Archives October 2012

I started off my weekend at 4:30 am, dragging my tired ass out of bed to go run with the club.  If I didn’t have the Tough Mudder coming up on the calendar I would remained firmly in bed.  In my mind I felt like at some point before the race I needed to get the “long” course under my belt which is about nine and a half miles.  I figure if I can run that distance continuously, running the roughly 12 mile Mudder course shouldn’t be a problem since there are tons of breaks for the obstacles thrown in there.

I wasn’t really planning to do the long course yet, especially since my knee was bothering me just running 6 miles the week before.  I told Matt I would see how I feel once we hit the water stop at 3.5 miles and make my decision then.

We headed out at a pretty quick pace, something like 8:15 miles, faster than I would prefer if I was going for the long haul.  Eventually we throttled it back a bit.

Saturday was the first morning where it actually felt somewhat “cool” .  The temperature was right around 70 which is still high for 6am, but the humidity level felt much more tolerable.  I definitely could feel the difference when running.

When we reached the water stop I did a quick knee assessment.  It actually felt pretty good so I told Matt I was down for doing the long run.  So instead of turning right and heading back towards our starting point, we went left and ran another mile and a half to the end of Gordon drive before heading back.

My legs were feeling it pretty severely for the last couple miles, they had not been pushed to do this distance at this pace since I ran the Hooters Half in March.    My overall pace actually was almost exactly what I did in that half, no wonder I was tired. It felt good to get the long run under my belt. I would say the run combined with the 200 pull up lunch break qualifies me as being officially ready for the Mudder.

I took the SSR to the run, something I don’t normally do.  With the top down and the wind whipping around I was actually on the cool side, I had the heat blowing on my legs.

So when I got home I had a long list of things I wanted to get done.  I had already tried to get a head start by weeding the property on Friday night.  The first thing I wanted to get done was spraying Weed B Gone on the entire yard, at least everything that is close to the house.

I have had an uphill battle with weeds in the yard forever.  There are three weeds that like take over my lawn, two of the three I don’t know the name of, the third is dollar weed, or Creeping Charlie as I like to call it. I have been trying to keep the weeds under control by applying granular weed and feed in bag on a semi-regular basis.  That stuff is VERY expensive and overall I have not been pleased with the results.  It will normally hold back the dollar weed for a bit but it always returns.  The stuff doesn’t seem to touch the other two weeds that dominate the lawn.

Weed B Gone is a more direct approach.  You attach it to a hose end sprayer and blast away.  Unlike the bagged weed and feed, this stuff is designed to work fast, killing the weeds in a matter of days instead of weeks while leaving the grass intact.

Not only is this stuff more direct, it is also more dangerous.  When you read the directions there are a number of warnings, like don’t apply on a windy day, don’t apply within 25 feet of stuff you don’t want to die, don’t let pets on the grass until it is thoroughly dry, don’t let it run off into sewer systems, etc…

Well I didn’t pay much attention to one of the warnings which says to apply while wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt.  If some of it gets on your skin, you are advised to wash the skin for 15-20 MINUTES with water which sounds ridiculous.  I applied the solution with a steady breeze wearing shorts and a t-shirt, I definitely got some of it on my legs, arms and hands.  I rinsed myself at the end but only for a few seconds, hopefully I don’t drop over dead.

I am hoping the mass extermination of weeds combined with our going into dry season soon will allow real grass to fill these spots in a density enough to choke weeds out in the future. Time will tell.

I then grabbed by loppers and shears and got busy trimming and pruning a few things around the house.  This is a nice warm up for the hellish, November cabbage palm mass pruning that I will have to do.  You have no idea how little I am looking forward to that miserable job.

Next up was some tractor work.  The blades on the tractor, although only a couple months old had already dulled.  The cutting performance while mowing was pretty awful.  I decided to pull them off and try to sharpen them.

Luckily with the Craftsman mower, removing the blades with the deck on the tractor is much more doable than it was with the Cub Cadet which required me to yank the deck to pull the blades.

The blades were still more or less intact although the cutting edge was very, very dull.  I could saw away on my arm with one and not draw a drop of blood.  I decided to use my dremel for the job after locking each blade up in my table vice.

I have never tried sharpening with the dremel, the few times I did it in the past I used a grinding wheel attachment for my cordless drill.  I couldn’t find that attachment.

The dremel actually seemed to work pretty well.  The smaller grinding head gave me better control as I worked the cutting surfaces.  By the time I was done at least I could feel and edge on the blades.  It will be interesting to see how long my sharpening holds up.  I did a brief test cut and there was a definite improvement.

While I had the blades off I drug up the pressure washer and blasted the organic crud off the underside of the mower deck.  In the process I wound up splashing the wet, green/brown sludge all over me.

Finally I needed to give the SSR a bath.  The trip to and from SoBe last week had left the truck with a bug facial that needed to be cleaned up. After finishing up all the outdoor work, heading inside offered me no rest as there was cleaning and laundry to do.

By the time I was done it was after 3.  I was beat.  So beat that my original idea of going out to see Looper Saturday night got shelved, I was just too tired.  Instead I stayed home and threw in a Netflix dvd I had sitting around the house so long that it had dust on the cover, Underworld : Awakenings.

I have seen a number of Underworld movies.  They have a simple formula that works, vampires, werewolves, gruesome violence and Kate Beckinsale in tight leather body suits.  They stuck to the formula and once again it delivered a solid 75-80 minutes of brainless entertainment, B+.

So I woke up Sunday and was debating if I wanted to go for a bike ride or not.  Surprisingly, my right knee felt pretty solid despite running nearly 10 miles the day before.  Then once I decided I was going to get on the bike I was debating what ride I wanted to do.  I settled on doing the 17.25 mile Publix ride.

I pulled down the Dawes for the ride, thinking the aero bars would come in handy if I hit the sustained wind that normally is part of this route.  Despite it’s added weight, the riding geometry the Dawes offers is actually more comfortable than my lighter, higher end Trek 2.1.

For the first half of the ride I was hauling ass. I was over 21 mph for almost the entire time.  Of course I knew this meant I had a wind behind me, helping to push me along.  I knew this same wind would be my adversary on the ride home, I just didn’t realize how big of one.

Man once I turned back east it was miserable.  I knew there was wind, I didn’t think it would suck that bad.  I dropped a couple gears and got down on my aero bars, but only briefly.  I realized the elbow rest on the left side had shifted downward which made the position awkward and annoying.  Instead I grabbed onto the drops in my handlebars and stayed there for the majority of the ride home.

I struggled to keep my speed above 16 mph for most of the 8+ miles back.  My legs were totally gassed by the end of the ride where my overall average speed dropped to 17.7 mph.  I jumped into the pool with my bike pants and top still on to cool off.

After changing I hopped in the van to go pick up the dogs so they could hang out at the house with me.  I had cleared the slate of the majority of the chore list so I was looking forward to a day of relaxing, as much as I can relax.

Watching that Eagles game certainly did not relax me.

For the second week in a row the defense had the opportunity to win the game and for the second week in a row they failed to do so, in an even grander collapse.  However the blame for this performance certainly does not rest on the back of the defense alone.

Ok if you look at stats alone, you may think that Vick had a great game, well if you take away the blown coverage that allowed Maclin to run for a 70 yard td, Vick’s game was not good at all.  After making stupid predictions of next to no turnovers by himself the rest of the season, he was involved in 3 more turnovers.  Luckily for the Eagles, the Lions offense was awful for the majority of the game, was unable to turn any of those turnovers into points.

I addition to their stumbling offense, the Lions were playing horrible sloppy ball, committing an amazing 16 penalties.  If I told you a team had 16 penalties and failed three times to score any points off turnovers you would assume they lost the game.  You would be assuming correctly, unless that team happens to be playing the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles scored a TD late in the 4th quarter to go up 23-13 with just over 5 minutes left in the game.  A good team does not lose a game when playing a team that has sputtered all day in that situation.  Well of course as well all should now realize, the Eagles are not that good of a team.  Instead they allowed themselves to be gashed up and down the field.  They actually tried to allow the Lions win in regulation after committing pass interference in the end zone.  Instead the Lions had to settle for a game tying field goal as time expired.

Overtime  was a total joke.  After Vick took back to back sacks the Eagles had to punt out of the back of their end zone, giving the Lions great field position.  The Lions easily gained the yardage needed to kick the game ending field goal.  What a fcking mess.

Let’s point out a few names since Andy refuses to do so, preferring to just take blanket blame for everything once again.

Let’s talk Mike Vick, whom at this point might be the most overpaid QB in the league.  Outside of his great 8 game run in 2010, his stats since have been mediocre at best.  His new found love of turning the ball over has made his presence behind the center a liability.  I have never seen someone that turns over the ball this much be allowed to keep his job.

Vick gets hit more than anyone else I can remember in recent history.  It literally seems that more plays than not, he is on his back.  The blame for this lies both with him taking too long to get rid of the ball and an offensive line that seems to generally suck.  They appear to be out classed each and every game.  Andy always seemed to understand the importance of a good o-line in the past.  Granted they have had injuries that have forced some not so qualified players to step into starting roles, but again, good teams are able to rise above injuries.

Ok let’s turn to the special teams.  They suck.  I can’t tell you how long it has been since there was a punt or kick off return that was anything significant.  Hell they even threw Desean Jackson back there for one punt and he promptly lost a couple yards.

Ok how about that defense that has collapsed when the game was on the line?  Well the most obvious flaw is the dramatic difference in sacks this year when compared to last.  It seemed like Stafford was basically untouched, it was like we had four Mike Mamulas on the D-line, always one step away from making an actual play. Jason Babin and Trent Cole are totally ineffective all of a sudden.

Who the F is number 27 and why the F is he allowed on the field?  He was involved in almost every big passing play during the Lions come back, blowing coverage repeatedly.

I mean maybe all of this bitching is because of the false sense of how good the team was after the Eagles built a 3-1 record to start.  If you looked at how they squeezed out those wins it was obvious this team was far from dominant.  Now they are following last years blueprint where they lose games that could have been wrapped up if the team was able to perform when it matters.

If this team stumbles it’s way to another .500 year I think it will be the rubber stamp that Andy’s methods of managing the team have finally run it’s course.

Oh during halftime I went out and hung on the bar with one hand.

I was feeling pretty funked Sunday night.  Maybe it was a hangover from the shitty Eagles loss, maybe it was a combo of other things on my mind.  I just know that the world did not feel very bright and shiny.

Even though I went through a hellish installation process in doing it, I really like the Pioneer radio I have in the SSR.  The touch screen interface, integrated GPS, Iphone support and Bluetooth connectivity are all things I really like.  There is one problem, I hardly drive the SSR, once or twice a week is typical. 90% of my driving time is spent behind the wheel of my 99 Tacoma which has the functional, but boring factory stereo system.

I found a cheap, used Pioneer 310BT on Ebay.  The 310 isn’t as fancy as the 930BT that is in the SSR.  It has a smaller screen and not as many subfeatures but the core is there, integrated GPS, touchscreen, Iphone support and Bluetooth.

Once I saw the used unit I did a mad scramble to verify the radio will work in my truck.  I was amazed how difficult it was to confirm this.  So tough that I never 100% confirmed it, despite my polished web searching skills.  The 310 BT is no longer in production and evidently not many people put these radios in a 13 year old truck.

However the Tacoma has a double din opening, the 310BT is a double din radio, and I found a wiring harness that is used to connect an aftermarket stereo to the factory harness.  So I pulled the trigger.

I again took to the web for some preliminary info regarding removing the radio in a 99 Tacoma and again I found this info very sparse and hard to find.  I guess when I dig into the project I will have the video camera in hand to fill the media void.  When I did finally find some documentation on the radio removal, it didn’t seem too severe, much less involved than what I went through with the SSR.

If I successfully get the radio installed I’ll be able to eliminate several pieces of tech I have scattered around the cab of the truck like the GPS stuck to the windshield, the hands free Bluetooth device on my visor and the awkward mount I have for my Sirius Xact radio.

My chia seeds showed up last night.  When I opened the bag and looked inside it looked like something I would put out in the bird feeders.  Chia seeds are tiny, and mostly black.

I had talked to my buddy at work ahead of time, looking for advice on how to use them.  I followed his outline.  In a cereal bowl I mixed two tablespoons of the seeds, 8 ounces of unsweetened almond milk, and some frozen blueberries.

After giving the mixture an initial stir I let it sit for around 20 minutes, allowing the seeds to absorb the liquid, stirring it a couple times along the way.  The final consistency was sort of like runny rice pudding.  I could have thickened it up by using more seeds or less almond milk I guess.  It was my first time so I didn’t expect it to be perfect.

I dipped in my spoon and took my first taste of chia.  Damn, it was good, it was really good.  The almond milk and blueberries combined nicely.  After I finished the bowl I felt full and no need to grab some sort of supplemental desert.

There are tons of ways you can utilize chia seeds.  My buddy likes to add hemp seeds and frozen black cherries to his mixture too.  You can tailor it to suit your tastes.

What a great discovery and addition to my diet, get your chia seeds now.  Great taste along with fiber, protein, calcium and omega 3’s.

With my mom’s tight financial situation, anything that I can do to help her out is always a good idea.  My latest target was her monthly bill from Century Link.  Mom pays for DSL internet and old fashioned home phone service.  Together they add up to a decent sized monthly bill.

Well I came up with the idea of replacing mom’s home phone with the Magic Jack Plus, which would utilize her internet connection for phone service which would at least cut that monthly bill in half.  You basically pay for the hardware (I would buy it of course) and then it is between $20-$30 a YEAR.  Yes, that is it.  That price includes completely free and unlimited local and long distance calling in the US.  Mom doesn’t even have any free long distance included on her current home line, she has to pay by the minute.

The Magic Jack Plus differs from the Magic Jack in that it does not require a computer to operate.  That feature comes at a price as it is about double the price of the basic adapter.  Everything I have read about the Plus has been good.  It does what it is supposed to, provide low cost, full feature phone service for a fraction of conventional dial up plans.  You even have the option to transfer your existing phone number over to your Magic Jack, another thing mom probably would like.

To be honest, if I get one for mom and it works as well as I expect it to, I will be targeting the phone at the house as well.  Years ago I switched over to Vonage, which is far less than regular phone service ($16-1$17) a month, but an expensive pig when compared to the Magic Jack.  Plus the Vonage plan is only for 500 minutes of monthly calling, not unlimited so it would be a win/win.

Jeremy uses a similar device in conjunction with Google Voice and encouraged me to do the same.  The biggest negative for me was that for whatever reason, Google Voice has absolutely no numbers in my 239 area code thus making a number transfer impossible.

When I emailed mom about it I could tell she was somewhat cautious, although I think the opportunity to shave more off her monthly expense nut will convince her to let me give it a try.

This weekend I don’t have any big events like a Pull Up Jam on the schedule.  I would kind of like to go out and see Loopers.  I have heard from multiple sources it is quite good.  Unfortunately I haven’t found anyone with a similar interest in seeing it so I might go at it solo.  At least it will be a cheap date.

Of course I have at least a half dozen potential home related maintenance projects always ready to go and on deck if find the motivation level is there.

This particular blog theme has some interesting abilities although I am not quite sure how they would be useful to me.

[button color=”red, blue, orange or green” url=”http://dufisthenics.com” size=”medium, small or default”]Dufisthenics[/button]  Like for instance cool little buttons that can take you to another URL.

Tabbed content

[tabs tab1=”Sex” tab2=”Drugs” tab3=”Rock and Roll”]

[tab]Sex is fun[/tab]
[tab]Drugs are cool[/tab]
[tab]Rock and Roll is life[/tab]

[/tabs]

And an accordian-like interface

[accordion]

[pane title=”RCI”]Sucks[/pane]
[pane title=”Sirius”]Blows[/pane]
[pane title=”Mitt”]http://roboromney.com[/pane]

If you press the button above and jump over to Dufisthenics I’ll have more to talk about.

[/accordion]

One of the guys that was at the pull up jam posted some footage he shot with his phone on FB.  It just happened to be while I was doing my pull up set.  You can get a good sense of the crowd that was gathered and why it was cool to have them cheering you on.

There were a bunch of professional looking videographers there that seemed to be filming everything.  I hope to find that footage at some point.  If you want to see the video this still was taken from, click here.

It seems hard to believe that October is here already.  That means that Halloween will be here in a blink with Thanksgiving and Christmas arriving shortly thereafter. (as long as the world doesn’t end)

I am dreading this holiday season for obvious reasons.  It will literally be the first Christmas I have not been in an active relationship with someone in something like 28 years.  Talk about a blue Christmas…

I forgot to mention the one annoying happening at the Barstarzz event on Saturday.  About half way through it some guy showed up at the beach whom was obviously chemically altered.  I’m not sure if it was alcohol or something else.

Anyway this guy was stumbling around the area, being loud and obnoxious.  He kept throwing his big bellied body up on the bars as guys were doing the competition.  A couple times some of the Barstarzz guys tried to get the guy to take a hint and cool it.  This guy was too f’d up to take heed.  He thought it was cool that he could act like a moron with a big crowd watching.

I felt like I should do something, maybe try to talk reasonably with the drunk, ask him nicely to move along, although I highly doubt it would have been effective.  Trying to drag him out of the area would have probably escalated into something worse.

Eventually the guy staggered away, thankfully.

Yesterday I ordered some chia seeds.One of my bar buddies had posted info about this super food and it caught my interest. Yes these are the same chia seeds made infamous by Chia Pets, one of the tackiest gift items ever made.

Chia seeds have huge nutritional benefits.  They are high in omega 3’s fiber, calcium, protein and more.  If you would like to read about them, take a peek here.

Chia seeds act like a sponge when exposed to liquid, absorbing up to 12 times their weight in water, turning into a gel-like substance.  There are lots of good ways to consume them.  My buddy at work mixes them with almond milk, hemp seeds and blueberries.  He said it is really good.

I will be using chia seeds instead of the flax seed tablets I have been taking for awhile.  Taking flax in capsule form is probably the least effective method anyway.  I hope to grab some hemp seeds and quinoa as well, some other great super foods that will help fuel my body without incurring a death sentence on another animal.

Last night I was back on the healthy dinner band wagon.  I was given an avocado from a co-worker which I utilized in my wrap.  This was the first time I tried the larger, green avocados instead of smaller black variety.  I found the taste and texture very similar.

I caught episode 2 of season 1 of Homeland last night.  I will be suspending my 24 viewing in order to get up to speed on Homeland.

So as I explained on Friday, my game plan to attend the pull up event in South Beach, despite my dog sitting for the weekend, was to leave around noon and hopefully get back around 8, rolling the dice that there would be no excrement waiting for me when I got home.

I was surprised when Friday night I got a call from my mom.  She said she wouldn’t mind driving out to the house after she was done working on Saturday so the dogs would be ok.  I hadn’t even bothered pitching this idea to her since I assumed she would not want to do it.  Of course I was thrilled with the offer, it will eliminate the poop potential.  Mom said she would just stay the night and get up early Sunday to head to work.  Sounds good to me.

Saturday morning I was up and working early.  I had the girls ride with me in the van to Ali’s place to go pick up the Camry.  Ali mentioned it was due for an oil change so I told her I would do it while she was gone.  I left the van there and took the Camry back out to the house to do the work.  In addition to changing the oil and filter I added coolant and air to the tires.  The car really could use a bath but that is an extra cost service.

I spent the rest of the morning getting as much done as I could before I was to leave for South Beach.  When I have the dogs I don’t even bother worry about cleaning until after they are gone, especially now.  Very recently, seemingly to me since Nicki started on some thyroid medicine a month ago, her coat has rapidly transformed.  It has made her fur very long, much longer than ever before.  In addition, her shedding is non-stop.  In no time at all the carpet had various black spots where Nicki had been laying down, her hair just falls out.

I also noticed that Nicki’s level of thirst since being on the thyroid medicine is drastically increased.  She was constantly at the water bowl.  I really think this is all related to the meds.  I haven’t seen positive signs from the meds, Nicki still is moving slow and obviously has joint related pain.

So I got ready to pull out for South Beach.  I packed a small bag with various items, unsure exactly what I would be doing once I got there.  I included a towel, some water, a rubber resistance band, a change of clothes, my Flip camera and some deodorant.  That should cover most foreseeable circumstances.

I fired up the SSR, dropped the top and after filling the gas tank was off to South Beach.  I had the top down for the majority of the drive.  I actually drove through a period of significant rain with the top down.  I was on a section of highway with no real place to pull off to put the roof up.  Actually, as long as you are moving at a decent speed, the wind rushing on top of the truck shields the cabin from getting soaked too badly.

I had asked Luis, one of the Barstarzz members that invited me to the event about where the best place was to park.  He said the parking garage at the building which includes a Publix, Best Buy and Staples was a good choice if you don’t mind walking a bit.  The first two hours are free and the hourly rate after that is very cheap.  Cheap parking in South Beach is non-existent normally.  Since I only had the small bag to carry I didn’t mind the walk.

I did exercise some caution with my wallet.  I opted to leave it in the truck and just carry some cash and my credit card in a velcro pocket.  I had some concerns about some shady person snatching my bag when I wasn’t paying attention at the beach.  I figured if I kept my money, credit card and truck keys on me at all times that would be the safest bet.

The walk to the beach was pretty lengthy, maybe 6 or 7 blocks.  In my flip flops it took me about 15 minutes to get to the event, which was scheduled to start around 2PM.

By the time I got there it was probably close to 2:45.  There was a big crowd gathered around the bars watching people take turns on the 15 foot tall pole mounted in the sand.

The first thing I did was look for Luis.  Luis is an older guy like me that got into bar work outs late in life.  He is the one that invited me to attend the event.  I spotted him and introduced myself.  It was cool to finally meet someone I only knew virtually up until that point.  He kind of gave me the lay of the land as far as the event goes. Mixed in with the casual exhibitions there was going to be a pull up, muscle up, dip and free style competition, cool.  I figured I should at least give the pull ups a shot.

I wore my Bar-barians shirt to the event after verifying with Luis ahead of time that it wouldn’t be a problem. I didn’t know if it would be weird to be wearing Bar-barians clothing at a Barstarzz event.  Luis assured me it was fine.  I actually didn’t leave the shirt on for very long.  95% of the guys there were shirtless so I decided to join them.  If there is ever a place to show of the fruits of your calisthenics labor, it is South Beach.

As I was walking around I saw someone I recognized.  I knew I saw a video about him on YouTube a little while ago.  He goes by the name Raven (real name Ray)

I went up to him and introduced myself. Raven is a very unique individual and not a very young man, he recently turned 62 years old.  To say Raven believes in regimens would be an understatement.  For the last 42 YEARS, he has run 8 miles, everyday, on the beach.

He started doing this in January of 1975.  From what I saw on his website, he originally made a New Years resolution to run 8 miles a day for an entire year.  Well, he never stopped from that point on.  About 5 years into his running regimen he added pull ups and other body weight exercises into his daily routine as well.

To date he has run a total of over 100,000 miles in total, just an incredible feat. However what is really amazing is when you think in detail about the reality of what this man has done.  He LITERALLY has run that 8 miles every single day since 1975.  He has run through injuries, illness, horrible weather and just about any other adversity you can imagine.

As I talked to him I asked what was his biggest injury issue.  He said it was his back, at certain points he could barely get out of bed but he still put his 8 miles in.

Raven actually invited me to join him, a lot of people now run with him, at 5:30 at the 5th street lifeguard station.  If I knew about it ahead of time I may have packed some running gear and done it.  Instead I took a rain check and filed it away under the “to do’s” the next time I am in South Beach.

Raven was there because he wanted to take part of the pull up competition.

So the pull up contest eventually started.  As others made their attempt I tried my best to get loose.  Raven went before I did and knocked out 21 pull ups although his elbows were at 90 degrees at the bottom of his reps, a less than ideal range of motion.  There were varying degrees of correctness in the form many people used.  Some even used chin up grip for some reps. No one made a big stink though since they weren’t doing enough reps to win anyway.

Finally it was my turn to go, I might have been the 8th or 9th person to get on the bar.  At that point the most amount of reps was 22, which I knew on a good day was within my wheel house since my PR is 25.  I grabbed on to the highest of the three bars and started pulling.

I tried to keep my form very clean with my legs straight, feet together and using good extension at the bottom while making sure I was getting chin high at the top.  My pace was pretty quick and explosive early on, I got to rep 18 before I had to pause.  I managed to squeeze out 5 more reps to become the temporary leader with 23 reps.  It was kind of cool to have a big crowd cheering me on as I squeezed out the last few reps. I wish I gave someone my Flip to shoot video of the reps.  There was someone filming the entire event so I know my set is on film somewhere.  Hopefully I can find it.

As I was there a tall young guy came up to me and said hi.  His name is Max.  Max reminded me that a couple years ago he and I were communicating back and forth about exercise stuff.  Once he described the communication I remembered him but I still would have blanked on his name.

Max is almost the exact same height as I am, he is also 22 or 23 years younger than me.  Despite his long build he has been able to really do some high level stuff as far as body weight movements go, much more advanced than I have gotten.

Unfortunately Max also has had a ton of injuries along the way, despite his young age.  He actually was currently suffering from what sounds like a pretty serious shoulder injury.  In addition, during our talks he described a myriad of other injuries he has gone through.  Max is real focused and intense when it comes to achieving a goal once he sets it in his mind.

I talked to Max quite a bit, he seems like a real cool kid.  He lives in the Miami area, we exchanged email and phone numbers.  We agreed we should get together and work out once he heals up.

One of the other people I was looking for at the event was a woman I know primarily as “Low Bar”.  She is one of the few women that are actively involved in bar exercise.  She is from NYC and is familiar with the various bar groups there, including the Bar-barians.  She had flown down for the event.

I was periodically scanning the crowd for her but she was nowhere to be seen.  She showed up a little later.  I gave her a hug and welcomed her to Florida.  From the picture you can see why she is nick named Low Bar as she is less than 5 feet tall.

I sat next to her while the freestyle competition was going on.  I shot most of the video I took during the freestyle part of the competition.  You can see it below.

So the event started winding down around 6:30.  I was planning to simply walk back to the SSR and start the 2 plus hour drive home.  Low Bar asked me if I wanted to grab food with her cousin and her.  Since I had mom in place to tend to the dogs I said sure.

Before I left I found Luis and thanked him again for inviting me to the event.  It was a lot of fun to be around that kind of positive energy.  I should invite the Barstarzz guys to hit my backyard bar park, that would be quite the scene.

I got in on the group picture before I left.

So we walked towards Ocean Drive and picked a spot to eat, thinking we would just eat out in the sidewalk seating area.  Instead the hostess directed us inside to eat, um ok.  Well this place, called Mangos, evidently is also a night/dance club.  We were seated directly underneath a speaker that was blaring loud dance music.  It didn’t take long until I got up and asked the hostess if we could eat outside instead because of the noise.  She accommodated us but let me know there was a certain line in the sidewalk that I had to keep my chair behind.  No problem.

We had a good dinner.  Even with being outside it was still kind of loud, I had a hard time making out what Low Bar’s cousin was saying at times because of the noise and her strong Fillipino accent.

One thing that is nice eating outside is you get a nonstop stream of “interesting” people to look at.  Some of the fashion decisions that were on display were pretty mind blowing. After our meal we walked back towards the hotel they were staying at.  Once we hit 5th street I peeled off and started the long walk to the parking garage after giving them both hugs goodbye.

The drive back across the alley was a bit treacherous at times with some torrential downpours, including one I walked through to get to the front door of the rest stop.  You can see my level of drenching in the picture.

I  pulled into the driveway about 10:30.  After letting the dogs out (mom was already in bed), I took a shower and crashed into bed.  I was quite tired.

You can imagine the joy I felt when at 2:20 am I hear Nicki crying by the door.  I assumed that meant she had to go to the bathroom.  Well at least she is letting me know.  Well the funny thing was the first thing she did when I opened the bedroom door was go lay in front of my mom’s door.  I called her over and went out back.  She did a number two and a one so I despite my being delirious with exhaustion, I preferred that to waking up at 7am to the smell of shit on the floor. Unfortunately afterward I had a very difficult time falling back asleep.

Mom was up early, crazy early to get ready for work.  She wanted her alarm set at 5AM.  Well it didn’t take long for the dogs to realize there was something going on in the main living area.  They decided to wake me up a little after 6am, oh well.

So I told mom about my time on the east coast.  As we were talking I realized this was the first time mom has set foot in the house since Ali and I separated.  In fact, mom said it was the first time she has been at the house since last CHRISTMAS.  When she first said that I was sure she was wrong but as I thought about it I couldn’t remember any other visits.  It seemed impossible that so much time had passed so quickly.  My life does feel like a bit of a blur the last 6 months or so.

Mom was the first person to sleep in the bed Jeremy donated to me.  She said the bed was comfortable although she said she slept terribly.  I wouldn’t credit that to the bed though, almost every time mom stays at the house she reports poor sleeping results.  The deviation from her routine must through her for a loop.

So mom got ready and headed out around seven for work.  I thanked her again for her dog sitting, it was nice to not have to be constantly checking my watch when I was over in South Beach.

So despite a severe lack of sleep I decided I needed to get some running in for Mudder training.  I drove to the now closed for the season water park to run around.  My initial hope was to do four laps around the outside of the park which would add up to 8 miles.

The skies were overcast which made running early on pretty bearable.  As I got to the halfway point my right knee was feeling pretty shitty.  Each stride had an accompanying ping of soreness associated with it.  I decided to only do 3 laps instead of 4, finishing the 6 miles in 55 minutes and change, not a great pace but ok.  I figured running the last 2 miles wasn’t worth it if I was really hurting.  When I got home I iced the knee and it actually doesn’t feel too bad today.

Well that Eagles game was a bummer.  I actually was so tired I was half asleep for nearly 3 quarters of the game.  I was awake when Vick fumbled another two times.  His turnover problems are a real big deal.  Obviously opposing teams realize that the best way to beat the Eagles is to pressure Vick.  When this happens he makes a lot of poor decisions and he’s not good at protecting the ball.

Despite the turnovers the Eagles actually grabbed their first lead late in the game.  The drive that got them the lead had the opportunity to be a HUGE fail for Andy.  For some reason he decided to go completely against the book and go for it on 4th down with over 10 minutes left in the game on his OWN 30 yard line, a huge risk.  Luckily the Eagles converted by a few inches but man, he would have been crucified if they didn’t.

So anyway, the drive was very long, covering 17 plays resulting in a 14-13 lead.  All that was left was for the defense to hold the Steelers with a couple minutes left on the clock and the game could be secured.  Well obviously it didn’t happen.  The biggest fail was when the Eagles had the Steelers pinned back on their side of the field facing a 3rd and 12.  Instead of dealing the knockout blow, they played a soft zone that allowed a 20 yard completion.  Once that happened I knew they were done.

The Steelers proceeded to march down the field easily and kicked a game winning field goal with three seconds left.

It was a disappointing ending for sure but I think the bigger news is Mike Vick’s torrid turnover pace. The amount of times he has turned the ball over thus far this season is staggering.  He will obliterate the league record at this pace. Hopefully Andy is smart enough to eventually realize that either Vick has to take care of the ball better or someone else has to start taking the snaps.

Ali ran the Chicago Marathon yesterday, the reason I was watching the dogs for the weekend.  She had much cooler temps to run in this year, hovering around 50 which for me, would be ideal.  Ali prefers warmer air.  She managed to finish a couple minutes ahead of last year’s time but had a lot of struggles, especially the last 10 miles of the race.  She said her entire lower body was just in severe pain.

The good news or bad news, depending on how you look at it, is she gets to take another whack at the marathon distance in a month as she is signed up for the NYC marathon.

After the Eagle game I had enough daylight left to go out and hop on the tractor.  Once again it was not running smoothly, acting like there is still some ethanol slime in the fuel system.  I will need to find some additive that will dissolve the shit.  I never like doing chores at the tail end of the weekend but it felt good to get the grass done.

You know when I run, at least when I run by myself, lots of random thoughts go through my head.  As I was running Sunday my mind drifted to to the topic of people that spend a lot of energy screaming about “entitlements” and how they are ruining the country.  I then thought about the hypocrisy that many of these exact same people are responsible for parenting the most “entitled” generation in US history.

These people that are so eager to cut seniors medical or social security benefits are the same people that think it necessary to equip their child with a one digit age with the latest and greatest iDevice.  They feel it is important that they have some sort of video screen stimulation in front of their child’s face  most waking moments of the day.  Their child should not be made to suffer the cruel punishment of having to actually look out a window during a road trip and look at scenery.

These are the people that see nothing wrong with their child receiving a medal when their soccer team gets last place.  After all, children should be taught early on that no matter how hard they do or don’t work, they will be rewarded.  I mean wtf, how can parents complain about an entitled society when they parent in such a manner that does nothing but encourage that mentality?

I literally laugh out loud when I see bumper stickers were parents proclaim their child had a perfect dental check up.  Good job Sally, way to go Petey!

Their children are being raised in a bubble.  No one is allowed to yell at them, nobody should ever treat them unfairly, they are not allowed to endure hardship or struggle to attain a goal.  It is just handed to them.

You see, as much as failure hurts, it is an absolutely essential part of life.  If you are never allowed to fail you don’t ever appreciate or even know what true success is.

Maybe more people in the country need to go on solo runs so they can come to these type of revelations on their own.  Don’t talk it if you don’t walk it.

I saw this quote floating around Facebook and it struck me as so true.

So after leaving work early I headed to the site of the race.  When I got there I unloaded and set up what I could and once the club’s truck arrived  we dug into setting up everything else.  I fully expected a lot of headaches with this race on my end based on history.  History did indeed repeat itself.

The registration area got very chaotic, very quickly.  We had problems with teams coming up with email confirmations showing they registered for the race yet for some reason I did not have them in the system.  We also had teams that supposedly mailed in entries with checks that were MIA.  There was a long period of time where Ali and I were just slammed non-stop with problems.  We did the only thing we could do, handle them one at a time.

I had to leave Ali alone to handle the mess for the last 15 minutes before the start of the race so I could set up the timing equipment at the start and finish lines.  This was the first time I used the four new timing mats the club bought for the start line, they seemed to do a better job at detecting the huge volume of runners at the start than the 5 year old mats they replaced.

The actual timing of the race went smoothly after getting past the hectic pre-race scene.  I found myself developing a rather large headache towards the end.  I am not sure of it was from the race or from being dehydrated, I was sweating my ass off.

I worked on all of the post race duties right up to bedtime, I wanted it all done and put away.

So yesterday I was browsing Facebook and I saw mention of a pull up event in South Beach on Saturday held by Bar Starzz.  Bar Starrz is another body weight enthusiast group, like the Bar-barians.  When I looked closer I saw that I actually had been invited to the event awhile back by Luis, a fellow 40 + year old that is part of their group.  I somehow missed the invite.

Well anyway, I saw the event actually has people coming from quite a distance to attend, including some people from NYC that I am FB friends with.  Wow it would be cool to meet all these people.  I saw Luis on FB chat and told him I was going to try to make it over there.

Later in the day I realized there was a complication.  I totally forgot that Ali was gone this weekend.  She is doing the Chicago Marathon again.  That means I have dog duty.

Well after initially thinking it would cause me to miss this opportunity I reconsidered.  It doesn’t start until 2pm which means I can leave around noon, spend 3-4 hours there and get back around 8-9. Worst case scenario is I have a smelly welcome home present and I will have the Spot Bot on hand in that event.  The dogs would be given a free poop pass in that situation.

My left wrist and elbow are both injured to varying degrees but I think I am willing to just pop some Advil and deal with it.  It should be a fun time. The SSR will be utilized for the coast to coast and back again trip, adding to the fun quotient.

I am sure the rest of the weekend will have plenty of more mundane items to consume what is left of it.

Ali forwarded this to me.  It seems that the general consensus is that Mitt was the winner of the first debate based on his aggressive attitude and one liners that seemed locked and loaded almost before Obama would even stop speaking.  Now what would you think if I told you that part of reason was because Mitt had a cheat sheet in front of him?

One of the rules of these debates are candidates are not allowed any aids in front of them.  They are given a blank sheet of paper to make notes on once the debate begins, that’s it.  Otherwise they are supposed to rely simply on their command of the issues.

Well the video makes it clear as day that Mitt pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket as he approached the podium, perhaps thinking that all of the cameras in the room were facing him and would not be able to catch his trickery.

I find this funny and pathetic at the same time.  Wonder if he will fess up to this one or not?

So last night I was working on putting entries in for the race I am timing today and my cell phone rings.  I see it is my neighbor from across the street.  He told me he was on the road but had just gotten a call from his wife that their one rear sliding door exploded.  She was freaked out and was scared somebody shot at her or something.  He asked if I could run over there until he got home.  I said of course, and headed right over.

I was a bit nervous when I knocked on the front door and no one answered.  I then went around the back onto their lanai when Carol came out.  I saw the shattered glass, it sure look like it had been shot.  However a quick inspection of the screen around the pool cage showed no rips or tears where a projectile could have entered.  Also the curtain behind the slider was intact.

Carol said when it happened she was literally sitting right next to the slider, it understandably scared her to death.  She had already called the police.  The police showed up, a full three cars worth, a minute or two before my neighbor got back home.  When we described what happened the first thing they did was ask how old the house was. (16 years old)

They said this actually is something they have seen multiple times, especially with older construction.  The single pane glass eventually fatigues.  This process is amplified by the difference in outdoor Florida heat and humidity and the chilly indoor temps many people keep their AC cranked down to.  Having one side of the glass hot and the other cold, over time, with older glass, can result in the implosion like my neighbor saw last night.

I asked my neighbor if he wanted any help with the clean up process or sealing the hole temporarily, there was glass everywhere.  He said he would be fine so I headed back across the street to continue my race prep.

Last night in addition to my salad and veggie wrap, I decided to cook some broccoli.  My cooking abilities are extremely handicapped.  Not because I can’t do it, just because I never had to do it.

I had prepared some broccoli a couple times recently by nuking it in the microwave.  It was edible but not much beyond that.  Well on the way home I called my mom to ask for broccoli stove top prep instructions. After all the less nuking of food I do, the better.

Mom said prep was pretty straightforward.  You basically dump some water in a pot with the broccoli, add some salt and bring it to a boil.  Once it boils you turn off the burner and cover the pot, letting the broccoli cook in the steam/hot water.

I was quite pleased with the end result, broccoli came out much better than my previous nuked attempts.  Broccoli is the second item that I discovered comes out much better when cooked conventionally.  Gortons grilled tilapia was the first.  Gordon Ramsey better look out.

After I finished all the prep for the race I am timing this evening it was almost 9pm.  I decided to flip on the debate as I was folding laundry in the bedroom, despite my intentions to not even bother watching it as I knew all it would do is deepen my disappointment in the American political system.

The actual words that came out of the two men’s mouths were pretty predictable, with a lot of “you did this”, “you said that” and lots of  loose “facts” that were meant to discredit the other.  However I focused more on other aspects of the debate, a lot of non-verbal things.

Mitt’s eyes looked like he came off the set of Walking Dead, bloodshot and tired.  It was interesting how Mitt chose to direct his comments towards Obama as opposed to the camera.  Likewise it was interesting how Obama for the most part spent the majority of the time Mitt was speaking with his head down, taking notes. Conversely, most of the time Obama was talking Mitt had a ridiculous looking grin on his face that to me, came off as very disrespectful.  I have little doubt that both candidates had planned this body language ahead of time.

I felt bad for the moderator for whom the most part got stomped on by both men who repeatedly ignored the efforts to keep their answers within the time constraints laid out for the debate.  He would ask them to stop talking and the candidates rambled on, acting like there was a ghost in the room.

Tonight I have an oddball Thursday evening.  I go straight from work to time the club’s only evening run of the year.  This race is typically a bit of a mess since there are tons of exercise novices and children that participate.  They aren’t familiar with a race environment so typically there are tons of human related errors that pop up for the event.

I watched episode one of this season of Dexter last night.  Damn, I have no idea where the story can go from here, the way it ended you would think it was a season finale, not a premiere.  It’s awesome to be able to watch shows like this in real time courtesy of  Xfinity online.  Shows like this (Showtime) can’t stream through the Xbox though, I need to watch them on my laptop or pc.

My property has once again transformed into swamplands after a day of rain that included several periods of intense downpours.  Yeah it’s annoying but dry season is right around the corner where we can flip pages on the calendar without seeing hardly a drop.

Last night I also got on the Homeland bandwagon, another show that people rave about.  I only watched the first episode but I can already see I will be into the show big time.

Yesterday I migrated my fitness blog, Dufisthenics off of WordPress.com onto my private hosting space.  Hosting the site on WordPress.com is convenient but it also is somewhat limiting.  You aren’t able to do much customization as plug ins aren’t allowed.  They also want to charge you to allow certain things to be done which can be done for free if you host it yourself.  They also do not allow you to run Google ads on their site.

In addition to the move, I installed a new theme.  I find the new lay out more visually appealing.

Unfortunately my exercise routines have been a bit sidetracked lately due to injury.  In addition to my right knee being always problematic to some degree, my left wrist is becoming a long term problem.

A wrist is a hard thing to let heal since it is used in so many ways and so often.  For now I am trying to avoid things that blatantly cause pain but at least thus far I am not seeing/feeling any significant healing taking place.

Speaking of blog facelifts, I think I will be bolting a new skin onto this blog as well.  The skin that is in place is admittedly boring and was hurriedly put in place when my site was hacked awhile back.  There are bunch of good looking free alternatives out there.

Tonight is the first presidential debate.  I really have no need to watch the debates as I don’t need to be convinced either way.  Even if I did need convincing, if I thought that anything either candidate SAYS in a debate really means that much in the end I would be sadly mistaken. If a candidates debate performance is the deal breaker for you I would suggest you do more research.

So after a ridiculous amount of waiting, unanswered phone calls, and emails, I finally got the paperwork for the extended warranty on the SSR sent to me.   After receiving them I was reading through the plan outline.  One thing that caught my eye was the “Maintenance Requirements” .   It said in there that you had to have receipts for certain maintenance items (like an oil change) and the receipts had to include the date and VIN number of the vehicle.

Well I have changed my own oil for years, not only to save money but also so I know it is done right after I had a Quick Lube place try to get away with not replacing the filter.  Plus who knows what type of oil they dump in your vehicle in a place like that, they dispense it from giant vats, it can’t be very good.

Anyway, I wanted to clarify that if I changed my own oil, I could be setting myself up for a fight if I submit a claim, so I called the customer service number for the warranty company.  I explained to the guy that I typically change my own oil.  I asked if I kept the receipts for the oil/filter if that would be sufficient to indicate proper maintenance was performed.

The answer I got back was annoying.  He basically said it may or may not be.  He said that it would only become an issue if they asked for proof of oil changes if an engine related problem was submitted.  It sounded like he was saying if I change my own oil I am rolling the dice as far as coverage goes, great.

So now for my next oil change I hope to find a place that will do the work for me and provide the proper documentation if I provide them with the oil and filter.  It’s an annoying hoop to have to jump through.

So since I went through all the time and effort to reestablish an AdSense account for my mom and a new channel on YouTube I was hoping my ad dollar side business would be ramping up quickly.  I finished up the migration of my YouTube channel last week and had all my videos turned on for monetization.  All that was left to do was wait for the ad views to start adding up.  There was one problem, it wasn’t happening.  Despite almost 4000 views of my new channel, when I looked in the Ad Sense account I saw very sporadic activity which was odd.  Some days there would be no ad money at all generated which didn’t make any sense.  Before I always had at least some money generated each day.

So yesterday I was digging around in my YouTube settings and got to a page regarding the AdSense connection.  It looked like although my account was turned on for monetization it did not automatically connect it to my AdSense account.  This seemed odd to me that this connection was not established when I turned on video monetization.  So I explicitly told YT to use the AdSense account under the same Google account name.

Later in the day I started to see the pennies start flowing into the account as they should be.  I am glad I figured out the missing link sooner rather than later. I’m sure my mom is as well.

Last night my dad called me.  He actually called me Friday night while I was eating dinner.  I told him I would call him back later in the weekend and it totally slipped my mind.

It had been a little while since I talked to dad.  We talked about various topics, we were on the phone for close to 45 minutes, an eternity for me when it comes to phone conversations.

Few people that read the blog know me well enough to know the rocky history I had with my dad growing up, especially once my parents split up when I was 12.  The 6 or 7 years after that were filled with many  tough times for both myself and him.  We butted heads many, many times.  There was a stretch of roughly 6 months where we totally excommunicated each other after I dropped out of college after one trimester.

For a good portion of that time I thought he was basically a jerk and I am sure he thought I was being a stupid kid, which in retrospect, I was in many ways.

Anyway at some point when I was a young adult we reconciled and to be honest I never looked back.  Although those years were painful for all involved they were also water under the bridge.  I made a conscious decision at that moment to deal with the present instead of dwelling on the past.

From that point on my relationship with dad has been much better.  As I aged myself, my perspective on what happened during that time period changed based on what I found myself dealing with as an adult.  I guess that is what is supposed to happen right?  When you become an adult you are supposed stop looking at things in a childish manner.

Make no doubt about it, dad is a flawed individual, just as we all are.  The incidents over the years where you wonder what the hell he was thinking approach legendary status at times. Yet, I think we both have a better understanding and appreciation of each other at this point.

The path dad and I have traveled to get to this point has been long, winding and littered with obstacles.  Despite our differences I know my dad is proud of how I turned out, with at least some degree of sanity, stability, and common sense.  I managed to find my way despite my many quirks and lack of college education, I am the only one of his five kids that is missing a degree.

I hope to get up to his place with the dogs sometime over the winter.