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.

Yesterday I had a scheduled install time window of 2-5 PM for my new high speed fiber optic internet service. 5PM came and went with no communication from a tech although I received an automated appearing email/text saying the installer was running late. From 5PM until 9:30 PM I had several online chat interactions from staff that clearly were from India where I complained repeatedly and loudly about how frustrated I was by the situation. Each time I was told the tech was still on his way, until the last time.

That last time was close to 10PM. That chat rep said that there was additional prep that needed to be done before the install was done. I noticed that the line from the termination point outside to the house had not been run or buried but I figured that was part of what the installer was going to do. Evidently that is handled by someone else. After once again expressing my discontent to the Indian rep I was told I will be contacted about rescheduling sometime today and that I will be getting a credit for the scheduling error. This is definitely not the sort of start I feel good about with dealing with this company. My hope is once I get through the initial install headache it will be set it and forget it service where I won’t need to deal with support on a regular basis.

While I was waiting for the installer I did get around to making a video on my new Boomstik pickleball paddle. I really like the paddle even though I did not play very well with it during my last play session on Friday. The poor play was more because of two painful knees that limited my ability to move effectively. The paddle itself while pricey is a rare combination of power, a large sweet spot and control. I like it.

I had to go into the office on Saturday morning to be around for some work on our back up generator. There have been issues with reliability of the unit firing up that they were trying to diagnose. Unfortunately three hours of work did not really clear up whatever the issue is as the unit worked fine for all of the testing. Intermittent issues are always a pain in the ass to fix however in Florida generators are a crucial component of building operations.

Later when I got home I finally got around to rotating the tires on the Tesla. I never have done them on this performance model yet. I normally try to rotate them every 10k miles. The odometer has creeped up past 13k so it was overdue. As always the task involved grease, dirt, sweat and a few obscenities but I got it done.

My head wound being closed also allowed me to head out to the swamp to do my first significant EUC riding in well over a month. The heavy rain of wet season had the terrain in a pretty muddy condition with a high amount of vegetation.

I took in the V12S as this was the one test I didn’t get a chance to do before the skin cancer surgery. The wheel with it’s hydraulic suspension did a great job of shielding my joints from the constant impacts the swamp trail offers. I only did roughly 3-4 miles in on the trail before I tired of walking across prolonged sections of muck.

For the second week in a row I watched the Eagles without the NFL Sunday Ticket. They had a nice win going into KC and beating the Chiefs, again. Despite the 2-0 start there are definite chinks in the Eagles armor. Hurts holding the ball longer than any QB in the league has always made me wonder if our receivers are not great at getting open or if his ability to make make quick throws/decisions just isn’t in his arsenal. His stats yesterday were pretty anemic with his arm at least. He made most of his impactful plays with his legs.

Number 8, the guy they picked up to replace Darius Slay so far seems like a significant liability. Teams have been throwing his way repeatedly and been successful because he just doesn’t seem very good. Maybe he is just adjusting to the system but almost every significant pass play I have seen the defense give up, 8 has been in the mix. Big picture the team has won two close games so I should just shut up and enjoy the W and save the complaints for when they start losing games.

My return to volleyball last night almost didn’t happen due to rain in the area. We played in steady rain several times during the night. My lower body felt awful the first three or four games. Every quick movement caused little jolts of pain in both knees. Eventually through the combination of Advil and being warmed up enough the discomfort lessened but never went away.

Despite these issues I played ok, I just could not move or jump in a manner I wanted to. I did not miss a single serve all night and my passing/defense was not too bad. My hope was that the 5-6 weeks off while my head was healing would have allowed my knees to do the same. Unfortunately it feels like I need to “break in” my body to being more active again. I was a wet and sandy mess by the end of the night but walked off without a limp.

A lot of times in modern day shooter scenarios the gunman winds up being shot on site or kills himself. The Charlie Kirk shooter evidently is more interested in self preservation. Unfortunately for him in this world of wide spread surveillance it is very hard to hide. Through a combination of commercial and private video feeds the authorities have been able to track his movement very clearly both before and right after the shooting. Although his hat and sunglasses hide some facial features there are pretty clear pictures of what the guy generally looks like. I would be very surprised if he managed to avoid capture with those images now being out in the wild. EDIT* I actually just heard that supposedly someone that knows the individual turned him in and he is in custody.

This weekend is looking to be more conventional than my recent versions since my head is ok. I hope to knock out some tasks that involve physical labor as long as my body allows me to do so. The Eagles play the Chiefs Sunday. I am pretty sure it will be nationally televised which will again make my decision to drop the Sunday Ticket a non-issue.

Let’s start the blog with a normal update in my circle before moving to much heavier topics.

I believe I mentioned on here how they buried fiber optic cable in our neighborhood roughly a month ago. Well last night a sales rep came to my door asking if I would be interested in signing up for their high speed service. I have been pissed off at Comcast/Xfinity for years so I was very interested in hearing what they were offering. I currently pay roughly $225 a month for my existing service which includes basic TV and internet with download speeds of a gig and uploads of around 400MB.

Although the service normally performs well I hate the song and dance you play with Comcast where every year or so you have to renegotiate a new package to get your price back down. Even if you do, normally it means you are giving up something to keep the price near where it was. Even after those negotiations occur your bill seems to magically keep creeping upward every few months. I used to be more vigilant about fighting all of these phantom charges but to be quite honest I tired of it and just resigned myself to overpaying every month because I had no other alternatives. Well, now I do.

With Quantum Fiber which is associated with Lumen, a company I have dealt with for years at my job, I can get 3 gig of bandwidth up AND down for $105 a month. Not only am I more than tripling my speeds, there also is no installation charges, and that price is guaranteed for life. Yes that is not a typo, I will not have to pay more for my internet ever. There is also the possibility of even greater speeds being available to me in the future.

Fiber internet has a ton of advantages over cable internet. You aren’t sharing your pipe with neighbors so the performance should be consistent regardless of how many around you are using it. Fiber optic cables are not susceptible to lightning strikes like copper coax cable are which can result in equipment damage as I experienced myself a month or two ago. Cable internet always has different upload/download speeds, with fiber the pathway is the same both ways, something that is great for someone that uploads large videos to the internet on a regular basis. I’m hoping the service lives up to my expectations as it is scheduled to be installed Monday. I look forward to informing Comcast that I no longer will require their services.

With the wound on my head being closed finally I am trying to resume my normal activities which have been gimped for over a month. I played pickleball yesterday and plan to play volleyball tonight to see how that goes as well. I also have some projects I have been putting off since they involve a lot of sweat investment, those are back on the to do list.

I have my pest control guy coming today. Every two months they spray the property outside to curtail pests. Despite their efforts I have been having a lot of issue with ghost ants inside which are so tiny they can wiggle in through the smallest of cracks. I have been trying to battle them with bait traps that are supposed to eventually kill the colony as well as caulking various spots in the house where I have seen them enter/exit. Despite my efforts they keep showing up. I am hoping allowing the contractor inside to treat the trouble spots will get me back on the winning side of my insect war.

So I like most people saw the shooting of Charlie Kirk yesterday. I was not personally a fan of him as he was one of Trump’s loudest and most consistent supporters. He was very young and made a name for himself going around the country and debating people on various political, social, moral and economic points, a lot of which was on college campuses. His efforts to bring younger people into the sphere of caring about politics was without a doubt effective. Despite not agreeing with his stances on many things he was obviously an intelligent man that was guided by his beliefs. I respect intelligence as well as the right of people to believe what they want. My line comes when people try to enforce their beliefs onto others which happens in both directions.

Ironically it was at one of these big outdoor college Q&A’s where it went down. It appears that someone with a sniper rifle took him out from roughly 200 yards away while laying prone on a rooftop. He has not been caught. No matter where you stand politically, it was shocking and a dark day. The scariest part is in today’s world you just never know the true nature of the event. Was it an individual that just hated what Charlie Kirk represented or was it a third party that was tasked with a murder to cause further division, rage and distraction to serve a very small group of powerful individuals. It’s an awful truth in our world today that truly nothing is out of bounds in the realm of possibilities. I feel sad for Charlie’s family and friends and hope this does not lead to further escalation.

His murder is grabbing the headlines on 9/11, a tragedy that ironically opened my eyes to just how dark and deep the levels of deception the federal government can go to manipulate public opinion. Oh yea just for fun Putin flew drones over Poland, a NATO ally, that got shot down inspiring them to state this is the closest they have been to war since WW II. These are dark days we are living in, I’m just trying to keep my head down and avoid the shrapnel.

I really enjoyed my long weekend up in Cocoa Beach. Even though this was my fourth or fifth time to the Space Center I never tire of it. They do a good job of updating some of the content of the park to keep it current and fresh. The idea of just how vast space is and all that it contains is something that has always fascinated me all the way back to my childhood. It interested me so much that being an astronomer was the first thing I recall ever thinking I wanted to become, which was later supplanted by the desire to be a major league baseball player.

I love the old school beach town vibes of the Cocoa area. The place we stayed was a total throwback, built in 1987 with not a lot of updating. In a lot of cases that would be viewed negatively but it wasn’t. The place was clean, warm, homey and very unique. It was so old school that you opened the door to the room with a physical key, yes, a key. The room faced the water which was very cool. Ocean views when you wake up are pretty amazing. It was a great few days and I have no doubt I will be returning again in the future.