Archives 2014

I forgot to mention yesterday that now two of our three chickens are laying eggs.  Wilma laid her first egg on Tuesday, joining Betty as one of our laying hens.  Pebbles, our third chicken is starting to show some of the preliminary signs of getting into egg laying shape as well.  It’s quite funny how 5 minutes with the chickens can lighten your mood.  I have some anxiety about leaving the chickens in someone else’s care while we are on the road trip.

So Ali took Nicki to the vet that handles eyelid issues yesterday, an appointment I made while wasting my time at the other vet on Tuesday.  The vet said that Nicki’s eyelids are indeed turned under.  Ali said she was just surprised how bad it was, almost half of the eyelid was folded on top of itself.  No wonder the poor thing has been pawing at them.

So I was happy to hear that they were able to schedule her to have eyelid surgery on Friday morning.  In addition while she is out they are going to clean her teeth, something we haven’t had done professionally on her ever.  Sadie has had her teeth done a few times.  We are hoping the surgery finally offers Nicki some relief as well as making it much easier for her to see.  Yes it is going to be pricey, Ali and I are hoping the equally pricey pet insurance that we pay a couple hundred bucks a month for covers at least some of the expense.

So last night before heading to bed I finally deactivated my mom’s Facebook account.  I figured since both of the memorial services my siblings and I did were over, which we used mom’s fb account to help disperse information about, there wasn’t much reason to keep it open.  Prior to shutting it down last night, on Tuesday I posted one final message on mom’s wall letting her circle of friends know I was shutting it down.

When I signed into Fb as my mom and clicked the DEACTIVATE NOW link I had to give a reason for deactivation.  I had to select OTHER as evidently FB does not include death as a prefilled option.  When I clicked the last button to finalize the process it felt very final and somber, almost like closing the lid of a casket.  An instant wave of emotion made my eyes moist as I turned off the computer, I suppose it’s because actions like this make mom’s death feel more real.

So yesterday I had several small successes in different areas.  I finally got one of my two fires at work put out, recovering from a two drive failure in one of our Network Area Storage devices.  When it first happened I thought I was dead in the water but thanks to some determination, a hardware disk duplicator and good support from Netgear, we got the unit back up and running.  I have to say the Seagate 3TB drives that we populated the unit with seem to be pieces of shit.  I have had at least 6 of them fail within the warranty period.

At home I  finally found a spot to utilize my mom’s old house phone.  It had been just sitting by the front door plugged into the wall.  Much like her old cell phone I don’t feel like throwing it away.  I had a phone in pretty much every room of the house except the hobby room so that is where I set it up.  I’ll try to make sure I use it now and then.

When I first got the Xfinity X1 hardware in my house you may recall that the guy that took a 15 minute dump in my house did not set up the remote correctly so it could also control the tv.  I had wanted to set it up but thought it would be sort of pointless since it wouldn’t be able to adjust the tv volume which is piped through my Yamaha surround sound system.  Well it turns out I was wrong..

The second generation X1 remote control does indeed allow you to control your TV AND your auxiliary sound system.  With about 5 minutes of work I had it all working correctly.  This means I should only need to use the more complicated Logitech Harmony remote when I am using the TV to display non-X1 content which isn’t that often.

My final success of the day was virtual in nature.  I finally 100% completed the Curse of Naxxaramas, the first expansion pack for Hearthstone, which is a turn based card game based on WoW. 

Inside the game there are around 11 bosses you have to defeat.  There are two levels of difficulty, normal and heroic.  For the last 5 or 6 days I have been stuck trying to beat one last boss on heroic level.  The bosses all have unique mechanics to them, most of them I have been able to take down after a few tries after looking up recommended decks and strategies online.  Well this one boss, Sapphiron, has been unbeatable for me, despite multiple trips to the internet looking for help.

I was so frustrated, after 60-70 losses in a row over those 5-6 days I was teetering on the edge of giving up.  Yesterday I did one more tweak to my mage deck and FINALLY, FINALLY beat the boss.  I expressed my relief at finally succeeding out loud.  Cindy congratulated me. She didn’t know just how many times I failed before.  Of course a 46 year old man crowing about a video game accomplishment may seem stupid. I prefer to focus on the mindset required to continue to try after failing time and time and time again, no matter what the task is at hand.

The rest of this week is going to involve getting things aligned for our road trip.  Cindy has been extensively researching affordable lodging options along the route which is very helpful.

If you are interested in taking place in my “Shave Your Nugget” challenge, a spin off of the thoroughly lemming-ized “Ice Bucket Challenge”, take a look below.  My challenge has more lasting impact than a brief chill and some wet clothes.

Saturday morning the alarm clock fired off at 3:20 AM. It was the start of what felt like a 3 day weekend meat grinder.  I am almost glad to be back at work today so I can rest to some degree.

Saturday was the 5K I was timing.  Not only was I timing it, I was also bringing the equipment truck on site and making sure that stuff got where it needed to be.  The race had a huge surge in numbers the last several days, including over 100 people the day of the race.  Those situations are always stressful.  I had someone there that I am hopefully going to be teaching to be my timing back up in the future.  Trying to do that in the middle of a busy race day is not easy.

Timing the event, despite all of the last minute entries went well.  This was the first race where I tested a new feature that maps finishing results to a finish line video I shot with my GoPro.  I basically upload the video to YouTube, tell RunSignUp how long it is until the first finisher crosses and I’m done.  RSU will then automatically create a link for each runner that will jump ahead in the video to 5 seconds before they cross and play it back, pretty cool.

After the race I had to stick around to get everything loaded on the equipment truck as well.  By that time the sun was well into the sky, totally soaking my shirt with sweat.  I was quite relieved when I finally pulled out.

So while I was at the race Ali told me that she had Nicki at the 24 hour vet again for what she assumed was a bladder infection.  She also reminded me that I agreed to watch the dogs overnight because of some party she was having at her place.  I had totally forgotten about being asked about it.  So after attending to all of the post race work we went out to run some errands which included picking up the dogs.  I was concerned about how Nicki would be since she was given a shot of antibiotics and a shot of pain meds.  My concerns appeared well founded.

Nicki was not acting well.  As soon as we picked her up she kept trying to scratch at her eyes.  She also was obviously having problems seeing and seemed disoriented as a result.  Nicki has had lifelong issues with her ears and allergies.  In the past year or so she has started to go after her eyes as well.  She will just use her paw to rub them downward.

Ali had taken Nicki to a dog eye doctor.  She was told that spaniels (Nicki is part spaniel) have an issue where their eye lashes can curl under and irritate the eye.  At that time Ali was given just drops and some sort of lubrication ointment.  Well it hasn’t helped as much as you would hope as Nicki has continued to periodically rub her eyes.  Well all of the rubbing has now distorted the area around her eye.  She has actually managed to pull the skin around there down to the point where they are sagging badly.  It seemed on Saturday they were sagging so badly that she could not see at all.  The poor girl is not only almost totally deaf, now she can’t see.

While we were out I picked up supplies to do my first ever oil change on Cindy’s Prius.  It definitely needed to get done before we embark on our 4500-5000 mile road trip next week.  While I was at it I changed the air filter and wiper blades.  Of course I videoed everything as my auto maintenance video series has proven to be one of my most popular in my YouTube channel.  Here it is.

Saturday evening I was really worried about Nicki.  She was literally running into things because she couldn’t see.  She refused to eat as well.  I was worried enough that I called Ali in the middle of her party to fill her in.  The two shots that she was given were probably the cause of the lack of appetite but the vision problem was really scary.  I talked to Ali about options.  After an inappropriate and unexpected side bar argument, we decided to make an appointment with a vet that deals with dog eyelid issues. Cindy was Nicki’s personal nurse over the weekend, feeding her some chicken broth with a syringe, giving her medicine, as well as giving her a bath.

My primary goal on Sunday, thanks to Cindy taking on most of the regular chores herself, was to get some pressure washing done.  The pool area and sheds both had excessive amounts of the green scuzz that accompanies wet season.  I pulled the pressure washer out of the shed as well as the extensions that I use to blast the high sections of the pool cage.  I started to put the extension together and realized what I had was not right.  I had the tubes but it looked like I was missing one adapter.  I put together and took apart the extensions multiple times, thinking maybe this was just my memory failing me.  Nope, it would not work.

So then I assumed I was just missing a piece.  I triple checked both sheds looking for the magical part and came up empty , wtf???  I even called Cindy out to be my second set of eyes, I still came up empty.  I was quite annoyed to have to run out to Home Depot to get a part that I already knew I had somewhere.  Doing so also retarded my pressure washing schedule, making me start a good two hours later than I hoped originally. Oh the best part?  I later found the missing adapter on Monday, it was sitting on my workbench in the garage for reasons that escape me.

Pressure washing was miserable as it always is.  The pool cage is the worst part of it which is why I always do that part first.  By the time I am done my hands, forearms and shoulders are pretty much shot.  I pressure washed the cage, the pool deck, the pad with the water equipment, the large and small shed as well as Tuki’s cage.  During part of it the skies let loose, drenching me from head to toe.  I sought no shelter, I just kept blasting away in the rain, fck it.  In total I probably spent close to 5 hours doing nothing but pressure washing.  If I didn’t already have enough aggravation, the hose on the pressure washer sprung a leak.

I also had agreed to take a look at my neighbors laptop which was loaded down with tons of malware.  Throughout the day I was working on it, uninstalling shit and running various scans.  I finally got all of the junk off of it by Sunday night.  I also returned the dogs to Ali’s place on Sunday evening.

Sunday night we watched Two Guns, with Marky Mark and Denziel Washington.  I thought it was ok, I dozed off again during a part of it later on.  It’s a fine B rental, nothing great but not bad either.

So our Labor Day started with the 20 mile DD bike ride, something neither of us has taken on in quite awhile.  Because of Cindy’s injured foot we haven’t been pressing the envelope speed wise to minimize the stress on her foot.  Even so we averaged 18+ mph on the way there and 16-17 on the way back into a steady headwind.  I was glad we got out the door around 7AM to minimize the heat index numbers.

It poured out at the house for a good portion of the day, once again turning my property into a soggy mess.  We once again headed out to do some errands which included getting a new pressure washer hose and a few other things at Home Depot.  We also met up with my mom’s former landlord to drop off all of the keys I had as well as collect mom’s security deposit.  All details with her apartment should now be settled, at least that is one thing to cross off the list.

During the afternoon Cindy’s daughter and her boyfriend stopped out for a visit along with Tank, their high energy french bulldog.  As with his last visit, Tank was a maniac, pulling out almost every dog toy I had.  He just wants to play and play and play, it’s funny.  I also spent some time playing Call of Duty with Daniel.  He is quite adept at the console FPS genre while I am pretty much a stumbling noob.  Despite this, we actually managed to win some team deathmatch games.  I was consistently at the bottom of the scoreboard and Daniel was number 1 or 2.  I discovered the best way I could help the team was to simply die slower.  Daniel is also a big WOW player although he plays exclusively Arena and PvP , stuff that I rarely play and when I do I generally suck at as well.  It was fun to play with Daniel regardless.

I also did work yesterday creating a chicken care manual to be used by the guy that will be chicken sitting for us.  I also finally mapped out our intended trip route.  If all goes as planned we will take 11 days this time.  The trip is going to have two monster driving days of 800+ miles and a few others that are going to suck.  On the positive side the trip is allocating an over night stay in the Colorado Springs area as well as 3 days and two nights in Durango which will be awesome.

Here is what I came up with:

Day 1 – Naples to Nashville –(13.25) 864 Miles
Day 2 – Nashville to St Louis – (4:28) 310 miles – St Louis to Kansas City – (3:37) 249 miles
Day 3 – Kansas City to Colorado Springs – (8:15) 585 miles
Day 4 – Manitou Springs
Day 5 – Colorado Springs to Durango – (5:20) 313 miles
Day 6 – Durango
Day 7 – Durango
Day 8 – Durango to White Sands – (6:47) 437 miles – White Sands to El Paso – (1:29) 98 miles
Day 9 – El Paso to Beaumont – (11:25) 834 miles
Day 10 – Beaumont to Tallahassee – (8:54) 625 miles
Day 11 – Tallahassee to Naples – (6:07) 432 miles

This morning I picked up Nicki to go to the vet.  Ali said that when she went to the dog eye doctor they recommended we see a dermatologist that also deals with eyelid issues.  I thought this didn’t sound right but Alison assured me that the dermatologist also dealt with eyelids.  Her energy level and alertness seemed better today although she is still refusing food conventionally. (Ali syringed more into her on Monday)  She could once again see at least to some degree and Ali said she had not been going after her eyes as much on Monday which is good.

I picked Nicki up in mom’s Rav 4. Since I got the AC working I figured driving it now and then will be a good thing until I have the legal right to sell it.  I lifted Nicki up and let her ride in the rear cargo area.  The vet I was taking Nicki to was one that Ali has taken her to numerous times since they are a 24 hour business and Nicki seems to make a habit of having issues outside of normal business hours.

I had a negative impression the second I stepped in the door.  There were two clerks behind the desk and no customers in front of them.  Both the man and the woman were looking at their computer screens.  I said hello, which was returned by the woman without glancing my way.  I told them I was there for a 9 am appointment.  The guy said in an annoyed tone “We will be with you in a minute”.  I mean what the fck, you are a clerk, your job is to wait on customers, there are two of you and no customers at the desk and you give me attitude?  Needless to say it got the visit off on the wrong foot.

Actually the bad experience started the day before when I talked to whom I assume is the same guy on the phone about setting up the appointment.  Even though this was supposed to be a consult about Nicki’s eyes, he said that she needed to fast the night before.  I didn’t follow the logic and asked why if this was just a consult.  He said in the now familiar annoyed tone “because that is our procedure”.

I again was annoyed when I was given a two page questionnaire to fill out about Nicki’s history.  Like I said she has been there many times, why I am filling out a form like she is a first timer?  The form was also asking questions that Ali would be much better suited to answer so I was taking ballpark guesses for some of it.  By the time I was lead back to an exam room my mood was not good.

So the dermatologist comes in and I start explaining what Ali told me.  The dog eye doctor said that her eyelashes could be rubbing against her eyes and causing irritation, they said that we should see you.  The dermatologist stops me and looks confused.  She said she has nothing to do with eyelid surgery. WTF.  Evidently what the eye doctor meant was she recommended looking into the allergy side of things next.  I sighed out loud.  The dermatologist said that all the itching and scratching could just be allergic reactions.  She did a swab of Nicki’s ears and eyes.  She mentioned very quickly it would be “180 to check them out under the microscope”  Great.

So while she was out looking at stuff I made a call to the place that Cindy recommended that does eyelid procedures on dogs.  I talked to the doctor and he was very nice on the phone.  Unlike the place I was sitting at, I immediately got a very good first impression from this guy.  I made an appointment for Nicki to see him tomorrow at 9.

After making the appointment I was more annoyed I was sitting in the exam room.  When the dermatologist came back in she started to outline her recommended treatment plan.  She basically wanted to do a 3 month diet change where Nicki would be fed nothing but kangaroo or rabbit meat dog food that of course is only available through vets.  The purpose of this is to eliminate food allergies as a cause.  For environmental allergies she was recommending some expensive medication that supposedly does more than the Benadryl we give her.  This time I stopped her.  I told her that Nicki has had extensive allergy testing done and we actually had her on a hypoallergenic vet food for quite awhile.  The dermatologist said “if it wasn’t kangaroo or rabbit it means nothing to me”  She was obviously not happy that I wasn’t wagging my tail at her very expensive and difficult to enact treatment plan .

With all of the meds Nicki has been on, the idea of doing another complete 3 month reboot just did not sound feasible to me.  I told her that I was not going to agree to any sort of treatment plan until I talked to my ex-wife about it since she is the primary care giver for the dogs.  Again I could see the dermatologists expression stiffen, I’m sure she thought I was an idiot for not accepting her recommendation as gospel.  They did give me some stuff to help both Nicki’s eyes and ears short term.

When I was at the counter to check out the guy that was annoyed to greet me was much happier to swipe my credit card for $380.  When I looked at the itemized bill I wanted to throw up.  Each swab costs $60 a pop and I paid $115 for the privilege of talking to a specialist.  Thankfully the pet insurance that Ali and I pay for should reimburse a good portion of the expense but that doesn’t make those charges any more legitimate in my eyes.  I left the vet with no desire to ever return there.

I drove Nicki all the way back to Ali’s place and dropped her off before reversing direction and driving all the way back to town.  Was it an efficient use of time, money or gas? Nope.  I am hoping the office visit tomorrow proves to be more worthwhile for Nicki.

This latest unexpected bill added to my already existing concern about the dollars and sense for our upcoming road trip.  If we were not taking the Prius I would have already cancelled it.  The only thing allowing it to go forward is the 66% savings in gas we should reap this time around.   My budget book has some red ink in it for the first time in a long time, not exactly ideal when you are shoving off cross country.   Since I have been fronting all of the expenses for my mom’s estate up until this point it has put an unexpected dent in my bottom line.  Of course I can move some numbers around to make it all work in the end but without a doubt frugality will be one aspect of the trip which will be of high importance.

Did I mention that I had a dream last week where I was speaking to my mom?  I was speaking to her in a post death scenario, she knew she had died and we were talking about various things.  Unfortunately I don’t recall any substantial detail other than it occurred.

Usually things at my job are pretty static and low key.  I have things generally engineered to be that way thanks to beefy, reliable hardware with redundancy.  Well yesterday I had two major headaches pop up at the same time.  I was working on them for most of the day yesterday and it looks like today they will be again front and center. Unfortunately I also have a pretty large race to time tomorrow morning which has it’s own set of challenges to deal with.

In addition to timing the race, this weekend is going to be absolutely jammed with work.  We need to do prep for the trip, pressure wash the pool area, the sheds and more, do maintenance on the Prius along with the regular cast of to do’s. It’s nice that with Cindy’s new job she no longer works nearly every Saturday, leaving her available to help me plow through stuff in her eager, happy way.

Ever since I returned to work I have been carrying a zip up document folder with me.  It is something my mom always gave me her tax paperwork in.  I have been keeping pretty much anything I could possibly need paperwork-wise for dealing with my mom’s estate.  I have utility bills, her car title, account statements, leases, insurance paperwork and more jammed in there.  In my determination to get her estate settlement settled as quickly as possible I want to have everything with me at all times so I can respond to requests for information/paperwork as soon as possible.  Currently the petition for my mom’s estate is in the process of being filed.

This evening my brother and sister are doing a second memorial for mom up in the Reading area.  I suspect there are going to be a lot more people at this one since a lot of mom’s friends and ex-coworkers are still up there and my brother has a very large circle of friends that may stop in as well.  I hope it goes as well as things did for us down here.

Last night after work I resumed my 1000 pull up challenge video series.  Yesterday marked two weeks since my mom passed away so I decided to do a total of 66 reps, one for each year she was alive.  It certainly isn’t as touching as a well crafted poem or eloquent speech but meaningful all the same, at least to me.

As I was doing my reps I noticed something strange, my high bar had something growing out the side of it.  Closer inspection just added to the curiosity. It looked like there was a small clump of sprouts coming out of the side of the galvanized pipe.  They were appropriately silver/whitish in color.  I assume this is some sort of natural phenomenon, just one that I never witnessed first hand before.

I was in a pretty down mood most of the day when I realized we were at the two week anniversary for my mom.  I did a lot of thinking about the 4 days my mom was in the hospital and my relationship with mom in general.  One of the things that I was ashamed of was that I did not tell her I loved her nearly enough.  After her heart attack I said the words “I love you mom” more in those 4 days than I had said in the last 30 years.

Now of course I expressed my love in cards and other written media but as far as verbalizing it, it just didn’t happen.  I was not alone, I think mom was equally uncomfortable verbalizing those words, perhaps for whatever reasons I am.  Hell in general, my entire family is this way, I don’t really know why.  We all love each other yet we don’t really say it.  Maybe we just have a silent understanding of these feelings that we never felt the need to reenforce otherwise.

Whatever the reason, I realize it isn’t the way things should be.  Unfortunately I can no longer make up for lost time with my mom so hopefully I can try to be less restrictive expressing those feelings going forward.

I forgot to mention yet another amazing accomplishment my brother Patrick pulled off this past weekend.  He placed third overall in in the Baker Trail Ultrachallenge which is a 50, yes I said 50, mile race.  Running 50 miles is a feat a miniscule amount of human beings can complete on a road however the majority of this race was a trail run. Check out this course description:

The Baker Trail is marked as a typical hiking trail. Yellow blazes on trees, telephone poles, fence posts, guard rails, and so on indicate the path.

Unlike many hiking trails, the Baker Trail is not always a footpath through the woods. In many areas, it follows dirt or paved country roads, some with narrow shoulders. As with road running everywhere, you must always be alert and cautious.

Because of the varying terrain, the UltraChallenge is more mentally demanding than similar ultras. You must always be watching for the blazes in order to stay on the course. In places, the Trail will be following a road only to abruptly turn off the road into the woods. Therefore, if you haven’t seen a blaze in a few minutes, you may be off course and should backtrack to the last blaze and determine where you went wrong.

Plenty of runners will go off-course at least once during the day. If you expect — and accept — that you will, too, it won’t be quite as frustrating. The key to a successful race is to realize it quickly.

So to place third in a 50 mile race, on a a difficult trail is incredible however there is one more factor that makes this approach a superhuman level feat.  Patrick has spent the majority of the last several months overseas for his job in locations that were not at all conducive to maintaining your personal sanity, not to mention ultra-marathon training.  He literally just got back home last week and had the race on Saturday.

Patrick’s determination, strength, work ethic, and endurance are truly exceptional.  When combined with his humility, kindness, and sense of humor, you have a truly remarkable human being whom I am so proud to call my brother.

Yesterday in the mail I received a couple more things I needed to move my mom’s estate proceedings along.  I am hoping to be able to get this wrapped up sooner rather than later.

Last night I also hopped on the tractor for an hour or so to finish up mowing the very high grass in the back yard.  When the grass is allowed to get that high it is a real pain in the ass to knock down, requiring two mowing passes in many spots.  It’s nice to finally have it done, hopefully it doesn’t need to be attended to again until we are officially in the fall season.

Last night some friends of Cindy’s stopped by for some chicken training.  While we are on the road trip they are going to be taking care of the hens for us.  They brought their two daughters with, they found the chickens entertaining.  Chicken maintenance training is pretty simple, scoop the poop, swap out the water and food as needed, grab any eggs and move the chicken tractor location every day or two.  Even with it’s simplicity I have concerns leaving the chickens in someone else’s care for 10 days or more.  Even though they are farm animals, Cindy and I care for them like any other pets.  Their well being is important to us obviously.

As I was talking to Darwin, who does all sorts of handyman work and is about 20 years younger than I am, I discovered we had some common ground, video games. He is a HARD CORE Call of Duty player, a very popular first person shooter game.  When the original Call of Duty came out somewhere around 10 years ago I played a good amount of it on my computer with my friends, even participating in organized team matches with my “clan”.  I have played these type of games all the way back to their origination with Wolfenstein, Quake and UnReal.  Despite playing a lot I was never all that great at them, at my best I was only an average player.

Well Darwin plays Call of Duty on the PS3, a gaming console.  I really dislike playing first person shooters on a console, I feel much more comfortable using a keyboard and mouse as opposed to a gaming controller.  Well Darwin is the opposite, he hates playing on a computer but excels playing COD on his Playstation. We wound up having close to a 30 minute conversation about his glory in Call of Duty.

He is the leader of his COD clan and is literally one of the best players in the world.  He said there were currently 5 million ranked players in the game, as of Sunday night he was ranked 27th.  I don’t think you have to like or understand video games to realize how difficult that number is to reach. Of course there is a price to pay for this virtual accomplishment, he plays the game several hours a night.

He isn’t the typical high ranked COD player either, many of which are kids or even adults that don’t work for one reason or another and do nothing but gaming for most of their waking hours.  Darwin works sometimes 7 days a week, maintains their home and tends to their daughters all while maintaining his COD epic-ness.  I need to get the guy into playing some WoW. 😉

Darwin does a lot of general handyman work on the side as well so there is a good chance I could enlist his skills in the future on some project that I don’t feel like undertaking myself.

As expected this weekend was filled with mostly chores and work, even with Cindy and I both working diligently at it.  On Saturday morning after weeding we headed out to get a few things I needed like filling the gas cans and some AC recharge refrigerant.  The refrigerant was for my mom’s Rav4, it’s AC was blowing hot.

My mom had some odd theories at times, one of those had to do with the AC on her Rav 4.  She was absolutely convinced that if she ran her air conditioning it caused her brakes to randomly not work.  Multiple times I tried to logically explain to my mom that the AC and brake system do not share any components and that there is no way running the AC would cause brake problems.  I even swapped vehicles with her for a couple days and ran the AC the entire time.  Despite my telling her I had absolutely no problems she still refused to run her air conditioner, insisting on using open windows to regulate temperature.  So anyway, when I drove the Rav4 back from the tow lot I noticed the AC no longer worked at all, probably from nearly 10 years of non-use.

The vehicle has never had anything done to the AC so I hoped that the system was just low on R134A.  I hooked up a can of coolant/sealant and filled the system until the pressure gauge was safely in the green area.  I stuck my hand inside and once again felt cold air coming out of the vents, nice.  I plan to drive the Rav4 once in awhile to make sure it stays in good running condition until I have the legal right to sell it.

I also wanted to give the AC in the Tacoma a little shot of refrigerant, I figured it can’t hurt with the temps averaging in the high 90’s the past week or so.  When I popped the hood I was amazed at what I saw, no oil cap on the valve cover.  The cap was still sitting on top of the intake manifold, just where I left it after the last oil change around 2000 miles ago.  Geezus cripes, what a fckin idiot I am.  I surveyed the engine compartment.  Surprisingly the oil residue was confined to a small area, mostly on the casing for the battery wires.  I felt fortunate that oil did not spray everywhere.  Of course driving the truck for 2000 miles with a big open hole in the valve cover can’t be a good thing but I have not noticed any short term problems as a result.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

While Cindy worked on giving the interior of the Rav 4 and the Tacoma a thorough cleaning I attended to lawn maintenance.  We have not had any significant rain out at the house in well over a week so all of the wet areas were now dry. The front trench which has been underwater for weeks had two foot high grass poking up from it.  It was nice to finally knock that area down so it didn’t look so shitty.  After I mowed it all I followed up with the weed whacker.

We had the chickens outside for a good portion of the morning, they love milling about.  At one point they were in the garden with Cindy snooping around amid the huge sweet potato vine.  Speaking of sweet potatoes, Cindy harvested 6 or 7 of them, the first time I have ever grown them, another feather in our gardening cap.

Saturday afternoon I dropped off some of mom’s plants at Ali’s place that she said she would take care of.  Ali’s new place has a nice lanai and interior space to house a lot of plants.  I’m sure my mom would be happy to have some of them there where Nicki and Sadie can look over them on a daily basis.

On Saturday night Cindy and I got out to see Expendables 3 which I saw had a very disappointing opening weekend.  I didn’t understand why it would have done poorly since the first two films seemed to be building momentum.  As soon as we stepped foot in the theater we both commented how it felt warmer than normal.  Well by the time we were halfway through the film it was downright hot, hot enough that I went out in the lobby and asked them if they had some sort of AC problem.  I was surprised when they said they actually did have a problem and someone was up on the roof trying to fix it.  Thankfully some cooler air started to blow down a short while later.

The theater had more people in it than we were accustomed to.  Unfortunately more people means more opportunities to be seated near morons.  About 5 or six seats to our right was what I assume was a hispanic father with two young boys.  The two kids were talking almost the entire movie while the father stood at his seat.  Well he leaned against the seat bottom which was flipped into the up position. It was very odd.  Since the movie was filled with tons of loud action, it drowned out the children for the most part however I questioned the father’s judgement for first not telling the kids to be quiet and second for taking them to this sort of movie.  Despite it’s PG-13 rating, it is filled with non-stop graphic violence that I certainly would not want my young children sitting through.

So as far as the movie itself, it was good but in my opinion the worst of the three films.  They went too far, trying to appeal to everyone, awkwardly inserting younger actors in the film in addition to the action stars of the last 30 years.  It just seemed unnecessary and contradictory of what the Expendables movie series is all about, a bunch of big name, older action stars raising hell.  Despite this flaw, overall I found the film fun and enjoyable, especially once the AC kicked back on.  I’d give it a B+.

Sunday morning the van was fully loaded.  In the back of it I had Cindy’s 55″ tv that we were giving to her daughter along with a few other things.  Behind the front seats we had both of our road bikes jammed in.   We were doing our first training brick in a long time.  They had been on hiatus since Cindy injured her foot.  It felt odd as I was preparing the bikes since it was just before I was leaving for a ride two weeks ago that I got the initial call from the hospital about mom.  I couldn’t help but think about that phone conversation and how it was just the first step in what was and will continue to be a long, painful journey.

The 12.25 mile Livingston ride went well.  We intentionally did not push it too hard, averaging 17.3 mph.  Cindy was riding with her bad foot in a sneaker instead of a bike cleat so that made it challenging already.  During the last segment of the ride, after we turned around at Vanderbilt Beach Road I exhausted whatever energy reserves I had, pedaling my ass off back to the water park entrance, averaging 23 mph the entire way.

Despite not swimming for awhile either, I opted to do 1600 yards in the water.  Lately when I feel reservations about pushing myself in some manner all I need to do is think that it is dedicated to my mom in some way and that will be all it takes to make me hang in there longer.

I did have a bit of humbling experience while I was cranking out my laps.  A young kid, no older than 12 I imagine hopped in the pool and absolutely smoked me.  Obviously the kid has done a lot of swimming  but still to get passed like you are standing still by a kid doesn’t make my chest expand with pride.  The only saving grace was the kid only did 5 or 6 laps while I was in the midst of logging 32 of them, so I imagined this was simply a tortoise versus the hare situation.

After grabbing some lunch we headed down to Katie’s apartment to deliver her tv.  Despite it’s size and weight I stubbornly carried the big tv up to her second floor apartment solo.  It fit the space on her wall well.  Cindy invited Katie to come out to the house later along with Tank, her high energy french bull dog.  We figured he would love being able to run around the back yard unrestrained.

I was out in the back yard doing more mowing, this time the very jungle like rear of the yard when Katie and Tank arrived.  When I poked my head into the slider door I had to laugh, there were literally 20 dog toys strewn across the floor, Tank evidently wanted to try out nearly every one of them.  He did have fun in the backyard as well, unfortunately part of that fun was running around the chicken coop.  The hens did not feel safe, despite being securely inside the coop.  Tank’s excitement made the chickens run around frantically, we had to grab him a couple times after he ran over to harass them.

It was so hot yesterday that we didn’t want to have Tank outside too long.  He wasn’t used to running around in the first place, to do it in 95 degree heat with blazing sunshine could be dangerous.  Even with his limited time outside he was panting like mad for awhile inside as he laid on the tile to cool off.  I played with Tank quite a bit while Katie and Cindy were doing some other stuff.  He is a lot of fun.

After Katie left Cindy and I ate dinner while watching my latest Netflix rental, Red 2.  Despite my drowsiness, I thought the movie was good stuff, on par if not slightly better than the original.  B+

So yesterday was a frustrating day.  I have been patiently waiting for my mom’s remains to be cremated for several days.  When we first made the arrangements last Thursday we were originally told that Monday would be the likely day it would happen.  Well it didn’t occur until yesterday because of  delays first in the death certificate being signed by the cardiologist and then supposedly because the medical examiners were dragging their feet on giving the go ahead for the cremation.

Well in addition to the cremation, the funeral home was providing me with the death certificates that will be needed for various things related to my mom’s estate.  The plan was I would pick up my moms remains and the death certificates at the same time.  Well now it was the health department that was dragging it’s feet in producing the certificates.  When I picked up mom’s remains they said the certs were not available when their courier stopped by earlier however they should be ready now.  The funeral home director said he left a long detailed message with the birth and death records office telling them I would be stopping in to get the certificate since their building is in the same government complex where I work, ok fine.

So I head to the office where they produce the death certs and come into an area that is empty besides the Haitian woman sitting behind a window.  She was in the middle of eating her lunch. I told her I was there to pick up a death certificate.  She asked me for what year, puzzled, I said “Last week” She points to the wall behind me and tells me I need to fill out a form, as she went to pick her food back up.

I told her that I was actually sent here by the funeral home to pick up the death certificates for my mom. This began a few minute exchange where I repeatedly caught myself on the edge of blowing up in the face of this woman.  The woman told me that she knows nothing about me picking up forms, that maybe the funeral home talked to the other clerk who is out on lunch but  she repeated “noone told me nothing” in her thick Haitian accent.

She even got up and saw that the death certs were indeed completed and sitting on top of a file cabinet but her directive to me was to call the funeral home back because she can’t give them to me otherwise.  If I didn’t really want to get the certificates in my hand, this was the point I would have started to angrily chastise her for being insensitive to the situation and for being more interested in stuffing her face then sorting out the confusion.  However I instead took one more deep breath, and told the woman I did not have my phone on me, and asked if she could call the funeral home to verify I was telling the truth.

It was obvious that the woman was not very interested in doing anything that kept her away from her meal a second longer but she found the number and made the call.  Of course the call confirmed that what I told her was indeed true.  She finally handed the papers over to me after seeing my drivers license.  I suppose once I had the papers in hand I would have been able to lash out at the clerk as I wanted to during the heat of the exchange.  I declined however, not seeing any tangible benefit from doing so.  My energy would have been wasted since I don’t think she was a deep enough thinker to even comprehend what was wrong with how she handled the situation.

So once I had the certs I made copies and distributed one of them to my lawyer working on my mom’s estate.  Shortly afterward he sent me a draft of the petition that would be filed with the clerk.  I immediately flagged that he had my mom listed as living in Collier instead of Lee county.  I replied back to him about the error.   He said he listed Collier because the death certificate had a Naples address.  I quickly pulled out the cert and looked at it.  The street address was correct but for the city it did indeed have Naples instead of Bonita Springs.  You have to be kidding me.

So I called the funeral home back, unsure if the error was from the health records department or from them.  It was the latter.  The guy I talked to looked at the original paperwork we signed off on and it did indeed say Bonita Springs, somewhere along the chain it was mistakenly entered as Naples.  The guy told me that for most situations, the city error will not matter when it comes to using the cert to confirm my mom’s death to whomever needs it however obviously they owed me a 100% correct certificate that he assured me they would expedite. Ok fine.

So when I picked up my mom’s remains during the afternoon it was a sad moment.  I opened the cardboard box that housed the plastic container that contained the ashes.  I did not open the inner container, I simply placed my open hand upon it and kept it there for a few moments.  I immediately felt a surge of emotion as I tried to grasp that all that is left of my mom’s physical being is in this small vessel.  As I have often done in the last 10 days, I  quickly reinstalled the dam that has kept that flood of feelings under control as I backed up and drove away.

When I returned to my office with my mom’s ashes I thought it would be a little too weird to walk in there with human remains in hand.  I instead decided to leave them in the truck however for some reason I felt badly about leaving the ashes in a hot space.  I decided to leave the truck locked and running with the AC on for 90 minutes until I left.  I don’t expect that to sound sensical but not a whole lot makes sense nowadays.

So later after Cindy got home we opened up the black plastic container that contained the ashes.  When we did I got another jolt of aggravation and anger.  My siblings and I decided that mom’s remains would be spread in the ocean.  In order to facilitate that the funeral home recommended her remains be placed in a special biodegradable bag that is designed to dissolve in water.  Doing it this way prevents scenarios where human remains are blown around in the normally windy ocean conditions.  Thursday morning I reconfirmed with the funeral director that her remains would be in one of these special bags which would in turn be placed inside of a second regular plastic bag for safekeeping.  Well what I saw was just the ashes inside of a regular plastic bag.  You have to be kidding me.

Throughout this entire process I have been very patient with the delays and bad timelines we were given.  The events of yesterday, both due to simple lack of attention to detail seem pretty incredulous.  In the funeral home business I would think attention to detail would be taken for granted.  When you are dealing with grieving families the last thing they need to deal with is your fck ups, yet there I was with two of them in one day.

So I again talked to the funeral director, in a far angrier manner this time around.  When I told him of the mistake he groaned out loud as if he was the one who actually packaged the ashes and forgot to use the bio-bag.  I told him I didn’t understand how these sort of mistakes happen.  He apologized repeatedly.  So now there has to be arrangements to get ashes back to them to place them in a container as they were meant to be.  I certainly don’t want to be the one to do it.  So yea, anyway, the funeral home’s performance score overall has dipped greatly in the last 24 hours.

So last night I again transformed my great room into a high tech fantasy football drafting venue.  I forgot to do a total head count but I think we may have had 15 people in the house in addition to Cindy and myself. As always there was a ton of food and alcohol on hand.  As always I indulged in way too much of both.

The draft wound up around 11 but as always I needed to have the house more or less back to normal before heading to bed.  Thankfully with Cindy helping me this process didn’t take nearly as long as years prior.  I woke up this morning wishing I had taken Friday off.

This weekend is going to be all about getting things around the house back in order.

Last night after work I stopped to get supplies for tonight’s fantasy football draft party which I am hosting again for the 5th or 6th consecutive year.  Despite being geographically inconvenient for most of the owners, they tolerate the drive because I have the space and tech to hold a pretty fun draft.  Having the remote owners that “attend” the draft via a Skype video call displayed on the 73 inch tv with 5 speaker surround sound is cool as well.

Because of what has gone down the last 10 days I have obviously not been giving the draft party or the draft itself much thought at all.  As far as drafting my team I will put the same prep into it that I typically do, next to nothing, outside of a player ranking list that I will refer to.  Despite my lack of conventional draft prep I have somehow managed to earn second place in the league the last two years in a row.  I make my picks mostly on feel.

I also have the last draft position, drafting number 12 out of 12 teams.  I have been the last team to draft at least 2-3 other times. I’m not sure how I managed that since it is statistically very remote to draw the 12th spot so often.  Although picking last isn’t great, it is nice that when I am picking, it is two players at a time, as the pick order is using a “snake” method.  So when I make my first picks it will be the 12th and 13th player selected which isn’t a bad deal.

Cindy will be around this year to help me with the hosting duties which will be nice.  Trying to attend to the party logistics and making quality draft picks is not always an easy task. Go Team Green Machine.

Today if things go as planned I should be taking possession of my mom’s cremated remains and will be handed her death certificate, something that is needed to muddle through the estate settlement process.  I just want it all to be over with.