Yesterday I headed over to Christine’s place armed with my electric chainsaw. There is a banyan tree next to her driveway that had a number of low hanging branches that were hitting the vehicles. I had tried to address this previously with my power trimmers, knocking off small branches that were low. It was a stop gap fix.

Armed with a ladder and my chainsaw I cut the offending branches back closer to the trunk to prevent a recurrence of the problem anytime soon. Despite being battery powered the Ryobi chainsaw does a nice job of zipping through medium size branches easily. In the span of 15 minutes I had cleared the driveway of any low hanging foliage. During the work I utilized clearly dangerous techniques to reach some of the branches, working the saw with one hand, far above my head. I survived.

This weekend I have a few issues in the house I need to get addressed, none of which should take more than 15 minute blocks of time. When I was doing the work at Christine’s I told her how I used to spend an entire day trimming the 26 trees at my old house. Saying that reminded me of how much I hated that chore and how fortunate I am to be able to refer to it in the past tense now.

Last night was volleyball night, something I continue to do despite knowing the pitfalls it could have for me physically. I played pretty well in the thick humidity where gnats were a constant nuisance. My passing was pretty consistent, I made some defensive plays I would have still been proud of 15 years ago but I only had one clean hit all night. I didn’t have any consistent setters on my team so that makes it tougher for me. In order for me to get in a position to hit nowadays I need to commit early with a strong approach. When I have no idea where the sets are going to be it derails that ability.

A lot of times for convenience after playing I will just drive thru McD’s and grab a fish sandwich. Christine was nice enough to make me a meal instead which I happily consumed on my way home.

I wore my ancient Eagles sleeveless t-shirt last night to play. The thing is literally falling apart at this point with holes popping up everywhere. This style of shirt is not very popular anymore but I am desperate to find a replacement. I like what I like.

On Saturday morning I knocked out the few weekly chores I had because I wanted to get over to Christine’s place to help with some lawn maintenance both at her place and her grandmothers. When I moved out of my old place I forgot to grab the electric weed whacker I was going to bring. So Friday night I went and bought another Dewalt unit to help with these tasks. Christine mows her own grass but didn’t have a weed whacker. Her grandmothers place also badly needed some weed whacking. Even though it was relatively early in the day I sweated my ass off. The heat here in Florida, like pretty much everywhere in the country is just oppressive.

During the afternoon I got back out on my Patton to do a second speed test. My numbers were lower than I expected for the first run so I made a few tweaks, including unlocking a mode on the wheel that allows for higher top end speed with the drawback of being less safe. The change was noticeable. I topped out at 44.4mph and could have gone faster if I wanted to step a little closer to the edge.

Saturday night I went to the movies with Christine. For the first time her two boys went with us which was cool. We saw the new Teenage Mutant Turtle movie. It used a pretty cool animation style that reminded me a bit of the Spideyverse movies. The movie which I would give a B wasn’t bad but normally I would watch something like that at home. It was fun to have the boys along.

Before the movie I got to walk the mall as some school shopping was needed. I was amazed that the mall was actually busy. I am so used to malls being ghost towns anymore but the place was legitimately busy, I was a bit shocked.

On Sunday I made plans to drive up to Plant City with Christine in the Tesla to go watch her one son play football. Plant City is a haul of a little over two hours. The Tesla made for a comfortable drive as always. The comfort ended once we stepped out into the scorching heat and humidity. It was rough just watching as a spectator, I can’t imagine how hot the kids had to be playing, just brutal. We only stayed for the first half because the start of the game was delayed due to storms so by the time we got back it was around 8PM. Despite the heat the day was a lot of fun and as often is the case the weekend felt like it flew by much too quickly.

I have been taking some steps recently to try to clear my head and be able to course correct towards a direction where things make more sense and the fog of uncertainty can start to dissipate. I need to lock the rudder in place and keep moving forward towards things that serve my happiness and away from things that do not.

Last week I mentioned in a blog entry how Christine and I had decided to move on . Well you can scratch that ( I literally deleted that entry) After a lot of honest conversation we have been hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. She makes me laugh all the time and her honest and hardworking approach to most everything she does is a trait not found in many nowadays. Let’s see if I can try to not write any more novels in wet sand.

A new thing that Dunkin Donuts and some other chains that use drive thru’s are doing is automatically playing a recording when you pull up. The recordings ask a question typically. In DD’s case it asks if you are going to be using their rewards app. For whatever reason I find this practice very annoying. Of course I never reply to the recorded question but I do find myself wondering just how many do.

Yep, that’s all I got for you at the moment.

Yesterday I had my dryer vent cleaned. Clay, a friend of mine who is an avid One Wheeler also owns a vent cleaning business so I asked him to do the work since I had no idea when this important maintenance item was last done, if ever. He pulled out a massive vacuum that is designed for this type of work as well as a holster filled with various brushes and extensions.

I let him get busy but then came back into the garage later in the process. What I saw was pretty nasty, a pile of lint and debris on the floor that could almost fill half of a wash basket, it was bad. Clay said it was a good thing that I had it cleaned, it was dangerously filled. Not only do vents like this create a potential fire hazard, it also makes your dryer work much harder to dry clothes, consuming more electricity.

Clay asked if I used fabric softener after looking at the filter in the dryer. I told him I threw in a Bounce dryer sheet with every load. He advised me not to do that for two reasons. First the softener dissolves and accumulates on the dryer filter, clogging it over time. Second he said fabric softener has known carcinogens which are very bad, well damn. I am going to start drying my clothes without bounce and see if I notice an appreciable difference. Imagine the lunacy of coating your clothing with chemicals and then having that clothing sitting on your skin. I also found out the laundry scent balls which I have used for a number of years are filled with similar chemicals.

So I was standing out in the garage with Clay talking for maybe 15 minutes. Although I was just standing there by the end of those 15 minutes I was soaked with sweat. The heat and humidity is that oppressive. I wound up putting on a new shirt before returning to the office, it was that bad.

Last night I returned to volleyball after missing last week. Based on sweating through my shirt standing in the garage earlier in the day I knew it was going to be rough playing in those conditions. I was instantly covered in sweat and sand after a couple dives. Overall I played pretty well including a couple clean hits I would have been ok with 15 years ago.

When I got home the sky looked like it was on fire. I took this picture from the street when I got home. I like my new location, a lot.

Yesterday I went to go see Openheimer. Christine I had said she wanted to see the movie and yesterday was her birthday as well so I invited her to go. We took her new vehicle a 2022 Dodge Challenger RT. She let me drive. Getting behind the wheel of a muscle car with stick shift was pretty awesome, transporting me back to how I used to feel when I drove my 2005 Chevy SSR. It just sounds and feels so good.

The movie is about the origin of the atomic bombs that were used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, more specifically the man that ran the program. It was interesting but far, far too long in my opinion, topping out at over 3 hours. I would have a hard time convincing anyone to spend that sort of the time in the theater for this type of movie. I’d give it a B.

I’m back to work today, armed with a different outlook on certain situations. Let’s see where it gets me.

On Friday night I became motivated to install my new Gleam toilet. I had watched a few videos about the install and determined it should not be all that difficult, it wasn’t. As always I had a few bumps along the way but got the install completed in a little less than two and a half hours which included me running to Home Depot to get a longer water line hose. The new toilet looks nice, is higher, and flushes well.

Of course like most significant home improvement projects I made a video documenting the process.

My Saturday was pretty chill. I made arrangements for Ali and Shugs to come down during the afternoon. They had never had a chance to see my new place. We had a nice time chilling, drinking and watching the original Karate Kid movie which Ali never saw. Afterwards we went to dinner at Carrabbas and enjoyed a nice meal. It was nice to have them visit, Elsa sat next to Shugs most of the time.

On Sunday I took my Patton out for a speed test. I got it over the 40MPH mark but encountered warning beeps afterward which made me cut back. I thought I was at 100% battery for the test but it turned out I wasnt so that could have been part of the issue.

I did some chilling afterwards, watching another couple episodes of Game of Thrones.

Today I met up with Jason the guy I helped with learning to ride about a month ago. He gave me back my V10F that I let him borrow while he was in the stage of learning where you drop the wheel a lot. He has done close to 350 miles since I last saw him and he is riding much, much better. In total we did somewhere close to a 10 mile ride. At the end of it I even let him try my Kingsong S22, a much heavier and powerful wheel than the V10F. He handled it better than I expected, riding it cleanly around the lot for several minutes. He is down to ride whenever I want so I expect us to roll together more in the future.

Yesterday during the day I got notice of a delivery of something I ordered in email. The email included a picture of the box but it was not in front of anything that looked like my house. My first thought was UPS somehow messed up so I jumped into the order status page and realized the fault was not theirs. The address it shipped to was my old address, f me.

This was the first time I ordered from this place. Evidently my LastPass browser plug in filled in my old address and I was not paying enough attention to catch it. I was frustrated with myself. I contacted the new owners of my place and told them of my mistake. They said no problem and that they would leave the box out front for me to grab.

So as soon as I got home after getting a haircut I fed Elsa and we hopped in the truck and took the now what seems long drive out to the Estates. I did not want to bother them so I ran up to front door and just grabbed the box. It’s the first time I have stepped foot onto my old property since I moved. It felt strange which I guess is normal.

On the way home I stopped at Home Depot to grab a toilet, yes a toilet. The guest bathroom which was remodeled sports a more modern toilet. Part of the appeal is this toilet is “chair height” which is more comfortable to get on and off of. Now I am not at a geriatric state quite yet but I have found that I do like this. The master bathroom has the original toilet which is around two inches lower.

Anyway, I decided I would like the master bathroom to have a toilet equal if not better to what is in the guest bath. The toilet I bought, a Kohler Gleam has the raised height as well as an upgraded canister flush mechanism and smooth sides which eliminate the typical bolts that get covered with plastic caps. It looks cleaner and is easier to clean.

The box was a little over 100 pounds so it was a bit of challenge to hoist into and out of the truck but I managed. Years ago I removed and reinstalled toilets when I tiled the two bathrooms at my old house. From what I recall it is not an overly complicated or difficult task.

So once home I still had to figure out what to do for dinner and then fold a ton of laundry. I didn’t get into the shower until close till 10 and wound up not falling asleep until after midnight. I’m a bit slow today but I’ll survive.

So it looks like the highlight of my weekend will be the toilet install. I will backfill from there.

I played pickleball at lunch on Monday and then cleaned up to head towards Orlando for a work conference. The drive up to Orlando is always long and I-4 is always the wildcard in terms of just how congested it is. There is always stopped traffic, it’s just a matter of how much. I made decent time getting up there without charging and arrived around 5PM, an hour before the registration shut down.

This was at a new venue for me, the Hyatt Regency. It’s a huge and very luxurious hotel very close to the Disney parks. I immediately noticed the large parrot named Merlot they had sitting unrestrained in the middle of the atrium, it was very cool. My room was on the 5th floor and was very clean, modern and well appointed. I was pleased with my accommodations.

They had a reception dinner where I sat with 5 of my co-workers who were also attending. The event had an open bar which I took advantage of, making 4 or 5 refill trips during the night. Alcohol always aids me in social interactions after all.

The schedule for the two days was very casual. Breakfast was from 8-9, you had a couple of sessions in the morning with a generous 30 minute break thrown in. When lunch rolled around at noon I wasn’t even hungry because of the big breakfast. During Tuesday afternoon there was one time slot that had nothing that really interested me so I decided to use that time to run down to the hotel gym.

The gym was very well equipped which didn’t surprise me. I got a good hour workout in before I headed back up to the room to change back into my work clothes for my last session of the day.

To get to the gym you walked past a beautiful and massive pool area. The hotel had a TON of amenities available to their guests. Part of me wished I was in a situation where I could have enjoyed them conventionally, with someone. I instead returned to the conference, name badge in place.

It just so happened that my brother Todd was down in Orlando this week with his fiance and her daughter. I made arrangements to meet up with them for dinner. Todd suggested Carrabas since he knew that was a place I used to really like years ago (it’s only so so nowadays) It was the first time I saw Todd since Thanksgiving.

I got the lowdown on how their week had gone so far. I heard expected horror stories of long waits in lines in oppressive heat which is a given this time of year. Todd had his hip replaced a few months back so I got an update on that as well. I filled them in on the latest and greatest in my life as well which has been anything but boring. After dinner I told them they were welcome to drive down to see my new place and hang out for a day while they are here. I’m not sure if they will take me up on the invite. I once again drank a number of beers during the meet up, a theme for the trip evidently.

After dinner I was determined to ride my One Wheel even though it was after 9PM. After parking the car I slapped on wrist guards and my helmet and took off for maybe a 20 minute ride around the beautiful grounds surrounding the hotel. I was glad to at least get to ride a little during the rather hectic couple days.

On Wednesday I was at the conference until almost 4PM. Technically it runs through this morning but nothing else on the schedule pertained to me so I preferred to get back home. The drive back hit more traffic and was on the tedious side. I also was walking the battery high wire as I did not have the car at as full of a charge state before leaving Orlando. I got back with 9% in the tank.

On the way home I grabbed Elsa from Ali’s place. It’s always conflicting for Elsa as of course she is excited to see me but she also loves hanging with Ali and Shugs so much. On the drive home a storm broke out which sent Elsa into a panic. As I was driving I quickly threw the blanket over her in the back to make her feel safer. She hates rain.

I rolled into my driveway a little after 8PM. I buzzed around the home taking care of the number of tasks to be completed, crashing into bed closer to 10. It was a good trip where I used some of the downtime to think and reflect about what comes next.