So a couple weeks ago I noticed I was missing the rubber axle cover on one of the front tires of the tractor. This rubber boot is used to keep dirt out of the wheel hub area. I can already tell not having one for a couple weeks has been bad as there is a lot of squeaking from that wheel. I ordered a replacement rubber cap but I also was curious if I would be able to 3D print a functional replacement out of flexible filament.
I received the new boot yesterday but instead of installing it I got out my calipers to do some measurements. After sketching up the numbers on a piece of paper I went into Tinkercad to make my 3D model which I then exported, sliced in Cura, copied to a SD card and printed. This weekend I want to do a test fit and see if I need to tweak it at all. Of course I recorded the process, it might be interesting to some to see how the need for a part or object can be totally self fulfilled using this method.
Last night we had a pretty serious storm that dumped a couple inches of rain in a short period of time. This morning there is some minor standing water but we are still staying pretty dry, especially compared to last year. By this time last year I was already pumping standing water out of the chicken area. So far that has not been necessary.
This weekend I have stuff to do around the house just as pretty much every weekend of the last 18 years. it may sound at times like I am complaining about it and in some ways I am. However in the big picture if I didn’t have goals to attain, problems to solve, and issues to address I would go bat shit crazy.
Another gun violence incident yesterday, another round of thoughts and prayers sent out, works great, at accomplishing nothing.
So when I was first exploring the world of electric personal transport vehicles one of the things I checked out was the One Wheel. In some ways it reminds you of an EUC with it’s single, albeit huge single tire. Like an EUC you control speed and direction with your body but in a different orientation. The One Wheel mimics snowboarding/skateboarding where as an EUC is more like a pair of skis.
As a kid I dabbled in skateboards but I never could do anything beyond riding it conventionally with only mild control at best. The fact that EUC’s offered more range and speed were the reason I decided to go down that path, a path which I thoroughly love.
However lately I have found myself getting more and more interested in revisiting the One Wheel. Over the past few years they have really improved the guts of the hybrid skateboard/snowboard. The initial version had very limited speed and range of only 5-7 miles. Their latest offering, the XR+ can go up to 18-19 miles on a charge and can reach speeds of almost 20 mph, way better specs than my first EUC.
I find myself feeling like I want to once again challenge my half century old mind and body to take on a new challenge of learning how to ride it. I think my EUC progress will help in this challenge but the different stance and balance position will surely open a very large can of worms that will take time to adjust to.
One thing I also absolutely love about the prospect of owning a One Wheel is, brace yourself, it is made in the USA. Yep, pretty much every single electric personal transport has it’s origin in China. The One Wheel was designed, built and sold out of California. It’s a feel good story that I want to be a part of. I’m not sure exactly when this adventure will begin, but it will….
So Cindy didn’t get the chance to mow during the day yesterday as there was a brief downpour as she was getting ready to do it. Despite her objections, I told her I was going to get on the tractor and knock it out, despite the skies still looking foreboding. I jumped on the tractor and got busy. Mowing wet grass is never fun but I wanted to have the task complete, no matter what. (thanks Dad). It took me a little more than 90 minutes on the tractor to finish. I limped off the tractor (a normal reaction nowadays) and headed inside, glad to have accomplished my goal. Mowing on Monday evenings will not become the new norm.
So as I mentioned yesterday, Cindy took the Minipro to our local bike shop to see if they could get the incredibly stiff tires onto the unit. I was happy when Cindy messaged me, saying the mission was accomplished. I asked if it was easy for them to install the tires. She said definitely not. It took two beefy guys manhandling the tires at the same time with a third lending a hand in addition. Some large prying tools were involved as well. Hearing the depiction of events made me feel a little less like a failure from not being able to install the new tires by myself with lesser tools.
Tonight I have to finish putting the Minipro back together and clean up the mess in the hobby room. At some point I want to do a comprehensive test of the monster tired Minipro versus our other one with stock tires. It will be interesting to see how handling and top speed is affected.
Despite my best efforts to make it slow down, this weekend once again flew by in the blink of an eye. I was planning to mow the grass but Cindy offered to do it today to help keep the weekend slate clear. I appreciated her effort but just found myself other things that needed to be done. It’s a viscous cycle. I spent a good portion of the afternoon cleaning the floor surfaces of the house, first with shampooing all the carpeted areas and then hitting all the hard surfaces with the steam cleaner. It’s unfun work.
Oh I did start off with a run again on Saturday. A hot and miserable run through thick humidity and temps already pushing 80 degrees. I am still waiting for it to get easier.
On Saturday night we went out to see the new Jurassic Park movie. I really liked it, it had a lot of the feel of the original. The only thing that annoyed was the inconsistency of action of the little girl in the movie (you’ll understand when you see it). But all in all it was a good, scare the s out of you at times dino movie. I’d give it an A and so did Cindy.
Sunday morning I went for a longish ride on the Monster, riding all the way from the house to North Collier Regional Park. Even with a 15-16 mile ride, it flies by pretty quickly on the big wheel. I was cruising right around 25 mph for most of the trip. I actually hit the speed warning a couple times at 28mph.
Sunday afternoon I decided to take on tire replacement on Cindy’s Minipro. I got the bigger tires from James, the guy that drove four hours to test the Z10. These tires are much bigger than the originals and offer more speed and off road capability. James forgot to tell me about one more feature, they frustrate the f out of you trying to get them installed. In total I spent close to two hours trying to get the new tires on, unsuccessfully. I either needed better tools, better technique, or a second set of strong hands. I eventually said F it and have Cindy taking it to a bike shop to get the tires mounted today. I’ll trade $20 to save me two hours of frustration at this point in life.
The last part of the weekend was consumed by my first official live stream with Marty, building off our test version from last week. I think all in all it went well. We had the largest viewing crowd by far for me, topping out at 45 simultaneous viewers at one point. There were some challenges with having so many people in there, namely trying to pay attention to the chat which had some questions we didn’t get to address. Marty jumped out after about an hour but I stayed in there, trying to answer some of what was missed. It was a good time but also a bit draining. Marty was talking about doing this once a week but I think bi-weekly may work out better for me, we’ll see.
So the Z10 madness finally came to a close yesterday. I boxed up the wheel and dropped it off at FedEx on my way home from work. It’s going out to Denver next. Ironically, the recipient of the wheel is that young kid that I called out for reckless EUC riding a few weeks back. Last night I did one final Z10 video where I tried to summarize my two days of extensive testing. It seems for the most part people liked my review. Hopefully it means I will be considered to review other models down the road as they come available.
This weekend should contain a pretty normal amount of work and recreation. On Sunday evening I am scheduled to have my first ever official EUC live stream with Marty, building upon our test run from last week. I have a few technical details I need to work on before we go live but I think it should go well.
Balance in life is important, too much of anything is generally not a great idea, even if it is a fun thing like riding electric unicycles. Since Monday evening my life has been consumed with nothing but EUC. I was planning, riding, commenting, filming, driving and editing pretty much non-stop right up until last night. To be honest, I just can’t find the energy to type out everything about the experience. Don’t get me wrong, it was a bunch of fun and I was very honored to be chosen as one of the influencers in the US worthy of giving my opinion on the Ninebot Z-10. However I would prefer if you just watched the video series as time allows, to tell the story.
I started off Father’s Day weekend with a run at the track despite my lower body still dealing with aching knees and a few other pains. The air was thick with humidity and I felt like just finishing the distance was the primary goal. It reflected in my pace which was the slowest I have logged in a couple months, oh well. I was pretty wiped out by the end of it.
So since I got work done on Thursday that meant I didn’t have to do quite as much as normal this weekend. Of course that meant I still found other things to do as that list never ends.
Mid-morning we took the dogs on a ride to Tractor Supply to get chicken supplies. On the way back we dropped Sadie off at Ali’s. Her and Shugs just got back from a trip up to Sea Isle City New Jersey with Ali’s parents. For around a half decade or so I used to go to SIC with my first wife’s family so I was very familiar with it. It is a great little place and in some ways reminded me of Rehoboth.
Mid-afternoon Cindy and I did an impromptu ride to the swamp, me on my Msuper and Cindy on her mountain bike. It was a cool little trip. I was excited to see that they have replaced roughly half of the decking for the rotting boardwalk with the trex style composite wood which should last forever.
So we made plans to go to The Warehouse to eat dinner for Father’s Day. Shortly before we were ready to leave I let Elsa out to go to the bathroom while I closed up the chicken area. As I walked back up to the house I called Elsa over and stopped dead in my tracks. She was covered in dirt. But I realized it wasn’t dirt, it was actually sludge.
Earlier in the day I dumped one of the rain barrels that was dry rotting. In the bottom of it was a collection of black disgusting sludge that I stupidly didn’t hose away. Elsa evidently found the smell of this substance intoxicating and decided to roll around in it. I couldn’t be mad at her, she looked so proud of herself.
So even though we were both all cleaned up and ready to leave we had to give Elsa a tag team bath by the side of the house, trying to not get ourselves too dirty in the process. It was quite the funny situation.
So despite being open for nearly a year, Cindy and I have never frequented the Warehouse before. It is the closest upscale restaurant in our area. We had heard good things about the place from others. We walked out of there echoing the same feelings. The food was great, the design of the space was cool and modern, our waitress was extremely friendly and attentive, and the restaurant was immaculately clean. Hell as I was sitting there somebody was walking around cleaning the baseboards. We will definitely be back.
The movie we went to see was Ocean’s 8, something Cindy said she wanted to see. I liked all the other movies in the Ocean series so I was fine to see this one. For whatever reason I was really sleepy which did not help my enjoyment of the movie. It was a good flick although I would not rate it as highly as the originals. It definitely does not benefit from the theater experience and can be enjoyed just the same at home as a rental. I’d give it a solid B.
Sunday morning I took off for another EUC ride, this time on the Monster. The plan was for Cindy to meet me at Dunkin Donuts with Elsa and then she could walk Elsa around while I rode with them. Well the first part of the plan went well, the ride to Dunkin Donuts flew by quickly.
I wore my new full face helmet for the ride. I wanted to see how comfortable it would be now that the full effect of Florida summer heat is on us. The answer was, not bad. As long as I was rolling the airflow through the helmet kept me comfortable and the big long visor kept the sun off my face. When I was sitting still waiting for Cindy to come out with coffee it got a little warm. I did discover one big drawback with the helmet, I can’t drink coffee while wearing it. Almost every ride video you see of me will involve me drinking coffee during it so I will need to plan accordingly.
I talked to my dad during the afternoon. He appreciated my Father’s Day gift, a pair of those wrap around sunglasses old people wear that go over your existing glasses. Even though it was really a gag gift dad actually will wear them because they do serve a practical purpose and look a little ridiculous, a combo he can endorse.
Late Sunday afternoon I hooked up with Marty, an EUC buddy of mine who lives in the LA area. We are going to be doing what equates to an Electric Unicycle podcast, at least testing it out. We wanted to test out the logistics before we do the official launch next weekend. I used Skype for us to do a two way video call and then broadcast that window out to YouTube. There are a few bugs to work out but I think it will work out pretty well.
Even though I have known Marty via our EUC connection I never actually spoke to him, until yesterday. We had no issue going back and forth about stuff. I actually talked to him for around an hour on Skype BEFORE I started broadcasting. He has some good ideas for the content of the show which I think I will more or less his thing while I concentrate on the technical aspects. If you want to see how our test run went look below. I streamed for almost two hours which is crazy.
So after working today I have the next two days off which will be dedicated to testing the Ninebot Z10 which is scheduled to be delivered to the house today. It should be a fun and busy couple days which will involve me driving all over the place to test the wheel in various conditions/locations. See you Thursday.
So I wasn’t thrilled when I got a second email late Wednesday from the gutter installers saying that they still planned to show up Thursday but now it wasn’t until between 12-1 instead of 8-9. The reason was I could see the now typical afternoon thunderstorms causing a problem with the install. I crossed my fingers that things worked out as I was not going to take Friday off as well for this.
So I treated my day off as I do most weekends, meaning I put myself to work. I headed outside somewhere around 8AM and did not return indoors until roughly three hours later as I weed whacked the property and tended to a bunch of other outdoor tasks. I was beat and refreshed myself by doing something I hadn’t done in quite awhile, jump in the pool. Sadie was very happy about my decision as it meant she got “splashy splash” which involves her running around the pool deck as I splash her excessively. She just loves it.
I took the dogs for a quick coffee run as I had just enough time to get there and back before the 12PM install window hit. The two man crew showed up closer to 1PM but they were ready to roll. They said the entire job should take roughly two hours.
While they got busy I kicked off phase two of my physical labor. I wanted to use the pressure cleaner in the chicken area. The exposed decking edge needs to be re-caulked and painted but doing so required that the green scuzz that has accumulated on it needed to be blasted away. While I was out there I also cleaned other items including the old chicken tractor which had a coating of black filth from being left under the oak tree for too long.
While I was out there Cindy was taking pictures and measurements of her RV awning for her insurance company. On Wednesday she had the awning out during the day. Some bad weather came in very quickly that was preceded by very strong winds, strong enough that they bent/snapped part of the frame. Cindy was very upset about it as you can imagine but it seems that the insurance company she is using is very responsive. She is hoping it will all be covered with her just paying a manageable deductible.
So the gutter guys were very accurate with their estimate. They finished up in a little more than two hours and the end results were great. The single piece gutters should not suffer the endless leaks my installation from years ago did when I installed conventional gutters. These are also big 6 inch gutters compared with the 4 inch type I bought at Home Depot. They should serve me well for many years to come. This was the very last step in my hurricane repairs, well it was, until Sadie ripped the hole in the pool screen the other day.
Despite a lot of labor already being invested into my day off, I continued my tasks inside. I received a replacement for the print bed in one of my 3D printers which had a bend in it, causing issues with prints. I swapped it with the new bed and all was well again, after the normal amounts of trials and tribulations.
I have an odd schedule the next week. After coming back for a single day today, I work Monday and then have next Tuesday and Wednesday off. I took those two days off to allow me ample time to evaluate the Ninebot Z10 EUC that is on it’s way to me from the NYC E-Crew. I am really looking forward to it.
Sunday is Father’s Day so I thought I would take a second to reflect on some memories of my dad that have stuck with me over the years, some funny, some sad.
I have no question where my “once started, the job must be done” disposition comes from. I recall clearly a time when my dad was out on the tractor mowing grass, in the dark, in the middle of a fierce thunderstorm. The headlights of the tractor and his silhouette lit up by the flashes of lightning are an image that stuck with me. I have actually repeated this scene on my much smaller lawn tractor several times as an adult.
One of the more memorable activities of my childhood was when my dad would play King of the Hill with my brother and my friend Pete. We had a rather steep hill along the driveway that lead into a drainage ditch below. The game was simple, you tried to pull the King off the hill. Well back then dad seemed like a massive giant to the rest of us. We would try to drag him off the hill as a tag team effort but were never successful that I can remember. The end result of this game was all three of us literally getting tossed down the hill repeatedly, sometimes with a lot of air underneath us. I’m pretty sure it would be classified as child abuse nowadays but we loved it.
When my parents got divorced it was a pretty dark time in our relationship. There were weekends we would be at the dumpy apartment he was renting in Reading where he would just be crying and miserable. Neither myself or my siblings really wanted to go there on the weekends, it almost felt like punishment.
One of my most poignant memories of that time was around the holidays. We had just been with my dad and he was transferring us to mom. As we were about ready to drive away he stopped us and handed us some additional presents that evidently were from his girlfriend. (I remember zero about this woman) Well without hesitation my mom grabbed the presents and hurled them back into the street and sped away. It was a very powerful moment in my childhood, the look on my dad’s face as we drove away stuck with me for a long time.
My dad and I had roughly a six month period where we stopped communicating at all. It was when I decided that I was willing to walk away from my college education and partial baseball scholarship because I thought I needed to be with my girlfriend at the time instead. He was infuriated by my decision and looking back, rightfully so, but at the time I thought I knew best.
Dad has helped me out repeatedly and was responsible for eventually getting the base education I needed to get into the IT field after I spent 5 years or so stumbling around figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. He footed the bill for my Lincoln Tech computer repair program that got my foot in the door as an entry level grunt at a local PC reseller back in 1992.
Dad is famous or infamous for his rants where he takes a hard ass stance against a person, product, business, or situation. One of the earliest I recall is his vow to never buy another Sears product when the Craftsman weed trimmer (the old hand held style that was like motorized scissors) broke despite not being very old. I remember the vow being christened by dad taking the unit and smashing it to the sidewalk, violently.
Another crusade of his was refusing to patronize any bank that had a “teller rope system” . Dad hated the idea of being directed around like cattle by a series of stanchions and velvet ropes. If he was in a situation where he HAD to go into such a place he would refuse to use the rope system and would walk around it. There are countless examples of seemingly minor inconveniences that dad has adamantly opposed in not just words but actions over the last five decades. I certainly have moments where I react in a similar way to situations but I am a minor leaguer compared to dad.
I think I owe a great portion of my drive to be physically fit to what I saw my dad do growing up. He used to run, do push ups, sit ups, lift weights, and swim pretty regularly during different portions of his life. It helped me install similar habits into my adulthood which are still carrying on today. It’s hard for me to see dad struggling as much as he does nowadays with various physical ailments when I once viewed him as almost invincible. But even with all of his aches and pains he still will grind himself to a nub doing physical work if he is in the “once started, the job must be done” state of mind. He will just pay for it dearly afterward.
So my roughly 30 or so years as an “adult” made me reevaluate some of my experiences and thoughts about my dad as a child. I realize that just like everyone else on the planet, dad is a flawed individual that did the best he could do to take care of us with the various circumstances he was in during his lifetime. Having no children of my own means I never got to see how I would do if thrust into the role of fatherhood but I certainly know it is not an easy line to walk.
I love and appreciate my dad. He has managed to set all five of his kids off into the world where we are all enjoying different successes as competent, contributing adults in society. Dad has and always will walk to the beat of his own drum, even if it is a little out of tune now and then.
So I was supposed to be off today for the gutter install on the house. However I got an email around 3:30 yesterday saying the work was being postponed to Thursday. I thought the notice was rather late but at least they let me know instead of just no showing without notice which is how so many service businesses in SWFL operate. Luckily I was able to move my day off to Thursday to accommodate the change.
So as I mentioned a couple days ago, this past weekend I tried to do an alternative power run to the RV so we could hopefully run the AC unit to keep temps/humidity down. For almost a month we have had the blower fan in the RV running 24/7 to try to provide some temperature moderation but it didn’t seem to do much of anything besides blow hot outside air into the RV at a rapid pace. Well to add insult to injury, I got the electric bill yesterday and it had jumped something like $45 from the round the clock ineffective use of the AC fan out there. If I didn’t have the RV fan draw, I was hoping I would be able to see the first tangible benefits of having a reflective, heat repelling, metal roof on the house.
So anyway, after realizing having the AC running out there with my current electrical circuit configuration was a no go and that the having the fan on accomplishes nothing, we came up with a simpler plan. We ordered a small dehumidifier which will pull a fraction of the power but keep moisture from accumulating inside the structure. Cindy is also going to be trying to get out there more regularly to open up the RV so it can air out daily if possible.
I took the truck to work yesterday because I needed to pick up supplies afterward, dirty supplies. Over the winter I have been dumping bags of top soil in the area directly behind the chicken coop. My hope has been to create some additional high ground that the chickens can utilize when the unavoidable high standing water of Florida wet season returns. I have probably dumped 60-70 bags of top soil back there in total.
Well the last part of this plan was to put sod on top to stabilize the dirt. I had been waiting to do this part until consistent rain had returned. I hoped to get the sod at the Home Depot 5 minutes from the office but they had none. Luckily the bigger location 5 miles away still had a good amount of sod available. I loaded up the truck with 10 more bags of top soil with a chaser of 30 pieces of St Augustine sod.
I was outside working straight up until Cindy got home close to 7:30PM. It was tedious and dirty work but I like the end result. The deck of grass sits a good 6-8 inches higher than the low spots back there so I hope it can be the chickens island of tranquility during the stormy days of summer.
I just got a ship notice for an EUC being sent my way. For the first time ever it isn’t one I bought. Instead I have been lucky enough, thanks to my YouTube EUC presence, to be selected as one of a handful of people in the United States to get to test a new electric unicycle called the Ninebot Z10. This wheel was just up in NYC where it was tested by a BUNCH of local riders. In my case the testing will be isolated to me, unless Cindy, Daniel or Katie want to try it out. I am looking forward to getting the wheel to see if it lives up to the hype. I am actually burning two vacation days next week to dedicate to testing the wheel before I have to ship it to it’s next location.
So last night as we were taking the dogs out just before dark I looked at the far side of the freshly rescreened pool cage and saw a dog size tear in it. I instantly knew who the culprit was, Sadie. Sadie has a long history of creating her own exits. When she was young I had to repair the drywall in the front of the house after she tried digging through the wall to get to something she saw outside. I have had her rip through screens on the lanai at least a half dozen times but this one was the most annoying of all since I just spent close to 4K getting the cage redone with high quality polyester screen.
We scolded Sadie loudly although at this point I doubt she knew what it was for. We later confirmed Sadie’s guilt when we caught her on one of the coop cams prancing around the back yard while Cindy was at work. Before bed I haphazardly covered the big tear with some tape to prevent a convenient critter entrance. I contacted the company that did the work to see if they would be able to replace the single panel. If they have no availability I will try to get my hands on some of the high grade screening that was used and do it myself.
Sadie has now lost her right to free access to the pool deck when we are not home, which is a shame since I know she loves to sit out there. However I can’t have her tearing holes whenever she decides there is something in the yard she has to get a closer look at.
I had a 3D printing mishap overnight that resulted in a beach ball pile of filament scattered on the workbench. It happens.
I heard Trumps summit with Kim Jong Un went fantastically terrific. I mean really, really great. I am terrifically, really, really excited that we have such a masterful negotiator handling the situation. This is just fantastic, and great…..
