Archives August 2021

Yesterday was my first real day of the conference.  My training courses however left a good portion of my afternoon open.  I took advantage by going to the hotel gym which is large and impressive, having everything and then some that I would ever need.  After showering I read more of my book.  Unfortunately for whatever reason at this age reading more than two chapters of a book induces a strong drowsiness effect.  I dozed off for close to an hour.

The crew from our office headed out to Bonefish Grill for dinner.  I had three or four Miller Lites to ease my awkwardness that typically sets in during forced social interaction.  It went fine though and my meal was good without being a caloric bomb.  After returning to the hotel some of the gang grabbed more alcohol at one of the on site bars.  I opted to call it a night.  After reading another chapter or two of the book I passed out again, before 10PM, something that never occurs at home, maybe because I don’t read before bed.  Maybe I should start.

Cindy called me to let me know of a situation at the house.  The RO water equipment evidently sprung some sort of major leak, she said water was flooding the yard.  When she opened up the cabinet that contains the equipment she got shot in the face with sulfur smelling well water.  Luckily we have a service agreement on the stuff.  She called the number and was walked through how to turn off the system until a tech can get there today to address it.  I felt bad about the timing, that she had to deal with it.

Unlike yesterday, my class schedule today is pretty much booked solid until 5PM.  I may try to ride and do something solo for dinner tonight or maybe hang with the crowd, I haven’t decided.

I took this incredibly cute picture of two of the finches in the cage the hotel has.  Enjoy, it’s free of charge.

I left work a little early to prep for the fantasy football draft party I was hosting Friday night, the first time doing so in two years.  With the recent addition of the recliner there was some minor tweaking to the arrangement of furniture but otherwise the layout was the same.  Cindy helped me get everything in place before she headed out which I appreciated.

The draft itself went ok, a little longer than normal because of a technical issue that halted the process for close to 20 minutes.  I did absolutely zero prep or research for the draft which is pretty normal for me.  To be quite honest I care very little about fantasy football at this point of my life.  I stay in the league because everyone likes our house as a draft venue because I have the technical knowledge to connect our remote owners in with our in person owners.  I was yawning by round 8, there are 14 rounds, just to give you a reference.

The draft didn’t end until after 10:30.  As always I did not want to wait until the next day to clean up.  Cindy had passed out asleep and I did not want to wake her so I did the entire undoing of the party myself.  The end result was me getting to bed shortly before midnight, I was beat but thankful that we held the party on a Friday night instead of mid-week as we have done many years in the past.  I have no idea how good or bad my team I drafted will be, nor do I really care.  I did grab the Eagles defense and Zac Ertz to add some spice to what may be a very long Eagles season.

Despite the late night I was up early on Saturday, heading out to do chicken chores right around 7AM.  The rest of the day was more or less navigating from one task to another.  I weeded the property and then went to Home Depot with Cindy to grab a bunch of sod for a landscaping project she is doing for someone.  I helped her lay the sod although she will likely need another load of the same if not greater amount to finish it all up.  Once returning home I got on the tractor to mow, taking advantage of two days of minimal precipitation.  I finished up the long day doing a live stream talking about the four new wheels that were recently announced.

Sunday morning I got my normal stuff done before packing up for my long drive to the work conference in Orlando.  It was the first time I have done a long drive in a gas vehicle in a long time.  I missed the Tesla for sure but the Tacoma is a nice vehicle as well.  For some reason I had it in my head that the drive should take 3 hours.  I was surprised when the truck navigation spit out an ETA of over 3 hours and 40 minutes.

I brought the V12 and One Wheel with me.  I left both in the truck initially but when I realized I left something in the truck, I rode the V12 back to the hotel to save time and have it parked in my room.  It looks from the schedule I should have plenty of down time to ride and read my WoW book which is ok with me.  Sometimes the only way I will decompress is when I am forced to do so, by being physically separated from the household that enlists so much of my time, focus and energy.

That being said, I really am not feeling much like being here.  Mentally I just don’t feel like engaging and socializing much.  When you are at a conference that doesn’t match up very well, since it is all about engagement with others.  I’ll muddle my way through it but I’m already looking forward to the end.

So during the Trump presidency I wound up FB muting a bunch of my high school friends.  I don’t know about in it’s entirety but at least out of the former classmates that had found their way into my FB friend list, the majority of them were guzzling President Big League Very Stable Geniuses every word and asking for more.  Early on I would waste my time and energy on trying to discuss the fallacies they eagerly propagated but it grew extremely tiresome and pointless.  You can’t change somebodies political disposition via social media, only deepen the divide it seems.

So when given the choice of outright dropping them as virtual friends or just muting them, I chose the latter, taking the “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” route.  It was a two way street, this setting would also stop pushing any of my ridiculous greater good ideals across the feeds of the “me first, f everyone else” crowd.  Since the election has been over, instead of slowly returning to the realm of relative normalcy, many of these people have instead decided to stay stuck in the world of hate, lies, guns, God (hypocrites), and toxicity that branded US society over the last four years.  It makes me sad.

So anyway, one of these individuals who I had not heard from for a long time decided he would leave a comment on my post regarding the bumper sticker I spotted in the wild last week.    His comment was as follows:

Sorry you’re so distraught over a bumper sticker. Whatever you do don’t turn on the news. We wouldn’t want you to gain any perspective. Surely even you wouldn’t be very proud of what your vote contributed to today. But don’t lose hope, at least you don’t have to read any mean tweets.

He was inferring my vote contributed to the deaths in Afghanistan from the IS suicide attack.

I thought it was pretty disappointing that THIS was how this individual would reintroduce himself to my circle of awareness.  He is a successful business owner who is extremely wealthy.  I am sure however that has nothing to do with why he had decided to goosestep to the march of Trump like a synchronized swimmer.  However, he is also not an ignoramus.  My reply to his warm greeting was:

Please dude, the depths and degree of poison that has become injected into the brains of individuals is truly sad and pathetic. The determination to cling to what was the most despicable human being to ever hold the office will never cease to amaze me. You are too intelligent to think that there was ever a time that leaving Afghanistan was going to be clean. If you are going to be pissed at someone let it be the military contractors that manufactured conflict and did everything they could to keep us in a region for two decades that everyone knew would flip the second we, or any other outside power leaves. Don’t play dumb, it doesn’t suit you.

To be quite honest I was somewhat surprised this person lashed out at me.  The last time I knew we sort of had left things at the “agree to disagree” point.  However for whatever reason, the image of the Trump supporter bumper sticker invoked feelings strong enough to end the detente. As mentioned earlier, whether it comes to Trump lovers, Covid deniers , or anti-vaccination crusaders, any effort to move their opinions is truly wasted effort in my opinion.  People are going to do and believe what they are inclined or conditioned to do.  I know I can’t save the world so I just try to focus on the bigger picture and longer term where I can, contributing my tiny part during the brief time I have on the planet.

Tonight I host the fantasy football draft for the first time in two years.  The league was outright cancelled last year due to fears that covid would scrap the season altogether.  I can’t say I walked around with tears in my eyes last year from not having a fantasy roster to maintain.  I then have an abbreviated weekend before I head out Sunday afternoon for a three day work conference, something else I haven’t done in two years.  To be quite honest I am surprised they have pushed ahead with it based on the covid numbers in Florida. Maybe they will have one of those monclonal antibody sites on the grounds. I am bringing two PEV’s, my camera equipment and a book with me as I don’t think I will be doing much of the social functions, I am there for some education but not much else.

Next Sunday I get my NEW Model Y.  I am looking forward to it, commuting in the Tacoma and Cindy’s car is ok but the Tesla commute is exceptional.

Last night around dusk I took the V12 to shoot some footage at night to capture the light performance.  Heading out at that time is not ideal as the bugs are swarming, especially when you are riding on top of something with a very bright light.  I had gnats bouncing off my face for a good portion of the time I was out there.  The headlight on the wheel is very strong, illuminating the area in front of the wheel well.  When I go to my work conference next week I plan to have the V12 with me to help fill the downtime.

Yesterday the new recliner was delivered.  I was surprised the entire thing came in one box.  By the time I got home Cindy had pulled the chair out of the box.  All that was left was to assemble the chair, which City Furniture wanted $119 to do.  I am very glad we did not go that option as not a single tool is even used to put the chair together, stuff just slides and clicks into place and you are done. With us not sure of what we were doing it took 10 minutes, I bet the delivery guys are done in less than 5.  We ran an extension cord under the rug and existing sofa and gave the chair a test run.  Everything worked as it should.  After dinner I spent a decent amount of time in the chair watching TV, it felt good.  The ability to rock and swivel is a big plus over any recliner I ever used before.

On Friday afternoon I left early from work to to do the closing on the sale of my one Lehigh Acres lot.  Almost on queue a tremendous downpour started as I pulled into the lot.  After waiting a few minutes, hoping for it to stop, I said F it and just dashed through the deluge, winding up very wet.  The buyer had already signed the paperwork electronically and wired the funds.  All I had to do was sign maybe a half dozen documents and then give bank information for a wire transfer of the funds.  In total I was there maybe 15 minutes.  I transferred a big payment onto my home equity loan with the proceeds.  In doing so I am now able to forego making any additional payments on the loan until Christmas, Christmas 2022.  Of course I will continue making payments as the HELOC is the last debt I owe on the property.

Since I got home early I decided to put the extra time to use.  I went outside and knocked out weeding and weed whacking. Doing so kept me out there until close to 7PM but it felt good to not have to worry about that task on Saturday.  I also wanted to keep my Saturday morning less crowded so I could help Cindy with a yard/plant sale she was putting on.  I helped set up the tent and a few other things.  Katie and DJ showed up as well.  I played with DJ until I had to sneak out to run some errands.

When I got back there were actually a couple people buying some items although the foot traffic for the event was far less than Cindy and Katie had hoped for.  DJ’s cheeks were red from running around like a maniac. Deb and Dawna, friends of ours had showed up as well.  The sale concluded around 1PM with a decent amount of stuff sold albeit at stiff discounts.  Yard sales to me are just a lose/lose when you divide the amount of money earned by the amount of hours invested.  Normally the hourly rate is far less than minimum wage.  That is why if I have something I no longer want it most often just gets left at the curb for someone to grab.  I just don’t have the patience or desire to sell many things, this used to not be the case. Saturday afternoon I also got on the tractor to mow the back section that I had to abandon due to torrential rain a couple days prior.  DJ joined me for part of the task, he enjoys sitting on my lap while mowing.

Later in the afternoon Cindy agreed to go with me to go look at recliners.  I have not had a recliner for a number of years.  I had the custom recliner my mom bought for me prior to that but it was never particularly comfortable for me and it was given to Katie when we got a replacement couch and loveseat.  The couch has two built in recliners but again, they are rarely used because they just aren’t that comfortable.

Cindy had seen a recliner at Sam’s earlier in the week that she thought I might like.  The price was inexpensive and she said it seemed nice.  We went there first.  It took me about 5 seconds in the chair to know it wasn’t big or soft enough for me, unfortunately.  Cindy had also looked online and saw some nice loungers at Ashley/City furniture so we headed there next.  This place was cavernous, easily the biggest furniture store I have ever been in, although I haven’t been in a lot of them as with t-shirts, if furniture works for me, I don’t replace it very often.

We saw a ton of recliners but the one we had targeted was not in the store.  The sales rep we were dealing with told us that if we try to buy something that is not on the showroom floor you can literally be waiting for months.  Another thing that become apparent is power recliners are no longer just a niche thing as it was when we bought the sofa set.  It seemed like more of the recliners on the floor were power than were not.  Initially I was not interested in a power recliner because it basically doubles the price and I have not reached the state of laziness where I can’t recline a chair myself.  However the more we tested various seats that position changed.

With a manual recliner, once reclined you have gravity working against you.  There are certain positions the recliner will hold you in but once you hit a certain point it wants to reverse.  With a power recliner any angle from closed to fully reclined can be held, making your number of positions nearly infinite.  The other option is a power headrest which I again initially thought was a waste.  However when you recline the chair to a large degree, if you still want your head in a position to watch TV you then need to have some sort of pillow assist that hopefully will get your head at a comfortable angle.   With a power headrest that requirement goes away as you can dial it in to exactly what feels good.  Yes I know this sounds over the top but after the experience I genuinely see the advantages of a power set up, which I did not before.  We picked out a chair with a lot of cushion, which is a requirement for me.

The transaction went smoothly and although I wound up spending more than double what I originally had pictured, I think it will be a worthwhile investment for future years of relaxation.  Instead of waiting for months for the recliner it is scheduled to be delivered this afternoon.  I did decline paying them and extra $120 to assemble the recliner, confident that I would be able to do so myself utilizing my above average fix it skills.

My Sunday was ok.  I got out on the new V12 to do my standard range test ride out to Ave Maria and back.  The wheel did very well, able to keep me rolling at close to 25mph the entire 35 miles.  This wheel has so many good things about it, I can’t wait to dig into it more.

Over the weekend I found myself behind someone with this sticker on the back of their vehicle.  I don’t know if there is anything that could identify Trumpism  any clearer.  When I see this sort of stuff it just makes me sad and lose what little hope I have remaining for society.  Losing hope is a feeling I seem to have more and more often over recent years.

Yesterday it was sunny most of the day.  When I got home I did a quick survey of the property, I only saw a few small really wet areas so I made the snap decision I was going to try to mow the yard.  The first half of the session went ok however when I started behind the fence things didn’t go as well.  Dark clouds started rolling in, I hoped the rain the dark clouds normally contain would hold off.  Before any rain started I managed to get the tractor stuck in muck.  Getting out meant putting boards under the tires and pushing the Husqvarna while Cindy was at the wheel.

After that things went from bad to worse with rolling downpours starting.  I mowed the chicken yard in heavy rain.  After finishing that I had one section of the yard to go but it was flooded out again.  I relented and just mowed the high ground near the house before parking the tractor, which looked like I just went bog racing with. I looked and felt like I just jumped in the pool fully clothed.  I was annoyed I didn’t get the task completely done.

This afternoon I close on the sale of my one (bad) investment lot.  It’s a surreal feeling to be able to finally rid myself of one of these postage stamp lots after nearly two decades.  I can hopefully repeat the process with the other lot sooner rather than later.

This weekend Cindy is hosting a plant/garage sale, hoping to get rid of the excessive inventory of plants she has accumulated along with a bunch of other items.  I should take a quick run around the house/sheds to see if there is anything I can add to the collection of don’t need items.  I just have been preoccupied with other things recently.

Due to some technical difficulties I was unable to post yesterday, hopefully things go smoother today.  I received my new V12 on Tuesday and wasted no time doing a livestream to document my initial impressions.  During the nearly two hour broadcast I gave my thoughts about the wheel and several other subjects, some of which had absolutely no EUC connection.

Last night I go to do a short road test and was immediately impressed.  The wheel felt fantastic.  It was strong, nimble, fast and felt planted to the road thanks to it’s nearly 65 pounds of weight.  During the test I ran into Jeremiah, the guy I rode with before.  He was going down his street walking his two dogs while riding his EUC, it was a funny sight.  We chatted for a bit and I held onto his dogs so he could take the V12 for a quick spin.  It was an unexpected bonus.  We both said we need to get out to ride together again.  Weather permitting and back pain permitting I am hoping to get a lot of riding in over the weekend.  I did document the ride last night, of course.

So yesterday I got the closing documents for the vacant lot I am selling.  It looks like we are locked and loaded to complete the transaction tomorrow afternoon.  It still feels weird that I am finally unloading at least one of the two worst investments I ever made in my life.  I have mostly erased them from my mind over the last 18 years except when I have to pay the property tax bills every year.  I am hoping to now focus on getting the other one moved as well.  Now that I have the template for what is involved in selling a lot privately, the next transaction should go even smoother.

My life has had a clear pattern of finding patterns and routines and perfecting them to suit my needs.  Once I find something that works for me I am very resistant to changing it, whether it be a certain type of food, a brand of toothpaste, a 15 year old t-shirt, a route to work or infinite other things.  I like knowing what to expect from situations and one way to do that is to craft guardrails that keep things inside boundaries.

Despite this hard wired desire to live my life primarily in this manner when I venture out of the routine via cross country road trips, a cruise, vacation or many other random events in my life I always find myself discovering new moments that I hold onto and cherish.  It’s a weird dichotomy to me.  Over the last 3-4 years there has not been nearly enough of that deviation from the path straight ahead for a number of reasons. I need to try to be more mindful of what I am doing with my time as it becomes an ever more fleeting resource with the passing of each year.

One event that definitely threw me far off my path was the passing of mom, which happened on this day in 2014.  I still think about that day and wonder how mom would be if she was still with us today.  I wonder what sort of thoughts and advice she would have for me as I move through life at this advancing age.  I definitely see an increasing amount of parallels in my journey and hers.

The soon to be reformed Tropical Storm Fred is forecast to roll by our area this weekend with the promise to bring a lot of moisture with it.  There is still standing water in certain areas of the property so a major dumping of rain is not welcomed, at all.  The winds should be no worse than what we get with typical thunderstorms so if there is any silver lining, that is it.

I have a number of things to do this weekend, we will see if any of those plans get washed away.  I am excited that my next electric unicycle is only a few days away from arrival.  Gone are the days where I would buy several new EUCs every year.  This is the first wheel I have bought in 2021 and probably will be the last.

I leave you with a picture of the front doors of the Everglades City city hall building, for no particular reason.

Have you ever had a really bad dream about something negative happening only to wake up and realize it was only a bad dream, feeling that wave of relief come over you?  Now imagine that feeling in reverse, waking up, wondering if something was just a bad dream and realizing it is reality.  I prefer scenario one.