Category Home Improvements

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.

Somehow I managed to spend the vast majority of my weekend working on crap ranging from chores to race timing to remote office things.  I got some fun time in but found myself last night feeling like the two days were too task heavy.  Saturday I weeded the property and then followed up with the gas weed whacker, knocking down the growth accelerated by the unrelenting rain.

Late in the morning I thought I would be proactive and call DirecTV a day early to make sure my Sunday Ticket was working so I could watch the Eagles game the following day.  Because of the non-standard configuration I have where I JUST have the Sunday Ticket and no other programming package I have to call them each year after my account comes off the 6 month service suspension.  I have had this set up for close to 10 years and every year it is a pain in the ass to get it working.  This year set the bar to a new high of frustration.

So I call up and get a woman that sounds like she is from the US.  When I explain what I need she indicates I need to talk to tech support.  She said she would transfer me.  Within the first 3 seconds after being transferred I felt my blood pressure rising as I heard the very thick foreign accent on the other end.  Despite the headaches I have had in the past getting my service working, I always at least dealt with US based support staff.  Evidently part of ATT acquiring DirecTV last year was establishing some cheap foreign call centers, awesome move.

So I literally spent 60 minutes on the phone with a level 1 guy and then his supervisor, with me getting more frustrated by the minute as he kept putting me on hold since he had no idea what to do.  At one point I asked him if he was located in India.  He seemed a bit put off by my question and told me he was not Indian, he was located in the Phillipines.  Sorry, my bad, I still can hardly understand you.  I went through a maddening circus of reboots and being put on hold, despite me telling them that normal corrective actions would not work.

So at the end of the 60 minute circus the supervisor said he was going to transfer me to the Sunday Ticket department.  He had exhausted his ability to correct my problem.  He said please hold and I was promptly disconnected.  Of course I was beyond furious.  I called back ready to destroy whoever was unlucky enough to answer the phone.  The 18 minutes I had to wait for someone to pick up the phone the second time did nothing to help that anger.

So an english speaking woman answered.  I explained the hour plus I had just wasted with the Philippine help desk.  I asked her when Directv implemented foreign tech support centers.  She said it was part of the ATT acquisition.  She apologized for the run around and told me that in the future if I would be connected overseas I can request to be transferred to the US group, supposedly they have to honor that request.  I went through another very lengthy phone call with repeated long hold times.  At the end of it I still was getting 721 errors (not authorized) on the Sunday Ticket channels in the 700 channel range but I was getting channel 212, which she said indicates I was good to go.  She said the other channels should work on Sunday once the game content starts.  I was very skeptical of this and told her as much.  She reiterated it should work fine.  (it actually did work on Sunday)  By the time I hung up I had wasted two hours of my weekend on the phone with DirecTv, thanks!!

So as I was waiting on hold I was flipping through other menus on my satellite receiver, one of which was signal strength.  I noticed the average level was in the mid 70’s (out of 100) which is less than it used to be.  The satellite dish is on the west side of the house and unfortunately is aimed right through one of our oak trees.  Years ago I cut out a bunch of branches in the middle to give me a clearer view of the sky with the dish.  It appeared I needed to do so once again.

In the past I did this work with a pole saw which was a pain in the ass.  I decided to get up close and personal this time, grabbing a ladder and my battery powered reciprocating saw.  I used the ladder to just get me up into the main body of the tree, after that it was me just climbing around, reliving my childhood tree climbing days, something I used to do extensively.  An oak tree body is sort of a gnarled mess with lots of tiny, crisscrossing small branches.  It didn’t take long until one of them ripped open one of the brush burns on my knee, unknowingly sending a stream of blood down my leg.

I first cut away some of the small stuff to give me more room to stand and work without getting scraped/impaled.  I then started working on the large branches that were in the dish line of sight.  I had to be careful with the angles I cut, making sure they made the branches fall in a  way that would not clip the house roof or gutters.  A couple of the branches were sizeable, easily 10-12 feet long.  I diligently hacked away, doing my best to estimate the invisible beam the dish uses to grab signal.  By the time I was done there were over a half dozen large branches on the ground.  When I got down I walked over to the dish to take another look.  The center of the tree had been thinned out considerably.  I verified the success of the work inside, seeing the average signal strength had jumped up to the upper 80’s, good enough.

I then had to dispose of all of the discarded branches.  I pulled the tractor out of the shed and used it to drag the branches to the rear pit one at a time.  I would drive up to a branch, reach down with my hand and grab it, trying to wedge it against the side of the tractor body the best I could.  The branch dragging put my grip strength to the test as some created a lot of ground resistance as I pulled them along.   Eventually I got the mess cleaned up.  Between the nightmare phone calls and tree trimming I have put a lot of effort getting my 2016 Sunday Ticket up and running.  I hope the Eagles are worth it this year.

Saturday night we stayed home and watched Black Mass, a real life story of a Boston based crime group, the head of which is portrayed by Johnny Depp.  The movie gave a very brutal view into the organized crime scene and pulled no punches in depicting the violence involved.  It had a pretty well known cast that helped the level of the film.  Despite it’s very dark background, the movie was  a quality B+ flick in the end.

Sunday morning I once again had the 6AM alarm set so I could get out and run.  This time there was no bald eagle on the light tower to cheer me on but I still covered the four miles at a recent personal best pace of 8:52 per mile.  I again stuck with the shorter stride, faster cadence strategy and it again seemed to work for me.

For the past three weeks I have been the first to show up at the track.  I had been always running in a clockwise direction.  Each week a group of walkers show up later and each time they decided to walk the opposite direction I was running which I found annoying.  I didn’t want to be running at people twice per lap.  So on Sunday I thought if you can’t beat em, join em, I ran counter clockwise.  Once again the group showed up and you guessed it, they decide to now walk around clockwise.  WTF …..

Later in the morning Cindy and I took out the Minipro and the Ninebot One.  We went to a new spot, the Naples Greenway, a beautiful walking/running/trail that was opened up in 2014.   It was the PERFECT spot to ride.  The wide walking paths were great for buzzing along on the Minipros.  We put in over 4 miles on the Minipro.  I then pulled out my EUC and rode another 5 miles while Cindy chilled and read a book.  It was quite the nice way to spend a couple hours in the morning.

We got home shortly before the kickoff for the Eagles game.  Like I said I was pleasantly surprised that the game came through on my receiver without a third call to DirecTv.  I really had no idea what to expect, despite the Eagles 4-0 preseason record.  The surprise trade of Sam Bradford and equally surprising naming of the rookie, Carson Wentz as the day one starter left a whole lot of things up in the air.

Well it didn’t take long for me to start feeling better about things.  Carson Wentz lead the Eagles down the field quickly for the first touchdown pass of his NFL career.  I immediately got a good feeling from the rookie QB.  Despite his lack of playing time in the NFL, I never got a deer in the headlights sense about him.  He seemed calm and in control.  It was also a breath of fresh air to see such a balanced running and passing attack from the Eagles, which resulted in monster time of possession dominance, something that NEVER happened under Chip Kelly courtesy of his hurry up offense.

The defense gave me a really good feeling as well.  Much like Wentz, they just seemed in control.  At no point, even when they were up by 19 points did I get the feeling the Browns had a chance to come back.  The D just seemed to do everything fundamentally well.  During the last decade whenever the Eagles were up by more than two touchdowns it was almost automatic that they would roll into a soft prevent, giving up yards and points by the bushel, not yesterday.

It was one of the best feeling opening day games I can recall in the last 15 years of Eagles football.  Of course this is tempered by the fact that the Browns are not a good football team but even so, the Eagles many. many times have found ways to lose to bad teams.  On Sunday they got ahead and then slammed the door, just like good teams often do.  Of course this doesn’t mean the team is going to excel over the course of the season but I will take it one game at a time.  Based on what I have seen from this one game, I am optimistic.

I usually like to wind down my weekends just relaxing or screwing off.  Instead I followed the Eagles game up with paying my bills followed by mowing the yard, finishing up just as the sun was setting towards the horizon.  When I started mowing I felt grumpy about having to end the weekend with yet another house chore.  By the time I was done my mood was elevated from watching the chickens following me around on the tractor, hoping to devour any bugs the freshly cut grass exposed.  Chickens are funny.

So I called for repair of my leaking hose bib first thing yesterday.  I wound up calling Best Home Services, a company I used years ago to run an electric line for the pool heater.  They weren’t cheap back then but they did good work.

I was told their arrival window would be between 2-6pm.  I was pleasantly surprised when I got a call at 1:15 saying the tech was en route.  Someone arriving BEFORE their arrival window is as rare as a solar eclipse in SW Florida.  I got home a few minutes after the tech, named Shaine arrived.

I walked him over to the leaking fixture and explained to him the series of events.  When he looked at the leak he was pretty sure all he would need to do was put a new hose bib on.  He explained to me that bibs are normally sweated on (soldered) which I never knew.  I assumed it was threaded on.  It explained why I was unsuccessful when I tried to turn off the hose bib on the other side of the house a few weeks ago.  In retrospect I was lucky I didn’t crack that one.

I told him the amount of water inside seemed excessive for what looked to be a just steady drip.  When I showed him the sopping wet towels he was a bit surprised but still thought the bib was the culprit and not a crack in the pipe inside the wall.  He then gave me the estimate for the work which gave me an interesting choice.  He said to replace the hose bib would be $230 bucks but for $299 I could purchase a one year service contract which covers routine maintenance on your AC, electrical, and plumbing systems.  In addition it gets you 10% off repair work and waives the normal after hour and holiday premiums if I have a problem.  I did not call on Labor Day for that exact reason, I didn’t want to pay a premium for holiday work.  When he said he would replace the hose bib for free if I opted for the service contract it made the decision a no brainer.  The house is now 15 years old.  Throwing another $75 onto the bill for a year of free PM and savings on potential repairs was a good deal.

So Shaine got to work.  I did not watch the process of replacing the hose bib although I probably should have.  It would be good to add pipe sweating  to my bag of home repair tricks.  It didn’t take him very long.  When I went out to look at the repair I first thought he replaced the pipe and the bib as it was bright copper.  He said he just sanded down the pipe before soldering on the new bib.  The fitting and pipe looked bone dry which was encouraging.

Shaine said that he was very confident the problem was fixed but if there was any more water showing up after letting my mega fan run all night I should let them now.  I thanked him for his great service.  It was so nice to actually have a pleasant repair experience.  I could tell almost immediately that the leak had stopped.  The fan dried up the remaining water quickly and none flowed in to replace it which was a good feeling.  I let the fan run overnight just to be safe but tonight I should be able to put the room back together.  I was very glad I made the decision to not cut a hole in the drywall in the office.  It would have been just another unnecessary repair to make.

Last night I was under Katie’s truck, a 2005 Dodge Ram, after dark.  She had said it was driving weird and making some abnormal noises.  She had sent us a picture of the undercarriage.  It had what almost looked to be wet grass in a concentrated area.  I wanted to get a first hand look.  When I got under there with the flashlight I was even more confused.  The green substance was not grass, it was grease.  The fact that it was green is what confused me.  I later looked online I found that there is indeed green grease.  It is actually supposed to be a higher grade of grease compared to the black variety I was accustomed to.

The way it was on the undercarriage was weird, it almost looked like someone put the grease in a cake icing tube and squeezed, hard.  Through observation of the area that was coated and more research online it appears that the CV boot on that side has either a pinhole or small tear and centrifugal force while driving has expelled the grease.  The fact that it is making noise while driving means this has probably been the case for a little while.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the CV joint will need to be replaced.

We made a plan to have her drop off the truck at a garage she has used before, hoping they have a chance to look at it today.  We followed her in the Prius to make sure she made it to a Publix where she met up with her (ex) bf where he followed her to the garage.  She is using his car for now since he has a company truck to drive.

I am hoping one of the things we can talk Katie into is getting rid of the truck.  It is about as impractical of a vehicle as she could own right now.  It gets terrible gas mileage.  She said spent something insane like $600 in gas for it in the last month. For reference sake, we spent less than $400 to drive 6600 miles in the Prius last year on the road trip.

Her commute to work is even longer than mine and they used the Ram for a couple longer trips as well.  The thing is over 10 years old with about 115k on the odometer so repairs are going to be a more and more regular occurrence.  Plus the clear coat on the truck is starting to oxidize.  If she doesn’t dump it soon the exterior is going to really look like shit, making it harder to sell.  Katie said a few people had expressed interest in buying her truck.  Both Cindy and I told her she should take advantage of that interest.

I have felt very weak since I started the prednisone which I finished up last Friday.  At the gym my bench press numbers were the most anemic as I can recall in the last year.  After work I did some pull ups followed by another 20 minutes of rowing.  My pull up totals were 25% off my norm and after rowing I just felt wiped out in a pretty serious way.  When I weighed myself last night I was surprised to see I had lost 3-4 pounds, the opposite of what is supposed to happen on prednisone.  Weight gain is a common side effect.  Whatever is the ultimate cause, I hope the fog clears soon.

So I took off Thursday and Friday not only to give me a nice five day holiday weekend, it was also so I could drive Cindy up to the VA clinic on Thursday morning.  She was meeting a doctor to go over her MRI results from over a month ago.  Yes things move slowly at the VA.  Cindy had gotten a heads up that the woman she was meeting with was “not good” from a friend.

The doctor was probably in her 50’s and took good care of herself, looking fit and healthy for her age.  She started asking Cindy a number of questions about some of her symptoms.  When asked, Cindy would try to expand and give more detail about what has been going on.  Almost immediately the doctor took on a very impatient mindset, cutting Cindy off, just asking for numbers and dates.  Once again, similar to my recent experience, the doctor was being thrust into the role of a data entry clerk as she typed all of the info into the computer.

At times she took on an almost combative attitude, acting like everything was black and white when it comes to Cindy’s issues.  For example when Cindy said she had mercury poisoning, the doctor immediately insisted she didn’t.  When Cindy had her blood test for heavy metals it was at the very top end of normal range.  It was high enough that she got a call from our local health department to ensure her high levels weren’t from something environmental like a contaminated water supply.  So yes, technically Cindy’s number was not in the poisoned range but it was one tick away so obviously it wasn’t good.  Since Cindy stopped eating fish she got retested and the number had dropped significantly.

The doctor continued making proclamations about various things like her word was equivalent to Jesus.  “There is no such thing as medical marijuana” and “lifting weights is bad” were two that really stuck out to me.  Cindy was getting visibly upset from the attitude this doctor was taking towards her situation.  I was literally a few seconds away from making a scene and telling her it is inappropriate, unprofessional, and just plain wrong to not listen to her patient and instead cut her off repeatedly when trying to expand on symptoms.

It was almost as though the doctor sensed she had gone too far and that both Cindy and I had enough.  She started to soften her tone the rest of the exam.  She did a physical exam on Cindy testing a few baselines and went over the results of her MRI.  The exam and MRI didn’t confirm any dire diagnosis which was a good thing.  The doctor had some blood drawn to rule out more things, one of which could be B12 deficiency related, a common thing for people that do not regularly consume meat.  There were some other possibilities brought up that again have much less dire consequences which is good as well.  We left the VA feeling better about things but both feeling a bit amazed at the attitude this woman brought to the table.

We got a TON of rain from the storm that later turned out to be Hurricane Hermoine.  The property had standing water everywhere.  The instant swamp conditions brought in tons of birds by the dozen, all hoping to feast on whatever was in the water.  At one point I bet we had 100 ibis in our yard.  The two hawks that seem to have taken up residence around our place were around nearly constantly.  They too enjoy hunting in the water.  The chickens joined the party, caring less about the rain, roaming the yard all day looking for fresh bugs.

My Tacoma was at the dealership on Thursday, getting it’s 5000 mile service.  While it was there I asked they perform a TSB that addresses shifting issues with the truck which would cause it clunk into gear when shifting from reverse to drive randomly.  By the time we got back from Cape Coral the truck was done so the timing worked out well.  On the drive home the shifting of the Tacoma definitely felt better than it did previously.

On Friday Cindy was gone a good portion of the day.  I got work done around the house and got miles logged on my Ninebot One.  I had set a loose goal to crack the 100 mile mark over the weekend.  Below you will see the footage from my rides on Thursday and Friday.

On Friday I also changed the oil and filter on my Tacoma.  Wait, didn’t I just have it at the dealer?  Why yes I did but the dealer does not change the oil until 10,000 miles believe it or not.  With the new synthetic lubricants and engine design, the old 3000 mile oil change interval is just not needed.  Even so, I did not want to wait to 10K to have it done.  You may recall I actually swapped the oil in the truck after the first 1000 miles.

This time I was doing the oil and filter which made the job a little more involved.  The new Tacomas use a cartridge type filter now for some reason.  Instead of just replacing the entire filter, you remove an outer canister and then just replace the filter element that is housed inside.  You also have two O-rings to swap out.  In addition, to reach the oil filter, the skid plate on the bottom of the truck has to be removed.  So although in almost every way, the 2016 Tacoma has been better than the 99 Tacoma, ease of oil changes is not one of those things.  Since it was my first time replacing one of these types of filters I ran into a few snags but all in all it wasn’t bad.

Saturday morning was once again chore heavy.  One of the things that wound up on the list was trying to “fix” the outside hose connection.  It had one of those quick fit connectors on it that I used years ago when I used to water the property by hand.  Over time it started to leak which made noise and wasted water.  The hose that was attached to it was not in good shape either so I figured I would replace it as well.

So I headed over there with my large slip joint pliers to break loose the fitting that was very rusty and had not been touched in many years.  At first it did not want to budge so I pulled harder.  It then budged but I also immediately saw a drip develop on the feed pipe that was exposed from the side of the wall.  I had some small concern but I figured it would either stop or was just from the threaded hose connector being a little loose.  Later in the day when I noticed it still had not stopped I went to the hardware store and bought some heavy duty PVC cement as well as self sealing silicon tape.  After turning off the water to the house I used the combination of the two around the exposed portion of the feed pipe.  At first I thought I got it fixed but later saw it still was dripping, just closer to the wall. Oh well, I guess I just will have to live with the drip for now. (more later)

I also did a quick evening grass mowing session, wanting to take advantage of the brief break in the rain that allowed most areas to dry to the point where the ground was soggy but not submerged.  During the day I also built a landing in front of the steps of the chicken coop out of patio blocks.  That area had become a muddy mess from the all of the rain combined with the foot traffic of Cindy and I in and out of the coop.  The blocks gave us a stable and dry surface to step onto before ascending the steps which was good.

Saturday night we watched Zoolander 2 at home.  Cindy wasn’t thrilled about the rental when she saw the envelope but she had to admit it was funny after taking it in.  If you saw the original Zoolander you already know it’s all about stupid/silly, over the top humor.  It had me laughing out loud repeatedly so it deserves a B+ in my book.

On Sunday morning I again drug myself out of bed with the alarm, despite being stiff and sore from my pretty laborious Saturday.  I was again running solo and I again started at the track with nobody else around until somebody flew in.  That somebody was a bald eagle that landed on one of the light towers as I was completing my second lap around the track.  He seemed to be watching me as I went round and round.  In my head I used the majestic bird as a reason I needed to keep going.  He stayed there for the rest of the four mile run, refusing to vacate even when a a couple of noisy quaker parrots were diving at him.  It was very cool to have an eagle on site.

For the second week in a row I surprised myself with the numbers on the GPS.  Last week my injuries had me somewhat limping, causing me to use a shorter stride.  I was amazed that my overall pace last week was better than when I was running normally.  This week I was less injured but again tried sticking with a shorter stride but faster foot cadence.  Again my numbers were surprising, averaging 9:00 miles for the run, a pace I have not maintained for a very long time.  Using a shorter stride actually is a good thing for someone with bad wheels like me.  It keeps my feet more under me when they hit the pavement, which causes less trauma to my knees than when I try to use a long, loping stride.  I guess I will stick with it and see how things progress.  Today I felt very minimal physical repercussions from the run.

Shortly after I got home Cindy and I headed out for a ride on the Minipros.  We covered 6 miles, the farthest Cindy has ever logged on her bot.  We also stopped in at the gym she has been working at where I got to meet the owner who seemed like a nice guy.  The gym is good looking and filled with brand new equipment.  Now all they need is to get the word out.

I brought the wheel with as well.  I had Cindy follow me on the Minipro as I rode the EUC to get some 3rd person perspective video, something I have very little of.  It was interesting to see my form from a distance.   For the most part I look like I know what I am doing.

I actually went out on the wheel a second time later in the afternoon.  I was getting close to my 100 mile goal.  By the time I finished the odometer on my Ninebot One read 98.5 miles.

This morning I woke up a bit frustrated.  It felt hard to believe that I was already on the last day of my mini-vacation.  It felt like I hadn’t gotten to relax as much as I had hoped, despite logging a lot of wheel time.  I started off with a 20 minute session on the Concept 2 rower.  It was the first time I got on the rower since we bought it from Bill.  I purchased a data logger card so Cindy and I will have running totals of just how many meters we pulled.  I tacked 4300 meters plus onto my total during the 20 minutes, a decent start.

Mid-morning I decided I wanted to head to Ave Maria with the wheel to cross the 100 mile mark.  The town is a perfect spot for PTV riding with wide sidewalks that lead all around the huge town area.  I put in about five and as half miles during the ride which put me well past the century mark overall.  It was a nice little accomplishment for me and something that a month or so ago was an impossibility.

Later today Cindy was in the office and I heard her say “Uh, Shawn…” in a tone that never means anything good.  She said the floor by her desk, which sits along the same outside wall as the hose connection, was soaked.  I instantly knew the cause and went outside to rip off the silicon tape.  My first theory was the tape job funneled the dripping water backwards toward the hole in the wall which in turn pooled inside, soaking the rug.  However once we ran the carpet cleaner over the rug the amount of water it sucked out seemed like way too much to be caused by a small drip over two days of time.

We pulled Cindy’s desk away from the wall and I pulled the still soaked carpet up.  At first I had the small fan in our bedroom on the floor to help dry things up.  I then realized the monster fan that is used to inflate the GMT arch moved a ton more air so I brought it in and hooked it up.

I was struggling with a plan of action.  At first I was thinking about cutting a hole in the drywall more or less in the area where the hose is on the outside but didn’t.  Even if I did see the pipe, I was going to let a real plumber fix it so I would rather he make the cut, if necessary, instead of me.  I then climbed in the oven hot attic, hoping there may be some sort of shut off on the line so I could cut water to the hose without killing it for the rest of the house.  I was unsuccessful with finding one.

So my plan for now is to let this fan blow dry the shit out of that corner and only turn on the water to the house on an as needed basis to minimize the leak.  At first I thought the leak was just from the exposed portion of the hose pipe but with as much water as we saw I am worried that there is also a crack inside the wall.  Fixing it may involve knocking a hole in the outside wall, the drywall, or both.  Of course I feel frustrated that if I just left that hose fitting alone I would not have to be dealing with this shit.

The Eagles made a surprise move and traded Sam Bradford to the Vikings who lost their starter to a horrible knee injury.  The trade got the Eagles back some draft picks they gave away securing Carson Wentz.  I’m not sad to see Sam go.  He was mediocre at best last year and the hissy fit he threw when Wentz was drafted was a big turn off.  The move means we will see Wentz as the day one starter which is exciting in one way but disappointing in another as it likely means the fan base will be in for a rebuilding year more than likely.

Cindy’s daughter was over quite a bit this weekend.  There is the possibility she may be moving in for an interim basis as she tries to exit a relationship with her longtime boyfriend that has not been great for quite awhile.  Although it obviously changes our living arrangements considerably, if it gets Katie on a path that leads to more happiness down the road it will be worth it in the long run.  She is too young to have her options limited.

I drove home in a driving rainstorm courtesy of the tropical system spinning up in the gulf.  When I got home the majority of our property was underwater.  The bad news is this could just be a warm up if the storm reverses and heads back in Florida’s direction as predicted.

I immediately started on party prep, shuffling the furniture around in the great room as well as bringing in the sparsely used dining room table.  Despite there being a lot to do I had everything pretty much handled by around 5:45.  Cindy, who was serving as a poll worker, had helped prepare a lot of the food ahead of time.  All I had to do was get stuff out and throw a few items in the oven.

I made a mental commitment to try to not eat/drink as much at the party this year.  Typical the draft party is my most gluttonous day of the year.  There is something about the combination of alcohol, a huge spread of food, and the social anxiety of hosting the event that normally turns me into a ravenous pig.  I wanted to just be a normal pig this year.

Well I started out ok, only picking at a few items but by the time the night was over I was back into full gluttony mode.  It was like my “full” switch was turned off.  I was just randomly grabbing a chip here, a pizza bit there, vegetable rolls, cookies, spanikopita, etc.  It was just out of hand. I washed it down with a six pack of Miller Lite.

With the number 12 draft position I was at a disadvantage but overall I think I drafted decently.  My draft rating was dragged way down when I picked up Carson Wentz with my last pick but that was a strategic move for next year so I could potentially make him a keeper.  My team looks half decent but who the f knows.

The party started a bit late, maybe 7:15 and broke up around 10.  All the guys in attendance were appreciative of our hospitality and a good time was had by all.  Cindy and I busted ass and had almost everything back to normal before we collapsed in bed around 11.

Today is my last day of work until Tuesday thanks to it being Labor Day weekend.  I have a number of small projects on my mind for the 5 day period and of course a lot of Ninebot One and Minipro riding as well.  I just hope I don’t need a boat to get out of the driveway.

There is a chance of some major rain rolling through our area the next several days so I wanted to make sure the grass got mowed now while the standing water has receded.  Cindy got on during the day and mowed the main yard.  When I got home I tackled the trenches by the road as well as mowing a good chunk of the back yard that normally gets flooded.   I again tempted fate, mowing defiantly as thunder and lightning crackled all around the area.  I pulled the tractor back into the shed shortly before the rain kicked in.

During the day Cindy picked up Sadie who is staying with us for an extended weekend.  She HATES storms and will stick to you like glue when thunder is rattling the house.  Most of the night she was always within arms reach.

I was surprised when I got an email the other day that I had a Google AdSense deposit in my account.  I have been making money with YouTube dollars for a couple years now so the deposit itself wasn’t the surprise, the timing was.  The reason is I just had a deposit the previous month.  I have been averaging getting a check from them every 2-3 months.  You are only issued a check once your account hits $100 in revenue.  Getting the check this week marked the first time I have earned enough YouTube money to get paid two months in a row, awesome!

Ever since I hit two milestones on my account, 1000 subscribers and a million total views it has seemed like things have been accelerating rapidly.  I now have tacked on almost another 200 subscribers and 60,000 views in the span of several weeks.  The content on my channel has sort of shifted over time.  It used to be almost exclusively videos of me doing workouts and physical challenges which only appealed to a small niche market.  Over time I discovered that people love how to videos.

My various automotive and home project videos are my most viewed on the channel.   My recent adoption of the Segway Minipro and Ninebot One has opened up the channel to a whole new genre of people.  The response I have gotten on the videos related to our PTV’s has been good as well.

I think the formula I use for pretty much all of my videos is pretty consistent, no matter what the subject is.  I just talk about it.  I am not scared to show when I fail as well as succeed.  Admitting mistakes is a good thing. It seems like my honest approach to how I tackle various obstacles clicks with a decent amount of people.  I also have made some minor tweaks to the way I make videos, using higher quality editing software and making a conscious effort to keep their duration shorter.  People today have short attention spans.

So anyway, I have been working on building my YouTube channel into something for a long time.  To at least be making some part time job money at it is satisfying.  I’ll keep uploading.

Today is my ear MRI.  They are going to be doing it with and without contrast I believe.  With contrast means they inject some dye into your bloodstream to provide better imagery of the small components that make up the ear.  I generally hate being poked and prodded so I am not looking forward to the procedure.  I have had MRI’s before, so the coffin like enclosure will not be new to me, I just hope I don’t get an itch.

The frustrating thing is I am pretty sure the MRI will do nothing to help remedy the problem.  I think I have a fistula that will either slowly heal itself or will leave me with reduced hearing on my right side for the foreseeable future.  My body already seems to be used to having the constant low ringing sensation on that side.  My eyes are already going bad, my ears may as well join the party.

So I mentioned on my Dufisthenics blog how my right ear popped while I was reversing out of a skin the cat, a difficult calisthenics move that has you upside down and inside out.  When it happened it felt similar to what happens on an airplane although I also started with an immediate low volume ring in that ear. I assumed the exertion from the move caused the ear to close and it would open up shortly.

Well it’s now Monday and it hasn’t opened at all.  I am worried I did something more serious.  I found some blood on my pillowcase over the weekend which I am afraid could have come from the ear.  I have tried various fixes, like yawning widely, the valsalva maneuver, cleaning out the ear with peroxide, and lots of nose blowing.  None of it has worked.  I am hoping to get an appointment at the on site employee clinic here so someone can take a look inside to see what is going on.

When I came home Friday there was a pretty incredible storm blowing through with sideways, torrential rain.  In the time I had the garage door open to pull the Tacoma inside the front half of the floor had a pond form.  It was crazy rain that of course once again left the property a mucky mess.

On Saturday Cindy and I had a full errand circuit, hitting Pinch-a-Penny, Dunkin Donuts, Rural King, Racetrac, and Home Depot.  By the time we got home the back of the Tacoma was fully loaded down with gas for the mowers, chlorine for the pool, sod, mulch, a 50 lbs bag of chicken food, and a few other items.

After eating lunch we headed outside to get busy.  Cindy worked on installing the sod in areas the chickens have destroyed, a task we have to repeat on a regular basis.  I worked on getting the 20 bags of mulch laid down.  Once again the chickens were the impetus behind the work as their tireless work kicking mulch out of several landscaped areas left nothing but muddy dirt in a lot of spots.

While we were working Ali and her boyfriend stopped by to drop off Sadie which was nice.  We gave them a quick introduction to the chickens.  It was the first time Ali had been in the back yard in a looong time so she was surprised how much things have grown/changed.

After I finished with chores I got out on my Ninebot One.  I had seen a video that made me realize what I was doing wrong when it comes to turning so I wanted to test out the tips.

I was successful doing some simple turns along with a few fails.  I was able to ride a circuit down our driveway, onto the street, into the neighbors half circle driveway, back on the road and into our driveway without falling.  The key was realizing I needed to control the lean of the bot on slower turns from the knees down instead of leaning my entire body.  I felt good about the progress.

Saturday night we stayed home and watched our Netflix rental, 10 Cloverfield Lane. We both liked the original Cloverfield which was a very odd but scary movie.  10 Cloverfield will have you scratching your head as you try to figure out what exactly is going on.  Of course I can’t give away the plot but I’ll tell you the movie had both Cindy I and yelling out loud, more than once. It’s a solid B+ film.

On Sunday morning I set the alarm for 6AM which Cindy wasn’t thrilled about.  I actually was awake a couple hours previous to the alarm for whatever reason so when the alarm went off I felt like death.  I set the alarm so we could accomplish a goal we talk about often but never accomplish, getting out to run before the sun is up in the sky.

We got to the track around 6:45 and started our roughly three and a half mile training run.  We have hopes to compete as a relay in a 10 mile race at the end of October.  This was our first step towards that goal.  The run was challenging, even without having the sun in the sky baking us.  The air was still very humid and we also had to dodge the poorly adjusted water sprinklers that in some cases shot out 15 feet across the running surface.  The run was not easy but we completed it, averaging about 9:30 per mile which was fine.  I am pretty confident that in the span of two and a half months Cindy and I can tack another mile and a half onto that distance for the race.

When we got home we went for a coffee run with Sadie in the back seat.  When we got home Sadie acted like she was disaapointed and did not want to get out of the car.  We made an illogical decision to grab her leash and head right back in the direction we just returned from to go to Home Depot even though we had no real reason to go other than we knew Sadie would like walking around.  We did wind up buying a few things while we were there, there is ALWAYS something we need for a home repair/project if we think hard enough.

Early afternoon Cindy and I took the Segways out for some more dual riding fun.  We rode around another development area.  Once again the Minipro’s delivered easy, quick, low stress fun.  I found that my Ninebot One riding actually made riding the Segway feel a but weird for a few minutes as it is a much different experience.  In total we put in a little less than 5 miles on the ride.

Later in the afternoon I got in some extensive Ninebot One training.  I wanted to build on the turning progress I made the day before.  I figured the school parking lot would be a much more beneficial location to do it.

I bet a spent over an hour at the school grounds.  During this time I felt that finally the elusive IT clicked in my head, I just could ride.  During the session I put in excess of six miles on the wheel, traversing a variety of surfaces including the parking lot, sidewalks, speed bumps, road, the running track and even a 100 yard section of open grass.  Don’t get me wrong, it is not easy for me and I still had moments where it felt like I was close to falling off but I stayed on the wheel.  It felt sort of awesome.

The closest thing I can compare it to is when I taught myself to juggle as a young man working as a meat cutter at Weis Markets.  It had a similar feel where it felt nearly impossible at first but through practice and determination it became another reflex reaction.  Riding a EUC was similar from the mental standpoint with the addition of a physical toll that is paid in bumps and bruises.  I was proud for forcing myself to continue to get on the wheel time and time again, knowing the end result was going to be me falling off and/or hurting myself.  48 years of age is definitely not ideal for learning a new balancing skill.

After getting home and announcing my accomplishments to Cindy I was anxious to build upon it more.  I threw the wheel on the charger for an hour or so and headed back out.  I came up with the goal of running the complete length of 8th street, something I did the other day in multiple segments, as one continuous ride.  As I approached the dead end side near the county fairgrounds I came up on a family that was out in their driveway.  I could tell they were all looking at me with confusion.  When I got closer the father said to me, “What are you, some sort of wizard??”  I laughed as I kept rolling and told him there were a ton of falls before I got to this point.  I was able to complete the roughly three mile circuit without falling or getting off once.

That wasn’t enough for me, I went out once more a little later as the sun was setting.  I wanted to get some FPV of me riding, something I was far too unstable to consider doing previously.  The LED light rings on the Ninebot One are really cool and I wanted to get a good shot of them, something you can’t do very well in bright sunshine.  The end result was the video below where I again ran an uninterrupted but shorter circuit. Once again, it felt awesome.

I still am not nearly as smooth or stable as I would like to be.  I still have regular wobbling that kicks in but for whatever reason my body can just deal with it and keep rolling.  My turning is not fantastic but I was able to maneuver a lot of sidewalk angles successfully when I was at the school.  I honestly feel at this point I could go on a ride with Cindy on a bike path or slightly populated sidewalk and be ok.  I need to be much more focused when riding the wheel than on the Minipro but as time passes I am expecting single wheel riding to become more and more a reflex instead of conscious thought.

This newfound ability has me wanting to be on the wheel more and more.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it finds it’s way into my trunk for some lunch break riding now and then. 🙂  In total three weeks have passed since I received the wheel.  If you factor in I did no riding the week prior to Comic Con my learning curve has been roughly two weeks.

Last night after work I got inspired to take my Ninebot One on it’s longest ride so far.  I went down our road to the first cross street which has very minimal traffic.  Heading down to the side street made me a bit nervous as I passed a couple vehicles going to opposite direction as I was riding on a single wheel, which sounds a bit crazy.

Once I got on the side street I was less nervous.  The long, straight stretches of asphalt were good for practice.  I did pretty well although I still had issues with wobbling which would kick in during the ride.  I wanted to try to do some turn practice.  A couple times I managed to complete a turn within the radius of the width of the road but it was VERY shaky and much more difficult than it should be.  After coming out of one of those shaky turns I developed a bad wobble that turned into a pretty bad crash where I came down hard on my wrist.  I had my lifting gloves with wrist wraps on but that crash convinced me I need to get full fledged wrist guards.  The last thing I need is a broken wrist. Both of my wrists now are hurting.

There are weird mind games that go on while I am riding.  I will be cruising along more or less smoothly and I will start thinking about losing control and crashing.  Many times these thoughts are followed with feeling unstable with wobbles returning.  I also got nervous a few times where I was going fast enough to initiate the automatic tilt back which kicks in at 12-13 mph.  I was surprised I was going that fast (first time) but once I was, I again thought about the implications of falling at that speed.

I find my lower body fatigues when I ride, probably because I have so much tension in my legs.  It seems like the deeper I go into a ride the more shaky I get.  My longest single ride last night was probably over a half mile in length.  In total I put in somewhere around three miles, obliterating any prior distance totals from other sessions.  The one fall I had however was a reminder that I am still far from ready to be riding in environments with a lot of people, vehicles or other obstacles.  This weekend I want to get more wheel time, hopefully practicing a lot with turning.  I watched a video last night that made me realize a few things I was fundamentally doing wrong that makes turning harder than it needs to be.

When I got back Cindy was a bit freaked out.  I had not told her I planned to ride down the road so she had no idea where I was or if I was upright or on a stretcher.  I told her she didn’t need to worry since my life insurance premium is up to date. 🙂

Even though last week I suggested that perhaps the idea of the Olympic games may have run it’s course, I still have found myself watching the games quite a bit and enjoying it.  Michael Phelps has been nothing short of amazing.  To perform at such a high level across four Olympics spanning 16 years is unprecedented and unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.  It really doesn’t matter which sport is on, I’ll watch it, unless it’s soccer.

This weekend should be pretty normal with work around the house, a Sadie visit, some endurance training, Segway riding and whatever else sounds fun.  With the new WoW release some virtual relaxation will be on the docket as well I am sure.

The back yard of the property was getting very jungle-like from all of the precipitation of the last few weeks.  I have been waiting for the standing water to recede just enough so I could mow it down.  Since we are out of town for a few days I targeted last night as the time to do it, despite menacing skies that had me driving through periods of rain on the way home.

As soon as I got home I quickly changed and went out back, although light rain had already started.  Well shortly after starting the light rain became steady rain.  Thanks to the mower canopy I wasn’t getting very wet but the grass was.  Cutting through high grass is a big enough pain.  Cutting through high wet grass multiplies the mess.

I grabbed one on the bungees that we use to help keep the canopy in place and instead used it to keep the plastic chute guard in the up position.  If I didn’t do this I would be stopping every couple minutes to clear the clump of wet crass clippings clogging the exit to the deck.  Pulling the guard up allows the grass and other debris to fly out much easier.  The problem is a lot of that debris winds up getting blown back onto me.  The right side of my body quickly became covered in sand, dirt and various organic matter as the wind blew it back my way. It was pretty miserable.

For the first half of the job it was raining.  Whenever I mow in rain I flashback to a very vivid childhood memory when my dad was mowing on our large tractor at night in the middle of a tremendous thunderstorm.  I remember looking out the dining room window at the headlights of the tractor as lightning would briefly illuminate the outline of my dad at the controls as my mom commented on how stupid it was.  There is no doubt I share dad’s stubbornness when it comes to accomplishing a task once it is set in motion.

Cindy has taken over the dining room table for the last couple weeks doing extensive costume development for this weekend.  She has spent countless hours tweaking and retweaking things.  Her creativity really comes out when it comes to costume design.  I think mine will be pretty cool if I don’t drop dead from heat exhaustion while walking around.  We are bringing some alternative, less restrictive clothing for me to wear if I need a break during the con.

We hope to pull out tomorrow morning and get to enjoy Friday evening and all day Saturday at the convention.  It should be a lot of fun.