Archives July 2011

I totally forgot to mention the latest Eagles news.  First of all they completed the long rumored trade of Kevin Kolb to Arizona.  From all accounts they got good value for their former QB of the future, scoring a high level defensive back to throw out there opposite Asante Samuel.  They also obtained a 2nd round draft pick.  Of course this means that all of the eggs are now firmly in Michael Vick’s basket.  I have mixed feelings about the situation.

First off I don’t think Kolb ever get a real shot to establish himself in Philly.  He was knocked out of the very first game after one half of disappointing play.  After that he never was allowed to resume his role as THE QB because of Vick’s surprising good play.  When Vick was hurt later in the year Kolb had some very good games.  I wish him success in Arizona.

With Vick I do not feel quite as optimistic as many of the bandwagon types do for two reasons.  First off Vick and his scrambling style, while exciting to watch is also a recipe for injury, especially as Vick is now moving towards his mid 30’s, he isn’t a kid anymore.

Second, at the end of last year Vick struggled much more.  Teams figured out how to beat him, basically overwhelm him with pressure.  Now if the Eagles O-line is improved this year maybe this won’t be as large of a problem but I will have to see it to believe it.  I still remember just how ordinary Vick looked in several games.

The Eagles appear to be flushing their special teams core and I am not quite sure why.  They did not offer David Akers and Sav Rocca new contracts.  Akers was promptly snapped up by the 49ers.  I don’t really get it.  Both players had good seasons last year.  Sure there were spots when Akers missed a few easy kicks that could have swung a game or two and Rocca was prone to mixing in a few shanks along with his booming punts.  I can only assume this was all about money.

I was also surprised that the Eagles weren’t offering a contract to Stewart Bradley, whom they proclaimed as THE answer at middle linebacker last year.  He had some injuries last year but I am curious what exactly reversed their outlook on him so dramatically?

As far as personnel moves go, the Eagles have a pretty amazing track record of making the right move (except arguably in draft picks).  There have been many times when they cut or didn’t resign players where I was questioning the move only to be proven later that in retrospect it was the right thing to do.

Yesterday I left work early to meet up the with the people delivering the new mower from Sears.  Up until this point I was impressed with the communication regarding the purchase/delivery.  I had been contacted 2 or 3 times to verify everything was in order.

I received a message Wednesday night that the delivery window was from 1:15 to 3:15 on Thursday.  A little after noon I received another message that the delivery guy was actually ahead of schedule.  I called the delivery guy and let him know I was planning to be home around 1 but I would leave immediately.

When I pulled up to the house the delivery truck was already in front of my house and the tractor was sitting at the end of the driveway.  I did a walk around of the tractor as the guy was organizing the load in his truck to make sure there was no transit damage.  Everything looked great to me.

The driver pushed the tractor up into the garage for me.  He said all it needs is gas and you are good to go.  If I wasn’t so rushed I may have tried to make sure I had some cash to tip the guy but all I had was a $20 bill so all he got was a firm handshake and a promise to rate him highly when I get the phone survey regarding the delivery.

After the guy left I admired the new tractor some more.  A few things stood out as noticeable.  First the tractor has very wide rear tires, considerably wider than what is on the Cub Cadet.  Who doesn’t like fat tires?  The mower deck design looked pretty smart.  The blade pulleys are mounted in an elevated position from the deck, leaving at least 6 inches between the pulley and the deck surface.  This is in contrast to the Cub where the pulley is right above the deck and as a result becomes constantly clogged with grass in short order.

I also liked the way it handles mowing reverse.  With my Cub Cadet you could NOT mow in reverse unless you weren’t willing to McGyver your tractor.  I actually disabled a switch to enable it.  With the Craftsman tractor all you have to do is move the key to a secondary position once the tractor is on to enable backwards mowing.  This is a much better way to do it.

I read later that the mowing deck actually has a wash port.  After you are done mowing you attach a hose to a fitting on the deck to blast out the crud underneath, keeping the area free of debris for maximum efficiency, how slick.  The tractor looked physically bigger than the Cub even though it sports the same 42″ cutting deck.

I needed gas for the tractor so I loaded up the girls and filled up two of my 5 gallon containers.  By the time I got back I was surprised to see Truly Nolen was there, they were early as well for their pest control appointment.

So I gassed up the tractor and had at it.  There were some minor control differences from the Cub.  Instead of an electric PTO clutch you actuate the blades with a big handle.  The accelerator and reverse pedals are 2 separate things in the Craftsman mower instead of one in the Cub.

Immediately I noticed the huge jump in power.  The tractor ripped through high grass like nothing and shot grass out the side chute like a submachine gun.  I could pretty much mow as fast as I wanted to go.  This tractor also has an 8 inch turning radius which allowed me to pull off new moves I previously could not do before.  I mowed the entire property, some of which had high and thick grass, in record time.

Ironically I also received the parts to fix the Cub Cadet.  After I got done mowing with the new tractor, I pulled the old tractor into the garage to complete the repairs.  After I put the new pulley on I gave the Cub a bath to prepare it for sale on Craigslist.  It never hurts your bottom line to clean something up before you sell it.  I told Ali after using the Craftsman I wouldn’t want to use the Cub anyway.  Plus it will be nice to get a few hundred bucks to offset the cost of the new tractor.

After I got done outside I jumped in the pool to do some tethered swimming.  The first time I tried tethered swimming I couldn’t last more than a couple minutes at a time.  I did something like 15-16 minutes of tethered swimming and I probably could have done more.  It really is a good way to train for open water swimming since it is non-stop effort with no wall pushing every 25-50 meters.

Yesterday at work I saw a tiny baby anole lizard in the warehouse.  It couldn’t have been much more than an inch and half long.. I knew if it stayed inside it would die in short order so I corralled it in my hands.  As soon as I got it in my hands it stiffened up and looked like it died.  I thought perhaps I gave the little thing a heart attack.  I carried it outside with my palm upright as it laid there, motionless.  When I got outside I gave it a couple bumps to see if it was just playing dead.  Luckily it was as he moved an arm.  I put him in the mulch under a bush.  I am awaiting a comment from Randy Romero.

You may recall that I was stuck forever on the Vulcan level of Tower Defense: Lost Earth Iphone game.  I resorted to looking for help on the internet to get by this level that seemed impossible.  Finally by using some advice and a picture of a recommended tower layout and then expanding upon it I got by the hellish level.  It was pretty smooth sailing until I got to the final level where again I ran into repeated failures.  I eventually managed to figure out a strategy on my own to get by it.  The game is officially beaten although I may go through it again on the harder level on Ali’s Ipad.  It will be a good way to pass the time on the airplane.

This weekend Ali has another massive training run to undertake, 17 miles this time.  I am again going to be her support team.  I am going to be exclusively on the bike this time.  Running with water is a pain in the ass.  I am planning to have my bike loaded up with water as well as donning a back back to carry more H2O.  We are going to get out there before the sun rises to both beat the heat and get the damn thing over with. I figure if I want to get my own running in I could do it as part of a Sunday brick.

This weekend Ali and I hope to dedicate some time to mapping out our NYC/Ireland trip a bit more.  We have a lot of sources of info to go through.  Ali is very good at getting the details lined up when it comes to travel.

Donovan McNabb will be playing for his 3rd team in 3 years after being traded from the Redskins yesterday.  Once again the Eagles look like freaking geniuses in terms of knowing exactly when to get rid of veteran players.  They got a 2nd and 4th round pick when they traded him.  All the Skins could manage was a 6th rounder for McNabb.

I’ve said it before, as a hardcore Eagles fan I get a twisted sense of satisfaction that the curtain has been pulled back on McNabb a bit.  People used to think we were crazy for complaining about him at times, despite the good W-L record.  He isn’t clutch and he never will be.

Yesterday we got our third or fourth robocall from our douchebag governor, Rick Scott.  The message was translated by the Vonage voice translation service which automatically attempts to transcribe voicemails so you can just read them in your email.  The mistakes it makes in the transcription make me laugh sometimes.  Here is what it thought it heard Ricky say.

“Hi, this is governor Rick Scott calling again to share some more encouraging news letter every to turn the state’s economy around and get for ready and back to work. The lace employment figures around and despite a ride to the national unemployment rate we can tell you about that Trent pretty more new jobs here in Florida since the beginning of the year. We’ve created 85,502 jobs. And well, eight, 5500 new jobs for all lot of jobs. They’re still too many of our spell for you, how to work, that’s why I’m focused, each and everyday I’m making Florida. The best place in the country to do business and I won’t rest until we get Florida back to work. Thank you for your time. Paid for by the Republican Party of Florida”

85,000 jobs huh? That math is as fuzzy as it gets.  What governor has approval ratings so low that they pester constituents with robocalls 6 months into their term? Unreal. This has to be a first.

Last night I headed outside for another outdoor work out session.  I had no set agenda going into it.  I wound up doing work on the rings, parallel bars and the ground.

The highlights of the workout included my best handstand effort ever that I held for at least 5 seconds and a brief press planche on the parallel bars. The lowlight was when I was trying to transfer my hands from the bars to the 4×4 supports. I missed getting my one hand in place properly and the end result was my left shin smashing into the corner of the wood.  You can hear the impact clear as day on the tape.

My leg immediately started to bleed but I didn’t bother with it.  By the time the workout was done I had blood on my sneakers as well as all over the front of my shin.  When I took a shower later in the night I noticed I had a HUGE bruise on the front of my shin as well from the impact.

Today the new tractor is scheduled to be delivered.  I will be going home this afternoon to meet the delivery guys.  I plan to waste no time before putting the new tractor to work, all the grass I didn’t get to when the Cub broke down is looking mighty shaggy.

So I listed my spare Kinect hardware on Craigslist late last week and received zero calls until Sunday.  I received a call from a person named “Jules”.  If I were to go strictly off my communication on the phone I would imagine Jules was a pimply faced teenager that is a bit of a recluse.  His verbal skills made mine look presidential.

Anyway Jules said he wanted to buy my Kinect but not on Sunday, he said he would stop out around 6 on Monday, he lived in a development that is less than 10 minutes away. Well 6 o’clock came and went last night with no contact from Jules.  I didn’t really even think about it.  Based on our prior conversation I didn’t put much stock in his interest.

So as I am starting my pre-bed routine around 9pm my phone rings, it’s Jules. “Uh is it too late for me to come buy the Kinect?”  I said it was ok since he lived nearby.  So after finishing up my duties I paced the house, awaiting a pair of headlights to pull into our driveway.  Well 9:30 came and still no sign of Jules, I was now annoyed.

I call him back.  Jules answers and immediately says “Uh yea, can I get the Kinect tomorrow?”  I said no, that I wasn’t interested in selling it to him anymore and hung up.  What a dipshit.

I am surprised I haven’t gotten more interest in my spare Kinect hardware.  I’d hate to have to resort to putting it on Ebay.  It’s funny that now Ebay seems like such a pain in the ass to do business on now despite me literally selling hundreds of items on there in the past. I hate their RCI-like, “fee you to death” policies.

It has been a slow period at work.  There isn’t anything major going on this time of year and since I have most things set up in a way that requires little maintenance I have had some long days.  Of course I could be trying to innovate some aspect of the process but not receiving any COLA for 3 years and then following that up with a cut in pay has a way of letting all the wind out of the sails of ambition.

Our trip to NYC and Ireland are going to be here before I know it.  Yesterday I did some research on the power layout in Ireland.  It became quickly obvious that I needed to be taking an adapter with me if I want to do stuff like use American electronics over there since they use a 220 volt system running at 50 hertz.  I found a combo adapter/transformer for $30 that should fit the bill.

I also need to make SURE that any Iphone data usage over there is via WI-FI only.  Failure to do so could result in MONUMENTAL cell phone bills waiting for me back home when we return.

I am sure this is only the start of what will be an increasingly stressful lead up to the trip.  There are a lot of details to make sure are buttoned up, not to mention the social dynamics which will surely take place during the excursion.

So last night Ali actually was home before me which was a pleasant surprise.  She was getting ready to hop on her bike trainer.  I figured I would head outside with my new rope and try setting it up.  I threw it over the high bar, evened up the ends and started twisting.  When I got to the bottom I wrapped a zip tie around the rope to keep it from unraveling.

I put on my gloves that have little rubber grip dots all over them and grabbed hold of the rope.  I got up in the air but my hands immediately started to slip.  I gave it a couple more tries with similar results, damn it.  Although nylon is a good choice to stand up to outdoor conditions, it apparently isn’t a great choice if you want to be able to actually hold onto it.

I unraveled the rope and put it in the garage for a rainy day, bummer.  Jesse, a friend of Jeremy’s that has a lot of body weight exercise background suggested wrapping the nylon rope with something like hockey tape.  I suspect the tape would have a difficult time adhering to the rope as well but it might be worth a shot.

After my rope fail I decided to do my mini-work out outside.  A quick 10 minute session had me sweating through my shirt.

When I returned inside I worked on a small project that had been on my mind for awhile.  I wanted to pull off the shower head in our bathroom.  For awhile we have had an issue with one of the two stages in the shower head not delivering much water.  I suspected that perhaps something was clogging the feed for that stage.

So armed with my new big ass slip joint pliers I took the shower head off and took it apart.  I didn’t see any obvious blockage but I still dumped some bleach into the guts of it to possibly dissolve anything that could have been hidden from view.

After rinsing out the bleach I returned to our bathroom and started putting the shower head back together.  As I was attaching the one head I plopped the big pliers on a fitting to make sure it was good and tight.  Without applying much pressure at all I heard a disheartening “snap”.  A plastic portion of the fitting snapped, essentially trashing the shower head. Argh.

I told Ali of my error.   We decided that after dinner we would do something unconventional for a Monday night, head to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get a new shower head.   I let Ali take the lead as far as picking out the replacement.  As long as it had a detachable shower head I was fine with it.

While we were there I wandered over to the area where they sell their outdoor chairs.   I was looking for caps for our chaise lounge we bought at BBB last year.  After I bought the lounges I discovered one of them was missing the little plastic inserts for the bottom of the front legs.  As a result, after a year the bare metal is starting to leave rust stains on the pool deck.

A store employee walked by and asked if I needed help.  I told him I was looking for the inserts for these lounges, that mine was missing them.  He said he had to quickly do something and then he would be back.  To be honest I was skeptical if he would even return but I mulled about in the area for a few minutes giving him a chance to actually return.

Well he did come back and he was carrying a pair of scissors, weird.  Imagine my surprise when he lifts up one of the lounges in the store and uses the scissors to pry two of the caps out.  He hands them to me and says “here you go”.  Wow, that was nice.  He told me that he also has been able to find similar caps at Lowe’s in the past.  I thanked him genuinely for his effort.  When someone goes above and beyond in the retail environment it is very noticeable because it happens so infrequently.

While we were driving to the store I was talking to Ali about the neighbor situation.  I asked Ali if she wanted to be involved when I tell the neighbor about my plans to call animal services.  I had called their office earlier in the day to get some information.

Although the dogs housing arrangement does not violate county code, nuisance barking can be acted upon.  Basically they come out to the person’s house, inspect the situation the animals are in and issue a warning about the barking.  From that point it is the animal owner’s responsibility to address the issue.  If subsequent complaints are filed there is the possibility of fines eventually being levied and even the eventual removal of the animals.

I told Ali I planned to tell the neighbor about my plan of action sooner rather than later but I wanted to see if she wanted to be involved in the communication process.  I have no problem telling her myself but depending on the reaction I get from the neighbor, things could get ugly.  I have so much built up frustration about the situation that all it will take is a little spark to ignite me.

Ali said that she agrees the situation has to be addressed but at the same time she hates the idea that our relationship with our neighbor which is already distant at best will now be permanently mutated into a confrontational situation once I deliver my edict without a smile.  I asked Ali what her preference would be?

Ali said that if it was up to her, perhaps she would invite the neighbor to lunch to talk about it in that environment.  I told Ali that was fine with me, although I would not be part of the lunch.  I told Ali to feel free to play good cop, bad cop.  I have no issue with Ali playing the peacemaker, saying “Listen, my husband is about ready to blow things up between us.  We need to do something about this.”

I am willing to let Ali try this approach but it has to happen pretty damn quick.   Ali said she will try to figure out a time to do it when she has a free hour or two.  Personally, I don’t think nice works with the neighbor.  I tried nice.  Maybe Ali will have better luck but I am very skeptical.  It is no longer acceptable to get more promises of future resolution, it needs to be addressed immediately.  No more excuses.

So evidently last night Obama and Boehner took turns making televised addresses about the budget deal or lack there of.  I did not see either of them and to be honest, I had no need to.

The republicans and the mastermind millionaires that are pulling strings behind the curtain are doing a brilliant job of brainwashing the average Joe.  If you just say “no new taxes!” with no qualifiers it would be hard to get a person to disagree with you if you are just talking as general philosophy.  Nobody wants to pay more taxes, no one.

Another nice generalization is government is wasteful and spends far too much money.  Again, yes, in the big picture this is absolutely true.  The story of $400 toilet seats and $200 screw drivers all remain burned in taxpayers minds for eternity.

The republicans are using these generalities to pull the wool over the average Joe’s eyes.  Look Joe! Obama and the democrats want to RAISE TAXES.  They also want to SPEND MONEY. This has to be a bad thing right?

Yea it’s bad, if you are one of the wipe your ass with Franklins, ultra-rich that paid good money to make sure their indentured servants in Congress ensure the tax breaks that were implemented as a temporary measure early in the last decade are continued ad infinitum.

I have pointed out some numbers in the past that define how ludicrous the wealth gap in this country has become.  Most recently the stellar financial results of the majority of publicly traded companies all the while middle class America is still standing in long unemployment lines is just another ugly reminder of what is going on.

Look at the stock market, it has been unfazed by the majority of Americans being in the dumps.  They could care less, as long as profit margins are high, they are thrilled.  So what happened to that trickle down economics theory that is floated as the answer by most Republicans?  It doesn’t exist, at least not anymore.

The average tax rate paid by the upper tier in American society is 18%.    When good old Ronald Reagan took office the tax level on the rich could be as high as 70%, an atrocity in anyone’s book.  However now the pendulum has dramatically swung the other way where the rich have manipulated the system down to where they pay a smaller tax rate than those far below them on the food chain.  Of course they like this and are willing to dump tons of cash to buy influence to keep it that way.

When a sensible individual faces a major budget shortfall, the strategy to attack it is to reduce expenditures AND increase income whether that comes in the form of a second job, selling items or whatever the means are to increase the money coming into the household.

Boner only wants to go halfway and the items he is targeting for cuts are some that are an absolute lifeline to millions of Americans.  He is also happy to scoop out the guts of the future generation of Americans by including dramatic education funding cuts as well.  All of this in the name of preventing what was planned all along, a return to the tax rate during the Clinton administration for the rich, which by the way was only 5% more,  a time of great prosperity by all recollection.

I could go on and on about just how ludicrous this entire mess is.  It sounds like once again Obama is the one that intends to do all of the caving as I read he has now stepped back again from letting the Bush tax cuts expire.

I am truly sickened by the state of our country, truly……

On Friday I normally do my Version 2.0 300 workouts at the gym.   Shortly before lunch Jeremy was urging me to go old school and do an original style 300 where you are doing 50 reps of various tough exercises consecutively.  I felt bad because Jeremy was upset with me earlier in the day for what he thought was an unflattering picture I posted of him, so for some reason I agreed to do it.

When I did 300’s every week for 2-3 years I didn’t use anywhere close to good form for the exercises.  Since my 300 glory days and my exposure to the Bar-barian community I have focused more on form when doing various exercises.  The 300 I did Friday was probably the most strenuous ever because I used good form through out.  By the time I was done I was SOAKED with sweat and stank like roadkill.  It was so bad that I actually did not trust my normal italian shower to get the job done.  Instead for the first time ever I took a quick shower at Retro.

I had not prepared for a shower so I wound up throwing on the same sweaty clothes (sans underwear) until I got out to the truck where I at least had a different shirt to put on.  The floor wipers, dead lifts and box jumps kicked my ass in particular.

On Friday afternoon Ali headed up to Siesta Keys with two friends of hers.  They were participating as a team in a sprint triathlon.  On Saturday morning I got the report that they won their category which was really cool.  Ali had a great performance in her swim portion of the race.

I had already looked at the way the weekend was going to go since Ali was supposed to do a 15 mile training run Sunday and knew I had to get a ton done on Saturday.  I figured that Ali would probably be home sometime early in the afternoon.  I was like a tornado of tasks, buzzing about the house non-stop before I took the dogs out mid-afternoon to visit run a few errands and make a stop at my mom’s place.  When I left  I was surprised Ali wasn’t home yet but I figured by the time I got back she would be.

One of the stops I made while I was out was Home Depot.  I wanted to get a matching no-slam toilet seat for our bathroom to match what I already installed in the guest bathroom.  You may recall that the last time I bought a seat I got the wrong style, thinking our bowl was oval when in toilet terms it actually is round.  Well believe it or not, I made the exact same mistake again.  I knew I got the wrong seat last time but I was SURE I bought round and needed oval. You can imagine the foul language when I realized I made the same f up again.

I also bought a 25 foot section of 3/4″ nylon rope at HD.  Why you ask?  I had a few people suggest that a climbing rope would be a good addition to my 11 foot high bar.  I did some quick price checking and saw that “official” climbing ropes cost anywhere form $75-$100.  Pricey for a hunk of rope if you ask me.

Well climbing ropes are typically 1.5″ in diameter.  The fattest rope Home Depot sells is half of that.  However I realized that if I twist the rope I will wind up with roughly the same thickness.  Since the rope will be out in the elements full time I went with nylon which should do the best job of holding up in Florida’s brutal environment.

Of course I won’t know for sure how effective this rope will be until I get it twisted and hung up on the pipe.  At least I spent less than $20 to try it out.

So when I got back from my mom’s place I was very surprised to see no car in the garage yet.  I knew the triathlon wrapped up mid-morning at the latest and even if they stopped for lunch I would have expected Ali to be home.  To compound matters she forgot her phone charger so I had no way to really contact her to see what was up since her phone was dead.

Well I had more stuff to get done so I continued on my list as my anger started on a slow boil.  I was getting annoyed that Ali was extending her post race celebration without any concerns of letting me know.

When I pressure washed the pool cage I noticed that there was another section of pool screen that was torn along the spline.  One of the things I was hoping Ali could do was help me with the replacement, an extra set of hands really helps when it comes to getting the new section splined in up top.  Well at that point I had no idea when Ali was coming home so I decided f it, I am just going to do it myself.

This was a very wide section of screen, knowing I struggled doing a shorter section of super screen myself I knew I had to change my approach.  As I removed the old screen I realized it was actual an original piece that I had not replaced before.  I was sure that I had replaced every back section at this point, evidently this was the last hold out.

Anyway, what I did was utilize duct tape as my extra set of hands.  I taped the new screen up on the cage so it would stay in place while I started the spline.  I was getting frustrated when the weight of the screen was pulling free of the tape, I had to retape it several times until I was successful.

The difficulty I was having with the screen replacement was mixing in with my growing resentment as the clock kept moving forward with no contact from Ali. Finally, around 5 o’clock she called me to say she just got back to the car and was on her way home.  I told her I was really angry that she would stay out all day long for an event that ended at 9 or 10 am without cluing me in.  She told me that she thought she told me that she would not be home until late afternoon.  I told her that was not communicated.

When she got home I was finishing up the rescreening.  Despite my difficulties, it is probably my best work to date, the new section is taut as a drum.  I told Ali I was very proud of her tri outcome but I was really angry that she turned it into an all day event without thinking it was important to give me a heads up.  Of course this spun into a large argument.

Later in the evening we both cooled off a bit and moved from our original positions.  I think sometimes I give Ali would I would love to get in return.  If I were to list out everything that I got knocked out around the house on Saturday it would eclipse the amount of pull ups I can do.

I heard during the day on Saturday that Amy Winehouse died.  Well more accurately she basically killed herself via a massive drug overdose.  I posted a status update on FB that read “Amy Winehouse died, boo hoo” as well as commenting on one of my friend’s threads where she was lamenting the loss , expressing my confusion over praising somebody that was ultimately successful at her own tireless self destruction. Well of course this was not a popular opinion.

Sure I liked some of Amy Winehouse’s music, she was a talented performer. But I just can’t find myself finding remorse for someone that continuously lights the fuse to their own implosion.   My disdain isn’t limited to drug abusers, it covers the broad spectrum of self destructive human behavior that is so common place in today’s society.  If you are going to keep hitting yourself in the face with a hammer, feel free to do so, just don’t expect me to cry about it.

Some may read this and think I am implying that I have no self destructive behavior or I am preaching down to or “judging”.  I have plenty of flaws that cause myself many obstacles on the road to inner peace.  I just don’t blame anyone else for them but me, myself, and I.  If offering my opinion on a situation is judging, then the world is jammed full of judges.  I know in today’s politically correctness gone wild environment, offering any opinion outside the rainbow and unicorn filled mainstream is dangerous.  There is a big aversion to both telling and hearing the way it really is.

On Saturday while I was outside doing my various chores I was treated to the renewed screeching of the neighbor’s dogs after the heavenly 3 week hiatus.  After the absence of their nails on chalkboard noise pollution for almost a month, to be subjected to it once again was hard to take.

Well I decided on a new plan of action since any direct requests to the neighbor to do something about the problem has been met with nothing but unkempt promises.  I found the contact email for the county animal services department.  I relayed the situation next door and asked if I had grounds to file either a nuisance barking complaint or if the conditions the dogs were living under violated county code.

Depending on what response I get back will dictate my next move.  If I find out that what the neighbor is doing is beyond what is allowed by county code I plan on walking over to her door and informing her that my next step will be to file a complaint with DAS if she does not address the problem.

The relationship between us is damaged far beyond any hope of repairing it at this point.  I have absolutely no respect for her whatsoever and once that happens you might as well be dead to me.  Nothing will get you to that point faster than telling me you are going to do something and never doing it and/or treating your animals poorly.  That is really only the part of the iceberg when it comes to reasons I don’t want to associate with her. The saying, “the more you know a person, the more you generally will dislike them” really applies here.

So Sunday Ali was scheduled to do a 15 mile training run, yes, 15 miles.  Originally Ali thought that Christy would be able to ride her bike along with her for support but then something else came up.  I told Ali I would come with her.  I planned to run part of it and ride the rest although I have to admit I had bizarre ideas of myself just running the full 15 on a whim.  That didn’t happen.

We got to the water park early, around 7:30 am in an attempt to beat at least some of unrelenting heat and humidity that was to come.  I told Ali we could run the big loop, the loop that broke me when I tried to run it after riding to the water park a couple months back.  It is around 10K in length so running it twice with a finish loop around the park itself would be just about 15 miles.

I was really not in good shape to run.  Both my back and hamstrings were very sore from the 50 dead lifts on Friday.   Luckily the run called for a slow pace which was just fine with me.  By the time we were half way into the first big loop I was ready for it to end.  Despite the relatively early time of day the heat and humidity was raging.  I was sweating buckets.  My eyes were stinging from the salt that was getting excreted.

To complicate matters I didn’t want to drink any water.  I was carrying a lone water bottle during the run, which is annoying in itself if you ever tried it, and wanted to make sure that water lasted for Ali since she was the one that was running so far.  Any ideas I had about running the entire 15 evaporated very early on.

So when we completed the first big loop we went back to the car.  After a quick water break Ali was back out and running in the opposite direction.  I told her I would get changed and hop on my bike to track her down.

I had to take a leak very badly and nothing in the park was open yet.  I found a set of bushes next to a wall to offer me some degree of privacy while I did my business.  My upper torso was in plain view but it was early enough that not even the water park staff had arrived yet.

So I grabbed two water bottles, putting one in my bottle holder and laying the other on top of my tri bars and head out to catch Ali.  It didn’t take long until I realized that a road bike does not make the best run support vehicle.  The thin, highly inflated tires, make you feel each and every joint in the sidewalk.  Curb ramps are even more bone jarring fun. A couple times I had the water bottle laying on the tri bars get jettisoned off from the bumps.

Riding a rode bike at a running pace is tough to do as well, especially when clipped in to the pedals.  A few times I had to quickly pop out of them before stopping.  I also couldn’t find a very comfortable riding position, I had a persistent burning high on my back between my shoulder blades.

I didn’t complain to Ali though, she was the one mired in the middle of this hellish run.  She was totally drenched, she looked like she was thrown in a pool.  On the second loop we actually ran out of water so I rode ahead to the park, refilled and rode back to her.  By the time I got back to her  she felt so parched she had stopped running for a short while.

Finally she reentered the park for the final two mile loop.  The 15 miles is the farthest Ali has ever run.  The great news is next week she is supposed to run 17, geezus.

After the run we headed into the water park.  Despite my only running a 10k and spending the next hour and a half on the bike, I was plenty tired myself.  I still wanted to get some swimming in so I after changing into my swimsuit I was in the pool for 1200 meters.  I averaged a very consistent 8:30 for the three 400 meter segments.  Ali even jumped in the pool and swam for a little bit after some recovery time. We enjoyed a well deserved pizza and fries lunch and headed home.

There was one chore I did not do on Saturday, mow the grass.  Due to a Friday downpour there was considerable water on the ground Saturday.  By Sunday most of it had been absorbed.  Ali had to prepare the dog meals so I told her I would handle the mowing.

I had just started the second of 4 lawn sections when I started to smell something. At first I thought maybe it was just the wet grass (it had started to rain lightly) hitting the hot mower deck.  Well the smell got stronger and when I glanced down and saw smoke beneath me I immediately turned the blades off and shut the mower down.

I looked down and saw smoke coming off the upper deck belt, right at one of the pulleys.  Damn it!

I parked the tractor in front of the garage to take off what seemed to be the offending pulley.  I put my leather gloves on first as the metal was boiling hot.  When I pulled it off the bearing definitely felt like it was starting to go bad.  I spun the other idler pulley in the same area and it didn’t sound so great either. I was frustrated of course.

So I went to my online source for tractor parts and ordered both pulleys and a replacement belt as well since it was cracked and worn.  If the belt is getting hot enough to smoke it couldn’t be long until that sucker breaks as well.  The latest parts rung up to another $75 on top of the over $1000 I have spent in repair parts over the last 2-3 years for the tractor.

Despite ordering the parts to fix the Cub Cadet once again, I was motivated to hop back on Sears.com to check out the current deals on the Craftsman tractors.  Their current promotion was free home delivery, that sounded pretty sweet.  The tractor I was interested in has 24 hp, a huge upgrade from the 18.5 horse the Cub Cadet has.

The added power should translate to being able to blow through sections of grass where I need to go at “no wake” speeds with the other tractor. The Craftsman also has a super tight 8 INCH  turning radius which will allow it to pull off some maneuvers the Cub could never do.

Ali walked in while I was perusing the site.  I told her I was very tempted to just pull the trigger and get the new tractor.  She said go ahead, so I did.  I had already planned on retiring the Cub Cadet after this mowing season regardless, we are just accelerating the time table by 6 months.

Ali actually suggested using both tractors to cut grass mowing time in half potentially.  My initial plan was to simply get the Cub functional again and sell it for a few hundred bucks to offset the new tractor purchase.  Storage of two tractors is going to problematic as well but at least for the short term future we can see how it works out although I don’t really see it being worth the hassle.  The additional power of the new tractor is going to be a time saver in itself.

The rest of the day I tried to chill out somewhat.  I was spent from all of the chores and training. I actually passed out on the recliner for nearly 90 minutes while Ali napped in the bedroom.

Ali made a great meal using one of the eggplants from our garden.  It was restaurant quality good.

Oh I finally beat the Vulcan level in Tower Defense : Lost Earth.  I am now on the very last level and as you can imagine it is brutal.  One wrong step and you are done.  I have made about a dozen attempts and counting so far.

I went to bed exhausted, looking forward to going back to work so I didn’t have to work so hard.

Last night when I was doing my post work min-workout I pushed my pull up set on the Iron Gym out to 18 reps.  I shot it on Justin.tv and sent it to Jeremy.

Later Jeremy outdid me by pulling off 20 pull ups of his own.  I have to admit I was impressed by the definition in Jeremy’s shirtless body.

I received my 3rd shipment of shelter tops from EZUP yesterday.  They messed up the first two attempts, first sending us a set with messed up graphics and then a second set with the wrong color combination.  I am happy to report that they finally got it right.

Somebody found my blog post regarding the impossible task of beating the Vulcan level in Tower Defense – Lost Earth.  He offered me tips, in a nutshell, more lasers.  I followed his game plan and had more success, making it all the way to wave 64 of 66 possible before succumbing to the incredible onslaught.

Ali’s return home will be short lived.  This afternoon she is heading up to Siesta Key to participate on a team for a sprint tri.  Ali is doing the swimming leg.  She’ll be back later Saturday though.

My neighbor has returned from a 3 week plus “vacation”.  Not hearing the chihuahuas during that period of time was fantastic.  Unfortunately it made the return of their screeching bark when I got home yesterday even more aggravating.

The one plus was the weeds in their dog run area were so high that it partially blocked their view. Unfortunately the neighbor was on the mower last night.  I made no effort to welcome her back in the least.  Yea I know it isn’t nice, but she used up all of her nice allocation with me months ago. I don’t believe in deficit nice spending.

I don’t have any spotlight project or event going on this weekend. No worries, I’ll find stuff to do.  Plus I have an 11 foot tall pipe structure to play around on.

So last night was my turn to attend the running club board meeting.  Ali and I try to switch off in attendance although with Ali’s new training schedule I have been the one more often than not that has been attending.  The board meeting was going along as most of them do when a discussion opened up about the July 4th race we put on.

The initial discussion was regarding the very small proceeds the race generated, despite the large, almost 900 registrant participation.  This was the end result of the very low registration fees charged for this race, relatively expensive T-shirt costs and the lack of having more than one sponsor for the event.

George, the race director for the race and someone whom I like and respect was making a point that in terms of effort put out by the club, this race isn’t much different than any other race. I had pretty kept quiet on the subject up to this point.  I had already had several arguments about the philosophy of the fee structure for this race in the past.  I had no real interest in opening it up again.  The only thing I did point out to George that this race is definitely more work intensive on our end.

Even though we have made progress in getting more and more people to sign up early and online, we still had close to 300 people that signed up for the race on paper, about half of that number on the day of the race.  It is a very HECTIC race from a timing perspective.

Out of nowhere George launched an unexpected assault on my statement.  He said that there were additional volunteers available to me on the day of the race to do data entry.  He said that I basically told one of these volunteers to “Get lost” and that I didn’t need their help.  He said these volunteers were specifically picked out to help with data entry and I basically blew them off.  He went further to imply I was a martyr where I complain about the workload of paper entries but then I refuse help.

Well just like that, the safety was removed and I exploded.  In between expletives I told George that it is not practical to try to train someone on the spot to do race data entry.  I told him that it was never communicated to me by himself or anyone else that there were two “special” volunteers assigned to help us.  I also said that I certainly didn’t dismiss this woman in the manner that George described.  When the woman first asked if we needed any help, we didn’t, the crowd hadn’t hit yet.  Then like a switch flipped, the mob descended and Ali and I hardly had time enough to breathe, let alone teach somebody anything.

As George tried to rebuke my statements it just continued to escalate my anger until I was at full scale “Hulk Smash” mode.  I was screaming.   I warned George he better back down on this, I was off the chain with anger.  The rest of the board members were like referees at a hockey fight,  just standing back, letting us go at it until somebody hit the ice.  I am sure it shocked most of them as nobody in that room has ever seen me get angry like that, very few people do.

In total, I would estimate the debacle went on for a good 10-15 minutes.  I was genuinely insulted that with all of the work that Ali and I do in so many areas to make the club as good as it is, George, of all people, would actually throw something like that out there.  The idea of just walking out and saying “Adios, I’ll be dropping the timing equipment off at your door” was very close to being reality.

Finally enough steam blew off that we were able to discuss actual ways to get people trained to help with doing entries on the day of the race.  I said it isn’t something that is best done on the day of a race where time is short and stress is high.  I told the board I have been working on documentation outlining the process which could be used in conjunction with a “class” where I would demonstrate the basic functions.

Everyone agreed on the necessity of this happening and we moved on.  After the blow up I cooled off as did George.  I think we both felt bad for our part in the scene.

The meeting in one fell swoop more or less added three races to our schedule.  It was ironic since in the past there had been many discussions about the need to keep our calendar at it’s current level.  That talk seemed to be ancient history last night.  I didn’t make much stink about it as I view it as Camaro money at this point so as long as I do not have something planned I am ok with timing a race.  However there are a whole truckload of additional human resources that are affected by this decision that may or may not be happy with being called upon even more so than they already are.

Ironically towards the end of the meeting when I covered my subjects the board green lighted my perspective purchase of some used timing equipment that I found on a race director forum.  The equipment will give us the ability to offer a chip start on our larger races as well as serving as a back up for our existing timing system and even potentially time two events on the same day.

I didn’t get out of the meeting till almost 8:30 which is crazy late.  On the way home I called Ali about the blow out.  She was surprised it got to that degree.  She knows what happens when rage overtakes me.

She had gotten back from her conference earlier that afternoon.  I welcomed her home with a hug and a kiss.  Before very long we were retiring to our bed which was once again whole with Ali, Sadie and I sharing bed with Nicki comfortably spread out next to it.

This morning when I took the dogs out around 6 am I was startled by the sound of two rapid fire booms to the southwest.  I felt them in addition to hearing them.  In a few seconds I recalled that the shuttle was supposed to be landing this morning.  Ironically with my 11 years of living in Florida I never have been outside to hear the sonic boom made by the reentry.  It is impressive.

As soon as the noise hit the neighborhood came to life with the sounds of barking dogs.  Our dogs, who were trotting around the back yard came sprinting back to the door.  Both of them were freaked out.

It was ironic to me that my first front row exposure to the shuttle sonic boom would also be the last one I ever heard.

So last night I got the opportunity to do a more extensive test of my newly constructed high bar.  Even though I did a quick pull up test the evening before I wanted to test it out with my rings since that was the primary reason I made it.

Getting the rings attached to the bar wasn’t very difficult, I just threw the buckle end of the strap over the bar and threaded it with the ring attached.  In all of my testing the structure felt just fine.  I discovered that just climbing up to the high bar could be a workout in itself, especially if it is done without leg assistance.  A couple people suggested attaching a climbing rope to the structure as well.

I was happy that my testing went well.  I was worried with the structure being as tall as it is that swaying could be problem.  It seems just fine.

Last night I prepared my most involved dinner since Ali has been away. Two Gorton’s fish pieces and baked beans.  This meal involved me microwaving TWO items instead of just one.  It was quite tasty.

Ali returns home today so hopefully my dinner quality will improve.

So when I got home last night the first thing I did when I let the dogs out was head over to my high bar.  In my work clothes I grabbed onto the vertical section and climbed up to bar to give it a test.  Even though I was only 11 feet in the air it felt much higher since from that vantage point I am able to see much further over the mostly flat terrain.  I did a few pull ups, trying to jerk at the bottom of the movement to put some strain on the structure.  As I glanced over at the screwed in flange I didn’t see any movement or give which was reassuring.

My plan was to change into my gym clothes and come back out with the rings to do some more thorough testing.  Unfortunately just as I was throwing the first strap over the bar a storm blew in that aborted the session.  I am hoping tonight I will be able to do the official groundbreaking of the equipment.

So I was forced to do my mini-workout indoors as the rain came down.  At the end of it I did some more handstand work.  I thought I would capture it with my Justin.tv app on the Iphone.  I have had a problem with the app for several months.  Anytime I tried to shoot video with the dumb thing the session would die right around the 9 second mark.

Well once again last night the problem happened.  I shot another quick video that also got cut off, bitching about how shitty the app is. The app problems in addition to the sites new policy of injecting 30 second ads before you are allowed to view any content had soured me somewhat on it’s value.

Well I did a quick look up and found that since the 4.3 Iphone update there had been an issue with the app.  For some reason it took justin.tv 3 or 4 months to resolve it.  I downloaded the latest version and I was again able to record normally.

I decided to again video my current handstand progression.  The last time I shot video of my handstands on New Years Eve, it was just a series silly looking back flops that hurt.  Although my new video is far from stellar, it at least shows I am now at the training wheel stage.  I can hold the position briefly and if I start to tip over I can exit without a back flop. I at least feel like I know how to do it, now it’s just practice, practice, practice.

Remember months ago when the last round of federal budget panic set in?  Everyone was freaking out and in the end Obama wound up giving in more or less to the Republican wishes as part of the ineffective “olive branch” strategy he was utilizing as a reaction to the election results.

When that stop gap measure was approved it was with Obama indicating a desire to not repeat this circus in a few months when the stop gap expired and instead have everything in place for a long term plan.  Well of course, this hasn’t happened.

Instead for the past few weeks the headlines have been filled with more utter bullshit.  The Republicans have all sorts of cost cutting proposals, proposals that mostly attack programs utilized by American poor and middle class while leaving the coffers of their ultra-rich backers unscathed.  The most noticeable targets are Medicare and Social Security.

When I heard that Obama was actually open to more appeasement of the republicans with these programs I was pretty outraged.  This has got to stop.  From my distant vantage point it seems like these negotiations go like this.

Boner/Cantor – ok we want to balance the budget by cutting all of these social “entitlement” programs.  My rich constituents don’t need any help from the federal government so why should anyone else?

Obama – I want to address the tremendous wealth disparity that exists in this country.  It is crippling the economy.   Companies are posting record profits while middle America flounders in squalor. Unemployment is still sky high, wages are flat.  It’s time to let the Bush tax breaks for the super rich expire.  For cripes sake, in 1980 the highest tax rate was 70%, now the majority of wealth for the uber rich is taxed at the 15% capital gains rate.  This is fuzzy math that makes no sense.  I am sick and tired of you assholes masquerading as budget balancers when in reality all you are doing is preotecting the giant teet you suckle off of.

Boner/Cantor – no new taxes

Obama – ok, fine.

The latest dog and pony show is for the tea party cult in the House to put forth a budget that they know has no chance of passing the Senate or avoiding a presidential veto.   It is all just posturing so they can say to the millions of lightly informed sheep in the country, “Look, we tried to pass a budget but they won’t let us”

I find it amazing that when Boner/Cantor say “we won’t support any budget that raises taxes on the American people!” people can’t see how they are being manipulated.  If they would fully qualify the statement and say something like “We won’t support any budget that takes one penny from the bulging bank accounts of the huge corporations that pay the lobbyists to buy my vote.  Or to keep it simple, I will not vote for a budget that increases taxes on the wealthy”

Don’t get me wrong, I know there is rampant abuse of government entitlement programs. Nothing sickens me more than someone that looks at these programs as their “job”.  There is a huge need to do a better job of filtering out these fraudulent freeloaders that are quite capable of working but choose not to because it is more convenient to sit home, get fat and collect checks.

But I am also infuriated that citizens still actually believe the “trickle down” theory still applies in today’s world.  You know the way that works is if the rich are doing well, the rest of us do well as they drop breadcrumbs to the floor.  Well guess what, the rich are doing GREAT and the floor is crumbless and has been for along time.  It doesn’t work.  The key to long term economic prosperity is a strong middle class.  The policies of the last decade have done everything possible to cut that group of individuals off at the knees.

Yesterday’s post was just one example of that policy with our new dumb governor. Tax state workers to provide corporate tax breaks…

The madness has to end, the cycle has to be broken.  In this showdown, neither side can afford to blink and unfortunately I think the end result of it will just be more “fail”.