All posts by Duf

This weekend was gone in snap thanks to the massive amount of time that was required in the office for the hardware upgrade.  I worked until 10PM Friday night and then all day Saturday until 4 in the afternoon.   When I got home on Saturday despite being mentally worn out I jumped into chores before the sun went down.  On Sunday I got to enjoy myself at least.  In the morning Katie, DJ, and Cindy joined me for a ride around North Collier Park which was fun.

During the afternoon I got to watch yet another frustrating Eagles loss, this time to the Browns.  The game was not as close as the 22-17 final score.  Carson Wentz again struggled and the team demonstrated it’s inability to make plays when needed.  In the the past two games they have only converted TWICE on third down which is unheard of.  I think Carson has lost confidence in his receivers and/or himself.  I know my confidence in him being able to ever take the team back to an elite status is not there.

I multi-tasked while watching the game, assembling parts for 3D printed stands.  I am trying to build up some inventory for Black Friday as I was going to do a sale for the weekend.  Sunday evening Cindy and I got to play some in VR, playing the Star Wars titles.  They are so immersive and cool however neither of us had the headset adjust optimally for our heads.  The end result is discomfort that takes away from the experience.

Today is a whirlwind of troubleshooting and bug squashing which was to be expected.  I am very much looking forward to the upcoming long weekend to decompress and realign.

Today will be a long one as we are refreshing roughly 30 workstations at our main office.  The work will begin this afternoon, go late into this evening and then hopefully conclude by mid-day tomorrow.  It’s a pain in the ass for sure but in the big picture I am required to work extended hours far less than the normal IT network administrator so you won’t hear much whining from me.  This is the biggest refresh of all of our offices, once we get through it the worst of the process is behind us.

So all of the diehard Trump acolytes have been devouring and regurgitating the story of Sidney Powell who is one of Trump’s lawyers.  She has been diligently working to sow seeds of doubt wherever possible to appease the tantruming man-child we now have in the White House. The lie she has been spreading was that there was some sort of massive criminal manipulation of the votes where electronic systems were compromised.  She has said ad nauseum that she has tons of evidence that she was just waiting to release.

Well you guys are now in court trying to prove some fraud occurred, I think now would be the time to present this overwhelming evidence, right?  Hell even Tucker Carlson, the Trumper version of Moses, is sick of her song and dance.  He was scheduled to have this woman on however when they asked for information regarding proof of her accusations she again refused to provide any.  As I linked yesterday, this accusation has been proven to be absolutely false beyond doubt, yet I still was seeing people posting links to her conspiracy theory yesterday as if it actually was real.

I thought to myself if this was finally enough?  Was the great Tucker Carlson basically saying “I think this woman is full of shit” enough to finally release the death grip some Trump voters have on the false narrative that the election result was erroneous.  Is this the equivalent of smelling salts for some, waking them up from the hypnotic haze that has poisoned their minds since 2016?  I can only hope at least some find their way back towards common decency and caring about the greater good, but I doubt it.

This weekend will have a compressed timeline obviously due to the work requirements.  I will just be content that after this, the rest of the year should have few road bumps from a work perspective.

So I got a call from my dad last night with some more terrible news, they put their other dog, Clara down yesterday.  A month or two ago dad had told me that they found out that Clara had cancer in multiple parts of her body and the prognosis was not good.  I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the news having known that but I still was. She had stopped eating for a couple days and was no longer able to get up and walk.  My step mom took the excruciating step of taking sweet Clara to the vet to end her suffering, something my dad just simply can not do.

I had last seen Clara when I went to PA for Todd’s 50th birthday in June.  She looked older of course but still was pretty spry for a 13 year old dog as she chased Patrick and I around the yard on our EUC’s.  I certainly had no indication that she was sick.  The picture was taken by my step mom in July. It reminds me of the picture I had taken of Maggie in January, prior to her passing away a few months later.  It’s a beautiful picture that unfortunately now carries sadness along with it.

Clara was always the rebel, she was very adept at not listening to you.  When we would play fetch with her and Maggie she was always intent on stealing whatever ball, toy or stick Maggie had.  Of course once she managed to steal it she would drop it shortly thereafter as the fun part was trying to take it.  Despite the mischievous side of her, Clara was also a very loving dog.  She was always quite content when I would sit by her and pet her gently.

So much of my dad’s daily routine included and revolved around their dogs.  Going on walks, coffee runs, road trips, and other adventures with Clara and Maggie was a staple of his daily existence for a decade and a half.  To have that evaporate in a relatively short time span is an extremely difficult thing to deal with, especially when you love your pets so deeply.  I can definitely empathize with how they must be feeling right now.

Dealing with the realities of death is something I have struggled with my entire life.  The pain associated with losing another living being that is a core cog of your life throws everything else out of alignment.  Learning how to appreciate all of the wonderful moments while not becoming mired in despair and sorrow is a tough line to walk for me.  I know it is for dad as well.  I’ll always think back to our early western road trips where Maggie, Clara, Nicki, and Sadie were running wild together, having the time of their lives.  It’s hard to believe that Sadie is all that remains from that wonderful memory that just doesn’t feel as long ago as it actually was.

Below is one of the videos I shot in PA where you can see Clara being Clara.  I’m going to miss her.

I remember as my mom got older witnessing some of the stereotypical behaviors you associate with old people like forgetting stuff, repeating herself, and other things of that sort.  Well in recent years I have noticed the same behaviors slipping into my reality more and more.  On a regular basis I catch myself telling someone something only to remember part way into it that I already told them this previously.  I also find myself calling the pets the wrong name sometimes, switching names for Elsa and Sadie as well as the chickens.  This is a behavior my grandmother on my dad’s side did all the time, calling the grandkids by the wrong name. I also randomly can walk into rooms with an intent and forget the intent once I get there.

However the most annoying thing for me is randomly forgetting names of people, things, or places of business.  I routinely can forget the name of someone I should easily know.  Like for the longest time I had a horrible struggle remembering the name of Samuel L Jackson, the guy that has probably been in more movies than anyone in the last 25 years.  I need to do some sort of word association to address these gaps when I have them, as long as I don’t forget the word association.  Hell the other day I temporarily forgot the name for Tractor Supply, seriously.  When this happens if I try to rack my brain to recall it in the moment I am rarely successful however if I just move on and try to recall it later the information pops right in.

My typing has become worse and worse.  It’s weird, sometimes I can actually “misspeak” while typing.  It’s not a typo it’s an entire word that I enter that I did not intend.  It’s crazy. The funniest recent incident was when I was pouring kefir (yogurt drink) into my juice glass last week.  After I did so I noticed it was strange that the kefir looked like it had chunks in it.  I then realized I had poured egg beaters into my glass instead.  All you can do is laugh at yourself I guess as you slowly drift off into complete madness.

Since the election I have found I have a much quicker and heavier hand with dropping the unfriend axe on anyone in social media that is still participating in Trump’s grand delusion that he actually won the election.  I wish I was more forgiving and understanding but the reality is I feel if you are that far gone I really have no interest in including you in any aspect of my life, virtually or otherwise.

I like many others in America breathed a large sigh of relief when Biden was officially announced as the winner of the 2020 election.  Also like many others I have cringed at the reactions of the hardcore Trump acolytes that believe he shits gold.  To give the Trump election strategists credit, their carefully crafted, systematic dissemination of misinformation was well planned and necessary because they saw the writing on the wall.  Their only chance for success was to try to break the back of the USPS while at the same time sowing gigantic seeds of doubt ahead of time about the results that they already knew were going to occur based on data.  It was a valiant effort but it failed.  The various legal challenges that were filed are dropping like flies based on a lack of merit as well but that was already expected as well, it was all to keep building on the narrative that the only way Trump loses at anything is when someone else has cheated.  It’s classic physiological manipulation, accusing others of doing what you are actually perpetrating yourself.

So anyway as I have mentioned many times over the last four years I mostly have dropped out of social media discussions with Trump supporters.  However now that he is on his way out, willingly or not, I have felt more inclined to call out blatant falsehoods that are still being thrown around like candy to the hungry Trump baby birds.  I mentioned how an ex-coworker of mine prior to the election was spreading the lie about Biden wanting to enact a national 3% property tax which I quickly debunked in 15 seconds with a simple search of factcheck.org.  Well evidently since the election loss this person is still busy spreading falsehoods and this one was a doozy.

There is a story being circulated that some massive fraud was committed by changing results on voting machines.  Michael Flynn’s lawyer is the one going on a bunch of shows promising a huge truth bomb would be dropped about this.  Of course she refuses to give any additional details or sources, she just says it so that is all many Trump supporters need to pick up the ball, run with it, and spread the lie across any social media platform they can.

Well once again it required nothing more than another simple search to debunk this BS as well.  The article on factcheck.org laid out the supposed conspiracy and why it is utter nonsense quite clearly, with sources and facts, something many Trump supporters feel are only for weak losers.  After all remember the President saying him retweeting false stories like this was not an act of irresponsibility it was just him throwing shit out there with no concern of validity or fact checking.  His supporters have clearly adopted a similar strategy.

So when I posted the clear rebuke of the story the ex-coworker came back with the perfect response to characterize the mindset of many Trump supporters. “you will never change my mind. The voting was a total disaster. Biden”  In other words, I don’t care about the truth and don’t even bother try to use facts against me as I am immune to them.

Another ex-classmate was posting the same nonsense and we had a longer exchange about it that went as follows.

Me – I appreciate the attempt at injecting reality into the conversation but it truly is like spitting into the wind in some circles, pointless.

MAGA – in my humble opinion, you’re both showing how closed minded liberals are, right now. This post is about our election process, and the appearance of impropriety, nothing else. I want to believe that our elections are undisputably accurate and honest. AND, I’m ok with whoever wins such an election. However, if you can look at all the potential fraudulence, and not want it looked into and corrected, then, quite frankly, YOU are the problem

Me – Sorry man, can’t go there with you. Facts and realities slide off your crew like teflon. I’m no liberal, I guess I am just more immune than some to mass brain washing. Phil and I will take our critical thinking “problem” minds elsewhere and let the ranting here continue uninterrupted.

After he said he would pray for me. I posted the same truth bomb that discredited the theory with this smart ass disclaimer – I know this is scary as it is factual but I risk sharing it here as a final attempt to startle you back into reality

MAGA – Keep your back handed, passive aggressive insults to yourselves. I’m not attacking any one. I hope this article is for real, but it does skirt some of the concerns being brought to light. Personally, I think we should vote in person, and dip our finger in ink when we do. Subsequently, representatives from all sides should be present to tally the votes. Avoid the perception of impropriety, and results would be easier to trust.

I left him alone after this as is always the case, no minds will be changed via social media, the core of your belief system will only be reinforced.

My five days off went by quickly as is always the case.  On Saturday I followed up the weed whacking I did Friday with mowing the property.  After I got done I quickly shot an updated video regarding my thoughts about the Husqvarna tractor now that I have over 35 hours on it.  I had been wanting to do that for a little while.

Saturday night Cindy and I spent some time in VR.  This time I used a link cable to hook the Quest to my computer, doing so allows you to unlock a huge collection of PC based VR titles.  I installed Google Earth and was instantly blown away by the God-like ability to go anywhere on the planet and get a 360 perspective that almost feels like you are there.  After I was blown away by it I let Cindy try.  She navigated to her hometown of Miami and visited a bunch of spots which was really cool both for me and her.  With the app I could see what she was seeing on my big computer monitor at the same time.

On Sunday I had plans to meet up with some guys from Miami to ride around Naples.  I had a bit of anxiety about it which is normal any time I am meeting up with new human beings to do something.  I loaded up my truck with three of my wheels and a bunch of gear.  I met up with Robert and Enrique a little after 12:30.  The temps were warmer than I would have preferred, scratching 90 degrees.

Both Enrique and Robert brought wheels with huge batteries.  I just sold my Gotway MSX which had the biggest battery in my fleet.  The next largest I have is my King Song 16X which is 1000WH smaller than what their wheels had.  I figured I could always swap to one of the other wheels if my battery got too low so as we headed out I just hoped for the best.

Robert is a natural speed demon and was leading the way most of the ride.  My 16X not only had a smaller battery than the other two wheels but a lower top speed.  I felt like a bit of an anchor keeping my speed around 20MPH for a good portion of the ride but the guys accommodated me.  Enrique and I talked a lot during the ride, he is closer to my age and mindset.  In total we were out on the road for something like four and a half hours, a record for me.

We also wound up covering the most distance I have ever gone in one shot on an EUC.  My app showed 43 miles at the end of it.  I was amazed when the 16X showed as having 37% battery remaining even after logging that many miles.  I knew this wheel was good on range, I did not know it was that good on range.  All three of us had a good time although I am sure Robert would have liked to keep things at a faster pace.  We talked about having them over again to do an all Veteran Sherman ride and even a venture into the swamp in the future.  I think the video does a decent job of capturing the ride.  Like is often the case, pushing yourself into situations that may initially seem uncomfortable for you often has positive results.

This is going to be a full work week.  We are doing a swap out of a number of the workstations here at the end of the week which will require considerable time Friday night and Saturday.  The good news is once this is behind us the bulk of the project will be behind us just in time for the holidays.

That is how long it took the crew from the tree trimming service to trim up 15 cabbage palms and the two large oaks in front of the house.  It was pretty amazing seeing the difference having four professionals with a chipper and chainsaw doing the work.  I was outside for most of it weeding and then weed whacking the property.  Using the chain saw instead of the loppers or sawz-all that I normally use allowed the trimmer to cut and shape the top of the tree in a much cleaner way.  Using a gas powered chain saw while on a ladder would make me too nervous but the tree trimmer ripped through the work with amazing speed.  They had a massively tall ladder that had to be at least 30 feet so even the very tall trees were easily reachable for the trimmer dude.

As fast as the guy was knocking off branches the other three guys were picking them up and tossing them into the wood chipper, making disposal of all of the debris so efficient.  They saved the oak trees for last as they required the most work.  I now understand why they cost much more than the cabbage palms.  They did a nice job of lifting and cleaning out the interior of the canopy which was filled with knotted small branches.  The trees looked so much better when they were done.

As they were starting on the last oak I asked the guy if they would be around for 30 minutes yet because I wanted to run a quick errand.  He said he thought they would still be there.  I wanted to get coffee but I also wanted to hit the ATM to get out some cash to tip the guys, even though I was paying over $700 for the service.    Well when I was about 5 minutes away from returning home I saw the tree trimming guys already heading the other way, oh well.  Overall it was a very positive experience and it definitely is the approach I will take in the future, possibly adding a couple more trees to the list.

It felt good to get the weed whacking out of the way.  I plan on letting the property dry out some more today before hitting it with the mower over the weekend.  On Sunday I will be meeting up with some EUC riders from the Miami area to cruise around Naples, should be a different way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

So Eta continued to be a pain in the ass for us yesterday.  After hooking around in the gulf not only did it briefly intensify to a cat 1 hurricane, it also drifted more east, closer to us.  The east side of a hurricane is always the wetter and windier side of things.  Looking at the forecast on Dark Sky I saw outside of a brief 1-2 hour window in the morning it was likely to be raining all day.  I viewed that as my opportunity to get my greatly reduced tree trimming task done.  The guy I am paying to do the rest was supposed to show up yesterday but didn’t because of the storms which wasn’t unexpected.  What moron trims trees during a tropical storm? This moron.

In total I trimmed 15 trees.  Of those about half of them required me to use the ladder.  Instead of using my battery powered sawz-all I went old school and used the loppers for all of the trimming.  Because of the precipitation I thought using an electric power tool may not be a great idea.  It was not pleasant as you can imagine.  Working on a wet ladder while gusty wind is buffeting you is a little dangerous.  I also almost got the Tacoma stuck by the back fill pit.

I backed down towards the pit as I always would, not accounting for how wet the ground was.  When I tried to pull out I only got a couple inches until the tires started to spin.  I did a few gentle rocking maneuvers to try to free myself to no avail.  I didn’t go nuts gunning the motor as digging a wet muddy gully would have only made it worse.  I was thinking I may have to do the walk of shame to the neighbor to ask him to pull me out but I decided to try one more thing.

In the shed I founds good sized piece of 1/2″ plywood.  I lugged it out back and put it behind the tire that was spinning.  I couldn’t move forward at all so I thought if I rolled back onto the wood and then got some traction and momentum I could break free.  Imagine my surprise when my plan actually worked.  I triumphantly returned to pick up more branches, happy in that moment that my stubbornness and resourcefulness served me well. In total I worked a little more than three hours on the project, a far cry from the 8-9 hours it can take when doing everything.  I decided to take the last two days of this already fragmented week off so I would be around for whenever the tree trimmer gets here.

So the Trump denial show continues on.  All of the cast of characters that have been licking his boots all along are scared to tell it like is, fearing retribution from the Trumpers that they are now beholden to.  It’s really insane.  The ability of the man to mind control such a large portion of American society is indeed terrifying.  I swear if he told people the best way to water plants was with Gatorade, they would accept it, blindly. Idiocracy  fans will need no explanation.  Of course the more he denies, the more he pouts, the more he sues, the more he insists in living in a self created reality, the funnier it is going to be when he leaves.  Of course what is not funny is the damage he can do on the way out the door.

I forgot to document my anger when I was doing my normal Sunday bill paying session over the weekend.  I had received my property tax bills for the two vacant lots I own at about a 90% loss compared to what I paid for them in 2003.   Every year I get reminded of the worst investment of my life when I pay the property taxes, luckily the amount is small, around $100 each.  Well when I looked at this years bills I did a double take, the total for the two lots was over $500??!!  WTF.

So I start doing some digging and look over the bill details.  There is a new $162 assessment on each bill for the Lehigh Acres fire district.  I did some searching and discovered that in August the Lehigh Acres commissioners passed this “simplified” (their term) fire assessment as compared to a normal millage rate.  This was pitched as a good thing for residents as people that live there could potentially pay less for their fire assessment while the majority of lot owners in Lehigh Acres, the ones that are vacant, pay much, much more.  This really pissed me off.

I did some digging and found the email addresses for the fire district and commissioners.  I sent them all the following email.

I was shocked when I realized my 2020 property tax bill for 2 vacant lots has increased over 500% from last year, courtesy of the new one size fits all assessment levied by your fire district. While I understand the need to adequately fund the fire services, this is a blatant and honestly disgusting money grab that I was not notified about prior to it being voted upon. For the district to do this in the middle of the world struggling to make ends meet due to the pandemic makes it even more egregious in my opinion. To pay $250 in property taxes on a lot that is valued at $4000 is insane. I would appreciate it if you could direct me to where these assessments can be disputed formally. I am really disappointed in the morality on display here. Anyone involved in this decision should be ashamed of themselves. There could have been a reasonable middle ground solution instead of shoving the responsibility mostly on top of the backs of vacant lot owners.

One person from the fire district did respond, basically directing me to a web page that talks about how great the “simplified” rate is, if you happen to live there.  The idea that the fire district was able to get away with this really irritates me.  If they went with a traditional millage rate set up my taxes would have went up $25 or so, ok that would be fine.  However they opted to choose a rate almost six times higher than that.  There are roughly 130,000 lots in Lehigh Acres, only about a third of them have a house on them.  They basically just wrote themselves a check for over 14 million dollars with this new “simplified” plan.

Since I don’t live in Lehigh Acres I have no ability to vote  on it.  Hell even the normal public referendums that would surround this sort of decision were dramatically scaled back due to Covid, the only “discussion” about it was supposedly via email.  Of course the extra $300 is not going to break me but the intent and methodology used in this money grab really rubs me the wrong way.  I just wish the lot prices in Lehigh Acres would be following the upward curve of other real estate in SW Florida, I would sell mine in a second if I could.

Monday morning we still had some strong bands of rain blowing through from ETA.  Late in the morning I decided to put on my raincoat and start pressure washing the lanai.  The gas pressure washer didn’t seem to enjoy running in the rain, it kept shutting off so I switched over to the Ryobi electric washer.  After about 15 minutes blasting away with it the wand hose broke, causing the hose to lash around wildly like a crazed snake.  Well I was only about halfway done with the work so it needed to be addressed right away.

When I looked online at Home Depot I saw they had upgraded replacement hoses in stock for a rather steep $40.  What I couldn’t believe is you could get another Ryobi pressure washer, the updated version of mine for $70.  Cindy and I drove to Home Depot and I bought BOTH items.  The thinking was we would give the old unit to Katie who could use a pressure washer.  When I got home I put the new hose on the new washer as it was longer and higher strength than what is normally included.  I then swapped the normal hose onto the old washer, awaiting donation to Katie’s household.

I continued on with cleaning the scuzz.  I had just done this no more than a couple months ago, I was very surprised just how bad it had gotten in that short amount of time.  Once I was done there I worked on undoing some of the hurricane prep that in retrospect was not all that necessary.  Better safe than sorry I suppose.

After getting all of that done I still had a good chunk of the day left to do things I wanted to do like play a little WoW, do some stuff in the 3D room, and of course play some more in VR.  Cindy recorded this the other day while I was playing Beat Saber.  Cindy played a lot of Beat Saber yesterday as well.  She is clearly better at the game than I am.

This weird week continues with me having off tomorrow for Veterans Day.  The tree trimming is still scheduled to occur tomorrow as of now.  My plan is to go around and trim the low trees I am not paying to get done and hope that they let me throw the branches into their chipper instead of me having to haul the debris out back to the fill pit.

So what is the over/under on the amount of times Trump says he was cheated out of the election?  My guess is at least 1000.  The guy takes no responsibility for his failures, ever.  Go back to the first Iowa caucus in 2016 which he lost.  Even then he claimed some sort of shady shit occurred that which was why he lost.  It’s a reflex reaction for him, blame others for his failures.