So I didn’t receive any word back on the truck from the dealer by 3PM so I gave them a call. They said they identified the cause of the airbag warning light. It has to do with a wiring harness connected to the passenger side curtain airbag. They said they did not have the part in stock nor did they have an eta for how long it will take to get it. The truck was still apart so they said I should just keep the loaner for the night. Today they will get more info on the part availability. If it is going to be a considerable delay they said I can pick the truck back up but I would need to sign a waiver as driving a vehicle with any airbag issue could be a liability.
It certainly isn’t an ideal scenario as it sounds like I will have to take the truck back again once the part becomes available. I’m not really worried about driving with an airbag issue as it first showed itself back around 6000 miles. I recapped the situation on video as anything Tacoma related seems to have a lot of YouTube interest.
This weekend will include Ali’s Run for the Paws 5k, a race I have been involved in since it’s inception 11 years ago. The first 10 years I was involved as an organizer and race timer. This will be the first year I will be a normal everyday participant. Ali is sort of excited to have me there with Sadie. With my bum right leg I don’t plan to run the event but instead walk it with Sadie. I don’t even know if we will do the full 3.12 mile distance which may be too far for Sadie but we will give it a go. Ironically this was the last running club race I was involved with last year and will be the first running club event I have attended since. It will be nice to see some of the familiar faces that I spent so many early morning hours setting up events with over the years.
I am doing some planning and thinking about some additional fencing in the backyard to accommodate the addition of Katie’s dogs to the mix. Tank and Bowser do not yet know the chickens are out of bounds. My thought was to create an additional large dog run area down the one side of the back yard. Cindy came up with the idea of instead creating a fenced in area around the chicken coop to restrict the chickens instead of the dogs.
My knee jerk reaction to Cindy’s plan is yes, it would be nice for me to not have to deal with the chickens ripping up various sections of the property and scattering chicken poop far and wide. However the crazy compassionate animal lover in me hates the idea of taking away the freedom the 10 birds all have come to love. The other problem is the chickens prefer to be more or less hidden during a good portion of the day and they use the underside of the large shed and the bushy areca palms around the pond to accomplish that.
However if I fenced the area around the coop there really is no cover available other than the coop itself. The other problem is the area behind the coop that would likely be fenced is flooded out badly through a good portion of the summer. Of course the cheapest and least labor intensive option is for us to train Tank and Bowser that the chickens are part of the family. Cindy actually has some training collars that she has used a little bit to start that process so we will see how that goes.
I am sure the weekend will include some EUC riding. I have the idea of heading down to the hilly area of Marco Island to ride for something unique.
It is quite the scene coming home from work with three dogs in the house. Let’s say the greeting is very enthusiastic. They were excited that on my pit stop at Sam’s Club I picked up a pack of deer antlers to help alleviate some of the bone contention that was going on. Cindy said the dogs got along well during the day which I was glad to hear.
Katie got home earlier than normal and Cindy suggested we go out and ride while she made dinner. I would have preferred to just ride the wheels over to the school but Cindy didn’t like that idea. Instead Katie and I drove over to the school and launched from there. We had a nice 45 minute ride where we traveled to the high school up the road to explore. The temps were a little on the chilly side. I had a hooded sweatshirt on although I was wearing shorts which was a little uncomfortable. It was fun to ride around with Katie. It’s a good way to keep her from focusing on the negative feelings surrounding her break up with her boyfriend.
The night with the dogs was mostly fine. Bowser has this spontaneous barking thing which we need to address somehow. He will think he hears something outside and will bark like mad, which triggers Tank to bark as well. They run up to the front window and continue barking at nothing. It’s ok while we are out there watching tv, we can call him off. But when I was laying in bed half comatose trying to fall asleep it made it sort of impossible. Today we are picking up Sadie so the dog craze-o-meter should be pegged all the way to the right.
This morning I was up early to drop off my Tacoma at the dealer. It was due for it’s 10,000 mile service and I am also hoping they can fix a random airbag warning light that has been popping up for several months. I was glad they were able to give me a loaner Rav 4 to minimize the impact on my workday.
Wow I’m really glad I didn’t do an impulse buy on the GoPro Karma drone when it came out. I just found out that shortly after it’s launch they were all recalled due to dangerous random shut off issue. The drone could simply fall out of the sky without warning. Since the recall it appears that GoPro has scrapped the Karma altogether. They offered full refunds to any customers and I think they gave then a free GoPro camera as further reparations. GoPro stockholders can’t be happy.
I have been in one of those periods of time where I feel like there are so many little things that need to be taken care of and I don’t feel like I am getting anywhere. It’s not a feeling I enjoy. The funny thing is feeling that way despite getting a decent amount of things done over the weekend.
It started out early Saturday with me getting outside to work on weeding a little after 7:30. That rolled almost immediately into doing the oil and filter change that was due on the Prius. Cindy and I headed out to do a Rural King run, something I hadn’t done in a couple weeks, a long time for me. We brought Elsa along for the ride and she once again oscillated between being ok one moment and terrified the next.
We stopped at Home Depot on the way home. We picked up some more vegetables for the garden including tomatoes, something we historically have a horrible time getting anywhere with. If first you don’t succeed, try, try again. I also picked up a new LED floodlight for the other side of the house, similar to the awesome stadium style bright unit I installed on the other side a couple months ago.
When we got home we made plans to go with Katie to go look at rvs/trailers/park homes. She is looking to move ahead with having a place to call her own and wanted to get a first hand look at some options. The first place we went surprised the hell out of me, they sold Airstreams. For some reason I had it in my head that Airstream was no longer in business. I am not sure where that notion came from.
Not only did they not go out of business, they make some of the highest quality trailers on the market we came to discover. Katie loved the stainless steel shells that wrapped around highly functional living spaces. We looked at models that ranged from 16 feet to 30. Regardless of the size, every single model we checked out was really, really nice. Of course top of the line comes with a price tag, they are far from cheap.
I talked a bit with the sales manager at the location. He used to work at the Airstream factory store in Ohio for a long time. He really stressed how well made they were and how they steered clear of shitty Chinese components as much as possible. He also told me that depending on the price of he unit, they can be financed for as long as 20 years, making one affordable even for someone just getting started like Katie. The last interesting fact was they are just over 8 feet wide, meaning in theory one could be driven into our wide open backyard through the 10 foot gate with little fuss.
In addition to the Airstreams we looked at more traditional trailers as well as “park homes”, another thing I wasn’t aware of. These were apartment/condo sized homes on wheels. When you were inside it looked like conventional construction. When you were outside you saw the big trailer it was built on and would be a permanent part of it’s structure. I guess the name comes from the idea that typically you park these once and leave them there, unlike an Airstream-like trailer which could be relocated pretty easily.
Out of everything we saw Katie definitely liked the Airstream option the best. The ability to pick up and move while having all the basic necessities to live day to day was very appealing to her. The design of them was really interesting to Katie and she spent a good portion of the drive home researching the hell out of them on her phone.
When we got back we didn’t waste much time before we headed over to the school to ride our wheels. I also brought my Mavic with as I wanted to see how it did tracking Katie and I as we rode around. Well the drone did pretty damn well. Even with sunset approaching rapidly the Mavic did a good job of following us around autonomously , keeping us in it’s field of view.
Cindy was doing more of her fence EUC training and did well again. I think all she needs to do is get more frequent training sessions under her belt so she can keep building where she left off instead of having to refamiliarize herself when 10 or 14 days have passed.
Saturday night Cindy called in a food order that I picked up. We had a Netflix rental in an envelope, a movie called Memento that Cindy picked out, some murder mystery flick. Well we gave it a solid 15-20 minutes to spark our interest before all three of us gave it the gong. I pulled out the dvd and instead rented Deepwater Horizon on X1. The movie reenforced why fossil fuels and the companies that provide them need to be put out to pasture. The recreation of the disaster on film was incredibly realistic and impressive. I’d give it a B+.
I felt guilty when I didn’t start my Sunday morning off with a run. The reality is my knee/hip/IT band on my right side is still messed up and running would just amplify it. That didn’t make me feel any less guilty however. I did however get busy once again outside, tending to the chickens, planting the vegetables I bought Saturday and starting the work to replace the floodlight.
Installing that floodlight was one of the very early home projects I took on after we built the place in 2001. As I ripped down the old beat up light I realized that back then I did some pretty shoddy work. I had the old light sloppily and loosely attached to the aluminum flashing, it wasn’t very solid at all. I got the old light ripped out but realized if I wanted to install the new one correctly I was going to need a proper electrical fixture mounting box, which I didn’t have.
The three of us went to Dunkin Donuts and followed up with another ride into the Esplanade development. It was SUPER windy during the ride. At times if the wind hit us dead on it felt like it almost brought us to a standstill. It was nuts.
After the ride we made a couple stops, including the hardware store so I could get the mounting box I needed. When I got home I got to work. Instead of mounting the light to the aluminum I attached the box to the concrete wall with tapcons, a much sturdier solution. Once that was in place the rest of the light install went pretty easily. It looks a lot better and lights up that area of the yard in a much more efficient manner.
I had a few other projects/chores keeping me busy during the afternoon. Late in the day Cindy mentioned that Katie was interested in going over to the nearby Bird Rookery Swamp to walk with Elsa. We came up with a plan where I would leave ahead of them on my Msuper and they would drive there with Elsa in the Prius. With the ability to cruise comfortably at 18-20 mph, I got there pretty fast, fast enough that I had time to ride the length of the boardwalk and back before they got there.
Katie had never been to the swamp so it was cool for her to see. We ran into a decent sized gator shortly after getting onto the grass path. Cindy was scared, Katie was concerned, I just sort of shrugged. I have seen so many gators at this location it just doesn’t affect me much. Elsa seemed to like the hike as well although she got scared by random people along the way. We stayed later than I ever had before, getting back to the parking lot a few minutes after the sun had set.
I told Cindy I wanted to ride the wheel back to the house as well instead of hitching a ride with her. She was not thrilled with the idea but knew I was going to do it regardless. The ride back was fine, possibly even faster than the ride there. The headlight on the Msuper was definitely necessary as it was almost pitch black by the time I pulled back into the driveway.
I have a work week that is going to be very meeting heavy so don’t be surprised by short and sweet entries as standard practice.
Yesterday was an odd one at work, I made an emergency trip to Best Buy to buy a computer for the office. Normally we have a procurement process to get new pc’s that can take a few days to a couple weeks. However when the bosses computer dies the protocol changes. We had him back up and running in a few hours.
My new bigger pedals for the Gotway MCM4 arrived yesterday. I got them from the same guy in the UK that I bought my Msuper from. Despite his company being an ocean away I got the pedals in a few days which is cool. Since I already did a test swap last week, replacing the pedals didn’t take very long at all. After finishing up I took it out for a quick test ride as the sun was setting to test out the feel of the pedals. Just like last week the bigger pedals felt much better on my feet.
My cold is still raging, only loosely controlled by Nyquil and Dayquil. Last night I was drowning in snot, it sucks. I have my gym clothes with today. I hope to get to the gym although I have a feeling my energy level and strength will be so underwhelming that it will just piss me off.
Before I get started I neglected to mention that when I got back from my PA trip Cindy had a very big present waiting for me, she repainted the master bathroom a very peaceful gray color. We had talked about repainting the bathroom for awhile. I thought it was very nice of her to take the initiative to take it on while I was in PA. It really looks good.
Ok so on Friday I had a heavy EUC day. In the morning I took the wheel to North Collier Regional Park. While I was in PA I had the idea pop in my head that I wanted to make an EUC tips video where I put a number of tips that helped me during my learning process in one video. I thought it really turned out well and so far others seem to agree.
I also did an EUC experiment I had been curious about, a pedal swap between my Msuper and MCM4. One of the primary things I like about my Msuper and dislike about the MCM4 are the foot pedals. The MCM4 pedals are too small and cause me a lot of foot pain while the MSuper has some of the biggest pedals around and feel much better. The mounting brackets for the pedals on both wheels looked identical so I was curious if the pedals themselves were swappable. Well I was happy to find out the answer was YES. The big pedals do fit on the MCM4 so I ordered an extra set from the same guy in the UK I got my Msuper from. In addition I did a pedal calibration on the MCM4 which seemed to help the overall riding characteristics of the wheel.
On Friday I also got around to finally installing a replacement security camera out in the coop so we now have a full set of 8 cameras once again monitoring the chicken stomping grounds. I should sleep better at night now.
We were leaving for Miami in the early afternoon to attend Cindy’s brother’s wedding. Ali and her boyfriend were nice enough to agree to watch Elsa for the night. We figured having Sadie there would help ease whatever nervousness Elsa would have from being away from us. We spent the morning getting everything ready for our brief getaway.
When we dropped Elsa off at Ali’s it was funny. You could tell she was excited and scared at the same time. We brought her crate along so she would have a safe haven to retreat to if necessary. Cindy of course was nervous about being away from Elsa for the first night ever but Ali assured her they would take good care of Elsa which I had no doubt about.
Katie was hitching a ride with us to Miami. When we got back from dropping off Elsa we did a quick car load and were pretty much ready to roll. The trunk of the car also had two electric unicycles in it and one Minipro. We hoped to get out to ride on Sunday morning somewhere.
During the roughly two hour drive to the hotel I noticed I wasn’t feeling quite right. I had some weird soreness in my throat setting in and I just felt off. I hoped it was just me feeling the effect of drinking two large coffees in the span of three hours. Unfortunately the feeling kept ramping up throughout the day.
Cindy reserved a room at the Aloft in Dadeland, the same chain we stayed at for the Tampa Comic Con so I already knew to expect a hipster experience. Katie was staying in the room with us. I was not excited when I found out the two beds were doubles instead of queen size. Over the years I have had some very bad sleeping experiences trying to fit my dimensions in a double with another person. Other than that the room was very nice.
All three of us did our prep for the wedding which was around 5PM. We arrived at the church with about 15 minutes to spare, saying hi to the familiar faces of Cindy’s family and friends. We got premium family seating the the third row for the ceremony. The “I do’s” probably took maybe 20-25 minutes to complete. There was a cute and touching part where Cindy’s brothers two kids read a passage. Owen, the little shy boy was especially cute as he read his verse out of sight behind the lectern.
This church was a one stop shop which was very cool. After the ceremony they had drinks and snacks out on a patio and then at the other end of the complex was a large hall that was being used for the reception. Cindy and I were summoned to be in the official wedding photos of family that were taken in a scenic area outside.
The reception hall was very nicely decorated. Each table had a beautiful floral centerpiece. I had started a pretty steady stream of beer during the cocktail hour and continued it into the reception. I somehow hoped the alcohol would make the incoming illness feel less shitty. Instead I just sort of felt shitty and drunk.
JP and Amber front loaded the reception with all the formalities to get them out of the way. In the first 20 minutes the garter was removed, the bouquet was tossed and the cake was cut. This was the first time I ever saw it done this way but I understood the logic. They wanted to make the reception just about everyone having a good time. I would say they were successful in that goal.
As the night went on the sillyness amplified. I eventually had enough alcohol that I made a brief appearance on the dance floor. Towards the end of the party things got really silly when we decided we would go get out the wheels that were stored in the trunk and ride them around in our formal wear. It looked pretty damn silly I am sure but we had a lot of fun doing it. I totally forget about feeling shitty during those few minutes.
So the reception ended around 10. Cindy drove us back to the hotel. I took another shower hoping it would somehow wash the illness from me. At that point I had soreness and blockage in my right sinus that did not want to clear even with high effort nose blowing. After cleaning up I crawled into bed hoping for at least a half decent nights sleep. Instead I had one of my most indecent nights of sleep ever.
I honestly think I did not actually fall asleep at all the entire night, instead laying there with my eyes closed. There was a combination of factors contributing to my insomnia. The clogged nostril and restricted breathing was the first sleep obstacle. I got up to blow my nose a couple times and it didn’t help at all. The double bed with two people made it just impossible for me to find a position of long term comfort. I was constantly adjusting myself while trying to not impose on Cindy so she could at least sleep. Finally there was a lack of consistent white noise which is something I normally require to sleep. Total silence strangely is an awful sleeping condition for me. The AC was cycling on and off creating temporary white noise. I normally set it to keep the fan on but forgot to do so before going to bed this time. At one point I even briefly tried to sleep in a chair in the room, I was that desperate.
So anyway as you can imagine, I awoke feeling absolutely terrible. The lack of sleep, illness, and slight hangover left me feeling like a pile of dirt. We packed up the room and checked out. Right across the street was a place called Don Pan, a cuban bakery/breakfast place that Cindy loved from her days of living in Miami. My “cuban breakfast” was good even though I had very minimal appetite at that point.
Even though I felt terrible I wanted to still get our ride in. We drove back near the area the church was located as it seemed scenic and a good place for one wheeling. We had a nice maybe hour long ride taking in scenery we normally don’t get the opportunity to see. Katie was scanning values of the houses as we rode by them. They were very, very expensive. Katie also showed off some her new wheel riding skills. She can now ride one legged quite well, at one point holding the position for a good 30 seconds. She is officially better than me now. That didn’t take long.
After the ride we headed to Amber’s house. We were picking up Cindy’s niece to give her a ride back to Naples. They were also having a day after wedding party at the house. Since we had the chickens to care for and Elsa to pick up we only stayed for a short period of time before heading out. I was not feeling up to eating or drinking at that point. I spent most of the time helping Cindy’s nephew work on his activity book that had stuff like word searches, connect the dots and other fun kid stuff in it.
Cindy drove home, not wanting a sleep deprived person behind the wheel. Taylor and Katie were in the back seat acting silly most of the drive home making me smile and laugh a few times despite feeling progressively worse. When we got home we unloaded the car and I stayed there while Cindy took Taylor home and picked up Elsa. While she was gone I went out and cleaned the coop. It is always more labor intensive cleaning the coop later in the day as the piles of excrement has had more time to harden and dry, requiring more scrubbing instead of just being able to hose it off, fun times.
Outside of the coop cleaning and unpacking luggage I went into vegetable mode mostly for the rest of the day. I spent nearly three hours watching Batman vs Superman for a second time. No it didn’t get any better the second time around but it didn’t get any worse either. I still love that Batman does Crossfit to toughen up to fight Superman.
I caught the end of the Cowboys/Packers game and was very happy with the outcome. Must suck to lose as the number one seed in your first playoff game. Poor, poor Cowboys….
I took Nyquil to knock myself out last night and am happy to say it worked. I still feel lousy today but at least I got some sleep to help balance things out. Today is my last day off officially although if I still am in the meaty part of this illness tomorrow I don’t have any pressing things I have to rush back to work for. It certainly has been a full twelve days of vacation. I wouldn’t mind another twelve.
So as I signed off before departing on my flight home from PA I remarked sarcastically how I hoped for a smooth travel experience, knowing the exact opposite would be the case. Well for once I was glad I got it wrong, both flights to Atlanta and Fort Myers were uneventful, I actually got to Fort Myers 15 minutes ahead of schedule. To make things better, the empty seat next to me that I paid for was not resold by Delta on either flight meaning I had space to relax where 98% of the rest of the cabin did not.
Cindy and Elsa picked me up and life was back to normal. I quickly stripped off the long sleeve thermal shirt I was wearing as it was clearly no longer necessary. One of the first things I did when I got home was to verify that the glued together and carefully packed ceramic skull I bought for Katie survived the trip intact. It thankfully did. I left my luggage in the laundry room so everything could be washed, even though I did some laundry at my dad’s. There was just too much cross contamination going on. Wednesday night we just chilled out and caught up on some back logged dvr content. It felt very comforting to be back inside my own four walls and even more so to sleep in my own bed.
So Thursday was a fresh day and I decided I needed to get shit done, despite a right leg that continues to give me a limp worthy of a medicare patient. The first task was taking down all of the exterior Christmas decorations. This is a job that is much better suited to two people but Cindy was teaching a class and I didn’t feel like waiting. I slowly made progress unwrapping the lights around the six palm trees and then wrapped each set around it’s own spool for storage.
As I was removing the icicle lights from the front entrance area I noticed the gutter on that side of the house was packed with oak tree leaves. This spun off into a side project of my cleaning the gutters on that side of the house. I grabbed my battery powered DeWalt blower and went to town. It worked very well. I also noticed just how much asphalt continues to build up in the gutters, another reminder that doing something about my roofing material is going to have to be done in the next few years.
So I finally got the gutters cleaned and the lights packed away, a good days work. It should be now time to relax, right? Wrong. I got another bug up my ass to clean out and reorganize the small shed, something I have been meaning to get done for a few months. I began the arduous process of pulling out shit and throwing it around the yard in piles that designated if it was to go back in the shed, taken to the curb, or thrown out. Cindy got back after I ate lunch and was starting on the reassembly process which she assisted on. I am much happier with the end result as it makes it easier to get to what I need. The purging also had the side benefit of clearing some shelf space which is always a good feeling.
Finally I got to rest for part of the afternoon. The labor had left me feeling all kinds of sore, not only in my right leg but back as well. Katie stopped by Thursday evening to eat dinner and pick out clothes for the wedding we are attending this weekend. We also did some riding on our wheels over at the school.
This was a big moment because it was the first time Cindy had her new Inmotion wheel out in the wild. She was being very protective of her wheel, she didn’t even want me to carry it to the car and she placed a pillow between her wheel and mine. I reminded her that hoping to keep an electric unicycle blemish free is an impossibility. She said she realized that but she wanted to be the one to create those blemishes, fair enough.
While Katie and I rode around Cindy headed for the magical rectangular fence that she used last time as a training aid. It took a little time for her to get reaccustomed to the physics but by the time we left ahe had done a number of corner to corner free wheeling rides which are at least 50 feet in distance. She really has the hardest part behind her, now it is just putting in the time so she trusts her body to just react.
This morning there was a steady light rain going on but it didn’t stop me from getting outside to knock out the weeding and do a few other things. It still is hard for me to believe just a few days ago I was marching around in 5 degree air and surviving.
Even though I am off tomorrow I figured I may as well get the blog knocked out after a nice Eagles win over the hated Cowboys to end the season. New Year’s eve was once again a busy day. Despite Saturday sort of being a holiday, I wanted to front load my three day weekend with the stuff I wanted to get done, as is always my preference.
Once again Cindy helped me in accomplishing that goal. The swelling in my right knee has not relented at all, if anything it may have gotten slightly worse, making house chores a slow and limp filled process. During a break in the action we went to Rural King. The last time Elsa was there she spent the entire visit being freaked out. This time we had just picked up Sadie before heading there. Having Sadie along helped Elsa do better but she still gets freaked out unexplainably in public at random times. Once she starts it is very difficult to settle her down.
During the afternoon we worked on putting away all of the indoor decorations. I normally will leave stuff up a week or even two weeks after New Year’s sometimes and I may leave the exterior stuff up that long again. Unlike a lot of years, I didn’t feel a lot of remorse or sadness taking stuff down this time. I’m not sure why that is because we sure put a lot of effort into making this holiday as good if not better than most.
Cindy made plans for us to meet up with Katie and Daniel in Naples that night. Originally the plan was we would meet prior to the fireworks and ride there together. That didn’t work out timewise so Cindy and I parked at the Publix at the corner of Golden Gate Parkway and 41 and rode our wheels down to the Naples Beach Hotel. We did not want our electronic transportation sitting in sand so we sat on a rail leading to the beach and parked our bots right under us.
Our plan seemed pretty solid until the rush of last minute people came charging in. One of them was a clueless mother with her young son. The kid had on those sneakers with embedded LEDS in them that flash constantly. They were maybe 10 feet from us. Mom was too busy taking selfies and filming the fireworks on her phone (more on that later) to give any consideration to just how annoying her son’s flashing sneakers were.
Imagine you were in a movie theater trying to watch a film and the guy in the next row held up a color pulsating flashlight. That was pretty much how it was. Cindy has a sensitivity to bright lights like that so she moved positions so my body blocked most of the lights as they annoyed me less. I told Cindy I would ask the kid to turn them off but she didn’t want to dampen the kids New Years. In retrospect I still should have just asked the kid/mom as nicely as I could muster to please turn off your f’ing flashing shoes.
Even halfway into the fireworks people were still trying to cram themselves into the beach area. It just reminded me why I generally avoid these types of events. The other thing that drives me a bit nuts is how many people filmed the ENTIRE event on their smart phone. I mean wtf, you are there, watch the fireworks with your eyes instead of via the viewfinder of your phone. If the rest of your social media circle wanted to see fireworks they would make the effort to go see them themselves, not watch your recording of it online. I just don’t get it.
As the last explosion went down I was very happy to get off the beach and felt no desire to repeat the experience any time soon. We met up with Katie and Daniel afterward. We didn’t get 5 feet until a nice group of people started asking Cindy questions about the wheels. Cindy loves telling people about them and even letting them try the MiniPro if so inclined. After the demonstration was done we started rolling around.
As you can imagine the area was very congested with people and vehicles. The nice thing is most people are so amazed by the wheels that they stop dead in their tracks and let you pass. I was riding the MCM4 which looks especially cool at night with it’s robust LED lighting. During one section of sidewalk we ran into some early sprinklers blocking the path. I tried to avoid them by hopping into the grass but immediately fell as the super deep and wet St Augustine grass swallowed the wheel up. Luckily I landed on the grass and I had my wrist guards on so no injury occurred.
We eventually rode back to Rita’s, a local ice cream hangout. On our way there both Katie and Daniel demonstrated some of the new skills they have learned since both having wheels full time. Daniel can now ride one legged for short distances and hopped down and up curbs multiple times. Katie is so smooth on her new wheel as well and did a super smooth curb jump that was awesome. After ice cream we all piled back in the Prius. We drove Katie and Daniel back to their car which was a number of blocks away. They thanked us for yet another unique and fun riding experience.
Since the fireworks were early, 7:30PM, we got home by around 9:30. We had no further crazy celebration planned, in fact I consumed not one drop of alcohol. Hell I didn’t even watch Dick Clarks Rocking Eve until 11:55 or so just to watch the ball drop. Instead I watched Deadpool which was showing on HBO. 🙂 I was a little bummed I missed Mariah Carey making an idiot out of herself on live tv when her lip sync voice track died, showing the world she really can’t sing those songs that way anymore.
Sadie had a very rough time of it while we were gone. She is scared of loud noises. During thunderstorms she will either be cowering under my desk or in a closet. Well some of the idiots around us evidently were shooting off fireworks a good portion of the night. As we pulled into the garage it looked like they were going off almost on top of the back yard. Sadie was FRANTIC when we got in the door, hyperventilating. We soon discovered she had peed in several spots around the house, something she never does. She must have been terrified. Both Cindy and I felt very bad that she was so freaked out.
Despite being up late, I awoke early. Since my knee blew up my sleep has been very poor. I am unable to sleep in the position I normally do because of the knee and it makes me wake up often as I shift to relieve pressure. I was up and outside pretty early, taking on chicken coop cleaning duty, giving Cindy a one day break from the chore she winds up having to do other days. I also got out the carpet shampooer to give the areas Sadie lost control in a thorough cleaning.
I decided I wanted to go for a long EUC ride in the morning. I came up with the idea of taking Cindy’s new wheel, the MCM4 on the trip. I have not done any long distance cruising on the wheel and was curious how it would be. Well the short answer was, not great. The smaller pedals on the wheel hurt my feet very quickly. I had to stop a couple times to relieve the pain.
The wheel is pretty fast, I got up to 18mph at one point but it does not feel stable at speed. The wheel almost feels like you are repeatedly tapping the gas and then coasting non-stop as you are rolling along. It gets annoying and does not inspire confidence. The other thing I noticed was the wheel temperature reading seemed high, somewhere close to 130 degrees but I later found out this is within the normal operating range for this wheel.
So I made it to DD in one piece but was glad I arranged to have Cindy meet me there to drive me back. The MCM4 is a fun wheel to roll around on at night for relatively shorter rides but long distance cruising is definitely not what it is good at. I told Cindy after the ride I understood why she preferred the way Katie’s Inmotion wheel felt in comparison. It’s thinner, smoother, and more polished of a riding experience.
During the late morning I did my bills which included paying and reconciling my monster CC bill from the holidays. Reconciling the December statement is always the biggest pain in the ass of any month as you can imagine. I bet I spent 45 minutes going line by line, matching it up to my Quicken entries.
Cindy was going to a beach birthday party. I opted to dog sit and take in the last Eagles game of the year against the Cowboys. I knew Dallas was not going to be trying very hard since a win did not change their playoff picture. Zak Prescott played a couple series and Ezekial Elliot didnt play at all, making the Eagles job a whole lot easier.
It sure helped once the Cowboys inserted Mark Sanchez to finish out the game after Tony Romo was in for one series and threw for a TD. Sanchez was his normal stumbling, bumbling self, throwing two interceptions and taking a horrible sack, all of which set up Eagle scores. So yea, the Eagles won and I am happy about it but I am under no delusion that we beat the best Dallas has to offer.
The 2016 Eagles were a very frustrating team to watch. During the first three games they played uncharacteristically solid football, excelling at pretty much all facets of the game. The wheel then came off rather abruptly. I am sure part of it was opposing coaches game planning better but the Eagles did a lot wrong to help them. They had something insane like five games this year where they committed ten penalties or more.
On defense there were multiple problems. The defensive line stopped being able to get to the QB for a stretch of 7 or 8 games. The cornerbacks were awful in my opinion, getting burned consistently, when they weren’t committing PI penalties. The offense was a mess at times as well with the wide receivers being the biggest underperformers of all. They could cut every single wide receiver on this roster and I would not care. There isn’t a playmaker in the bunch and nobody has the speed to make defenses care.
Of course Carson Wentz was the biggest unknown going into the season and I would say he did well, sort of. He was definitely handcuffed by the shitty wide receivers with bad hands, no speed, and no ability to make the tough catch if a pass was slightly off target. However Wentz was off target a lot this year. His bad habit of throwing off the back foot resulted in a lot of interceptions and even more interceptions he was lucky defenders dropped. He made a lot of dumb throws and even dumber decisions, taking sacks for huge losses when it would have been simple to throw the ball away instead.
I also question his ability to be accurate on any thrown ball over 20 yards. I don’t have the numbers but it sure seemed like he had precious few completions where the ball was in the air that long. His touch passing seems pretty awful as well, he just never seemed to be able to get dialed in to the point where he could drop the ball into where it needed to be.
But still, even with these negatives, I like the kid. I like his attitude and the things he is doing wrong can be corrected for sure with some practice and changing of his thought process in certain situations. I still think he has a bright future as the Eagles QB of the future. Of course, I said the same thing about Nick Foles at one point in time too, just saying…..
Like Wentz, Doug Pederson had some rather bad moments during his NFL coaching debut but overall I like the way he handles a team. I like his honesty, thoughtfulness, and willingness to address pretty much any question or issue that is presented to him. Hopefully this will be looked back as the first year of a long term Eagles turn around.
I have one more day off tomorrow to enjoy myself. Hopefully I get to do exactly that.
I was shocked by the news that Carrie Fisher’s mother, Debbie Reynolds died one day after her daughter passed away. Despite being 84 from what I read she was in decent health. From a medical perspective, dying from a broken heart is sort of a real thing, a physical response to extreme emotional distress. The story I read said she basically said she wanted to be with Carrie and shortly after that she dropped. It hasn’t been a very upbeat end of the year, that’s for sure.
My twice operated on right knee has been doing pretty well for a number of months. I have done more running in 2016 than I have the past 3-4 years for sure. Well this morning I am walking around with a noticeable limp and my knee has that old familiar feeling of swelling and pain I have dealt with off and on for the last 15 years.
At least I know exactly how it got to this point. On Christmas Day I was out on the slackline which we set up in the yard for entertainment. I fell off around the half way point and came down awkwardly on my right leg in a way that quickly compressed the knee further than it would normally go on it’s own. I then ran four miles on Monday and did lower body weight training yesterday, doing both things with knee pain going into them. So of course the fault is entirely mine, I just hope the end result is just a few days of discomfort with my being able to return to business as usual by the weekend.
Last night we met up with Katie and Daniel at the school to ride around. I was surprised when I saw the Ninebot One I gave Daniel had reverted back to it’s pure white appearance. Katie peeled off the orange plasti-dip I applied to the outer ring. The dip was pretty beat up from various bumps and scrapes. I think Daniel is going to wind up buying a set of translucent outer rings I told him about for the bot to enhance the lighting so that will be even cooler than orange plastidip.
We took turns swapping wheels, including Cindy’s new wheel in the mix. The LED lights on the Gotway MCM4 look incredibly cool at night. I even let Katie ride my Msuper, her first time on the big and heavy wheel. She did well handling it but said she preferred her lighter and more nimble Inmotion V5F. We were riding around the street lamp lit grounds for over an hour. EUC riding always makes things a little better.
Yesterday was Nicki’s birthday. I miss her sweet innocence as much today as ever.
2016 seems to be very heavy on noteworthy deaths. The past week has had another rash of them with Joey Boots (Stern fans will only know who he is), George Micheal, and Carrie Fisher all checking out at relatively young ages. (49,53,60 respectively) All deaths are sad. Out of those three I would say Carrie Fisher was probably the most sad for me.
Her role as Princess Leia put her on a pedestal for many people my age. She seemed to have a rough life after her Star Wars days were done with drug addiction and other issues. When I saw her in recent years or more accurately, heard her with that old lady smoker voice it felt like a cruel joke. One of the miserable benefits of getting old is seeing more and more faces you grew up with falling to the relentless march of time.
Cindy sent me a pic yesterday of her up on her new wheel. She was trying to do some simple balancing between walls which is cool. She snapped the picture using her Apple Watch to remotely trigger her phone which was slick.
Katie and Daniel have gone wheel crazy. After a marathon riding session on Monday, as soon as they got off work yesterday they took their wheels down to the greenway and rode at night on the lighted pathway. Of course I can understand how they feel. Once I got to the point where I could do basic riding without the constant fear of falling I wanted to be on the wheel all the time. I’m excited that Cindy is taking steps to joining us in that fun feeling.
My Christmas extended weekend got off to a good start Thursday night with the Eagles getting the first division win of the year, beating the Giants. Although the Eagles season has definitely slid downhill after a very promising start, I am hoping the team is laying the foundation for longer term success.
Friday morning Cindy and I were very busy outside. Cindy invited her family over for Christmas dinner. The yard was looking pretty ragged. I went to Home Depot and grabbed 15 pieces of sod to patch up various spots around the yard that were damaged by the chickens or just looked shitty.
While I was there I also picked up a 9 foot tall inflatable snowman to add to our already very festive outdoor decorations. It was 50% off so it was hard to pass up. I spent a lot of time securing it in the yard to make it hold up to wind. I drove two pieces of rebar into the ground on either side and used two 45 pound weight plates to give it four very strong tie down points. I was very happy with the outcome of my work. I was also very sad when the blower motor on it died three days later.
So anyway, Friday morning I was busting ass non-stop. In addition to getting the sod down I weed whacked the yard. Cindy hopped on the mower to give the grass a nice even look as well.
Friday night we made plans with Daniel and Katie to go ride out at Ave Maria. We thought with it being two days before Christmas the town would be quite cool to see. Well it was cool but not quite the way I expected. The town center itself and especially the iconic church was not as decked out as I expected. But that wasn’t the most surprising thing. The town was more or less deserted. We rode around there for at least an hour and could count the amount of people we saw on one hand. It was sort of surreal, it was almost like a scene from Walking Dead. We wheeled around freely in the middle of the street in the heart of town like we owned the place.
The residential neighborhoods had some nice decorations out so we still got our fill of lights to see. It was just a very weird experience to see so few people in a town that supposedly has 27,000 residents. Take a look below if you don’t believe me.
On Christmas Eve I did something I don’t believe I had done since my first marriage, went to a church service. Cindy had mentioned something a day or two before about asking someone to go to church with her, something she used to always do with Katie and her mom. I told her I had a good idea. I said I would attend a Christmas Eve service with her if she would agree to go back to Victoria Park to ride the wheels Christmas Eve night. She agreed to the deal and was touched I would go with her to the service based on the void of religious beliefs that I have.
We went to Living Word Church, about 5 miles away from the house. They were holding services on the hour during the afternoon which seemed very aggressive. We targeted the 2 PM service and arrived with possibly 30 seconds to spare. The parking lot was jammed, we luckily found a spot behind the church.
When we walked in I was surprised at the layout, stadium seating. Every church I ever attended had the conventional pugh configuration. Those stadium seats almost were entirely taken. Cindy and I thought we would have to stand until one guy offered to have his kid sit on his lap so we could sit together which was very kind of him.
The room was very high tech with a huge video screen powered by three projectors. On the stage was a two person band consisting of an electric piano and a guy on a guitar. They backed up three female singers that were really, really good who sang Christmas carols. The service itself was like a fine tuned machine with the pastors words peppered with visual elements on the screen above him, all perfectly coordinated. It almost felt like I was watching a TV production and that isn’t meant to be negative, it was actually quite impressive.
With services on the hour the production had to be quite quick. It was all done in the span of 35 minutes, just short enough for the current group to get out to only be replaced by another full house for the 3PM service. Of course I felt a bit awkward being immersed in a room full of people with beliefs not aligned with mine but it was a very positive feeling regardless. I bowed my head and stood when asked and just kept quiet. Cindy really appreciated me being there which is what mattered the most.
Elsa gave me an unexpected Christmas “gift” that night. I had brought my wheel out to the kitchen earlier in anticipation of loading it up for our Christmas Eve ride. Evidently Elsa thought it would be fun to take a bite out of one of the leg supports at some point while the wheel was sitting out there. Of course I was a bit upset about it but she is so cute it is hard to stay mad long. Cindy and I are learning that there are very few things Elsa will not try to eat.
So we headed to Victoria Park for a Christmas Eve ride, me on my Gotway EUC and Cindy on her Minipro. We knew it would be crazy busy but that was part of the appeal for me. There was a long line of cars waiting to enter the development as we approached. The front yards of a ton of houses had people camped out just enjoying the sights and sounds.
We did our best to add to the fun. We had a ton of people comment and ask about what we were riding. We stopped at one house where Cindy let a few kids try out the MiniPro. The one parent whispered to me that he actually bought his kids one for Christmas which surely was an awesome surprise for them based on how much they seemed to like riding it. We took a short break during the ride to enjoy some hot chocolate as well which was very good. I really enjoyed spending my Christmas Eve that way, hopefully it becomes a psuedo-tradition.
Christmas morning we woke up later than normal. I don’t think I rolled out of bed until 7:30. We didn’t rush right into present ripping either. We let the chickens out, fed Elsa and Cindy made us some coffee to help burn off the cobwebs.
Once again we had a lot of presents under the tree, something both of us tell the other is not necessary but it continues to be that way anyway. We took turns opening up stuff. Cindy got me a lot of cute and thoughtful gifts. My “big” gift won’t actually arrive until February, a new DJI Mavic drone. In addition we were also opening presents from my family, adding to the already large pile.
This was Elsa’s first Christmas and she seemed to enjoy the scene. We gave her a fresh antler as her first present. It was hilarious watching her take it between the office and great room repeatedly while she decided which was a better chewing spot. In addition she got some dog toys which she seemed to enjoy greatly as well.
I got Cindy two big gifts peppered with a number of smaller ones. One she had already sort of guessed based on the size and weight of the box and she was not exactly thrilled by it. Yes I bought her a new electric unicycle, a Gotway MCM 4.
Cindy had said she was willing to try to learn to ride again a few weeks prior so I thought I would give her a solid option to ride once she learns on the cheap and slow training wheel. Cindy felt guilty I spent the money on another wheel and said it made her feel pressure to learn to ride. I told her that even if she never learned I would still use it so it’s no big deal.
Cindy was more enthusiastic about her other big gift, an Apple Watch 2.0. She did not expect that one and was very excited about some of the stuff it could do, a lot of which will be beneficial to her fitness instructor gig.
After present opening we had to get very busy. Cindy had a large meal to prepare and we also worked on getting the house more in order to host guests. Katie and her boyfriend showed up mid-afternoon. I finally was able to give her the electric unicycle I had been wanting to give her for the last month. She LOVED the Inmotion V5F and was extremely excited to try it out. The three of us did just that, riding around a quiet side street for several miles before the food was ready. Katie had no problem adapting to the new wheel and said she loved the way it felt. It made me happy to see her happy. Kaite got me some cool presents too, including a custom EUC Army baseball hat which was very thoughtful.
Cindy’s brother, his fiance, and his two kids showed up around 4PM. We peppered in eating lots of good food, drinking, and watching Elf with hanging in the back yard. I set up the slackline for people to try out and the chickens provided additional entertainment. By the time everyone left Cindy and I were pooped. Cindy handled the lions share of the food clean up duties which was very nice. It was quite the busy Christmas Day.
I started Monday with my long run since I missed it on Christmas Day. It felt absolutely necessary to run to help counteract some of the gluttony the day before. The run felt tough and my right knee hurt some from a fall I took off the slackline. I still hung at a 9:05 pace which is only single digits off my best for 2016.
Since I got Monday off as well as Katie and Daniel we thought we would put it to good use. Katie, Daniel and I went to the Greenway so Katie could ride her new wheel. We made arrangements for Cindy to meet us there after she was done teaching a class. We did a long ride, the farthest Katie has ever done, just short of 9 miles. She loved every minute of it.
After we finished up riding we stopped at Panera for lunch. When we got home I told Daniel I was giving him my old Ninebot One electric unicycle. I told him since we now had the wheel I bought for Cindy I have a spare if needed. I figured if both Katie and Daniel had wheels they could ride whenever they wanted, not just once a week with us.
Daniel was very appreciative of my offer and was excited to have his own wheel full time. I have no doubt he will quickly surpass me in skill level if he hasn’t already. It made my heart warm when we got reports that once they got home they were riding the wheels almost non-stop, only taking quick charge breaks. Katie put something around another 14 miles on her wheel, during the afternoon/evening. I think she is officially hooked.
On Monday afternoon we did stuff around the house mostly. Cindy got to finally dig in to her Apple Watch and seems absolutely thrilled with what it can do. It is definitely a cool piece of tech and much more than just an extension of the phone. I took my Msuper into the backyard and rode around for maybe 20 minutes as I shot a video. I always wanted to see how rideable our backyard is. The answer was, sort of.
Monday night we watched the Blu-ray version of the Warcraft movie that I got for my birthday from my step mom. It was cool watching it at home where I could make some more sense of certain scenes I may have missed in the theater.
During the night Cindy seemed to be actually getting more excited about her new unicycle. She tracked down an app that not only connects to the phone but also works on her Apple watch. Maybe seeing just how much fun Katie is having on her new wheel opened Cindy’s door to learning a little wider. As I have said multiple times, I have no doubt Cindy could eventually match or surpass my riding ability with some perseverance. She has very good natural hand eye coordination and balance.
It was sort of a draining four days but overall it was much more positive than negative. Hopefully it will be the kick start to a happy and healthy 2017.
I am doing some planning and thinking about some additional fencing in the backyard to accommodate the addition of Katie’s dogs to the mix. Tank and Bowser do not yet know the chickens are out of bounds. My thought was to create an additional large dog run area down the one side of the back yard. Cindy came up with the idea of instead creating a fenced in area around the chicken coop to restrict the chickens instead of the dogs.
