Archives May 2015

So Monday night a little after 9pm Cindy tells me the water in the sink just stopped.  She then checked the bathrooms and confirmed the lack of water pressure was house-wide.  My initial thought was for some reason the breakers for the well or water equipment had popped.  A quick check revealed no breakers were tripped but we had nothing but drips out of the faucet.

I headed outside to the water equipment and took a look,  Nothing looked abnormal other than the low pressure reading on the gauge.  The pressure switch which controls the activity pump was closed and in the “on” position yet no water was being pushed.  I walked out to the well head and could feel vibration in the pipe meaning something was going on but obviously it was screwed up.  I turned off all the breakers for the well to prevent the pump from running dry which would destroy it, if it wasn’t already destroyed.

I returned inside and told Cindy we were indeed going to be waterless for the evening.  I hopped in the car and grabbed two large two gallon containers of water to get us by until Tuesday.  Unfortunately the water died before Cindy and I took our showers meaning we both cleansed in a less than satisfying manner using a small container of warm water and a couple wash clothes.  I certainly did not feel up to normal clean standards afterward.

So I made arrangements to work from home Tuesday so I could handle the well repair as it was obviously a high priority.  I turned the  breakers back on hoping that if there was some sort of thermal switch that killed the pump that overnight it would have corrected itself.  That hope was ill advised, the water system was still dead.  Monday night I left a message for the company that drilled the well when the house was built but I got a hold of the company that replaced my water equipment a few years ago first thing in the morning.  They said they could get out to check out the problem later the same, day, sweet.

Of course I did some searching around the net for information regarding well pumps, mainly how to replace one and what it costs to have one replaced by someone else.  When I saw the potential cost of 1-2K for a replacement I shuddered a bit but when I saw a video of what was involved it seemed like one of those tasks that would be best handled by a professional.  When it comes to items that perform crucial functions in the household I would rather let someone that does it for a living do the work.

So the guy from the well company pulled up late morning and I explain the chain of events.  He confirmed that it seems like the pump is running but not pushing water.  I left him alone to continue the diagnosis while I did some more virtual work in the office.  When I checked back on him I saw a 40 or 50 foot pvc pipe laid out in the yard and him on the phone.  When I came out I could hear he sounded flustered.  I also noticed that there was no well pump to be seen, which would normally be attached to the end of the pipe. Hmmm…

The guy hangs up and says there is a problem.  In order to pull out the well pipe he first had to disconnect the power connections in the junction box at the well head.  Those wires lead down to the pump at the end.  Well after he disconnected the wire nut the wire disappeared as it got pulled down the pipe.  The wires were pulled down by the weight of the well pump which had managed to unscrew itself from the pipe fitting.  The end result was the pump and the wire were now sitting somewhere at the bottom of the roughly 125 foot well.  So evidently the pump was still functional, it had just separated from the pipe.

The guy was honest in his role in the pump falling.  He said he wasn’t fast enough in grabbing the wire but he did not expect it to drop either.  He said common practice is to secure the wires to the well pipe with lots of waterproof tape to prevent this exact scenario.  Evidently the well installers, like so many other contractors involved in the building of the house took a shortcut and did not bother to secure the wires at all, creating this trap door scenario. I was also surprised to hear that a well pump can unscrew itself.  Evidently the rotational torque the pump uses to push water can eventually cause this after hundreds of thousands of off and on cycles.  It was ironic that the well pump that was actually still functional was now sitting at the bottom of the well.

So the well guy gave me two options.  He said sometimes they can get lucky and actually manage to fish the well pump back out although the odds of doing so are not good at all.  The other option was to install a new well pump.  Well my first question was about option two, “Isn’t a problem to leave the old pump in the bottom of the well?”.  The guy said not at all, he said this scenario while not common, does happen.  Plus a well pump is submerged in water it’s entire existence anyway.  Whether this occurs at 50 feet depth or 125 feet does not make a difference.  Logically this made sense but I still didn’t love the idea of the old unit laying down there.

I asked him the 20 Million Dollar Question, what will a new one cost?  He said for everything it’s $800 but because of his boo boo they would do it all for $725.  Considering I had 1-2k preloaded in my head, this number sounded reasonable.  From looking online I knew a pump runs about $400 for the unit.  An extra 300 bucks for the parts/materials and labor to do it sounded reasonable to me so I told him to go do it.  He had to go grab some materials from another guy in order to do the install so he drove off to get them.

While he was gone Cindy and I got to work on coming up for some different living arrangements for the chicks.  The older chicks were just getting too big for the bin in our bathroom.  Despite Cindy cleaning it up several times a day it was pretty disgusting most of the time due to the baby chickens ferocious excrement schedule.  We decided that if we relinquished one of the parking spots in the garage and put the chicken tractor run in there it would be a good solution.

We laid down a plastic garbage bag and then covered it with the same wood chips we use for the adult chickens.  We also put in a tray with sand in it so the chicks could play/dig in it, something they enjoy.  When Cindy brought the chicks out they immediately started running, flapping and jumping around, trying out the newly expanded borders of their home.

My only concern was during 90 degree days the garage could get uncomfortably warm.  Even with the door open I saw temps as high as 92 degrees in there, albeit with nice air circulation.  I had Cindy grab a fan during the day just to make sure things don’t get too stuffy.  I told her if need be, we will keep the garage door closed and the utility room door open so cool air from the house can help cool the garage space as well. Yes, my electric bills since acquiring the chicks have increased dramatically.

So the well guy returned with the materials he needed for the well work.  He said it should take him less than an hour to finish up. He knocked on the door ahead of that time frame saying he was almost done except for testing it.  So we turned everything back on and water started to flow, awesome.  However about 2 minutes into the test there was a POP sound from the well area and we lost pressure, not awesome.  The guy said it seemed like something happened with the feed pipe and he would have to pull it out again.

I helped him in the process this time, hoping my assistance would help speed up things.  As we raised the pipe we saw the problem, the single joint in the feed pipe had separated. Thankfully the copious taping the installer did with the new pump and wires prevented a second pump from dropping down to the bottom of the well.

After we pulled the pipe out the guy cleaned and cemented the joint.  I had never heard of a properly primed and cemented PVC joint pulling apart but I guess this was just my lucky day.  After adhering the two pipes together again and letting it set for 10-15 minutes I helped him lower the monster pipe back into the well.  After redoing the electrical connections the water tests were successful this time, water was flowing inside the house and at a pressure slightly higher than it felt before.  I thanked the guy for the work and for being honest about his screw up before he left.  He appreciated me not going into a-hole mode about it.

After watching what was involved with the entire procedure I am pretty confident I could have swapped out the pump myself.  If the job faces me down the road I would take a swing at it.  It was great having water inside the house once again.  The showers Cindy and I took later felt especially refreshing.

In addition to moving the older chicks we also moved the younger chicks into the bigger bin, our hope being the slightly larger bin would help alleviate some of the problems with the 5 youngsters.  One of them has been having poop butt symptoms and another had a small scab on her chest.  Their constant pooping requires constant cleaning else it can put the chicks at risk for health issues.  Cindy has been doing the best she can to keep on top of it.

Tonight after work I am picking up the dogs for a several night stay over.  During the day today Ali is taking Nicki to the vet for some sort of scabby looking thing on her belly.  We are all hoping it isn’t diagnosed as anything serious.

Saturday morning started like most of my Saturday mornings do with weeding the yard.  However the next activity was not usually a weeding follow up, a DD bike ride.   I have not done any outdoor endurance work in over a month, probably close to a month and a half due to my right knee being in a a pretty steady state of soreness.    I had a novel idea to leave my GPS at home, something that I never do.  With a GPS in front of me it is like the proverbial carrot, always driving me to pedal harder to keep that magical MPH number in a range that I deem worthy.  A side effect of this is sucking almost every ounce of enjoyment out of a ride as it becomes little more than a sweaty, unenjoyable, grindfest with your head low to reduce wind drag and a view of nothing but the next 25 feet of asphalt in front of you.

I thought back to my youth and how I rode my bike without any technology on board, just pedaling from point A to point B and taking in whatever I might encounter along the way.  When I told Cindy I wanted to do the ride without the GPS she welcomed the idea so that made it official.  I lead the way the entire way to DD.  I pedaled at a steady pace but nothing that would prevent me from carrying on a conversation, not that I enjoy talking while riding.  I was pretty much off my aero bars the entire way, riding in mostly an upright position that allowed me to see the world around me.  I took notice of things that I never noticed before from my dozens of  hunched over rides before.  Not having to answer to the GPS taskmaster was such a pleasant change.

After a long coffee break at DD we headed eastward with Cindy in the lead this time.  Although I had no GPS Cindy has her permanently mounted bike computer.  She was using it to try to keep a steady, high cadence.  I was in high riding position the entire way back, the only problem I had was with my hands going numb after awhile.  I did a lot of shifting around with them to try to find the right combination of support and comfort.  When we pulled back into the driveway I felt like it was the most enjoyable ride I had in years, despite it being more or less a 10 mile straight line both ways.  I definitely will be going GPS free more often in the future.  Despite the lack of one, Cindy’s bike computer said we averaged 16 mph which isn’t bad.  Sacrificing 2-3 mph in order to gain so much more appreciation for your surroundings in a no brainer trade off in my opinion.

During the afternoon we took the older chicks outside to let them play in the chicken tractor run.  When we first let them loose they were jumping, flapping, and running around, seemingly delirious with having a much larger patch of real estate to play in.  They were a bit unsure of how grass worked but before long they were scratching and picking at it like pros.

It didn’t take long for them to wear themselves out.  When I checked back later they were all huddled together napping in the wash basket we brought them out in.  Cindy is going to be trying to get them outside for a period of time daily.  Hopefully by next weekend we can start doing the same with the other chicks that are a week younger.

Cindy also played chicken nurse during the day for Lola who has been acting a little off.  Cindy checked her crop and found that it felt hard which is not a good thing.  The crop is a pouch where chickens hold food before it gets ingested.  Cindy held Lola and massaged the crop to loosen up whatever was packed in there as they advised online.  When she was done it felt much less impacted and Lola has been acting better ever since. We headed out to Home Depot to get a few things mid afternoon and then I worked up until dinner time spreading mulch, laying a couple pavers, and doing a few more little things.

Saturday night we stayed in and enjoyed a home cooked meal while watching A Walk Among the Tombstones, with Liam Neeson.  I have come to like most movies Liam does.  Somehow in his later years he has become quite the capable action drama star despite not having bulging biceps or a protein shake heavy diet.  This particular film was good as well although it had a very dark and disturbing element to it as it depicted the workings of a truly sick criminal mind.  It was a very solid B+ rental.

Sunday was Mother’s Day, a day that I was not particularly looking forward to for obvious reasons.  I did my very best to be distracted pretty much the entire day.  Of course I wanted Cindy to know how much I appreciate the mothering role she takes on for all the animals in our house, including Nicki and Sadie when they are there.  I also appreciate the sincere and deep compassion she feels for me regarding the loss of my mom.  One of her projects on Friday was starting a memorial bench for my mom that was unexpected, creative, and sweet.

Cindy’s family was coming over early in the afternoon.  I had very little on my to do list thanks to Saturday’s efforts combined with all the stuff Cindy now gets accomplished during the week.  I spent a good portion of my morning lost in a prolonged WoW session which is one of the ways I can keep my mind busy and not focused on my first Mother’s Day since mom passed away.  Cindy encouraged me to just chill and play as she got stuff together for her family’s arrival.

When her family started showing up I started popping a few beers, something that doesn’t happen much at that time of day.  Well as is often the case when alcohol is combined with food laid out buffet style, I made a pig of myself.  I was picking at food at a pretty steady pace for 2-3 hours.  Cindy’s daughter made a cute hand painted pot for her mom.  I was surprised when she walked in later with another pot with Kathy on it for me.  I thought it was very sweet of her to do.

Cindy and I played outside a lot with her little nephew Owen.  He is normally quite shy but has been slowly warming up to me.  He had a blast running around the yard, hanging on my bar park and pushing the big tires around.

Once everyone headed out I helped Cindy clean up, she had already worked way too hard with it being  Mother’s Day.  I told her she should just chill out the rest of the night and relax, something that is hard for her to do.  She agreed to watch a movie while I resumed my virtual conquests in WoW for a couple more hours.  It certainly felt like a different sort of Mother’s Day but despite the lack of my mom being there there was lots of smiles, fun and love in the house to help fill that void.

Having responsibility for a total of 13 chickens has proven to provide Cindy with a large chunk of responsibility.  I am not sure how much time each day on average is used up with chicken care but it’s sizable for sure.  Yesterday she was trying to give Lola some extra care.  She has been acting like she isn’t feeling great.  To me it just seems like her one leg/foot may be bothering her which we can’t do much about except let her rest it.  Cindy was worried that she could be egg bound but upon further research she found that Lola’s breed often will not lay eggs until at least they are 7 months old which Lola is a month shy of.  She still gave Lola careful care and examination which I was surprised she tolerated.

The baby chicks are growing fast and are very entertaining.  Jaina, from the new set of five babies is very interested in freedom.  Every time we are in the bathroom she jumps and flaps her wings, getting surprisingly high.  She also is not afraid of hands and is very willing to hop up on Cindy’s hand and be held.  Cindy is planning to take both “brooders” outside today so the chicks can feel/see the sun for the first time in their lives.

There is very little that is not sore on me today.  The 250 pull ups I did on Tuesday rolled into the leg/shoulder workout from yesterday has left me universally hurting.  I guess overall that is a good thing if the soreness is from exercise instead of just old age aches and pains.  I am hoping to get back on the bike with Cindy this weekend but impact work like running is still off the menu for me.

This weekend is Mother’s Day meaning it is yet another opportunity to revisit the reality of life after mom’s death.  I know I have said it time and again but it still does not seem like she could actually not be around.  Maybe part of me still clings to the scenario I dreamed last week where it was all just a big misunderstanding and mom had to fake her death for reasons unknown to others.  I’m not sure if it will ever really sink in.

Last night after work I suddenly developed a random inspiration to complete my 1000 pull up challenge.  This challenge was something I came up with in late July 2014.  The premise was simple, record 1000 pull up reps on video.  Cindy started a 1000 push up video challenge at the same time. (not complete either yet)

The idea was to maybe film sessions of 50-100 reps until I reached 1000 which I thought might take a month or two to complete.  Well obviously that plan didn’t quite work out.  Between a multitude of life events and other distractions the 1000 pull up challenge was pushed to the background.  As of last night I had completed 750 reps of the 1000.

Well I decided this had gone on long enough, I was going to finish, no matter what.  Up until this point in the challenge the most reps I did in one session was 100 reps which is about all my hands could take before they started to get ripped up.  Jumping up to 250 reps was going to take some hand protection and time.  I threw on a pair of wide receiver gloves I had in the hobby room.  They are a good mix of grippiness, without adding much bulk.

I started off with one set of 15 reps and then dropped into close to 50 micro sets of 5 reps with brief rest periods in between.  The first 50 reps did not feel particularly strong, I questioned how I was going to be able to get all the way to 250.  Somewhere in the middle of the pulls I had a second wind where the reps actually felt stronger before fatigue set in again later.  Once I got to 200 reps there was no turning back even though I could feel that I ripped open blisters on both hands despite wearing the gloves.

I felt a wave of relief as I pulled up for the 250th and final time.  My upper body, which was already worked hard at my lunch time bench pressing marathon, was pretty much wrecked.  So although the 1000 rep challenge took far too much time to be considered anything remotely close to impressive, finally finishing it felt good, especially doing so with a chunk of reps that I never took on before.

Since Cindy left the conventional work force several weeks ago she has been quite busy around the house.  Not only was she integral to the eventual success of the flooring project, she now has been pulling triple chicken caretaker duties, taking care of the two sets of chicks that are residing in our two bathtubs and the two adult hens outside.  I told her last night that I really like that she is home both for my sake and for hers.  The hope is this will be the seed that allows Cindy to get her personal trainer certification which will grow into a flexible career where she gets to use her various personal strengths and positive energy to help others.

Both set of chicks are doing well.  The older chicks, despite being around us for a week longer, seem more easily freaked out when Cindy interacts with them.  The new set of 5 seem more friendly at this point.  Cindy has a favorite in that group that we named Jaina, who seems to like being held and played with.   In total we have only named three of the eleven new chicks, Jaina, Kathy, and Cutie Pie.  It’s too early to name most of them to me until more distinctive physical traits and personalities emerge.

Last night after work both Cindy and I were productive.  She was on the mower knocking down the grass and I was in the driveway changing the oil in my SSR.  I knew it had been awhile since I changed the oil in the truck but I was shocked at just how long it had been when I looked at my maintenance log.  The oil was last changed February of 2014….

Now before you gasp at my poor oil change schedule please keep in mind two things.  The truck uses Mobil 1 synthetic oil which lasts longer than the regular stuff.  The other important factor is that in those 14 months that have passed the SSR has only been driven a little over 2000 miles, I shit you not.  So even though the duration between changes was crazy long, the tiny amount of driving the truck sees hopefully negates it somewhat.

I never filmed a SSR oil change before so I had to check that off the list.

Cindy got a new bin yesterday for the older chicks with much higher sides, making an escape more difficult although with the rate they are growing that won’t be the case for very long.  To address that Cindy is going to come up with some sort of screen lid to keep them secure in their temporary home.

Today was my 6 month dentist check up, unfortunately the “look mom, no cavities” byline I used to use to report a clean oral bill of health no longer feels appropriate or funny.

So on Friday Cindy nearly doubled our amount of chicks in the house, picking up another 5 of them at Rural King.  When Cindy and I discussed this before the purchase we said it would be good to get the amount of chickens we want to more or less keep full time so we don’t have to go through the chick stage more than once.  I had talked about just picking up 2 or 3 more chicks, I was surprised to see 5 little fuzz balls show up in the picture.

We wanted to make sure to get some different, non-black varieties so we weren’t accused of being racists.  Cindy got 3 or 4 different breeds this time and they are all pretty diverse.  At first she put them in their own little box in the same tub as their 1 week older siblings.  It was amazing the size difference 7 days makes in a chicks life.  The first set of chicks were nearly double the size of the new hens.

You aren’t supposed to put chicks from different breeders together for germ reasons and safety reasons since the older, bigger birds could beat on the smaller ones.  We wound up commandeering the second bathtub in the guest room as the second brooder.  Cindy ran out late Friday to grab a second heat lamp and a few other things for the new babies.  It goes without saying that they are very cute although it is weird having both bathrooms in the house being turned into chicken brooders.

First thing Saturday I was outside doing a few chores, taking advantage of the cool temps and low humidity.  Once I finished up I headed into the office to work on the firewall switch over.  For the most part it went smoothly but I had a couple bugs that took me awhile to resolve.   On the way home I stopped at Ali’s place to do some work on her computer as well.  By the time I got home it was close to 3.

It wasn’t long until Cindy and I jumped in the SSR to head back down to Naples for me to pick up the entries and race bibs for Sunday’s 5K.   That evening we finalized the race prep and tried to get to bed at a decent hour since the alarm clock was set for 4:15am.

When we got on the race site a couple minutes after 5:30 there were already a number of people there which I am not accustomed to, normally Cindy and I are the lead off hitters.  It was nice to have the race set up routine already well underway that early.  I ran into a bug early that prevented us from using more than one laptop to put in day of race entries.  Luckily the walk up traffic wasn’t that heavy so Ali was able to take care of it solo.

Things went smoothly once the race started other than one bib that appeared to be dead and a woman that only ran one of the two laps that made up the course.  I would think running 1.5 miles would feel a lot different than 3 miles to even the most novice of 5k runners but it’s happened before, I am sure it will happen again.  Cindy and I rolled off site a little after 9:15 and grabbed coffee on the way home before attending to post race work.

Despite our weekend being busy we wanted to squeeze in seeing the new Avengers movie that came out.  Cindy and I are big super hero movie fans.  We decided to go to the 3:45 matinee.  Despite Coconut Point showing the movie roughly every half hour all weekend, the theater was still about 2/3 full.

I am a huge fan of Marvel movies and really liked the first Avengers so I had high expectations for the second installment.  Those expectations were met.  The movie is an orgasm of action and mind blowing visuals with just the right amount of satire and silliness mixed in.  I did not have a very detailed background of Ultron or other super beings introduced in the movie like The Vision.  I knew their names and little else.  It was cool seeing the origin of them.

Of course the movie was filled with unbelievable destruction and unlikely outcomes but with this type of movie you already commit to leaving anything resembling reality securely checked at the door.  Cindy and I both enjoyed it to a full A rating.  We stuck around for the late bonus footage which showed up just before the main credits.  I assumed there would be additional footage at the very end of the credits, since there normally is, but we bailed when Cindy looked it up online, finding there are no end of the credits Easter eggs.

On the way home from the theater we both got a very scary reminder of the dangers of distracted driving.  We were on Immokalee Road in the middle lane.  About 100 yards in front of us was what looked like a lowered Honda Accord in the middle lane and an Isuzu SUV in the right lane.  All of a sudden I see the Honda swerve right, plowing into the right rear of the SUV.  The Honda driver then swerved back left and then hard right again, hard enough that the passenger side of the vehicle lifted several feet off the ground, perilously close to rolling over.

The SUV immediately got off to the side of the road.  The Honda slammed back down on to the ground and managed to wind up on the side of the road in front of the SUV.  As we passed slowly with other vehicles we saw a shirtless, shoeless young kid open the door of his now destroyed vehicle.  I can almost guarantee the dumb shit was interacting on his phone is some manner that led to the impact.  Since both drivers appeared to be in one piece I decided to keep on rolling, assuming there would be plenty of other good Samaritans willing to stop if need be.

Smart phone usage while driving is so commonplace I think most become numb to it’s inherent danger.  I wonder if Junior will finally wise up after destroying his vehicle and majorly damaging another.  I doubt it.  I never realized just how dumb I was right around legal drinking age until I see kids the same age now from my nearly five decades on the planet perspective.

On Sunday we realized we had some dimension problems with the first set of chicks.  Cathy managed to flap/hop up on to the top of the bin, meaning she could easily hop into the tub or out on the floor from there.  This would be bad from an excrement containment perspective as well as the chick being cut off from food, warmth and water.  Cindy is working on some modifications today to hopefully address it.

On Sunday I also received my latest robotic cleaning assistant, an iRobot Brava 380T.  This is a floor maintenance robot that is not as robust as the Scooba I already own.  A Scooba dry vacuums, sprays cleaning solution, brushes and then sucks up the liquid.  The Brava uses simple cloth cleaning pads which have the ability to perform Swiffer like cleaning.  It isn’t a way to clean floors thoroughly but is great for maintenance.

The robot uses more intelligence than Scoobas or Roombas which blindly bounce around the cleaning area in a random pattern.  The Brava uses a little cube they call Northstar to provide something similar to Neato-like smart routing around a room.  The cube bounces signal off the ceiling to help the robot make it’s way around a room.

You can use a dry cloth for sweeping or a wet cloth to do light mopping of the floor.  With our main living space being all tile I figured something like this would come in handy following up Neato sucking sessions.  Now if they only had a robotic lawn mower that was up to the task of handling my large, varied, yard terrain…..

This week has felt like I have had a lot of balls up in the air simultaneously which is a feeling I don’t typically enjoy.  At work I have been working with updating our internet firewall to a more modern and robust solution.  What we have in place works but is an 8 year old package running on Windows Server 2003 that is missing a lot of the features available with modern internet control devices.

We are moving to a solution called Untangle which is relatively simple to get up and running but allows all sorts of flexibility and protection on multiple levels.  Our old firewall/internet connection configuration is a mess after years of tweaks to make it do what we needed with software that was not designed to do it.  It will be nice to get Untangle implemented but trying to make that transition as smooth as possible has been giving me headaches all week.

The other ball is a perspective deal I have been working on with MyLaps to replace our current race timing hardware vendor, Ipico.   I really had no interest in switching when I was first contacted by the MyLaps sales rep and let him know as much.  MyLaps hardware is quite good but our Ipico timing boxes have been very reliable for the six years plus I have been using them so I felt no pressing need to change.  I am a fan of “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it” in many situations.

Well the MyLaps guy made an offer to basically swap out the hardware on a one for one basis for free, which is something I did not expect.  Their strategy is to give away their hardware with the expectation to make it up on the sale of the single use timing chip devices they are designed to work with.  The deal sounds attractive but there are some other considerations that I was wrestling with.

The club just received 6000 timing bibs for our current Ipico system, if we transitioned those become dead weight and wasted money.  I also had to be willing to learn the new hardware platform which shouldn’t be a huge deal.  Finally the MyLaps set up would require Cindy and I to do periodic bib tag sticking sessions since they do not sell bibs with the timing devices already attached like Ipico does. So anyway I made an offer to MyLaps with terms we would agree to and they have responded with a counter offer that is still attractive.  I think I will be going back with one more counter as I feel like we can get a bit more incentive if we ask again.

This weekend will be pretty stuffed.  I am timing a 5K on Sunday and on Saturday there are chores and race prep to do.  I also need to get into the office to flip the switch over to the new firewall rig.  The fun just never ends.

I was quite glad to sleep straight through the night Thursday without interruption, the first time in several days I pulled that off.