Archives 2023

Since you last heard from me I have been to the Space Center for three days of training with a weekend thrown on the tail end as well, let’s see what I can remember.

I left work around 11 on Wednesday so I could get home and head to Titusville. I had not even completed my packing so I had a lot of things to knock out at home in a short period of time. I wound up leaving my house right around 1. The drive north and east went pretty well, the Tesla is very comfortable to cruise long distances in. I made the trip in almost exactly 5 hours. If I wanted to push my luck I might have made it on one charge but I stopped in Orlando to charge for literally 5 minutes, just to make sure.

I checked into the hotel which was a beautiful Marriot, it seemed very new. When I got into my room I wanted to use the bathroom but I couldn’t get the lights to turn on. Just as I was about to call down to the front desk I saw a device by the front door that looked like it would fit the room key. Above it was a sign that said in order to activate lights put the room card in. I did and the lights in the bathroom came on. That was a first for me.

Even though I was tired I had no time to waste. There was a kickoff dinner event nearby at a steakhouse on the water. I arrived maybe 20 minutes after the event kickoff but no one had even gotten their food yet so it was fine.

I drank two of these large beers you see in the picture, the first one being downed quickly before eating. I was definitely a bit drunk but it was somewhat helpful to deal with the need for continuous social interaction. There were a lot of new faces that I did not recognize from previous conferences. I had a good meal and was happy to simply return to my room, shower and veg out. A number of people went to the Space Bar on the roof of the hotel where they got to pay outrageous prices for alcohol.

Thursday was the first day of the conference. I got there early, probably too early as I wound up waiting a half hour for the Space Center to open. I had my free ticket in the lanyard we were all given. Once inside I and a bunch of other attendees managed to find the education center where the event was being held. They had a great spread of food which was welcomed since the hotel gave you absolutely nothing for breakfast, unless you wanted to pay for it.

We moved to an adjacent space where the sessions were held. There were various presentations, some held my interest, some did not which is a normal situation. Afterward we again were presented with a nice spread for lunch and then we all headed over to the bus area for a free tour of the space center.

This was my fourth time at the space center and I was just there a couple years ago with Cindy so not much had changed since then. The fact that it was the last trip I did with her made for some odd feelings while I was there, so much so that I really had no interest in doing the full tour. After getting off the bus and seeing the two mandatory presentations before entering the Apollo center I did a quick walk around of the facility before getting back on a bus to take me back to the main part of the space center. Once I got back and grabbed my laptop bag and headed out. I was not alone, I saw a number of other guys that were in the class following the same path.

I decided instead of looking to do something with the members of the group I would instead hop in the Tesla and head to Cocoa Beach. I wanted to stop at the Ron Jon headquarters there and I had my One Wheel and gear in the trunk.

I hopped on the One Wheel and did a 6 or 7 mile ride that was basically a straight line paralleling the coast. It was not the most exciting ride and again I had weird feelings because Cindy and I rode that area as well when we were there. It wasn’t feelings of remorse I was experiencing it’s sort of hard to explain. I did shoot video of the ride where I talk about those feelings a bit.

When I finished up I found a very cool dive bar that was along the beach. I sat at the bar and enjoyed a couple beers along with fish tacos. It was a very chill vibe and a place I could have spent more time at if I wasn’t solo. I headed back to the hotel and again chose to just relax the rest of the evening instead of seek out more social interaction at the bar on the roof.

The sessions on Friday were more interesting for me because it was more or less the various county staff sharing ideas, issues, and solutions as a group. When I got to talk some of the things I brought up had other guys talk to me during a break to discuss further. The tech sharing is normally the most valuable thing I take away from these events.

The sessions ran up until almost one, there was one more free lunch provided and then that was it, we were free to go. You were able to continue touring the park or just get the hell on the road. I chose the latter. The drive home was much rougher than the trip up. I hit the fangs of I-4 traffic which resulted in a 6+ hour journey instead of 5.

During the day on Friday I got the call from the cabinet guy. I let him in remotely so he could install the new cabinet in the guest bathroom. When I got home I checked it out, it looks great. All that remains in the counter install and plumbing reconnect in there, thank goodness.

Saturday morning I headed up to Babcock early to pick up Elsa. As usual she had a fantastic time with Ali and Shugs. I know since Sadie passed they really love having Elsa around. On the way back I grabbed groceries. During the day I worked on a number of clean up tasks around the house as I still had not put everything back post-counter install.

Part of the counter install was a new kitchen sink fixture. I got a touch free model again, this time with the sensor on the left side. When I first tested it it did not appear to work. My first thought was the controller did not come with batteries. When I popped the lid I saw it did have batteries so I wondered if just the included batteries were shit, so I bought more.

When I put the new batteries in and had the same non-results I was frustrated. I started wondering if the plumber installed the faucet and never tested it. I turned the faucet on and then waved my hand in front of it repeatedly, expecting it to turn off, just like my faucet at the old house did. Well this wasn’t the same faucet model. What I discovered was you leave the handle in the off position with this faucet, which is actually a better solution. Once I did that it worked perfectly. I felt dumb for not realizing this earlier.

The Tacoma was due for an oil change. I did not have all of the supplies on hand so I thought just this once I would go to an oil change place and get it done. There is a Valvoline shop close to my house. When I pulled in both bays had a line of four cars waiting to get in but I figured it should go pretty quickly. It did not. Instead I spent at least an hour and a half on the process. When I got the bill it once again reminded me why I started doing all my own oil changes some 15 years ago. I wound up paying probably triple what it would have cost me to buy the oil/filter and do it myself. I was not happy with my decision.

During the afternoon I also ran out to get a haircut. My stylist, Princess, told me all about the challenges she is having with her 13 year old boy with some school issues. I listened, but did not say much. My hair was feeling shaggy based on my norm, it felt good to clean things up a bit.

Saturday night I went to see the latest Guardians of the Galaxy movie with Christine. We went to the Cinebistro, the fanciest theater in town. We had nice dinners and both really enjoyed the movie. The Guardians series always has a lot of laughs. I would give it a solid A.

On Sunday I wanted to tackle the biggest challenge with getting things back to normal post cabinet/counter install, reinstalling the master bathroom mirror. This mirror is huge with a wood border around it. I slid it back to the bathroom with stupid ideas of doing it myself but I soon realized this would be physically impossible.

I had to have Christine come over to lend me a hand. On the first hoist it was obvious I didn’t have enough space. I thought removing the second medicine cabinet would provide it. I was wrong. What I realized was the issue were the new faucets that were installed which sit several inches higher than the old fixtures. There was literally no way to get the mirror in place as is so that left me one option, remove the faucets.

I didn’t totally disconnect them but I removed the hardware that held them in place, undoing what I paid the plumber to do. Once I did that I was able to pull the fixtures up and lay them in the sink. Once I did that Christine and I were able to finally get the mirror back on the wall, what a PIA. I then re-secured the faucets and reinstalled the two medicine cabinets. Finally I had a mirror in the bathroom once again, negating the need for me to go to other areas of the house to see what my hair looks like. I felt bad having Christine do grunt work on Mother’s Day.

During the afternoon I worked on a few things including emptying a a couple more boxes in the garage. As has been the case with most box openings at this point, more stuff found it’s way into the trash can as it’s use to me did not merit keeping it around. Later I went to a Mother’s Day dinner with Christine and her boys which everyone seemed to enjoy.

This should be my first “normal” week in awhile. I was able to use my dishwasher for the first time in over a month last night. It was glorious.

Yesterday the plumber arrived close to his scheduled time to reconnect everything so my master bathroom and kitchen are once again fully functional. It cost a lot more than the disconnect but he had a second guy this time and had to do a couple additional things. I was too happy to have everything back together to fuss much about it. In addition he disconnected the guest bathroom plumbing so that cabinet counter swap can get rolling soon. I absolutely love the final outcome. Everything looks great, it appears the installers did a very professional job. I saw zero flaws.

Last night I ran Elsa to Ali’s place. It took me roughly the same amount of time as it did from the old house which surprised me a bit since I am further south. Elsa was thrilled to see Ali and Shugs as always. I enjoyed a taco dinner with them before pushing back for home.

I have a brief work day before I leave to drive up to Titusville for an IT conference which runs until Friday. It will be a good chance for me to reset and reflect in surroundings different than I am accustomed to.

Yesterday the counter install was scheduled to happen. When I confirmed the appointment I emphasized I needed it done by that day as I was leaving town the following day (not exactly true). When 11am arrived and I had not seen any activity in my driveway from the Ring camera I got concerned and called.

The woman on the phone said I was on the schedule for Tuesday not Monday. I told her that was not what I confirmed and that I really needed them to be completed today as discussed. She put me on hold while she tried to see where the issue was. After a few minutes of holding the owner hopped on and apologized for the miscommunication. He said he could get a crew there between 3 and 5PM. I said that was fine.

I got the Ring notification shortly before 4PM. I opened the garage and headed home. By the time I got there they already had the big slabs in the kitchen in place, they worked fast. They were finished up by 6:30. I was instructed to let the main counters set for at least an hour and the raised bar for at least a day. The only thing that did not get done is reconnecting all the plumbing which is supposed to be happening this morning.

I think the new surface looks fantastic. Having the same cabinets and counter style in the bathrooms are a smart move as well. Even though I spent a bunch of money on this I think the appreciation in home value should meet or exceed it.

I am hoping to come home tonight to a fully functional kitchen and master bathroom. I don’t have much time to get things back in order as I need to run Elsa up to Babcock since Ali and Shugs are watching her while I head up to an IT conference the last 3 days of the week.

I had a very busy weekend as predicted. My top priority was to unpack the two large boxes that were sitting on the lanai to put together my outdoor furniture I bought last week. Ali and Shugs had bought a very similar set and warned me the assembly was challenging. I have put together a lot of stuff in the last few months so I was confident I could handle it.

The instructions were not great and none of the parts had the identifying sticker on them that the instructions indicated they should, perhaps that is why this set was at Big Lots. The lack of marking slowed down the process at first but I eventually figured it out. It took me between 2-3 hours to get everything assembled but I am happy with the result, it fits the corner of the lanai well. The project was not completely done however. Part two was cutting apart all of the cardboard from the boxes. That itself took damn close to an hour to complete.

Saturday night Christine and I went to see the fourth John Wick movie. Christine loves action movies as I do so we both enjoyed the film which was nothing but crazy action the entire two hours. Of course none of it had anything resembling remote plausibility but we both enjoyed it anyway. B+

Sunday I replaced the three boring and dim light fixtures that remained inside the house with the same LED lights I used at my old house. I get them from Costco. They are only $30 each and I can install it in a little more than 10 minutes. I like the additional brightness they bring to the space.

Today the counters in the kitchen and master bathroom are scheduled to finally be installed. I really hope things go as planned and they are completely installed today. For around a month I have been dealing with the disruption of normalcy in the household. I need it to resume.

I forgot to mention something interesting I saw yesterday on my way to work. I was going the back way through a neighborhood where the speed limit is 25mph. As I was getting ready to make a right turn I had to wait for a guy on bike go by with a running stroller attached behind it. I immediately noticed this guy was going fast but it didn’t look like he was working very hard to do so, so I immediately assumed he was on a pedal assist bike.

So I pull out behind him and get a sense of just how fast he is going, 24-25mph. Being an occasional road biker I know just how hard it is to maintain that speed when only human power is involved. This guy was high on his handlebars taking in the sights. However my attention quickly turned to the stroller.

This road has a number of speed bumps to ensure drivers keep their speed down. The biker was hitting these at full speed which sent the bike and it’s attached stroller off track repeatedly. I started debating if there was a child in the stroller or not. If there was he was living through a roller coaster simulation, it did not look safe. I followed the guy all the way to my turn off. I never was able to determine if there was a living creature in the stroller but if there was not, why would you have it attached?

Last night after work I headed back to Big Lots to pick up the patio furniture. I was not sure how big or numerous the boxes would be but I figured if I couldn’t get it all in one trip I could just come back. I expected a minimum of three boxes, one for the sofa, one for the table, and one for the chair. I was off by one.

The guy brought out only two boxes, one of which was gigantic. It held the sofa AND the table. The box was around 6 feet long and close to 200lbs. My only option was to plop the chair box on top which I then locked in place with my ratchet straps. Since I was going less than 3 miles I was confident I would be ok, I was.

Once I got home the real fun began. My plan was to go around the side of the house, through the fence and plop the boxes on the lanai. That plan was easy with the chair box. The sofa box was another story.

Because it was so long and so heavy it really liked tipping over and off the hand truck I was using. At one point it fell off and onto one of the hedges in front of the house, breaking off some branches as it came down.

After several tip overs I finally was able to get the monster box onto the lanai as well without permanently damaging anything, a big win. By the time I had everything unloaded it was about 7 and I called it good for the day. I had no desire to start putting them together right away.

This weekend I have a number of things I would like to accomplish with putting together and setting up the patio furniture being one of them. I also got three LED light fixtures, the same type I used out at the old house. There are three old boring fixtures that I will be updating with one of them being in the master closet. I also would like to take a whack at getting the 5 or 6 remaining boxes of stuff I have in the garage unpacked. The fact that I have been in the house a month and a half without needing most of it is an indicator some of it might also find it’s way to the garbage or donation pile.

So I have been addressing things I wanted to upgrade at the new house at a pretty rapid pace. I figure I have the equity from the sale of the house sitting in my bank account, I may as well be using it. Last night before Christine and I went to dinner we stopped by Big Lots, yes Big Lots. We were there last week trying to find a dresser for her place. We did not find one but we did look at their outdoor furniture as well. Ali and Shugs actually bought their outdoor furniture from there and it was a nice Broyhill set. I think what I wound up buying was the exact same set.

I paid for the stuff last night and hope to return with my truck this evening to pick it up. It’s a big and comfortable L shaped sofa, a rocking/swiveling chair and a matching table. I think it is going to be awesome to just lounge on the lanai with a drunk in hand chilling or maybe even, napping, gasp.

After the cabinets/countertops are done the only significant thing I would like to get done is having storm shutters made for the house for hurricane season. The old owners used plywood like I used to out at my old place. I have first hand knowledge of how shitty of an option that is. I want to get lightweight aluminum panels that secure easily with wing nuts to the permanent mounting hardware around the windows. Once that happens I can truly rest easy with the big ticket items behind me, at least for the immediate future.

Last night after work I made arrangements to stop over and see Gladys who was up visiting from Roatan for a little over a week. Although I talk to Gladys pretty regularly I asked her when the last time was I saw her in person. She said it might have been my visit to the island last July which seems improbable but possibly is true.

She has been quite busy during her time here, primarily attending to house related things. That was one of the reasons I went over there, to help her move some furniture around. She has one section of the house set up to be an Air BnB. She was looking to do a couple tweaks to get it ready to rent again.

We had a nice couple hours catching up. Even though we communicate regularly, talking in person is different and most of the time better. It was good to see her. I was bummed that my little buddy Leilani wasn’t home last night. She is always fun.

I got word that the counter install was now getting pushed back to next Monday, May 8th. I told them I was heading out of town on the 9th (actually the 10th) so I needed to confirm the counters could be installed in a day. They said it should not be a problem. Let’s hope that prediction comes true.

A few days ago I got my first water/sewer bill from the county. Out in the estates where I used to live everybody had a septic system and well so this was something new to me. I wasn’t sure what I would be paying but I certainly did not expect the total I saw, $340. That seemed way too high, even without a point of reference. I mean I live by myself, this can’t be right.

So I called up the county yesterday and asked them if they were able to look at my bill as well as look at prior water usage by the household. They said one of the reasons my bill was that high was I was paying a prorated amount for the prior month when the house was sold. Still that only accounted for maybe $70-80 of the charges.

The woman was helpful. She suggested I do a test where I record the number on the water meter out front and then not use any water for 4 hours and see if the numbers on the meter have changed. If they have it means that something odd is going on. My understanding was that the irrigation for the house is done via an apparent well I see towards the sidewalk however, if that is NOT the case it would explain the high usage which was measured in the vicinity of 20,000 gallons. I have some homework to do.

Last night I put together a couple more pieces of furniture for Christine. My reward was another home made dinner. She is a really good cook.

I had a pretty busy weekend once again. I have been trying to help Christine out as much as possible with getting settled in her new place. Despite only being there a week the house is in pretty good shape. This weekend I hung the TV’s on the wall in her son’s bedrooms.

Saturday night she had made arrangement for us to get a couple massage in the Mercado area. Neither of our rub downs were spectacular but it was a nice way to spend 45 minutes. Afterwards we had dinner at a nearby mexican restaurant which was really good.

Sunday morning I tended to a number of small nagging issues around the house. One of those things was replacing the valve on the master bathroom tub. It would just spin, much like the problem I had at my old house with the shower, so I already knew how to fix it. I thought I would make a funny sped up video of the process for the hell of it.

I also finally got around to shooting my wrap up video for the EX30. I have had this wheel far longer than most demo wheels because I just have not had the time to dedicate to testing as I used to with all that has been going on.

Sunday afternoon I took my One Wheel to Christine’s place. She had expressed interest in trying it since she surfs and rides a long board. I figured she would pick it up pretty quickly with that background and she did. By the end of the 45 minute session she was rolling around very competently.

I am very much hoping the prediction that the counters will be installed this week come true. I am looking forward to the upgraded look and full functionality returning to the kitchen and master bathroom.

Last night I built a kitchen pantry purchased from Amazon, for the second time in a less than a month. The place Christine is renting could use some pantry space like mine did. I told her about the unit I bought and how it really helped give me the space I needed to store food items so she bought one too. Since I did this once before I knew what to expect.

The assembly went smoothly and was easier because I had Christine’s hands available when needed. Certain steps along the way are definitely easier with two people instead of the solo assembly I did the first time. In less than two hours it was done and we slid it into it’s spot where it filled the space perfectly.

Not only was this the second time I built a pantry, this was the second time I have been connected to an improbable cat recovery. Over 7 months ago Christine lost her one cat. She looked for him for weeks but eventually had to give up. On Wednesday she got a call from domestic animals that they had her cat. He was chipped so they were able to reach out. Christine picked Johnny up yesterday. He was in rough shape, losing over half of his body weight but he was alive and back home. It was really touching.

I reached out to the counter place hoping to get some solid timeline for when my counters would be installed. To say I am tired of doing dishes in the bathroom sink would be a massive understatement. They said the install should happen some time next week which was good news for me.

This weekend I have nothing but could do’s with very few must do’s. I like that arrangement.