Archives 2013

Since I did my year end recap yesterday my New Years Eve blogging requirements are much lighter than normal.

Last night I celebrated Sadie’s birthday the same way we celebrated Nicki’s bday a couple days prior, with a vanilla cupcake.  Sadie was very anxious to enjoy her birthday treat as was Nicki.  They both scarfed down the treat and licked the plate clean.

At dusk I took the Phantom out for a flight.  It looks especially cool at night because of the LED lights on the bottom of the aircraft.  I had it up in the air for quite awhile, flying big, high loops well beyond the fence line.  I heard kids in two different backyards saying “What is that??!!!”

The LED lights on the Phantom also make flying in the dark only moderately more challenging than flying in daylight.  I had no problems keeping track of my orientation.

Cindy and my simple New Years plans were thrown together kind of last minute which is fine with me.  I have never been one to need a fancy New Years celebration and have been quite content watching stroked out Dick Clark ring in the New Years.  Now that Dick is gone that tradition has come to an end.

We are going to see Anchorman 2 at the fancy Silverspot Cinema which is located in Mercato.  After the movie lets out we will grab an adult beverage somewhere, watch the ball drop and head home.

A reasonable bedtime would be helpful since we are pulling ourselves out of bed way too early to participate in the running club’s New Years Day free 5k “race” followed by the Polar Plunge afterward.

As another year comes to an end, let me offer this to the many people that read my babble here on a regular basis.  I sincerely hope your 2014 is filled with blue skies, open roads and laughter.  Dufman, out.

Well it is once gaain time for the brain taxing yearly recap blog entry where I try to regurgitate the lowlights and highlights of the year.  It’s normally a nice way for me to reflect on where I have been and where I hope to go.

As always, I start with the 2013 goals I laid out 365 days ago.

Get pool deck painted/fixed – check with an asterisk.  Yes I had Rhinoshield come out and paint/fix the pool deck.  However the process of having them do it was filled with many broken promises, aggravation and disappointment.  The cracks that were “fixed” started to reappear less than 2 months after the work was done.  The paint work wasnt great either, I have spots where it is starting to come off.  I will be probably be calling them in 2014 to try to get some remediation for their shitty work.

Hobby room/garage painted – 1 for 2.  The hobby room got painted thanks to the efforts of Cindy mostly.  All I did was strip the walls and move stuff around, she did the hard labor.  The garage is still boring white and filled with too many spider webs.

Physical goals – 35 pull ups in one set, hah, f no.  Last December I somehow managed to do 30 pull ups and was hoping to build off of that.  Instead my pull up max went down as my bodyweight went up.  The other day I tried a max set and got 23 reps.  If I was at full power I might be able to still squeak out 25 reps.

Completing the old BB requirements, nope.  I didn’t even really work at this.  Other physical activities just seemed to keep getting in the way.  Failed at the front lever, back lever, planche, controlled handstand and human flag goals as well.  What a loser.

Traveling – Check.  The road trip Cindy and I took to the Grand Canyon was an awesome experience that both of us will remember for the rest of our lives.  It was filled with so many awesome, breathtaking sights and memorable moments.  We also did a long weekend up in Orlando which was fun.  I did NOT travel overseas to meet some of my worldwide calisthenics buddies as I hoped.

Happiness – I think I made some major inroads there thanks to my relationship with Cindy.  She does so much to make my life better and does it all with a smile.

Ok so lets talk about the rest.

In February I built, hosted and launched a new web site for the Bar-barians.  I spent countless hours getting the site ready and dealt with countless amounts of bullshit from my web host trying to make the popular site fit within the constraints of a cheap, shared hosting environment.  I learned a lot about tweaking WordPress in the process. Ironically, the site is in the process of being relaunched and hosted somewhere else due to some internal issues within the group that surfaced in the last 2 months or so.

I timed a lot of races, just as I have for the past half decade.  It seems every year the amount of time that I spend working on running club related work goes up and up.  Every year I wonder if it is truly worth my time and effort to continue doing so.  The scales have slowly been tipping the other way although I still take pride in doing what I do and doing it well.

This year was extra-tumultuous with the club launching it’s own Thanksgiving Race which I took a huge part in promoting and organizing.  The effort paid off as the race was biggest 5K race our area has ever put on.

My Google Ad empire has been rebuilt and is funneling dollars into my moms bank account at a pretty consistent pace.  I have steadily been increasing my financial support of my mom over time.  Ironically it feels like the more I do, the less it is appreciated.

Despite the various physical goal failures I described above, I still did have a lot of successes and personal bests in 2013.  I managed to barely set a new PR in the Hooter’s Half marathon, shaving roughly 30 seconds of the previous years time, finishing in 1:54:54.  It was the only chip timed running race I did in 2013.

I started doing regular deadlifting in 2013.  My prior one rep best of 310 pounds has been moved up to 390 pounds, followed by 10 reps at 315lbs.  I like the feeling of lifting a very heavy object off the ground.  Ironically, despite my deadlifting numbers rising steadily, my squat numbers are still pretty much the same, thanks to the lack of focus I give them.  I only do a couple lights sets to warm up for deadlifts.  I just dont like squatting all that much.

I set personal bests in a number of other movements and exercises, despite my year odometer getting well up there.  Setting lifetime physical personal bests at 46 is something I take pride in and utilize to help me battle the demons in my head that make me loathe/fear old age.

In 2013 my divorce was finalized taking some 8 months longer than I originally expected it to take.  There were some difficult moments along the way where things I never expected to happen, happened and both Alison and I struggled with the finality of it all.  Our day in court was filled with intense, stinging emotions that I hope to not have to experience again in the future.

In 2013 I got off the dating merry go round I rode for 2012 where I went on first dates with double digit women.  This time last year I was pretty burned out on dating.  The hope/disappointment cycle was really getting to me.  I first met Deb in late, late 2012, whom I dated for a couple months.  She was a great girl but I found myself feeling uncomfortable, all of a sudden being in a relationship.  It was weird.

Then in late March after coming to terms with just spending some time off the dating sites and being ok with just being alone for awhile I wound up going to a Tarpons football game with Cindy.  I had just put out an open ended offer on FB to anyone that wanted to go with me and she volunteered herself.

I had known Cindy ahead of time loosely from the running club but that was it.  Well we had a good time at the game and those good times have continued up to present day.  Cindy is like a version of me on Red Bull.  She always wants to do, work, help more.  She has been willing to give me space when I need it yet be right there as well if I need her.

Cindy embraces the odd, weird, immature, and silly parts of my personality, something I never really experienced before.  I feel like I can be my full self around her without filters.  I am pretty sure there has been more laughter and smiles in 2013 for me than in any other year prior.  It’s a good thing.

I was worried that our roadtrip out west would prove to be a real relationship strainer, as being in a close quarters with someone for endless hours and miles can get difficult.  Cindy can be quite talkative and at times I can be quite quiet.  Somehow we balanced it out and the trip overall was fantastic.  Hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back to the top in 9 hours was one of the most difficult, miserable, and grueling physical challenges I ever have taken on.  It also was one of the most beautiful, rewarding, and memorable experiences of my life.

The Grand Canyon was only the cherry on top.  The stops in New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Durango and White Sands were all filled with moments that will last a life time.  It was a great trip.

In January I had a fun but cold road trip up to PA to visit my dad and the family.  It was originally supposed to be a me +2 dog trip but became +1 when Nicki developed some AWFUL diarhea that required me to bring her back to Ali.  Despite the stinging cold January western PA trips give me, I do enjoy them overall. Dad road back to Florida with me and stayed a few days.  There were some good and not so good parts of that idea. 🙂

Cindy and I completed a Tough Mudder in November, my third, Cindy’s first.  Cindy’s performance in the event was inspirational.  Her refusal to tap out to the Artic Enema and her near completion of the grueling up and down monkey bars was incredible. I crunched my knee badly on the second to last obstacle and have been dealing with repurcussions of it ever since.

I resumed RC planes as a hobby in 2013, motivated to do so after seeing a guy with a DJI Phantom fly over the 4th of July race.  I crashed my old Speedwing in the process, built a new wing that I still haven’t successfully flown and bought two mini-quad copters as training wheels to getting my own Phantom. It turned out I never needed the wheels.  Cindy bought me a Phantom for Xmas and it is an absolute piece of cake to fly.  It is really, really cool.

World of Warcraft, the MMORPG that consumed huge chunks of my free time since 2005 has become a near blip on the radar for me.  Of my 10 virtual selves in game, I have only leveled one to the new cap of level 90.  Even though when I play, I have fun, for the most part I just have no desire to do it.

I have been spending a good bit of time playing Hearthstone, a turn based card game that is based on WoW.  I never played this style of game, and to be honest, I always viewed them from afar as stupid and boring.  However I am firmly enjoying playing the game.  It’s simple to learn but complex to master, requiring equal portions of skill, quality cards and luck to be successful.  I also enjoy the ease of play.  It doesn’t require the endless hours WoW does to stay current.  With Hearthstone you can pop in and out as often or as little as you please with no consequence.

I did some other home improvements this year not goal related.  My favorite one is the new flat screen tv that I bought for the bedroom that is now wall mounted along with a sound bar.  I upgraded my main living area A/V experience with a new Yamaha surround system as well.

Outdoor projects were on the tame side other than removing/adding a few trees/plants from the landscape, doing a couple borders in castle stone, and the various heavy load of upkeep the property requires.

I continued my home mechanic side job fixing multiple problems.  Cindy’s 23 year old Miata was the clear leader in repairs performed.  I can’t even list all of the things I fixed/replaced on the car since she owned it.   I rarely do any car related work without recording it for YouTube.  My auto repair themed videos are some of my most viewed. (along with my creepy head shaving videos)

The SSR is still totally awesome although I drove it very little in 2013 compared to 2012.  I just dont want to put tons of miles on it.  Right now I am a few hundred miles away from 40,000.

I discovered Vine in 2013 and found out I am pretty good at making stupid 6 second videos.  I have 130+ and counting.  Take a look if you like.

I had a nice visit this year from Troy and another from Randall.  My dad and Patrick were the only other guests I had for 2013 other than mom staying over a couple times.

Nicki’s health issues sort of plateaued in 2013.  She didn’t get significantly better or worse.  She has her good days and bad days.  I have had them for over a week while Ali is in PA.  I have noticed some improvement in her mobility when she is out at the house for long periods of time.  Unfortunately the steps at Ali’s condo are not a good thing for an 11 year old dog with bad rear wheels.

It breaks my heart when I see her walking in pain.  It seems like just yesterday she was the crazy girl leaping the couch in a single bound as she sprinted around the house during one of our play sessions.

OK I am sure I left out of many significant things but this entry is long enough. Let’s talk about 2014 goal setting.

On the home improvement front, there aren’t any big glaring needs.  I would still like to paint the garage.  There are various areas of the property that could use some cleaning up/organization done to them.  If my tax return is favorable this year I may replace the kitchen appliances that have been there since day one with new, modern upgrades with more bells, whistles and BUTTONS.

Fitness goals are fuzzy too.  Generally speaking, again, faster, heavier, more is always my goal.  If I were to put some hard numbers on it, a 400 pound deadlift for reps, get back to 30 pull ups, 5 clean muscle ups and a one arm pull up would be great.  The physical goals I set for 2013 are still valid as well.  I don’t feel a real need to do competitive endurance events anymore although I may throw one or two in there since Cindy likes doing them.

More road trips in 2014 would be great.  They just work for me and create so many unique, different and long lasting memories.  I just wish the van got better gas mileage. 😉

I hope to continue my online ad juggernaut.  Even though the chances are beyond slim, I hold out hope one day I will capture just the right moment on tape to create a viral video that would hit it big.  After 20+ years in this business I could certainly use a change.  The trick is doing so and still be able to pay the bills.

On a personal level I hope to continue the good times and fun that Cindy has brought into my life.  She has done so much for me in many aspects of my life to help me enjoy things more, despite my generally lousy disposition towards the growing old part of it.  Her determination, positive outlook and work ethic help to make me a better person, even during those moments I want to stuff a sock in her mouth. 😉

All in all 2013 was a very nice rebound from a very rough 2012.  Onward and upward from here is the biggest goal, always.

I forgot to mention that I finally got around to getting nightstands for the master bedroom again.  Ever since the split some 20 months ago I have had a flimsy, small shelf on my side of the bed that was loaded down with remote controls, magazines and books.

At first I looked into getting the matching set from Rooms To Go since that is where the bedroom furniture came from.  They no longer had that style of furniture and any nightstands they were selling were between $200-$300 each, more than I was looking to spend.

Well as has often been the case, Amazon once again came to the rescue.  I found $70 stands that appeared to be a close match to the wood color of the existing stuff.  All I had to do was grab two metal knobs at Home Depot to mimic what is on the RtG furniture.

Assembly of the nightstands was straightforward and despite the low price, they seemed to be pretty high quality.  The finished stands felt solid and looked good.  The color match with the old stuff was very good as well.  To the casual observer, they may even think the nightstands were part of the bedroom set.  Their addition to the room added a completeness that was missing.  The only in house item that I need to reinstate is a king size bed in the guest bedroom.  Hopefully that will be a 2014 item.

On Saturday I had various things I wanted to get done.  I mowed the big section of the backyard and then ripped apart the dash of my SSR for seemingly the 100th time to adjust the gain on a potentiometer in my stereo system.  When I last ripped it apart to redo the ground I turned down the gain.  Well I turned it down too far, so far that with the stereo set at max volume it was hard to hear during topless highway driving.

I also needed to check the clutch fluid on the truck, shifting was feeling different.  Well the reservoir was very low.  The question was where did the fluid go?  I opened the remote drain line while refilling the clutch fluid tank to fill/bleed it.  I am hoping that possibly I just didn’t have the drain plug on tight enough, causing the slow leak.  I will need to keep an eye on things.

So back to the stereo.  I ripped the front dash cover off, something I am quite adept at by now.  I turned the dial up on the potentiometer and turned the key enough to flip on the radio.  It was loud with volume to spare, sweet.  I put everything back together, happy to have completed the project.

Well I wasn’t happy when I took the truck to the movies with Cindy Saturday night.  When I started the truck I immediately heard the annoying as shit electronic whine that follows engine RPM.  Evidently I cranked the knob too far, enough to once again pull that noise into the system.  When I tested it during the day I stupidly didn’t turn the truck all the way on.  So sometime soon I will be ripping the dash apart yet again, fantastic.

The movie we went to see was 47 Ronin, an action movie set in ancient samurai times starring Keanu Reaves.  I was SHOCKED when we walked up to the box office and saw a line of 30 plus people at Coconut Point.  This theater is never, ever this busy.  Evidently I must have never gone there to see a movie between Xmas and New Years.  Luckily the long line moved quickly.  The line at the food stand was equally long and unfortunately much, much slower.  By the time we got into our seats we were well into the previews.

I thought the movie was good, not great.  It was nice seeing Keanu back in an action film.  I’d give the flick a strong B+, bordering on an A- depending on my mood.

Perhaps my rating is negatively biased from the fat, zit faced kid that was sitting two seats to my left during the film.  Every few minutes he felt the need to light up his phone, just to make sure he didn’t miss some social media, text message or other brainless activity.  When I see individuals that are so connected with their electronic devices that they can’t even sit through a movie without interacting with them it sickens me.  It makes me feel badly for even owning a smartphone myself.  As I was waiting in the hall after the movie, 75% of the human beings in the hall with me had their heads down, making virtual love to their phones.  It just bothers me.

When we got home we had to light up a vanilla birthday cupcake for Nicki, celebrating her 11th birthday.  Both Sadie and her LOVED their sweet treat.  Sadie was pushing the dish across the floor, trying to lick up every last speck of icing.  Tonight I get to repeat the process since it is Sadie’s bday.

Sunday was a very slow/lazy day for me.  It was off and on raining for most of the morning, scuttling our tentative plans to do a bike ride.  Late morning we headed back up to Coconut Point to the ATT store.  We had stopped there before the movie to look into replacing Cindy’s aging Iphone 4S.  I had made the suggestion that she looks into breaking away from her Iphone heritage and look into a Samsung Galaxy S4.  Since playing with my Galaxy Tab 3 Cindy bought me for Xmas I am more and more impressed with the Android environment.

The S4 hardware is superior to what Apple offers as well with a better camera, dramatically larger screen and release from the typical Apple shackles, allowing you to do things like add a memory card and swap out the battery yourself, GASP.  Cindy wanted to go back to that particular store because she had a soft spot for the kid that helped us. He had a pretty noticeable stutter, something difficult to deal with in the sales field.

Well her loyalty came with a price.  The cost was at least 60 minutes of standing around, waiting for Nathan to get free.  We had the misfortune of showing up while he was in the middle of replacing phones for an ENTIRE family, four phones in total.  By the end of the 60 minute wait I was right on the verge of consuming my last grain of patience.

Finally he finished up and took care of the swap which was pretty easy.  Cindy converted over to the ATT Next plan which allows you to swap out your phone more often for less up front money.  I was skeptical of the plan since when you break costs into monthly increments you always wind up paying more than if you just bite the bullet and pay it up front.  However in her case the numbers made sense.  Instead of paying 199 up front for a new phone, her upgrade fee was 40 bucks and will remain 40 bucks in 18 months when she upgrades again.  With a 10 GIG shared data plan (her daughter is on her account), her monthly bill only went up roughly 10 bucks.

Cindy was scared to leave the comfort of her Iphone but I convinced her after the transition phase which is sure to be frustrating at times, she will be glad she made the switch.  I know multiple Galaxy former iOwners that LOVE their Droids once they switched.  A good portion of the rest of Sunday was spent fussing with the S4, migrating data from her Iphone to it and exploring/learning/configuring things on the new phone.

I sort of felt like a lazy bum during the afternoon, surely due to the lack of any organized exercise during the weekend.  It wasn’t like I was laying around watching tv and drinking beer but still, my mental health requires physical effort.

I had the Phantom in the air a number of times over the weekend.  Each time I was amazed at just how ez the thing is to fly.  I had so much confidence in it’s stability that I even let Cindy fly it around the yard quite a bit.  As long as you make sure you are away from/above any potential obstacles you are good to go.  Crashing it would require an act of extreme negligence.  I’m not quite sure what the range is of the radio but I have had the sucker quite high, to the point where it was a small red/green blip in the sky.

Wow, the Eagles did it.  They beat the Cowboys to win the NFC East, delivering a huge interception at the very end of the game to secure the win.  The game was great, just what you would want for a contest deciding the division champion.  The Eagles never trailed but were only holding a very narrow lead for most of the game.

For Dallas it had to be a heartbreaking loss, akin to what the Eagles experienced losing three or four NFC championship games in a row.  You see for the past three years Dallas had a chance to win their division on the last game of the season against a division opponent.  For three years in a row they have gone down in flames, losing to the Giants, the Redskins and now the Eagles.

The Eagles winning the division is part of a dramatic turnaround that I never would have predicted a couple months ago when the team seemed destined to be in the midst of a rebuilding year, sitting at 3-5.  I am very happy to pronounce myself mistaken in my analysis of the team back them.  Nick Foles meteoric rise at QB and the defense playing better resulted in 7-1 finish, putting the Birds at 10-6 for the year.

Even with the great finish I am still not taking anything for granted.  I have no idea if they can make any headway in the playoffs or if the Saints will come in to one and done them.  It doesn’t really matter though to me, it’s all gravy at this point.

I figured I should do a blog entry to relieve the strain on my memory.

Mom came over Christmas Eve afternoon as planned so I could do some work on her Rav 4.  The first to do was to reattach her bumper to the fender lining, it was knocked loose when the dummy in the truck hit her.  This repair took all of two minutes as I used left over self tapping drywall anchor to take care of the problem.

Next up was washing the Rav 4, something mom refuses to do herself outside of allowing the vehicle to sit out in the rain on occasion.  After washing the scuzz off the exterior I took aim at the faded rubber/plastic/vinyl panels that adorn the lower half of the vehicle.

I had a good amount of Forever Black left, stuff I used to blacken the rubber inserts on the SSR running boards.  The stuff comes in a bottle with an applicator similar to shoe shine, it isn’t very big.

I had a lot of real estate to cover between the side panels along with the front and rear bumper.  It also required two coats to look more even.  All in all I was probably applying Forever Black for 90 minutes or more.  The end result was good at least, the blackened up trim along with the car wash made the Rav 4 look pretty decent.

It was looking like rain outside.  I didn’t want jeopardize the still drying Forever Black treatment so I moved the SSR over and then pulled the Rav 4 in next to it in the garage.  It was a tight fit.  A 250 pounder would have been stuck.

Cindy had to work Christmas Eve and didn’t get out until around 6.  Luckily she had already cooked the main entree the night before, faux chicken parm.  Mom and I worked on getting some of the sides prepared.

I laid out a Xmas drinking challenge for myself, it was to drink the wine bottle sized beer that Randall and I bought from Trader Joe’s.  Not only was the bottle big, the beer in it was strong, 9% alcohol.  It was a dark ale that I typically don’t like.  This was again the case but it didn’t stop me from choking down the entire bottle and feeling quite tipsy as a result.

Dinner, which we enjoyed in the dining room by the illuminated Christmas tree was really good.  After cleaning up we sat down to watch an Xmas movie.  Now in years past I always have preferred to watch one of my all-time favs like Xmas Vacation, Christmas Story, Charlie Brown or one of the old Rankin Bass specials.

Mom isn’t a big fan of watching these for the 20th time so I suggested we watch something neither of us saw before, Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I was drunk and open to anything.

Well even though I probably was only awake for 25% of the movie, I can tell you very assuredly that the movie is dumb, very dumb.  There are no worries of it ever getting into my Christmas Eve viewing rotation.  It gets a C.

Christmas morning I woke up somewhere around 6:30.  Mom didn’t rise until closer to 8. We had a massive collection of presents.  Even though mom’s gifts were not massive in physical size, she was the clear leader in number of gifts to unwrap thanks to my efforts wrapping roughly 25 lottery scratch off cards individually in addition to her other gifts.

  I split the gifts into Shawn, Cindy, Mom, Tuki, Nicki & Sadie piles.  It was clear that gift buying this year had returned with a vengeance compared to 2012 when I bought my own presents.

The dogs were only moderately excited this year to open presents.  Each time I would open a toy or food item Sadie wanted to claim them for her own.

Mom got to work on unwrapping her many gifts.  She got to one of her gift cards, from Publix, that I enclosed in a special 2 layer maze box.  There is a small ball in the box that needs to be navigated to a certain spot in order to release the card.  Mom of course immediately rolled her eyes at the gift as I already knew she would.  Mom isn’t a big fan of figuring things out.  I had already solved the maze multiple times so I knew I could always do it again if need be.  I had hopes that mom would actually solve the maze herself but after 5 minutes she gave up, Cindy later solved it for her.

Cindy and I both were guilty of over buying for each other.  She was quite surprised and happy with her gifts which included some unusual items like a 50 foot slack line, portable ping pong set and even an RC off road car.  She got me a lot of cool things too, topped off by a Galaxy Tab 3 and a DJI Phantom, the high end copter I have talked about getting for the last 6 months.   My pile of gifts included a bunch of stuff I could install/configure/play with, which always makes me happy.

After the gift giving was concluded, which took quite awhile because of the volume, mom made her traditional french toast breakfast which we again enjoyed in the dining room surrounded by the mound of opened presents.  After breakfast she took aim at scratching off her massive pile of lottery tickets.  I got her a variety of types to add to the fun.

Mom was less than thrilled that all of those cards and her labor opening/scratching them only resulted in net winnings of around $40.  Sure it would have been nice if mom got lucky and scratched a card that netted her 4 figures but to me it would just be a bonus as I already had tried to take care of mom with her other gifts.  Mom seemed genuinely disappointed that she didn’t win more off the cards which was a bit of a bummer for me.

We had a first this year, a Skype Christmas call from my sister and her family.  It was actually pretty cool.  The video quality was great and we could see everything the kids got like we were sitting in their living room.  It was the first time my mom had face to face time with her grandkids(virtually) in quite a long time so that was a bonus.

Shortly after the Skype call and all of the scratching and losing was done mom packed up her stuff to head home.  We loaded up her Rav4 and thanked her for coming.  If you want to see all of my Xmas 13 related pics, look here.

Once she left I started on the initial stages of post-Xmas duties like collecting trash, sorting things into piles and things of that nature.  Cindy had mentioned something about us possibly doing an Xmas bike ride, noting it would be good to get some exercise in.  Even though if I was by myself I would have never done a ride myself, I appreciated Cindy’s suggestion and initiative.  We decided to do the 20 mile round trip Dunkin Donut ride.

The ride there was wind assisted as we held 20 mph+ for almost the entire first 10 miles.  We were disappointed when we saw the DD was dark, they were open 7AM to 1PM on Xmas day, we rode in mid-afternoon.  Oh well, we hopped back on our bikes and endured a pretty brutal return trip, battling a persistent headwind that kept our speed mostly in the 15-16mph range.

Shortly after I got back another challenge popped into my head, jumping into the pool on Xmas day.  I have NEVER jumped into the pool on Christmas except for those early days where I ran the now broken pool heater for several days straight to warm it up beforehand.  I didn’t do a toe touch ahead of time to gauge just how cold the water was.

I had Cindy shoot video on my phone of the plunge as I jumped in with Sadie standing close by.  The water felt quite cold for the first 10 seconds although 69 degrees is a far cry from the Tough Mudder Arctic Enema water Cindy and I endured back in November.  I only stayed in the pool for less than a minute as i quickly gave Sadie a few never seen before December pool splashes.  I emerged from the pool victorious and cold.

On Christmas night we attended a Xmas party at the running club president’s beautiful home.  It was my second consecutive year of attending and for the second consecutive year I was glad I went.  I had a good mix of helping, drinking, socializing, and eating.  We didn’t stay quite as late as I did last year because of having to get home to the girls.  It was a fun time.

Cindy worked the day after Christmas, I did not.  I utilized the day to really dig hard into Christmas recovery efforts, getting things cleaned up for the most part.  I also put together and flew my DJI Phantom for the first time.

Wow, that thing is freaking awesome!  Compared to the smaller Blade MQX and Syma X-1 I have been cutting my teeth on, the Phantom is a dream to fly.  It is rock solid stable, even in the relatively windy conditions I was flying in.

I felt so comfortable with it that by my third flight I had already strapped my Flipcam to the camera mount and shot about 6 minutes of aerial video. I also made a video of my assembly and first test flight.

After flying the Phantom I realize I had no need at all for the two smaller quad copters as primers.  The Phantom when flying in GPS mode can literally be flown by a child.

On Friday Cindy was off so we spent the day together doing various things, including another backyard workout session.  All I did was deadlifting.  Cindy did a mix of things which was AFTER she already ran 5 miles around the backyard.

My goal was to see how much I could pull in a 1 rep max utilizing lifting straps.  I had gone out on Thursday and bought an additional 50 pounds of weight towards this goal.

After pulling 375 pounds, my old max, I loaded the bar up with 400 pounds, hoping I could pull for a new personal best.  I got 400 off the ground for a moment but could not get it going.  A few minutes later I did manage to lockout with 390 pounds after struggling mightily to get upright.  It was actually enough weight to put a slight bend in the olympic bar which was a nice feather in my man cap.

Last night we enjoyed pizza while watching Grown Ups 2.  I thought the movie relied far too much on physical humor and childish stupidity.  I told Cindy I felt like I just watched something written by a 14 year old.  It was cool seeing so many name actors/celebrities in one film.  I lost count after 20.  It’s an average B rated rental for me.  The first Grown Ups seemed to not have as much of the Adam Sandler stupidity that most of his other films suffer from.  I enjoyed that one more.

Today I have some more chores on tap although thanks to Cindy most of the mundane ones are already taken care of.  My afternoon should consist of mowing the backyard for hopefully the last time in 3 months and then doing some work on the SSR.  Tonight we are catching Ronin in 3D.

I received some sad news that Randall and Tracy had split up recently.  It was quite surprising since it seemed they were practically married without the rings.  I’m holding out hope that they reconsider and kickstart things again.  I think Tracy is awesome and as Randall’s friend, I want her positive influence in his life.

Today is Nicki’s 11th birthday.  It’s hard to believe I have been blessed with her existence for over a decade.  She will be getting her traditional birthday vanilla cupcake tonight.

So I am back from my week long at home virtual training and to be honest, I’m pretty glad about it.  I really don’t know if my sanity could have endured another day of seemingly endless lecture on topics I had very minimal interest in.  Coming back to the office is made even sweeter by the fact that I have a nice and tidy one day work week.  We get off Xmas Eve and Xmas but I tacked two vacation days on the back end to make for an awesomely long weekend.  I am quite glad I maintained the blog from home last week, trying to regurgitate all of last week would have been cumbersome.

On Saturday I timed the race in Marco.  This race perennially has had organizational issues and this year was no different.  The most glaring oversight this time around was the lack of any port-potties for runners to use.  Participants were forced to use Burger King and Publix if mother nature called.

Cindy and I basically set up the registration area ourselves.  Our normal volunteer coordinator was not involved with this race so nobody really knew what roles they were doing ahead of time and had to be quickly briefed/trained on the spot.  It made for a very hectic pre-race environment however somehow we got through it like we always do.

Once the race got under way things settled down.  Timing the event went very smoothly without hardly a hiccup to report.  Cindy also ran the event and did well, finishing the very hilly and difficult course in less than 42 minutes.  Since the race didn’t start until 8 and it was five miles long I didn’t get offsite until almost 10 AM.  On the way home we made additional pit stops which meant I didn’t pull back in the driveway until right around noon, a long morning.

Saturday afternoon was quite busy as well as I attended to the post-race duties, house chores and Cindy’s Miata.  Month’s ago her car refused to start.  I got the thing running by removing and reinstalling the fuel pump assembly somehow.  When I did, I noticed the pump obviously had been dug into before.  The ground wire to the connector had been cut, spliced and routed through a drilled hole where it wired directly to the fuel pump.  It looked very rigged so I wasn’t surprised it was problematic.

Last week her car stopped starting again and again I tried to jostle the pump to get the fuel flowing.  I was unsuccessful.  A quick look up online indicated if the car was taken to a dealer, a new fuel pump assembly could easily run $500 plus.  Instead I rolled the dice and bought a used assembly from Ebay for $60.

Prior to installing the used part I did some splicing of my own, reconnecting the ground wire to the factory connector as it was supposed to be.  Swapping out the fuel pump rig was pretty easy/quick since I had it half ripped apart already.  When I turned the key and heard the pump whirring away it was like music to my ears.  The car started up immediately and per Cindy has run better than it ever has since she assumed ownership.  I love when a plan comes together.

On Saturday night Cindy, our friend Alfred and Cindy’s daughter went to an Everblades hockey game, I hadn’t been to one in many years.  There was a good sized crowd present, much more than the anemic gathering I have become accustomed to for Tarpon games.  The game itself was fun, despite the 8-4 losing outcome.  I enhanced my fun meter with a number of beers and people watching.

We were behind a couple that were obviously DIE HARD Everblades fans.  These people take their minor league hockey very seriously.  They were wearing matching custom Everblades jerseys that if I was being honest, were hideously ugly.  Their seats were right behind a railing.  They had that railing fully decorated, attaching various stuffed animals, souvenirs and Xmas decorations.  Obviously I quickly realized how serious these fans were but I didn’t realize just how much planning went into their fandom until the game was over.

After the game ended the two of them quickly pulled out a hanging sign that had the words “Merry Christmas” strung together.  They scurried down to the glass surrounding the rink and pressed the sign against the glass proudly, hoping the Everblades players that were exiting the rink 15 feet away would glance up, see the holiday greeting and somehow recognize the fans effort.  I felt a degree of disappointment in my heart for them as 20+ players skated by the Merry Christmas sign without a single one even looking their direction.  The fans were left without the payoff they were hoping for.  There’s always next year.

Yesterday was a very welcomed slow starting day that did not include the use of an alarm clock.   Cindy was out running Xmas related items a good chunk of the day.  I did some running around of my own including dropping off a birthday card for Ali from the dogs.

Speaking of the dogs, I will be picking them up on my way home from work today for an extended holiday stay.  Ali is going to be up in PA for the entire Christmas/New Years holiday.  It’s going to be a very canine Christmas.

Yesterday afternoon Cindy and I went outside to do a workout.  Cindy did a lot more working than I did.  I shot some video of her in action that you can see here if you like.  It included her first ever real deadlifting, she did very well.

Last night the Eagles CRUSHED the Bears, setting up a do or die game next week against the Cowboys which should be epic.  Unfortunately my team got CRUSHED in my fantasy football championship.  The only member of my team that had a great day were the Bills defense.  Every other player in my line up underperformed by a bunch.  In contrast my opponent had everyone hitting for big days, lead by Peyton Manning.  Oh well, with the amount of effort I put into my FF team, second place two years in a row is something I can hang my hat on.

After I got done with class yesterday I headed out to do some work on Cindy’s Miata which has been sitting dead in my driveway all week.  I have a used fuel pump assembly on the way to hopefully fix her intermittent starting issue once and for all.  The pump was supposed to show up yesterday but it didn’t.

I wanted to at least get the rigged wiring eliminated awhile.  Some prior owner snipped the ground wire to the connector plug, jumpered in a long wire, drilled a hole in the top of the fuel pump assembly and directly connected it to the fuel pump for some reason.  I removed that mess and spliced the wire back into the factory connector like it is supposed to be.

Last night Cindy and I went out in the SSR to look at the Christmas lights in Victoria Park, a small development where they go all out with Xmas decorations.   It was great fun cruising around topless at a snails pace with the other onlookers as we took in one awesome display of holiday spirit after another.

As we were cruising we saw a bunch of runners in Xmas garb trot by.  It turns out Ali was within the group, funny.

I didn’t remember seeing the Victoria Park display in person before but Ali reminded me that we drove through there years ago with my mom in tow.

After seeing the VP display, on the way home I suggested we swing out to Ave Maria as well, the same place we biked to in the morning.  I thought maybe they had some sort of interesting decorations going on.  There was nothing extravagant but the church and town square looked really pretty.  I showed Cindy the massive Ave Maria water park that is hardly used while we were out there.  I wish they allowed non-Catholic towners to use the facility but it appears to only be restricted to Ave Maria residents, students or their guests.

The weather was a bit chilly for top down driving but nothing the floor heater and heated seats couldn’t negate.

Today is thankfully my last day of class.  They jam so much into 5 days that the instructor literally has no choice but to ramble non-stop for most of it.  Sure I cherry picked some good info so far but most of it has been just a big blah blah drone-fest.

This weekend I have another race to time, again out in the far reaches of Marco Island.  This means extra early alarms to compensate for the LONG drive.  Tomorrows race will be more challenging because Ali will not be around, meaning I get to juggle yet another ball before the race as being the lone data entry personnel.  Luckily the race is on the small side and 5 miles long so I have some extra time before runners start crossing to get everything done.

Saturday night we are going to a hockey game and whatever time that is left will be equally spread between chores, watching football and attending to final Christmas prep needs.

Short on time so I’ll be short on words.  Yesterday’s highlight was my outdoor squatting and deadlifting session where I used lifting straps.  The straps allowed me to set a new personal best, pulling 340 pounds for 8 reps.  Deadlifting outside is tough on sandy soil.  There is no bounce at the bottom, instead the weights sink into the ground with each rep.  By the time I was done I had a 1-2 inch trench.

When class was done I headed out to Sam’s Club in the SSR.  I had a few things to buy for myself and others.  Plus if I am being honest, I just wanted an excuse to take the truck out as well.

As I walked back to the truck the sun was setting so I snapped a pic.  It just looked sort of awesome.

I had a very atypical Thursday morning.  Cindy was off today and had made the suggestion earlier in the week that we try to get a 30 mile Ave Maria ride in before my class starts at 10.  Sure, I said.

Well this morning rolls around and the thermometer shows 53 degrees.  I was still game and Cindy agreed to give it a try as well although she hates cold air.  She layered up as did I.

The ride was very cold at first.  As the sun rose and our body temperatures elevated it became tolerable.  It was a pretty ride out to the college and back although we certainly didn’t set any speed records.  It felt like we had decent head wind both directions somehow.

That’s all folks.

Yesterday was another long day of virtual classroom training.  Sure it is great to sit at home in your underwear and be “working”.  However the Microsoft training format can be pretty dry.  A lot of the subject matter being covered does not apply to networks as small as what I manage.  I try to pay attention best I can.

There also is a lot of repetition, needless repetition if you ask me.  The instructor will talk about a subject and then go through a demo of the subject.  Then the student is supposed to do a lab where you do the exact same shit the instructor just did.  It just doesn’t seem like a very effective use of time.

My hope for this class is to use it as a starting point for upgrading my Microsoft server certification to the 2012 level. (currently at 2008)  The prep to do this is again not an effective use of time.  I wind up memorizing a bunch of details about a bunch of features of the product that I will never use.  Once the test is passed that information will quickly vanish from my brain, never to be found again.  But at least I’ll have a nice piece of paper to show for it.

I had the dogs out here with me yesterday to keep me company.  During my lunch hour I had an unconventional workout that was backed up by an unconventional video (by my standards).  Check it out.

After class left out I headed outside to work on the van.  When Cindy borrowed the van to go to Key West she had a couple incidents.  The first encounter with a big palm frond left part of the rubber air dam dangling.  This was easily fixed with some spare fasteners I had laying around.

The second issue was she pushed the driver side door lock cylinder out.  That cylinder had been loose for a long time so I just had been babying it when inserting the key.  Well I hadn’t warned Cindy ahead of time of the issue so when she stuck the key in full force it popped the cylinder in and down into the body of the door.

Getting this corrected was far more tedious.  After removing the inside door panel I spent a good half hour trying to awkwardly position the cylinder back in place.  The lock is behind sheet metal with a few holes in it.  I was trying to peer through the holes while balancing/rotating the lock with my one hand that was jammed behind the sheet metal.  I also had various rods and other door hardware to contend with.

The lock only went in one way as there was a slot that had to be in just the right position.  Finally after much futzing around and a lot of muttering under my breath I got it.  Not only did the lock slide back in, it also was once again secure, no longer sliding back and forth when the key is inserted, bonus.

Did I mention that for the second year in a row I am in my fantasy football league’s championship game?  I won my last game easily.  This is also the second year in a row that I have risen from the ashes.  I started this season either 1-3 or 0-4.  All of a sudden my team caught fire, just like last year.  The funny  thing is I am pretty sure I put the least amount of planning/thought into my team of any of the owners in the league.  If I somehow manage to win it all it would be a testament to poor planning and minimal effort.

Today is shaping up to be another day similar to yesterday.

So my 46th birthday has come and gone.  It was just fine as far as birthdays go at this point.  Cindy came over and cooked me a nice dinner and then we enjoyed the birthday cake that we made on Sunday.  The cake turned out quite well.  We each chowed down on a pretty massive piece.

During the day yesterday I did my traditional workout that is somehow tied into my age.  Yesterday it was 46 pull ups for time.  Later I tried a few muscle ups just to see if I could still do them.

I checked out my fire ant mauled inflatable snowman yesterday, hoping to find some sort of fuse I could replace.  There was none to be found.  I returned the snowman to Lowe’s today, hoping to grab a replacement.  They had none left so I simply got a credit.  Of course I didn’t mention the snowman was attacked by fire ants.

I watched the season finale of Homeland last night.  It sure seemed to be more of a series finale even though I was sure I read they were doing season 4.  If they are, I have no idea where they go from here, it seemed every plot line was wrapped up with finality.

So I got home from work on Friday night and immediately noticed the absence of my lit up, blown up 7 foot snowman which was added to the Xmas display this year.  Everything else outside was lit up as it normally is, weird.

So I walked over to it and first verified the extension cord was plugged into the front of the house, which it was.  I then walked over to the tree the snowman is fastened to to check the plug for the inflator fan.  I reach down for the transformer in the dark and notice it is sitting in a lot of sand.  The stinging on my hand confirmed the plug was sitting in the middle of a fresh fire ant mound. Son of a bitch.

My hatred for fireants grew beyond it’s normal lofty levels.  How dare they attack my snowman…  The next day when I had daylight I saw just how huge the mound was.  It was like the fire ants made a nest directly under my new favorite holiday decoration, like a big FCK YOU to me.  I sprinkled the mound with Amdro to hopefully kill the bastards or at least get them to relocate.  I am hoping they just popped some sort of replaceable fuse instead of destroying the inflatable totally. Bastards.

Saturday morning I was up at 3:45 am to get to the race site by 5.  The 7 am race start time necessitates the earlier alarm time.  They start it early because of the golf tournament the race is affiliated with.  I didn’t expect many volunteers to be there as early as I was but hardly anyone was there.  Cindy and set up the registration stuff pretty much by ourselves.

We had runners starting to show up at 6AM and still had no volunteers to man the tables, it was pretty nuts.  Later I found out that security guards were not allowing the volunteers to park on site as they were supposed to, instead turning them away and making them park at the remote lots which require buses to bring you in, how nice.

In addition to doing my normal race duties, which are numerous, I am also the pseudo GCR point man for the event as well.  As a result I was buzzing around non-stop for the two hours before the race, so much so that I didn’t have a chance to help Ali at all with the race day registrations.  As I was setting up the finish line equipment I glanced at my watch and saw it was only 20 minutes till race time, holy shit.  I could hardly believe it was that late.

I kicked my set up speed into overdrive as I had to get to the start line to set up that equipment as well.  I got the start line timing mats up and running with about two minutes to spare before Greg Norman started the runners.  It was a whirlwind morning.  Luckily after the hectic start, timing the race went smoothly except for some human error related items.

I got home exhausted but had a large DD coffee to help me combat it.  I just had no time to be tired. After completing my post race chores and eating lunch I headed outside.

After doing some minor items it was time for THE project of the weekend, pressure washing the pool area.  Even though it is shitty work I was looking forward to getting it done as the pool cage was disgusting by my standards.

The new pressure washer makes the job slightly less cumbersome since it has a higher PSI rating.  I started off by doing anything I could reach on the cage with just the normal wand.  After doing that it was time to do the higher portions of the cage that are over the pool. Doing these sections is tedious and painful as I try to extend my reach as far as possible while supporting the weight of the wand and various extensions.

So I go to get my washer extensions and realize I am missing one.  Surely it was in the shed where I always leave the extensions?  I triple checked both sheds and even the garage.  The extension was MIA.  WTF?  Great.  So this meant a trip to Home Depot to replace an extension wand I know I have somewhere.  While I was there I grabbed a replacement battery for the dead one that was in the tractor and a new doorbell button to replace the shitty, plastic, builder grade button that imploded a long time ago.

I actually got an extension piece 1 foot longer than the one I lost, a three footer instead of a two footer.  When it comes to pressure washing a pool cage it’s all about length of wand.

The new extension made the job both easier and harder at the same time.  Being able to get the nozzle closer to the high frame sections meant they got cleaned better.  However holding nearly 8 feet of wand spraying at 3600 PSI with extended arms for any period of time is rather challenging.  The bottom line is the added length helped me do a better job.

I am sure I was responsible for the death of hundreds of spiders during the pressure washing.  The week before I went around with a broom and knocked down whatever I could.  Unfortunately for whatever spiders remained they met a high pressure demise on Saturday.

At first, with as long as I spent cleaning the pool cage, I thought I had no shot of finishing washing the pool deck before sunlight expired.  I was happy to see that the paint job on the deck that was completed in March meant that the surface was less intent on holding onto dirt.  I was able to blast away the decking in probably half the time it used to take me.

The pressure washing also revealed some more shoddiness in the painting that was done in March.  A few spots now are showing the original paint below, where Rhinoshield did not properly prepare the surface.  Hitting the deck with a 25 degree pressure washer nozzle from 12 inches away should not strip paint.  I suppose I will be sending some more pictures their way with requests for remediation.

So anyway, the pool area looked 100% better when I was complete and I finished with daylight to spare. You can see the various pics from the project here. I used those extra minutes to quickly try to get Cindy’s Miata fuel pump working.  It had cut out once again on Saturday morning.  I was not successful.

On Saturday night Cindy and I watched two animated Xmas specials.  One was a “All I want for Christmas is a Dog, Charlie Brown” which was made in the 2000’s.  It was cute but obviously not as good as the original.  Then I fired up a South park Xmas special that was made in 2004.  It was incredibly offensive even on a South park graded scale.  I was close to clicking it off.  Hopefully I get to watch a t least 1 or 2 of my favorite specials before Xmas comes and goes.

Sunday morning I was once again screwing around with Cindy’s fuel pump.  When I got the car running months ago with the same symptoms I did so by pulling the pump out, jostling it around and reinstalling it.  The pump has obviously been an issue in the past as some prior owner had it rigged, with a spliced ground wire that bypasses the factory connector and is jacked directly to the pump in the tank.

Well this time my jostling had no effect.  I ordered a used fuel pump/sender assembly which will allow me to remove the rig job that is in place.  It’s a better long term solution.

Sunday morning Cindy and I made my birthday cake.  I was mainly in charge of the frosting.  It turned out well, at least it looks like I did.  I held off on having a piece until it was officially my birthday. (today)

The Eagles game didn’t turn out well.  I should have known that when I was feeling good about the game, since Adrian Peterson was out, I was setting myself up for a letdown.  The Eagles defense was marauded by the Vikings and I thought Chip Kelly did a pretty lousy job coaching the game.

First they decided they weren’t going to kick the ball to one of the Viking return men who is very good.  Instead, each and every kick they would kick the ball incredibly short, allowing the Vikings tremendous starting field position the entire game.  I mean wtf, you are in a dome with no wind.  If Alex Henry can’t kick the ball deep into or through the end zone in those conditions then lets get someone that can.  I mean Chip must think his special team coverage is absolutely awful to come up with a stupid strategy like that.

Some of his other decisions were idiotic.  For example going for it on 4th an 1 from their own 25 yard line with 8 minutes left in the third quarter.  I was like “what the fck is he doing…”  of course if McCoy could have managed to gain a measly yard nobody would remember it but he didn’t and it allowed the Vikings another easy 3 points.

Then when the Eagle players were getting called for repeated taunting/unsportsman like conduct penalties that again were giving the Vikings more gift touchdowns, Kelly was just standing their with a blank look on his face.  Again, wtf!??  Pull the defensive players together and scream at them to knock it the fck off!  It was aggravating as shit.

So anyway, the team just played very poorly.  Hopefully it was their one step backward before resuming their charge to win the division which was aided by the Cowboys collapsing last night against the Packers.

Speaking of the Cowboys, I had Tony Romo as my starting QB on my FF team.  He rewarded me with 30+ points, helping me build a 30 point lead over my conference finals opponent with 1 player left to play for each of us.  He has the Ravens defense tonight and I have the Raven kicker.  Considering the Ravens are playing the high powered Lions offense I am looking pretty good for making my second fantasy football championship game for the second year in a row.  Crossing my fingers.

Last night I did an early Carrabas birthday dinner with my mom and Cindy.  We went to the Naples location which wa s my original favorite.  For many years I have complained how they have stripped out much of what I liked about this venue, removing some of the unique styling it once had, instead choosing to strip it down and make it more uniform with the newer locations.  I lamented the removal of learn to speak Italian tapes in the bathroom, the smaller beer glasses, the shittier bread and round robin cast of staff that replaced what used to be a pretty regular crew.  Well last night they added one more thing to the “don’t do anymore” list.

Anyone that has gone to Carrabbas in the past 10 years has probably heard the waiters gather around a table to sing Happy Birthday in Italian to a patron.  It was quite normal to have that go down two or three times during a visit to the restaurant.  Well evidently they can’t even be bothered to do that any longer.

Cindy must have informed the waitress it was my birthday while I was in the bathroom.  When I sat down our young, pleasant, but non-descript waitress put down a plate of two scoops of ice cream with a candle and some nuts.  “Happy Birthday!” she said as she moved on.  That’s it?  Where is the group singing??!!

It’s funny.  To be honest I never really liked the attention being brought on to my birthday since I really don’t view it as something I like to celebrate.  However despite my personal feelings, the lack of Carrabbas observing a long standing Italian singing tradition bothered me.  At least the ice cream was good.

We dropped mom back off at her place before heading to the movies.  When I asked mom what she wanted for Xmas I got the answer I expected but not hoped for.  Unfortunately what I would really like to get for my mom is not available for sale and only self produced.

Cindy and I were looking forward to seeing the second Hobbit film for quite awhile.  Unfortunately the only 3D showing they had which would work out time-wise was 8:30 which is awful late for a film that is 2:40 in length.  I had prepared myself for the situation by downing a 5 hour energy after dinner to ward off drowsiness.  Unfortunately my weekend of light sleep, combined with the big meal meant I still found myself lifting my eyelids from time to time.

In addition to being sleepy, the theater was on the cold side.  Cindy was glad I talked her into buying a small towel for her legs when we stopped in Target before the movie.

My drowsiness was no fault of the movie itself which was great.  The nearly 3 hours passed by quickly.  The movie was filled with the epic storytelling and action I have come to expect from anything with Peter Jackson’s name on it.  It gets a shiny A from me.

When we were pulling out of the movies I saw what at first glance I thought was a dog on the far side of the road.  When I looked closer I realized it was a coyote and a big one at that.  I turned the van left and slowly followed him.  For a good period of time he actually stopped, turned and looked at us, long enough for Cindy to get this grainy pic.

I thought it was weird the coyote was by itself.  I followed him for a couple minutes more before he crossed the street and went behind a row of bushes behind target.  I think that is the first time I have seen a coyote in person, pretty cool.

So today is my 46th birthday, yay.  As many of you know, I am no fan of growing older and do my best to combat the process both physically and mentally.  Despite my efforts there is no denying father time is creeping up on me.  As I was getting ready last night I noticed the gray hairs that like to populate my chin in large numbers when I don’t shave have begun migrating more and more to the top of my head as well.  I hadn’t really noticed the amount until recently.

I am celebrating the event by working/training from home all week.  Should be fun.