As expected, First 400, Hot Hills, Guarded, Cool cakes
So despite the thermometer reading something stupid like 93 degrees with humidity levels that rivaled that number, I headed over to the track after work on Friday to run. Cindy decided to follow my dumb lead. I need to rethink doing runs on Friday evenings during the summer. It was a tradition that started in the “cool” winter months. Doing it now is borderline suicidal.
So anyway, I hit the track and felt nearly as miserable as the week before. The two bright spots were I completed full 5k distance and I felt less like death Friday night although both Cindy and I were pretty wiped out. It was the first time she has tried running in forever. So anyway I think I will once again start hitting the 6AM alarm to do this on a Saturday morning when it is 15-20 degrees cooler. It’s lunacy otherwise. My pace on Friday was almost two minutes a mile slower than what I used to consider “normal”. It’s frustrating.
Saturday I kept busy around the house outside for a good portion of the morning. As soon as the sun gets 10-15 degrees off the horizon it’s like someone turned the broiler on. I was sweated through my t-shirt almost instantly. We did a late morning errands run that included DD, gas, Home Depot, and Pinch-A-Penny.
Some of that gas was used to run the generator that I had hooked up to the RV to run the AC for a few hours. Both the generator and the AC in the RV need to be used periodically to ensure things keep working as they should. The RV has to get sold somehow. It has been for sale for more than 6 months with only minimal interest. We have it priced aggressively but we live in the RV and boat capital of the world it seems. Trying to sell a used unit is not an easy task as we have found out. The big problem is once wet season starts to hammer us and the back yard becomes a lake, it is going to be very tough to try to move the RV around.
Late Saturday afternoon I headed out solo to grab a couple groceries and look for Smirnoff Triple Black Ice. Miller-Coors decided to not do a limited summer release of Zima this year so people have been looking for substitutes. Several have said that this Smirnoff variety is pretty close to the Zima experience. Online we found that Total Wine supposedly carried the flavor so that was where I headed. Of course they did not have Triple Black but they did have some other varieties, I grabbed a six pack of grape, and one of the original flavor. I tried both over the weekend, they were very good but neither was an exact match for Zima flavor. My search for Triple Black will continue.
Over the weekend I got my monthly deposit notice from Google for my AdSense revenue. It was a milestone as it was the first time I had crossed the $400 mark. After having my monthly revenue waffle around for quite a few months, the Tesla was the impetus for a sharp increase in channel activity and subsequently ad revenue. Once I get the Tacoma paid off I am hoping the YouTube revenue will more than make up the difference in my automotive budget column.
Sunday morning Cindy and I decided to give Marco hill riding another try. We attempted it the week before but got washed out in a big way. Luckily yesterday was bright and sunny. Not so luckily it was also incredibly warm. Despite the heat Cindy and I had a lot of fun cruising up and down the only hilly region of Collier County for about an hour.
Later in the day I decided to take on another Tesla project, installing rim guards on the exposed alloy wheels. For whatever reason the rim on these wheels sticks out unusually far from the tire, making them a prime candidate for curb rash. The rim guards act as a barrier to this damage with the side effect of adding a cool color accent to the wheel/tire combo.
Installation of the guards was a little tricky and as is almost always the case, I made a few mistakes along the way. However overall I am happy with the resulting visual. The instructions stated that you should not drive the car over 50 mph after installing the guards so the adhesive can set properly. It worked out ok as I had to drop off one of my old EUCs to Fed Ex that I sold so the Tacoma was a better fit anyway.
Sunday afternoon out of the blue Cindy got inspired to make some decorative fondant cakes. When I walked in from the rim work she showed me the first of several PEV based designs. They were very cool and surprisingly detailed.
You never know when Cindy is going to come up with these random acts of creativity but they are always fun to bear witness to.
As I have been walking around the house the past week or so I have been making mental notes of tasks that I want to knock off during my extended staycation around the fourth of July. I need to keep the list manageable as I don’t want to just work during the time off, some fun would be appreciated.