Back flack, Big Birds Win, Directv on the little tv

So even though my back was bothering me big time since Thursday I was determined it would clear up enough to the point where I would be able to play in the volleyball tournament on Sunday. Randall had texted me on Friday night asking if I wanted him to look for a sub based on the updates on my back issues. I told him I’d be ok.

Well when I woke up Saturday morning my back was still KILLING me. I realized that I was being stupid.  Even if I did play, I would suck.  I wouldn’t be able to move quickly, not to mention jumping. On top of that there was a high probability I would aggravate the condition where I could screw something up royally.  I mean WTF, this is lowly BB volleyball, not the Olympics.

So early Saturday morning I texted Randall and told him that maybe he should look for a sub.  He called me later in the morning to let me know he found someone to play and to check on my condition which I appreciated.  Unfortunately the report I got back from the beach wasn’t good, they didn’t make it out of pool play.

Ali was out on Saturday and one of her stops was Home Depot where she grabbed me a timer for the water heater.  The plan was to install the timer on the heater as part of our assault on our sky high electric bills.  However later in the weekend the plan was scuttled.  I had several reasons.

While I was looking up info on installing the timer I found an article that said if you had a water heater that was manufactured after 1996 it is already very efficient.  In fact some of the new heaters may run as little as two hours a day.  Well our heater is only a year old and is set to energy saving mode.  The potential lack of appreciable savings factored in as well as accessibility of the box. The heater is tucked behind the fridge in the garage and a set of wire shelves.  With the frequent loss of power we have down here there would be the need to reset the clock on the timer pretty often. Unless I relocated the box far away this would be a pain in the ass.  So I decided to scrub the project.  I did however change the  pool pump settings to run for three one hour sessions per day instead of one long 8 hour run.  It will be interesting to see if I notice any degradation in the pool water quality.

I spent some time on Saturday working on the new party van a bit.  I fixed a couple minor things and cleaned the interior up somewhat.  I experimented with the various electronics to see what worked and didn’t work.   The van has a shitty Audiovox stereo installed by the 2nd row of seats.  The radio has an analog tuner and a cassette tape deck.  It does have one cool thing, an AUX input.  This allows you to plug something like an Ipod into the port and then jack into the various overhead audio ports to listen to the audio throughout the van, pretty neat.  I pulled out the TV, I am not sure if it was ever actually used.  Unlike the VCR that is modified to run off a DC cigarette lighter plug, the TV was a regular tv with a regular AC plug.  When I tried plugging it into one of my DC to AC inverters it pulled way too much juice and would not turn on.  I just pulled the tv out since it would serve no purpose. 

While Ali was gone the dogs and I went for a quick ride.  It was hot and humid as hell on Saturday however the inside of the van with functioning front AND rear AC was like an ice box, I was very pleased.

Wow what an Eagles game.  When the game started with the Panthers going on a long scoring drive on their first possession I was thinking we were in for yet another poor defensive performance like we had seen for most of the pre-season.  Man did they ever turn things around.  Their defense started creating turnovers by the bunches and capitalized on most of them with points.  By the time they were done the Birds had rolled up a 38-10 ass beating on the Panthers.

This reminded me of the way they started last season with a beating of even greater magnitude laid on the Rams.  However there was a big difference this year.  The Rams SUCKED.  The Panthers had the best record in the NFC last year and were undefeated at home in the process.  For the Eagles to do what they did is VERY impressive.  Unfortunately there was a negative among all of the rainbows, Donovan is hurt again.  He broke a rib after getting cheap shotted on the way into the end zone.  His status is up in the air.  Even if Donovan does play, I don’t know how his play could not be affected.

Kevin Kolb came in after McNabb got hurt.  At first he looked pretty relaxed and efficient moving the team. However as time went on he looked less polished and made some bad plays.  I don’t know if a 100% healthy Kolb is better than a McNabb with broken ribs.  Perhaps pain killers and a flak jacket will be enough to allow McNabb to play.

I had a blow out huge fantasy football weekend as well.  I had the Eagles defense AND Drew Brees, both had HUGE days, scoring over 100 points between just the two of them.  I should have top point total for the week wrapped up which will ring me up a nifty $50 spiff.

On Saturday I reactivated the Directv Sunday ticket in prep for the game.  It is a ridiculously expensive $400 if you want the games in HD.  When I first started getting the ticket in 200 is was $200-$250. There are some very cool things you get for all that money though.  Last year you were able to log on through the internet and watch any game as well as get in depth stats for the fantasy football owners.  Well this year they added an app for the Iphone that rocks!  You can stream any Sunday Ticket game via the Iphone, get stats, watch just highlights and pause the action at anytime.  It is fantastic.  The video quality was surprisingly good of course I was connected via my home’s wireless network.  I don’t know how it would perform over 3G.  

Of course nothing compares to watching the game in brilliant HD on a 73 inch tv with surround sound.  It just looks so damn good.