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.
So I talked to my EUC dealer yesterday about my problematic KingSong 18L. We decided the best course of action would be to ship the new wheel back to their service center in Arizona. While it’s there they will be able to swap and test parts in a more efficient way than I could and verify the wheel is working 100% before it is sent back to me. Of course the downside is I will be without the wheel for at least a couple weeks if not longer. The good news is I have tons of other PEV options to choose from.
Speaking of which, last night after dinner I took my Meepo electric skateboard over to the school to ride around solo. Once again it had rained last night but stopped a couple hours prior to me heading out. The rain had left various puddles scattered about which gave me some good steering practice while avoiding them. I did a lap around the middle school before I rode the sidewalk up to the high school which has a much bigger parking lot.
I had a great time cruising around the flat open spaces. I remained in Eco Mode which has a 15 mph top speed. I’m not sure if it is the smaller wheels but 15mph feels really fast on an electric skateboard to me. Maybe it’s just because I am still not all that confident on it yet. The board has a posted top end speed in Expert mode of 26mph which sounds insane.
I’m getting better at controlling the long board. The steering definitely is similar to the One Wheel but not nearly as responsive. I envision a time when Cindy and I are out cruising on the Meepo and One Wheel at the same time, taking turns on each device.
Speaking of the One Wheel, my replacement front sensor pad was scheduled to be delivered yesterday and it did not show up. Once again the delivery is via FedEx whom I am quickly becoming quite annoyed with. This is the third time in a couple weeks where a FedEx ground package for me from the west coast hauls ass across the entire country only to hit hit the FedEx Bell Isle distribution center in central Florida and stops, for days.
This latest package had a promised delivery date of Monday but it arrived in Bell Isle on Saturday where it has been collecting dust, being scanned there on Sunday and Monday as well. When I saw that they were going to miss their delivery date I called in, angry and frustrated with this FedEx policy. Even though they would be perfectly capable of delivering these packages earlier than the promise date they instead hold them at the distro center until they absolutely have to move it or in my case, even after they have to move it. I asked the phone rep why this was and said it makes no sense how a package can move 3000 miles in three days and takes 2-3 more days to move the last 200 miles.
I then specifically asked him how in the world they could miss on the delivery date when the package has been sitting in Bell Isle for three days. He said that technically the official “commit” date was Tuesday. I asked him to explain if that was the case, why would FedEx’s own tracking system say Monday? He had no explanation and I got the feeling these sort of questions are something he has to deal with quite often.
Anyway I think this a moronic business practice to rush packages cross country only to have them sitting idle for days mere hours from their destination. Over promise and under deliver is the most frustrating business practice a company can do.
So for the second consecutive week I wound up getting my run in on Friday evening. Not only was the run different because it was on a Friday evening, I also got there in a unique way, on my EUC. I have thought several times in the past about riding my EUC to the track, running and then riding back but I never made it happen. I finally did. I wanted to test out how my 18L was going to act with the battery problem it has been having so I needed to get some miles on the wheel anyway.
Unlike last week where I did the run after 8PM, after eating dinner, this time I did it before eating, around 6 which is a better option. Running on a full stomach just doesn’t feel good. Luckily it was overcast which kept the temperatures down but the run still felt as miserable as always. The video I shot talks a lot about my mostly hate relationship with running and why I continue to do it anyway. The ride also revealed that my batteries in the new wheel are still not acting normal, which sucks.
So the big task I wanted to accomplish was mowing the grass, all of the grass. So on Saturday morning since my run was out of the way and Cindy did the weeding for me on Friday, I was out on the tractor early, around 8:30 AM. The standing water that was on the property during the week had receded so as I have said a million times, during wet season you have to mow when the opportunity arises, not when you feel like it.
With the new drive belt installed the tractor was appreciable faster, letting me mow at a faster clip than I have been accustomed to. After finishing the normal mowing I grabbed some water. Cindy thought I was done but I told her I still needed to mow the back half of the yard as well. A few laps into the task I noticed the clouds were starting to pile up. A few more laps and I saw the clouds turning gray and after several more I could see columns of rain starting to fall from them.
I was not happy at the sight but had already predetermined that I was finishing mowing, regardless of the conditions. Well that edict was definitely put to the test. About halfway into the task the rain started coming down, lightly for a short while. However the wind was gusting and I had to mow with one hand on the canopy to keep it from blowing backward. Then the torrential rain started, the driving, miserable, wind swept relentless rain that makes wet season here so frustrating. The canopy did little to keep anything on me dry other than perhaps the top third of my head. I didn’t care, I plowed ahead, wiping the rain from my sunglasses as necessary. I did accomplish my goal but I literally finished as the property was flooding once again. I looked like I just jumped into the pool fully clothed.
Thankfully later in the day the rain broke and the sun came back out. I took that opportunity to take my Meepo over to the school for my first real riding session. It didn’t take very long for me to abandon beginner mode which just felt too restrictive after 5-10 minutes. I bumped it up to Eco Mode which has a 15 mph top speed. This felt much faster and really made the riding experience more enjoyable. I had a ton of fun on the board and look forward to Cindy getting more comfortable on it (and the One Wheel) soon.
Saturday night we went to go see the latest Mission Impossible movie, I have always been a fan of the series. The movies have always had Tom Cruise performing unbelievable acts that most super heroes would be hard pressed to emulate. However this sequel seemed to be Mission Most Impossible, some of the stuff that went on was just utterly ridiculous but even so, I found myself utterly entertained the entire time. It is a non-stop roller coaster that has so much action that you don’t have time to focus on how silly it all is. B+
Sunday morning I wanted to do a more extensive test on my KingSong 18L so I decided to duplicate the ride from last week to Dunkin Donuts to see how the battery performed. It did not go well. I actually got significantly worse range than the week before, it was so bad that I had to call Cindy to come and pick me up at DD as I only had 36% battery left after 10 miles. This wheel should be able to go 35 miles on a full charge. I now have to figure out the best course of action to get this fixed with my dealer. As the wheel is now I no longer trust to ride it any appreciable distance.
When Cindy got me she brought the Meepo with. Before it started to rain, again, she got on the board for the first time and did some slow cruising around the back of a shopping center. She said she liked it and needs more time to get used to controlling speed via a hand control. I can’t wait until she gets as comfortable on the Meepo and One Wheel as I am.
So the rest of Sunday was basically a wash out with mostly continuous rain that left our property the worst it has been this year. It’s crazy that I was able to mow everything the day before. I spent the majority of the rest of the day indoors tending to little tasks here and there. With the addition of a new EUC and two skateboards to the fleet I need to think about some alternative storage options for the hobby room to keep everything organized.
It’s an oddball week where I am off Wednesday and have a fantasy football draft order pick Thursday. It will set me up for a very hectic following week. Can’t wait.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays Cindy teaches an evening class and doesn’t get home until 7:15 to 7:30. I often target these nights to get stuff done like videos, small tasks, and other things. On the way home last night I had an idea pop into my head where I could ride the 18L over to the school WHILE carrying the Meepo, allowing me to try it out there.
Well when I got home and saw there were some black clouds off to the east I decided to scrap my plans. I didn’t scrap them because I was afraid of getting wet, I did it because of the dogs. Both Sadie and Elsa are terrified of thunder. The idea of them being home with the possibility of a storm rolling in threw a wave of guilt over me that made me readjust my plans. Instead I just reviewed what came in the Meepo box and talked about my brief ride the night before.
Pet guilt is something that definitely affects me on a regular basis. Surprisingly the chickens are a major factor when it comes to planning potential road trips or vacations. We can normally feel secure leaving Elsa with Ali and Shugs but I always worry about care for the chickens. Cindy and I are so used to the chicken routine it is easy for us. However it is a lot to ask of someone else as there is a high level of grossness that we are pretty immune to. I wish I had someone I absolutely could count on to care for the birds when we aren’t home. It would make travel less burdensome.
This weekend I really want to get out on my new electric vehicles as much as possible. I am hoping the weather and my chore list allows that to happen.
My new Meepo electric skateboard showed up yesterday. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great but I did get out on the driveway for 10 or 15 minutes trying it out. Much like my initial experience on the One Wheel, my body is not quite sure how to react although there are definitely some similarities to the One Wheel.
Having a handheld speed controller is an entirely new thing for me. One slip of the thumb dial in either direction could have undesired consequences if you aren’t careful. I set the board to beginner mode which greatly limits the boost and speed which is a good thing for someone like me.
My cross wired foot dominance really needs to be worked on. I still find that I prefer to ride goofy foot where my left foot is back and right is front. However I don’t feel stable enough on my right leg to do things like foot brake. This is something that can be corrected with practice, I just need to put in the time. The same muscles in my right leg that are weak for mounting an EUC from that side are the same ones causing me problems on the board. I am hoping to maybe take the board to the school tonight to get some more training time in.
I also got to fight with my A5 printer, clearing a clog in the hot end which was causing under extrusion. I’ve had a lot of failures trying to correct this issue in the past with other printers but I luckily was able to fix the problem.
So you may recall several times in the past I have dipped my toe into podcasting. If you actually listened to any of them you know they weren’t great. I think it is very tough to do that sort of content solo. However with the advent of the EUC live stream show I am doing with Marty, the idea once again popped into my head that it would make for some good podcast content.
So I extracted the MP4 files from YouTube, converted them to MP3 format and posted a podcast RSS feed pointing to them. I listened back to one of them in the car yesterday and it converts well to an audio only experience. It will be interesting to see how it is received. If you are interested in adding it to your Podcast player simply use this RSS feed – https://eucarmy.com/feed/podcast/
I also got around to recording my 4000 YouTube Subscriber thank you video, something I wanted to do for a week or so. It’s a short, simple video that expresses my gratitude for the support I have been given which has resulted in a 33% increase in subscribers in the last 6 months.
I also shot another quick video talking about my One Wheel being out of commission until a replacement front footpad sensor is sent to me.
Luckily I have a new vehicle rolling into the collection today. My Meepo electric skateboard is supposed to show up today which should be yet another learning experience. I am hoping Cindy and I get to test it out at the school after work.
So once again Florida is in the middle of a red tide nightmare. This happens all the time and is the end result of environmental abuse, lobbyist dollars, and the government officials beholden to those dollars. The Cliff Notes version is Lake Okeechobee in the middle of Florida is hopelessly polluted from fertilizer run off, much of which is from US Sugar operations. In the past water from the lake was able to be naturally filtered as it flowed south through the Everglades.
Well development and US Sugar operations changed all that. The majority of that run off is now artificially routed east and west through two rivers, bypassing that natural filtration system. The end result has been horrid and toxic algae blooms that turn the water, green, then red, and then black with the corpses of dead fish and marine life.
It’s outrageous that this has been allowed to go on for so long but as in most things, lobbyist dollars have the ability to outlast people’s outrage. You can read a full account of the situation here.
