Archives January 2010

So I was on a cardio machine at the gym.  I overhear an old fart to my right mutter “asshole…”  I immediately glance over to make sure the codger wasn’t trying to start something with me.  He is looking at the one tv that has CNN on.  Obama is speaking.  From behind me I heard another old fart say “Bullshit…..”  

The old guy to my right immediately reacts to “me too” and gets off his machine to collaborate with old fart number two.  They immediately go into a diatribe about Obama trading barbs.  I actually heard one of them say “He’s like Hitler, he keeps saying something enough until he believes it…” 

Hearing that immediately let me know I was listening to two idiots.  Anyone that would compare Obama to Hitler is an idiot, point blank.  I was very tempted to break my cardio session short and engage these old men, asking them to explain exactly what they meant and what exactly their issues were.  After doing some mental calculations I decided that it would accomplish nothing to do so except make a big scene, as things would surely escalate on both sides of the argument.  I decided to just keep plugging along after looking over my shoulder to get a better look at what these old men looked like.

I listened to them continue the bitch session with it finally winding up with “God help us…”  I can’t help but to assume that these men have no problem using the N word in familiar circles.  I just got that feeling.

Tomorrow is the 4th Annual Run for the Paws, the race Ali started to help benefit the local Humane Society.  We are ahead of last years pace for registrants, right now there are just about 500 people signed up.  Last year we had about 100 less at this point.  Everything seems to be a go. 

The only issue we have is the finish line placement.  This year the race is a 5K instead of a 6K so the finish line has shifted to a point on a sidewalk.  The timing mats will fit on the sidewalk just fine but the normal finish structure that we construct out of ladders will not work well because of uneven grass on either side.  We have the option to finish in a nearby parking lot but doing so would require a sharp u-turn right before the finish and would wind up crowding the area where all of the food and post race festivities will be taking place.

The rain that is forecast for tomorrow looks like it will hold off until later in the day.  We anticipate that tomorrow will be the biggest turn out yet.  It will be exhausting and stressful but very rewarding in the end.  It’s all about helping out the animals at the Humane Society.

Ali is following up organizing a race with running one the following day.  She is leaving Saturday evening for Miami to run in the half marathon over there with her friends.  Leading up to and immediately following the Naples Half Marathon neither Ali or myself would think there would be any possibility of her running in the Miami event two weeks later due to her knee issues.  However Ali had surprisingly few issues in her recovery from her first half marathon and knock on wood, feels good to go.  The race starts at an ungodly early 6:15 am. 

Randall and Jeremy are coming over tonight.  They are both going to be helping with the race, Randall doing whatever needs to be done and Jeremy shooting pictures of the event.  We also are using this as an opportunity to conduct a 300 challenge between Randall and Jeremy.  I originally was supposed to be included in the challenge but was derailed by my skin cancer removal procedure.

It should be an interesting event.  Neither competitor is exactly in fighting shape although Randall has dropped some weight to assist in events like the pull ups.  I plan to video the event which will surely be an epic battle.  I hope to do a few of the exercises.  I am less concerned about ripping the stitches now since the area is only going to be cut open again.

Speaking of the stitches, Ali noticed last night that a couple of my stitches have gone MIA.  I don’t recall doing anything that would have caused them to break.  I assume I have some of the stitch still buried in my skin, neato.

Along with the 300 challenge there is also extensive Wii competitions scheduled along with a generous amount of beer drinking.  It should be a real knee slapper.

Better said than I ever could.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703652104574652302347556392.html

So Apple officially introduced their next “big” thing, the Ipad.  I watched some of the demo video and to be honest, I don’t get it.

To me it just appears to be little more than a super sized Iphone.  It’s too big to throw in your pocket and too small and too limited to have the functionality of a regular laptop or even a netbook.  I think Apple has swung and missed on this one.  The thing starts at $500 for cripes sake. No thanks.

I didn’t watch the state of the union address last night but evidently a lot of my conservative FB friends did as I saw their ranting as I scrolled through the site this morning.  Most of the ranting went something like this “I can’t stand listening to this guy, hi is a no good, lying, liar, liar, liar!”  Ok I would like to address some of this with some questions instead of answers.

Health care.  The health care debate has taken center stage and I have already said I am not happy with what it has turned into.  However let me just focus on the core of the issue, should Americans be entitled to health care? 

Obviously there are many out there that the answer is a resounding NO.  I would like to ask these people if they also view existing government “entitlement” programs like social security, medicare/medicaid, food stamps, and unemployment benefits as equally heinous?  Should old people that neglected to adequately plan for their financial future be thrown into the gutters?  Should people laid off by businesses to pad their bottom line be left to sink since they didn’t have an adequate nest egg to survive such an event?  Of course to answer yes to any of these questions would be crazy yet the same crazy premise is being applied to the health care question. 

Hell that’s almost as crazy as uncapping the limits on what corporations can spend to buy elections. Oh wait, that just happened.

I’ve heard people saying that Obama should no longer be blaming the cluster f he inherited from 8 years of George Bush.  After all it’s been a whole entire year since Bush slinked away from office.   Surely in today’s world of instant, I want it yesterday agendas Obama should have been enable to wipe the slate clean, fixed all of the wrongs and set America sailing down a path lined by rainbows and framed in white fluffy clouds.  Of course again, that is pure lunacy.

Mr Liar, Mr big stinky liar.  I would like examples of the lies that Obama has told.  The most common example I hear is the lack of transparency in the health care reform process.  The bill failed to follow the guidelines that Obama hoped all legislation would once he became president.  Instead it fell into the same muck of secret deals, compromise and bullshit that all legislation has for the past half century.

If anything Obama is guilty of thinking his resounding popularity after he got elected would immediately wilt the will of the legislative branch to change their carved in stone ways.  Critics of Obama seem to think it’s reasonable that he should be able to exert his will on Congress and make them basically do what he asks.  Of course it doesn’t work that way.  There is a reason the legislative and executive branches of government are distinctly separate.  One has no absolute control over the other.  Obama can not force Congress to do a damn thing. 

If you compare where we were a year ago with the financial system collapsing, the stock market imploding and the economy in free fall, there is no question we are on more stable ground today.  Obama ran into a building that had a four alarm fire going on.  Although the fire is still burning, it at least is partially under control.

I guess the biggest question of all is if you are part of the problem or part of the solution? 

There is no denying it is now in vogue to be negative about anything Obama says or does.  Human beings get reassurance from “me too”.  Maybe the lesson learned is people really don’t want to change after all, pass the cheese fries.

Last night after work I thought I would put the 30 minutes of remaining daylight to work.  I went outside still in my work clothes and replaced the decking on the one of the two sets of small steps I made years ago outside the lanai doors.  Just like the dog deck, the wood was in pretty poor condition.  Replacing it with Trex looks much better and will hold up for years to come.  I only had time to do the one set of steps, hopefully I can do the other side tonight.

The BSG spin off series, Caprica started last week.  If you are a BSG fan I am pretty sure you will dig this series as well.  I think this will have more story and less action than BSG but at least from the pilot I had a real good feeling about the show.  It seems like they did a real good job in casting.  Set up your Tivo. Just like BSG there are many layers of meaning in Caprica.  It will entertain you, touch you and make you think.

I forgot that I never posted the few pictures I took from Christmas.  I combined them with some pictures I took of our cold ravaged landscape as well as some shots of the projects from the weekend.  See it all here.

Ali felt bad for me when I told her about my having to go right back under the knife for the skin cancer shit.  She made a point of trying to get home as early as possible to make me a nice supper. She could tell I was pretty bummed out about the whole deal. She does a good job of taking care of me.

People have heard me rail on endlessly about the obesity epidemic in our country.  I also have preached the ignorance of lazy people turning to surgery instead of a lifestyle change as a way to jump ahead in line of the weight loss process.  If a person is unwilling to reform their thought processes that caused them to become sloths, a surgeons knife isn’t going to fix anything long term.

It’s a hard lesson for many people to learn, especially in a society where quick fixes and immediate gratification have become the norm.  Many people never learn and instead continue to spiral downward, becoming an increasing burden to both society in terms of the massive medical costs they generate and themselves in terms of negative self image which has a myriad of damaging side effects.

It’s a sad phenomenon which is becoming far too commonplace.  Just take a look around you in any public setting.

Since I  just had my shoulder cut into on Tuesday I was supposed to still be very careful with my physical activity so I don’t inadvertently rip the sutures. (not that it matters now, more later) So the first two days after the surgery I laid low, skipped the gym, etc.  Friday I went back to the gym and had no major issues.  This weekend I restricted my activity by painting the front concrete deck, cleaning out the shed/garage, and redecking the outside deck.  How’s that for restricted?  Yes I did more than you would expect only a few days after surgery but the good news is I only did it because the wound felt fine, it must be healing well.

It was a pretty exhausting weekend.  I wanted to repaint the front deck to match the trim that was repainted last year.  This also was in anticipation of getting the front door landing screened in.  I used the same concrete/stucco paint that I used on the trim.  This is special paint that has an elastic agent that allows it to stretch. 

To prepare the area I cleaned it off with the pressure washer and allowed it to dry.  Then I used my little roller seat to sit on as I painted the concrete with a combination of brush and roller.  I didn’t worry much about the line between the wall and the pad since repainting the outside of the house is also on the to do list.

Getting the first coat on wasn’t bad.  Applying a second coat was more of a challenge since I didn’t want to stand on it.  Instead I was on my hands and knees besides the pad reaching as far as my gorilla length arms would reach.  I got it done although it wasn’t without ample amounts of grunting and groaning.

I noticed that the monthly cleaning project for January was the shed.  We have been doing a piss poor job of adhering to the monthly cleaning project initiative that ironically was implemented by Ali a couple years ago.  If I don’t initiate the cleaning project it hasn’t been happening. 

So anyway I pulled stuff out of the shed and swept it out.  The project morphed into something even bigger as I migrated some more items that formerly resided in the garage to the sheds as well.  Slowly I have been emptying out the garage so it will have the space necessary to house two vehicles in it eventually. COUGH, CAMARO, COUGH

Anyway these projects ate up the majority of the remaining daylight hours. Saturday night we just drilled through some material on Tivo.

Sunday was another busy and even more laborious day.  We agreed to get the material to address another item on the “list”, redoing the outside deck.  The decking was very beat (on the one side) from the 5 or so years in the harsh Florida conditions.  My goal for awhile had been to replace the deck with the plastic composite “lumber” made by Trex.  I’m sure you have seen this decking in the home superstores.  If you happened to see it you may have also seen the price tag, the stuff is VERY expensive, at least double if not close to triple the cost of pressure treated lumber of the same size.

The advantage of Trex is it should basically last forever.  It won’t splinter, crack or rot over time.  As time has gone on, I find that I am more inclined to spend more money for materials that don’t wear out as opposed to something I have to redo every few years.  The less maintenance the better as far as I’m concerned.

While we were at Home Depot in addition to seventeen 12 foot sections of Trex we also loaded up with various other items that loaded down the Tacoma to the max.  The 12 foot sections hung way out beyond the tailgate and bounced in a way that did give me much reassurance.  Luckily we managed to get everything home without anything falling/blowing out the back.

Replacing the deck wasn’t technically difficult, it just involves cutting and screwing, lots of screwing.  By the time I got done my hands were raw from driving a couple hundred screws in with the power drill.  The screws they use for composite lumber have a stupid square socket.  They provide you a custom bit to use.  It strips out way too easily.  I would have much preferred a star or even a phillips head pattern.  I had to keep the majority of my weight on top of the drill to keep it from stripping the head.

I finished up as sunset was approaching.  Ali set up the two new cheap chairs and table we bought on the deck.  I enjoyed a beer as we sat there with the dogs watching the sky start to light up.  Ali and I were both very happy the way the deck turned out.  Hopefully we get some more use out of it now.

Sunday night I watched the Vikings/Saints game.  The game lived up to it’s billing.  There was a lot of action including a TON of mistakes.  I could not believe how many fumbles went down.  However the mistakes on both sides balanced out and the game was tied at 28 with a couple minutes to go.  The Vikings got the ball and promptly marched down the field.

They were within long field goal range.  Brett Farve who took a beating the entire game had the ball on third down.  He was flushed out to his right.  He had an easy 10 yards of open space in front of him that he could have run for.  Instead he committed the cardinal sin of quarterbacks, he threw back across his body. This bonehead move resulted in a crushing interception, squandering a golden opportunity for the Vikings to win the game.

The game went to OT, the Saints won the toss and promptly scored, game over.  The game seemed strangely familiar to 2007 when Farve threw a back snapping INT against the Giants in the NFC Championship which also lead to his team’s demise.

I felt weird about seeing Farve go down in flames once again.  Part of me was cheering for the old guy to complete what would be a fairytale season. However there was another, bigger part of me that was glad to see Farve fail after all of his ridiculous retirement / unretirement soap opera.  I lost a ton of respect for him these last couple years as a result.  I’m sure once again the bullshit will start back up all over again, will he return or not….

So this morning I had an unpleasant trip to the dentist.  The dentist has declared that it is time for my old silver fillings to come out as there was decay under one of them.  Well today I was scheduled to have two more popped out and replaced with composite fillings.

I didn’t have the normal female dentist I prefer, instead I had another female dentist that was brought in a few years ago to help with the workload.  Well I think in the future I am going to insist on seeing only MY preferred dentist.

I’ve had a few of these fillings replaced before and it was a painless process.  Today was not.  I don’t know if this woman is not as adept at administering Novocaine or is just rougher with a drill but there were several times I was squeezing the arms of the chair, HARD.  It was not a fun time.  The great news is I have another 4 or 5 that are scheduled to be replaced yet.

When I got back to the office I got even more great news.  There was a message from the dermatologist office to call them.  The woman tells me that the sample of skin that was sent out revealed that all of the cancer was not taken out. Although I knew what this meant I repeated it to the woman, “So this means I have to get the same area cut into again??” Yep. I hung up as I though to myself , “Well that f’ing sucks.”

I was excited that my wound was healing quickly.  Now it didn’t mean shit since it was all going to happen again in a few weeks. Plus it was a bit worrisome that with as much flesh as he took out he still didn’t get all of the cancer.  Needless to say I’m not a happy camper right now.

So last last week the check engine light came on in the Tacoma and stayed on.  This typically never means anything good.  The truck was still working just fine but I figured since I had a couple gymless days I would schedule an appointment to get it looked at yesterday.

I got a call mid-morning saying an O2 sensor was bad, the one that is on the exhaust manifold.   He rattled off the various parts of the repair, including the oil change I was going to have them do while it was in there.  He didn’t give me a grand total but I roughly came up with like $375 in my head, sheesh.

I was a bit annoyed as he rattled of some of the line items, for example that they were charging me a separate $95 to run diagnostics which means they plugged into the truck computer and got back a code, something that took 5 minutes at most.  While I was on the phone they also mentioned that the pressure readings on some of the injectors was a bit low for which they recommended an injector cleaner service for the low low price of only $175.  I laughed inside at the ridiculous number while I told them no thanks.  I’ll buy a $5 bottle of injector cleaner and dump it in the tank.

When I picked up the truck the bill came out to $425.  Since my early figuring wasn’t done on a calculator and since taxes weren’t in there I didn’t really feel like going over the bill in detail.  Let’s just say I left there with the feeling I was bent over a bit.  I guess these things are going to start popping up with a 10 year old vehicle with nearly 110k on the odometer.

So the past couple days I have not been going to the gym over lunch.  It has felt odd not working out over lunch.  I have used the lunch hours to run some errands.

Yesterday Ali stopped by so we could go apply for our passports.  Passports you say? My dad has been talking for a couple years about taking a big family vacation to Ireland.  To me it seems like it is his idea of one last big family thing before he retires firmly into his golden years.

Now of course trying to coordinate the schedules and lives of so many people is a rather monumental task, hence the reason this has drug on for a few years.  The invitation has been made to all of my siblings and their family to embark on this epic journey  It is unknown exactly how many will actually participate, including Ali and myself.  We got our passports because it’s a good thing to have regardless. 

There a couple negatives about the trip.  Anyone that knows my dad knows he is a bit eccentric.  I can easily see this trip turning into another National Lampoon Vacation installment.  Being in close quarters with people you are not used to living in close quarters with, even relatives, for that length of time is sure to generate some degree of conflict on various fronts.  However the biggest concern Ali and I have are the dogs.  Kennelling them for that period of time is pretty much out of the question.  I think the only way we could swing it is if I could cajole my mom to staying out at our house while we are gone.  Since she now has her job back that means she would have to commute from our place to work during that time period.  I know she will cringe when she reads this.  Hopefully I can bribe her somehow.  We’ll see.

I’ve never had any burning desire to travel overseas but I can appreciate the stupidity of not taking advantage of an opportunity to do so if someone is willing to pick up the majority of the tab.  Life is all about experiences anyway.

So anyway to get our passport we had to go to a brand new building in the government complex.  This building was planned and started when the county was living high on the hog on sky high property valuations.  The place is massive and adorned with the best of everything.  Walking in there with the present reality of tight budgets, layoffs and various financial problems makes you instantly think “excessive” as you walk through the place.

When we went into the area for passports that excessive theme continued.  The space they had was ridiculous.  There was enough room for three times the amount of people that they had there.  A counter that was 100 feet long was stationed with two or three clerks.  Every clerk had a computer monitor on their desk that looked like a flat screen tv, they were HUGE.  Everywhere you looked it become more and more apparent why the county is scrambling for dollars now. 

We had a health fair the other day.  I heard one employee mention that she had a cholesterol screening done and it showed her numbers were high.  When she relayed that info to her husband he said “eh they just want to sell you pills”  Although I don’t totally disagree with that stance, I think the big point is totally being missed. 

I agree that many doctors are far too eager to fix problems that could be remedied with a change in diet and exercise with pills instead.  Doctors are incentivized to push meds.  IMO they are doing their patients a huge disservice by not encouraging them to treat the source of their symptoms instead of the symptoms themselves. When someone gets test results that show bad numbers it should be a sign it’s time to finally do something themselves about their health instead of relying on a pill or procedure to do it for them.

A few weeks ago Ali brought home a black light.  A black light can be used for many things, one of which is to see otherwise invisible excrement stains on carpet.  Ali brought it home for us to inspect areas that Spook used as a litter box since we still had some issues with smell in those rooms.  Well last night Ali turned off the lights in the main living area and walked around with the light.  She called me out to see. 

As we walked the house the light exposed countless spots on the carpet, it was crazy.  Despite my regular vacuuming and shampooing of the carpet, it evidently has not removed all remains of the abuse our pets have subjected it to over the years.  Seeing that mess wanted me to immediately replace all of the carpet although a replacement would surely be subjected to similar abuse. 

I plan to end my two day gym hiatus today.  I will stick to legs, abs and cardio.  My incision seems to be healing pretty well.  There have only been a few times that I moved my arm in a manner where I could feel some pulling in the wound.

This weekend I have various things planned to do since the following weekend will be swallowed up by the Run for the Paws and Jeremy and Randall’s visit.

I was astonished when I read the headline that the supreme court overturned a decision that limited the amount of money corporations and unions could contribute to political campaigns.  Not only can they throw as much money as they want at a candidate to buy his favor, they can also run whatever ads they want right up until election day.

Now the conservative judges that slammed this through hid behind free speech, saying that it was unfair to limit these groups from expressing their political ideas monetarily.  Of course the reality is this is simply another weapon to allow big business to simply buy any political favor they deem worthwhile.  It disgusts me, seriously. It’s a blatant purely partisan move that again demonstrates how Washington DC is always for sale, even if you sit on the Supreme Court.

So I had the skin cancer cut out yesterday.  It’s never exactly a fun time but I am pretty used to the procedure by now.  The worst part is the injection of the numbing stuff.  It sort of feels like liquid fire is being injected into your skin for a few seconds.  I did not look as the doctor carved open my shoulder like a turkey.  Although there is no real pain there are a lot of weird sensations as you feel your skin getting cut away and subsequently tied back together.  The stitches below the skin felt particularly weird as they were pulled tight.  It felt like someone was pulling shoelaces together.  The entire procedure was over in around 20 minutes.

As the night went on and the numbing went away I started to feel the wound a bit.  At times it was hard to tell if the discomfort was from the cut or from the super glue strength tape that was pulling at my skin.  I was given 3 Vicodin if I needed them but I don’t plan on popping them.  The pain isn’t bad enough to warrant it.  I’ll keep those for a rainy day when I want to “party”. 🙂 

I got a clarification as far as my exercise restrictions go.  They recommended I lay low for a couple days before doing anything.  After that, lower body and cardio exercise should be ok but anything that stretches that area is off limits until the stitches come out in two weeks.  Basically almost any upper body work is out.  It will be cool to switch up my program for a couple weeks, it’s a good thing to do anyway.

I got an excited call from my mom yesterday, she is getting her job back, sort of.  Evidently business has picked up enough that the store wants mom to come back part time, roughly 32 hours a week.  They will be paying her a salary plus commission but no benefits.  Except for no insurance, it really is a great fit.  Mom already knows the job and part time actually works better for her since she has just started receiving social security benefits.

I think most importantly of all, it will get mom back out into the world and out of the condo.  She was feeling rather worthless sitting home with little more than to do than read and hang out with old ladies at the community pool.  I’m excited for her.

So a republican was voted in to replace Kennedy in the senate.  Evidently it is the first time since the early 70’s that a republican has held that spot.  Obviously this is a loud and clear sign that people aren’t happy with how things are going.

I’ve made my thoughts known about how things are going a few times.  Obviously the Obama ship has sprung a few leaks and to be honest, I can understand why to a degree.  Although I still think Obama is a very compelling, intelligent and thoughtful leader I also think he has smashed into the reality of both what was left for him to clean up as well as the quagmire which is Washington DC politics.

Pre-election he went on endlessly regarding getting us the F out of Iraq (and hopefully Afghanistan)  This has proven to be the ultimate catch 22.  He is f’d if he does and f’d if he doesn’t.  This wasn’t his cluster f but if he tries to pull us out and things immediately revert to chaos (which they will) it’s his fault.  If he leaves our troops in there indefinitely he fails on his campaign promise.

The health care bill is a huge mess.  What in theory should be a very simple concept, people should be entitled to health care, has mutated into a very ugly, concession riddled piece of bloatware which even I can’t get behind. Obama has tried to stress the positives of this bill which there are many but you simply can’t ignore all of the bullshit that has been loaded on top of it.

It is the reality of the political process in modern America.  It no longer matters what is right and what is wrong.  What matters is how much money you have and who you throw it at to get what you want. 

I have heard much joy and jubilation from many conservatives today about the huge victory in Massachussetts.  Yay!  We get to enjoy more status quo!  Me first, f you, God bless America!