I had gotten some comments on my Lynx wrap up video about a couple things that I missed. The most obvious one was a shot where it was easy to compare the size difference between the two wheels. I made a quick two minute video to address the oversight. I always read and process all of the comments on my videos. Sometimes they actually result in light bulb moments.
I have been bad with making sure Elsa gets regular walks ever since I moved to the new place. I have been lazy and just let her into the fenced backyard to do her business most of the time. For the past 5 days I have been trying to correct that negligent behavior, taking her on a walk through my small neighborhood daily. At first she was hesitant about it but it seems like every day she has gotten better and is almost excited to do it now. Dogs are such creatures of habit, I must have been a dog at some point.
Despite being 56 years old I am doing whatever I can to keep my body functioning at a younger man’s level. A typical week for me now includes three weight lifting sessions, a yoga class, 3-4 sessions of pickleball and one beach volleyball night. The yoga is a recent addition for the last couple months. It’s very difficult for me as my flexibility in my hips and knees is very poor. However I know that flexibility is paramount as you get older so I will keep going as I do see small improvements each time. Of course time will eventually catch up to me as it does everyone else, I’m just trying to slow that second hand down as much as possible.
Last year I posted about how much I was enjoying my freshly painted and stripped down house as well as making the final decision to list it for sale.
I have mentioned how the major thing on my plate at work recently was getting a temporary office opened up in Marco Island until the hurricane damaged building can be razed and rebuilt which will take at least a couple years. Yesterday that location opened it’s doors to the public for the first time. The launch had a few speed bumps along the way but by the afternoon everything was running smoothly. There were a ton of things that had to come together to make it all happen but that task can officially get a check mark in my list.
Last night I did my final video on the demo Veteran Lynx I have been reviewing for close to a month. It was a summary of my overall feelings about the wheel and how it compares to other wheels in it’s class. I really like the wheel, I just would not buy one for myself.
Ever since I moved to the new house I have had one of my Prusa printers in storage in the garage. I just don’t need it. I listed it for sale shortly after moving in but never have actually sold it so it just sat there. My FB Marketplace listing expired months ago but while I was cleaning up on Saturday I got annoyed by the unneeded printer taking up space on my storage shelves.
I decided if I was going to sell it I needed to make sure it still works. I set it up on my portable table in the garage, cleaned it up and fired off a print. I was happy to see that despite lying dormant for such a long time the Prusa still appears to work just fine. I am selling it dirt cheap, someone is going to get a nice deal, hopefully.
Last years post was about my decision to take the blog private as well as the very sad day where we said goodbye to Sadie.
Last night for dinner I prepared a Beyond burger. I bought a pack of them during my last Costco run. They are a plant based burger that does an impressive job of replicating the real thing. I prepared it in a pan, a pan that I evidently had a little too hot. The end result was my filling the house with a smoky haze for a short while. The burger still tasted good anyway.
During the day yesterday my buddy Matt borrowed my car ramps for a repair project he had. Last night he brought them back and did so with a big oversized beer in hand. It was the size of a wine bottle. We opened it up and split it between us.
We hung out for awhile and caught up with each other’s lives. I had last seen Matt in August some time before the recent three months of upheaval that my life entered after that. He was happy to see that I have emerged from the other side of that intact and sane. He hung until after 9:30. It was good to see him.
I finished up Echo last night. Thankfully it’s only a 5 episode series. No it did not get better as time went on.
I had a weird situation recently where subtracting felt like addition. Sometimes erasing something enables you to bring other things into your field of view. It felt good.
Last year’s post involves the thought process prior to my making the blog private. Although there were various things talked about in there, the impetus was yet another act of appeasement for someone that clearly did not deserve the time, energy or attention. Live and learn.
Friday night I met up with my buddy Jeff to play some pickleball. We started off playing some singles but then were asked if we wanted to play some doubles by two guys. These guys were good, both 4.0 players. We hung with them two out of the three games we played but they wound up taking all three. They were the type of players that you could not make an unforced error against else they would make you pay. Jeff and I played a couple more singles matches afterward before we packed it in. I wound up my Friday by heading straight to Carrabas to grab a beer and dinner. It was a good start to my weekend.
I tackled a number of small to do’s Saturday morning after grabbing groceries. In the span of 60 minutes I had knocked out a number of things that had been on my plate for awhile but not checked off. It felt good to finally do so.
Saturday afternoon I packed up the truck and headed to the swamp with the Lynx on hand to do my swamp test. There has been significantly more rain than normal this dry season. The end result was the swamp was much wetter than I hoped. Along the trail there were many muddy areas that I either carefully rolled across or had to dismount and walk in some situations. I only saw one gator during the ride which was surprising.
Saturday night I did my first public live stream of 2024. Somehow it managed to stretch to three hours in length. A ton of different subjects were touched on with much less personal relationship talk than the NYE episode.
Sunday morning it was chilly. My thermometer showed 50 degrees when I rolled out of bed. I still got my pickleball session in albeit I played the entire time in a hoodie. It was still enjoyable. The group at Talis Park that I play with are really nice people.
I got my last significant testing done on the Lynx Sunday afternoon, my high speed runs. I got the wheel up to 47mph, the fastest I have ever traveled on an EUC. The scary part is the wheel can probably go another 10MPH+ faster if I was willing to push it, I’m not.
The rest of my day was split between video editing and watching parts of both playoff games which were both good games. Just imagine how Buffalo fans feel having to hear “wide right” once again.
I have been forcing myself to watch the new Marvel series, Echo on Disney+. I had heard from multiple reviewers it was terrible, they were right. I am just trying to get to the end of it. It seems Marvel/Disney has decided that they need to make super hero content for every ethnicity and class. Echo is about a native american woman that is missing a foot and deaf. The story sucks, is boring and it just seems like an effort to appease with little else besides allowing them to check the native american box.
My mood this weekend was generally decent although I still have more internal dialogue and struggle than I would prefer. I think only the passage of time will eventually create that callous that sticks. Until then I keep my head up and eyes forward.
Last year at this time I just got over the massive hump related to painting my old house.
I am going to try to remember to include a link in each post for the post from one year ago (if there is one), it is interesting to see what was going on a scant 365 days prior. Here is last years post.
Yesterday I had my meeting with my health advocate, a required step to qualify for our insurance. She went over my blood test results and said all of the numbers were very good, the only exception being my A1C number had just ticked into the cautionary zone. Last year it was 5.6, this year it was 5.7, a minuscule change. However this one tenth increase now triggered a remedial action where I need to complete some sort of class regarding healthy living. I joked to the woman that I could teach the class.
She asked what my diet was like. I told her I am a pescatarian and generally eat well, although I do definitely have a sweet tooth. She also asked if I have been dealing with a lot of stress lately. I laughed and told her that most of 2023 was a stressful period in my personal life. Some of the classes that qualify for this education I am already doing like going to the fitness center as well as yoga. I walked out of there shaking my head.
I also need to schedule a physical to complete the requirements. The last time I did one a “borderline” EKG sent me down a rabbit hole of testing with a cardiologist that revealed nothing. I will not do that song and dance again.
So last night was my first VB session with the Thursday night group. It was fun and I got exactly what I wanted, higher level play. There were a couple people from the other group there but there were also a number of people that had solid all around skills. The end result was a ton of long back and forth points that had me worn out by the end. Everyone was friendly and I enjoyed playing. I played pretty well overall. One of the guys on my team was not only in IT but also an actor. He has appeared in a number of Netflix series. I found this fascinating.
After I left I decided I wanted to treat myself to dinner. I stopped at Brunina’s which is near my house. I am now enough of a regular that Megan the bartender knows my name, my beer and my typical meal. I never have to ask for another beer with her. As soon as she sees I am low she delivers another one. I like the personal touch I get when I am there, similar to what Helen at Carrabas does for me on a Friday or Saturday night.
This weekend I have a few small projects I would like to complete. None of them on their own should take more than 20 minutes. I also need to get the Lynx out to the swamp to do a test ride as well as do a top speed drag test. On the fun side I have pickleball scheduled for tonight as well as Sunday morning as well as having an arm wrestling PPV event on Saturday to check out. I am slowly but surely inching my way back to what normal should feel/look like.
Last night I finally got around to going to Costco, something I had wanted to do for at least a couple weeks. I wasn’t in the best state of mind to go shop, I was feeling less then great. You know how a lot of obese people will fall into emotional eating? Well I can fall into emotional purchasing. I walked out of there spending over $250 buying a number of things that were not on my shopping list. I was in a “don’t give a f” kind of mood. Among the not planned to buy highlights was a new dog bed for Elsa, a shower head for the guest bathroom and Mexican Coke. For awhile it was hard to find a Mexican Coke dealer. I’m glad it’s back in the supply chain.
When I got home I was putting away the items from Costco and I discovered there were some alcohol items from my ex still in a cabinet. I thought I had totally cleared everything out at this point. Luckily for me last night was trash night so I was able to easily dispose of the bottles. At this point I had no desire or reason to try to get the stuff returned to her.
This process lead to more reshuffling. I had rearranged, donated and condensed a lot of my clothing to make accommodations for a second person whom has a lot of clothes. For whatever reason even though I am back to one person I never had reclaimed any of that space in my closet or drawers despite several weeks going by at this point.
I did some brief self analysis of why that would be, why I wouldn’t reset all that stuff back to how it was before considering I have purged the house in pretty much every other way. Like many things in my life the last year it didn’t make much sense. I took 15 minutes and moved things around so areas of clothes storage that were tight are no longer that way. In fact I still have a ton of drawer space that is still not utilized. I guess that is a good “problem” to have.
I did finish up the last Matrix movie without falling asleep. I did like it more than the first go through since I didn’t sleep through large chunks of it. Was it great? No. But I’d be ok giving it a B rating.
Tonight I am supposed to play volleyball with the more skilled group for the first time. Hopefully more skill doesn’t translate into more attitude. We shall see.
Last night I thought I would dip my toe back into playing some retail WoW. I had not played since mid-November. However after being in game for maybe 45 minutes I found myself bored and disinterested in playing. Instead I decided to fire up a members only live stream on my YouTube channel.
I had not done a live stream just for my channel members in a few months. With no prior announcement I only had a few members log on to see the stream live although they can go back and watch it later if they choose. The stream got more interesting when Gladys called me during the second half where we talked about things that I would not talk about in a normal public facing stream. In total I was on air for about an hour.
When I retired to bed I continued my effort to rewatch the last Matrix movie. When it came out a few years ago I wound up dozing off during it which left large gaps of confusion for me that resulted in a negative overall opinion of the movie. I am hoping being awake for all of it might influence that opinion. I am about halfway through at this point and not hating it, yet.
When I was doing race timing for around a decade one of the people I dealt closely with was George who also ran the local running store for a number of years. He used to organize a bunch of races and has been involved in the running club for many years. When I stopped timing races in 2016 my contact with George faded away. He always impressed me as a very intelligent and stand up guy. He went out of his way to let me know he appreciated me as well. I consider George a friend.
Out of the blue today I get a call from our receptionist that a man named George was here to see me? I walked out front and there he was, a little older but still basically the same guy I have known for coming up on 20 years. He was in the area and stopped by because he wanted to say hi, and goodbye. Evidently George and his wife are moving to northern Florida very soon to be near family. I was surprised by the news almost as much as I was surprised he took the time to come in and say goodbye in person. But then again, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised because that is just the type of guy George is.
We caught up a bit on what our lives have looked like the last few years as the last time I spent considerable time with him was at his 70th birthday party some three years ago. He was surprised to hear that I now live in town but was happy for me. After talking for a few minutes in the middle of our lobby I shook George’s hand and placed my left hand on top, something I do when I feel true appreciation for someone. I thanked him for taking the effort to come and see me and wished him the best of luck on his new adventure. I want to be more like George…
That is the word I would use to describe the Eagles performance in their wildcard playoff game against the Buccaneers. They sucked in every way imaginable. The defense was porous, missing tackles left and right while allowing the worst running team in the league to pile up yards on the ground. Jalen was under constant pressure from the Bucs blitz and apparently had no ability to make them pay for it. This was a consistent theme as the tailspin ensued, blitz Hurts, they have no answer. Hell the Eagles even got stopped on their brotherly shove this game.
It was a depressing end to a season that had a lot of promise for two thirds of it. I think Sirianni could be in trouble, the collapse was that bad. The team just had no answers, no fight and no fire. Early on in last nights game I was angry and cursing loudly after each blown play. By the end of it I silently watched as the mistakes continued to pile up, resigned to the fact that this team was just bad.
I took Wednesday off for two reasons. I wanted to get time to prep for my trip to PA and I wanted to have some time to hang with Gladys during the day. One of those two things happened (Gladys got busy during the day) however I did go to Gladys’s home Wednesday evening where I got treated to a family dinner which was really great. They truly made me feel like one of their family and I appreciated it.
My flight out Thursday was not until almost 10:30 so I didn’t have to get up stupid early. I was flying Spirit airline to Philly and then renting a car to get to the Lancaster area. The flight was fine although I do find myself annoyed with Spirit’s everything is ala carte business model. The rental car experience was less fun.
I rented from Thrifty. When I stepped in the office I was third in line. 45 minutes later I was still third in line. Some computer issue that none of the staff was able to explain very well had brought things to a standstill. Finally things started working but my patience had long been consumed by then.
When I got to Troy’s house he was not home yet but his fiance Jess was. We walked to a nearby bar and grabbed drinks and some food. When Troy got home he had not eaten yet so we went out again. This time I consumed an entire medium sized pizza by myself, a deliberate act of gluttony. I have been trying to put my eating back to a priority to get my body weight back into the 180s. I also downed a decent amount of alcohol the first night there.
Troy lives in a 100 year old plus row home. I was sleeping on the top floor. The house reminds me of the house I grew up in many years ago. To ensure I slept I doubled up my unisom. It seemed to work except it made me extra groggy in the morning.
I designated Friday as the day I would see my brother and my dad. On the way to Todd’s place I did a quick drive by of Gouglersville and the house I grew up in. The amount of change in the area is staggering. Seeing my old house also brought a mixed bag of memories. It seems like such a long time ago yet I could see certain parts of the property that brought back memories that did not seem quite so distant.
Afterward I went to Todd’s place where I met up with him before going to eat lunch with him, Mindy, Caroline and my dad who met us there. After a decent lunch we all headed back to Todd’s place. I got to spend time with Oakley and Bailey, Todd’s two huge Alaskan Malamutes. Oakley, who weighs close to 185 pounds almost knocked me off my feet when he jumped up to put his paws on my shoulders. I appreciated they still remember me. Todd and I took them for a walk later which the dogs appreciated.
I told Todd Troy and I were planning to go to the Grantville casino that night. He said Mindy and he could meet us there so we agreed to do so. I drove back to Lancaster to meet up with Troy and told Todd we would meet them there. On the way to the casino we stopped to grab dinner at an italian place that had GREAT food. I really enjoyed it.
The trip to the casino was interesting. The place is also a horse track. I actually did no gambling whatsoever outside of giving Jess 20 bucks to play in a slot machine. We also caught the last two live horse races of the night. The conditions were miserable with a persistent cold rain. The track conditions were listed as “sloppy”, what an understatement. I felt bad for the horses, of course.
The casino had a live cover band that was entertaining. They weren’t as entertaining as “granny” however, an older woman whom danced with her husband the ENTIRE time. No joke, this woman did not stop, it was crazy.
Troy and Jess had seen her there before as well as a few other interesting characters. I kept the Miller Lite flowing most of the night. Friday night wound up stretching into Saturday morning. By the time I fell asleep it was pushing up against 3AM. I can not tell you the last time I was up so late.
On Saturday we had a day that was slower paced as we all were a bit wiped from the night before. We did go out to grab breakfast at another nice place that was again within walking distance. Early in the afternoon I sat in on Troy’s end of year fantasy football podcast along with one of the other owner’s, Mike.
I had sat in on the podcast last November as well when I was visiting. We had a lot of fun talking about both real and fantasy football for close to 90 minutes. I was drinking the entire time and found myself very drunk by the end of it.
For the rest of the day and into the evening we mostly watched the NFL playoffs however later in the evening Troy wanted to go to a nearby bar. The place definitely had dive bar vibes which is fine. What wasn’t fine was the group of drunk college kids who quickly annoyed the living F out of me. I found myself working to control the urge to choke more than one of them. I was happy to head home afterwards.
The first thing I did Sunday was take a shower. Somehow on Saturday I never got around to taking one which made me feel gross. I always shower daily and during the work week wind up taking two of them. Jess made us a nice little breakfast as Troy and I just hung out and talked. Despite all of the drinking and craziness the few days contained what really was valuable to me, just talking, to both Jess and Troy. They are recently engaged and by being around them I could sense the love that keeps them pulled together. I admired it and hoped I could find myself in that place someday.
I pulled out of Lancaster before 10:30 after thanking them for their hospitality which I really did appreciate. The trip was last minute and out of nowhere yet they were happy to accommodate me, sensing how I could use some time away.
On the drive to Philly I got some unexpected snow. At times it was genuine snow squall conditions although it was not really sticking to the road which I was thankful for. The drive was uneventful and returning the vehicle was much less annoying than picking it up. The flight home followed the same pattern with little bubbles and no troubles.
I went straight to Ali’s to grab Elsa. As usual Elsa was not thrilled for me to take her away from Ali and Shugs but she warmed up once I got her home. My MLK day, which is a government holiday has been busy between doing post trip duties, going to the gym, playing pickleball and getting groceries. I am now settling in to watch the Eagles game, hoping they can finally find a way to wake up from the month and half of shitty play tonight.
The trip accomplished what I hoped. It helped me push the events of the last few months further into the background, allowing me to refocus on all of the possibilities ahead of me. I am even able to sleep through the night using only one Unisom, the first time that has happened in close to three weeks. Thank you to my family, Troy and Jess for showing me the love and support I needed.
