Cindy stopped at the house yesterday to do a couple things. When she went in the garage she was shocked to see what at first looked like a dead baby bunny on the garage floor. When she got closer she saw the rabbit was not dead but it didn’t look good. I told her I had seen a very small rabbit hanging out by the chicken coop recently as well although I did not think it was the same one, at first.
Cindy got one of the small animal carriers and put the poor little thing in there with some food and water. I was afraid I would be burying the animal when I got home. My theory was it went in the garage and then got locked in there, cut off from a food/water source. My hope level was low.
Later when Cindy stopped back again she was surprised to see the animal carrier was empty, the rabbit apparently moved somehow. When she left she left the garage door cracked so the baby could escape if it wanted to. I was still not overly optimistic. I still assumed I was going to find the rabbit dead behind something in the garage.
So when I got home I saw a little ball of fur right outside the garage. As I moved closer I verified it was the baby bunny! When I got within 20 feet he scampered back into the garage, great…..
I carefully started pulling things away from the walls, trying to find him/her. Because of it’s tiny size there were a lot of options for hiding spots. Finally as I pulled one of the storage bins away I spotted the baby. I could tell it was weak/tired but it most definitely was not dead. I was able to get the rabbit back into the animal carrier. I then took it down to the chicken area, putting out some food and water for it. I realized this had to be the same baby bunny I had seen last week.
This morning I walked out in the darkness hoping to see the baby. My hopes were answered, it scampered away once I got close but it seemed clear that food and water was consumed. Hopefully the baby is in the clear for now although it’s tiny size makes it still vulnerable to a number of predators. I will do my best to keep an eye on/protect it the best I can. It’s cute as can be. I felt fortunate to have a happy ending to what looked like a very sad story only a few hours earlier.
Last night I saw the neighbor two houses down already had adorned his exterior with Christmas lights. A number of developments around here already have their holiday displays up as well. Heck I even saw the neighborhood DD had their roof line lit up on the drive home last night. Hey I like holiday light displays, this is the guy that in the past has left his lights up until mid-January once or twice.
I actually am going to be putting my decorations up, at least some of them this upcoming weekend, which would be the earliest I have ever done it. Typically I do it during the extended Thanksgiving weekend but since I will be in Dallas visiting my sister’s family I determined I would rather be early than late.
It’s an odd situation because I have no idea what my Christmas this year is even going to be like. It’s questionable how much effort this holiday season really requires. I was thinking about the only Christmas I had during my one year of mostly singletude back in 2012 and tried to remember how that blueprint worked out. I think Christmas morning was just myself and my mom although I think Ali may have been over at some point, I can’t quite remember. The 2021 version is not going to be what I have become accustomed to, that’s for sure. So the point is, I will be putting up decorations this weekend, I’m just not sure which and how many.
I have moved my alarm clock back an additional 5 minutes this week, now getting up at 5:35 AM instead of 5:40. I have consistently been getting to work 5-10 minutes late since I started doing chicken chores in the morning. The alarm change is an attempt to fix that. Getting up only 5 minutes earlier shaves around 15 minutes off my arrival time at the office. The reason for this is the earlier I get on the road, the less traffic is congesting it. That extra 5 minutes saves me an additional 10 en route. I should have done this earlier, pun intended.
Today would have been my Mom’s 74th birthday, which serves as another sad reminder of her early passing. I wonder how she would feel about how the events of my life have transpired to this point. I definitely see more and more parallels between her path and mine. If I allow myself to dwell on thoughts about my mom much it makes me sad, really sad so I don’t do it. I follow that strategy with a number of things. When you keeping moving at fast pace the things in your rear view mirror remain mostly a blur.
As mentioned in the last entry I did indeed do a live stream Friday night where the original intended goal was to empty the fridge of all of the old alcohol. There were several reasons I was feeling that goal was viable. I did not accomplish that goal, plenty of Miller Lite remains in the fridge but I did finally drink the two disgusting Corona Lights during the session. The stream went on for three hours plus, covering a ton of different topics, probably more non-PEV related. Even with no advance notice I had a decent amount of viewers tune in which was nice.
On Saturday morning I went into the office with Elsa in tow. As soon as I let her in the front door she started sprinting around the lobby. For some reason she finds going to the office very exciting. Watching her sprint up and down the hallway made me smile. The work I needed to get done only took about an hour or so, on the way home I made a pit stop at Walmart to grab the few remaining grocery items I couldn’t score elsewhere.
During the afternoon I put together a new six foot long bench I bought to put over the robot vacuum army. It gives them a sort of “garage” and is visually more appealing. It is unfinished wood, I have to decide if I want to paint/stain it. I then thought if I either attached some fabric or put some sort of blanket on the bench that hangs down it could make their existence very stealth.
On Saturday night I sat down to watch Shang Chi Legend of the 10 Rings. This was the first Marvel movie in a long time that I did not go see in theaters (followed by Venom 2). I figured I could wait until it released on Disney + a couple months later. This movie deserved to be seen in a theater. I thought it was extremely well done. I enjoyed it from start to finish and would probably rate 10 Rings within the top 20% of all Marvel films I have seen. A+
Sunday morning the weather was nice with low temps and humidity. My bill paying session seemed to go on forever, which is often the case on the weeks where I have to reconcile the credit card statement. Since I put whatever I can on the credit card each month to maximize my rewards, (and pay it off monthly) there are a TON of line items to go through. After I finished I went on a errand run with Elsa which included stopping at DD. Man what a cluster f that place is anymore. There was only around 6 cars in line when I got there. I am not exaggerating when I say it took nearly a half hour to get through the line. I was beyond flabbergasted at the snails pace of service.
Of course as is often the case, one of the issues are people that do these huge orders from their car which choke the line. However the staff at this location is a big culprit as well. As I was sitting in line I saw multiple cars be handed food/drink only for it to be handed back because the order was f’d up. With food especially, this takes a while to redo. When I finally got up to the window to get my large coffee I asked the kid if there was some sort of nuclear meltdown going on in there since the service was so slow. He said no, it’s like this every Sunday. He said they are understaffed. He then whispered to me “it’s not good man, it’s not good…” Yea, no kidding. Hey I get it, I understand why they can’t keep staff. Most of them barely are paid double digits per hour and the intensity and stress of that job definitely do not equal the pay they receive. The fact that they burn through employees like matchsticks is not surprising.
We then went to Home Depot. Sometimes Elsa acts like she really wants to come in the store as opposed to sleeping in the truck. She seemed that way this time so I leashed her up and brought her in. I had a shopping cart and was pushing it in front while Elsa was a couple feet behind me on the leash. All of a sudden I hear a man saying “Sir…..SIR”. I turn around and see that Elsa had been busy, dropping a string of turds as she walked behind me. Come on…..
This happened once before. At that time it was attributed to not making sure she did a number two before taking her to HD. Well she did her business first thing in the morning so I thought we were in the clear, evidently we weren’t. Luckily a Home Depot employee was right there and she said she would go grab some paper towels. I stood there, embarrassed, as I saw an old woman meandering my direction. I assumed she would clearly see the landmines as a couple were right in the middle of the aisle. So as I began the process of picking up the 7 or 8 gifts I hear the woman blurt out “Ohhhhh, I stepped in it!” She sure did, she stepped in it and then smeared it all over the floor. I simply handed her one of my paper towels and robotically said, “Yes, you did”. It added up to a lot of poop, which I had to then carry while leading Elsa to a trash can outside. It was a ton of fun. The primary reason I was there was to grab another case of Mexican Coke as Home Depot is the only place to get it in our area now as far as I know. I also grabbed two outdoor floor mats to put at both entrances to the pool area to attempt to knock down the amount of dirt tracked in to tarnish my pressure washing efforts.
On Sunday I did something I have not done since the pandemic shit show started, went to a movie theater. I went to a matinee of The Eternals, the other Marvel movie I had been wanting to see. I went to a new venue called the Cinebistro, it’s located in the local mall. It was built in the space once occupied by Sears. This place was NICE, even eclipsing the Silverspot Cinema in my opinion. The spaces were wide open and very high end and modern. The bar area had a ton of tv’s all showing the various NFL games. It looked like a place that I could go to in the future and just hang out, although it certainly will be at a higher price tag. When you walk into the theater you are greeted by a concierge who walks you to your seat which is luxurious with a swing out table. A menu is waiting there for you, there are no conventional concession stands. It is a full menu but you can still get old fashioned candy/popcorn this way as well. You tell the waiter what you want and he processes your credit card on the spot, delivering your order to you a few minutes later.
It’s quite the set up. Now there were only 10-12 people in the theater. I wondered how tough it would be to maintain this level of one on one service if a theater is near capacity, it would require a TON of staffing. Now as you would expect, this does not come at a bargain rate. Everything on the menu is pricey and every order has an automatic 18% tacked on for gratuity. But still, it is a unique experience and worth the money if you are looking to pamper yourself or someone else.
Eternals is a looong movie, just under 3 hours. I knew very little about them and never read any Eternals comic books which is a boat many viewers would be in. Because of this they had to devote a lot of time in the movie to build the origin story so you knew what the deal is. I think they did a good job of doing so although I would say the first hour or so of the movie was a bit slow IMO as this backstory was being laid out. The pace picked up and overall I thought the movie was good. Not as good as Shang Chi IMO but still a solid A Marvel movie. I am very curious to see the direction things are going from here since they are now delving into characters and stories I know little to nothing about. Don’t forget to stick around for the end credit trailers in both films.
I’ll tell you the NFL is a total crapshoot from week to week. The wild swings in outcomes is insane. This week Eagles/Broncos game was a perfect example. The Eagles just came off their defense getting steamrolled by the Chargers, the Broncos just went into Dallas, who smashed the Eagles, and destroyed the Cowboys last week. I had expectations for the Broncos to put a similar beating on the Birds. Instead the Eagles were the ones with a dominating performance, in Denver no less, winning 30-13. In the first half Jalen Hurts put up some great passing numbers and in the second half the Eagles used an effective running game to burn clock and move the chains, it was nearly textbook. I would probably have equal success predicting games by a coin flip. All across the league there are numerous improbable outcomes week in and week out. The time of league super powers that consistently win the games they should win is ancient history.
I did a ride Sunday afternoon as well.
Without looking at a calendar I can tell another full moon is approaching. I find myself in a gully of just feeling shitty about life in general and the future. I was thinking about the big difference in attitude I had when Ali and I split compared to now. Back then I wasted very little time before I started going out on dates. I looked at it as I still had time to start something new and meaningful with a person. Now to be honest, that plan went very poorly for a long time as I slogged through the online dating world which resulted in a whole lot more negative than positive outcomes. It wasn’t until I stepped away from cyber match making that I met with Cindy via our mutual affiliation with the running club.
There was a long period of time where I thought I had accomplished my mission, but obviously, that ultimately was not the case. Now, finding myself back out in the clouds, nearly 10 years later, my attitude is far different. I no longer have realistic expectations about starting over. In all honesty, the effort required to sufficiently vet a person to get a true sense of who they are seems like a monumental task at this point, one that I yet have been willing to even consider beginning on. I have learned many things over 35 years of mostly long term relationships. That knowledge ironically, is what retards me from eagerly seeking out another, despite my desires to have a loving, trusted partner to grow old with. I can only hope that some clarity emerges from the clouds in the years to come.
What you see before you is the end result of 5 hours of pressure washing. I am happy with the end result and thanks to the wonders of Advil, the body penalty was not that severe. I had to swap between the gas and electric washer a couple times due to odd shut off issues with the gas washer. The script was as it always is, slow and steady. I blasted the inside and outside of the cage AND hit the screens themselves as they had managed to accumulate green scuzz as well. I think hitting the top sections with the bleach solution the week prior actually did have more benefit than I first realized. I will add that to future sessions.
I got the weeding done today, leaving my weekend gloriously open. I mean I have stuff to do of course but now that the pressure washing is done, anything else feels like coasting downhill. Two days in a row I rode an EUC to DD for my afternoon coffee and enjoyed it. I did not bring my video camera with for either ride, a rarity but a situation I should find myself in more often.
I found out from multiple friends that a guy we used to play volleyball against, Krystoff, died suddenly, while playing volleyball. He was only 43. Even though our matches against Krystoff were always teeming with trash talk back and forth it was always good natured and funny, making all parties involved laugh. His strong eastern European accent made his cutdowns a little more biting. I thought about him multiple times since I heard the news. The last time I saw him was at one of the last Pottstown Rumbles I played eons ago. RIP buddy.
I think I am going to live stream tonight, drunk. Because I feel like it.
Last night I opened up my new floor vacuuming robot. If you know me, you know I have had a robotic vacuum for a long, long time, dating back to the original Roomba which was probably around 15 years ago. My current stable of robots included a Neato XV, a Samsung Powerbot, and a Deebot. The Neato XV is my oldest robot and ironically probably still does the best all around job on the floors. However it’s battery is going bad and it’s brush motor started making a noise that I could not easily identify.
I got a Sam’s catalog a couple weeks ago that identified a sweet deal on the base model Roomba, knocking 40% off it’s normal $299 price. It was an online only deal that only was good last weekend. I made a special reminder to buy it, which I did. Since I am a pro at robo-vacuums, set up of the Roomba took only 5-10 minutes. I let it fully charge and then let it loose on the house.
Unlike my other three vacuums which have a “vision” system which allows them to clean in a very methodical manner, the Roomba still utilizes it’s random bounce around behavior. It does not see the room, it just keeps bouncing around in a manner which hopefully covers everything. They did add a proximity sensor at least so if it is about to hit a wall or an object the sensor detects it so the bot just does a soft kiss instead of a harsh collision. I let the Roomba do a full run. It’s dust bin was stuffed afterward, despite me running the other bots a couple times a week. I originally thought I would recycle the Neato but the brush motor noise went away so I guess I will be a four robot home for at least the time being.
I am on the cusp of what will be a full four day weekend. My plan is to get the worst task done first, which is always my preference when given a choice. I will be pressure washing the inside and outside of the pool cage, the deck, and anything else I have energy reserves left over for. The other three days will have smaller, less pain invoking things on the agenda. I do want to see Shang Chi this weekend since it comes out on Disney Plus Friday. The chickens were very happy when I told them they could sleep in the next four days.
More and more I have days where I struggle regarding what I want to actually share here. The easiest thing to write about are the accounts of the very busy pace I normally maintain, describing the challenges, the wins, and the losses in the mundane world of tasks I exist in. It’s black and white, sterile, and doesn’t scratch beneath the surface. Writing about some of the inner feelings and thoughts about life in general at this point in time is not easy and not desirable in most situations, so I only do it rarely. Remember to not stare.
Even though Friday evening I still had adequate light for my 10 mile ride, I did the prep for the following week where that will no longer be the case. I attached a light to my helmet and the the rear of my Trek to make me clearly visible to motorists, even once daylight has passed. I also wore my clear lens work glasses for the ride as tint will not be workable over the winter. I have found that wearing glasses with a top frame are annoying while riding. When you are in the down position that frame is annoyingly in your field of vision. I bought a cheap set of cycling glasses that have no top frame for that very reason. The ride itself went ok with temps around 80 I couldn’t complain.
Saturday morning was the first REALLY cool morning. The thermometer actually dipped into the upper 50’s at the house. I was doing chicken and other chores in the morning wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and I loved it. I am so over the heat and humidity. Elsa and I did an errands run that probably added up to at least 75 miles of driving, it wasn’t ideal.
During the afternoon I took down the Halloween decorations, which is far less depressing than when I do the same with Xmas decorations because there is far less invested. Two of the inflatables were “retired” (aka, thrown out). Both the big red spider which was probably 5 years old and the scary tree developed leaks that I could not trace. The spider’s material was deteriorating all over from the years of sun exposure so I could understand it. Scary tree was only two years old. He was inflating fine at the beginning of the month but by the end was a saggy, sad tree. I did make a proactive move for next year, buying two more Halloween inflatables on Amazon at a post Halloween discount price.
Late in the afternoon I took my V12 out for a DD run. During the ride I stopped to talk about the catastrophic fire that Ewheels had, the company I have bought that vast majority of my wheels from. Although not proven yet, it is suspected that the fire started from a defective battery pack. It’s a devastating loss.
Saturday night I watched Battlestar Galactica – The Plan. It was a “movie” based on the series that I loved, or so I thought. What it actually turned out to be was a bunch of scenes from the TV series thrown together in such a way to give a rough, Cliff Notes version of the story. I found it extremely disjointed, jarring, and not good in that format. Don’t bother if you were a fan of the show, you have seen it all before.
Sunday the weather again was glorious with bright sun, blue skies and crisp air. I had the windows open all day long, a rarity. After a morning of normal tasks I came to the point where I had to decide what I wanted to do with my afternoon. With the awesome weather maybe I should go on an extended ride, maybe go to the beach, maybe anything that took advantage of the great weather outside. Well I did come up with something that benefits from nice weather as well, tending to the grass. Yes I consumed my entire afternoon weed whacking and mowing the property which took almost exactly 4 hours. Now there was reasoning behind this.
Last week I put it in to have this upcoming Friday off. Our office is closed for Veterans day on Thursday so this gives me a four day weekend. I targeted pressure washing the pool area during this time, which is disgusting. Doing this job is ass breaking and very lengthy. I determined that if I had to do yard maintenance during the weekend as well it would be really unfun, hence why I decided to do it now.
Yesterday I also thought I would make a preemptive strike on the pool area cleaning. I got out my 30 Seconds hose end spray attachment and filled it with the solution which is some sort of bleach mixture. I figured I could save myself from the worst of pressure washing by spraying the overhead pool cage with the solution to de-green it ahead of time so I don’t have to blast it as much. This was not the best thought out plan. Spraying a bleach solution up means it also has to come down. I had bleach dripping all over me but didn’t care. Only after I thoroughly soaked the frame twice did I head inside to take a shower and wash the clothes before the bleach really started burning things. I wasn’t all that pleased with the outcome. It did get rid of a lot of the green but those frame sections still will need to be blasted regardless.
By the time I got back inside the Eagles game was already well into the first quarter, they were playing the LA Chargers in Philly. Once again the Eagles stuck with their new found revelation that they can actually run the ball and any game plan that revolves around Jalen Hurts being a prolific passer is going to be problematic. Their offense was solid, again using more runs than passes by a significant margin. This running rebirth has occurred without their starter Miles Sanders in the lineup.
The problem is their defense was terrible. They did not register a single sack, a single turnover and allowed LA to pretty much move the ball at will. I was disgusted that during the last LA drive of the game where they got the winning field goal, the Eagles defensive backs were STILL giving LA receivers a 10 yard cushion off the line, it was maddening. I really hate the soft zone, no blitz strategy the team seems to be based on, it sucks. The team is now 0-4 at home.
Ever since the Linc opened, there has been a sense that the home field advantage that the team used to command at the Vet has disappeared. For whatever reason, playing at Lincoln Financial Field just does not carry the weight the Vet did. Maybe since ticket prices have gone through the stratosphere, the down and dirty, louder than a bullhorn fans that used to populate the 700 level have been priced out of attending. The team plays the Broncos next week, which is likely another loss, which will pretty much send this season into lost cause territory.
One thing I have done for a number of years is take iconic shots from the various destinations I have been to and put them into my rotating backgrounds in Windows. Every 10 minutes or so a new background pops into one of my two screens. Of course over the last 8 years all of those destinations involved Cindy as well so I have had to make some adjustments. It used to be that seeing these images pop up would bring back momentary jolts of good feelings as I recall the scenario and everything associated with it. Now, although I still remember the good times, it is unavoidable to feel the sadness associated with the past tense aspect of it all.
I even get the feeling of sadness when I see the images from my dad and stepmom’s place in Mariensville. Despite it being in the middle of nowhere there were some very fond memories of that place for me. I do this pretty routinely, dwell on the past twisting one time happy memories into sad reminders. I remember hearing/reading somewhere a quote that went something like this, “It’s ok to look at the past, but don’t stare…..” I get it.
Last night was a big one, DJ officially became a big brother with Katie giving birth to baby Emily. It sounds like the birth process went extremely quick and smooth, you couldn’t ask for more. Hopefully Katie will be discharged sometime this weekend so the newly enlarged family can all be under one roof. There is going to be a lot of adjusting going on without a doubt.
Last night we got blitzed with rain in advance of a cold front, so much so that the property which has been totally dry for weeks is now submerged once again. Being underwater on November 5th is not common, I am not sure we have ever been flooded this late in the year. The good news out of this is the weekend should be awesome with lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s.
I have a number of things this weekend I wanted to accomplish, so many that I probably should have written a list. Sometimes during the week a “I should do” item pops into my head but pops back out by the time the weekend rolls around.
Last night I decided I was going to “cook” dinner which in my world means basically any meal that involves more prep than 5 minutes in the microwave. I went all out, putting my cooking skills to the test with a meal of fish sticks, mac n cheese, AND baked chocolate chip cookies. Using the oven and boiling water at the same time took some careful balancing and precision but I managed to come out with something edible in the end. It also resulted in more clean up than is typically allotted.
I have still been working through my Lastpass password list. It is a much more daunting task than I first imagined. What I have found is in more recent times I have been using significantly stronger passwords but I was still using them in some situations on multiple sites. Luckily Lastpass makes it very easy to identify these duplications. One password I finally changed last night was associated with my YouTube account which somehow had not been changed since 2012, a gross oversight. I have a feeling I will be running into more WTF password realities as this process continues.
I am getting close to finishing Squid Game. It’s pretty compelling stuff if you can not get bent out of shape about the inherent violence in the story.
Yesterday I got a notice from my Lastpass password manager that my overall security score was low. How can this be? I am an IT professional! So I started digging into why Lastpass was telling me this. When I went into the dashboard I saw 574 passwords that were either weak or duplicated on multiple sites. Looks like I have some work to do.
I have used Lastpass for many, many years. It is a great way to securely store passwords without having to remember them all. Well way back when I did have to remember them all and as a result I reused passwords a lot, a huge no no nowadays. Not only were passwords reused, they were also weak passwords by today’s standards. For example one I used a lot was “vball”, that’s it. (no worries I don’t use it anymore) 🙂 So I started working on this massive list.
A large chunk of these offending sites were trimmed off quickly as they were for old sites that I either no longer need, duplicates or are out of existence entirely. However the sites I do actually need that were on the list needed more attention. What I did was on each site that was flagged, go in there and change my password and utilize the random password generator feature of Lastpass. It makes a long, unique, complex password that you can use for a site. You won’t remember it but Lastpass will.
A complex and long password makes brute forcing a password infinitely more difficult for a hacker. Using a unique password for each and every website you visit isolates the damage if a site is breached. If you use the same/similar password for every site, when a hacker gets a email/password leak from a breached site, the first thing they do is try those credentials on other sites. If you use different keys for each castle, the compromise starts and ends there. I have been able so far to clear up about half of the list. I have more work to do. I advise you do a similar audit of your credentials.
There hasn’t been much of note on the home front the last couple days. I still feel mostly like the road runner from the Wile E. Coyote cartoons, on the go.
Cindy stopped at the house yesterday to do a couple things. When she went in the garage she was shocked to see what at first looked like a dead baby bunny on the garage floor. When she got closer she saw the rabbit was not dead but it didn’t look good. I told her I had seen a very small rabbit hanging out by the chicken coop recently as well although I did not think it was the same one, at first.
I carefully started pulling things away from the walls, trying to find him/her. Because of it’s tiny size there were a lot of options for hiding spots. Finally as I pulled one of the storage bins away I spotted the baby. I could tell it was weak/tired but it most definitely was not dead. I was able to get the rabbit back into the animal carrier. I then took it down to the chicken area, putting out some food and water for it. I realized this had to be the same baby bunny I had seen last week.
