Randall rides in, not as bad, State of Decay, Easter
Randall said he was going to be showing up around lunch time on Saturday so we had our normal pizza and dvr Friday night celebration. On Saturday morning Cindy and I ran out for errands with Sadie tagging along. Not only did we discover she could go inside Rural King, dogs are also allowed inside the Bonita Springs Home Depot. She had a bunch of fun exploring the aisles with us.
When we got home we buzzed around the house getting stuff done before Randall got there. Once he rolled in Cindy made us all a nice lunch after we finished the greeting hugs and Sadie affection. We confirmed it had been quite awhile since Randall’s last visit. He was last there for the 2015 Super Bowl party, meaning he never saw the new chicken coop or flooring improvements in the house in person, both of which he approved of.
After lunch we took Randall outside to meet the chickens. Of course they came sprinting towards us, hoping that we had some sort of treat in hand. Randall thought the chickens were cool and got to pet a couple of them. 
We pulled some greens from the garden and had Randall help feed the chickens. The birds really like when you hold the leaves instead of throwing them on the ground. It makes it much easier for them to tear off small pieces.
During the afternoon I fired up the Xbox 360, something that rarely happens nowadays. Most Randall visits involve some Xbox gaming time so I looked to see if there were any cool games I could download. I stumbled across a title called “State of Decay”, a zombie themed action game. I downloaded the demo version to see if it deserved the 5 star rating it had. Randall and I took turns playing through the early stages of the game. It took awhile to get the control scheme down since there are literally a dozen or more buttons on the 360 controller, all of which do something in game. However once we got the basics down it was fun. It was a much more interactive experience than the two official Walking Dead games which had a lot more narrative and less real time control. Unfortunately once I decided to pay the 20 bucks for the full game on Sunday I discovered the demo does not keep your saved spot in game, we had to redo our progress a second time.
We ate dinner at home before heading out to see Batman vs Superman. We arrived a few minutes late at Silverspot but it didn’t really matter since we had our assigned seats reserved for several days. We settled in to the comfortable leather seating. Of course I had heard some of the negative reviews of the movie going in but I was leaving my mind open to form my own opinion. Knowing that Zack Snyder was the director meant there was surely going to be some holes in the film, after all he did make The Watchmen, one of the weirdest and dumbest movies I ever saw.
Two and a half hours later I was happy to say I enjoyed the movie. Despite it’s length I was entertained the entire movie, even though some of that entertainment was laughing at the sillyness of some of the story line. My familiarity with the Justice League is limited to my obsessive viewing of the cartoon that was a highlight of my Saturday morning cartoon ritual as a kid. The movie is clearly based on the comic book version of the League which I don’t know much about. Seeing the insight into the direction of future DC movies was cool, even if it was sort of just jammed into B v S in a less than elegant way. So anyway, don’t believe all the negative reviews unless you are a hardcore comic book snob. It was no Deadpool but still earned a B+ rating in my book, better than I expected after seeing all the trash talk. Randall and Cindy liked the movie as well to degrees around my level from what I could tell.
On Sunday we set no alarm. We wanted to do a bike ride but did not feel like hitting the road at the crack of dawn. Cindy once again outdid my Easter offering of a nice card, giving me a card AND an Easter basket. She prepared one for Randall as well which was nice.
The bike ride was to Ave Maria, it seemed appropriate to head out to Catholic Town since it was Easter. I warned Randall that neither Cindy or I were in good biking shape. Sunday’s ride would only be the second time this year we got out on the bikes. The 30+ mile Ave Maria ride is tough even when I am doing weekly bike rides so I knew it was going to be unpleasant. Randall is a regular cyclist. He recently did a 100 mile charity ride so we knew we would be chasing him for most of the trip.
To get to Ave Maria we head south for a couple miles until turning east. I found it quite aggravating that despite the direction change I was feeling some degree of headwind. Randall lead the first five miles of the ride before he tapped and I pulled into the lead to help break the wind. After a few miles I felt like death and asked Cindy if she wanted to lead for a bit which she did until we reached the turn off for Ave Maria. I just could not get comfortable on the bike. My jewels, ass, hands, and neck all hurt. Knowing I still had another half of the ride to complete did not put a spring in my step.
As we approached the Ave Maria church which appeared to be in the middle of an Easter service we were amazed at the huge collection of golf carts parked in the front walkway. I bet there were at least 20 of them. Golf carts appear to be a mainstay of transportation in the self contained community. It was easy to spot the most expensive cart which had seating for six along with alloy wheels.
After taking an obligatory Easter selfie in front of the church we saddled back up to make the ride back. Despite my efforts to make some adjustments inside my bike shorts I still had a lot of discomfort as we pulled out. Once we got out onto Oil Road road Randall quickly pulled ahead to a sizeable lead that Cindy and I didn’t even try to close. Despite reversing direction the wind conditions still did not feel all that favorable.
I was constantly shifting positions on the bike, just trying to find a riding position that wasn’t painful in some manner. It really didn’t matter if I was high, on the drops or on the aero bars, each position change only offered very brief relief. Cindy was my partner in discomfort, going 30 miles on a bike just is not a great thing if your body is not accustomed to that much saddle time. By the time we mercifully pulled back into the driveway my legs were completely dead and I felt like I completely exhausted any energy reserves I may have had.
After showering and eating lunch we headed back out, hoping a Dunkin Donuts coffee stop would help restore some energy. We went to Rural King for the second time in as many days even though we didn’t really have to. It was an excuse to bring Sadie with to let her walk around some more. When we got home all three of us felt out of gas. We all agreed that nap time would be welcome. I dozed off for almost a couple hours. I just couldn’t believe how much that ride took out of me.
Cindy made a very tasty dinner that included spaghetti squash that we all enjoyed. Randall left a little while after dinner for the drive across the state. It was nice to see him after a long hiatus. Hopefully the next go round will still be in this calendar year.
I had a very active dream cycle last night. For whatever reason I haven’t been able to recall much detail about them the following day. It’s probably just another symptom of old fartdom.