Archives September 2014

So I finally got the paperwork for my mom’s estate through the courts last week.  I took the first step in liquidating her assets by executing a sell order on her Sherwin Williams stock that she acquired at her first post marriage job back in the 80’s.  Yesterday I went to a nearby Wells Fargo branch to see if I had everything I needed to gain control of her bank accounts.  Well I did and I didn’t.

The branch manager said I needed to establish a bank account for the estate along with a federal EIN number for the estate.  The funds could then be liquidated and moved into this estate account which I would have full control over.  According to the lawyer that handled the summary administration probate paperwork, this should not be necessary however in the big picture it may actually be better for me logistically.

If things went the way the lawyer said the bank would be cutting three equal checks to my brother, my sister and I which sounds ok until you figure in the accounting that needs to be done before things are really split.  Sorting out mom’s estate has involved me fronting a wad of cash and I also have to account for possible tax liabilities at the end of the year.  All that stuff needs to be accounted for before the split so having an estate account allows me to do it cleanly instead of checks going out only to have other checks written to come back to me.

Unfortunately all of this legwork has had to be done because mom never got around to putting my name on her bank accounts and giving me power of attorney, two things she talked about doing for years.  Navigating my way through the paperwork has been a learning process. I still have some more fog to get through before I am in the clear.

Although there have been many aspects of mom’s passing that invoke pain, tears, and sorrow, working on the estate financials has not been one of them.  This has been like a big tangled ball of string that I have been slowly untangling.  It becomes a tactical exercise, not an emotional one.  I feel obligated to get it handled as correctly, quickly and fairly for my siblings as possible.  Mom would want it no other way.

Last night when I got home I attended to the chickens.  Attending to the chickens means checking for eggs, scooping out any poop in their bedding and cleaning/refilling their food, water, and grit.  Last night I had a very close call.

When we first got the chickens they were very jumpy around us, if we got too close they would dash away.  Well those days are long gone.  We have firmly established in the chickens minds that we are their providers.  When I let them out of their coop they all mill about my feet expecting me to shower them with cracked corn goodness. It’s cute but it also can be dangerous.  The chickens will continue to place themselves under my feet even as I am walking.  You literally have to be looking down the entire time when they are nearby.  Both Cindy and I have had multiple episodes of almost stepping on them, they don’t move out of the way, even if your foot is on top of them.

Well last night I was carting the coop to a new location.  As I did I was trying to look around the end of it to find a good parking spot.  All of a sudden I again felt something under my foot just as I was ready to place it with my full weight on top.  I look down and see Wilma squatted down, mere milliseconds from me stepping on her.  Luckily I was able to stop and shoo her away.

Over the weekend we had another unintended close call. We had the chickens out roaming freely which means the dogs had to be indoors, contained.  Cindy came out of the patio door and Sadie shot out with her as she is accustomed to doing.  When I saw Sadie come out I freaked a bit and tried to move into position to intercept her if she headed for a chicken.  I was quite surprised she did nothing of the sort.  She just hung there and looked at them as I  directed her back inside.  I think Sadie actually realizes that the chickens are part of the inner circle as well and are “paws off”.

It would be great if we could allow the chickens the mingle with the dogs.  We actually already allow Nicki to  be loose with the hens roaming since she is not able to catch them anymore.  We would love to give Sadie the same leeway but if she did snap and harm a chicken we would never forgive ourselves.  That being said we might do more dog/chicken integration where Sadie is on her extended leash so we still have control while allowing them to interact more.

Last night I was playing some WoW, trying to get through the final boss raid of the current expansion.  It’s something most people have done months ago.  I figured I should at least do it with one of 10 characters since the new expansion is coming out in November. I felt bad as I was playing as Cindy was cleaning up and doing laundry. She insisted that I keep playing, she actually likes when I take the time to game and relax.  It’s amazing.

Saturday morning the alarm went off at 3:45 AM.  Even though this race was on the small side and geographically closer to my house than most we needed the extra time to make sure the dogs adequately attended to their bathroom needs.  Since this was a first year race, I also wanted to make sure I was on site early to give me some extra time to deal with unexpected issues.

We did not have to use as much of our equipment as we normally do since the pavilion we used for registration had a bunch of lighted, covered, picnic tables which worked out great.  The biggest issue with the race logistics was the finish line was a far distance from the pavilion where post race awards were handed out.  This is never a good layout, making posting results on site and making corrections as needed a real pain in the ass.

For this race I once again used my GoPro to capture the finish line video.  Using a slick feature from RunSignUp, I am able to display a link to each runner which takes them directly to their finish on video.  Having video of the finish line also allows me to use it to reconcile errors.  I actually was able to reference the video later to confirm a finishing time for somebody whose timing device failed. All in all the event went well.  If the event continues next year we now have a few key changes in mind that could be made to make it even better.

When we pulled back in the driveway after the race the guy that painted the pool deck was already there waiting.  The original intent was to have him “fix” the various spots on the deck where the paint was coming off.  However I already knew before he showed up that wasn’t going to be an ideal outcome.  Even if I was ok with him just slapping some paint on the spots, the deck was too damp and dirty to paint anyway.

I started to make my case for something more extensive than a quick touch up to be done.  The guy had a long list of excuses he fed me, saying that moisture can cause what I am seeing and also pool chemicals could be partly to blame as well.  He scratched a couple of the affected spots and commented that if the paint was really bad it  would be coming up with his nail.

I calmly listened to his excuses but kept hitting him with the same, indisputable counter point.  The front landing of the house which was painted at least 5 years ago using the same process supposedly as was done on the pool deck has no paint lifting off.  I backed that up with my neighbors pool deck which was painted by Rhinoshield a few months before mine.  His deck still looks perfect.

After hitting him with this again and again as I pointed out spot after spot all over the deck where small specks of paint were gone he finally agreed that the best course would be to repaint the entire deck with one more coat.  I was happy to hear him agree however the next challenge will be actually getting it to happen.  We need to get out of this miserable cycle of constant precipitation before anything can be done.  That means I’ll be lucky to get anything done before November hits.

Cindy and I worked outside in the very wet yard to take care of what we could.  It was so wet that mowing the grass didn’t even enter my mind as a possibility.  I just hate when things get this wet.  After getting the stuff done we headed out with the dogs for some errands.  The first stop was Petco which was a treat for the girls.  They loved nosing around the store.  I spent over $100 there, the bulk of it being spent on two items, a set of pet clippers to give Nicki a hair cut and an inflatable “cone”.  Once in awhile we catch Nicki rubbing her surgically repaired eyes.  The last thing I want is for her to undo the work.  If we find her doing it anywhere close to what she did before this inflatable, easily removable, more comfortable device will be slapped on her.  It would only be for her own good.

The next stop was Costco where Cindy and I became totally drenched running from the van to the store in a torrential downpour.  Entering the highly air conditioned environment after being soaked gave both Cindy and I the shivers as we walked the aisles.  The main reason for us going there was to grab a pair of boots for the the backyard that Cindy had seen when we were at the store a couple weeks prior.

We then headed from there to Sam’s Club, an odd one two punch since both places are warehouse superstores.   I was at Sam’s to get a security DVR I had seen there before.  No, this was not for my homestead, it is yet another bit of technology I am incorporating into our races.

When I was at the RunSignUp conference one timer mentioned how he uses a security DVR to capture the finish line.  He uses the video both for runners and for himself as a timing safety net.  If there is a finish line timing question a security DVR makes it very easy to go back and reexamine a runner’s finish without disrupting the existing live recording.

I bought a Samsung four camera unit.  I probably will only utilize two of the four cameras on race day, one facing either direction of the finish line.  I set the box up at home over the weekend and played around with it.  It worked well as a makeshift chicken cam.

Saturday night we skipped our customary trip to the theater to catch up further on our X1 DVR content.  We have finally watched the backlog of recording we accumulated.

Our Sunday was very busy.  It started off with a trip to the track.  While I ran a sweaty 5K around the track at an 8:55 pace Cindy walked the school grounds with the dogs for awhile before speed walking the track herself.  We went from there to CVS and Dunkin Donuts.  At both places I sat in the van with the girls while Cindy ran in.  At both places it took a very long time, for different reasons.

The rest of our morning was very busy.  While I was washing Cindy’s Prius she was trying to shave Nicki herself in the backyard.  It was difficult to get Nicki to stay in a good shaving position and work the shaver at the same time so I came to assist.  I kept scratching Nicki’s ears which kept her standing, making it easier for Cindy to buzz off more hair.  What didn’t make it easy was the sun and humidity baking us. Both Cindy and I were sweating buckets.

By the time Cindy was done there was black hair piled up everywhere.  We followed up with an outdoor bath administered via the hose and a bucket of soapy water.  Nicki looked younger after the haircut.  The shaggy coat she has developed since being put on thyroid medicine ages her.

Cindy worked her ass off all day long.  In addition to Nicki’s spa treatment she did more housework, cooking, baking and another workout to supplement the time at the track that morning.  Her energy level is something to be admired.

I kept busy until the Eagles came came on.  It was disappointing game and a historic loss.  No team has ever run a punt back for a touchdown, returned an interception for a touchdown and blocked a punt for a touchdown and lost the game, until yesterday.  The Eagles somehow managed to pull it off.  As good as special teams were, the offense was equally inept.  Except for late in the 4th quarter the offense did NOTHING, literally not putting a single point on the board for the game.

The defense did some stuff right obviously with the interception and applying pressure on the QB almost the entire game.  However even with that pressure they still found ways to give up big yardage both on the ground and in the air.  The Eagles secondary, which seems to be called upon to be in man to man coverage quite often just is not up to the task.  I saw the Eagles pass defense is rated 30th in the league, only two spots from the very bottom.  They are just not good enough.

The patchwork Eagles offensive line just does not appear good enough either.  They again allowed Foles to get smacked around far too much and seem totally incapable of run blocking.  I can  not believe that LeSean McCoy has had back to back horrible games as he has.  You can tell how frustrated he is. Being 3-1 at this point of the season is great in the big picture but some of the warts that we have been seeing make me worry about how the season will unfold going further.  If the defense remains this porous and the offensive line does not get better at protecting Foles and giving McCoy a lane to run things could unravel pretty quickly.

Over the weekend I was able to solve my Rubiks Cube, twice.  I created a one page cheat sheet that I still refer to for certain parts of the solve.  I can get two layers and the top cross on the third layer on my own.  Of course the goal is to be able to do the solve without any crutch being used.  I’ll keep practicing.

We have been getting poor sleep since dog sitting began.  Last night was probably the worst.  The dogs started making noise around 3.  I got up and let them out and went back to bed.  Nicki continued to make a fuss off and on for another 90 minutes although the reason was not clear.  Needless to say I will be dragging tonight.

So a few minutes before I left the office yesterday I heard the sound of water being poured on the roof of the building.  There was a TORRENTIAL downpour going on.  Now normally I would just wait a few minutes for a break however since I had two dogs with full bladders at home I needed to get out the door.  I have an umbrella in my office but didn’t bother using it as it wasn’t going to help with the main problem, standing water.

The parking lot at my office has an inadequate drainage system.  As a result hard rain results in the lot becoming a pond in short order.  When I surveyed the lot there was not route to my truck that was not underwater so I said fck it and just went straight through it.  The water at spots was higher than ankle deep.  The docksiders I was wearing of course were soaked as were my pants.  I looked like someone used my lower body to stir their coffee.

I had to make stops at the post office and then the running store, further exposing my clothes to the elements.  I walked into the store with race supplies looking like a drowned rat.  Carl was nice enough to give me a pair of left over running pants from the back so I wouldn’t have to drive home with wet drawers.  I am really, really, REALLY sick of rainy season at this point.  I welcome October which typically includes our first cold front of the season and a gradual tapering of the precipitation.

This weekend starts off with timing another 5K.  Even though the race has small numbers it doesn’t really change much for me.  I still will be setting the alarm for 3:30AM and dealing with much of the same challenges as I always do.  Since Ali will not be there to do data entry I will have to do that as well although Cindy is going to try to lend a hand punching in paper entries.  This is a first year event which always has more potential landmines than an established event.

The rest of the weekend will be busy for sure.  Proper yard maintenance has been on hold due to the standing water that has been hanging around since we got back from the road trip.  Even with puddles of water there is no shortage of things to keep us busy.

Yesterday on the way home from work I picked up the girls for an extended stay.  They will be under roof until the fourth of October while Ali is on vacation in Paris.  Because I have a couple races to time during that time period I am going to have to call on some neighbor assist with letting the dogs out during those days.

Nicki’s energy is so much better since having the eye surgery.  Being able to have her full field of vision back has obviously improved her quality of life.  While we have her I think Cindy and I are going to undertake the very hairy task of shaving Nicki with clippers to get her shedding machine under control.  I am sure the before and after pictures are going to be very interesting.

Last night despite having the dogs around, which is normally a mood elevator, I found myself feeling aggravated.  Part of it was Cindy and I had to drive all the way up to the Fort Myers Airport to retrieve my mom’s Rav 4.  I’m not going into details about how it it wound up being there but let’s just say it was due to some very poor decision making.   By the time we got home it was around 9PM.  At least the dogs got a ride in the van out of it.

So when we headed back to the bedroom I wanted to fold up the treadmill so one of Nicki’s beds would go there.  I lifted up the track and encountered resistance about 15-20 degrees from the upright position.  It would not go all the way up, it felt like I was feeling binding on the left side.  Cindy and I embarked on at least a 15 minute ordeal, trying to see why this was.  It made no sense that it would suddenly no longer fold up.

I went as far as taking the plastic cover off the front of the treadmill so I could get a better look at the hinges to see if something was broken or misaligned.  Nope.  WTF??!  I was getting more and more aggravated.  Cindy suggested that we disconnect the hydraulic strut that is used to give lift assist.  It didn’t logically make sense why this would cause an issue but I was willing to try anything at this point.  I popped the connector apart and bam, the deck goes back into vertical position.  Wow.

Ok well although this didn’t make sense the deck was up.  All I had to do was slide in the locking pin.  So I reach around the left side to do so and see that the pin and the hole it normally resides in are misaligned by about an inch and a half.  Argh.  I futzed with it a bit and again had no idea what was going on but I had a faint recollection that it happened before.  I was going to simply tie the damn thing up, my patience was officially expired. Then it hit me.

I plugged the treadmill back in and looked at the elevation.  It was set to 5 degrees.  I now remembered that it will not fold back up until you reset the elevation all the way down.  By that time I had spent a total of 30 minutes fcking with it, taking it apart and putting it back together.  It all could have been avoided with the press of a button.  By the time I finally hit bed it was 11 ish.  I fell asleep glad that the day was officially over.

So I started going through some Rubik Cube tutorials.  I found some better than others in the way they explained the moves and logic behind them.  I can now get a scrambled cube and consistently get it to this point where one side, two “layers”  and the top “cross” is done.  Unfortunately getting the last four pieces in place is the most complicated part of the whole deal and is going to take some time to master.  I’ll get there.

Last night was another running club board meeting.  As usual there was a lot of ground to cover.  It seems that we consistently have a problem getting well out ahead of races with adequate planning.  I think the biggest reason is we have around 20 events and a group of people that mostly volunteer their time and energy to put them on.

Since I am one of the few people that are getting paid for their effort, albeit a fraction of what a a normal technical person would to fulfill the various responsibilities I assume, I sometimes forget that almost everyone else in the group is doing this gratis.  With that being the case it’s hard to be very demanding of people volunteering their time.  It leaves me in a tough spot.

Over the years I have been absorbing and incorporating more and more into my responsibilities for the club.  Even with what I oversee, it feels like there are always more areas that need to be addressed.  My nature is to try to handle those as well but the reality is I can only keep so many balls up in the air before some start to hit the ground.  The scary thing is I have no real solution to the problem short of other key people in the group starting to receive some sort of compensation so they feel as obligated as I do to get things right.

After last nights meeting I made my first trip to South Street in several months for a beer and a half chasing fish tacos.  It was nice to hang out with the just the guys for a bit, something that doesn’t happen often.  I didn’t get home until close to 10.

So I have been looking forward to getting an Iphone 6 although I absolutely refuse to be part of the lemming-fest associated with an Iphone launch.  Yes I like my Iphone, yes I want a 6, no I don’t crave one enough to be part of throngs of smart phone lusting people.  With this latest iteration Apple has now given us two options, a bigger (Iphone 6), and really big (Iphone 6 Plus).

My initial reaction was I would like a 6 + assuming I can comfortably get it in the front pocket of most of my pants.  Well even if it fits I now have other concerns, bending.  The internet is filled with people bitching that their brand new 6+ phones are becoming bent/warped being subjected to normal front pocket physics.

I found a video where a guy did a test on his new Iphone 6+, applying bending force with his hands.  The phone bent and stayed that way surprisingly easy. What the fck?  The same guy did a similar test to the Samsung Note 3, a phone that is actually slightly bigger than the 6+.  He applied much more pressure using as much strength as he had and the phone was basically unaffected. Damn.

This condition seems like a huge fail on Apple’s shoulders, similar to when they released a model that if you held it in a manner that any human being would, killed your reception.  I mean wtf, how do they spend millions upon millions of dollars developing the phone and not consider durability in real world conditions? Sure having a phone super thin and light is nice but if the tradeoff is you have to treat it like fine china then it negates the benefit.

I assume depending on the case you would wrap an Iphone 6 + in you could give it additional rigidity.  Unfortunately due to it’s size, adding any additional size or bulk with a case could make it unable to be stored in anything except cargo pant sized pockets.  I definitely will be on a holding pattern on my Iphone 6 purchase until this bending issue is determined to be a rare occurrence or rampant.    If it’s the latter I may have to go with the smaller 6 which is less likely to bend due to it’s smaller dimensions creating less pocket leverage..

So when we were on the road trip I had brought my new Rubiks Cube along.  I figured when I was in the passenger seat I could finally learn how to solve the cube conventionally.  When I was younger I would “solve” it by taking it apart and putting it back together.  Well I wound up not doing any cube fiddling on the trip.  When I wasn’t writing blog entries or taking in the scenery, Plants vs Zombies 2 on my tablet gobbled up the remainder of my passenger seat time. I do however still want to learn how to solve the cube without disassembly, a goal that dates back to 7th grade.

Last night Cindy and I had a little cube challenge.  It was simple, see who could solve the white side in the least amount of time.  I had done it once casually untimed already.  So I mixed the cube up a bit and handed it to Cindy for a psuedo casual run.  She said she finished in just over a minute.

Ok so now it was getting serious.  We brought up the timer app on Cindy’s phone and went again.  I futzed around more this time, enough to take just over 7 minutes to solve one lousy side.  I mixed the cube more up this time before handing it to Cindy.  Even so she got it done in around two minutes flat.  There is no denying she obliterated me but that will only fuel my desire to improve.  The end game is a total cube solve anyway.

So as is always the case after returning from a September road trip I am now entering a pretty exhausting part of the year.  The last three months of a year are the busiest and most stressful at my normal job.  Unfortunately the same holds true for my part time job as the running club point man for anything and everything that touches a computer.  I literally have dozens of details and leg work to be handled for the 8 events left in the year.  My reward for getting through the end of 2014 is handling our half marathon in mid-January, our largest and most prestigious race of the year.  Awesome.

I didn’t feel like blogging since returning from the trip. Thursday and Friday were of course busy with getting the stars around the house realigned.  Unfortunately almost every day since we have been back has been overcast and raining.  As a result the property is once again a sopping wet mess.  When I mowed I only could do the area right around the house unless I wanted to install pontoons on the tractor.  It was nice to have so much time around the house, I spent almost the entire four days at home base.  I also spent a large amount of that time working on a backlog of running club work.  I bet over the four days I have been back I put five or six hours into it.

Cindy had an appointment with a foot doctor for her injury that has been going on for a couple months now.  He gave her a steroid shot to reduce inflammation.  Unfortunately she had a number of side effects from the shot like itchiness, being overly emotional, and a few other things.  This foot injury is tied into the post office as she originally hurt her foot on the job so it has been handled as a workman’s comp claim.  Well there has been an incredible string of red tape and bullshit associated with this.  Cindy has been yanked around by the PO ever since the incident.  Unfortunately the fact that she is no longer working for them has further complicated things.  It’s a real mess.  If you are considering a career in the Post Office I would highly advise against it.

On Thursday I stopped to see Nicki.  She had her cone removed after 10 days of it protecting her surgically repaired eyelids.  I couldn’t believe the difference.  I had not seen her eyes look normal for over a year.  Her rolled under eyelids and incessant rubbing of her eyes which pulled down the lids had practically blinded her.  She looked so happy.  It was like she had a word balloon over her head saying “I can see! I can see! And no more annoying cone!”

It made me very happy to see her this way and made what we spent to have it done worth every penny.  Hell this was the first time I can EVER recall thinking a vet bill was cheap.  The eyelid surgery was only $500, practically what I paid wasting my time for an hour with the snooty pet allergist at the other place.

I came back from the trip a pound heavier than when I left so I got some cardio sessions in both Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday I did a track 5K at a very pedestrian 9:06 pace.  On Sunday Cindy and I put in 13 miles on our bikes on very wet roads averaging a decent almost 18mph pace.  During both sessions I could tell my fitness level was not where I want it to be.

I did a reconciliation of all of my trip related expenses.  My out of pocket was almost exactly the same as last year’s Grand Canyon trip but the way my money was spent was shifted around.  The most amazing change was our gas expense.  Last year we spent something like $1200 on gas.  This year the Prius sipped only $376 of fuel for the nearly 5000 mile road trip, amazing.

We were happy to see the chickens survived the 11 days without us ok.  Since we left it appears that either the third hen, Pebbles, is starting to lay eggs or one of the others is laying two eggs a day.  We have been getting  three eggs a day more often than not.  We think it is Pebbles though since she is now squatting down when you try to pet her and her crown and ears have gotten much, much redder the last couple weeks.

We have such a backlog of X1 dvr’d shows that we didn’t bother going to the movies Saturday night.  Plus after a road trip, any financial savings we can manage is helpful.  We probably have chewed through at least a dozen hours of content over the 4 days and have at least another dozen to go.

When I got back I had to go through my annual hassle of getting my NFL Sunday ticket working.  I only have Directv for the ticket and have no other regular satellite programming.  This is a configuration you can not call up and get.  It is something they allowed me to do years ago since I was a long time customer.  However for the last 3 or 4 years it has been increasingly difficult to continue my special gig.

When the NFL season ends I put my directv account on a 6 month suspension.  After 6 months it reactivates and I start getting billed for the Sunday ticket.  Well for some reason the Sunday ticket did not automatically renew this year.  I had to spend a good half hour on the phone once again getting things straightened out.  After the woman on the phone got it turned back on she told me that even though they were able to do this for me once again this year, in the future I may be required to have a programming package.  I told her I had been told this many times in the past and my answer is always the same “Would Directv like $400 of my money or $0”   She had no rebuttal for my logic.

Over the four days I finally heard back from the Rhinoshield guy that painted my pool deck.  After paying $1500 to get my deck fixed and painted in March of 2013 with a “two year warranty”, I have had issues.  The first problem was most of the hairline cracks that the guy fixed started to reappear within 3 months of the job.  When I contacted the company they said concrete issues are not part of the warranty, it just covered the paint work itself.  I thought that was sort of lame but ok.

Well over time there have been a bunch of small spots appearing on the deck where the “two coats” of deck paint are coming off.  I ignored it for awhile but since my two year warranty was still in place I started to take action on it a couple months ago.  I left messages for the guy that did the deck work, who lives in Miami, and heard nothing.  I then contacted the parent company in Jacksonville and got assurances that the guy down here would respond.

Finally after a couple more tries I finally got him on the phone.  He told me he was going to call me the day after Labor Day to make arrangements to come out and “fix” it.  Well no call came on that Tuesday, and my follow up call on Wednesday went un-returned as well.  Unfortunately none of this behavior surprised me.  During the original job I had numerous ignored calls, missed appointments and other aggravation.  When they actually did show up to do the work I remember thinking that it seemed like it didn’t take nearly as long as it should if they were doing a good job.  The guy “primed” the deck by himself in less than an hour and when the supposed two coats of paint were applied, the whole thing was done in 2-3 hours.

Well the deck looked good when they were done so I assumed their speed was due to efficiency, not neglect.  Unfortunately it appears the latter is true.  When I did finally get him on the phone he gave me some BS that it is normal to have to do some touch ups over time.  To me, a couple hundred small spots far exceeds normal maintenance.  I think they basically just rushed and did a shitty job.

My premise is backed up by some other indisputable facts.  When the exterior of my house was painted by Rhinoshield five or six years ago, which results I am extremely happy with, part of the job was to paint the front landing of the house.  They use the same process to paint the landing as they do to paint a pool deck.  After all this time, there is NOTHING flaking off that area.  In addition, my next door neighbor had his pool deck painted by Rhinoshield a few months prior to I did.  His deck still looks great, his cracks have not returned and he has none of the “freckling” that I do.  I plan to march the Rhinoshield guy to both spots to make my case that my entire pool deck should be repainted, if he shows up on Wednesday.

I received the replacement wheel ring(s) for the Prius to replace the one I cracked through careless driving on the road trip.  I only needed one but wound up buying 5.  When I tried to buy a single ring I was in the passenger seat on my laptop using a hotspot.  The signal was dropping out and I thought I had not actually completed the transaction so I bought a box of 4 later.  Well both the set of four and the set of one showed up.  I was quite annoyed when I opened up the single ring and saw it was cracked.  Although the seller packed the ring in tons of bubble wrap, she enclosed it in a plastic bag.  The crack was obviously the end result from someone placing something heavy on the bag or even stepping on it.  Grrr.  At least they were cheap.  I was able to replace the damaged ring in all of 60 seconds.

Yesterday’s Eagles game was EPIC and made me so happy that Nick Foles could potentially be our QB for the next decade.  Not only is the guy cool under pressure, accurate, and likeable.  He is tough  too.  He took a hell of a beating in yesterday’s game, the worst of which was a horrible cheap shot by a fat assed Redskins lineman after an incompletion that was first ruled an interception.  Foles was totally blind sided as the 300+ pounder took him off his feet. As soon as I saw it I was screaming obscenities at the tv.  I was glad Jason Peters rushed the lineman and took a swing at him, even if it did get him ejected as well.  Despite all the beatings Foles lead the team to yet another come from behind win, the third of the season.  To put up 37 points with LeSean McCoy having what possibly was the worst day of his career puts an even bigger exclamation point on how good Foles is.

Now it may seem out of place to make any negative commentary after a great win and a 3-0 start but here goes anyway.  The Eagles have been winning mostly in spite of their defense.  Once again yesterday they came up big when they had to but over the course of the season they just need to do a much better job.  In particular they are not getting consistent pressure on opposing teams quarterbacks.  As a result they are giving up yards by the mile through the air.

LeSean McCoy may be one of the best running backs in the NFL but damn it was frustrating watching him trying to run yesterday.  There just appeared to be way too much dancing and not nearly enough moving forward.  I think his yards per carry average yesterday was 1, beyond horrible.  They need to either get him hitting holes more directly or find a way to get him the ball more out in open space where his elusiveness is more effective.

Finally, I am worried about injuries, especially on the offensive line.  After Peters was ejected they had NO reserve lineman left.  The rag tag line is surely part of the reason Foles got pummeled so badly.  I can only hope they get some guys back healthy soon.  Even with these negatives, as a whole the team has shown some amazing resilience so far this year and I am looking more forward to this season than any in recent memory.

Oh and I have to say I was incredibly disappointed to see that cocky, take every other play off, punk DeSean Jackson get an 80 yard td reception.  Throughout the entire game he was trash talking and being an asshole, his specialty.  It made getting the win in the end even more satisfying.  Fck you DeSean. I’m glad the fans booed you all game long.

I had a very aggravating day in Fantasy football.  I had a small lead that looked secure .  My opponent had Marshawn Lynch and Percy Harvin on the Seahwawks.  If time expired normally I was going to win.  Well leave it to Peyton Manning to prolong the game by driving the length of the field in 41 seconds AND completing a two point conversion to extend the game.  With the extra overtime period both Lynch and Harvin were able to accumulate additional points.  When Lynch scored the game winning touchdown it resulted in a tie score in my game.  I believe the tie breaker in our league is bench points which I had less of.  Losing a game in this manner was maddening, especially considering I may also have the high point total of the week in the league.

I was very sad last to night to hear that Eric the Actor, a long time “whack packer” on the Stern show had died.  Eric was a dwarf with a lot of physical problems, him making it to the age of 39 actually exceeded doctor’s predictions.  If you aren’t a Stern fan this news means nothing to you but if you are, whether you loved or hated Eric’s calls into the show, you are feeling some of the same sorrow I am.

If it seems this blog has been filled with a lot of ranting, that is because it is.  I have one final story, an appropriately irritating way to start my return to work.  My normal route to work was backlogged horribly by presumably an accident.  I and many others wound up taking an obtuse shortcut to get around it, basically we went 5 or 6 miles out of the way to progress a mile in a straight line.

Well this detour was on two way streets, the first one had a speed limit of 25 mph and another had a speed limit of 45 mph.  As I mentioned, there were several dozen cars all in single file making this same detour.  Well when got on the 45 mph road I felt no urgency to go very fast since there was a line of cars way ahead of me.  I may have been going only 40 mph when I Cadillac whipped out into the other lane and flew by me with his hand and middle finger outstretched the driver side window.  Apparently he was enraged I was not very close to the vehicle in front of me.   He passed both me and the vehicle behind me, gaining exactly two car lengths before he became ensnared again in the single file traffic.

Now of course this instantly enraged me.  Sure, if I was going less than the speed limit on an open road I can understand his frustration although I still would not tolerate the one finger salute. But to do it where you had no tangible benefit by passing was ludicrous.  So of course I did whatever any logical male would, I accelerated and got behind him.  The Cadillac had very dark tinted windows, something I find to be very common with asshole drivers.  They somehow think that window tint makes them immune to retribution.  The dark tint made it impossible to see if he was looking in his rear view mirror but surely he had to.

Finally we returned to the normal route and approached an intersection with multiple lanes.  The Cadillac stayed in the middle lane.  I saw less cars in the right lane so it was opportunity to return the favor.  I saw he had his passenger side window rolled down partially.  As I rolled by I saw what appeared to be a bearded guy perhaps in his 30’s.  He continued looking straight ahead as I rolled past with my window down.  I greeted him with “Hey asshole!”.  My salutation was not returned. Idiot.

We are back on the road on the final leg of our 11 day western road trip. Yesterday’s drive from Beaumont, Texas to Tallahassee went smoothly but felt long thanks to us losing an hour after reentering the eastern time zone.

I contacted the wife of a calisthenics buddy of mine, Max. They both live in Tallahassee. Max is originally from Ukraine, in fact, he has only been in the US since April of 2013. Max and I started talking online somewhere around 4 years ago. His workout videos were very unique because he did them in the warehouse of the electronics store he worked at. He made a pull up bar by fastening a pipe in between a big set of shelving.

Max and I used to talk a lot when he still lived in Ukraine through chats and Skype. At the time both Max and I were very focused on being able to complete the Bar-barian requirements. Max is much stronger and younger than I am. He actually was able to do the reps within the time limit, the only thing that prevented him from being an official Bar-barian was his form on some of the reps was not quite up to standards. I never even got close to his level.

Ironically, when Max moved to this country my communication with him dropped off dramatically. Coming to the United States was almost coming to another planet when compared with Ukraine. He was busy trying to acclimate himself to life here. He found a job shortly after he was allowed to and then managed to get himself a job at the local credit union.

So anyway, I figured since we would be staying in Tallahassee I should see if Max and his wife were interested in connecting. When Max and I used to chat we always hoped that one day we would get to meet in person. To be so close and not try not make it happen would have been lame on my part. Heather said they would be thrilled to meet us for dinner so we set it up.

Originally I thought we would have plenty of time to make the 7PM time. However after our normal stops for lunch, gas and bathroom breaks combined with losing an hour, we only got checked into the hotel right before 7. We told Heather it would be more like 7:30 or 7:45. We quickly took showers and headed back out the door.

Cindy and I came out of the parking garage through the wrong door so we were disoriented as to where to go. Max and Heather came out of the restaurant to flag us down. It felt weird to meet both of them in person after being connected for years virtually. Since I talked to Max on Skype before his Ukranian accent was not disorienting. He taught himself English and since moving to America his English has gotten even better.

We headed inside and got seated at the restaurant. Cindy and Heather seemed to hit it off pretty easily and were chatting away. Max and I talked about a lot of stuff as well. He has already started getting promoted at the credit union he works at which didn’t surprise me. I already knew Max was very motivated in whatever he did. To hear his hard work is being rewarded at his job was great news.

We talked a lot about Ukraine and just how shitty of a place it is to live. Growing up there has given him a totally different perspective of living in the United States. Max said in the Ukraine, you can work hard as hell your entire life and never be rewarded for that work. There basically was no opportunity to move up unless you were somehow connected to the small inner circle of people that run the country. In the US, Max feels like he no longer is constrained and that if he works hard he can do well for himself and his family no matter where his starting point is.

That perspective makes it hard for him to understand the mentality that infects a large portion of our entitled society that puts a strong work ethic low on the priority list. People that expect to get something for nothing just don’t compute in Max’s eyes. Maybe that is because in Ukraine so many people get nothing for something.

Max’s focus since coming to the US has shifted from pull ups, push ups, and muscle ups to doing all the things needed to get his new life started on the right foot. At only 24 years old he has his whole life in front of him.

Despite not working out all that much lately, after dinner Max showed he still has some great power, doing slow and controlled muscle ups on a railing outside, stuff I could only dream of doing, even when I was in tip top shape.

It was great connecting with Max and Heather. We encouraged them to consider making the 400 mile drive down to Naples sometime to visit. It felt good to see Max living out the dream we talked about for him early on. He’s a good dude and I thank Heather for helping him make that dream come true.

So as we are tracking down the last few hundred miles of the trip it’s fun to run some numbers as well as recapping things.

It looks like our total mileage for the trip will just be under 5000 miles. I estimate in total we have spent somewhere around 80 hours in the Prius. To travel those miles we will have spent less than $400 in gas which is pretty amazing. Our best mileage on a tank of gas was 50.9 mpg which happened surprisingly while going up and down mountains in Colorado. Our worst mileage was 41.7 mpg which happened maintaining 80+ mph across western Texas.

Our lodging for 10 nights came to a little more than $900 which again, per night, is a significant improvement over what we spent for last years trip. What is unknown is the ancillary expenditures we had along the way. Things like the tickets for the train ride will pump that number up I am sure. After I undergo the lengthy process of reconciling all of the credit card receipts for the trip in Quicken I will have a clearer picture of the numbers.

As a whole, the trip was awesome. If I was forced to pick the most disappointing part of the trip it would easily be the cave dwellings in Manitou Springs. Although they were cool, there just wasn’t enough to see. It was also disappointing that we were not able to the do the Manitou Incline since it was closed for repairs.

I don’t know if I could pick out the best of the best in the trip. Visually, I think there were many beautiful and impressive things. The St Louis Arch gives you a sense of wonder that man could create such a structure. The mountains in Colorado that we both drove across and traveled through on the train offered us so many beautiful views that I couldn’t count them all. White Sands National Park is obviously one of my favorites as well, hence why I have been there 4 or 5 times.

The hike up Barr Trail and the admittedly foolish and undeniably dangerous climb up Smelter Mountain will be life long memories that we will hold onto. Our experience with legal recreational edible marijuana products at first seemed like a dud with gummy fish but changed dramatically after consuming THC granola bars. It was a sensation unlike any I had experienced before. It’s not necessarily a sensation I would be looking to recreate on a regular basis.

When I look back to night one in Nashville to day 11 today as a whole there are just so many memories in that block of time that it seems as if we have been gone much longer. Cindy and I have had so many new, unique, and memorable experiences on the trip we both feel very fortunate. I am grateful that Cindy embraces these trips and is so eager to soak up every ounce of excitement, fun, and joy they contain.

It will be nice to get back home where everyday life will quickly rush back into the forefront. However the great thing about these road trips is the memories they create are an infinite resource that can be drawn upon at any time, even when stuck behind a desk behind a couple screens.

Although this trip is coming to an end I already look forward to the next adventure, whatever it may be.

The massive picture collection is still located here.

Yesterday was our last marathon driving day. Since we didn’t leave at 4AM like we did for our first long driving day it made the miles seem very, very long.

We started out the day as we did most days, finding the closest Dunkin Donuts. I drove us there. As I was making a right turn into the lot we felt a jolt. The entrance to the parking lot had the curb extended further than I realized. I was annoyed by my poor judgment as we got out to survey the damage. I managed to crack the outer ring of the passenger front wheel cover as well as scrape the tire a bit. Grrr.

Well there were a couple local cops sitting outside drinking their coffee. They obviously heard/saw me clip the curb. They started asking us questions in a friendly but inquisitive way. Where you from? Where are you going? I definitely got a vibe that they were checking to see if my impact was because of some sort of substance influence. We engaged them normally but it was definitely a bit of a weird interaction.

The drive across western Texas was desolate as ever. The 80 mph speed limit allows you to take down the miles quickly however it also resulted in us getting the worst gas mileage of the trip, in the low 40’s. Cindy and I split the driving time yesterday nearly 50/50 which helped a lot when covering 835 miles.

We wound up staying in Beaumont Texas at a Comfort Suites which was really nice. Unfortunately we don’t get much out of a hotel room during road trips beyond a shower, breakfast and a pillow to lay our head on.

We picked up dinner to go from the near by Cracker Barrel. We had a good but large meal, probably too large considering we didn’t eat until after 8:30. I started listening to the Eagles game on the satellite radio and then flipped it on the tv when we got into the room.

The game did not go well while I was listening to it for the entire first half. It was sort of like last week’s game where the Colts were taking control. The Eagles moved the ball but repeatedly stalled in the red zone, getting two field goals and missing a third. The defense didn’t seem up to the task of stopping the Colts. It was 20-6 midway into the 3^rd quarter when I started watching the game.

Well much like last week the team made some adjustments and some big plays in the second half to come roaring back. Surprisingly it was Darren Sproles more than LeSean McCoy that made some of the biggest plays of the game. He is so damn quick, it is amazing. He had a couple fantastic runs. He is a very exciting player to have on the team, he seems like he is always a threat to break a big play.

Nick Foles bounced back once again, calmly leading the team back even after he made some poor throws early on. He just gets the job done. The Eagles were also the recipient of some good luck. The got an interception late that could have been negated by some pretty blatant illegal contact in the secondary. They then had a drive extended when the Colts were called for a horse collar tackle on McCoy that shouldn’t have been called. One of the key ingredients of a successful season is getting lucky once in awhile. Last nights game definitely had it’s fair share of that.

However the bottom line was the Eagles made plays when they had to. Their new kicker, whose name I can’t even remember kicked the winning field goal not once but twice, after the Colts called a last second time out to ice him. Since he missed a short field goal earlier in the game I was nervous however he drilled both of the end of game kicks down the middle. It was a great win. I hope this is the start of a season where the Birds truly return to being among the elite in the NFC, something that hasn’t been the case for nearly 10 years.

Today we are back on the road with a destination of Tallahassee. We are hoping to do dinner with my Ukranian calisthenics buddy Max along with his wife. Max only came to the USA last year after trying to get here for quite awhile. Ironically since he moved to America I have talked to him less then when he lived in Ukraine. He has had quite a shift in his life obviously. His descriptions of Ukraine were pretty depressing.

We only have one more day of travel left after today. It will be nice to get back into my own bed once again. Obviously a ton of work awaits me but with Cindy helping me we can knock things out pretty efficiently. Even though the trip is not over yet I feel safe declaring it as another successful venture.

Yesterday was our last in Durango. Even though we were there almost 3 days the time went by very quickly. We really enjoyed our time in Durango and our time in Colorado in general. We tried to make sure we got on the road early since we had over 500 miles to cover with a stop in White Sands sandwiched in the middle of it.

The drive from Durango to White Sands was through a very, very remote area of New Mexico. It was so remote that we literally were looking for a place to eat lunch for over two and a half hours. There were just no towns at all during that time period.

As we drove towards south there were a lot of rain clouds overhead and we drove through several periods of rain. I was worried that it could be raining at White Sands. Luckily the skies at White Sands were partly cloudy but not dropping any precipitation.

We went in and bought our sled which they buy back after you are done. There were two types of sleds available, one for 16 bucks and one for 18. We opted for the cheaper model but I think we would have been better served spending the extra two dollars. The saucer we got seemed to be made with thinner, shittier plastic.

Last year when we visited the park they had a huge amount of it closed off because of flooding associated with monsoon season. Since we were back at almost the exact same time of year I was worried that again we would be restricted to only the front section of the park. Surprisingly that was not the case, we had full access to everything.

I drove deep into the dunes, the further back you go the bigger and less cluttered by vegetation the dunes become.   We parked in an unoccupied area and stepped out into the pure beauty of nature that White Sands provides.

We first tried a nearby hill that had a lot of footprints but that wasn’t all that tall or steep. The sled hardly moved down the hill, we obviously needed to find more incline. We walked over a couple dunes and spotted what looked like a better spot a couple hundred yards away.

We bought the block of wax along with the sled to hopefully decrease the drag coefficient on the bottom of the saucer. I was doing my best to completely cover the bottom as we walked along. Despite an air temperature of just under 80 degrees, when the sun poked out the heat intensified very quickly thanks to the sun and heat bouncing off the bright white gypsum sand.

Cindy was the first to do a test run down the bigger hill. It was a much better result although it looked slower than what we were able to do last year. I attributed it to the lower quality sled. I tried to help matters by reapplying wax after nearly every trip down the dune.

My early rides were not good. As I was going down the dune the front end would dig into the sand due to my trying to keep my feet awkwardly perched in the front of the saucer. It resulted in poor speed and a saucer full of sand at the bottom. Later I started simply holding my legs up in the air as I went down the hill. This resulted in much better results, almost too good, as hitting the bottom of the dune resulted in a serious jolt due to speed. I started using my size 13’s as brakes as I approached the bottom of the dunes later on.

Cindy and I did a number of dune sledding trips. It was a decent workout since each ride required trudging up the steep hills of powdery gypsum sand. Since we were only one day removed from our dangerous hike/climb up Smelter Mountain, climbing the dunes felt even more difficult. In between rides we were taking pictures of the absolutely gorgeous scenery. Even though this was my fourth or fifth time at White Sands I am never less impressed by just how awesome of a place it is.

I then pulled out my Phantom, White Sands was the primary reason I wanted to bring it along. Getting aerial footage of the dunes seemed like it would be really, really cool. Getting the copter in the air wasn’t difficult but the Phantom was working very hard to maintain a steady hover against the consistent wind in that part of the park. I got some awesome footage including Cindy sledding down some other hills. By the end of the second flight we only had an hour to go before the visitor center closed so we packed up our gear and turned in our sled while getting a couple cool souvenirs before pulling out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxIMTIKt-w&feature=youtu.be

We only had slightly less than 100 miles left to get to El Paso. We stayed at a La Quinta that had the exact same older style layout as where we stayed in Colorado Springs. Cindy wasn’t thrilled with staying there because of the outside door layout and the very affordable room rate of $55 a night. The place actually wasn’t bad at all except for one rather glaring issue, a large damp spot on the carpet. Cindy threw a towel over it after stepping in it.

It was pretty late at this point so we didn’t feel like going out anywhere to eat. Instead, we just ordered a small pizza from a place the desk clerk recommended. It was pretty good and quick. We watched a good portion of Hall Pass on TBS before falling asleep. It was actually pretty funny, I’d give it a B+.

This morning we had a 6AM alarm which allowed us to eat and get back on the road by 7. Today is our other monster drive of the trip of roughly 835 miles. The next 3 days will be all about gobbling up miles as fast as possible, home is calling our names.