Archives August 2014

My sister and I headed to the hospital late yesterday morning to see my mom.  Unfortunately I all but knew any update that we would be given was not going to be positive.  We were told that the neurologist was already in again and reconfirmed what we already discussed the day prior, there was no higher level brain function remaining.  On the positive side mom looked much calmer and peaceful than any other time since she entered the hospital.  The tremors were pretty much gone at this point.  Her skin felt very warm to the touch.  We reaffirmed our desire to the doctor that we want to move ahead with removing life support once my brother arrived to ensure there was a consensus.

Torrin and I did not stay that long in the morning because we had to head up to the airport to pick up Todd who booked a one way flight to Florida.  This was the first time that Torrin and Todd have been in Naples in a long, long time.  It was very sad that it was due to this unexpected tragedy.  We first stopped at the house to drop off Todd’s things.  I converted the hobby room into a makeshift second guest bedroom by moving some things out of there and setting up the queen size inflatable bed we have.

After a little time had passed we headed down to the hospital.  Torrin and I warned Todd ahead of time that it was very difficult to see mom in this condition.  In some sort of weird way, I had built up a little resistance to it after 4 days.  I could tell when Todd saw her it upset him. Todd of course agreed that mom would want nothing to do with being hooked up to machines to stick around.  We spoke again to the doctor and told them we were all on board with removing life support.

There were then discussions about what can happen after the respirator is removed.  The nurse and doctor said a patient can fade very quickly or in some cases linger on for days.  The latter scenario absolutely horrified Torrin despite assurance that if that was the case mom would feel no pain or discomfort.  I understood her concern but it still didn’t change my resolve one inch to make sure mom was allowed to pass. There was also talk about getting hospice involved if it looked like mom would be able to continue breathing on her own.  The nurse made arrangements to have hospice come in to talk to us.

So they told us to go to the waiting room while they removed the breathing tube.  After a few minutes the nurse came in and said something that some people might take as inappropriate, “We are in luck, she is going to go fast.”  It may have sounded bizarre to say your mothers imminent death was a lucky thing but I absolutely understood what she meant.  It’s exactly what we all hoped for her.

Cindy had rushed to the hospital after work so she was by my side as we reentered mom’s hospital room.  It was shocking how quickly her appearance transformed once the respirator was removed.  I stood there and held mom’s hand as her breathing and heart rate continually slowed as the sounds of crying filled the room.  We told mom we loved her as we watched her final wish be fulfilled.  To say it was heart wrenching would be an understatement.

The nurse stepped in after a few minutes, around 5:15 PM and told us she was gone.  We stayed with mom for awhile, saying whatever there was left to say.  Before I walked out I kissed her forehead one last time, told her I loved her, and closed the curtain behind me.

I talked with the nurse for awhile about what was next.  Mom was an organ donor so they put in a call to the University of Miami whom actually handles the donation.  I was also given a list of funeral homes as a reference.

The two main nurses we have dealt with while my mom was in the hospital are named Jean and Carol, both of them consoled my family.  They were absolutely fantastic during this ordeal.  They were patient, understanding, kind and very loving towards us.  The doctors we dealt with at NCH were also extremely compassionate and sensitive to the situation.  I don’t think I could have asked to be treated any better than the way the treated my mom and us.

They said that they really admired how we were able to allow my mom’s living will wishes to be carried out.  Surprisingly, they said that more often than not the family will ignore these directives because they aren’t willing to let a loved one pass, sometimes for emotional reasons, sometimes because they have something to gain by the person remaining technically alive.

While we were in the room with my mom the cardiologist that put in the stent to fix the blockage in her artery stopped in.  He offered us his condolences but also gave us a more detailed description of what exactly happened with mom’s heart attack.  We were under the assumption that the blockage mom had was something that was throwing off warning signs ahead of time as mom had made some complaints of dizzyness and arm pain to my sister recently.  The thing is mom has had long term dizzyness issues and bad shoulders with various aches and pains forever.

The cardiologist said that in mom’s case it appears this was an acute and very sudden blockage.  He said it was the type caused when some plaque build up on the wall of an artery ruptures.  The body detects that rupture as an injury and sends clotting agents to stop it.  Well in this situation those clotting agents that are supposed to protect the body, actually caused the blockage.  The doctor said overall her arteries did not look bad otherwise.

In a weird way it was good to hear that explanation.  It was also good that my mom passed almost immediately when the respirator was removed.  It absolved us of any doubt of if mom was ready to go or not. She was.

We started putting out the word to people about mom’s passing and received an huge groundswell of supportive thoughts and wishes.  It has all been very appreciated and has touched my heart in a special way.  For the next few days my brother, sister and I are going to be diving headfirst into sorting out as much as we can as quickly as we can.  Obviously there are a lot of things that now need to happen.

My mom wished to be cremated.  Once that happens we are talking about doing an informal memorial service both down here in Florida and up in Pennsylvania since mom had people that loved her in both locations.  We think we will spread her remains into the ocean, I can’t think of a place she would rather be.

I don’t know where mom is this very instant but wherever it is I hope they have internet access so she can keep reading the blog as she has always has.

I love you always Mom.  Goodbye.

As you can imagine the last 48 hours have been very difficult for a lot of people.  On Monday before my sister arrived Ali offered to help me look for important papers at my mom’s place.  Although Cindy and I had found the will and living will we had not found a power of attorney paper, something mom had always said she wanted to name me as.  Ali’s job puts her in an environment where many people are in end of life situations so she was able to give me some very helpful advice and guidance.

Before going through the papers Ali also helped me retrieve my mom’s car from the towing place.  It was not a very professional environment, let’s just say that. She also accompanied me to the hospital to see mom and to talk to the medical staff, asking questions that I may not have necessarily known to ask.

One of those questions was asking for the hospital to contact the Lee county EMS department to get their log of the call to assist my mom.  Specifically we were trying to get times so we could match it up with when she left her place on Sunday which was verified by two of her friends to be 7:20 AM.  I had called the EMS office and they would not release any of that information to me due to privacy laws.  When Ali first asked about getting the records it didn’t seem like the nurse gave it much importance however when we asked again to the attending doctor he agreed to try to get the information.

As it is for me, it was tough for Ali to see my mom in this condition.  The tremors that we saw previously appeared to have amplified, her body was pulsing like a short circuited machine.  I dropped Ali off on my way to pick up my sister at the airport.  I told her I really appreciated her help.

Torrin and I headed back to the hospital later on Monday.  I had already warned her that it was going to be difficult and scary to see mom this way.  Of course as soon as we got there it was very upsetting.  My personal sorrow for my mom was amplified by seeing the sorrow come from my sister as we stood there holding mom’s hands.  We again saw the doctor and he told us they did indeed get a report from EMS.  They said 911 was called at 7:33 and EMS arrived on site at 7:45.  The intersection where mom passed out was only a mile or so away from her house so when we ran the timeline it meant that she was likely in her car with no pulse for at least 20 minutes.

As soon as I heard this information the harsh reality that I already pretty much knew was confirmed.  She was just down too long.  I was amazed that you could even restore a pulse after that period of time.  In retrospect, I wish they didn’t, an opinion I can guarantee you my mom would echo.  Of course EMS had no idea how long mom was down so they did all they could to save her.

Yesterday Torrin and I returned to mom’s condo to do a third search of her paperwork, hoping to turn up a power of attorney document as well as additional medical records.  Torrin actually had never been in the condo.  The last time she was visiting mom was in the unit across the street.  After doing that we headed back to the hospital to see if anything had changed overnight.  There was a change visually.  The constant tremors had settled down, replaced with just a low rumble that seemed to primarily affect he abdomen and right side.  Mom looked very, very tired.

While we were there we talked to both the primary care doctor and the neurologist.  At this point my mom was not sedated and up to normal temperature.  Both doctors indicated that they are not seeing any of the basic reactive response to stimulation that they were hoping for.  They said that unfortunately this points to major brain damage and anything beyond a permanent vegetative state is unlikely.  Hearing this news really hit my sister hard who was still trying to be optimistic in the face of all of the other bad news up until that point.  We hugged and cried together.

Throughout the day we were both making and fielding calls.  We contacted a number of mom’s friends as well as people she was doing house sitting for to fill them in on the situation. Both Torrin and I were very touched by the kindness and compassion that was extended to us by everyone we talked to.  It was very nice to have Torrin there to help me shoulder some of that responsibility.

Torrin, Cindy and I returned to the hospital again last night for awhile.  Mom seemed calmer and more relaxed than any other time since she entered the hospital.  I was at least glad to see her body not appear so taxed.

My brother is flying in today.  The plan is to see if anything has changed in mom’s higher brain function. If not we will likely start honoring her living will and let nature run it’s course as she would have wanted.

These last few days have been filled with a washing machine of emotions, constantly shifting back and forth.  I still have been holding up pretty well outside of a dull headache that never seems to go away.  I am trying to not let my mind fall off into a bottomless pit of sorrow where all I do is think of what was and won’t be ever again.  The hardest part is when I have to actually verbalize certain things.  Suddenly the air leaves my lungs and no words will come out.

I again can’t thank everyone enough that has reached out to my family with prayers, well wishes  and kindness.  It is appreciated more than I can express.

I debated if I wanted to even post anything.  I have decided to do so for some hope of a cathartic result.

I opened my eyes this morning hoping that the last 24 hours of my life had simply been a very realistic nightmare.  Within a few seconds reality swooped in.  Yes my mom actually did have a heart attack and is in the ICU unit.

I got a call yesterday morning on my home line right before 9AM.  I was actually minutes away from leaving for a bike ride to the waterpark which I would not have returned from for several hours.  I did not recognize the number on the caller id but since it was a local area code I figured I would answer it, a telemarketer is typically not going to call at that time.

The woman on the phone said she worked at North Collier hospital and asked if I was Shawn Duffey.  I told her I was.  She said she was very sorry to tell me that my mom had a very serious heart attack while she was in her car. My mind almost immediately went numb, almost as if it was trying to shield me from the surge of emotions that follow news like this. She handed the phone over to the on call doctor.

The doctor told me that my mom was found passed out behind the wheel at an intersection, presumably on her way to work.  911 was called and when paramedics arrived on scene she had no pulse.  Through CPR and paddles they were able to get her heart going again and transported her to the hospital.  The doctor described the heart attack as major and that she was going to be transported immediately to the downtown hospital to have the blockage that caused the heart attack removed.

He said that although the heart attack was very serious the bigger concern is my mom’s brain.  Nobody knows exactly how much time elapsed between her heart stopping and paramedics resuscitating her, meaning blood flow to her brain was interrupted.  The doctor was very honest and said that some degree of brain damage is likely if she was gone for a significant period of time.  I was already ahead of him, as soon as I heard the description of how it went down I knew this was very, very bad. The doctor told us where mom would be at the main hospital, who would be working on her and who we should talk to.  He again apologized for having to give me the news over the phone.

When I told Cindy what happened a look of horror came across her face.  Immediately she was ready to head out to the hospital.  I told her I needed to call my brother and sister right away and I could make other calls en route.  Todd I reached at home, I didn’t get to speak to Torrin until I was almost at the hospital.  Todd was pretty much speechless when I told him and Torrin reacted very emotionally.  I reached out to my uncle as well to let him know.

We got to the area of the hospital where they were working on mom and waited for news.  The cardiologist came out and told us that they used a stent to bypass the blockage in an artery that was pretty much completely obstructed.  He described my mom as being stable from a heart perspective. However he reiterated that the major concern is how her brain is.  The on call doctor said the plan was to drop my mom’s body temperature 10-15 degrees for the next 24 hours to try to protect her brain as much as possible.  She would be heavily sedated as well, it basically sounded like an induced coma to me.  He said they would be bringing her out shortly to take her upstairs.  He did warn us that she had what he described as tremors which can be a sign of brain trauma.

A few minutes later they wheeled mom out.  Seeing her instantly punched through my inner wall of emotional barriers as my eyes welled up.  The rhythmic tremors were immediately noticeable.  It was just very upsetting to see her this way.  We followed upstairs where we were once again directed to another waiting room while they got mom situated and hooked up to the multitude of machines responsible for her well being for the next 24 hours.

When they finally called us in it was very, very tough and a feeling I don’t recall ever having before.  It felt like I was in the room with mom but she wasn’t there with me.  She looked comfortable enough as Cindy and I stood there holding and rubbing her hands.  I didn’t talk much as my mind was racing trying to somehow find stable emotional footing.  I didn’t want to start thinking of mom in a past tense.

We talked again to the cardiologist.  He told us that the next 24 hours she is just going to be out.  After that they gradually warm her body and then try to do testing to see how severely the brain was affected.  He recommended that we stay a bit but then go attend to what needed to be taken care of, it’s just a waiting game at this point. I took his advice.  I  know the last thing my mom would want me to do is is just sit there.  I reached out to more of mom’s circle including her boss, her nearby friend and her landlord.  I contacted the place that towed my mom’s car away to find out how I can get it back which is more difficult than I imagined since my name isn’t on the title.

We went to her place to try to get a handle on what mom does and doesn’t have.  Walking into her condo was unsettling.  Knowing mom walked out the door of the place several hours earlier thinking this was just another Sunday was very sad.  Going through her place almost felt like an invasion of privacy although if things don’t get better this is only a minute scratch on the surface of what I will be doing.

I found her will and her living will.  My mom has always been very adamant that she has absolutely no desire to be kept alive artificially if something major would happen to her.   As I looked through her paperwork I stumbled across old pictures and letters that kept pulling up the pain which I had mostly kept submerged all day to the surface.  I couldn’t believe I was actually existing in this time and place.  We collected what I thought I could need short term and left.

I called the ICU last night for a status update but there was nothing significant except that her body temperature was now dropped to the target level.  They said she is continuing to have the tremors.

My sister is flying in today from PA today and staying the week to try to help with whatever the end result is going to be.  For the most part, I have been in cylon mode, not allowing myself to dwell on the sadness I feel and instead concentrate on what needs to be done.  Life is all about enduring what it presents to you.  For those of you that believe in some sort of a higher being, please say a prayer for my mom.

When I got home last night I noticed that most of the areas of the yard that have been underwater for most of the last week had actually dried up.  I changed and immediately hopped on the mower to just mow down those low areas as Cindy should have time today to mow the rest of it.  I have become conditioned to drop everything during the brief periods that the yard dries out during wet season.

Cindy had the chickens out in the yard while I was mowing.  All three of them were hanging up near the house taking turns sitting in the hole that Pebbles dug.  Cindy grabbed our 8th egg yesterday, all of which seem to have come from Betty.  We suspect that Wilma might be getting ready to lay as well.  She has been making some odd noises lately including the first ever classic two syllable chicken noise, BUK COK, last night.  Up until that point the chickens only made one syllable noises.

Yesterday my new Chuck Taylor sneakers arrived.  I had one pair of high top Chuck Taylors decades ago, a camouflage pair no less.  These navy blue low tops were bought primarily to be used for squats and deadlifting so I don’t have to walk around the gym in my socks.  The very flat and thin soles on these sneakers work well for that sort of lifting.  They also can pull double duty as a pretty hip footwear choice for casual attire.  I am sporting them at work today where we are allowed to dress down on Fridays.

I forgot to mention I am in the middle of watching Sharknado 2.  I got interested in it when I heard it promoted on the Stern show because Benjy is in it.  The movie is unapologetically low budget and cheesy but I have been laughing out loud a lot. I love all of the cameos of older/B list celebrities in the film as well.  For a free movie on the SyFy channel it’s hard to beat.

This weekend is pretty standard fare from what it is looking like, some work, some play, some exercise, and plenty of sweating.

I was discussing the ebola information I posted yesterday with Jeremy.  Another good point was brought up that makes it seem that there indeed could be more danger lurking under the hood than we have been told.  One of the people infected is a doctor that specializes in ebola.  Now think about that for a second.  If anyone would know about the proper precaution needed to not contract ebola it would be somebody like this.  Yet even he has now contracted the deadly virus. In my logical thought process this adds more weight to the theory that this latest iteration of the disease has jumped outside the boundaries we formerly thought constrained it.

Lets change subjects to something less population extinction focused.  Last night after work I had a brief meeting with a couple of the running club board members that are on the race committee.  The committee is tasked with taking a look at our races and identifying problem areas and things that can be done to make them better.  The problem is with only one board meeting a month there are things just do not get handled or thought through like they need to be.  Establishing side committees that meet independently of the board meetings is one way to try to fill in some of that gap.

The meeting was to discuss the club establishing a race series where participation/performance across multiple races is tabulated and scored so runners can see how they did over that time period.  The number of races, type of recognition/awards and how to handle the scoring are all things that will need to be established.  My timing software does have built in support to produce race series results using a number of preset templates.  If we use one of those it will make implementing the idea pretty easy from my standpoint.

Thanks to a big assist from Charlie’s programming wizardry we have finally completed the now 15 month long (originally told 3-4 weeks) migration to a new document imaging platform at work.  The vendor that sold us the product has more or less divorced themselves from supporting us in any tangible way, a testament to their utter incompetence.  Luckily, I am resourceful.

My one FB buddy posted this article yesterday regarding the most recent outbreak of the ebola virus.  Now pretty much everyone has heard of ebola, it’s been around for a long time.  It’s a very deadly virus that normally kills the majority of people that contract it.  Like many bad things in the world, it appears to have started in Africa.  Despite it’s lethality, ebola has not become a worldwide epidemic because to this point it has been determined that the only way it can be passed along is through direct contact with bodily fluids.  Well this article claims this latest outbreak in West Africa is different.

The virus is spreading at an alarming rate, throughout four countries thus far.  The speed that it is spreading has lead to speculation that this latest strain is actually able to spread without direct physical contact.  This is a potentially catastrophic mutation if it is indeed true.  The article claims the media is misinforming the public about the outbreak, perhaps intentionally, to head off the guaranteed worldwide panic that would ensue.

I have no idea how legitimate these claims are but I did see the video of the ebola infected person being taken into the Atlanta CDC in a full hazard suit.  If the virus was not potentially airborne, you would not think a haz-mat suit would be required.

Make no mistake, the end of the world as we know it is indeed coming in some manner and a global pandemic is tailor made for it.  The shrinking of the planet via air travel where people can hop scotch across the globe  in half a day into major population areas makes worldwide population decimation by an extremely deadly virus more of a probability instead of a remote possibility.  I suggest you don’t Google pictures of people with ebola.

Have a nice day.

Yesterday was a messy one in Collier County. Thanks to severe rain during the afternoon there were many areas that were severely flooded.  I was lucky that my route home did not take me through any of the areas that were impassable.  Unfortunately the drainage system in Naples is not very robust.

Of course when I got home the property was badly flooded.  My first thoughts were the chickens whom were out in the storms all day.  Luckily I had the coop and run closer to the house on higher ground so they weren’t in standing water.  The chickens were soaked however.  The wind blew the roof off the run and the sideways rain turned their food into mush.

The inside of the coop remained more or less dry but the chickens apparently did not seek shelter there.  It has seemed that they actually sort of like getting rained on for some reason.  I moved the coop all the way up the mound, next to the guest bedroom, where it would be safe from anything short of end of world flooding.

The deluge means any near term grass maintenance is not going to happen, welcome to the swamp.

Cindy has been dealing with an incredibly frustrating process trying to get her foot injury (probable stress fracture) handled via workmans comp.  She has been on a nearly two week holding pattern waiting to get the proper paperwork to simply allow her to get an MRI to confirm what X-rays indicate.    It truly seems like the master plan is to stall out/frustrate people to the point where they say f it and either don’t get treatment or they just pay it themselves.

Friday night Cindy and I met up with friends of ours to catch Guardians of the Galaxy.  We caught a relatively late 7:45 showing.  Originally my lack of knowledge about the Guardians of the Galaxy comic books made me not all that interested in seeing the movie.  However Sean was able to fill in some of my gaps and spark more interest in the film for me.  I was glad he turned me around. The movie was funny and entertaining throughout.  I really enjoyed it, enough to hand it an A rating.  Go check it out.

It was weird enough for me to be going to a movie on a Friday night.  The odd behavior vaulted over the line when we went to dinner with Sean and Kim after the movie at 10PM.  I never, ever eat dinner that late.  We went to a nearby place called the South Fork Grille.  Cindy and I munched down on a couple appetizers since we had a light meal right after work.  The four of us had a good time hanging out, hopefully we get to do it on a more regular basis.

On Saturday we allowed the dogs and chickens to have their first coop free interaction.  I had the chickens out while I was weeding the property.  When Cindy got back from a DD coffee run with the dogs I had her bring them out back.  We put Sadie on her leash as she definitely could view a fleeing chicken as a big dog toy.  We left Nicki off leash, since she doesn’t have any chicken chasing speed left in her legs.  Surprisingly the interaction was rather boring.  Neither the chickens or the dogs got overly excited, it was more like a “hey, what’s up?” sort of thing.  Despite Sadie being very chill about the chickens I still can’t ever trust to let her out there with them free ranging.

A good portion of Saturday was spent finishing up the garage painting project, something Cindy already had put a lot of sweat equity into during the week.   She literally did ALL of the painting, my role was to take stuff down and then reassemble the space.  I also did a lot of organizing, sorting, relocating, and throwing out of items that live in the garage.

The Eagles Midnight Green accented by silver obviously makes the previously boring builder’s white garage look a lot different.  I actually cleared enough space that the SSR and Prius can comfortably both fit in the garage.  I used to have the SSR and Camry in the garage but it was very tight and required me to back the SSR into the garage in a very precise manner.  Since the Prius is much smaller I was able to pull both vehicles into the garage in a normal front first manner and still have room to get out of the door without requiring contortionist-like moves to get out.

I am happy with the garage outcome.  It’s the second space in the house that Cindy pretty much painted single handed.  She just loves to get things done.  This crosses a long term to do list item off the list that has existed for several years.  Finally, after 13 years in the house, every interior space has been painted.

On Saturday afternoon we piled the girls into the party van to head to Rural King.  On the way there we did something else nearly as rare as a 10 PM dinner, we stopped for ice cream.  In Bonita there is a cool little ice cream place in the shape of a cone, it reminds me of the same looking structure back in my Wernersville living days. I enjoyed a small cone of cookie dough ice cream while Cindy opted for one of her favorites, mint chocolate chip.

On Saturday night we enjoyed another great home cooked Cindy meal while watching Heat, a Netflix rental that has been laying around for a couple weeks.  It’s a comedy with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy.  The “fat woman saying fck” humor wore off on me after hearing it the first 50 or 60 times.  I fell asleep for the majority of the second half of the movie so I will have to take Cindy’s word that it was ok.  I guess that means it gets a B rating.

On Sunday morning I had ideas of running 4 miles around the water park before swimming.  Cindy dissuaded me from the plan after I complained of some GI issues and the idea of only starting to run at 9:15 AM, well into the broiler part of the day this part of the year.  Instead I decided I would just do some extended swimming instead.

We arrived at the park a little early, early enough that we got a head start on our 1000 rep video series. Cindy is working towards completing 1000 push up reps and I am grinding towards 1000 pull ups.  I struggled to get 15 reps on the fat and slippery high bar on the playground equipment.

I had an odd incident while swimming my 1600 yards.  I was on my third 400 leg in the pool.  I was in one of the two lanes, the other lane was unoccupied as Cindy couldn’t get her hair wet after just coloring it.  As I am making a turn around I see at the opposite end some Hispanic looking guy sitting on the edge in my lane with his feet hanging in the water.  My initial thought was, “Why would this idiot decide of all places to hang his feet in, he would do it in the lane I am actively swimming in??”  Well I assumed by the time I got to the end he was at he would get out of the way.

Well when I closed in on the wall I still saw two feet hanging in the water in front of me, dead center.  As I veered to the side  to touch I popped my head up and barked out “Dude, move over!” and continued back the other way, assuming he would heed my warning.  So as I reach the other wall to turn around I see has the guy has moved, about 12 inches to one side, still sitting in my lane.  WTF!!

So this time when I get to the side he is sitting on I pick up the aggression in my stroke.  The increased speed and impact with the water was intended to throw a second wet warning to the guy to go find somewhere else to dangle his feet, there is literally 1000 other feet of pool border he could have utilized.  So the next time I come up his way he has finally moved over to the unoccupied lane however I could see he was watching me intently.  I wasn’t sure if he was pissed because I told him to move and was giving me stink eye.  Well I knew for sure I was pissed so if he wanted to get into it I was ready.

So I am on final lap of my third set of 400’s.   Just before I hit the turn around the hispanic guy hops in the lane he was dangling his toes in and breast strokes to the opposite end, completing a gruesome 25 yards in the pool.  He was standing in the water at my end point.  Again, my assumption was he wanted to get into it about me telling him to move.  I angrily stroked into the wall, stood up and ripped my goggles off, ready for the argument to begin.

The first thing he says in his heavy accent is “Swimming is hard.  You swim for long time”, with no hint of anger or malice in his voice or on his face.  I was completely thrown off as I was fully prepped for conflict.  Instead I said awkwardly “yea, it’s good exercise”  Well that was all it took, the guy went on a 10-15 minute, mostly one sided conversation where he told me all about how he used to swim a lot in the open water in his home land of Puerto Rico.  I also found out that the water he swam in occasionally had sharks, that he used to sometimes ride to the beach to swim on a unicycle, and some guy that used to teach him about swimming could climb a coconut tree like a monkey.  After scaling the tree and getting coconuts he would use them as part of a protein drink he made on the spot for energy for the long swimming sessions.

The guys accent made it tough for me to follow along very well and I really had no interest in what he was saying anyway.  I tried to display my eagerness to get started on my final 400 repeatedly by reinserting my ear plugs and strapping my goggles onto my head.  None of it mattered, he just wanted to keep on talking.  Finally some woman came over and asked if she could share one of the lanes for swimming.  Thankfully I used that as a wall to stop the mudslide of words coming out of the guys mouth.  I told him I was going to finish my last set and swam off.  Thankfully by the time I finished up he had moved out of the area.

When I emerged from the pool I described the incident to Cindy.  She hadn’t seen him hanging his legs in the pool but she did hear the extended conversation pool side.  She was 100% sure the guy was hitting on me, something that never entered my mind until she said it.  I didn’t get that vibe in the moment but from a Monday morning QB viewpoint, I suppose that was a possibility.  Whatever the root cause, it was a very weird and unexpected interaction.

On Sunday we collected our 5th egg of the week.  It seems like Betty likes to crank one out mid-late afternoon.  We hard boiled two of them to test them out.  They both looked and tasted good which should give us the green light to use the eggs for other cooking and baking needs.

Cindy and I both did a bunch more sets of push ups/pull ups respectively during the afternoon.  I am up to 200 pull ups so far, Cindy has 225 on film.

I tried the dog whistle I bought for Nicki and the Iphone dog whistle app.  Neither one seemed to illicit any reaction from her.  The only thing that seems to get her attention is very loud noise like aggressive clapping or thunder.  Her vision is impaired as well since her nearly incessant rubbing of her eyes has pulled her eyelids down.  To see stuff she needs to cock her head upwards.  It’s depressing watching the little puppy you knew 12 years ago transform into an old girl with all of these ailments.  I still feel guilt that Nicki’s health problems came on very quickly and drastically once I got separated.  Up until that point she was pretty much fine except for her lifelong itchy ears.

So I picked up the dogs as planned last night.  When I got home Cindy was hard at work in the garage. She decided to take on painting the interior of it, an item that has been on my to-do list for years..  Not only is she painting it, she is painting it in genuine Eagles colors per my request.  The side walls are mostly Midnight Green with the trim done in silver.  At a later time we will paint the rear wall black.  The project has turned the garage into a mess as all of the stuff the was on the shelves or propped against the walls has now been pushed to the the center of the floor, requiring the SSR to be out into the elements, something I am not a fan of.  So far I like the change, a non-Eagles fan might not feel the same. 🙂

So I was trying out the dog whistle I bought on Amazon on Nicki.  The instructions say you back out the adjustment screw until you hear a noise while you blow.  You then are supposed to turn it back in until the noise disappears.  Well I blew on it and it made noise.  I turned the adjustment all the way back in and it still was making an audible sound.  I got behind Nicki and blew on the whistle repeatedly and didn’t get a reaction although she was sound asleep at the time.  I’ll have to play with it some more.  I also found a free app for my phone that is supposed to produce dog whistle type sound waves that I will try out.

Yesterday the chickens produced the third egg of the week.  The first egg was left in the nesting box up top as we would expect.  However the last two eggs have both been laid on the ground, one under the main coop and another out in the extended run, weird.  Perhaps we will try hard boiling an egg this weekend to see how it looks inside.

So last night was not exactly a restful one.  Around 1AM I was awakened by the sound of Nicki whining.  As soon as Nicki makes noise it immediately sets Sadie into hyper mode.  I opened my eyes and see Nicki by the side of the bed staring at me.  Ok, I assumed for some reason she had to go outside to do something.  Instead when I opened the bedroom door she went right to the kitchen and started drinking a lot of water.

When she was done gulping I walked towards the slider, to see if she also had to go to the bathroom.  Nope, she made no move towards the door, instead we went straight back to the bedroom where I rolled around for awhile until I could finally fall back asleep.  Well imagine my joy when I again hear Nicki carrying on again, somewhere around 4AM this time.  Cindy was nice enough to get up with her this time.  Evidently the big drink of water at 1 translated into a big need to go pee at 4AM.  Cindy said as soon as she got off the steps into the back yard she let loose.

I’m glad Nicki let us know she had to go to the bathroom but the middle of the night thirst session that preceded it was odd and a first for me.  Having the dogs over normally means a lot of smiles and good things.  Unfortunately it typically does not mean there will be many nights of solid sleep.

If you read the blog you might know that most of my Friday nights involve grocery shopping, kale pizza and catching up on a backlog of dvr’d TV content.  Tonight will not be one of those nights.  My buddy Sean asked if Cindy and I wanted to go see the new Marvel movie, Guardians of the Universe with him and his girlfriend.  When I originally saw the first previews of the movie months ago I was not all that thrilled, it just seemed weird.  However Sean talked the movie up enough to raise my interest level.  Plus, he is a very knowledgeable comic book guy.  If he says a a comic book based movie should be good, I believe him.

After the movie we are going to grab a bite to eat somewhere and throw down a beer or two.   Due to my poor sleep last night I may be grabbing a 5 hour energy to help me stay alert throughout the evening.

The rest of the weekend will be busy.  After the garage is painted I will be reassembling, reorganizing and throwing out things in large quantities.  Of course the grass will need attention and various things will need cleaning and fixing.  I also would like to get some sort of endurance training in but lately every time I complete a hard cardio session I am being rewarded with discomfort in areas that you don’t  want to normally deal with.