When I got home yesterday I had a nice surprise, Katie and DJ were there. For whatever reason the second I enter his space, no matter who else is there, he wants my attention. If he is restrained from coming to me even briefly he starts to cry. So after I got home last night I spent around an hour with DJ. When he was smaller he wanted me to mostly just hold him and carry him around. Now that he is bigger and more mobile he likes to hold my hand and lead me around the house and the yard. It’s very cute.
I do see why Cindy has said that when she watches him for extended periods of time it can get exhausting. If he is awake you have to constantly be on guard. When we were out on the lanai I had to scoop him up multiple times as he was ready to walk right into the pool, without hesitation. He will walk right off of furniture as well, if not guarded. His love of putting things in his mouth is also a constant danger that has to be monitored.
That being said, he is now big enough that the sense of fragility that existed when he was a smaller baby is lessened. He loved as I tossed him into the pillows of our bed and wrapped him up in a blanket. He was a sweaty, smiling bundle of joy at the end. That smile is quickly replaced with tears and crying however when it is time for him to leave. I feel so bad about it that I try to avoid being part of the process of taking him out to the car to avoid getting him more upset. It’s funny just how strong of a connection that me and the little guy have developed. I am grateful that I am getting to experience, albeit in small doses, the world of babies growing up. It’s something that I thought I would do myself when I was younger man but something that I wrote off as life progressed.
I just bought a new PC a couple years ago, an HP Omen which was tagged as a serious gaming rig. I have been less than thrilled with the purchase as the system had cooling issues which required me to install a liquid cooler as well as a flaky video card that has failed not once, but twice. With adding the 360 camera to my arsenal the Omen’s ability to crunch video files, which is very CPU intensive, has been a bottleneck. I’ve decided to relieve some of that pressure with a custom built PC by a local company. For the first time I will not have an Intel CPU at the heart of my system. I am going with the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, which when paired with 3600MHZ memory should chew up video editing significantly faster than my Omen does. As has been the case in the past, my Omen will then get transformed into Cindy’s PC which will be a sweet upgrade for her.
For some reason I have found myself thinking about the state of America and specifically the state of people that steadfastly, unconditionally, and lustfully support Donald Trump. I’m not sure why I even decided to think about it. At this point I have just written it off as a sad fact of life in today’s society, greedy, verbally aggressive liars are the new hot trend.
Still, I thought about this further. To pretty much every single person in the United States, Kim Jong Un is viewed as a ruthless and evil dictator that has moved North Korea back into the dark ages. His time in power has resulted in infinite amounts of misery for the population. However despite all of this whenever he is seen in public he is surrounded by wild enthusiasm by the same people he loves to oppress. Sound familiar?
I have absolutely no doubt that the the majority of the civilized countries beyond our borders look at the current state of the United States with similar levels of confusion and concern. How in 2020 racism, suppression, division, bullying, and minuscule vocabularies has become the accepted status quo in America is bewildering to me.
To imagine that we have a sitting president that would send this out over social media is embarrassing yet not surprising based on the prior four years. I would love to ask Trump supporters that are also parents a very simple question. As you are raising/raised your child, would you have encouraged name calling, bullying, lying, sexual predator, racist, or egotistical behavior in them? Of course you wouldn’t. If that is the case, why would you support a man that exhibits all of these behaviors in spades, as your president? It’s one of life’s mysteries to me. I can only hope the book of horrors can be closed in a few weeks.
In my most recent edition of AARP magazine, (don’t laugh), they had Q&A with both candidates. It was a crystal clear reflection on the mentality of Donald Trump, the ONLY thing he thinks that matters is a high stock market number. No matter what question that was posed to him, even a question about the racial conflict that has blossomed under his leadership, his answer was basically the same. We had the strongest economy in history before the “China Virus”. I kid you not, that was the gist of his answer.
The list this weekend was short. Cindy started a new job at a local nursery part time so she was working on Saturday from 9-2, giving me time to roam around the house solo to get stuff done, which I sort of like. By the time she got done I had already finished most of my chores plus I got the property mowed. I was inside for a little more than an hour when I proclaimed I was going back outside to run the pressure washer, a non-list item. The sheds and castle stone boundaries around the house both were looking scuzzy. My rough mental estimate was I could finish cleaning these things in a couple hours. I walked back inside about 7PM, covered in filth, some four hours later. It was a dirty, unfun job but I now should be in the clear with pressure washing those parts of the landscape for at least 6 months. The high pressure makes everything look shiny and new.
I still have the tree trimming project looming in my future. The person I contacted to do the work quoted me a reasonable number per tree but he is already demonstrating the lack of communication that I despise. Responses to messages come not in minutes or even in hours, but days. Hey I’m not in a rush to get the trees done tomorrow but after my experience with Miguel, I am extra sensitive to people that don’t prioritize reasonable communication with their potential customers.
Sunday morning I took my Inmotion V11 for a range test out to Ave Maria. I have done this ride before on the wheel but I did it while restricting my top end speed to about 20mph. This time I wanted to not restrict my speed and see how well the wheel did. Well I got my answer and it wasn’t good. I was kicked off the wheel with severe tilt back with over 6 miles remaining on my ride. Luckily Cindy was available to come pick me up with the Tacoma. I was pretty disappointed in the wheels range under these conditions, despite knowing that higher speed equals less range, dramatically so in this case.
I got home just as the Eagles/Steelers game was beginning. The game was similar to most Eagles games this season, frustrating. They allowed the Steelers to score the most points they have managed in something like two years. The defense this year has been a doormat more often than not. Wentz was his normal inconsistent self making some great throws offset by some terrible ones, adding two more interceptions to his tally. I came away from the game realizing this years Eagles are not going to be providing me with a lot of happy emotions.
I spent a good chunk of time editing the video of the ride. It took stupid long. I tried the 4K mode for the 360 camera, not knowing how it worked. My first mistake was allowing it to shoot in 4K which makes for ridiculously large files. Second, the only way I could get the video stabilized is to run it through the Insta360 editor first which took forever. With my GoPro the files that come off the camera are already stabilized. It literally took me over an hour to simply export the files in a format that I could even use in my normal editor. It also had a much narrower field of view which made much of the footage look dumb. I now clearly know to never use the 4K mod on that camera again.
I have a busy week ahead with work projects and two birthdays, my sister and Cindy. I committed to making the famous chocolate cake for Cindy’s birthday. We are also planning to do an Outback dinner, at home. I am sure they do take out delivery like most other chains and Cindy said she had a hankering for steak.
So yesterday after four tries I finally got the mask portion of my Iron Man helmet to print. It took some modified settings and some painters tape to ensure the part did not break free from the print surface. Last night I then printed the “lips” as well, leaving only the small eye sections to go. I will then turn the project over to Cindy who will have the task of putting all of the parts together and making the final product look pretty. The project has been a test of determination and patience. If you lack both of these, 3D printing is probably not a great hobby for you.
I have totally neglected to mention that I sold our Concept 2 rower last week. I bought the rower from one of our old running club co-workers years ago who has since unfriended me because I didn’t share his feelings about Donald Trump. I thought Cindy and I could use the rower to supplement our fitness program. Cindy only tried it once or twice before declaring it was too difficult for her to grip the handle. I used the rower sparingly during times when running was off the menu due to injury.
Since running is now permanently off the menu you would think the rower would have seen more use but I have found I enjoy the more interactive workout I am getting on Cindy’s Echelon bike to be more fun so the rower has just been collecting dust. I sold the rower on FB Marketplace with minimal issue. I don’t quite remember what I paid for the rower years ago but I am pretty sure that I sold it for more than I laid out, a rarity.
The weekend list is not huge but I may throw a pressure washing session in there if time/motivation allows. I also made an inquiry to someone regarding doing some of the hated tree trimming project. He has not gotten back to me but I am definitely open to paying someone to trim the trees that require ladder work, if it is not back breaking expensive.
Cindy and I watched the VP debate last night. It had it’s share of the candidates talking over the moderator but overall was more “standard” in it’s execution. Depending on the camera angle Mike Pence looked like a mannequin or the prior pope, you know, the one that basically looked like the devil reincarnated into human form. He is one creepy dude. Now of course looks may provide entertainment and commentary but it isn’t what a debate should be about.
Pence utilized similar talking points as Big Don but to his credit did not include the interrupting and yelling every 8 seconds as his boss did. Repeatedly when asked direct questions that he did not want to answer he pivoted to one of his rehearsed talking points. He was forced to do this quite a few times as there are a lot of issues in the Trump presidency that are open sores which they don’t want to not talk about. I thought Kamela did well, the only question she didn’t want to answer was if the democrats planned to “stuff” the Supreme Court if the republicans ram through their nominee for RBG’s seat.
But the star of the show was the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head and remained there for at least 5 minutes. His hair must have had so much product in it that he could not feel the fly walking around. I kept wondering if the moderator or Kamela would tell Mike about the fly but they did not. There was something magically symbolic about a fly sitting on the VP’s head during a debate, a scene we are unlikely to see repeated anytime soon.
I heard they want to make the next debate virtual since President Big League got the rona and can’t be trusted to use solid safety precautions. As expected his immediate reaction was more tantruming with threats to not participate. That would not bother me or the majority of Americans in the least.
When Don contracted covid I had a similar reaction to the 65% of the country that is not under his spell, karma is a bitch. The irony of the president contracting the disease that he has basically cultivated and nurtured via his ignorance was classic. Of course the second he had symptoms, our brave and courageous leader was lightning quick to suddenly embrace science, receiving extensive treatment and meds that the general public will never get, again, ironic.
So when this started, me, one of the biggest pessimists around actually had the thought briefly in my head that maybe this experience would actually knock some sense into Trump. Possibly he would now see the error in his ways and would tone down his public disdain for medical experts and set a tone of more care and responsibility. That thought evaporated when the Very Stable Big League Genius President Tweety sent out “Don’t be afraid of Covid” from his Twitter account yesterday. THAT, is what he learned from this.
As I said, I should know better than to think Trump would have anything resembling a deep thought or self reflection. I internally chastised myself for thinking even for a millisecond he would perhaps admit his lying, ignorance and deliberate misleading of the public was a mistake. Trump is the ultimate paper tiger, the classic bully. The second something real gets in his face he runs for assistance. His behavior is what parents grew up telling their kids to not be, yet those same children mutated into adults that suckle at the teet of this carnival performer like their lips had superglue on them.
It’s just another item to throw onto the pile of disgrace. That disgrace pile is getting so big I heard they are going to ship it over to China for recycling.
As predicted, I kept the list down to single digits this weekend. I hit things hard on Saturday. My weed whacking session, despite it being what I normally do felt like it went on forever. Forever was probably closer to two hours which is a long time to be holding a vibrating and spinning stick in your hands. I even got my indoor work pretty complete including replacing the hot end on my one Prusa MK3S. That was the last outstanding repair I had in there meaning all 9 printers in the room are again functional, a rarity.
I have been struggling to get all 9 parts of the Iron Man mask successfully completed. At this point all of the red pieces are done, all that remains is the front mask and chin piece. I have had the mask print fail 3 times so far. I need to tweak some print settings and give it another go tonight.
Saturday night we watched Ford vs Ferrari which tells the real life story of the rivalry of the two companies back in the 60s. If you aren’t a car person you won’t enjoy the film as much as Cindy and I did but you still will like it. We both felt it was A level entertainment.
The entire weekend was overcast but the second half of Saturday and all of Sunday was especially that way with a few periods of pounding rain for good measure. My Sunday was as chore free as they can be for me. Outside of a few small things I spent the day doing mostly what I wanted, which was nice for a change. Part of that included going on another PEV ride with Cindy. We stayed close to the house due to the threatening skies surrounding us.
The Eagles didn’t play until Sunday night against the 49ers, yes the team that went to the Super Bowl last year. I had already assumed it would be another loss and was not excited at all to watch the latest under-performance. I did not realize that if there was one team that could possibly go head to head with the Eagles in terms of being decimated by injuries, it’s the Niners. Like the Birds their line up was missing at least 25% of the normal starters.
I felt very fortunate and surprised to see the Eagles come away with a win. Don’t worry, the Eagles did their best to give it away at the end letting the Niners 3rd string QB come up just short of scoring two TD’s in three minutes. The victory was only assured when the pass into the end zone was thankfully knocked away by Darius Slay. So what are my thoughts about the team now, since they have secured their first win? To be honest, not all that different.
Wentz was just ok, being the most effective when he was running with the ball instead of passing for a good portion of the game. The injuries on this team are debilitating. We have back ups to the backs ups taking snaps. These injuries specifically to the wide receivers has made Zac Ertz pretty much invisible so far this season. The lack of WR threat allows teams to lock down on Ertz. I still don’t see any bright future for this team in 2020 in the cards. The insane thing is with a record of 1-2-1, the Eagles are in first place in the NFC East. Yes the division has become the toilet division of the NFL, it’s sort of sad.
Covid 19 is already starting to create havoc in the league with multiple teams reporting outbreaks which are going to be a mess to work out. When NFL games get cancelled it isn’t like you can just play a double header later to make up for it. I’m also glad we decided to cancel our fantasy football league this year. Fantasy leagues are on the verge of being cancelled because of Covid. It creates roster uncertainty that makes it impossible to field a team in some situations.
Much of the news over the weekend was focused on Donald contracting covid 19. Evidently his symptoms worsened enough to require hospital admission. Just like every other aspect of the Trump administration, there has been an effort to obfiscuate the facts of the situation. One thing that was clear, despite having Covid, Don still has the intense desire to devour adulation from his devout acolytes. Despite being actively contagious he determined it was necessary to take a SUV ride around the hospital so he could wave to his fans, putting anyone in close contact with him at risk. There is also all sorts of collateral damage as the president appears to be a “super spreader” as a ton of people in his circle of existence now have tested positive for covid as well, including Chris Christy who was Trump’s “debate coach”. If he told Trump to act like that on stage it seems he should be happy to share in the covid joy.
There are all sorts of rumors circulating that Trump having covid is a false flag, that somehow it would garner him a pity vote in the election. I don’t buy it. I can see no scenario where Don’s getting covid as being anything but the cherry on top of his mountain of bullshit. Of course the hardcore Trumpers will never open their eyes or ears to any alternative course but I can not see how this covid positive test can be anything but the final damning act of this four year circus of insanity.
Last night while Cindy was making dinner I decided to take the Inmotion V11 out for a short ride. I wound up riding for a prolonged time on a sandy path along a canal that I had never explored before which was cool. I wound up the ride trying to set a new personal speed best on the V11, I have never had the wheel over 30MPH. After a couple attempts I hit 32.4MPH without the wheel feeling like it was struggling.
So I awoke this morning to the news that is rocketing around the world, The Extremely Stable Genius/(self proclaimed)Best President Since Abe Lincoln and Melania both have tested positive for Covid. This comes on the heels of a positive covid test from a symptomatic Trump staff member that accompanied him to the debates, mask free of course. Of course the irony of this is the type movies are made from.
The man that downplayed, misrepresented, bungled, ignored and flat out lied, repeatedly about Covid 19 now gets to enjoy the fruits of his own labor. The timing is pretty horrible from an election perspective as he now must enter a minimum of a 10 day quarantine just when he was getting ready to do his final “pump up the crazies” tour. Trump’s age and obesity are not working for him when it comes to Covid so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. I wish I was a better person and could say I wish him well.
This weekend I am hoping to keep the to do list to single digits. It’s a challenge to do so.
The other day I started to print an Iron Man helmet on one of my Prusa’s. It’s a print I had always thought was cool but never got around to making. This particular model is made up of 9 pieces. I was trying to print the largest part which is the main red helmet part. The part was predicted to take almost two days on the Prusa.
The morning after I started the print I peeked my head in the room to check on it and saw one side had already broken off the support structure so I stopped the print.
I had recently just gotten my large format CR10S-Pro printer working again so I decided to try doing the same model on it. Because I had more build volume available I was able to rotate the model into a more vertical orientation. Doing so made a dramatic difference in the predicted build time and filament consumption, cutting both numbers by roughly a third.
I fired up the print last night and as of this morning things are progressing along fine. I hope I can get the helmet built. In total I bet it will take about a week of print time.
Last night was our last upgrade of the customer queuing software at a branch. It broke ranks with the trend of each location taking less time than the prior to complete due to a hardware problem with the printer that dispenses tickets. We have a work around in place to let them continue to use the system until a new printer can be swapped in.
Failure is an integral part of true success. It’s a step that many people try to bypass but the end result of doing so rarely turns out well. If you rely on others to insulate you from failure you become as resilient as a pyramid of cards. Even the slightest of wind makes the entire structure come tumbling down.
