Surgery, First, Trimmed twice, Empty streets, Driving in a canal

Saturday morning I set my alarm so I could get to the vet for Elsa’s appointment to have the raised mole/blood blister thing looked at.  The vet wasted little time getting her in.  She said I had two options, they could use a needle to test the cells of the growth and we could act from there or just have her cut it off and have it tested.  I wanted the growth gone so I immediately chose option two.  20 minutes later Elsa was back with a shaved spot on her shoulder with a stitch or two holding things closed.  She seemed surprisingly fine which I was glad to see.

On Saturday afternoon I headed down to help Monique with trimming some trees at their place.  Her dad is getting older and since I have all of the trimming tools I was happy to help.  Compared to what I used to deal with, what they needed done was not bad.  On the way to do the work I actually met up with Cindy to give her some mail that had some importance.  If I am not mistaken I think it was the first time I had seen her face to face since January, which seems crazy.  It was a good interaction which made me happy.

The trimming work turned out to be more involved than I first imagined.  I knocked down the stuff that required my 10 foot ladder but Monique was busy too.  I gave her my power pruner and she went to town with it.  I originally thought I would be able to get all the debris to fit in one load in the truck.  In reality it took three very full loads to get it all out of there, which I dumped in my fill pit at home.  Despite it being yard work it was not that bad since the two of us were doing it together. When I was done I got to hang with Monique’s niece some more which was so much fun.  She was showing me various toys, books and puzzles.  She can say my name and seems to genuinely like me now which warms my heart.

On Saturday night I had a last minute live stream that went on for close to three hours.  There was a lot of non-EUC talk, including a lot of discussion of male/female dynamics.

My Sunday was pretty chill.  Late in the morning I picked up the third and final load of trimmings from Monique’s place.  She was nice enough to prepare a breakfast plate for me.  As I loaded the trimmings into the truck she watched Elsa for me.  Monique and her mom really love Elsa.  The more Elsa is around them the less nervous she is becoming which is sweet.

Sunday night I planned to go ride around Victoria Park to check out Halloween decorations.  When I mentioned my plans to Monique she expressed interest so she wound up coming with me.  She rode her bike while I rode the wheel.  It was cool seeing the decorations which were quite extravagant in some cases.  The other good thing was there was hardly anyone there so we didn’t have to fight through tons of pedestrians and vehicles.  We almost had the entire place to ourselves.  Monique had seen the X-mas decorations there before but never Halloween, she seemed to enjoy it.

I was off work Monday.  I felt like I had a pretty great day.  I started it with getting an actual haircut, something I had not done in almost 10 years.  Instead I have always just shaved my head or tried to do a fade cut myself, which never turns out well. I went to Sport Clips and got the MVP treatment which was nice.  After the haircut you get your hair washed, a scalp and face massage and then they hit your shoulders with a percussion massager.  The woman did a much better job than I have ever managed myself.  I think I will add professional haircuts to my new normal rotation.

I went straight from there to meet my buddy to go play some pickleball in East Naples.  We played four very competitive games that I was lucky to win.  I can tell the snowbirds are returning as each week we have been playing there are more and more people over the lunch hour.

When I got home I decided to finally do my range test on the Begode T4.  This was a range test I was nervous about as I was not quite sure how well the wheel would do taking me out to Ave Maria and back.  It turned out to not be an issue as I got back easily.  Unfortunately as I was taking the picture you see here my camera got blown over and damaged the mic cable which unknowing to me trashed the audio for the rest of the ride.

There was a hilarious moment I caught on video where this flat bed truck was driving through a flooded out pathway.  The visual was pretty amazing.  I also tried out the newest Nobleman gear that was sent to me to evaluate, a set of gloves and a vest with tons of storage and a reflective back.  I thought the gloves would be uncomfortable in the heat but they had ventilation that made them quite comfortable.  I will be using them more often.  The ride went well, wrapping up what was overall an enjoyable and satisfying three days.