Need to dump

I would prefer to empty my brain of the last 3 days instead of trying to do a 5 day recall on Wednesday.

As promised my 4th of July started stupidly early with a 3:30 alarm followed my a 4 am departure time which got us on the race site before 4:40 AM.  I wanted to be have everything up and ready to go well in advance of the nearly 1000 participants that were in this years race.  Because the race is held in July it starts at 7AM, making the earlier arrival time necessary.

The next two hours are an exercise in controlled chaos as the humanity piles into the area.  This race historically has a lot of walk up participants (people that sign up on race day) so that puts extra demand on Ali who does most of the data entry and myself.  On the good side, using race bib based timing devices meant that many runners didn’t have to stand in any lines on race morning.  If they signed up early and picked up their race packet ahead of time they could head right to the start line.

All things considered the race went smoothly, as smooth as something this big can go.  I had only one timing device not work and I was posting results real time to the internet 5 minutes after the first finisher crossed.  Cindy ran the race and did well although she really struggled with the conditions.  Despite starting at 7AM, the air was still very warm and muggy, making breathing difficult.  Even so, she finished the race averaging right around a 8 minute mile pace which is very good.

I had a lot of anxiety leading up to the race, just hoping everything worked as planned.  As the last few runners crossed the finish line I felt like I had a weight lifted off my shoulders.  We got cleaned up and pulled out before 9:30. It was a job well done for all involved.

Once getting home, unloading the truck and attending to post race data management needs I told Cindy I wanted to go outside to get a few things done, despite the early start to the day.  After weeding the property I turned my attention to the gutters.  I had noticed during a recent downpour that the super gutter along the pool deck was obviously clogged as water spilled on to the deck.  I wanted to get up there and clear it out.

It was VERY hot by this point.  Once I got up on the roof I felt like I stepped onto the surface of the sun.  Despite having my nitrile gloves on, the heat from the roof immediately burned my hand when I touched it.  I used the hose I drug up there with me to spray down the sections I was working on.  So I head over to the area where I noticed the problem and did indeed see a big mess of leaves accumulated over the downspout which I expected. I also saw some things I didn’t expect.

One of those things was a huge collection of asphalt that has been coming off the roof shingles.  I guess after 13 years the tiles are starting to break down more although they look pretty solid to me.  The other thing in the gutters I wasn’t happy to see were lots of pieces of metal and pool cage screws.  Evidently the father/son team that replaced my pool screen took it upon themselves to remove these pieces and not reinstall them.  I’m not sure if the motive was laziness or convenience but I was annoyed.  There were at least 6 different spots where they pulled these parts off and threw them in the gutter.  I am not sure how much they lend to the structural integrity of the cage but it pisses me off that they would take shortcuts like that.  I gathered up the screws and aluminum and tossed them down into a bucket from the roof.

Cleaning out the gutters was not fun.  Removing the leaves and mud wasn’t a big deal but once I decided I wanted to blast most of that asphalt residue out of the gutter my job got much, much longer.  The asphalt particles are heavy so even with the hose at it’s highest pressure setting it could only push the gunk a few inches at a time.  I spent close to an hour in total hunched over pushing the junk down to the drain.  I hit every gutter on the house including a couple sections that had totally clogged downspouts.  I used a wire snake to plunge the organic mess.  When it finally broke free it was like a massive dump was just flushed out the downspout below. By the time I got off the roof I felt like I had been broiled but I was glad to have cleared the gutters, something I have not done for at least 4 years.

We also had the chickens outside roaming free for awhile.  Once again they found a landscape bed to dig up and lay in.  They really love being able to roam around, maybe a little too much.  When it came time to get them back in the coop Cindy needed my assistance to guide them into it. I had more tasks in my head but Cindy told me that enough was enough, we should just chill.  I took her advice.  After a dip in the pool we wound up passing out for a much needed nap for a couple hours.

We didn’t make any plans to go see official fireworks displays but we had plenty of them around the house to entertain us as many of the neighbors were setting them off.  Somewhere around 10PM I had the bright idea to grab my Phantom and send it upward for a birds eye view of the horizon.

I attached the strip of blue leds to the copter as well to give it a more patriotic blue glow.  The 8 minute video I captured, including a botched take off, is entertaining enough and gives you a good idea of just how many fireworks hit the air on the 4th of July.

On Saturday Cindy worked and I had lots of to do’s filling my head.  I picked up the girls from Ali’s place early and had them tag along while I made stops at Home Depot, Costco and Publix.  The back of the van was rather full since I had jammed in the 8 foot fold up table I was letting Ali borrow and a 12 foot section of white pvc roofing for the chicken run.

Once I got back home it was late in the morning and not an ideal time to just be starting your outdoor work for the day, of course it didn’t matter.  I was happy to see the section of roofing I bought fit the chicken run perfectly. It’s much lighter, more waterproof and more practical than the two sections of 2×6 I was using previously.  As normal, the chickens were scared at first when I replaced their roof but relaxed once they realized it was not threatening.  The white pvc not only will give them a nice rain barrier, the white color will help bounce heat.

I then did the modification to the floor of the run, flipping it on it’s side so I could cut out the center section of fence that lined the bottom.  We decided we wanted to have some bare grass available to the chickens so they can dig and scratch as they please.  I left an 8″-10″ border intact and cut the rest with a wire snips.

It didn’t take long to determine a problem based on my bloody forearm which had brushed up against a couple of the cut wires.  A cut wire is sharp obviously, I didn’t want to have the wire ends cut the feet of the chickens.  So I grabbed a pliers and bent each wire down so they would be into the ground, keeping the sharp end away from sensitive chicken feet.

When I reattached the modified chicken run to the coop I smiled when I saw two of them immediately start scratching the ground once they realized there was no longer a wire mesh there preventing it.  The chickens seemed happy.

I then turned my attention to the grass which needed a full weed whack and mowing session.  In total I spent around 2.5 hours getting it all done, part of it in the rain.  I was glad once again to have the canopy on the yard tractor to allow me to keep mowing in a steady rain without getting soaked.

On Saturday night Cindy and I had our last Tarpons game of the season.  We had a good time assisted by the four Budweisers I consumed.  It was actually a very competitive game which came down to a missed two point conversion at the end.  The highlight of the night however was me snagging my first ever arena football souvenir.  It was very funny they way it went down.  I was already pretty drunk and talking some nonsense to Cindy, not really paying attention to the game.  All of a sudden I turn to my right and a ball is bouncing towards me end over end.  I instinctively reach down over the railing and pluck the ball out of the air cleanly.  It was surreal.  I handed the ball to Cindy for safe keeping.  One of the perks of arena football is they let the fans keep any ball that goes into the stands during official play.

I have been trying to snag a football at arena games for along time, dating back to when I was a Florida Firecats season ticket holder 5-6 years ago.  It was cool to finally have that quest come to an end.  Oh the Tarpons lost by the way but no one really cared, it was a good game and a fun time.

On Sunday Cindy and I took the girls along for another trip to Rural King.  We didn’t really have to go there but we enjoy it so the fact that we had a couple caribiners to return was reason enough to go, plus we hit DD on the way.

Sunday unfortunately contained more labor, the most grueling of which was my weedwhacking the entire fence line and the ditch in the back.  It is a miserable, miserable task, especially when done during a July afternoon.  It was sweltering hot and made more uncomfortable by the jeans  I was wearing to protect my legs.  Since I whack both sides of the fence I estimate I hit at least 1000 feet of fence and 300 feet of ditch (down one side and up the other).  I went though 2 spools of trimmer cord and sweated obscene amounts of fluid.  There is a reason this particular chore only gets done once or twice a year, it blows.

The dogs spent a decent amount of time outside despite the heat.  Of course they were seeking shade and found some at the revamped dog deck.  The table and 9 foot umbrella gave the girls a good hang out spot.

After doing all that outside work it started to pour.  I had wanted to get a bar park workout in since we didn’t do any endurance training this weekend.  Cindy and I instead both worked out inside.  I did a circuit on the triple gym consisting of pull ups, dips, and push ups but felt lousy, surely from being dehydrated outside.  I felt weak, tired and had a headache.

Cindy’s daughter stopped by briefly as well Sunday afternoon.  Cindy was giving her her old Iphone to Katie since she killed her Iphone 5 by inadvertently getting it wet. Katie is the terminator of smart phones, I am not sure exactly how many she has broken in the last 5 years but I am estimating it is closing in on double digits.

I also took a quick look at the back window of her Mustang.  It no longer goes down and makes a nasty crunching sound when you try.  I could see a wire that looked like it was out of place but unfortunately the only way to get to anything would require a lot of disassembly that I wouldn’t feel great about since it shares space with the convertible top hardware.  I have a feeling the dealer labor charge on it will be on the high side.

Sunday night we watched Grudge Match with Stallone and DeNiro.  Both Cindy and I found the movie funny and entertaining.  I enjoyed it more than I expected, earning it a very solid B+ rating.