Archives 2015

Yesterday I finally got hard dates for my flooring project set up.  When you have both tile and carpeting going in the tile always needs to go down first if the two surfaces touch anywhere.  The tile job is scheduled to start April 14th.

The installer said that this is a large job and could take 3-4 full days to complete and that is assuming they don’t run into problems.  I already know they are going to have some issues with areas of the foundation that are not flat.  I know there are a few waves here and there that I can feel through the carpet. The carpet in the office and bedrooms is scheduled to go down a week later on the 21st.

Although the house is going to be more or less a disaster area for around two weeks, having the job split into two areas and two dates will make furniture moving more manageable.  While the tile is being done in the main living area we can slide all that stuff into the bedrooms and vice versa when the carpet is being laid.  It’s still going to be a TON of work and mess.  I am just going to focus on getting to the finish line, confident that all of the effort will result in a much more durable, attractive, and appealing interior of our home.

So yesterday I had a voicemail from the owner of the Florida Tarpons, Dave.  I have talked to Dave a few times on the phone since the team came into existence a few years ago.  He has told me of some of the struggles he has endured trying to get the team into something other than the money bleeding operation that it has been.

Well the reason for his call last night was to see if I wanted to renew my season tickets for this year.  I had planned to renew but I did not plan to have the owner of the team calling me personally to do so.

So I told him I was going to renew.  There are only four home games.  When he told me the total would be $200 for the two tickets I paused a bit.  $25 per game per person is pretty heavy considering the level of play, but our seats last year were pretty primo near midfield in row 3 or 4.  But then I considered that last year they gave us those season tickets for free to make up for the cluster fck of a 2013 season that had a bunch of rescheduled or cancelled games.  I figure I at least owed them one season of paying full boat for the seats.  The first home game isn’t until the end of April.

I took this upcoming Monday off to give me a three day weekend.  The extra day is not for relaxation but for labor.  My goal is by the end of those three days to have a raised platform in the middle of the back yard with the new 10′ x 8′ shed resting securely on top of it, fully constructed.

Like most all of my home construction the informal process and plans I am following are completely in my head.  For the most part this unconventional approach to construction has served me well over the years.  Hopefully the streak continues.

After work last night I stopped at Home Depot to grab two 12 foot long 2″x6″ boards which will be used for the long sides of the 8’x10′ foot frame I will be building hopefully this weekend.  Both Cindy and I are excited to get the platform up and the new shed constructed on top of it.

Cindy has really been struggling with eye strain since her job now requires looking at a computer screen pretty much all day long.  By the end of each work day she is in terrible discomfort and struggles mightily to just look at the screen.

I suggested to her the other day that she may benefit from a pair of Gunnar glasses which are specifically designed for CVS (computer vision syndrome).  You may recall that about a year ago I tried a pair of Gunnars and had problems with them.  However my computer/near field vision was fine going in, I was trying them to see if the Gunnars would help the distance vision problem I have. They did not.  But with the symptoms Cindy was having they were a near perfect fit.

So the glasses arrived yesterday.  Cindy’s eyes were hurting as usual after another day of staring at screens.  I had her sit in front of my two 27 inch screens with and without the Gunnars.  When she looked at the screens naked the pain and discomfort returned immediately.  When she put on the Gunnars and surveyed the 54 inches of monitor real estate the pain disappeared.

Later in the evening she used them working on her pc and reported similar positive results.  Today at work will be the most important test.  Hopefully she has similar results there.

Yesterday I had to meet a truck filled with supplies for my flooring job.  They off loaded three palettes of tile, thin set, grout and more.  When added to the two huge shed boxes that were already in there, my garage has suddenly become quite full.  It’s both exciting and intimidating having all the stuff there as it means the work involved with getting all of these boxes turned into home improvements is right around the corner.  I am now waiting to get an install date from Home Depot so I can plan around it accordingly.  I expect to be off from work for several days while this all goes down.

Instead of driving all the way back to the office I just worked from home the rest of the day.  On my lunch break I headed out back and knocked out another 100 reps in my 1000 pull up challenge.  At this point I only have 250 reps to go. There is some chicken footage injected in there as well.

Speaking of the chickens, they were out free ranging all afternoon.  It seems the new chicken that we have now named Lucy, due to her reddish brown color, has now more or less been accepted as one of the flock.  She was side by side with the other chickens most every time I checked on them.  Both Cindy and I are relieved.

When Cindy got home we headed over to the fair.  It seemed pretty busy for a Tuesday night.  Our first stop was for some food since we were both hungry.  We chose to get arepas from the same tiny Mexican woman that we patronized at last years fair.  Just like last year, the corn/cheese goodness of an arepa hit the spot.

We had started checking out all of the animals when we heard the announcement for the Motorcycle Maniacs show starting so we made a detour.  The show was filled with mostly low grade entertainment.  The most excitement was at the very end where they had dirt bikes circling inside one of those mesh globes which had some legitimate high risk danger.

After the show we went back to looking at chickens.  Of course this year we have an entirely different perspective and appreciation of chickens after owning them for most of the last year.  Some of the breeds were just so beautiful.  It gave Cindy and I ideas for other breeds we would like to add to the flock once the new coop arrangements are in place.

We hit the beer tent where they were selling shamrock adorned Bud Light aluminum “bottles” which were a must buy since it was St Patricks day.

Cindy then convinced me to spend $2 to see the amazing serpent woman.  The sign outside said she was a “living snake woman”, an exhibit I have seen at the fair for the last 14 years but never actually checked out first hand.  Having some beer in me made me more agreeable to seeing this “amazing” sight.

So after handing the old woman our two 1 dollar bills she poked her head around the corner of the tent to make sure the snake woman was ready for visitors which evidently she was.

The serpent lady was kept behind a fence, for our protection surely.  Both Cindy and I laughed out loud when we saw her.  It was a young woman with her head poked through a table with fake plants and a rubber snake body lying on top.  Luckily the snake woman spoke english, I asked her if she minded if I took my picture with her, which she agreed to.  I found it funny that even half snake/half human mutants have iPhones which she surely used to browse Facebook during lulls in the amazed spectators.  I wonder how much snake people earn in a night?  I emerged from the tent totally content that I got my $1 worth of entertainment.

We grabbed some other fair food as we walked around like jalapeno poppers and a soft pretzel.  We walked through the hard core carnie area which is always a bit annoying to me.  I hate being accosted to play fair games of “skill” for junk I don’t want.  It seemed like I was accosted a little less than normal, my fresh head shave and ample facial hair probably helped a bit in that regard.

So we wanted to go into the livestock area but it was closed because they were doing the pig show.  It was run in a manner very similar to a dog show except the pigs were brought out by weight class.  Each pig had a kid as it’s handler.  The kids used a little stick looking thing to try to steer the pigs around the ring but many of them were comically bad at doing so.  The pigs, who during the fair spend 99% of their time inside small holding pens, were very excited when let loose in the big judging ring.  Many of them would run around like excited dogs, it was very cute.

There was a judge that was walking around observing all of the pigs carefully.  He would then give an incredibly detailed description of the winning pigs attributes, this guy took his job quite seriously.  Cindy and I sat and watched the rest of the show which probably lasted over a half hour.  We felt both happiness watching the pigs running around acting like big fat dogs and sadness knowing the ultimate destination for most if not all of them would be on somebody’s plate.

After the pig show we went into the petting zoo area.  We got to feed all sorts of animals including a camel.  Cindy however fell in love with the goats, especially the baby goats.  Once we ran out of carrots to feed them Cindy started petting the goats and was surprised that they actually liked it.  She petted a pregnant female goat and a number of baby goats for at least 15 minutes.  It was very cute how they interacted.

Before we left we got into the large livestock area which was closed during the pig show.  We were surprised that all of the pigs were on their sides asleep, I guess the pig show must really wear them out.  There was only one pig that was standing up and awake.

Cindy knelt down and rubbed his head which you could tell he obviously liked.  He started making noises that we interpreted as approval.    He turned himself so he was right against the front of the pen so Cindy could pet him better.  It literally felt like Cindy was petting a dog.

We could hardly believe it when the pig proceeded to lay down right in front of the gate as Cindy was rubbing him.  If she stopped petting him he would stand up and make noise like he wanted her to continue, once she did he would eventually lay down again, content.  It was so cute.  Of course it broke our heart when we needed to get going as it was almost 10PM at that point.  Cindy would have adopted the pig in a heart beat.

We got home tired but content.  We had a good time, it makes it more fun since Cindy and I have such similar likes of most things as well as feelings about animals.  We will be back in 2016.

All day yesterday I was worried about the new hen’s safety in the coop with our new flock bullies, Curly and Kathy.  Although there is a decent amount of room under the coop and run for her to escape if need be, I was still afraid I would come home to her being in bad shape.  I was very relieved to step out the back door and see four chickens looking back at me.  I opened the coop and let them out to play.  The new hen was mostly side by side with the other chickens, hopefully we are past the most difficult acclimation time period.

I had to get changed and head directly back out in the Tacoma.  Earlier in the day I called the Naples Sam’s Club as instructed to see if they got any of the sheds delivered overnight.  They said they had four of them scheduled to be delivered but again they were unsure of when.  She said it looked like it might not be until next week.  It took me about 15 minutes of time on the phone to get this answer.

So just for the hell of it I called the next closest SC which is in Fort Myers.  They said they had six of the sheds in stock, cool.  I figured I would just grab it after work to not risk them running out of stock again.  I hopped in the Tacoma after chicken checking and headed north.  I was surprised that the GPS predicted I had roughly an hour drive ahead of me.  It turned out to be slightly more than that thanks to traffic.

So I walk in the store which appears to have a similar layout to the Naples location.  I walk over to the area where the display was in Naples but found no shed there.  Maybe this store didn’t have a display built.  I figured I would go to the customer service desk and ask them how to proceed since I had the item number in my phone.  The large 10 foot by 30 foot desk had exactly one woman behind it.  There were two other people in line with me.  The girl behind the counter was ignoring all three of us, I heard her yell over to another woman that she was in the middle of doing some sort of work that evidently did not involve helping the customers in front of her.  After more than 5 minutes of being ignored I mumbled “this is ridiculous” and walked away, looking for somebody else to ask.

Well I spotted the shed on the opposite side of the store.  I walked over and saw they had the tags you can simply take up to a register to pay for the item which I did. After paying for the shed the cashier said I could just wait by the exit door for them to bring it out.

So I stood guard at the door scanning for two large boxes coming my way.  Of course as I stood there I had ample time to observe the Sam’s Club patrons pushing their flatbeds and carts of crap out the door.  As I stood witness it did not give me much hope for the future of humanity.  It was pretty damn depressing.

So after standing by the door for at least 15 minutes the manger comes and tells me that it would be better if I drove my truck around the back to the vendor door.  He said the boxes for the shed were buried under some other things that had to be moved first.  I said fine, jumped in the Tacoma and drove around the back looking for a Vendor sign which there was none.  I did see a garage door and a regular door with a buzzer so it seemed like the logical spot to go.

For some reason I assumed someone would already be waiting for me out there which was evidently a poor assumption.  I waited for a bit for someone to pop their head out.  When that didn’t happen I went over to the door with a buzzer and rung it.  When nothing happened I pulled on the door and was surprised it was unlocked.  It led to a waiting room outside of what looked like a receiving office which had nobody in it.  I looked around for any signs of life but saw nothing, great.

After about 10 more minutes of waiting around I finally see a guy on a skid loader approach whom I wave down.  He said he had to unbury the boxes and it would take a couple minutes, the same thing I was told 20 minutes ago.  He said he would bring the shed out the garage door, great.  Finally, around 45 minutes after I paid,  the garage door was raised and the skid loader emerged with  two very long boxes on it.  I was glad the boxes were narrow enough to fit in between the wheel wells.

The guy carefully inched the loader forward until it was a couple inches from the cab.  The back end of the truck sagged under the 500 pounds plus of weight.  Even though the weight of the shed alone was probably enough to keep it from going anywhere, I used my ratchet strap to lock it in place.

By the time I navigated the long drive home it was after 8:30.  Getting the boxes out of the truck and into the garage was a bit challenging.  I pulled them down one at a time, each weighing at least 250 lbs.  Their long length and weight made moving them difficult, even with my hand truck.  Cindy and I managed to get them into a corner of the garage and leaned them upright against the wall.  They just cleared the 8 foot ceiling. After picking up a couple 2 x 10’s I will have everything I need to start construction.  Some of it may occur after work this week but more than likely things will really take shape over the weekend.

Tonight Cindy and I are hoping to take a mental breather from all of the upcoming project work we have on our plates by going to the county fair a mile down the road.  It’s one of the very few sources of entertainment available to us in close vicinity.   We both enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of the fair.  Of course we love interacting with the animals and the people watching opportunities at the event are top notch.

So when I got home on Friday evening it was to a totally empty driveway, meaning the party van was picked up by the towing company to be repurposed in whatever way possible to raise a few dollars for the Humane Society.  It felt very weird not seeing the outline of the party van standing guard in front of my home like it has for the last 6 years.  I guess I’ll get used to it.

Originally the dogs were going to get dropped off back at Ali’s place on Saturday morning however Ali had plans to work all day Saturday.  I figured the dogs would have a hell of a lot more fun staying out at the house all day with us than alone in an empty townhouse so I asked if we could drop them off on the way to the movies Saturday night, which Ali was fine with.  Well we wound up not going to the movies Saturday night and it turned out the dogs were with us until this morning, as I dropped them off on my way to work.

We love having the dogs obviously but we pay a severe sleep penalty when they are over most nights.  Sadie is a light sleeper and is ready to go out on the lanai at any time of the night.  If she is on the bed and awake, many times her breathing is heavy enough that it sends a constant vibration through the mattress which makes it near impossible to sleep.  Nicki, who sleeps soundly a good portion of most days, saves her nosiest time for nights.  In her old age she will randomly make wretching sounds as well as do heavy, loud panting that keeps both Cindy and I awake.  After five nights of this we both are feeling rather Walking Deadish, which may partially explain my bad mood yesterday.

So Saturday morning I heard Cindy say “I knew it!” loudly.  I was on the computer and had no idea what she was talking about.  She was referring to her suspicion that Nona was a rooster.  Her suspicion was confirmed when Nona started crowing at early morning sun.  Nona has been showing rooster personality traits, starting fights with all of the other chickens and just being generally aggressive.  In addition Nona’s wattle was bigger than all the other chickens and his feet were quite large as well, although Kathy and Curly have rather big feet as well, which has us concerned. (more on this later)

So we knew Nona had to go, we had expressed our concern about some of the chickens being roosters to the woman we got them from.  She told us then that if any turned out to be roosters we could return him.  We called and left a message letting her know we definitely had a rooster.

Even though Cindy and I knew a rooster would not fit into our backyard chicken formula we felt very sad about the idea of ejecting Nona from the flock.  Nona was the chicken that was sick very early on, laying weakly on Cindy’s lap as she rubbed him.  Nona was also the chicken that spent a night in our guest bathroom.  It’s weird that s(he) turned out to be the dominant rooster.  We hoped to hear from Anna soon so we could get the return over with, we didn’t hear back on Saturday.

Saturday morning Cindy and I did a three mile run, based out the Dunkin Donuts parking lot.  I never felt comfortable during the run.  We got a late start, meaning the warmer temps and humidity were more of a factor.  The 9:11 pace I averaged felt like an effort level of at least 45 seconds a mile faster.  I just was not enjoying myself.

After doing a shit load of yard work which included full lawn maintenance which had not be done for at least a month, we headed out for some errands with the dogs along for the ride.  We took the Prius which will be the defacto dog transport vehicle most of the time.  I tried to make it somewhat party van like for Nicki by laying the comforter that used to be on the bed in the van across the trunk area of the Prius.  The dogs seemed fine back there but I still felt guilty for taking their van away.

One of the places Cindy and I stopped was Sam’s.  When I was shopping there on Friday I saw these 10’x8′ sheds they were selling for a reasonable number.  Instantly a light bulb went off in my head.  Either this shed could be the new coop or it could be used to hold the stuff in my smaller shed, allowing that to be turned into a coop.

Cindy liked the shed a lot and seemed to favor making it the coop building since it’s polyethelene shell (with a steel frame) would make for easy clean up and more sanitary conditions.  For a mounting surface I figured I could make a slightly raised 8×10 wood platform that is concreted into the ground for stability and to keep it out of water during wet season.  We both agreed it was cool but did not pull the trigger on a purchase quite yet.

On Saturday we squashed the idea of going to the movies.  We were both tired from dog sleep deprivation plus we had Nightcrawler sitting in the Netflix envelope.  It was a decent flick.  Jake Gyllenhaal does a fantastic job at playing a really creepy and deranged character.  His acting performance gets an A, the movie gets a B+.

So Sunday we headed out to do several things.  We visited the course for the 10K I am timing in a couple weeks to mark the halfway point where I intend to have Cindy running the split timing for me. We had decided we were going to go with the shed from Sam’s.  I stopped at Home Depot to grab the stuff I would need to build the platform, well at least the frame of it.  I would go back to get the pressure treated plywood cut to size once I had the frame built.

We pulled into Sam’s ready to load up the shed as well, wanting to take advantage of the special in store pricing which was something like $500 less than what it showed online for the same shed.  Well we were bummed to hear they sold their last in stock unit on Saturday.  They said they would be getting more but could not tell us when.  The advice was to just call the store each day to check, that’s convenient.

We finally heard back from Anna on Sunday, she agreed to call us back a little after lunch to set up a meeting.  She said she had a hen from the same lot we could switch out.  Originally Cindy and I weren’t even concerned with getting a hen in return but since it was offered we were ok with it.  Well we didn’t get to meet up with Anna until later in the afternoon.

Rounding up Nona was depressing.  We got the other three chickens back in the coop and then tried to grab Nona.  He was freaked out and hyper ventilating as he paced rapidly in front of the coop, just wanting to be reunited with the chickens on the other side.  I finally was able to grab him.  I held and petted him as I walked over to the cat carrier to put him in.  I felt pretty terrible. On the ride to meet Anna Nona was making noises that Cindy and felt like he was saying “I don’t want to go”.  He was going to be going back to a much more congested chicken environment that will surely not be up to the standard he has become accustomed to in his month or so at our place.  I was frustrated that we were in this situation because he was misjudged as a female in the first place.

We have additional anxiety because we have bad suspicions that possibly two of our three chickens might also be roosters, although they haven’t crowed yet.  Both of them, especially Kathy have large feet and bodies that seem more rooster like.  If we have to go through this again it is going to suck.  Cindy said it was like waking up one day and having your pet undergo a sex change.

So the chicken Anna had for us in exchange was definitely a hen but again not what we thought she would be.  Anna said she was from the same buff orpington  set of chicks the others were from.  This hen was much more reddish brown.  At best she could be a buff/rhode island red cross breed but definitely not a pure orpington.  We already knew we had another misidentified bird at home, Lola, who is probably at least half americana.  All of this gender and breed screw ups with the chicken lady make me not want to use her as our chicken lady going on from here.  I think the next chickens Cindy and I will get will be sexed, baby pullets from Rural King where we can raise them from scratch, making them much less scared of us.

So we put Nona in a cage in the back of their van and put the new hen in our other carrier.  I felt really bad giving Nona away but tried to just focus on why it had to be that way.  The new hen was very scared and did not make a peep on the way back to the house.

When we got home I wanted to just let the chickens out of their coop so they could mingle with the new hen in an open space.  Cindy thought we should put the new hen in the coop right away so she would know that was home base.  I was worried this could be problematic as chickens can be territorial.  Well it was a problem.

Instantly there were menacing sounding noises and body language from Kathy and Curly.  They cornered the new hen and started bullying her, even pecking at her a few times.  I instantly pulled the run away from the coop so the chickens could come out.  Even with 4 feet of open space Kathy and Curly were staying put, acting aggressive.  Cindy and I were not happy.  This aggressive behavior by the two chickens (Lola didn’t care) added additional weight to our fear that we have at least one if not two more roosters under roof.

Eventually the chickens came out from the run and started exploring.  The new hen came out as well but was very scared and nestled herself in one of the landscaped areas for quite awhile.  The other chickens went after her quite a bit early but as time passed the aggression lessened somewhat.  The new hen started to calm down a bit and started roaming the yard, following the other chickens around.  Of course if she got too close the two possible roosters would take a few aggressive steps in her direction which would send her running away.

Cindy and I were worried that the chickens would not allow the new hen to come up into the coop to sleep at night.  We made provisions by covering the run with a comforter so if need be she could sleep down below.  The three chickens went up for bed while the new chick was out wondering around.  After Cindy and I carefully steered her into the coop we crossed our fingers she would be allowed to go up top.  It took awhile but just as the last rays of daylight were expiring she slowly and cautiously made her way up the ramp.  I didn’t hear any squawking which was a relief.  Cindy and I are hoping a night sleeping together will mean they will be more amenable together during the day today.  I have to admit I am nervous leaving them alone today and wish I was home to chicken sit.

Late in the day I did some beginning work on the frame for the shed, cutting the frame support 4×4’s to length.  My hope was doing some work would help take the edge of my mood that was undeniably irritable.  I was not very pleasant to be around and unfortunately Cindy got to catch some of the thorns of my bad mood.  After apologizing later I told her I think it had to do mostly with having two large projects looming over my head, the house flooring and the chicken coop construction.  When paired with poor sleep and the chicken related drama it just added up to a bad day.

Last night we had yet another highly interrupted sleep session.  Cindy and I wound up moving to the guest bedroom at 3:30 am, leaving the dogs to their own means so we could at least get a little sleep.  Tonight we should sleep like logs hopefully.

Anyone in IT that has been burned by hardware failure, viruses or plain old user stupidity knows how important data back ups are.  My back up strategy at work has become very disjointed and manic over the years.  For awhile we invested heavily in traditional tape back up systems with three robotic libraries teamed up with Symantec Backup Exec.  Tape back up has some major disadvantages, even with the the advances in hardware over the years.  The two biggest problems are speed and reliability.

A tape is a linear device, so if the data you are looking for just happens to be towards the end of the tape you need to spin through the entire spool to get there.  This process is rather slow, especially when compared to hard drive access.  Tapes and tape drives wear out.  More than once I have had a tape that had data I needed be bad, causing all sorts of headaches.

I also have a real issue with Symantec, I basically can not stand their business model.  They nickel and dime the fck out of you, charging you all sorts of add on pricing to be able to back up a typical network with applications like SQL, Exchange, and Sharepoint on it.  When a new Windows operating system comes out, you can already assume that Symantec would not give you a small patch file for free to be able to back it up. No, their solution is for you to pay for a complete software upgrade if you want to back up anything newer.  It’s very, very aggravating.

Well my present day back up solution for the network was a hydra, with two Backup Exec servers, three tape libraries, and multiple NAS devices which are both direct and network connected.  It has been sort of a mess for quite awhile.

Well yesterday I brought a new Unitrends back up appliance online, something suggested to me by our trusted sales rep. It is a 1U rack appliance that uses amazing software, high end hardware and data de-duplication to make network back ups significantly faster, more reliable and hands off.  The company is entirely US based and their customer support philosophy is simply awesome.  Basically whatever you need from them is what they will deliver.  In addition, if you pay for your 3 yearly maintenance cost up front, at the end of those three years you get a FREE upgrade to the latest and greatest appliance hardware.

Last night we backed up everything, a job that used to be split in between 4 different back up solutions.  The Unitrends appliance tore through the data, in three hours everything except one server was finished.  To do the same thing with our old set up would take 12-14 hours.   It’s early but so far I am very impressed with Unitrends.

The party van should be pulled out of my driveway sometime today.  Everytime I have looked at it the past couple days it has been with sadness and reflection of  the good times it has been part of.  I almost feel like I am shooting a horse with a broken leg.  As I got in the Tacoma this morning I looked upon the van for what is likely the last time in my life and said “goodbye” out loud.  Yes I suppose it is odd to feel emotional about the van leaving but I never claimed to be normal.

Luckily last night the dogs slept soundly, allowing Cindy and I to sleep straight through.  They will go back to Ali’s place tomorrow.  Cindy and I are wondering how they will react when all of the flooring in the house is changed.

This weekend I have a lot of stuff I would like to get done, what else is new?

Last night after work I grabbed a couple light bulbs for the van brake lights.  Even though I am donating the van I figured I should fix them.  I picked up the dogs on the way home as well in the Prius, something they will have to get more used to.

After replacing the brake lights I started the sobering task of removing all of our personal items out of the party van.  I also took a few shots of the rusty belly of the van to illustrate just how bad the problem is.  It’s not a matter of if something snaps or breaks under there, it’s when.

When the last item was pulled out I looked back at the passenger compartment for possibly the last time, remembering just how much happened in that space the last 6 years. Of course it made me sad.

I made the arrangements yesterday for the vehicle donation on the phone.  I don’t even have to be there to make it happen.  All it requires is for me to leave the keys and signed off title in the vehicle.  They will send a tow truck and take the vehicle away. The tax write off is minor, $500 or whatever they manage to sell it for at auction, whichever is higher.  I could care less about the write off, I just hope the few bucks it can bring in are put to good use at the Humane Society.

Cindy and I have been watching Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spinoff.  I was afraid it would not live up to the incredible standard of BB.  So far it has been great and quickly has become one of my favorite shows on the tube right now.

I was not very happy with the dogs last night as they decided to wake us up not once but twice.  The first time was around 2AM.  Nicki started with her whining noises that she is so good at.  I got up and let them out, Nicki took a leak that seemed pretty long so I guess it was legit.  The second whining session at 4:30 was not.

I laid there hoping she would quiet down.  She continued and then Sadie joined in.  I was now angry not only for my sleep being ruined but also Cindy’s.  Even though I know Nicki can hardly hear me, I swore as I got out of bed again.  I then was furious at Sadie when she literally body checked Nicki, knocking her over as she sprinted out the lanai door.  I used my God’s Wrath voice as I scolded Sadie causing her to instantly go down into a belly crawl back towards me.  Sadie takes it very seriously when she hears the word “naughty”.

Nicki just did a token pee this time that lasted all of 2 seconds.  When we went back inside she acted like she wanted a treat for doing so, which I think was the whole impetus behind the second wake up, she wanted food.  Of course I was not going to reward this behavior.  I went back to the bedroom for all of 15 seconds before I shot back up, telling Cindy there was no way I was going to be able to fall back asleep, I was too annoyed.  I had the dogs come out to the main area with me and closed the door so Cindy could hopefully at least get a small amount of sleep.  I spent my extra hour running around WoW.

I am not sure what it is about being at the house that makes the dogs so anxious to get up.  At Ali’s place they routinely sleep in until 7 or 8am with no issues.

Yesterday I forgot to congratulate Jeremy on his victory in the Boca city council race.  He secured a 3 year term, beating two opponents that outspent him significantly.  He didn’t just squeak out a win, his 10 point margin of victory is a beat down in political terms.

Yesterday I got a call back from the AC place, they said that they think the problem with the party van AC is electrical.  They referred me to a nearby shop that specializes in automotive electric problems.  I didn’t really follow how it could be an electrical issue but they said that they aren’t seeing the power delivered to the circuit that turns the compressor on.  Ok, well they are the experts.

I picked up the van over my lunch hour thanks to Cindy’s Taxi service.  I asked the AC place what I owed them for looking at the van.  “Nothing” was the reply I got.  “Wow, thanks” I said.  When I used this place once before I recall a similar experience where they only charged me a few dollars to replace a hose. Modern Air on Davis Blvd is the place to go if you have an AC problem.

So I made an appointment for Thursday to have the van looked at by the electric guys.  I already was starting to weigh options in my head.  I was trying to determine the over/under number that I was willing to pay to get this problem addressed. The number I came up with was 500.  Anymore than that and it would fall into the “not worth it” category.

Well on my warm drive home I had the windows down as it was my only source of AC.  At an intersection I hear a “hey buddy” a few times which I ignored.  When the truck next to me pulled up a little further I realized he was talking to me.  He told me that both of my rear brake lights were out, only the high mount third light was working.  I thanked him for letting me know.

When I got home I ripped into the rear lights to see what was up.  I wedged the brake pedal down and saw that one light was totally out and the other was dim.    When I pulled the bulb that was totally out the contacts on the bottom of it looked melted, not good.  I have had issues with the left light before, I actually had to splice in some wire in the past to fix a problem.  I needed some new bulbs which I did not have to try to fix the issue.

While I was out there I got inspired to rotate the tires on the van, something that has never been done.  This inspiration is what lead to my change of heart about the van’s future.  The party van is originally from the snowbelt in Michigan.  As a result the under  carriage of the vehicle is very rusty from the metal destroying salt they coat the roads with up there. When I bought the van in 2009 the rust was bad, 6 years later it is dangerous as evidenced by the two times I lost all braking power when the metal brake lines in the van ruptured due to rust.

Well when I pulled the driver side front wheel the rust problem was in my face.  The first thing that caught my attention was disc brake shield which literally crumbled as I touched it with my fingers.  I then looked at the upper A arm which looked like it was 100 years old, it was that rusted.  I then saw one of the connectors used in the steering linkage that had a rust hole in it as well as rust up and down the entire frame of the van.  In that moment I just thought to myself “What am I doing….”  All it would take is for a crucial support, bolt or connector to snap loose at highway speed to cause a tragedy.

Endangering myself with my own stupidity is something I have done randomly in my life but endangering the lives of Cindy or the dogs for that same stupidity/stubbornness is irresponsible. I called over Cindy to take a look at just how bad it was.  She agreed that it just is not safe and that our need for a van is not crucial at the moment.

Now I have a long history of getting attached to inanimate objects and the party van is another example of that.  It has been integral part of thousands of miles of glorious road trips.  So many memories have been forged behind the wheel of the van it is hard for me to imagine letting it go.  The back of the van is plastered with stickers from the various destinations we rolled through, making it distinctly ours.

The last long trip the van was on was last year when Cindy and I took it up to PA in the middle of a frigid February.  Just like it has for the last 6 years, the van served us well, getting us safely there and back, despite the arctic conditions.  Since that time it’s primary role has just been dog transport along with occasional race equipment transport vehicle.  Cindy and my nationwide drive in the Prius last September shattered the illusion that a big van was a requirement for an enjoyable cross country road trip, making the subtraction of the van from my automotive fleet more of a possibility. Really my biggest issue with letting go of the van is that Nicki loves it so much.  At this point in her life, taking away anything that I know she enjoys is a very hard thing for me to do.

So I would not feel comfortable selling the van to an individual even though I have no doubt I could sell it to someone looking for a cheap way to transport a lot of people.  My plan instead is to donate it to the Humane Society so they can get whatever funds are generated by it’s sale for parts or whatever else.  I can write it off from a tax perspective while putting a few dollars in the pocket of my favorite local charity. Making this mental commitment to get rid of the van was depressing to me, despite knowing it was the right thing to do.  I moped around a bit all night afterward.

Removing a vehicle from our four car home fleet will save a few bucks on car insurance, registration and potential repair costs which is a good thing.  The Prius will become the go to dog transport vehicle.  With both seats down it offers a good amount of room for the dogs to hang out although nothing close to approaching party van comfort.  I still have plans to eventually get another, newer conversion van down the road.  If you can afford to take the gas cost hit, it is truly the way to see the country in my opinion.

So I have no idea what Chip Kelly is thinking.  His moves since being handed responsibility for player personnel decisions have been head scratchers at best and downright dumb in some expert’s eyes.  After saying goodbye to LeSean McCoy and Jeremy Maclin, their best runner and receiver last year, yesterday they announced the traded Nick Foles to the Rams for their oft injured QB, Sam Bradford.  In addition to Foles the Eagles had to give the Rams some draft picks as well.  This was just another move I do not understand.

Foles was amazing in 2013 and more importantly established himself as the type of QB Philly fans like, tough.  He took responsibility for bad performances while being humble about good ones.  In 2014 statistically before he got hurt he wasn’t having a great year but he was still leading the team to wins at least.  To give up on Foles and exchange him for Bradford who had his best year as a rookie 5 years ago and has been an injury machine the last few years just seems like a poor decision to me. If the Birds brought in a QB that was more of the run and gun style perhaps I could provide more of an endorsement but Bradford is probably less mobile than Foles.  I just don’t see how this helps the team.

One positive has been the signing of Byron Maxwell from the Seahawks, a highly rate cornerback.  The obvious intent is to improve a secondary that was rated dead last in the league last year. The Eagles have tried to make over their secondary before via free agency a few years ago when they spent big bucks to sign Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.  Any Eagles fan knows how that turned out.   Asante Samuel before them was an underperformer as well.  The last time I recall the Eagles secondary being good was way back when, Bobby Taylor, Brian Dawkins, and Troy Vincent were patrolling the secondary.

Perhaps Chip Kelly is a mad genius and has a master plan in mind that dumb minions like myself can’t understand. Or maybe, he is just making some very poor moves.  Check in with me in December to see which one it is.

Last night was a blue print for how a perfect weeknight should go.  First off the weather was quite pleasant and with the clock change we now have day light until around 7:30.  I was outside with the chickens who were running around loose while I knocked out another 100 reps in my 1000 pull up challenge.  When Cindy got home she delivered a nice warm cup of DD coffee that she picked up on the way home.

Once we headed inside I got to enjoy a home cooked eggplant parm with spaghetti squash meal while watching Walking Dead on the DVR.  I then indulged in some virtual play time in WoW followed by falling asleep to another episode of How It’s Made on the Science Channel, finding out how they make high end movie cameras, glass Christmas ornaments, and monster tires..   It was a good night, especially for a Monday.

Today is a big date for Jeremy as it is election day where he could be elected as one of the city councilman of Boca Raton.  Although overall I have not encouraged his political aspirations I do admire his drive and desire to accomplish the goal.  He has put a lot of time and effort into making this happen, hopefully it pays off tonight.

This morning I drove the party van to work.  After dumping off my gym bag and lunch box at the office I drove over to the AC place which is close to a mile away to drop the van off.  I then hoofed it back to the office in my work clothing regalia.  Walking that stretch of sidewalk is something I never have done before and offers a much different perspective opposed to whipping by it in a drivers seat.  You see and notice things that fade into the background at 40 mph.

I don’t feel very chatty today, not a great thing with a weekend recap to do.

Saturday was not bad as I mixed in a modicum of outdoor chores with a lot of screw off time in the afternoon.  Later in the afternoon we headed down to the running store as I needed to pick up the race bibs for Sunday’s race.  We took the van for the drive along with my AC recharge kit.  My hope was for the compressor to kick on at some point during the drive which would allow me to add refrigerant to the low pressure side of the system.  Unfortunately the entire 45 mile drive the AC was dead so my attempts to remedy the problem were dead as well.  I am planning to take the van to this place I used years ago for AC work.  They were very reasonable.  If I can get the AC cranking in the party van without dropping a large wad of money I’ll make the investment.

The timing of this Sunday race sucked.  Sunday races in general suck in my book, I would always much rather get it out of the way on Saturday and have the last half of my weekend to myself. However this race date sucked more than normal since it coincided with the the clocks going forward, meaning my normal 4AM race day alarm was actually more like 3AM.  Somehow I actually woke up on my own about 15 minutes before the alarm went off Sunday morning.

On Saturday night we tried something that at first I thought had no shot of being successful, packing the Prius with the race gear.  I figured there was no way we could get 7 timing  mats, 3 timing boxes, 4 laptops, 8 lanterns and a bunch of other crap we lug to races in the back of the sub-compact gas sipping hybrid.  I was wrong.  Yes it took very careful placement and eliminating one large Rubbermaid bin in favor of a bag but we got it all in.

So we got on the race site about 5:20, a little ahead of the 5:30 time that most people show up for a 7:30 race.  I have stuff to do anyway right away like drop off equipment at the start line before unpacking the rest in the registration area.  I thought it was odd that after we had the Prius totally unpacked there was not a single other vehicle in the parking lot even though it was now 5:40.

When 5:45 came and nobody was there, most importantly the equipment truck, I was genuinely concerned.  This was a first year race, is it possible that nobody told Bill our equipment guy that there was a race that day?  Finally another vehicle pulled in, it was one of our core volunteers that had Bill’s phone number, something I did not have in my phone.  He called Bill to see what was up as he was surprised he wasn’t there yet.

It turned out Bill and others were told by the race director that there was no need to show up before 6AM since this was a small race. (we actually had over 400 pre-registered which is pretty big)  Of course I found this annoying.  We have had an unwritten rule in place for as long as I can remember of starting set up two hours before the posted race start time.  Second, if the time the truck was showing up was changed, it should have been mentioned to me since everyone in the club knows I am typically one of the first people on site.

So after nearly a half hour of standing around we got to start unloading the truck.  I immediately felt behind the curve, a feeling I don’t want on race day.  Yes typically that extra half hour of set up time translates into us being up and ready well before the first runner shows up, but there is a reason for that.  If something does go wrong we have some slack time to address it.  If I have learned anything in nearly a decade of race production, having everything set up early is a good problem to have. On the plus side, this race involved the Naples band so there were a ton of students recruited to be extra hands to move crap around.

Once set up began I found out that the course was changed on Saturday, again without my knowledge.  The start line equipment we dropped off was about 250 yards north of where the start line was moved to.  I was buzzing around trying to get all the tech online when I found out.  Thankfully Cindy was able to go throw the stuff in the Prius and move it to the new spot while I kept working.

So we got everything up and running and had a good group of volunteers handling registration so things flowed pretty well.  I headed down to the start line and got my equipment set up.  We then had another problem.  The police were under the impression the route was on the other side of the road that I was set up on.  They wanted us to move all my equipment and the nearly 400 runners over to the other side to start.  Instead we suggested that the police divert the runners into the other lane about 200 yards up the road at the first median crossover.  They agreed to the plan but said they needed one more officer to make it happen.  They said it should take a couple minutes.  It took almost 15.

So as the runners were restlessly waiting for the race to start the Naples band was belting out music full blast, starting at 7:15.  I wondered how many noise complaints were called in by the numerous near by condo inhabitants.  I have no doubt they were numerous.

Finally the other officer arrived and the race kicked off.  From that moment on my day got better.  I had zero timing issues, in fact as best I could tell I had 100% reads at the start and finish line with 385 runners clocked in at both timing points.  All of my tech worked great except for my back up timing box which ran out of battery power before the race finished which was unexpected.  Cindy and I had the Prius repacked and rolled off site by 9:30. When we got home I worked until around noon getting results posted, the web site updated and the finish line video processed and posted to YouTube.

I decided to rip the timing box that had a battery failure apart as obviously the problem had to be addressed.  Pulling it apart wasn’t very technically challenging.  After removing the guts from the case I found that the box actually has two batteries instead of one.  A quick search online resulted in a set of replacement batteries being ordered via Amazon that will cost $45 shipped to my door, cheap. I saw this as yet another opportunity to post a how to video to my YouTube empire. The rest of Sunday I spent a lot of time just screwing around in WoW, a good way to for me to take a brain vacation.

The chickens got to screw around outside as well, walking around the yard.  Cindy and I have decided that Lola, the smallest chicken by far is actually not a buff orpington chicken.  She may be a cross breed between a buff and something else but she is definitely not a pure breed.  Cindy thinks she could possibly be an americana.  If she is, that could mean she will eventually lay blue eggs.

We also had a lot of discussion about permanent coop options.  With a near total home floor replacement on the horizon, coop construction is not on the top of the to do list.  However we are both committed to building a permanent structure that allows for more capacity, safety, and room for the chickens to roam.

Last night we watched St Vincent, a movie my dad had recommended to me where Bill Murray plays a grumpy and generally disagreeable old man.  The movie has laughs and some unexpected tears.  It was a role Murray seemed very good at playing.    It checked in with a B+ rating in my book.