Category Anything and Everything

These last few weeks have been very, very stressful. The 2 hurricanes and the threat of the third monster storm had everyone on edge. The mere mention of a possible hurricane instantly sets off a wave of supply hoarding which is annoyingly reminiscent of what I used to see up north when snowstorms were predicted, but worse. For snow at least all that was usually hoarded were grocery items, not things like gasoline, plywood and all the other various hurricane supplies.

We have been yearning for things to get back to normal for some time now but this weekend was anything but. Earlier last week I jumped in and grabbed my 11 sheets of plywood to board up. By the weekend we pretty much knew Ivan wasn’t going to be a direct threat to us but I wanted to get the boards up on permanent studs so if I need to do it again we will be set in a matter of an hour or so. After the initial plywood purchase there were probably 3 or 4 additional trips to several home improvement stores to try to find additional hardware to install the wood. Everything was in short supply and by the time I realized that I would not be able to drill 70 or more holes in concrete with one bit, the selection was very thin. I wound up buying bits that were smaller than I needed. I also bought a bunch of other stuff that I didn’t even need and will be returning (hopefully) I started the boarding up Saturday morning. I knew it was going to be a royal pain in the ass when the very first anchor hole I tried to drill took a good 10-15 minutes of awkward, exhausting work while perched upon a ladder trying to get leverage to get the drill bit down into the concrete. Once I got it to a proper depth, I tried to screw in my first anchor. The anchors were driven in by a small little socket that attached to the equally small head of the anchor. I got it about 3 quarters of the way in and then the bit turned off the anchor and stripped it. Despite my best efforts, there was no way I could back it out at this point. It was far enough in that it was secure but it was far enough out that when we put the wood on top we had to use some additional washers to get it nice and tight. I repeated this procedure 3 or 4 times until I came up with a double drilling technique. This technique had me drill out the hole initially with the smaller bit and then go up one size to make it just a bit bigger. This bigger hole was the ticket as it allowed me to seat the anchors as they should be. The entire process was quite cumbersome as I was switching between different bits on both the corded and cordless drills to do different parts of the installation process. Thankfully Ali was there to help me manage the drudgery. It was hot and humid as hell. I was drinking Gatorade like it was a beer chugging contest. The work was made more difficult by the fact that Ali and I both had very sore legs from the gym a couple days earlier. By 5 or 6 o clock on Saturday we had 5 of the 9 openings covered. That was enough for the day.

On Sunday I got up and going rather early. After doing 5 windows my technique was refined so it went easier. Plus the remaining openings were in the back of the house that was in shade, making the heat more bearable. My final drilling technique involved leaning on the bit with as much as weight as possible, then when the penentration slowed, I would bang the drill bit back and forth to make a new dent in the concrete and then push again as hard as I could. With this method I could finish most holes in 2 minutes or less. (proof reading this, it sounds a bit lewd but it is purely unintentional) We got done with the last sheet of plywood around 2pm. We were both exhausted. However the Eagles didn’t play until 4 so I had time to go tackle something else, the Vette.

As I mentioned last week, the battery on the Vette was almost dead from sitting around so much. So when we started the work on Saturday morning, I jump started the Vette, pulled it out of the garage and let it run for awhile to charge the battery. No big deal. Well after a half hour to 45 minutes later I was getting ready to run out to buy yet another drill bit, I reached in to turn off the car, figuring it should be charged by now. As I leaned in I saw the temperature readings were off the charts. The coolant was at around 285 and the oil temperature was around the same. The coolant reading actually had turned red, indicating it was in a danger area. Shit!! I instinctively turned the car off. Seconds after I did that I started hearing noises and then POP!!!!!!! Steam poured out from under the hood and I instantly knew a hose left loose. I opened it up to survey the damage. Hose fragments and antifreeze was pretty much everywhere. Evidently shutting off the motor only made it worse because the hot coolant was no longer moving. I was pissed. I figured the car should be able to idle just fine, even if it was approaching 90. Not this car. So I had to get a drill bit AND a radiator hose. I also decided to get a thermostat, guessing that mine was faulty. After I got done with the boarding work on Saturday, I quickly threw on the radiator hose, filled it with water and parked it for the night, figuring I would work on it more on Sunday.

So at 2 pm Sunday, I figured I had a couple hours to kill before kickoff, let’s work on the Vette. Of course, accessing the thermostat was very difficult, it’s tucked away in such a position that you can only turn the bolt a 1/4 turn at a time. Between the 2 bolts I spent a good 15 minutes just getting them out. Once I got the housing off I saw the “thermostat“. It was basically the top half of one, it served no purpose whatsoever. That was when it clicked in my head. That was when the scales tipped and I decided that I have had enough dealing with somebody else’s shoddy work and rig jobs. I put a real thermostat in and added coolant. I fired it up and it seemed to get very hot, very quickly but I figured it just needed more coolant, no big deal. I turned it off and decided to watch the Eagles game and then tackle replacing the TPS connector after the game. I had it in my mind that I needed to get these loose ends tied up so I can sell this damn thing. So after the big Eagles win, I spliced it in, connecting the wires with butt connectors and then tried to adjust the TPS sensor as I was supposed to. It was near impossible for me to manage holding meter leads on the 2 wires while moving the sensor back and forth in order to get the proper reading. So instead I just tried to eyeball it and put it where I thought it was before. I road tested the car and went ballisitic as the car got hot AND lurched and ran like shit. If I tried to apply anything beyond minimal throttle it would almost shut off. After an embarrassing short drive down the road, I limped it back into the driveway and parked it. I was EXTREMELY frustrated. After busting my ass all weekend I had zero patience left to deal with this f’in car. I went inside and vented to Ali and told her that as soon as I got these basic issues taken care of, the car is history.

Our office was closed Monday from Ivan, even though it was hundreds of miles away and wasn’t forecast to really affect us. They made the call on Saturday and I guess they couldn’t change it once they declared us as being closed. Sometimes it is good to be a government employee. Well anyway the extra day gave me time to attack various things that didn’t get done yet. My A number 1 target, the Vette. I was going to fix this thing if it killed me. So I went back at it with the TPS. I decided that my butt connectors weren’t cutting it. I decided to solder the wires together. That went ok, now I had to adjust the sensor. The head of the one screw is stripped!! Argh!!! I hate this car! I take out the non-stripped screw and go to an auto parts store and a hardware store trying to find a match, no luck. Screw it. I went back home and used my needle nose vise grips to turn it out. After repeated efforts to get it adjusted correctly I finally got it to be what I determined as “close enough”. I took the car out on a lengthy road test. No hiccups and the temperature stayed within a normal range. YES! I was relieved and satisified that I managed to get things straightened out. However it didn’t sway my desire to end my relationship with the fiberglass money magnet. I was adding up it my mind how many things I have fixed already and how many countless things need to be addressed yet. Both lists were staggering. Enough is enough. I want a fun car that is basically sound, that I can maintain on my own but I don’t want to have to fix 90% of the car.

After the mechanical work, I addresed the cosmetic angle, taking the time to wash and vacuum both the Vette and my truck. The Vette cleaned up nice. It’s all ready for a mexican or a young kid who is looking to impress, to drive it away. I probably won’t actually put it out for sale for a couple weekends because I will be busy and unable to show it. I just would like to get what I spent on it plus maybe half of what I put into it for repairs and parts.

Besides the car work I also mowed the grass, and cleaned up the inside of the house. Early in the day I noticed that the diabetic cat had a huge throw up session as I cleaned it up from 4 different spots. I remember thinking that this could be a problem if she didn’t eat more because of the insulin shot I already gave her. It was only a passing thought because I had a million other things to do. I should have thought about that a bit longer.

Late on Sunday Ali talked to her grandfather. He didn’t sound great. Then on Monday she talked to her mom and found out that he can’t drive and has such severe joint pain right now that he can’t get himself up by himself. He lives alone so obviously this is a problem. Alison is very close to her “pop Pop” and I like him a lot too. He is a good man. Pop pop has been very vocal about wanting to see Alison as much as possible lately. It’s almost like he senses that things could be going badly (he’s 91). After a few scary calls between Ali and her family it’s decided that Ali is going to fly up to PA on one day’s notice to help pop pop and talk to him about going to the hospital or an assisted care nursing facility. So Alison is very upset about this and after she gets home she is frantically searching the airlines for a deal that wouldn’t kill us. As she is doing this I am looking for the cat. My attention returned to the fact that I didn’t see her eat anything else and that we were getting to the time of the day when the insulin kicks in full force. No food in system plus insulin, equals hypoglycemic seizure.

I found her hiding under our bed. I chased her out from under the bed. Once she was out I could sense something was off, she was starting to act disoriented. Ah shit. I immediately asked Ali if she could get some tuna out for her to eat. She immediately did and the cat started eating it but it was too late. She started spasing out. She lost control of her bodily functions, she started panting uncontrollably. Unlike the last time this happened, we knew exactly what was going on this time. Ali quickly mixed up some sugar water and we tried to give it to her in her mouth with a syringe. More of it went on the floor than in her mouth as she was twitching and shaking the entire time. This turned the tile floor into a sticky mess. We both sat in there with her, just stunned. This was the last thing we needed right now. We decided we would give her some time and see if the sugar water helped settle things down. I felt guilty as we ate our thrown together microwave supper while the cat continued to have fits in the laundry room. 2 hours passed and she was still panting like mad and looked like shit. Ali and I started talking about the idea of just having her put to sleep. We can’t deal with coming home to her going nuts if she decides to throw up one day and then not eat again. The idea was a very dark and sad reality to put my mind around, especially with my hang ups about death, dying and anything else morbid. I never directly had an animal put to sleep. But after much discussion back and forth we decided it was time. Ali called the emergency vet and got information about it and explained our situation. Of course first thing as always is the disclaimer that it will cost us 69 bucks if they unlock the door. After that it is only 33 more if we elect to euthanize. Ali passed the info along to me and we both agreed it was what we wanted to do. The cat is around 12 years old and the diabetes has all sorts of complications that could be playing parts in her problems with throwing up. We just had enough. I got out the cat carrier and put Buttons in. She was basically unable to move and was just panting. I felt horrible as a I loaded her in. Like she was being carted off to a death camp and was the one driving the cart.

It was late when we left, after 9pm. We took a long time going back and forth abouth what we should do. On the drive in I talked about my bad pet/death experiences. I didn’t really realize how bad some of them were until I talked about them. I told Ali that my way to deal with death is to not think about it, when I actually recounted some of the stories I can see why I don’t think about them. There was the puppy I found as a child that strangled itself in it’s dog chain. I found it hanging in the barnyard, self-lynched. There was the cat that had some sort of ailment where it would get uncontrollable diarhea that would scare it and it would race around the house, spraying it everywhere. I found her in the lining in one of the chairs covered in excrement, barely alive. Then there was my dad’s epileptic dog that I was in charge of watching while he was away one weekend. I came home from an errand to find that the dog knocked down it’s epilepsy medicine and had eaten almost the entire bottle. I found a vet late at night and watched as they stuck a tube down her throat and tried to pump the drugs out of her stomach. The dog was unconscious the entire time. The doctor said it was successful and let me take her home. I carried her into the basement and laid her down on some blankets and let her rest. I was horrified the next morning when I came downstairs to find her dead. I have had some bad pet death’s and this was lining up to be added to the list.

We heard hardly a peep from the cat the entire way there. Alison was unsure if she was even alive when we got there. She was still alive and we lugged the crate inside. She was still panting and didn’t appear to move much. After we got checked in we went to the exam room and after a brief wait, the assistant came in and we got Buttons out. She had stopped panting! She almost seemed normal! She was obviously tired form the episode but the panting was replaced with purring and calmness. Well it was next to impossible for us to say put her down with her appearing to be back to normal. Evidently it took that long for the sugar water to get her blood sugar back up. So we talked to the vet for awhile about options. She talked about doing blood sugar testing stuff which usually translates into the cat being at the vet for a day or two and 200 to 300 bucks. We also discussed a food change as well as ways to treat her if an episode starts. The vet said honey or karo syrup is a better option for treating a low blood sugar fit because it gets metabolized faster. So we checked out of there around 10:30 at night. After we got home I threw Buttons in the bath tub to wash the excrement and dried sugar water off her while Ali mopped the sticky crap off the laundry room floor. You could tell the cat was exhausted from the episode, she didn’t want to move. We didn’t get to bed until after midnight. The end to a miserable weekend.

I got up this morning like any other morning and first thing I hit the bathroom just like I always do. However this was a different day. As I was standing there I started feeling like I was going to blackout. My vision was literally starting to get black. I went over and sat on the edge of the tub but still felt like I was going to drop so I got down and laid on the floor on my back. This position seemed the best. Once I was on the floor I called Ali in. I had cold sweats, was pale and my skin felt clammy. I just stayed on the floor for awhile and then eventually felt ok enough to get up and lay in the bed for a few minutes. As I laid there I felt a bit better and soon was able to get up. At first we were thinking that I should go right to the doctor, but as I walked around I felt alright, a bit off, but ok. The incident scared me of course as I NEVER had anything like that happen before so it naturally set off the alert flags. But against Ali’s wishes I said I would just go to work and monitor how I feel.

Today at lunch instead of going to the gym, I went and checked my blood pressure. Ali said my symptoms could be from low blood pressure. However when I checked it, it seemed high. Higher than I remember it being. I always thought my numbers were always below 120/80, today it was around 140/90. That isn’t terrible but it is higher than the optimal numbers. I was curious what my numbers had been the last few times I was at the doctor. I called them up and got readings from 2000 on. I noticed a disturbing upward trend with the numbers. My first reading in 2000 was 120/70, the last time I was there in 2003 it was 136/84. So my current numbers aren’t much different than last year but a lot different than 4 years ago. So all of this has injected a good dose of paranoia into my current views of my health. If another near blackout occurs, off to the doctor I go. I am hoping it was some odd combination of stress, bad sleep, a tough gym workout, maybe being dehydrated… I have bust ass work to do this weekend so it should be a good test to see if my problem is something more serious.

Sounds like work is going to be closed Monday and more than likely another day or two beyond that. Cross your fingers it misses us.

The latest tracking forecast for Hurricane Ivan is rather disturbing. Being somewhere in the projected path is one thing, being dead in the middle of the forecast path is another. Surely the rush will be on to snap up any supplies that are available. I feel fortunate to have scored my plywood yesterday. I added another item to the hurricane supplies, a window AC unit. I never thought about it till I heard a guy on the radio mention it. This way I will be able to keep at least one bedroom cool if we lose power. Unfortunately I bought it on ebay and probably won’t see it until after this next hurricane arrives, but maybe I’ll get lucky. I got a great deal on it. (well a great deal if it works) People around here are really, REALLY starting to get concerned. I heard they already posted an evac order for the Keys.

This time of year when there is standing water everywhere, is prime season for tree frogs and toads to reproduce. The standing water is full of tadpoles. The frogs are literally EVERYWHERE. On the walls, in the pool, in the water equipment, in the hose reel, in the truck, in almost any nook or cranny you can find. As I walk on the grass I can see the tiny black toads scrambling for cover. As a result of this explosion of amphibians, many meet an unfortunate demise, many times accidentally by my hand. I’ll find dead ones in the pool filter. I’ll accidentally step on them. I’ll squash one as the screen door closes. I can only imagine how many I chop up while weed whacking or mowing. It bothers me to be responsible for the deaths of so many frogs and toads but there is little I can do about it. I try to watch my step the best I can.

Last night after we got home, ate dinner, checked our email and did the dishes, I asked Ali if she minded if I played my tennis game. The reason I ask is because I have the xbox hooked to the big screen tv meaning she has to go back to the bedroom if there is something she wants to watch. She surprised me when she asked if I wanted her to play with me! Over the weekend I played against the computer with her a little bit as a doubles team. She had a bit of a hard time initially but picked it up quickly. So last night we went a step beyond and went online as a doubles team. The online competition is much harder than playing the computer. But even so we managed to win quite a few games and even took a couple sets. Ali was stressing out about screwing up but I told her I didn’t care if we won, it was just cool that she was playing with me. Hopefully she will do it some more, it was fun.

The latest NOAA forecast for hurricane Ivan had the middle of the projected path right off the coast of Naples sometime on Monday. Of course these long range predictions are about as accurate as throwing jello at a bullseye but still that image was enough to freak Ali out. This morning she said she really wanted to try to find plywood so we can board up if the prediction comes true. All of the home improvement chains have been out of hurricane supplies for awhile now. So when I got to work I called the local Home Depot just for the hell of it to find out when they were getting more. I was surprised when they said they had some. Evidently they just got it this morning. I asked my boss if I could go grab some and she said “sure”. So I shot over there and was pleased to see there were 2 small stacks of it left. I loaded up 11 sheets and grabbed some concrete screws and anchors. It was a quick 250 dollar bill. In my work clothes I loaded up the sheets into the truck. By the time I was done the back of my shirt was sweated through. At least we got our wood. 🙂 Now I am paranoid some lowlife will try to steal the wood out of the back of my truck during the day.

This morning, after staying up till around 11, Nicki decided to wake me up at 4:30am to go out. Before I went to bed I went to take her out but she acted like she didn’t need to. That is the last time that happens. I’ll slap the leash on her and drag her out the door if need be. This middle of the night bathroom break is killing me. I felt like death getting out of bed since I wasn’t able to really fall back asleep after that.

My volleyball tournament for this weekend has already been cancelled.

Go on ebay and search on “hurricane frances” It is amazing some of stuff people are trying to sell, water, sand, shingles, palm leaves, and more…. I would like to meet someone that actually buys some of this junk.

It was a long weekend. It was windy and/or raining Friday morning through last night. However we were lucky again in our area. I had some more trees get bent and we lost internet connectivity for a couple days but we didn’t lose power which was my primary concern. The winds were bad but not quite as strong as what we saw for Charley. However the strong winds went on for a good 24 hours as opposed to the 4 or 5 hours of bad stuff we got from Charley.

I had 4 days off and felt like I wasted most of it. I did some stuff around the house but was really unmotivated to do all that much. I did the normal cleaning routine, hung some shelves in the hobby bedroom and we also cleaned up that same bedroom as it had become a bit of a dumping ground. However the vast majority of the 4 days were spent doing a lot of indoor hanging out. I played a ton of tennis on the xbox, developing a new new super player to do battle with online. We were loaned the Sopranos first season on DVD and we got through the first 8 episodes. (damn that is a great show) Oh and we spent a lot of time watching reporters get blown around on the weather channel. Saturday and Sunday were the worst with us being cooped up exclusively. On Monday we got to go outside to do the outdoor work that was unable to be done the other 3 days.

I was really in a bad mood on Monday. I am thinking to myself as I am sloshing through the muddy ground , weed whacking, observing how the areas that I spent sweaty hours weeding last week had already filled in with a fresh set of “weedlings”, noticing how the palm trees are overgrown with vines and those mini ferns, and running through the check list in my head of shit that needed to be addressed sooner or later that I would never get to, how much a little house in a development with a tiny little yard sounded so attractive. (how is that for a run on sentence?)

Maybe as summer passes, so will these ill feelings I have about our house. Part of the difference this year is I have been playing more volleyball than I ever have before since moving to Florida which cuts those weekends in half. So I have been not devoting as much time to keeping up with things as in prior years, resulting in the property being more out of control than I like. Volleyball for me will be winding up in a couple weeks so maybe that will help settle me down as well.

After all the yardwork, Ali and I left the dog at home and went to eat lunch and pick up some items we needed. I commented to Ali while we were driving that as much as I love the dog, it was very enjoyable to have just her and I going out to do things. Suprisingly, she said she agreed with me, although in the back of my mind I had the feeling that she would still have preferred to have the mutt along. Our lunch and errands took 3 hours or so and we came back to find that the dog survived the separation just fine. We really need to do more of it. Ali spoils the dog so bad. It makes Nicki too dependent on us.

So I have a 3 day work week because I am off Friday to play in South Beach in a 2 day vball tournament. That is unless Mr Ivan decides to visit us. I can only hope we deserve a break this time.

Random things about the weekend:

I carried on like I won Wimbledon last night when while playing online, I beat a player that was ranked 3,000-something (I was ranked in the 30,000 range) My new super-player seems to be the perfect style for me. My celebration was just silly.

While watching the weather channel, they had a crawler going across the bottom with all the current bulletins. One of the said that water in Lake Okochobee would continue to “slosh around” for the next few hours. I kid you not.

I looked for bread for 4 days, there was none to be found. Lemming panic mentality. I exclude myself from those lemmings because I was just looking for a loaf as part of my normal weekly shopping trip. 🙂 No plywood and very little gas as well.

Once it becomes available, I will be buying 10 sheets of plywood and the necessary fasteners so I can baten down the hatches if need be. I’ve been saying I was going to do that for a long time. The past few weeks have given me the kick in the ass I needed.

Why do the tv stations find it necessary to put their reporters out in the middle of the storms to give their reports? Do they think we won’t believe them if they aren’t getting blown off their feet? I mean some of those reports were just ridiculous. I guess it brings good ratings.

I got back the Sentra for the 5th TIME from this water leak issue. If it leaks again I will be going ape shit.

The battery in the Vette is dead.

I had a bunch of stuff up for sale on ebay. I didn’t watch them close enough and some junk sold for the bare minimum, a buck. Normally I will have someone throw in a minimal bid for me to prevent this from happening. As a result, after the fees from ebay, paypal and shipping costs, some of these items are COSTING me money to sell them. Woops.

It has been rainy and windy for 4 frickin days, I hate hurricanes….

Well I have the day off even though in hindsight it probably wasn’t necessary. It looks like the storm won’t hit the mainland until late Saturday at this point. The winds have diminished as well. Hopefully this isn’t a head fake. Even though the storm is over a day away, today we already have some strong winds coming from the north as the outer limit of the system is starting to spin over us.

Last night I didn’t get back home for good until close to 9. We stopped at Sam’s, the grocery store, the gas station and then after I dropped Ali off I went back out to get gas for the generator. Each stop was busy and required waiting although it wasn’t mobbed. The only grocery item I was unable to score was bread, there was none to be found. Gas was also rather hard to come by. There were a large number of stations that had run out. When I got the generator gas I waited a good 20 minutes till I could get to the pump, ugh.

This morning I started my prep work. The low areas that have been under water for weeks have finally dried up so I took the opportunity to mow them down tight since there is a good chance that they shortly will be back under water for a prolonged period. I attached steel poles to several thin trees and cleared off the lanai again.

It seems like with as slow as this system is moving we could get a ton of rain, more than I have ever seen at one time since moving here. I used to freak about getting a foot of snow. They are talking about the possibility of a foot of RAIN. So we’ll be in a holding pattern now for the next 24 hours or so. I am almost afraid to say that things are looking not as bad as they had been because Charley smacked us in the face after we were all but assured it was going to hit Tampa. I plan on getting caught up today on all utility power required chores so if we do go dark it won’t be such a big deal.

I have my fingers crossed.

Look at this and this, both clean, both VERY funny

I came into work today and the hurricane shutters are down already. This hurricane is a monster and even though we are on the west coast, we could still see hurricane force winds over here. With where I live, since I am east and north will actually see more of it. Hmmmm. I wasn’t all that concerned other than getting a lot of rain. The winds this time will be hitting the back of the house, the pool cage could be at risk. The other day I just got my adapter cord that will allow me to run our water equipment off the generator so if we lose power we should be able to get by much better than the last time. Our office could be closed again tomorrow.

I FINALLY finished Doom 3 last night. The last bad guy wasn’t the most difficult one in the game oddly enough. After he went down I was a bit disappointed by the cinematic ending, after putting so much time into the game they could have made the ending a bit longer. I was relieved when I finished it but also a bit regretful. Along the way I got hooked into the game. Not because the gameplay was ever great, it remained repetitive through out but the detail in the environment was so immersive that it really put me into game. I still don’t think it is worth 60 bucks, but it is an instant classic just because it sets a new standard in FPS visuals (and sound).

I had another very odd dream last night. Actually I think I have lots of odd dreams but I don’t remember many of them. Last night was especially strange. Ali and I were in store, an electronics store looking at phones. For some reason we decided we were going to steal/shoplift them. Even though I don’t remember having a weapon, they evacuated all the customers out of the store. So by the phone counter was me, Ali and Howie Long. Howie Long worked there. Somehow I knew him. We grabbed 2 phones, 1 black corded model and a wireless one. Howie said he didn’t care if we took them. We joked about how it was nothing since he made so much money. So we put the phones in the bag, said bye to Howie and walked out of the store. We walked right by all of the evacuated customers. We smiled and picked up the pace and tried to blend in with the crowd. I remember worrying that we would be stopped but for some reason we never were. The last thing I remember was we were driving in the car as I was thinking about how it was weird that noone stopped us and how I felt guilty about stealing the phones. At that moment I woke up enough to realize I was dreaming and didn’t have to be guilty since I didn’t really steal anything, what a relief.