Thumbs down

A lot to say today, refill the cup of joe.

So my three day weekend got kicked off with a very laborious project, tree trimming.  I normally do this project once a year and do it during this time period because of the cooler temps and a desire for the trees to look nice for the holidays.

In the past Ali has helped me with the project but her dislike of the process has been well established and she had no desire to miss her fraternity luncheon in order to lessen the load on me.

I was outside early, right around 8 am with loppers and extension ladder in hand.  I also tried to dress for the job wearing jeans, gloves, glasses and my wide brim hat from Duluth.

I like to do this project systematically, working front to back.  The front tree is one of the tallest on the property, it is also one of the messiest.  It had a bunch of old cross thatch branches that were hanging haphazardly from the upper section of the tree along with the some old cut branches that were protruding out too far, detracting from it’s appearance.

After I was done with the loppers, knocking off any low hanging branches and those straggly, messy seed branches I still had more work to do.  I grabbed my machete and started hacking at some of the remnants of branches of years past.  Swinging the machete is very hand/arm extensive as well as requiring some practice to get the angle of impact right for effective wood removal.

After my hack and slash session I still wasn’t pleased with the top section of the tree where there are a number of cut branch stumps extending out too far.  I decided to get some power tools involved.  I pulled out my chainsaw that I haven’t used in ages.  I was quite skeptical I would be able to get the thing started with the way ethanol loves to clog carburetors and fuel lines when left untouched for prolonged periods of time.   Surprisingly, getting it running wasn’t all that tough.

I knew running a chain saw while untethered 15 feet high on a ladder was a dangerous act.  If a safety conscious person saw me slicing through branch stumps above my head with the blade about 18 inches from my face, they would have shit a brick.  I remember thinking to myself as I was cutting, “I am pretty sure that one of these years I will die doing this”

After rotating the ladder around the tree I finally had it looking half decent.  One tree down, 28 to go.

Each year this job gets a little more difficult as the trees get bigger and taller.  It is just an exhausting process.  After I finally got done lopping limbs for over 4 hours my reward was now being able to go back around the yard and pick everything back up.

The clean up process thankfully doesn’t involve working over your head on a ladder.  Instead it incorporates bending over a thousand times to pick up yard waste.  I would stuff the back of the Tacoma with as many branches as possible and then drive them back to the fill pit to dump them.

The ONLY good part of this process was Nicki was laying in the truck with me, enjoying the ride.

Finally, finally I finished up the dreadful project, somewhere around 7 hours after I started.  It felt good to finish but I was just spent.

Well I had no time for rest.  Ali and I were signed up to run a rare night time 5K Friday night.  The race was scheduled to start at 5:30.  It was the first time I ever took a shower BEFORE running a 5K.  I was covered in tree grunge.

We left for the race around 4, I said I wanted to get there about an hour early.  The race instructions advised parking in the county parking garage near the race.  With county garages if you have a beach sticker you can park for free.  Before we left I saw the Camry’s beach sticker had actually expired in August but I figured they would just let us park for free, after all it’s Friday evening, far from prime parking garage time at the beach.

So I swing into the garage and some old woman comes up.  I wave to her, expecting her see my 2011 sticker and wave me on through.  She doesn’t. Instead she carefully inspects my sticker and says, “your sticker expired in August, you have to pay $8 to park”  I was astonished at this woman’s lack of courtesy.

Obviously I am a Collier County resident, else I wouldn’t have a sticker in the first place.  Obviously it is just a formality for me to get a new one. Yet this old coot saw fit to try to inflict some financial penalty on me for no good reason other than to be a bitch.  Well I told her there was no way I was going to pay $8 to park, that was ridiculous.  She said then I would have to exit the garage which I did.  I did happen to say loudly out the window as I exited “Thanks a lot for cutting us a break!” as I used a bunch of obscene adjectives describing the woman.  Ali agreed with my frustration with the situation.

So we found another spot to park and check in.  We were all ready to go with nowhere to go.  Evidently we really didn’t need to show up an hour early.  We spent some of the time standing around and being chilly.  We tried to warm up by walking down to the beach and looking around a bit.  It’s the first time my feet touched sand in months.

Finally we heard an announcement that the race was starting in about 15 minutes and we should head to the starting line.  Neither of us knew where the line was so we just followed everyone else and started walking, and walking, and walking.  I couldn’t believe how far away the starting line was from the registration area.  It literally had to be damn close to a mile, unheard of.

This was the first year for this race so they evidently had a few things to learn.  This again made itself evident a few times during the event.  Before the race Ali asked me what my goal was, I told her simply my goal is always to PR.  To me a “race” is exactly that, a race not against others but yourself.

To be honest, a PR goal was not very realistic since I haven’t done much consistent running since August when I fried my knee during the Ireland trip.  After a prolonged break I only rebooted my running program a few weeks ago with cautious, short runs on gym treadmill, none of which exceeded two miles in length or 9:15 mile pace. Regardless, I planned to push myself to do the best I could.

Once the race started another flaw in planning was revealed as they had runners running with traffic on the road for almost a mile.  Running 101 is you always run against traffic to ensure both the runner and driver have a clear view of each other to avoid potential impact.

I started off pretty fast with short bursts of extra speed to get myself out into open spaces within the pack of 200+ runners.  During the first mile or so I passed a lot of people.  I then settled into a group that was all running a similar pace.  In my situation it seemed like almost all of these people were women.

I settled into a pretty steady pace, taking turns setting my sights on whatever rear end was in front of me and tracking them down one at a time.  After mile 2 I tried to accelerate the best I could.  My pace felt good but I hadn’t looked at my GPS at all during the race to verify it.

As we approached the finish I saw the final race issue.  After a sharp 90 degree right turn you were running on a boardwalk.  At the end of the boardwalk there were STEPS.  I have never in my life been involved in a race where you ran down steps. It’s just dumb and dangerous.  After the steps you were on the beach for maybe a short 50 yard sprint to the finish.

As I crossed the finish line the race clock was just under 24:30 which would about equal my PR I set during the Naples triathlon 5K segment in June.  However based on my GPS which I started once I crossed the start line I had a time of 24:11 which would indeed be a clear new PR.  On the downside, my GPS also showed the distance as .05 miles short.  Ali’s watch showed the same shortness although somebody else said their watch was right on so who knows.

Regardless with all of the circumstance leading up to the run, my lack of training, injuries and 7 hours of tree trimming beforehand, I was quite glad with my result.  I attribute part of it to my body weight being low, it definitely helps my efficiency.  The other part of it I attribute to just wanting to get it done.  If you go into an event with anything less than a can do attitude you will not do, I guarantee it.

I waited for Ali and Christy to finish which they did right around the 28 minute mark, a great time for both of them.  Afterward I decided to rehydrate with beer, in total I had 4 beers, the two free each runner was entitled to.  (I drank Ali’s two as well)

Slamming those beers when I was dehydrated from the run was a surefire recipe for quick drunkeness.  I hadn’t had a sip of alcohol in quite awhile.  I forgot that it is nice to be drunk once in awhile.  I was drunk enough that Ali drove us home after we hung out on the beach for a bit.  Despite the course shortfalls and the nazi parking garage lady, overall we both enjoyed the event.

On the way home I commented to Ali that my right thumb started really hurting.  It felt like it was sprained.  It was odd because although my tree trimming adventures heavily utilized my hands, I don’t recall doing anything in particular that was an “Ow, I just smashed my thumb” kind of deal.

Well when I woke up on Saturday it was even worse.  My thumb was clearly swollen and I could do next to nothing with it.  I was still baffled with the injury.  Trying to adjust to do things that I normally do exclusively right handed is always a fun time.

Sometime during the day Ali mentioned the word “gout”.  Gout is usually a condition you associate with people that generally abuse their health, something I generally do not do.  I knew a little about gout and have heard of it being caused by certain foods and in some cases, alcohol.  I wondered if drinking that alcohol when I was in such a dehydrated state could have actually given me a case of gout in my thumb.  Gout is basically a build up of uric acid in a joint which causes painful swelling and tenderness which were exactly my symptoms.

Throughout the day I worked around my tender thumb the best I could.  At one point I had Ali releasing the emergency brake on the SSR because I couldn’t push the button.

Speaking of the SSR, I did some minor work on it this weekend.  I first snapped in the replacement door reflector for the passenger door.  The seller nicely sent me another after my first one came through with a broken mounting tab.

Then I installed my modified air cleaner.  A SSRFanatics member took a regular air intake and modified it, cutting out the front plastic hood to allow greater airflow as well as dressing it up with some additional chrome.  I was impressed with his handy work.

Removing the old box took a bit of trial and error but eventually I got it figured out.  I was surprised when I removed the old box and discovered the side of it was totally broken, something I had not known.  Anyway after maybe 15-20 minutes of work the engine bay of the SSR looked a little slicker.  Who knows if the additional air flow will translate into additional horsepower.

We got some good news from mom this weekend. She got a job.  It is a seasonal job working at a small boutique.  It is only three days a week, Fri-Sun from 10-4.  It’s not a bad fit for mom although either a few more hours or a higher hourly rate would be helpful.  Mom was offered the job shortly after completing her interview which made her feel good.  Even though the job certainly isn’t going to make mom independently wealthy it will hopefully help rebuild some of her confidence and sense of worth that was lost because of the bullshit her old employer subjected her to.

Saturday night we had to do race prep for the 20k we were timing Sunday.  Although I wanted to get to bed early since we had to get up at 3:45 am, I still tuned in to Fox to see the UFC’s debut on broadcast tv.  It was a much hyped heavyweight championship match between Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez.

Both Cain and Dos Santos were both unbeaten in the UFC. Cain was favored since he excels in many aspects of MMA where as Dos Santos is primarily just a great striker.  Well the fight ended shockingly at the one minute mark of the first round when Dos Santos hit Vlelasquez with a looping right above the ear that knocked him down.  Junior jumped on top and landed a couple more shots that knocked Cain silly before he could recover, fight over.

It was an exciting albeit very short outcome.  I was happy for Junior.  He was one of the coaches in the most recent TUF season and he seemed to be a really, really good guy.  You always like when nice guys finish first.  To his credit, Cain is also a very solid human being and was nothing but gracious in defeat.

Waking up so early in the morning never seems to get much easier.  I literally had to drag myself out of bed.  Our general rule is we want to get on site two hours before the race starts.  Since this race was a longer 20k it was starting at a very early 7am.  Since we live farther away than anyone else involved in race support we have to get up earlier.

This race is historically on the small side and doesn’t have a ton of walk up entries since not just anyone can roll out of bed and say let’s go run 12+ miles.  Ali and Christy were once again going to run the race.

Timing wise this race is good in some ways and not good in others.  The good part is the long distance means I have plenty of time to get the finish line up and running.  Some of that relaxing pace was absorbed by my using start mats for the race to get runners a chip start time, something runners appreciate and is good practice for the half marathon I am timing in January.

The bad part of timing this event are the people that sign up with no intention of “running” the distance.  They think there is absolutely no big deal with them walking the majority of the course.  Well the last runner crossed the timing mat almost three hours and twenty minutes after the start, an insanely slow 16 minute mile pace.  Somehow we need to do a better job of communicating to runners that if you can not cover the distance in the course maximum (in this case 2:45) then you need to train harder so you can do so instead of requiring the club volunteers to wait around for you to casually stroll across the finish line.

Other than the turtles, the timing for the event went fine.

By the time I got home and completed the post race duties it was almost time for the Eagles game against the lowly Arizona Cardinals.  My interest level for the game was very low.  I feel extremely apathetic about the Eagles after this season of massive underachievement.  That is why I decided to do yet another race related project during the game.

For the first time we are chip timing part of the Thanksgiving Run.  In order to do this as efficiently as possible I hashed up a plan with the event organizer to buy special chips just for this race instead of reusing the chips as we normally do.  By doing this we allow runners to pick up their chip prior to race day, totally eliminating their need to stand in any line the day of the event.  It also means we don’t have to do the labor intensive chip collection process at the finish line either.  Runners can just walk out of the finish chute and keep the timing chip as a souvenir from the race.

Now there is one downside to this plan, all of these chips have to have their unique code read into the timing system one at a time.  2500 chips were bought.  Although we were not going to use even half of that many for the event I figured I would just get them all entered so it was over and done with.  5 hours later I was close to losing my mind.

The chips came pre-numbered so in an ideal situation I would be able to just grab and swipe the chips over  a reader in rapid fire. However in the very first pack I noticed a problem in my number sequence, inexplicably a couple chips were in the wrong order.  Great, this now meant I had to take an extra second or two to verify the chips were indeed in the correct order.  When you multiply this small moment of time by 2500, it adds up a large pain in the ass.

While I was in the process of swiping and stacking I thought to myself more than once, maybe I should stop and do a mid-way save of the data, just in case.  I decided to just go full steam ahead since I have never had an issue entering chips before.  When I finally swiped chip 2500 I hit the save button in the application and got the busy cursor and it wasn’t going away….

As I sat there I saw the CPU hit 100% utilization.  I looked at the memory usage and looked in horror as the app just kept consuming additional memory, a surefire sign it is going to crash.  The thought of losing 5 hours of tedious work had me ready to pick up the laptop and smash it on the ground, literally.  Then, as if the computer gods sensed my panic a dialogue box popped up that allowed me to quickly save the file.  Shortly after doing so the program totally crashed.  Wow, talk about skirting with disaster…

As annoying as scanning those chips were, at least it helped divert my attention from the Eagles game which I basically listened to more than watched.  Man where do I start?

Like I mentioned I went into the game really not caring about the team much at all.  They have become the leagues biggest joke.  Well after this game the punchline got even funnier.

Just before the game started I hear the announcement that Desean Jackson was not playing.  He was being punished for missing a team meeting Saturday. Shit!  I ran over to my computer to see if I quickly could change my fantasy football line up but could not.  Now Desean and his prima dona attitude gets to cost me virtually as well.

I am really sick of him and to be honest I have never been a real fan as long as he has been on the team.  Despite his good numbers his rookie season I was instantly turned off by his showboating and his love of trying to run backwards before going forwards.

Since then he has been consistently inconsistent.  He will manage to have a huge game three or four times a year but disappear for the most part the rest of the season.  I described him to some guys at the gym as the next Terrell Owens although that wouldn’t be quite accurate since Owen at least was much more consistent in his performance.

Like I mentioned last week, I think you would be hard pressed to find any football expert that would even claim Jackson is the number one receiver on this team, Maclin has taken over that role. F Desean Jackson, I would not give a shit if he is on the roster next year or not.

So lets get to the game.  A good portion of it was filled with uninspiring play on both sides of the ball.  Hell we didn’t even get a chance to see Kevin Kolb return to Philly, he was sidelined with an injury.  Instead we got some real tall dude I never heard of to QB the Cardinals.  The Eagles have a real good record of making backup QB’s look like pro bowl starters.  Once again they held true to form.

Even with their sloppy play, the Eagles entered the 4th quarter once again with a lead and once again they managed to blow the game. It was just ridiculous as the team found a new way to lose.  They are in a word, awful.  Let me just point out a few lowlights.

Steve Smith, the long time, high profile wide receiver that the Eagles acquired as part of their “dream team” building, is a fckin dog.  He has contributed next to nothing this year.  On Sunday he finally got more playing time since Jackson was sat down and Maclin was hurt several times.  On the long third down play he caught the ball with maybe a yard and a half needed to get the first.  He made absolutely no effort to get any additional yardage  and instead fell down immediately to avoid contact.  That shit doesn’t fly here Steve.  Hopefully your tenure as an Eagles is very brief.

The Eagles defense still sucks, just as it has sucked in almost every game this year.  I have never seen a team roll over and die as much as this team has.  Of course the finger has to point right at Fat Andy and his decision to replace Howdy Doody with a guy that has never coached defense in the NFL.  That is proving to be a huge mistake obviously.

How about Asomugha lining up offsides to negate a 3rd down stop which later turned into a game winning score?  Inexcusable, but that is exactly the type of brain farts this team executes with startling consistency.

Then we have Mike Vick dialing up probably his worst performance of the year.  I said in the beginning of the year I had a lot of hesitation with throwing a ton of money at Vick.  He has not been all that good since week 10 or 11 of 2010.  He is turning the ball over left and right and making many, many poor decisions.

This team is just an utter mess.  To lose at home AGAIN, to back up QB AGAIN with a 4th quarter collapse AGAIN is just beyond the scope of what a worst case scenario for this team would have been 2 months ago.  This isn’t a team, it is a bunch of talented individuals that evidently can not be coordinated under the tutelage of Andy “I have to do a better job of blah, blah, blah…” Reid.  It now takes a minor miracle for the Eagles to even think about the playoffs, including them winning their last 7 games in a row.  Yea, good luck with that.

For the past week or so I have had some odd sleep patterns going on.  More often than not I find myself waking up between 3 and 4am.  I have recollections of it being right after I got done having some sort of vivid, bizarre dreams and they aren’t the cheery, happy variety.  I usually awake feeling relived whatever I was dreaming about was a dream.  Luckily so far I normally am able to fall back asleep eventually but I am hoping this is not my new sleep thing.

Ali plopped a bill on my desk from the dermatologist.  It was for nearly $300, my share of the recent skin cancer surgery I had.  I found myself disgusted as I looked at the numbers.  I was in their office at most two hours.  The time the doctor actually spent working on me was if I am being generous was 15-20 minutes, tops.  The bill for the procedure, almost $2300. That is just plain ridiculous.

It’s no wonder health care in this country is so fcked up.  Doctors over bill insurance carriers, knowing they will get paid a portion of the actual bill.  Then they stick the patients with whatever is left.  It’s insanity.  I plan to call the doctors office for an explanation of how 20 minutes of time adds up to a $2300 bill.  Even though I know the effort will be fruitless, at least I can express my displeasure at their practice of financial rape.