Last night I put out my sole remaining Halloween decoration, the Spidey Pumpkin. By my calculations it has been with me for over a decade. Last year I don’t recall doing anything at all for Halloween, I wasn’t in a great headspace at that time. I mounted the “pumpkin” on a spare trashcan in the entryway so it would be more visible to passers by. I flipped my garage RGB lights to orange as well. Sometimes simple is better, at least nowadays it is for me. With my old house there was a lot more decorating going on both indoors and out.

Back then I had multiple inflatables spread out across the front yard. I had two or three containers of them. Inside the house there would be Halloween things scattered around the living space. Ironically even with all of this decorating I NEVER got trick or treaters visit my place. I viewed the decorations as something nice for others that drove by to look at. Now I would view that amount of effort as mainly a pain in the ass and little else.

Speaking of the old house, it is still for sale. My old neighbor has been giving me some updates as we are trying to figure out why it is back up for sale. It appears there is only one person living there currently so it seems some sort of significant life course altering event has gone down. If you have a spare 682K you too can experience what I did living there for 22 years. Ten chickens are included for that price.

After my weekend in Orlando I am looking for a more “normal” variety this go round. I have plenty of potential things to keep me busy from both the work and fun categories.

So I took my 3D printed pickleball paddle out to the courts yesterday with no clue how it would play or if it would last 5 minutes until breaking. After playing two complete games with the heavy paddle it appeared to be completely fine. I would not use the word “fine” to describe what it is like playing with the paddle although I did win one of the two games I played with it. It’s a heavy beast and there is no real “feel” at all. The paddle just plows through the ball. The extra weight definitely affected my hand speed in shots that require it. Still, it was kind of fun to play with a paddle I created and I may bring it along more often just to see how long it will last.

I have decided to not play volleyball this week. My enjoyment to aggravation formula has swung too far towards the wrong direction far as my body is just not responding well to playing. I have to play between 3-4 games before I even think about trying to jump. If I am forced to choose at this point in my life if I am going to continue to play pickleball or sand volleyball it is a very easy selection for me. Pickleball wins instantly.

There are a lot of people I like that I play volleyball with so it will be a bummer to not see them regularly but the physical reality of approaching 58 years old makes one make decisions that they would rather not have to. If I get to a point where my lower body feels solid once again maybe I’ll give it a go again but this last 365 days has been a physical struggle pretty much the entire time.

Last night I got a couple things done. When I was doing the work connecting to the new fiber internet last week I made a revelation that for unknown reasons did not strike me before. When I set up my PC at the new house I set it up in a way that hid the glass side which allowed visibility to the plethora of RGB elements inside the PC. All the fans, the water cooling and even the DIMM memory has RGB lights on it which look cool. I have no idea why I did not account for that when I set up the PC two years ago. I corrected it last night.

Doing this required me to unhook everything connected to the PC and reroute it to the other side of the desk. A simple task for “normal” computer users but I have a lot of shit as you can imagine. The work was tedious and slow but eventually I got everything moved and working once again. Having visibility into the RGB wonderland inside my PC after two years was appreciated.

I also got to do the finishing touches on my 3D printed pickleball paddle, adding a skin to the face, an edge guard and an overgrip for the handle. It looks somewhat odd but when you pick it up it becomes apparent this is not a normal paddle because of it’s weight. Tipping the scales at 12.5 ounces, this paddle is roughly 50% heavier than normal paddles. I plan to mess around with it a little bit during play today but just the weight alone would make the paddle not viable long term, not to mention the odds of breakage being high. Still, it’s one of the more interesting 3D projects I have undertaken.

Hey, the federal government is shutdown, awesome. I found out that government shutdowns were never a thing until Reagan’s terms. What a great idea, it ranks right up there with allowing corporations to create Super PACS. I SMH so much nowadays that I have a permanent neck deformity.

When I got back from Orlando on Sunday I did not get groceries, figuring I would just get it Monday after work. I got a late start to doing so and I decided to just add a Costco trip onto that agenda. The end result is what you see here, a mountain of grocery and other items piled into the back of the Tesla.

I was already tired/sleepy by the time I hit Publix. Pulling into the driveway close to 8:30 PM and unloading everything was a task I did not feel up to performing but I trudged through it. Once my head hit the pillow it did not take long for me to fall asleep. I attribute the fatigue to a busy weekend.

I just heard that the Rapture was predicted to have gone down recently by some religious pundits. This biblical event is basically the end of days where everyone goes to heaven, well I guess the ones that qualify at least. Well surprise, surprise, we are still here. In the last decade or two there have been several end of days predictions that have fallen flat.

The expiration of the Mayan calendar in 2012 was the biggest one I can recall where to many people indicated the end of the world. Instead it passed just like any other day. To be clear I believe there will be an end of days coming for all of us whether it be via climate change, asteroid impact, nuclear holocaust, pandemic or some other means. It’s not a matter of if but when. My personal preference would be to expire naturally before that happens but if I get to bear witness to the end, so be it.

My long 3 day weekend in the Orlando area went by quickly. I haven’t been to Orlando for non-work functions for a number of years. Despite living in Florida for over 25 years I can count the amount of times I have gone there for leisure on one hand I think. The biggest reason for that is the crush of humanity just about anywhere you go. I am never a fan of crowds and they are nearly inescapable in Orlando. Despite this negative I had a good time there overall and did not return until late Sunday afternoon. I once again bought a one month FSD sub for the Tesla to assist in the drive and was glad I did so.

Once I got unpacked I did my weekly bill paying session and then resumed some open tasks that needed to be closed up. One of those was doing more cut over to the new wi-fi network. I ordered four smart switches to replace some old Belkins I was utilizing inside the house. After installing these I believe every “smart” device inside the house has now been migrated to the new network. The only things that need to be touched are the four RGB exterior lights and I think I will be finally done. I knew I had a lot of wifi devices in my household, I did not think it would take me this long to touch each one to get them converted over.

I also finally felt comfortable enough to wipe my old Iphone to ship it back to AT&T as part of my transaction. It had been sitting turned off for several days and I have not noticed any issues on the new phone which would require me to access the old one. I paused a brief second before hitting the ERASE NOW button but I am pretty confident I am in the clear.

Although I had already bought a case for my new 17 I just received another one that I like better. I shoot a lot of content on my phone. The new case has a trick hinge on the back that allows the phone to stand upright, hang from something or stick to something metal courtesy of a strong magnet. I think that versatility is going to be very appreciated over time.

Oh the Eagles won. I got to hear part of the game during the drive back. It sounded like despite some more warts in their game the Birds beat a good Tampa Bay team, in Tampa so I’ll take the W and be happy.

Yesterday I received my 10G LAN card for my PC. My hope was installing it would instantly snap me up to the full 3 gigabit speed I now have in my house. It didn’t. My download speed still would not crack 1 GB although my upload actually hit 1.4 GB. I have some more tweaks in my bag to try yet. I also converted a few more things over to the new wifi network. I probably won’t have everything converted until next week as I am going away this weekend.

I received an email from my old neighbor last night that my old home is back on the market which surprised the hell out of me. I had considerable interaction with the owners during the sale as I gave them a ton of stuff with the sale of the house. It seemed to me like they were in the home for the long term. They fenced in the front of the yard and the few times I went by it seemed like there were a number of people living there and they had a lot of stuff.

Seeing the pictures of my home of 22 years gave me a weird vibe. Flipping through all of the pictures of changes I did and all of the money, time and effort involved triggered back stories in my mind of how each thing came to be. The pictures of the place make it seem very sparse inside which was the opposite of what I expected based on how “full” the house seemed driving by. I was happy to see that they did have chickens, which they talked to me about although I don’t think they are as close to them as I was mine since they are listed as one of the accessories that goes with the house. It also appears they don’t own a pressure washer although I gave them one of those too. The out buildings and pool cage looks like they had not been cleaned in a very long time.

They are listing the house for 680k plus which seems nuts. I think they are unlikely to get that number with the plentiful home inventory in the area. I don’t know what changed to invoke a sale but I guess you never know what twists and turns life has in store for you.

Last night we had our big HOA meeting. In the past these were held at the presidents home, this time it was at the community center of the park where I play pickleball. This was the largest meeting I have been involved in but still only maybe a little more than half of the 30 homes in the neighborhood were represented. The board members were up on a “stage”, facing the rest of the audience. The household that has been the impetus for the board to discuss enlisting a property management firm was not in attendance which I predicted to several people. They appear to be the type of people that prefer to exist mostly hiding behind phones and keyboards.

The meeting went well from my perspective. There was some prolonged periods of Q & A of both us board members and the representative for the property management company. There was some push back about using a management company but I think the major concerns were addressed, most notably that if we ever decide we don’t want to use them all it requires is 30 day written notice. We also received assurances that the fees we would pay them would be more or less locked in, addressing fears of a bait and switch scenario where fees steadily increase over time.

The meeting ran close to two hours long but was productive. The next challenge will be trying to get some different people in the neighborhood to volunteer for the board as we potentially have three spots that will be open due to resignation. With only 30 households there is not a large pool to select from. I came away from the meeting feeling more positive that the road ahead will be less rocky than 2025 has been thus far.

So yesterday my fiber internet install was scheduled to occur, for the second time. I was pleasantly surprised when things more or less went without a hitch. The installer drilled a hole through the exterior wall by my office and mounted the hardware there, close to my PC. As he worked he told me how he had 32 years with the company and was retiring soon. I also found out he was a musician and a gamer, despite being in his 60s. We had plenty of stuff to talk about.

We got the connection up and did some speed testing. With this being a 3GB circuit I realized my 1 gig network adapter was now a bottleneck. I have a 10GB card coming. I did get blazing fast WiFi. My new Iphone 17 supports WiFi 7 and I was getting test speeds of close to 2GB wirelessly, smoking fast. The new router also has great range covering my entire home and yard without using a repeater like I have currently with my Xfinity set up.

Once the tech left the true slog began, reconfiguring every internet connected device in my home to talk to the new service. I have dozens of them. I spent 2-3 hours moving stuff across. I have a few that are not working yet. I have a few more tricks to try with them or I may need to just update them altogether. My plan is to leave my Xfinity service active until I know I am 100% functional on the new service.

I also took the time to contact customer service. When I was having my issues with the original install date I was told to reach back out when the install was done and they would give me a “credit”. So I asked for my credit. They offered me a $25 gift card. I told them immediately that was not enough considering I took time off work for the first no show appointment and that I had paid for the first month of service nearly two weeks prior but had not been able to use it until today. My resistance resulted in the gift card amount being bumped up to $100 which I was ok with. I am looking forward to using the ultra-fast internet to it’s full potential.

Tonight there is a community wide HOA meeting to discuss the issues that have come up the last several months. I am curious if the household that is the main source of these issues will even be there. It should be an interesting meeting, much more so than the routine annual meetings we have.

ABC rolled back the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel after quick action by the general public where they were canceling services reflected in a big drop in Disney stock price. The head of the FCC is a total chode and a massive hypocrite. It really seems that a large segment of the country is ignoring the lessons of history. I once thought we as a country were modern, independent thinkers that would be immune to the divisive and transparent manipulation that has escalated ever since 9/11. I was wrong, very, very wrong.

For the first time in a long time I laced up my sneakers to get some Saturday morning pickleball play in. I was a bit hesitant about it as I had beat up my knees pretty well playing volleyball Thursday night and followed up with lunchtime pickleball Friday. I played a total of five games and won four of them. I didn’t feel like I paid a severe physical toll by playing although my lower body is still far from agreeable. I would love to add Saturday morning pickleball back into my regular list of activities.

I got some various tasks done around the house this weekend including more 3D prints, the most interesting of which is the pickleball paddle. I glued it together and now have to do a few more tweaks before it is ready for a test. The paddle is very heavy in comparison to what I normally play with but we will see what happens.

I spent a decent amount of time migrating my Iphone 14 Pro Max to the new 17 Pro Max. Apple has made the process much, much easier than it once was. Everything copied over cleanly. The only significant issue was getting my Microsoft Authenticator working on the new phone. The process to copy over the sites that use it did not work so I had to go back through and set it up using my old phone as a reference for the new one. I really like the 17 so far and doubling my storage capacity is always a good thing.

This was the first weekend where my decision to drop the Sunday Ticket had an impact as I could not see the Eagles game. I did however listen to the radio broadcast via my Sirus/XM subscription. The way the game went was nothing short of miraculous.

The team was awful in the first half against the Rams. It continued in the third quarter as LA scored a quick TD to make the score 26-7, ouch. Then all of a sudden everything changed. The Eagles came roaring all the way back, scoring three unanswered touchdowns, the last of which came with less than two minutes to go on a 4th and goal. It was a crazy comeback. Now all they had to do was stop the Rams from getting into field goal range.

Well that didn’t happen. With 2 seconds left the Rams kicker lined up for a near automatic 41 yard attempt. He had already made four field goals in the game although his prior attempt was somehow blocked. I sat on the couch with Elsa and told her to use her magic to make the kicker miss. She did better than that, for the second time in a row the Eagles blocked the kick, this time recovering it and running it back for a touchdown. A miracle finish rivaling the miracle in the Meadowlands game in my book.

I celebrated with Elsa. She wagged her tail feeding off my excitement. The odds of a blocked kick are very small, to do it two times in a row is nearly unheard of. Having a successful season always requires a degree of luck. If yesterday was any indicator, the Eagles are looking to have luck on their side, wow.

After the big game I went to the beach with my girlfriend to take in the sunset. It was beautiful out with the water looking as smooth as a lake. There was some guy out there with an electric waterfoil zipping around for a long time, looking like he was loving life. We stayed well past the actual sunset, just enjoying the time there. It was a near perfect way to wrap up the weekend.

Today Quantum Fiber is supposed to complete the connection of my house to their high speed fiber network. Of course I hope it goes well but based on how things have gone so far I hardly expect it.

Last night I played volleyball for the second consecutive week. It was a rough night. My body felt less shitty than it did the week prior but that is a pretty low bar. We had 3 person teams but our team was not very good. I did my best to put on a happy face and be positive as much as I could but it was not much fun. My play was not bad and not great although I did manage to hit a few more balls than last week. At this point the emphasis is more about being able to survive each play session, which I did.

My fiber internet install has been a bit of a circus which is still ongoing. I have now had two supposed appointments come and go without action. The funniest one occurred when I got an email Wednesday saying an installer was on site only to be followed up two minutes later saying the appointment had to be rescheduled. No, a tech was never there. Then yesterday without notification a two man crew came and buried a wire from the box in the yard to the wall of my house which is good and a requirement for the final install to occur. Earlier in the week on a call with them I was told that final install would be today. That changed as well, the new proposed install is Monday between 2-5PM. I am taking bets on the likelihood of someone showing up during that window.

Yesterday I completed my print of a pickleball paddle. Of course I don’t think this paddle will be very good to play with nor do I expect it to be very durable but I want to try it just for fun. I need to glue the handle, put an edge guard on as well as an overgrip. The paddle is actually very heavy compared to all the other paddles I have which will make it slow in the hand but potentially make it hit very hard. We will see.

I am upgrading my Iphone 14 Pro Max to a 17 of the same flavor. I am actually trading in my old phone which is something I have never done. It was kind of a no brainer as I got enough on the trade in where I could get the new phone with double the memory (1TB) yet my monthly phone bill will be going down $20.

The phone is supposed to arrive from Fedex today but this morning I had a hitch in that plan. Up until this morning there was no mention that a signature is required to release the phone. I have never had this issue before with prior phone upgrades. Not only that but I am not able to sign for the delivery digitally nor can I have it redirected to a FedEx drop off location like Walgreens. I understand sending this out signature required but it is very rare that someone is sitting home all day to receive such things, at least in my world. So my hope is to catch the driver on my Ring doorbell cam and see if he can do other deliveries for 10 minutes while I quickly drive home to sign for it. If not I will be stuck waiting for at least another day.

This weekend I may take on another task that requires significant effort and sweat, picking up 25 bags of mulch and spread them around the back garden area. Depending on how my body feels prior to that I could make a return to getting some pickleball in Saturday morning as well. It would be pushing it for sure but if you don’t push your boundaries a little bit they never expand.

I purposely avoid talking much about the circus which is our government because the wave of lunacy that has spilled across the world is far beyond my control. I do however have to say that no matter your political leanings, if you think that taking action against individuals that utilize political humor, something that has existed as long as comedy itself, by removing them from the airwaves is ok, you have completed the initiation into brainless me too’ism where whatever is fed to you is the position you take without further questioning. What has been going on is downright dangerous IMO. With AI steamrolling social media with content that is created in seconds to manipulate minds that are open to it we are circling the drain as a society, IMO.