Archives 2011

Not much to talk about. I have found myself getting annoyed at the Stern Show again.  A couple weeks ago Howard announced that for the month of December, well for the two weeks they actually work in December, they would be extending themselves by actually working FOUR DAYS! Wow, what a sacrifice.

Howard has really lost touch with his audience.  He doesn’t realize that the vast majority of them are putting in their time day after day for most of the time small amounts of money.  We really don’t need to hear someone that makes somewhere between 50-100 million dollars a year whine and complain about having to work 4 four hour days.

Howard is not working the extra day because he wanted to do give his fans a little Christmas present before he takes off for another two or three weeks.  He simply miscounted the amount of shows he had to do this year so he is just making up time.

For some reason I get most annoyed when I hear Robin comment about their work schedule.  She has annoyed me so much that a couple month’s ago I sent in a mini-rant about her to the show which is too profane to be published here.  She is such an elitist prima donna.  I mean who in the world flies to California to get colonics or goes to Nicarauga to be drugged and hypnotized to discover the meaning of life? Oh that’s right, she does.

The rest of this week will be quite busy.  In addition to timing a race on Saturday and all of the prep associated with it we will be going right into getting ready for our four day winter jaunt to NYC.  Ali and I are really looking forward to the trip.

 

 

So I did indeed wear my Tough Mudder headband at work yesterday, albeit only long enough to snap this picture.

So my post-Mudder body ache and pain inventory is unexpectedly low.  Yea the spot on my head that bled like a pig is sore, the various cuts and brush burns on my knees are a bit bothersome and my mystery thumb pain has returned to mid-range in the pain level but other than that I feel like I escaped the event practically unscathed which is awesome.

I went into this assuming I would be totally out of commission for a couple weeks.  Instead I see no reason why I can’t go running in Central Park next week.  I’m stoked.

A couple weeks ago when I was perusing the online edition of our local paper I saw an article talking about a new feature called UR Wheelz.  Basically they wanted people to send in pictures of their cool cars along with a description of what it means to them.  They were going to post select entries on top of the Saturday SWFL Wheels section of the paper.  So anyway I sent in a couple pictures of the SSR along with a quick blurb.  I quickly forgot about it after I sent it in.

Well last week I received an email from someone at the paper saying my car had been selected to be published this weekend.  She just wanted to give me a heads up.  My mom had told me that she saw my car. I looked online to see if I could find it but it appears that the online version of the paper does not include this sort of stuff.

Well a co-worker also saw my SSR in there and was nice enough to give me the hard copy.  I thought the SSR transferred well to print media, it looked sharp.  I neatly folded the paper and filed it away with other important documents. 🙂

I have made some really nice progress in my physical goals in 2011, completing my first half marathon, some more triathlons, the world’s toughest mud race and various body weight milestones including the elusive muscle up.

Well for 2012 I am setting a goal that is pretty up there, completing the Bar-barian requirements in the allotted time (6 minutes).  Right now I am miles away from being able to do it.  In case you forget, the requirements are 5 muscle ups, 45 dips, 25 pull ups, 55 push ups and 5 more muscle ups.  The sets for each exercise have to be unbroken and it can’t take more than 6 minutes.

Doing any one of those exercises for that amount of reps alone is tough as hell, trying to stack them back to back multiplies the difficulty several times over. So anyway, I figure the best way to train for such a gauntlet is to do it, a lot.  Last night for my after work mini-workout I did the middle section of the BBR, trying to do my max numbers of dips, pull ups and push ups back to back (the muscle ups will take care of themselves).  My numbers were 30-15-35.

My plan is to just keep banging this out several times a week and hopefully the numbers will continue to climb.  If I manage to pull this off I am pretty sure I would be the first 44 year old Bar-barian on the planet.

Wow the Republican presidential race is a total joke.  I can never recall so many different candidates being declared front runners, there have been at least 4 or 5.  The problem is none of them, besides Ron Paul, brings anything truly different to the table.  It seems like this is the year the Republicans will be throwing up their version of Michael Dukakis.

 

This picture is a good summary of our Mudder experience, let me try to fill in the back story.

I left work early on Friday so I could pack and be ready to head north.  I told Randall I was leaving work early, he said he would be at our house by 5.  I don’t know why by this time I put any weight in Randall ETA’s because I don’t think he has ever made one yet.

True to form he showed up closer to 5:45 after making a stop at a Sports Authority to buy clothing for an event he knew he was doing for almost 6 months, fail. I need to learn to just tell Randall that things are an hour or two before they actually are to account for his Jmo’ness.

So after saying goodbye to mom, who came to our place straight from work, we piled into the Camry and headed north for Zephyrhills, a close to a two and a half hour drive.  On the way we made two stops, a Dunkin Donuts in Siesta Key to battle drowsiness and at Subway to grab a quick dinner.

When we arrived at the Quality Inn the NO ROOMS AVAILABLE sign on the front door made me glad we snagged a room a few weeks prior.  The woman that checked us in had a very heavy asian accent.  Even with doing my best to concentrate on what she was saying I still had a tough time catching every sentence.  She told us where our “suite” was.

We had decided to share a room to cut down on costs.  The suite had a king size bed in one room and then a pull out sofa bed in another.  It also had amenities like a full size fridge and a microwave, woo hoo.  I was too tired to enjoy any of them though.  After taking a shower I didn’t even turn on the tv.  After glancing at one of Ali’s running magazines I was out like a light in a few minutes.

I wasn’t happy to see that my 3 AM wake up curse had followed me out of the house.  I woke up almost exactly at 3AM and unfortunately thoughts of the upcoming race prevented me from falling back asleep.  I laid in bed for close to an hour trying to force sleep to return to my body but had no luck.

I crawled out of bed around 4 since I had to pee.  I quietly opened our bedroom door and made my way down the small hallway towards the bathroom in the dark.  I made a left turn and felt my foot hit something solid, I figured that was the bathroom door.  However then my hand hit a bar in front of my face.  I realized I was trying to walk into the closet. The bathroom was the NEXT door down.

So I dilly dallied around for quite awhile, playing Tower Defense on my phone to pass the time.  A little after 5 I decided I would venture outside to see how cold it was.  Randall had both room keys and I didn’t know where they were.  I slipped out of the room but left the door ajar since I would only be gone a couple minutes.  I figured I would go out the front lobby door since it surely wouldn’t lock behind me like the side access doors do.

So I head outside and verify it is indeed chilly, the temps were in the low to mid 50’s.  I quickly turned back to the lobby doors, waiting for the electric eye to open them for me.  It didn’t. I waved my hand in front of the sensor, nothing.  I then saw the sign by the side of the door stating that the door is locked overnight but I could use my room card to open it. F me.

Well I decided I didn’t want to bang on the front doors to call the clerk out to admit I was a dumb ass.  Instead I walked over to the side of the building where our room was.  Luckily while I was mulling about I spent some time staring out the window of our room so I knew which cars were outside of it.

I stepped up to the window and began lightly knocking on it to get Ali’s attention, who was still in bed with the lights out and eyes closed.  I got no response from the knocking so I knocked some more and some more.  Eventually the light flipped on but still Ali did not know where the noise was coming from.  I laughed out loud as my repeated knocks had her glancing around the room, first at the ceiling then at the wall behind the bed.  Finally she looked at the window and saw me.  I pointed at the side door and told her to let me in.

So by this time we all had to get up and ready.  We packed our bags and hit the hotel lobby right around 6.  We grabbed some food from their free buffet breakfast and ate it quickly.  Even so we wound up getting out of there later than I hoped.  The Mudder website recommended that you arrive two hours before your designated wave start time.  Our start time was 8:20 and we didn’t leave the hotel until after 6:20.  I had counted on the two hour time pad being over zealous, plus we were supposedly only 15-20 minutes away from the race site.

Well when we arrived at the turn off for the race I realized that arriving a full two hours early may have been wise.  We pulled into a dead stop parade of brake lights that extended around the corner and as far as we could see.  We sat basically in place for at least 15 minutes, inexplicably the vehicles were not moving at all.  How could this be?  Finally like somebody uncorked a bottle, the cars started to flow.  I am not sure what the hold up was.

As well pulled onto Little Everglades Ranch we could tell why it was chosen as a good place to host such a huge event, it is HUGE itself.   We snaked around with the other vehicles until we were directed to a spot to park in the field.

Even though I had taken a leak three times already that day, during the traffic jam I had an increasingly strong urge to pee again.  It was a combo of nerves and the extra water I drank to hydrate myself.  Once we parked I was quite anxious to find a port-o-potty.  Ali was dilly dallying at the car, trying to make sure she had everything she needed.  When my bladder overruled my patience I told her we had to go, I had to pee.

They had port-o-potties right by the parking area but the line to use them was already 15 people deep.  I gambled that the bathroom by registration would be less full so I started fast walking that way.  Randall realized he forgot his gloves in the car so he went back to get them while we continued on my mission to empty my bladder.

Unfortunately the registration area was a long ass walk from the parking area.  With each step I was getting more and more annoyed.  Finally we get there and I start looking around for the the port-o-potties.  I see a sign for RESTROOMS.  Of course they were back in the area you can only get to once you check in! F me.

So quickly  Ali and I find the range for my last name and get me checked in.  I am handed a packet and my race number is written on my leg and forehead.  By this time the pain from holding urine was getting pretty severe.  Ali could not go into the restricted area until she got her spectator wristband.  She said she would go get it while I relieved myself.  Boy did I relieve myself.  I swear the fluid was flowing for a solid 45 seconds at least.

So when I came out I checked my phone, Ali was calling me.  She said her name was not on the pre-registered spectator list, she was directed to go stand in the hideously long INFO line.  I found her and waited with her.

As we waited we got to take in the tons of insane costumes that people were wearing, most of which were totally impractical for running a 12 mud race.  I think the most shocking of all was the guy wearing the Borat style green butt floss bathing suit and nothing else.  I just thought to myself “Why….”  You can see a number of the amazing costumes here.

As we stood there we discovered many people in line had the same issue, they signed up as either spectators or runners and they weren’t on the list, how annoying.  So after standing in line at least 20 minutes we arrive at the desk that had exactly one person behind a computer and two others that were not answering questions.  We told her Ali was not on the spectator list.  In about 10 seconds she was able to verify that Ali was on the real list online and we were done.  Wow, that is pretty damn f’d up.  I would figure with as many races as this group puts on this sort of thing would be minimal.

Well the parking delay, bathroom search and registration snafu had eaten up a bunch of time.  By the time it was all handled there were only a few minutes to go before our 8:20 wave start time.  Ali snapped a quick picture of us before the race to contrast whatever we would look like at the end of it.

We were the second wave of the day, the first group of approximately 500 participants headed out at 8.  Before the start we were given instructions and a pep talk by a cool dude.  He did a good job of getting everyone pumped up for the event.  Remarkably good when you consider he winds up giving the same speech probably 15-20 times each day.

So the horn sounded and we were off.  After a short jog through the field we came upon our first obstacle, a human version of a steeple chase.  It was a series of lower wood walls with a ditch dug out behind each one.  Randall opted to leap on top of the wall and then jump over the ditch.  That approach involved far too much potential knee impact for me so I just hopped over the wall and stepped over the ditches.

After another run we saw our next obstacle coming into view, the Chernobyl Jacuzzi.  Of all of the 25 obstacles this is the one I dreaded the most. This obstacle was a 25-30 foot long tub of ice cold water.  To make it more fun they had bright coloring in the water, some was pink, some was green, some was blue.  Randall and I went the blue route.

The good thing is with waves of people behind you, you have no time to sit there and think about the horrors of plunging yourself into frigid water, you just do it.

I jumped in and instantly felt my lungs tighten.  Your instinct is to catch your breath but the contraction makes it difficult to do so.  To make things more fun there is a wall in the middle of the tub you have to go under so full body submersion is required.  I did my best to get the hell out of that thing as quickly as possible, it was pretty awful. As Randall and I jogged away we were both laughing and commenting about our icy obstacle.

Next up was another water obstacle, this time you waded through a pond that had two sets of barrels in the middle which you again had to go under.  If there was one thing good about the ice jacuzzi, it made the 60 something degree water feel sort of warm in comparison.

So after three obstacles we were totally drenched.  We continued jogging along until we got our first real taste of the event namesake, mud.  We had to belly crawl across a field of mud that had barbed wire maybe 18 inches above it.  They made sure the mud stayed nice and wet via a water truck that was constantly spraying the field.

Next up was one of the two mystery obstacles (an obstacle they don’t reveal before the event)  it was a large chute filled with tires hanging from ropes.  getting through the tires wasn’t bad although if you were behind someone that thought it would be cool to shove tires out of the way violently you could pay the price.  Randall did just that after the guy in front shoved the last tire way up in the air facilitating it crashing back down and smashing Randall in the chest.

The next obstacle was the first one where teamwork came into play, the Spider’s Web.  This was maybe a 15 foot tall cargo net that you had to crawl up and over.  As we approached we saw a number of people on the far side of the net applying tension via their body weight.  Do this made traversing the net easier as it kept it from flopping around as much.  After Randall and I made it over we took our turn at the bottom.  I closed my eyes and mouth to keep the mud that was flying off of people above me from entering an orifice.

The next obstacle was pretty mild, you just had to get up and over some decent sized hay bales.

Next up was another wet obstacle, the ball shrinker.  They had wires strung across a pond.  The wires hung a couple feet above the water.  The wires had black plastic tubing over them.  You were required to hang upside down on the wire and pull yourself across.  Well once weight was applied to the wires they would sink lower of course.  In the middle of the pull my body was 3/4 under water.  Luckily my pulling strength and wet skin allowed me to glide across the obstacle pretty quickly.

We were now getting into the portion of the course that had longer runs between the obstacles.  This was very challenging running conditions.  It was all in open fields that were uneven and filled with potential obstacles ranging from holes to cow pies.  In addition, just for fun, there were many, many sections where you would just arbitrarily run thorough canals and additional mud.  On top of all that, your sneakers felt like they weighed a ton from the water and mud that filled them.  Obviously it was the most difficult running I ever did in my life.

Next up was the first of several wall obstacles.  The wall was probably 11 or 12 feet high.  They had a narrow board nailed to the front of it, maybe 2 feet off the ground.  I helped Randall up and over the wall although he was able to grab the top of it after pushing off the foot assist..  My long arms allowed me to navigate the obstacle without additional assistance.

The next obstacle was just an annoying trek across waist high water.  The water hid sinkholes that many people inadvertently would step in.  Randall fell a few times after trying to be aggressive in crossing.  This obstacle taught us it was wise to step more cautiously in the water for the rest of the race.

The next obstacle was another one I had concerns about, the balance beam.  The beams were quite long and extended over more cold water.  I really didn’t feel like getting dunked again plus in general, I didn’t want to fail at any obstacles.  At first I went very cautiously out onto the 4 or 5 inch plank and was doing ok with it.  However as I approached the middle a lot of swaying started going on.  I almost fell a few times and to be honest I was pretty sure I was going to get wet.  I decided to throw caution to the wind and accelerated through the second half of the plank, just barely managing to make the finish platform.  Randall cleared it as well.

Next up was another mud crawl, this time under a huge cargo net that was pinned to the ground. We emerged from the other side with inches of thick mud stuck to various body parts.

Somewhere around this time the running got extremely tough.  They had constructed a series of sandy hills for us to run over.  Both Randall and I were sucking major wind by the time we got done with those, they were pretty brutal.

The next obstacle was challenging, the Boa Constrictor.  You had two sets of irrigation pipe.  One set angled down into a pond of muddy water that had a barbed wire ceiling and then another set going up the opposite side.  Going down was unpleasant as you emerged into the dirty water but going up was very tough.  My wet body hand no traction to climb. I wound up inching along upwards using my toes and my elbows.  Finally I got close enough to the end of the pipe that I could grab it and pull myself the rest of the way out. Randall used a better technique to escape, pressing his back up against the top of the pipe to create traction.

After another rather lengthy run we hit yet another water obstacle, Walk the Plank.  For this one you climbed up a 12-15 foot high platform and then leaped off into yes, more cold and muddy water.  Again the best course of action was to not think about it and just do it.

Next up was a series of small hay bales that you have to get up and over.  Randall tried to jump from the first hay bale to the second to save time but he wound up short, smashing into the bale with his upper body.  That was end of that.  Again I took the low impact option.

The next obstacle was just another plodding march through muddy water that had a few sinkholes hidden in there, no big deal by that point.

Somewhere in there was a crawl through some very dark man made sandy tunnels.  if you were claustrophobic you wouldn’t have enjoyed them very much.  One section for me was totally devoid of light, I was just feeling for walls as I crawled along.

By now we were getting pretty deep into the race.  The most Randall had run previously ever was just short of 9 miles.  To be honest I sort of figured later in the race we would be walking between obstacles instead of running.  I checked in on how he was feeling several times as we were jogging along.  He kept indicating he was good to go so we kept on running.

After another long running segment we saw thick smoke across the field.  We realized we were coming up on the flaming hay bales.  They had the hay bales on either side of a small path.  They were really throwing off the smoke.  The heat you felt running between them wasn’t bad but if you dared to inhale in the middle of the gauntlet you would be choking on smoke instantly.

After another long run we ran into our second set of walls to climb.  We utilized the same technique as before although it felt slightly tougher since we had expended much more energy by this point in the race.

Next up was the log carry.  I saw this on the website.  It looked like you grabbed a big log, threw it on your shoulder and hiked with it for awhile.  Well they decided to make it a little more challenging.  After grabbing your log, your marched out into a lake with it, carrying it around a marker and then returning to shore.  Again like most water obstacles, the footing was always a crap shoot.  As we walked multiple times feet bumped into  logs that were dropped into the water before us, adding to the fun.  Both Randall and I managed to carry our wood securely until the drop off point.

The next event was another that I was not looking forward to, the monkey bar climb. It was right around this point that Ali found us.  She started shooting video with the Flip cam.

These monkey bars were extra tough because they go upward instead of straight across.  If that wasn’t challenging enough they grease some of of the bars to make your grip tougher.  Having wet and muddy gloves on didn’t help either.  If you slipped and fell off you had more wet and muddy water waiting below.

Randall took off quickly across the bars, going from bar to bar with each arm movement.   Initially I did the same thing but then I hit some of the slippery bars and almost lost my grip.  I decided to go conservatively the rest of the way, grabbing a bar securely with both hands before reaching for the next.  My slow and steady technique kept me dry.

Next up was the second mystery obstacle, it was kind of annoying.  You had a ridiculously thin piece of wood for your feet and a slightly wider piece of wood for your hands to grip onto.  The object was to cling like Spiderman down the 20 foot length of wall.

It was tough for my size 13’s to find any sort of traction on the foot board.  About 5 feet from the end I slipped off for a moment but I hopped right back on so I would complete the entire distance.  I heard the volunteers say people were cheating on this obstacle, grabbing the top of the wall instead which would make it significantly easier.

So during the run to the next obstacle I ran into an unintended obstacle, Randall.  The running path lead under some very low hanging branches, probably between 4 and 5 feet off the ground.  Randall went first and I was a couple feet behind him, running with my head down, bent over at the waist.

Well Randall evidently got caught up in one of the branches and continued to run forward with the branch, sort of loading it up like a catapault.  Well once he cleared the branch it came whipping back and smashed me in the head.  I was stunned by the impact and staggered around a bit.  I then continued running but felt liquid streaming off my head.  Great, I am bleeding.

I told Randall he just smashed me in the head.  I was actually bleeding from several spots on my head from the impact.  The blood was running into my left eye.  At first I was worried that it was bleeding bad enough that I might need to get a hold of a medic on the course.  As I ran along the flow started to slow down. I still looked like hell though with large blood stains all over my shirt and dried blood all over my face.

Ali had peeled off for a bit and hadn’t seen me get hit.  She didn’t realize I was bleeding until she got to my left side and saw the mess.  Of course she was worried but I told her I was fine.

So next up was a crawl across a a stretched out cargo net followed by a dirty crawl under it, complete with barbed wire.  I had multiple people ask if I was ok because of my bloody face.  I assured them I was. By that point I had totally enough of crawling, my knees hate the movement.

We were now finally in the home stretch.  We had to now climb over a small  mountain made out of hay bales.  It was an impressive structure.  As I approached the pinnacle the one volunteer said I was the first bloody participant he had seen so far, cool.. 

Climbing the hay wasn’t too bad.  Randall did a gymnastic dismount on the far side that Ali didn’t catch on tape. She asked him if he wanted to climb back up and do it again, he declined.

Late in the race Randall had some issues with his calves cramping.  A few times we stopped so he could try to stretch them out a bit.

So our second to last obstacle was another teamwork required one, the 1/4 pipe.  This looked like a skateboard ramp, a muddy, slimy skateboard ramp.  At the top of the pipe were mudders hanging down to help pull others up and over.

This was tough.  I certainly didn’t have much spring left in my legs after completing around 11 miles of the course.  Luckily my long arms allowed me to reach a set of hands up top.  I was awkwardly pulled up by hands that had  grabbed onto my two arms and one leg.

Once I was safely up top I used my long arms as an advantage again to reach down far to grab on to the next guy coming up the pipe.  After pulling him to safety we headed down the other side.

We had only one obstacle to go, the electroshock treatment.  By this time Randall’s cramping was really slowing him down.  I was accelerating towards the finish when I glanced back and saw him walking in pain.  I doubled back so we could go through the chute more or less together.

This was another obstacle I sort of dreaded, after all who enjoys getting shocked?  Race staff tried to make sure you conducted electricity well by spraying you down with water as you entered the electrified chute, bastards.  I didn’t hesitate and decided to just barrel down the middle and take my amps like a man.  I actually only got shocked once on the arm.  It burned a little bit but after the other torment my body had been through it seemed pretty mild.

Randall and I completed the course in a little more than two and a half hours, well under the predicted course time of three hours.  We were pleased.

As I came through the finish line the medics spotted my bloody face and asked me if I wanted them to clean it up.  Sure, why not.

They directed me to a chair in the medical tent and sat me down.The EMT said head wounds typically bleed a lot because of all of the small capillaries.  She did a decent job of cleaning the wound.  They said I just needed to make sure I cleaned it out well when I took a shower.  I signed a release saying I didn’t want to be transported to the hospital and that was that.

I went over and grabbed my post Mudder free beer (yes singular, you only get one free one) Randall and I walked around and relished in our accomplishment.  It was doubly sweet for Randall, completing the Mudder along with running the farthest he ever has on foot, across fields in wet and muddy sneakers no less.

I was beat up and tired but intact.  Hell I wasn’t even walking with a limp.   I told Randall that Ali and I were going to walk back to the car to grab my change of clothes.  He had his spare clothes in backpack he left at bag check.

On our walk back to the car we walked past people showing up for later start times. I can’t tell you how many of them stared at my bloody, dirty as hell body, wondering what exactly they had waiting for them out on the course.  We were following another guy that had just completed the course.  He is an ultra-runner, you know one of those crazy bastards that do stuff like run 50 mile races.  He said the Mudder was more difficult than any ultra he ever did.  Wow, that is saying something.

So after retrieving my clean clothes we walked back to the race area.  They had “showers” there.  Basically hoses shooting cold water.  As we walked along I unknowingly dropped my clean underwear which I discovered later.  Oh well, someone got a souvenir.

Well as we reentered the registration area Ali saw a second sign for showers that pointed to the right instead of the left.  These were not garden hose showers, these were real showers, complete with a door and HOT WATER.  Well of course this was a for profit operation.  The shower itself cost $7. Shampoo was $2.  If you wanted a towel you had to fork over another four bucks.

Sure it was expensive but I was so disgusting I didn’t care.  I tried to moderate the cost by opting just for the shower and shampoo, skipping the towel, figuring I would air dry quickly, especially with no underwear.

The shower was well worth it.  After spending that much time jumping in and out of cold water, the hot shower felt fantastic.  The stinging sensation on my head when I washed my hair reminded me of the open wounds that were on my scalp. I emerged from the shower feeling much better about life. We clued Randall into the hot showers and he took advantage of them as well.

After we cleaned up we grabbed some food which like everything else at the Mudder was very expensive.  They had an odd system in place where you bought tickets and used the tickets to pay for the food instead of handing over money.  I am not sure why that was the payment method they utilized.

Ironically, even though the Tough Mudder is obviously suited for individuals that live a relatively healthy lifestyle, their post race food selection was anything but.  I wound up having what may have been the most unhealthy cheese steak of my life, coated in mounds of nasty melted velveeta.

After we finished eating we walked the grounds a bit.  Randall and I dared each other to get race tatoos and/or on the spot mullets.  We both respectfully declined.

We came across a stand the Air Force had up, complete with a portable pull up bar.  Well of course I needed to hop on there and see how many reps I could do.  Before I got my shot we waited while some little hispanic guy got on the bar.  He did a bunch of pull ups maybe 13 or 14.  However only maybe the first 4 or 5 actually were decent, the rest were half reppers at best.

So I hopped on and knocked out 18 real solid reps.  To be honest I surprised myself a bit.  I didn’t think I would have the energy to get that many after the Mudder.  One of the Mudders that was watching expressed the same thing, surprised I repped that high AFTER doing the race.

Randall jumped on the bar after me and did the cleanest 10 reps I ever saw him do.  We both scored Air Force can kuzzies for our efforts.

After a bit more walking around we were ready to roll.  We left just as they were sending off the last wave of the day at 1pm.  When we got to the parking area the vast open fields had been transformed into huge parking lots, stuffed with vehicles.

The drive back was long.  It was broken up by stops for gas and more coffee.  We didn’t get home until close to 5pm.  During the drive Randall and I did a lot of recollection about the event.  Ali really went above and beyond capturing footage of the race, taking a bunch of pictures and running alongside us for a good portion at the end of the event.  You can see all 15 minutes of video she captured here.

We opted for a relaxed evening at the house.  I ordered pizza and we enjoyed it while watching Little Fockers.  I now understand why it was rated the worst of the three installments.  It was funny at spots but it was stupid at more.  I’d give it a B.

By the end of the movie I was falling asleep.  I told Randall I was taking a shower and crashing.  He was pooped as well and went to bed.  Our long anticipated Tough Mudder day was finally over and was successful in every way I could imagine.

Sadie didn’t seem to care that I had an exhausting day Saturday, she woke me up bright and early at 6am.  I didn’t mind much though.  It gave me a head start in processing the various A/V we had from the event.  In addition to posting the full video on youtube, I also made an edited version that was about half the length.  I also had a number of pictures to upload to Facebook with all of the associated tagging and describing. Randall got up as I was close to finishing up.

Randall and I piled in the van with the dogs to do a coffee run.  It didn’t take long until Sadie planted herself squarely on Uncle Randall’s lap.  Both of the dogs love Randall and I think the feeling is reciprocated.

We had an unusual plan for Sunday.  Normally when Randall is over our weekends will involve physical challenges and video games.  Well we had plenty of physical challenge the day before.  Instead of video games we decided to go shopping.

You see I told Randall about the Under Armour outlet we have close by.  Randall is a big Under Armour fan so he was very interested in checking the outlet out both for himself and for X-mas presents for his nephew who also loves UA stuff.

It also gave us a good excuse to pull the SSR out of it’s lair. Randall quickly got a first hand appreciation of why I enjoy driving the vehicle.  As I mashed the pedal heading up the on ramp to I-75 he got to experience just how quickly 90mph + comes clicking by.

We parked at the outlets in a spot far from other cars although the parking lot was only a fraction as full as Ali and I experienced.  I hadn’t realized the outlet was keeping normal Sunday hours, meaning it doesn’t open until 11.  Luckily we were only 5 or 10 minutes early.  By the time we walked down to the Under Armour outlet it had opened.

We spent a BUNCH of time in there, the most by far of any of the stores.  We spent the most time thumbing through the clearance racks.  The deals weren’t quite as good as what I saw on Black Friday but they were still strong.

I saw a couple potential purchases for myself but I wound up passing.  Instead I scored a few Christmas gifts for Ali.  Randall did well getting several items for both himself and his nephews for far less than you would pay in a retail outlet.

We checked out a few other outlets including Nike, Adidas and one I never went to before, Oakley.  I always associated Oakley pretty much with just nice sunglasses, I forgot they have a nice clothing line too.  I surprisingly scored a nice shirt and pair of shorts.  At Adidas I grabbed a couple more pair of shorts that were similar to what I snagged on Black Friday.

Before leaving we grabbed lunch at Luna Rosa.  The meal was good although I found myself annoyed when the waiter informed us that the bill came with a 20% gratuity added on.  What the fck?  I have heard of this practice being done with large parties that are more demanding on restaurant staff, but to do it with a two person table?  That really pisses me off.  So despite the good meal and decent service I doubt I will be frequenting Luna Rosa again.  I don’t appreciate a food establishment making the tip amount decision for me.

On the way back home we listened to the Dolphins game on the radio. When we got back we followed up by watching the game on tv.  The Dolphins surprisingly crushed the Raiders.

Randall headed out towards the end of the game for his long drive back across the state.   It was the last time I would see him this year.  For the first time he will not be joining us to help with the Shark Shoot out this upcoming weekend.  I thanked him for doing the Mudder with me.  Doing it with a friend made the misery much more manageable.

After Randall left I told Ali I would like to finally get the decorations on the Christmas trees, they had sat undecorated for a week at that point.  We did a good job of using up most of our copious amount of ornaments between the two trees.

The rest of the evening was laid back.  We ate the left over pizza and took in this week’s Biggest Loser.  It’s weird, although completing the Tough Mudder is a pretty large feather in the cap I didn’t feel a monumental sense of accomplishment.  I sort of knew I would just do it, just like I normally do most other things that are in my way.

One thing the Mudder did do was renew my interest in doing another half marathon.  I emerged from the Mudder with two intact knees except for a number of scratches and bruises, which is very surprising based on the tests the Mudder put them through.  I even went through the entire day on Sunday without popping a single Advil.

If you would like to see the photos Ali took from the event you can look here.

I think it is pretty much a given that Randall and I will once again accept the Tough Mudder challenge next year.  I am trying to recruit Charlie to do it with us.  He would love this stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No I don’t mean in a literal sense although for some people this may be nervously close to the truth.  Thankfully WoW consumes a drastically smaller percentage of my free time than it once did. Anyway I was referring to a figurative sense, specifically the roles people play in the game and how they go about those roles.

In a typical team situation in WoW you have three jobs, a tank, a healer and dps.  A tank’s job is to attract the attention of all bad guys so they focus their attacks on him.  By doing so he makes the job of the healer much easier since he only has to focus on healing the tank primarily.

DPS (damage per second) is an acronym that represents everyone else.  Their primary job is to do as much damage as possible to the enemies as quickly as possible.  Sometimes they will have secondary CC (crowd control) responsibilities where they temporarily incapacitate an enemy so the overall fight is more manageable.

I almost exclusively play the role of a tank or a healer since those are the two most crucial roles.  Since I am overall a pretty responsible individual, that carries over well to these roles in game.

It is amazing that just as in real life, the amount of effort that a person puts into his virtual job dramatically affects the outcome of the experience.  As in all walks of life you have people that are responsible, intelligent and skilled in how they perform their job duties and others that just plain suck at it.

When you have all three aspects of a group filled with quality people running a dungeon things go smoothly and you accomplish your objective quickly and with minimal problems.  However if you have dummies that don’t know the fight, do dumb things like stand in fire without realizing it burns, or have not taken any time to figure out how their class is best played you wind up with just a miserable experience where virtual death abounds and the frustration meter is off the charts.

Sometimes I just try to grin and bear it and not point out when a player does something overtly stupid.  However if my patience has already been worn thin, often times I will point out to people that their stupid play affects everyone else.  Sometimes players actually will change their behavior after being called out for it but more often than not all it does is generate more bad behavior.

 

Yesterday my new custom plate for the SSR showed up.  I like the dual meaning it holds.  My fellow body weight exercise aficionados will appreciate the shout out to one of the staple exercises. Car enthusiasts will like the shout out to the “muscle car” movement, in this case ironically carried out in the form of a retro TRUCK.  I wasted little time before slapping the plate on the SSR after getting home last night.

So as I hoped, Ali had no interest in watching the Eagles game via a grainy laptop feed.  I did break down and have the game broadcasting on my Iphone on the night stand via the WIP feed.  When I tuned in the Seahawks were winning 14-0, when I turned it off the latest Eagles disaster was all but wrapped up with them trailing 24-7.

It was actually nice to not have to witness all of the missed tackles,  blown coverages, penalties and turnovers.  Hearing Merril describe them was more than adequate.

This team at this point is simply a cluster fck.  Obviously upper management has a half foot of mud on their face.  For the first time in a long time it looks like they totally missed the boat when it came to making personnel decisions regarding this years team.  It’s almost like we took a page out of the Redskins long fabled tradition of bringing in big names but having them under perform dramatically when asked to play together.

Of all of the free agents that were brought in, only one, Jason Babin, has earned his keep.  Every single other new acquisition has basically sucked.  Juan Castillo is an utter failure as a defensive coordinator, he is the worst DC I have ever seen on an Eagles sideline.  The fact that he was hand picked by Andy to assume a role Juan had absolutely no experience at is a big fat red X on Fat Andy’s track record.  What an awful move.

To lose 31-14 to a team that is flat out bad themselves is a sad indicator of just how far the Eagles have fallen.  They have firmly established themselves as the biggest joke of the 2011/2012 NFL season.  I can only hope that the appropriate changes are made when the season thankfully ends.

Randall is trucking over to our place this afternoon.  Shortly after he arrives, Ali myself and Randall will be heading up I-75.  Mom will be driving out to our place straight from her job in order to do dog duty tonight which is a big help.

The three of us are going to all share a room in order to save a few bucks, Randall gets the pull out sofa bed.  Our hotel is something like 10 miles from the Mudder so that should work out ok.  Our start time is 8:20.  They recommend arriving two hours before your start time.  I am hoping 90 minutes will be adequate.

Ali will have her camera in hand for the event, it should be quite the spectacle.

Randall is going to hang at our place Saturday night as well, we will celebrate what will surely be one of the toughest physical endeavors either of us has ever undertaken.

 

 

Last night I had a brief meeting after work regarding an upcoming race since I am more or less the club contact for the event.  By the time I got home it was pretty much dark.

Well at some point I got it in my head I wanted to try a max muscle up attempt.  The swelling in my thumb has receded thanks to the steroids so I figured it was my window of opportunity.

Oh, speaking of my thumb. I had my follow up appointment at the clinic yesterday.  The PA said that both my blood work and X-ray came back fine with none of the typical indicators of gout or any other problem for that matter.  I told her that I had another bad swelling episode on Thanksgiving but at this point things had calmed back down, probably thanks to the steroids.

Despite the negative test results, the PA still is not certain that the issue is not gout.  Her plan of treatment is for me to come in next week for yet another blood draw by mumbling Justin Bieber and then a follow up a week after that to compare results and to see if any flare ups have reoccurred since the roid treatment.  So basically the outcome at this point is still, “Who knows?”

So anyway back to muscle ups.  Even though it was dark and getting quite chilly by Florida standards I wanted to try a set.  I knew I needed lighting if I wanted the attempt to be on video so I lugged out the two CFL lanterns that we use at many of our races for early morning lighting.  I used bungee cords to hang one lamp over each pull up support.

My Crossfit Clitheroe hoody was not ideal clothing for muscle ups.  Several times my thumbs got stuck in the front pocket during the transition.  I managed to set a new PR, grinding out 6 reps and narrowly missing on a 7th.

I would like to work on being able to do my reps more in a rapid fire succession.  Right now I feel like I need to pause at the top of each one to clear my head and make sure I do what I need to at the bottom of the movement.  I suppose that will come with more practice.  I have tried a few times to bang them out but I wind up messing up my angle/pull/kip timing most of the time.

If you would like to see my first nighttime muscle ups, click here.

So my first Tough Mudder is only a couple days away.  To be honest I have been trying to not think about it too much.  There is only one aspect of the event I am really dreading, the cold water obstacles.  I am fine with getting muddy, crawling through narrow pipes, climbing walls, traveling 12 miles by foot, carrying heavy objects, running through flames and wires with 10,000 volts.  But I totally will hate repeatedly having to jump into ice cold water.  Some of the obstacles literally have ice added to the H2O.

I suppose like anything else, my first exposure will be the worst.  I was glad to see that the predicted morning temperatures for Saturday have risen a few degrees to make being wet slightly less miserable. It will definitely be one of those races that sticks with you forever.

So last week I outlined my billing issues with my dentist.  In a nutshell, for several years I have been getting larger than expected out of pocket bills and have been paying them resentfully.  Well I dug in and did some more investigation after getting yet another unexpectedly high “PLEASE PAY THIS AMOUNT” statement from the dentist after my latest visit.

What I discovered was there was a discrepancy between what the dentist and the insurance company said I should be charged.  My benefit statement from my insurance indicated the dentist was supposed to be honoring a reduced rate for their services and I was then responsible for 20% of that reduced amount.  The dentist was billing me at full rate which is why my out of pocket charges were soaring.

When I contacted the dentist office about this they claimed they were not “in network” with my insurer and that was the reason for the difference.  Well doing some simple math revealed that was not the reason.

I called up Cigna and explained my issue.  The rep said that although my dentist is not an “in network” office they do participate in some other plan that requires them to honor the reduced rate.  I found this info very interesting.

I called up the dentist office and relayed this to them.  The had no idea what I was talking about.   I told them they should talk to Cigna directly, which they said they would.

To be honest I figured I would get some bullshit answer back from the dentist which would require me to escalate my crusade against the additional billing. Instead I got a message back yesterday that I was indeed correct.  The dentist should have been billing me at a reduced rate.  Imagine that.  They said they would send out a revised bill once they adjust the numbers.

Now if I wanted to be a real prick, I could point out that not only did their f up apply to this most recent visit but all of our visits for the last several years.  I bet we have over paid  somewhere in the hundreds of dollars over that time period.  I’ll leave it alone though, trying to dig through all those old records would be a mess for all parties involved.  I’ll be satisfied with winning this battle and that future visits to the office will be more reasonable with out of pocket expenditures.

Tonight the Eagles play the Seahawks on NFL network.  Unless Ali feels strongly otherwise, I don’t think I am going to even bother watching the game.  I really don’t care enough at this point to jump through the hoops to see the team if they aren’t on broadcast television.

Yesterday I got the x-rays done on my hand/thumb.  It was a pretty easy process, I didn’t even need an appointment.  I just walked in with the order from our clinic and about 10 minutes later I had my hand up on the x-ray table.  They took 4 x-rays which took all of 5 minutes and I was done.

I am hoping the combination of blood work and x-rays will shine some light on this mystery thumb ailment.   I am on my 2nd to last day of steroids.  The swelling in the thumb has receded but it has gone through this cycle three times before.  And even when the swelling is down, there is still pain deep in the thumb joint if I inadvertently try to bend it too far.

So last night I assisted Ali in a one of those projects that has been on the list forever but for whatever reason never got done, hanging family pics on the wall.  For years we had a number of family pics on the wall by the front door.  When we repainted the area the pics came down, it wasn’t a great spot for them since they took some sun damage.  Well that was something like 2 or 3 years ago.  Since that time those pictures have just been stacked up somewhere.

Hanging the pics in their new spot was a task I gave for Ali to solely complete but she indicated it would be too hard to do by herself since it helps to have one person back checking the orientation of the picture while another holds it in place.  In total we probably hung 15 pictures and we still have others that could go up but they don’t have a matching black frame.  The pictures look nice in their new home.

Getting the pictures on the wall allowed us to also set up Pop Pop’s old Christmas tree on the hope chest.  We didn’t adorn either of our trees with decorations yet.

Driving in our area has recently become much more challenging with the influx of Q-tips from the annual snowbird migration (old people) that are severely lacking in driving skills.  The maneuvers some of these elderly drivers pull off range from amusing, frustrating to downright dangerous.  I can’t tell you how many times I have seen an old person pullout in front of oncoming traffic abruptly either because they can no longer accurately judge speed/distance or they can’t physically turn their head far enough to actually see what is coming, they just throw caution to the wind and jump in.

Some of the Q-tips other famous moves are no look, no signal lane changes, driving 10 mph under the speed limit in any lane of their choosing and unexpected abrupt stops.  Dealing with the swell in numbers of these poor drivers requires extra caution and patience to be sure.  When you factor in r-tards whom are doing things like texting while driving you have a recipe for lots of driving disasters.

My sister posted that their dog Baxter died which made me very sad.  Baxter had a great personality, was very smart and obedient.  He had been part of the family for many years, my brother in law had him before he even met my sister.

I have not heard exactly what caused his demise although he was getting up there in years.  Regardless, he was a good boy and will be missed, RIP buddy.

So I drove home yesterday and walked in the door to a house that was decorated for Christmas, it was awesome. Ali had set up most of our indoor Christmas decorations.  Later in the evening I helped her put up some of the high items.   We also set up our tree although we didn’t hang the decorations on it yet.

I decided this year I would once again set up the old wind up train set that we got from Pop Pop’s house.  It used to be Ali’s dad’s train set when he was a kid.  I love this thing.

I have always had an affinity for old items.  I also loved Pop Pop even though he was not my actual grandfather.  Setting up a 60 year old toy and have it still work is just a very cool thing to me.

I shot a brief video of it in action if you would like to see what a 60 year old, made in America toy looks like.  I highly doubt any toy made in China will still be usable in 2071.

Last night I also made my third attempt at normal mode in this month’s Bar-barian challenge.  This was my first indoor attempt, facilitated by rainy weather and lack of daylight.  Ali was nice enough to be my camera woman.

For the attempt I utilized my Iron Gym and the walker that Randall gave me awhile back for dips.  The walker did not work out real well for fast dips, it almost flipped over at one point.  My overall time was about 15 seconds slower than my best attempt which was a bit of a bummer.  I need to be able to crank out the push ups at a faster clip.

Here is the video.

Today I go for my hand x-ray.  Hopefully between that and the results of my blood tests last week we can figure out what exactly is going on with my thumb.

So our Thanksgiving eve was busier than normal since we were actually timing the huge holiday run the next morning instead of just volunteering.  I set the alarm on Thursday for an ungodly 3:45 am, yes it sucks.  With as much as there was to do, I wanted to get at the race site as early as possible..

So we pulled up about 5 am.  The only other person there was the race director Matt who had a million different things to attend to.  He basically let the registration area in the hands of Ali and I.  We came up with what seemed to be a decent lay out to split up the chip timed versus fun run participants.

It wasn’t long until the first snafu struck.  The power outlet we were using to run the laptops went dead.  Evidently the exterior outlets turn off along with the lights, great.  We just had a race a few week back where I ranted about unconfirmed power sources and now we faced it once again.  In the prior years we had no power requirements for the race.  So now a mad scramble took place to find a working outlet.  We eventually found one but that one as well went dead a little later.  I wound up walking down to the finish line which was a couple hundred yards away and lugging the battery back up unit to the registration area to power the laptops.

By that time the registration area had turned into a human beehive of chaos, bodies were everywhere.  Even though the race had hit it’s capacity and was not taking walk up entries Ali still was kept quite busy. Somebody sitting behind a laptop looks authoritative, hence she became an unintended customer service desk, getting hit with questions constantly.

We had a number of people that did not see any of the online notices that the race was full and they could not sign up, despite having money in hand, an awkward situation to have to deal with.  In addition Ali had to deal with a number of people that signed up online late when only fun run entry was allowed, thinking they were signed up for the chip timed run.  Ali gave these people the option to pay an extra $5 if they wanted to be chip timed which a few of them opted to do.

Before I knew it we were only a few minutes from the start of the race.  I had to haul ass to the start line and get the starting mats up and running.  I quickly got the mats across the road and turned on the timing box.  While I was waiting for stuff to come up the race director, who is a professional musician, started playing the national anthem on his trumpet.  When he finished the box was still not booted up.

Now we had an issue.  I had close to a thousand runners all waiting for the start command that generally should follow the end of the anthem.  Well I wasn’t ready, the box still was not fully booted.  Now in retrospect if we were able to fill in some of the dead time with maybe race instructions or some other happy filler we would have been ok.  But we were now past the official 7:30 start time and we had the fun run scheduled to start at 7:40.  I made the decision to have him just start the race, a chip finish would have to do.

The start command was given and hundreds of people crossed the starting line thinking their time was being registered, it wasn’t.  The box finished booting about 20-30 seconds after the race was started but it did no good at that point.  I was frustrated.

Well as I was cursing internally at not getting start times I realized I had a much, MUCH bigger problem.  In my angst to get the starting line up and running I totally whiffed on doing the other steps necessary to start the race.  When a race typically starts I am at the line with a clipboard and a stopwatch.  When the race starts I click my stopwatch and write down the time on my watch.  The timing system is later synched to the time on my watch.  Well I had no stop watch, no clipboard and hadn’t even glanced at my watch.  My first thought, “Oh boy, I am fcked”

I had 1000 runners out on the course that paid EXTRA to be chip timed and I don’t have a time for them.  I knew I didn’t have time to panic.  Instead my years of experience as problem solver kicked in as I ran through scenarios of how to save this from being a total failure while I fast walked to the finish line.

Well as if I didn’t have enough problems, I was presented with another one at the finish line.  The power we were tapping there had turned off as well.  I had no time to f around with that so I had Craig desperately find me a live outlet which he thankfully did eventually.  I had to fix this.

The clock at the finish line is normally set to match my stop watch.  Since I had no stop watch I just punched in a number that I thought was in the neighborhood of being right.   I knew people crossing the finish line at first would be like “What the F? That time can’t be right??” and it wasn’t.

My plan hinged on hoping the first place runner was wearing a GPS watch that he started at the start of the race.  When he crossed the finish line I would see what the time was on my watch and then ask the runner what his GPS said.  Then by subtracting the time on his watch from the time on my wrist I would have the race start time.

Luckily the winner, that crossed the line in 21:11 was wearing a GPS and I was able to then figure out a more or less accurate start time.  Spectators were confused when they saw the timing clock over the finish line all of a sudden go back in time almost two minutes to account for the f up.  About 5 minutes after the first guy crossed everything was back in synch and I was collecting times normally.

Wow, that was my biggest save I ever had to make.  Ironically, before the race I was talking to Craig about the process of getting someone else familiar with timing races, which he has expressed interest in doing.  I told him that training someone to time a race is possible, as long as nothing goes wrong.  It’s being able to handle these unexpected issues that makes having someone with a troubleshooting background invaluable in this role.

As the runners continued to stream across the finish line I just sort of sat there behind the timing table in a trance, mentally tired from the events of the morning.  It all worked out.

There were some other glitches in the race outside of my control.  We had one runner come across the finish line LIVID.  He started screaming at Craig about the stupidity of not having cups on the course for water.

This event strives to be as “green” as possible and part of that was having a water stop on the course with no cups.  Before the race runners were advised to bring their hydrapouches that were handed out at last years event or an empty bottle to fill up with.  Well of course hardly anybody did so and as a result many runners did the entire 4 miles without water which is not a good thing.  Saying “but it said in the email and on the website you had to bring your own container” won’t hold much weight if someone passes out on the run from dehydration.

The race also had awards for the top 3 male and female finishers however the award ceremony never happened.  People were just kind of wandering around, wondering if it was over.  Even when the race was not chip timed there was always a post race ceremony that at least thanked everyone for participating.  It was a pretty glaring omission from this year’s event.

To be fair, this race is a monster to organize because of it’s size and Matt tries to take the vast majority of it and plop it squarely on his shoulders.  It is just too much for one person to do efficiently.  In the future a different road map where there are several individuals that have full responsibility for different aspects of the race will probably be implemented to help relieve some of this crushing burden.

Man I was glad to get all of the stuff packed up and out of there.  At least we scored a left over pumpkin pie for our part of the effort. So we piled in the van and headed up to pick up mom after a much needed stop at DD for go juice. When we got back to our house the girls were beyond excited to see mom, especially Nicki.

So there was a lot to do.  Not only did I want to get the post-race stuff done and put away, Ali had a Thanksgiving dinner to prepare.  I flipped on the tv and had the Macy’s Parade on for entertainment although I actually saw none of it.

Our meal included tofurkey, asparagus, mushroom gravy, raspberry/cranberry sauce, potatoes, carrots and wheat rolls, a total vegetarian menu.  I thought that once again the tofurkey was good although it seems that they really cut down on the size of it from years prior.

Mom didn’t seem all that thrilled with the tofurkey.  In the past we have offered to gladly prepare a small turkey breast in addition to the tofurkey which mom has declined so we don’t have to expend the effort.  I think we will just do it anyway next year.

There wasn’t much time that passed between the end of our meal and mom being ready to go home but that was ok since I had 4 days of things I wanted to do.  I took mom home in the SSR with the top down, a wonderful way to travel.  During the drive we had a conversation about mom’s situation and what can be done to make it better.

I have stressed to mom I am always happy to help her as much as I can. However I think the biggest problem is one that I can’t fix which frustrates me.  You always hear the overused saying how you can’t help someone that doesn’t want it.  Mom was unusually honest about how she has felt in the last decade or so.  It’s a hard thing growing older and feeling less and less viable.

I stressed to her that focusing more on what she can do instead of what she can’t is probably much more productive.  I think if she pushes against some of theses boundaries that she thinks are made of concrete she will quickly discover they are actually just cardboard and fall down rather easily.

When I returned home Ali was nestled in bed taking her much anticipated nap.  I forgot to mention that in addition to working the race she also participated, turning in her best 4 mile time ever, a little over 36 minutes.

Surprisingly my energy level was still pretty good so I continued with doing things.  One of those things was hopping on the mower and knocking down the grass for hopefully the last time in 2011.

Ali came out after she woke up and asked what I was doing.  She was in disbelief that I decided to mow grass after everything else that went down today.  I told her I was fine plus it was nice weather for mowing with mild temps and low humidity.

All of my activity during the day had an unwanted side effect, by the time Thanksgiving night rolled around my thumb had swelled back up the the point of being unusable again, damn it.  Again simple things like picking up an object became left hand only motions.  I had my prescription for steroids from the clinic but I was not going to get it filled till Friday.  I just had to take some Advil and deal with it.

So on Thanksgiving we looked at the ads from mom’s paper to see if anything looked interesting.  The only thing I bothered to tear out of thousands of ad pages was a manager’s chair at Target for $49.  It looked like a decent replacement for my increasingly uncomfortable current chair.

Ali and I decided we would actually venture out into the crazy retail world later in the day Friday.  We had to stick around the house early because the cleaning people were showing up for their once every 4-6 weeks cleaning session.  I have been quite annoyed with the service lately.

The last time they were at the house I discovered the next day that in the process of strumming the front blinds harshly with a brush one of the girls broke the blinds.  I contacted the owner of the business via email about the damage.  She never responded.

When Ali responded back to her a few weeks later about the next appointment she again mentioned the blinds.  The owner said she talked to the girls that were at the house and both of them denied causing the damage.  Well now I was pissed.

Accidents happen but if you do cause damage, don’t lie about it.  So I take a picture of the blinds and send it off, ending any doubt that the girls did indeed cause the damage.  Finally the owner agreed that blinds don’t get this way themselves and agreed to reimburse me for replacements.  I am not sure if I am going to actually sock her with the bill or not but I certainly wanted to make sure she accepted responsibility for it.

So while the house was cleaned I was already outside with the pressure washer.  I wanted to pressure wash the pool cage, lanai and the two sheds.  My thumb was still a disaster, unable to grip for shit.  I just decided I would use my left hand to pick up the slack.

By the time we were ready to leave to go shopping I had the pool cage and lanai done.  It was a pretty miserable process trying to do it with a gimped hand, there were plenty of “ow, that hurts” moments.

So late morning we headed out in the SSR to dive into the sea of shopping humanity.  After dropping off my prescription at CVS we first hit Target, hoping to snag one of those office chairs.  I was bummed and a bit annoyed when not only did I walk in to see none located where the sign was but also that there didn’t appear to be space for more than one to be on the shelf.  I hate when a store blasts a special and backs it up with very limited inventory.

Just to make sure I asked a worker if they possibly had any more in the back.  She said they didn’t but a truck was coming that night which may or may not have more.  She said it also looked like the other Naples store had some still but she couldn’t be sure.  Ali and I made loose plans to maybe try the other location if time allowed.

So our next stop was to go to the Miromar Outlets.  Ali and I said we were surprised that Target didn’t seem all that busy, not significantly busier than normal.  Well Miromar was a whole other story. It was stuffed.

The outlets have a HUGE parking lot that almost circles the facility more or less.  There were no spots to be found.  If a pair of back up lights were spotted it was instantly mongered by one of the dozens of vehicles endlessly circling the lot.  There were multiple vehicles that parked up on the various grass islands for cripes sake.

Well there was no way in hell I was wedging the SSR among all of these other vehicles.  When it comes to avoiding unwanted door dings I subscribe to the assumption that most people are careless assholes and would have no issue introducing their edge of the door to the paint of my vehicle.

I told Ali it was a nice day for a walk.  We wound up parking in the adjacent stadium lot.  I am sure our walk to the outlets was well over a 1/4 mile but it was worth it to give the SSR a better shot at escaping door dingers.

To be honest I was skeptical about just how good the deals would be at the outlets.  Well after leaving a couple hours later with a bag stuffed with deals I was not.

We scored significant deals at various places, my favorite of which was the Under Armour outlet.

I had blogged about how I was shocked by paying $50 for the UA long sleeve “cold gear” shirt at Sports Authority for the Mudder.  I like the shirt a lot but paying that much for one doesn’t sit well with me.  Well at the outlet I picked up 4 items for the same money, scoring two pairs of shorts, training pants and a sleeveless t-shirt.  Ali found a good deal on Under Armour sneakers which she took advantage of despite having enough pairs of sneakers at home to adorn a small village.

There were legitimate deals all over the place.  A lot of the stores had these pile on discounts where stuff was marked down 40%, then 30% on top of that plus another 10-15% on top of that.  They had convenient charts posted so you knew exactly how much the final price would be.

Of course the best deal of all were to be found if you stumbled across something on the clearance racks you actually liked which I did a few times. I scored two polo shirts for $8-$9, some Adidas shorts for $12 and a couple other outlandish deals.

Like I mentioned we spent a little over two hours there, by the end of which I was ready to go.  Well something weird happened along those two hours, Ali didn’t buy anything else.  I had exhibited some commendable patience if you ask me, dealing with the waves of people while allowing Ali to peruse.  Only at the very end of the session did I indicate I had enough.

Ali was feeling somewhat cheated that I bought various clothing items while all she did was get sneakers.  I told her that she looked at a million things but didn’t indicate strongly she liked anything.  Plus I pointed out that she probably conservatively has quadruple the amount of clothing I have, she needs very little.

Well this turned into a walking argument as we looked for a place to grab some quick food before leaving.  Ali tried to shift blame onto me, saying I wasn’t helpful enough in pointing out things I thought she should get.  She didn’t indicate this was supposed to be my role until the very end.  Silly me assumed that the way it would work is she picks something out and then asks my opinion on it.

So we had a pretty silent lunch as we each knocked down a piece of pizza, not the way I would have preferred what was a surprisingly pleasant shopping trip up to that point would wind up.   Ali actually would have stayed longer to shop more.  I told her that we still had to get groceries on the way home and I already told her before we left that I wanted to get the rest of my pressure washing chore over and done with it before daylight expired.

Later in the evening I suggested to Ali that perhaps on Saturday we could stop at Kohl’s for her to look around some more to satiate her unmet shopping desire.

So Saturday morning we had another early wake up call, we decided to go participate in a club group run.  We were going to take the SSR.  We headed out to the garage and hit the garage door button.  The door went up a few inches and no further.  The opener strained against the weight.  We hit the button a couple more times until I took a closer look.  I saw the right spring that provides upward lifting power had snapped, a common failure with garage doors.  Ali mentioned that she thought she heard a bang from the garage the night before.  Now we knew what the bang was.

Well the Camry and SSR were trapped in the garage so we piled into the Tacoma.  On the drive I worried about the logistics and cost of getting someone out to fix the door on a Saturday.  I told Ali I would try to call someone after the run.

This run was not of any set distance, you could go as far or as short as you wanted.  Ali and Michelle had talked of doing somewhere around 10 miles which I had no intention of doing.  Since I injured my knee during the NYC/Ireland trip the most I have run is the 5K on Veteran’s day.  Jumping the distance up to 10 miles would be stupid, especially since the Mudder was a week away.

I told Ali I would just run with Michelle and her for awhile and turn around when I hit the halfway mark of whatever I felt like running.  Well I never turned back.

The girls were running a pace around a 10 minute mile and I felt comfortable enough to just keep going.  I ran the entire 10 miles.  The last couple miles Michelle and I pulled away on our own and Ali who was feeling pooped, walked.  Michelle had to get back home so she was ok with picking up the pace at the end which we did in sub 9 minute mile pace.

After we finished I double backed to meet up with Ali.  She was walking with another guy from her triathlon training group so at least she had company.

After enjoying a post run bagel we got ready to head out. Before we left I got a hold of a pleasant garage door guy who said they would be able to come out to fix the door later in the afternoon. The total cost would be just under $300 which felt a little steep to me but when I factored in it was Saturday I felt more ok with the number.

So we decided we would go to Kohl’s right from the run.  We both had brought a change of clothes so we wouldn’t be walking around stinking and sweaty.  At first Ali said we didn’t need to bother going since she realizes she doesn’t really need anything.  Well despite my knowing this was true, I still encouraged her that we stop, saying I never saw the store before so this way I could see it. (I didn’t care if saw it)

It just so happened that the route to Kohl’s went right past that other Target that we were told might have that office chair.  Despite being pretty sure that any remaining stock had been snapped up, Ali and I decided to take a quick look.  I was quite surprised that one box was actually on the shelf.  I was so sure that one would not be there I hadn’t even grabbed a cart. Instead I just grabbed the box and lugged it to the front register caveman style.

So we arrived at Kohl’s.  Of course now I have heard of Kohl’s before but I never stepped foot inside of one.  I quickly realized it is just another department store basically albeit it with decent pricing.  The women’s clothing was right by the entrance so Ali could dig right in.

So now that I knew my role was to be more of a fashion consultant I did my best to point out various items that I thought Ali would look good in.  Ali is not very good at this.  If left to her on her own she would just buy a solid, muted color of something.

I did my best to point out various items and kept a good attitude while doing so until a point.  By that time I was carrying at least a half dozen items that we picked out for her, a good haul, I was ready to pay and go.  Ali though went into her “wander mode”.  She likes to just wander about the store, looking at things, endless things and being indecisive of her want/need of things.  It can be quite frustrating if you are not shopping yourself and instead are just being towed behind the process.  Finally I was able to steer Ali towards the cash register.

Our checkout clerk was bizarre looking.  She was a lady who was probably in her mid to late 40’s.  She had scare hair and crazy, gaudy eye make up.  She literally looked like she was dressed up for a Halloween party.  Despite her odd appearance she was nice enough.

Kohl’s had good deals as well.  In addition to the heavy discounts, Kohl’s adds back end to the deal.  Based on what you spend, you get “Kohl’s bucks” you can spend at a future visit.  I left the store feeling that Ali now felt on more even ground on her weekend shopping haul.

Looking back I find it funny that except for a few items, everything we bought was for ourselves instead of gifts for others.  Merry Christmas to me.  Our Christmas shopping nowadays is so heavily gift card/online shopping weighted that actual shopping in buildings just doesn’t happen much.

So on Saturday I started my steroid pack for my thumb.  Roids are one way to aggressively treat swelling.  I found it interesting the way the dosage is doled out.  You start out with a high dosage, 6 pills the first day and then scale back the number of pills each subsequent day.  You take the pills throughout the day around meals and before bed.

Since I started the treatment my thumb has reverted back to just the mildly painful, an improvement from balloon-like and immobile. In this condition I can at least pinch items with my thumb but trying to bend it at the joint too far still will result in pain.  I am having an x-ray tomorrow to hopefully further clarify exactly what is wrong in addition to the blood work I had done.

Saturday afternoon after Ali napped I had her come out to help me with the third major project of the weekend, the exterior Christmas lights.  I decided I wanted to exclusively use the expensive LED sets I bought at Sam’s last year.

I had enough lights to outline the front roof line of the house, part of the fence on either side and the two front palm trees.  My chainsaw work on the tallest palm a couple weeks ago allowed Ali and I to run the lights to the very top of the tall tree, looking extra cool in my opinion.

While we were working on the lights, the garage repair dude came, his name was Gary. Gary seemed like a likeable, hard working guy.  I did immediately notice he was missing a few teeth.  Gary wasted no time telling us how shitty his day was.  He said every single call he had that day were all broken springs which I guess are generally a pain in the ass to replace. Gary also made the first of many inferences of how he is not making much money, a point he drove home at least a half dozen times during his visit.

The first order of business was getting the garage door open.  Little did I know that it could be done with a little human assist.  While Ali hit the opener button, Gary and I lifted, serving the same purpose as the broken spring.  The door went up with little issue.  After that he said he didn’t need any more help so we resumed our light hanging process.

It didn’t take all that long for Gary to make the repair, he said of the five he replaced that day ours was the easiest.   As he cleaned up and prepared our bill more references to money were made.  He even told us he supplements this job with a nightly paper delivery route.  He relayed the nightmare of the job on Thanksgiving day.  He estimated he delivered more than four tons of paper that night.

Anyway, all of the money mentions made it pretty obvious to me the guy would appreciate a tip and I would have happily obliged but there was one problem.  I had exactly one dollar in my wallet.  Now short of emptying out my change basket, I had no other cash in the house.  Unfortunately Gary had to make do with a handshake and our thanks, Happy Holidays.

Gary did fill me in that ideally a spring should be shot with some lubricant once every three months to extend it’s life.  Our original spring was lubricated exactly zero times in 10 + years.

Ali and I finished up the lights and headed inside.  Once it got dark out we went back out to admire our efforts.  We liked the final outcome although Ali was slightly annoyed that some of the LED strings were bright white while others had a pale yellow hue.  It didn’t bother me.

Sunday morning we met Christy for another bike riding session.  We covered a little more than 20 miles on the ride.  At this point Ali hasn’t been very concerned on what pace she is riding, concentrating more on just physically being on a bike for a period of 90 minutes consistently.  That is starting to get easier for her so hopefully soon we can push the pace a bit.  I would estimate for much of Sunday’s ride we were going at a leisurely 12-13 mph pace.

The Eagles didn’t play till 4:15 so that left me with some more time to do stuff around the house.  One of the first things I did was replace the ash tray door assembly on the SSR.

You may recall my posting of what the old owner did as a “fix” for the ash tray latch breaking.  He inserted a small screw where the latch was supposed to be and then slammed it up into the upper receptacle.  It was pretty lame. Well after seeing what I paid for the parts to replace it I got a better understanding of why he opted to rig it.

So anyway I had the parts for a few days so I was ready to get the job done.  I quick survey of the latch revealed there were two screws at the rear base of it that needed to come out.  The hinge of the door is right above the center cowl, I had very little room to get a tool in there.  Even the stubby screw drivers I have which are no longer than 4 inches long, were too big.  Hmmm.

I used my McGyver instincts and made a modified right angle screw driver by using a 1/4″ socket on a ratchet and inserting a phillips head bit in it.  Reaching the screws required me to wedge my body into the small foot well on my back while reaching over head.  I also had a flash light pointed at the area to provide some lighting.

After some trial and error I was able to get enough torque and upward pressure to get the screws loose.  Once I did the tray dropped right out.

Now I simply had to pop the old cigarette lighter out of the old assembly and into the new one.  Doing so was easier said than done.  the tabs that held the lighter in place didn’t seem to have the give in them that they should have.  I used brute force to pop it out, to be honest I am surprised it didn’t break.

When I dropped the drawer out I saw something slide around back up in the dash.  A quick grab with my hands pulled out a Bic lighter.  It confirmed what I suspected, one of the prior owners was a smoker.  When I first got the car it had an odd smell which I remember from my car salesman days.  It is the smell of a car that has been smoked in but then later treated with the stuff that is supposed to kill the stink.

The car has had a lot of time to air out since I have owned it, in fact most of the time when it is in the garage the top has been down.   The smell seems to be mostly gone but at some point I will probably give the carpet an additional shampooing.

So after moving the cigarette lighter across to the new door the rest of the reassembly process went smoothly.  My new door and latch assembly worked as they should, clicking nicely into place.  That was the last of the glaring interior issues I had to address.

Next up on the SSR project list is to get a Pioneer in-dash navigation system up and running.  Originally I was hoping I could use the funds from this onslaught of races I have been timing to pay for the system, but after our spending onslaught this weekend I thought it made more fiscal sense to direct that money towards offsetting that spending bulge.  I can wait till after Christmas to put the radio in.

After the car work I finally got around to finishing up the chicken wire fencing around the garden project.  I started it last week but never finished it because of my aching thumb.  The fencing was installed to prevent the obvious rabbit damage we have seen in the garden.  They definitely will not be able to squeeze through the tiny holes in the chicken wire.  Ali was nice enough to help me with the final part of the process which was twisting some wire around the chicken fence up high to keep it snugly against the existing fencing. All that twisting would have been a recipe for instant thumb swelling.

So it was time for the Eagles game.  I went into the broadcast already predisposed to thinking the team was going to get slaughtered.  After all the Patriots were coming to town, one of the most powerful offenses in the league and the Eagles defense for the vast majority of the season has proven to be nothing but a joke.  Well for about the first 8 or 9 minutes of the game I thought my negativity was actually unjustified.

The Birds came out and scored a quick touchdown followed by a field goal.  On defense they were harassing Brady and caused the Patriots to punt a couple times. Wow maybe the Eagles actually CAN still play.  Maybe the win against the Giants wasn’t a fluke?  Well guess what, it was.

The Patriots, unlike the Eagles are generally very good at making mid-game adjustments.  Adjust they did, plowing through the defense for the rest of the game, embarrassing the Eagles 38-20.  It was laughable how easy the Patriots made it look.  The secondary which prior to the season on paper looked unbeatable, gave out points like candy it was just as awful as it gets.

Desean Jackson continued his self destruction, dropping 3 catch-able balls, including two that would have been touchdowns.  One was especially egregious where he obviously short armed a catch to avoid contact.  The Eagles fans let Desean and Andy know how they felt.  The chants of “Fire Andy” rained down from the stands with regularity.  I was pleased to hear that after I turned the game off in disgust at the beginning of the 4th quarter, Reid actually plopped Jackson’s ass on the bench and kept him there.

With as much talent as Jackson has, he just isn’t worth it to me.  His play is dramatically inconsistent and his pompous, showboat attitude just is never going to fly here.  I don’t need assholes on the team. Desean Jackson is a gaping asshole.

So now the Eagles are a dreadful 4-7 with no realistic shot of making the playoffs.  Their next game comes up in a hurry on Thursday night against the Seahawks.  This is one of those stupid NFL Network only games that means if I want to see it I will need to rig it through the laptop while streaming the broadcast from a shady website.  I honestly don’t know if I will bother making the effort.  I just don’t care about this team right now.

 

So I went to our med clinic to get my thumb examined.  It turned into an odd encounter.

When I got there I was greeted by the receptionist.  She was a cute young girl that for some reason looked like she was dressed up to go to the Blue Martini.  She had an an ultra-short dress with cleavage spilling out all over the place.  I thought it was an odd choice of fashion for a clinic.

After a short wait I am escorted back to the exam room.  When I saw who my examiner was I shuddered, it was mumbly Justin Beiber.  I have had this kid before, he isn’t the PA, he does the pre-exam stuff like get your weight, temperature, blood pressure and ask you what is wrong.

I really have no idea why he would pick a job where he has to speak to other human beings, he appears to be clinically shy.  He whispers and mumbles at you.  It is impossible to get through a few sentences with the guy without asking him to repeat himself several times.  It is just bizarre, awkward and uncomfortable, the three adjectives you would rather not use when describing your medical visit.

So after Justin leaves the PA comes in.  The woman that gave me my surprise DRE when I was 39 was no longer there.  This new PA is younger and lighter so it was ok.  I explained to her the sequence of events that started back on Veteran’s Day, telling her at first I thought it was simply a sprain but then later suspected it could be gout.  She said that is a strong possibility.

She felt up both hands, my feet and knees as well to rule out rheumatoid arthritis.  She asked if my family had any history of gout which they don’t, as far as I know.  My thumb actually has decent mobility right now but if I would try to bend it beyond a certain point the pain comes streaming back in.

She said I would need a blood draw to test for gout and she also set up for me to have an x-ray done on my hand.  I also have a prescription for a steroid to hopefully knock out the swelling.  Maybe it will help my bench press numbers too.

So the PA says they can do the blood draw right there.  Great, I thought, until I saw who was drawing the blood, Justin Beiber…..

So he mumbles and tells me to put my left hand out so he can prep me.  I have a thing about getting blood drawn, I absolutely can not watch the process and I involuntarily will break out in a cold sweat regardless of how hard I try to just relax.  Well having this guy do the draw certainly didn’t help matters.

So he sticks my left arm and starts the draw.  I then hear him mumbling to himself.  I can’t understand a word he is saying but I get the gist, he isn’t getting good blood flow.  I heard “thought vein was good” “maybe collapsed”  So I say, “So you want to try the other arm?”,  just wanting to get the f out of there.  My shirt was now soaked through.

So JB sticks me in the right arm after more mumbling. Thank goodness the flow evidently was better from the right side.  After he was done I was just sitting there, waiting for the normal “Ok you are all done” signal from Justin Beiber, but he just sat there.  I say “Um ok, am I done?”  Justin said I was.  Ok great.

I set my next appointment with the receptionist/hoochy momma and got the hell out of there.  Weird place.