Archives August 2018

So my ailment testing started yesterday as I headed over to get some abdominal x-rays late in the afternoon.  During my visit at the health clinic nothing concrete was determined via the physical examination but in addition to the x-ray a comprehensive fasted blood panel was set up as well.  The x-ray procedure went very smooth and made me appreciate that I am one of the fortunate few that has decent health insurance.  The entire procedure included absolutely no paperwork and no transferring of money.  I simply showed up, gave my name and that was all that was required.  Really the only negative was the woman that administered the x-rays was rather robotic and sterile but other than that it went very well.

So I got a call last night from my dad who is a regular blog reader.  He was concerned about my recent health events.  Unfortunately I had no answers other than what I already described above.  Dad had just undergone a pretty big procedure, cataract surgery.  His vision was getting severely impacted by cataracts so I expected him to report an improvement after the operation but I did not expect the degree of change he has experienced.

My dad has had glasses, thick glasses, my entire life.  His vision has always been poor.  Well after this procedure he actually can see distance without glasses, which is amazing.  You see in addition to removing the cataracts the doctor also inserted some sort of focusing lens which resulted in this dramatic improvement in vision.  To hear the excitement in dad’s voice about the result made me feel good.

So during this vision procedure my dad stayed with my brother in SE PA for roughly three weeks.  During this time he got to spend a lot of time with both Todd’s family and dad’s friends that he rarely see’s otherwise due to being isolated in the remote area of northwestern PA.  Dad told me how he really enjoyed being able to see everyone and also enjoyed having more around him to do.  He actually got to go to the gym on a near daily basis which he really liked.

Well evidently those three weeks resulted in a dramatic shift in his vision, literally and figuratively.  I was floored when Dad told me he was going through the initial steps to list their house in Marienville for sale.  I mean this was really a big deal.  Dad has spent a small fortune on that house remodeling and adding to it almost non-stop since they moved there.  I could not even begin to list off all of the things that he and my step mom have done there.  Repeatedly he has said how he had no intentions of moving.  Well evidently the three weeks around what was once familiar realigned his perspective.

Dad has realized that maintaining a 16 acre property in basically the middle of nowhere just is not the path to happiness as he marches into his 70’s.  It’s something all of us have felt for a long time.  It’s just too much work, plain and simple.  Dad realizes his physical limitations which of course will grow as time passes. He is finally willing to look for something that allows him to maybe actually enjoy old age with the company of friends and family instead of being shackled with work while being isolated in a tiny town with people he mostly doesn’t like.

Despite only starting the listing process on their place, he and my stepmom are already starting to look at places in the greater Reading area.  Moving back would mean being close to not only Todd but also my sister Meghan and my niece Cadence, which my step mom will be thrilled about.  I am sure she is just thrilled period with the idea of getting out of Marienville.  As dad’s physical limitations have grown it has put more and more responsibility on her back so having less to do would help her out greatly as well.

The one question I had was about their animals, namely the 20 sheep and llama.  They view them much as we view our chickens, as pets and part of the family.  Dad said the plan is to actually move the animals with them.  That is touching and understandable but I hope it doesn’t result in them moving zip codes but be presented with similar issues as a lot of the work they do is related to maintaining so many barnyard animals.  I even said to dad that it would be crazy if they somehow wound up back at the Gouglersville house that they sold close to 15 years ago.  It is actually back on the market and has been for sale for over a year.  That would be quite the storybook arcing circle to finally close. It’s unlikely but it sure would be amazing.

So this morning I had my fasting blood draw.  It was a rough one.  For whatever reason I am one of those people that has a physical reaction when it comes to having my blood drawn.  I normally just look the other direction and buckle down to get through it.  Well today they took a ridiculous amount of blood, 10 vials worth, since they were doing so much testing.  I must have looked bad as the woman asked repeatedly if I was ok which I assured her I was. By the time I was done I had sweated through my shirt.

She again asked me if I was ok and not light headed.  I told her I was fine even though I was shaky and lightheaded.  I was so lightheaded that I had to stop half way on the walk back to the office to sit down for a few minutes.  I felt close to dropping.  I then made it back to the office and quickly ate my breakfast of Pop Tarts and XL DD coffee.  I certainly hope one of those vials of blood has the answer to why I have been feeling this way.

I have a four day weekend coming up.  Of course I have a sizeable to do list which may take me more time than normal due to my significantly impacted energy/endurance levels.  No worries there will be plenty of time in there for fun and relaxation during those 96 hours.

Shot a video last night too….

The weird insta-fatigue feeling was still hanging around yesterday.  At the gym my bench press buddy asked me a couple times if I was ok, apparently I just looked really tired, which I was.  I finished my session with 15 minutes on a cross trainer and I felt terrible, like I had just got done a half marathon.  I was tired and almost felt like I had chills for a short period of time.    Again, it is exactly how my body feels if I have the flu or a bad cold, but I don’t.  Outside of this fatigue I feel normal.

My appointment is today with the onsite med clinic.  I don’t expect anything definitive to come out of it but hopefully it will be the starting point of some sort of tests or a referral to figure out what is going on.  I can only hope something is identified that is a clear culprit which can be remedied without a major impact on my day to day activities, I just don’t have time to be sick.

So it didn’t take long for Ron DeSantis, the Trump endorsed republican candidate for Florida governor to put his foot in his mouth, something he must have learned from his mentor.  When talking about the prospect of Gillum (a black man) being governor he included this, “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.”  Now of course there was a large segment of people that immediately jumped all over this as monkey is a word racists like to use when referring to black people almost as much as they enjoy using the N-word.

Now I will give DeSantis the benefit of the doubt.  I certainly hope this wasn’t a “dog whistle” as Gillum referred to it, to the large sect of closest racists in Florida.  However, an educated, thoughtful politician would/should know better why that choice of words was inflammatory.  At the very least he is guilty of being a dumb ass, the last thing we need in the governors mansion after Rick Scott slithers his way out of there.

It’s a sad state of the world when my initial reaction to Gillum, a Bernie Sanders endorsed candidate, is that he has no shot to win in Florida, because he is black.  Hopefully I am incorrect.  The only path to victory he has is to mobilize HUGE turn out on the democratic side which he did in the primary, trouncing his opponent in the four or five biggest urban counties in the state. It’s going to be a vicious, ugly, and depressing election season that again lowers my perspective of the state of our country, but what else is new?

So yesterday I made an appointment with our onsite med clinic to talk to them about the on and off pain in my right side and the fatigue that has been associated with it for the last week or so.  I generally despise going for any sort of medical visit so the fact that made an appointment means I have concerns.  I am able to function doing normal everyday activities but I fatigue very quickly when trying to do things I am normally accustomed to doing like going to the gym and running.  Yesterday at the gym I once again felt tired much more than normal.  I also have felt really wiped out by the end of the day.  Anyway these symptoms could mean a lot of things, some more serious than others.  Regardless I need to figure out what’s going on.

My new KingSong 18L that made an unexpected trip out west to get fixed for a battery problem is supposed to come back today.  The entire process will have taken roughly two weeks which is about as good of a turnaround as I could expect.  I look forward to getting a lot of mileage on my new wheel over the extended holiday weekend coming up.

You may recall last week how I was looking forward to getting through the past few days as they were just filled with stuff to do.  Well I am happy to report I have now come through that tunnel intact. Wow, what a blur since Friday.

So on Friday Cindy had her spray tanning session in preparation for her second bikini competition on Saturday.  She had this done for her east coast competition several months ago but this was the first time I saw the end result in person.  It’s pretty incredible just how dark she was but it really is a requirement for the show as the dark colors hide certain things while accentuating others.

Friday I once again rode an EUC over to the track to get my run out of the way.  I felt abnormally fatigued even before I started running which I talked about a lot in the video.  My body almost felt as it would if I was in the midst of fighting a cold or flu, except I wasn’t.  Running three and a half miles was the last thing I felt like doing but I had not gotten to go to the gym during the day so I felt obligated to get the run in.  The run was pretty pathetic, taking a minute longer than the week prior which had taken longer than the week before that.  My energy level was just terrible.

When I got home I did some looking around at medical sites.  I have been having repeated instances of pain in my right side that is normally brought about by strenuous gym activity, including last week.  Major organs in that area are the liver and gall bladder.  As I did some research on “right side pain and fatigue” I came across info that said liver issues that include elevated liver enzymes can cause body fatigue.  Well that got me concerned.  Concerned enough that I have an appointment with our onsite med clinic this week to take the first steps in investigating the issue.

On Saturday morning Cindy was up early doing her make up.  The early pre-judging started at 10 but she had to go in much earlier for spray tan touch ups and other work.  I tasked myself with getting as much done around the house as possible before I headed down there.  I again fought with fatigue that made even cleaning the chicken coop and weeding the property feel like a cardio event.  I just felt weak and oddly abnormal.

I piled my plate higher than I should have.  I left the house about 15 minutes later than I wanted to.  I didn’t get to the Naples Beach Hotel until 10:15 and a series of confusing signs and directions from staff put me on a wild goose chase for another 10 minutes until I actually made my way into the venue.

Unfortunately I missed the first time Cindy posed on stage but I saw her and her friends come out for another category.  My main job was to try to film their performances.  I felt badly that I missed part of it.  I still was feeling very odd physically when Cindy emerged from backstage.

So the actual judging takes place during the morning show but then in the evening they have the awards show which plays to a bigger audience, even though there were a couple hundred people at least at the morning session as well.  Cindy and a bunch of our group went out and grabbed lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  For the girls it was the first “big” meal they have had in a week or more so they really enjoyed themselves.  After lunch I headed home for a short while to let out Elsa and do a couple other things.  Cindy stayed there as they had a room at the hotel reserved for them to chill out at until the evening show.

I made sure I returned 30 minutes early for the evening show, not wanting to be late twice in the same day.  Katie joined me for the show.  We had fun people watching as the event went on.  There were many funny things to see.  Cindy did great once again, getting first place in two categories.  Despite battling bad pack pain the entire week leading up to the show I thought she did a fantastic job on  stage.  She looked beautiful and seemed comfortable on stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRLdexzL0SI

Originally we thought the order would be similar to the morning where Cindy would come out during the first half.  It was the opposite for the nighttime show, she was actually on stage for the very last group, some three and a half hours later.  Katie and I were both very proud of her.  We had three different vehicles so we all drove separately.  I got home first and tended to Elsa and a few other things.  When Cindy got home she was very anxious to get in the shower to wash off the day old spray tan.  The shower floor was literally black as she scrubbed and scrubbed the fake tan off. It was funny.

It was a late night Saturday which made getting up Sunday with an office move ahead of me seem all the less appealing. Our department met up down at Marco Island to move that office to a temporary location where they will be residing while their building gets renovated.  Most of my work was network related as I was focusing on getting communications up and running in the new spot.  We ran into a couple snafus during the day but overcame them.  I headed for home around 2:30 so at least the entire day was not consumed.

When I got home instead of basking in the glow of what remained of the weekend I jumped right into more work, changing the oil in the Prius and doing some speed mowing just around the house mound so the grass wouldn’t look ratty for the fantasy football draft party Monday night.  I collapsed into bed Sunday night wondering where the weekend went and thinking about what needed to be done yet for the Marco office and preparation for the draft party we were hosting.

So I spent most of yesterday at the Marco office once again.  I had a number of smaller but annoying loose ends to tie up.  They consumed much more of the day than I anticipated.  I headed right from Marco at 3:30 back home so I could assist Cindy with party prep.

Cindy had been busting ass to get stuff done since I have not been able to spend as much time on prep as normal.  It was much appreciated and allowed us to have everything ready to go well in advance of the 7PM draft start.  Once again we had some owners connecting remotely via Skype.  Once again we had remote owners that had issues with connecting that never got worked out fully.

I normally do very minimal draft prep for my fantasy team and this year was even more sparse due to the time constraints.  I only printed out a single fantasy “cheat sheet” that ranked players by position and used that as my basis for picks.  As usual I overate at the party but not quite to the levels I have in the past.  I also drank less beer, only downing three Miller Lites during the event.  All of the people in attendance were very appreciative of our hospitality and seemed to enjoy themselves. After the last person left Cindy and I tore into clean up.  We actually got everything back in place and cleaned before heading into the bedroom which was a good feeling although it once again meant we didn’t get to sleep until close to midnight.

I feel a sense of relief getting this series of events/tasks out of the way.  The next few months should hopefully be slightly less demanding. It seems like the last couple years at work have been the busiest of my nearly 20 years in the position.

Yesterday we got another dose of heavy rain deepening the wet misery that already exists.  After doing my chicken chores last night I hopped on for a quick live stream until Cindy got home from teaching class.

I’m digging in for a very busy weekend.  Cindy has her bikini competition tomorrow so I will be doing my best to support her with whatever she needs throughout the day.  On Sunday I will be working the majority of the day at one of our branch offices.  That office is getting renovated so we have to move the operation temporarily to a nearby library.  It’s going to be a stressful and long day.  I also have to find some time to plan the fantasy football draft party we are hosting Monday night.  Fun times…

We have had many periods of standing water this wet season although compared to last year it has been less.  Up until this point we seemed to have for the most part avoided the real misery when extreme rain events pile up on each other with no breaks to dry out in between.  Well yesterday we got another deluge on the heels of the major storm on Sunday.  The end result was the highest and largest persistent standing water of the year.

I HATE when the property is water logged like this.  The only solution would be to bring truck loads of fill in.  Unfortunately I can’t really have dump trucks driving all over the yard or they would break the buried sprinkler system. I also feel badly for the chickens during these times.  Many of their main hang out spots are currently flooded.  I am at least happy to report that chicken island, the area that I raised recently has remained high and dry.  I need to expand it’s size as things dry out.

After work I got a quick ride in around Sugden Park which has a nice twisting path around it’s perimeter.  Of course it was on video…

So last night after work I was a whirlwind. On the way home I stopped at AutoZone for oil change supplies, Lucky’s Market for CBD oil and Dunkin Donuts for a coffee.  The first order of business when I got home was throwing my clothes in the washer.  The careless DD worker pushed down my coffee lid when handing it to me.  The end result was me getting a coffee shower all over my pants.

I then fed Elsa, went out and did my evening chicken chores and then jumped on the tractor.  My goal was to mow the part of the yard that I missed due to the monsoon that blew in Sunday afternoon.  There was still standing water in some of the areas I needed to mow but I determined I should still be able to plow through them swamp buggy style.  After about 45 minutes of mowing the grass was once again evenly manicured.

Once I headed back inside I got two 3D prints started and packed up another 3D EUC stand to be shipped out.  It was quite the productive two hours for a Tuesday night.

Today I threw my One Wheel and Meepo in the trunk of the Prius.  After work I want to take a little joyride around Sugden park nearby.  I think the twisting path that circles the grounds will be a fun course for both devices to roll on.

How many high ranking Trump campaign associates/employees now are convicted felons? I’m losing track.  Expected repercussions? None.

Friday night for the third week in a row included getting my track run out of the way.  Out of the three sessions this time was the most difficult.  I just felt exhausted and tired, dangerously tired, a feeling I only have experienced in recent years.  I was so tired that I actually considered stopping somewhere around lap 10 which I normally would NEVER entertain.  I instead listened to my inner taskmaster who reminded me you NEVER quit once you start and trudged through the final few laps finishing the run about 45 seconds slower than I did the week prior. Like last week I rode one of my PEV’s to/from the track, choosing my One Wheel for the job.

My Saturday was busy, very busy.  A good portion of it was spent outside in the ass melting heat and humidity, weeding, trimming, and finally weed whacking.  The three tasks in total probably consumed a solid three hours of work. I did not one but two jump in the pool to get my body temp down sessions during the day.  We did take some time late morning to do a coffee and Home Depot run with Elsa where we picked up some odds and ends, including a big jug of Round Up which I used Sunday.

Later Saturday afternoon I turned my attention to Ali’s Neato, which she had given me a week or so ago to look at.  When you would try to start it on a cleaning cycle it would undock, start spinning up the motors but then stop, giving an error 3000.  When researching the error online it indicated some sort of problem with the optical lidar unit in the bot, which is used for it to “see” and navigate a room.  The problem is normally the motor that drives the lidar has failed.  I watched a video outlining the repair which involved a near total bot teardown.  I hadn’t ripped into a robot vacuum cleaner to that degree since my original Roomba days a decade or so ago.  I told Ali if she buys the motor I’ll attempt the repair.

So I set up the folding table in the hobby room. Upon it I placed the Neato, my Chromebook with the YouTube howto video queued up and a fresh cold Zima, everything I should need for a successful repair.  I followed the video methodically which was was very well done.  I find with these sort of repairs organization is very important.  I tried to keep the parts and the screws that attached them grouped together and laid out in a way that made sense.

To change this motor required a near total teardown of the Neato.  Although the process was involved it wasn’t really hard.  The most challenging aspect was the desoldering/soldering that was required on the replacement motor.  Reassembly went pretty well although when I got around to turning the Neato on I realized something was not right as I got a bumper stuck error.  I noticed the bumper was definitely not moving normally.  Fixing it required disassembly a second time to adjust some of the bumper switches that were not in there correctly.  The end result was satisfying, the Neato which in most households would have wound up in the trash instead is now sucking and brushing once again.

Saturday night we watched the latest Netflix rental, The Greatest Showman, a request of Cindy.  Before we started watching Cindy said she understood if I bailed since this was a musical and I generally hate musicals.  I told her I didn’t mind watching it, after all she sits through most of my picks, even if they aren’t really her thing.

Early on I was ready to pull the plug.  It was outright bizarre to see Wolverine dancing, prancing and singing on the screen.  However they included enough conventional dialogue that it kept the movie enjoyable, even for someone like me, I’d actually give it a B.  However the most noteworthy thing about the movie is the incredibly random and remote situation that happened at the end of it.

So the finishing song of the movie is called “From Now On“, a very high energy piece which played into the credits.  So as I flipped off the Blu-Ray player and switched TV inputs back to live TV, I hear the exact same song??  I do a double take, thinking somehow I didn’t turn off the disc and the audio was still coming from the surround sound system.  Nope, the song was playing on America’s Got Talent by some huge chorus of 150 people.  The odds of this floored both Cindy and I, that we would finish watching that movie, playing that exact song, the exact moment it was playing on AGT, a show we never watch, was mind blowing.  Cindy said she should run out and get a lottery ticket as the odds of what just happened seemed in line with lottery winners.  It was a bizarre moment.

Sunday morning Cindy and I headed to the Greenway to ride.  We brought four vehicles with, the One Wheel, the Meepo, the MiniPro and Cindy’s skateboard.  We had a somewhat abbreviated but fine ride as we rolled around the beautiful pathways.  It once again was hot as hell.

After eating lunch I had more to do outside, it felt like so much of my weekend was dedicated to just maintaining the landscape.  I first  walked the property with the bottle of Round Up and sprayed down various borders.  Doing so on a regular basis makes weed whacking less of a pain, especially along the fence lines.  I then hopped on the tractor to mow.  The skies were already looking threatening so I buzzed around as fast as I could.  Now I have a documented history here of mowing through rain and storms.  However yesterday there was something about the skies, the lightning was close and felt dangerous.  So once the rain started to fall heavily I parked the tractor even though I was only two thirds done.  It was a good move in retrospect as a full blown monsoon blew through dumping several inches of rain in a very short time period.  Of course the property was a lake afterward, scuttling any opportunity to finish the task.

Sunday night we had a very long EUC live stream.  It included our first guest, Jason, the owner of EWheels, the company I have bought a half dozen EUCs from.  It was a very informative show with Jason giving us a somewhat behind the scenes view of the business.  The show which we advertise as being roughly an hour long went on for double that.

The next 7 days are going to be quite busy.  I look forward to emerging from the other side.

Last night was quite busy as Thursday evenings go.  I headed straight from work to Boston Beer Garden to meet up with fellow fantasy football team owners for the draft lottery pick.  I have had unbelievable bad luck when it comes to draft position.  I have picked the last draft spot at least four or five times.  This year my luck was a little better as I grabbed the number 7 spot.  Normally I would hang around and drink a few beers but Katie and Daniel expressed interest in coming over to try the One Wheel and Meepo so I left the bar shortly after drawing my number.

I had only been home maybe 10 minutes when the kids arrived.  I quickly changed and threw the gear in the back of the Prius.  We met over at the school.  Katie tried the Meepo first.  I gave her quick pointers on how the remote control worked and she was off, slowly at first but soon she was doing slow and steady laps.  I had the board set to beginner mode where she was speed capped at 10 mph.

I gave Daniel basic One Wheel instructions but because of his pretty extensive skateboarding background riding the board wasn’t tough for him, the hardest part is learning how to stop and dismount safely.  Cindy showed up early in the session, coming there straight from teaching class.  She always loves when all of us are together.

After awhile on each device Katie and Daniel switched it up.  Katie felt very unsure of herself on the One Wheel for awhile but never fell and did a good job circling the lot.  When Daniel got on the Meepo it was like love at first sight.  After 10 minutes of riding I unlocked him to advanced mode with a 25 mph speed limit.  He was ripping back and forth across the parking lot with ease having next to no learning curve at all.

I only rode the One Wheel very briefly.  I instead just let the kids have fun trying out the two new forms of electric transportation.  By the end of it Daniel was sold on the Meepo.  I am pretty sure he will be ordering himself one very soon.  Katie loves the Meepo as well as the One Wheel.  She commented how she actually felt like she was working her lower body, something she doesn’t really get on EUCs at this point.  They both thanked me for letting them try out the new toys.  Hopefully they want to start riding with Cindy and I again on the weekends as a result.

I had not had anytime to eat dinner so that only happened around 8:30 when I got home.  After dinner I still wasn’t done, working on a custom 3d stand model for a customer and then remoting into the office to get some after hours tasks done.  It was a long night that left me feeling groggy this morning.

This weekend is the precursor to what will be a hectic weekend in 7 days when Cindy has her bikini competition next Saturday and then I have to move one of our offices to a temporary location next Sunday, followed by hosting our fantasy football draft party on Monday.  That doesn’t mean this weekend will be a laid back, veg out couple days.  The tasks just don’t stop coming.

I took off Wednesday to drive Cindy up to Cape Coral to get a MRI at the VA clinic.  The last time I drove her up there I spent the waiting time playing Hearthstone in the lobby.  This time I decided I wanted to do something more engaging so I threw the One Wheel and Meepo in the trunk.  Once Cindy was taken back I headed out to the parking lot and geared up.

I am not familiar with Cape Coral at all so I just headed in a direction that looked like it had less traffic.  I wound up cruising through a near by neighborhood with basically no traffic.  It worked out great.  During the ride I passed the 100 total mile mark on the One Wheel odometer, it was some of the most fun 100 miles I have traveled.

After getting home and tending to a few things I headed back out in the early afternoon, this time to ride the Meepo at North Collier Park.  I was surprised by a number of things when I got there.  The water park was closed, which seemed odd for mid-August.  Yesterday was the first day of school, evidently the second that happens they change the water park to weekend only hours.

I also was surprised that over half of the park was inaccessible to me.  The soccer field area was all closed off as they are replacing all of them with artificial turf which sounds incredibly expensive.  The back half of the park was roped off in addition because they were doing some sort of massive pesticide spraying that evidently is very toxic.  I’m not sure what they are trying to get rid of but I never saw such large sections of the grounds roped off.

I still made the best of it, zipping around the Meepo with increasing confidence.  I have quickly discovered that traditional sidewalk riding sucks on an electric skateboard.  Each seam in the sidewalk sends a jolt through your body due to the solid wheel construction.  I did my best to stay on paths, bike lane, and parking lots wherever possible.  I am feeling confident enough on the board to go up to the next skill setting which unlocks top speeds of up to 25 mph.  You definitely need to be in the right conditions to even think about approaching those speeds.

I putzed around some more at home afterwards.  I did spend a good amount of time in WoW which just launched another expansion to the game, meaning there is another 10 levels of content to be consumed and experienced.  I haven’t dove into it as hard as I have in the past but I am still looking forward to exploring yet another virtual world.

I have a weird two day work week that includes heading to a bar after work to pick numbers for draft order in our fantasy football league.