Fun Friday, I Met Elvis, Shark, Riding away, Dating season

Friday after work I got an invite from my buddy Clay to go hang with him and a few of his friends at Brookside, where we hung before. Instead of driving to the zoo and riding my One Wheel there I instead hopped on my Veteran Patton and rode straight from home. I had a good time hanging out as I did previously, downing a couple Iguana Bait IPA’s. They must have a high alcohol content because I was feeling it after only two. I need to teach Clay how to ride EUCs. He is interested in learning.

I wound up playing pickleball Saturday morning instead of Sunday because of the wet forecast. I had a fun session as always. The people there make me feel welcome and I always enjoy my time playing.

Early Saturday afternoon I had arranged to meet up with a couple from out of town that have been fans of my YouTube channel for a long time, Elvis and Pam. They are both retired, been married 45 years and are down in Florida for a month or so with their PEVs. Elvis rides EUCs while Pam rides an ebike. We had a really great ride where I took them on the full Greenway tour including pit stops at the beach. They were both very nice people and were extremely complimentary towards me which was flattering. With the way many of my videos go, I talk about personal things that lets viewers know a lot of behind the scenes. The end result was skipping any awkwardness as Elvis talked to me like we had known each other for a long time. I think he came away knowing that what I show on camera is pretty similar to who I am day in and day out.

After finishing up the video edit I went out to Carrabbas Saturday night for dinner to spend time with Helen, the bartender that knows my name, my beer, and my food by heart which is a nice perk.

Sunday as forecast started out very stormy. I got some stuff done around the house in the morning including unboxing and setting up my new Shark robotic vacuum. My initial impressions are positive. The device seems pretty high quality, the app that controls it is robust and the self emptying feature is something new to me that I will have to see how I like it. I am in the middle of shooting footage to make a video of it.

During the afternoon the weather cleared, ironically my mood sort of darkened at the same time. I just was not in a positive state of mind. Later in the afternoon I decided to go for another ride, again on the Patton and similar to the ride I took with Elvis and Pam the day prior.

However when I got to the beach I pushed the Patton down onto the sand and parked it maybe 30 feet from the waters edge. I took off my helmet and just sat there, using the wheel as my beach chair. I watched the breaking waves and listened to the sound that accompanied them. I tried to use the 15 minutes or so I spent on the sand to realign my brain onto more positive thinking tracks but was only mildly successful in doing so. Eventually I headed back, getting a lot of double takes and exclamations of wonder as I passed by.

I am hoping this lull in positive outlook is brief. I know from past experience that the most effective way I have drowned out noise from past relationships was to be entertaining another one. However I am not sure if that is a good or a bad thing in the big picture. I have more work to do.

I posted on Facebook yesterday that there are only 11 days till “dating season.” I remember years ago someone filled me in on dating season which starts February 15th and ends in November, before Thanksgiving. It shouldn’t take you long to figure out why that is.

Last year at this time I discovered that taking pills helped me sleep and I was getting ready to list my old home for sale.