False panic, first 5K, Run to an A, Wet and blue, rebuilt, cake company
So after work on Friday I made the mistake of stopping at Costco. It was a mistake because I forgot to consider that people were worked up into a frenzy about tropical storm Erika. The mere mention of a remote possibility of it becoming a hurricane is all it takes to set off mild panic. The aisles of the store were crammed with people preparing for end of days. It seemed like almost every cart in the store had a case or two of bottle water jammed in it. As is always the case for me, I don’t react well to mob mentality. Sure be prepared if there is a serious reason for concern but what the fck, we get severe thunderstorms weekly that deliver as much if not more punch than the storm was predicted to have. It turned out to deliver even less than that as Erika fell apart Saturday morning.
The state of Florida jumped right onto the overreaction bandwagon with Rick Scott declaring a state of emergency far in advance of there being one. His declaration meant other government agencies had to fall in line and overreact in kind. State agencies were given orders to do stuff like shutdown, unplug, and cover equipment with plastic. It was all just a big production over a very small threat. Since Florida hasn’t had a hurricane make landfall in 10 years it seems like some EMS agencies are just chomping at the bit to put their emergency action plans in place, regardless of their actual need.
Saturday morning Cindy and I headed to the track to run. We wound up running slightly over 5K in distance, the first time I have run that far in at least 6 months, maybe more. I felt ok during the run besides being drenched from what felt like 100% humidity. The rest of the weekend I had an off and on limp but I didn’t expect to emerge from the run pain free. As long as it fades in a day or two that is the best I can expect nowadays.
We picked up the dogs after the run on our way to do a couple errands. At Home Depot I picked up some hardware to work on the door to the chicken run. Since it was built it has twisted somewhat, making it difficult to open and close. My idea was to drive an anchor point into opposing corners and then use vinyl coated steel cable with a tensioner in the middle. My thought was this would resist the twisting forces.
Well it seemed like all it wound up doing was actually make the door even more difficult to close. I decided to take a new approach, grabbing my large wood chisel and a hammer. I used it to shave down the 2×6 along the bottom frame of the door until it was able to swing open and closed without friction. It took a lot of trial and error and I had to keep chasing away curious chickens that thought wood shavings were treats.
Over the weekend I also tried to further address water problems and the coop. The seam between the chicken run and shed still has been allowing a lot of water to seep through. The water runs down the side of the shed and then drips onto the chicken door landing, splashing water inside as well. Yesterday I used an entire tube of caulking to fill that seam as much as possible. Hopefully I have finally got the issue handled.
During the afternoon Saturday I also completed the rebuild of my pool cleaner. I installed the new bumper assembly and gear box. Having ripped it apart several times recently and using my power drill made the work go very quickly. I was quite happy when I put it in the pool for a test run and it immediately took off, hauling ass around the bottom of the pool like it was brand new.
Saturday night we again stayed home and watched Run All Night, another Liam Neeson action flick. Cindy didn’t expect much of the film but it was quite good. Liam and action films have proven to be a pretty solid combo. I’d give this one an A- rating without batting an eye.
On Sunday I woke up feeling very blah. I felt unmotivated, lazy, and just down on the world. I felt like I have such a busy week ahead of me that I should be doing stuff to prepare but had no desire to do so. The wet swamp outside did little to help alleviate my cloudy mood. Instead of doing productive work I played some games of Hearthstone for awhile to soothe my mind. As the hours passed I started to feel a little better, aided by a cup of DD coffee.
I couldn’t mope that long because I needed to get busy on making my famous chocolate cake. A friend of ours and her kids were coming over Sunday evening so we wanted to give them a treat. Cindy Periscoped a good portion of the cake prep process. The end result was what may have been the best version of the cake I ever pumped out. Both the frosting and the cake itself were dead on.
The rains once again came mid-afternoon making any outdoor activities with the kids impossible. Instead when they showed up they were entertained by the dogs, Tuki, and the latest Transformers movie that was streaming on Netflix. Cindy prepared a very tasty meal to compliment the chocolate cake which everyone gave kudos to. It was nice to have them out to the house, hopefully next time the weather is more accommodating.
As I mentioned earlier, I have a super packed week. I host the fantasy football draft party tomorrow night, have a race to time on Saturday, and oh by the way, a two week western road trip to prepare for. Yay.