Archives January 2017

When I got home last night Cindy and I headed into the back yard to do some preliminary mapping of the new fenced area we plan to put around the existing chicken coop and run.  It looks like the area should be roughly a 60 foot square, giving the chickens 3600 square feet of dedicated real estate.  I have taken two vacation days Monday and Tuesday giving me a long weekend to complete the construction.

I then turned my attention to the leaking pipe in the master bathroom after the faucet installation.  There was a large puddle of water that Cindy discovered yesterday.  I immediately had a a good idea where the leak was from, where the new drain pipe connects to the existing house drain.  When I put it together the fit between the two seemed not like it should be.

So I did some test fills of the sink and verified that joint was the source of the leak.  The pipes just did not seem to fit correct, it seemed like the pipe from the new drain was too small.  After futzing around for awhile I took a closer look at the inside of the house drain pipe.  I saw something inside the end that looked odd.  I dug in there with my finger and fished out a washer, a washer designed to go over the new drain pipe, lol.  Once I installed the washer and screwed it all together the leak was gone, imagine that.

We got to sleep a little late, close to 11.  I did not expect to be awakened a couple hours later by a steady beeping sound out in the great room.  We evidently lost power and the sound was the UPS alerting me.  Random power outages are not abnormal where I live but they are normally quick, measured in seconds or minutes.  I laid in bed hoping the power would kick on shortly to address the problem.  It did not so I had to stumble out into the main living area while using my phone as a flashlight to shut down the three UPS’s in the house.  I laid back in bed assuming by the time I woke back up the power will have kicked back in. It didn’t.

I woke up around 5:30 and realized the house was still dead as a doornail.  The fact that power has been out for over 5 hours meant it was pretty serious.  I called into the LCEC number and got an immediate message indicating there was currently widespread outages they were working on, great.  Well with a well system, no electric means no running water so I knew I had to try to get us some base level of power.

I marched out into the brisk 40 degree air to survey my options.  To run my well equipment I need 220 volt power.  I was hoping my small Yamaha generator had a 220 output but after checking I saw it only had 120 volt outlets.  That left my only option to be the large, 12 year old generator that has issues running for prolonged periods of time.  I dragged the big unit out of of the small shed, a task made more difficult by the two flat tires it had.

I got the generator up onto the patio blocks next to the water equipment.  I plugged in my 220V adapter and then flipped open the door covering the outlet cover for the well pump.  I was startled when an active wasp nest fell out of the cover and onto the ground.  Luckily the cold temperatures had the wasps in a very sluggish state and I escaped without a sting.  I fired up the generator and then plugged in the well pump.  I heard the generator RPMs drop as the well kicked in, just like it should.  Cool, we at least will have water pressure.

I was just in the process of considering additional actions to get us by short term like running the small generator with extension cords to power crucial things like the fridge.  Just as I was ready to take the next step the floodlight by the water equipment flipped on.  Utility power was back, incredible timing for sure.  Cindy had heard the generator fire up and thought the entire house lit up as a result.  I told her nope, it was just a cruel coincidence.  I didn’t have time to undo everything I dug out since I had to get ready for work.  I’ll attend to it tonight.

On Saturday night I got an email from my Toyota dealer asking for feedback about my recent service experience.  They asked for it so I gave it to them, pretty much outlining the stuff I talked about in the video.  The email said customer feedback was very important to them so I expected to hear back some sort of follow up regarding my response.  I was very clear and strong in my response but polite as well.  If I hear nothing back from my multi-paragraph response it will just be reinforcing what I was complaining about in the first place.   Below is what I sent with names changed to protect identities as I am not looking to smear names or reputations.  I just want service and communication that is reasonable, thorough and proactive.

I received an email from Joe Shmoe regarding my service experience at your dealership with my 2016 Tacoma.  I have not been happy with it both times I needed to have issues addressed.  The core problem has been the interaction with my service advisor, Leonard Leadfoot.  Leonard seems like a nice man in person but he has repeatedly dropped the ball when handling my vehicle service. I have to repeatedly call and leave messages asking for information about what is going on and those requests are often ignored.  

With my latest service incident I was told on Thursday the part was unavailable but I would be able to have the truck back as long as I signed a statement acknowledging a problem with one of the airbags.  I was told I couldn’t get the truck Thursday because it was still apart.  Leonard was supposed to call me Friday to get me a better eta for the part availability and to let me know when on Friday I could get the truck.

I waited patiently until 2PM Friday and heard nothing.  I called and left a message on his voicemail saying I was looking for info as I needed to know to plan accordingly.  I heard nothing so I waited until 3:30 and called again.  This time a woman told me she would make SURE to tell Leonard directly to call me right back when he was done with a customer.  He didn’t call.

Finally I was about ready to leave work so I needed to know what was going on.  I called back at 4:30 and again Leonard was unavailable however I told the woman I would wait on hold until he was because it was obvious I could not count on Leonard to call me back.  After roughly 10 minutes he finally picked up the phone.

He said he JUST talked to the “manager” and he said the part would not be available for four weeks.  He said as long as I signed the statement they could release the truck to me.  Ok great, I told him I would sign it and come over to pick up the truck.

Leonard said I couldn’t pick it up, the truck was still not put back together.  This made no sense as the techs knew on Thursday the part was going to be unavailable.  Why would it sit taken apart all day Friday?  It seemed to me like Leonard actually only addressed the issue at 4:30 when I called for the third time although he said he was “working on it all day”.   I didn’t understand what there was to work on, the part was not available, I wanted the truck back in the interim and everyone involved knew that.  It should have been ready to go.

So Leonard said I now had to wait until Saturday to get the truck.  I had to make a special trip with a round trip of roughly 40 miles on Saturday to return the loaner vehicle to get the truck (instead of getting it on my way home from work Friday)  

When I saw Leonard he assured me that he would call me when the part arrives.  Based on my past experience, I have little faith this will occur and instead expect that I will need to be the one to call to find out if the part is there or not.  As icing on the cake, when I dropped the truck off on Thursday morning Leonard asked if I wanted the staff to wash the truck which I agreed to.  The truck wasn’t washed but I did not have the time to sit around Saturday to wait for that to happen.

My previous service experience with Leonard followed much the same script with ignored voicemails and messages for a period that covered more than 24 hours.  Oh and the promised car wash did not happen that time either.  

I am formally requesting that I am permanently assigned a different service advisor.  Like I said, I am sure Leonard is a nice man but his follow through, communication and execution with the customer just are not to a level that I would expect.  

I find the system the service department uses to have a fatal flaw.  It seems like nobody else can or is willing to help you other than your service advisor. When I have called and talked to other staff in the department I have been told repeatedly “all I can do is look in “the system” and see if the truck is done or not”  It seems insane that if your service advisor is not on the ball you basically get no information.

Maybe Leonard is literally that swamped that he can’t find 90 seconds to listen to his voicemail or return a call.  However if that is indeed the case then the dealership has a staffing issue.

I’m sorry to have such negative feedback but I appreciate your dealership seeking out comments, positive and negative to improve services moving forward.

So I had another frustrating day on Friday trying to get answers from my dealer about my truck.  It was supposed to be ready for me to pick up while they wait for a part that will take a month to become available.  Instead after leaving multiple messages for my service advisor to call me back for status, I had to call right before I left work and wait on hold to talk to the guy for 10 minutes only to find out nothing was done and the truck was still not put back together.  There was no sensible explanation for why this was, only that I couldn’t get the truck till Saturday.  I explain the entire interaction in this venting video.

When I got home Friday I was already annoyed as shit by the dealer bullshit.  I got home before Cindy so I was bull rushed by four crazy dogs.  Perhaps because of my state of mind I made a poor decision to let all four dogs in the back yard while the chickens were out.  The chickens were on the other side of the yard so I thought the dogs could pee quickly and I would take them right back in.  Well the chickens spotted me and came running over to see what sort of good stuff I had for them since they associate me with good stuff.

Well Bowser, the big catahoula mix spotted the chickens and started heading that way.  I went into full emergency mode, forgetting my aching knee and sprinting after Bowser as he started running towards the birds.  The chickens are used to being in the yard with Sadie and Elsa without issue so I don’t think they realized at first that Bowser was a threat.  He got dangerously close to several of them as I was sprinting after him while screaming at him to stop.  I finally chased him away into the back yard.  He ignored my screams as I chased him.  He finally stopped and got into a submissive position, knowing he was in trouble.  I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and used my voice of God tone to reiterate how bad that was.  I walked him to the door holding the scruff.

Now of course the ultimate fault in this incident was my own.  Having him out there without a leash or at least the buzz collar was just a dumb thing to do.  We really would like to make Bowser understand the chickens are off limits.  Tank seems to be getting the idea as he did not approach the birds.  After the incident I was a bit frazzled, thinking about just how awful I would have felt if something happened to one of the chicks.

Saturday morning I was up early with Sadie to go participate in the Run for the Paws 5K, my first year doing so as a participant.  I got there with time to spare, arriving before 7 for the 8AM start race.  This was the first time I saw a number of people in the running club, some of them since last January when I timed the event.  Many handshakes and hugs were exchanged and it was nice to see all of the friendly faces.  Sadie and I mostly stuck with Ali leading up to the race helping her attend to a few minor details.

So I had very low expectations for Sadie with the event.  She is a good 20 pounds overweight so running is just not her thing.  She is no youngster anymore either.  I had totally expected we would be walking the race and I even expected to cut the course so we didn’t go the complete 3.12 miles.

So the race started and I began walking at a brisk pace.  Soon I realized Sadie was sort of pulling me a bit so I started into a slow jog.  She seemed very excited and happy with all of the other people and dogs running by and she wanted to be part of it.  She ran much further than I expected and even after we slowed to walking we would pick up running after a bit.  So not only did she complete the entire distance, I bet she ran close to half of it.

For a good portion of the last part of the race we were running/walking with Ali’s boyfriend which was cool.  He and I get along very well.  When we got to the last few hundred yards I started again with a very slow jog, encouraging Sadie to finish strong.  I could tell how exhausted she was at the end, I was practically pulling her along.  Ali was at the finish cheering us in which was very cute.  Once we got through the finish chute I sat on the grass so Sadie could rest, she was so, so tired.  I told her how proud I was of her.  Somehow it seemed like she felt proud as well.

When I got home I had to waste an hour and a half driving the loaner vehicle back to the dealership to pick up my Tacoma.  On top of the run around I was given I had one last annoyance, the car wash the service advisor said would be done was not.  The last time I was there they “forgot” to do the wash as well.  Later in the afternoon I just washed the truck myself.

Despite having a pretty busy morning I had a work filled afternoon.  I weeded the property, did a few odd chores and mowed the grass.  The good news was the cool temps made outside work not all that unpleasant.  Late in the afternoon I even found a little time to go take my Gotway Msuper out for a 5 or 6 mile cruise.

On Saturday night I was home alone with the four dogs while Cindy, Katie, and our friend Kim went to a country concert at the fairgrounds down the road.  I am not a country music fan in the least so I was quite happy to just dog sit.  I was going to play WoW but the dogs were carrying on.  Bowser and Tank figured out how to use the dog door and were barking constantly out by the pool.  I came storming out and opened the slider while yelling “What are you doing??!!”  Well all of a sudden I hear a splash.  Evidently Elsa was out there as well and I startled her enough that she fell in the pool.  I ran over to the deep end and was ready to jump in and grab her but she somehow managed to get out by herself.

So after that incident I spent the rest of the evening watching the new show I am trying to catch up on Man in the High Castle on Amazon video.  It seemed like the dogs calmed down if I was in the great room with them, all four of them were snoozing away while I laid on the couch.

The weather Sunday morning was pretty miserable, raw and wet.  The steady light rain combined with temps in the low 50’s made EUC riding a non-option.  Cindy and I wound up running to Home Depot mid-morning to pick up a new bathroom faucet, a sort of impulse move.  The old faucet was sticking a little when used and was low quality builder grade stuff.

We picked out a nice Kohler replacement along with some plumber putty and teflon tape.  Since the weather was still shitty I figured I may as well dig right into it.  It’s sort of hard to believe with the various home repair/maintenance tasks I have done over the years, replacing a bathroom faucet has not been one of them.  Of course I figured this was yet another opportunity for a YouTube video.

Getting out the old faucet was not too difficult although the hot water feed side was much more corroded than the cold side.  The old faucet used solid copper feed pipes.  The new faucet uses modern braided feed lines which are much more forgiving.  When we bought the faucet I thought we were replacing just the faucet, I had no idea you normally swap out the drain as well in this scenario.  Cindy helped me with a good portion of the swap out.  After maybe an hour of work it was done and looked good.

There was a pretty bad puddle of water in the cabinet this morning despite things being leak free in our initial test.  I think I already know where the leak is from, where the drain is inserted into the existing pvc pipe.  I probably didn’t let the water run long enough in the initial test to fill that pipe to the point where a leak could be detected.

Cindy and I did some more discussion regarding fencing and the chickens.  I have come around to the idea of creating a sub-fence for the chickens that would enclose the coop area and extend behind it considerably.  It would allow us to contain chicken damage while protecting them from untrained dogs.  If we want to allow them full access to the backyard some days we can simply leave the gate open.  It will not be an easy job.

In addition to constructing the fence I am going to need to put some additional bushes/trees in that area for cover.  I also am thinking about building a deck that the chickens can hang out under since they love to hang out under the large shed a good portion of the day. The other issue is laying things out in a way that compensates for the flooding that can occur during wet season back there.  I may try to raise some of the ground with top soil and sod.  I don’t want the chickens wading in a pond all day long like ducks.

So President Trump has certainly been making a big splash with his statements and executive orders thus far.  His latest brain fart was ordering a temporary ban on entry to the country from certain Muslim countries creating a firestorm of backlash, even more so than him floating the idea of a 20% tax on Mexican goods.  The guy just has no clue and zero comprehension of the big picture on any issue he thinks he is addressing.   This circus comes as no surprise to me and I wonder why others seem to be so shocked by these ill advised actions.  He got to where he is by being loud and appealing to the lowest, dumbest common denominator.  Why would anyone think he would be different once seated in the White House?

So I didn’t receive any word back on the truck from the dealer by 3PM so I gave them a call.  They said they identified the cause of the airbag warning light.  It has to do with a wiring harness connected to the passenger side curtain airbag.  They said they did not have the part in stock nor did they have an eta for how long it will take to get it.  The truck was still apart so they said I should just keep the loaner for the night.  Today they will get more info on the part availability.  If it is going to be a considerable delay they said I can pick the truck back up but I would need to sign a waiver as driving a vehicle with any airbag issue could be a liability.

It certainly isn’t an ideal scenario as it sounds like I will have to take the truck back again once the part becomes available.  I’m not really worried about driving with an airbag issue as it first showed itself back around 6000 miles.  I recapped the situation on video as anything Tacoma related seems to have a lot of YouTube interest.

This weekend will include Ali’s Run for the Paws 5k, a race I have been involved in since it’s inception 11 years ago.  The first 10 years I was involved as an organizer and race timer.  This will be the first year I will be a normal everyday participant.  Ali is sort of excited to have me there with Sadie.  With my bum right leg I don’t plan to run the event but instead walk it with Sadie.  I don’t even know if we will do the full 3.12 mile distance which may be too far for Sadie but we will give it a go.  Ironically this was the last running club race I was involved with last year and will be the first running club event I have attended since.  It will be nice to see some of the familiar faces that I spent so many early morning hours setting up events with over the years.

I am doing some planning and thinking about some additional fencing in the backyard to accommodate the addition of Katie’s dogs to the mix.   Tank and Bowser do not yet know the chickens are out of bounds.  My thought was to create an additional large dog run area down the one side of the back yard.  Cindy came up with the idea of instead creating a fenced in area around the chicken coop to restrict the chickens instead of the dogs.

My knee jerk reaction to Cindy’s plan is yes, it would be nice for me to not have to deal with the chickens ripping up various sections of the property and scattering chicken poop far and wide.  However the crazy compassionate animal lover in me hates the idea of taking away the freedom the 10 birds all have come to love.  The other problem is the chickens prefer to be more or less hidden during a good portion of the day and they use the underside of the large shed and the bushy areca palms around the pond to accomplish that.

However if I fenced the area around the coop there really is no cover available other than the coop itself.  The other problem is the area behind the coop that would likely be fenced is flooded out badly through a good portion of the summer. Of course the cheapest and least labor intensive option is for us to train Tank and Bowser that the chickens are part of the family.  Cindy actually has some training collars that she has used a little bit to start that process so we will see how that goes.

I am sure the weekend will include some EUC riding.  I have the idea of heading down to the hilly area of Marco Island to ride for something unique.

It is quite the scene coming home from work with three dogs in the house.  Let’s say the greeting is very enthusiastic.  They were  excited that on my pit stop at Sam’s Club I picked up a pack of deer antlers to help alleviate some of the bone contention that was going on.  Cindy said the dogs got along well during the day which I was glad to hear.

Katie got home earlier than normal and Cindy suggested we go out and ride while she made dinner.  I would have preferred to just ride the wheels over to the school but Cindy didn’t like that idea.  Instead Katie and I drove over to the school and launched from there.  We had a nice 45 minute ride where we traveled to the high school up the road to explore.  The temps were a little on the chilly side.  I had a hooded sweatshirt on although I was wearing shorts which was a little uncomfortable.  It was fun to ride around with Katie.  It’s a good way to keep her from focusing on the negative feelings surrounding her break up with her boyfriend.

The night with the dogs was mostly fine.  Bowser has this spontaneous barking thing which we need to address somehow.  He will think he hears something outside and will bark like mad, which triggers Tank to bark as well.  They run up to the front window and continue barking at nothing.  It’s ok while we are out there watching tv, we can call him off.  But when I was laying in bed half comatose trying to fall asleep it made it sort of impossible.  Today we are picking up Sadie so the dog craze-o-meter should be pegged all the way to the right.

This morning I was up early to drop off my Tacoma at the dealer.  It was due for it’s 10,000 mile service and I am also hoping they can fix a random airbag warning light that has been popping up for several months.  I was glad they were able to give me a loaner Rav 4 to minimize the impact on my workday.

Wow I’m really glad I didn’t do an impulse buy on the GoPro Karma drone when it came out.  I just found out that shortly after it’s launch they were all recalled due to dangerous random shut off issue.  The drone could simply fall out of the sky without warning.  Since the recall it appears that GoPro has scrapped the Karma altogether.  They offered full refunds to any customers and I think they gave then a free GoPro camera as further reparations.  GoPro stockholders can’t be happy.

So after work last night we met Katie at her ex-boyfriend’s dad’s house to do a final sweep to clean out her stuff.  I was under the impression there wasn’t much left but somehow we wound up filling up both Katie’s truck and mine substantially.  It was sad for Katie since she likes Daniel’s family and they feel the same about her.  Extended families are usually an unfortunate casualty when relationships end.

So as we were getting towards the end of the loading process I noticed the door on Katie’s Dodge was wide open.  Not wanting mosquitoes or other undesirables to get into the cab, I closed the door for her.  As we were ready to leave I heard Katie say her keys were locked in the truck.  WTF?  So she asked who closed the door, I told her I did.  Well evidently Katie left her keys in the truck which would be fine except evidently Daniel’s step mom for some odd reason had hit the door lock button while the door was left open.  Of course I didn’t check the lock status before I pushed the door closed.

I was frustrated at the situation.  Daniel had another set of keys but was not home.  Cindy got on the phone with USAA to get someone out to unlock the car.  My frustration demanded I do something to try to rectify the problem.  I did a quick internet search on technique to pop the lock.  After finding a wire hangar I bent a crude hook into one end and made my first attempt at being a car thief.

I spent a good 20 minutes futzing around, trying to blindly snag the door lock mechanism between the window and weatherstripping.  By the time the lock guy showed up I was still in there digging around.  I don’t give up easily.  The professional used a technique I saw before online.  He used a plastic wedge to make a little space on the top of the door, enough to squeeze a thin rubber bladder in between the door and the frame.  He then pumped the bladder with a handheld inflator, similar to a blood pressure cuff rig.  This created just enough of a gap that he could insert a long fiberglass pole inside that he used to activate the door lock button. I told him I wanted to get a set of those tools for an emergency.  He said they restrict who they will sell them to for obvious reasons.

So finally we were on the road headed home.  When we got there I lugged the large items to the small shed while the boxes and smaller items got piled in the garage to be sorted and put away.  Katie is hoping to have a garage sale soon to get rid of the stuff that was hers but she no longer really needs.  I was happy to have her stuff totally under one roof so Katie can now work on getting some stability to plan whatever her next step will be.

I don’t harbor any ill will towards Daniel either.  He is a young kid just trying to find his way.  When I was 20 I had no idea what the hell I really wanted and had even less idea about how to be successful in relationships.  I am hoping having Katie in our household will allow some of the stability and calm to help her refocus and move forward.

Last night Elsa had an unexpected bathroom incident where she squatted right in front of the couch where Cindy and Katie were sitting and peed.  Cindy instantly yelled at her and Elsa reacted by jumping on top of me as I was laying on the other sofa.  I am not sure if this was her reaction to having two other dogs thrust into her living space but it is a behavior we need to correct immediately.  Elsa is a very sweet, cute, and loving dog.  Unfortunately she is also very neurotic at times which is going to require a lot of long term patience.

So last night Katie arrived at the house with her two dogs in tow. (more on that later)  As I went out to the driveway to see what she needed help with I saw the two recycling bins and one large trash can laying across the driveway with their contents scattered everywhere.  Katie said she heard someone hit them just after she pulled in.

So I went down to clean up the mess and it was a disaster. I swore repeatedly as I was cleaning up the trash and broken glass that was scattered all over the entrance to the driveway.  I just was enraged some asshole would be careless enough to hit our cans, although it has happened many times before.

I reviewed the footage from the DVR camera that is shooting out the driveway.  At almost exactly 6:40 PM I see the idiot hit the cans not with his truck but with the trailer he was towing behind his truck.  Of course he didn’t slow down for a second after the impact.  I can only hope that if karma does exist, it smacks this jack ass hard.

So like I mentioned, Katie brought her two dogs with her last night, the first time they both have been at the house.  We are still in the process of trying to figure out just how these living arrangements will all work out but part of it will be Tank and Bowser being at the house at least part of the time.  I felt badly for Elsa when these two high energy dogs came charging in the house, she looked desperately for somewhere to hide.  Eventually she settled down a little bit.

Now if you know me, you know I like calm, controlled, clean environments.  Having three dogs in one house is a recipe for the exact opposite.  I of course have a lot of concerns about the dogs destroying things as well as the associated mess.  We have the house pretty much closed off so except for Katie’s bedroom, the dogs are kept on the hard flooring surfaces.  We have covers on the sofa’s but I worry it won’t be sufficient.  Bowser is a huge dog, probably 80-90 pounds so his destructive potential is quite high.  We had Tank in the house before.  He is a french bulldog so size-wise he isn’t bad but he is a drool/snot machine which has it’s own challenges.

Cindy has assured me she would be doing what is needed to keep the house reasonably clean and organized which is an effort hopefully Katie will assist in.  I am sure Cindy could sense my anxiety as Katie’s dogs ran around the living space like maniacs.  I found myself thinking about how I was accustomed to living for a long time without any animals short of Tuki in the house peppered by Sadie visits.  I reminded myself that this is only day one and things should settle down over time.  I also focused on the big picture that this is the way we could finally facilitate getting Katie out of  a situation that had nothing but dead ends at every turn.

I have been in one of those periods of time where I feel like there are so many little things that need to be taken care of and I don’t feel like I am getting anywhere.  It’s not a feeling I enjoy.  The funny thing is feeling that way despite getting a decent amount of things done over the weekend.

It started out early Saturday with me getting outside to work on weeding a little after 7:30.  That rolled almost immediately into doing the oil and filter change that was due on the Prius.  Cindy and I headed out to do a Rural King run, something I hadn’t done in a couple weeks, a long time for me.  We brought Elsa along for the ride and she once again oscillated between being ok one moment and terrified the next.

We stopped at Home Depot on the way home.  We picked up some more vegetables for the garden including tomatoes, something we historically have a horrible time getting anywhere with.  If first you don’t succeed, try, try again.  I also picked up a new LED floodlight for the other side of the house, similar to the awesome stadium style bright unit I installed on the other side a couple months ago.

When we got home we made plans to go with Katie to go look at rvs/trailers/park homes.  She is looking to move ahead with having a place to call her own and wanted to get a first hand look at some options.  The first place we went surprised the hell out of me, they sold Airstreams.  For some reason I had it in my head that Airstream was no longer in business.  I am not sure where that notion came from.

Not only did they not go out of business, they make some of the highest quality trailers on the market we came to discover.  Katie loved the stainless steel shells that wrapped around highly functional living spaces.  We looked at models that ranged from 16 feet to 30.  Regardless of the size, every single model we checked out was really, really nice.  Of course top of the line comes with a price tag, they are far from cheap.

I talked a bit with the sales manager at the location.  He used to work at the Airstream factory store in Ohio for a long time.  He really stressed how well made they were and how they steered clear of shitty Chinese components as much as possible.  He also told me that depending on the price of he unit, they can be financed for as long as 20 years, making one affordable even for someone just getting started like Katie.  The last interesting fact was they are just over 8 feet wide, meaning in theory one could be driven into our wide open backyard through the 10 foot gate with little fuss.

In addition to the Airstreams we looked at more traditional trailers as well as “park homes”, another thing I wasn’t aware of.  These were apartment/condo sized homes on wheels.  When you were inside it looked like conventional construction.  When you were outside you saw the big trailer it was built on and would be a permanent part of it’s structure.  I guess the name comes from the idea that typically you park these once and leave them there, unlike an Airstream-like trailer which could be relocated pretty easily.

Out of everything we saw Katie definitely liked the Airstream option the best.  The ability to pick up and move while having all the basic necessities to live day to day was very appealing to her.  The design of them was really interesting to Katie and she spent a good portion of the drive home researching the hell out of them on her phone.

When we got back we didn’t waste much time before we headed over to the school to ride our wheels.  I also brought my Mavic with as I wanted to see how it did tracking Katie and I as we rode around.  Well the drone did pretty damn well.  Even with sunset approaching rapidly the Mavic did a good job of following us around autonomously , keeping us in it’s field of view.

Cindy was doing more of her fence EUC training and did well again.  I think all she needs to do is get more frequent training sessions under her belt so she can keep building where she left off instead of having to refamiliarize herself when 10 or 14 days have passed.

Saturday night Cindy called in a food order that I picked up.  We had a Netflix rental in an envelope, a movie called Memento that Cindy picked out, some murder mystery flick.  Well we gave it a solid 15-20 minutes to spark our interest before all three of us gave it the gong.  I pulled out the dvd and instead rented Deepwater Horizon on X1.  The movie reenforced why fossil fuels and the companies that provide them need to be put out to pasture.  The recreation of the disaster on film was incredibly realistic and impressive.  I’d give it a B+.

I felt guilty when I didn’t start my Sunday morning off with a run.  The reality is my knee/hip/IT band on my right side is still messed up and running would just amplify it.  That didn’t make me feel any less guilty however.  I did however get busy once again outside, tending to the chickens, planting the vegetables I bought Saturday and starting the work to replace the floodlight.

Installing that floodlight was one of the very early home projects I took on after we built the place in 2001.  As I ripped down the old beat up light I realized that back then I did some pretty shoddy work.  I had the old light sloppily and loosely attached to the aluminum flashing, it wasn’t very solid at all.  I got the old light ripped out but realized if I wanted to install the new one correctly I was going to need a proper electrical fixture mounting box, which I didn’t have.

The three of us went to Dunkin Donuts and followed up with another ride into the Esplanade development.  It was SUPER windy during the ride.  At times if the wind hit us dead on it felt like it almost brought us to a standstill.  It was nuts.

After the ride we made a couple stops, including the hardware store so I could get the mounting box I needed.  When I got home I got to work.  Instead of mounting the light to the aluminum I attached the box to the concrete wall with tapcons, a much sturdier solution.  Once that was in place the rest of the light install went pretty easily.  It looks a lot better and lights up that area of the yard in a much more efficient manner.

I had a few other projects/chores keeping me busy during the afternoon.  Late in the day Cindy mentioned that Katie was interested in going over to the nearby Bird Rookery Swamp to walk with Elsa.  We came up with a plan where I would leave ahead of them on my Msuper and they would drive there with Elsa in the Prius.  With the ability to cruise comfortably at 18-20 mph, I got there pretty fast, fast enough that I had time to ride the length of the boardwalk and back before they got there.

Katie had never been to the swamp so it was cool for her to see.  We ran into a decent sized gator shortly after getting onto the grass path.  Cindy was scared, Katie was concerned, I just sort of shrugged.  I have seen so many gators at this location it just doesn’t affect me much.  Elsa seemed to like the hike as well although she got scared by random people along the way.  We stayed later than I ever had before, getting back to the parking lot a few minutes after the sun had set.

I told Cindy I wanted to ride the wheel back to the house as well instead of hitching a ride with her.  She was not thrilled with the idea but knew I was going to do it regardless.  The ride back was fine, possibly even faster than the ride there.  The headlight on the Msuper was definitely necessary as it was almost pitch black by the time I pulled back into the driveway.

I have a work week that is going to be very meeting heavy so don’t be surprised by short and sweet entries as standard practice.

Last night after work I got the Mavic back up in the air.  We had another beautiful sunset going on and I wanted to see how it would look via altitude from the lens of the Mavic’s 4K camera.  I used tripod mode which slows down the movement of the drone to do a couple slow pans of the horizon.   It is simply amazing just how stable the footage is.  It literally looked like I had the camera on a tripod on a platform a 100 feet in the sky.  The music I paired the footage to seemed really appropriate and peaceful.  I like the end result. I took off the clear dome cover from the camera which is the way it is designed to be flown.

So today is the big day, a historic day, the day Donald Trump, the least qualified person ever to win the presidency of the United States, takes office.  The day will be memorable in many ways for sure, including the massive organized protests both today and over the weekend, something that has never welcomed an incoming president in my lifetime.  Donald, through his cabinet appointments and actions in the couple months leading up to the inauguration has given the world a good sour taste of what could be on tap for the next four years.

I could rant and rave about how ridiculous it is that somehow this has come to be.  Personally I am past the point of being outraged.  The ink is now dry, the damage has been done, and the country now just has to grit it’s teeth and deal with the lunacy that is sure to come.  I will say that I feel the odds of him making it through the full four years as commander and chief are the poorest of any incoming president and that may just be the master plan.

As I have said multiple times, I think Trump is going to be an unmitigated disaster as president.  However unlike so many of my fellow Americans, I am not afraid to reevaluate that position based on new information or circumstances.  If the country somehow prospers under his leadership I will be happy to give credit where credit is due.

Yesterday was an odd one at work, I made an emergency trip to Best Buy to buy a computer for the office.  Normally we have a procurement process to get new pc’s that can take a few days to a couple weeks.  However when the bosses computer dies the protocol changes.  We had him back up and running in a few hours.

My new bigger pedals for the Gotway MCM4 arrived yesterday.  I got them from the same guy in the UK that I bought my Msuper from.  Despite his company being an ocean away I got the pedals in a few days which is cool.  Since I already did a test swap last week, replacing the pedals didn’t take very long at all.  After finishing up I took it out for a quick test ride as the sun was setting to test out the feel of the pedals.  Just like last week the bigger pedals felt much better on my feet.

My cold is still raging, only loosely controlled by Nyquil and Dayquil.  Last night I was drowning in snot, it sucks.  I have my gym clothes with today.  I hope to get to the gym although I have a feeling my energy level and strength will be so underwhelming that it will just piss me off.

My sick day yesterday as well as Monday had a ton of WoW as part of it.  I bet I played more in the last two days than I have in years.  It was a fun distraction to the cold I have been dealing with since Saturday.  I spent most of that time relearning how to play my priest.

I also got an unexpected surprise when my DJI Mavic Pro showed up at my door.  I knew it was en route but I did not expect it until maybe next week as the tracking I looked at from Fed Ex Tuesday night showed it had just left Hong Kong.  Well for some reason my box got super express service.  It arrived in Memphis at 3AM and was immediately flown to Fort Myers where it was put on a truck for delivery, crazy.

Even though I knew just how compact the Mavic was from videos and pictures, it wasn’t until I held it in my hand that I truly appreciated it.  Despite it’s diminutive size it packs big time tech and features.  It has full obstacle avoidance cameras and sensors and uses the same incredible app the Phantom does.

The way your smart phone integrates with the controller is very slick.  Your phone becomes your first person view window along with a TON of additional options.  The controller itself almost reminds me of a video game controller and is very comfortable to hold and use.

I was able to get the Mavic into the air very easily but I still felt like a complete novice, even though I have had a drone for several years.  The technology has advanced a ton since the Phantom 2.  There are so many features, simple flying just scratches the surface of what this thing can do.  The video the 4K camera captures is crisp and clean.  Being able to fly via FPV is a new experience for me and I can see why it is so popular.

I briefly tested one of the many flying modes, Auto Track.  You basically identify something you want the drone to keep in frame by drawing a box around it.  It can be a person, a vehicle, or pretty much anything else as long as it has half decent size.  Once this is enabled the drone will automatically move and adjust the camera angle to keep that object in it’s field of view.  It’s pretty amazing.  I ran around the backyard a little and it stayed locked on me easily.  Of course I have various ideas of how to incorporate this with EUC rides as well.

I need to do a lot of reading and viewing of tutorials to get familiar with all the drone can do.  I am looking forward to the challenge and avoiding fines from the national park service along the way.