Belated thought, wet weekend
I forgot I wanted to mention last week my thoughts on the rumors about Brett Farve possibly unretiring. In a word I think it’s shitty. I love Brett Farve as a player. I think these retirement games he has been playing the last few years have been ridiculous. For the past three or four years after each season the Brett retirement speculation would start. After each season he would not definitively say if he was coming back only to later decide to come back again.
So once again last year after being on the cusp of the Super Bowl he says he has to take some time to decide on his future. This time I thought it was a foregone conclusion that he would come back since the Packers were a young team that seemed to have nowhere to go but up. He took several weeks to think about things thoroughly. After this time he announces his retirement in a slightly embarrassing press conference where he pulled a Mike Schmidt and cried like a baby. Ok well at least he finally made up his mind, finally it’s done.
Well hold on. Now we hear rumblings that maybe he was premature, maybe Brett wants to still play. Maybe if the Packers won’t take him back as the starter Brett would actually fathom the idea of signing on to play with another team. In my opinion this is incredibly selfish. Brett was given all the time he wanted to think about it, he made his decision and the Packers have planned accordingly, grooming Aaron Rodgers to be the new starter. Now as training camp is approaching Brett decides he maybe still has the itch. I mean come on. It makes him look bad, real bad in my eyes. It makes him look 10 times worse to imagine he would consider going so far as to abandon Green Bay to latch on to some team to catch one desperate last moment in the spotlight. Brett Farve has always struck me of a guy of strong character. If the rumors have been true, that character is in question with me. You made your bed, sleep in it.
OK, on to the four day weekend wrap up. Our 4th of July got off to a very early start with the 4AM alarm for me to drag myself out of bed. Ali and I were up much later than I hoped the night before punching in paper entries for the race. We had 500 people registered at that point with at least a couple hundred more that will walk up the day of the race. We knew it was going to be a rough time. I loaded the car up the night before so we could get out the door quickly Friday morning. We arrived at the race site about 5:20 am.
As soon as the door opens we are thrust into what becomes a 4 hour flurry of activity. The first order of business was to get power to the finish line where the equipment is set up. Doing so required us stringing together 300 feet of extension cords and routing part of it overhead and the rest snugged up against a building. I wasn’t real thrilled with the layout of the race. The registration area where Ali was with the main laptop was far away from the finish line. The reason this causes a problem is I connect the laptops together with a wireless network. The further the distance, the slower the connection between them is. This slow connection proved to be an issue once I tried to help Ali with registration entry.
The site was swamped. Two years ago the race had 300-some runners. This year there wound up being over 750 people registered. Once I got my equipment set up I tried to help Ali out with entering in the 200+ walk up entries. Unfortunately the slow network speeds limited how many I could do. So the race starts and everything seems to be good to go. In my pre-race tests the system appeared to be working well. Somewhere around the 15-16 minute mark the first couple runners came screaming in. Ali and I held our breath, listening for the confirmation BEEP. We were relieved to hear it. However my relief was short lived when I saw the time that flashed up on the screen was the system time on my laptop instead of the race time! WTF!!!?? I remembered synching the timer to the race time but somehow it had been reset. So quickly I scrambled to get the race time into the system. I did so before the third place runner crossed but the miscue caused me to lose the times of the first two runners. So I immediately had to scramble to try to reverse engineer the times into the system.
Luckily the chips themselves appeared to be working much better than the last race thanks to the updated system software I loaded. It’s a good thing because I was so distracted handling other issues I’m not sure what I would have done otherwise. We still were handing out the cards as well which presented it’s own set of problems. During certain points in the race HUGE packs of people would approach the finish at the same time. We had to get them to line up single file to get their cards. For brief periods of time we actually had a line of people that extended PAST the finish line, meaning people finishing the race had to slow down at the end, not a great thing. About halfway into the race the manual timing box broke which meant we had nothing but the chip system to rely on.
So the runners continued to cross and the chip system continued to perform reasonably well. Once again we had issues with runners coming across without chips and a few runners that came across with chips that did not register in the system. Ideally I wish I would have had the time to identify these problem chips up front so I could test them later but there was no way to make that fly in the hectic environment of the finish line.
As runners crossed I periodically would print out the results and post them for the runners to look at. This proved to be problematic as well. I had 10 or 11 sheets of paper to post. I walked over to the wall of the building with duct tape in hand to stick them to the wall. The wooden painted wall was dirty, the tape didn’t want to stick very well. I didn’t have enough hands either. Trying to hold the papers under my arm while ripping tape and sticking paper to the wall just didn’t work. As I posted the results I was encircled by a horde of sweaty, smelly runners that wanted to desperately see how they measured up against their competition. It was just a pain in the ass.
Once I posted the first set of results it opened up another set of issues, people who didn’t see their name posted. So Ali and I start to get inundated by people asking why their name wasn’t there. We then had to play detective asking a series of questions. “Your name” “Your age” “Bib number” “Did you get a finish card” “Did you have a chip” “Did you notice if the chip beeped when you crossed” As you can imagine, trying to sort this stuff out in the middle of everything is quite time consuming and stressful.
Then after I printed out my chip based awards and we compared them to the finish cards that were handed out even more issues arose. There were people that had cards but had no times in the system. It turned out a lot of the problems were human error where the runner didn’t have a chip or entered their information on the finishing card or registration form inaccurately. We had people with different birth dates and even the wrong gender. It was a huge headache trying to sort all of the shit out. Getting the results out took longer than it should have due to all of the discrepancies. Trying to match my results up to the card system results added another layer where human error can creep in.
We wrapped up and got out of there around 9:30. It was a whirlwind four hours. The good news is the chip system seemed to work better, although not perfectly. Ali and need to test every single chip again to verify readability. Even a handful of missed reads is too many in my book. The bigger challenge is trying to minimize the human error in the process. Receiving hand written entries that look like chicken scratch will lead to problems. We need to somehow minimize the amount of writing that needs to be done. People just do not understand how important it is to write clearly and accurately. We also need to penalize people more financially if they insist on doing walk up registration. The more we can get done before race day greatly streamlines the day off process. The race director classified the day as a success. I am not quite so upbeat about the way things went. The day was really loosely controlled chaos and that isn’t the way I want the timing system to feel.
After we got home we both were feeling very tired. However Ali ran back out and grabbed groceries. I too ignored my body’s need for sleep and started on my weekend work list. One of the things I worked on was changing the blades on the mower. I’ve performed this chore several times since we bought the Cub Cadet. Well this time proved to be more challenging than normal. I removed the deck and flipped it over so I could access the large nuts that holds the blades on. One of them broke loose with a normal amount of effort, however the second nut would nut budge. I pulled and pushed on this son of a bitch with all my strength and it would not move. It was VERY warm and humid. I had totally sweated through my shirt and still could not break the problematic nut loose. I tried some different approaches. I sprayed it with WD-40 and then fired up the air compressor to try to break it loose with my air wrench. That didn’t work either.
I went back to the brute force method. I tried hitting the socket handle with a hammer. All that did was make the socket bounce off of the nut and fall to the ground. I found myself cursing uncontrollably. After the stress of timing the race, dealing with this bullshit had used any small amounts of patience I had left. I resumed pulling and prying. Finally I adjusted my stance so I could use more of my back to pull instead of all arm and it FINALLY started to move. What a pain in the ass. I slapped the new blades on and the mower is once again cutting the grass instead of beating it to death.
During the afternoon Ali laid down and took a nap. Instead of continuing to plow through my list, I considered knocking two items off the list as good nuf’ and just screwed off playing WoW. We had no real 4th of July celebration. We treated it like a regular Friday night, eating pizza and watching shows on Tivo. I didn’t feel like fighting post fireworks traffic this year, maybe next year.
Saturday we tackled the majority of the outdoor portion of the list, mowing, weed whacking and trimming. Ali had said that she was going to mow the entire backyard. I took her plan as a cue to weed whack along the entire fence line, both inside and outside of it, something I haven’t done since installing the fence. I can see why I avoid doing it regularly, it takes a long time to do, real long. The rest of Saturday was laid back.
On Sunday we turned our attention inside the house knocking out the remainder of the list items, including the July cleaning project, the utility room. The room gets to be a dusty mess from the cat litter. I also pulled the washing machine and dryer away from the wall which revealed a disgusting crud covered mess underneath. I even cleaned the washer and dryer.
On Monday Ali and I finally went to the county water park, something we have said we wanted to do for close to two years. We got there about a half hour after it opened at 10:30. It was once again hot and humid, a great day for a water park. It cost 10 bucks to get in the door each. Once we entered we walked the facility. It seemed to have something for everyone. Of course I was most interested in the water slides. When I was younger I LOVED water slides.
When we used to go to Rehoboth every year growing up we always would take a day and head to the water slides. The slides there were not modern fiberglass like most today. Instead they were concrete and carved into a big hill. The concrete was not perfectly smooth so you went down on a foam mat. The slides were fast and fun. The concrete added an element of danger to the ride. They also allowed you to go down head first which made for even more fun. They don’t allow that anymore due to safety issues I suppose.
Well after surveying the park we got a locker. I put the key with it’s elastic band around my wrist. The first thing we decided to try out was one of the water slides. Well I did it, Ali wanted to watch me go the first time. They had 5 slides. To access them you had to walk up a steep tower up a bunch of steps. I knew by the end of the day my quads will have had quite the workout. Four of the slides you went down on your back, the fifth you rode down in an inner tube. I picked slide number 2, not knowing the difference between one or the other. I got the green light to go and grabbed the bar and slung myself into the tube. Slide two was a totally enclosed tube. It was a bit disorienting as for much of the ride you are in total darkness so you have no clue what is coming up. The other thing I noticed was the seams in the fiberglass felt less than pleasurable on my shoulder blades. By the end of the day my back felt like it was borderline rubbed raw. I emerged at the end of the slide and splashed down. Wow, that was fun. Ali said she hadn’t seen a smile like that on my face in a long time.
So she agreed to go up on the slides with me the next time. Since I went to the top once already I could give her a brief lay of the land. I recommended she do slide number three that looked to be open air the entire way down. I knew Ali would not enjoy the darkness of slide 2. I jumped on slide 4 which was half enclosed, half open. I got down slightly before Ali so I saw her pinch her nose as she splashed down. She had a big smile on her face as well and said that was really fun.
We climbed the tower again, this time with inner tubes in hand, ready to try out slide number 5. This slide again had a mix of open and enclosed sections and was a lot of fun. It emptied into a different splash down area that connected to the Lazy River. The Lazy River is what it sounds like, a man made “river” that circles slowly around the park. You simply float in your inner tube and let the steady current push you along. The first time around we went through the waterfall section, not realizing that you could bypass it if you wanted to. This segment of the river runs you under various water fixtures that soak you from above. There are also some “water cannons” along the border that people can man to shoot you with additional streams of water. It was fun. Ali normally hates getting water on her, I was surprised that she seemed to be enjoying going through the falling water. On subsequent trips on the river however she decided to bypass the waterfall section, wimp!
So after the river we did a long session of water slide riding. I rode every slide several times. I don’t know that I had a clear cut favorite, they all were cool in their own way. The only downside were the seams of the slide irritating my back. After one run we were again climbing the steps to ride again. I noticed that the key to our locker was gone! Evidently during the last ride it must have flown off in the splash down pool, shit. So after the next ride I looked around in the pool quickly, hoping it floats. I saw nothing. I asked the lifeguard if anyone turned in a key. He said no. He said we could go to the office and they could open our locker for us so that is what we did. They opened the locker and then we just moved our stuff to another one. For the rest of my rides I made sure I had the strap secured in my hand during the ride.
We took a break to grab lunch. I was surprised to see that food prices were quite reasonable. There were two lines. Originally we were in a line that had like 10 kids in it. The other line was shorter although one of the people was a big fat woman that gave me pause. I took a leap of faith and moved lines. Of course it turned out to be a fiasco.
The woman gets to the window and starts ordering a laundry list of food. It seemed that she had questions about every food item she ordered. We could tell that the girl behind the counter was getting quite frustrated. Of course my opinion of this woman was already low just on her physical appearance alone, once it became apparent that she was going to tie up this window for an extended amount of time my annoyance level shot up very quickly. It didn’t take long till Ali and I exchanged comments regarding this hog of a woman. Most people that ordered and had to wait for food, paid for the items and then stepped aside so the clerk could wait on the next person. Not Big Bertha, she hovered at the window, wanting to make sure she was not shorted on the copious amount of food that she ordered for her and her equally obese family. Even though I knew it was wrong of me, I felt total disgust for this woman. Finally she cleared out of the way and the line started to move again. We got lunch for the two of us for nine bucks, not bad at all.
After lunch we headed over to the diving board area, I wanted to go off the high dive, another favorite activity of mine in my youth. I felt a bit out of place as I stood in the line for the board, it was me and about 10 children. Oh well, my turn came, I climbed the platform and did my patented sitting big splash move. You hit the water in near sitting position with your hands covering your face. The move typically will result in a big, look at me splash which Ali reported it did. The move also had the side effect of stinging quite a bit on my back as well as the family jewels. I did one more go round off the board for good measure and then had enough. After I got out of the water the second time a guy asked me “Did that hurt?” I admitted to him it stung a bit. It actually stung a lot.
We then hit the slides and the lazy river some more before taking an ice cream break. Normally Ali and I don’t have ice cream but ice cream just goes with the pool, it seems natural. Plus since I calculated we burned off a number of calories climbing hundreds of steps I didn’t feel too bad about it. Shortly after we finished it started to rain. Both Ali and I felt like we had enough for the day. We grabbed our stuff and headed out. We both agreed it was a great time.
The rain was a staple of the weekend. Every day we seemed to have rain which is a good thing considering the drought conditions that have existed for the last couple years. During a break in the rain I was out flying my plane. During the weekend I performed the process of discharging and recharging my RC batteries repeatedly to try to bring them back to life. A battery does not respond well to sitting unused for months on end. I flew my flying wing. My first couple launch attempts didn’t go well. After tossing it the plane hit the ground before I could give it ample power to get airborne. After that I resorted to just throwing the plane a lot harder which bought me the extra split second I needed. My flying skill were rusty but by the end of the weekend I was looping, barrel rolling and flying inverted. The biggest problem I had was keeping track of the wing as it got high in the air. The sky was filled with big white cumulus clouds that could make the plane disappear at certain angles. I tried a flight with my more conventional Sky Scooter. Unfortunately it too hit the ground on my first two launch attempts. On the second attempt the ground caused one of the blades of the prop to snap, ending my attempts with it for the day. I had hoped to get the plane in the air to shoot some more aerial pics of our property with the new fence in place.
I watched a few movies over the weekend. The first one was Meet the Spartans, a Scary Movie type of spoof of 300. I had seen a few of the Scary Movies so I knew what to expect. Well it wasn’t up to par with even Scary Movie. Yea there were some laughs but a lot of it was just silly and dumb. It was a waste of 70 minutes pretty much. C-
We watched Hunt for Red October. I saw the movie once before a long time ago so I remembered little about it. It was good although having the russian sub captain speak with a British accent (Sean Connery) is a bit distracting. I’d give it a B+.
Finally yesterday I watched Esacpe from LA, the last movie I can remember Kurt Russel starring in. Wow, talk about silly. Some of the special effects are so damn cheesy it made me laugh out loud. It’s too bad, the premise of the movie is somewhat interesting. The country is run by a religious freak whom decides to send all immoral people to the island of LA. LA became an island after a massive earthquake. There are some entertaining sections of the film but they are overrun by the rampant incredibly stupid moments. The gunfighting while on gliders scene jumps to the head of the list for me. I’d give it a C.
Later I picked up a Honda 360 CBT. It was still a small bike but at least it could keep up with cars on the highway. My mom HATED me driving a motorcycle and it was a big part of the reason she bought me my 69 Buick Special Deluxe.
As an adult I used to borrow my dad’s motorcycle once in awhile as well.