Easter eating, Saturated Saturday, free standing

Saturday was one of those all work all day sessions that I hadn’t had in quite awhile.  The first task was weeding and then weedwhacking the property followed by some light mowing.  Since my mom and Cindy’s mom were coming over for Easter dinner on Sunday I wanted the grounds to look half decent.

I then headed to Lowe’s to get trees to replace the two I ripped out of the orchard.  I decided to get an orange and grapefruit tree as replacements.  Both of them actually had some fruit growing on them which was a plus.  I also snagged a couple blueberry bushes, some replacement border for the pond and a 4 way shephards hook to replace the bird feeder holder which had almost rusted through.

On my way home on Immokalee Road I saw something in the right most lane, intent on crossing the other 5 which were filled with heavy traffic, a snapper turtle.  I swung over, threw the four way flashers on but left the tail end of the Tacoma partially in the right lane to divert vehicles around the turtle.

I jumped out and picked him up, he was huge, heavy and ornery.  He was reaching up with his back legs and scratching my hands while he flailed his long neck around trying to chomp on me.  I got to the median, sat him down and pinned him in place while traffic on the other side of the road flew by.  He seemed to calm down a bit as I picked him back up to scurry across the other three lanes.

Once I was across I navigated down the very steep embankment bordering the canal, the destination he was seeking.  Doing this while holding the turtle in front of me was quite tricky, tricky enough that as I got to the last 3-4 feet I slipped and fell on my rear end.  As I did I lost my grip on the turtle.  He snapped at me as he dropped on the brush but then quickly scooted into the water.  Despite the turtle’s lousy disposition I felt better knowing that I saved him from a 95% chance of annihilation from some idiotic driver.

I was bummed when I got home and realized the wind in the bed of the truck apparently blew the branch that was housing grapefruits off the tree.  I tried to follow the planting instructions to a T, digging a hole twice the size of the container and lining the bottom of the hole with some good soil mixed with fertilizer.  I then backfilled the hole and created a small levy around the tree to help focus water distribution.  I plan to be diligent in maintenance of the new trees, hoping for similar results to the now fruiting avocado tree.

I then ripped out the rotting wood log border that surrounds the small pond.  The stuff I replaced it with was cheap plastic fencing that sort of looks like black metal.  I am not thrilled with how it looks but it will do as a stop gap until I can redo the pond area permanently.  I then put the 4 way shepherd hook in the ground.  I used the post hole digger and a level while doing the install.  I used the same technique with the others in the ground and they have remained rock solid and straight for many years despite thousands of birds hanging off them.

The one two way bird feeder holder has had the top of the post rusting away for over a year.  It was to the point where only one corner was intact, the other 3 were open air due to rusting away.  I found it ironic this morning when I saw the top finally snapped off, exactly one day after I got it’s replacement in place.

I attended to backfilling more armadillo holes however this time after I finished I sprayed the spots and the entire front fence line with the armadillo repellent .  The stuff had a smell that was not unpleasant to my nose but evidently is disgusting to armadillos.  As of this morning I have not seen any fresh excavations.

I was outside most of the day, not coming back inside until 4PM.  Once I was inside I had another mental list to attend to.  One of those was mapping out the coax connections in the attic in preparation for my Comcast Xfinity X1 installation this afternoon.  I labeled my antenna, cable and satellite incoming lines as well as the outgoing coax that goes to the great room and master bedroom which will be getting the X1 equipment.

I then started to work on setting up the new laptops I bought for race timing for the club.  I bought 3 of them.  Unfortunately I could only get two of them set up since one of the laptops apparently shipped with a bad hard drive.  I was pleasantly surprised that tech support for Lenovo Thinkpads is handled out of Atlanta instead of India or even worse, China.

I took this pic of the girls snoozing by the front door.  When I sent it to Cindy she immediately noticed that their legs almost formed a perfect heart.  It added additional cuteness to the pic.

On Saturday night Cindy and I went see Transcendence, the new movie with Johnny Depp regarding the merging of human consciousness and super computer AI.  Unfortunately I was a bit tired again going into the movie although I don’t recall my eyelids closing.  Being a computer guy I found it interesting seeing the improbable but none the less intriguing interpretation of where technology is heading. I’d rate the movie somewhere between a B+ and A-.

Sunday morning Cindy and I originally were talking about doing a bike ride.  Because of time constraints we instead decided to head to the nearby track to get 3 miles in.  I have done zero endurance training since my week long illness.  I didn’t expect running to feel pleasant, it didn’t.  Despite running quite a slow pace for two of the three miles, I never felt comfortable.  The 3 miles felt more like double that.  Oh well, it’s a start.

After getting back from running Cindy headed out to go to church with her mom and daughter.  I stayed home to get more things done around the house in prep for company.  I did have a few spare minutes to make some signs for the dogs, a Happy Easter sign for Nicki and a special sign for Sadie.

Mom came over mid-afternoon straight from work.  The girls, especially Nicki were very excited to see her.  She just wanted to be by my mom’s side non-stop.   It was the first time mom was at the house since Xmas so she got to see the additions that Cindy brought with her as well as the new foam gel king size mattress in the guest room.

Cindy’s mom showed up a little after 5.  She brought deviled eggs, a bean casserole and a coconut cake to go along with the already long list of food Cindy was making.  We sat down for a very delicious meal at the rarely used dining room table.  After the meal Cindy’s mom hung around for awhile before heading out right before sunset.  It was nice having her out to visit.

Both mom and I were super tired after the big meal.  My energy level was further drained from the morning run, busy day and two BLP’s I downed prior to eating.  We headed back to bed barely after the clock hit 9PM.

So on Friday my Varidesk Pro showed up.  I wasted no time rearranging my desk to accommodate it’s rather large 3′ by 2′ footprint.  The first impression I got of the Varidesk was it is well built.  It felt very solid and the platform mechanism is very easy to adjust to whatever height is comfortable.

I was also surprised how comfortable it was to work on the PC in the standing position.  The only issue I have is the stand my dual monitors are on is too low when I am standing.  A set of fully articulating monitor mounts may be next to allow me to keep the monitors at eye level regardless of my body position.

I like the free app that Varidesk provides.  It reminds you stand up for 15 out of every 60 minutes and is fully customizable.  I find the 45/15 split so far a good one for me.

If you are looking to break out of typical office worker sit all day doldrums I highly recommend the Varidesk to serve that purpose.  I wouldn’t mind having one for home as well, unfortunately the layout of my home desk won’t accommodate it.

Today I am leaving work early to meet the Comast installer tasked with installing X1 goodness into my home AV network.  I am crossing my fingers everything goes smoothly, a rarity in any experience that involves Comacast.