Archives 2008

Lots happened, I’m not sure how much I can recall.  On Saturday I decided to tackle this month’s cleaning project, the shed.  The inside of the shed wasn’t really messy at all.  I was able to organize the interior in 20 minutes.  It is the outside that is a mess.  Over time in the humid Florida conditions the vinyl siding gets a nasty coating of mildew and scuzz on it.  To clean it I use the pressure washer.  I power washed all 4 sides as well as the roof.  It was quite windy so as I sprayed I got a lot of water vapor blown back on me.  By the time I was done I was pretty much soaked. Ali was out most of the day Saturday.  After I got done with the shed I did a few more little things around the house before settling in for some WoW.

On Saturday evening Ali and I needed to get to sleep early since the alarm was set for 4:15 am to get up for the half marathon.  I was not happy to crawl out of bed at such an early hour.  Multiply that times 100 and that is how Ali felt about getting up.  When I took Nicki out it felt quite chilly as a cold front had blown through during the night, the temp was in the mid 50’s.  Even though it felt quite chilly, for some reason I decided to wear shorts to work the event.  For some reason I used the logic that once the sun came out things would warm up.  Of course none of this was based on any forecast data.  If I would have looked I would have seen that the temperature was not predicted to get much above 60 with clouds.  Well needless to say I froze my ass off.

This year instead of working a water stop I hung with the guy doing the timing for the race, trying to pick up more pointers for when I implement our clubs timing system.  It’s quite the scene having 1200 runners descend on one location.  The line of 30 porto-potties was impressive in itself.  Speaking of the potties, the cold weather of course meant I had to use one.  I hate using these things.  I normally hold my breath as long as possible and when I do finally have to breath it is always through my mouth.  I never dare look to my right into the horrible tank filled with human excrement.  I look at the urinal, nothing else. I have NEVER done a number two in one of these things that I can remember.  Well wait there may have been one time at the Rumble, not sure.  Ali had to break down and use the porto-potties too.  She opened the door of one and stood witness to a pile of shit sitting on top of the seat area.  Evidently someone had poor aim, disgusting.

 The race went fine.  A couple times it started to rain lightly but nothing serious.  It’s always interesting watching people finish.  Some people come across all business, no emotion.  Others point to the sky and yell loudly.  We only had one person puke as they crossed.  There were some inspiring finishers as well like the two military guys that ran the entire race in camouflage gear and COMBAT boots.  Then there was the group of fireman that ran the race in their gear. 

 The temperature actually felt like it dropped once the sun came out.  The cool temps are good if you are running a race, they suck if you are standing around in your shorts for 4 or 5 hours.  I was chilled to the bone.  Repeatedly I internally cursed myself for being so stupid and not wearing something warmer.  Late in the morning the sun broke through occasionally which took a bit of the chill of thankfully.  The guy that won the race covered the 13.1 miles in an hour and 5 minutes, amazing.  Just like last year it was a Kenyan that won the race.

After helping to clean up Ali and piled into the car and decided to stop at Applebee’s on the way home for lunch.  The heat in the car felt so good.  Originally Ali had said something about us maybe starting on our other outdoor project of the weekend Sunday afternoon.  I told her I had no desire to go back outside the rest of the day, so we didn’t. 

 I watched both playoff games Sunday afternoon/night.  The New England game was close, closer than the score indicated.  If the Chargers would have been able to turn a couple of those field goals into TD’s they could have pulled the upset. But the game I was really interested in was the Packer game.  I had adopted the Packers as the team I was pulling for in the playoffs, I have always been a Brett Farve fan.  I was looking forward to seeing the game take place in the frigid conditions.  It lived up to the expectations with the game time temp being -1 and dropping from there.

Boy it looked cold.  The coach of the Giants HAS to have at least mild frostbite on his face, it was bright shiny red.  It was a great game that went back and forth the entire way.  Green Bay got several lucky breaks that made me feel like they were destined to win even though the Giants actually were playing better.  The Packers dodged another bullet at the end of regulation when the Giant kicker badly missed a game winning FG attempt.    Again fortune smiled on the Packers when they won the coin toss in overtime and elected to take the ball.  However their luck ran out when Brett Farve threw a bad interception that the Giants turned into a game winning field goal.  I felt really bad after the loss.  Almost as bad as I would have if it was the Eagles.  It would have been such a storybook finish to Brett’s career to get back to the Super Bowl and beat the mighty Patriots.  Oh well, you can’t always have happy endings.

On Monday we did something we hadn’t done in a long time, went to the track and ran.  I had just put in a treadmill 5k on Friday so I was a bit worried about running again so soon.  But my knees felt ok so I figured I’d give it a go.  Running outside definitely is more difficult than treadmill running.  First of all you have to actually propel your body forward instead of a moving track doing it for you and you also have to deal with temperature and wind.  The temperature was fine but the wind was quite strong.  Each time we entered the one turn we got smacked in the face with a stiff breeze that made you feel like you were running in place.  We put in two miles which was good enough.  Going for the run was Ali’s suggestion.  She seems to have rejuvenated her interest in running a bit.  I’ll be happy to accompany her on her runs as long as my body allows me to.

Once we got back we tackled pruning/removing damaged plant life from the frost.  There was a lot to remove.  I filled up the bed of my truck three times with dead stuff.  It once again allowed me to chastise my stupidity regarding the sprinkler experiment.  I went crazy in the one bed that was overgrown with a fern that began life in a pot.  Over time it spread throughout the bed and now covered all of it.  Some of it was damaged from the ice and some was not.  I decided it all would go.  Ali said she didn’t like the way it looked anyway.  So I pulled and raked until the bed was clear of ferns, both dead and alive.   Ali’s back was sore so we wrapped things up after I yanked the ferns out.  She tweaked it digging out a trench to plant some potatoes in the garden.

There are other things I know that popped into my head as bloggable but I can’t recall them right now.  I have a lot going on right now.

I just clicked in my first 2008 5k on the treadmill at the gym.  Didn’t feel too bad.  I’d love to do a race or two.  I certainly won’t be fast but at least I can be a participant.

Yesterday I took advantage of early voting in Florida and cast my vote.  It took all of 15 seconds to do.  There were only two items to vote for, presidential candidate and property tax reform.  Since I am still a registered republican I could only vote for republican candidates.  I voted for Ron Paul.  He has no shot of getting the nomination unfortunately.  The guy has some good views though, many of which go against the grain of traditional republican ideas.

They were still using the electronic voting machines for the primary although I heard that there is a mandate to do away with them.  I guess there have been too many incidents involving these electronic machines where either malfunction or foul play has cast them in a negative light.  If I heard correctly, Florida is supposedly going back to paper ballots.  Talk about taking a step backward, unreal.  To add to the lunacy, our county elections office still owes 2 million dollars on the electronic voting equipment they bought a few years ago.  2 million dollars for something that is going into the scrap heap.

Last night Ali didn’t get home until around 10 pm from work.  Last Thursday she got home even later than that.  She doesn’t mind doing these long ass days.  I don’t like them.  Most nights of the week I live like a bachelor, just me and the dog, minus the advantage of bedding various women without guilt.  Ali’s plate is too full.  It seems that when she was working 5 days a week or working two days a week she always complained she has too much to do.  I think without realizing it, she drifts towards that state of being, maybe because it is what she is used to.  

Thanks to the wonders of government employment I have a three day weekend coming up.  I have a number of things going on to keep me busy.  I want to get outside and start pruning and/or removing the plant life that was damaged during the frost.  The fruit trees have dropped a lot of leaves which will be a good opportunity to scrub them down to try to get the black powdery mildew off of them. I need to clean the shed, including pressure washing the exterior of it. I have all the computer equipment for the chip timing system, I need to spend time getting that set up as well as messing around with the timing software.  On top of that, the half marathon is on Sunday.  We will be getting up super early to get there before 6am to help check in runners.  Instead of working a water stop this year I am going to be hanging out with the guy timing the race so I can pick his brain some more to help with setting up our own system.

I am looking forward to watching the playoff games this weekend, especially the Packers game.  The temp is supposed to be around zero, I love it.

I had been looking forward to watching the new Terminator series on tv as I am a big fan of the movies.  I finally got to see the first episode on Tivo last night.  I like it.  At first I was sort of leery of the idea of the “good” terminator being a high school age girl but it worked.  I found the show very entertaining.  It has movie style special effects which may not bode well for it’s long term survivability.  The production costs on the show have to be very high so unless it really rakes in the ratings it won’t stay around long.  Oh well I will enjoy it while I can.

I got the first laptop for the chip timing system I will be implementing for the running club.  I went with Lenovo laptops.  Lenovo is that Chinese company that bought out IBM’s pc line.  I was always a big fan of IBM Thinkpads.  The price on these was good and the specs seemed right.  For $630 I got a 15.5 inch screen, Core 2 Duo processor, 100 gig hard drive, a gig of ram, DVD burner, bluetooth, wi-fi, fingerprint scanner, hardware security chip, and a built in camera.  I fired it up last night and played with it a bit.  It definitely offers a good value for the money.  We will be keeping all the equipment at our place so as a perk for doing this system I have 3 laptops to play with as I see fit.

Last night I was playing a bit of WoW.  I was playing my paladin, just doing quests, minding my own business.  Well along come two horde players about my same level and decided to attack and kill me for no reason.  Well sometimes I let these unprovoked attacks go without retribution but last night I wasn’t in the mood for their bullshit.  So I log on my level 70 hunter, find the two worms and kill them both easily as they ran for their lives.  Of course after their death I stood over their bodies and laughed at them. 

If you want another reason to be grossed out at the idea of staying at a hotel, even a “high end” one, take a look at this video.

So for the better part the past two days I have been at a branch trying to get it set up.  There are two parts to the install, the computer that attaches directly to our network and 5 computers that connect to the state motor vehicle network.  The state has it’s own installers that set these up.  Actually the state contracts HP to do the work and in turn HP contracts out other people to actually do it.  Well I was told by an HP project manager that the installer was supposed to be on site yesterday first thing in the morning.  Well the guy didn’t actually show up until about 2 in the afternoon.  Luckily I had my stuff to keep me busy during that time but by the time they showed up I was pretty much done with what I had to do, however I had to stay and babysit.  The story I got was they were delayed doing a job on the east coast, that was why they were late.  When I first heard the excuse I immediately came out with “That’s fine, but there is no way I am staying late on site because you were late getting here.”  After more excuses it was determined that he would try to get it all done during normal business hours and if they didn’t finish they would finish Wednesday morning. Ok fine.

So I spend Tuesday afternoon supervising what they were doing, answering questions that came up, trying to be “nice” even though I was still annoyed at them showing up 6 hours later than what I was told.  When I left on Tuesday I was told by the guy that he was going to be picking up a few patch cables he needed to connect stuff up that evening and he would be back on site this morning bright and early, like 7:30 or 8:00 am. Ok, sounds good.

So I get myself on site at 7:30 and go inside and wait.  There was nothing for me to do as our stuff was all up and working and the state systems could not be finished up until the cables arrived.  So I wait, I wait.  I read magazines, I read yesterday’s paper, I talk to the other employees there.  As of 9:05, no one is there yet.  Then I start making phone calls, a bunch of them.  I do not have the phone number for the actual installer but I do have his boss’s number.  I called and called and called.  It took awhile until I got a hold of the boss.  When I finally did he was apologetic for the guy’s tardiness but he didn’t know where he was.  He said he would get a hold of him and have him call me.  Well every 20 minutes or so the same cycle repeated, I got angry, I call the boss, the boss apologizes again, tells me he will have the installer call me.  This happened 4 or 5 times, each conversation I had with the PM got angrier and angrier on my part.  By the time guy was three hours late I had enough.  I called the PM again, livid that this son of a bitch didn’t have the common courtesy to at least call me and tell me he was delayed for god knows what reason.  The boss tells me he just talked to the guy, he said he was a mile away from the location and should be there shortly.  I said fine, if he shows up in the next 15 minutes we can move forward. If not, I want him pulled off the job and someone else sent.  Well 20 minutes passed. The guy still didn’t show up.  I got in my truck, called the PM and told him to tell the guy to get lost, I didn’t want him to finish the install and I didn’t want him to EVER be involved with another Collier County installation.  The PM understood my frustration and was happy to schedule another guy to come out early next week.  I told the manager at the location if the installer shows up, tell him to call his boss, he was done.  I left the site at 11 am after waiting there for THREE and a HALF HOURS. 

So after I get back from the gym I get a call from the location manager.  The installer finally showed up and started to do stuff without talking to anyone.  She told him he needs to call his boss.  Evidently he did call the boss and the boss fired him on the spot.  The manager said the installer was on his cell phone screaming at the guy offering up excuse after excuse about why he was unable to pick up a f’in phone and call.  I told the manager if he doesn’t calm down, have a deputy throw him out of there.   Things eventually calmed down and the guy left.  He still was fired.

When I relayed the story to my buddy at work he asked me if I felt bad that I got the guy fired.  I didn’t, not in the least.  To me there is just no excuse for what he did.  It takes 10 seconds to call someone to update them on your situation.  If he is unable to do something so simple, he needs to find himself a new line of work. Good riddance.

Update: This is the story I got from the branch manager as to why this guy was late.

The guy said that he went and bought the cables to finish up the install and they cost $105.  He said as a result he had no money for a hotel.  (Um great invention called credit cards) He also mentioned that his job as an HP sub-contractor (that he just got fired from) was paying $110,000 a year so I am not sure how he couldn’t afford a hotel room. So since he had no hotel money he slept in his vehicle all night.  He said something about he was harassed by the cops around 7:30, I assume for sleeping in the car.  He also said that there was no time set for him to come back in this morning which is a flat out lie.  He told both myself and the branch manager he would be in sometime between the 7:30 and 8:30 range.  There was no explanation given for the time elapsed between him being harassed by the cops at 7:30 am and the time he finally rolled into Orange Blossom which was sometime between noon and 1pm.  No explanation as to why he was somehow unable to make a phone call to give me any clue to his whereabouts during that entire three and a half hour time period.

What a circus. Good riddance.

We did a rigorous Wii session last night including a lot of time playing Dancing with the Stars.  Ali and I did couples competition.  There really isn’t much dancing except for brief segments when you freestyle doing certain dance moves.  The rest of the time you are moving the controllers in different directions while hitting the buttons in a manner that requires good coordination.  I have to admit I thought the game would be something I would most enjoy just watching Ali play, but it’s fun, plain and simple.  We rounded out our night of Wii’ing with some tennis followed by billiards, shooting gallery and cow racing. 

I was always a big American Gladiators fan.  Watching “normal” people go against muscle bound monsters is always fun.  I like this version of the show as well.  They have glitzed it up a bit but they kept the core events.  Having Hulk Hogan as one of the announcers was a bad idea.  He just isn’t good at it.  It is painfully obvious he is reading all of his lines, any dialogue he has seems fake and canned.  Lellei Ali is better.  Actually most parts of the show where talking is involved seems hokey and fake, even the segments when they talk to the competitors seems rehearsed.  Luckily there isn’t tons of talking.  The one male gladiator, Titan, looks familiar.  I know I knew him from somewhere.  I did a quick search and saw he was on the original gladiators show as well as being a fitness model and appearing in a few movies.  Most of the female gladiators are hot.  I think Venom tops my list, followed by Crush.  It’s good brainless entertainment, tune in. 

Let’s see if I can pound this out quickly. On Friday I got a game for the Wii that was obviously aimed towards Ali, Dancing with the Stars.  We both played it for awhile.  It sort of works like games like Guitar Hero and Dance Revolution where you need to do certain movements with proper timing in order to score well.  It’s a pretty cool game.

 I wrote myself a pretty long list on Friday night that included a lot of automobile related items.  I needed to change the oil on the truck, rotate the tires on both vehicles as well as give them both a bath.  But before doing all of that I decided to go with Ali to her gym to do another group power class.

 Ali grabbed a few of these passes so I figured I would give it another go.  Last time I went I was so exhausted I was a bit hesitant to go again since I am doing a 300 today with my gym buddy.  Well I decided this time I would be less concerned with using the most weight in the class and just surviving the event intact.  It went better.  There were many times when I was out of sync with what the instructor was doing.  It certainly is a good full body work out.  People must love it as the class was jammed full.  It was so full that when I felt the need to break wind I buried it since within a 10 foot radius there were at least 7 or 8 people, mostly women.

So after the class I was exhausted and felt like I could use a nap.  However I resisted the urge and after lunch started on my projects while Ali worked inside cleaning.  If you want to feel manly, work on your cars.  Nothing makes the testosterone pump like getting under a vehicle and have oil running down your arms, grrrr.  The truck oil change went fine and then it was on to tire rotation.  I was almost looking forward to rotating the tires because it meant I could use my air wrench and compressor I got for Xmas.  I turn the compressor on, hook up the air wrench to it, stick it on a lug nut and excitedly squeeze the trigger. Nothing, the lug nut doesn’t budge.  The air wrench works but evidently the compressor I got is too underpowered to run it, 100 psi isn’t enough and with the small two gallon tank it rapidly loses pressure requiring annoyingly lengthy refill periods. Shit!  I was pissed off at the idea that I would need to go out and buy a different compressor if I wanted to use my air tools.  Well I was determined to at least use the gun for something so after I broke the nuts loose with a tire iron I used the gun to spin the nuts off the rest of the way.

The tire rotation on both vehicles went fine although after I started on the truck tires I kicked myself. I realized that when I got the new tires for it I paid extra to have free tire rotation included along with road hazard protection., oh well.  The toughest part was getting the truck tires lined with the bolts since they are heavy and large.  All I had left to do  was wash both vehicles.  I went the full nine yards and also vacuumed out the interiors, armor all the tires and wiped down the dash.  Doing all this car maintenance took a looong time.  I bet I was out there over three hours.

While I busted ass on the cars Ali was busting ass cleaning up inside.  We were both tired afterward but we had a big night planned, another Demolition Derby!  Yep Ali agreed to go even though I am sure she was less than thrilled.  We half considered not going as I turned on the Packers game and saw it was snowing.  I LOVE snow games.  The only reason I knew the Packers were on was because when I was walking NIcki a few minutes earlier, I saw our neighbor across the street who is a Packers fan comes out, throw his hands over his head and yell as loud as he could.  It was funny as hell.  He must have been happy because I saw the score was 28-14 at half time.  So anyway I had Tivo record it so I could watch the second half when we got home.

We got to the derby a few minutes before it’s official start of 7pm.  We were surprised when we saw how long the line at the ticket counter was, at least 15 deep.  We walked around and found a spot on the metal bleachers to sit.  The crowd was definitely bigger than last time.  We sat down just in time to hear the customary brutal rendition of the national anthem, people cheered anyway.  They had the same announcer as last time and he annoys the hell out of Ali.  He talks like a cb trucker, interjecting “come on…” into every other sentence he said.  It drives Ali nuts.

The format was expanded this time.  Not only did they have the demolition derby and atv racing, they added truck pulls and a “burn out” show.  The new additions were funny.  The burn out show was the funniest.  Some guy in a normal looking Dodge pick up  gets on to the concrete strip, locks the front brakes and then does a burn out.  Woweeeeee.  He had so much fun he turned around and did it again.  Ali and I just laughed.

When I heard truck pulls I thought they meant the sort of pulls where a truck pulls a weighted sled for distance.  No, this was basically a tug of war.  The two trucks pointed different directions on the concrete strip connected by a chain.  The guy says “go” and the object is to pull your opponent.  Ali and I both said we were surprised that these guys with these big, nice, jacked up trucks would subject them to this sort of abuse.  They obviously spent thousands extra to modify the truck, doing a pull like that could really do a number on a motor or transmission.  Oh well it wasn’t my problem, we enjoyed the pulls.  It seemed most of the match ups were Ford vs Chevy.  Ford won every time, piss on Chevy.

Again people watching was a big part of the entertainment.  Red necks were everywhere you looked.  I saw a bunch of high school age kids wearing Chuck Liddel tight mohawk hair cuts, neato.  Ali and I hung in for 2 hours of the show, that was plenty.  We hopped back in the party van, which we brought to “fit in” better, and headed home.  I think going to two derby’s in a row might have been a bit much.  Checking out every 2nd or 3rd one would probably be better.

So after we got back I got to watch the rest of the football game.  It was awesome.  During the second half it almost looked like blizzard conditions.  It is incredible that the Packers threw up 42 points on a night like that.  I’m happy for Brett Farve.  Of all the teams left in the playoffs I am pulling for the Packers.

Sunday was much more laid back than Saturday.  I played a lot of WoW.  Now that I know I can get this awesome gear by simply “grinding honor” is a negative for me.  It sucks me into the game for longer periods than I normally spend anymore.  It’s so silly.

I also spent a bunch of time working on my two older Roombas.  In the span of a week both of them broke down.  I ripped them down  pretty far and in the process removed all sorts of hair, dirt and fuzz that finds it’s way into the interior of the robot.  My surgery on one of them was a success it is back up and running.  The other one still has a problem but I may be able to fix it.  The kitchen counter was a dirty, hairy mess from my operations.

Sunday evening I got on the phone with Directv as my receiver was flaking out again.  I have had an issue for quite awhile where the receiver simply stops working.  Either I get a black screen or I get a 721 error on channels I should receive.  I can normally fix it by unplugging the receiver but hey that is a pain in the ass.  I don’t want to babysit the receiver to make sure it works.  So I call customer service and explain to them this has been an ongoing problem that I called about before.  I told them the last time I talked to a rep he said if it happens again they should send a tech out to our house so I relayed that info too.  The woman on the other end said they would be happy to send a tech out to fix our problem.  She just had to let us know it would cost $79 for the visit but she could cut us a break and only charge us $19.95 for the visit if we agreed to sign up for the maintenance program which costs an additional $6 a month.  I did not receive either option warmly.  I told the woman that I thought it was ridiculous that I need to pay extra if I expected my equipment to work.  I compared it to the cable company.  If my cable box dies they don’t charge me to fix it.    I ranted and raved for a bit, even throwing out the line that I may just cancel my Directv if this is the way they treat long time customers, hoping I would get the woman to concede to a free service visit.  No such luck, she wouldn’t cave and I hung up on her in the middle of her “is there anything else I can do for you” script.  No I am not cancelling, I need my Eagles games but I did find a number of dirt cheap receivers on ebay that are the same model I have.  I plan on snagging one of those and seeing if it makes a difference.  I can do that for way less then the price of a service call.  I don’t need these boobs to troubleshoot it anyway.

Awww the Cowboys lost again and Tony Romo blew it again. I love it.  The Cowboys did something the Eagles could never do when they were the number one seed in the conference, lose their first playoff game.  Tony is 0-fer the playoffs so far in his young career.  Blame Jessica Simpson.

So I hopped on a cardio machine and on the LCD tv right in front of me is an infomercial for Leg Magic.  Leg Magic is the latest fitness gadget out there.  Don’t get me wrong, there are worse things than watching women with tight bodies bounce up and down on the thing for a half hour but I found myself watching the Giants/Cowboys game rebroadcast on NFL network on the screen next door more.

It cracks me up how people snatch up these machines thinking they are the key to finally getting in shape.  The Bow Flex and Nordic Track were two of the first I remember being advertised heavily on TV.  Over the years we have been treated to Suzanne Sommers thigh master, Jake and his various Body by Jake pieces of shit, that weirdo Tony Little and his Gazelle, the list goes on and on. 

This equipment has several common flaws.  First a lot of it is very flimsy and cheaply made, pumped out of some sweat factory in China where they pay their workers pennies an hour.  Second most of it has the user doing the same motion over and over again.  People get bored on the damn thing.  Plus doing the same thing over and over again has diminishing returns as far as it’s effectiveness in losing weight.  Your body adjusts to the activity so if you are doing 20 minutes of this same exercise everyday you are actually doing less benefit for your body over time.  A lot of people initially may have some decent results when they first start using the equipment because they are motivated and the initial adjustment period results in them losing a few pounds or inches.  In fact it probably is somewhat effective just long enough that you go past the 30 day money back guarantee stage, how convenient.  Then as time goes on people see less results, lose their motivation and the equipment either becomes a clothes hanger, lives under the bed for all eternity or gets thrown into the yard sale pile.  There must be huge money to be made feeding on the ignorance of the obese American public as these machines are advertised everywhere. 

Here is a secret, eat smaller amounts of food throughout the day. Take pause for a second before eating something.  If given a choice between carbs and protein, take the protein, be smart.  Never let your exercise program each week be the same as the week prior. Exercise like you have a reason to be there.  There ya go, the secret to weight loss and it won’t even cost you three easy payments of $49.95.

My mom called me last night to tell me that the nursing home called.  They said that my grandma was now on oxygen as she said she was unable to take deep breaths.  They also said she had lost 10 pounds in the last month.  Evidently her dementia/senility/Alzheimers is really bad too.  They said she sort of seems to be giving up, ready to move on.  It’s such a sad situation.  My grandma has had no quality of life for the last 10 years or so.  Now she basically is all alone since she can’t remember who she even is.  It is sad to say that better news would have been that grandma passed away peacefully in her sleep.  At least her misery could come to an end that way.   I can’t stress enough how much I don’t ever want to be in that situation. Kill me, please.

This weekend I would like to go back to the demolition derby although I’m not sure Ali shares my enthusiasm. We may have the neighbor over to check out the Wii, we gave him a quick preview last night and he thought it was too cool.  We may start trimming back the damaged plant life around the house.  I am hoping the fruit trees are ok.  Initially they didn’t look bad, now several of them have dropped tons of leaves.

Don’t have much more to add, maybe more later.

On the way home from the runners club meeting I noticed something seemed different as I was getting closer to our house on Immokalee Road.  Then it hit me, the street lights were on!  They were only turned on for the most eastern portion of the project but at least they were on.  It somehow made the drive feel different, almost like we magically moved closer to town.  They have been working on this damn project for 5 years.  It thankfully is supposed to wrap up sometime during 2008.  Luckily they have been opening up additional lanes as portions of the road are completed which pretty much alleviated the daily gridlock that made our commute hell for over a year.

At the runners meeting the club officially approved getting the RFID timing system.  They squarely placed the entire project on my lap.  I will be picking out and buying the equipment, setting it up and making it work.  I look forward to the challenge and dread it a bit at the same time.  Ali is a board member for the club, I am not.  The past two meetings I have been to have had quite a bit of loud verbal exchanges that make the whole environment uncomfortable.  Luckily the club president has the ability to roll with the flow and crack a few one liners to break the tension.