All posts by Duf

Yesterday at the gym was back and ab day.  Even on back and ab day I managed to tweak my knees.  How you ask? T-bar rows is the answer.  In a T-bar row, you grab a bar that looks like a T, on the end of it you slide on plates.  Then you bend your legs, lean forward a bit and pull the bar towards you, trying to concentrate on using your back for the movement.  Well the movement of pulling 135 pounds up and down caused both of my knees to shoot little painful reminders that they were not in good shape.  I normally do three sets of these, I quit halfway into the second set.

The other day I saw a woman at the gym I hadn’t seen in at least a month.  It soon became apparent why I hadn’t seen her.  She had her face pulled back and her lips plumped.  This woman is no spring chicken, closer to 60 than 50 I would imagine.  She already had the big fake boobs and looked like she already had some other work done.  Well now it was even more painfully obvious she was tweaked.  Her mouth and lips looked like the sort you slap on a Mr Potato head, just totally unnatural.  Her face was stetched to the point where her features look noticeably different. I couldn’t help myself from shooting little looks at her throughout my workout, bounced off mirrors of course, to examine her new face.  Freaky. 

I just setup Microsoft Sharepoint Services 3.0 at work to use for our intranet.  Wow it is some awesome stuff, and it is free.  You can set up a kick ass intranet in a few hours.  All you need is Windows 2003 Server and to download the software off Microsoft’s site.  It is extremely powerful yet flexible at the same time.  I also got my copy of Microsoft Vista that I installed on a test box at work.  I really love the UI.  I am getting very tempted to throw it on my home box. (after a complete backup of course)

I don’t have much else going through my mind today, it was a stretch to jot down what I have here.  Some days I feel chatty, some days I am a blank slate. 

The next target in my sites is to get my sprinkler project going.  I talked to my Dad about it when he called me about coming to visit.  He strongly recommended I look into renting one of those trenching machines.  I knew about them but for some reason wrote it off as too expensive.  Well I called Home Depot and I can rent one for 8 hours for like 90 bucks, a bargain in my book.  It will dramatically cut down the time involved with digging out for pipe. 

There are many things I need to get started on for the project.  I want to get some little flags so I can mark where sprinkler heads are going to go.  I need to rip up the patio stones and wood border I have in front of the well line so I can T into it to supply the sprinkler system.  I already callled to arrange to have the buried telephone and electric lines marked.  I still need to get the buried television cable marked.

There is a lot to do and to be honest I am worried that my poor planning skills are going to result in unforseen issues with the install.  However I think the most important parts are getting the T into the main line and the manifold built to separate the property into different watering zones.  After that, any screw ups along the way can be corrected pretty easily. 

I’m looking forward to the challenge and dreading it a bit at the same time.

My recap of the weekend was delayed by a very busy work day on Monday, followed by some problems with my webhost this morning.  As expected, the weekend was very memorable.

 On Friday evening we had to finish up stuffing the gift bags and then pack the van AND the truck with all the stuff.  Earlier in the day our neighbor loaded up some of the stuff in his car and then later Friday night our friend Michelle came out and we threw several more boxes in her SUV.  Even with doing that, both of our vehicles were packed with junk.  If we didn’t offload some of those boxes we wouldn’t have been able to deliver everything with one trip.

We got everything ready to go and had intentions of trying to get to bed early since the alarm was set for 4:15 am.  Somehow we still managed to not go to bed until after 10.  When the alarm fired off the next morning it almost seemed surreal, like I was dreaming it was going off.  Nope it was reality.

So I crawl out of bed and start telling Ali to get up.  Both of our asses are dragging but we soon became more energized as the impending excitement of Ali putting on an event she has been planning for 6 months drew nearer.  We were out the door by about 4:45 am and hit the race site almost right at 5:30 am. Two and a half hours should be plenty to do what we had to do, I thought. We pulled up to where the finish line was going to be first, at the Humane Society. Two of the people from the Gulf Coast Runners club were already there to set up the finish line and timing device.  Ali gave them a brief outline of how things should go.  The two of them took off for a quick run.  For some, running becomes so ingrained in their daily activities it is almost like going to the bathroom, if you don’t do it, you feel all backed up.

So while they took off, Ali and I unloaded the food and then went out to the main road to set up signs to direct people for parking.  The layout for the race was admittedly a bit confusing.  The finish line was at the humane society.  The registration area was more than a 1/4 mile south of the finish line at the Civil Air patrol building, the start line was about 1/4 mile further south from there, so the parking signs hopefully would help direct people to the right spot.  As we set them up, we saw the sign Ali had rented to tell people about the road being closed temporarily for the race.  You can see the pictures of it and other stuff here. 

After we posted the signs we went back to the finish area to get all the stuff together for the registration area.  It took awhile to get everything coordinated so we could get down there.  Ali was getting pulled a dozen different ways with questions from various people.  Eventually we got down to the registration area.  When we got there, there was an older guy that met us and immediately he gave the feeling of being rushed and distressed.  We had to get the registration area setup before the runners started showing up.  At the registration area things REALLY got hectic.  Everyone wanted a piece of Ali to ask her what went where and how things were supposed to go.  We just barely got the gift bags all out and the tables set up before the first runners started to already show up, a good 20 minutes before the posted 7am, packet pickup start time.

Well things were really getting crazy.  No sooner did Ali get to throw down the registration lists on the tables and bark out some quick instructions on how stuff should go, than people lined up to sign in.  It was nuts.  Ali actually started to assist in the registration process but I told her that she had to get out of there and set up the water stop and the rest of the course.  She agreed and shot off to get the course ready.

Before we got there, Ali told me she basically wanted me to be the one to get the food all ready to go at the finish, however after she left we had to try to maintain some sort of order to the chaos of a constant stream of runners coming in.  I quickly taped together a box for donations for the Humane Society but had nothing to label it with.  I taped up signs in front of the tables to direct pre-registered runners to one table and day of runners to another.  Unfortunately, once you have a horde of people in front of the tables, you can’t see the signs so they were worthless.

The registration area soon became a beehive of people.  We  had volunteers shouting out which line to stand in for pre-registered runners versus day of race registrants.  We only had two lists of pre-registered people so we only had two people checking runners in, which was not enough.  The pre-registered line was getting 15-20 people deep.  Runners that signed up that day walked up to the other table, that had little to no line, paid their money, got their gift bag and were done, much sooner than the pre-registered people.  It was ass backwards. 

My duties varied during this time, I answered questions, collected donations, shouted out directions and manned the day of registration table.  We had a raffle going on after the race.  After registering, people had to go to a separate table to enter the raffle which seemed inefficient to me as well.  It was a crazy hour or so.  

Another problem became apparent.  The two port-o-potties we had at the registration area were not enough.  Runners always have nervous bladders before a race.  There were huge lines to use the two portable toilets.  We could have used at least four.  Ali had received over 250 pre-registered runners and on top of that we got many more day of registrants than expected.  We were taking checks and money as fast as we could grab them.  People came up right until the very start of the race, and in a couple cases, a few minutes after it started, to participate.

One of the different things about this race was that dogs were allowed to run/walk with their owners.  I couldn’t believe how many people took advantage of it.  I bet over 40 human / dog combos showed up.  All sorts of dogs from tiny to huge signed in.  I was doing rough estimating in my head and with all the walk up runners, Ali had well over 300 people in this event, maybe closer to 350.  That is an AMAZING number to get for a first year race.  All the effort Ali put in to getting the word out had definitely paid off.

Finally the last straggling runner headed down to the start and I had to get to the finish to attend to the food.  I hoped that some of the volunteers at the finish had picked up the slack and started on it.  I hopped in my truck and raced up there.  I was relieved to see they already had all the food set up, albeit not in the location Ali had wanted.  However in retrospect, the spot they chose worked out much better, we had too many runners to cram into the space Ali originally designated.

Very shortly after I got there, the first runner was already coming in to view.  He was all alone and flying.  He covered the 3.75 mile course in just about 20 minutes.  He smoked the rest of the field, winning by almost a full two minutes.  After that, people continued to come in for the next 45 minutes with the last participants walking across the line a little over an hour after the start.

I tried to take a few pictures at the finish but found myself busy maintaining two water jugs to make sure they were filled.  As I was there, the one woman that registered late and barely had time to run down to the start asked me if I remembered her and how she didn’t get a shirt.  I told her I did.  We only had a few shirts left and they were only medium and large sizes.  She opted for a medium that I ran and got for her.  Another late registrant whom had a poodle with her asked if it was too late for her to enter the raffle.  I told her no, I asked her her name.  I found a piece of paper and pen and wrote it down to put in the box.  I found Ali and asked her where the box was.  She said it was locked in Michelle’s car.  What??  Somehow she locked her keys in the car, however they called a locksmith and hoped they would be there shortly.  That made me panic a bit.  This raffle that we promised the runners could not go off without that box.  I waited a bit and when I didn’t see Michelle show up I asked Ali if I should go to the registration area and see how things are going.  She said yes.

The truck and van were blocked in by runners so I hopped on Ali’s mountain bike to ride down there.  Her seat was probably a foot too low for my long legs so I stood and pedaled for most of the distance.  I hauled ass down there only to not see Michelle anywhere.  I got a call from Ali shortly i got fdown there saying Michelle was up at the finish and had the raffle entries, whew.

So I pedal back up as quick as I can.  I see the raffle box and I deposit the entry I wrote for that lady earlier.  The food area is packed with runners just shooting the shit while eating and drinking,  people seem to be enjoying themselves.  Having the dogs around definitely added to the fun.  There is a picture I took of one dog that cooled off by sitting in a big pan of water, it looked so cute.

As Ali was behind the prize table, there were quite a few runners that came up to her and complimented her on the race and how it was run.  They all said pretty much the same thing, usually first year races suck, this one was well attended, well organized and just all around well done.  It really made Ali proud to hear those sort of comments as well it should.    

Then a request was made that the stuff left out on the course gets picked up so me and one of the main human society employees went out in his truck and picked up the few cones and tables that were still out there.  By the time we got back they were done with the raffle already and were on to the awards.  Ali was running the show and handled the mic like a pro.  She was well spoken, funny and just did a fantastic job for someone who never got behind a mic before.  A lot of people bolt after grabbing some chow and drink so there were quite a few people that won awards that were not present.  It’s a normal thing but always a bit of a bummer.  The one guy that wrote in the results had handwriting that was very tough to read so Ali really had to struggle to make out some names.  There also were some mistakes in the results that made for some red faced moments, however all in all they went just fine.  Ali wrapped it up and the remaining crowd quickly dispersed quickly from there.  Ali did it, it was an awesome event that exceeded anyone’s expectations.  Even with the early chaos during registration, it all worked out and we learned things that will make the event run smoother next year.  In total, Ali’s efforts will have generated over 5k for the Humane Society, quite an accomplishment. Thanks to all the hands, clean up was done in less than a half an hour.

There were lots of memorable moments during the race.  When I was at registration, a little girl came up and handed me an envelope.  She said that in the envelope there were donations that they collected for the humane society.  It was at least a couple hundred dollars.  She was so cute.  I thanked her very much and told her I would make sure they got taken care of.  Things were so hectic that I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to express how awesome of an act I thought that was. 

At the finish line, the first woman across was standing near the table where you turned in your time card.  She was an attractive woman with a typical lean runner’s body.  However as she was standing there she coughed up some mucus that was hanging off her mouth for what seemed forever, it was like and 18 inch stream of mucus, just dangling.  Talk about an unglamourous moment.  Eventually she just spit it out.

The graciousness of many of the runners who thanked Ali and many of the volunteers for putting on a good race was quite satisfying.  People genuinely enjoyed the event. 

Once we got home and unloaded Ali crashed and took a nap for almost four hours.  I initially refused to nap and started working on house chores, however after a couple hours I felt like a zombie and actually laid down for maybe an hour of off and on light napping.  It actually wasn’t too bad getting stuff done, I over estimated the amount of work I would have to do after the race. Quite a few times I told Ali how proud was of her for how she handled the race.

I made up a survey for the web site so runners could tell us what they thought about the race.  Surprisingly, quite a few took the time to go there and answer a few questions.  The response was overwhelmingly positive with the only consistent negative thing being too few port-o-potties at the start.  Ali and I got the results for the race up later that same night.

Sunday morning was surprisingly laid back.  We had stuff to do for the Super Bowl party but since people weren’t going to show until at least 5:30 we had lots of time.  I got to f around in WoW for a good chunk of the morning.  The weather was cool and gray so it was a good day to just stay inside and veg out.  Several times Ali and I commented how it reminded us of a PA day.

Sunday afternoon we got stuff together.  Ali drew up the betting board for the party.  The bets were all the same as last year except for one.  Instead of “Will Jerome Bettis score a touchdown” the bet was “Will the Bears defense score a touchdown?”  We only had four people over (5 if you include little baby Parker).  We invited our neighbors over too.  They have zero interest in sports or football but I figured they could still enjoy the gambling and drinking aspects of the event as well as the funny commercials. Unfortunately they couldn’t make it.

The game itself was really sloppy because of the rain.  Six first half turnovers is unheard of.  It did keep things exciting however.  I drank something like four Zimas and ate like a frickin pig.  I felt disgusting afterward.  For some reason, drinking for me makes me inhale food, I don’t really know why.  Our friends with the baby left around halftime so we watched the rest of the game with the other couple.  One downfall of watching a superbowl while hosting or attending a party is you just don’t get to pay close attention to things.  I missed quite a few commercials or only heard/saw parts of many others.  There were quite a few funny ones I saw, more funny ones that I didn’t see. 

The game itself turned into pretty much of a blowout, more so than the final score indicated.  The Colts dominated time of possession while the Bears offense turned totally inept.  I was glad to see the Colts win for Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning’s sake.  They have had it in the works for a long time.  I have to admit I was a bit turned off when Dungy made some comment along the lines of he was glad to win to show that a Christian coach could get it done.  An odd thing to mention but I guess that was important to him to get out.  Although I always have found it humorous for athletes and coaches to thank God for their victories, as though God gives 2 shits about who wins a sporting event. Eh, whatever. I was the big winner on the betting board, I probably got a 50% return on my $8.50 investment!

So by the time our guests took off and we cleaned up it was after 10:30.  Ali and I both were exhausted and collapsed into bed.  The alarm came way too early Monday morning.  It was a great weekend.  One of the best in a long time.   

I have discovered an alternative way our military personnel can interrogate prisoners in Abu Gahrib. Instead of stripping them naked and have dogs bark at them, make them stuff gift bags for a race.  Wow what fun that is.

Ali has been collecting stuff over the last 6 months to be put into gift bags that are handed out to the runners when they register.  She was planning on making 300 bags.  She was talking about inviting people out to our place to help stuff the bags but wound up not doing it, making the assumption that they would not want to come out to our place on a Thursday night.  Well that proved to be a large tactical miscue.

Ali brought all of the stuff out that was to be put into the bags and stacked it on our kitchen island, totally filling it.  I knew she had a lot of stuff to go into the bags but didn’t realize it was this much.  There were 12-15 items AND 12 pamphlets/pieces of paper to go into each bag.  So we started the process.  Our original technique was for us both to grab a bag and walk around the island picking up one of each item and depositing it in the bag.  It only took a couple trips around until I was fed up with the process.  I immediately deemed it as inefficient.  The problem was when you were grabbing the pamphlets/paper they were constantly sticking together so you were stopped for an extended period of time each time you added one piece of paper to the bag.  So I came up with plan B.  I would gather all the paper stuff in one area and be solely responsible for putting it together in one big bundle that Ali could simply grab and stuff in the bag.  While I did this Ali would continue going around grabbing the other items.

This method was definitely faster but not any less monotonous.  It was just taking way too long, we needed at least a half dozen people or more doing this.  But we didn’t have a half dozen people so we had no choice but to just grind through the process.  Making the paper packets was not fun by any means.  After standing in one spot for an extended period of time putting stuff together my shitty knees were swelling and aching, so I pulled up one of the bar stools and tried doing it from a seated position.  That was ok for awhile but soon trying to reach across the table with my arms extended time and time again made my shoulders burn.  So for awhile I alternated between standing and sitting, using each method until the discomfort reached levels enough to make me switch.  After 2 hours of paper pulling neither was working for me so I picked up all the paper and moved it to the ottoman and I sat on the sofa.  Soon those angles caused my back to ache so I moved to the floor, then my ass hurt so I moved to the chair.  You get the idea, it was just crazy.  I threw in the towel a little after 11.  After 3 hours of busting ass we only had half of the bags done.  It was frustrating.

 I showered and went to bed.  Ali stayed up until who knows when working on more details.  I took some pictures of what our kitchen looked like this morning, like I said it was pretty amazing.

Ali told me our neighbor came over and helped knock out a bunch of shit this morning which is a huge help.  Tomorrow morning we have to get up insanely early in order to get to the race site by 5:30 or so.  Then on Sunday we are hosting a Super Bowl party for a few of our friends.  So after an exhausting Saturday we will have to turn right around and get the house cleaned up and do party prep.  It will certainly be one of the busiest weekends on recent record but probably in the end, one of the most satisfying as well.  Hard work is almost always looked back on with pride, right? 

Yesterday I went to the gym after work.  As I was back on one of the stations at the cable machine I was next to an older couple.  The man was quite overweight, had permanently red cheeks and was obviously laboring badly just to move from machine to machine.  His wife wasn’t working out, she was sort of supervising, encouraging, although she certainly looked like she could benefit from exercise as well.  She stood behind him as he exercised, at one time she was rubbing his shoulders, it was sweet.

 Well I immediately noticed he had no idea how to use the equipment.  After seeing him struggling I told them if they had any questions on how to use stuff feel free to ask me.  He was happy to hear my offer and immediately asked me how the station that is used for overhead triceps extensions worked.  After I explained it he said “Woah, I don’t think I am ready for that yet, it is my first time here!”  I told him if it was his first time he didn’t want to overdo it.  He told me how he was trying to shape up, he said he could hardly get around anymore which was apparent from my observations earlier.  He asked me how much I weighed, I told him about 190.  He chuckled and said “I weigh 294”  His wife said “Oh you shouldn’t tell him that!”  I just laughed.  She asked me how tall I was, six foot six or seven?  I told her I was only 6’3″ or 4.  She laughed and said “Oh well, he will be there in a year!”  I told him that at least he was there doing something about it.  He laughed and agreed.  A few minutes later I corrected him on how to use the bicep curl machine.  They both thanked me enthusiastically.  After that, I got tied up in a conversation with a guy I know from JFZ gym so I lost track of how my new old buddy was doing.

I suppose everyone has weird habits or quirks.  I certainly have my share.  One of the things I have done for as long as I can remember is work pressure points on my body and not in the way you would conventionally think.  I squeeze together, pinch, bite or rub parts of my body together.  For example, many times throughout the day, without thought, I will push on the area of my fingers on the side of my nails.  I just push.  The sensation is a hard to describe.  I often will rub the inside of my thumb with the top joint in my index finger, again just kind of pressing and grinding the area together.  I’ve done it so long that I have callouses in those areas. 

Sometimes I will bite the inside of my cheek, on purpose.  It hurts but feels good at the same time.  I actually have been making a conscious effort to curtail this particular quirk ever since a dental hygienist years ago told me the practice could lead to mouth cancer.

I even have a pressure point on my face that I will work sometime, right at the top of my cheekbones, almost eye high.  I will take some sort of fabric and press and grind it against the bone.  Again it hurts but it doesn’t at the same time.  It is a very strange behavior if I stand back and observe myself.  I have no idea what it came from but it has become so ingrained in my state of being I do it constantly without even knowing it.

On Tuesday after work I did a bunch of non-impact cardio at the gym.  On Wednesday I had deep aching in my knees that let me know whatever is wrong is going to be sticking around for awhile.  It is rather depressing to regress after I thought I had cleared the hurdle and was back and able to resume running and/or volleyball.  Now everything is touch and go again. Damn it.

We are on the home stretch before Ali’s big race.  She has over 170 people pre-registered already with a couple days to go, a great number.  It is going to be a very hectic 3 days, there is so much to get done.  I’m proud of her though for tying it all together.  Even though she is somewhat like me in her general dislike of dealing with people, when she does, she is a very good communicator and leaves people with a very good impression. 

For a long time I have needed to get some new pants for work.  A bunch of my Gap khaki’s were literally falling apart.  The cuffs at the bottom were fraying and a couple pair started to fray right by the zipper.  They have been that way for a long time but I just kept putting off buying new pants.  I just hate spending money on clothes.  Well I finally had enough on Monday and went online to gap.com and bought myself 4 new pair of pants.  Thank God for the internet, it allows me to clothe myself without stepping foot in a store.

Here are the pictures of the aftermath of my Christmas tree removal.  As you can see, the needle carnage was quite extreme.  I don’t know if I will try to push the limits of xmas tree longevity next year.  It was quite the mess.

We have an annoying situation at work.  Ever since I have worked here there have been issues with parking.  When I first started here, the first row of our parking lot was reserved for the general public to use, the rest was open game.  We also had the ability to use the church parking lot that was right next door to us.  During the heart of the day, parking has always been a challenge to find.  Well as time passed, the parking situation has become increasingly more annoying, and the lion share of the blame comes from people associated with the church that have nothing better to do than whine and complain about the use of spaces that they don’t use.

A couple years ago the church started putting home made signs on certain spots that indicated CHURCH PARKING ONLY.  If a car was parked in such a spot and the church nazi’s inside witnessed the driver walking towards the government center, they would scurry out and leave a ominous warning on the windshield.  It was annoying bullshit.  Eventually an edict was passed down that we were only allowed to park in the one row of the church lot, adjacent to us.  The county actually pays the church for the use of these spots.

Well a little over a year ago, the county broke ground on a large parking garage that consumed a huge block of parking for county employees.  At that time we were told that construction should only take 6 months and after that time period we could go back to our normal parking situation.  The county went as far as to repaint all the wheel stops in each parking space.  The ones that county employees were allowed to park in were painted green, all others were painted white and tagged PUBLIC ONLY.  Several memos were passed around saying how we should want to better serve our customers and make that parking available to them, they expected us to either park at the green spaces around the far edges of the parking area or park in a parking garage that was ridiculously far away from our office on the far end of the large complex.

When this initial edict came down there was a huge backlash from the employees.  If I parked in that garage I would literally consume half of my lunch hour getting to and from my vehicle which is just total bullshit.  Many people griped about even parking on the far edges of the parking lot because in many cases it doubled or triple the amount of time it took to walk into the building.  Eventually the uproar settled down and people generally just parked in those green spaces or in the first row of the church lot like good little boys and girls.  We complied because it was only temporary and once this massive garage was built the public would have tons of places to park.  Our office employees generally followed the parking rues, however there were tons of county employees from other departments that parked wherever the f they wanted, which added to our frustration.

Well a couple months ago the new garage finally opened, not 6 months but nearly a year after they broke ground.  Finally, we can be done with the bullshit.  Even with the garage open, almost all of our employees continued to still park on the far reaches of the lot and in our designated row in the church, it had become habit by then. The county went around and repainted all the PUBLIC ONLY spots, plain white. Yay the bullshit is over.

 Well yesterday a new edict comes down from the county manager.  He wants employees to use the new parking garage.  He rambles on about how we have it good compared to other county parking situations and how we should no longer park in the church lot at all.  After they just had painted all the wheel stops, they ONCE AGAIN went around and painted PUBLIC ONLY on the spots.  This memo infuriated both me and most of the people I talked to at work.  I immediately saw through the memo as a knee jerk response to appease a few people associated with the church.  There is nothing that annoys me nearly as much as broad strokes that affect the many to appease the whining few that have nothing better to worry about.  It wasn’t like the people that parked in the church lot were doing drugs off their hoods, banging whores or causing any undue problems to the f’in church people.  They just have a bug up their ass. 

Well like I said the reaction here was very bad.  I proclaimed to my co-workers how I absolutely will not be parking in this new garage.  While it is somewhat closer than the other one, travel to and from the garage would easily consume a third of my lunch hour which would make my midday fitness session very unpractical.  Our building is the farthest away from the garage of any on the complex.  There is an “emergency meeting” about this right now.  This morning there were actually “guards” in the church lot, making sure no criminals attempted to park their vehicle in these sacred spaces.  I am sure the county is footing the bill for these guards.  I mean it was just so damn ridiculous.  I am standing firm on my resolution to not park in that garage.  If they want to fire me over my non-compliance to follow the parking laws, let them try. I just can’t stomach this petty crap. 

I’m sure everyone was desperately awaiting the repair of my live office web cam.  Good news, it is back live again. 

This week Ali and I have to work on getting stuff ready for her big race on Saturday.  So far she has over 140 people pre-registered. There are a ton of things that have to come together for a race.  It definitely is much easier to just pay your 20 bucks and run it than to organize it, by far.

Heroes is back on the air and it still ROCKS! That hour just flies by.  I can’t tell you the last time I so looked forward to a show coming on.

My Dad called me yesterday on the way home to talk about him coming to visit.  If things go as planned, he should be rolling into town at the very end of February or beginning of March.  He will be staying for probably a week.  My little brother may coordinate a long weekend trip down here at the same time, that would be cool.  Dad said he would be willing to assist in my sprinkler project.  I hope to at least have started it by then.  It would be cool to have him help though, he would definitely make things go easier.  We will have to get him to Stan’s while he is down here.

Well the truck is back home, safe and sound.  Hell they only charged me an hour labor at the garage, it seems amazing that they had it done that quickly.  I guess having the tools and experience makes a big difference.

I’ve been icing my knees for the past few days to help get the swelling down. The clicking and cracking in my left knee when I go from bent to straight position is less than it was.  I guess that is good.  There are a bunch of 5k’s coming up in the next month that I really would like to run in. 

I missed the gym yesterday again. The past few weeks it seems lke I haven’t had a full normal gym week, it bothers me. 

I started off my weekend working late Friday night replacing the network switches in our office.  Originally I had visions of it running into a two day thing where I would have to come in Saturday morning to finish it up.  Amazingly, things went incredibly smooth.  We had very few issues and I was out the door, on the way home by 8:30 Friday night.  I was quite pleased with myself.

On Saturday Ali had to run errands for a good portion of the day so I played some WoW and worked on stuff around the house.  Luckily we got some rain during the week so watering the landscape was crossed off the list.  One of my jobs was the removal of our nearly month and a half old Christmas tree.  It had started dropping needles pretty badly during the previous week or so, although there was a section of the tree that still looked quite green and healthy.  Originally I was planning on waiting for Ali to help pull the tree out but I decided to go it alone.  Well once I started the removal process I got a true picture of just how dead most of the tree was. 

I put a trashbag on the floor right next to the stand and lifted the tree out and plopped it on the plastic.  Then with one hand on the plastic, the other on the trunk of the tree, I drug it towards the front door.  There wasn’t major needle droppage up to the door, but once I hit the door and had to squeeze the tree through the door jamb, a needle blizzard occurred.  Needles flew off the tree, burying the tile, the front step and my sneakers with dead pine needles.  It was amazing, I actually took a picture of the front door after I pulled the tree through.  I will post it later.  I drug the tree to my normal tree burial point and chucked it in with some remorse.  It was one of the best trees we ever had, it was sad to see it go.  Right up to the point where I pulled it out, Buttons the cat was lying underneath it.  I know the cats miss it.

One of the other things I did on Saturday was replace the battery and the positive battery terminal on the Tacoma, hoping to eliminate the starting problem once and for all.  So I carefully performed the minor procedure, put the new terminal on, connected it to the brand new battery, made sure it was nice and tight and turned the key with great anticipation of the engine roaring to life when I turned the key.  I get behind the wheel, turn the key, CLICK!  DAMN IT.  Well this definitely turned the cause squarely onto a failing starter or more specifically a starter solenoid.  I resigned myself to taking it to the garage.

Well later in the day, shortly after Ali got back, I got some inspiration.  Hey I am sort of mechanically inclined and have tackled various automotive repairs over the years, I can do a starter, it’s only two bolts.  So I do some quick internet research about replacing the starter on the Tacoma.  They advised pulling the passenger front tire and accessing it through the wheel well.  Ok no problem.  So I lug my jack, my creeper, wrenches and sparse socket set down the driveway, ready to do battle.  I was not really dressed for this ordeal, I had on jean shorts. 

Well let’s just say that attempting to replace the starter on a 99 Tacoma has made the “things I never want to do again” list, along with laying ceramic tile, getting hernia exams and buying 88 Corvettes with salvage titles.  What a f’in joke.  So the first steps in removal were to remove the negative lead from the battery and then remove the main cable on the starter itself.  Check, I was able to do that without much issue.  Next step, remove the other lead to the starter, hmmm I saw one connection to it, but it doesn’t look like a thick enough wire.  Ok well I guess I can disconnect that later.  Trying to access the starter was extremely frustrating.  The starter is obviously already installed on the engine when it is dropped into the frame.  They made access to it require either a necessity to have tiny little hands that bent all sorts of unnatural ways or to possess some sort of exotic tool set that was able to get around all the immovable lines, tubes and other metal in close proximity to the starter.

Well anyway, what I read was there were two bolts to remove.  The only two bolts I saw that were obviously removable were two real long ones that held one piece onto the base.  The only thing I had to fit the bolt was a wrench.  Getting the wrench in there was a small miracle, turning the bolt with it required extreme patience as I only got a throw of a few inches each time before the end of the wrench hit something.  But eventually I got them both off.  The thing it was holding on, pulled off but was being held on by some mystery cable in the back, presumably the other lead to for the electrical hookup.   I felt, tugged, and adjusted for a good 15 minutes trying to get the thing out, I just couldn’t do it.  In the process I was getting absolutely covered in dirt and grime, jamming my appendages into the wheel well awkwardly. 

 Well I was very frustrated at this point.  It was the feeling of desperation that you know you are far enough into a project that either direction you go, to completion or back to the where you started is going to be a pain in the ass.  I went back inside and looked for more complete info on the net with maybe some pictures.  I found some pictures and the pictures showed me that what I removed the bolts to was just part of the starter, not the whole thing.  I saw pics of the two bolts I was SUPPOSED to remove.  Ok great, well let’s go see how this goes.

My tool set is not great, and my socket set specifically is very sparse, I have almost no metric sockets and Toyotas of course use all metric bolts so I was trying to use a socket that was as close to 14mm as a 9/16 socket will get you.  Bolt number one was all I even bothered attempting.  I spent another 10-15 minutes trying to find a way to turn the thing.  It was tucked up behind some metal transmission lines and exhaust pipes.  The 9/16 socket sort of fit but my standard, crappy socket driver just could not fit into the space and angles I had available.  It was so frustrating.  I had a 14mm wrench but there was no way to get it into the tiny little space.  Well I had it, I admitted defeat and decided my only course of action was to retreat, to button it all back up and hope it still works at least as well as it did.  I was running low on daylight so I had to hurry up.  It was equally difficult getting what I had apart back together but just as it was getting too dark to see much I got it buttoned back up.  I slapped the key in and turned it, eh a click again, I guess that is good enough.  I told Ali of my defeat and resignation that it has to go to the shop.  I felt like a failure for a good portion of the weekend afterward.  It came down to tools, if I had a socket set with every sort of extension, size and angle available I may have been able to get it.  However it didn’t make me feel any better.  After my ordeal I pulled out my extended warranty papers.  I bought the warranty when I bought the truck.  The clock in my head told me it had been more than 5 years but I wanted to be sure.  Yep, it expired in October 2006.  It figures, I never had to use the warranty.  It looks like things broke right on que.

 Later in the night I had another taste of failure when for the life of me I could not get my Tivo to read video files off my pc like it was supposed to.  I f’d and f’d with it.  I had told Ali we could watch a movie I downloaded on the Tivo.  She got into position, I fired it up and could not get it to work.  Madly I scrambled for a few minutes while Ali waited for me to get it working to no avail.  This, piled onto the Tacoma failure really made my mood rather miserable. I also did some reconfiguration on the network cards on my server which gave me fits for a good hour or so.

On Sunday we were invited to go to a place named Stan’s in Goodland.  Goodland is a tiny, old Florida style town, similar to Everglades City.  I had never heard of Stan’s but evidently it is a well known hangout that is often frequented by bikers and other laid back people looking for good music, fun and a scene that borders on crazy.

  Goodland is a good haul from town and as you approach it you drive down roads that looked like they were cut into the middle of nowhere.  However we immediately noticed there were lots of cars and motorcycles all going the same way, presumably to Stan’s.  There is one way into and out of Goodland.  We turned the corner and saw a mass of people and cars parked wherever they could find a spot.  Stan’s was impossible to miss.

Luckily our one friend was able to find a table in the very crowded eating area.  They had a large outdoor table area as well as some under cover, and indoors.  It reminded me a bit of a large scale Snook Inn.  The crowd of people there was very diverse.  Bikers, young, old, Florida natives and snowbirds filled the place. Lot’s of people didn’t sit and just stood and drank.   Our waitress Maureen, an older woman probably in her 60’s, found us and brought us some alcohol to start off.  How she managed to keep stuff straight is beyond me.  The environment there was just a few steps away from chaos.  After we were on our second round of drinks, the owner, Stan took the stage.  Stan is an old guy, probably in his 70’s at least, but his persona was just brimming with energy, fun, humor and friendliness.  Our friend that came with us and whom had been to Stan’s many times was explaining to us some of traditions, one of which was the singing of the star spangled banner.  After a few jokes and well wishes, Stan had everyone stand for the singing of the song, which was a recording.  All of the several hundred people stood at attention as the song played.  This was not the star spangled banner most of us know.  The song was sung in a very drawn out manner and had additional verses that I had never heard before.  It was the longest song I ever stood for, probably closer to ten minutes than five, it was crazy.  A lot of the people in front of the stage were singing along while holding their hand over their hearts.  There was one older, bald guy I watched repeatedly through the song.  The entire time the song was going he was tapping his hand over his heart.  The song wrapped up and the entertanment began.  The music was loud and had a country flair.  I didn’t mind it but the volume made it necessary to pretty much yell if you wanted to talk to someone across the table.

There were all sorts of interesting people there both as patrons and Stan’s employees.  One was Mullet Mary. Mary is an older than dirt, chubby woman who was wearing a cowgirl outfit with lots of cleavage showing and a skirt that flew up way too often.  She gyrated around the stage in a stripper-eque fashion, embarrassing lots of people along the way, she was very funny.  There was also was Island Woman, a lady who evidently designed her own clothes.  She walked around the seating area the entire time modeling and pitching her clothing.  Each time you saw her go by she had on a different set of clothes and a matching pair of wacky looking sunglasses.

Eventually we got around to ordering food.  There were no real vegetarian meals on the menu besides french fries but Ali asked the waitress if they could just make her a grilled cheese.  The food came out faster than I expected but there was no grilled cheese.  Maureen the waitress apologized and said they wouldn’t make the grilled cheese.  We protested and asked why not.  She said she thought it was dumb and she was going to go back in there and give them hell.  I guess she did because a few minutes later a grilled cheese on a hamburger bun came rolling out, it was funny.

The rest of the time there we just enjoyed ourselves.  I put away four beers or so.  I was trying to drink myself into a better mood which was admittedly still sour form the prior days events.  Hell I was less than thrilled with the idea of going to Stan’s but I am certainly glad I did.  Ali drug me over to the Stan’s gift shop where we looked at the wacky souvenirs.  I tried on a couple silly hats that Ali took pictures of me with them on.  The biggest problem I had while I was there was that I was cold.  I had on shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt.  The temp was only right around 70 with a very persistent cool wind.  I was quite cold when the sun went behind the clouds.  The trips to the bathroom were interesting.  The toilet stall had no door, thankfully noone was doing a number two when I used the urinal.  The bathroom had a smell that was high on the nasty scale.  I would expect no less. 

We took it all in, enjoying the various people making spectacles of themselves.  It really was an environment that you couldn’t help but to have fun at.  As the afternoon went on it got fuller and fuller to the point where the area around the stage was jammed with standing patrons all with smiles on their faces and drinks in their hands.  Eventually we got ready to head out.  We thanked our friends for recommending Stan’s to us.  It definitely jumped up high on the “must take visitors to” list.  It is one of a kind. 

Sunday evening I finally figured out how to watch a downloaded movie on the Tivo.  However I messed up the formatting a bit so the movie we watched “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”, which was in 16:9 format, got compressed to 4:3 format, making most things look skinnier and taller than intended.  Eh it didn’t matter, the movie was lame no matter what format it was in.  Weak plot, no real laughs, just a bad movie.  The only good part was it was 90 minutes long.  C-, maybe even a D+

This morning the first order of business was to get the truck repair addressed.  I called AAA to arrange for a tow.  I tell them it is at my house and I needed it towed to the garage I usually go to.  She takes the info and says, oh I’m sorry, you only have the basic membership, it only covers a tow of up to 5 miles…  the garage is 19 miles from your house and they charge you an extra 4 dollars a mile beyond 5 miles.  Well that is lame.  She said she could find a closer garage but I told her I wanted to take it to the garage I am comfortable with, I’ll eat the 50 bucks or so it would cost me.  In my mind I was trying to figure out how valuable this AAA membership is I have been paying for religiously for the last two decades.  The woman said the towing company should be there within an hour, maybe sooner. Woah!  I told her I was at work and would need at least 40 minutes to get home to meet the tow truck.  She said ok, she would make a note on the call that I would not be home for at least 40 minutes.  Ok great. I hang up.

As soon as I hung up my next call was to the garage, before I could even get an answer from them, my cell phone rings, it’s AAA.  A different woman said she was just calling to tell me that the tow truck would be there in 15 minutes.  What the hell?  I annoyingly told her that I JUST hung up with someone else from AAA and told her I needed at least 40 minutes to get home.  “Oh, it doesn’t say anything about that”  Well that is what I just told her.  The rep tells me that she would just cancel the call and I should call back when I got home.  I am extremely annoyed but had no options, “Fine”.  I hung up, gather my stuff and jump into the party van to head home.

The van has been acting up again.  The random, strong vibration issue has returned.  It is very strange.  It will be motoring along fine when all of a sudden I will feel a mild vibration quickly grow into a very strong vibration.  You would think I was rolling on tires made of wood when it is at it’s worse.  I will come to a stop, take off again and it won’t happen, the next time it may or may not.  Obviously something is f’d up. Trying to explain it to a garage and having them track it down is another frustrating situation that I will have to deal with on the horizon, but not today, I just dealt with my jaw rattling for portions of the drive home.

So I get home, no tow truck there , I guess that is good.  Even though I tried starting the truck at least 20 times on Saturday, I got in once again and threw the key in.  Click, again, click, again click….  once in awhile instead of a click I would get a tiny bit of motor turn and then click.  I went into a starting frenzy, I turned the key back and forth rapidly, non-stop, hoping for a miracle where the starter would align just right to get the motor started.  I bet I clicked that damn thing 50 times.  Then a miracle happened, the stars aligned and it started! Wow, I could hardly believe it.  I left it running and quickly ran in to call AAA to tell them to cancel any calls they had in for me for a tow.  I drove the car down to the garage and dropped it off.  They were very busy but were willing to let me leave it there.  They would try to get to it today.  I just got the call that it is done already.  After they relieve me of 300 bucks I will be back in business.

This morning it was quite chilly by Florida standards, 46 degrees according to my personal weather center.  I went out to the truck and turned the key, a couple turns and then nothing.  I have had issues with it starting recently but I have attributed it to the positive battery cable connection being loose.  Normally I just have to jiggle it a bit and it’s fine.  So I jiggle, same thing.  Jiggle and jiggle and jiggle some more, no dice.  Now I am getting frustrated.  I’m cold as I am still refusing to wear a coat since I have lived in Florida.  My hands are especially cold.  So I back down the Camry and try to jump it.  Still, a click and dead.  I have a hard time believing the battery is dead because it is only a little more than a year old.  The possibility of a dead starter flashed through my head as well.  My buddy at work had a 99 4 Runner that had the starter die.  So after f’ing around with it for a good 15-20 minutes I decided to just pull the battery out, throw it in the party van and get it tested/replaced over lunch.  Thank goodness for the party van.  I really need to pick the insurance back up on it.

Tonight I am staying late at work and depending on what gets done, working tomorrow morning as well. I am replacing our network switches.  We were running 100 megabit, I am throwing in gig switches.  It will be interesting to see how noticeable any performance increases will be.  I am a bit worried that some of the cabling we have in the building is not up to gigabit specs and could therefore cause issues.

Yesterday was a big payback day in WoW.  I normally don’t go looking for fights in game.  If I see horde in the same area, rarely will I attack them first unless I am in a really bad mood.  Yesterday I was leveling my paladin and got attacked several times.  The first time I was running into the Tanaris area, as I ran I got passed by a horde rogue on horse.  He rode by me and /wave to me, normally a sign that he has no intentions of starting crap up.  He was a level 48 and my paladin is 39 so it would be far from a fair fight.  So I am running along thinking it was nice to see a horde player acting friendly when all of a sudden I am jumped.  The same rogue that waved to me, rode ahead, went invisible and attacked me!  That mother f’r.  Luckily before he killed me I popped my shield that made be invincible for a brief time.  I managed to get close enough to town that the guards attacked the rogue and killed him.  As he was netted I shot him a quick /lol laughing at him.

Later I again was minding my own business when a horde shaman starts attacking me.  Shaman are a particularly tough class to beat and he killed me.  We fought a number of times and I managed to only kill him once and he killed me 3 or 4 times.  I was annoyed as hell.  So I brought my level 60 hunter to Tanaris to teach the shaman a lesson.  I came running up, sic’d my bear, Smoky, on him and dropped him in seconds.  Then I waited for him to resurrect and killed him again.  Then he wouldn’t resurrect because he saw me waiting to crush him again.  So I dismissed my bear and used shadowmeld to become invisible.  He rezzed and again I dropped him immediately.  I killed him 7 or 8 times total.  Hopefully he was bright enough to realize that my hunter “Deadeyeduf” was related to my paladin “Immortalduf”  I wanted to inflict a painful lesson on the dangers of unprovoked attacking.  Eventually the shaman just logged off the game, tired of dying by my hand.

Finally, there was a horde tauren warrior that was flexing his muscles killing alliance players nearly 20 levels less than him.  I tried to run over with my paladin to assist but by the time I did, he had killed the two alliance players and killed me in short order as well.  Well once again it was time to pull out Deadeye.  I log him on and go to the area of my death to find the offending horde bastard.  I unleash my bear on him and as he is getting chewed on I am raining down arrows on him.  I kill him and then wait at least 15 minutes for him to resurrect but he won’t.  Eventually I leave the area and he rez’s.  I see him again in town where guards are present.  I don’t attack him because the guards would then attack me. However I follow him around for 10 minutes doing nothing but firing off a macro that constantly spewed taunts at the guy.  It had to be driving him insane.  Eventually he cracked and tried to attack me, his aggression towards me brought the wrath of the guards down upon him.  As he was being netted and pummeled to death I just stood there and laughed at him some more.  Retribution feels damn good sometimes.