Archives 2016

Last night when I got home Cindy’s daughter, her boyfriend and his brother were all at the house.  They had stopped by to visit with Tank who seems to be doing well.  While they were there Cindy talked them into doing a group effort in the 22 kill push up challenge that Cindy and I have been participating in this month.  We shot the set from two angles to add visual variety.  With Camtasia it’s very easy to blend the clips together.

So with the Orlando shootings  it gave social media a big burst of energy to once again fuel the circular argument regarding gun control that accomplishes very little except making people on both sides of the argument seem ignorant to/angry with the other.

Yesterday I saw a lot of gunners deciding to post “educational” information regarding guns, playing down the power of an AR-15, the assault rifle that was the primary death bringer in the attacks.  They thought it important to point out things like how it was not a fully automatic weapon, meaning you can’t just “squeeze and spray” bullets.  You have to pull the trigger for each shot.  Put your hand in a gun position and see how fast you can repeatedly squeeze your index finger. Wow, thanks for that clarification I feel so much better about it now.

Others felt it important to point out that the incident was being misreported as the worst mass shooting in US history when in fact there were other shootings where more people died in different circumstances.  Again, thanks for the education.  How stupid of me to think the real issue was  a man using an assault rifle to mow down people like a carnival game was a terrible tragedy that once again emphasized the need for real change regarding gun laws in the country.

I educated myself a little bit yesterday as well.  I did not realize that assault rifles such as the AR-15 were actually banned for a decade, starting in 1994.  When the provision expired in 2004 Congress chose to not renew it, presumably under HEAVY NRA lobby influence.  If you look at the history of mass shootings since the ban has been lifted, which has sky rocketed, the connection seems pretty damn obvious.  Of course I know it is ridiculous for me to think that common sense could prevail in a situation like this but I can continue to hope lobbyist dollars doesn’t have the final say.

Tomorrow I once again go under the knife for more basal cell skin cancer surgery, this time removing a spot on my left deltoid.  This will be my 6th or 7th procedure to have skin cancer removed.  I remember when I was first told I had skin cancer in my 30’s being very freaked out about it.  I have since become more numb to the diagnosis since my cancer has all been the basal cell variety, it has not been a huge concern.

Having a history of basal cell cancer does put me at risk for the more serious type of skin cancers like melanoma.  I have had friends and former classmates die of melanoma so I do have more serious cancer concerns tucked away  in the back of my mind.  It’s an area that rarely gets opened however.

So I finished up my week of at home training Friday.  I was happy it ended up mid-afternoon, giving me a slightly longer weekend. During the day on Friday I got a head start on my weekend chores getting around the house to weed the property.  I wanted my weekend as open as possible although I knew that more than likely I would find a way to fill that time with more work.

Sadie, who we picked up Thursday night had a dog companion brought in the house when Cindy came home with Tank, her daughter’s dog.  Tank is a french bulldog.  He had surgery done to help alleviate problems that plague the breed with breathing and swallowing.  Cindy had offered for us to watch him for a couple days as the vet said it would be good if Tank was separated from their other dog as they like to roughhouse and play like most dogs do.  Tanks was supposed to keep “calm”.  Well that lasted all of 30 seconds.

You would have never known Tank had pretty serious surgery the day before.  Other than the spot on his front leg that was shaved for a catheter he seemed pretty much fine.  We were a bit concerned how Sadie and he would get along but it wasn’t much of an issue.  Sadie made sure to emphasize she was the main dog when it came to my attention and Tank was content emptying out dozens of dog toys from the basket.

Originally Cindy planned to have Tank sleep in his crate at night despite him normally sleeping in bed with her daughter when he is home.  I told Cindy he could stay in the bedroom with us although it was rather crowded until Sadie jumped down to sleep on the floor.  Tank does not sleep soundly, my last few nights of sleep have been interrupted on a regular basis.

On Saturday morning we thought it would be fun to take Sadie and Tank to our two dog friendly stomping grounds, Rural King and Home Depot. We brought a towel and let Tank cruise around in a cart while Sadie walked conventionally.  Tank seemed to enjoy the experience and other shoppers seemed to enjoy him.  French bulldogs are cute in a bizarre sort of way and garnish a lot of attention.

During Saturday afternoon I got out on the tractor and mowed the grass.  We are now getting to the time of year unfortunately where weekly mowing is required to keep the yard from looking ragged.  Originally we had plans to go see the Warcraft movie Saturday night but I suggested we postpone due to Tank being there and the fact that we had a Netflix disc in the envelope to watch.  Cindy endorsed the plan.

So this movie was Steve Jobs 2.0, where Michael Fasbender took a shot at portraying the tech legend after Aston Kutcher did the same a couple years prior.  I thought it odd that this movie picked up in the timeline pretty much where the first movie left off.  This film focused more on his relationship with his daughter but didn’t touch what I would think is the most interesting portion of his life, when the iWhatever devices started and the degradation of his health.  I think Fasbender is a better actor and did a better job, no pun intended, but the narrow focus on 15 years of his life just seemed odd to me.  I wonder if any Steve Jobs film in the future will try to portray his entire life instead of just portions of it.  I’d give the movie a B, a decent rental.

On Sunday morning Cindy was not feeling like running in the humidity.  I jumped on the treadmill and did 3 miles at nominal pace.  It’s not as effective as being out on the open road but better than skipping a run altogether.  We made a return trip to Home Depot with the dogs, this time in the Tacoma.  We tried to dog proof the cab the best we could.  We already have seat covers up front.  We draped the old SSR seat covers over the rear jump seats where Cindy and Tank sat.  We also had a large towel along for more protection coverage.  Tank seemed very happy to ride in the truck.  The back window was a perfect size for him to see the world.

We took the truck because I was buying construction materials for another project.   After installing the Rachio I decided I’d like to get some sort of additional shelter over the box and the water cleaning equipment that resides there.  I envisioned a simple design, somewhat similar to what I did for chicken run using high durability corrugated pvc panels.  I plan to attach a 2×4 high on the wall and support the front of the “roof” with two 4×4’s that are screwed into the concrete.  At first I had ideas about doing the project during the day but the oppressive heat and humidity put an end to that plan.

Instead I decided to take on another project which I envisioned as pretty simple, replacing one of the blade spindles on the mower deck.  Last week the one spindles felt like it’s bearings were going bad so I thought I would be proactive and replace it.  Despite owning the Craftsman tractor for somewhere around 5 years I have never had the mower deck off yet.  I am able to change blades without pulling the deck but replacing the spindle required deck removal.  Getting the deck out was not too bad, it’s mainly just pulling out about a half dozen cotter pins.

When I was unbolting the old spindle two of the four bolts securing it snapped on removal.  I was glad I followed the advice I received online and ordered four new bolts along with the spindle.  So after some grunting and groaning I got the new spindle on but noticed odd behavior.  Despite my having the bolt on the pulley that is attached to the spindle cranked down as hard as I could manage, the blade was spinning independently of the pulley.

After a few minutes of head scratching I figured out what actually happened.  If you look at the image of the pulley to the left you will see the hole in the center has groves that slide over the center spline in the spindle.  When I looked at the old spindle I saw the spline had been stripped and presumable the pulley had the same damage.  I’m not 100% sure how it happened but I suspect it had to do with the way I was changing the blades.  Instead of blocking the blade movement with a block of wood I would do it by having a wrench/socket on both the blade nut and the pulley nut.  I think I may have accidentally stripped it using that technique.

I was frustrated that once again a job I thought would be simple had now grown into something more aggravating.  I went online and ordered not only a new pulley but the parts to redo the other side as well as a new drive belt.  I figured while I have the deck off the tractor I may as well do both sides of the blade drive train equally.

Cindy and I decided to go and catch Warcraft as a matinee late Sunday afternoon.  As long as I have been waiting to see the movie, not getting out on opening weekend would have been a minor letdown.  The movie has been the victim of a lot of “me too” negativity, something very common nowadays.  People love to jump on the negativity bandwagon with films.  Batman versus Superman was a recent example of this, a movie that certainly was far from perfect but not at all deserving of the heaps of shit that was piled on it.

Warcraft had a bunch of negative reviews from people very quick to dismiss it as another bad video game based movie.  I, as a long time World of Warcraft player and fan, was very interested in seeing what the 160 million dollar film could do to depict the world I have experienced virtually for so long.  I have to say that I found myself swimming upstream from the current of bad feedback on the film.

Visually I thought the movie did an amazing job of bringing the up till now virtual world to life.  They obviously paid a ton of attention to detail.  The story line of the movie actually is prior to the story the game started at so even with all of my experience I was not familiar with the details.  I heard that the movie script has some major departures from official lore in the Warcraft books but I didn’t really care.

I think people that play the game had a major advantage as patrons of the film as a lot of the back story on the characters was already filled in for us.  I can totally see how somebody that was new to the Warcraft scene would have a hard time following what was going on 100%.  The two hours of the film was not nearly long enough to get someone up to speed on the deep and involved story.  Even so I think it was entertaining and interesting.  Cindy, who only knows a little bit about the game, mostly from watching me, really liked the movie.  The movie was far from perfect but I was not disappointed.  As a Warcraft player I give it an A, for the average Joe that is into sci-fi, Lord of the Rings type story I’d still go B+.

Shortly after we got home last night the skies opened up accompanied by a ferocious lighting and thunder storm which shook the house repeatedly. Both dogs were scared and looking for comfort as the strikes rained down.  I was glad I got the grass mowed the day before.

So of course I saw the news about the latest mass shooting at a gay dance club in Orlando.  The 50 total casualties set a dark and disgusting record as the largest mass shooting in American history.  There is sure to be a lot of blowback as the man that committed the murders was evidently the subject of two FBI investigations yet somehow landed a job as a security guard and was able to legally buy the assault rifle used in the attack.  I’m not quite sure how that is possible but it points a bright burning light on the just how screwed up the system is.

The shooting has of course fired up all sorts of ancillary debates some of which never really seem to lead anywhere like banning assault rifle sales.  I have yet to hear a reason why an individual needs to own an assault rifle that makes any sense.  This tragedy fans the flames on multiple fronts, the gun debate, gay bigotry, and muslim hatred.  There have been so many mass shooting tragedies the last decade yet none of it has lead to any substantial change in gun policies or enforcement of existing laws.  It’s gotten to the point where I almost have shoulder shrug response to it all.  Here we go again, mass shooting, outrage, calls for change on the left, calls for “they are coming for our guns” from the right and nothing ultimately changes.

If the country as a whole can not get behind finally doing something to make a discernible effort to at least making it more difficult for these type of situations to occur in the future we should be ashamed to be ashamed in words alone. Words without action mean next to nothing.  I am not sure what sort of tragedy it will ultimately take until some degree of change can finally be seen as reasonable by enough people to make it happen.  Hopefully the world doesn’t burn to the ground before that day finally comes.

One of the nice things about this training week is that class doesn’t start until 10AM each day, giving me bonus morning time I am unaccustomed to.  Today I used that time once again to get a run in for the second time this week.  I chose to log the 3 miles indoors on the treadmill.  The run was the third time I had run in 5 days.  I can not tell you the last time that has happened, I may have been in my 30’s.  It also means for the week I have run about 10 miles.  I haven’t had double digit running mileage totals in a week for a period of years either.  Although my pace still is pretty damn slow, my hope is if I am able to continue to run without major injury problems, the speed increase will come naturally.

While I was on the treadmill I fired up Full Metal Jacket on Netflix.  I saw the movie once when it came out nearly 30 years ago so my recollection of detail was very poor.  It was almost like seeing the movie for the first time.   It reminded me why the movie has been revered as one of the best war movies of all time.  There are so many classic lines in the film that I lost count after 20 or so.

I am winding down day four of my training.  It has become a bit of a slogfest as we are covering features of Office 365 I have no interest or need for.  One day to go.

I had made one last purchase to add to my voice controlled, internet connected arsenal, a Sensi smart thermostat.  I had looked into getting a Nest a couple years ago but was told my Trane AC would not work with it.   The Sesni actually has better reviews than the Nest and supposedly had greater compatibility, working with over 95% of all HVAC systems.

Before buying it I tried to 100% confirm it would work with my Trane unit.  I could not find that confirmation but I also could not find any info saying it would not work.  So when the box arrived today I was eager to get it installed during one of the breaks in my online training class.

I was surprised when I pulled the Trane thermostat off the wall that there were only three wires feeding it, a red one, a white one, and a yellow one.   When I used the install guide that is included with the Sensi app it asks you to enter the letter for each terminal of your existing thermostat so it can tell you how to hook the wires to the new thermostat.  Well the yellow wire went to a terminal labeled D.  There was no D option in the app which was the first sign I had an issue.

So I called the toll free support line, described my problem and gave them the model number off the Trane thermostat.  After a brief hold the woman gave me the bad news.  My Trane system uses something described as a “communicating thermostat”, a proprietary thing that shoves my system into that less than 5% that the Sensi won’t work with.  Damn it.  I was mad that my new purchase was incompatible and frustrated with myself for not 100% verifying it would work before pulling the trigger.  I boxed it back up to get returned tomorrow.  I guess I will just have to live with a “dumb” thermostat for the foreseeable future.  I guess I could have worse problems right?

Today has been a pretty dreary day with a near constant rain which I believe is the ass end of Colin.  Quick, hard bursts of rain are expected around here.  Long, gray, wet Pennsylvania type days are not.  The chickens are soaked.

I find myself fascinated with the Tesla autodrive feature.  I have watched a ton of videos of the vehicles driving themselves.  It seems like Tesla somehow leapfrogged the self driving car field.  A couple years ago the only way to implement self driving was via a clumsy roof mounted 360 degree spinning sensor.  Technology is awesome.

Tropical storm Colin had some impact on us yesterday but nothing horrible.  It was windy for a good portion of the day and we had some periods of heavy rain however that can be said of most Florida weather days during wet season.

So despite my best efforts to unclog the air handler drain line over the weekend we were still having water back up and leak out of the unit.  We had a PM scheduled for the AC system on Wednesday but I called early Monday morning to see if we could get it someone out there sooner.  Luckily they said someone could come out during the afternoon.

I also had my first day of at home training for Office 365 deployment, which I plan to roll out in our office sometime this year.  The instructor was good and delivered the information in a way that kept your attention.  The labs are a bit repetitive and frustrating at times but all in all so far so good overall.

When the AC tech got there he quickly confirmed there was still something blocking the drain line.  Through applying suction to both ends instead of just one like I did, he was able to get the line flowing again.  He also did a thorough PM while he was in there.  He redid the kill switch that is supposed to shut off the air handler if drain water starts backing up.  I bet he spent close to two hours at the house and only charged me the standard $85 PM charge.  He told me to prevent the scenario in the future I should dump some vinegar into the drain line every two months.  I quickly added a recurring reminder to my calendar to do exactly that.

This morning we took advantage of my virtual classroom not starting until mid-morning by going out on a run.  Despite us starting at around 7:30 it was already ridiculously uncomfortable with a temp in the low 80’s with almost 100% humidity.  We logged about 3.5 miles, starting and ending at our Dunkin Donuts.  The humidity made for tough running conditions that had both of us soaked with sweat by the end of it.  The near instant reward of coffee afterward was nice.   It was the first I can recall getting a run in on a weekday in FOREVER.  I would not be surprised if a couple years have passed since it happened last.

Today the latest tool in my cordless 20 volt arsenal arrived, a Dewalt blower powered by the same batteries the weed whacker utilizes.   It allows me to quickly blow around anything without having to look for an electric extension cord or gas can.  I took it out for a test blow this afternoon and was very satisfied with the results.

During the morning I installed my new Tacoma rear view mirror with Homelink support. As usual I had some bonehead moments, a staple in most of my project videos.

I pretty much NEVER blog on a Sunday afternoon but things just work out how they work out sometimes.  Talk about work, Saturday was jammed full of it.  Before the work began Cindy and I headed to the track to get a run in.  We left the house around 7 but that was not early enough to offset the now firmly in place heat and humidity.  The three and a half miles we ran were hot and sweaty as you would expect.

When we got home I quickly jumped in the pool as a substitute shower before we jumped in the Prius to go pick up Sadie.  We went straight from Ali’s place to Rural King and Home Depot for our almost automatic weekly visit.  Sadie loves being able to roam the aisles of both stores like any other regular shopper.  I needed to get some stuff for a number of small projects.  I also bought a pretty big item, a Dewalt battery powered weed whacker.  They were running a promo where you got a free second battery pack when you bought the trimmer.  Considering these high powered batteries normally cost $100 each it was quite the deal.

My gas powered weed whacker still works although it is starting to have some problems.  I never would have considered a cordless trimmer several years ago but the advances in battery tech over the last few years means it is now a viable option.  The new 20V batteries are very expensive but with their cost comes long run times and power that rivals corded counterparts.

When we got home one of the many things I did was take the trimmer out for a test run in the yard since it needed to be whacked anyway.  It felt a bit odd performing the job that has exclusively been gas powered the last 15 years with an electric tool.  The power of the whacker was more than sufficient for my needs although I did have to pull out the second battery to finish up the last 10 minutes or so of whacking.

I was running around all afternoon fixing/installing things.  In the middle of it all we had a rather urgent problem to address.  Cindy had mentioned earlier in the day that she heard dripping in the AC return vent in our bedroom which happens to be right under the air handler.  When I was out in the garage I looked at the platform the handler sits on and saw something very disturbing, a very wet wall.  It was obvious the drain system for the handler had to be clogged.  Ironically we already had our AC company scheduled to come out for a PM this week.  Well this was a problem we had to address now.

I pulled the cap to the drain line and could feel some sort of organic material clogging it.  I went outside and attached my shop vac to the drain line to try to suck out debris.  When I had little to no success I took another approach and inserted my air hose from the garage side and tried to blow debris out with air pressure.  I had Cindy watching the drain pipe to see if anything came out.  She said some gunk did exit the tube.  I followed up with some misguided work with the garden hose that seemed to do little more than shoot more water around.

Cindy was freaked out by the idea of the moisture creating mold so she scraped away the very wet section of the wall.  We brought in a floor stand fan and pointed it at the wall to dry it out.  I appeared to have gotten the drain open enough to prevent more back up but we will need to the AC guys to really go over the system thoroughly.  I dropped some bleach in the drain line to hopefully kill whatever is growing in it. I am a bit annoyed that the sensor that is designed to shut off the air handler if water backs up appeared to not work.

After busting ass all afternoon I was beat but had one more item on my mental list to complete, cleaning the Prius thoroughly.   Not only did I wash it but I gave it a coat of Nu-Finish, polished the haze off the headlight lenses and applied tire glaze.  The end result was the nearly 10 year old vehicle looking about as good as it can at this stage of it’s life.

Last night we were both beat and were happy to stay home and watch our latest Netflix rental, Truth.  It is a movie regarding how Dan Rather was forced out of CBS News after 60 minutes reported on how George Bush’s National Guard service to avoid Vietnam was suspicious with allegations of him being AWOL during much of the time he was supposedly in the guard.

When this happened back in 2004 I recall the story but to be honest I didn’t pay tons of attention to it.  There was so much shady shit attributed to W at this time it was just another chapter in a very long book.  The movie was surprisingly intense and emotional.  I certainly did not expect it to be in A- territory.  Robert Redford does a masterful job of portraying Dan Rather, a role I would have told you he was not a good fit for prior to seeing the film.

This morning we did another trip to Home Depot with a DD pit stop with Sadie in tow.  When we got home Cindy got out immediately on the tractor to mow.  The forecast for the next couple days is a very wet one so we wanted to get the grass mowed before ponds once again appear in the yard. She got about 2/3 done before the rain came.

I also did my first day of the 22 kill pushup challenge, an ice bucket-ish thing where participants film themselves doing 22 push ups per day for 22 days.  The number 22 represents the average number of veteran suicides per day, so even though I am normally not a “me too” guy, a cause like this is worthy of my support.

My first installment can be seen here.

This upcoming week is going to be an unconventional one as I am doing at home technical training all week long.  In my past experience these training weeks are fun at first but lose their luster as the week progresses.  Regardless it will be nice to be sticking around the comforts of home all week long.

I talk about lame arena football, skin cancer, why vlogging daily sucks, Camtasia, and more. Yes, there is music too.

Music Provided by NoCopyrightSounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM7SZ5SBzyY Song: Itro – Panda

So Cindy and I left the house around 6 for a very unusual Thursday night arena football game.  I suspected that the odd scheduling would result in even worse than normal attendance.  My suspicion was correct, it was the lightest attended game I recall ever in my 6 or 7 years of minor league arena football attendance.  There were multiple completely empty sections in the arena.  It was sort of sad.

Shortly after we got our food and sat down we noticed it was very quiet.  Normally pre-game they are playing loud music to get the energy level cranked.  As we got within 5 minutes of kickoff there was still no sound on the PA system.  Cindy and I wondered what the f was going on.  I didn’t know if the weeknight scheduling meant they didn’t have a PA announcer.

There was no player intro announcements, no cheerleaders, no pregame prayer or national anthem.  Instead the ref tee’d up the ball and the game just sort of started, it was bizarre.  Watching the game with no PA was quite odd as you can imagine.  We tried our best to keep track of the action.

Very early on a ball thrown by the Tarpons QB came sailing my way.  It was high, high enough I needed to jump to get a hand on it.  I knocked it down and was able to jump the rail to the stairway to grab it.  Considering there was no other fans within 75 feet of us there was no one else there to contest the ball.  It was an all white ball.  The other two balls we have at home are the red, white, and blue models.  I actually tracked down a second ball later in the game which I tossed to a female veteran in a wheel chair on the floor level.  She later told us she actually gave the ball to a young kid in a wheelchair as she already had a ball at home anyway which was cool.

So perhaps the lack of sound threw the Tarpons off early.  They were actually behind 8-0 early on.  I can’t say I had even the slightest concern that the Tarpons wouldn’t come back.  I knew the Savannah Steam just were not very good.  The Steam has a lot of ultra-fat players on the roster.  When I would isolate my attention on them during a play it was incredible just how little effort they exerted most of the time.  The ball would snap and they would stand up, put their hands on the opposing player, take a step or two and that was it.  They had a few good players but not enough to make up for the dead weight, pun intended.

Later in the first half we saw two of the 7 or 8 regular Tarpon cheerleaders were there albeit in street clothes.  With no PA system there was no goofy fan games during the first half. The halftime entertainment consisted of some guys on the field playing catch with the few fans in the seats.  By that time we had heard there was some sort of technical problem with the sound system that they had been working on for a few hours. Then just as the 3rd quarter began they got it working as music started blaring.  Better late than never.

The game quickly became the blow out I had expected from the start.  The final score was 71-20.  I felt embarrassed for the team management to have a playoff game so poorly attended combined with the lack of sound for half the game.  I am not sure if there will be any more home playoff games this season, I guess it depends on how the other teams in this half baked league work out in their playoff games.  I have said it again and again but I just don’t see how the Tarpons can continue to exist next season.

I have sung the praises of the new Tacoma repeatedly but I found a simple button press that makes my driving experience even better, ECT power.   If you throw the Tacoma in DRIVE with the default settings it is very conservative with it’s shifting.  The setting is meant to maximize MPG.  The downside is it makes the truck feel sort of unresponsive.  I noticed that in the default mode, the 6 speed automatic transmission sometimes actually starts in FOURTH gear from a dead stop. No wonder it feels sluggish.

With the ECT button pressed the truck once again uses all of the gears and feels dramatically more powerful.  I assume there is a degree of MPG penalty I will pay but it is a trade off I am more than willing to make.

This weekend we have an open and flexible schedule that we can hopefully balance between must, should, and want to do’s.  Getting the Rachio online during the week knocked one to do off my list.  It is very easy to come up with a replacement task to take it’s place.

I have had no blogging the last couple days due to working at the tax certificate sale.  The sale process for us tech guys is rather boring as we are there in the off chance that something goes wrong which it rarely does.  The good thing is it meant our days ended a little earlier than normal.  I took advantage of that extra time yesterday by getting my new Rachio intelligent sprinkler controller installed.

I had to first remove the Orbit sprinkler box which I got last year to replace my original controller which died.  I felt a little bad that there was a tree frog that had claimed the inside of the box as it’s daytime shelter.  He is the star of the video I shot of the install.

Installation of the new hi-tech controller went pretty well.  I had turned it on and connected it to the app the day before inside.  Once I got it mounted on the wall and wired up it connected to the house wi-fi immediately which is cool.  I then went through the set up of each of my 6 zones.  In the app you describe each area including the amount of sun it gets, soil type, vegetation, slope, and type of sprinklers used.  It then uses this information if you decide to use the smart scheduler.  The Rachio will use the information you enter combined with the local weather information it pulls from the internet to water your property as needed.  Last night the system was scheduled to run but it cancelled the watering because it knew our area got substantial rain during the night.

The biggest reason I went with the Rachio is it can interact with our Amazon Echo.  Last night I turned the sprinklers on and off via voice control which is very cool.  Cindy likes that she can now easily turn on the sprinklers around the house easily to dissuade the chickens from digging excessively in the landscaped areas.  I can also use the app to turn sprinklers on and off from anywhere in the world where I have internet connectivity.

I like the Rachio a lot.  My only concern is it’s ability to survive outdoors.  I bought the outdoor box for the Rachio which should protect it from the elements but it still has to deal with the extreme humidity and heat Florida brings daily.  I may try to put a small “roof” over the box in a similar manner as I did with the Ring that is on the chicken coop to offer a little bit of additional protection.

Today I had my 6 month dermatologist check up.  I have had a spot on the trap area of of my shoulder that has been a problem for awhile.  It would cycle between just being red to actually bleeding from time to time.  I pointed the spot out to the doctor.  When he looked at my chart he saw he had done work in a nearby area several years ago.  He scraped the suspect area and sent it out to be biopsied.  If it again comes back as skin cancer I will likely be once again going under the knife to have the spot cut out.  When a scalpel is involved it is never much fun.

I have been playing some Overwatch since it came out officially last week.  The game is incredibly polished and well done, what I expect from any Blizzard title.  Even though I last played a first person shooter seriously probably a decade ago I have been having fun in Overwatch.  I have fun even though I really don’t know the maps or characters in the game well at all.

I also have fun even though I am not good at the game at all.  I have messed with a number of the possible heroes and found the only ones that I do half decent with are the type where I can lay back strategically and attack from afar.  Any hero that requires in your face fast twitch reaction or precise mouse control I fail pretty miserably with.  So yea, dying a lot does absorb some of the fun factor for me but I still have a good time.  I don’t see Overwatch taking over the number one or two spot in my gaming hierarchy which is occupied by WoW and Hearthstone but it is a fun change of pace for sure. Cindy thinks it’s funny watching my mannerisms while playing the game.  My facial contortions and weird breathing is uncontrollable and odd looking for sure.

Tonight we have an oddly timed Tarpons football game.  It is the first round of the playoffs and I guess it was the only date that worked for all parties involved.  I expect the attendance to be worse than normal because of it being the middle of the week which means I may be able to count the bodies in the seats in a couple minutes.  The other negative is the Tarpons are playing the team from Savannah who we just saw during the final regular season game which was a ridiculous 70-6 blow out.  I expect tonight to be another yawner but at least we will be one of the few there to support the team.

Yes I am blogging on a holiday.  Time-wise it just works out.

Even though we had an extra day tacked onto this weekend and no MAJOR projects planned we still have been going much more than not.  On Saturday the main focus was getting the chickens perch reconfigured.  We wanted to lower it to make it safer/easier for the birds to jump down from.  Our original plan was to literally just chop maybe 18 inches from the triangle shaped perch and be done with it.

Saturday morning Cindy suggested that we consider a redesign in coordination with the elevation decrease which at first I was not really into as it sounded like more work.  However with the way the existing perch was constructed, even lowering it’s existing design was going to be more trouble than you would think.  Cindy suggested we transform the perch from a triangle into a rectangle which would allow for more perching space.  Doing so would allow us to use some of the perch in it’s existing layout and to repurpose most of the wood we pull off in it’s new configuration.

We did a Home Depot run in the new Tacoma, adding another 10 bags to go with the 20 I picked up on Friday after work.  We also grabbed the additional lumber we would need to complete the perch which was not much.

We set up the 13 x 13 Coleman tent I bought at Costco a few weeks back to use as a sun shelter.  It worked well until some strong winds started to blow in advance of a storm.  We dropped the tent to prevent it from unintentionally becoming a flying object.  We finished up the work inside the chicken coop to protect us from the rain.  We were both happy with the end result.  It has ample perch space with a low enough height that even our fattest chicken, Cocoa should be able to jump down without getting injured.  Although the birds looked a bit confused about their new sleeping arrangements they eventually settled down and all had more space to sleep than they had previously.

Saturday afternoon I accompanied Cindy to the place her daughter is living with her boyfriend’s parents.  Cindy agreed to look after their two dogs, Tank and Bowser while Katie and the boyfriend’s family were away for the weekend.  I also brought my drone along to get some aerial video of the old abandoned track in the back of their property.  Tank and Bowser are normally crated when nobody is home which always makes me feel badly.  They say dogs don’t mind being crated but it sure doesn’t seem like fun to me.

They were both very happy to see us and ran around happily in the yard, enjoying their freedom.  I took my drone to the back of the property and set it up in the air.  Believe it or not I think this was the first time I have flown the Phantom since the Yellowstone drone prosecution fiasco. The track is badly grown over but you can tell originally a lot of time, money and effort went into it’s construction.  It is fully covered with asphalt and even has banked turns.  Some areas of the track you can barely see due to massive overgrowth.  The aerial footage came out half decent.  Click here if you want to take a look.

On Saturday night we stayed home and watched Max, the story about a military dog whose handler was killed.  Of course any dog related movie is going to be an emotional thing for me.  It was a touching movie that any dog lover will enjoy.  B+

On Sunday morning we were originally going to run but decided to postpone it for a couple reasons, the biggest being the big blister on the side of my foot from wearing wet Crocs a good portion of the day Saturday.  We instead did our second Home Depot run in as many days (after letting out the dogs again) so Cindy could get some supplies to repaint the perch and I could grab a few random items I needed.

When we got home I got around to doing my post 1000 mile oil change on the new Tacoma.  I wanted to minimize the chance of tiny metal shavings contaminating the oil from the engine’s first 1000 miles of use.  I was a little late as the odometer actually read 1305 miles when I did it.  While I was under the truck I heard a car stop out front accompanied by a voice.  It was a guy asking about my old king size mattress I had by the curb.  I was hoping somebody would actually take it instead of it being relegated to the back of a trash truck.  My mom got me the mattress years ago so I had some sentiment about it.

I told the guy the mattress was still in decent shape.  He first asked if I could set it aside until he could come back with his truck but then decided he was going to just strap it to the roof of his car.  I helped him hoist the mattress into position and he then tied it down.  It made me feel good knowing someone potentially will continue to get use out of the mattress that mom carefully picked out for me years ago.

I decided to video the oil change on the Tacoma just as I do with nearly all of my automotive work.  I figured it would be a good way for me to get some familiarity with my new truck.  I was literally just changing the oil and not the filter.  The oil filter location on the the new Tacomas is a bit of a pain in the ass as the only way you can reach it is by removing the skid plate from the truck.  It also is a canister type filter instead of the conventional all-in-ones I have dealt with in the past.  You unscrew the the housing and just replace the filter element inside.  I am not sure why Toyota thought this was a better choice as I am sure it will be quite a messy job to replace.

The oil swap went smoothly.  If you would like to see the documentary regarding it, click here.

After lunch I hopped on the tractor to get the yard mowed.  The grass growth rate has now started to accelerate due to the increase in precipitation.  I tried to hurry up and get done because we planned to go see a matinee of the new X-men movie at 3:30.  Even with us hustling we walked into the theater just as previews had started.  Luckily the time of day meant the theater was very empty.

Like Captain America, this movie was very long, nearly two and a half hours.  I always enjoy X-men movies although my comic book knowledge of their characters is not very strong.  I liked the movie. Although it was not as good as Civil War in my opinion, I would still give it an A- rating.

This morning we finally got out for our run.  I let my normal weekday alarm set to get us out of bed relatively early so we could start before the heat of the day hit hard.  We got to the track around 7AM and tacked on an extra lap which added up to just shy of 4 miles, a longish run for me nowadays.  We were both glad to get the run out of the way early.  Afterwards we went straight to Dunkin Donuts followed by a stop at Sam’s to grab some bulk and ancillary items.

I am hoping to be able to just chill for a good portion of the rest of the day as we have no Memorial Day social functions on the calendar.  For the last 5 or 6 years my Memorial Days used to always include timing a race in the morning and then attending the running club Memorial Day picnic in the late afternoon.  I used to have a lot of fun at the club picnic.  The recent venue change for the picnic last year along with the changes in my relationship with the club have made that option not an appealing one this year unfortunately.  Perhaps circumstances in the future will make it a better option once again.

Of course today really isn’t about picnics, pool parties, hot dogs or hamburgers.  It’s a day to reflect upon and appreciate those that gave up themselves in the name of our country.  It is a sacrifice not many can imagine but hopefully more can respect and learn from. Wouldn’t a goal of a more peaceful existence in the future where regular loss of life in the military is not so commonplace that it hardly generates a mention in the 24 hour news machines be a great thing?