Archives May 2013

After work on Friday I stopped at the bank, hoping to finally get the funds from the tax refund in the bank.  I had stopped at Ali’s place first thing in the morning to get her to sign off on it.  So I sent the check up the tube at the drive through teller and heard a voice coming back to me a minute later.

The teller told me that she was unable to deposit the check because it is made to me AND Ali.  Since her name is not on the checking account they are unable to deposit the check without Alison being physically present with her ID.  Damn it….  Ali was equally frustrated when I gave her the news.

Friday night I watched my latest Netflix rental, Chronicle.  I remembered very little about the plot of the movie so I quickly read the description on the dvd sleeve.  Some young guys find some sort of extra terrestrial object that gives them super powers, ok I’m in.

The movie was quite good, better than I expected.  It made me think about how I would react if somehow I managed to obtain some sort of super human ability, if I would use it for good or allow the power to corrupt me.  I would expect it to be somewhere in the middle maybe.  Anyway, I found the movie to be very good, rent it, solid A from me.

Saturday I kept myself quite busy.  We are getting back into the time of year where I can no longer ignore mowing the grass for a month at a time.  I buzzed around on the tractor after tending the garden and weeding the property.  I picked up the girls earlier so they enjoyed themselves hanging out while I toiled.

I actually went around the house with the Dyson, something I need to do less and less because of the robotic sweeping that goes down 3 times a week.   I followed up by letting the Scooba scrub the kitchen and master bathroom, again something that hasn’t gone down in close to a month.

I then targeted vehicle cleaning as the non-standard chore of the day.  I started off with the Tacoma, something that rarely gets washed anymore.

I remember early on in my ownership of the truck I used to be pretty meticulous and regular in washing it.  However 12 years in the Florida sun and a shitty repair job on the passenger side of the truck that has left it with peeling clear coat has made washing the Tacoma a rarity.

As I washed the mostly faded white paint I found myself feeling somewhat sentimental.  I thought about just how many parts of my life the truck has accompanied me through.  It has been a dependable, rock solid companion that has moved me over 120,000 miles around the planet since I bought it in 2001.

The sentimental feelings perhaps were a result of some recent ideas about eventually replacing both the truck and the van with a full size dual cab truck, thinking that would kill two birds with one stone.  I’d be able to still transport all of the raw materials needed to maintain the house but also have plenty of room to carry 2 or 3 additional people and more importantly, two dogs.  Of course to even think about that I would need to get the SSR paid off which isn’t happening anytime soon.

After washing the Tacoma I washed the SSR, the second time doing so in as many weeks.  After I washed it last week I wound up in an unanticipated downpour, negating the work.

I followed up with the party van, not washing the exterior but thoroughly vacuuming the interior to suck up the abundance of dog hair that was filling the space.  I also pulled out the comforter in the bed and threw that in the wash.  I don’t think I had swept out the van since the trip my dad’s in January.  It was long overdue.

Mixed among the chores/projects I needed to do preparation for the race I was timing on Sunday.  I had the freshly washed truck all loaded up and ready to go by 9pm.  My eyelids were closed 30 minutes later as the alarm clock was set for 4 AM.

Some race mornings I pretty much spring up out of bed, ready to tackle the challenge of making everything come together.  Sunday was not one of those days.  The alarm was not welcomed and I almost wound up falling back asleep after turning it off.  I drug myself out of bed and managed to get on site shortly after 5am.

We seemed to have less hands on deck than normal, I was buzzing around for quite awhile until I got to the point where I could settle in and help Alison do data entry.  The race actually started a couple minutes late because I had a little bug to iron out last second.

We had some issues because for some reason participation in the race this year saw a huge unanticipated swelling of numbers.  For the most part our year to year race participation has either been flat or slightly down, mostly due to an oversaturation of races in our area.

Last year the race had less than 350 entries , this year we wound up with just less than 500 people signed up.  There were only 300 shirts ordered for the race and I had only requested 500 race bibs, figuring that was more than adequate based on prior years numbers.  We actually ran out of bibs late in the registration process.

Despite a large amount of runners, timing the event went very smoothly.  I had basically no errors, something that rarely occurs.  I was driving off site by 9:30.

After getting all of the post race work done and eating lunch I felt exhausted.  I laid down for a close to two hour nap and woke up still feeling tired.  I also woke up still coughing and sniffling.  I am going on my third week of this annoying illness.

Sunday night I saw Ironman 3.  I had heard one review of the movie going in and it was very positive.  I came out of the movie agreeing with the review, overall it was a great movie with some very funny moments and one liners sprinkled amongst the kick ass action.   Unlike Spiderman, which was pretty firmly in the lame bucket by the time it hit the third sequel, Ironman 3 delivered and left me wanting more. With the ending of it however, I’m not quite sure where the story goes from here.  Solid A.  My only really negative thought was the 3D version of the film really offered me nothing extra.

I had a very odd dream last night, surely related to my thoughts about replacing the Tacoma.  I saw someone selling a used 2007 Ford pick up truck in the paper and I went to look at it.  The young guy selling it seemed like a pure breed redneck.  When I saw the truck I found it hard to believe that the truck was only 5 or 6 years old.  It had a lot of rough spots which the kid explained away as minor problems.

I knew that there was no way I should buy the truck but instead of just telling the guy no thanks I stuck around and listened to him ramble.  He told me he had a spare body for the truck that I could have, it was at at garage of a “friend” of his.  We hopped in the beat up Ford and drove over there.

The guy opens the garage and it is a cluttered mess.  The kid starts throwing stuff out of the way, creating Iron Man-like chaos as parts and objects crashed into the floor and each other.  He was trying to reach the back wall, evidently there was a secret door where the spare body was kept.  I wound up helping him throw stuff out of the way to get to the door.

Once the door was open it revealed a large sunken space, the top part surrounded by a ledge that had a ton more stuff on it.  The guy again goes on a destruction rampage, pushing the stuff off the ledge, crashing onto both the concrete floor below and the things on it, mostly other cars.  I asked him why he was making such a mess.  He replied simply “I don’t give a fck”  His reply reaffirmed my belief that I should not buy his 2007 Ford.

He pointed to a corner of the area below, saying that was the spare body he was going to give me with the truck.  It was the shell of a late 50’s Corvette.  I remember thinking how mounting a Corvette body on a 2007 Ford truck frame would be more hassle than it’s worth.  Plus where would I put the mulch?  End of dream.

So since the shake up at the gym a few weeks ago I have been observing the changes taking place.  The round robin of temporary managers seems to have halted.  The behind the counter staff was once again mostly turned over. Curiously, most of them now are younger chubby women that look like they never did a sit up in their lives.

From a business standpoint, this makes little sense.  When a perspective gym member walks in the front door, you want an in shape individual greeting them, someone that visually represents the fitness level someone might be aiming for.  Having a muffin topped woman pitching a gym membership seems hypocritical at best and just bad for the bottom line.  I know guys that would be influenced to join a gym solely on how attractive the staff is.

There also is a weird phenomenon that goes on at my gym where gym members somehow transform into gym employees. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen this happen, it’s almost like the place uses it’s membership as a farm system to harvest employees, most of which don’t last more than a few months.

I had to laugh when I saw the latest addition to the gym show up yesterday, a speed/heavy bag set up.  It was plopped right in the middle of the already small open floor space utilized for abs work.  I was like, wtf.  Are we now in a MMA gym?  I had no idea why management would think this was a good idea.  Hell I would much rather see a real pull up bar installed than a boxing station that I guarantee will collect more dust than jabs.

So this Sunday I have a race to time, my first race in almost a month.  After that I get another nice break until Memorial Day.  I do enjoy the open weekends, free of timing responsibilities that this time of year offers me.

I don’t have a lot of specific plans lined up outside of normal to do’s.  Sure it would be nice to catch Iron Man but I would rather let the opening weekend maniacs pass through before seeing the film.

I forgot to mention that I actually have the tax refund check in hand albeit the adjusted amount.  I called the IRS last week and asked them when I could expect to see the refund.  I told the woman that the online status of the account showed it should have been direct deposited on April 10th.   She said that a paper check was actually scheduled to be sent out that day but it could take up to 4 weeks for me to receive it.

Ironically the check only took a couple days to arrive.  It arrived at the same time as a separate letter from the IRS saying that my refund could not be direct deposited, something about the financial institution did not accept the transaction. (huh?)  The letter reiterated the 4 week possible wait to receive the paper check that was already sitting on my counter.  Ali told me she was sent the exact same letter.

My accountant reviewed the dispute the IRS had with our refund amount and is confident the mistake is theirs, he is going to try to get us the disputed amount although it could be a long wait.  The check is still sitting on my counter, I need Alison to sign it as well and then we need to figure out how we are going to divide up the adjusted proceeds.

Speaking of checks, my credit union just implemented remote check deposit service.  I tried it out for the first time last week, it’s pretty damn cool.  To pull off this trick you have to use the credit union mobile app, something I never bothered to install because of lingering hesitation about having my bank account accessible via my phone.

To deposit a check you simply take a picture of the front and back of the check and verify the amount of the check.  Once the image quality is verified by the app you are done!  It is similar to what happens if you deposit a check via an ATM machine except in this situation you just keep the check.

I wasn’t really sure if I should keep the physical check, shred it or something else.  Jeremy suggested just writing CASHED across the front of it and keeping it filed.  I think that is what I will do.  So regardless, it is a very convenient way to handle an old school payment method like paper checks in a high tech, digital manner.

My Google AdSense dollars dropped off a cliff last month and I am trying to put my finger on why.  I have been averaging between $20-$30 a month for the last 6 months.  Last month I made a paltry $1.92.   I put out 9 videos in April and although none of them hit big, continued views on older content was solid.  I now have almost 58,000 views on my rebooted YouTube channel to go along with the half million plus on the old channel.

Maybe just for whatever reason there were dramatically less click thru’s last month.  On my part I am trying to insert my AdSense code into more spots to maximize coverage.  I find it annoying when something is less than what it was before no matter if it is pull up reps or ad dollars.

Wow Tim Tebow really got tossed out in the trash huh?  I place the blame for the situation totally on the Jets shoulders.  This goes back to why they even obtained him in the first place?  It seemed pretty clear from the get go that they didn’t have faith in his QB skills enough to pencil him as a potential starter.  But that seemed  clear to pretty much everyone in the league.

Their use of him kind of reminded me what the Eagles did with Vick his first year with the team where they awkwardly attempted to push Vick into the game plan.  It was a total failure.

I feel bad for Tebow.  He is a good guy and has mostly taken the high road despite poor treatment from the Jets.  It isn’t his fault that his QB skills are not at an NFL level, hopefully some team can find a way to utilize the athletic skills he does possess.

So Ali is back in town meaning my bed is no longer shared with a snoring, face licking, black and furry companion.  For the past two weeks I have had the dogs in the house more often than not.  They really enjoy the freedom the house offers them.  I have been leaving one of the lanai doors cracked so they could also venture into the yard and back as they see fit.

It’s always a bittersweet moment when I drop the dogs off after an extended stay.

Last night I got home later than normal.  I had to hurry because I wanted to get one last attempt in at the normal mode of this month’s BB challenge before daylight ran out.  I jumped right into it with little warm up.

I was disappointed I only shaved a few seconds off my time earlier in the month.  My pull up bar felt slimy/slippery on my hands because of the damp grass I was doing the push up sets on.  When my grip on the bar does not feel solid my reps suffer.

If you want to see the sets (10 sets of 5 pull ups and 5 push ups), click here.

Although my energy level feels pretty close to normal I am still subject to coughing fits and excessive nose blowing from whatever illness I came down with after Troy’s visit.  The one nostril actually was so raw it was bloody.

I don’t have much else floating through my brain at the moment.