Prepping, Undoing, Not defending, Must mow, Changing backgrounds
Even though Friday evening I still had adequate light for my 10 mile ride, I did the prep for the following week where that will no longer be the case. I attached a light to my helmet and the the rear of my Trek to make me clearly visible to motorists, even once daylight has passed. I also wore my clear lens work glasses for the ride as tint will not be workable over the winter. I have found that wearing glasses with a top frame are annoying while riding. When you are in the down position that frame is annoyingly in your field of vision. I bought a cheap set of cycling glasses that have no top frame for that very reason. The ride itself went ok with temps around 80 I couldn’t complain.
Saturday morning was the first REALLY cool morning. The thermometer actually dipped into the upper 50’s at the house. I was doing chicken and other chores in the morning wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and I loved it. I am so over the heat and humidity. Elsa and I did an errands run that probably added up to at least 75 miles of driving, it wasn’t ideal.
During the afternoon I took down the Halloween decorations, which is far less depressing than when I do the same with Xmas decorations because there is far less invested. Two of the inflatables were “retired” (aka, thrown out). Both the big red spider which was probably 5 years old and the scary tree developed leaks that I could not trace. The spider’s material was deteriorating all over from the years of sun exposure so I could understand it. Scary tree was only two years old. He was inflating fine at the beginning of the month but by the end was a saggy, sad tree. I did make a proactive move for next year, buying two more Halloween inflatables on Amazon at a post Halloween discount price.
Late in the afternoon I took my V12 out for a DD run. During the ride I stopped to talk about the catastrophic fire that Ewheels had, the company I have bought that vast majority of my wheels from. Although not proven yet, it is suspected that the fire started from a defective battery pack. It’s a devastating loss.
Saturday night I watched Battlestar Galactica – The Plan. It was a “movie” based on the series that I loved, or so I thought. What it actually turned out to be was a bunch of scenes from the TV series thrown together in such a way to give a rough, Cliff Notes version of the story. I found it extremely disjointed, jarring, and not good in that format. Don’t bother if you were a fan of the show, you have seen it all before.
Sunday the weather again was glorious with bright sun, blue skies and crisp air. I had the windows open all day long, a rarity. After a morning of normal tasks I came to the point where I had to decide what I wanted to do with my afternoon. With the awesome weather maybe I should go on an extended ride, maybe go to the beach, maybe anything that took advantage of the great weather outside. Well I did come up with something that benefits from nice weather as well, tending to the grass. Yes I consumed my entire afternoon weed whacking and mowing the property which took almost exactly 4 hours. Now there was reasoning behind this.
Last week I put it in to have this upcoming Friday off. Our office is closed for Veterans day on Thursday so this gives me a four day weekend. I targeted pressure washing the pool area during this time, which is disgusting. Doing this job is ass breaking and very lengthy. I determined that if I had to do yard maintenance during the weekend as well it would be really unfun, hence why I decided to do it now.
Yesterday I also thought I would make a preemptive strike on the pool area cleaning. I got out my 30 Seconds hose end spray attachment and filled it with the solution which is some sort of bleach mixture. I figured I could save myself from the worst of pressure washing by spraying the overhead pool cage with the solution to de-green it ahead of time so I don’t have to blast it as much. This was not the best thought out plan. Spraying a bleach solution up means it also has to come down. I had bleach dripping all over me but didn’t care. Only after I thoroughly soaked the frame twice did I head inside to take a shower and wash the clothes before the bleach really started burning things. I wasn’t all that pleased with the outcome. It did get rid of a lot of the green but those frame sections still will need to be blasted regardless.
By the time I got back inside the Eagles game was already well into the first quarter, they were playing the LA Chargers in Philly. Once again the Eagles stuck with their new found revelation that they can actually run the ball and any game plan that revolves around Jalen Hurts being a prolific passer is going to be problematic. Their offense was solid, again using more runs than passes by a significant margin. This running rebirth has occurred without their starter Miles Sanders in the lineup.
The problem is their defense was terrible. They did not register a single sack, a single turnover and allowed LA to pretty much move the ball at will. I was disgusted that during the last LA drive of the game where they got the winning field goal, the Eagles defensive backs were STILL giving LA receivers a 10 yard cushion off the line, it was maddening. I really hate the soft zone, no blitz strategy the team seems to be based on, it sucks. The team is now 0-4 at home.
Ever since the Linc opened, there has been a sense that the home field advantage that the team used to command at the Vet has disappeared. For whatever reason, playing at Lincoln Financial Field just does not carry the weight the Vet did. Maybe since ticket prices have gone through the stratosphere, the down and dirty, louder than a bullhorn fans that used to populate the 700 level have been priced out of attending. The team plays the Broncos next week, which is likely another loss, which will pretty much send this season into lost cause territory.
One thing I have done for a number of years is take iconic shots from the various destinations I have been to and put them into my rotating backgrounds in Windows. Every 10 minutes or so a new background pops into one of my two screens. Of course over the last 8 years all of those destinations involved Cindy as well so I have had to make some adjustments. It used to be that seeing these images pop up would bring back momentary jolts of good feelings as I recall the scenario and everything associated with it. Now, although I still remember the good times, it is unavoidable to feel the sadness associated with the past tense aspect of it all.
I even get the feeling of sadness when I see the images from my dad and stepmom’s place in Mariensville. Despite it being in the middle of nowhere there were some very fond memories of that place for me. I do this pretty routinely, dwell on the past twisting one time happy memories into sad reminders. I remember hearing/reading somewhere a quote that went something like this, “It’s ok to look at the past, but don’t stare…..” I get it.