All posts by Duf

I skipped happy hour on Friday and instead got Costco and my regular grocery shopping knocked out. By the time I got home it was around 7:30 and I was hungry. I threw one of my just purchased Costco frozen pizzas into the oven which was my meal.

Saturday morning I had another session of pickleball on my rusty knees. My knees held up ok, my IT band on the right side actually was the thing that hurt the most by the time I was done playing. It’s been aching ever since. I did play a couple more games with the Temu paddle. We were playing some people that were a few notches below skill-wise so I figured handicapping myself with the cheap paddle wasn’t a bad idea. I did an official review of the paddle later in the weekend.

Saturday afternoon I decided I would take on redoing the office. My original thought was I could just pull my desk out, slide the existing 6 foot workbench to the right and then slide my desk into the corner that was now open, at an angle. I did some rough measuring and thought this would work, it didn’t. My desk was crammed in with both benches partially blocking me on the side. It wasn’t viable. So, as is often the case I came up with a new plan on the spot.

I took the workbench and turned it 90 degrees, pushing it against the right wall. I then moved the left work bench as far away from that corner as I could while still allowing the closet door to open and close. Doing these things allowed me to get the desk positioned more or less where I wanted it. I now had to move onto phase two of the project, adding a third 32 inch monitor to my set up.

I bought the monitor at Costco on Friday and I had already ordered a special stand that is designed to hold three monitors. It didn’t take long until I encountered more roadblocks. The way the desk was designed the C clamp mount for the monitors would not work as is. My solution came in the form of a piece of scrap 2 x 10 I had in the garage. I attached it to the top shelf of my desk and then attached the monitor mount to that. It actually worked well and provided a strong base to support the screens.

Assembling the mount and positioning the screens took a lot of trial and error as I messed with different layouts. I eventually decided on doing three horizontal which gives me a nice cockpit feel. It was a lot of work but I’m happy with the end result. It will take a little getting used to. My new monitor which I have in the center is a 4K monitor so I have been running it at it’s native resolution which is twice that of my existing Samsung’s. It definitely allows me to get a lot more on the screen although good eyesight is required. I did a video that outlined the work.

Saturday night I went to go see Venom with a friend of mine at the Cinebistro. Before the movie I was at the bar testing out the margaritas, they appeared to be on the strong side as I was definitely feeling it when we went into the theater. The movie was good in classic Venom style. I would give it a B+. I did not stay until the post credit scene however.

Sunday I did not feel like digging into any significant tasks. I did some more minor tweaking in the office which will probably require some additional tweaking in the future. One of the tweaks I did was toss my Quest 2 VR headset. I loved that thing when I got it and did a lot of content on it. However it was a thing I used to do a lot with Cindy. When I was cleaning stuff up in the office I looked at the headset sitting on the bench and realized that I had not used it a single time since I moved. Into the trash it went without anything resembling remorse. These sort of sudden disposals of items is something new that has only developed in me over the last couple years. If it isn’t serving me it is far, far easier for me to dispose of something than it once was. It’s an attitude that would serve me well in other parts of my life if I applied it properly.

I watched the Eagles/Bengals game. This is hard to believe but the Eagles had not beaten the Bengals in 25 years. Now they don’t play that often but still, that is a hell of a streak, plus this game was in Cincinnati. During the first half the Bengals definitely were outplaying the Eagles but the second half was all Birds. They wound up walking away with an easy victory, a rarity nowadays, breaking the 25 year winless streak.

I did not feel like making dinner so I decided instead to go to Tacos N Tequila. As always I sat at the bar. Sundays are nice because house margaritas are two for one and I took advantage of it. I had a total of six margaritas to go with my two tacos, chips and salsa as I watched the Washington/Chicago game.

Towards the end of my time there the cute female bartender plopped a slushy looking drink in front of me with no words, I just looked at her confused and smiled. When she came back around I asked what it was, I didn’t know if someone bought me a drink or what? She said it was a mango margarita. She made one for someone else and had extra so she gave it to me. It was actually quite good. I know her name and she now knows mine, making it the third female bartender I am on a first name basis with in my area. I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

I popped another three Advil after work to prepare myself for playing volleyball last night. Even with the ibuprofen flowing through my veins my knees still were not great, I could hardly jump but I was able to move around at least. My team won more than they lost and I served very well. During the one game I served 10 or 11 points in a row. I came out of play not much worse off then I went into it so I will call that a win. A couple days earlier I would have placed my odds of playing at all this week at close to zero.

Last night I quickly opened up my box that contains the $35 pickleball paddle from Temu. My initial impression is it felt/looked like a $35 paddle. I am going to try playing with it today. If it sucks that’s fine, this paddle can be the one I throw in disgust as needed.

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one. I want to tackle rearranging my office where the desk splits the two work benches instead of having it pushed against the wall. This will even out the layout and give me space to potentially add a third monitor to my setup.

I also have intentions of renting a commercial carpet cleaner to see if I can get my dingy looking carpet refreshed a bit. It’s something I have wanted to do since I moved in honestly. Replacing the flooring in the bedrooms/office with either new carpet or vinyl plank is on my list of improvements I still would like to do on the house but down the road a bit. My hope is a good cleaning of the carpet will buy me some time.

I am going to see the new Venom movie Saturday night with a friend of mine which should be fun. I also have pickleball tomorrow, the Eagles game on Sunday as well as maybe squeezing in a ride somewhere along the way.

Yesterday an old friend of mine I hadn’t communicated with much recently reached out. One of the questions he asked me how my overall happiness level was right now. I responded back that on a scale of 1-10 I would give myself a solid 5. Am I being conservative in that rating? Maybe.

I mean I have a lot going for me. First and foremost I still have my health which really is one of the most important things to try to preserve and maintain as time marches on. Sure I have chronic joint issues but I have learned to live with and work around them. I have a good job that is setting me up for a good retirement in half a decade. I’m stable, responsible and have the ability to do pretty much anything I want to do. All of those things should add up to more than a 5 if I look at it logically.

I read a quote from Hemmingway recently, “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know” I’m not claiming to be a genius but perhaps the way my mind works, which in many ways has benefited me in my life, is also a roadblock when it comes to feeling a sense of true happiness. It’s far too busy overthinking situations, problems, and relationships to have time to bask in the glow of happiness.

As mentioned previously my knees have been very painful since last week. When I got up yesterday it was the same story. My left knee was especially a problem where I would get a sudden jolt of pain doing nothing other than just taking a normal step or so it seems. Despite waking up that way I maintained my reservation to play pickleball with my lunchtime crew later in the day.

The shots of pain continued throughout the morning but I downed three Advil and headed to the courts anyway. Even as I got out of my car at the courts there I was still feeling it yet somehow, I played. I played the entire session without a significant issue which was extremely surprising to me.

Late yesterday afternoon I was invited to play again last night with my friends that I have not seen or played with in awhile. In my mind I knew that I already had pressed my luck by playing at lunch, playing for a second time would be foolish, yet I agreed. I took my second regimen of Advil and played another 90 minutes. I had some mild pain here and there but for the most part was ok. I don’t really know how I was able to play twice on the same day where I woke up with sharp pains in the joints. I’ll just attribute it to good fortune. I plan to push my luck once again tonight by playing volleyball. After play last night the four of us had dinner at Bruninas. We sat at a table instead of the bar which felt very foreign to me. Meaghan wasn’t working last night so it wasn’t a huge deal.

Yesterday my pickleball paddle from Temu finally arrived. I have spent a ton of money on paddles since I started the sport, paying as much as $330 for one. I bought this paddle as an experiment. Some people I play with have bought these paddles and have said good things about them, saying they are basically the same thing as name brand paddles without all of the markup. I paid less than $40 for the paddle. The box that it came in was as generic as generic could be. I will definitely be doing a video documenting my thoughts about this one.

Last night I made my first attempt at getting the tubeless tire centered better on the rim to get rid of the thump I am feeling at higher speed. At first I tried deflating the tire to less than 10 PSI and then just rolling around as I sat on it which proved unsuccessful. I then totally deflated the tire and massaged it by hand trying to eyeball the tire to determine if it is seated evenly. After several reinflate and test ride cycles the annoying thump was still felt. My patience reservoir had expired by that point so I shelved the task until another time. I have to get it corrected as riding the wheel when it feels this way just isn’t enjoyable.

Last night for some reason I went back and watched the Warcraft movie which came out in 2016. The movie was greatly anticipated by the millions of Warcraft nerds like me but it received pretty negative reviews. When I first saw it I recall thinking it wasn’t bad. When I went back and watched it last night I felt it was even less bad. Maybe like fine wine, it has improved with age.

Again last night I had a weird sleep sequence where I passed out sort of suddenly while watching TV in bed and then woke up with all the lights on at 11PM. This is a sequence I hope to not be repeating for long as it makes falling back asleep extremely challenging for me. My mind fires up about whatever it is concerned about at that moment and it feels like a 1000 gallon tub of water can’t put it out. I’m still going Unisom free, hoping that natural exhaustion will take over.

I did have a weird set of dreams last night that I only remember fragments of. One of them involved me quitting my job. I remember having a number of people question the wisdom of doing so as I was so close to receiving the full 30 year pension. I don’t recall why I did so or my response to the naysayers.

I have been using AI to produce summary “podcasts” of my live streams for a month or two. This last live stream was so long online transcription engines would not digest the file unless I was willing to pay a fee. I am resourceful however and eventually found a way to get the stream converted into text. I fed that text into Google’s NotebookLM and got a 20 minute recap of 330 minutes of content. The output was a bit glitchy as it repeated itself a couple times but overall AI did a decent job of interpreting what was a HUGE amount of conversation.

Last night I did another stress test on my newly tubeless Master V4 that was suggested by a channel viewer. I put the wheel up onto the tailgate of my Tacoma and then let is fall down as I guided it to the driveway 3 feet or more below, putting significant stress on the tire. The wheel/tire survived the test. Tonight I hope to be able to get the tire properly seated so I no longer feel a thump while riding.

I got a couple of my 3D printed stands assembled as well last night so I have some inventory available on my store once again. As I was assembling them an idea entered my head regarding the layout of my office. I am thinking about putting my desk in the corner opposite the door and then have workbench’s flanking it on either side. Doing this would not only look more symmetrical but also give me an opportunity to add another monitor to my set up, for a total of, gasp, three.

As I was watching Tulsa King later on I had an extreme wave of sleepiness hit me. I almost felt like I was drugged. I woke up about an hour later. Because of the timing of the nap it made it difficult for me to fall back asleep when I actually wanted to. Quality sleep is something that I no longer rely on and am instead surprised by.

I have been doing some recollecting lately of where I was in life last year at this time. It was a place of make believe where I was investing so much of myself into a situation that in reality was not worth lifting a finger for. It’s concerning to me that I allowed myself to fall into such a place. I hope to never find myself in such a state again.

We had good weather once again this weekend albeit on the windy side. The wind was a factor during my Saturday morning pickleball session causing me to make more unforced errors than I normally make. After the roughly three hour session my knees were feeling terrible. The combination of doing lower body weight training for the first time in weeks combined with returning to volleyball seemed to have really done a number on them. As I was walking I would get sudden shooting pains that would make me start limping from time to time. I took some Advil to help mask the symptoms which helped a bit.

During the afternoon I headed in the backyard with my Dewalt nailer. The hurricane and persistent winds since then had knocked loose a number of my fence boards. I used the nailer to resecure them, at least for now. In certain spots I am going to have to do additional work to shore up pieces of wood the boards nail into as they are deteriorated. Regardless it is always fun using the nailer, driving in brad nails with the push of a button is satisfying for some reason.

Saturday night I grabbed dinner at Tacos and Tequila where I had a couple house margaritas along with my food. When I got home I fired up a planned live stream. I was given authorization to give away five Pidzoom mirrors so I thought a live stream was a good way to do so.

For whatever reason I was in the mood to ramble and ramble I did. The stream was the longest I ever had, covering over five and a half hours which is borderline insane. I believe I shut things down around 2AM. I didn’t actually fall asleep until after 3:30 AM as it’s tough for me to shut my brain down immediately after something like that. Despite being up so late I got out of bed before 9AM, somehow.

I drank a combo of beer and Cayman Jack on the stream but actually did not feel as awful as I would have imagined when I got up. I had a pretty normal morning right up till it was time for the Eagles game. The Eagles put a hurting on the Giants in Saquan Barkely’s return. He ran all over them piling up 170 yards plus while the Giants could do next to nothing offensively themselves. It was a good win.

After the game I put on my gear and headed out on the Master for it’s first real ride since I had the crash. The intent was to put the tubeless tire through some stress testing since this wheel is technically not suited for a tubeless configuration. I found myself feeling a bit of trepidation on the wheel since the last time I rode it what happened, happened. There also was a small vibration that kept my speed down as I think the tire needs to be centered on the rim better.

I did do a number of drops off of curbs as well as riding down stairs at Baker Park intended to see if the tubeless tire would remain air tight. I measured my pressure before the ride and after to make this determination. I actually gained a half PSI during the ride due to the tire heating up, confirming the tubeless tire seems road worthy. Now I need to see if I can get it centered so the ride is thump free.

I spent most of what remained in my evening editing the footage. As I laid in bed last night I found my mind wandering about what is next in my path and not coming up with any clear answers. What a surprise.

I left work early yesterday to take Elsa to the vet for her annual checkup. As usual she was trembling as we waited in the room for the staff to arrive. She chilled out slightly as the exam went on once she realized nothing horrific was happening. She got a clean bill of health which I was happy to hear. I received a nice bill for that clean bill of health which always seems to be the case.

Last night I made my return to playing volleyball after roughly a month of missing it. The weather was on the cool side which I did not mind at all but it was also very windy which I did mind. Strong winds can make playing pretty frustrating.

I also got paired up AGAIN with the woman that I have mentioned in here twice before, the out, out, OUT one. Once again she struggled badly to perform some of the basic skills like passing or setting a ball. We only won a single game all night. I did my best to keep my frustration hidden behind the curtain this time but man, I really don’t want to play with this woman, ever. My play was pretty good all things considered and at least I exited the court with no significant injuries despite throwing myself all over the place as usual.

This weekend has mostly an open outlook. I am planning to live stream Saturday night, play pickleball and get some riding in on my newly repaired Master to test the new tubeless tire configuration. I’ll fill in the rest of the blanks as I feel like I suppose.

After getting home last night I did not waste much time before getting outside to pull down the hurricane shutters. I made sure to note my start time as I was curious how long removal would take after the install took roughly an hour. The answer was 25 minutes. Not only was removal easy but I now have the panels stored in order which will make installation the next time go even faster. It felt nice to have visibility out my windows once again.

The shutter removal went so quickly I had plenty of time to work on finishing up the rebuild of my Master V4. After using the parts that I received the day before to reattach the new seat I reinstalled the Clark Pad hardware to restore the wheel to it’s former glory, albeit a little more scraped up version of it.

After finishing up the reassembly I took it out for a very brief test ride to verify functionality. Everything appears to work. I need to go do some testing of the tubeless tire durability, namely doing things like dropping off curbs and going down some stairs to see how well it remains air tight.

So even though I had a very busy evening I found time to chill out on the lanai for a bit. Our first significant cool front of the fall has arrived, pushing the overnight temps into the 60’s. It felt absolutely fantastic. I look forward to spending more time in a similar manner as more enjoyable weather becomes the norm the next several months.

Tonight I am planning to make my return to playing volleyball after nearly a month off that was partially thanks to my crash. I did lower body weight training on Tuesday and my legs feel absolutely awful right now as a result. I am hoping by this evening at least some of the soreness subsides else it is going to be a long and painful night.

Last night I had a tentative plan to work more on my Master as I was supposed to be getting the remaining parts I need for the job in the mail. For whatever reason mail delivery at my place is not very consistent and the mailman did not show up until well after 7PM so I scrapped the idea. It may be part two of tonight’s plan.

Part one tonight is going to be removing the hurricane shutters from the windows. The storm that was potentially predicted for our area looks like a false alarm and I am tiring of having limited visibility outside. It took be about an hour to put them up. I am hoping I can take them down in half of that time. In the process of doing so I will be able to organize the storage of the shutters sequentially which will make installation the next time smoother instead of the piece meal process I went through this time.

Today is my sister Torrin’s 50th birthday. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of her being 50, adding to my already bountiful paranoia about getting older than dirt. I know she is not a big fan of the idea either.

I had a busy weekend after my two day work week thanks to Hurricane Milton. Saturday after playing pickleball I worked on various tasks around the house during the afternoon. Later in the afternoon I got a call from my buddy Jason who I have ridden wheels with a number of times . He told me surprisingly that he has lost interest in riding. He lost it so much that he asked me if I wanted to buy his two wheels.

I was very surprised by this and tried repeatedly to talk him out of it, sharing stories of how I have had my interest come and go over time but I always come back to it. He had already made up his mind however. He didn’t want to even deal with the hassle of selling the wheels himself. His thought was to sell them to me cheap enough that I could turn around and sell them for a small profit that I could put towards future wheel purchases.

The last thing I really needed was two more wheels but I agreed to do it both to help him out and to hopefully generate a few extra bucks, it won’t be a windfall by any means. I made arrangements to meet him somewhat halfway between Naples and Cape Coral where we did the exchange. It was a situation I absolutely did not expect. On Sunday I rode the wheel and did a video describing what went down.

On Saturday I decided to go to Carrabas to visit Helen, it was nice to catch up with her.

Besides riding on Sunday and doing the associated video editing I watched the Eagles/ Browns game. The Browns are statistically one of the worst teams in the league but stayed in the game the entire way, remaining tied into the fourth quarter. The Birds squeaked out a 20-16 win but I was finding it very difficult to be motivated to watch the team. It’s just not fun. After the game I went to Tacos and Tequila to eat dinner and get a little drunk on four margaritas.

I went to one of our remote offices both Saturday and Sunday to revert a work around we did on Friday for a power problem. The power issues were supposed to be fixed both of those days, it wasn’t. I was less than pleased.

I told Larry I was going to write something regarding breaking traditions in relation to a situation he is mulling over. I have always been a person that is yearning for routine as well as participating in traditions. With Halloween being roughly two weeks away it got me thinking about traditions once again and specifically how I have been letting a lot of them fade away.

For a long time I would decorate for Halloween. I would have various inflatables in the yard along with other decorations both in and outdoors. I thought it was fun and thought others enjoyed my efforts like Cindy, her daughter and later baby DJ. However this year you are seeing the extent of my Halloween decorations, I changed the LEDS by the garage to orange, done. Christmas may also see a drastic yet similar shift in the amount of f’s I give about maintaining those traditions.

In a nutshell, to me, if a tradition is no longer serving you or has become more hassle than it’s worth, it’s not a tradition I am interested in entertaining any further. As I mentioned this also has applied to my various routines that for so long seemed like they were made out of stone. Instead I realized they are simply made of sand that can be brushed away and reshaped in any manner I so choose. Is there an element of sadness from walking away from things you traditionally have done? Yes, at least for me there is. However I have been continuing focus on what I want to do as opposed to things I feel obligated to do for reasons that just don’t matter that much anymore. That’s my two cents and it might be worth less than that.