Wiped out, applaud addiction?, rope, screeching is back, pulley that broke the camel’s back

On Friday I normally do my Version 2.0 300 workouts at the gym.   Shortly before lunch Jeremy was urging me to go old school and do an original style 300 where you are doing 50 reps of various tough exercises consecutively.  I felt bad because Jeremy was upset with me earlier in the day for what he thought was an unflattering picture I posted of him, so for some reason I agreed to do it.

When I did 300’s every week for 2-3 years I didn’t use anywhere close to good form for the exercises.  Since my 300 glory days and my exposure to the Bar-barian community I have focused more on form when doing various exercises.  The 300 I did Friday was probably the most strenuous ever because I used good form through out.  By the time I was done I was SOAKED with sweat and stank like roadkill.  It was so bad that I actually did not trust my normal italian shower to get the job done.  Instead for the first time ever I took a quick shower at Retro.

I had not prepared for a shower so I wound up throwing on the same sweaty clothes (sans underwear) until I got out to the truck where I at least had a different shirt to put on.  The floor wipers, dead lifts and box jumps kicked my ass in particular.

On Friday afternoon Ali headed up to Siesta Keys with two friends of hers.  They were participating as a team in a sprint triathlon.  On Saturday morning I got the report that they won their category which was really cool.  Ali had a great performance in her swim portion of the race.

I had already looked at the way the weekend was going to go since Ali was supposed to do a 15 mile training run Sunday and knew I had to get a ton done on Saturday.  I figured that Ali would probably be home sometime early in the afternoon.  I was like a tornado of tasks, buzzing about the house non-stop before I took the dogs out mid-afternoon to visit run a few errands and make a stop at my mom’s place.  When I left  I was surprised Ali wasn’t home yet but I figured by the time I got back she would be.

One of the stops I made while I was out was Home Depot.  I wanted to get a matching no-slam toilet seat for our bathroom to match what I already installed in the guest bathroom.  You may recall that the last time I bought a seat I got the wrong style, thinking our bowl was oval when in toilet terms it actually is round.  Well believe it or not, I made the exact same mistake again.  I knew I got the wrong seat last time but I was SURE I bought round and needed oval. You can imagine the foul language when I realized I made the same f up again.

I also bought a 25 foot section of 3/4″ nylon rope at HD.  Why you ask?  I had a few people suggest that a climbing rope would be a good addition to my 11 foot high bar.  I did some quick price checking and saw that “official” climbing ropes cost anywhere form $75-$100.  Pricey for a hunk of rope if you ask me.

Well climbing ropes are typically 1.5″ in diameter.  The fattest rope Home Depot sells is half of that.  However I realized that if I twist the rope I will wind up with roughly the same thickness.  Since the rope will be out in the elements full time I went with nylon which should do the best job of holding up in Florida’s brutal environment.

Of course I won’t know for sure how effective this rope will be until I get it twisted and hung up on the pipe.  At least I spent less than $20 to try it out.

So when I got back from my mom’s place I was very surprised to see no car in the garage yet.  I knew the triathlon wrapped up mid-morning at the latest and even if they stopped for lunch I would have expected Ali to be home.  To compound matters she forgot her phone charger so I had no way to really contact her to see what was up since her phone was dead.

Well I had more stuff to get done so I continued on my list as my anger started on a slow boil.  I was getting annoyed that Ali was extending her post race celebration without any concerns of letting me know.

When I pressure washed the pool cage I noticed that there was another section of pool screen that was torn along the spline.  One of the things I was hoping Ali could do was help me with the replacement, an extra set of hands really helps when it comes to getting the new section splined in up top.  Well at that point I had no idea when Ali was coming home so I decided f it, I am just going to do it myself.

This was a very wide section of screen, knowing I struggled doing a shorter section of super screen myself I knew I had to change my approach.  As I removed the old screen I realized it was actual an original piece that I had not replaced before.  I was sure that I had replaced every back section at this point, evidently this was the last hold out.

Anyway, what I did was utilize duct tape as my extra set of hands.  I taped the new screen up on the cage so it would stay in place while I started the spline.  I was getting frustrated when the weight of the screen was pulling free of the tape, I had to retape it several times until I was successful.

The difficulty I was having with the screen replacement was mixing in with my growing resentment as the clock kept moving forward with no contact from Ali. Finally, around 5 o’clock she called me to say she just got back to the car and was on her way home.  I told her I was really angry that she would stay out all day long for an event that ended at 9 or 10 am without cluing me in.  She told me that she thought she told me that she would not be home until late afternoon.  I told her that was not communicated.

When she got home I was finishing up the rescreening.  Despite my difficulties, it is probably my best work to date, the new section is taut as a drum.  I told Ali I was very proud of her tri outcome but I was really angry that she turned it into an all day event without thinking it was important to give me a heads up.  Of course this spun into a large argument.

Later in the evening we both cooled off a bit and moved from our original positions.  I think sometimes I give Ali would I would love to get in return.  If I were to list out everything that I got knocked out around the house on Saturday it would eclipse the amount of pull ups I can do.

I heard during the day on Saturday that Amy Winehouse died.  Well more accurately she basically killed herself via a massive drug overdose.  I posted a status update on FB that read “Amy Winehouse died, boo hoo” as well as commenting on one of my friend’s threads where she was lamenting the loss , expressing my confusion over praising somebody that was ultimately successful at her own tireless self destruction. Well of course this was not a popular opinion.

Sure I liked some of Amy Winehouse’s music, she was a talented performer. But I just can’t find myself finding remorse for someone that continuously lights the fuse to their own implosion.   My disdain isn’t limited to drug abusers, it covers the broad spectrum of self destructive human behavior that is so common place in today’s society.  If you are going to keep hitting yourself in the face with a hammer, feel free to do so, just don’t expect me to cry about it.

Some may read this and think I am implying that I have no self destructive behavior or I am preaching down to or “judging”.  I have plenty of flaws that cause myself many obstacles on the road to inner peace.  I just don’t blame anyone else for them but me, myself, and I.  If offering my opinion on a situation is judging, then the world is jammed full of judges.  I know in today’s politically correctness gone wild environment, offering any opinion outside the rainbow and unicorn filled mainstream is dangerous.  There is a big aversion to both telling and hearing the way it really is.

On Saturday while I was outside doing my various chores I was treated to the renewed screeching of the neighbor’s dogs after the heavenly 3 week hiatus.  After the absence of their nails on chalkboard noise pollution for almost a month, to be subjected to it once again was hard to take.

Well I decided on a new plan of action since any direct requests to the neighbor to do something about the problem has been met with nothing but unkempt promises.  I found the contact email for the county animal services department.  I relayed the situation next door and asked if I had grounds to file either a nuisance barking complaint or if the conditions the dogs were living under violated county code.

Depending on what response I get back will dictate my next move.  If I find out that what the neighbor is doing is beyond what is allowed by county code I plan on walking over to her door and informing her that my next step will be to file a complaint with DAS if she does not address the problem.

The relationship between us is damaged far beyond any hope of repairing it at this point.  I have absolutely no respect for her whatsoever and once that happens you might as well be dead to me.  Nothing will get you to that point faster than telling me you are going to do something and never doing it and/or treating your animals poorly.  That is really only the part of the iceberg when it comes to reasons I don’t want to associate with her. The saying, “the more you know a person, the more you generally will dislike them” really applies here.

So Sunday Ali was scheduled to do a 15 mile training run, yes, 15 miles.  Originally Ali thought that Christy would be able to ride her bike along with her for support but then something else came up.  I told Ali I would come with her.  I planned to run part of it and ride the rest although I have to admit I had bizarre ideas of myself just running the full 15 on a whim.  That didn’t happen.

We got to the water park early, around 7:30 am in an attempt to beat at least some of unrelenting heat and humidity that was to come.  I told Ali we could run the big loop, the loop that broke me when I tried to run it after riding to the water park a couple months back.  It is around 10K in length so running it twice with a finish loop around the park itself would be just about 15 miles.

I was really not in good shape to run.  Both my back and hamstrings were very sore from the 50 dead lifts on Friday.   Luckily the run called for a slow pace which was just fine with me.  By the time we were half way into the first big loop I was ready for it to end.  Despite the relatively early time of day the heat and humidity was raging.  I was sweating buckets.  My eyes were stinging from the salt that was getting excreted.

To complicate matters I didn’t want to drink any water.  I was carrying a lone water bottle during the run, which is annoying in itself if you ever tried it, and wanted to make sure that water lasted for Ali since she was the one that was running so far.  Any ideas I had about running the entire 15 evaporated very early on.

So when we completed the first big loop we went back to the car.  After a quick water break Ali was back out and running in the opposite direction.  I told her I would get changed and hop on my bike to track her down.

I had to take a leak very badly and nothing in the park was open yet.  I found a set of bushes next to a wall to offer me some degree of privacy while I did my business.  My upper torso was in plain view but it was early enough that not even the water park staff had arrived yet.

So I grabbed two water bottles, putting one in my bottle holder and laying the other on top of my tri bars and head out to catch Ali.  It didn’t take long until I realized that a road bike does not make the best run support vehicle.  The thin, highly inflated tires, make you feel each and every joint in the sidewalk.  Curb ramps are even more bone jarring fun. A couple times I had the water bottle laying on the tri bars get jettisoned off from the bumps.

Riding a rode bike at a running pace is tough to do as well, especially when clipped in to the pedals.  A few times I had to quickly pop out of them before stopping.  I also couldn’t find a very comfortable riding position, I had a persistent burning high on my back between my shoulder blades.

I didn’t complain to Ali though, she was the one mired in the middle of this hellish run.  She was totally drenched, she looked like she was thrown in a pool.  On the second loop we actually ran out of water so I rode ahead to the park, refilled and rode back to her.  By the time I got back to her  she felt so parched she had stopped running for a short while.

Finally she reentered the park for the final two mile loop.  The 15 miles is the farthest Ali has ever run.  The great news is next week she is supposed to run 17, geezus.

After the run we headed into the water park.  Despite my only running a 10k and spending the next hour and a half on the bike, I was plenty tired myself.  I still wanted to get some swimming in so I after changing into my swimsuit I was in the pool for 1200 meters.  I averaged a very consistent 8:30 for the three 400 meter segments.  Ali even jumped in the pool and swam for a little bit after some recovery time. We enjoyed a well deserved pizza and fries lunch and headed home.

There was one chore I did not do on Saturday, mow the grass.  Due to a Friday downpour there was considerable water on the ground Saturday.  By Sunday most of it had been absorbed.  Ali had to prepare the dog meals so I told her I would handle the mowing.

I had just started the second of 4 lawn sections when I started to smell something. At first I thought maybe it was just the wet grass (it had started to rain lightly) hitting the hot mower deck.  Well the smell got stronger and when I glanced down and saw smoke beneath me I immediately turned the blades off and shut the mower down.

I looked down and saw smoke coming off the upper deck belt, right at one of the pulleys.  Damn it!

I parked the tractor in front of the garage to take off what seemed to be the offending pulley.  I put my leather gloves on first as the metal was boiling hot.  When I pulled it off the bearing definitely felt like it was starting to go bad.  I spun the other idler pulley in the same area and it didn’t sound so great either. I was frustrated of course.

So I went to my online source for tractor parts and ordered both pulleys and a replacement belt as well since it was cracked and worn.  If the belt is getting hot enough to smoke it couldn’t be long until that sucker breaks as well.  The latest parts rung up to another $75 on top of the over $1000 I have spent in repair parts over the last 2-3 years for the tractor.

Despite ordering the parts to fix the Cub Cadet once again, I was motivated to hop back on Sears.com to check out the current deals on the Craftsman tractors.  Their current promotion was free home delivery, that sounded pretty sweet.  The tractor I was interested in has 24 hp, a huge upgrade from the 18.5 horse the Cub Cadet has.

The added power should translate to being able to blow through sections of grass where I need to go at “no wake” speeds with the other tractor. The Craftsman also has a super tight 8 INCH  turning radius which will allow it to pull off some maneuvers the Cub could never do.

Ali walked in while I was perusing the site.  I told her I was very tempted to just pull the trigger and get the new tractor.  She said go ahead, so I did.  I had already planned on retiring the Cub Cadet after this mowing season regardless, we are just accelerating the time table by 6 months.

Ali actually suggested using both tractors to cut grass mowing time in half potentially.  My initial plan was to simply get the Cub functional again and sell it for a few hundred bucks to offset the new tractor purchase.  Storage of two tractors is going to problematic as well but at least for the short term future we can see how it works out although I don’t really see it being worth the hassle.  The additional power of the new tractor is going to be a time saver in itself.

The rest of the day I tried to chill out somewhat.  I was spent from all of the chores and training. I actually passed out on the recliner for nearly 90 minutes while Ali napped in the bedroom.

Ali made a great meal using one of the eggplants from our garden.  It was restaurant quality good.

Oh I finally beat the Vulcan level in Tower Defense : Lost Earth.  I am now on the very last level and as you can imagine it is brutal.  One wrong step and you are done.  I have made about a dozen attempts and counting so far.

I went to bed exhausted, looking forward to going back to work so I didn’t have to work so hard.