Whole lot of..

So I left work a bit early on Friday so I could get everything packed up and ready to go for my weekend trip to visit Randall and Tracy.  I was out on the road with the SSR shortly after 5.

The drive across Alligator Alley went ok.  I had the top down for the first 40 miles or so of the trip before storms forced me to pull over and hit the transformer button.  The remainder of the trip was through storms of various intensity.

I pulled into Tracy’s place a few minutes after 7.  Tracy had actually just gotten home herself a few minutes prior. Randal actually was not back yet.  He rode his bike to work on Friday and the storms had slowed him down during the ride home.  He pulled up no more than 10 minutes after I got there, wet but intact.

Tracy gave me a tour of her place which is very cute.  It is an older place that had a number of renovations on it including a beautiful kitchen and the epic backyard with a beautiful pool.  The back yard literally looks like a tropical oasis with plush tropical landscaping bordering the fence line.  There also is a sweet outdoor covered bar area.

I also got to meet Tracy’s roommate and her girlfriend, they both seemed very nice.

Originally Randall was going to grill salmon for us for dinner but because of the wet weather the plans changed. Instead we went out to the local California Pizza Kitchen.

By the time we got there it was pretty late, something like 8:45.  In Naples if you go to dinner at the time of night you are going to be hitting the clear downhill of the dinner crowd.  Well the east coast is a bit different, the place was still packed at that time.  I was surprised.

We had a good dinner with each of us getting a different pizza variety.  Tracy is very easy to hang with, she always has something to talk about which works perfectly for me.  By the time we got back to their place it was getting pretty late, and we were supposed to start our King of the Beach volleyball tournament the next day at 8, so we hit the sack somewhere between 11-12.

I slept on an air mattress in their spare room.  It wasn’t too uncomfortable but I had a restless nights sleep.  I utilized my Iphone to provide the white noise I need to fall asleep.

Randall and I were up on time and after powering up with Pop Tart breakfasts we were off in the SSR to the beach.  We pulled into 16 th street sans top.  We were the first ones there.

As we walked up to the beach I was impressed what a nice area it was.  Down the beach a way was a beautiful lighthouse, it was a very scenic backdrop to play against.  Tabby arrived on site a few minutes after Randall and I did.  All we needed now was Jeremy.

Randall and I saw that Jeremy was up and posting on Facebook at 6AM so we knew oversleeping couldn’t be the excuse.  Probably about 10 after 8 I got a call from him asking for clarification on where to go.  I handed the phone over to Randall for directions.  Jeremy was still probably 10-15 minutes away.

So Randall and I started bumping around as Tabby grabbed an onsite rake used to smooth out the courts. Jeremy came shuffling in somewhere close to 8:25, already knowing he was going to get his ass busted for once again being late.  At this point we assume he will always be late so any ass busting was good natured.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlje7YMn1bs

You can hear his official excuse in the video above.  Something about smoothies and the kids.

So we finally got underway.  I immediately was mindful of the heat.  Even though it was still early in the morning, it felt stifling hot.  My skin was drenched before the first point was even played.

We went through a total of three rounds of play, to be honest I was ready to call it quits after two rounds.  Everyone had won a total of 3 games so it was virtually a tie which was fine with me.  Beside the searing heat my knee was hurting.

The sand at this beach was much tougher to navigate than the nice packed sand that adorns Siesta Keys, the only place I have played beach vball the last couple years.  Not only was the softer, deeper sand harder to jump out of, it made any movement more difficult.

My knee actually had been hurting a bit before Saturday for the better part of two weeks.  It was odd because I had not done any serious impact activities over that time period, yet the pain/swelling was there.  The combination of trudging through the sand and a number of awkward  impacts that put the knee in bad positions multiplied the problem.

I had a good time playing with the guys but overall I wasn’t very happy with my play.  I had two or three games where I was involved in losing leads towards the end of games, a scenario that always irritates me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcZqVMGLIb0

The irritation came to a head in the last game we played where Randall swung wildly at a low ball that wound up somehow rolling over the net and costing us a point.  After I retrieved the ball I slammed it angrily into the boiling sand.  The anger dissipated quickly though, for the most part I had a casual attitude about the whole thing, I was just happy to be out there playing with the guys.

In the middle of the tourney Tabby and I wound up playing one extra game against some of the locals that normally play there on Saturday.  I certainly didn’t need the extra court time but neither Randall or Jeremy seemed very excited about the prospect of playing.  We were all really wilting from the intense heat.

It was a pretty intense volleyball session when all things are considered.  Tabby and I played a total of 10 games, at least twice what you would play in a normal Florida vball tournament.  The majority of the games were back to back with minimal breaks,  instead of the 45-60 minutes break you will get in normal tournaments between games.  Throw in the temps/humidity along with deep sand and it is no wonder I felt like shit by the time it was all over with.

If you take all 3 rounds into consideration, Jeremy actually won the most games, something he was proud of.  Overall the level of play that we put on the court was not really all that impressive, except for Tabby’s setting.

After the tourney we headed out to grab some lunch.  Jeremy came walking in the restaurant with a grocery bag of stuff.  He actually had made some awards (with his wife’s help).  Tabby got an Olympic style medal and Randall and I were presented with StB (shit the bed) certificates for our part in losing a couple big leads in games. Randall also was given the “Story Book Ending Award”, which looked like a Xmas tree topper, for his game ending block in the final match of the day.  It was a funny way to end up the event and we appreciated Jeremy’s efforts.

By the time we got back to Tracy’s place I was beat, I could already feel my knee swelling up.  We had plans to go to the movies later that night.  I was glad to be able to sneak in a close to 90 minute nap before we left.  I really needed it.

The movie we were seeing was Expendables 2.  Randall and I had seen the original at Silverspot a year or two back.  We went to see it at a very high end theater in Boca.  It had a layout that was new to me.  On the first level was the regular theater for “common folk”.  Randall splurged for seats in an upper balcony.  They were expensive, $20 a pop, but for that you had a perfect vantage point in huge, comfortable chairs.  They even threw in a complimentary small popcorn with the price of admission.  It was similar to Silverspot in that you had a full menu/bar at your disposal which you could enjoy at your seat.

I had to laugh when I saw a text message on my phone about 15 minutes from the start of the movie.  It was from Jeremy, asking what the plan was (for the movies).  When I first mentioned to Jeremy about seeing Expendables 2 on Friday he had no interest.  Then at lunch I asked him again and he said MAYBE he would go.  Well evidently I was supposed to ask him a third time if he wanted to go and didn’t realize it.

I told him we were already at the theater.  He acted like he was offended that we made plans without him but I reminded him he didn’t commit to going, maybe is different than yes.  We made arrangements to stop by his place after the movie.

Another thing I liked about this movie theater was not only did it advise people to silence their cellphones, it also warned them to not text, else face being asked to leave the theater.  That’s awesome.  I had first hand experience with this when I saw Batman.  A few seats away from me there was a girl that was literally texting through out  80% of the movie, it was ridiculous.

Expendables 2 was great as long as you take it for what it is supposed to be, brainless, violent, fun with lots of action.  It relies on the characters and good old pyrotechnics to provide the entertainment instead of CGI effects.  The only CGI I saw in the movie were the obvious enhanced blood spurts.

They upped the ante in this film adding more old school action heroes like Chuck Norris and Claude Van Damme.  Arnold and Bruce Willis also had larger roles than they did in the first film which was a good thing.  I enjoyed the film through out.  If you like action movies you absolutely need to see it. I give it an A.  Sorry if that makes you think less of me.

After the movie we headed to Jeremy’s place which was very close by to visit him, Mandy and the kids.  I realized just how long it has been since I have been to Jeremy’s place when I saw how big their youngest daughter, Ainsley has gotten.  The last time I saw her she was a little baby.

Ainsley was scared of me initially for some reason but later warmed up.  By the end of the visit she was sitting on my lap as we flipped through a super hero pop up book.  Their son Connor was as outgoing as ever, wanting to show me one thing after another.  He’s very funny.

We still had not eaten dinner at this point.  Jeremy was ok to come join us while Mandy stayed home with the kids.  We went to a restaurant I was at with Jeremy and Randall once before although the name is escaping me at the moment. Once again, even though it was getting late in the evening, there were a lot of people there.  We actually had to wait a few minutes to be seated.  We all enjoyed some of their in house brewed beer and had good dinners to go along with it.

After dinner Jeremy headed one direction and we the other.  It was nice to be able to spend some non-virtual time with Jmo.

Once we got back to Tracy’s house I almost immediately went to bed, I was BEAT.

Saturday night I did not sleep soundly at all.  I woke up on a regular basis not only because of my stiff and painful knee but also a painful left shoulder that came out of nowhere.  I didn’t have any “oh shit that hurts” moments with my shoulder playing volleyball so I am not sure where it originated from.  So even though I didn’t roll out of bed until 8:30 am on Sunday, I definitely was not well rested.

Even though I jammed my bike in the back of the SSR for the trip my feelings would not have been hurt at all if Randall said he didn’t feel like going for a bike ride.  My right knee looked like someone pumped it up with air and I had very limited mobility in it.

Well we eventually decided to go out on two wheels, albeit a shorter route than the 25 miler Randall was originally thinking about.  The route we took went up A1A, the main drag in Fort Lauderdale along the beach.  Wow that was definitely a road I would not look to go riding on again anytime soon.

You literally had to keep your head on a swivel and your brakes on a hair trigger.  There were constant hazards from space cadet drivers, no look pedestrians, veering runners and casual beach cruiser riders.  I didn’t enjoy that segment of the ride much at all.  Luckily there was also some time spent in residential areas that allowed you to actually enjoy the scenery.  In total we did a little more than 15 miles in an hour.

When we got back we were dripping wet so we hopped in Tracy’s pool to cool off.  As I have said before her pool area is incredibly nice, a perfect place for get togethers.  Unfortunately Tracy had to head off to work a little after noon.  I thanked her for her hospitality.

After she left Randall put his grilling skills on display, preparing an extremely good tasting and healthy lunch of grilled salmon, asparagus and zucchini.  I watched the entire process, trying to absorb some of the technique.

After lunch I packed up and got ready to head out for the long drive back.  I thanked Randall for the invite.  It was a very busy but fun couple of days and a nice break from my normal weekend routines.  I reminded Randall he and Tracy are always welcome to visit me.

The drive back across the alley was smooth and enjoyable in the SSR.  The truck is just great for road trips, as long as you only have two people and limited luggage of course.  The enjoyment faded a bit when the check engine light came on during the last 20 miles of the drive.  I can hardly wait to figure out what is wrong this time.

Last night was spent mostly just tying up a few loose ends at home, doing the bills, laundry and whatever else needed tending to.  I was was very tired from two nights of spotty sleep and collapsed into bed before 10pm.