All posts by Duf

My weekend felt like it went quickly as I kept myself busy in one way or another most of my waking hours. Friday night I skipped happy hour completely and just went back to my old school pizza and Mexican Coke, concluding with a session of WoW. Although it was unsocial behavior, I enjoyed it.

I played pickleball both Saturday and Sunday mornings. On Saturday I didn’t set an alarm and didn’t get to the courts until close to 10 so the broiler effect was already in action. I played 6 or 7 games with a couple people as partners and won all of them. I felt I played well, better than Friday at lunch when I was making unforced errors at a much higher rate than I should be. On Sunday morning I played with my good buddy Juan who makes every session funny with his uncontrollable outbursts of emotion. I played with him at Talis Park where I have not been in a couple months.

On Saturday night I wound up doing a live stream. Before doing so I had dinner at Tacos and Tequila where I had a couple of the stronger margarita varieties. Two of them was enough to get things flowing.

The stream was a unique one where I had a friend of mine, Dale, from Australia on the stream as well as Roger, one of my friends from California. We talked about EUC and non-EUC content in a free flowing manner which was fun and enjoyable. Roger was sort of a captive audience as he was stuck slow charging his Tesla in the middle of nowhere because a component on his car stopped working which prevented it from super charging.

One of the tasks I tended to was trying to touch up a section of drywall that is butted up against the tile for the shower. It’s the edge right along the shower door. It had sections of rust showing through the paint where the metal edging material was deteriorating. I had just hit it quickly with some paint months ago but the rust had returned.

When I was sanding the rust down the drywall in a couple spots sunk down since it no longer had an intact metal frame behind it. I had to then expand the scope of the repair where I used heavy duty drywall patch to fill the sunken spots to build them up and then let them dry overnight so I could sand it back to flat the next day. The repair is good enough that you won’t notice unless you are looking for it. One of my longer term project ideas is to renovate the master bathroom. When that happens that wall will likely be torn down or transformed into a half wall so hopefully my patch work will get me through until that happens.

I got to hang with Gladys a little over the weekend as well which was fun as she heads back to the island this week. Whenever she is in town she normally has a lot going on so it was nice to get a block of her time.

I did have a brief period of time on Sunday where I was just laying in my bed, tired from my pickleball session. Elsa came up in the bed and joined me, winding up in this cute position inverted from me with her head pressed up against my leg. It gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling I appreciated. I value that feeling and embrace it wherever I find it at this point.

I played pickleball today and played pretty well, if I do say so myself. I had a few really nice drives where the ball was low to the net and hard, too hard for the other team to touch with a paddle. After making those shots I find myself just immediately turning and walking back to my ready position with my head down, without saying much. I thought about this and I realized I did something similar when I was a baseball pitcher and a decent level volleyball player.

In baseball after I would strike someone out, preferably with a fastball, I would turn my back to the plate, walk back to the mound and keep my head down while the ball was thrown around the infield which is customary after a strikeout. I would only raise my gaze to receive the ball back from the first baseman.

In volleyball this would most often occur after I got a good hit that either went down to the ground at a rapid pace or bounced hard off a blocker and or defender and out of bounds. It would be the same deal, look down, walk to my spot and be quiet until we had the ball again, ready to start the next play.

I’m not quite sure what the psychology is behind this behavior but I found it interesting that I have somehow migrated it to pickleball as well. Maybe it’s my way of expressing that I don’t get that excited over good plays because I plan to make more of them. Funny stuff, to me at least.

I was happy to see when I got back home yesterday that the fog that Elsa was still under in the morning had finally cleared. She seemed more or less normal when I walked in the door. It felt good to have her back to normal. I gave her extra food last night to celebrate since she only ate once the day before.

Last night I played volleyball. My team of three did pretty well, going 4-2 on the night but I could have played better. Nothing frustrates me more than if I get a decent set and I hit it into the net, which happened at least a half dozen times, if not more. Although my knees genuinely suck I think most of it is in my head. The reality is with my height and wingspan I can jump very little and should still be able to hit ok if I hit with a high hand with good wrist snap. I probably should practice more if I want to clean that part of my game up.

I do take a degree of pride with my willingness to literally throw my body around the court, stupidly at times. There were multiple instances of my going horizontal trying to chase down balls. They usually result in sand getting in my face or hair as well as impacting my shoulders in ways that are not recommended at 56 years old, oh well. After play I enjoyed a low key dinner at Carrabas with the bartender Helen. It’s always nice to see her.

This weekend I have a fluid schedule which is my normal preference. We will see where it leads me.

Last Friday when our lunch time group played pickleball we had six players so we did a king of the hill type of format where if a team won they kept playing and if you lost you came off. The one team won all of their games and was a little cocky about it in a funny, good natured way. We played again yesterday and that team of two stayed together, hoping to repeat that performance. They didn’t. Instead they wound up losing every game.

The funny trash talk gave me a little motivation and I brought my A game, playing some of my better ball in a little while. It was fun to shove it back in their face. Sure I am a nice guy but I also am competitive at my core. I don’t get as bent out of shape from losing as I once did but that fire is still in there.

So yesterday was Elsa’s dental procedure. I was glad when I got the call that everything went well. They said her teeth looked good, no extractions were needed and that she was just a little woozie from the anesthesia. That last part was a bit of an understatement. When they brought her out I could tell she was still whacked out which they said could last for a little while.

When I got her home I took her for a short walk and she was still basically a zombie. She kept bumping into me as we walked, very slowly. She also had no interest in food, not even the treats she normally devours. Her tongue was poking out of her mouth most of the night which looked funny. I just encouraged her to lay down and sleep, which she did. Finally right before bed she acted like she was hungry and I gave her some food.

This morning I assumed she would be fully recovered but she still clearly has somewhat of a haze going on. I’m hoping that clears up during the day today. It made me a little sad seeing her not feeling/acting normal. It made me realize just how huge of a role she holds in my life.

I was productive at home last night. I waited until things cooled off a bit and then gave the Tesla a much needed bath after it’s first cross state journey the day before. I had the Alexa in the garage playing music as I completed the clean up. It was a peaceful sort of feeling, for some reason.

I left work early to go home and pull out in the Tesla to go pick up Gladys at the Miami airport. As usual I gave the car the destination and let it figure out the fastest route to get there. I was very surprised it chose Tamiami Trail as the route instead of Alligator Alley (I-75). It estimated roughly a two hour trip so I followed it’s advice. I let full self driving navigate most of the way until I got into the heart of the traffic near the airport. I suspect the car would have done ok but I was more concerned with getting to the airport on time, which I did barely.

Gladys texted me when I was two minutes away saying she was ready, earlier than I anticipated. However the timing worked out perfectly as I was able to pick her up instead of finding the cell phone lot. On the way back we stopped and had dinner at a sushi place that she found online. It was in a strip mall but supposedly had good food. The review was correct. We both enjoyed our food and I had Japanese beer for the first time ever and liked it.

The drive back felt much faster than the drive there as Gladys and I were chatting the entire time. She is one of the few individuals that I am able to talk to at length without difficulty. When I dropped her off at her house I got to see her family, including her mom and dad whom I had not seen for over a year. They were happy to see me as I was them. I also got to see Gladys’s sweet little niece Leilani which is always fun for me. Gladys is only here for six days but I am sure I will be spending some more time with her and her family during her stay. I didn’t get back home until 10:30. This was the first time I went to Miami and back in a Tesla without charging. It was a little tight as I rolled into my garage with less than 10% battery remaining but it made it.

Elsa was not allowed food after 9PM and no water after midnight because of her dental procedure which requires anesthesia. This morning she sat on the sofa the entire time, waiting for me to call her over for breakfast. When the call never came she was clearly confused. The confusion continued when I grabbed the leash and loaded her up in the truck.

Once we got to the vet the shaking started. As we sat in the room by ourselves I did my best to talk to her and calm her down which helped some. This afternoon I will pick her up and this stressful deviation from her routine will be over. I always feel terrible putting her in situations that scare her.

Speaking of scary situations, 4th of July is always horrible for her as she hates the sound of fireworks. I was invited to a 4th of July party with my volleyball crew this year and I am going, however there was no way I could leave Elsa home alone being terrified all night. Instead I am going to drive her up to Ali’s place the night before so she can be with them instead which will be much better. Sure in total it will be more than four hours of driving to make it all happen but it’s better than Elsa being scared, alone.

I forgot to mention that over the weekend I went back to Costco to grab more of the pants that I really liked. In addition I found some jeans that were good looking and comfortable. The purchase allowed me to do yet another round of culling in my closet, removing any pants/jeans that were gifted to me. At this point I think anything that is in my closet was purchased with my own funds and I prefer it that way. Someone shopping at Goodwill is going to have a chance to buy some nice pants at a discount.

I have had a large leather wallet my entire life. My current iteration that you see in the picture is actually significantly less bulky than what I have carried in the past. I have had one of those modern Ridge style wallets that was gifted to me for over a year, sitting untouched in a box. For unknown reasons I was motivated to take it out of it’s box, finally, last night.

Obviously I can not carry everything I have in my normal wallet. The Rossm is designed to hold the core cards you need to carry and some cash and not much else which requires an obvious shift in my wallet habits. I migrated over the cards I deemed necessary for my daily existence and slid my cash under the strap. It will be interesting to see how this trial run goes. I suspect like most things it will be awkward at first and become the new norm as time goes on.

Today I took my Tacoma to work as I have my Tesla at home, plugged in and charging to 100%. The reason for this is I am driving over to the Miami airport to pick up Gladys who is flying in from Roatan this afternoon. We are going to grab dinner somewhere on the way back. It will be nice to have some face to face time with her. Although I still talk to Gladys regularly, in person communication is a rare thing.

Elsa is going to be very unhappy with me tomorrow. She is going in for a dental cleaning. To do this they put her under anesthesia. To be put under anesthesia you can’t have any food 12 hours prior so she won’t get anything for breakfast. Elsa, like most dogs is very much in her routine, knowing what I am going to do next even before I do it most of the time. When I do not give her breakfast tomorrow morning, give her a piece of cheese from my eggs or let her lick my peanut butter covered knife she is going to stare at me endlessly with a look of confusion and concern. It’s going to be uncomfortable for both her and I.

Friday after work I walked into Bruninas to enjoy happy hour and was surprised to see standing room only at the bar. Evidently they were doing some special event for their 20 year anniversary and the place was packed. I only drank one beer before heading out. Meaghan, the bartender felt bad, she thought she told me about the event. If she did I totally forgot. I used the extra time to get my grocery shopping done.

Later when I was sitting at home enjoying my pizza in front of the computer I got a message from her asking me to come back. She said it was less crowded now. I wasn’t all that excited about putting pants back on but I did and made the 5 minute drive back there. The bar was still quite full but there was a single stool open at least. I found out the motive for her message.

One of the regulars whom I know casually was there with her girlfriend. Evidently when I was standing there looking dumb the first time her friend who I assume is single said I was cute. Meaghan knows my relationship status so she was trying to be matchmaker. I did talk to the woman a little bit. I’m not sure there is a match there but she had good energy and I said that I would be open to hanging out in the future. If that ever happens, who knows. When I went home the second time I got some WoW time in which I DID know I liked.

My potential Saturday morning pickleball session was wiped out by rain so I redeployed that time in a useful manner. One of the tasks was getting around to installing the rim protectors I bought for the Tesla. The good looking wheels are very exposed potentially to damage and I wanted to do what I could to minimize that risk. The guards I got had the selling point of being individual sections that snapped together, allowing you to replace just damaged sections if it came to that. It sounded like a good concept until I started the install project.

It was in four words, a pain in the ass. Each wheel has 11 “blades” which equates to 11 pieces of the guard, per wheel. The kit requires adhering these vinyl underlayment pieces first, 22 per wheel. Then, if you followed instructions you had to peel off 22 more pieces of double sided tape that is on each plastic piece. After the first wheel I disregarded this step and didn’t bother with the tape. Finally you snap the 11 pieces onto each wheel which requires a large amount of finger and hand strength, more than many people posses I would guess. It sucked.

Even with my dropping the tape removal part of the install I spent close to two and a half hours on this project in the garage which had me soaked through my shirt very early on. The final result is decent but the combination of miserable install process and high cost would make me not recommend these guards to someone else. The good news is I recorded the install which captures my frustration pretty well.

Saturday night I opted to hit up the nearby sushi place. Now that we are out of season it was much less busy. There was no more live music which brought out the old folks that liked to dance. The amount of the people at the bar could be counted on one hand, not even needing the thumb. Regardless I had a nice time, enjoying my sushi while downing a few Miller Lites.

Sunday I got to play pickleball finally for a couple hours. I played with the same guy the entire time, we only lost one of the 7 or 8 games we played against some good competition. I started out playing very well for about 3/4 of the session. Towards the end I started making an annoying amount of unforced errors which frustrate me. I blamed it on fatigue as I was sweating buckets in the high heat and humidity.

I got an email from a lady in our neighborhood that is a realtor. She was the listing agent on my house and she was also the agent on my neighbors who are unexpectedly selling. She asked me to stop by at the open house she was hosting until 1PM, apparently the foot traffic had been nonexistent. Well I was curious what the deal was with the sale so I stopped over.

It’s a beautiful home, significantly larger than mine. I found out there was nothing “bad” going on. The wife has a new job in Cape Coral, an hour or more north of us and they want to relocate in that direction. I am skeptical that they will get anywhere close to their asking price but if they do it will raise the values of all the homes in our area.

During the afternoon I took my Master out for a ride, my first significant ride after I installed the fairing kit and new tire. It was my first real ride in awhile thanks to the rain and other things commanding my attention. It felt good to get back out there for a bit. After the ride I also got around to installing the fairing kit on my V13 which should be the last wheel related project on my plate for a little while. By the time I got done doing all the editing my weekend was over and it was time for bed.

Speaking of bed, It has now been at least 10 days since I have popped a Unisom. I have found that I am able to sleep pretty consistently without it which is a good thing. I don’t feel like it is as sound of sleep where as Unisom can almost put you into a coma but I am not suffering from those maddening episodes of waking up and then not being able to fall back asleep for hours. To me it’s a sign that some of the mental/emotional issues that used to keep me up at night are losing their once sharp edge, and it’s a good thing.

Last night they cancelled volleyball since we had our fourth consecutive day of heavy rain. When I drove home yesterday the southern end of the road that leads to our development had some pretty significant flooding. Luckily my house and seemingly the entire development sits on high ground. The only thing that holds water is the area where I have the garden and that still drains quickly.

As I was walking Elsa last night I was remembering just how miserable storm events like this would be at my old house which had a ton of low areas that would collect water. I have no doubt that right now there are spots in that yard that have close to a foot of water on them. Once the water level got that bad it would take forever to recede, weeks in some situations. It turned the property into genuine swampland and I absolutely hated it. When I had chickens it became even more aggravating.

Despite my efforts to keep the birds dry by spending a ton of money and effort on fill to raise the ground where they lived it would still flood in heavy rains. The chickens were not rocket scientists and would insist on drinking the dirty, bacteria filled ground water despite my having clean water at multiple spots. I have no doubt it contributed to more than one of them getting sick. Seeing my property inundated made me feel out of control and powerless to fix it. I don’t sit well with that feeling. Not having to deal with that mess anymore is yet another of the long list of reasons why I am so much happier with my new living situation. It’s been a year and 3 months now, I wonder how much longer I should refer to it as “new”.

Since I had a free night I got some chores done, including the laundry. Elsa for some odd reason enjoys when I cover her with folded laundry. I’m always happy to oblige as she looks ridiculously cute in the process.

I also had time to play more WoW, embarking on leveling yet another character. This time I decided to work on my warrior which was the very first character I created and played back in 2005 so I am a bit sentimental about him. His name is IronDuf.

A warrior is a tank class meaning his job in a group is to keep the attention of the bad guys and take the majority of the damage. Being the tank has a lot of responsibilities, if you screw up there is a good chance others will die. You have to know where you are going and how fights work to be a good tank. It can be a lot of pressure as it requires you to do a lot more work and thinking than a DPS class where all you do is damage. Healing classes are behind the tanks as far as stress and responsibility goes but I typically will heal before I tank.

I had not tanked dungeons in a long time so I was not all that confident how it would go. In addition my warrior has poor gear which can make the task more difficult. I wound up having a good time tanking two dungeons. I managed not to die and the only players in my groups that died were the ones that did ignorant things so I can’t do much about that. I also gained three levels during the play session which is the most I have done in one sitting in quite awhile. I’m actually looking forward to getting back in there and going again.

It looks like we should have a half decent day weather-wise, finally, today. I am hoping to play my first pickleball all week at lunch. This weekend I plan to get some more play time balanced with non-recreational things I would like to accomplish as well. If I go hard at pickleball all morning I find it drains my motivation reserves to do other things the rest of the day.

Last year I was talking about fresh beginnings, new starts and finding peace. This evidently was just lip service because I instead chose to step backwards instead of forward in reality.

The week long rain even continued yesterday, pounding our area with precipitation. I responded as I have most days this week by staying home. I finally got my first Temu package, a large bag stuffed with the several items I bought including a loud shirt for pickleball, some protective EUC gear, and a small dog bed.

The quality of the items seemed ok but not outstanding which I already expected. I am most interested in trying the EUC protective gear which looks pretty cool albeit heavier than my normal knee/shin/elbow protection. I have one more Temu package on the way. I am thinking about buying a generic Temu pickleball paddle to see how they compare. Speaking of paddles, I received yet another new paddle, the 6.0 Triple Black Diamond. It never stops.

Last night I also got some more WoW time in, finishing up leveling of my 5th character to the max level. Having five max level characters sounds like a lot. The reality is I have another 6 or 7 to go.

I walked out the door this morning and was surprised to see a for sale sign on the house two doors down from me. Those are the neighbors that I have talked to a half decent amount and the ones I ran into at Brookside a month or so ago. I knew nothing of any plans for them to sell. If anything they have indicated to me they love where they live and they always seemed happy together. I am wondering if something bad has gone down that has resulted in the house going on the market. I don’t know why else they would sell. You just never know how things are going to unfold for you in life.

Last year I was still alluding to my dealing with behind the scenes drama as well. Luckily it didn’t result in me selling my house, again.

Oh Gladys is coming into town net week. I am going to be her ground transportation from Miami. It will be nice to have her around, at least for a little bit.

Our area has been getting hammered with tropical moisture this week. I took my Tacoma to work yesterday and today and was glad I did. When I took Elsa to the vet yesterday morning I had to roll through some streets that were badly flooded out that would have made me nervous in my Tesla. The rest of the week is looking to be very wet as well. Our area was very arid prior to this so the rain is a good thing although nature turning the faucet on full blast for a week straight is a bit extreme. Luckily my new property does not suffer from the nasty standing water issue my old place had. It can rain torrentially with little to no consequence at my new place.

Last night after I did another mini-workout I started developing a slight headache. I don’t get a lot of headaches. I then started to feel a bit chilled as well. I put on a sweatshirt that I kept on while playing a WoW session where I leveled my fourth character to max level. Eventually I felt better but it was an unwell feeling for an hour or two.

Last night I finally finished up Godzilla Minus One. It took me a total of three viewing sessions to complete it. It was an old school style Godzilla movie based in the time period in Japan right after World War II. Most recent depictions of Godzilla always include some sort of heroic/decent side to him. This film went retro where Godzilla is pure monster mode with more story than typical. It was ok but I wouldn’t give it the acclaim I have heard others give the film. It’s a B in my book.

Any long time blog readers may or may have not noticed that since I split from Cindy some of the political or societal issues have taken a back seat in what I comment/write about. I used to rant hard about a lot of stuff and was very vocal about my dislike of Trump and what he represented. However once he was voted out that avenue of discontent slowly faded. However I also thought that the way Biden was magically shoved into the front runner spot after being behind in every imaginable way in the primaries was shady. I have said very little about his performance since he has been president because quite frankly, I’m not a fan. So the the idea that this election we have a choice between two candidates that I don’t like is disheartening and furthers my disposition to not care, but I digress.

I think when I was in relationships I found myself more focused on what else was going on around me. I think now that I have been primarily single since September of 2021 that focus has turned inward, focusing on how to navigate my day to day existence instead of worrying about how f’d up the rest of the world is, which it is, clearly. I have shoulder shrugged that I can’t change any of that so instead I am trying to manage my own little sphere of existence, which brings me to my actual point.

There is a lot of sentiment from older Americans, which I am officially a part of nowadays that millennials and Gen Z individuals are just lazy and not willing to work to carve out their own life. In some ways I have subscribed to that mindset if I am being honest. However I have caught a few videos from a guy that points out that the reality is the cards are stacked so high against people in this age bracket it’s nearly impossible to see over them.

In his videos he breaks down the numbers that show the correlation between average median incomes, interest rates, and home prices over the years. For most of the last 30 years they have moved up at similar rates. Yes inflation has always been around but incomes have kept pace to allow a typical family to afford a modest home if they were hard working and saved a little money. That formula in the last 2-3 years has become obliterated.

Of course everything has gone up astronomically since covid but the housing market is the most crushing obstacle for anyone trying to buy their first home with no equity from a prior home to help them (like me). When you look at these numbers it’s eye opening and ridiculous. In every way possible a younger person is getting enslaved to financial institutions because they simply can not afford to pay for even basic needs to survive.

He makes a great point how older Americans that already have their home think the economy is working well. The value of their home is way, way up, their stock market portfolio is strong so the next generation complaining about their financial reality is often disregarded as whining and insignificant. They are simply wrong. Just watch one of his short videos to see what he is talking about, it’s worth the time.

Like I said I am an example of benefiting by getting into the housing market before this went off the rails. If you would have told me five years ago that I would “downsize” into a home that costs a half million dollars I would have laughed in your face considering my original home cost a third of that. Yet that was the reality and it continues to be. I am one of the fortunate ones, those that are a couple decades behind me have an incredible mountain to climb.

So of course the question is how do we fix it? I honestly have no idea. Covid was used as an excuse across the board to raise the prices universally on everything however even now that the crisis is far behind us those prices never recovered, staying at their high levels because it’s great for the bottom line. It’s just one more reason that the future ahead looks very dark and dreary financially for so many people. If there is a light at the end of the tunnel I can’t see it.

Last year I yet again made commentary that was related to the ridiculous back and forth drama I contributed to and endured with my ex and how utterly ridiculous it was. Now it’s clear the truly ridiculous thing was I went through another six months of it, hitting myself in the face with a hammer and then wondering why it hurt. I was such an idiot, truly.