Since the start of the year I have been doing a lot of paddling to try to get to calmer waters. At times it felt like I was working against the breakers which can turn you sideways or even capsize you in a worst case scenario. I feel like I am starting to clear that turbulence day by day.

I’m working on doing the right things, staying active, doing yoga, walking Elsa daily as well as walking myself around the complex here each afternoon. All of these things give me opportunities to mentally reset and work further on focusing on all of the positive things about my life as well as the door that is wide open to future possibilities. I’m just going to keep my head forward and paddle in the water until the breakers are so far behind me I can’t even hear them anymore.

Last night was productive, at least mildly so. I got a new stand finished up which was immediately sold. A guy asked for a custom color combo. I also got the demo Veteran Lynx boxed back up and labeled to be shipped off to it’s new tester in Gainesville. Finally I did some more work on the Prusa printer that is set up in my garage. I haven’t had any luck selling it so I think I am just going to wind up giving it to Christine’s son. I have a couple tweaks to do before letting it go.

Last night I made preseasoned salmon that I get from Costco along with reheating some mac n cheese I made Sunday night. I made the salmon in the oven. It recommended you put it in the oven 25-30 minutes. I set the timer to 27 minutes. After plating it up I started eating. I noticed it was harder to break apart than normal. When I looked closer that was because the fish was not cooked thoroughly, almost looking raw in the middle. I wound up just eating small sections of either side of the filet that were mostly cooked and feasted primarily on the mac n cheese, oh well.

This morning I had my dermatologist appointment. I had canceled and postponed it at least three times as I didn’t feel like going. I got a clean check up although I did ask him to look at a wart that has been on my left wrist for months. I have been trying to treat it with Compound W but it’s very stubborn. The dermatologist took a scalpel to it to cut off the top layer and then hit it with freezing spray to hopefully kill the wart cells which are actually a virus. In addition they are hooking me up with the equivalent of compound W on steroids if it comes back.

While I was there I got information about a vein specialist that the office has. My lower right leg has nasty varicose veins which I would love to get fixed. Back in my early 30’s I actually had vein ligation done on the left leg for varicose veins, I should have had them do the right while they were at it. Basically what they did was make 3 or 4 small incisions on the leg and pull the veins out like spaghetti. You would think that veins are there for a reason but evidently the body will adapt to the missing veins and get the blood where it needs to go, somehow. I have the initial consult in two weeks. It will be interesting to see what the advice is at this point, some 20+ years later. I am sure the technology has changed as well so there might be better ways to address it.

Last year I was complaining about a lack of sleep that was similar to reasons I have had issues sleeping for a good portion of the last year, imagine that. If I only knew then what I know now, I could have saved myself so much time, energy, and effort.

Friday evening I decided to let my hair down and party hard, by getting groceries. Yes I wanted to get my grocery shopping out of the way to clear up my Saturday morning so I would have time to run to the gym. When I got back I threw a pizza in the oven which I managed to burn somehow. I still ate it, of course.

Saturday was pretty active. In the morning I replaced the shower handle in the master shower with the Moen unit I bought earlier in the week. The difference in feel/quality was immediately noticeable. After running out to do some errands I headed over to the gym in our government complex. It has 24/7 access which is awesome. I have not had a slot available to do lower body training since I started yoga. My fitness schedule has been chest Monday, yoga Tuesday, the rest of my upper body on Thursday and then pickleball Wednesday and Friday. I really need to make sure legs don’t get ignored so the hour or so I spent there training them was time well utilized in my book.

After lunch I started work on swapping out my bed arrangement. Moving around the stuff solo was a mild challenge but I have handled much worse before. I drug my old bed frame and dual twin size box springs to the curb with the hope that someone that could use it would grab it. (didn’t happen) Setting up the new king size platform was not technically challenging. In less than 30 minutes I had everything in place.

Of course the big test was Saturday night where I intentionally slept on the side of the mattress which was formerly the danger zone. I awoke Sunday morning with zero back pain, amazing. It’s also amazing it took me so long to figure out/remedy the problem.

Later Saturday afternoon I did my first ever sunglasses review video. I had bought a pair of Oakley aviator style glasses earlier in the week and wanted to unbox them on camera. My brief research I did online revealed that people actually like these kind of videos so I figured I may as well give it a shot. I am not sure how effective or ineffective my final product was but I do know I like the new glasses a lot.

Saturday night out of the blue I decided to do a live stream. Yes I just did one last week as well. I had nothing else in particular I was doing so I figured I may as well stream. It was a pretty funny broadcast. I wore sunglasses the entire time for no real reason but it made for some funny moments during the broadcast which went on for a crazy three and a half hours. I’m not quite sure what it is in my brain that allows me to ramble on during live streams while most in person conversations I am looking to exit as soon as possible.

One of the main topics was talk of a new wheel that was sent to a EUC “influencer”. She just happens to be young, rides wheels almost naked and makes every effort to titillate men in her videos. She evidently is very successful in doing so as she is approaching one million subscribers on YouTube.

I awoke early Sunday to go play pickleball. When I got on site the courts were soaked from a brief but strong shower that had recently passed through. I jumped right in and manned the court squeegee to get the standing water off. Other people used big towels to help dry off more water. Once the sun started hitting the surface they dried out pretty quickly. We probably spent at least a half hour working on the courts so it cut into our play time but it was all good. Some play is better than no play.

I finally got around to washing my Tesla. I first thought about doing this last year, seriously. I’m not quite sure why it took me over 3 weeks to finally get to it but it felt good to get that layer of grime off the car. I also gave Elsa her first bath in a month. She was starting to smell like corn chips.

The rest of my day was pretty chill. I caught a portion of both playoff games. I wish the Lions would have held on to win but oh well. I also went for a One Wheel ride during the afternoon.

In the morning it felt warm and humid. By the afternoon it was windy and much cooler. By the time I got done with the ride I felt chilled to the bone. I was watching some of the early game under a blanket in my bed.

Last year the blog post was about me finding the house I am now living in. It was the first house I actually stepped foot into. It’s interesting looking back at how it all came to be.

Last night I played volleyball in my new Thursday night slot. I am enjoying it so much more. Everyone that is there can play, some play really well. The rallies are much longer and the play much more competitive. As a bonus every single person is nice. The only thing that I did not enjoy was the sudden weather shift. It legit felt like summer with temps in the 80’s and high humidity. By the end of the session I was covered in sweat soaked sand, but happy. After playing horrible the first game my play improved as the night went on.

After play I headed to Brunina’s again for dinner. As usual my friendly bartender had a Miller Lite opened and on the bar for me in seconds. As I was sitting there enjoying it she said out of the blue, “what are you doing tomorrow at 5”? I was a bit shocked by the question but managed to reply “I am not sure, what are you doing?” The bartender knows I am recently single. She told me there is a beautiful woman that comes there regularly that she told about me. Evidently she is normally there on Friday’s at 5.

I was still a bit taken back by the offer. I mean it was very nice that she thought enough of me to even make this suggestion. She told me the woman’s name, that she is divorced with a kid but didn’t know a ton of other details. I told her that I would stop by if I was available and thanked her for looking out for me. The truth is I likely will not be available just because my head is not in the right place to entertain a blind date at this point.

Last year when I was having severe sciatica back pain I discovered that part of that issue was my bed. Specifically if I slept more towards a side I would wake up with severe pain that had me barely able to walk for the first 15 minutes. Somehow one night I thought I would try sleeping in the middle and woke up with significantly less pain. I have been doing that ever since although sometimes I inadvertently wind up towards a side and pay the price.

I developed a theory on why this is. My mattress is one of those gel infused deals however I have a conventional king size box spring underneath which is two twins. In the middle where the two twin box springs come together is a solid spot. As you move towards the edge is the “softer” part of the box spring, in the middle. I think that spot allows the mattress to drop more which in turn causes my pain.

For a long time I wanted to address this by getting a solid platform for under the bed. It’s what I already have for the queen size mattress in my guest room. With this set up there is nothing but a solid surface for the mattress to rest upon which in theory should mean I should be able to sleep anywhere on the bed without paying a back pain penalty. I will put my theory to test this weekend.

I am replacing the shower handle for the second time this weekend. The first one I installed was from Home Depot. The handle was on the cheap side, basically plastic with a finish that looks like brushed chrome. It already is starting to deteriorate so I spent double the money and got a real Moen set which is made of metal and will hopefully last until I get around to remodeling the bathroom.

The weekend will probably follow a template similar to the last, some work, some fun, and some relaxation. I have had a number of people that are familiar with my situation ask how I have been doing lately. The answer I give is always very similar. The more time that passes, the more things fade into the background.

Two one year ago entries last year. One talks about how I was intent on getting stronger and gaining weight as well as emotion helping to fuel that. The other one talks about some of my new house searching and the birth of pickledu.com

I had gotten some comments on my Lynx wrap up video about a couple things that I missed. The most obvious one was a shot where it was easy to compare the size difference between the two wheels. I made a quick two minute video to address the oversight. I always read and process all of the comments on my videos. Sometimes they actually result in light bulb moments.

I have been bad with making sure Elsa gets regular walks ever since I moved to the new place. I have been lazy and just let her into the fenced backyard to do her business most of the time. For the past 5 days I have been trying to correct that negligent behavior, taking her on a walk through my small neighborhood daily. At first she was hesitant about it but it seems like every day she has gotten better and is almost excited to do it now. Dogs are such creatures of habit, I must have been a dog at some point.

Despite being 56 years old I am doing whatever I can to keep my body functioning at a younger man’s level. A typical week for me now includes three weight lifting sessions, a yoga class, 3-4 sessions of pickleball and one beach volleyball night. The yoga is a recent addition for the last couple months. It’s very difficult for me as my flexibility in my hips and knees is very poor. However I know that flexibility is paramount as you get older so I will keep going as I do see small improvements each time. Of course time will eventually catch up to me as it does everyone else, I’m just trying to slow that second hand down as much as possible.

Last year I posted about how much I was enjoying my freshly painted and stripped down house as well as making the final decision to list it for sale.

I have mentioned how the major thing on my plate at work recently was getting a temporary office opened up in Marco Island until the hurricane damaged building can be razed and rebuilt which will take at least a couple years. Yesterday that location opened it’s doors to the public for the first time. The launch had a few speed bumps along the way but by the afternoon everything was running smoothly. There were a ton of things that had to come together to make it all happen but that task can officially get a check mark in my list.

Last night I did my final video on the demo Veteran Lynx I have been reviewing for close to a month. It was a summary of my overall feelings about the wheel and how it compares to other wheels in it’s class. I really like the wheel, I just would not buy one for myself.

Ever since I moved to the new house I have had one of my Prusa printers in storage in the garage. I just don’t need it. I listed it for sale shortly after moving in but never have actually sold it so it just sat there. My FB Marketplace listing expired months ago but while I was cleaning up on Saturday I got annoyed by the unneeded printer taking up space on my storage shelves.

I decided if I was going to sell it I needed to make sure it still works. I set it up on my portable table in the garage, cleaned it up and fired off a print. I was happy to see that despite lying dormant for such a long time the Prusa still appears to work just fine. I am selling it dirt cheap, someone is going to get a nice deal, hopefully.

Last years post was about my decision to take the blog private as well as the very sad day where we said goodbye to Sadie.

Last night for dinner I prepared a Beyond burger. I bought a pack of them during my last Costco run. They are a plant based burger that does an impressive job of replicating the real thing. I prepared it in a pan, a pan that I evidently had a little too hot. The end result was my filling the house with a smoky haze for a short while. The burger still tasted good anyway.

During the day yesterday my buddy Matt borrowed my car ramps for a repair project he had. Last night he brought them back and did so with a big oversized beer in hand. It was the size of a wine bottle. We opened it up and split it between us.

We hung out for awhile and caught up with each other’s lives. I had last seen Matt in August some time before the recent three months of upheaval that my life entered after that. He was happy to see that I have emerged from the other side of that intact and sane. He hung until after 9:30. It was good to see him.

I finished up Echo last night. Thankfully it’s only a 5 episode series. No it did not get better as time went on.

I had a weird situation recently where subtracting felt like addition. Sometimes erasing something enables you to bring other things into your field of view. It felt good.

Last year’s post involves the thought process prior to my making the blog private. Although there were various things talked about in there, the impetus was yet another act of appeasement for someone that clearly did not deserve the time, energy or attention. Live and learn.

Friday night I met up with my buddy Jeff to play some pickleball. We started off playing some singles but then were asked if we wanted to play some doubles by two guys. These guys were good, both 4.0 players. We hung with them two out of the three games we played but they wound up taking all three. They were the type of players that you could not make an unforced error against else they would make you pay. Jeff and I played a couple more singles matches afterward before we packed it in. I wound up my Friday by heading straight to Carrabas to grab a beer and dinner. It was a good start to my weekend.

I tackled a number of small to do’s Saturday morning after grabbing groceries. In the span of 60 minutes I had knocked out a number of things that had been on my plate for awhile but not checked off. It felt good to finally do so.

Saturday afternoon I packed up the truck and headed to the swamp with the Lynx on hand to do my swamp test. There has been significantly more rain than normal this dry season. The end result was the swamp was much wetter than I hoped. Along the trail there were many muddy areas that I either carefully rolled across or had to dismount and walk in some situations. I only saw one gator during the ride which was surprising.

Saturday night I did my first public live stream of 2024. Somehow it managed to stretch to three hours in length. A ton of different subjects were touched on with much less personal relationship talk than the NYE episode.

Sunday morning it was chilly. My thermometer showed 50 degrees when I rolled out of bed. I still got my pickleball session in albeit I played the entire time in a hoodie. It was still enjoyable. The group at Talis Park that I play with are really nice people.

I got my last significant testing done on the Lynx Sunday afternoon, my high speed runs. I got the wheel up to 47mph, the fastest I have ever traveled on an EUC. The scary part is the wheel can probably go another 10MPH+ faster if I was willing to push it, I’m not.

The rest of my day was split between video editing and watching parts of both playoff games which were both good games. Just imagine how Buffalo fans feel having to hear “wide right” once again.

I have been forcing myself to watch the new Marvel series, Echo on Disney+. I had heard from multiple reviewers it was terrible, they were right. I am just trying to get to the end of it. It seems Marvel/Disney has decided that they need to make super hero content for every ethnicity and class. Echo is about a native american woman that is missing a foot and deaf. The story sucks, is boring and it just seems like an effort to appease with little else besides allowing them to check the native american box.

My mood this weekend was generally decent although I still have more internal dialogue and struggle than I would prefer. I think only the passage of time will eventually create that callous that sticks. Until then I keep my head up and eyes forward.

Last year at this time I just got over the massive hump related to painting my old house.

I am going to try to remember to include a link in each post for the post from one year ago (if there is one), it is interesting to see what was going on a scant 365 days prior. Here is last years post.

Yesterday I had my meeting with my health advocate, a required step to qualify for our insurance. She went over my blood test results and said all of the numbers were very good, the only exception being my A1C number had just ticked into the cautionary zone. Last year it was 5.6, this year it was 5.7, a minuscule change. However this one tenth increase now triggered a remedial action where I need to complete some sort of class regarding healthy living. I joked to the woman that I could teach the class.

She asked what my diet was like. I told her I am a pescatarian and generally eat well, although I do definitely have a sweet tooth. She also asked if I have been dealing with a lot of stress lately. I laughed and told her that most of 2023 was a stressful period in my personal life. Some of the classes that qualify for this education I am already doing like going to the fitness center as well as yoga. I walked out of there shaking my head.

I also need to schedule a physical to complete the requirements. The last time I did one a “borderline” EKG sent me down a rabbit hole of testing with a cardiologist that revealed nothing. I will not do that song and dance again.

So last night was my first VB session with the Thursday night group. It was fun and I got exactly what I wanted, higher level play. There were a couple people from the other group there but there were also a number of people that had solid all around skills. The end result was a ton of long back and forth points that had me worn out by the end. Everyone was friendly and I enjoyed playing. I played pretty well overall. One of the guys on my team was not only in IT but also an actor. He has appeared in a number of Netflix series. I found this fascinating.

After I left I decided I wanted to treat myself to dinner. I stopped at Brunina’s which is near my house. I am now enough of a regular that Megan the bartender knows my name, my beer and my typical meal. I never have to ask for another beer with her. As soon as she sees I am low she delivers another one. I like the personal touch I get when I am there, similar to what Helen at Carrabas does for me on a Friday or Saturday night.

This weekend I have a few small projects I would like to complete. None of them on their own should take more than 20 minutes. I also need to get the Lynx out to the swamp to do a test ride as well as do a top speed drag test. On the fun side I have pickleball scheduled for tonight as well as Sunday morning as well as having an arm wrestling PPV event on Saturday to check out. I am slowly but surely inching my way back to what normal should feel/look like.

Last night I finally got around to going to Costco, something I had wanted to do for at least a couple weeks. I wasn’t in the best state of mind to go shop, I was feeling less then great. You know how a lot of obese people will fall into emotional eating? Well I can fall into emotional purchasing. I walked out of there spending over $250 buying a number of things that were not on my shopping list. I was in a “don’t give a f” kind of mood. Among the not planned to buy highlights was a new dog bed for Elsa, a shower head for the guest bathroom and Mexican Coke. For awhile it was hard to find a Mexican Coke dealer. I’m glad it’s back in the supply chain.

When I got home I was putting away the items from Costco and I discovered there were some alcohol items from my ex still in a cabinet. I thought I had totally cleared everything out at this point. Luckily for me last night was trash night so I was able to easily dispose of the bottles. At this point I had no desire or reason to try to get the stuff returned to her.

This process lead to more reshuffling. I had rearranged, donated and condensed a lot of my clothing to make accommodations for a second person whom has a lot of clothes. For whatever reason even though I am back to one person I never had reclaimed any of that space in my closet or drawers despite several weeks going by at this point.

I did some brief self analysis of why that would be, why I wouldn’t reset all that stuff back to how it was before considering I have purged the house in pretty much every other way. Like many things in my life the last year it didn’t make much sense. I took 15 minutes and moved things around so areas of clothes storage that were tight are no longer that way. In fact I still have a ton of drawer space that is still not utilized. I guess that is a good “problem” to have.

I did finish up the last Matrix movie without falling asleep. I did like it more than the first go through since I didn’t sleep through large chunks of it. Was it great? No. But I’d be ok giving it a B rating.

Tonight I am supposed to play volleyball with the more skilled group for the first time. Hopefully more skill doesn’t translate into more attitude. We shall see.