A whirlwind transaction, Done with damp, A Maze, 16 on a board, Can’t help myself, Can you hear me now, A crowd
So Friday evening around 8PM the Segway buyers from Kansas arrived in their Ford Focus. They looked tired as anyone would be after an 1100 mile drive which they did basically non-stop except for pulling over very briefly for a very short nap. I really had no idea what to expect since I only corresponded with Jarod via the Ebay messaging platform and a couple text messages. I could tell very quickly he was the type of person I like, hard working and hard headed.
He told us a little bit about his journey and himself. Before we even turned our attention to the i2 we took him into the hobby room so he could see my collection of PEVs as well as my 3D printer setup, which he found instantly intriguing, so much so that he asked I forward him info on one of my printers and where I get a lot of my models from.
Well when it comes to the adult toys department Jarod has me beat by a mile. He has a ton of vehicles and is one of those guys that has the prized ability to do both mechanical repairs and body work. The 2012 Ford Focus they drove down in was a wreck with a salvage title. He repaired/replaced the front clip and repainted the car. It looks great. I lost track of how many different vehicles he has/had but a few stuck out like the motorcycle trike, an Airstream, and a hovercraft.
In addition they have two MiniPros like Cindy and I have. Jarod has a spinal disease that causes him a lot of issues, one of which is poor balance and weak ankles. The i2 is going to be fulfilling a specific need. His job entails overseeing four warehouses, instead of doing this all on foot, which is increasingly difficult for him, he will be using the i2 to get around the grounds. We took the I2 out on the driveway and let him take it for a spin, he never rode one before but liked it immediately.
I was amazed he was able to get the i2 in the back of the Focus without taking the steering bar off, considering there was already a huge subwoofer and some luggage back there. There was no exchanging of money since it was all handled on Ebay courtesy of Paypal. They were staying one night in Naples before pushing back to Kansas on Saturday as he had to be back to work on Monday. I was happy that he texted me Saturday saying he had a blast riding the I2 around Naples Saturday morning. This transaction, which at first I thought was going to at the very least be problematic and likely be impossible, instead turned out just about perfectly.
Saturday morning parts of the property still had standing water but it was manageable enough that we could mow. I am just so sick of wet, humid, and hot conditions I don’t think I can adequately describe it. I just keep telling myself that 30 days from now summer should finally be ending for us.
We headed out to run errands after chores. At Home Depot I picked up this year’s addition to the Halloween decorations, a cheesy pumpkin headed witch. Buying this sort of stuff now means you pay a premium for it but for whatever reason, I don’t mind it. Putting out Halloween decorations means the holidays have officially started.
Saturday night we watched the latest and I assume the final movie in the Maze Runner series. To be honest I remembered far less of the plots of the first two movies so a lot stuff made little sense to me. Even if I did remember I don’t know if it would make a huge difference. The movie had lots of action and good special effects but I really found myself not giving an F about the eventual outcome. I’d give it a B.
Sunday morning I did a LONG ride on the One Wheel. Cindy joined me for the first 6.6 miles of it on the MiniPro. At that point she went into Target to do some shopping and I pushed back out on the One Wheel, heading to North Collier Park to ride around. This doesn’t happen often but I actually was tired of riding by the time Cindy came and got me. My feet hurt, it was melt your face hot, and I was just beat. In total I traveled just under 16 miles.
So I got home in time for the Eagles/Titans game. Early on the Eagles looked sluggish but seemed to establish themselves in the second and early third quarter, building a 17-3 lead. I thought to myself, wow how nice, we might finally have a game where I don’t have to be screaming at the TV the last two minutes of the game. Well of course I was incorrect.
The Titans came back in a big way, all the way back to a 20-17 lead. That charge made the Eagles defense, especially their secondary look very overwhelmed. Besides Malcolm Jenkins, nobody back there impresses me. Of all of the defensive backs, Jalen Mills annoys me the most. Somehow he has bamboozled some people into thinking he is a strong cornerback.
From his very first game as a rookie I couldn’t stand him. He is one of those guys that boasts loudly whenever a pass thrown his way is not complete, even if he was completely burned and the receiver just dropped the ball. And getting completely burned is something he does quite routinely. I can’t tell you how many times during the game number 31 was in coverage when Tennessee ripped off long pass plays. When he isn’t getting beat downfield he likes to participate in one of his other big hobbies, getting called for pass interference. I think the guy just sucks and is more of a liability to the defense than an asset. They could cut him tomorrow and I would be thrilled.
So anyway the Eagles managed to kick a late field goal to send the game into overtime and then another during the first drive in OT to put the pressure on the Titans who had to either kick a matching field goal or score a TD. Well the secondary was absolutely dreadful on this drive but nothing was more horrific than the 4th and 15 they gave up for a first down. The Titan receiver was allowed to run past TWO Eagles defenders that were just looking into the backfield, allowing the receiver to make an EASY catch with SEVEN Eagles back on coverage. It was maddening. The Eagles DB’s failed again committing another penalty on what would have been a game ending 4th down stop, giving the Titans the third chance which they used to burn the secondary one more time with a game ending TD pass.
Now I know I have said that the Eagles Super Bowl win should allow me to not care so much about the team’s 2019 performance. But you know what, I guess I was kidding myself. Playing and losing that way bothered the hell out of me and continues to bother me as I type this out. They need some real cover corners that can tackle.
We had our EUC live stream Sunday night and for the second consecutive time it was plagued by bad audio. The problem is a combination of different hardware (my headphone/mic) and some software upgrades that have made things act differently than they used to. It frustrated the hell out of me. I was hoping to get the problems sorted out before by testing with Marty but he was only available a few minutes prior to the show going live. I plan on configuring a second PC here that I can use to simulate his side of the connection so I can nail down what needs to be done to get things running smoothly again.
Today at work was an inservice day where we close the offices to the public but all of the employees meet at a central location for a seminar which included speakers on various topics. One of those speakers was actually me as I was pegged to give a 20-25 minutes talk regarding network security. I had two Powerpoint presentations I was working off of.
Generally speaking I am not a fan of nor am I good at group speaking. As I expected I had several times during the presentation where things didn’t come out as I hoped but I think most of the information was presented ok. Public speaking is something that I would do better at if I was called upon to do it more often. As is, this was my first time talking to 150+ people. It probably won’t be the last.