There were no big fireworks this “solo” weekend. Actually just the opposite. It was fine. The biggest difference compared to when Ali is home is I had a lot more to do. I kept busy most of the weekend doing various chores.
The body shop delivered the Camry to me as promised after work Friday. I can’t tell you how blown away I am by their customer service. It’s so rare nowadays.
I deemed Friday night as my drinking night. It seems that my former drink of choice, Zima has vanished off the face of the earth. I can’t seem to find it anywhere in my area anymore. Along with good old fashioned beer, I have taken up drinking Smirnoff Ice things. Well I found out that trying to get drunk on them isn’t much fun. As I played WoW I drank a few of them. I felt a little buzzed but more tired than anything. Plus the fruity, sweet taste gets to be a little bit much after awhile. I would have been better served to just drink beer.
On Saturday I got started on my long list of to do’s Mid afternoon I took a break to go to Staples and Pinch A Penny. I took a pool water sample to Pinch A Penny. I was very frustrated with my pool water situation. Even after double shocking the pool last week algae was once again forming. Every week I am cleaning the filter, shocking the water and I can’t get away from the bottom of the pool getting a dull yellow-green haze to it.
So anyway they test the water. They ask me what I have been shocking it with. I told them some granulated shock/clarifier that I buy at Home Depot. They recommended that I stop using that and stick to the liquid chlorine they sell. I also got some stuff designed to kill the algae. They gave me a print out showing me all the pool numbers as well as instructions on how to treat it. The alkalinity was a bit high too so I picked up some muriatic acid as well to bring that number down. I’m happy to report that at least so far, the plan seems to be working. Right now the water looks as good as it has in a long time.
Saturday I sat down and watched Time Cop, a 14 year old Van Damme flick. I saw it before but saw it was on Universal HD (one of my new favorite channels) so I had Tivo record it. I enjoyed it once again. It made me laugh in the film that was made in 1994, how it viewed 10 years into the future, 2004. They depicted a world that had self driving cars, automated homes and futuristic laser-like guns. The writers were a bit optimistic about how far technology would advance in that decade.
Spoiler Alert. If you didn’t see the most recent Battlestar Galactica episode yet, skip the next 2 paragraphs. I now fully realize why people love this show. It is fantastic. I’m sorry I jumped into it so late. I am considering asking for the prior seasons on dvd for Xmas. Anyway, the premise of the series has been the fleet of Battlestar Galactica has been searching for Earth. They have been hopelessly searching for years. Well through a miracle they actually find the way there which ironically involves cooperation with their arch enemy, the cylons. The joy of finding earth is overwhelming, the crew of Galactica goes wild as they orbit the big beautiful blue planet. The president tells Captain Odama that she wants him to be the first one to grab a handful of “Earth”.
Cut to the next scene. You see a hand scooping up some dirt and then a Geiger counter registering it’s radioactive properties. The hand throws the dirt back to the ground in disgust. The crew is on the surface of earth. The shot pans to the various cast members with looks of disbelief and horror. They pan to the horizon that shows the remains of a city, obviously destroyed by the effect of a nuclear bomb. Yes, the planet they thought to be their salvation was destroyed by nuclear holocaust. It was such a powerful scene. I think there is one episode left. They have to reveal who the 5th and final cylon is. Go to half.com and pick up the dvd sets. I’m telling you, the only thing this series shares with the original cheesy, short-lived, series is it’s name alone. The characters are compelling, the plot is stellar and the production is top notch. It’s like watching a theater quality movie every week. It’s one of my all time favorite shows.
My Sunday again had a lot of chores in it. One of the things I did was dive down to the bottom of the pool to remove one of the pool drain covers. I am so sick of the pool cleaner getting stuck on them. At Pinch a Penny I saw replacement covers that looked to be a smooth dome which I think would be much more cleaner-friendly. I wanted to take one of my old covers into the store to verify it will match up in size. To perform the drain removal I used a screwdriver, a scuba mask and a 35 pound dumbbell. I used the dumbbell to keep me anchored to the pool floor so I could remove the cover. Otherwise I would have to try to flail my legs to keep myself down while trying to work the screwdriver, not a fun prospect. My body seems to want to float.
I picked up Ali last night at the airport. Before leaving I went around the property and cut flowers from various sources and put them in an empty Smirnoff bottle with water to take them along. Ali laughed when she saw the container but I explained it was the best solution to transport the flowers there intact. She said it was very thoughtful and she appreciated it. She was very happy to be home. I brought Nicki with on the trip and of course she was ecstatic to see her “mommy”. Ali told me about her trip on the return drive home. I was extremely tired by the time we got back. It didn’t take long before I passed out in bed. It was good to have Ali back home, the circle is once again complete.
My buddy at work gave me a radar detector that he unknowingly acquired from an ex-girlfriend of his. He didn’t know if it worked or not but he didn’t want it. I told him I would give it a try. I’m typically not much of a speeder but it still would be helpful to have a heads up if radar/laser is in the vicinity. As I was driving around over the weekend it went off a few times. I plan to take it along on the trip to PA.
Speaking of the trip. I determined that we pretty much HAVE to take the party van due to available space. I don’t think there is simply anyway for me to jam all of the stuff I need to take for the trip and tournament in the Camry. I have shelters, coolers, volleyball bags, chairs, our clothes, AV equipment, laptop, Nicki supplies and Randall’s stuff to accommodate. It just won’t fit in the car. I’m not looking forward to the gas costs but I do enjoy open highway driving in the van so I will just grit my teeth and bear it each time I stop at the pump. We also are considering changing our travel plans. Originally I was talking about living hella early Thursday morning and then picking up Randall at the airport on the way in Friday morning. Now we are thinking about leaving Wednesday, driving a good chunk of the day and then after sleeping at a La Quinta, getting up to PA on late Thursday. This will give us a chance to get the townhouse ready. I’m sure Ali will want to wash the sheets and there will be food to be bought and other things to do I’m sure. We also found out that we won’t be alone at the townhouse. My sister Meghan is going to be coming down for the weekend from NYC and my brother Pat may also be coming in from Pittsburgh. My niece has her first dance recital on Saturday and they would be coming to see it. It will make for a full house but there is room to accommodate us all.
I called my dad yesterday for Father’s Day. We sent him a card but I didn’t buy him a gift. I sort of abandoned a lot of gift giving for dad in the past year or so. There just isn’t much point in buying him “stuff”, he doesn’t need it. I was on the phone with him for awhile. Much of the conversation was him talking about the various projects going on at the ranch in New Mexico. He complained to me about the quality of help in TRC (Truth or Consequences) Much like Florida, it seems that people put little to no importance in actually doing what they tell you they will do. They don’t call you back, they don’t show up and they think nothing of it. Dad gets even more frustrated than I do when that shit happens. I was on the phone with him for quite awhile, especially for me, probably close to 40 minutes. It’s always good to talk to dad. After hearing a lot of complaints, I asked him if he is still content living where he is living. Without hesitation he said he was very content which is what matters. I’m not sure how content my step mom is living in the middle of nowhere though.
I also was surprised to talk to my brother-in-law twice over the weekend. The first time he called to say he wanted us to hook up to do something “fun” when they come to visit in August. He suggested deep sea fishing. I told him I was not much of a fisherman, actually I am not at all a fisherman. I threw out maybe hitting up the air boats instead. The second time he called to ask my opinion about what sort of cardio equipment he should buy. He already has a treadmill and elliptical machine. He said he was considering a recumbent bike because he can’t stand doing cardio on the other machines. I told him I recommended a cardio machine where you are supporting your body weight as they are normally more beneficial. I said a recumbent bike was probably the easiest of all cardio machines. I pointed out though that any cardio machine can be effective if you crank the difficulty level high enough. The important thing is doing it consistently if you want to get any results from it.
Speaking of cardio, I will be doing my last 300 before PA today. I have laid off the running pre-Rumble, just to be safe.
I just cancelled our US Airways credit card. I have had it since 99 but for some reason or another getting the notice they were going to ding us with the annual $90 fee set me off this time. It’s stupid to pay an annual fee nowadays for a credit card. I guess their logic is since you get “free airline miles” it is worth it. To me to pay an extra $90 to have a seat on a shitty airline only after spending 10’s of thousands of dollars isn’t such a great deal. F them.
I am still in the midst of ebay disputes, first with the asshole that sold me the shitty hard drive and I am about to open another claim against the guy that sold me the pool drain covers that weren’t made for Hayward cleaners. The pool guy told me to send back the covers and he would refund the money, simple enough. I sent them back May 21st and he STILL has not refunded the money. I have sent various correspondences to him along the way, politely asking when I could expect the money to be refunded. Some of the requests he ignored. The ones he did respond to kept promising it would be refunded “soon”. Well the last promise was it should definitely be refunded last week and of course, it hasn’t. I sent him an email yesterday saying my patience was over, 3 weeks is plenty of time to issue a refund in Paypal (it takes 15 seconds to do). I said that if I don’t see the refund by the end of today in my account I would be opening up a Paypal claim against him. I have used ebay for years with hardly an issue. It’s ironic that in the span of a few weeks I would be dealing with two similar situations with irresponsible sellers.
The hard drive guy disputed my paypal claim so now Payapl is “deciding the outcome” I don’t know what there is to decide, the drive was returned to him, he hasn’t refunded the money, end of case. If for some reason Paypal doesn’t refund the money I will be on the warpath. I pity whatever customer service rep I get on the phone.
Almost 10 years ago (1999) Rich and I battled through some unbelievable situations/conditions to win the BB division of the Pottstown Rumble. Eh lowly BB you say? Well it’s more impressive than you would think.
So I did some more digging on the net last night for possible solutions. I think I may have found one. The cover pictured here will fit my drain plus it offers a smooth surface that the cleaner should be able to scoot across with no problem. They are on the pricey side at 40 some bucks a piece but if it means I no longer have to go out and free the cleaner from the floor drains every half hour it will be well worth it. I’ll probably grab a pair after we get back from the trip.
