Rich stayed at my place again last night. We wound up running to Brunina’s for dinner later where we got a chance to talk about a number of different subjects. When we got back we both had our pickleball bags out on the dining room table. I applied overgrips to two of my paddles while Rich put an edge guard on one of his. It was a true pickleball geek session.

Elsa, who originally was hesitant about Rich has quickly warmed up to him, often choosing to sit on the couch with him instead of me, it’s cute. Rich is going to be staying with another friend of his the rest of the week but it was good to have my first official test of my guest facilities. Rich said everything was great.

I have mentioned numerous times how much I am into pickleball. Last night after I was done working on my paddles I snapped this quick picture of my pickleball bag. Sometimes they say a picture is worth 1000 words. In this instance I would definitely agree.

I had my first overnight occupant of my guest room since I moved in last night, Rich. He is in the middle of some house limbo right now so I offered him my guest room. He also got to test out the guest shower as well, something else that has never been used since March.

Last night we played pickleball for about an hour. Rich has been injured for most of this year but he LOVES pickleball. We played a couple games against younger guys who were quite good. We lost both games but they were very close. He really enjoyed getting back out there on the court.

I finally have rebooted my 3D store. It has basically been dormant since before I moved. The opportunity for me is much, much less than it once was. There are tons of other options out there for EUC stands nowadays and a number of wheels now have built in kickstands that can make a stand unnecessary.

To me I think wheels still look best when stored on a stand. I do still have a few things that others don’t like the adjustable width and the ability to customize a stand to have unique wording if the customer desires. We will see if my sales go anywhere. With the way I have been burning through money lately some ancillary income could never hurt.

I made the mistake of not taking Unisom on Friday night. My penalty for doing so was waking up at 4AM and not being able to fall back asleep. I decided to drag myself out of bed a little after 6 and get my day started. One advantage of doing so was catching this great view out the garage door as the sun was coming up. It wasn’t all bad, I got an early start on my Saturday chores that made me feel like I was ahead of the curve most of the morning.

On Saturday night Christine and I went out to see the new Indiana Jones movie. It is a bit insane that Harrison Ford, who is now 80 years old was able to put out what surely has to be the last of the series. I have to say, for being 80 years old he did a damn nice job and surely does not look his age. I didn’t have huge expectations for the movie as the last couple were pretty lame. There were definitely lame/silly aspects to this film as well but overall I enjoyed it. Early on the creepy CGI was used to magically take 50 years off of Indie. The effect is good but you can definitely tell when you are looking at CGI. I’d give the movie a B+. Christine enjoyed it as well.

Sunday morning I got up with an alarm to meet up with Juan to play some 8AM pickleball once again. The thought is starting early will be more tolerable due to the extreme heat and humidity which July in Florida brings. It made no difference, I looked like I was thrown in a pool after a couple games. The members seem to really enjoy playing with Juan and I so hopefully it becomes a more regular occurrence. I played surprisingly well, not losing a single time despite rotating partners every game.

I was tired when I got home but I knew if I sat still long I would probably fall asleep. Instead I grabbed my new Veteran Patton and drove out to the swamp to ride. The Patton continued to impress, feeling great in the off road environment, I really love this wheel.

When I got back I again wasted little time before heading back out AGAIN, this time to go ride OneWheel with Christine at the Greenway. We had a very fun ride. It has been very enjoyable to have a riding partner once again.

I have a pretty standard week up ahead of me, as far as I can tell, so far. However if the last 7 months has taught me anything it is to expect the unexpected.

Overnight there were a bunch of thunderstorms rolling through. I woke up and realized that Elsa had jumped up onto the bed and was up by my head, shivering. She had her body pressed up against me so every time she shook, I knew it. At one point I pulled the blanket over her and laid my hand across her back which seemed to settle her down a bit. I hate how terrified she is of almost any noise.

After my super short 3 day week I have a conventional weekend ahead of me. Let’s hope it’s a good one.

Last night I played WoW hardcore for the first time in roughly a week. Up until this point I had been very careful since a death in game means you have to delete your character, regardless of how much time has been invested. I had gotten my warrior up to level 9 and was trying to complete a quest where you have to kill something. I ran in and got myself into trouble. By the time I realized I was in deep trouble I was unable to escape and died. I was annoyed and frustrated by my stupidity. From all accounts this is a common path for most, the first few times playing hardcore you get a taste for what you can and can not do. I deleted the character and rerolled a paladin, a class that should be a little easier to manage. You can see the death from my Twitch stream.

There are other things I could delve into on this post but I really would rather put the energy towards doing it instead of talking about doing it. Mental gymnastics are exhausting.

I just completed my extended four day weekend for the fourth of July. I am not sure how accurately or in sequence this will be but I’ll give it a go.

Saturday I was doing a number of small tasks and errands that kept me moving throughout the day. I did get out on a One Wheel ride with Christine later in the day before returning home to do yet another live stream, my fourth one in as many weeks. This live stream was one of my longest in a very long time, more than 3 hours. The reason was about half way through the broadcast I was joined by but not one but two guests, Marty and Black Cobra. It was a fun stream.

Sunday I finally got my first ride in on my Veteran Patton which I received on Thursday. It was only a quick 10 mile ride but I realized very quickly that I really like this wheel. I can see this becoming my favorite wheel in a short period of time.

On Monday I got to install the new rail protectors and bumpers I bought for Christine’s OneWheel XR. The prior owner evidently opted to just paint everything black. I installed fresh black front and rear bumpers to replace the very worn originals. The yellow rail protectors really helped to refresh and change the appearance. Christine loved it.

On Monday I did some minor fence repair. A few of the pieces of the fence were loose as the thin nail gun nails were rusting. I reinforced those parts with deck screws instead. There are some spots down low that need to be reattached as well but that section of the fence has a dense hedge around it that I need to figure out how to penetrate to perform the repair.

I headed to the gym Tuesday morning to get a workout in since gym days will be sparse during this shortened week. During the afternoon I did a 50 mile range test on the Patton. The wheel performed very well during the test. I cut it a little close, arriving back home with about 7% battery left after 3 hours on the road.

When I moved closer to town I thought I would have less exposure to backyard fireworks fanatics. I was wrong. If anything the increased population density lead to hearing even more explosions throughout the night.

Elsa was terrified as always. I gave her three calming treats that contain CBD. They seemed to take the edge off at least but she has spent most of the weekend being treated to fireworks every night, sigh.

Sometimes you need to just shut up and do the right thing. Why am I saying that you may ask? To simply remind myself, that’s all.

My new Veteran Patton arrived yesterday. I didn’t even have to run home to sign for it, evidently my FedEx driver didn’t care it was classified as signature required, which is good for me. The only thing that wasn’t good was he left it right outside the garage door instead of the covered area by the front door. If we would have had a thunderstorm yesterday I would not have been very pleased.

I lugged the heavy box inside but did not open it, that will happen sometime this weekend. Instead I opened other boxes, one had my newest pickleball paddle and another had a full face helmet for Christine to use while riding which will give more comprehensive protection.

I had her test it last night when we did our first ride since her crash. The helmet fit her well. We trekked about 11 miles on the Greenway. It was also her first time riding the used XR board I bought. She got accustomed to it quickly and enjoyed the wheel. I think it is absolutely better that we are on two of the same device as our speeds match up instead of me pulling her faster accidentally while I am on an EUC.

I took Monday off to give myself a four day weekend as the 4th of July is Tuesday. I have a number of things I would like to get knocked out, none of which are huge time sinks. On Monday morning I may have a session with my first EUC student. He bought a wheel and reached out to me asking if I could show him the basics. I said sure. I think within an hour or two I can get him at least rolling.

Last night after work I continued my trend of doing things I hadn’t done in awhile. This time it was running a push mower. I offered to help Christine mow her grandmothers property. I have not had to mow grass since I moved in March but I don’t think I mowed grass with a push mower in probably 20 years. I worked up a lot of sweat in a relatively short period of time. The mower had propulsion but I stopped using it after about 30 seconds, it interfered with the back and forth motion too much. It felt good to make the yard look more presentable after maybe 45 minutes of pushing it.

Today my Veteran Patton is scheduled to arrive. Wheels always come with signature required for Fedex so I left a sign on my door asking that they ring the doorbell and if they can do other nearby deliveries I can be home in 10 minutes to sign if needed. We will see if my plan works.

Last night Christine used these suction devices on my painful back. They are basically “cupping” tools although it sure seems like they are industrial strength. You attach them to problem areas. Once turned on they apply strong suction, infrared heat and vibration. It’s painful at first until the area sort of goes numb. 20 minutes later you are left with what you see in the picture.

Christine said the dark color is actually a good thing as it indicates that area was getting inadequate blood flow. The procedure is supposed to encourage healing, we will see. Right now it looks like I was attacked by an angry octopus.

Last night I did a couple things I had not done in years, played Classic WoW and streamed live on Twitch. The reason I played classic WoW was because I wanted to try “hardcore” mode. In the normal game if you die, you resurrect. It’s inconvenient but there is no big penalty for your virtual death. In hardcore when you die, that character is actually dead, you can no longer revive him. It adds a unique twist to the game I have been playing since early 2005. Every action now has to be carefully assessed as one wrong move could result in dozens of play time hours going down the drain.

I decided to make a warrior as that was the first class I ever played in WoW. The nostalgia factor was high and I enjoyed getting to level 6 or 7 successfully. I think I will keep at it as long as I am enjoying it.

As I mentioned I live streamed it on Twitch, I don’t think I had any live viewers which I could care less about. If you want to see the roughly 90 minute session feel free to click the link below. My channel on Twitch is Duf67

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1857597356

I picked Christine up from the airport yesterday. Last night I gave her a surprise I picked up on Friday, a used One Wheel XR. I bought it from a kid in Cape Coral which is nearly an hour away. The only reason I bought it was because he agreed to bring it to me. The kid was about my height, longer hair and looked like he weighed about 130lbs soaking wet. He owned the board since new and had put almost 2800 miles on it. The board looked well used but I did a quick test ride and everything seemed to still be in good working order.

The board had a nearly brand new tire and a good one at that. It also had hub savers, 3rd party foot pads and a set of “fangs” on the front. Fangs are small wheels that are designed to allow the board to be able to drop onto them in certain situations. In some cases if a rider is skilled enough they would allow you to recover from a cut out situation similar to what Christine had.

Christine was surprised and excited. I told her that to me the big advantage is we can both ride One Wheels. With me being on an EUC which can go much faster than a OneWheel I think it inadvertently pushed her to ride faster. With us on PEVs with similar capabilities I am hoping it will help curb the possibilities of going faster than what is safe.

Over this past weekend I put at least 30 miles on the XR making sure it was good to go. It rides great. This board has slightly less power and 5-6 less miles of range than my GT but it should be a non-issue as 15 miles is about as far as I would ever want to go on a OneWheel anyway. I look forward to getting out there for a tandem OW ride soon.

I know I have made reference to this in the past but I feel like bringing it up again. It is the scenario where a person makes a decision, performs an action or says something that they know is not in their best interest and then laments the consequences of it. I can certainly raise my hand as being guilty of this during various times of my life. Well the doing things not in best interest part at least. I think for the most part I am self aware enough to accept full responsibility for what happens as a result and deal with the shrapnel. The best you can hope for is to learn from the situation and not hit yourself in the face with a hammer, again…