Long Live, 3 Times, Bot, An Awful Moment, Winless
Sunday night I joined a big panel of fellow EUC hobbyists to talk about wheels. It was the largest collection of streamers I ever was a part of. At one point there were 10 people on at once which was nuts. Usually when I live stream it’s just me, blabbing non-stop for 3-4 hours. In this scenario I did way more listening as there were plenty of other people in the line up that were happy to talk. Having to talk less meant I could drink more. I finished off an entire six pack of Miller Lite. It was a fun experience that I talk about in the video I made later in the day Monday.
I expected to wake up with a hangover Monday morning but I felt pretty decent. It was a good thing because I made arrangements to go play pickle ball with a co-worker of mine at 9AM at the new park. When I arrived no one was there. 10 minutes later a line of cars pulled up. All of a sudden there were 12 people on the courts, luckily it was all doubles matches.
My buddy from work recently started pickle ball as well and really likes it. His enthusiasm was a big part of why I finally decided to try it. He has a bit of a tennis background which is obvious, his swing is much better than mine. He also covers a lot more court than I do. I am not all that quick, especially now with my achy joints. I often rely too heavily on my long arms to reach balls awkwardly instead of moving my feet. The wind was quite a factor, the one side of the court always lost the game, except the last one where we switched back and forth. I managed to barely squeak out a 3-2 win. It was a lot of fun and we both agreed to keep playing more often. It’s good timing for me to try to pick up a sport with more opportunities for social interaction.
I forgot to mention that I added a new robot to my army. It is a hard floor cleaning variety, the Irobot Braava M6. I have had several hard surface cleaning bots over the last 10+ years. The last three have used a similar technique where they spray the cleaning solution and then use an attached mopping pad to do the cleaning. The M6 adds intelligence where it maps the room and eventually knows all of the surfaces it can clean, it will back away from carpet. So far it has done a good job. There are a couple spots it has gotten stuck that I need to address but overall I am at least initially happy with it’s performance.
Around mid-day Monday I was sitting at my computer when I saw an email from my neighbor across the street. (evidently she lost my phone number) She asked if I could come over immediately. She said their dog was having some sort of medical issue and her husband couldn’t lift him in the truck himself. I dropped everything and headed over, their dog, Jack was less than 5 years old, a white lab.
When I got up to the garage Steve told me he had just taken Jack to the vet earlier in the day. While he was there he got a shot for bordetella (also known as kennel cough) On the way home from the visit he had some sort of reaction that included him doing number two in the back seat of Steve’s truck followed by him acting like he was in the middle of a stroke. Jack was on his side panting wildly but unable to move, it was a visual I won’t forget. Jack was really overweight, 120 pounds according to Steve. There was a bed sheet underneath him that we used to get him to the truck. Getting him into the back seat was really hard since Jack was unable to move. I lifted the front part of his body while Steve hoisted from the rear. I felt terrible seeing Jack in this state. Steve sped off to the vet.
Later I got word that Jack died on his way to the vet. The news hit me hard. I can only assume there was some sort of tie into the shot, although my neighbor said he had received it before. Perhaps the additional weight played a factor as well. All I know is it was a horrible 15 minutes of my life with a very unhappy ending. It feels like all I have been doing for a good portion of the last year is dealing with one type of loss or another, it beats me down.
I wanted to keep busy to not dwell on Jack’s sudden demise. I fired up the weed whacker and spent 90 minutes cleaning up the outer fence line of the property. Since much of the vegetation is still dead from the cold snap it was much easier to do now compared to normal growing seasons. After doing that I took Elsa with me to go fill the gas cans, on the way back we stopped at the park so I could get her out for a quick walk. When I try to put the leash on her she acts terrified but once we are out and moving she is ok. Later I went out for that ride on my Sherman which included grabbing coffee and my THIRD visit to the park for the day, a new record.
Last night I was in VR with Randall for a couple hours. We played miniature golf, ping pong and bowling. Outside of a few ping pong matches I lost everything we played. Despite my results we both had fun and will surely do it again soon.