Archives 2020

The last three days of my staycation flew by as I filled them with a combination of small chores, 3D printing and EUC rides.  On Saturday Cindy and I went on a massive errand run that concluded with picking up nearly $300 of groceries at Sam’s Club.  Shortly after we got home Deb came over to hang out, her and Cindy have been doing various crafting projects together.  I slammed a few White Claws during the visit.  The girls thought it would be funny to get a picture of me drinking with a flower behind the ear.  I was too buzzed to object.

I also spent some time Saturday afternoon working on the pool cleaner, once again replacing the rubber “skirt” which seems to have a very short useful life.  In the process of disassembly the gear train came apart.  I put it back together but the cleaner wasn’t running normally afterward.  It took a second tear apart and reassembly session the next day to get it right.

On Sunday I got out for a Dunkin Donuts ride on the MSX.  It was a fast ride with speed again cresting over the 30MPH mark.  During the trip I ran into a One Wheeler who was completing his coffee run from Starbucks.  This guy was an advanced rider with skills that far surpass my own.  After I returned I went right back out with the Skydio 2 in hand to shoot some aerial ride footage.  The drone did an amazing job tracking me around and over light poles and trees, all autonomously.

I spent a good portion of the day Sunday in the hobby room printing/assembling stands.  I have been fighting with problems on two of the printers which have been frustrating me.  I need to spend more concentrated effort to try to get the problems handled.

On Monday morning I decided to end the staycation like I started with another run.  I had my normal work alarm set so I got to the track early, hoping for a less miserable experience than Thursday.  Even with it being before 7AM the temp was nearly 80 degrees and the humidity was off the charts.  I’m not sure if the pic captured the misery well but I do enjoy the new portrait mode that comes with the Iphone 11.  It can make even a novice like me look like I know what I am doing when it comes to photography.

So when I got home I headed out towards the chickens when movement in the pool caught my eye.  Something was swimming around but it swam differently and was slightly larger than a frog.  As I focused I realized it was a baby palm rat.  Cindy had cooked out on the George Foreman grill the night before and didn’t get a chance to clean it afterward.  I suspect that is what lured him in.  The only reason the little guy didn’t drown was because the pool cleaner was still in the water, he was able to use the hose as a life raft.

I used the pool skimmer to coral the baby into a corner and then plopped him inside a container.  He got transported to the same general area as all the rest of the rodents I have caught.  I wished him good luck as he scurried away into the underbrush.

Late morning I headed out for my second EUC ride in as many days.  I went to an entirely new destination to ride, Bonita Beach Road, all the way into Fort Myers Beach.  It’s an area that Cindy and I talked about riding a number of times in the past but we never got around to doing it.

I made the trip solo and it’s a good thing I did as the riding conditions at times were pretty treacherous.  There was a gusting cross wind that was pushing me all over the place.  It was extremely problematic over bridges as it threatened to push my pedal into the high curb.

Once I got into Fort Myers Beach the difficulty continued as much of the main drag is ripped up for construction.  My body was getting beat up trying to avoid/absorb all of the obstacles while rolling along at 25-30MPH.  The video does a good job of capturing some of the struggles.  I again put the drone up in the air at the end.  Despite the very windy conditions the Skydio managed to track me without issue.

Just as I was ready to completely write off the guy that did the chicken yard  fill/sod he out of the blue decided to contact me and let me know he could do the work this upcoming weekend.  Hopefully he follows through.  As the day wound down I lamented how quickly the 5 days had passed.  I know I say this after every staycation but I could retire tomorrow and not miss conventional work one iota.

I started off my 5 day weekend by getting my weekly run in, two days earlier than normal.  Despite getting to the track between 7:30 and 8 AM I still suffered through stifling humidity that made every step unfun.  I was quite relieved as I finished my final lap with the customary “sprint”, which is more like my normal pace when I used to be in good running shape.

Later in the morning Cindy and I headed to Home Depot to grab a few items.  My big thing was some wire shelving for a shuffling project we are doing in the hobby room.  I was moving several of my PEVs to a different location and I wanted to utilize the wire shelf not only to hold things in a conventional manner but also to attach the chargers for each device to.

The work was slow and tedious as I worked through different layouts and configurations on the fly.  I wound up with a set up I was pleased with that will be home for four of my devices and will be the spot where I will charge the two skateboards as needed.

Today I got a jump start on my core weekend chores by doing the weeding as well as the grass maintenance with an assist from Cindy.  I look forward to having three days with a minimum of must do’s.

I was hoping to have the guy that spread the fill and laid the sod in the chicken area come back to work on doing the same for some other low lying areas.  Just like the first sod guy I gave up on, my new guy has become a ghost, ignoring texts and messages letting him know I was ready to get the work done whenever he was.  I just don’t get why it has been so challenging trying to get people to do  work.  Perhaps my money is not green enough.  It’s frustrating.

So there is a lot of momentum in the news regarding starting to relax some of the restrictions for Covid 19.  This effort is fueled by a very simple truth where the hospitalizations and death rates are light years lower than the initial forecasts, which is a good thing.  I think this pandemic is going to fundamentally change a lot of things.  Just like the “me too” way that state closures fell into line, as soon as certain states start relaxing those restrictions I expect equal pressure to open up on everyone.  If one thing is clear, herd mentality has ruled the world for the last month or more.  I don’t think that will change, whatever direction this goes.

Yesterday I got a call from my solar installer.  He said he got a notification that there was an issue with my system, he was seeing 16 panels offline.  He asked me if anything happened recently, I told him no.  The news came as a surprise to me.

I normally check the panel output a few times a week but I hadn’t in the last few days.  When I jumped on the site I saw there was a problem since Sunday.  The company said they would be sending someone out today to look at the system.  The good news was the array was still making power, just a third less than normal.

Of course when I got home I wasted little time before I headed out to the solar panels to take a look.  I saw no physical damage so I opened up the electrical connection box.  I saw the controller indicating an inverter fault which was expected.  I tried rescanning the inverters which did nothing.  I then decided to throw the breakers for the panels and the controller.  As I examined the box I noticed there was one breaker for the controller and three for the panels.

So doing simple math, I have 48 panels, there are three breakers which made it obvious that 16 panels are tied to each leg.  I am guessing that 16 panels are wired in series and then those are tied in parallel to the other sets of 16.  If so my theory is one inverter in that series failed which in turn killed the entire leg, which seems like a less than ideal design.  It will be interesting to see what sort of diagnosis the system gets.  I am hoping it’s an easy fix as I am losing out on free electrons by the hour.

Today is my last day of work before my extra long weekend.  I do not have any large projects lined up in my head but there are tons of smaller things that will occupy my time without doubt.  The amount of heat and humidity for the last week has been awful, literally the same as July.  I am hoping for at least a slight reversal.

I was so happy to read this morning that Trump insisted his name be on the stimulus checks being sent out to the American public, resulting in a slight delay in the process.  Never before has a president wanted their name on IRS checks.  Of course never before have we had such an ignorant, ego maniacal human being with what he believes is “total authority” sitting in the Oval Office.  I can only hope that after November, we will never have such an ill equipped and dysfunctional individual in that chair again.

Yesterday I was over at the new branch for half the day getting the last IT components up and running.  From a technical standpoint the site is ready to go although from a practical standpoint it is not.  The awful cabinet makers are still not completely done and the public waiting area is filled with countless boxes that need to be unpacked.  Luckily neither of those issues are something I am responsible for.

With this project behind me my immediate plate of work related must do’s has cleared up, allowing me to take some vacation time.  I put in to give myself an extra long weekend, taking off Thursday through Monday.  It’s a bit of a weird situation because for the last few weeks 95% of the staff have been on 50% work arrangements where each employee works two and a half days a week but is getting paid for full 40 hour weeks.  Our department is part of the 5% that has not been on that arrangement so it is a bit of a irritant that I am burning my vacation time to get what others are receiving gratis. Before I get too bent out of shape I remind myself that in so many other ways I am far luckier so I just grin and bear it.  That skill is something I have needed to rely on throughout my adulthood.  Being able to pause and reflect before reacting is something that can be useful.  It’s a skill our president is lacking with the latest example being the circus pandemic news conference yesterday.  It’s a big league cluster fck.

I threw my two 35 pound dumbbells in the back of the Tesla today to add some more avenues for my parking garage workouts to explore.

I got an email from ATT letting me know I could upgrade my old Iphone 6S, yes 6S.  When I replaced my phone almost two years ago I decided to stick with the 6S for one reason, the headphone jack.  At the time I was still driving the Prius and the only way I could interface my phone to the car’s stereo system was via that headphone jack.   Obviously now that restriction has been lifted since the Tesla became my daily driver.  I also was a bit hesitant about things like losing a physical “Home” button but I decided to take the leap and order an Iphone 11.

The phone arrived Thursday and I went about setting it up late Thursday evening since I decided last minute to take Friday off.  I opted to migrate the old fashioned way, by doing a full back up of the old phone and restoring it to the new hardware which seems to be the most reliable path from past experiences.  It took awhile but before I went to bed I was up and running on the new phone.  The bigger screen real estate was a nice upgrade and maneuvering without a home button wasn’t nearly as annoying as I thought it might be.  Over the rest of the weekend I also enjoyed the higher speed 5Ge service as well as dramatically improved battery life.  Yesterday I had 84% battery left without charging the phone at all during the day. The phone also includes wireless charging so the Qi charger in my Tacoma can see some actual use.

One of the reasons I was interested in taking off Friday is it would give me one more chance to go ride with Mickey before he heads over to stay at his parents house on the east coast.  I picked him up mid-morning.  The original plan was to ride the swamp but it was closed a few days prior due to the Covid 19 restrictions.  We decided to still ride around the house where there is a variety of off road paths available to us.  We also stopped at the house where Mickey got to meet Cindy briefly which was cool.

Even though I knew it was closed I suggested we ride up to the swamp entrance to take a look.  When we did we saw one vehicle parked in the road due to the parking lot gate being closed.  We decided to ride up to the boardwalk entrance to see if it was physically blocked which it was not.  We rolled on into the swamp where it didn’t take long until we passed another set of rule breakers, a couple walking their dogs.  Mickey thought the swamp was really cool, about as opposite as you can get to riding the streets of NYC.  Our turn around point was defined for us by a large gator that was blocking the majority of the path, neither of us felt like pressing our luck to get by.  The video tells the story pretty well.  We both enjoyed the ride and I suspect it won’t be the last time we ride together  before Mickey heads back to NYC.

After dropping off Mickey I donned my 3D printed mask for a visit to Costco to pick up a number of items.  Unlike the last time I was there a couple weeks ago, there were a lot more people wearing masks or at least covering their face in some manner.  The most humorous of all was an old man that had a full size bath towel tied around his head.  Costco really had taken steps to enact social distancing as well as putting up “shields” between the cashier and customers to minimize interaction.  It’s a strange new world we live in.

On Saturday morning I went to the track first thing to get a run in, something I had not done for a couple weeks.  I trudged through the 12 laps but man it was not comfortable at all.  The morning temperatures lately have been approaching summer-like levels which added to the misery of the experience.

My chore list on Saturday included my normal outdoor items.  Late in the morning Katie and DJ came over.  I had not seen either in person for somewhere around three weeks.  It didn’t take long for DJ to want me to hold him, I don’t know if he just likes the higher vantage point but he seems to enjoy hanging with me.

After they left Cindy and I did a Home Depot run, something Cindy hasn’t done in quite awhile.  Both of us were masked up.  We had to wait in a line for about 5 minutes until we were allowed in the store.  We grabbed a bunch of items, the two main things I needed to deal with were the dirt and sod which I laid down immediately.

Later in the afternoon Deb came over to hang out.  We went for a ride where we remained masked up around the neighborhood.  She wound up hanging out till around 9PM.  We always have fun when we get together and I think everyone enjoyed the break from quarantine.

Easter was obviously a different experience this year.  No family came over except for a visit from Katie and DJ.  It was his first Easter so Cindy wanted to make it special.  She made him a basket and set up a blanket outside to take pictures on.  Once again DJ wanted to hang with “grandpa” a lot so it made pictures less than simple.  We still got some cute shots.  I really do like the upgraded camera on the Iphone 11.  Portrait mode is especially cool.

On Sunday I also finished up some of the extensive cleaning duties from the weekend which included bathroom cleaning, vacuuming, steam cleaning the floors, and washing the bedding.  Even though the act of cleaning is never particularly fun, I enjoy the end result.

Yesterday we finally were able to set up the computers at our new branch which was relief.  I have a few more details that need to be addressed there which hopefully takes no more than a few days.  After that project is in my rear view mirror I’d like to take a few days off even if I am doing it on my dime compared to the rest of our staff that is working 2.5 days a week.

Last night I assembled my new AnyCubic Max printer.  Assembly went fine but I have some more testing and tuning to do.  Hopefully I can finish it up tonight but I need to figure out how I want to shuffle my print farm around to accommodate the new printer which is a larger format style.

I have been reading more and more positive stuff about the effects of hydroxychloroquine on Covid 19 patients.  This article seems to indicate that there is some new understanding of what Covid 19 actually does to the body and that leads to some potentially good news if the drug combo does indeed shut it down before it can do real damage.

I skipped running Friday night.  My legs have been killing me from all of the body weight squats I have been doing as part of my lunch time calisthenics workouts.  On Saturday morning I buzzed around in the morning taking care of the basics.  Cindy has been busy during her time off working on the outdoor landscaping, relocating a bunch of stuff in a more pleasing way.  The biggest task was pulling out a decent sized bird of paradise that was by the house which she did entirely by herself.

Saturday afternoon I arranged to meet up with Mickey, a well known EUC rider from NYC who came to Florida to stay with his sister to wait this mess out.  We met at Ave Maria which was very quiet, even more so than normal.  They went so far as to pull down the rims off the basketball courts so people would not be tempted to play together.  We had a very long ride on a variety of wheels.

Early on Mickey and I did a high speed run while I was riding my MSX 100V.  Mickey has ridden his wheels in excess of 40MPH and had challenged me awhile back to see if I could at least hit 37mph.  It took a few attempts but I hit that number and then some, topping out at 38.6 MPH.  Going on an electric unicycle at that speed is not for the weak of heart and after the experience I don’t find any sort of pressing desire to do it again.  I was beat up and pooped by the end of the three+ hour riding experience.  Mickey and I seemed to get along well, talking easily about a variety of subjects.  It all made for a long but interesting video, if I do say so myself. I am hoping we can meet up for a swamp ride next.

Saturday night I had three White Claws backed up up by one of my few remaining Zima’s.  The end result was some welcome laughter and silliness, something that is in short supply nowadays.

Sunday was a pretty quarantined day.  I only headed out to grab a coffee and drop off some stand orders at the post office.  Otherwise I was home all day working on stuff.  Among those things was  installing a Ring Pop Up cam on the chicken run to replace the old Ring doorbell that was out there.  I then mounted the old doorbell on the east side of the house to give us some surveillance in that direction, which we never had.

For almost a month I have had my one Prusa printer set up on the fold up table in the middle of the hobby room as I repeatedly have tried to fix a problem with under extrusion.  I have made multiple attempts, unsuccessfully, trying various fixes for the problems of varying difficulty.  Yesterday I bit the bullet and committed mentally to replacing the entire hot end assembly, a tedious task that I spent close to two hours on.  At least the end result of my efforts was the printer once again working normally.  In this crazy time it’s nice to have some wins now and then to break up the looming and omnipresent negativity.

We are STILL waiting for the contractor to complete the customer counters at the new branch.  We have had our equipment piled up in there waiting for these clowns to finish  all week.  Yesterday they were supposed to be in there busting ass to get it done.  Instead, nobody showed up.  I have said many times how I can not stand businesses or individuals that over promise and under deliver.  I would much rather be told realistic/accurate information that can reliably be depended upon.  If you can’t do that for me we are not going to get along very well.  At this point we will not get the branch set up until next week sometime, hopefully.

Last night I edited two videos, one was footage from Tuesday when I stupidly thought I was going to score hand sanitizer at Target.  The other was my skateboard ride over my lunch hour yesterday.

This weekend I have things to do which include meeting up with Micky, an EUC YouTuber from NYC who has family in our area.  We plan to ride around Ave Maria, observing social distancing the entire time, of course.

So yesterday the governor of Florida finally caved to a mountain of pressure and declared a statewide stay at home order.  It’s the same basic structure as other state orders where the general populace is supposed to stay home except for essential needs.  It also dictates non-essential public facing businesses close. The list of essential businesses however is quite large and a bit fuzzy in definition.  This order lasts throughout the month of April.

The order’s affect on me is minimal as since our offices collect state fees we are deemed as essential services.  More than likely we will continue to move forward being closed to the public but still having employees report at 50% staffing levels to do things like process mail and answer the phones.  The 50% staffing policy has not been applied to our department as our jobs aren’t really dependent on customer traffic.

I continue to be very mindful of my interactions with other people as well as cognizant of cleaning my hands after touching anything out in the public space.  When I get home my work clothes go right into the wash machine and after I take care of the chickens I jump in the shower to clean off, just in case.  Because Cindy is very concerned about contracting Covid 19 because of her health issues we have been sleeping in different bedrooms and using separate bathrooms.  The living together yet apart dynamic has not been an easy change and the way things are lining up I don’t see even a speck of light at the end of the tunnel.