Run, ride, work
Once again my Saturday was filled with a lot of labor including weeding and mowing the entire yard. I also went around with the loppers, knocking off rogue branches wherever they showed their face. Of course it was hot as hades outside, once again making me wish I could step in a time machine and move two months ahead when the weather is much more pleasant.
After lunch Cindy and I ran out to do some errands. On the way home we ran into an odd roadblock a mile from the house. Earlier we had seen what looked to be a police helicopter circling our area. In addition I had a surprising voicemail on the home phone from the sheriff’s office stating there was a missing person in our area, instructing us to call them if we see someone matching his description.
In the paper later I saw more details. The guy evidently was either autistic or has Asbergers. On Friday night he was riding somewhere with his mother when he told her to stop the car. He proceeded to jump out and start walking through the swampy areas near our place. The police evidently searched for the guy all weekend and as of now nothing has turned up. I’m not quite sure why the woman would have stopped and let her son out but I don’t know the details of the situation.
I did some prep for the final race in my timing career, setting up the event in the timing software as well as pulling out the race clock for some testing. The made in China clock has woefully inadequate documentation so I spent the time to create my own which will come in handy for someone else when I ultimately sell the clock down the road. Despite me using the clock a few times at races, it took me awhile to fully understand/document exactly what does what.
I continued working on other things when we got home, doing my weekly bill paying/accounting and then turning my attention to my Ninebot One. I had ordered some replacement leg pads for the bot to replace the bloody, cracked, ripped, and duct taped originals, a casualty of my learning experience. In addition I bought some grip tape, designed for skateboards to adhere to the pedals to make it more difficult for me to slide off the pedals accidentally, the reason for a couple of my crashes.
It took me longer than expected to do the work as I ran into some unexpected problems as I nearly always do. I also wound up removing the ripped up, ugly green protective foam from the edge of the bot. I now have less protection from impact but the wheel looks much better. If you would like to see the process take a look below.
Saturday night I didn’t sleep great. I woke up at least an hour before the 6AM alarm I had set to get up and run. I decided I may as well just get up and get it over with. I arrived at the track about 6:10 am and got started. The entire reason to get out there so early is to avoid the brutal south Florida summer heat. Even at that wee hour of the morning it was still 79 degrees and when I got home the weather center showed 95% humidity. The four mile run left pretty much every square inch of my t-shirt sopping wet.
Later on in the morning I got out for a solo ride on the Ninebot One, starting at the church where I am timing the 5K October 1st. I had never been there before so I wanted to get some familiarity with the layout. I didn’t stay on the grounds very long as church service traffic was rolling into the parking lot at a rapid pace. I headed out into the surrounding area, amassing almost six and a half miles total. The new grip taped pedals felt like an improvement.
We ran out for more errands on Sunday afternoon including Rural King where I picked up a new set of rubber muck boots that are necessary to deal with the swampy summer conditions. The boots I have I had for years. They don’t leak yet but the upper portion of them is literally disintegrating. The Eagles don’t play until tonight so I had some spare time late Sunday that I utilized geeking out in Wow for awhile, a good way to chill out for me.
Cindy and I watched some of the news coverage regarding the explosion in NYC. It seemed like the media is chomping at the bit to label it terrorism while government officials don’t know enough to make an accurate determination. Terror and fear sells.
After completing my one day work week I have a long mental list of things I would like to accomplish within the next week. Although skipping the mini-road trip still makes financial and practical sense this year, I have a hard time not feeling some degree of guilt about it since I know Cindy was excited about it originally. It should only be a brief hiatus in the tradition.