Archives June 2020

This week there were two organized and pre-announced protests locally regarding the killing of George Floyd.  These marches started at the county courthouse and went into downtown Naples.  The police presence here was massive.  Each night when I walked into the parking garage there were dozens of police on the upper decks just waiting to be called into action.  In addition they had all entrances into the government complex blocked with cars to make congregating inconvenient I guess.   What I thought was weird is this has continued every day this week, despite no organized protests being scheduled for the last two days.  They are all just up there observing and waiting.

Pandemics aren’t a good thing for most businesses but evidently they are for 3D printed EUC accessories.  May was my biggest month ever for sales, crossing the $1500 mark.  I have been expanding what I have on the store from being just stands for EUCs to include other stuff like “bumpers”, kick stands, charger holders, and more.  The end result has been pretty much every day having a good chunk of it consumed by fulfilling orders and keeping the assembly line of printers in the hobby room cranking out parts.

I even put an inquiry in with a place that does injection molding of plastic parts.  I was curious what potential costs would be to have some of the parts created this way.  The upfront tooling cost is very pricey so I don’t know how feasible it would be but I am curious to see what sort of numbers they throw at me.

This morning I had my last session of physical therapy for my shoulder.  It was getting to be a hassle to go 2-3 times a week and my shoulder has progressed enough that I felt safe continuing onward on my own.  At the gym and at home I have all the stuff I need to continue doing the exercises to build the small supportive muscles in the joint.  I am still definitely not back to normal as push ups and pull ups are still off the menu and have felt uncomfortable when I have tried either, even in limited numbers.  I just need to be more attentive to when something hurts and be patient with my goal of being able to return to bench pressing, some day.

This weekend I have some projects on my mind.  The back of the property needs to be mowed at some point but the more immediate project will be our attempt to redo the small pond in the backyard.  Since Cindy trimmed back the areca palms considerably it exposed just how badly the pond needs attention.  The game plan is to use a shovel to remove as much sludge as possible and then pull out the dry rotted liner that has been in place for over 15 years.  I will then probably pull the “blanket” under the liner and try to dig the hole out even deeper so the pond can hold more water.  We then will put the new liner in and I will likely get new tubing and possible a new fountain for the upper tier.  It should be dirty, smelly, sweaty work.  Hopefully the end result is worth it.

Cindy has really been working hard around the house during her furlough.  Yesterday was another example.  She relocated the sod as I described in the post yesterday from a spot where it wasn’t really needed to a spot where it was.  She had to pull up around 50 pieces of sod from the back yard and transport them via wheelbarrow to the front.  It was ass busting work for sure.  I appreciated her efforts as it saved me me from adding the task to my list for the weekend.  The new bahia sod certainly doesn’t look pretty yet but it definitely will accomplish the goal of elevating former flood prone areas.

Miguel texted me yesterday saying he was going to roll the sod and asked if I could have the money ready.  I said sure but I wouldn’t be home until 5:45.  He wound up not coming out anyway (surprise, surprise).  I could easily write a check and leave it at the house for Cindy to give to him to make it more convenient for Miguel.  However after as much frustration as he has provided me for the last two months I really don’t feel obliged to be overly courteous or accommodating.

I’ve been trying to not think about my dad’s dog Maggie passing away yesterday.  If I do I try to steer my mind towards all the happy memories she was a part of, like how she would like to take my dad for walks at the beach, so he could play in the water.

I got an email from my Dad today that brought instant waves of emotion over me.  Maggie had died.  Maggie was going on 16 years old and for the vast majority of her life she was an incredibly active dog which is a blessing.  Dad and my stepmom didn’t adopt Maggie until after I moved to Florida so I didn’t get to spend as much time with her as I would have liked but even with those limits, I loved her a ton.

The times when Maggie, Clara, Nicki and Sadie got together either via western road trips in the van or when my dad and stepmom would visit Florida were just so special.  Watching the four dogs interact and play was one of the purest and simplest enjoyments I could ask for.

Maggie was amazingly athletic, smart and seemed to have endless energy.  She would play fetch with you until your arm was ready to fall off.  She liked water, entertaining us by diving into the pool here repeatedly to retrieve a toy.  She accompanied us on countless walks whether it was 90 degrees in Florida or 10 degrees in western PA.  She didn’t care, she just wanted to be part of it.

She and my dad were inseparable.  Despite her size she wanted to be a lap dog while dad was driving.  It was always quite the funny visual seeing a full grown border collie jammed onto his lap on the road.  I know this moment was something my dad dreaded for a long time and it sounds to me like he wasn’t dealing well with it as Maggie went downhill.

When I saw her in January I was shocked by just how much she was struggling.  It had been a year or two since I saw her.  It was difficult to see the dog I knew running around for hours now having to struggle mightily to simply stand and walk.  During that visit I was pretty sure it was going to be the last time I saw sweet Maggie alive. I spent a lot of time on the floor just rubbing her during that visit.  I told her I loved her as I gave her one last head rub before I left.

The sadness and remorse I feel I am sure is only a fraction of what my stepmom and dad are feeling.  Despite my sorrow I do try to recognize that at least her suffering is at an end.  In times like this it’s hard to focus on all of the great memories and loving relationship you had with your pet as they truly love you like no human being can.

The picture in the snow was taken during that last visit.  I remember when I took it, the symbolism even then brought me to tears for a moment.  We all will miss precious Maggie.  She was a special one.

So the other day I got an email from Allstate about the first installment payment for my next 6 month policy period.  When I saw the amount I realized it was over 10% more than the last policy period which instantly sparked an intense irritation which I got around to investigating yesterday.  Several car insurance companies, including Allstate were very anxious to publicize how they were giving their customers a “rebate” since there has been significantly less driving, hence less claims since Covid 19 lock downs were enabled.  I actually got my $30 rebate check a few days prior to this renewal which I thought was ironic. The more I thought about this the angrier it got me.  Allstate just proclaimed how their costs were down so they were passing that along to the customer yet they follow up IMMEDIATELY with a 10% rate increase??  So they gave me $30 but in my case want to charge me almost an extra $300 for the year??  You son of a bitches.

So I called up my agent and started complaining.  I minced no words in expressing how ridiculous and disingenuous the situation was, giving a rebate and then charging nearly 10 times more of that amount on the back end.  I continued ranting about how annoying it is that even though I have a clean driving record and am an “older” person my rates seem to steadily increase with Allstate.  I said the way it used to be as you got older your car insurance went down, not up.

The guy on the phone understood my frustration and agreed with me.  He said everyone in their office cringed when they heard about the rate increase because they knew how ridiculous it looked after rebating money back just prior.  When I asked for some sort of relief they had nothing for me other than the option to pay for the entire year in advance, as far as Allstate was concerned the price was the price.  I told the guy how it seems like Allstate doesn’t give a shit about customer loyalty.  I told him I had been with the company for more than 35 years.  He sadly agreed with me, they don’t care.

So I asked him what my options were with other companies since they represented more than one insurance carrier.  He said he would run my information through some other companies to see what sort of rates I could get.  A short while later he called me back with some good news.  He said I could get comparable coverage through Travelers for $83 a month less than what Allstate has been charging me, a HUGE difference.  Travelers had similar savings for the million dollar liability policy that I had to get for the solar system.

Well that was all it took. In the span of 30 minutes I had severed my 35 year relationship with Allstate and signed on with Travelers.  I made sure to send a tweet @allstate expressing how shitty I thought it was for them to pull this stunt.  It’s too bad that companies nowadays don’t really care or emphasize taking care of customers that have remained loyal to them.  It’s the cold reality of the world we live in.

So Miguel’s crew spread the sod I bought around yesterday.  I need a little more but I plan to address that via a Home Depot run instead of buying more pallets.  We are actually going to be able to move some of the stuff that was laid down in a non-low spot to make up for deficit elsewhere.  I found it funny in an annoying way that Miguel was very quick to text me an updated amount of what I still owed him when it was so painfully slow to get responses to my questions this entire time.  I told him I would be happy to write him a check for the remaining amount once he rolls the sod as he promised.  If he never gets around to doing that then I guess I won’t get around to writing that check.

For the last two days there have been protests here regarding the Floyd murder.  When I walked out to my car last night in the pouring rain I was amazed at the amount of police in the parking garage, staged to deal with whatever happened.  There were a couple dozen police vehicles around and at least 50 deputies grouped together.  The demonstrations here were mostly peaceful outside of some yelling and pushing.  The outrage is understandable, especially when our president tear gasses a crowd so they disperse to allow him to stand in front of a church holding a bible for a photo op.  It was like he ripped a page directly from the playbook of other famous dictators.  His lack of empathy, understanding, and intelligence continues to be awe inspiring, in an awful way, day in and day out.

I made a video last night demonstrating how to install the new 3D rear bumper model I am selling on the store, if you are about these things.  Store sales have been really brisk, exceeding capacity currently.

So I have been given excuse after excuse by Miguel as to why he has been unable to get me the sod that I paid for almost a month ago.  With those excuses came multiple missed delivery/install dates, at least a half dozen times.  For good measure he also likes to ignore texts for days , especially if they request something ridiculous like an ETA till completion.

So the latest grind has been trying to get 7 more pallets of grass to finish the job.  Miguel has insisted he can’t get the sod.  He says the sod field is too wet and the trucks they use to deliver are stuck.  Well considering we are moving more and more into rainy season I don’t think that is a situation that is going to get better with each passing day.   So yesterday I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I did a Google search for “Naples Bahia sod”.  Within seconds I had a list of possibilities.  I called Leo’s Sod as I recall buying two pallets of sod from them at least 15 years or more ago to cover the elevated dog area.  I asked them if they had any bahia sod.  I was expecting a similar story about scarce availability based on what Miguel told me.  Instead i was told they had it in stock and could deliver either yesterday afternoon or today.  Yea it was $20 more per pallet but I am more than willing to pay for expediency at this point.  I gave them my credit card to pay on the phone.  They said they would let me know if they could make it out there this afternoon.  I could hardly believe it when they told me later they were bringing it out, the same day.

I had just gotten off a conference call so I had to quickly shut down everything at work and quick step it to the Tesla.  Cindy was over at Katie’s place so I asked her if she could head home in case the truck gets there before me.  As I approached the house it was a beehive of activity.  The sod truck had just pulled in, the DHL van dropping off filament was already parked and an Amazon delivery van was pulling in as well.  It was sort of nuts how all of these events lined up.  For good measure a few minutes later the people that bought some chairs Cindy was selling arrived as well.  It was a pretty hectic few minutes.

I stayed outside in my work clothes telling the sod guy where I wanted the pallets.  I sent a picture to Miguel letting him know I now have sod, no thanks to him.  I asked him if he was still interested in having his crew lay the sod for the $20 per pallet we agreed upon previously.  His one word response was “yes”  When I later asked him when they were coming he said “tomorrow”.  We will see if they show up today.  If not I am pretty ready to tell him to f off and I’ll just spread the sod myself although part of the installation he does includes rolling the sod flat which would be a nice bonus.  The grass he did in the chicken area looks fantastic.

This was just the latest confirmation that you just can’t trust anyone but yourself to make sure shit gets done.  If I am paying you yet I have to babysit your actions I really don’t want anything to do with you in the future.  It’s amazing that a month of excuses was remedied in a couple hours just by me making a 5 minute phone call.

So the Trump train of insanity keeps rolling along with nobody at the wheel.  Just like his handling of Covid 19, the Floyd murder reaction by the president has been utterly ineffective, corrosive, and inflammatory.  I recall saying a long time ago a very simple truth that I think is inarguable.  Not every person that supports Donald Trump is a racist, but, EVERY racist supports Donald Trump.  Think about that and let it simmer.

Friday at lunch I ran the parking garage at lunch for the fourth week in a row.  It seems that full summer temps and humidity are now upon us which makes each one of these sessions just a little more grueling.  I do get a higher degree of satisfaction scaling the parking deck ramps than I do running laps around the track at the school.

When I got home Friday night I saw that Cindy had been very busy.  She dug into the bushy areca palms that surround the small pond giving them a major trim which made the area look much nicer, maybe a little too nice.  Cutting back the palms exposed just how badly the pond needs to be redone, it is filled with inches of sludge and the pond liner is dry rotted and brittle.  The end result was my buying another liner at Home Depot that will get installed after the disgusting job of removing the old liner is completed.  I got the process started by popping a bunch of holes in the old liner so the water could drain out, leaving only sludge and other organic matter behind.

On Saturday I was out mowing when Deb arrived, she wanted to watch the Space X Dragon launch as did we.  Cindy came out and got me with about 5 minutes to go. I have always been fascinated by space and used to love watching shuttle launches.  As the countdown moved towards zero I had legit goosebumps from a combination of excitement of what it means to be flying humans into space again from the US and fear of something horrible going wrong.  The launch instead went perfectly, it was awesome to witness.  Hell the first stage even landed back on the drone ship intact as planned.  Elon is the man.

After the launch I went right back out on the mower to finish up.  The last 15 minutes of mowing occurred in a torrential downpour.  I was too close to being done to call it quits.  Nothing short of a direct lightning strike was going to get me off the tractor. Deb brought the printer I gave her back for the third week in a row.  I have been trying to fix an issue where prints were not adhering properly.  After several fixes didn’t work this time I applied a PEI surface to the print bed and did a few test prints that turned out well which I was glad to see.

I spent a lot of time this weekend working on the new model I mixed together for my MSX EUC.  It is a part that serves as a bumper for the rear of wheel.  It looks cool but also will help protect the case if the wheel goes down.  It has been a challenging model to print completely.  Three times I had one come off the bed after roughly 90% of the print was complete.

On Sunday I got out on my wheels to ride for the first time in a couple weeks.  I had three of my wheels with me to do a jumping test, an idea I had for awhile.  I wanted to ride across a speed bump at speed in a development to see how much air I could catch.  If you watch the video you will see that I caught very little air.  I had more success when I hit the smaller but steeper speed bumps in the school driveway.

I then grabbed my MSX and did a quick ride out to Ave Maria and back.  It was so damn hot and humid by mid-afternoon that I just didn’t enjoy the ride that much.  I tried to push speed as much as I could to get out of the sun.  The top speed I hit during the trip was over 34mph.

The news for the first time in a long time has turned it’s focus from the Covid 19 pandemic to the protests and subsequent rioting regarding the police officer killing a man by pinning him to the ground by his neck with his knee for somewhere around 8 minutes.  It is an incident worthy of outrage.  It is an incident worthy of protest.  It’s an incident worthy of attention.  However what is sad is how elements of society mutate this into a basis for violence, looting and destruction.

When this happens the focus and original message gets blurred by the violent end results which in the end does not cause appreciable change.  Of course me too lemming mentality kicks in and it soon becomes nothing about George Floyd but rather just an excuse to break shit, burn shit, and steal shit.    If our country did not have enough to choke on already with the Covid 19 mess and Trump’s never ending carousel of idiocy, this is just a big rotten cherry on top.  The disgusting racism that is at the heart of incidents like this is something held near and dear to the heart of so many Trump acolytes.  2020 is just one big nightmare I would love to wake up from at some point, hopefully on November 4th.