Archives November 2012

Yesterday I used Veterans Day, a day that is all about honoring men and women for their service to our country, as a day of personal rest.

After the tree trimming from the weekend I really needed to just chill out.  I did make sure I did SOMETHING productive by hopping on the tractor and mowing the yard for hopefully the last time in several weeks.

I sprinkled in catching up on some Tivo recordings, Boardwalk Empire and Walking Dead.

Over the weekend I slapped the 1/8 inch attachment on my clippers and went nuts, shaving my head completely in less than 4 minutes. I had the Flip cam going.  Historically, videos of shaving my head always do well in YouTube world, satiating the need of some individuals that REALLY like watching heads get shaved.  Well I certainly didn’t want to miss out on potential AdSense dollars.

This particular video for some reason is off to a super fast start.  It already has 500 views in only TWO DAYS, the fastest start of any video of mine in recent history.  Perhaps it is because this is also the quickest buzz of mine on video, beating the prior best by over 90 seconds.   Give the people what they want…. even if it is weird…

I have shaved my head this short two or three times before.  No matter how often I do it I always get the same initial gasp reaction from people.  It’s a huge visual impact, maybe that is part of why I do it.

Over the weekend Ali and I did some talking about the financial aspects of our split.  Of course the biggest object in that discussion is the house.   Basically a decision has to be made on how important the house is in my life.

Now having this discussion on the same weekend as I killed myself trimming 28 trees may have slanted my thought process a bit but it just put an exclamation point on just how much work I put into maintaining the place.

When I start to analyze my living at the house by myself over the last 7 months there are some very big cons.  As I mentioned the work that I have been putting in to maintain the house and the 3 acres it sits on is borderline insane at times.  To make that pill a little more bitter, there is nobody around to appreciate all that effort.  All Tuki cares about is when I give him Nutriberries and little else.

Then we have the nearly 50 mile round trip I log to work everyday.  The house is extremely inconvenient geographically.  Granted, I have been doing the commute for so long I don’t even think about it normally but damn it would be nice to cut 10 or 15 miles each way off that daily journey.

Then obviously there is the financial commitment associated with the house.  Thanks to our disastrous investment in two Lehigh Acres parcels during the real estate boom and our subsequent failure to sell them before the bottom dropped out, there is a much larger nut on the house to be paid, thanks to using an equity line to purchase the land.  To be out from under that debt load would be refreshing to say the least.

Finally there are the constant reminders the house relentlessly provides me of what my life was for the last 11 years.  Although somehow I have managed to not dwell on it much, it is always there, right under the surface, where it will jump out at random times, delivering sobering jabs of pain.

On the plus side, I love the house.  I look out across the property with a sense of pride.  I have put SO much sweat equity into it I couldn’t add it all up.  Although the location is remote it is also quiet, peaceful and uniquely mine. The house is comfortable and fits me like a glove.

I know everything on the property inside and out, down to minute details.

Then you have the sentimental part of me.  You know the part that makes me still have 30 year old t-shirts in my drawer.  To walk away from the house would be an excruciatingly difficult moment.

There have been many tough moments since the split so I am getting more and more accustomed to absorbing them.

Although I like the place that Ali is living now, a condo/apartment existence would probably not suit me all that well for very long.  I DO like having stuff to do around the house, just not so damn much.

If I could find a happy medium between the two, that might be the ideal.

Saturday morning I had another race to time.  Right now I am entering a tough stretch where I have a race going on for 3 consecutive weeks.  Saturday’s race was not too bad though for two reasons.  It only had 200 runners and it was a longer distance, 15K so I had plenty of time to get everything up and running.  Even so I did have a couple weird issues pop up which resulted in a block of lost times that I had to recover using unconventional means.

When I got home I spent the next couple hours getting my indoor items taken care of after completing my post race duties.  After that I decided to go outside and at least start on the dreaded and hated annual tree trimming project.  I got the trees in the front yard trimmed before calling it quits for the day.

Saturday night I saw Skyfall, the latest James Bond film.  I had heard various good things about it which included praise from Roger Moore himself, who called Skyfall the best James Bond film ever, wow.  Well I think Roger, whom is now 85, may be suffering from dementia.

I like Daniel Craig as James Bond and I thought his first film, Casino Royale was really, really good.  The next Bond film was dumb.  I recall my thinking that it was one non-stop action scene with absolutely no attention paid to making an even mildly enjoyable story or plot.  Well with Skyfall they went 180 degrees in the other direction and made this film so much about story and plot (and not a very interesting one at that) that it was basically, boring.  Now granted, I was already half comatose when the movie started because I had been awake since 3:45am but the flick did little to help me stay awake.

I think the main villain in this was the weakest and silliest of any I have ever seen in a Bond film.  I felt no emotion when he gets his at the end, that tells you he wasn’t a very convincing bad guy.  The film also departed from typical Bond roots where James is always trying to save not only himself but also his current love interest in the end. There was none of that.

So anyway, obviously I didn’t really like the movie.  I’d give a C+.  I really would not encourage to spend theater type money to see it.

Sunday morning Ali dropped the dogs off at the house so I could watch them while she was going to work.  I had nothing but tree hell on my schedule so it worked out fine.

Speaking of trees….  every year I profess how awful this job is and that is because it IS awful.  In fact every year it gets a little more awful because trees grow taller.  I have a couple of them that are right at the upper limits of what I can reach with a 20 foot extension ladder and my 8 feet of reaching distance.

It’s the tall trees that are obviously the most dangerous.  In order to get the ladder as high as possible you need to have it standing at a shallow angle.  When the ladder is standing at a shallow angle you have very little margin for error when it comes to your balance.  With some of the limbs I was trying to generate leverage with the loppers directly over my head, you can see the potential for disaster.  I flirted with that potential several time where either the ladder shifted or  my center of gravity started to tip the wrong way.

On top of the danger is the pure misery of the work. F picking up trash, have the people that do prison work release come trim some cabbage palms.  They’ll never break the law again.

Up and down ladders, constantly working above your head utilizing your shoulders in all sort of painful ways.  My knees were killing me from them being propped against rungs of the ladders for hours and I must have hit the funny bone in my elbows at least a dozen times.

In addition to cutting palm fronds and seed branches, on several trees I spent considerable time with the machete.  The machete is the tool of choice to deal with old, dead crosshatch that populates the trunk of cabbage palms.  I hacked away like an crazed killer, sending wooden debris flying in all directions.

In total I pruned 28 trees, but that was only half the fun.  Now I had to go back around the property and pick up the hundreds of palm fronds and all of that wooden debris, throw it in the back of the Tacoma and then dump it in the fill pit at the back of the property.  I have no idea how many trips I made back and forth.

By the time I was all done it was 4pm.  Between the two days I probably spent 9 or 10 solid hours in tree hell.  Everything on my body hurt.  I took a shower and put on pajamas at 4:30 PM, who cares…  Next year, if I am still living here, I plan to buy a battery powered reciprocating saw (sawz-all) to make the job a little more bearable.

Hey, the Eagles lost again, this time it was to the hated Cowboys. To be honest I wasn’t really that bothered by it and actually saw some good things in this game.  If you looked at the score you would think the defense was horrible but actually, outside of the first quarter, they weren’t.  Most of those points came from special teams / turnovers.   The defense actually put a lot of pressure on Romo and for the most part played well for three quarters.

On offense we got to see the first real world test of Nick Foles at QB after Vick went out with a concussion.  For the most part I liked what I saw.  Yea he made a couple mistakes which is to be expected but f, compared to the amount of mistakes Vick makes, it’s nothing.  Foles made quick throws and seemed confident out there, not a scared kid.  It gave me some hope for the future since I think the Mike Vick experiment has just about run it’s course.

I also think the Andy Reid era has officially run it’s course.  In the past two weeks he set new “firsts’, the first time his team ever lost following a bye week and now the first time his team has EVER lost 5 games in a row.  I mean if the Eagles miraculously could win the rest of their games I guess it would save him but there is no way that is happening.  Everything changes sometime, it just so happens that 2012 looks to be that time for the big man.

Walking Dead is such a compelling show, I mean damn….. I just watched this week’s episode last night.  Of course I won’t spoil it, although it was inadvertently spoiled for me (didn’t really matter)  All I can say is if you are having trouble finding anything good to watch on TV, watch the show.

I just realized yesterday that I have a three day weekend coming up, that is a very nice feeling.  I have a race to time Saturday morning, after that I plan to take advantage of the cooler temperatures in the forecast to get some work done outside.

The primary target is the annual dreaded chore of tree trimming.  I pick this time of year to do it because of both weather conditions and the oncoming holidays.  In the past I always figured nicely trimmed trees will look better when I hang holiday lights on them.  However this year I haven’t decided what exactly I am going to do in regards to holiday decorations, if anything at all.

There is a part of me that enjoys coming home to a lit up house.  I also feel (maybe incorrectly) that people in our neighborhood appreciate my efforts since my house is driven by by most all of them because of it’s location on the street. I always have imagined they enjoy the fruits of my effort.

Regardless, the trees are getting trimmed this weekend and it WILL suck, that is assured.

I am feeling down once again, part of the roller coaster of highs and lows that I have experienced since embarking on my trip as a single adult 7 + months ago.  For some reason when I was on the outside, looking in, I didn’t think this would  be nearly as challenging and landmine filled as it has proven to be.    My response will be to just focus that energy into things and activities that have more assured returns on investment.

The clippers come out this weekend, I have found high and tight is most helpful when I get into this mode.  When 2013 rolls around and my new path is clearly defined it might make more sense to put more weight into establishing new relationships.

Well at least have the Eagles game to look forward to. Hah.

It seems as though the internet yesterday was filled with Romney Rage, namely voters that were counting on Mitt to be our next president.  Many of them feel dumbfounded, hurt, and frustrated that their guy got stomped on an electoral vote level and also lost the popular vote that some predicted he would win.

I understand what it’s like to have a man you dislike sitting in the White House, I dealt with it for nearly a decade myself with W, whom to me, was the worst president of my lifetime.  Based on that experience, here is my advice to those despondent about the election results.  Turn that energy inward.

Griping about the election results for a prolonged period of time isn’t going to do yourself or anyone else any good, unless you consider continuing to dig out the massive ditch between the two parties as productive.

Turn that energy towards doing what you can to make your personal situation as productive as possible.  Put down the bag of Doritos, turn off Honey Boo Boo and walk around the block.  Exercise some of your own personal fiscal responsibility to set the example for others around you.

If you are in a job that is low paying or sucks, make an effort to change it.  If you have a problem and you make an honest and determined attempt to fix it, you may or may not be successful.  If you decide to do nothing you ensure your chance of failure is 100%.

Government is there to help you when the chips are down, they are not there to be the chips. Have some pride, do the hard thing, set an example by your actions instead of your mouth.

So finally after a solid two years of rhetoric, threats, hate speech and prophecies of doom, the 2012 presidential election is finally in the books.  To be honest I was a little worried that I would wake up today feeling like I did in 2004 when Bush got reelected, like the country literally just had a collective lobotomy.  Instead I was happy that the country did prove, by a slim margin, that we have not quite reached Idiocracy levels just yet.

I managed to stay awake until the election was called for Obama after Ohio was checked in under the blue column.  I heard the speeches by both candidates after the result was decided were good, too bad I missed them.

Once again Florida grabbed the spotlight as the voting idiots of the nation.  You would think the utter embarrassment of the hanging chad 2000 election would have been enough to motivate state officials to fix the process. No, instead we had people waiting in line on election day for more than 6 hours in some cases because of horrible planning by various county election supervisors. Of course this election day problem was set up by our corrupt governor Rick Scott deciding to cut our early voting days nearly in half, something that was purely politically motivated.

Lee county which is right next door was one of the worst offenders.  They had people waiting to vote at 11pm, 4 hours after the polls closed.  The election supervisor in these counties should be absolutely crucified for their epic fail.

So now the question is what happens now?  There are a lot of unhappy people today.  Many people really believe that Obama is leading the country to an abyss.  Although I am not pleased with where the country sits today overall, I think of the two choices, Obama was clearly the way to go.

It really amazed me that people could casually write off assuming the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, two pointless wars, and a collapsing automobile, housing and financial industry as something that could be easily and quickly corrected with a wave of the wand.

These people will come back at you and say, “Well he PROMISED he was going to have it all fixed”.  Did you expect him to say at his 2008 acceptance speech, “Listen, I am inheriting the biggest cluster f any incoming president has ever been handed.  I am going to do my best to fix it but it might take more than 4 years to do so.”  Of course not, many voters in our quick fix, immediate gratification, take a pill to lose weight society don’t like solutions that take more than 20 minutes.

So now, with no more reelection worries on the horizon I only hope we can make some real progress, despite having the House still under republican control.  I am hopeful that finally, the promise of letting the Bush tax cuts expire is actually carried out.  Rolling with the rates during the Clinton era is not going to make or break anyone.

The fact that corporate profits are currently at 50 year highs while unemployment has been hanging around 8% is all the proof you need that trickle down economics (Reaganomincs) no longer is the formula for all around prosperity for our nation.  That trickle has had a sponge placed under it which is now squeezed and placed back into the supersized cup of corporate profits.

I also am hopeful that some meaningful and intelligent budget cutting actually happens instead of the horseshit numbers where they predict what will happen 10 years down the road.  I also look forward to the trend of more and more citizens requiring government assistance beings reversed as things continue to slowly improve.  If anyone thinks I support a lazy, leeching, entitled society you are sorely mistaken.

If someone is not making the effort to improve their situation and is content to exist on the governments dime there needs to be better enforcement and policing of these programs.  Unfortunately that is very easy to say and very hard to do.  Some scumbags are very adept at working the system.

If I was to give Romney any credit, it would be that he managed to make the race closer than I first anticipated it would be. He tried to morph himself into a jack of all trades, absorbing any political position that was currently convenient.  Of course the way he did this was pretty sleazy but still, he hung in there.

Please, please, dissolve the law that looks at corporations as people when it comes to political donations, get rid of SuperPacs and anything that resembles them.  Their efforts to distort and deceive on both sides of the aisle are truly disgusting and corrupts the election process to it’s core.

Let’s get this thing out of the rut, everyone get behind and push, Obama has the wheel.

Yesterday my uncle, whom has taken on the role of family historian, sent me scans of a newspaper article from 1938.

It was an article about my grandfather and a friend of his.  Evidently when they were younger they decided to stop conventional life for 8 months and canoe down to Florida.  The article outlined what sounded like a pretty amazing journey which included them riding bike back from Florida as far as the Carolinas.

I had absolutely no idea that my grandfather ever did this.

When I was growing up I knew my grandfather as a guy that always had a smile on his face.  I also remember as I was older how he would always greet me with a very enthusiastic handshake which almost always was accompanied by a reassuring smack on the arm with his other hand.

I actually find myself greeting people I like in a similar way from time to time.  I have no doubt this comes from my years with him.

I knew that grandpa had a pretty interesting history including serving in the Air Force during World War II.  In general though we never talked much in depth about what he had done as a younger man, something I regret now.

Reading about this adventure reopened my interest in what grandpa’s life was really like.  Too bad he is long, long gone.   This story did give me a little insight into perhaps why I find myself attracted to just picking up and going somewhere, seeing the country and appreciating all of the experiences along the way.

If you want to see the second page of the article you can do so here.

Well any hope of the Eagles picking themselves up by their bootstraps and showing they aren’t the awful team that showed up against Atlanta were dashed last night.  They were once again awful.

The offense is back to being incredibly inept in the red zone, despite massing around 450 yards of total offense.  I believe the stat I heard last night was 5 trips inside the opponents 20 yard line resulted in 6 total points. That is terrible.

Vick threw an interception that was run back 99 yards for a TD but it wasn’t really his fault as it bounced off Celek’s hands.  However he also threw a couple would be int’s that the Saints fortunately dropped.

The Eagles offensive line, which has been destroyed by injury is horrible and is surely largely responsible for the incredible amount of hits and sacks that Vick takes.  However Mike doesn’t help himself either.  Vick seems very, very poor at reacting to pressure in an efficient way.

Teams keep using the same formula to beat the Eagles, blitz.  A sharp QB makes a defense pay for this with quick decisions, passing to whomever is left open by the blitz.  Effectively doing this stops the blitz.  Vick isn’t effective in this manner, so the blitzing never stops.

Although it’s hard to believe, the defense actually was playing better under Juan Castillo.  The two games under Todd Bowles have been an unmitigated disaster.  The Saints were rated DEAD LAST in the league in rushing.  They ran for over 160 yards, running through weak Eagle tackling all night long.  It was embarrassing.

There is no consistent pressure on the QB and our “showcase” corners, Cromartie and Asomugha have in a word, sucked.  Asomugha is the biggest disappointment of all because he was paid a fortune to bring his supposed upper tier skills to Philly.   He is kind of a joke.

It’s pretty safe to say the team looks to be in free fall, losing 4 games in a row with the last two losses being absolute ass beatings.  There have been seasons before where this was the case and somehow Andy pulled the nose up.  I don’t think this is one of those years.  I saw true desperation in Andy’s eyes last night, he had no answers.  I think he is done.

Thankfully by this time tomorrow the elections will be over.  It is too bad that electing a leader has evolved into such a bitter, moronic, corrupt and divisive process.  In 2012, elections are catered to the minds that are easily swayed by snappy one-liners, fuzzy math,  robo-calls and junk mail.  Just like politicians are routinely bought, the voting public is as well.  The amount of money spent on psychological welfare to influence the uninformed masses is simply obscene.

No matter who wins tomorrow, I am sure there will be inappropriate chest beating from the victor.  To be clear, nobody should be proud of the state of our country at this time in history.  To me it’s just  a matter of which way we are going to keep the wheels pointed.  I’m not a supporter of U-turns.

Regardless of your political beliefs, this is damn funny, you have to admit.

http://youtu.be/yTCRwi71_ns

So originally I was going to go run with the club at 6am Saturday morning.  Sometime Friday night I thought to myself that it would be nice if I didn’t force myself out of bed at 4:30 am.  Sure it’s nice to have moral support doing a long 10 mile run but I don’t require it.

I knew I needed to get the mileage in though, it would probably be my last “long” run before the 12 mile Mudder race.  I came up with a different way to do it, 400 meters at a time.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment running the 10 miles around the track at the local middle school.

The weather Saturday morning was beautiful but on the chilly side.  The thermometer was in the mid-50’s when I started.  I actually ran the first three and a half miles in my hoody.

As I expected, it was mentally grueling going around the track so many times.  Towards the end, after lap 34 I actually missed a lap so technically I only ran 39 laps.  Still it added up to 10.20 miles.  How do I know I missed a lap you ask?  Because I had the Flip Cam running of course…

Even though I had nobody to push me I managed to cover the distance in an average pace right around 8:45 per mile, about the same clip I ran my PR half marathon at.  It was an interesting way to cover 10 miles.  Now I know how Nascar drivers feel.

When I got home I dove hard into my house chore duties.  I was supposed to drop Ali off at the airport late in the afternoon so my goal was to have my chore slate basically clean by then.  With the glorious cool temps and low humidity it was almost fun to work with the doors and windows wide open.

I asked Ali if she minded that we take the Volt to drop her off at the airport for two reasons.  First, if I take the van I will spend somewhere around $15 in gas just to get there and back.  Second, I wanted to drive the Volt, duh.

Driving the car is really sweet.  It scratches every imaginable geek itch I have.  The electric motor is smooth and powerful.

This was the first time the Volt has been on I-75.  We discovered that maintaining 70+ mph will burn through your battery much quicker than around town driving.  It looks like the Volt can maintain optimum battery usage at speeds of up to 55.

Ali wasn’t happy when I told her that by the time I got back to her place with the car I had used a whopping .2 gallons of gasoline.  Right now her overall gas mileage with the car is 102 mpg and still rising.

When I was paying my bills this week I ran a report on my gas costs for the last 7 months.  It averaged out to $458 a month.  Depending on where I am financially and geographically in several months I would totally consider a Volt as my daily commuter.

When I took the dogs out to the house Nicki was acting a little weird.  It seemed like she was looking for Ali.  Eventually she chilled out a bit. It didn’t take long for her abnormal shedding left it’s mark on the carpet.  Her hair is literally falling out in clumps.  I am 99% convinced it is all because of the thyroid meds she has been on for the past few months.

My Sunday was very enjoyable.  I took the dogs over to the swamp early in the morning.  On the drive there we had an amazing sight.  I saw a large bear by the side of the road.  As I got closer it ran into the brush but I was happy to see he was just standing there watching us.

I stopped the van and took a couple pictures.  The bear looked pretty much full grown.  He seemed intrigued at Sadie perched out the window barking.  He hung out for a good minute or so before jogging deeper into the woods. It was very cool.

The last time I was at the swamp the water levels were still low and the grass on the path was very, very high.  Neither of those situations were the case on Sunday.  Thanks to the frequent rain the last couple months the water levels were very high, as high as when we first discovered the swamp.  I was happy to see that someone knocked down the grass as well.

The higher water meant I had to be more diligent with watching the dogs.  They wanted to meander close to the water where a potential  gator could be in wait.  Eventually they understood I didn’t want them by the edge.

I thought more water would also equal more wildlife.  Unfortunately it didn’t, I only saw one small gator during the 3-4 mile walk.  We did see a potentially dangerous small snake on the path back to the parking lot.

The rest of my Sunday was very enjoyable.  I spent some time out in my bar park, played with the dogs, did some minor to do’s and even took a brief nap.  Not having the Eagles on the schedule cleared out a big block of time.

This morning I dropped off the girls at the dog daycare place.  It is nice to not have to worry about Nicki’s bathroom issues at least and they both seem to actually like going there.  When I handed them over to the girls inside neither of them made a fuss.

Tomorrow the madness ends, finally.  The republicans are definitely in the lead as far as annoying the shit out of me goes.  I would estimate the republican to democrat robocall ratio is somewhere around 5-1 and the junk mail has been overwhelmingly republican biased.

I read about SEVEN HOUR wait times to vote early in the Miami area.  Part of this has to do with the totally ridiculous move by our slimy governor to reduce the amount of early voting days from 14 to 8.  I mean what in the world could be the logical justification for such a move?  Why would you want to make voting MORE difficult and less convenient unless it serves your personal political agenda?  It’s sad just how manipulated our society has become.

When NBC announced the show Revolution I was kind of looking forward to it.  The premise sounded interesting to me, sometime in the near future the world somehow loses electricity (they haven’t revealed why yet).  As a result of the loss of power the planet is plunged back to a feudal times type of existence.

Well instead of being a quality addition to my tv rotation, Revolution has turned into this years Terra Nova.  It basically sucks.   The fact that a show with lots of hype and a big budget sucks is not a new event, it happens quite often.  However in this particular case I am a bit surprised because of the names that are associated with the series like JJ Abrahms and Jon Faverau.

Revolution is weak on so many levels.  The writing is awful with predictable scenarios and outcomes everywhere you look.  I literally laugh out loud at times at just how ridiculous some of the round holes they try to jam square pegs into.

I find the young girl that is the female lead the most annoying of all. It’s not her fault, it’s more the fault of the bad writing that has her all over the road in terms of whom she really is.

Also annoying is the idiotic, random insertion of things into the show that are there strictly because of it’s later time slot.  For example the use of the word “dick”.  He’s a dick, don’t be a dick. I think they even used the word “crap” at one point. Gasp! How shocking.

Then last night they have a total soft porn scene with the annoying young female. For some reason they decide the best way to illustrate her tortured memories is when she is taking a bath. They were millimeters away from nip slip city and did have full side boobage at the end of the scene.  I mean obviously I fully support naked women whole heartedly but in the context of the show it was just idiotic and an obvious attempt to titillate, perhaps because that was all they have to offer.

As another example of the show’s suckage, let me outline a scene from this weeks show.  Yea I guess it is a spoiler but if you are still watching this show, you deserve to be spoiled.

So two of the good people were being held in a compound by about 30 bad ones, headed up by an extra nasty leader of course.   The leader gave each of the good people a gun and said they had to shoot each other.  Whomever shot first would live.  This was the leaders idea of a fun time.

Well the two good people were a dumpy fat guy and a hot latin woman.  The fat guy says he isnt going to shoot the hot woman (duh) so in an act of valor he points the gun to his chest, pulls the trigger and drops.

Evil leader guy comes over, all excited of course.  Well all of a sudden, fat dude opens his eyes and uses the gun to shoot the evil leader dead.  Fat guy had a metal whiskey flask in his pocket that stopped the bullet.

So now for some reason the 30 other armed men in the compound don’t immediately shoot the two good people.  Instead fat guy basically says “listen, all we want to do is just leave, ok?”  They cut to some guy that goes into deep thought and then says “ok get your stuff and get the hell out of here”  I mean wtf is that?

The show sucks.  All I want to know is why the damn power got turned off which is supposedly going to be revealed in the next episode.  Once that happens, I’m out.

Man as we approach the election the ridiculous FB posts regarding it are multiplying like rabbits.  I literally feel a little bit embarrassed for some of the people that post them. Many of the items are just so ignorant and low brow it makes me sad.  I just want it all to be over.

So my buddy Troy loves to poke fun at my extreme concern for animals. I basically hate killing things.  Really the only beings I don’t mind inflicting mass murder upon are fire ants which I am convinced came here straight from the depths of hell.

So anyway here is my latest story. This morning as I was in the bathroom getting ready I saw a small bug in the sink.  It actually looked to be a baby cockroach.  I just wasn’t feeling all that sympathetic so I took a cup of water to wash it down the drain since that is where it probably came from.  I tried to make sure it was well down the drain system by following up with running the faucet for a few seconds.

Well a few seconds after I turned the faucet off I see the bug slowly climb out of the drain, obviously a little disoriented from the near drowning.  Well now I felt bad.  I grab a tissue and scoop it up.  As I am walking towards the front of the house the baby roach climbed off the tissue and onto the middle of my forearm and stayed there.

I popped open the garage door and with one quick exhale blew the bug onto the yard where he will have a fighting chance to survive.

If you asked me to logically explain why I would feel compassion for a baby roach I don’t think I could.  But I do know it does maybe explain some of my thoughts on other subjects that are up for debate in society.

I have no doubt if that bug was in Mitt’s gold plated sink he would have immediately called in the butler to smash it.

This weekend Ali leaves for PA so I take full time possession of the dogs for close to a week.  No highlights planned, just the normal slog plus hopefully a 10 miler Saturday morning.

So once again my Halloween was uneventful.  I had the porch light on and the bag of candy ready but had no visitors.  Of course I didn’t expect any based on recent history but I always am prepared, just in case.

I got my Triple Gym yesterday.  It is basically an Iron Gym on steroids.  It’s main selling point is it includes a dip bar attachment that up to this point is something you could not get with a doorway bar system.

I was a bit worried about how sturdy it would all feel when it was assembled and hanging on the door frame.  I was pleased when it actually felt quite useable for dips and every other movement I tried on it.

With it’s various bars and handles it could be used literally for dozens of body weight exercises.  It feels like a good investment of my $79.  I just wish it wasn’t made in f’ing China.

So now we will be entering the last few days before the election.  By this time next week it will all be over with.  Regardless of whom is the victor, I will be able to survive.  Unfortunately I don’t think that statement applies universally.  Hopefully more people vote with their heads and hearts and not their W-2’s. (and bibles)