Archives October 2024

I had a busy weekend after my two day work week thanks to Hurricane Milton. Saturday after playing pickleball I worked on various tasks around the house during the afternoon. Later in the afternoon I got a call from my buddy Jason who I have ridden wheels with a number of times . He told me surprisingly that he has lost interest in riding. He lost it so much that he asked me if I wanted to buy his two wheels.

I was very surprised by this and tried repeatedly to talk him out of it, sharing stories of how I have had my interest come and go over time but I always come back to it. He had already made up his mind however. He didn’t want to even deal with the hassle of selling the wheels himself. His thought was to sell them to me cheap enough that I could turn around and sell them for a small profit that I could put towards future wheel purchases.

The last thing I really needed was two more wheels but I agreed to do it both to help him out and to hopefully generate a few extra bucks, it won’t be a windfall by any means. I made arrangements to meet him somewhat halfway between Naples and Cape Coral where we did the exchange. It was a situation I absolutely did not expect. On Sunday I rode the wheel and did a video describing what went down.

On Saturday I decided to go to Carrabas to visit Helen, it was nice to catch up with her.

Besides riding on Sunday and doing the associated video editing I watched the Eagles/ Browns game. The Browns are statistically one of the worst teams in the league but stayed in the game the entire way, remaining tied into the fourth quarter. The Birds squeaked out a 20-16 win but I was finding it very difficult to be motivated to watch the team. It’s just not fun. After the game I went to Tacos and Tequila to eat dinner and get a little drunk on four margaritas.

I went to one of our remote offices both Saturday and Sunday to revert a work around we did on Friday for a power problem. The power issues were supposed to be fixed both of those days, it wasn’t. I was less than pleased.

I told Larry I was going to write something regarding breaking traditions in relation to a situation he is mulling over. I have always been a person that is yearning for routine as well as participating in traditions. With Halloween being roughly two weeks away it got me thinking about traditions once again and specifically how I have been letting a lot of them fade away.

For a long time I would decorate for Halloween. I would have various inflatables in the yard along with other decorations both in and outdoors. I thought it was fun and thought others enjoyed my efforts like Cindy, her daughter and later baby DJ. However this year you are seeing the extent of my Halloween decorations, I changed the LEDS by the garage to orange, done. Christmas may also see a drastic yet similar shift in the amount of f’s I give about maintaining those traditions.

In a nutshell, to me, if a tradition is no longer serving you or has become more hassle than it’s worth, it’s not a tradition I am interested in entertaining any further. As I mentioned this also has applied to my various routines that for so long seemed like they were made out of stone. Instead I realized they are simply made of sand that can be brushed away and reshaped in any manner I so choose. Is there an element of sadness from walking away from things you traditionally have done? Yes, at least for me there is. However I have been continuing focus on what I want to do as opposed to things I feel obligated to do for reasons that just don’t matter that much anymore. That’s my two cents and it might be worth less than that.

I awoke Thursday morning to a yard filled with oak tree debris. The wind from Milton knocked down a ton of smaller branches, leaving them both in the yard and in the gutters. The stuff in the yard I could leave for my lawn guy to take care of but I did pull my ladder out. I went around the perimeter of the roof line pulling out any branches that could become a source of future gutter clogs. I opened up the rear lanai accordion shutters and rolled up the the front door protection. I decided to leave the window protection up for now. There is a potential tropical system that could impact us next week so until I know how viable that is I will just live with a darker house for now.

During the morning I also drove Meaghan to go get her vehicle which she moved out to Golden Gate for the storm. She lives right by the water and saw appreciable storm surge of several feet. My Tacoma got a bit of a muck bath driving through the sloppier sections near the gulf. It was a good thing she moved her vehicle as it would have seen significant water damage otherwise.

I was hoping to grab my first Dunkin Donuts coffee in a few days on the way there but my location was still closed. There was a bunch of things still closed because despite avoiding a direct hit there were a number of places without power. I was just lucky to not be one of them.

During the afternoon I did my first ride since my accident, sort of a big deal. I took out my Veteran Patton and rolled around with only a loose idea of where I was going. I didn’t feel fearful of doing so but it did feel weird in a way to be back on an EUC after what had happened. Despite this I enjoyed myself on the ride which I think was reflected in the video I made. One of the changes I vowed to implement was checking my tire pressure before every ride. I was surprised that after doing so on the Patton that I discovered I was actually 10PSI low. It’s a good change.

The rest of my evening consisted of video editing and binge watching Tulsa King, I like the show. Last night I slept poorly as the power was clicking on and off routinely throughout the night. Every time it happens the various tech in my house has a reaction that is nearly impossible to sleep through, at least for me.

I have the second day of my two day work week to get through before the weekend. What this weekend will hold is still pretty much a wildcard.

Monday afternoon the word came down that our office was going to be closed due to Milton from Tuesday through Thursday. We followed the lead of the rest of the county offices. Monday night I grabbed dinner at Bruninas and found the place packed, apparently incoming hurricanes make people want to go out to eat.

It felt weird waking up Tuesday with no alarm. It rained hard for most of the morning. Our area has been drenched by rain since Sunday. Not a great thing with a hurricane incoming.

I noticed water cascading out of my gutters on the back of the house meaning the downspouts were clogged, again. I ran to Walmart to get a real raincoat and then got up on my ladder to clear them out. It was a pretty quick task and the standing water in the gutters emptied out quickly once cleared.

During the afternoon the rain slowed so I decided to put up my hurricane shutters I bought last year. Even though the winds in our area are not supposed to cross 50MPH I thought I would put them up for the practice. Even with shooting video it only took me a little over an hour to enclose the house. The installers evidently messed up marking some of the panels which I had to sort out on the fly. The end result was the house being totally secure. This was so much easier than lugging huge and heavy plywood from the shed at the old house.

Last night I went to Bruninas for the second night in a row, it was one of the few places open. I stayed in bed until 8:30 this morning a rare oddity.

My plan for today is to do some little things to prep for a possible loss of power but other than that I will just be chilling. I might take it as an opportunity to complete the repair on my Master and film a sponsored video. I’m about to head out to hopefully secure my first DD of the day. Thank you to anyone who has reached out wishing me well during the storm’s approach. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Saturday morning I awoke with a 6:30 alarm to go play pickleball. I had a good session of over two and a half hours. Even though overall I think I lost more than I won it was a good time playing with good people, which is all that matters in the end. Later in the morning I was running errands in my pickleball gear and wound up doing long walks in parking lots in heavy rain. The picture depicts the end result.

My main goal on Saturday evening was to get the new tubeless tire mounted on the Master as well as reassemble it as far as I could. I was unsure how this new tubeless tire would seal since this wheel is not designed for tubeless tires. The answer was quite well.

Mounting it on the rim was very easy thanks to my new installation technique that utilizes zip ties. I could just press it onto the rim without any conventional tire tools. I had one issue, it looks like either I somehow lost the gasket for the tubeless tire valve or it did not come with one. Instead of calling it quits I went to the local Autozone and bought a miscellaneous O-ring kit and found one that appeared to get the job done. I was able to pressurize the tubeless tire rather easily and it appeared to be air tight somewhat surprising.

I put as much of the wheel back together as I could and verified basic functionality. I have parts arriving today that should hopefully allow me to complete the repair to get back and rolling on this wheel.

Sunday was one of those all day rain events which is looking to turn into a several day rain event. I got my bills paid, my coffee bought, and tended to a few minor house chores but for the most part was lazy. Being lazy, even for one day normally isn’t great for my state of mind. I wound spending a large chunk of time binging Season 2 of Rings of Power, the Lord of the Rings prequel. I remember when I watched season one thinking it was too slow and almost lost interest however season two was great and presumably the last season? I watched the last four or five episodes all in the span of the afternoon/evening. If you like LOTR you will like this. I now have started on Tulsa King which I have heard a bunch of people talk about favorably.

Over the weekend I got my official notice that MY Cybertruck was ready to be purchased. You may recall months ago I was given the opportunity to buy one of the “Foundation” model trucks which were stupidly overpriced for the privilege of being an early adopter. I passed. Once again I will be passing.

When I placed my deposit over four years ago on a Cybertruck it was with the understanding that the dual motor version I wanted would be $49,900. As you see in the graphic the price of this model is now $80K, insane. Never in my life have I had a situation where you put a deposit down with the agreement on price and that gets casually tossed out the window and it instead is offered at over 50% more?! I love my Tesla’s but sanity has taken hold and there is absolutely no way I would consider that ridiculous money grab. Although I know the numbers will never be published, I would love to know how many of those people that put down deposits have walked away. I am sure it is a HUGE number which I am now officially one of.

So the panic regarding Hurricane Milton started in earnest yesterday in our area. Grocery stores, gas stations and home improvement stores all were hit hard. This morning I stopped at the ATM to get cash to pay my cleaning lady and that was tapped out as well. I did take my own precautionary step of filling the Tacoma as well as my two 5 gallon gas cans to run my generator if necessary.

I was considering buying the materials to make my own “suicide cord” for the generator. This is a cord that runs from the 220 output on the generator to the dryer outlet in your house. Although potentially dangerous it allows you to back feed electricity into your house and control distribution via the breaker box. This is universally looked at as a bad idea by electricians, hence the name. If you forget to throw your main breaker prior to doing this you can back feed the grid which causes all sorts of potential disaster. It became a non-issue though since all of the wire, plugs and adapters seemed to be snapped up already. I have enough conventional extension cords to rig something up to get me by if it comes to that.

Unlike Helene which was consistently forecast to hit towards the pan handle, Milton’s track is currently in the Tampa Bay area with the potential cone barely touching our northern border. However that is close enough to cause significant impact here. The storm could touch CAT 4 strength before landfall. This is going to be an interesting week to be sure. I might just get the chance to test out my new hurricane protection if the projected path drifts down our way. Let’s hope not. Our ground is already saturated so there will be significant flooding, regardless. The Tacoma will be my vehicle of choice the rest of the week.

I forgot to mention the other day that I managed to save nearly 40% on my car insurance this week. I have been pissed off about my car insurance situation for awhile. I originally switched from being a long time AllState customer to Travelers to save a nice amount of money. On my first annual renewal they jacked the prices back up and have been raising them steadily ever since.

I remember when I was younger my mom telling me how cheap her car insurance was and me making a mental note of how I looked forward to that day as well. The thought process is logical, the older you get the less risky of a driver you become, the less your insurance is, or should be. That has not been the case, obviously. For my two vehicles I was paying close to $4000 a year, insane. Keep in mind I have had no accidents in the last 30 years plus.

So last week I was contacted by the agent that does my homeowners insurance, asking if I would like a quote for auto as well since there would be a discount involved. I said sure, why not, not expecting any significant savings. Instead I got a quote that would save me four figures a year which I was happy to accept. Now time will tell if the same game will be played where this is a one year reduced rate to suck you in. If so I guess I will keep leap frogging around if needed.

Last night I tried a move I had not for a very long time on my pull up bar called Skin the Cat. An odd name, yes I know. You start in a pull up position but then rotate around threading your feet between your arms, finishing in a hang. It is a dangerous move that tests both your shoulder strength and mobility. It honestly is something I shouldn’t do. I was able to do the move although the lower height of my pull up bar and my long dimensions make it harder to extend my legs fully but it was close enough.

I was able to reverse back out of the move cleanly without feeling any significant shoulder tweaks so I felt fortunate. Dawn, who is very competitive and recently installed her pull up bar at her new house saw my video and felt like she needed to see if she could do it as well, she did.

The rest of my night was spent working on the Master that I crashed on. I needed to see the scope of the damage. It turns out to be relatively minor with only two parts that I can tell which will need replacement, neither being a big one, the headlight and rubber top cover.

I also pulled the motor to remove the tire, allowing me get a look at the failed inner tube that almost killed me. The stem was ripped cleanly from the tube with a nice hole left in it’s absence, explaining the instant pressure loss.

The other thing I checked was the valve stem hole in the hub. I was suspicious that it had a sharp edge on the tube side which could have cut into the rubber. It was actually chamfered and smoothed out to prevent tube damage so there went that theory. I am not sure if the tube was just bad and failed or if the tire pressure was low enough to allow it to shift and rip. I left the Master disassembled with tools strewn everywhere, something I don’t enjoy. This weekend I hopefully will at least get the new tubeless tire installed and then will only have to replace the couple damaged parts when I get them.

In addition to wheel repairs and pickleball this weekend I do hope to get out on at least a short ride on a wheel, just to say I did it. I don’t feel fearful of doing so but there has definitely been some sort of mental impact/shift since my accident. I’m curious how/if it will manifest itself riding.

I played my first pickleball since the accident yesterday at lunch. Even though my left elbow is still covered with a tegaderm patch it didn’t bother me all that much. I still felt a bit tired but played pretty well overall. It felt good to get back out there.

Yesterday I received the new tubeless tire that I will hopefully install on my Master V4. The tire and tubeless valve were sent to me for free from Ewheels who I have worked with for many years. The hope is the tubeless tire will seat cleanly on the rim and will in the process eliminate inner tube blowout as a source of future failure on this wheel. I am hoping to start the process tonight.

It will be a bit more involved than the first time I swapped the tire on this wheel as I need to first remove the Clark protective gear to do. That gear held up very well during the crash. I need to see if anything else is significantly bent or broken along the way, hopefully not.

Last night I ran to Home Depot to grab a small pot and some potting soil. I just received a dwarf mulberry tree via Amazon, believe it or not. It arrived in good condition but needed to be put into a real pot. I placed it in it’s new home, watered it and put the baby tree on the table on the lanai where it can get indirect sun.

I have not tried to grow anything like this for a long time, dating back to when I still lived in the Estates. I sort have placed a symbolic meaning on the tree, hoping it can grow and prosper just like I hope to since I had the accident.

This evening would normally be volleyball night but with a left elbow that is missing several layers of skin the idea of sand getting into that does not sound appealing, at all.

Last night I fed AI the transcript from the three hour live stream Sunday night that was concerning my accident. The 10 minute synopsis podcast it created was the best one I have heard yet. Outside of a few mispronunciations it was almost perfect.

Even though I have been able to step back into my normal daily routine since everything went down Saturday I find myself in an odd state of mind. Last night after work I was walking Elsa and thoughts just started running through my head about how easily I could not be there, how instead I could be lying maimed in a hospital or dead. The thoughts trigger negative emotions which to me seem strange. I should be happy and grateful that I escaped as I did, and I am, but there are also these feelings of mortality and why am I still here that are entangled as well.

I wonder if the rest of my life is going to be separated clearly into before crash and after crash segments where things that used to be a certain way suddenly are not.

Last night I was at my computer for most of the evening. First I converted the three hour live stream into a podcast, a task I normally do. I then loaded up my video editor and brought up the clip of my crash. When you see the live video it is hard to see all that happened that resulted in my escaping serious injury, or death. I went through one frame at a time and got a clear picture of what occurred.

As I described before, I had no idea that the red truck in the picture was on the verge of hitting me. All I remembered was sliding into the middle lane and waiting to get hit. I thought I was on all fours for most of it. I wasn’t.

Instead right after this dive onto the road you see here my feet wound up in front of me almost like a baseball slide. I then sat up and by doing so apparently barely cleared my body from getting hit by the vehicle. Only then did I flip onto my hands and knees to slide to my final stop. I knew it was a close call but this looked like a razor thin margin from impact based on the images. I did a short video that included some of the stills you could not see originally.

I was able to get better sleep last night as my left elbow stung less than the night before. Keeping the area covered and bandaged is a challenge because of it’s location. I was able to go to the gym yesterday and have a decent workout which I was happy about. As of this point my intent is to try to play pickleball tomorrow as well although volleyball will be off the menu until the wound heals more. I still am finding myself unsettled and out of sorts but I feel that is to be expected.

I did have Ewheels reach out and offer to send me a different tire which I hopefully would be able to use to convert my Master to a tubeless configuration which would make the type of scenario that took me out very unlikely, something I would like.

I will work on getting my brain back on track, busy solving problems, working out tasks and thinking about the future.