Archives July 2007

I forgot to mention that my east coast vball buddies, Randall and Jeremy, have taken up the 300 workout after listening to me sing it’s benefits for the last 3 months.  Randall has really hit the ground running, after only his third try at it, he is significantly farther along than I was when I started.  His inner gymnast must be re-emerging.  Jeremy has an extremely thin build so doing a lot of the weighted exercises are going to be very tough for him.  He should kick ass in stuff like the pull ups, floor wipers and box jumps.  It’s cool having friends do it along with me.  It gives me a little push as well.

Yet again my home computer network is going to be changing.  I bought a used laptop off my buddy from work.  It is a Toshiba Satellite.  Unlike my Sony laptop, this one is quite the powerhouse boasting a 2.4 Pentium 4 CPU, Nvidia graphics, Harmon Kardon audio, a huge LCD and more.  In fact it is more powerful than the desktop Ali uses now.  My thought process is this laptop can be used by Ali for both working at home and taken on the road for her consulting work.  It can replace both Alison’s current desktop and the Sony laptop we have had for years (although I am debating if I want to hold on to the Sony laptop)  If I sell both the desktop and old Sony laptop it will more than pay for the Toshiba.  Pitching it to Ali was easy, especially when I presented the idea that it would free up a large chunk of desk real estate for her.  Now I begin the long process of migrating her from the old system to the laptop which always is quite lengthy.  I try to make it as seamless for Ali as possible although there are always a few things that I miss, which annoys Ali.

My mom got back from her trip to Arizona to see my sister.  She said she had a very good time. She did mention on 4th of July the temp hit 117.  No thanks.

This massive grasshopper was hanging out on our screen a week or two ago.  Mean looking bugger.  Actually I have seen these before and read that if you see one, you should kill it.  It is a non-native Asian grasshopper that takes over an area, squeezing out native insects because of it’s size.  They are aggressive as well and will spit at you if they feel threatened.  I didn’t kill it, it moved on to greener pastures.

Here is a picture of the plane I used to take all of the aerial photos.  You can see the small Aiptek camera attached by the fuselage. 

You can see the rest of the pictures in the set here. They include a handful of blurry shots from the fireworks show and the cantaloupe and honeydew we got out of our garden before the caterpillars destroyed the plants.

I came across this video clip on PerezHilton.com.  It is Michael Moore ripping Wolf Blitzer a new asshole over CNN”S coverage of Moore’s new movie as well as their past treatment of Farenheit 911.  It is some good stuff.  Michael Moore is a bulldog and I generally agree with his stance on most things.  It’s too bad he is such a lard ass.  He represents the typical fat American that taxes the very health care system that he wants to turn into a free system.  Hey I am all for public health care, I just would like to see more people become responsible enough for their own health to not create an atomic bomb of obesity related illness that is hammering our health care providers.

While I am on a fat kick, let me mention one of my new favorite shows to watch, Biggest Loser.  I have been snaggin prior season reruns on the bedroom Tivo.  There are some amazing examples of people completely transforming their lives, which is fantastic.  I would really enjoy seeing a where are they now show, to see how many were able to keep up their healthy ways without being isolated at a ranch with a trainer to push them daily.  I always find it incredible when these people get on the scale for the first time and act amazed at the number that appears.  I can’t tell you how many times the phrase “I had no idea I was that heavy…” comes out of these people’s mouths.   How can they not know?  Obviously they never step on or don’t own a scale.  Perhaps they don’t look in a mirror.  Maybe they think that adults never stop growing and are supposed to get bigger each year they are on the planet?    Well I guess the important thing is these people at least are taking steps to fix it.  It’s much more than can be said than the majority of people in this country where gluttony is king.

Last night I finished up watching Rocky IV, I watched it over 3 nights.  I forgot how MTVish this one was, there are multiple sequences in there that remind you of an MTV video.  It came out during the absolute heyday of MTV when they were all about playing videos and not reality programming.  I enjoyed it of course but it seemed a bit cheesier than I remembered.  During my vaca I also watched Rocky III again, of all of them I have probably seen Rocky III and Rocky V the least.  Rocky III has one of my all time favorite lines.  It’s when they are interviewing Clubber Lang (Mr T) before the second fight and they ask him for a prediction.  He pauses and then simply says “My prediction?……..Pain…..”  It’s great.

Of course I didn’t remember everything I wanted to write so here are more bits and pieces.

The 300 was tough today, my energy level felt sort of low.  I managed to squeak out +3 reps.  I am two away from 50 dead lifts.  I may just add those extra two on Friday to give me the full 50. It can’t hurt anymore than doing 48.  Soon every exercise should be at least 40 reps or higher. (except pull ups)

Here is a picture of Crazy Jack’s property.

Take notice of the exciting trampoline, dilapidated basketball court, cinder blocks neatly encased in weeds and the lawn tractor conveniently stored in the middle of the yard.  Yay.

Collier County spends a fortune on road projects and at any one time there are at least a half dozen of them going on simultaneously.  During my time off I saw one of the reasons they cost so much, excessive labor costs.  Oh I should have taken a picture of this.  I was heading east back to our house.  I was on a road that is normally two lanes, that they are widening to three.  They had one of the two lanes closed as they were repaving.  This section they had blocked off with dozens of cones.   As I approached the stop light, in the span of no more than 100 yards, they were SEVEN mexicans standing there, by the cones, holding SLOW signs.  It was hilarious.  What a waste of our tax dollars….

When Ali got me a new box of vitamins at the store, it happened to include one of the yellow LIVE STRONG rubber wrist bracelet things.  A year or so ago, every Tom, Dick and Harry was wearing these things.  I always found it amusing that a fat ass, smoking a cigarette would wear a LIVE STRONG bracelet since they obviously didn’t subscribe to the statement around their wrist. They should have LIVE SLOTH bracelets instead. They were just me too lemmings.  However you don’t see them very much anymore, LIVE STRONG seems to have lost some steam.  I have been toying with wearing my free bracelet.  However I have not yet as it is sitting on my desk at work, still in it’s packaging.  I am debating if I can put it on at this point without looking like one of the brainless masses.  I do admire what Lance has done and I more or less try to follow the statement that the bracelet directs us to do, well not really. Technically the bracelet is about cancer survivors but hey, I can interpret it differently if I want to I guess.  Wearing it now, after the hysteria has faded may be a contrary statement that I would find appealing.  I just am not sure.  It may also annoy me to have something other than a watch on my wrist.  Several times I have picked it up, looked at it and sat it back down. 

This weekend was the Live Earth concert, I listened to about 20 minutes of it on the radio on the way to hang the sign on our property.  The music they were playing was boring and I didn’t like it so I turned it off.  I didn’t see any of it on TV.  I just don’t get very excited for these huge concert events.  Not my thing.  We are already green enough anyway.

The 5 days off was a nice deal.  I had no major projects going on.  I sprinkled in little things here and there.  Let me get my movie reviews out of the way.

The first movie we took in was Eragon, a movie about a boy who becomes a dragon rider.  The movie felt like it was trying to be a big grand production like Lord of the Rings, the only problem it had was it was missing stellar acting performances, and a compelling storyline.  It just fell short of my expectations.  I did like the dragon though.  I would give it a B-

The second movie we saw was Shooter, with Mark Wahlberg.  It was great!  You can’t beat vigilante justice!  I was thinking  that I can not recall ever seeing a movie that he was in that I didn’t enjoy.   Marky Mark has turned out to be a fine actor.  I give that one an A.

Finally I watched Flags of our Fathers by myself, Ali didn’t have any interest in watching another war movie.  This movie again fell short for me.  Yea it accurately portrayed the horrors of war. There were buckets of graphic violence and gore.  However there were also very long periods of the film that were just flat out boring.   When I watch war movies like this, it amazes me how any of the soldiers involved in front line fighting are able to reenter society at all.  The madness they have witnessed/participated in would seemingly derail any attempts at a normal life afterward.  Well anyway, as a whole the movie was average.  I’d give it a B- as well.  It was no Saving Private Ryan.

Ok so let me rewind.  Our 4th of July started extremely early, as we were helping at the 4th of July run.  They had a huge turn out, more than 150 people more than last year, over 500 total.   Right before the race a woman and her son raced up, asking if they could still enter.  All the stuff had been put away but when I told her that they were just about to start she disappointingly said ok.  I immediately felt bad and said if she wanted to pay quickly she might still be able to make it.  She asked if it was 20 dollars, I said yes, since that was a normal entry fee, not knowing.  So the woman writes a check, hands it to me and we scramble to get her a number.  She grabs it and just then the race starts.  I tell her to hurry and she ran down the street towards the departing pack.  After she left I tracked down one of the women that was taking the money for walk ups and handed her the check.  She said it was only 5 bucks, since they had ran out of t-shirts!  Oh geez.  The woman said I should just give the check back to her. 

So now I am anxiously awaiting the runners to return.  As I am manning the club merchandise table I am constantly scanning the rapidly growing crowd of sweaty runners, trying to spot this woman so I could give her the check back.  I knew I would be lucky to pick her out but I already  had a backup plan in mind, if I didn’t see her I would just mail the check back to her.  I got lucky and actually spotted her in front of the drink table.  I went over and explained to her that it was only 5 bucks and that she should just take the check back and not worry about it.  She appreciated my efforts.

We had everything cleaned up and put away by 9am.  One of the high ranking club officials approached me about me agreeing to take the reigns of setting up and operating a chip timing system.  Currently the timing system is very inefficient.  As a runner crosses the line, they are given a card with a number on it.  That number corresponds to their finish place, which is listed on a long printout of numbers with their associated time.  The runners are responsible then for walking over to a table, filling out their name, age and gender and handing it in.  This process has problems on many levels.  After running, many people are mentally gone because of the extreme exertion.  They aren’t capable of following directions.  Many just walk around, holding onto their card.  The ones that do turn it in have issues with writing legibly, sometimes it is pure chicken scratch.  There also is a problem with the cards being a mess from the being soaked with sweat.  The cards that are turned in have to be manually sorted and then matched with their time on the timer tape, manually.  There is just tons of room for errors and they do happen, quite routinely.  Getting the results sorted out for the awards takes at least a half an hour.

The Fort Myers running club uses a chip system.  With this set up , runners strap a timing device to their legs that trips when they cross a strip at the finish line.  The chip is associated with that runner so there is no delay in tabulating.  The benefit of this system is results can be printed out and sorted instantly.  The downside is it requires more set up in the beginning of a race as well as someone to run all the computer stuff.  Well, that person would be me.  Committing to do it would mean that I would need to be present for all the races, which could quickly become a drag.  Although I would enjoy the challenge of getting it set up.  I told the guy that I would definitely be interested in talking about it, however one of my primary goals would be to get multiple people trained on the system, so one person isn’t tied to every race.  We’ll see how it goes.

The rest of our 4th was laid back until the evening.  We decided to jump in and go to the fireworks.  They were scheduled to start at 9pm, we pulled into Naples  around 8:15.  Even 45 minutes out, parking was very scarce.  We got very lucky to find a small little parking lot 3 blocks off the beach that hadn’t been overrun with vehicles.  It was a great spot on the beach, only a couple blocks off the pier where the show was set off from.  In the past we settled in far up the beach.  It always resulted in problems because the fireworks were much lower in your field of view, meaning anyone that decided to stand up in front of anyone sitting or laying down was instantly obstructing the view.  Being this close meant we had no issues like that.

We pulled out and unfolded a big blanket and I set up a chair I brought (which I never wound up using)  We were maybe 20 yards from the water.  To our right were two mexican guys, the one in a baseball hat, jeans and a t-short, the other in just a swimming suit.  They had no towels or chairs and simply switched off between standing, kneeling and sitting.  There was maybe 4 or 5 feet between us and them.  Unfortunately that was just enough space for kids to pass through.  There was a huge group of them behind us.  The entire time before the show they constantly ran up and back from the water, between us and the mexicans.  Each time they would pass I got hit with sand and water.  I was annoyed but refused to let it come out verbally, they were kids, being kids, I kept reminding myself.

So finally the show starts, and no further than a minute or two into it, the mexicans get up and leave.  What the hell?  Why would they sit there and wait for the show to start and then leave as soon as it does?  I had no idea at the time, however now thinking about it, I wonder if they were waiting for the cover of darkness to exit, as to minimize the chance that someone would ask them to produce identification to verify they weren’t illegals.  Nothing else makes sense to me.

Well anyway, the show went on for maybe 20 minutes.  Our close vantage point was great, we could even hear the music that accompanied the show.  I took a few pictures that are blurry but are good enough.  We were both glad we made the effort to come down and see the show.  Although the scales tipped somewhat the other direction after trying to get out of there.

What a mess.  Every street was gridlocked.  To get back onto a main road that was no more than a mile away took 45 minutes.  I tried my best to remain calm and patient but by the last 10 or 15 minutes I was really frustrated.  We didn’t get home until after 11. 

Ali worked on Thursday so I had a relaxing day at home.  I ventured out once during the day to go to Sam’s to pick up a few things.  one of the things I snagged was a 2 gig USB drive for 29 bucks, a good deal.  It would be a much easier and environmentally friendly way to transport files between work and home without burning cd’s and dvd’s.  I pay for the stuff and head home.  As I am unloading the truck and take the last box out, it hits me.  Where is the USB drive?  I remember it being in the cart, I didn’t remember putting it in the truck.  F!!!!  I frantically look in the bed and the cab of the truck, no USB drive.

So now I am rolling options through my head.  Do I just forget about it?  It was only 29 bucks. Is it worth 29 bucks for me to not have to drive back to Sam’s and try to explain what happened?  No.  So first I call the store and ask them if someone found the drive, that I thought I left in a cart.   Nope.  I gave them my name and then asked for them to call me if someone does.  Well I wasn’t satisfied that they would actually follow through so I hopped in the truck and drove back.

The shopping cart I left in the corral was gone, damn it.  I spot a lot attendant and ask him if he found anything in the cart.  He said no but wasn’t very convincing.  So I go inside and ask at one desk and then another, nope nothing turned in.  So now the plan changed, I was there, so I may as well go back and grab another one, there were several there when I got mine.  I go back to the same spot and it is empty, none left!  In the span of an hour it went from a handful, to none.  I was defeated.  I did the slow march out to the parking lot.  As I did I looked around on the ground one last time to see if I missed something.  Nope.  As I looked back up I see the lot attendant I talked to, he had the box in his hand and just handed it to another guy who took it inside!  An odd coincidence but I didn’t care, I went inside, claimed my USB drive and walked happily back out to the truck.  I thanked the lot guy as I left although I am not entirely convinced that he wasn’t planning to keep it for himself and only produced it once he knew that someone came to claim it.  Oh well, happy ending.

Late in the day I made a successful return to the air although it was almost a disaster.  I put the camera on the plane with the intention of just getting it into the air so I could trim it out so it flew more or less straight without much control tweaking.  So I apply full throttle, chuck it towards the back yard and it almost immediately does a 180 loop back towards the trees surrounding the pool cage!  I was extremely lucky that my rusty flying reflexes were quick enough to just miss the tree (brushed the leaves) and then a split second later miss the pool cage.  The thing was squirrelly as hell.  Finally I got it into open space and was able to adjust the trim to compensate.  The camera plus the fact that the nose of the plane turns slightly left from one too many impacts meant I really had to trim it hard to make up for it.

By the time I got it flying straight the battery was already dying down but I was able to snap a few pics before it came down.  this was the first of 5 or 6 aerial photography flights I did over the 5 days.  It wasn’t until the very last sortie that I finally got a good pic of the house.  In total I took around 180 pics.  You can thumb through them all here.  There are some really good ones in there.  It puts things in an entirely different perspective.  I was proud of myself for successfully getting my plane and photo hardware back up in the air and working.  It had been over 2 years since I last attempted it.  I may try to get my other Sky Scooter fuselage geared up to get back in the air.  Right now it is just a shell with no motor or electronics.

Friday was another laid back day.  Ali and I did mostly indoor stuff like cleaning, we saved the outdoor work for Saturday.  The outside work consisted of weed whacking and mowing.  Ali pulled the tractor around front to gas it up.  She mentioned to me that the mower deck seemed low on one side.  I walked around the front to fix it, expecting one of the pins that holds up the mower deck popped loose.  Instead I gasped in horror as I see that same damn tire I fought with was totally flat again!  After a brief moment of disbelief that Ali didn’t observe this was the cause of drooping deck, I surveyed the situation. 

The tires was totally flat but at least it wasn’t driven off the rim.  Hmmm I should be able to just push the rim against the tire and re inflate it?  Hah! I screwed with it forever with no luck.  The little electric air pump Ali got for Xmas just wasn’t cutting it.  It didn’t push air fast enough to pop the tire firmly against the rim and keep it there.  So I grab the tire and head to the convenience store where I buy some of that tire inflator/sealer stuff.  I shoot the entire can in in but it still isn’t enough to seal the tire to the rim.  The air machine there was blocked by some hispanics catching up on old times so I hopped back in the truck and drove down to the next convenience store a half mile away.

I was so frustrated at this point and didn’t expect it to work, but I threw my 3 quarters in and squeezed the trigger.  In a few seconds the satisfying pop of the tire sealing to the rim was heard. Yes!  I took the tire home and reattached it.  It held up fine to the mowing session.  I am hoping that the sealant I used will seal up whatever small leak is causing it to slowly deflate.

On Saturday afternoon the plan was to go out to our lot to replace the sign that was missing/stolen.  I bought a mailbox pole to mount it on, figuring it would be a more permanent solution that could not be removed so easily.  So I threw everything in the party van along with Ali and Nicki and we drove out to the lot.  I pull off to the side of the road and open the back of the van to pull out the stuff I brought.  I was very careful loading up, making sure I had everything I needed or could possibly need.  Except one thing, the DAMN SIGN!  I had all the mounting hardware, the pole, the tools but forgot the SIGNS that Ali had so carefully written up.  SOB!  Initially I resigned myself to yet another failure with the only option to go home and come back another time, with the sign.  But then I decided to see if there was a hardware store around.  When I stopped for gas I asked a guy with a shaved head and dates tattooed on his neck if there were any hardware stores around.  He directed me a couple miles down the road to an Ace hardware store.  They had signs!  So I had Ali rewrite them and we went back and I installed it in a steady rain with an army of gnats attacking my legs.  Ugh.  I don’t expect to be deluged with calls but at least there is signage now.

The rest of the weekend was low key, I played WoW, watched movies, swept the house, all thrilling stuff.  I only went in the pool once over the 5 days.  I got the TV out on the lanai working again.  Late yesterday I went over and got the neighbor’s dog.  We are dog sitting her this week.  All in all the 5 days went as I had hoped, low on work, high on relaxing. 

The 300 went well today.  I went +4 reps up to 279 or so.  I am only a handful of dead lifts away from 50.  That is a huge number, one that when I started, was pretty unattainable.  Plus, the dead lift is probably one of the best all over exercises you can do, working most parts of the body and emphasizing a strong core.  I wish I could convince one of my gym buddies to go through the 300 with me.  They are scared off by the looks of exhaustion they see on my face during each episode.

Ali only has two more official days as a Manor Care employee.  She is very excited at the prospect of not having to drag herself out of bed each morning by 6am.  I’m happy for and proud of her for pursuing this opportunity.  It should have an overall positive influence on most aspects of our life.

I heard a blurb on the news on how Obama and Hilary have now jumped on the pro-illegal immigrant bandwagon since the bill was defeated in the Senate.  This pisses me off.  It is such blatant posturing.  They view the dead bill as a failure by Bush so throwing their support behind it now it is an effort to grab Hispanic voters.  I’m sorry, even though I generally like either one of them as a candidate, this move really annoys me and turns me off.   Any candidate that caters to people that are here illegally is chopping themselves down several notches in my book.  Have a backbone.  Why so many in this country are willing to excuse the actions of illegal aliens is beyond me.  Add to it how the hispanic infiltration is turning the country into Amexico.  I am dumbfounded how America is adopting a second national language without much of a fight.  I don’t think “overrun” is too harsh of a word.  It’s a silent takeover.  Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, oh excuse me, I mean “La invasión del Bodysnatchers”

I started the process of cycling my RC batteries to get them ready for some flight attempts over my extended 5 day weekend.  I want to get the Speedwing AND my Sky Scooter in the air with the camera rig.  I haven’t taken any aerial shots in a couple years.  I hope I remember how to get it all working again.  It should be fun.

My laptop upgrades are complete.  I got a new battery and more memory for our 6 year old Sony Vaio ultrathin.  It is only a Celeron 650 but with 320 meg of memory it performs adequately.

Last night I watched 6 or 7 Beavis and Butthead episodes.  They are so damn funny.  I would love to see a dirty cartoon all star movie that had Beavis and Butthead, Ren and Stimpy and the South Park kids all interacting.  You know, sort of like that Hanna Barbera all star thing they had in the 70’s where all the different cartoon characters were on a big boat?

We may take in a fireworks show this year.  It’s been awhile since we saw fireworks on the 4th.  Normally the prospects of dealing with hordes of people, cancel out the desire to see fireworks.  I think the last time we saw them may have been 3 years ago.  I may force myself to go out and see them.  Ali has to work on Thursday so she may not feel like staying out late, we’ll see.

I spent a lot of time looking at the Iphone videos on Apple’s site.  Yes, it looks incredibly cool.  It makes my Treo look like a tin can with a string. However I have to question Apple tying it in exclusively to ATT/Cingular.  I think they could make a TON more money if they opened it up to all carriers.  It doesn’t make much business sense to me. Of course even as is, I am sure Apple execs can wipe their ass with hundred dollar bills if they wanted to.  The demos I saw just looked great, Apple really does know how to do an interface that is human friendly. 5 bills for this baby is steep though.  For fun I looked on ebay at the people that waited in line and bought phones just to resell them.  The prices were ridiculous, ranging from 1k up to 20k. 

I have yet another reason to be angry with RCI, the company that manages our timeshare points.  Not only do we pay them 100 dollars a year for the privilege to manage our points as well as a good chunk of dough whenever we make a reservation.  We get a bill in the mail the other day for $26 because we didn’t book anything in the past calendar year!  This company is f’ing unreal.  I really dislike them and can’t stand that we have no choice but to eat their bullshit if we want to get the use out of our timeshare dollars.  We need to book a trip somewhere but with our planned upcoming two week or so drive out west to see my dad, it cuts into time off for a “conventional” vacation.  RCI is a bunch of bloodsuckers. When I have used my timeshare points, I have had good experiences at the places we stayed, however outside of that, the experience has been very negative. Don’t get me started on that company that ripped me off posing as Timeshare rental broker…. yea, I never, ever got one inquiry from their bullshit service….

Last minute I decided to take this Thursday and Friday off.  I have a lot of vaca left and the boss said it was ok so viola, 5 days off, very nice.  I plan to try to enjoy most of it, watch movies, get my planes in the air.  Oh I have been recoding a bunch of Beavis and Butthead episodes into divx format for enjoyment at home.  A 6 pack and a Beavis and Butthead marathon would be awesome.

Another last minute decision was to skip the 300 workout today.  In the last hour before the gym I had some intestinal issues come up that just made the idea of a 300 workout sound far too challenging.  I also forgot my socks.  So I will do it tomorrow, a good way to punish myself for 5 days of gymlessness.  Of course the chest and back routine I did today will make the 300 more challenging than normal, just what I need….

So Friday night after work Ali and I pile in the car to drive 110 miles to meet one of Ali’s best friends, her husband and their two kids.  I found a Carraba’s that I actually have driven by many times going to volleyball tournaments in Siesta Keys.  The drive up was hellish.  Where should I begin?

Let’s see, well we were on the road during the tail end of rush hour which meant the road was filled with wall to wall assholes.  The weather was bad with intermittent downpours and nasty lightning, which further muddled the situation.  I knew it was only a matter of time until we hit a backlog, which first came maybe 15 minutes into the trip.  We saw no less than 3 cars off the side of the road, down in the ditch during the drive.

When traffic broke up a bit I was trucking along in the left lane doing 80 mph when I see a 10 year old Taurus come zooming up on the right.  He passes me and hits his horn as he is doing it, acting like I was driving 15 mph under the speed limit.  I instantly blare my horn back at the asshole and he responds by flipping me off as he zooms away.  Of course this instantly flicked on my “asshole” switch and I increased my speed in an attempt to get up to this jerk.  However, he was evidently in a huge rush to get off I-75 as he got off a minute or two after flying by me.  My blood pressure was boiling.

Then the grand finale of the trip occurred.  We just cleared a small incline and were greeted on the other side by brake lights.  I had plenty of time to react and slowed down accordingly.  As I am scanning my mirrors, I see a Toyota Corolla that also has just cleared the hill but is not slowing down.  I am mildly concerned at first but then become extremely concerned as I am watching the distance between this car and us close very quickly.  I start to speed up a bit to give the asleep at the wheel driver more space to stop.  It was very tricky as I was keeping an eye on the person in front of me while trying to avoid becoming a road casualty.  Finally this idiot wakes up and hits the hooks, hard.  Their front end dives down and I can hear the squealing of locked up tires.  I look in the mirror and the Corolla is RIGHT on my bumper, it couldn’t have been more than inches away.  I remember making out the driver’s hands on the top of the steering wheel, gripping the life out of it.  I remembered thinking to myself before the trip how we will probably wind up getting in an accident driving this far for dinner.  It was a split second away from becoming reality. 

Then, with the sounds of squealing tires still present, the Corolla veers to the left, on to the road shoulder.  I was waiting for them to veer left, else I would have done it myself to avoid getting smacked.  Once it started to turn, the Corolla spun a 180 from having it’s tires locked up.  I finally breathed again.  I was so f’ing annoyed that I was on the road, subjecting myself to this.  I couldn’t believe that we almost got rear ended.  Anger flashed through my mind.  I thought about what I would have done to that driver if they rear ended me.   Oh well, there was no revenge to be had, but I hoped the Corolla had 4 flat spotted tires that could serve as a noisy reminder about the driver’s lack of attention that almost ruined the day of both of us.  Over the weekend I noticed a small little scuff mark on the rear bumper, he may have actually been nose to ass with us.

We finally arrive at Carraba’s and have a very nice dinner with our friends.  I never met Shannon’s husband before but he was the type of person I got along with right away.  Their son carries my name, first and middle, Shawn Michael.  He’s a cute little kid.  We talked mostly of their week at Disney.  By the time we left it was 10 pm, by the time we got home it was bearing down on midnight.  Our drive was like living in PA and driving down to the Jersey Shore and back in one night, craziness.

I had a LONG ass list for the weekend, it creeped into a second column, it was that long.  One of the things I wanted to get done was to swap out the blades on the Cub Cadet.  They hadn’t been changed in awhile.  Earlier in the week I picked up a set at Home Depot.  But before I worked on the tractor, I wanted to pressure wash the bird cage.  So I pull out the pressure washer, hook it up and squeeze the trigger.  After a little short burst, I get nothing.  The engine is running but I am getting nothing out of the end.  I unscrew the end from the trigger portion and I get water out of the trigger by itself.  My expert troubleshooting skills then told me the wand end was clogged.  I fumbled around with trying to stick something in there to unclog it but had zero luck. Ok well I guess everything has to go on hold until I go to Home Depot and get another wand end.

So I speed off in the truck, get to the store, gasp a little bit at the $40 price for a new wand but bit the bullet and bought it.  I run home, attach the wand and bingo, back in business.  So I clean the bird cage and then pull the tractor up for the blade transplant.  I remove the mower deck and after much straining, break loose the thick nuts that hold each blade on.  Then the horrible reality hits me.  The blades I bought are not correct.  The new blades have a star like center hole, the ones on the tractor have a conventional round hole.  Damn it!!!!!!

I give Ali the bad news that I got the wrong blades.  So for the second time in a couple hours, I am back off to Home Depot, this time to return the wrong blades and hopefully get the right ones.  So I return them and go over to the shelf.  I look and I look and I look again.  They do not have the correct blades for my three year old tractor.  How can they sell Cub Cadet tractors and not have blades for a three year old model???  Lunacy!  So now I have to get back in the truck and I drive to a Lowe’s, 20 miles away.  Surely they have them.

So I arrive at Lowe’s and examine their replacement blade supply.  They do not have the Cub Cadet blades for my model but have a third party brand that was stacked by a tag that said Cub Cadet, although the box said they were for Murray tractors.  Well the center hole was round so maybe they also work with Cub Cadet.  So I take them home, praying that I finally got what I needed.

I rip them out of the plastic, stick them on the deck and immediately notice that the hole is bigger than the shaft.  After some foolish initial thoughts that maybe I could just tighten the nut really tight to keep it in place, I realized that it would be dangerous to even try it.  I gave up, put the old blades back on and that was that.  I was so annoyed that the two huge home improvement chains did not carry the blades for what should be a very common mower.  I have gotten blades before for it with no issues.

I was f’ing pissed.  So I dug into more of the list.  I spent the entire afternoon outside, picking weeds, cleaning the pool,  pressure washing the pool deck, trimming trees and hedges.  To add to the misery was the brutal heat and humidity.  It was in the mid 90’s with humidity levels that felt the same.  The little gnats were driving me insane.  Awhile back I bought some OFF at the grocery store.  However I didn’t buy the Deep Woods Off I normally get.  Instead I got the more friendly “family” version.  Well this shit doesn’t work.  The bugs laugh at it and continuously dove at my eyes and ears the entire time I was outside.  It eventually pushes you to the brink of madness as you start smacking yourself in the face increasingly harder as each gnat you swat is replaced with 5 more.  I was wiped out Saturday night.

Even though I busted ass on Saturday, there still was a good chunk of stuff to do on Sunday.  The grass still had to be mowed and weed whacked.  Even though I didn’t think it was possible, it felt hotter and more humid.  I weed whacked first, I was drenched in no time and then developed a sandy/grassy coating from the debris flying around.  As I was finishing up, Ali got home from the gym and took up mowing.  The bugs were driving her nuts as well and she took me up on my offer to finish up the mowing.  I threw a towel over my head in an attempt to keep the bugs away but it didn’t help, they still flew at my face non-stop.  I was so annoyed by the time I was done.  I will be purchasing Deep Woods Off this week.  It probably causes genetic mutations but I don’t care.

Late Sunday afternoon we went to a matinee of the third Pirates movie which we hadn’t seen yet.  I had heard many opinions about it, both good and bad.  We arrived 20 minutes early.  I thought that was overkill and expected the theater to be next to empty since it has been out so long.  I was amazed that by the time the movie started, all that was available were seats down front, it was packed.  For me the movie was just “eh”.  It went on forever.  All the effects that were gee wiz cool in the second movie were old hat now.  I just didn’t really care for the movie.  I certainly could have waited to download the dvd version. C+

After the movie I went to yet another Home Depot, a big one, in hopes of finding the elusive mower blades.  Once again, I strike out.  The bigger store just had a larger number of the same blades that don’t fit.  I expressed my aggravation to the clerk that was helping me try to find them.  I said how I couldn’t believe that they don’t stock blades for a three year old tractor.  So when we got home I went to old reliable, Ebay, and found them in 30 seconds.  With shipping, I probably paid less than I would have walked out of the store with them, yay.

When I do weeding, the first thing I start with is the garden, since it is the largest pain in the ass.  Of the 8 or 9 plants we planted 6 or 7 weeks ago, only one is alive now, the pepper plant.  The honeydew and cantaloupe grew like crazy and even yielded some quality fruit, however like always, despite my vigilant spraying, they were destroyed by these little green worms that devour the leaves.  I have yet to find a solution to these little bastards that derail any attempt I make to become a competent gardener. I need to do some research on how to eradicate these things.

If you can’t tell from the post, the good mood that I posted about on Friday is long gone.