Archives 2024

On Friday our area became a traffic nightmare when a small private jet crashed on I-75. The two pilots died but somehow one crew member and two passengers got out. It shut down the interstate in both directions for nearly a day. Luckily with where I live I did not need to get into that mess.

After work I went over to the restaurant where the bartender said there was a woman normally there for happy hour that she told about me. Well apparently she wasn’t there. There were two older women there who relocated right next to me at the bar. One of them definitely had her face worked over, a look that I don’t find appealing. So I just wound up drinking a few beers there and grabbing dinner.

While I was finishing up I got a text from my buddy Rich who did have to deal with plane crash traffic. He asked if I wanted to go hang at a bar as he was going to wait until the traffic situation lessened. Despite currently sitting at a bar I told him I would meet him at Foxboro’s on the other side of the parking lot. I had another beer with a side order of fried pickles. They tasted good at first but I stopped about halfway through, my gluttony meter had pegged out.

When I went home I decided to do a science experiment. I wanted to live stream again from my phone to see if it again generated higher than average stream traffic. The big difference is I did this from my office so I could monitor the stream with my computer which would allow me to take care of spammers more efficiently. Once again I got way more views than normal. I did have a few people in chat that I had to hammer. I also enlisted a couple long term subscribers on my channel to become moderators which allows them to delete messages as well. Despite drinking while I was out earlier I put down another three or four Cayman Jacks on stream.

I set an alarm Saturday morning to get up to play pickleball with the group I normally play Sundays with. A new couple was there this time whom were both good, raising the challenge difficulty which is good for me. I played pretty well. My pickleball game has definitely gotten significantly better since I moved here last March.

Saturday afternoon after grabbing groceries I shot a quick video of installing some new accessories on my Veteran Patton, a set of new pads. The pads looks better and provide me with some more comfort while riding, a win/win.

Late afternoon I hopped on my Sherman S and went rolling. I rode from my house to the Greenway, the beach and then finally stopping at DD on the way back for some evening coffee since I knew I wasn’t having dinner until later. On the ride home I also buzzed through the pickleball courts, curious how many would be there around 6PM on a Saturday night. The answer was, not many. I guess some people do have lives outside of pickleball.

I went to Carrabas Saturday night. I normally wait to go until after 8PM, otherwise the place is a madhouse. Waiting this long meant I could easily grab a seat at the bar as there were only a handful of other people there.

I asked Helen the bartender if she knew how to make a Rusty Nail. My buddy Larry out in LA had mentioned this drink to me and I told him I would give it a shot. I am not a hard liquor drinker normally. I have had a number of bad experiences with it over the years, many of which wound up with my head in a toilet bowl. The Rusty Nail was ok but one of them was enough. It definitely will not supplant Cayman Jack as my alcoholic beverage of choice.

I was up early again on Sunday to play another round of pickleball with much of the same people. I had to lean pretty heavily on Advil to get me through the session as I had a very physically active prior week and was feeling it.

Sunday afternoon I finished up watching the Marvels, a movie I heard absolutely awful reviews for but since I could watch it for free on Disney I decided to see it for myself. I wish I hadn’t. It was easily the worst and stupidest Marvel movie I had ever seen. I was literally shaking my head as I forced myself to finish the film. Don’t bother seeing it, unless you are self masochist. I would give it a D, if not an F.

Mid-afternoon I decided to go out on yet another ride. Mentally I haven’t been feeling great so I thought a shot of wheel inspired clarity would be a good thing. I followed much the same route as the day before except this time I stopped at the Cabana, a local popular hangout that I have been to a number of times, including with both of my ex’s from last year.

As I pulled up on the wheel with my various body armor I got a lot of comments/questions about the wheel which I am accustomed to. Once I got settled in I grabbed a Miller Lite and sat at the outside chair rail. To my right was an older man that I decided to engage in conversation. I later found out his name was Vince.

Vince and I talked for at least 45 minutes with most of it being him sharing some of his interesting life experiences. At 84 years old he has a bunch of them. The funniest one to me was him describing when he was 76 years old he got involved with a 38 year old woman. As you can imagine the relationship had a strong financial component to it. When he described some of the situations that came up both he and I started laughing out loud, a lot. I listened to three Miller Lite’s worth of stories from Vince. He had more he could share but I told him I will hear more of them the next time I see him. Despite being 84 Vince is still working, he said he was too bored otherwise.

I cruised down to the beach once again and just sat on the bench chilling out before reversing back for home. I once again stopped at DD and had a phone conversation with Gladys as I finished my coffee. This weekend I found myself more appreciative of being able to get out on a wheel than normal. The 20 mile ride yesterday was filled with all sorts of diverse moments.

So I had very little interest in the Super Bowl. When the Chiefs first got there I was really happy for Andy Reid but now that they have been there four out of the last five years my happiness for him has dwindled. Over the weekend I tried to see if any of my friends were interested in coming over to watch the game with me. They either had other plans or just preferred to watch at home. Over my time when I was married to Alison and most of the years I was with Cindy we would host small Super Bowl parties at the house. Even when there was not a party I don’t recall ever watching the game alone over the last 25 years. This year was that year.

Sure I could have gone to a bar I guess to insert myself around other people but I found little motivation to do so. So I laid there and watched the game with Elsa, who of course slept through most of it.

The game, while close did not hold my interest. My preference would have been for the 49ers to win but the fact that the Chiefs pulled it out again in overtime didn’t really matter to me either. I found myself almost annoyed the game went into overtime, pushing the arrival of my head to my pillow later than I would have liked.

Speaking of pillows, my sleep has been less than ideal lately. Thankfully I’m not in one of those modes where I wake up and my brain keeps me awake for hours on time. Instead I just find myself waking up often. Sometimes it is to pee but most of the time it’s for unclear reasons. The end result is my feeling like I am not getting deep, restful sleep. With my state of mind not being what I would prefer, scatter gun sleep does not help things.

Last night I played volleyball and had a lot of success in doing so. I played a total of 7 games and our team of three people won all but one of them. Like last week I was teamed up with a young, fast and very good player. The difference was this kid was taller and could absolutely crush the ball.

Our team of three that included a woman played really well. I had a few decent hits myself but I got more satisfaction giving the kid good sets that he would just pummel into the sand.

He was maybe an inch or two shorter than me and likely did not even weigh 150lbs. He could jump out of the sand with ease where as it takes everything I have to get maybe a foot of elevation at this point. The last point of the last game was me banging a hit off a guys shoulder that bounced 30 feet out of bounds afterward, a good exclamation point to the night.

Even at this ridiculous age I now find myself sitting at, it’s a good feeling to know I can still compete athletically. Our team was the best one out there last night.

Before I left to play last night I was sitting on the couch going through my emails on my phone. Elsa hopped up next to me and lovingly placed her chin across my shin. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like these last two years without her around. She definitely has helped me stay sane through some very insane moments.

I am thinking about hitting the happy hour tonight to meet this woman that has been told about me by the bartender. I have nothing to lose, why not. I am going to be playing pickleball today, Saturday and Sunday. I do not have any official plans for the Super Bowl. I was trying to remember what I did last year for the game, perhaps I watched it with Ali and Shuggs because the Eagles were in it. This year could be a solo affair, it’s fine.

Last year I was dealing with a slew of house showings that ultimately lead to it’s sale. I also had my longest phone conversation with Troy, ever.

All week I have had my Shark robot running on it’s automated schedule. Every day it has completed it’s run and parked itself back in the dock as planned. I have never had a robot vacuum that just works as planned. I have always had to babysit them for the times they get stuck/lost as it happened all the time. So far with the Shark everything has been working as promised. I’m not accustomed to that.

Last night after playing some WoW I grabbed a Cayman Jack, my phone, a candle and headed for the lanai to do a random live stream. I rarely stream this way but threw it out there. It started out with a lot of my live stream regulars popping in but then it got weird. All of a sudden a bunch of people dropped in that I did not recognize. Apparently for some reason YouTube was promoting this stream to a larger audience. Unfortunately the majority of these people seemed like idiots/kids and/or trolls. Initially I tried to moderate the mess but it got out of hand. I shut down the stream after about an hour. The crazy thing is I had more simultaneous viewers on that stream than any I have ever hosted. Watch it back for yourself if you like, crazy shit.

Last year I had my first showing of my old house, I played my first volleyball in over a decade and I started taking Unisom to address my poor sleep, something I still do to this day.

After taking Elsa for her walk after work and giving her dinner I loaded her up in the Tacoma to do a Trader Joe’s run. Sure I could have put it off until the weekend but I got the itch to get it done. The store is now way on the other side of town for me. When you add that in with post work traffic I had a drive that took more than a half hour.

For me Trader Joe’s is a single man’s food nirvana. They have all of these easy to prepare frozen meals that fall into my pescatarian food parameters. I grabbed a bunch of items, enough to fill two of their oversized shopping bags. I should be set with dinner options for quite awhile.

Afterwards I made another less than spectacular decision to grab oil change supplies at the Super Walmart near I-75. This took me completely into the traffic quagmire. I bought my 0-20W oil and filter. The last oil change I opted to take it to the nearby Valvoline quick change shop. I was disgusted by what they charged, I think I drove out of there with a $130 bill. I bought the supplies for about $40.

When I got home I realized I had another issue. With the move I got rid of a lot of my oil change supplies, I have to see what I still have laying around. At the old house it wasn’t a big deal to have the waste oil container laying around. At my new place I prefer to not have that situation. I’ll figure it out, I always do.

Last year the post talked about a For Sale sign now being on my old house. I also was just about to embark on the resurgence of my volleyball playing days after a 12 year hiatus. Finally I talked about why I was sharing as much as I was on social media and was making changes to that as well. That last part was again another change made to appease others, which I have obviously reversed fully at this point.

When I set up my Shark robot on Sunday I configured it to run on a schedule, every weekday at 1PM. Yesterday was the first automated run. I was pleased to walk into the house after work to freshly vacuumed floors with the robot parked in it’s station as planned. When I opened the app I could see exactly what the bot did and how long it took. So far I am quite happy with the purchase.

I already disconnected two of the three older vacuums I had and threw them in the garage. The only one that remains could find it’s way out there shortly if this initial week of test cleans go as planned. I finished up the initial video on the Shark last night as well.

So I believe I now have all of the tax documents I need to file my 2023 taxes. This is going to be the first year where I am going to really lean hard on my accountant to help me out. Because of the capital gains on my home sale last year I have the potential for a substantial tax liability. You are allowed to shelter the first 250K of gains if you are single. I have a lot more than that.

The good news is that you can deduct all of the improvements you did to the property you sold to reduce that capital gains exposure. I spent a ton on property improvements in the roughly 23 years I lived there. What I am concerned about is just how much documentation is required to claim these expenses. I have been nervous about what my total exposure would be ever since I completed the sale last year. Soon I will have some tangible numbers. I am nervous but eager to get this financial hit out of the way so I can focus on whats next.

Last year my blog post was about the mental shift that I had to embrace where I placed less sentimental significance on things as those feelings were roadblocks in what had to be done. That willingness to let things go is a trait that has only been reinforced a year later. Now if I could only get a few other traits of mine tweaked it will better serve me going forward.

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.

I forgot to mention a portion of the conversation I had with my step mom the other day. We were talking about conflict and how at times it becomes utterly pointless. I said at one point that at this stage of my life I will take being happy over being right. I think placing an overly weighted importance on being right is the thief of happiness. I certainly have been guilty during my lifetime with doing exactly that at times. I’m going to prove my point, I’m going to win this argument. Guess what, in the big picture the outcome was never positive.

Does that mean you should roll over and not express your opinion? Of course not but I think with age, experience, and wisdom comes the ability to discern what matters and what really doesn’t. Have a good weekend.

Last night was my third volleyball session with the higher skilled group and it was the most fun yet. There were a couple new faces this time, one of them was a young guy that was on my team. His energy and speed was amazing. He would explode after balls, going full out Superman on some of his saves. It was a lot of fun playing with him. I played pretty well overall and feel like I finally am in a group of people that I really enjoy competing with.

For some reason in both pickleball and volleyball I am the human scoreboard. I always am the one to keep track of the score and call it out in both sports. I don’t really know why this is but people now expect me to be the scorekeeper. It’s a role I don’t mind, someone has to do it.

It’s funny, when I first moved to Naples in 2000 I was all about volleyball. I looked all over the place for groups to play with. I did a few indoor sessions at a local rec center but quickly realized that was bad for my knees. I recall going to the park that I now play at and seeing others playing but not being willing to approach a bunch of strangers to ask if I could join. Now here I am, nearly 25 years later out there in the thick of it. What a strange and twisting path I took to get there.

I did of course wind up playing beach doubles for a number of years when I hooked up with Randall. We had a good time playing although that was only in less than 10 tournaments a year which required a cash and travel expenditure to participate in. I never had a local group to play with weekly. I am enjoying it, even though it wears me out at 56 years of age.

On Saturday I am supposed to meet up with some more people that know me from my YouTube channel. They are vacationing in the area and asked if I would ride with them so I said sure, why not. I have probably connected with at least 10 people that previously only knew me from YouTube. It’s always been a positive experience. The rest of my weekend will include my setting up my new robot vacuum, pickleball and whatever else comes to mind.

Last year at this time I was digging into all of the preliminary steps with buying my house as well as getting my old house in tip top shape and ready to sell.

Last night I finished up Fast X. Every time I think they have come up with the most ridiculous scenarios they prove me wrong again. Even with me dozing off for around 45 minutes of the movie I saw enough to know I saw enough. The main villain, Jason Mamoa, is the most ridiculous bad guy I have ever seen. The lines they gave him were moronic. Unfortunately the way the movie ended made it clear there are more sequels to come. It get’s a C-, hard to do with an action movie in my book.

I forgot to mention the other day that I bought a new robotic vacuum cleaner the other day, a Shark. I got in on the ground floor of vacuum robots a decade and a half ago when the first Roombas came out. Since then if I added up the number of floor vacuuming and washing robots I have had over the years I am sure it totals up to 15 or more.

I currently have 3 robot vacuums, a Neato, which is very old, an Ecovacs and an entry level Roomba that I bought a couple years ago. Out of those three robots the oldest one, the Neato probably performs the best, ironically. I have never had a Shark robot but I did have a Shark steamer and a Shark cordless vacuum, both of which I liked.

This Shark model is the type that has a disposal canister where after a cleaning session the debris that is collected in the robot is transferred there, requiring less frequent cleanings. My hope is I will be able to eliminate at least two of the other robots, if not all three of them. The Roomba gets stuck all the time, the Ecovacs has a weak vacuum and small dust bin while the Neato is so old that I have a screw I installed to keep the dust bin in. I guess this is just a further effort in my new simplification/minimization mindset.

Yesterday I got to talk to my step mom a little bit, it was her birthday. I don’t get to speak to Teresa very often but it is always worthwhile when I do. Hearing her talk about the interactions with my two nieces makes me wish I got to see them more often.

Tonight I am scheduled to play volleyball again. What a different a week makes weather wise. Last week it was in the 80’s and humid. Tonight when we play it is likely to be in the 60’s with dry air. I will at least start the night in a long sleeve shirt.

Last year at this time I finished up a Sherman S range test and made the initial deposit on my new house.

Last night after work I headed out to the garden to do some purging to make room for some new plants. I ripped put both of the broccoli plants which were huge but apparently had finished producing heads. I also pulled the eggplant which was even bigger. I think I made a mistake by only planting one of these, I think you need two of them to produce fruit.

Pulling these revealed the pepper plants that never took off very well. They may get yanked as well. I hope to fill up the new space with whatever looks good in the Home Depot garden center.

Last night I finally saw the latest Transformers movie that came out last year. The series is always high on action and lacking on story/plot and this one was no different. I’d give it a B. I also started Fast and Furious 10. That franchise follows much the same formula, crash cars and blow stuff up, the people will come no matter how horrid the writing/acting is. I only got maybe a half hour into it before I turned it off to go to sleep.

Last night I got a message from Alison that stopped me in my tracks. She told me the daughter of an ex-neighbor of mine had passed away suddenly. She was very young with two kids. Her and I had talked off an on periodically over the years but I had not heard from her in a number of months. There are no details about what exactly happened.

Hearing the news was shocking. I thought about the reality of her two little kids now being without their mother and how their lives turned upside down, permanently. I thought about how you assume, especially at that age, that you are close to invincible. To hear about her passing was impactful and a solemn reminder of how nobody knows just how much time they actually have left. It’s the reason that waiting to do what makes you happy is never a solid long term plan, you just never know what the next day brings. What a tragedy.