Part of my plan with doing the mowing Tuesday and Wednesday evening was I would go ride Victoria Park on Thursday. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, a cold front blew through last night bringing almost two hours of severe storms, washing away my plans. I instead spent my night cutting out stickers on the Cameo vinyl cutter while trying to assure Sadie and Elsa, both of them are scared of storms. I did also get one online game in with Griffin, he has stopped playing the tower defense game more or less so I haven’t had to opportunity to connect with him much.
I am debating if I want to try to ride VP tonight or Saturday night. I just have concerns that both nights, especially Saturday will be a shit show of humanity, making riding rather unenjoyable.
One of the trade offs with being an internet content creator is opening yourself up to commentary, both good and bad. Everyone has an opinion and the web has made expressing that extremely easy and inconsequential. Luckily for the most part I take harsh comments pretty harmlessly. I am self deprecating in many situations and always have a large surplus of sarcasm on hand to feed people if needed. Last night I got a comment that made me laugh out loud, literally.
It is very typical to get a poll that will stir shit up from a known drama queen, like this talking neck with an irritating voice.
Instead of getting bent out of shape or defensive about it, I plan to utilize this comment as some comedic relief in my next video. Thanks for the content!
The weather this weekend looks to be pretty fantastic with lower humidity and lower temperatures. Getting the mowing out of the way this week opens up my schedule a bit.
For the second time in as many nights I found myself mowing in the dark. This time I decided to tackle the back half of the property. As I did my endless loops I did something rare for me, looked for a bright side to mowing four hours over the last two days, half of that in darkness. I realized I got to observe two beautiful sunsets from the seat of the Husqvarna. I also did not have to worry about oppressive heat, sun exposure, or afternoon thunderstorms. Doing this on a weekday evening also relieves the pressure of needing to dedicate an afternoon over the weekend for the task. There was a simple solitude in the experience that I sort of enjoyed, in a weird way.
Ali’s boyfriend Shugs dropped off Sadie for me to dog sit for several days last night as well. Her mobility is really going downhill, every step is a struggle due to her failing back legs/hips. It seems that moving into the 1 bedroom apartment has furthered her challenges because of even less movement. Ali has started taking her to a dog physical therapist to see if she can be rehabbed since surgery at her age is not really an option. Shugs dropped off some sheets from the therapist with some mobility stretches that should be done at home.
It’s more and more a Catch 22 situation. Sadie is probably at least 10-20 lbs overweight. Added weight on weak legs is a bad combo. She needs to move more but there is a fine line between beneficial and detrimental. One time after we had her walking a bunch during a visit to the house she was almost immobile once Ali got her back, she overdid it. These are the sad realities of a 14 year old dog. I can’t help but feel sad when I think back to how Nicki went downhill and Sadie was always running around, trying to play with her. I now see the same scenario when Elsa tries to play with Sadie. Sadie’s eyes say yes, her body says no.
Yesterday I made a snap purchase of the new One Wheel that was announced. Up until a few days ago when I saw the announcement of an announcement, I had no idea Future Motion was releasing anything new. They actually announced two new devices the Pint X and the One Wheel GT.
The Pint, which I loved, had one shortfall, a small battery. The Pint X addresses that, having more than double the range of the original Pint albeit at a $500 higher price point. I thought that was sort of cool that they did this although I am not sure I thought it was worth an additional $500.
They acted at first like this was all they were announcing which the live stream audience was generally unhappy with. However then the Future Motion CEO came out and made the BIG announcement, the One Wheel GT. This is the long awaited successor to the One Wheel XR, which I own. The GT addresses pretty much every complaint XR owners had, offering more range, more power, more tire options and a more water resistant design, similar to the Pint. The live stream audience almost unanimously approved this time. The GT looks pretty awesome, awesome enough that I placed my order almost immediately after seeing it.
As is usually the case with new PEV’s, patience will be required as the GT will not be shipping until January and based on past One Wheel releases, I am expecting it to take even longer. I will sell my XR to offset a good chunk of the expense. Like the Pint X, the GT costs more than the board it is replacing, about $400 more, however in this case I think what you get is worth it.
When I was driving home last night I was considering if I wanted to take one of my EUCs and go ride Victoria Park after dinner. However when I pulled in the driveway and saw the unkempt looking grass the internal conversation turned to if I wanted to try to get the grass mowed instead. The last time I did it a few weeks ago it was dark by the time I was working on the back half. That situation would only be worse this time around. I guess that is what headlights are for, was the clincher statement in my silent internal debate.
As expected daylight vanished even quicker this time around. I was rushing to get the front half of the yard done before it was dark since there isn’t as much auxiliary lighting as I have in the back. The back was all done via floodlights and headlights. Night mowing isn’t much fun as the insects swarm the lights of the tractor. I constantly feel like I have something in my hair or on my body.
I finished up around 8:15 but had no time to waste. I had to make dinner which was fresh pasta from Publix. I like these meals because after I make it I have dinner for the next three nights ready to go. I also had to put away laundry and tend to the 3D hobby room before sitting down to actually eat dinner. My daily schedule is just demanding as hell some days. At least the mowing is done but of course my mind immediately drifted to the back of the property which is badly in need of mowing as well. I can see that filling a time slot over the weekend.
When I bought my first Tesla Model 3 I also bought one symbolic share of the company for $226, just for the hell of it. Man, I wish I would have made more than a symbolic investment today. Since that purchase Tesla stock has gone on a meteoric rise including a 5-1 stock split. That single share of stock is now 5 shares, worth several thousand dollars.
Yesterday there was another huge 11% surge in stock price when it was announced that Hertz was buying 100,000 Teslas for it’s rental fleet. This announcement has a snowball effect. I can see scenarios where other large rental car fleets will do the same, scooping up Teslas so Hertz doesn’t get a competitive advantage. Getting Tesla’s into the rental fleet also has the advantage of exposing more of the population to the magic of Tesla vehicles which will likely drive interest and sales even further, it really is a huge win.
The demand for their cars is unreal right now. If today I tried to order the same Model Y I just bought, I would pay $4000 more AND have an expected delivery date of MAY 2022. No I am not kidding. Like I said, I just wish I pushed a bit more cash into the stock back in 2019.
Yesterday I got an Amazon delivery, the Metamucil fiber bars that I have used for a couple years. Supposedly as you slide into old fartdom like me, Metamucil helps keep things going as they should be. These little bars are a far more enjoyable way to consume the fiber than the powder you used to mix in liquid, IMO. I was a bit surprised when the box arrived “naked”, letting the world know that the old guy on 47th Ave NE takes a fiber supplement. I mean it could have been worse I suppose. At least it wasn’t a box of Depends or Viagra.
Friday after work I once again donned the bike shorts for another 10 mile ride. As has been the trend, my average speed ticked up another couple 10ths, right around 17.5 mph. It’s nice to at least have something getting better when it comes to my fitness/health.
On Saturday I decided to let the grass maintenance slide this weekend. It looked ok except for a few places so I let it be. When I got back from running errands it was time to pick up all of the limbs from the trees I trimmed one night after work last week. Again I misjudged the amount of work, initially thinking I might be able to get it all done with one trip back to the fill pit with the Tacoma. Instead it took three overflowing loads to get the job done. To be fair I added to the pile by trimming the areca palms that surround the pond as well, they were getting out of hand. Just doing that amount of clean up beat me up a bit, imagine if I was still doing the full boat.
I got done with the work about an hour before Dan arrived. Dan is from the Boston area but visits Florida regularly, he has met me to ride twice before, the last time being the miserable flooded out swamp ride late last year. We didn’t have anything planned out as far as a route goes but we decided to do the Ave Maria ride once he arrived. Before we got started I let him ride the various wheels I have that he never got to try before. By the time we got rolling east it was after 4PM, pretty late to get started.
Right before we left I had a mishap while trying to mount the Sherman. My foot got tangled up with the pedal as I was taking off. The end result was me coming off the wheel awkwardly and having one of the pedals of the 80+ pound wheel smash right above my right ankle. The area immediately started seeping blood and I could tell it was going to be very sore from the impact. I had no time to give it much attention as we were literally heading out.
The ride out there was fun. I had to be mindful of my speed as Dan’s 18XL has a top speed about 20mph less than the Sherman. Dan was impressed by just how remote Ave Maria really is as we rolled though a combination of farmland and undeveloped areas along the way. I gave him an abbreviated tour of the town but we didn’t have much time to spare before darkness set in.
On the way back we made a detour to the nearby DD to fuel up. Dan had a massive four hour drive back north so caffeine was helpful. Once we got back to the house Dan hung for awhile talking about EUC’s and other things. It was nice have extended interaction with someone since I don’t have a lot of that nowadays. Dan headed out a little after 8.
Saturday night I finished up the Sopranos prequel, The Many Saints of Newark. I always was a Sopranos fan and saw every episode binge watching it several years ago. I found the movie good although the main character, Uncle Dickie, is a name I don’t recall ever being mentioned in the original show. I thought it was impressive that they found a kid to play young Tony Soprano that looked like him, until Cindy told me that the kid was actually James Gandalfini’s son. Wow, imagine that. I’d give the prequel a B+.
Sunday was unexpectedly overcast and rainy. I had not paid attention to the weather forecast recently. Thankfully it was not hard driving rain but the day was grey throughout and it seemed to cast the same color to my mood. I just did not feel very happy/upbeat. I was feeling beat up from the combo of the yard work and the Sherman ankle smash which had me walking with a limp all day. I watched my second HBO Max movie of the weekend, Dune, Sunday afternoon. The movie was two and a half hours long and was only “Part One”. I remembered next to nothing about the original movie so I struggled to keep the story line straight, there is a lot going on. I would give it a B+ as well, it’s a good story and has epic visuals.
The Eagles game was late against the Las Vegas Raiders. The game was another example of just how hapless the team is. Much like the week before, the final score was not indicative of how close the game was. The Eagles again got blown out early and then threw some junk points/yards on the board way too late. This team is just totally unenjoyable to watch.
I think Sirianni is overmatched and Jalen Hurts is way too inconsistent. It seems like the Eagles are constantly in 3rd down and long situations, which they very rarely convert. The defense insists on rushing four and playing a soft zone that gets torched all game. To be honest, the team is so boring to watch I don’t even “watch” it. I have the game playing in the background while I do other things around the house so I can keep loose tabs on how the team is underperforming, once again.
I finished out my evening getting more small things knocked out around the house that need attention, the number of these items is practically endless.
Here is a reenactment of my stream of consciousness from last night, this level of to do’s is not all that unusual anymore. Go to Costco, Elsa is low on chicken jerky, get home, Elsa is licking her chops meaning she is hungry, feed her, put away the groceries, it’s getting dark already, geez, I need to give the chickens treats, oh shit it’s water day too, ok I’ll give them treats first and then clean their water, now it’s almost dark, I’ll put the birds to bed awhile, back inside, see the blow ups in the yard need some help, fix them, go in the hobby room, swap out print jobs, realize filament came for a custom order, get that going, have another order that needs custom text, make the model in Tinkercad, slice it in Prusaslicer, load filament and start the printer, oh shit it’s trash night, grab all the trash and take it out to the curb, did I get the mail already?, back inside, geez it’s almost 8’oclock, I need to eat dinner, throw left over pasta in microwave, eat it while watching recorded dvr content, finish off the chocolate cake, clean all the dishes, check the print job status, edit the video of the Tesla footage I shot in the morning, post video, make thumbnail, take Elsa out while singing the “potty before bed” song, shower, watch a little Halloween Wars while laying in bed, think about tasks that need to get accomplished this weekend as I drift off to sleep.
Here is the video
My Thanksgiving trip to Texas is locked in. The series of events this weekend are not. My first day of wearing a SI belt felt a bit odd, I will deal with oddity if it allows the lower back pain to fade away.
So as I mentioned yesterday, I thought I could knock out the trees that I had to still trim in about an hour or so. I took that thought and ran with it last night, thinking I would be able to get all the trimming done and debris dumped before darkness sets in around 7PM. It was like I forgot all lessons that the previous 19 years of tree trimming taught me. I felt so upbeat about it that I headed out to do the work in my gym clothes, no hat, and crocs. I did at least have on gloves and safety glasses.
First I grabbed the power pruner to tackle the two sets of pygmy palms. The pruner definitely made the job faster but because it has a decent amount of weight, holding it suspended over my head for long periods of time induced some considerable shoulder burning sensations. I had to switch up arms repeatedly.
I then grabbed the sawz-all to do the rest of the trimming. Three of the palms could still be trimmed on the ground but six of them required the extension ladder. As soon as I got up there and started hacking away I regretted my clothing and (lack of) head protection choices. Tree dirt, ants, and other organic material dumped all over me. It constantly felt like I had something crawling on me, because I probably did. Although I was making a good progress, it didn’t take long for me to realize my one hour time estimate was stupidly optimistic. I finished trimming up the last palm by the fill pit in near total darkness. Hell I thought I would get all the trimming done AND the debris dumped in the pit by dark. Nope, all of the piles of branches remain scattered around the property, waiting for me. The experience left me dirty, tired, and intent to pay the extra money to have the tree guy trim all trees next year that require a ladder.
My SI belt arrived yesterday. One of my EUC buddies described having similar back issues as I have and one of these belts really helped him. It looks similar to a back brace but it is designed to be worn lower, across your hips. Supposedly the compression helps stabilize the SI joint which in turn allows it to heal somewhat, reducing the associated pain laxity in that area can cause. I have it on today. It definitely feels odd. My buddy said it took a couple weeks until he noticed a sizeable difference. I am hoping for a similar outcome.
Yesterday the most ass busting annual chore I have around the house was done, without me lifting a finger. The tree service I used last year came out to the property yesterday morning and cleaned up all of the higher cabbage palms as well as cleaning/lifting the oak tree in the chicken yard. To trade off 7-8 hours of ass busting labor for a few hundred dollars is something I would not have been willing to do in my younger days however now it’s a no brainer. If anything I kick myself for not paying someone to do this years ago. The damage it would do to my body combined with the dangerous situations I put myself in to reach the highest trees was sort of dumb.
I still do have trimming to do, however it consists mostly of trees I can do from ground level. In total I should be able to get it all done in the span of an hour or so, a huge improvement over what was my reality the first 18 years I lived at the house. I may even try to get that trimming done tonight after work, so I don’t have to be bothered by it over the weekend.
Yesterday when Cindy was at a store she saw a smaller green version of the spider inflatable that I have in the yard. She thought I may want it since she knew the old one was on it’s last legs so she let me know about it. I asked her to grab it for me. I wasted little time before I added him to the yard.
I was flying around last night getting things done. I even found the time to quickly wash the Tesla which had a layer of grime on it. Yesterday I also started the wheels in motion to potentially take a Thanksgiving road trip to Texas to visit my sister and her family. Cindy was good with watching the homestead which makes it all possible.
It will be a bit of unconventional schedule. Because of existing vacations in our department that week I won’t be able to leave Naples until Wednesday evening. My plan is to drive until midnight or so, hopefully winding up in north Florida, hopefully in the panhandle somewhere. Then after minimal sleep I will be back on the road for a very long day of driving which will get me to Torrin’s house in a suburb of Dallas sometime Thanksgiving night.
It will be a grind for sure but I can make it work. The one positive is on Thanksgiving Day traffic should be relatively light, hopefully allowing me to make decent time. Of course I will be taking the Tesla, which makes long drives almost fun. I plan on staying there three days before allocating two days for the drive back. If it all works out it should be a fun little adventure.
I got a text at 6AM this morning from the tree guy, who I was trying to schedule to do the trimming again this year. He said he had a last minute cancellation and wanted to know if he could come this morning. I said that was fine as long as he didn’t need someone there, which he didn’t. It will be nice coming home to a trimmed property. The few things I won’t have him trim I can knock out in an hour or less.
I had a busy but enjoyable weekend. Since the grass tasks were already handled it freed me up to do other things. One of those other things was making my mom’s chocolate cake recipe for Cindy’s birthday. I bought the ingredients I didn’t have during my errand run and then started making the cake mid-afternoon.
Cake prep went smoothly. I would up using my big Kitchen Aid stand mixer for the main cake mix which probably resulted in the ingredients getting better mixing than typical. However with this cake the icing is the star of the show. I bought a new double boiler just for the icing. It too worked well, I would say the end product was one of the top 10% of the cakes I have made.
Saturday evening I took the V11 to Dunkin Donuts. On the way back I rode through the nearby developments checking out the Halloween decorations. There weren’t a ton to see but I enjoyed the ride regardless.
On Sunday morning it felt like I was spinning in circles trying to get small tasks done so I could get out the door. I finally got down to Marco to do a hill test with my two Inmotion wheels, the V11 and the V12. I parked by Indian Hill, the steepest and longest hill in Marco Island. It was very interesting contrasting how both wheels felt going back and forth over the hill 10 times. Part of the test was also monitoring wheel temperature during the stress test. Both wheels passed the test but the V12 was clearly the winner with much more speed over the hills as well as having a top temperature 20 degrees cooler than the V11.
Late in the afternoon Cindy stopped over. She had spent most of the day with Katie and DJ which was a fun way to spend her birthday. We picked up food from Brooks Burgers, one of her favorites and enjoyed it at at the house. Afterward we each had a piece of the cake after I sung a solo version of happy birthday to Cindy, something I am not sure I ever did as normally at least Katie would also be part of the process. The cake tasted quite good, although both Cindy and I felt the side effects of the caloric bomb we ingested. Despite the major change in our dynamic since her last birthday, I think overall Cindy had a good day which I was happy about.
