Category Sports

This is a few days old but I have been meaning to comment on it.  Am I the only one that thinks it is bat shit crazy that the Ravens made Joe Flacco the highest paid player in the NFL?  Sure he had a good run at the end of the season but his NFL career clearly shows he is on the high end of mediocre or low end of good QB’s in the NFL.  I don’t get it.

Maybe I am jaded by what the Eagles did in 2010, throwing a mountain of cash at Mike Vick after 8 good games (followed by 24 not so good).    I think less of Joe Flacco for proclaiming he deserved Drew Brees type money.  Have some humility or at least let your agent say those type of statements.  Dumb ass, rich dumb ass that is.

There is this guy that started showing up at the gym  the past couple months.  He annoys me.  He is a short stocky type of guy with some tattoos.  He is a notorious half rep squatter, never getting his thighs past 45 degrees no matter if he is squatting 315 or 135.  However none of these things are the true annoyance.

He wears sunglasses in the gym.  Most of the time he has them propped up on his forehead but there are plenty of times, especially when he is squatting, that he is wearing them conventionally.  I have pondered why an individual would choose to wear sunglasses while they work out in the gym.  After much serious contemplation the only thing I could come up with was he is a douche bag.

For years I had a little guilty pleasure I would partake in, roughly once a week on my way home from work.  I would drive through the McDonalds that is on my way home and order the same thing each time, two hamburgers, a small fry (medium if I was feeling crazy) and a Diet Coke.    Yes, it went against the normal nutritional tenants I try to follow but I looked at it as a cheat day, and a pretty minor one at that.  One fast food meal a week isn’t going to hurt someone as active as I am.

Well anyway, when I decided to give up beef, pork and poultry last year I also was unintentionally giving up my McD fix.  For the most part I haven’t thought about it or missed it.  But for some reason today, it got into my head, probably because I heard a Filet O Fish commercial on the radio.

It made me realize that the FoF could be my new go to meal if would go to McD’s again.  I looked up the nutritional info on the sandwich and it actually isn’t too bad at all,  around 400 calories if you leave the defacto cheese and tartar sauce on it. If you drop both of those, which I would, it drops down to 270 calories.

Now don’t get me wrong, if this sounds like I am advocating McDonald’s patronage or suggesting it becomes a substantial part of anyone’s diet, I’m not.  Jeremy was quick to point out to me that regardless of the nutritional sins a Filet o Fish may or may not have, there are other reasons to not ever step foot in McDonalds, such as their existence being one of the primary reasons so much of the beef, pork and poultry that I choose not to eat, is consumed by hungry mouths around the world.

My eating a meal at McD’s would definitely qualify as a hypocritical act.  I wouldn’t argue that at all.  I just hope you wouldn’t argue with me when I suggest I am only joining the club that we all already belong to in one way or another.

Who knows, my McD urge may fade away but at least I have a plan if I do find myself walking under the golden arches sometime in the future.

 

 

Friday night I was at Ali’s place until almost 10 o’clock.  I wanted to get a head start on the various handyman duties I had to do there, the biggest of which was assembling her four pieces of Ikea furniture, which were three book shelves and one glass door cabinet.

We actually got more done than I expected, completing the assembly of three of the book shelves.  After doing the first one, each subsequent unit took less time.  The biggest time sink is hammering in the 500 nails in the rear that hold the press board backing in place.

Despite getting to bed after 11 Friday night I had it in my head that I wanted to run 10 miles Saturday morning at the 6am club run.  I drug myself out of bed and into the cold air.  The temp was right around 50, cold if you are standing around but great to run in.

I ran most of the 10 miles by myself, only hooking up with a nice woman for the last 3.5 miles, that I found out later is friends with Alison.  My average pace for the run was right around 9:15, not fast, but at this point I just want to get my legs/knees ok with carrying me for that period of time.  I’d like to get one or two more 10 milers under my belt if I am going to do the Hooters half marathon.

I went straight from running, back to Ali’s apartment to resume the projects.  Assembling the cabinet was very similar to constructing the bookshelves, the biggest challenge was adjusting the hinges so the doors closed well.

So before buying the furniture Ali had done some measurements and determined that the cabinet and two bookshelves would fit on the wall in front of the staircase.  I did some quick eyeballing of the furniture and realized the three units would consume far too much real estate to fit.  A new layout was needed.

Alison had a hair appointment at 11 so before she left we talked about various arrangements but didn’t firmly decide on one.  I told her I would work on the arrangement and other tasks that were left while she was gone.  I first attended to the other, non-furniture related tasks which were hanging an overhead light in the office and hanging a drying rack in the small utility room.

I then returned to the main living space to sort it out.  I wound up relocating a large chest to the office where it barely fit underneath the sewing table.  I then centered the remaining bookshelf on the shorter wall, put the dog eating tables where the chest was and moved the old existing book shelf to the top of the stairs.  I even got rid of the mountain of empty cardboard boxes, put the bedroom furniture back in order (we had started moving that around too), and even swept the steps with the Dyson.

Ali returned to her place surprised to find I had made order out of the mild chaos she left in a little more than 2 hours.  It’s a skill I have always been good at.

She was appreciative of my efforts as she checked out the end result of the labor.  Unfortunately I was not done, we wanted to head to the Apple store and upgrade both of our Iphones.  I had plans for Saturday night so I was worried that the Apple store would be SWAMPED on a Saturday afternoon.

Alison and I could hardly believe when we turned the corner and saw all the blue shirts.  They had a TON of staff on the floor, I didn’t count but I bet there were at least 30 employees on the floor.  Despite there being a large amount of customers on the floor as well, we had an Apple guy immediately available to help us.

We already knew what we wanted, Iphone 5’s, the only thing to be determined was how much memory we wanted in the new phones and the color (black or white).  Ali went with a 32 gig white phone and I did the same thing in black.

The efficiency of the store is pretty damn amazing.   By using a wireless iTouch device the entire transaction for two phones was completed in minutes.  In total I am not sure if we were in the store for even 20 minutes.  I seriously expected to be in there at least an hour and a half.

We got done so fast that we had time to stop in Best Buy to pick up cases for the phones.  Ali likes the Lifeproof cases that are very expensive but are like encasing your phone in a big bulletproof condom.  I went with a simpler but effective silicon case that protects the phone from impact.  I got a high end screen protector as well although I felt disgusted with myself for forking over 25 bucks for it, more than I paid for the case.

I didn’t have a lot of time to play with the phone before heading out but I did like the larger screen, the faster performance of not only the hardware but also the LTE network the phone can hook into and the talk to text feature which is pretty damn handy for on the go communication.  I also asked Siri a couple questions and I liked the answers she gave me.

Since my Friday night and Saturday were eaten up I didn’t get started on stuff around the house till Sunday.  Since I am going to be gone a good chunk of this upcoming weekend it was important that I get some stuff done.  I picked up the dogs and had them hang out with me while I worked.

The weather at least was awesome while I toiled, the cool morning temps evolved into pretty much perfect temps as the day went on.  I had almost every opening in the house wide open to take advantage of it.

Late in the afternoon I had my immediate list done so I turned to ancillary items.  One of those items was installing some hooks onto my pull up station.

This idea came into my head last week for some reason.  I thought that if I mounted some sort of anchoring system on either pull up bar support I would be able to utilize rubber resistance bands to add a new dimension to my work outs.

The hooks I installed were bought at Home Depot.  The only challenging part of the install was using a tape measure to ensure both hooks were mounted more or less parallel to each other.  Once the hooks were mounted I simply strung one of my bands across, slapped it over my shoulders and did a few reps.  It worked just as I hoped.  If you want to see my two minute explanation you can see it here.

So since Ali was coming out to pick up the dogs anyway I suggested she just stays and watches the Super Bowl.  She stopped at the grocery store and picked up some food that we always would generally reserve for the big game, stuff to make pigs in a blanket (veggie dogs of course), spanikopita and bagel bites. Food that is wonderfully awful for you but is that is totally in bounds by Super Bowl standards.

Regular blog readers will know that for most of the last 6 or 7 years we would host a small party at the house with the famous betting board which would be stacked with dozens of quarters.  Obviously there was none of that fun this year.  It felt both familiar and awkward to have Ali and the dogs hanging out in our new situation as we watched the game.

The game itself was very, very good.  One of the best I can recall with a big comeback by the Niners falling short with less than two minutes to go in the game.  Despite the excitement I was so tired I found my eyes drifting closed time and again.

The 35 minute power outage was pretty interesting.  Since I was watching the game time shifted on the Tivo I was able to thankfully fast forward past a lot of the filler CBS had to do until the lights were back on.

The half time show I guess was ok, if you really like Beyonce.  For me however I thought it was kind of blah.  I told Ali I always like when a Super Bowl halftime show has a bunch of performers you never see performing together, performing together.

I thought the commercials this year had the normal amount of laugh out loud moments along with the spots that leave you scratching your head.   I don’t really have any specific commentary about them although the Clydesdale being reunited with his trainer was very touching.

By the time Ali and the dogs left it was after 11.  I woke up this morning REALLY wishing the day after the Super Bowl was a national holiday.

This will be a two cup of coffee entry I imagine.

I picked up Charlie at the airport early Thursday afternoon.  It was the first time I had seen him since we played in the Rumble in the summer of 2011.  He had never been to Naples since I relocated here in August of 2000.

Charlie had of course seen my house electronically many times but when he saw it in person he got a better appreciation of just how much I have to maintain.  I have lots to do, all the time.

We decided to do a run to the grocery store to pick up a few supplies.  We decided the rest of the night we would just hang at the house, drink beer and play video games.

Charlie and I have a long video game history.  We used to play FPS (first person shooter) games together all the time, dating back to Quake/Painkeep days.  Well I went back to the bedroom and pulled out a still in the plastic wrap copy of Call of Duty Black Ops.

No, this isn’t the game that was just released, this is the game that came out TWO YEARS ago.  I am pretty damn sure I got the game for Christmas in 2010, yes 2010.  It has sat in a drawer in my bedroom all that time.  I just hadn’t found the time/interest to crack it open in those two years.

Well having Charlie in the house couldn’t have been a more perfect reason to break the seal on the two year old game.

So both of our FPS background is almost exclusively on a PC where you utilize a mouse and keyboard to move, aim and shoot.  This combination allows a level of precision that I never have been able to imitate playing a shooter on a console with a joystick.  Charlie was exceptionally good in these games, much better than I ever was.

Well the lack of a mouse did indeed feel weird, it just felt awkward and sloppy.  What wasn’t sloppy were the intense realistic graphics of the game which was enhanced by skull thumping surround sound coming out of my Bose system. Despite fighting the controls, we both had a lot of fun playing late into the night on Thursday while drinking large amounts of beer.

On Friday I had asked Charlie if he had any interest in seeing Wreck it Ralph, the new Pixar movie that is about video games that I grew up with.  Sure the primary target audience for the movie is probably kids that are 35 years younger than I am but oh well.  Charlie said he was into seeing it.

The movie was mid afternoon.  We headed out early so I could give Charlie a sight seeing tour of the area in the SSR.  We drove down the ultra-rich neighborhoods of Gulf Shore Blvd and Gordon Drive passing one mansion after another.  Charlie was dumbfounded by the size of these palaces by the water.  We also drove by my office so Charlie could see where I have communicated to him from for the last decade plus.

The movie was at Silverspot.  I thought Charlie would like to see Naples high end theater, he thought it was sweet.

I really enjoyed the movie, not only because it brought me back to the games that I pumped endless quarters into as a kid but more because it was just well done.  After all it was a Pixar film, they always do a good job.  It was fun from beginning to end and gets a solid A.

On Friday evening we skipped the alcohol and just grabbed sandwiches from the near by restaurant.  We wanted to be sensible since we were getting up quite early to go to the Tough Mudder Saturday morning.  I set my alarm for 4AM so we could shove out by 5.

Charlie reported he had his second night in a row of minimal sleep.  He gets all worked up when he has big events like this coming up, the same thing happened before we did the Rumble.  Luckily I don’t start feeling nerves until closer to the actual event, I slept fine.

The drive up to the race went smoothly, it was actually the same exit I take to go to Siesta Key, the only difference being this time I headed east instead of west.  The entrance to the race was about 6 miles off the highway.  We pulled in a little before 6:40am and had no problem, unlike others later in the day, but more on that later.

Unlike last year where they had issues with their registration list, Charlie and I both were on the list this time and checked in with no trouble.  We spent the time leading up to the race kind of hanging out and checking out the immediate race area near registration..  The only hydration we did leading up to it was one 5 hour energy each, which was incredibly stupid, more on that later too.

So this year they changed a number of things besides the most obvious thing, the location.  Another change was how you got into the starting chute.  Last year when your wave was next up you walked into the corral area and went.  Well this year they put an 8 foot wall behind the start area.  The only way for you to enter was to go over the wall.

Ok that is kind of cool I guess.  However what wasn’t cool was the dumb idea that they could have teams pose for a picture one at a time before going over the wall.  There were just way too many bodies to do that.  The photographers were soon overrun.

Charlie and I had the same early 8:20 start time Randall and I enjoyed last year.  It really is the only way to go if you ask me for two reasons, parking and course degradation.  When you do the course early you can avoid the brunt of the parking nightmare.  Later in the day the parking situation became absolutely a disaster.  I heard that at one point the traffic was backed up for 18 MILES and some reported waiting 4 hours to park and another 2.5 to leave. Um no thanks.

The course is in much better shape when you do it early.  As thousands of bodies traverse the obstacles, many of which involved piles of dirt, it gets worn down.  Plus many obstacles can develop significant wait times the later in the day it becomes.

Finally, the temps are cooler in the morning, people that started around noon were dealing with temps around 80, not exactly great for traversing 11.5 miles with 22 obstacles along the way.

I was happy to see they had the same enthusiastic guy starting the Mudders this year.  Despite starting wave after wave of people every race he does a fantastic job of making you feel like you were THE special group.  He is just bursting with good energy.

Ok so we were off and running about 8:25.  One thing I noticed almost immediately was the ground was very treacherous to run on.  You could tell most of the path was just mowed for the race.  The ground was very rutty and uneven, exactly what a person with bad knees should NOT be running on.  I spent a lot of time looking down at my feet to try to find anything close to a stable running surface.  I wasn’t very successful.

Neither Charlie or I had really looked at what the obstacles were this year nor the order they were in.  I was hoping the dreaded ice bath would go down very early like last year so I could get it out of the way.  This year I had to wait a bit.

Before getting to the Arctic Enema we had to do a mud crawl under low barbed wire, wade through a lake and under 3 sets of barrels and do and over under log obstacle.  None of them were horribly difficult but it seemed like all three of them had very long runs between them.  This theme carried through out the course.

Last year there only seemed to be two or three long runs in between obstacles.  Most times when you did an obstacle you could see the next one off in the distance.  This year it seemed like there were 7 or 8 long runs with many of them having you running through fields where you saw nothing but others trudging along ahead of you.  I suppose part of this is because this course had 3 fewer obstacles than last year which would equal longer runs between them.  Whatever the cause, I really didn’t like having such long distances between obstacles, especially since the running surface was so hazardous.

Ok so we arrive at obstacle number four, the Arctic Enema (formally called the Chernobyl Jacuzzi)  Out of all of the obstacles last year, this was the most uncomfortable.  Also last year, although the water was VERY cold, there was hardly any visible ice in it.

This year the vats were stuffed with ice.  In fact when I took the plunge it felt like the top 18 inches or so was nothing but ice cubes.  Yes my skin instantly burned and my lungs contracted but I knew that speed was of the essence, I just got the fck out of it as quickly as I could.  Charlie emerged after me with a new appreciation of just how cold water can actually be.

Next up was something they called the Mud Mile which was series of smallish piles of dirt with water filled trenches behind them.  These were more annoying than challenging.  I think what made them more annoying was the long run between them, they didn’t feel like much of a payoff.  The only “challenge” to these was you didn’t know exactly how deep the water filled trenches were.  Some were quite shallow, a couple were knee deep.

Next up was the boa constrictor, an obstacle Randall and I had.  You get in a downward sloping drainage tube, dump out into muddy water and then have to climb another tube that goes up an incline.  This year they made it easier with a rope in the up pipe.  Last year we just had to inch our way up the pipe very slowly.  It did seem the angle was a bit steeper this year which is maybe why they added the rope. (or to address back ups for people that struggled)

Next was something called the Cliff Hanger which was basically a steep grassy hill with a pretty abrupt decline on the other end.  It was another ho hum type of obstacle.

Next up was the first set of Berlin Walls which is basically an 8 foot high wall you run up to, grab the top and pull yourself over.  I was able to pretty much just walk up to it, do a small hop and grab the edge.  My pull up prowness made getting over it pretty easy.  I wasn’t sure if Charlie would be able to get over without a hand since he is much shorter but he was able to run up and over it without a major issue.

Next up was something they didn’t have last year, the electric eel.  It was a low crawl obstacle on top of wet black plastic.  Overhead were straight, narrow rows of wires.  The goal was to stay low and straight.  If you failed you were nailed with a painful shock which we heard being delivered to several people.  Luckily Charlie and I managed to escape without being zapped.

Next up was the wood carry.  Unlike last year where you carried real logs on your shoulder through chest high water this year you carried sections of 12″ x 12″‘s along a 1/4 mile course through some woods.  The next obstacle was more wood based, climbing over and under some logs, followed by more small dirt piles and trenches, nothing too exciting.

Next up was the ball shrinker, I kind of like this one.  They have a metal wire wrapped in black pvc strung low across a body of water.  You hang upside down from the wire and pull yourself across to the other side.  As you get towards the middle of the wire it sags and your body gets more and more submerged into the water.  I was able to pull myself across without issue, Charlie had some problems with his head going under.

Right around this time Charlie started having issues with his calves cramping.  We stopped to allow him to stretch them out.  We realized how stupid it was to not plan for this ahead of time by making sure Charlie was well hydrated.  He has a history of cramping, including when we did the Rumble several times.

Not only did we do zero hydration the morning of the race, the night before I think all we had was one Diet Coke each.  It really was dumb of us to not plan better in this regard.

Well not only were Charlie’s cramps getting progressively worse, my right knee was a total mess at this point. I could hear noise in the joint with every stride and it was just one big ball of soreness. So although it was too bad we had to stop and/or walk a lot once Charlie’s cramping set in, with the way my knee felt I really didn’t care.

The next obstacle was the 15 foot high jump into muddy cold water, after the Arctic Enema this was not a big deal.

Next was a bigger set of Berlin Walls, 9 footers instead of 8.  These had a small, thin board you could use to push upward if you got the timing right.  Charlie mistimed it his first attempt, plowing into the wall.  On his second attempt though he cleared it, cramps and all, without any assist from me.  It was really impressive.

The next obstacle was another mud crawl under barbed wire, the repetition of obstacles was definitely a negative.  Crawling on my sore right knee was an even bigger negative at this point.

The next obstacle was the wounder warrior carry.  You are supposed to take turns carrying each other somewhere around 100 yards.  I carried Charlie but convinced him it would be stupid for him to try to carry me with the way he was cramping.  He still wanted to try but thankfully he listened to reason.

The next obstacle was a dark trench crawl where portions are pitch black, requiring you to navigate by touch alone.  I tried the best I could to do this on two hands and one knee as it was very uncomfortable at this point to be crawling at all.

We were now getting towards the homestretch.  We approached the Funky Monkey, one of the Mudder signature obstacles.  It is a set monkey bars that first go up before going down.  To make things more interesting they grease the bars.

I used the same strategy as last year utilizing the slower, but safer method of one rung at a time instead of going hand over hand.  Charlie used the same method for the ascending part of the bars but tried to switch to hand over hand coming down and wound up falling in the water.  He wasn’t happy about that.

The next obstacle was called balls to the wall.  It was a much higher wall than we faced earlier,  If I were to guess I would place it at 15-20 feet high.  It had small footing strips nailed across it and a large knotted rope to pull yourself up with.

For me the obstacle was easy, for many women, the upper body strength required made it very tough.  I helped a woman get up before I went by letting her use my hand as a modified seat until she could pull herself all the way up.

The only obstacles left were Everest and Electroshock therapy, two more signature obstacles.

Last year Everest gave both Randall and I trouble.  Not only is the 1/4 pipe high and steep, it’s slippery.  Last year I required the helping hand of fellow mudders to grasp onto me and pull me to the top.  This year I got a better run at it and found a section that was pretty dry, I was able to get to the top rather easily.

Charlie made it as well however as soon as he got to the top he laid down in pain.  Both of his calves were balled up in knots.  I just tried to move him slightly out of the way so he didn’t get run over by oncoming mudders.

We stayed up there for a bit while he tried to get the cramps to subside.  He used the two by four steps on the other side to help stretch out his legs as we slowly descended.  I felt bad for Charlie, I knew he felt bad about the cramps.

So finally we were at the end, facing the final obstacle, the famous electroshock therapy chute.  To be honest, last year I didn’t think the obstacle was bad at all.  I ran straight through with my arms as a shield and only received one shock on my arm.  The shock wasn’t severe, it kind of felt like a strong static shock, it burned but that was about it.

Well this year they made it much more miserable.  Instead of flat terrain in the chute they added small hills with water in between them.  There was no way to sprint through the chute without falling on your face with this layout, meaning you were more vulnerable to the shocks.

On top of this they apparently turned up the juice SIGNIFICANTLY this year. (or we just got a fresh set of batteries)  I got shocked three or four times on my back and they were major shocks.  Not only did they burn, my entire upper body convulsed as the current was delivered. It felt like someone plugged an AC cord into my body.  I managed to stagger out of the chute without falling.

Many people were not so lucky, going down after getting shocked only to be rewarded with another shock a few feet ahead. Charlie actually blacked out momentarily after one of his shocks and fell.  Yes, they were that strong.

We crossed the finish line, had some schwag shoved at us at grabbed our one free beer which we drank while sitting on a spot of open grass.  We were both beat up. Even though we just finished I could feel my knee blowing up like a balloon.

We had someone take a post race pic for us. I look to be in way better condition than last years race where I had dried blood on my face and dirt everywhere.  The black shirt I wore this year did a good job of hiding the dirt.

We did not have the luxury of being able to pay for a hot shower this year.  Instead Charlie and I had to try to get “clean” by spraying off with a garden hose.  It at least got the surface dirt off but we were both still pretty cruddy.

We then took a spin through the greatly expanded gift shop area.  Evidently picking up Under Armour as the new lead sponsor meant a lot more souvenirs.  I stayed conservative buying a glass, a window sticker and a luggage tag.  How that added up to $35 is beyond me.  Thievery.

Well by this time I was feeling very dehydrated.  Being offered a 12 ounce beer and nothing else to hydrate after a nearly 12 mile mud race sounds crazy doesn’t it?  Well that was the case.  There was NO free water to be had ANYWHERE.  The only way to get water was to wait in one of the two 30 person deep lines at a food stand and pay something like $5 for it.  That was fcking ridiculous, and hazardous.  I could hardly believe it.

The only free liquid I could find anywhere was at the EAS tent where I inhaled a bottle of chocolate muscle milk.  I was really pissed they had no free water.

Seeing those long food lines discouraged Charlie and I from eating there, it would have cost a small fortune to do so anyway.  So the only thing I wanted to do yet was get another set of post Mudder pull ups in, hopefully building on the 18 reps I got last year.

They actually had two pull up bars set up.  One was being run by some sponsor where they were keeping score of the most reps.  However the bar was a shitty design and they were allowing absolutely awful form reps to count including half reps and full fledged X-fit style kipping.

I instead opted to use the same wobbly Air Force pull up bar I utilized last year.  Although they weren’t keeping official track of the most reps they were handing out prizes based on the amount of reps you could do.  I saw that the top tier of 20 reps scored a set of sunglasses so that was what I was gunning for.

I did the first 19 reps consecutively and then paused briefly before pulling rep 20.  If I hung I could have probably squeaked out 25 reps but I didn’t feel the need.  I beat last years effort and scored the glasses, good nuf.

I convinced Charlie to give it a try as well.  He knocked out a very solid full 13 reps, earning himself a towel.

We both decided we were ready to head out, we would grab some food on the way home.  We began the very slow and limp filled walk back to the truck.

As we left we saw first hand the horrific traffic situation that had developed.  The traffic was backed up all the way up to the interstate.  Some people had gotten out of vehicles and were running to the event.  I read later that many people simply were unable to get to the race site because of the delays and packed it in.  Imagine paying that kind of money to do a Mudder and then not being able to even get on site because of poor planning?

So as I was talking to Charlie about this year’s event compared to last years event I told him I thought this event was harder.  However as time passed I think my evaluation morphed a bit.  Physically, the toll the race took on me was greater but that was almost entirely because of the terrible running surface.  It literally destroyed a right knee that was shaky going in.

The two biggest obstacles from last year, the ice bath and electroshock were considerably more intense, however as a whole, the obstacles were not as good as last year and there were fewer of them, contributing to the many long and boring runs.

So although the race was “harder” for me than last year it wasn’t better.  When you add in the horrible delays with parking/traffic and the lack of any water for finishers and you have some pretty big warts on this years event.  I did like the upgraded Mudder headband and shirt though.

When we got home the first order of business was to take long hot showers.  As I I was thoroughly scrubbing, I was working my man parts when I felt a burning sensation.  I look downstairs and see what almost looks like a brush burn on the business end of things.

Like it wasn’t bad enough that I had a blown up knee and a couple dozen bumps and cuts elsewhere, now I had something wrong with my penis.

It looked bad, at first I had this horrible fear that I picked up some sort of crazy disease from the dirty mudder water and it infected my junk.  However when I told Charlie about it he suggested it probably came from the liner of my swimsuit which upon further inspection made sense as it was a crosshatch pattern that matched the liner.

There were a couple points in the race where I was perched on top of either a wall or logs that could have pulled the liner hard against my southern regions.  I wore the same shorts last year without incident.  I guess from here on out all Mudder attire will include compression shorts underneath the top layer.  Luckily it appears to be healing fast.

Saturday night Charlie and I crashed, both really beat from the race.  I took a nap with an ice bag on my knee.  When I woke up I ordered pizza from Hungry Howies.  This theme of bad eating continued throughout the weekend.

I introduced Charlie to Walking Dead, starting with episode 1 of season 1.  In total we watched something like 5 or 6 episodes while he was here.  It’s such a good show I totally enjoyed seeing it again.  Charlie thought it was very good as well.

Sunday morning we had some time to relax since we weren’t going to leave until around 2 for Titusville.  I went and picked up the dogs so they could hang with us until we left.  When we did head out we just left the dogs at the house, Ali came out after work and picked them up.

We decided to take a scenic route to Titusville, cutting up the middle of the state instead of taking the conventional I-75 to I-4 highway option.  Going the way we did actually shaves 60 miles off the distance although it takes about the same time due to the slower speed and going through various towns.  However we both figured what the hell, we are not on a timetable and we are cruising in the SSR, why not slow down and enjoy some scenery?

Speaking of the SSR, Charlie got some appreciation of why I find the truck so endearing.  I treated him to the occasional 5000-6000 rpm power shifts where the engine is just screaming a perfect beastly note as it presses you firmly into your seat.

Driving itself was quite the challenge with my bad right knee.  I literally could hardly bend it at all by the time Sunday  rolled around.  If I wasn’t popping Advil like candy I don’t think I could have driven at all.

The drive took us about four and a half hours with a couple stops, not too bad.  The Holiday Inn where Charlie reserved a room was quite nice as well, clean and modern.

Sunday night we enjoyed a dinner in the attached restaurant. We had one of our many “who is going to pay” disputes.  Charlie is such a nice guy he wanted to pay for almost everything.  At times I had to resort to sneak paying for stuff when he wasn’t looking.

This is a good point to break so you can digest the rest of the story at your leisure. Life at 18,000 feet is not so great….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have disliked what Sam Walton and his Wal-mart stores have represented for a very long time, selling tons of mostly cheap made in China shit, steam rolling any smaller businesses that get in the way and paying their employees shitty wages with either no or poor benefits.  Despite my dislike of their business practices I have hypocritically continued to frequent his stores, including Sam’s Club for many, many years.

Well yesterday I made my first step towards walking the talk when it comes to Wal-mart as I joined Costco.  Costco is clearly the better choice if you actually care about how people are treated.  Sam’s is physically closer to my house which is probably why I never bothered to get off my ass and hook up with Costco.

Well yesterday Jeremy and I were chatting as we normally do and he suggested I ditch Sam’s and join Costco, a suggestion he has made repeatedly in the past.  Well for whatever reason, yesterday was finally the day I made the switch, I signed up online and will be receiving my card in the mail shortly.

I was going to simultaneously stop my Sam’s Card from renewing but was disappointed to see it auto-renewed in October, great timing.  I found it annoying that I was unable to turn off auto renewal via the Sam’s Club website.  It required a phone call and navigating a cumbersome phone menu until I could talk to someone that supposedly flipped the switch off.

I really don’t know why I kept going to Sam’s for so long, I never left there feeling anything but worse about the condition of the human race.  I am hoping to steer clear of Wal-mart as much as possible as well.

I was very surprised the Eagles cut Jason Babin yesterday, the same Jason Babin that was in the Pro Bowl last year after registering 18.5 sacks in 2011.  His production this year has been pale in comparison, accumulating only 5.5 sacks thus far, which actually is the most on the team believe it or not.

I suspect there was some underlying attitude issues connected to his release.  Also it appears that besides getting the occasional sack, Babin doesn’t really make many plays, I guess he is kind of a one trick pony. But hell if you are going to cut Babin, what about Trent Cole and his tiny 1.5 sacks?  He has somehow turned into a ghost.

Do I really care that Babin was cut? Nope.  It is only the first of many beheadings that will be forthcoming.

 

Well the Eagles keep piling on to this season of fail, this time losing a prime time game, at home to the 2-8 Carolina Panthers.   At this point I am pretty numb to losing, having it happen 7 times in a row will do that to a football fan.

The porous Eagles defense was just the ticket for Cam Newton to revitalize his season, he ran and threw for a total of 4 TD’s in the win.  The Eagles defense under Todd Bowles has been unbelievably poor.  They flashed a stat that showed that since he took over, the average QB rating against the Eagles is in the mid 140’s. (VERY VERY high)  The D gets no sacks, no interceptions and blows coverage routinely like a cheap hooker.

Bryce Brown stepped in for LeSean McCoy and had a monster game, running for over 170 yards.  Unfortunately he also fell prey to the Eagles biggest problem, turn overs, fumbling the ball twice in the 3rd quarter.

Nick Foles did little to help win or lose the game, throwing for a small amount of yardage with no TD’s or INT’s although the Panthers dropped at least three easy picks.  Evidently Foles has the common problem a lot of young QB’s do, staring down one receiver, making it easy for a safety to anticipate where he is going.

This team is so inept I almost feel bad for Andy at this point.  Yes Andy has the monster share of the blame here since he is the personnel man as well as the coach.  His decisions to throw Juan Castillo in as def coordinator and hitch his wagon to the back of Mike Vick are probably two of his biggest mistakes of the last couple years.  The high priced free agents the Eagles landed the last couple years have been outright busts as well.

One thing the Eagles were always good at was working the free agent system, both knowing when it was time to cut someone loose as well as making wise free agent acquisitions.  That definitely has not been the case recently.

In Andy’s defense, the injuries the Eagles have had this year, particularly to the offensive line have been horrific and disruptive.  Throw on top of that the injuries to Vick, McCoy, Jason Avant and now Desean Jackson, you have something like 75% of the Eagles original starting offense sidelined.

But injuries are part of every NFL season and the good teams have back ups or systems that are able to continue forward and be successful despite them.  In the Eagles case the wheels have totally fallen off.

Now, as the team with the worst record in the NFC, should the Eagles just continue to play Foles and lose their way to the first or second pick in the draft?  It’s fine with me.  I’m ready for a fresh start in 2013, if we are still here.

I utilized my Xbox 360 and the WatchESPN service to catch the game.  It was a far better alternative to the ATDHENET.TV site I used to use to pull in Eagles games not shown on the Sunday Ticket.  The picture was near HD quality although some of the streaming burps were a bit annoying.

However there was one part of the experience which was incredibly annoying, the way commercial breaks are handled.  For some reason when games are streamed on WatchESPN they are not allowed to show commercials.  So instead during every commercial break they just throw up an ESPN logo with an incredibly annoying and repetitive music track.  I literally could not take it anymore by the second quarter and was muting the tv during the breaks, which there were a lot of.  I never thought I would find myself thinking, “I wish they would just show a damn commercial…”

The Eagles game capped a disappointing week in fantasy football.  I wasted a 51 point performance by Tony Romo with horrible showings by Marshawn Lynch and the Texans defense coupled with goose eggs from Vernon Davis, Pierre Thomas and DeSean Jackson.  I now sit at 6-6 after losing three games in a row.

So I have been trying to find ways to help my mom save money on her monthly expenses.  One of those targets are her non-electric utility bills, namely what she pays for internet, tv and phone.  I already pay for her cell phone but unfortunately she gets very poor reception in her condo so she has a land line that is bundled with Century Link DSL service.  The land line includes no free long distance minutes which is very lame.

So I got into an online chat with Century Link customer service posing as mom.  I told them that I was on a fixed income and needed to lower my monthly expenses.  I said I saw a better deal on Comcast and wanted to see what Century Link would do for me.

I have used the reverse strategy on Comcast several times via online chat and it has always been successful.  I currently pay 29.99 for my cable internet, although it is one of their slower packages.

Well the Century Link rep made zero effort to appease me.  Immediately saying there was nothing he could do but he wanted to let me know about their 39.99 Prism TV promotion.  I said “Wow.  I guess I’ll call Comcast.”

I looked at Comcast deals.  It looks like we would be able to get a better deal through them if we bundled internet and tv.   I would then install a Magic Jack so mom would have unlimited long distance calling.

Unfortunately I need mom to actually do the leg work on this since I can’t set up service on her behalf.  I gave her a game plan to follow.

 

 

First things first, there is a Woot Off today.

Friday night my buddy from work met me out at the house.  He was dropping off his dog, Lucky.  I agreed to watch him for the weekend while Don was out of town.

Don lives in a development so the wide open and leash free confines of my back yard were a totally new experience.  At first Lucky didn’t know what to do and was hanging close to Don.  Eventually he understood he could roam wherever he wanted.

Don and  I positioned ourselves on opposite ends of the yard and called Lucky.  He would sprint happily between us, it was cute.

Don didn’t want to have a traumatic goodbye so while I was in the backyard with the dog, he slipped out the front of the house. When I went in with Lucky I felt bad as he darted around the house, looking desperately in each room to see where his dad was.  I assured Lucky it was ok.  Eventually he settled down.  You could tell he was a bit confused through out the night but he was ok and slept through the night, or at least until 3:30 am, when I had to get up to time the race…

The race was way down in Marco Island.  I picked up Ali on the way there, she figured that would be a good way to make sure she was up. (and that the Volt wouldn’t have to go into gasoline mode)

Despite driving over 45 minutes to get there, we were the first people on the race site a little before 5:30 am.  I got to work setting up the tents that were on site already. It felt quite chilly.  I was regretting my decision to just wear a t-shirt.  Ali had a sweatshirt and her pink Snuggie.

Soon other people showed up and the field turned into a beehive of activity.  With this race Ali and I take on the majority of the pre-race registration organization.  Leading up to the race there were some problems with some of the people that signed up on paper so I knew there were going to be a few problems to deal with.

In addition to the cold, it looked like it was about to rain any second.  I’m not sure how we managed to stay dry.  The start and finish line for this was out on the main road that cuts through Marco, Collier Blvd.  In order to set up we needed the police to divert traffic which was supposed to happen at 6:30 am.  Well after waiting for a half an hour we finally took matters into our own hands, using cones to divert traffic ourselves.  We had the same problem last year.

As usual there was a mad scramble for me to get the mats at the start line up before the official race start time.  I got them up with about 45 seconds to spare.

Timing the race went pretty smoothly and we were out of there by 9:30 am.  When I dropped Ali off I picked up Nicki and Sadie to bring them out to the house.  I figured they would love to meet Lucky, especially Sadie who loves to run around with other dogs.

When I got home I left the girls in the truck while I left Lucky out into the back yard, I didn’t want to confuse the girls with another dog being in “their” house.  After a quick sniffing session between the 3 dogs, Nicki and Lucky were off to the races, taking turns chasing each other around the yard, it was very cute.

The play continued inside and for most of the afternoon while I worked on getting various things done around the house.  Eventually all three of them passed out.

I was supposed to take mom out to a birthday dinner along with Ali.  After seeing how much Lucky loved Sadie and knowing that he was not a danger to relieve himself indoors, I asked Ali if she minded if I brought him along to stay at her place while we went to dinner. She was fine with it.

I was nervous loading Lucky in the van.  Don told me that Lucky gets car sick.  Basically anytime they go somewhere he throws up in the vehicle.  I prepared for this possibility by throwing a towel in the van.  If he throws up in the party van, who cares, it’s made for vomit.

Well I was quite surprised that I made it to Ali’s place vomit free.  I could tell Lucky was nervous but he held up like a champ.  I know Don is an aggressive driver so maybe that contributes to Lucky’s motion sickness, plus, the party van is like riding in a rolling living room.

Lucky had no fear of Ali’s place, anywhere Sadie and Nicki went he felt safe to go to as well.  Lucky took to Ali right away, he has such a nice temperament.  I really had no worries at all of leaving him there even though I only had him for less than 24 hours at that point.

Mom had asked that we do the dinner at Seasons 52, a place I never had frequented although both Ali and my mom had lunch there in the past.  I was immediately impressed when I walked in the door, it was absolutely beautiful inside and the staff at the front door were extremely nice and appeared genuinely friendly.

I didn’t know the place has a seasonal menu and that everything on the menu is prepared to be 475 calories or less! Wow that is awesome.  We all enjoyed our meals.  Ali and mom got to catch up since they literally had not seen each other since we split up.  Of course a cool dining experience like this doesn’t come cheap, but I didn’t expect it to be.  I will definitely be going back in the future.

Instead of taking mom right home we decided to go to Ali’s place first so mom could see it.  All three dogs were thrilled to see us and there were no disasters created while we were gone which was nice.  Mom thought Ali’s place was very cute.  We didn’t stay long though since mom had to work the next day.

I loaded Lucky up in the van and dropped mom off.  Once again Lucky survived the long round trip to Bonita and home with no incidents.

Sunday morning I had to head over to Ali’s to do get some labels printed for packets she and some of her friends were stuffing for Thursdays Thanskgiving race.  While I was there I set up her new printer and loaded up the old printer so it could redeployed back at the house.

I once again loaded Nicki and Sadie up so they could spend the day at the house with Lucky.  They had so much fun all day playing.  Lucky totally adapted to life on the Duffey estate in no time at all.  Watching Sadie and Lucky sprint around the yard just made me smile.  Nicki tried to get into the play as much as she could with her physical problems.  She tried to get Lucky to wrestle with her but he didn’t take the hint.

Oh man. each week I think the Eagles can’t play any worse and each week they prove me wrong.  They made the 3-6 Redskins look like Super Bowl contenders as they obliterated the Eagles 31-6.

The game was so ugly in so many levels.  RGIII made so many Eagle players miss tackles I lost count.  He completed every pass he attempted except ONE.  I had to pick my jaw off the floor when RG III threw a bomb to a wide receiver whom was blanketed by two Eagle defenders, the safety, Coleman and Boykin, a DB whom seems like his specialty is sucking badly.  Coleman fell down and Boykin tackled like a girl, allowing a ridiculous touchdown.

The game was just filled with terrible moments.  Nick Foles definitely did not impress in his first game starting as the QB.  In an attempt to get the ball out quickly he did a lot of throwing before the receiver was expecting the ball.  As the game went on he looked increasingly unsure and rarely threw a ball over 5 yards. Of course having one of your starting offensive lineman literally be on the street the week before (was out of football) is never a good thing. Just to make things extra miserable, McCoy got a nasty concussion late in the game.

I can not come up with one positive coming out of that game, the team was terrible in pretty much every way imaginable.  At this point I think Andy getting let go is pretty much assured.  They need to reboot the franchise, much of the core of this team just isn’t that good, Asmongua, Cromartie, Vick, DeSean Jackson, the entire offensive line.

I think somehow Jason Babin and Trent Cole had their souls ripped out since last season, both of them are basically ghosts, after turning in a dominating season in 2011. Really, the only guy I would  be concerned about keeping is LeSean McCoy and the kicker whom is having an outstanding year.

Otherwise this team is just filled with a whole lot of overpaid suck, all of which Andy is personally responsible for putting in place.

Yesterday I also spent some time making signs for the Thanksgiving race.   Ali had the idea of using dry erase boards so we could change the signs as needed, I had the idea of mounting them on 8 foot sections of PVC.  Here is the result.

I had Nicki and Sadie until late in the evening, I went outside with all three dogs repeatedly so they could play.  When Ali eventually took the girls home Lucky was upset that he could not join his new dog friends.

Ali called me and said as she drove away Sadie was perched up on the seat looking out the back window towards the house, probably wishing the same thing.

 

 

So during the nights last week I started doing the prep work for the painting of the master bedroom.  That work included stripping the room and the walls as well as pulling large furniture items away from the walls.  I took off from work Friday and Monday to make time for the actual painting process as the area I was painting was the largest I ever had tackled myself, by far.

Thursday night I went around the room and hit discolored spots on the white walls with Killz.  The walk in closet was the worst spot where years of throwing shoes and bags left various scuff marks.  Unfortunately Killz has some pretty serious fumes.  I went to sleep in the midst of them.

On Friday morning I didn’t waste much time before getting started with the meat and potatoes project, I was getting busy by 8am.  First up was the dreaded taping portion of the job.

Taping is a very important part of a painting project.  If done well it can dramatically improve the end result of the painting as well as making it go faster when you are painting since you don’t have to try to paint an edge slowly by hand.  Taping also is tedious as hell. It took me about two and a half hours to tape everything.

I then cracked open the paint can and got to work.  First I painted by brush along all of the taped areas and then got out the roller to hit the wide expanses of wall real estate.

I have commented before on just how tough of a full body workout painting a room is.  Pressing a roller hard into the wall from 6 inches above the floor to 8 feet high will hit your core from about every angle imaginable.  I just barely had enough paint to cover everything with two coats, full two cans.

I was slopping paint on the walls until 5:30.  By the time I was done removing tape, touching stuff up and doing basic clean up  it was damn close to 8:30, twelve and a half hours after I started.  I was beat but glad to have the damn thing knocked out in one long day.

The color looked good in the room although I already knew it would since it has been utilized in most areas of the house already.  The bedroom feels classier and warmer, if that makes sense.

You can see all the pictures I took along the way here.

Saturday morning I took care of putting the shelving back in the master closet and the window hardware back on the walls.  Ripping everything out of the closet was an opportunity for me to do some house cleaning of both clothing and things that were stuffed in the closet that I didn’t need.  I had a large trash bag of stuff to donate when I was done as well as a pile for Ali to go through to see what she wanted. I also took the old pictures off the wall, figuring it would be therapeutic to replace them with something new and fresh.

Saturday afternoon I wanted to get my used Ebay radio installed into the Tacoma.  After my experience installing another Pioneer radio in my SSR and it taking upwards of 20 hours of my time doing so, I was nervous about the install despite what I found on the internet, making it seem like it should be pretty easy.  Imagine my surprise when it actually was easy.

Getting access to the radio just involved removing one panel.  The adapter harness I bought worked perfectly and the wire connections were very straight forward. In the course of two hours I had it all done, a minor miracle.

The radio doesn’t have all the features the 930BT does which is in the SSR.  The 310BT doesn’t support a back up camera, Bluetooth music streaming, direct Iphone integration and has a smaller screen but still it is a huge upgrade from what I had in there.

The menu system isn’t very intuitive either but with a brief glance in the manual I figured it all out in short order.

I videoed the install to add to my growing list of 99 Tacoma how to clips. Here it is.

Saturday night I wanted to go grab a new pair of flip flops, my old pair started to fall apart.  I figured I would take a run up to the Miromar Outlets.  I asked Ali if she felt like tagging along, she said she would, she hadn’t been to the outlets in a long time.

We grabbed some food as well while we were up there.  I bought some sandals at Oakley, a couple $10 shirts at the Gap outlet and a pair of dirt cheap wide receiver gloves at the Under Armour outlet to be used for bar work.

There was a funny/awkward moment as we we were driving back into Ali’s complex.  It is gated and after a certain time of day the gates close, requiring  you to use an access card at a sensor.  Well a car had just entered a hundred yards ahead of us so I hoped I could sneak through without flashing my card as well.

As I got close the the gate started to close.  Ali blurted out “Honey!!” as a warning and then quickly corrected by saying, “I mean, Shawn.”  I laughed and told her I knew who she meant.

Sunday morning I had a race to time.  It went pretty well although the three distances at once (2 mile walk/5k/8k run) presented a few challenges.  After the race I followed Ali back to her place.  We talked about bringing the dogs out to the house with Ali so she could bird sit while I pressure washed Tuki’s cage, which hadn’t been done since Ali moved out.

Ali actually didn’t show up to the house until after noon, she took a nap since she was exhausted.  When she got there I didn’t waste anytime pulling Tuki’s cage out in the driveway and blasting away.

Ali stayed to watch the Eagles game, lucky her.

That game was a complete ass beating from start to finish.  Everyone’s hope was the defense would come alive with the insertion of Todd Bowles as coordinator.  Instead it imploded, allowing the Falcons to drive up and down the field repeatedly.  I think they allowed the Falcons to score the first SIX TIMES they touched the ball, just an incredibly inept stat. They were in a word, terrible.

Once again they could not generate any pressure on the QB, registering two oh by the way sacks (one was a fall down) later in the game.  How a team that lead the league in sacks last year with basically the same core of players suddenly can’t get there this year is a mystery to me.

The offense was basically inept as well.  Vick, although he actually didn’t turn the ball over (a minor miracle) was mediocre at best, just like he has been since the short streak in 2010 when he took the job away from Kolb.  It is crazy that there is serious talk going on about replacing Vick, one of the most overpaid players in the NFL, with a third round pick rookie QB.  Talk about desperation setting in.

This also was a rather historic loss in another way.  For the last 14 years, Andy Reid had NEVER lost a game following a bye week, NEVER.  Evidently having an extra week to prepare always meant the Eagles were prepped and ready to go.  Well obviously that streak smashed into a brick wall Sunday.  Not only did they lose, they were crushed.  At no point during the game did the Eagles look like they even should be on the same field as the Falcons. It was that bad.

So what is wrong with this team?  By all experts accounts they are one of the most talented teams in the NFC.  Why can they not find a way to utilize all that talent in a consistent, effective manner?  I don’t know the magic pill but I do know if this team flounders it’s way to another break even season or worse where it misses the playoffs, we all may finally get a belated Xmas gift when Fat Andy is finally set out to pasture.

Monday I had a pretty much clean slate since I busted it up to that point.  The weather outside was pretty amazing with cool temps and low humidity, prompting me to open the front door and windows for the first time in roughly 6 months.

I did need to get something productive done so I weed whacked the property, something I avoided for the last 3 weeks.  Luckily the grass has started to move into it’s slow growth period as we head into the holidays.

I headed out to run a number of errands, enjoying my new radio as I did.  By the time I got back it was lunch time.

I decided to head outside to do some work on the bars.  I started off well, setting a new personal best in weighted pull ups, managing to pull chin high with 90 extra pounds hanging on me.

I thought I would round it out doing a 90 pound weighted dip.  I never had tried weighted dips at home before.

Because of the height of my parallel bars, when I do dips (unweighted) I sort of hop up and back to get into position.  Well without thinking, I did the same thing with 90 pounds between my legs.

Well as I hopped I started a pendulum movement with the weights that kept amplifying.  Within a second or two I lost control and came crashing forward.  As I did my right upper arm crashed into the top of one of the 4×4 supports.  When I landed I did a quick physical inventory and looked at my arm.  It looked like a nasty brush burn but it felt superficial.  I am very lucky I didn’t tear something.

At first I was going to bag it but I was now pissed off and decided to hop up there again after a couple minutes.  I was able to hop up without crashing but stalled out trying to push back up.

If you would like to see the crash as it took place, look here.

As time passed the impact area got pretty nasty looking as you can see here.

The rest of my Sunday I just sort of chilled out, literally.  With all the windows open the house literally got chilly at one point, enough so that I closed them.

It was a very productive weekend that started out high effort but ended coasting in gradually, just like I prefer.

Man the storm in the NE was horrible.  Seeing some of those pictures of Atlantic City and NYC were shocking.

 

 

 

 

As disappointed as I have been with the last two Eagle losses which in the end came down to the defense coming up small, I was pretty surprised that Andy fired Juan Castillo yesterday.  I guess I was surprised because although in the very end, the defense failed, throughout the games there were equally bad issues on the other side of the ball.

I have never been a fan of Castillo as the defensive coordinator.  Many times last year I was asking for this very thing (his firing). I never understood why Andy thought it was a wise move to insert a guy that has coached nothing but offense in the NFL as the defensive coordinator.  To me it seemed like Juan’s strong points were enthusiasm and cheer leading.  Unfortunately crafting an effective, consistent defense was something that was missing from the list.

Supposedly the guy Andy promoted, who was the interim Dolphins head coach last year, is a no nonsense kind of guy.  Hopefully he can somehow insert a toughness into the defense that has been missing for a long time.

Last night I finally got around to seeing Looper.  It was not quite as good as I hoped/heard but I enjoyed it.  I sure hope they invent time travel before I die so a younger version of myself can close the loop.  I’d give the flick a B+.

I missed the debate last night and could care less.

So as I explained on Friday, my game plan to attend the pull up event in South Beach, despite my dog sitting for the weekend, was to leave around noon and hopefully get back around 8, rolling the dice that there would be no excrement waiting for me when I got home.

I was surprised when Friday night I got a call from my mom.  She said she wouldn’t mind driving out to the house after she was done working on Saturday so the dogs would be ok.  I hadn’t even bothered pitching this idea to her since I assumed she would not want to do it.  Of course I was thrilled with the offer, it will eliminate the poop potential.  Mom said she would just stay the night and get up early Sunday to head to work.  Sounds good to me.

Saturday morning I was up and working early.  I had the girls ride with me in the van to Ali’s place to go pick up the Camry.  Ali mentioned it was due for an oil change so I told her I would do it while she was gone.  I left the van there and took the Camry back out to the house to do the work.  In addition to changing the oil and filter I added coolant and air to the tires.  The car really could use a bath but that is an extra cost service.

I spent the rest of the morning getting as much done as I could before I was to leave for South Beach.  When I have the dogs I don’t even bother worry about cleaning until after they are gone, especially now.  Very recently, seemingly to me since Nicki started on some thyroid medicine a month ago, her coat has rapidly transformed.  It has made her fur very long, much longer than ever before.  In addition, her shedding is non-stop.  In no time at all the carpet had various black spots where Nicki had been laying down, her hair just falls out.

I also noticed that Nicki’s level of thirst since being on the thyroid medicine is drastically increased.  She was constantly at the water bowl.  I really think this is all related to the meds.  I haven’t seen positive signs from the meds, Nicki still is moving slow and obviously has joint related pain.

So I got ready to pull out for South Beach.  I packed a small bag with various items, unsure exactly what I would be doing once I got there.  I included a towel, some water, a rubber resistance band, a change of clothes, my Flip camera and some deodorant.  That should cover most foreseeable circumstances.

I fired up the SSR, dropped the top and after filling the gas tank was off to South Beach.  I had the top down for the majority of the drive.  I actually drove through a period of significant rain with the top down.  I was on a section of highway with no real place to pull off to put the roof up.  Actually, as long as you are moving at a decent speed, the wind rushing on top of the truck shields the cabin from getting soaked too badly.

I had asked Luis, one of the Barstarzz members that invited me to the event about where the best place was to park.  He said the parking garage at the building which includes a Publix, Best Buy and Staples was a good choice if you don’t mind walking a bit.  The first two hours are free and the hourly rate after that is very cheap.  Cheap parking in South Beach is non-existent normally.  Since I only had the small bag to carry I didn’t mind the walk.

I did exercise some caution with my wallet.  I opted to leave it in the truck and just carry some cash and my credit card in a velcro pocket.  I had some concerns about some shady person snatching my bag when I wasn’t paying attention at the beach.  I figured if I kept my money, credit card and truck keys on me at all times that would be the safest bet.

The walk to the beach was pretty lengthy, maybe 6 or 7 blocks.  In my flip flops it took me about 15 minutes to get to the event, which was scheduled to start around 2PM.

By the time I got there it was probably close to 2:45.  There was a big crowd gathered around the bars watching people take turns on the 15 foot tall pole mounted in the sand.

The first thing I did was look for Luis.  Luis is an older guy like me that got into bar work outs late in life.  He is the one that invited me to attend the event.  I spotted him and introduced myself.  It was cool to finally meet someone I only knew virtually up until that point.  He kind of gave me the lay of the land as far as the event goes. Mixed in with the casual exhibitions there was going to be a pull up, muscle up, dip and free style competition, cool.  I figured I should at least give the pull ups a shot.

I wore my Bar-barians shirt to the event after verifying with Luis ahead of time that it wouldn’t be a problem. I didn’t know if it would be weird to be wearing Bar-barians clothing at a Barstarzz event.  Luis assured me it was fine.  I actually didn’t leave the shirt on for very long.  95% of the guys there were shirtless so I decided to join them.  If there is ever a place to show of the fruits of your calisthenics labor, it is South Beach.

As I was walking around I saw someone I recognized.  I knew I saw a video about him on YouTube a little while ago.  He goes by the name Raven (real name Ray)

I went up to him and introduced myself. Raven is a very unique individual and not a very young man, he recently turned 62 years old.  To say Raven believes in regimens would be an understatement.  For the last 42 YEARS, he has run 8 miles, everyday, on the beach.

He started doing this in January of 1975.  From what I saw on his website, he originally made a New Years resolution to run 8 miles a day for an entire year.  Well, he never stopped from that point on.  About 5 years into his running regimen he added pull ups and other body weight exercises into his daily routine as well.

To date he has run a total of over 100,000 miles in total, just an incredible feat. However what is really amazing is when you think in detail about the reality of what this man has done.  He LITERALLY has run that 8 miles every single day since 1975.  He has run through injuries, illness, horrible weather and just about any other adversity you can imagine.

As I talked to him I asked what was his biggest injury issue.  He said it was his back, at certain points he could barely get out of bed but he still put his 8 miles in.

Raven actually invited me to join him, a lot of people now run with him, at 5:30 at the 5th street lifeguard station.  If I knew about it ahead of time I may have packed some running gear and done it.  Instead I took a rain check and filed it away under the “to do’s” the next time I am in South Beach.

Raven was there because he wanted to take part of the pull up competition.

So the pull up contest eventually started.  As others made their attempt I tried my best to get loose.  Raven went before I did and knocked out 21 pull ups although his elbows were at 90 degrees at the bottom of his reps, a less than ideal range of motion.  There were varying degrees of correctness in the form many people used.  Some even used chin up grip for some reps. No one made a big stink though since they weren’t doing enough reps to win anyway.

Finally it was my turn to go, I might have been the 8th or 9th person to get on the bar.  At that point the most amount of reps was 22, which I knew on a good day was within my wheel house since my PR is 25.  I grabbed on to the highest of the three bars and started pulling.

I tried to keep my form very clean with my legs straight, feet together and using good extension at the bottom while making sure I was getting chin high at the top.  My pace was pretty quick and explosive early on, I got to rep 18 before I had to pause.  I managed to squeeze out 5 more reps to become the temporary leader with 23 reps.  It was kind of cool to have a big crowd cheering me on as I squeezed out the last few reps. I wish I gave someone my Flip to shoot video of the reps.  There was someone filming the entire event so I know my set is on film somewhere.  Hopefully I can find it.

As I was there a tall young guy came up to me and said hi.  His name is Max.  Max reminded me that a couple years ago he and I were communicating back and forth about exercise stuff.  Once he described the communication I remembered him but I still would have blanked on his name.

Max is almost the exact same height as I am, he is also 22 or 23 years younger than me.  Despite his long build he has been able to really do some high level stuff as far as body weight movements go, much more advanced than I have gotten.

Unfortunately Max also has had a ton of injuries along the way, despite his young age.  He actually was currently suffering from what sounds like a pretty serious shoulder injury.  In addition, during our talks he described a myriad of other injuries he has gone through.  Max is real focused and intense when it comes to achieving a goal once he sets it in his mind.

I talked to Max quite a bit, he seems like a real cool kid.  He lives in the Miami area, we exchanged email and phone numbers.  We agreed we should get together and work out once he heals up.

One of the other people I was looking for at the event was a woman I know primarily as “Low Bar”.  She is one of the few women that are actively involved in bar exercise.  She is from NYC and is familiar with the various bar groups there, including the Bar-barians.  She had flown down for the event.

I was periodically scanning the crowd for her but she was nowhere to be seen.  She showed up a little later.  I gave her a hug and welcomed her to Florida.  From the picture you can see why she is nick named Low Bar as she is less than 5 feet tall.

I sat next to her while the freestyle competition was going on.  I shot most of the video I took during the freestyle part of the competition.  You can see it below.

So the event started winding down around 6:30.  I was planning to simply walk back to the SSR and start the 2 plus hour drive home.  Low Bar asked me if I wanted to grab food with her cousin and her.  Since I had mom in place to tend to the dogs I said sure.

Before I left I found Luis and thanked him again for inviting me to the event.  It was a lot of fun to be around that kind of positive energy.  I should invite the Barstarzz guys to hit my backyard bar park, that would be quite the scene.

I got in on the group picture before I left.

So we walked towards Ocean Drive and picked a spot to eat, thinking we would just eat out in the sidewalk seating area.  Instead the hostess directed us inside to eat, um ok.  Well this place, called Mangos, evidently is also a night/dance club.  We were seated directly underneath a speaker that was blaring loud dance music.  It didn’t take long until I got up and asked the hostess if we could eat outside instead because of the noise.  She accommodated us but let me know there was a certain line in the sidewalk that I had to keep my chair behind.  No problem.

We had a good dinner.  Even with being outside it was still kind of loud, I had a hard time making out what Low Bar’s cousin was saying at times because of the noise and her strong Fillipino accent.

One thing that is nice eating outside is you get a nonstop stream of “interesting” people to look at.  Some of the fashion decisions that were on display were pretty mind blowing. After our meal we walked back towards the hotel they were staying at.  Once we hit 5th street I peeled off and started the long walk to the parking garage after giving them both hugs goodbye.

The drive back across the alley was a bit treacherous at times with some torrential downpours, including one I walked through to get to the front door of the rest stop.  You can see my level of drenching in the picture.

I  pulled into the driveway about 10:30.  After letting the dogs out (mom was already in bed), I took a shower and crashed into bed.  I was quite tired.

You can imagine the joy I felt when at 2:20 am I hear Nicki crying by the door.  I assumed that meant she had to go to the bathroom.  Well at least she is letting me know.  Well the funny thing was the first thing she did when I opened the bedroom door was go lay in front of my mom’s door.  I called her over and went out back.  She did a number two and a one so I despite my being delirious with exhaustion, I preferred that to waking up at 7am to the smell of shit on the floor. Unfortunately afterward I had a very difficult time falling back asleep.

Mom was up early, crazy early to get ready for work.  She wanted her alarm set at 5AM.  Well it didn’t take long for the dogs to realize there was something going on in the main living area.  They decided to wake me up a little after 6am, oh well.

So I told mom about my time on the east coast.  As we were talking I realized this was the first time mom has set foot in the house since Ali and I separated.  In fact, mom said it was the first time she has been at the house since last CHRISTMAS.  When she first said that I was sure she was wrong but as I thought about it I couldn’t remember any other visits.  It seemed impossible that so much time had passed so quickly.  My life does feel like a bit of a blur the last 6 months or so.

Mom was the first person to sleep in the bed Jeremy donated to me.  She said the bed was comfortable although she said she slept terribly.  I wouldn’t credit that to the bed though, almost every time mom stays at the house she reports poor sleeping results.  The deviation from her routine must through her for a loop.

So mom got ready and headed out around seven for work.  I thanked her again for her dog sitting, it was nice to not have to be constantly checking my watch when I was over in South Beach.

So despite a severe lack of sleep I decided I needed to get some running in for Mudder training.  I drove to the now closed for the season water park to run around.  My initial hope was to do four laps around the outside of the park which would add up to 8 miles.

The skies were overcast which made running early on pretty bearable.  As I got to the halfway point my right knee was feeling pretty shitty.  Each stride had an accompanying ping of soreness associated with it.  I decided to only do 3 laps instead of 4, finishing the 6 miles in 55 minutes and change, not a great pace but ok.  I figured running the last 2 miles wasn’t worth it if I was really hurting.  When I got home I iced the knee and it actually doesn’t feel too bad today.

Well that Eagles game was a bummer.  I actually was so tired I was half asleep for nearly 3 quarters of the game.  I was awake when Vick fumbled another two times.  His turnover problems are a real big deal.  Obviously opposing teams realize that the best way to beat the Eagles is to pressure Vick.  When this happens he makes a lot of poor decisions and he’s not good at protecting the ball.

Despite the turnovers the Eagles actually grabbed their first lead late in the game.  The drive that got them the lead had the opportunity to be a HUGE fail for Andy.  For some reason he decided to go completely against the book and go for it on 4th down with over 10 minutes left in the game on his OWN 30 yard line, a huge risk.  Luckily the Eagles converted by a few inches but man, he would have been crucified if they didn’t.

So anyway, the drive was very long, covering 17 plays resulting in a 14-13 lead.  All that was left was for the defense to hold the Steelers with a couple minutes left on the clock and the game could be secured.  Well obviously it didn’t happen.  The biggest fail was when the Eagles had the Steelers pinned back on their side of the field facing a 3rd and 12.  Instead of dealing the knockout blow, they played a soft zone that allowed a 20 yard completion.  Once that happened I knew they were done.

The Steelers proceeded to march down the field easily and kicked a game winning field goal with three seconds left.

It was a disappointing ending for sure but I think the bigger news is Mike Vick’s torrid turnover pace. The amount of times he has turned the ball over thus far this season is staggering.  He will obliterate the league record at this pace. Hopefully Andy is smart enough to eventually realize that either Vick has to take care of the ball better or someone else has to start taking the snaps.

Ali ran the Chicago Marathon yesterday, the reason I was watching the dogs for the weekend.  She had much cooler temps to run in this year, hovering around 50 which for me, would be ideal.  Ali prefers warmer air.  She managed to finish a couple minutes ahead of last year’s time but had a lot of struggles, especially the last 10 miles of the race.  She said her entire lower body was just in severe pain.

The good news or bad news, depending on how you look at it, is she gets to take another whack at the marathon distance in a month as she is signed up for the NYC marathon.

After the Eagle game I had enough daylight left to go out and hop on the tractor.  Once again it was not running smoothly, acting like there is still some ethanol slime in the fuel system.  I will need to find some additive that will dissolve the shit.  I never like doing chores at the tail end of the weekend but it felt good to get the grass done.

You know when I run, at least when I run by myself, lots of random thoughts go through my head.  As I was running Sunday my mind drifted to to the topic of people that spend a lot of energy screaming about “entitlements” and how they are ruining the country.  I then thought about the hypocrisy that many of these exact same people are responsible for parenting the most “entitled” generation in US history.

These people that are so eager to cut seniors medical or social security benefits are the same people that think it necessary to equip their child with a one digit age with the latest and greatest iDevice.  They feel it is important that they have some sort of video screen stimulation in front of their child’s face  most waking moments of the day.  Their child should not be made to suffer the cruel punishment of having to actually look out a window during a road trip and look at scenery.

These are the people that see nothing wrong with their child receiving a medal when their soccer team gets last place.  After all, children should be taught early on that no matter how hard they do or don’t work, they will be rewarded.  I mean wtf, how can parents complain about an entitled society when they parent in such a manner that does nothing but encourage that mentality?

I literally laugh out loud when I see bumper stickers were parents proclaim their child had a perfect dental check up.  Good job Sally, way to go Petey!

Their children are being raised in a bubble.  No one is allowed to yell at them, nobody should ever treat them unfairly, they are not allowed to endure hardship or struggle to attain a goal.  It is just handed to them.

You see, as much as failure hurts, it is an absolutely essential part of life.  If you are never allowed to fail you don’t ever appreciate or even know what true success is.

Maybe more people in the country need to go on solo runs so they can come to these type of revelations on their own.  Don’t talk it if you don’t walk it.

I saw this quote floating around Facebook and it struck me as so true.

 

I was up in the air regarding if I should go run again with the club Saturday morning.  All week my right knee had some degree of soreness deep inside as a result of my 7 mile run the week before.  So although Friday I still was not free of this sensation I decided I was going to push ahead and hit the pavement once again.  The driving force behind the decision in the end is the Tough Mudder which is about 2 months away.  I feel like I need to be able to do a few 10 mile jaunts to be in Mudder cardio shape.

This time I had different running partners for each half of the 7 mile run, Matt heading out and Bob on the way back.  The combo pushed my pace up a few notches to where I averaged 8:40 for the 7 miles, about the same pace I ran my 1:55 half marathon at last year.  My knee didn’t feel particularly awful or good during the run.

Ali had something going on Saturday so she asked if I could pick up the dogs.  I had plans to be busy around the house all day so I didn’t mind.

I handled the myriad of normal outdoor maintenance items and then worked on a couple other things. One of those things was to apply water sealant to my bar park and other wood items in the landscape like the ramp to the small shed and the frame of the dog deck. The deck and ramp only got one coat of sealant, the bar park got two as it gets a much higher priority in the yard.

I also set the live traps back up and baited them with sardines, trying to catch the lone remaining armadillo that has resumed his random excavation of the yard.

On Sunday morning I woke up in an absolutely awful mood. I opened my eyes, looked out the window and my first thought was (insert anything here) “sucks…..”

I was originally thinking about doing a biking/swimming brick but my knee was feeling pretty shitty at that point.  I would be walking around and all of a sudden get a stab or two that instantly turned me into a limper.  I instead decided to use the couple hours before the water park opened to do more chores and then go do some swimming since it was the last weekend the pool is open.

I arrived at the park a few minutes after it opened.  The one woman there knows me well enough that she has my wrist band ready to hand over before I approach the window.  She even took notice I wasn’t in my biking garb that day.

I set a mental goal of swimming 2000 yards, farther than I have gone this year. (only did 1200 so far) The goal was set for a couple reasons.  First, since I didn’t pre-fatigue with a biking session, more distance in the pool seemed reasonable.  Second, I was hoping that beating myself in the pool would help break up the mental cloud in my head.

The pool water had heated up a bit from last week, I would have liked it to be a few degrees cooler since I was swimming for close to 42 minutes.  I broke the 2000 into five 400 segments, taking a brief break in between sets.

As I was in one of those breaks a guy jumped into the lane next to me.  We talked for a bit.  His accent lead me to ask where he was from.  Turns out he was visiting from Romania, I think he said his name was Claudio or something that sounded similar.

Claudio was a good swimmer, much faster than I was.  Just having him in the pool helped push my slower pace.  I wound up averaging under 8:30 400’s for the entire 2000, which for me, is pretty good.  I emerged from the pool pretty damn tired.

Ali was working on Sunday so I volunteered to pick up the dogs once again to hang with me.

I mentioned last week about Nicki’s drastic change in appearance of her coat, it has become long and shaggy.  When I was outside with her I was petting her and was amazed at the amount of hair that she was shedding.  I took both hands and started rubbing her back vigorously and in seconds I had piles of hair coming off, it was insane.

Nicki is also still acting like physically she is just breaking down.  She won’t jog more than a few strides, despite Sadie’s best attempts to rile her up.  It makes me sad.

One of the things I did during the afternoon was to spray the front yard with Weed B Gone.  I have treated the weed infested trouble areas in the yard repeatedly with weed and feed in a bag.  It would generally knock out dollar weed, at least temporarily, but leave a lot of the other nuisance weeds unscathed.

Weed B Gone is a more direct approach.  You spray it on with a hose end attachment and the weeds bite the dust.  Of course one of the things the directions say is to apply it on a day where no rain is expected.  Of course on cue, it poured three or four hours after I applied it so I may be repeating the process shortly.

I installed Windows 8 on my work laptop on Friday,  I have messed around with it a little bit.  There is a moderately steep learning curve with the new tile based front end the OS uses.  The absence of the START button and other items that have been in Windows operating systems for the last 20 years is pretty disorienting.

As I played around I figured out how to do many of the things I used to do intuitively.  To be honest, although it may sound good on paper to roll out a user interface that is identical on phone, tablet and pc platforms, in practice I don’t think it is quite so rosy.  Granted I need to spend more time in the OS to give it a fair shake.  Right now it sort of feels like the tiles just get in the way.

So the Eagles played Sunday Night.  I really dislike night games, I consistently have a hell of a time staying awake for them.  Last night was no exception.  I raised the white flag with about 10 minutes to go last night, I simply could not keep my eyelids open.

Up until that point the game was very tight with both defenses playing well.  I was quite relieved when I flipped on the computer this morning to see the Eagles pulled out the game 19-17.  It sounded like I missed an exciting finish with the game ending when a 54 yard Giants field goal attempt was short.

Not only was the game good in the NFC East real life standings, it helped my fantasy football outlook as well.  Both Lesean McCoy and Desean Jackson pumped some big numbers into my point total.  I have a 35 point lead with Tony Romo yet to play.  My opponent has Jay Cutler and the Bears kicker.  The win should be pretty secure but you never really know until the fat lady sings.

Jeremy turned me onto a new ABC drama called Last Resort which debuted last week.  ( I watched the first episode online)  It was a GREAT series premiere.  It sucked me in almost immediately and has me anxious to see what happens next.  I highly recommend you check it out.  I also need to jump on the Homeland bandwagon.  PLUS I should have an episode of Boardwalk Empire and Dexter ready to go via Xfinity on Demand.

Shows like these (and WoW) are one of the escape mechanisms I use to detach from whatever is troubling me at that moment.