Archives February 2015

Last night as Cindy and I were doing evening chicken maintenance Cindy noticed one of the chickens, that we have now named “Nona” was acting strange.  She was hanging her head low and seemed lethargic.  Some of the other chickens appeared to be picking on her as well.  We watched her for awhile to see if she would snap out of it but she just seemed weird.

Cindy crawled into the chicken run and brought her out.  Nona hardly struggled as Cindy laid her down on her lap.  As Cindy gave the bird a head to toe look over Nona just laid there chilling.  Cindy started petting her head and neck.  It looked odd to have a chicken just laying on a lap, looking almost like a content cat would.  It seemed like Nona would have laid there for as long as Cindy wanted.

So we were both concerned obviously but weren’t quite sure what was wrong.  We decided to grab one of the empty Rubbermaid containers in the shed, fill it with wood shavings and bring Nona inside with us.  It was sort of odd having a chicken indoors.  At first we had her in the laundry room but we then moved the container to the guest bathroom.  I thought I was going to have to put some sort of lid on it to keep the chicken inside but it quickly became apparent that Nona was too tired to try to hop out.  I put a barrier in front of the door just in case but we didn’t need it.

Cindy and I did a lot of internet searching for chicken ailments.  We read about crop problems.  The crop is a sack at the base of their throat where food is deposited first before it is digested.  Sometimes that sack can get stuffed and blocked up if the bird drastically over eats or eats something long and fibrous.  An expert pair of hands may be able to feel an impacted crop.  Cindy couldn’t really tell much.

Cindy called up the lady we got the chickens from and had a long talk with her about Nona and chickens in general.  The consensus was it was good to keep her separated from the others last night and see how she is in the morning. Cindy was worried Nona would feel lonely in the tub by herself.  She added a towel and one of the dog’s stuffed toys as a companion.  It looked funny to have a chicken laying next to a dog toy.  Nona was very quiet and calm.  I was worried that we would wake up this morning to another chicken tragedy. I went to bed feeling unsettled. All this chicken drama, the raccoon, the hen/rooster questions and now a sick bird was weighing on my mind.

So this morning when I got up of course the first thing I did was peek in the bathroom.  I held my breath for a second when in the darkness I saw a body that appeared to not be moving.  I exhaled when Nona woke up and saw me.  She immediately stood up. She seemed pretty alert and normal to me.  Cindy agreed that she seemed much better than last night, good enough that we returned her to the coop this morning.  She seemed to jump right back into the flock and was acting normally.  Cindy and I hope this was just a little bump in the road and that Nona will be ok.

We did more saddle feather exams last night trying to see if any of the birds have long pointy feathers coming in.  Again neither of us saw anything obvious so we are still on a wait and see pattern.  The live trap was untouched last night which I was glad to see but expected.

After work I went outside to give the 4 chickens a thorough visual inspection.  The info I found online indicated that by the age of 3 months you can normally tell if a chicken is a pullet (hen) or cockerel (rooster) by the shape of the feathers on it’s “saddle”.  If you imagine where the sides of a saddle would fall if you mounted it on a chicken, that was what I was interested in.  With roosters the feathers in this area are long and pointed.  With hens the feathers are shorter and rounded.

I looked at all four birds and as far as I could tell all the feathers seemed more or less rounded in the saddle area.  When Cindy got home she inspected them as well as taking a number of pictures that we can hopefully put in front of some expert eyes to help us sex the birds.  We both agreed the feathers appeared rounded to us but then a minute or two later two of the chickens again squared off rooster style so I don’t know what the hell to think.

I did call the woman we got the chickens from and let her know that we may have some roosters in the group.  She said we should wait a bit as she has seen hens square off in a similar fashion but if they turn out to be roosters she is fine to take them back in.

While I was out there I also re-baited the live trap.  This time I decided to make the bait tougher to loot by punching a hole in the middle of the chicken jerky (ironic I know) and then tying it to the back of the trap with fishing line.  My hope was the line would require the raccoon to have to fully enter the trap and step on the trip plate.  The chicken coop was moved up close to the house and I placed the trap right around the corner in front of it.

So during the night I am woken out of my sleep by a noise.  In my groggy stupor it sounded like the chickens squawking loudly.  I shot out of bed, and into the 50 degree air in my boxer shorts.  There he was, the raccoon, unhappily stuck in the live trap which was on it’s side.

As I approached around the coop the raccoon was quietly sitting there, not doing much, almost looking cute.  However as I got within a few feet it sprung to life, hissing and growling like a VERY angry cat.  As I rolled the cage to it’s proper orientation he was trying desperately to get a hold of me through the small squares in the cage.

Cindy had followed me out and was freaking out.  She was glad that we caught it but not agreeing with my intentions of relocating him myself.  She had read the information about the dangers of raccoons and how they are not something to be taken lightly.  Despite their relatively small size they will act aggressively towards pretty much anything threatening, regardless of size.  I told her I would be able to handle it. She was still concerned, overly concerned from my stand point.

I went inside and dressed in clothing more appropriate for raccoon removal, including jeans, a sweat shirt, my rubber boots and leather gloves.  When the cage rolled the handle for the cage fell out.  I certainly wasn’t going to put my hands underneath and carry the angry animal like a sack of potatoes.  Instead I grabbed the cage by the trap door side where I was out of reach and drug it around the front of the house to the driveway with the raccoon carrying on the entire time.

Cindy was still pleading with me to not release the raccoon myself.  I again assured her I was going to be cautious and that I was confident in my ability to set the animal free far away without collateral damage.  I told her I was just going to throw the trap in the van, drive the coon to the swamp sanctuary 8-9 miles away and release it.  Cindy was still worried that somehow the raccoon could escape while it was in the van and eviscerate me.  She asked if she could at least follow in the Prius to make sure I am ok, I told her it was fine.

I grabbed a couple other tools for the release, an old comforter, an extension pole for a paint roller and a shovel.  The comforter and pole were for if things go smoothly, the shovel was for just in case it didn’t.  As I drug the cage down the driveway one leg of the raccoon was hanging outside. I gently set the cage down and told him to pull his foot in.  As I did my left foot was within a few inches of the trap.  The coon shot his arm out and wildly scratched at my boot.  I said to him “you better knock it off buddy.  If you attack me, I attack you…” I threw the comforter over the cage after I plopped it on the back floor of the van to keep the raccoon somewhat calm.

The drive to the sanctuary parking lot was uneventful, I heard the occasional hiss from the back seats.  I wondered if the raccoon had any idea that he actually hit the lottery as there aren’t many people that would let him live after what happened.  My nearly universal love of all animals and my partial responsibility for allowing it to happen with shoddy coop security is what granted him this pardon.

I parked the van and pulled the cage out in front of the headlights and about 10 feet from the tree line. Cindy watched cautiously from a good 30 feet away.  I covered all sides of the cage except the door side with the comforter.  I then carefully got the spring loaded door cracked maybe an inch or so and placed the pole under it, giving me the ability to fully open the door with my hands safely on either side of the pole instead of near the door.

Once I had it open the raccoon did not immediately shoot out, perhaps thinking it was a trick.  I said “Go on, get going…”  He shot out of the cage and straight into the woods.  I told him to enjoy his new life as I returned to the van.  Cindy was quite relieved that the raccoon had been relocated and it went down without me contracting rabies.

Just because the killer raccoon has been captured and removed I don’t plan to let my guard down.  The live trap will be set up every night nearby the coop.  I will keep trapping and relocating for as long as it takes.

Of course I had no shot of falling back asleep once we got back home so I just stayed up, played some WoW and had to deal with another round of malware infections which I think I finally have eradicated once and for all.

Last night as Cindy was finishing up dinner prep I flipped on the TV and saw there was a Walking Dead episode on the dvr.  WTF, I figured the DVR taped a rerun.  Well imagine my surprise when it was a brand new episode.  I had absolutely no clue that the season was resuming already.  I’m not quite sure how I didn’t see something on tv or social media mentioning it.  It was a good episode, setting up what I hope is a solid second half of the season.

This morning when I went out to the coop it was obvious that the raccoon had been there last night.  As I got closer it became evident he was all over the coop.  The plastic sheet we have on the outside of the cage to keep the food dry was ripped loose, another similar sheet by their grit was bent, a pvc pipe we have inserted through the wire as a perch was knocked out, the lamp portion of the flood was pushed downward, and there were what looked to be muddy footprints on top of the corrugated plastic that covers the chicken run.

As a further FU to us, the chicken jerky I baited the live trap was gone.  Evidently the coon managed to step over the trip plate and snag the bait.

Of course when Cindy came out she was freaked out.  Last night I did not put the ramp to the coop up, I just closed and locked the door leading to the run area.  Even though the coop held up to what was obviously a pretty thorough assault by the raccoon it made me feel like I need to close that ramp every night, just to make sure the birds stay safe in case the raccoon shows up with a pair of wire cutters next time.

We were already bummed out about the raccoon visit.  As we were working on the coop one of the chickens was chasing and pecking the smallest chicken, which Cindy has dubbed Lola.  Then another one of the birds squared off with the aggressor.  They stood toe to to toe, stuck their chests out, held their heads high and then threw their feet at each other.  Instantly Cindy and I recognized this as the ways roosters fight.  Betty, Wilma, and Pebbles would fight once in awhile but never in that manner.

Ironically these were the two chickens that were the two middle birds size wise.  If we had a rooster I assumed it was the biggest bird but now I don’t know how many we have.  I am going to call the lady we got the birds from and describe what we saw.  Unfortunately she does not use testing to definitively sex the birds when they are young, she just uses physical characteristics.  So if we have roosters in the group they are going to need to go back asap before we get too attached and/or one of them hurts another in the group seriously.

On Friday I stopped by one of the local ATT stores with the new iPad, looking to activate the LTE service on the device.  As soon as I stepped into the door I was greeted with a chaotic environment.  There were two young kids whose mother thought needed no supervision. The boys, both somewhere around 5 were sprinting around the store, screaming, treating the place like a playground.  This went on the entire 10-15 minutes that I was waiting to talk to someone.  I could not believe the mother or the the ATT staff did not do anything to curb the behavior.

I also got to listen to an old man that was in front of me give an ATT clerk a shakedown over his bad phone reception.  The clerk politely listened to the old guy rant about how he can’t make calls from his home but in other areas of the state he has no problems.  The clerk told the guy that it sounds like maybe there is a signal issue from whatever tower he is closest to but explained that was outside his jurisdiction.  The old man did not like that answer, snapping back “The logo on your shirts does say ATT doesn’t it??!!”, meaning that any ATT employee should instantly be able to address any issue any customer has.  The clerk shot me a glance during the exchange where he saw the smirk on my face.  The old man asked to talk to the manager who I think basically said the same thing however I think they gave him some free phone accessories to shut him up and get him out of the store.

So finally after watching these various sideshows a clerk came free.  I explained to him what I was looking to do and that I had looked online ahead of time and was thinking I was finally ready to let go of my “unlimited” data plan on the two iPhones and team them with the iPad on a shared arrangement.  I picked a good time to add a tablet to my plan as ATT was running a special of a $100 credit when you add a tablet to a data plan, presumably because they assume you will gobble up data faster that way.

By dropping my mom’s old phone off my plan and utilizing the 17% break state employees get I was able to score a 15GB shared data plan for almost exactly what I was already paying, plus the $100 kick back.  I also pick up unlimited texting, calling, and hotspot usage in the deal.  I was a little paranoid about letting go of my unlimited data plan but with ATT’s new rollover data policy which allows me to include unused minutes from the prior month into the current month, the odds of me ever exceeding my monthly allowance is nearly impossible.

This weekend was one Cindy and I had looked forward to because it was open without a race or other event cramping our style.  Of course this didn’t mean we were going to lay around and eat bon bons all weekend, it just meant we had our schedules cleared to get stuff done and that is what we did.

I had a number of small things to handle outside, some of which Cindy helped me with as well.  There are just a ton of little things that need regular attention when you have a house with a good chunk of land. We also tackled one larger job, removing the stone path that used to split the orchard in half.  This was tedious as we first had to shovel the stones from the path, clean them to some degree with a hose and then dump them at various spots around the house stone border where coverage was light.

After that shitty job was done we started skimming mulch from the border around the pool cage and repurposed it in the strip where the stones used to be.  The reasons for this rotation of ground coverings is two fold.  The rock path in the orchard was something I thought would be useful way back when when I created the orchard area.  The reality was it was just another spot that I had to weed.  Plus, the chickens will appreciate one large unbroken area of play where they can dig and scratch as much as they want.

The mulch relocation is something I want to do around the entire border of the pool.  Betty, Wilma, and Pebbles were all quite fond of digging in that area and as they did they would constantly be throwing mulch up against the pool screen which in turn dumped mulch dirt onto the pool deck. I want to pull all of the organic mulch, putdown fresh weed block and then refill the area with the shredded tire mulch.  I have used the rubber “mulch” in a few other spots and it is nearly maintenance free and pretty much lasts forever.  There is a large up front cost to put down the synthetic stuff but when you factor in the time and cost of re-mulching an area a minimum of once a year, that cost can be quickly justified.

After we finished up we headed out to run some errands as I needed a few things that were quite different.  At Home Depot I picked up a couple 8 foot 2×4’s to rebuild the garden gate which is falling apart from rot.  At Costco I picked up a second, awesome 27″ Samsung monitor so I had a matching set, allowing me to use my old second monitor to provide Cindy her own two monitor set up.

When we got back I resumed work, including the gate tear down and rebuild as well as doing some server work for the office via remote control.   Pretty much all day Saturday was spent working on something for both of us.

We decided to do something slightly different on Saturday night.  Instead of going to the movies, we went to dinner and THEN a movie.  For dinner we went to a place I had not patronized in years and years, Olive Garden.  I never went to the location in Coconut Pointe.  The restaurant was really nice both inside and out.  We had a surprisingly enjoyable time, the food was good, the atmosphere was pleasant and really the only negative was the woman 20 feet from us that had a disgusting, persistent, hacking cough that made it seem like that the last place she needed to be was in a public dining establishment.  We will definitely add that Olive Garden to the rotation.  I was glad we showed up at 6PM to eat, we only waited 5 minutes.  When we left closer to 7 there were people stuffing the lobby and outdoor waiting areas.

The movie we saw was Jupiter Ascending.  From the previews it looked like a decent sci-fi action flick so we figured it would be fine.  When we got to the theater the 3D showing was the next showing so we handed over the premium to see the movie in 3D which added absolutely nothing to the experience.

We were paranoid about having a similar experience as the last time we were at the theater to see American Sniper, where our late arrival wound up depositing our rear ends in the very front row of the theater.  There was no such problem this time around, I doubt if there were 20 total people in the theater.  I guess they read the reviews of the movies ahead of time, something I hardly ever will do.

Well I could tell the movie was going to suck within the first 5 minutes, it just had that vibe.  The story made no sense and the acting was moronic. Both Cindy and I laughed out loud at the main bad guy who spoke the entire movie in a creepy whisper except for a couple outbursts where he went into Jacquin Phoenix in Gladiator, “AM I NOT MERCIFUL!” screaming mode.   He was simply a ridiculous character.

Thankfully the two 20 ounce Shocktop beers I downed at Olive Garden had made me sleepy. I slept through at least half of the movie.  Cindy dozed off as well.  Whomever fronted the 179 million dollar production budget for this big steaming turd is going to be writing out a lot of IOU’s.  The film grossed $19 million for it’s opening weekend and I am sure it will plummet from here as word spreads of its suckitude.  The only thing good I can say about the movie is it has top notch special effects, but that can’t come even close to saving the film.  I give it a D, don’t even watch it if it comes on free tv.

On Sunday morning we were supposed to pick up our new chickens but I wanted to get a bike ride in beforehand.  Cindy was not very enthusiastic about the idea.  The temps were in the upper 50’s and she had not ridden in awhile.  I assured her if we dressed in a manner similar to how Randall and I dressed last week it would be fine.  I told her she would be glad we did it once we do it.  She eventually agreed although she said I would probably have to be slowing down to accommodate her. I knew that would not be the case.

I lead the entire way to Dunking Donuts and just like last week, held good speed, 20-21 mph for a good portion of the 10 miles which Cindy was able to hang with just fine.  We did the first 10 miles in right around 30 minutes.  After refueling with small coffees we reversed direction which was into the wind to varying degrees.  Little Miss “I doubt I can do 16 mph”, was pulling for well over half of the return ride and did so maintaining 17-19 mph pretty much the entire time.  I only took over with a little more than 3 miles to go.

As we pulled back into the driveway I stopped my GPS and checked out the stats.  For the entire ride we averaged 18.6 mph, only a couple tenths slower than I did with Randall.  As predicted, Cindy was glad we got out there and she found out that despite a long cycling lay off she is still quite capable.

The chicken lady had called just before we got back at 10.  I called her back and made arrangements to pick up the 4 chickens at 10:30 at the same convenience store we used before.  After changing our biking clothes we grabbed the two cat carriers and were out the door in the party van.  We got there first and waited a few minutes for Anna and her husband to pull up.  The husband, who is very odd, did not leave the drivers seat, leaving Anna alone to handle the chicken transfer.  I opened up and sat our carriers by her small cage so the birds could be shuffled between them.

The chickens were scared as expected.  They also looked smaller than the three girls we adopted before which made sense since they are approximately a month younger.  Anna said she THINKS they were all hens but if one of them turned out to be a rooster we could swap it out.  A rooster just won’t work in our situation, I don’t need to annoy the neighbors.  Both Cindy and I are hoping they are all girls, it would sort of suck to have to get rid of one after we get attached to it.

The chickens were very, very quiet on the ride home and equally quiet as Cindy and I prepared the coop, filling it with wood shavings, food and water.  The chickens were hesitant to leave the confines of the cat carriers and into their new home.  It probably took five patient minutes and some cracked corn bribery to get all four of them out.

Once we had them in the coop you could tell they were disoriented.  Anna said they were in a crowded situation at her place so perhaps it felt weird to the 4 chickens to have some peace and quiet along with space to move.  We got them all situated and secure before we headed out to Rural King, we needed to get feed designed for younger chickens, the stuff we had is for chickens four months and older.

We took the SSR, as it was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 70’s.  When we were in Rural King we got sidetracked by the live chicks they had for sale.  They literally had hundreds of baby chicks covering at least a half dozen varieties.  We were teetering on the edge of adopting a couple until a store employee said we would have to take at least 6 at a time, which would eventually put us over our current chicken housing capabilities.

During the day I developed an issue with my brand spanking new computer.  Earlier my Mcafee virus protection was complaining about some malware trying to load.  I found it odd since the only site I had open was Facebook.  After I clicked block 4 or 5 times I simply X’d out the notification box.  Well that apparently is the same as saying “load the shit”, my pc was now infected.

The malware would overlay incredibly annoying and disruptive ads on top of normal web pages.  It was something called TopDeal ads.  When I looked up removal recommendations for the malware the search results were filled with trap site links that actually will load more shit onto your computer instead of helping you remove it.

I did a full sweep in safe mode which supposedly found, identified, and removed the culprit.  However after a reboot the fcking shit was back, I was pissed.  At first I figured I would just load a system restore but was frustrated to see the feature was turned off.  I wasn’t sure if Windows 8.1 has it off by default or if the malware flipped it off to make it more difficult for me to dispose of it.

Ok well my next plan was to utilize the full system image back up I had that was roughly 10 days old.  Nothing major changed during that time period.  Well after completing the restore the system was not booting.  Windows would not load and kicked me to the recovery screen, nothing I did in there fixed the problem.  In total I went through three system restore cycles, only the third try was successful when I used slightly different recovery options.  When my desktop finally booted up clean I breathed a sigh of relief.  I had nightmare scenarios of a total reload dancing through my head.

So as dusk arrived Cindy and I were waiting for the chickens to head up the ramp to the their coop so we could close it up.  Well the four birds didn’t seem to understand the way this was supposed to work.  When I went outside in near darkness to check on them the four chickens were all piled on top of each other on the ground under the hanging feeder.  Of course this couldn’t be allowed as a racoon could easily grab one of them through the wire and cause all sorts of problems.

I called Cindy out so she could help me manually place the chickens up top after I raised the ramp to the closed position.  The chicks were not thrilled with being forcefully moved to the second floor and seemed a bit confused by the whole thing. This morning when I lowered the ramp they again were hesitant to change floors, they all stayed up top.  I’m sure they will figure it out quickly, I think they are just scared of everything being different.

Last night we watched Fury on Blu-ray.  It was a good war movie that depicted the horrors of war in an in your face manner.  I thought the acting in the film was very, very good.  Brad Pitt has kept his personal streak with me alive, never appearing in a movie that I disliked.  I’d give it an A-.

My replacement iPad Air arrived yesterday.  I was impressed how different the packaging was this time.  The smaller box I received the first time was now nestled inside of a much larger box stuffed with packing material.  I also received a brand new accessory pack with the cord and charger, something missing from the smashed iPad’s box.

The tablet itself looked to be in superior condition with not a mark on it.  I hit the power button and was treated to the retina display goodness the Air offers you.  During the night I did the initial configuration on it including loading the app that allows Cindy to access her trainer certification course ware on the iPad. Of course I also loaded Hearthstone which looks and plays fantastic on the device.

The one thing the iPad did not come with was a SIM card which I need in order to activate the LTE service for the device.  I am hoping to get that taken care of on my way home this evening.

As I was on the ATT site looking for info regarding tablet data plans they had information regarding their shared data plan, specifically the 10GB shared data plan.  I am one of those unlimited data customer holdouts that ATT has been trying to convert for several years.  I have clung onto my unlimited data status dearly, not wanting to have my data throttled or get dinged with overage penalties.  Seeing what I saw yesterday is softening that position.

First off it showed that I could slide into a 10gb shared data plan for $145, compared to the $159 I pay right now.  On top of that it seemed to indicate that $145 would be my cost BEFORE my 17% Florida state worker discount.   The shared plan also includes unlimited talk and texting as well as free hotspot service where your phone can serve as a Wi-fi hotspot.  They also now just started a data rollover plan where you can roll unused data from one month to the next which is awesome and makes sense.

When I looked at my data usage the last two months it topped out at between 4-5GB with well over 3GB of that being on Alison’s phone which is still on my plan.  I only had a little over 500 meg on my phone because I am hooked into wi-fi far more often than I’m not.   But even so, a 10GB plan should be more than sufficient when rollover data is factored in.  We will see what I come up with when I am in the store.

Last night I filled out my tax prep organizer for my accountant.  In the process I added up my Google AdSense dollars for the year, since Google is ridiculously slow in providing 1099’s.  I was surprised it added up to over $1000, a roughly %40 increase over the previous year.  I can only hope the acceleration continues this year.  I need to start cranking out some videos.

In addition to my taxes I fired up Turbo Tax online to do my mom’s final return.  As you can expect this was a rather sad process.  I recalled how each and every year mom would get excited when I would present her with her expected refund amount after I did her taxes. There was no excitement when I completed the process this year that showed a small refund as the last gasp of monetary activity tied to mom’s lifetime of work.

Filing a return for a deceased person requires an additional form to be filled out which I thought would preclude me from filing electronically.  TurboTax let me e-file still but I was rewarded with an error later saying the IRS did not accept the return.  I have to see if I can get that sorted out today.

This weekend will be Cindy and I doing what we want to do.  Part of that may include adopting some more chickens into the family.

So I was on a live chat with Gazelle yesterday shortly after their 9AM start of day.  The person I got was apologetic for the smashed iPad that showed up at my door.  She generated a free shipping return label and said as soon as they received the unit they would credit my card.  She said I could simply order a replacement if I wanted to.  Since their inventory of used devices is constantly changing there is no guarantee they will have exactly what I ordered.  I thanked her for the help.

I went online and found they had another iPad Air with the exact same specs available so I ordered it.  Earlier, before support opened I had sent an email to Gazelle asking for direction on how to address my mangled iPad.  After my live chat occurred I got an email from another Gazelle rep named Matt.  He saw in the system that I already had my return taken care of.  He again apologized for the damaged product and offered some additional perks I was not expecting.

He said as soon as he saw the box was dropped off to FedEx he would process the credit instead of making me wait until they have the box in their hands.  He also said he would credit the shipping cost on the replacement iPad which was awesome if it happens.  The invoice I got didn’t appear to show any credit yet but if it happens, sweet.

Their efforts to remedy what was a very big disappointment turned my negative opinion into a positive one.  That is customer service 101.  I ordered the replacement with overnight shipping, hopefully it arrives intact today.

This morning Cindy and I awoke to torrential rain, a very rare thing this time of year.  When I walked out to the truck there was standing water everywhere.  It will all seep into the ground by the time I get home but I am sure we have gotten at least a couple inches of rain based on the lakes on the ground.

Both Cindy and I are looking forward to the upcoming “normal” weekend with no races or other calendar events to be concerned with.

On my way home last night I stopped at the Wellness Center to officially cancel my membership.  The commute to the facility was long outside of season and borderline maddening during the last several weeks.  The building is nice, the gym area is nice, the locker rooms and showers are very nice but none of it made up for me losing 15 minutes of my allocated workout time each day dealing with traffic and parking.

I never really felt at home at NCH.  Despite there being a lot more people at the facility there was a lot less interaction between people than I have been accustomed to.  I also never liked that despite all of the equipment in there they did not have a simple pull up bar, the closest thing I could use was awkwardly hanging off the Smith machine bar or the low quality power tower rig they have.  I actually think I will be happier and more productive at Planet Fitness, which seems blasphemous to say.

So late last week I purchased a used iPad Air from Gazelle.com.  You may have heard their ads, they buy your used electronics and resell them.  I bought it as a pseudo Valentine’s Day present for Cindy although I would certainly use it as well.  It would be great for the personal trainer certification course she is working on.  It had a healthy 64 gigs of ram as well as ATT LTE service, freeing it from the shackles of wi-fi.  I was excited to spring it on Cindy.

So I tracked the package with FedEx.  It was arriving yesterday. I saw the package had a signature required parameter so I proactively hung a sign on the front door asking the driver to get the signature from our next door neighbor, which he did.  When I got home Cindy had already retrieved the box for me because I asked her to although she still had no idea what it was.

My first impression of the box was not good.  It looked like something that would have been shipped to me from a seller on Ebay.  It was a generic looking box with a sloppy looking tape job.  Once I opened the box I continued being unimpressed.  The packing material was a piece of spare foam folded in half and jammed inside.  There was no paperwork, no invoice, only a small branded Gazelle card.  The shitty packaging quickly became a minor issue as I saw the side profile of the iPad, it was in a V shape. What in the fck….

I pull the device out and verify it is destroyed. It literally looked like it had been stomped on.  I didn’t even bother removing it from the bubble wrap.  I looked again at the box and saw a small rip in the middle near an edge, probably the end result of whatever/whomever crushed the box.  I was PISSED.

When I told Cindy this mess was supposed to be a gift for her she appreciated my intentions and shared my disappointment.  Yes obviously the package had some sort of violent impact inflicted upon it but the lackluster packaging certainly did nothing to protect it.  At the very least, if they are going to send out electronics in sub-standard packaging a few FRAGILE labels applied to the box would make sense.

My frustration was amplified when I discovered Gazelle only answers the phone from 9AM to 6PM, meaning I was going to have to wait until today to vent.  I am afraid this is going to be a long drawn out process if Gazelle is going to seek remediation from FedEx before replacing the unit.  Obviously I will be lobbying for that to be not the case.

It is currently 3:20AM.

Friday I left work a little early to head over to the early packet pick up Ali was running for her race.  She had given me reports during the day about how busy it was which is a good problem to have. We want as many as people as possible to pick up their race packet early to lessen lines on race day.  That being said it isn’t fun to deal with a non-stop line of humanity for 6 or more hours straight which is basically what Ali did.

She had a number of people sign up in person which was complemented by a ton of online sign ups as well, many of whom signed up online on Friday and marched right over to pick up their packet the same day.  These individuals create a challenge for me that I have not yet figured out a good way to address.  What winds up happening is I have to go back that evening and manually change the bib number for each person that falls into this category.  On Friday that list was several dozen people.

While I was there I helped the Humane Society staff get their van loaded up with tables, coolers, tents and other supplies they would be using on race day.  By the time I was done the van was pretty jam packed.  I grabbed everything I needed from Ali and headed out.  Before getting home to get to work I needed to also stop and pick up groceries.

By the time Randall showed up it was somewhere around 8 o’clock.  We had already eaten dinner and I was in the middle of race prep, leaving me only brief amounts of time to welcome Randall, I let Cindy pick up the slack as I continued to hammer away at my mental to do list.  Before going to bed all three of us loaded up the party van as it was the only vehicle suitable to carry all of the gear and the three of us as well.

The forecast for Saturday morning seemed decent with lows in the high 50’s, much warmer than many Paws races before which had temps as low as the 30’s on race day.  I thought I would be fine wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and one of my not so thick hoodies.  Well once we got on site I realized I made a poor choice.  The steady wind that we emerged into made me feel much, much colder.  I spent pretty much the first two hours feeling chilled to the bone.

The pre-race scene got congested pretty quickly as there were the most participants ever for the race.  Despite the large amounts of pre-registered runners  we had a huge day of race walk up crowd as well of 90 runners.  Thankfully I had Chris and Sean doing the data entry for me which allowed me to run around and attend to the various other tasks I had at hand.

So shortly before 7:45 Ali and I had to get down to the start line, over a half mile away.  This was the first race we had use of the club’s new electric golf cart.  We utilized it get to the start line in half the time it would have taken on foot which was nice.  What wasn’t so nice was the few minutes before the start of the race.

The race had paid for four police officers to close off traffic to the race course during the start of the event.  We were a couple minutes before the official start time of 8AM and we still had vehicles on the road.  Evidently whatever officer that was stationed at the far end of the course did not understand that closing the road to traffic actually meant closing the road to traffic.  In addition Ali discovered that the volunteer course marshals for some reason were not out on the course as they were supposed to be.  She was more or less freaking out as she yelled at me almost like I was the one responsible for these unfortunate problems.  I told her it would be ok, we waited for the vehicles to clear and started the race a little over 4 minutes late.  It wasn’t the end of the world.

After the last straggler came over the starting mats, and there were a LOT of stragglers, we again hopped in the cart for a high speed return to the finish line area.  I had done as much ahead of time at the finish as possible to save time since I knew we had such distance to and from the start line.

I was a bit nervous about the event timing to be honest.  Despite timing over 100 races the incident at the half marathon had shaken my confidence.  I set up a secondary timing box at the finish as a safety net, something I never had done for this race before.  I was relieved when results started flowing in as I am accustomed to seeing.  Overall the event timing went very well outside of two timing bibs that were dead as a doornail when they hit the finish line.

I was running around so much I really didn’t get to enjoy or interact with the nearly 200 dogs that participated in the race which was sort of a bummer.  This is normally the case though so I am accustomed to it.   During the awards ceremony which Ali presented, she made a breif speech about the history of the race and how it all emerged from our adoption of Nicki from the Humane Society almost 12 years ago.  It was pretty amazing to have that one event blossom into what it is today, a massive race that generates serious money for the shelter.  I am proud of both Ali and myself for the roles we served in making that happen.

Randall served most of the race as event photographer and did a nice job, snapping nearly 600 pictures once the sun came up. Prior and after the race he was put in more of a pack mule role.  Cindy was the glue that helped keep the registration area running before the race, directing and assisting the volunteers in their roles.  She did a great job as well.

We were cleaned up and pulled out around 10 AM.  We grabbed well deserved cups of coffee from Dunkin Donuts on the way home.  Once we got there I was straight into a large pile of work.  After getting results posted I started the process of getting the various media from the race online.  This included Randall’s 600 pictures and two GoPro videos, one from my finish line camera and another from Chris’s Phantom, which he shot some aerial video with.  I did not reach a stopping point until close to 2PM.

Cindy had decided to go run out to pick up some supplies she was going to need for Sunday’s Super Bowl Party we were hosting.  Randall and I thought it would be smart for us to try to take naps since Saturday evening we were going to my boss’ retirement dinner at Mercato.  We both laid down for roughly an hour but neither of us got any tangible sleep during those 60 minutes.

The dinner was scheduled to start very early at 4:45 PM.  The time was set in order for our group of nearly 30 people to be able to take advantage of an early dinner menu at McCormick & Schmicks.  The three of us were one of the last to arrive, despite getting there only a few minutes late.  There was assigned seating, we sat in the back corner with my buddy who is now the head of our department and Debbie, another former co-worker and friend of mine whom retired a couple years ago.  Debbie and Cindy immediately hit it off which I expected.

The meal and celebration was quite enjoyable.  I used a steady stream of Bud Lights during the meal and a 5 hour energy prior to it to keep myself awake and sociable, despite getting up at 4:15 AM that morning.  Various people spoke during the party, including brief speeches by my buddy and myself, thanking Shirley for all the kindness she has shown us over the years.  It is a rare thing to have a boss you really like and I have been quite lucky to enjoy that situation for the last nearly 15 years.

As the meal wound down the majority of people headed out.  Our group was willing to stick around to go have a drink somewhere with Shirley and a few others.  Shirley said something to Cindy about wanting to get a table at a nearby place called Burn.  When I realized why it is named that, for it’s cigar bar theme, I was not into it at all.  Don bailed as soon as it was mentioned.  Cindy, Randall, Debbie and I went in and sat at an outdoor table.  Even sitting outdoors the stench of cigar smoke was wafting around us.  I really did not want to hang there.

Eventually Shirley and the rest of the crew showed up and we moved to an even larger table that happened to be right next to the outdoor lounge area where the smoke was thickest.  Cindy was ready to just get up and leave.  Randall was not enjoying the smoke either, both of them got up and stood at the perimeter to try to escape some of the stench.  We stayed for one drink and then apologized to Shirley, using our early alarm clock as reason to head out, which was not entirely untrue, I was tired for sure.  The cigar smoke however certainly accelerated our departure.

On Sunday morning Randall and I went out for a Dunkin Donuts ride.  Once again the temps were in the 50’s, a bit chilly on a bike but we dressed for it.  I was surprised when Randall told me that he had not been on a bike for nearly two months.  His Crossfit gym membership and half marathon training evidently totally squeezed cycling out of his life for awhile.

I was in front as we headed west.  I spotted what looked to be a wallet out of the corner of my eye in the bike lane as we whisked by.  I turned back and told Randall I think we just passed a wallet.  He asked if we should go back.  I said yea, we should, if it was my wallet I would want someone to do the same for me. Randall retrieved the wallet and said it had no cash but seemed intact otherwise.  He threw it in his jersey pocket for us to look at once we got to DD.

The ride there went well.  I pulled the entire way and I did so using my new, faster pedaling cadence that I found served me so well on my return ride from Ave Maria several weeks ago.  Once we got onto the long stretch between Wilson Blvd and Collier Blvd I maintained 20-21 mph the entire way with the wind at our backs.

While we were drinking our small coffees we pulled out the wallet.  There was no drivers license but we found other cards that gave us the guys name and where he lived.  A quick internet search did not reveal a phone number however.  Later when we got home I found the 26 year old on Facebook and sent him a message, hoping he would see it and reply.

The ride back was not easy.  Since I pulled the entire way there Randall pulled as we left.  The headwind was mostly hitting us at an angle but it still was making pedaling significantly tougher.  Somewhere around 3 miles into the 10 mile return trip I could tell Randall was losing steam.  I asked him if he wanted me to pull, something I am not sure I have ever done.  I am used to Randall being the puller in tough conditions since he puts so many more miles in than I do normally.  Randall tapped his right side, meaning he was ready for a breather.  I got deep on my aero bars I pulled ahead.

Despite the wind I was able to keep the speed over 17 mph, even during the worst of it.  By the time we made the northern turn I was able to pop back up to 18, 19 and even 20 mph for the last part of the ride.  I think the combo of being able to get small on my aero bars and my increased pedal speed made all the difference.  I used to think that I was getting more bang for my buck by pedaling slower at a higher gear, getting more wheel rotation per pedal stroke.  I am now in the exact opposite camp. Keeping my legs spinning at a lower overall resistance level seems to allow me to actually go faster, longer than I could before.  To be able to pull into the wind that last 7 miles with as little cycling as I have been doing was a good thing.

Cindy again had to run out during the day Sunday for more party supplies.  I took some time to install some of the additional chicken coop defenses that I ordered. I attached more of the red LED predator lights and an 80 LED, super bright solar floodlight.  If anything approaches the coop on the side where the break in occurred it will be blinded and hopefully scared away instantly.  We now have a total of four predator lights on the coop/run as well.

Most of the afternoon was spent doing prep for our Super Bowl party.  Of course Cindy was by far the leader in work accomplished.  She had spent a lot of time and effort planning the party out.  We had a couple disagreements on some logistical issues like furniture layout but eventually she came around to my line of thinking.

We had a decent amount of people show up early to partake in the outdoor activities like slack lining, tire flipping, rope climbing and pull ups.  It was a lot of fun.  I was quite happy when I saw my buddy Sean pull up in the driveway.  His girlfriend had bowed out of the party earlier so I assumed he was not going to come either.  It was a pleasant surprise and since he was the strongest and most vocal Patriots supporter it was good to have his perspective.

The betting board was pretty heavily utilized and once again seemed to be one of the more popular parts of the party.  Even if you know nothing about football it is fun to gamble just a little bit.  Before the party I was getting worried that we had too many people showing up.  We arranged the house to maximize sitting space both on furniture and the floor. (Cindy bought two bean bag chairs)  It turned out a good handful of people we thought were coming could not make it so we had ample room for everyone.

During the night I downed a six pack of Bud Light Platinums solo so that pretty much took care of my drinking needs.  I loosely paid attention to the game but was too drunk to care all that much about it.  I was more sober towards the end so I could appreciate the dramatic finish which allowed the Patriots to snatch victory from what looked to be a crushing defeat. I remember laughing at some commercials and saying what the fck to others, you don’t need me to recap them for you.

A number of people left before the end of the game which is often the case.  At the very end it was just us, Sean and two of Cindy’s girlfriends from the running club.  I think everyone involved, regardless of their departure time enjoyed themselves which is all Cindy and hope for.  After the last person left Cindy dug into clean up as much as she could.  There was no way we were going to get everything back in place Sunday night but we made a hell of a dent at least.  We didn’t get to bed until after midnight.

Cindy was unlucky enough to have to work Monday.  Randall and I had taken Monday off as a recovery day and we were both glad we did.  When we went out for coffee we stopped and grabbed the dogs so they could get to spend some time with their favorite uncle.  After getting them I took Randall for his first trip to Rural King so he could see what all the fuss was about.  I am not sure how impressed he was but I think he definitely found aspects of the store interesting.  One of the things I bought there was a raccoon sized live trap.  I plan to try to catch the predator and release him far away.

Cindy would prefer if I would enact eye for an eye justice on the animal but that only would happen if I caught the raccoon mid-attack.  Otherwise I just don’t have it in me to end an animals life for doing what is is hard wired to do.  I could have prevented the attack, regardless of the raccoons intentions.

I also made a pit stop at Home Depot to grab one more clasp for the coop.  While I was there I also grabbed a bag of large white egg rock.  When I got home I used it to augment the border around the flowers Cindy planted where we buried the chickens, creating a touching little memorial for them.

I also installed the rest of my coop hardware. I installed brackets on the big front coop door and looped a massive caribiner through them, preventing what would be unlikely access by another animal.  I replaced another flimsy door loop as well as installing the second clasp lock on the other side door.  I now feel confident that I have done all I can to ensure the safety of future chickens in the coop.

For a good portion of Monday Randall and I just vegged out, watching a How It’s Made marathon on the Science Channel.  I find that show fascinating and addicting.  Randall liked it too.  Cindy finds it interesting too but only in much shorter bursts than I do.

During the day I tracked down the guy whose wallet we found.  One of the cards indicated where he worked so we called his employer and got his cell phone number.  The guy was so relieved his wallet was found.  When he showed up he told me he and his friends got into some fight Saturday night after the Country Jam that was held at the county fairgrounds.  Evidently after the scuffle his wallet wound up in the back of their pick up truck on the tailgate and subsequently on the road during the drive home.  He was very grateful for our efforts and offered me money for the good deed which I of course refused.  Doing the right thing should not come with a price tag.

Randall headed out a little before 5 after saying goodbye to the girls.  I thanked him for a good weekend and all of the help with Ali’s race.  It’s always nice to have him hang out for a couple days.

Once he left I dug into more chores including paying my bills and some other things.  As I was working on my bills I popped open a running club email that had some information in there that I found extremely irritating.  It was so irritating that it pretty much dominated the rest of the evening, causing me to be short and grumpy with Cindy and is probably one of the reasons I could not fall back asleep after waking up at 2:30 AM.

For quite awhile I have been teetering back and forth regarding what I am and not willing to deal with when it comes to my duties associated with the club.  I now have a pretty definitive line in the sand as a result of this latest episode of bad judgement.  There are exactly two options that I will be choosing between based on what happens next, either one is a vast improvement over what I have been dealing with for the last couple years.  These issues affect my quality of life and I am not willing to allow that to be the case going forward.