all that was usually hoarded were grocery items, not things like gasoline, plywood and all the other various hurricane supplies.

We have been yearning for things to get back to normal for some time now but this weekend was anything but. Earlier last week I jumped in and grabbed my 11 sheets of plywood to board up. By the weekend we pretty much knew Ivan wasn’t going to be a direct threat to us but I wanted to get the boards up on permanent studs so if I need to do it again we will be set in a matter of an hour or so. After the initial plywood purchase there were probably 3 or 4 additional trips to several home improvement stores to try to find additional hardware to install the wood. Everything was in short supply and by the time I realized that I would not be able to drill 70 or more holes in concrete with one bit, the selection was very thin. I wound up buying bits that were smaller than I needed. I also bought a bunch of other stuff that I didn’t even need and will be returning (hopefully) I started the boarding up Saturday morning. I knew it was going to be a royal pain in the ass when the very first anchor hole I tried to drill took a good 10-15 minutes of awkward, exhausting work while perched upon a ladder trying to get leverage to get the drill bit down into the concrete. Once I got it to a proper depth, I tried to screw in my first anchor. The anchors were driven in by a small little socket that attached to the equally small head of the anchor. I got it about 3 quarters of the way in and then the bit turned off the anchor and stripped it. Despite my best efforts, there was no way I could back it out at this point. It was far enough in that it was secure but it was far enough out that when we put the wood on top we had to use some additional washers to get it nice and tight. I repeated this procedure 3 or 4 times until I came up with a double drilling technique. This technique had me drill out the hole initially with the smaller bit and then go up one size to make it just a bit bigger. This bigger hole was the ticket as it allowed me to seat the anchors as they should be. The entire process was quite cumbersome as I was switching between different bits on both the corded and cordless drills to do different parts of the installation process. Thankfully Ali was there to help me manage the drudgery. It was hot and humid as hell. I was drinking Gatorade like it was a beer chugging contest. The work was made more difficult by the fact that Ali and I both had very sore legs from the gym a couple days earlier. By 5 or 6 o clock on Saturday we had 5 of the 9 openings covered. That was enough for the day.

On Sunday I got up and going rather early. After doing 5 windows my technique was refined so it went easier. Plus the remaining openings were in the back of the house that was in shade, making the heat more bearable. My final drilling technique involved leaning on the bit with as much as weight as possible, then when the penentration slowed, I would bang the drill bit back and forth to make a new dent in the concrete and then push again as hard as I could. With this method I could finish most holes in 2 minutes or less. (proof reading this, it sounds a bit lewd but it is purely unintentional) We got done with the last sheet of plywood around 2pm. We were both exhausted. However the Eagles didn’t play until 4 so I had time to go tackle something else, the Vette.

As I mentioned last week, the battery on the Vette was almost dead from sitting around so much. So when we started the work on Saturday morning, I jump started the Vette, pulled it out of the garage and let it run for awhile to charge the battery. No big deal. Well after a half hour to 45 minutes later I was getting ready to run out to buy yet another drill bit, I reached in to turn off the car, figuring it should be charged by now. As I leaned in I saw the temperature readings were off the charts. The coolant was at around 285 and the oil temperature was around the same. The coolant reading actually had turned red, indicating it was in a danger area. Shit!! I instinctively turned the car off. Seconds after I did that I started hearing noises and then POP!!!!!!! Steam poured out from under the hood and I instantly knew a hose left loose. I opened it up to survey the damage. Hose fragments and antifreeze was pretty much everywhere. Evidently shutting off the motor only made it worse because the hot coolant was no longer moving. I was pissed. I figured the car should be able to idle just fine, even if it was approaching 90. Not this car. So I had to get a drill bit AND a radiator hose. I also decided to get a thermostat, guessing that mine was faulty. After I got done with the boarding work on Saturday, I quickly threw on the radiator hose, filled it with water and parked it for the night, figuring I would work on it more on Sunday.

So at 2 pm Sunday, I figured I had a couple hours to kill before kickoff, let’s work on the Vette. Of course, accessing the thermostat was very difficult, it’s tucked away in such a position that you can only turn the bolt a 1/4 turn at a time. Between the 2 bolts I spent a good 15 minutes just getting them out. Once I got the housing off I saw the “thermostat“. It was basically the top half of one, it served no purpose whatsoever. That was when it clicked in my head. That was when the scales tipped and I decided that I have had enough dealing with somebody else’s shoddy work and rig jobs. I put a real thermostat in and added coolant. I fired it up and it seemed to get very hot, very quickly but I figured it just needed more coolant, no big deal. I turned it off and decided to watch the Eagles game and then tackle replacing the TPS connector after the game. I had it in my mind that I needed to get these loose ends tied up so I can sell this damn thing. So after the big Eagles win, I spliced it in, connecting the wires with butt connectors and then tried to adjust the TPS sensor as I was supposed to. It was near impossible for me to manage holding meter leads on the 2 wires while moving the sensor back and forth in order to get the proper reading. So instead I just tried to eyeball it and put it where I thought it was before. I road tested the car and went ballisitic as the car got hot AND lurched and ran like shit. If I tried to apply anything beyond minimal throttle it would almost shut off. After an embarrassing short drive down the road, I limped it back into the driveway and parked it. I was EXTREMELY frustrated. After busting my ass all weekend I had zero patience left to deal with this f’in car. I went inside and vented to Ali and told her that as soon as I got these basic issues taken care of, the car is history.

Our office was closed Monday from Ivan, even though it was hundreds of miles away and wasn’t forecast to really affect us. They made the call on Saturday and I guess they couldn’t change it once they declared us as being closed. Sometimes it is good to be a government employee. Well anyway the extra day gave me time to attack various things that didn’t get done yet. My A number 1 target, the Vette. I was going to fix this thing if it killed me. So I went back at it with the TPS. I decided that my butt connectors weren’t cutting it. I decided to solder the wires together. That went ok, now I had to adjust the sensor. The head of the one screw is stripped!! Argh!!! I hate this car! I take out the non-stripped screw and go to an auto parts store and a hardware store trying to find a match, no luck. Screw it. I went back home and used my needle nose vise grips to turn it out. After repeated efforts to get it adjusted correctly I finally got it to be what I determined as “close enough”. I took the car out on a lengthy road test. No hiccups and the temperature stayed within a normal range. YES! I was relieved and satisified that I managed to get things straightened out. However it didn’t sway my desire to end my relationship with the fiberglass money magnet. I was adding up it my mind how many things I have fixed already and how many countless things need to be addressed yet. Both lists were staggering. Enough is enough. I want a fun car that is basically sound, that I can maintain on my own but I don’t want to have to fix 90% of the car.

After the mechanical work, I addresed the cosmetic angle, taking the time to wash and vacuum both the Vette and my truck. The Vette cleaned up nice. It’s all ready for a mexican or a young kid who is looking to impress, to drive it away. I probably won’t actually put it out for sale for a couple weekends because I will be busy and unable to show it. I just would like to get what I spent on it plus maybe half of what I put into it for repairs and parts.

Besides the car work I also mowed the grass, and cleaned up the inside of the house. Early in the day I noticed that the diabetic cat had a huge throw up session as I cleaned it up from 4 different spots. I remember thinking that this could be a problem if she didn’t eat more because of the insulin shot I already gave her. It was only a passing thought because I had a million other things to do. I should have thought about that a bit longer.

Late on Sunday Ali talked to her grandfather. He didn’t sound great. Then on Monday she talked to her mom and found out that he can’t drive and has such severe joint pain right now that he can’t get himself up by himself. He lives alone so obviously this is a problem. Alison is very close to her “pop Pop” and I like him a lot too. He is a good man. Pop pop has been very vocal about wanting to see Alison as much as possible lately. It’s almost like he senses that things could be going badly (he’s 91). After a few scary calls between Ali and her family it’s decided that Ali is going to fly up to PA on one day’s notice to help pop pop and talk to him about going to the hospital or an assisted care nursing facility. So Alison is very upset about this and after she gets home she is frantically searching the airlines for a deal that wouldn’t kill us. As she is doing this I am looking for the cat. My attention returned to the fact that I didn’t see her eat anything else and that we were getting to the time of the day when the insulin kicks in full force. No food in system plus insulin, equals hypoglycemic seizure.

I found her hiding under our bed. I chased her out from under the bed. Once she was out I could sense something was off, she was starting to act disoriented. Ah shit. I immediately asked Ali if she could get some tuna out for her to eat. She immediately did and the cat started eating it but it was too late. She started spasing out. She lost control of her bodily functions, she started panting uncontrollably. Unlike the last time this happened, we knew exactly what was going on this time. Ali quickly mixed up some sugar water and we tried to give it to her in her mouth with a syringe. More of it went on the floor than in her mouth as she was twitching and shaking the entire time. This turned the tile floor into a sticky mess. We both sat in there with her, just stunned. This was the last thing we needed right now. We decided we would give her some time and see if the sugar water helped settle things down. I felt guilty as we ate our thrown together microwave supper while the cat continued to have fits in the laundry room. 2 hours passed and she was still panting like mad and looked like shit. Ali and I started talking about the idea of just having her put to sleep. We can’t deal with coming home to her going nuts if she decides to throw up one day and then not eat again. The idea was a very dark and sad reality to put my mind around, especially with my hang ups about death, dying and anything else morbid. I never directly had an animal put to sleep. But after much discussion back and forth we decided it was time. Ali called the emergency vet and got information about it and explained our situation. Of course first thing as always is the disclaimer that it will cost us 69 bucks if they unlock the door. After that it is only 33 more if we elect to euthanize. Ali passed the info along to me and we both agreed it was what we wanted to do. The cat is around 12 years old and the diabetes has all sorts of complications that could be playing parts in her problems with throwing up. We just had enough. I got out the cat carrier and put Buttons in. She was basically unable to move and was just panting. I felt horrible as a I loaded her in. Like she was being carted off to a death camp and was the one driving the cart.

It was late when we left, after 9pm. We took a long time going back and forth abouth what we should do. On the drive in I talked about my bad pet/death experiences. I didn’t really realize how bad some of them were until I talked about them. I told Ali that my way to deal with death is to not think about it, when I actually recounted some of the stories I can see why I don’t think about them. There was the puppy I found as a child that strangled itself in it’s dog chain. I found it hanging in the barnyard, self-lynched. There was the cat that had some sort of ailment where it would get uncontrollable diarhea that would scare it and it would race around the house, spraying it everywhere. I found her in the lining in one of the chairs covered in excrement, barely alive. Then there was my dad’s epileptic dog that I was in charge of watching while he was away one weekend. I came home from an errand to find that the dog knocked down it’s epilepsy medicine and had eaten almost the entire bottle. I found a vet late at night and watched as they stuck a tube down her throat and tried to pump the drugs out of her stomach. The dog was unconscious the entire time. The doctor said it was successful and let me take her home. I carried her into the basement and laid her down on some blankets and let her rest. I was horrified the next morning when I came downstairs to find her dead. I have had some bad pet death’s and this was lining up to be added to the list.

We heard hardly a peep from the cat the entire way there. Alison was unsure if she was even alive when we got there. She was still alive and we lugged the crate inside. She was still panting and didn’t appear to move much. After we got checked in we went to the exam room and after a brief wait, the assistant came in and we got Buttons out. She had stopped panting! She almost seemed normal! She was obviously tired form the episode but the panting was replaced with purring and calmness. Well it was next to impossible for us to say put her down with her appearing to be back to normal. Evidently it took that long for the sugar water to get her blood sugar back up. So we talked to the vet for awhile about options. She talked about doing blood sugar testing stuff which usually translates into the cat being at the vet for a day or two and 200 to 300 bucks. We also discussed a food change as well as ways to treat her if an episode starts. The vet said honey or karo syrup is a better option for treating a low blood sugar fit because it gets metabolized faster. So we checked out of there around 10:30 at night. After we got home I threw Buttons in the bath tub to wash the excrement and dried sugar water off her while Ali mopped the sticky crap off the laundry room floor. You could tell the cat was exhausted from the episode, she didn’t want to move. We didn’t get to bed until after midnight. The end to a miserable weekend.

I got up this morning like any other morning and first thing I hit the bathroom just like I always do. However this was a different day. As I was standing there I started feeling like I was going to blackout. My vision was literally starting to get black. I went over and sat on the edge of the tub but still felt like I was going to drop so I got down and laid on the floor on my back. This position seemed the best. Once I was on the floor I called Ali in. I had cold sweats, was pale and my skin felt clammy. I just stayed on the floor for awhile and then eventually felt ok enough to get up and lay in the bed for a few minutes. As I laid there I felt a bit better and soon was able to get up. At first we were thinking that I should go right to the doctor, but as I walked around I felt alright, a bit off, but ok. The incident scared me of course as I NEVER had anything like that happen before so it naturally set off the alert flags. But against Ali’s wishes I said I would just go to work and monitor how I feel.

Today at lunch instead of going to the gym, I went and checked my blood pressure. Ali said my symptoms could be from low blood pressure. However when I checked it, it seemed high. Higher than I remember it being. I always thought my numbers were always below 120/80, today it was around 140/90. That isn’t terrible but it is higher than the optimal numbers. I was curious what my numbers had been the last few times I was at the doctor. I called them up and got readings from 2000 on. I noticed a disturbing upward trend with the numbers. My first reading in 2000 was 120/70, the last time I was there in 2003 it was 136/84. So my current numbers aren’t much different than last year but a lot different than 4 years ago. So all of this has injected a good dose of paranoia into my current views of my health. If another near blackout occurs, off to the doctor I go. I am hoping it was some odd combination of stress, bad sleep, a tough gym workout, maybe being dehydrated… I have bust ass work to do this weekend so it should be a good test to see if my problem is something more serious.

Sounds like work is going to be closed Monday and more than likely another day or two beyond that. Cross your fingers it misses us.

The latest tracking forecast for Hurricane Ivan is rather disturbing. Being somewhere in the projected path is one thing, being dead in the middle of the forecast path is another. Surely the rush will be on to snap up any supplies that are available. I feel fortunate to have scored my plywood yesterday. I added another item to the hurricane supplies, a window AC unit. I never thought about it till I heard a guy on the radio mention it. This way I will be able to keep at least one bedroom cool if we lose power. Unfortunately I bought it on ebay and probably won’t see it until after this next hurricane arrives, but maybe I’ll get lucky. I got a great deal on it. (well a great deal if it works) People around here are really, REALLY starting to get concerned. I heard they already posted an evac order for the Keys.

This time of year when there is standing water everywhere, is prime season for tree frogs and toads to reproduce. The standing water is full of tadpoles. The frogs are literally EVERYWHERE. On the walls, in the pool, in the water equipment, in the hose reel, in the truck, in almost any nook or cranny you can find. As I walk on the grass I can see the tiny black toads scrambling for cover. As a result of this explosion of amphibians, many meet an unfortunate demise, many times accidentally by my hand. I’ll find dead ones in the pool filter. I’ll accidentally step on them. I’ll squash one as the screen door closes. I can only imagine how many I chop up while weed whacking or mowing. It bothers me to be responsible for the deaths of so many frogs and toads but there is little I can do about it. I try to watch my step the best I can.

Last night after we got home, ate dinner, checked our email and did the dishes, I asked Ali if she minded if I played my tennis game. The reason I ask is because I have the xbox hooked to the big screen tv meaning she has to go back to the bedroom if there is something she wants to watch. She surprised me when she asked if I wanted her to play with me! Over the weekend I played against the computer with her a little bit as a doubles team. She had a bit of a hard time initially but picked it up quickly. So last night we went a step beyond and went online as a doubles team. The online competition is much harder than playing the computer. But even so we managed to win quite a few games and even took a couple sets. Ali was stressing out about screwing up but I told her I didn’t care if we won, it was just cool that she was playing with me. Hopefully she will do it some more, it was fun.

The latest NOAA forecast for hurricane Ivan had the middle of the projected path right off the coast of Naples sometime on Monday. Of course these long range predictions are about as accurate as throwing jello at a bullseye but still that image was enough to freak Ali out. This morning she said she really wanted to try to find plywood so we can board up if the prediction comes true. All of the home improvement chains have been out of hurricane supplies for awhile now. So when I got to work I called the local Home Depot just for the hell of it to find out when they were getting more. I was surprised when they said they had some. Evidently they just got it this morning. I asked my boss if I could go grab some and she said “sure”. So I shot over there and was pleased to see there were 2 small stacks of it left. I loaded up 11 sheets and grabbed some concrete screws and anchors. It was a quick 250 dollar bill. In my work clothes I loaded up the sheets into the truck. By the time I was done the back of my shirt was sweated through. At least we got our wood. 🙂 Now I am paranoid some lowlife will try to steal the wood out of the back of my truck during the day.

This morning, after staying up till around 11, Nicki decided to wake me up at 4:30am to go out. Before I went to bed I went to take her out but she acted like she didn’t need to. That is the last time that happens. I’ll slap the leash on her and drag her out the door if need be. This middle of the night bathroom break is killing me. I felt like death getting out of bed since I wasn’t able to really fall back asleep after that.

My volleyball tournament for this weekend has already been cancelled.

Go on ebay and search on “hurricane frances” It is amazing some of stuff people are trying to sell, water, sand, shingles, palm leaves, and more…. I would like to meet someone that actually buys some of this junk.

It was a long weekend. It was windy and/or raining Friday morning through last night. However we were lucky again in our area. I had some more trees get bent and we lost internet connectivity for a couple days but we didn’t lose power which was my primary concern. The winds were bad but not quite as strong as what we saw for Charley. However the strong winds went on for a good 24 hours as opposed to the 4 or 5 hours of bad stuff we got from Charley.

I had 4 days off and felt like I wasted most of it. I did some stuff around the house but was really unmotivated to do all that much. I did the normal cleaning routine, hung some shelves in the hobby bedroom and we also cleaned up that same bedroom as it had become a bit of a dumping ground. However the vast majority of the 4 days were spent doing a lot of indoor hanging out. I played a ton of tennis on the xbox, developing a new new super player to do battle with online. We were loaned the Sopranos first season on DVD and we got through the first 8 episodes. (damn that is a great show) Oh and we spent a lot of time watching reporters get blown around on the weather channel. Saturday and Sunday were the worst with us being cooped up exclusively. On Monday we got to go outside to do the outdoor work that was unable to be done the other 3 days.

I was really in a bad mood on Monday. I am thinking to myself as I am sloshing through the muddy ground , weed whacking, observing how the areas that I spent sweaty hours weeding last week had already filled in with a fresh set of “weedlings”, noticing how the palm trees are overgrown with vines and those mini ferns, and running through the check list in my head of shit that needed to be addressed sooner or later that I would never get to, how much a little house in a development with a tiny little yard sounded so attractive. (how is that for a run on sentence?)

Maybe as summer passes, so will these ill feelings I have about our house. Part of the difference this year is I have been playing more volleyball than I ever have before since moving to Florida which cuts those weekends in half. So I have been not devoting as much time to keeping up with things as in prior years, resulting in the property being more out of control than I like. Volleyball for me will be winding up in a couple weeks so maybe that will help settle me down as well.

After all the yardwork, Ali and I left the dog at home and went to eat lunch and pick up some items we needed. I commented to Ali while we were driving that as much as I love the dog, it was very enjoyable to have just her and I going out to do things. Suprisingly, she said she agreed with me, although in the back of my mind I had the feeling that she would still have preferred to have the mutt along. Our lunch and errands took 3 hours or so and we came back to find that the dog survived the separation just fine. We really need to do more of it. Ali spoils the dog so bad. It makes Nicki too dependent on us.

So I have a 3 day work week because I am off Friday to play in South Beach in a 2 day vball tournament. That is unless Mr Ivan decides to visit us. I can only hope we deserve a break this time.

Random things about the weekend:

I carried on like I won Wimbledon last night when while playing online, I beat a player that was ranked 3,000-something (I was ranked in the 30,000 range) My new super-player seems to be the perfect style for me. My celebration was just silly.

While watching the weather channel, they had a crawler going across the bottom with all the current bulletins. One of the said that water in Lake Okochobee would continue to “slosh around” for the next few hours. I kid you not.

I looked for bread for 4 days, there was none to be found. Lemming panic mentality. I exclude myself from those lemmings because I was just looking for a loaf as part of my normal weekly shopping trip. 🙂 No plywood and very little gas as well.

Once it becomes available, I will be buying 10 sheets of plywood and the necessary fasteners so I can baten down the hatches if need be. I’ve been saying I was going to do that for a long time. The past few weeks have given me the kick in the ass I needed.

Why do the tv stations find it necessary to put their reporters out in the middle of the storms to give their reports? Do they think we won’t believe them if they aren’t getting blown off their feet? I mean some of those reports were just ridiculous. I guess it brings good ratings.

I got back the Sentra for the 5th TIME from this water leak issue. If it leaks again I will be going ape shit.

The battery in the Vette is dead.

I had a bunch of stuff up for sale on ebay. I didn’t watch them close enough and some junk sold for the bare minimum, a buck. Normally I will have someone throw in a minimal bid for me to prevent this from happening. As a result, after the fees from ebay, paypal and shipping costs, some of these items are COSTING me money to sell them. Woops.

It has been rainy and windy for 4 frickin days, I hate hurricanes….