Ambient, Overdid it, Casualty

My weekend kept me moving. I decided to get my grocery shopping knocked out Friday evening as I knew my weekend was going to be rather busy. I wound up not throwing my Friday night pizza in the oven until after 7:30.

I also worked on going through my Quicken ledger, trying to find additional improvements that I made on the old house to help offset my capital gains exposure. I found a number of things that I missed the first time I went through it, finding another 30K plus of things. In total I have come up with around 220K of improvements/repairs I did on the old property over those roughly 23 years I lived there. I am hoping that it will be enough to negate capital gains on the sale and make my tax burden this year mild instead of extreme.

Saturday morning I had a bright and early pickleball session at 8AM. The weather was beautiful with cool air and sunny skies. One of the guys I played with just had a stent put in his artery earlier in the week. He is a very lucky man. He went to the ER with chest pain symptoms and discovered his main artery had a 95% blockage. He could have died at any time. Instead he was out there on the court smacking the ball around with us. He said the incident was impactful, as you can imagine. Nothing will make you appreciate each day on Earth more than knowing you narrowly escaped checking out unexpectedly.

Saturday afternoon I worked on a few small projects at the house. I ran to Home Depot and grabbed two items, a LED light bar and 25 bags of mulch. The light bar got installed on the huge ledge in the great room. The prior owners had a white rope light up there but it was too dim to be really noticed.

This light bar can be any color I want, runs a number of patterns, as well as being voice controlled. I like the way it adds a cool vibe to the space. I might grab one for my office as well down the road.

I have not laid mulch at this new place yet so I was not sure how far 25 bags would get me. The answer was, not far enough. What I placed looks good but I will likely need another 25 bags to complete the job. It was the first significant yard work I have done at the new house in 11 months. I also cleaned the outside of my windows, first time for that as well. Wow, my life is different now.

Early Saturday evening I got the itch to go ride to the Cabana to grab a beer. I hopped on my Sherman S and rolled over there. It was less crowded than I expected and for the first time I didn’t have someone lock onto me to ask me about the wheel so I just chilled there and drank. I had three Miller Lites in a short period of time on a pretty empty stomach so they hit me a bit harder than normal. I felt less than rock solid when I got back on the wheel but I made it home without incident.

When I got home I wasted little time before heading out to Carrabas to do a late dinner. I only had one beer while there since I had the head start from earlier. I enjoyed my vegetable ravioli before heading home and crashing into bed shortly thereafter.

Sunday morning I woke up with some left hip pain that was radiating down the leg intermittently as I walked. I had not one but two sporting activities planned for the day so I downed my Advil and had it. I wound up playing pickleball even longer than the day before, nearly two and a half hours. My play was a bit inconsistent but still enjoyable none the less.

When I got home I ate lunch and then got ready to go to the afternoon life remembrance/picnic/volleyball event for the sweet woman that used to organize our weekly volleyball sessions. I packed water and Cayman Jacks in my normal water jug. Turn out for the event was great. I would guess around 100 people or so showed up. They had a player who is also a pastor say some words as well as a few other people that were very close to Jaime. It was emotional, my sunglasses hid my eyes that got wet a few times.

Among the group were some friends of my ex who I had become fond of during our relationship, spending time at their place a number of times. I was unsure of how they would react to me as I could only imagine the cover story that had been fed to them about me post break up. Instead they were happy to see me. I gave them both a hug and told them I missed them. They said the same. It’s sad that people I like had to become a casualty of the relationship. I also saw another couple I knew through her that I had played volleyball with before. They were glad to see me too. I played a few games with them later in the day but I was already running on fumes at that point.

I clearly overdid it. I have no idea exactly how many games I wound up playing but I would guess 12-14. My body at the end felt like it went through a wringer. Once the Advil wore off the aches and pains really settled in. The good news is although I definitely overdid it, I don’t think I injured myself significantly. I think after a couple days of soreness things should get back to normal. It was one of the most active weekends I can recall in a very long time.

I have a short week, only working until Wednesday as I have a guest flying in for a weekend visit. I am a big fan of three day work weeks.