Category EUC

Yesterday morning while Cindy went to work we decided to load up the dogs and head down to the Naples greenway for a walk.  The greenway was completed since my dad and step mom last visited so I thought they would like to see it.  I brought my Ninebot One along to get some miles in while we were there.

Yesterday just happened to be one of the most pleasant mornings in the last 6 months with early morning temps just over the magical 60’s. By the time we got to the greenway it had warmed up but was still nice with lower humidity levels.

We probably logged over three miles in total, with me logging more since I was looping back and forth on the wheel.  My step mom got some great pictures as we went as deep as the bridge that crosses the Gordon River.  The black dogs were getting quite warm as the walk went longer.  We brought along a large amount of water which we gave them regularly along the way along with breaks in the shade.

During the afternoon we hung around the house for the most part.  I was tooling around the house getting a few things done.  I discovered that the Xbox 360 that was hooked to my surge damaged tv apparently was the only thing to escape damage.  I hooked it up to a monitor and found it to be fully functional.

Cindy had a gym class she was teaching in the evening.  I decided to go with her to get some more Ninebot One riding in, my second ride of the day.  Between the two rides I easily blew past the 200 mile mark on the bot, a big number.

Last night my step mom with some assist from my dad prepared a great dinner with vegetable pot pie, something I never had before.  For desert she made a pumpkin cake that was really good as well.  Cindy was very appreciative of having a home cooked meal made by someone else other than herself.

Last night we somehow wound up watching one of the strangest and possibly worst movies I have ever seen, Logan’s Run.  Both my step mom and Cindy said they saw this movie back in the 70’s when it came out.  They seemed to remember it being interesting.  I wouldn’t dispute that it was interesting but it was far more ridiculous than interesting.  The special effects were amazingly poor, even by 1976 standards from what I could tell.  The plot made absolutely no sense to me and the acting was sub par, hindered further by the incredibly simplistic and cheesy dialogue.

Really the only positive thing I can say about the movie was it contained surprising and random nudity.  Despite it’s stupidity, I found myself compelled to watch it to the very end just to see how it all worked out.  Of course the ending was as dumb as everything else.  If watching the movie accomplished anything, it is that I now can warn the world to not waste two hours of your life watching Logan’s Run, ever. It gets a rare yet well deserved F grade from me.

This morning we headed out the door relatively early to take Sadie back to Ali who had not left for work yet.  My dad and step mom were happy to see Ali while they were here.  Of course we brought their dogs with too so we had a total of four dogs running around Ali’s place which was funny to watch.  They all played and got along right from the start.  We hung out for a little while the dogs played and everyone caught up on the latest and greatest.  As I sat there I felt good that despite some of the ups and downs Ali and I have gone through since we split, we still are able to have these sort of get togethers without it being that weird.  It was a nice visit.

We went straight from there to Ave Maria, one of dad’s favorite places in our area which is a bit ironic since the Catholic fundamentals the town is based upon is the farthest thing from something dad would subscribe to.  However he likes the small town, quiet atmosphere it provides which comes without religious price tags.  He and my step mom spent most of the time there chilling at the coffee shop.  I again had the wheel with to do some uni-wheel touring of the grounds.  Once again it was a relaxing way to spend an hour or two.

Tomorrow morning Cindy and my step mom are pulling out for a quick two day visit to Key West, a place Teresa has never been to before.  I am sure it will be a lot of fun for them.  Dad, myself and the two dogs will find stuff to keep us busy or entertained for the next 48 hours although at this point we haven’t determined what those things will be.

So I left work early to meet the Comcast repair guy at home.  Once again to their credit, by utilizing the Comcast account app I was able to get an arrival window that was within 15 minutes of being accurate.  The Haitian repair tech didn’t seem to be in a great mood from the start.  When I opened the attic crawl space he wasn’t happy it was so hot.  When he saw the way the original installers handled the wiring he was really unhappy.  He was complaining nearly non-stop about how lazy they were and how they don’t do things as they are supposed to.

Eventually he settled down.  He determined that what I suspected was the case, the powered splitter in the attic was defective.  In addition to replacing the splitter he also changed the wiring around to whatever the proper configuration is supposed to be.  In total he was there for less than an hour.  It was nice to have cable tv up and running although we could have survived with streaming content indefinitely.

So I did some more investigation of my AV equipment after the guy left.  As I feared, EVERYTHING that was connected to the tv via HDMI was f’d up.  That list includes the blu-ray player, the satellite receiver, the Xbox 360, an HDMI hub, the X1 DVR and the tv itself.  I was able to get a free replacement DirecTV satellite receiver without even picking up the phone, able to complete the transaction via online chat session.  The satellite box was actually unplugged from power at the time of the incident but got smoked anyway via the HDMI cable.  The blu-ray will come out of my pocket.  The Phillips unit that I had hooked up was sort of shitty anyway so it doesn’t break my heart to replace it.  The 360 has not been used this year so I just ripped it all out with no plans to replace it.  My days of console gaming are pretty far behind me at this point.

Cindy had to grab some groceries.  She came up with a good idea where I would go with her out to the Ave Maria Publix where I could ride my Ninebot while she shopped.  I had a good time putting more than four and a half miles on the wheel around the town/campus.  I explored areas I had never seen before.  As usual I got a large amount of head turns and confused looks from bystanders that never saw a person riding an electric unicycle before.

On the ride home from the grocery store Cindy commented on the unusual amount of road noise coming from what appeared to be the front passenger side of the car.  I had noticed the noise for the last few days.  I had actually taken a look at that tire to see if it was abnormally worn or if it had something stuck in it that could possibly make the noise.  The tire looked fine.  My next idea was the wheel bearing was going bad, something that would make sense considering the Prius is rapidly closing in on 200,000 miles.

When I got home I looked online and saw front wheel bearings going bad on a Prius are not an unusual thing.  I also watched a video of a home mechanic outlining the replacement procedure.  It is in my wheel house of capability except that the bearing/hub assembly needs to be pressed on/off in some cases which would require a garage anyway.  I would feel better having an actual mechanic doing the work.  I called the garage I have used for some other repairs.  They said I could buy the part and they would do the work for about $200 which isn’t bad.  I did a somewhat risky move, buying the part online this morning, gambling that my diagnosis is correct.

Cindy and I watched some of the VP debate last night.  There was a lot of interrupting of each other, not only by the two candidates but also by the attractive female moderator who was trying very hard to keep the candidates in line and on topic.  Despite her attempts, most of what I saw was the two men stepping all over each other.  Of course I thought Tim Kaine came off better with Mike Pence repeatedly not directly answering most questions presented to him and trying to redirect away from any questions asking him to defend various Trump statements and actions.  I doubt the VP debate ever makes up a voter’s mind on their ultimate decision but I guess it’s a necessary evil.

So the east coast of Florida is now moving into full fledged panic mode with the prospect of Hurricane Matthew swinging right by the coastline.  You would think that staying just off the coast would be a good thing but that allows the eye of the storm to stay over it’s power source, warm water which is not a good thing.  Our area is right outside the edge of the danger zone although we certainly will see considerable effects from the storm.  Even a slight shift to the west could make the impact to Florida much, much worse.  I am not the panicking type so I will be monitoring the storm but not obsessing over it.  I do have some east cost friends that I of course hope come out of the storm with minimal impact.

So even though the race I was timing was quite small with less than 100 runners, it still brought me near normal amounts of anxiety.  On Friday I left early from work to drop off packet pick up items and then Cindy and I went back before 7 to grab stuff.  While we were there we helped the race director, a friend of ours from the running club, do some additional prep for the race that included hanging up a number of inspirational religious banners along the course.  The race was being held at a Roman Catholic church.

This was the first and last time the new Tacoma was pressed into duty as a race transport vehicle.  It’s larger dimensions made getting all of the gear inside less challenging than it had been in the past.  Although the 4AM alarm was unwelcome, I shot out of bed almost immediately, ready to get my last timing gig in the rear view mirror.

The church was relatively close to us which was convenient.  As soon as we arrived on site we worked on getting the finish line arch up and running.  I felt badly that the erection of the arch knocked down an amazing spider web that was built overnight.  One of it’s attachment lines to a far away tree literally was over 30 feet long.

The race was scheduled to start early at 7:05 AM.  Even so, by 6AM all of our stuff was set up and ready to roll.  Once again I had extra time to help the race director with other stuff like placing signage on the course.  Cindy manned the registration computer but there were only a handful of people that signed up on Saturday.

The start of the race was very simple for me since it was not a chip start, meaning all I had to bring with me was a stopwatch and a clipboard.  After a brief prayer the runners and walkers were off.  The course was a little confusing as it snaked around the church grounds.  It included multiple loops and a separate course for walkers that used some of the runners path as well.  Luckily there were plenty of marshals out there telling people where to go.

As the first runner crossed a little after the 22 minute mark I held my breath for a second just as I normally do until I confirmed his name and time flashed on the screen as it is supposed to.  Even though I do plenty of checks ahead of time, until a runner crosses, I never fully feel at ease.  The first and last runner came through just fine.  I had absolutely zero issues for the event.  I can’t imagine a race going much more smoothly.

Katie showed up towards the end of the race with coffee in hand which was nice.  She also helped us tear down the finish line.  As we packed away the equipment for what should be the final time I felt some small sense of both sadness but a much larger feeling of relief.  Although my race timing accomplishments have been a source of pride for me over the years, at this point in my life the price I pay in anxiety and stress just is not worth it. I’m sure  It will eventually fade into the background as just one of those other things I used to do.

Cindy had to go to work so I went home and unloaded the truck myself.  After I was done I headed outside for a grueling yard work session that started with weeding the property in the morning followed by extensive weed whacking in the afternoon during the heat of the day.  To follow up with all the backyard mowing I did, I whacked the entire fence line, both sides of it, in addition to the normal stuff around the house.  It was a two hour sweatfest that had me refilling the trimmer head spool three times.

By the time I was done I felt obliterated.  The combo of getting up early and timing the race with hard, hard labor left me again walking in my now familiar zombie like gait.  Despite feeling wiped out I took Cindy out to dinner at PF Changs to celebrate the end of our race timing career.  Although it is one of Cindy’s favorite places we had not been there in a very long time.  We enjoyed our food although we brought a lot of it home with us, including a massive slab of chocolate cake that was big enough to feed a family of four.

Despite feeling so shitty Saturday night I still set the alarm for Sunday morning to get my ass out to run.  For the second week in a row Cindy joined me.  We logged the most mileage in recent history, doing just under four and a half miles.  I can’t tell you how forward I am looking towards running in something less than 95% humidity.

After getting back and showering  we headed back out to ride the PTVs, get coffee and do a run to Home Depot for a few items.  Once again I rode my electric unicycle while Cindy rode her Segway Minipro.  At this point there is nowhere she can go on the Minipro that I can’t handle on my unicycle.  I had an annoying moment when an SUV looked like he was going to stop for us and then didn’t, causing me to lay down the Ninebot unexpectedly.  Of course the asshole had a Trump sticker on the back of the vehicle.

We did our Halloween decorating later in the day and I finally got some time to play some WoW, the first of the weekend.  Sunday night we watched All the Way, the movie about LBJ, played by Bryan Cranston.  I thought Cranston did an excellent job portraying LBJ.  I found the film interesting and educational.  I honestly had very minimal knowledge of exactly what LBJ accomplished while in office.  I was surprised to see it was quite significant.  It was a solid B+ film for sure.

So my last day off had the most relaxation time in it of any of the last seven days which I guess is a good thing.  After I dropped off Sadie at Ali’s place in the morning I parked the car in the Target parking lot for another Ninebot One ride.  I took a route that I used to run once in a while, taking Oakes Blvd, to Vanderbilt, to Livingston, traveling to the water park before turning around and reversing the trip.

In total the ride was damn close to 10 miles and I stayed on the wheel the entire time, only stopping a couple times to briefly shift my feet while holding onto a pole.  The overcast skies made the ride much more enjoyable than it would have been if the sun was beating down on me during those long, unshaded sections of the route.  I managed to avoid a single low battery tiltback warning, keeping my speed in the 10-12 mph range for most of the ride.

During the afternoon I decided to perform the last appearance upgrade I had in store for the EUC, covering the bottom of the foot pedals with carbon fiber looking wrap that is designed to cover things like automobiles.  Installing the covering was not very difficult at all and I liked the way it covered the scratched and mauled surface, the end result of many, many crashes.   The few changes I have made on the bot recently have really improved the appearance in my opinion.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon deeply involved in some WoW Legion.  It was a fun way to disconnect from the here and now for a few hours.

Of course last night Cindy and I tuned in to the debate that had more hype leading up to it than a Super Bowl.  It was in a word, amazing.  For the first few minutes of the debate you could tell Trump was trying really hard to do what his advisors coached him to do, act calm, speak slowly and carefully, using the talking points they thought would be most effective.  However it took precious little time until he came unglued and flipped back to what comes natural to him, talking loudly, interrupting, being aggravated, and expressing himself using a vocabulary that never gets out of the middle school level.

Even if you have identified yourself as a Trump supporter, you would be hard pressed to say he did anything but hurt himself with his performance last night.  Using one of his favorite words, it was a disaster.  I’m not going to waste my time breaking down the countless amazingly poor choice of words he made like how not paying any taxes is “smart”, alienating the nation’s large supply of 400 pound citizens, or that immigrants have guns and shoot people.  That is only a very small portion of what was a dump truck full of missteps he made.  The thing is, he did the same thing during the primary debates and his hard core supporters seemed to not care so I doubt they will care about yet another embarrassing outing.

The split screen was certainly not Donald’s friend.  Seeing him get all bent out of shape while Hilary was speaking did nothing but drive home the point that he is a tantruming man-child at heart.  Sure Hilary seemed almost over prepared at times with well rehearsed responses to some of the questions but there is no doubt she carried herself far better that Donald did.  It’s not even close.

The debate was entertaining for sure.  Unfortunately, entertainment is not high on the list of my qualifications for a presidential candidate.

So I am now on the last day of my 7 day staycation.  The weekend was similar to most other days on the last week outside of the tortuous Tuesday  when I stripped the garage floor.  Instead the weekend had a mix of work and fun which felt pretty in balance.  On Saturday I went around the property spraying something called Wet and Forget.  It is supposed to break down mildew and algae over time and supposedly does not require scrubbing or rinsing, hence it’s name.  I hit a variety of surfaces including the gutters, driveway, pool cage, castle stones and even the fence posts, most of which have black mildew.  The catch is the stuff works slowly, it can take months for stuff to completely disappear, supposedly.  I will report back at Christmas if I see a difference. I tended to a number of other chores around the house Saturday but don’t recall all of the specifics.

We did our normal errand run in the afternoon, taking Sadie to Rural King and Home Depot, something she has come to love.  She just loves exploring the aisles.

Saturday evening we watched another Netflix rental, Money Monster starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts.  The plot lost touch with reality towards the end in such a way that it drug the rating of the film to just a B in my book.  Sure rent it, it’s ok.

Sunday morning Cindy joined me for an early run at the track.  It was the first outdoor running Cindy has done in quite awhile.  I cautioned her to take it easy but of course she wound up almost running the same four miles I did. ( She did 3.75)  I felt decent during the run, tired but not obliterated.

We cleaned up and took Sadie  to the Naples Greenway.  I had my Ninebot One but Cindy stayed on foot with Sadie.  It was getting quite hot so we didn’t stay very long.  Sadie’s black fur gets her overheated very quickly in direct sun.  I rode about four miles, spending some of it with them and the rest on my own.

When we got home there were a few things to do but I mostly chilled out playing some of my longest WoW Legion sessions to date.  I am enjoying the new expansion a lot although it feels like I have mountains of virtual tasks to complete.  The Eagles game came on at 4:30.  I was not really sure what to expect but the general consensus was the Steelers are a significantly better team than the up and coming Eagles.  Well that script got flipped in a big way.  Instead the Eagles stepped on the Steelers and didn’t relent at all, crushing them 34-3. It was such a blowout that I didn’t get to see the last quarter when the local CBS affiliate flipped to another game.

I am really amazed at just how well the team has done so far.  They have continued the formula of a balanced attack on offense with a punishing defense.  I absolutely LOVE that when the team was up three scores the defense continued to be aggressive instead of deploying the hated prevent defense that I have ranted about for decades.  This is the best I have felt about the team in more than decade.  If you asked me a month ago I was in “this is a rebuilding year” mode.  Now, it seems clear this team has the capability to do some real damage in the NFC this year.  As ho hum as I felt about Doug Pederson as the head coach, somehow, someway it’s working.

For my last day off I plan to follow much the same formula as the past week.  I was already outside hooking up a new pond pump.  I’ll be tending to more to do’s as I mix in one last dose of fun and play.

RIP Arnold Palmer.  Although I have never been more than a casual golfer, I appreciate the legend he has been in the game.  He has always struck me as just being a good man, something we could use more of nowadays.

I have still been spending most of my staycation time as get stuff done time.  Yesterday I headed out early in the Tacoma to hunt for sod, hitting Lowe’s and two different Home Depot’s.  I struck out twice and the sod I did finally score looks like shit.  I didn’t really care as it’s primary role is to fill some new areas the chickens have destroyed.  This is a hamster wheel I don’t expect to be able to get off of. The septic tank pumping company showed up yesterday.  I called them when the toilet nearest the tank started to gurgle, a sure sign that the tank  is getting full.  It had been over two years since the last pumping so it was about due.

I also found myself on top of the chicken coop roof.  You may recall last year I came up with the idea of painting the roof white in order to help reflect back some of the heat that was turning the coop into an oven.  Well over the course of a year the brutal Florida climate had broken down the paint somewhat with a lot of original brown roof peeking through.  I armed myself with four cans of the plastic specific gloss white spray paint and went over the entire surface.  The side of the roof that faces the house, which also faces the sun was is much worse shape than the other side.  A yearly reapplication of the paint is going to be tacked onto the must do list apparently.

Installing the sod is a messy, sweaty, dirty job.  It has another facet since I got the new Tacoma.  With the old truck I didn’t give a shit if the left over dirt from the sod sat in the bed for awhile.  If I did clean it, it was normally with a broom.  With the new truck that is no longer the case, dirt is not allowed to reside in the bed any longer than it needs to.  The addition of the bed mat gives me a second thing to clean.  I pull the mat out, hose it down and then hang it over the fence.  I then do a water pik like cleaning job of the composite bed, doing my best to make sure not a single grain of sand or dirt remains.

Later when Cindy got home we took the PTVs out for a short ride at North Collier Park.  Cindy was on her Segway and I was on my Ninebot One.  Cindy was surprised just how adept I have gotten at navigating terrain and curves.  There were a few places where she thought I would have an issue that I rolled through cleanly.  To add more difficulty I was drinking coffee the entire ride, the first time I did that on a single wheel.

Speaking of the wheel, yesterday I also completed another mod of it, removing and painting the outer rings with left over Hugger Orange Plasti-dip.  I like the end result and the difficulty level was very low.  I may do one more thing to the bot, resurface the bottom of the pedals which are so beat up from my bumpy  and crash filled learning experience.

After Cindy and I finished we did some grocery shopping which included going to Sam’s.  I was disgusted/amazed when they had a full aisle of Christmas decorations set up.  I looked at my phone to confirm it was only September 22nd.  Every year they seem to just making the Christmas shopping season longer and longer.

After getting a several day break from significant precipitation, the storms returned last night with a vengeance. We endured tremendous rain, wind, and lightning.  We lost power repeatedly and had a couple strikes that sounded like they were in the back yard. The thunder from those strikes rattled the house to the point where we thought some glass broke.

I plan to spend my Friday working on more minor to do’s as well as picking up Sadie for the weekend.  Hopefully at some point I can feel ahead enough of the curve to just chill and not feel guilty about it.

Once again my Saturday was filled with a lot of labor including weeding and mowing the entire yard.  I also went around with the loppers, knocking off rogue branches wherever they showed their face.  Of course it was hot as hades outside, once again making me wish I could step in a time machine and move two months ahead when the weather is much more pleasant.

After lunch Cindy and I ran out to do some errands.  On the way home we ran into an odd roadblock a mile from the house.  Earlier we had seen what looked to be a police helicopter circling our area.  In addition I had a surprising voicemail on the home phone from the sheriff’s office stating there was a missing person in our area, instructing us to call them if we see someone matching his description.

In the paper later I saw more details.  The guy evidently was either autistic or has Asbergers.  On Friday night he was riding somewhere with his mother when he told her to stop the car.  He proceeded to jump out and start walking through the swampy areas near our place.  The police evidently searched for the guy all weekend and as of now nothing has turned up.  I’m not quite sure why the woman would have stopped and let her son out but I don’t know the details of the situation.

I did some prep for the final race in my timing career, setting up the event in the timing software as well as pulling out the race clock for some testing.  The made in China clock has woefully inadequate documentation so I spent the time to create my own which will come in handy for someone else when I ultimately sell the clock down the  road.  Despite me using the clock a few times at races, it took me awhile to fully understand/document exactly what does what.

I continued working on other things when we got home, doing my weekly bill paying/accounting and then turning my attention to my Ninebot One.  I had ordered some replacement leg pads for the bot to replace the bloody, cracked, ripped, and duct taped originals, a casualty of my learning experience.  In addition I bought some grip tape, designed for skateboards to adhere to the pedals to make it more difficult for me to slide off the pedals accidentally, the reason for a couple of my crashes.

It took me longer than expected to do the work as I ran into some unexpected problems as I nearly always do.  I also wound up removing the ripped up, ugly green protective foam from the edge of the bot.  I now have less protection from impact but the wheel looks much better.  If you would like to see the process take a look below.

Saturday night I didn’t sleep great.  I woke up at least an hour before the 6AM alarm I had set to get up and run.  I decided I may as well just get up and get it over with.  I arrived at the track about 6:10 am and got started.  The entire reason to get out there so early is to avoid the brutal south Florida summer heat.  Even at that wee hour of the morning it was still 79 degrees and when I got home the weather center showed 95% humidity.  The four mile run left pretty much every square inch of my t-shirt sopping wet.

Later on in the morning I got out for a solo ride on the Ninebot One, starting at the church where I am timing the 5K October 1st.  I had never been there before so I wanted to get some familiarity with the layout.  I didn’t stay on the grounds very long as church service traffic was rolling into the parking lot at a rapid pace.  I headed out into the surrounding area, amassing almost six and a half miles total.  The new grip taped pedals felt like an improvement.

We ran out for more errands on Sunday afternoon including Rural King where I picked up a new set of rubber muck boots that are necessary to deal with the swampy summer conditions.  The boots I have I had for years.  They don’t leak yet but the upper portion of them is literally disintegrating.  The Eagles don’t play until tonight so I had some spare time late Sunday that I utilized geeking out in Wow for awhile, a good way to chill out for me.

Cindy and I watched some of the news coverage regarding the explosion in NYC.  It seemed like the media is chomping at the bit to label it terrorism while government officials don’t know enough to make an accurate determination.  Terror and fear sells.

After completing my one day work week I have a long mental list of things I would like to accomplish within the next week.  Although skipping the mini-road trip still makes financial and practical sense this year, I have a hard time not feeling some degree of guilt about it since I know Cindy was excited about it originally.  It should only be a brief hiatus in the tradition.

Last night I was back out on the EUC.  I drove over to the school since it offers me a lot of options for riding terrain.  I also threw a dozen cones in the trunk that I planned to use for some agility training.  The school grounds seemed to be pretty busy with various sporting events and other after school activities.  After riding around a little bit I set up the cones.

First I set up one cone on each of the parking space lines, the goal being to weave in between them.  Parking spaces are pretty wide so I was able to perform the course rather easily.  I then doubled up the difficulty, inserting cones in between the existing ones, cutting the distance I had to make the turns in half.  I struggled much more with that set up, failing to get through the cones without clipping one on my first two attempts.  I was finally successful the third time around going very slow with lots of arm flailing to maintain balance.   I went through a couple more times for fun.

I finished up with some random rides around the school including into the heart of the building complex.  I wound up in an inner courtyard that I was not aware existed.  It took a little while till I found an open exit point.  I felt a bit like a trespasser as I rolled past the kids lockers that surprisingly are under roof but not indoors.  I finished up a little before 6:45 to head home to enjoy a nice Italian spaghetti dinner Cindy whipped up for Katie and me.

This whole Colin Kapernick not standing for the national anthem thing has gotten far more legs than I expected.  In a way it reminds me of the way the transgender bathroom thing got out of hand.  Now you have players in all sorts of sports kneeling/sitting during the anthem instead of doing the traditional thing and standing as it is played.  Hell there was a story in our local paper about a school principal who is now in hot water with a constitutional lawyer because he made an announcement that students MUST stand during the anthem or face disciplinary action which is technically a violation of constitutional rights.

I mean really, is this all necessary?  It’s a self fulfilling prophecy.  The more outrage, anger, and publicity the general population gives to the story, the more likely others are to jump on the not standing bandwagon.  To be clear, I am not one of those blinders on, Merica guys that gives no thought to the reason this movement has gotten legs.  Yes, there are some disgraceful and shameful things our country has and will continue to do that oppress a large portion of the population although my focus is more on the the feudal-like lords that have been allowed to create such economic disparity.  Of course the Trump presidential campaign has pulled back the rug on the ugly level of racism/sterotyping that was just waiting for the right candidate to nurture those destructive emotions.

Despite these shortcomings, in the big picture I think our country and the ideals that it strives to reach someday are worthy of respect so you will never see me taking a knee when the anthem is played.  That is my personal decision and although I may think it’s disrespectful of someone else to not do the same, I’ll respect your right to do it.  If you want to see less news stories about anthem kneeling, stop reacting so strongly to it.  I saw a funny blurb about the irony that those who seem the most deeply offended by anthem kneelers that are disrespecting the country are the same people that feel the strongest about the need to stockpile weapons to “protect” themselves from the government of that same country.  It’s a head scratcher.

I have a weird work week coming up.  After a normal two day weekend, I work Monday and then am off until the following Tuesday.  I’m not sure if I ever had a one day work week before but it is definitely an arrangement I could endorse easily.

I was a bit worried I wasn’t going to be able to do my ride to the gym on the Ninebot One as I drove through some small areas of precipitation on the way home.  When I pulled out of the driveway a little after 6PM the roads were wet but no rain was actively coming down, good enough.  Riding at that time of day was not ideal because of the large volume of traffic from commuters coming home.  I had to use the pedestrian crossing buttons to be able to get a break in the cars to cross.

I am getting a bit better with being able to log long distances on the wheel.  My feet still start to ache and burn but it takes longer to start and I can put up with it longer.  Besides crossing the roads, I only stepped off once during the 8.5 mile ride for a quick foot break.  I was very concerned about again hitting a low battery condition which is what caused me to crash in the past.  I tried to keep my speed at around 11-12 mph to prevent excessive battery depletion.

I pulled into the gym parking lot a minute or two after Cindy texted me saying she was done which was pretty perfect timing.  I threw the Ninebot One in the behind the seat after checking it’s odometer on the app.  I now have logged 122 miles on one wheel.  Of course I had the GoPro along for the ride so if you want the cliff notes version of the ride take a look below.

Speaking of video, I was looking at my YouTube/AdSense dollars for this current month.  It looks like again I have accumulated enough money in the account to get paid for the third consecutive month in a row.  In fact, I still have something like a week before they pay out and I am already ahead of what I made last month.  It’s very cool to see my channel building momentum.

The other day I saw somebody ripped off one of my Tacoma videos and posted it on their channel, a common scam.  Reposting other’s content without their consent is not cool but done very often.  When I looked at my options for reporting the user there wasn’t really an option for “they ripped off my content” so I just let it go.  The account has 4 subscribers so I don’t think he is going to get rich off my stuff for a long time.  I will surely be keeping an eye on him however.

So when I talked about our decision to postpone our planned road trip I didn’t really talk much about the money factor.  In 2016 I have spent a small fortune already.  In this calendar year I have bought the new Tacoma, the new TV, all new kitchen appliances, an engagement ring, three personal transportation devices, two trips to Comic-Super Cons along with tons of smaller things in the $50-$300 range.  There is no doubt that this year has been the largest ever in terms of outgoing dollars so sacrificing the road trip this year really makes more sense the more I examine things.

I had a very weird dream last night where my dad and I drove up to some remote area that seemed to be like a zoo.  We walked through a building to an outside area with a fence.  On the other side of the fence were a ton of animals you would see on a safari like a couple lions, a black panther, elephant, rhino, hippo and even a water buffalo.  There were other people by the fence line.  One dumb person got too close to the fence and was heckling the panther.  The animal hissed and then swiped at his tormentor, smacking him on the side of the head, knocking him down.

The dream moved forward and for some reason some of the lions were fighting.  It was pretty gruesome as it seemed two of the lions were attacking a third.  There was a lot of blood.  It was disturbing enough that I woke up momentarily.

When I fell back asleep the dream continued.  My dad and I had gone back into the building and fallen asleep. We awoke to discover the animals had somehow escaped the fence.  When my dad opened the door to the parking lot the hippo and a small elephant were there.  I yelled at my dad to close the door but the animals already tried to push their way in and they seemed agitated.   There was a big blue plastic drink cooler on the floor.  I picked it up and placed it front of me as a shield as I tried to squeeze by the wild animals, trying to calm them down with “hey guys, good boys, good boys…”

We got by the two animals but saw the other much more dangerous animals outside the door nearby.  They appeared to be sleeping but I was worried the noise would wake them up.  The moment we got one step past the sleeping predators they started to stir.  We sprinted for the car and took off, never looking back.  That’s it.

So Cindy and I have decided we are going to be postponing our planned short road trip that was supposed to happen next week.  There are a few reasons for the cancellation.  The last race I am timing is at the end of the month, a few days after we were scheduled to get back.  I would feel better being around the week leading up to the event to make sure everything gets handled smoothly.  With Cindy’s daughter sort of living with us there are more potential unsettled waters ahead the next few weeks.  I would feel better being around to handle whatever comes up.  Finally, my dad and step mom are supposed to be coming down for a week in early October so that will be a lot of fun by itself.

Sure it’s a bit of a bummer not having a road trip on the docket for 2016 after the monster 6600 mile journey last year followed by the holiday visit to NYC.  Seeing all the blog posts from last year’s road trip popping up on the YEAR AGO sidebar of the blog has made me feel further nostalgia. We have logged a couple weekend ComicCon trips this year but we have not crossed any state borders as of now.  If we don’t hit the road this year it won’t be the end of the world but we definitely will be hitting it next year, hopefully executing the northeast route I was thinking about originally.

I still plan to take those days off, using some of that time and money on a staycation which will include getting some stuff around the homestead knocked out.  We might mix a fun daytrip into the mix as well. It’s all good.

Tonight if it’s not raining I have an interesting/long ride on the Ninebot One planned.  I want to do a one way ride to the gym Cindy works at, somewhere around a 9 mile hike.  She is teaching a class from 6-7 so I figure I will ride there and hitch a ride home afterward.  I am hoping I can avoid the low power tiltback problems that dumped me off the bot a couple weeks ago.  I shouldn’t be riding into a stiff headwind this time so I expect things to go smoother.