Archives 2018

So I had my abdominal CT on Friday.  I was dreading the two barium shakes I had to drink but they actually didn’t taste that bad.  I was able to get both of them down without issue.  I had no clue what to expect of the procedure, I had ideas of it taking an hour or more and of course I would have to be in a hospital gown.  Neither of those things were true.  I didn’t have to even take off my sneakers, the only requirement was not having any metal in the scan area.  The entire process took about 15 minutes.

So the drinks were to create “contrast” in my GI system.  In addition I was given an IV prior to the scan to give contrast to my blood.  The fluid they inject you with feels odd as you can feel it circulating in your body, causing certain areas to heat up.  They warned me about the sensation ahead of time.  The machine reminded me of the open MRI that was used to scan my knee years ago.  During certain periods you are told to hold your breath for a few seconds.  The entire thing was really a non-event.  Unfortunately I will not have any information on the results until today or tomorrow.

So I felt fine afterwards and came back to the office to eat my lunch.  Somewhere after 1PM I started feeling not so fine in my gut.  The result was two trips to the bathroom that reminded me of colonoscopy prep.  I asked to go home as I felt ready to burst.  It was a long drive home as I fought the pressure pretty much the entire way.  Unless I missed it, there was no mention of the barium shakes causing explosive results afterward. It would have been nice to know.  That was not fun. I wound up laying in bed for a couple hours at home.

Because of persistent rain the property had a lot of standing water still on it so mowing the grass was off my list for the weekend.  We started Saturday off with standard fare, tending to the chickens and weeding the property.  During the afternoon I turned my chore focus indoors as I vacuumed all the carpeted areas and then followed up with steam cleaning the hard surfaces.  Just for good measure I let my two hard surface cleaning robots loose afterward.

Late Saturday afternoon we headed over to the high school.  I had the Meepo along and Cindy wanted to get a brisk walk in while I rode.  The ride was cut short by yet another round of hard rain.  I still had fun cruising in Expert mode.  I even maxed the throttle for a short burst which supposedly should be at 20+ mph.

On Saturday night Cindy and I watched our latest Netflix rental, I, Tonya, the movie about the mess which is Tonya Harding.  I thought the movie was very well done and provided me with a lot of background that I did not have about her life.  I had no idea just how dysfunctional and abusive her relationships were growing up.  The circumstances around the Nancy Kerrigan attack just seem incredibly moronic.  How that group of mental midgets thought this was a good idea is amazing and a testament to the power of stupid people collaborating.  Anyway, I came away from the movie feeling somewhat sorry for Tonya.   I’d give the movie a B+.

Sunday was really nice for me, it felt like a perfect mix of work and play.  In the morning Cindy and I parked at DD and rode from there.  She started out the session on her roller skates but then later switched to her MiniPro.

I got some tidying up done in the hobby room and did something I do far less than I used to, wash the vehicles.  I washed the Tacoma and Cindy’s Ioniq.  Both were overdue for sure.  I used to wash cars a lot more often in the past, I’m not quite sure why I have slacked off on that nowadays.  I guess like most negative things, I can attribute it to old age.

So I decided to go out on a second ride mid-afternoon on the Gotway Monster.  I wanted to go all the way to Collier North Regional Park and back, a trip of almost 35 miles.  Very early on in the ride I saw something bizarre.  As I headed west on Immokalee Road I saw four cops fly by me but none of them had their lights on which seemed very odd.  As I rounded a corner I saw a car stopped at the intersection with Wilson Blvd with all of those vehicles surrounding it, with their lights on.

As I got closer I saw the car that was pulled over was a Maserati that I remembered passing me a few minutes prior.  I assume the cops did not want to tip off the driver they were in pursuit.  As I swung out around the police vehicles I was shocked when I saw two of the cops had their guns drawn and pointed at the open door of the car.  I glanced quickly to my right and did not see a driver in the seat so I have no idea what was going on.  I later tried to look up the incident on the news and the sheriff’s website but found nothing.  It was a little crazy.

The ride to and from the park was fun.  I was glad that I had the Monster for the ride, I utilized the seat on the wheel for prolonged periods of time to give my feet a break.  By the time I returned the wheel was constantly beeping from low battery levels as the Monster did not have a 100% full charge before I left.  When I checked Strava for my ride statistics my mouth dropped open when I saw the top speed it recorded during the ride, 33.1 mph.  Wow, I had no idea I was going that fast at any time and I certainly was not trying to hit a new speed record.  If that speed is accurate it is the fastest I ever have traveled on a single wheel by several mph.

I finished up my Sunday with a short WoW session, wrapping up a near perfect day.  I can hardly wait till the next 5 days pass so we can do it again.

One year ago today Hurricane Irma smacked the hell out of us.  Hopefully we can avoid that scenario for another decade but seeing three named hurricanes in the Atlantic right now doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies.

I was sad to hear Burt Reynolds died yesterday.  He was so iconic to me growing up, I loved his character in Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run.  He just seemed like the epitome of cool.  It was rough seeing him descend into old age and the frail representation of his former self.  No one ever looked better behind the wheel of a black Trans Am.

So the Eagles and Falcons kicked off the NFL season last night, albeit late.  They delayed the start of the game for 45 minutes because of, rain???  I guess the rain was accompanied by some lightning which was the real cause of the delay.  Luckily the storm passed and the team got to do the official commemoration and unveiling of the Eagles first ever Super Bowl Champion banner.   Having Brian Dawkins lead the ceremony was awesome.  As they dropped the cloth, revealing the banner for the first time, a small tear of joy dropped from my eye as the emotion surrounding the Birds Super Bowl win came rushing back in. It was such a special moment.

For whatever reason the energy from that celebration did not carry onto the field.  The Eagles, especially their offense looked inept for almost 2/3 of the game.  Everyone knew the way to beat the Falcons was to run but instead the game plan seemed to instead be awful short yard passing often for less than 5 yards per play.  It was so aggravating to watch.  At one point Nelson Agalor had eight catches for only 34 yards.   I don’t think Foles threw for much more than 100 yards on the night.

The team finally started to show some life in the second half and took a late lead.  It was uncanny how the end of the game seemed to almost exactly follow the script of the playoff game the Eagles had against the Falcons last season.  Cindy and I were besides ourselves with the apparent inability of the Eagles cornerbacks to cover Julio Jones who just made catch after catch with seemingly no resistance.  However at the very end the Eagles defense had to come up with huge game winning stops not once but twice when a failed 4th and goal pass with seconds remaining turned into a first down after a bullshit illegal contact call on the Eagles.

So with no timeouts and only time for one play, just like last year, Matt Ryan targeted Julio Jones in the corner of the end zone (opposite corner), and once again the last ditch effort fell short as Jones made the grab but landed safely out of bounds, securing a thrilling game one victory for the Eagles.  It was quite the turnaround, the offense seemed like it could not get out of it’s own way early.  They never executed well but at least they got points on the board when they needed it.  I think not having Ashlon Jeffery on the field makes a HUGE difference.  Without him drawing coverage downfield the Falcons backfield locked down the Eagles receivers pretty easily.

The defense did a lot of bending and not breaking.  I was so annoyed how open Julio Jones was repeatedly throughout the game.  During that last drive it was especially annoying, everyone knew he was the primary target yet he was allowed to pick apart the soft zone coverage at will.  The D did do a good job against the run and put decent pressure on Ryan when it mattered the most.

I certainly hope the amount of penalties in the game are not indicative of how this season will go.  It was just an obscene amount of flags on both sides.  Some of the new rules about QB contact are just insane.  You are allowed to tackle a QB but you can’t “drive him into the ground” ?  Isn’t that the definition of a good tackle?  I understand the desire to protect players but you are asking them to defy the laws of physics at times. It’s pretty dumb.  Nobody likes a game that has a penalty thrown on every other play.

After the thrilling finish it was late, very late.  Unfortunately the adrenaline from the exciting finish made it very tough for me to fall asleep, despite being exhausted.  I bet I rolled around for close to an additional hour before I fell asleep.  The lethargy today is worth it.  What a great way to start the season.

Unfortunately I can’t have my normal big cup of coffee this morning to combat the tiredness as I normally would.  That is because my abdominal CT goes down late this morning.  Instead of enjoying a cup of coffee I get to choke down two barium “shakes” 90 and 45 minutes before the appointment.  I really have no idea what to expect of the procedure, how long it will take, or how I will feel afterward.  My only focus is finding out what is going on and getting on the path to resolution.

This weekend has standard items on it with nothing as frustrating as the Prius work from last weekend clouding the outlook.

So yesterday I called the med clinic looking for results on my blood tests.  The receptionist that answered the phone said that all numbers came back in the normal range.  It’s odd that somehow I felt disappointed in getting a a good blood report card.  I guess I was hoping for something definitive to pop out that would explain the malaise I have been dealing with as well as the right side pain that started out as an extreme exertion, occasional thing but now has settled into a dull, always sort of there thing.

So my next step is getting the abdominal CT out of the way which happens tomorrow.  After work I picked up two barium “milkshakes” that I was warned taste pretty awful.  I am hoping the procedure provides some clarity.   My current theory is this all goes back to the original stabbing pains I had doing dragon flags early last year.  At the time I just stopped and stopped doing that movement and the pain subsided.  What I am wondering is if that pain was actually a hernia that has been getting worse each time I aggravated it to the point where I am today.

I was talking to Ali about it since her job includes extensive medical knowledge.  She said if it is a hernia that has been getting worse the body can focus on trying to repair the damage which in turn could result in the fatigue.  The bad news is if it is something like that, it would likely require surgery to correct.  At this point I just want the problem identified and addressed.

I have heard people say that the reason they don’t retire is because they don’t want to be bored.  I just can not relate to that statement at all.  This extended four day weekend was further proof that I could retire tomorrow and never have a worry about boredom.  I kept myself busy the entire time I was off and still had things that had to be back burnered.  Now if I lived in a condo of a sterilized community I’m sure those tasks would lessen but I still think I have so many rods in the fire of so many things that I could always keep myself busy, regardless.  It’s good to have hobbies.

So yesterday I got a call from the med clinic. They got results back from the X-ray I had done last week.  The findings were not what I expected, especially the part where it said possible partial bowel blockage.  The reason that seemed out of left field was I don’t have the symptoms of a blockage, at all.  None of the normal symptoms apply to me unless you count the dull pain on my right side.  So anyway the end result was me now being set up for an abdominal CT scan on Friday which will give a much clearer picture.  I am more interested in the blood test results but those have not come back as of yet.

I am officially back in the stock market thanks to an incredibly simple and easy to use site/app called Robinhood.  For signing up you get one free random stock (I got a share of Groupon), and there is no cost to trade.  The web site and app are stupid simple to use.  Once you are set up you simply transfer money in to fund your account and have at it.  I grabbed a single share of American Airlines today, just for fun.  I heard all airlines are jacking bag fees once again, I may as well get on board.

If you want to check it out use this link to get a free stock on sign up. – https://share.robinhood.com/shawnd459

My weekend got off to a late start Friday, I stayed at the office until 6PM hoping for the DB upgrade part of an application server upgrade to complete.  It did not complete and actually failed altogether 24 hours later, something I had to monitor and work on throughout the weekend.  The late departure meant I wasn’t going to run, not that I planned to anyway with my chronic fatigue thing going on.

Despite that fatigue, I dug into my Saturday morning work immediately.  I told Cindy my goal was to have ALL of the grass/property maintenance knocked out Saturday morning.  When I say something out loud, that means I will move mountains to get it done.  Because of my low energy it almost felt like I was moving mountains but we got the weeding, weed whacking, and mowing done more or less as predicted.  The standing water that had plagued us all week long had just receded below ground level, allowing me to mow more or less normally.

On Saturday afternoon I was anxious to take my newly returned/repaired KingSong 18L for a long road test to see how the new battery performs.  The answer was, great.  On the ride out I was pushing against a steady and stiff headwind but that same wind pushed me back, making the return trip incredibly efficient battery wise.  By the time I got home my battery numbers were outstanding.  After an almost 30 mile ride I was showing 43% battery remaining.  To be honest those numbers almost sound a little too good to be true.  I will be doing a 20 mile DD ride this morning to see if I get similar results.

Saturday night we watched our latest Netflix rental, Jumanji.  I don’t think I ever saw the original with Robin Williams but Cindy did.  I found this reboot to be funny and entertaining, a solid B rental all day long.

Sunday morning Cindy and I went over to the school parking lot for a little while with the Meepo and One Wheel.  Now that Cindy is past her competition she is more willing to get on my two newest devices which both excite her more than EUCs.  She made some good improvements on both.  Cindy is very fearful of falling which is understandable but once she gets past that roadblock her natural athletic nature takes over.

We have Sadie this weekend so we took her and Sadie out for some errands, something that is always fun.  When we got home Sunday afternoon I decided to do a repair on the Prius, something that is rarely fun.  I was tasked with replacing the coolant control valve, a common failure in the Prius but not a catastrophic one.  It throws a P1121 error that triggers a check engine light.  I have cleared this light several times and it remains off for weeks at a time.  I actually have had the replacement part sitting on my workbench since the end of March, yes MARCH.  That is how much I was not interested in doing the work.  But hey I have a four day weekend, now was the time to finally jump in.

I had watched a couple videos on the replacement and it looked challenging because of space restrictions but doable.   In addition to the part I bought some hose clamps to close off the three hoses that run to the valve.  This was to prevent a huge loss of antifreeze during the job.  I quickly realized the clamps I bought were too small for the hoses.  I attached them but they didn’t fit right.  One came off halfway through the work and the other only slowed the flow of coolant but didn’t stop it.  I didn’t even bother clamping to bottom hose because I had no space to do it.

This job went from bad to worse.  The video does a pretty good job of depicting my frustration level with the job, which was off the charts at certain points.  Trying to manipulate tools in small, greasy, wet spaces just sucks.  I struggled for over two hours, standing in a puddle of antifreeze for most of it.  Eventually I slogged my way through it and got the new valve in but man did it suck…

On Sunday night I was beat but I still had to put on a happy face to do my bi-weekly EUC Live Stream with Marty.  It went pretty well but I had to end it rather abruptly when I had to get on a conference call regarding the application server upgrade with the vendor.  Sure it isn’t fun dealing with work items at 10PM on a Sunday night but it goes with the territory.  The good news was the call resulted in us being able to bypass the issue we were having and complete the upgrade.

So Monday morning as I was out doing the chicken work I noticed how it felt noticeable cooler than normal.  As I panned the back yard I realized that the standing water back there had soaked in as well.  I then looked to the east and saw very menacing skies.  When I came in I told Cindy how it looked like rain.  She said, yea tropical storm Gordon is supposed to come through.  Huh?  I had not looked at any weather since I was off.  I hopped on the computer and saw a HUGE red area of rain coming across the state on radar.  That was all that it took.  I announced to Cindy that I had to get out there and try to mow the rear of the yard before the rain arrives.

So even though it was only a little after 8am I fired up the mower and headed back into high grassy plain of the back yard and got busy.  The skies looked foreboding and I was very skeptical of being able to finish.  However I got lucky and knocked everything down with about an hour to spare until the steady rain began.  That rain intensified and lasted all day long, turning the yard into a bog once again.

The rain made for a pretty depressing Labor Day.  We took the dogs for a Rural King ride but after that we were resorted to indoor only activities.  Cindy had plenty to keep her busy.  We sold the bed in the guest bedroom to make space for Cindy to use that room for her interests.  We plan to buy a nice inflatable king size bed that can be used for guests as needed.  The room sits unused 98% of the year so we figured we may as well put it to use.  Cindy has always had a thing about wanting her own designated space so this was a convenient way to do so without requiring purchase of external buildings or vehicles.

I used the rain as an excuse to dive deeply into WoW, something I hadn’t had a chance to do all weekend.  With a newly released expansion there are endless things in game to keep my attention.  I bet I got 5 hours plus of play time in which is a rarity nowadays.

Today for my last day off I plan to get another EUC ride in as well as some One Wheel testing.  I have two fender related things to try.  I used FlexSeal on the inside of my original fender to deaden the sound of rocks and debris banging around inside it.  I also 3D printed two partial fenders for the board.  I want to see how effective they are at blocking shrapnel from hitting my legs.

It’s been a very busy extended weekend but enjoyable, with an adequate list of accomplishments in the ledger.

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…