Working into a washout

So I had a rough plan on how my 4th of July was going to go.  I wanted to bust ass in the morning getting ALL of the property weed whacked and mowed.  The rest of the day would then be available to do fun stuff like practice riding the One Wheel.  Unfortunately ever since we got Elsa, fireworks are no longer part of our celebration plans.  Leaving her alone while we went to go see fireworks somewhere would be absolutely terrifying for Elsa, as homegrown fireworks in our area would be going off constantly.  Just the sound of a single blast is enough to start her shaking in fear.

So anyway after taking care of the chicken maintenance and eating breakfast I headed outside to do battle with the yard.  As I was sweating profusely, getting caked with grass clippings, I thought to myself how it has been nice that we are into July and still have not had that awful prolonged standing water that Cindy and I loathe.  I worked close to four hours outside until handing off the tractor duties to Cindy who mowed the back half of the yard.  When she finished up we both commented on just how awesome everything looked.

When I came inside I had to deal with work stuff.  On Tuesday we had a minor disaster when our main data circuit to our remote offices failed, on the second day of our new cloud based back end system.  I spent the entire day Tuesday scrambling to come up with workarounds to address it, which I finally did.  The circuit was repaired on Wednesday so I had to undo the workarounds I had put in place.

So mid-afternoon I was ready to resume my One Wheel practice outdoors.  The only riding I had done was in the main living space which is dangerous for both me and the contents of the house, as I proved later.  So just as I was gearing up to go outside it started to rain.  Ok, I figured it would be a quick hitting downpour so I ungeared and fired up WoW for a bit.  Well instead of letting up a full fledged monsoon blew in.  We had horrible, pounding rain with high winds for a couple hours.

Remember what I said about how nice it was that we did not have Noah’s Ark type flooding on the property so far this summer?  Well you can scratch that.  The yard quickly transformed into a bog after the storm.  I was glad we got all the mowing done but immediately frustrated that the yard, that looked nearly perfect a few hours prior was now littered with ponds.

So anyway, my only option if I wanted to practice the One Wheel was to do it indoors once again.  I felt better and more confident than my initial experience Monday night.  In goofy foot stance I didn’t have nearly the same amount of shaking as before and I was able to mount and dismount without holding anything.  I had the GoPro running when I was demonstrating my adeptness at dismounting when this happened.

The impact of the wheel against the TV cabinet left a nice black plastic mark on the one door.  An earlier incident where the wheel again got away from me put a small crack on the laminate side surface of the island.  Obviously I should not be practicing indoors but I really wanted to at least do something to help my learning curve progress.  The fall above also took another hunk of skin off, this time on my right ankle.  Despite the mishaps I kept plugging away.  Before I called it quits I was rolling back and forth from the front door to the the rear slider pretty smoothly.  I even managed to do a loop around the kitchen island without grabbing anything for additional support.

So in a strange way I wish the rain would have continued as night arrived.  The reason is it would hopefully quell the home fireworks that so many people in our area find so enjoyable.  My attitude on fireworks is one of many things that have done a total 180 over the years.  I used to think they were incredibly cool and exciting.  Now, especially now with how terrified they make Elsa, I look on them with disdain. If I am being honest, I now feel somewhat negatively of people that feel the need to put on their own personal fireworks show because of their lack of thought/concern on how it affects others around them. Unfortunately the house next door was one of these people.

Because of the proximity the noise really scared Elsa, she was huddled under my desk most of the night.  I played WoW, the sounds of the game, which she is very used to helped drown out some of the explosions around us.  I realized that it was 4th of July, people are going to shoot off fireworks.  Complaining about it is like complaining the sky is blue, it’s just the way it is.

However as we laid in bed, sometime after 11 we heard some additional loud fireworks going off next door.  I believe there is some sort of noise ordinance that requires loud noises to cease at 11PM. Ordinance or not, common sense should dictate that firing off fireworks that late on a weeknight was out of line, inconsiderate, and irresponsible.   The noise not only scared Elsa but shook me from my drifting to sleep stage.  Cindy shot up and went outside to see if she she caught them doing it and would verbally warn them for doing so.  Fortunately there was no more explosions.  If there were, I had already laid out the mental plan for throwing on a pair of shorts, my boots and stomping across the soggy yard and requesting a cessation to the behavior in a undeniably unfriendly manner.

I finally managed to fall asleep and got up this morning feeling groggy, sore, and annoyed, what’s new….