Painting, relaxed radio install, Eagles annihilated, dip crash, cool…..

So during the nights last week I started doing the prep work for the painting of the master bedroom.  That work included stripping the room and the walls as well as pulling large furniture items away from the walls.  I took off from work Friday and Monday to make time for the actual painting process as the area I was painting was the largest I ever had tackled myself, by far.

Thursday night I went around the room and hit discolored spots on the white walls with Killz.  The walk in closet was the worst spot where years of throwing shoes and bags left various scuff marks.  Unfortunately Killz has some pretty serious fumes.  I went to sleep in the midst of them.

On Friday morning I didn’t waste much time before getting started with the meat and potatoes project, I was getting busy by 8am.  First up was the dreaded taping portion of the job.

Taping is a very important part of a painting project.  If done well it can dramatically improve the end result of the painting as well as making it go faster when you are painting since you don’t have to try to paint an edge slowly by hand.  Taping also is tedious as hell. It took me about two and a half hours to tape everything.

I then cracked open the paint can and got to work.  First I painted by brush along all of the taped areas and then got out the roller to hit the wide expanses of wall real estate.

I have commented before on just how tough of a full body workout painting a room is.  Pressing a roller hard into the wall from 6 inches above the floor to 8 feet high will hit your core from about every angle imaginable.  I just barely had enough paint to cover everything with two coats, full two cans.

I was slopping paint on the walls until 5:30.  By the time I was done removing tape, touching stuff up and doing basic clean up  it was damn close to 8:30, twelve and a half hours after I started.  I was beat but glad to have the damn thing knocked out in one long day.

The color looked good in the room although I already knew it would since it has been utilized in most areas of the house already.  The bedroom feels classier and warmer, if that makes sense.

You can see all the pictures I took along the way here.

Saturday morning I took care of putting the shelving back in the master closet and the window hardware back on the walls.  Ripping everything out of the closet was an opportunity for me to do some house cleaning of both clothing and things that were stuffed in the closet that I didn’t need.  I had a large trash bag of stuff to donate when I was done as well as a pile for Ali to go through to see what she wanted. I also took the old pictures off the wall, figuring it would be therapeutic to replace them with something new and fresh.

Saturday afternoon I wanted to get my used Ebay radio installed into the Tacoma.  After my experience installing another Pioneer radio in my SSR and it taking upwards of 20 hours of my time doing so, I was nervous about the install despite what I found on the internet, making it seem like it should be pretty easy.  Imagine my surprise when it actually was easy.

Getting access to the radio just involved removing one panel.  The adapter harness I bought worked perfectly and the wire connections were very straight forward. In the course of two hours I had it all done, a minor miracle.

The radio doesn’t have all the features the 930BT does which is in the SSR.  The 310BT doesn’t support a back up camera, Bluetooth music streaming, direct Iphone integration and has a smaller screen but still it is a huge upgrade from what I had in there.

The menu system isn’t very intuitive either but with a brief glance in the manual I figured it all out in short order.

I videoed the install to add to my growing list of 99 Tacoma how to clips. Here it is.

Saturday night I wanted to go grab a new pair of flip flops, my old pair started to fall apart.  I figured I would take a run up to the Miromar Outlets.  I asked Ali if she felt like tagging along, she said she would, she hadn’t been to the outlets in a long time.

We grabbed some food as well while we were up there.  I bought some sandals at Oakley, a couple $10 shirts at the Gap outlet and a pair of dirt cheap wide receiver gloves at the Under Armour outlet to be used for bar work.

There was a funny/awkward moment as we we were driving back into Ali’s complex.  It is gated and after a certain time of day the gates close, requiring  you to use an access card at a sensor.  Well a car had just entered a hundred yards ahead of us so I hoped I could sneak through without flashing my card as well.

As I got close the the gate started to close.  Ali blurted out “Honey!!” as a warning and then quickly corrected by saying, “I mean, Shawn.”  I laughed and told her I knew who she meant.

Sunday morning I had a race to time.  It went pretty well although the three distances at once (2 mile walk/5k/8k run) presented a few challenges.  After the race I followed Ali back to her place.  We talked about bringing the dogs out to the house with Ali so she could bird sit while I pressure washed Tuki’s cage, which hadn’t been done since Ali moved out.

Ali actually didn’t show up to the house until after noon, she took a nap since she was exhausted.  When she got there I didn’t waste anytime pulling Tuki’s cage out in the driveway and blasting away.

Ali stayed to watch the Eagles game, lucky her.

That game was a complete ass beating from start to finish.  Everyone’s hope was the defense would come alive with the insertion of Todd Bowles as coordinator.  Instead it imploded, allowing the Falcons to drive up and down the field repeatedly.  I think they allowed the Falcons to score the first SIX TIMES they touched the ball, just an incredibly inept stat. They were in a word, terrible.

Once again they could not generate any pressure on the QB, registering two oh by the way sacks (one was a fall down) later in the game.  How a team that lead the league in sacks last year with basically the same core of players suddenly can’t get there this year is a mystery to me.

The offense was basically inept as well.  Vick, although he actually didn’t turn the ball over (a minor miracle) was mediocre at best, just like he has been since the short streak in 2010 when he took the job away from Kolb.  It is crazy that there is serious talk going on about replacing Vick, one of the most overpaid players in the NFL, with a third round pick rookie QB.  Talk about desperation setting in.

This also was a rather historic loss in another way.  For the last 14 years, Andy Reid had NEVER lost a game following a bye week, NEVER.  Evidently having an extra week to prepare always meant the Eagles were prepped and ready to go.  Well obviously that streak smashed into a brick wall Sunday.  Not only did they lose, they were crushed.  At no point during the game did the Eagles look like they even should be on the same field as the Falcons. It was that bad.

So what is wrong with this team?  By all experts accounts they are one of the most talented teams in the NFC.  Why can they not find a way to utilize all that talent in a consistent, effective manner?  I don’t know the magic pill but I do know if this team flounders it’s way to another break even season or worse where it misses the playoffs, we all may finally get a belated Xmas gift when Fat Andy is finally set out to pasture.

Monday I had a pretty much clean slate since I busted it up to that point.  The weather outside was pretty amazing with cool temps and low humidity, prompting me to open the front door and windows for the first time in roughly 6 months.

I did need to get something productive done so I weed whacked the property, something I avoided for the last 3 weeks.  Luckily the grass has started to move into it’s slow growth period as we head into the holidays.

I headed out to run a number of errands, enjoying my new radio as I did.  By the time I got back it was lunch time.

I decided to head outside to do some work on the bars.  I started off well, setting a new personal best in weighted pull ups, managing to pull chin high with 90 extra pounds hanging on me.

I thought I would round it out doing a 90 pound weighted dip.  I never had tried weighted dips at home before.

Because of the height of my parallel bars, when I do dips (unweighted) I sort of hop up and back to get into position.  Well without thinking, I did the same thing with 90 pounds between my legs.

Well as I hopped I started a pendulum movement with the weights that kept amplifying.  Within a second or two I lost control and came crashing forward.  As I did my right upper arm crashed into the top of one of the 4×4 supports.  When I landed I did a quick physical inventory and looked at my arm.  It looked like a nasty brush burn but it felt superficial.  I am very lucky I didn’t tear something.

At first I was going to bag it but I was now pissed off and decided to hop up there again after a couple minutes.  I was able to hop up without crashing but stalled out trying to push back up.

If you would like to see the crash as it took place, look here.

As time passed the impact area got pretty nasty looking as you can see here.

The rest of my Sunday I just sort of chilled out, literally.  With all the windows open the house literally got chilly at one point, enough so that I closed them.

It was a very productive weekend that started out high effort but ended coasting in gradually, just like I prefer.

Man the storm in the NE was horrible.  Seeing some of those pictures of Atlantic City and NYC were shocking.