Yesterday I saw a Ring notification pop up. I did a double take when what looked to be a large animal passed by the driveway camera. I went into the app and watched it back. The camera didn’t start shooting until the animal was almost out of frame but it seems clear that a small black bear had just walked by my house.

Now if this was the old house out in the estates this wouldn’t be all that surprising. I used to have bears walk by the house pretty routinely. However to see one where I live now surprised the hell out of me. There is a scarcity of the type of environment you would think a bear typically comes from. The bear was definitely young but hopefully old enough to be on his own. I didn’t think I would ever have another bear sighting again in my new zip code.

I also seem to have picked up a black cat that likes hanging out in my back yard. I have seen him/her randomly over the last few days. Elsa is not a big fan.

Last night after work I got out on my newly motor transplanted S22 to give it it’s first road test. I was a bit nervous as the motor is the heart of an EUC, if somehow I messed something up the consequences could be severe. Luckily all went well and the noise I was hearing that initiated the swap was no longer present. I shot a video documenting the test.

Friday night I ran a late live stream out of the blue. I wanted to talk about riding safety and my personal experience with what can happen when things go wrong. It was two hours of talking about that and a number of other things.

On Saturday morning I was busy doing my normal Saturday things like speed weeding the property, getting groceries, and tending to small to do’s around the house. I made arrangements to go to the movies with Christine to see the Flash. Historically most DC superhero movies fall flat for me when compared to their Marvel counterparts. Unfortunately Flash was not an exception to that track record. I am not a big fan of the guy that plays Flash, he just does not have the personality I would imagine Flash to have. I thought the plot was dumb/weird with more of the alternate timeline bullshit that I already dislike in the Marvel universe. (SPOILER) Really for me the best parts were when other characters were involved. (Batman(s)) A lot of things just made no sense but it had good action and a number of laughs in there so overall I would give it a B. I could have definitely waited to see it on a streaming platform.

Sunday was a very rainy day with storms rolling in and out most of the day. This was the first time I got to see what heavy rain looks like on the property. During the worst of it the brick patio out back was submerged underwater. I was glad I had the gutters to divert at least some of the water elsewhere. There was a blast of lightning that I saw out my office window that seemed to be only a few hundred yards away. There was a weird side effect afterward.

When I was out in the garage I saw the sprinklers in the front of the yard were running. I thought it was odd since I had turned the sprinklers completely off for rainy season. I thought maybe the quick loss of power from the lightning strike may have messed with the controller. When I checked the box it looked fine indicating all zones should be off. I tried power cycling the controller but it made no difference. I eventually had to manually turn the valve on the solenoid for that zone closed to get the sprinklers to stop. It will be something I’ll have to troubleshoot more in the future.

On Saturday I received a new motor for my Kingsong S22. The original motor had started making noise last week. This batch of wheels also had a known defect in the motor that potentially could cause catastrophic failure so once I started hearing a noise I didn’t want to f around.

Months ago I changed the tire on this wheel and it was a colossal pain in the ass. I actually put off doing that tire change for a couple months because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle. This time, I waited one day.

This was the first major EUC work I have done since moving. With that being the case it took some time to find certain tools that I needed for the job. Christine came over later and actually helped me with some of the work, most importantly getting the tire installed on the new motor which is the toughest part of the entire process. Luckily with this being my second time through I was able to utilize some of the lessons learned to get the tire on more efficiently. We both had a sense of satisfaction when I hit the power button after reassembly and everything fired up as planned. This upcoming weekend I plan to take the wheel out to the swamp, another reason I pushed myself to get this work done sooner rather than later.

Over the weekend I saw a video Matt Walsh published about introverts, which I am a card carrying member, and their relationship with small talk. I am not a huge fan of many of Matt’s opinions on a lot of things but on this subject he perfectly verbalized how I view small talk and interactions with most human beings.

On Wednesday night I was riding with Christine, her on the One Wheel and me on one of my EUC’s. She has gotten very good, very quickly. She has been gaining confidence.

We were on our way back from the Greenway. She was carving back and forth and having a great time. Then it happened. In the matter of a split second the board cut out and she hit the roadway, hard. I immediately jumped off my wheel to run back to her. She was dazed and could not respond to me. A woman on a bike immediately stopped who said she was a EMT. She recommended I call 911, which I did.

A quick look at the helmet showed the result of the impact, the helmet was busted with deep scratches. This was bad. In addition to the head her right shoulder took a big impact and she had road rash on various parts of her body. The ambulance came and evaluated her. They recommended she go to the hospital but Christine signed a waiver, thinking she would be ok.

The Cliff Notes version is she wasn’t. She was in severe pain and had dizziness/nausea throughout the night. I convinced her to go to the ER with me yesterday morning. She had a CT and X-rays done. The good news is there was nothing broken and no sort of brain bleed going on. However she clearly has a concussion which is serious. Symptoms from it can linger for weeks.

A post crash analysis pointed to one of two possible reasons. I found a big metal U-clamp in the middle of the road around where she went down. She could have hit that which would have caused the fall. The other possibility is she was just going too fast and the One Wheel cut out. Regardless I felt partially responsible, I should have been paying closer attention to her speed.

She will heal up but I have no doubt any future riding will include additional gear. It was a scary reminder of just how quickly and unexpectedly things can go bad.

Yesterday I played pickleball in the blistering heat at lunch. My shirt had not a single dry square inch. Despite the heat I played well with my team winning every game. I then doubled down and played volleyball last night, it didn’t go as well.

The heat and humidity was still in full force. My play was inconsistent. I had a lot of problems passing the ball accurately. I think it was because I was not bending my legs enough, probably due to fatigue. I hit a number of balls into the net as well. The only significant highlights were I did have a couple of hard driven hits that may have been the best I have had since returning. They were partially anger fueled from my spotty play.

My shower last night felt particularly satisfying.

The twists and turns of my life over the last 6 months have been exciting, anxiety inducing, frustrating, educational, and confusing at various times. However the most important thing is I have turned the chapter on a life I knew for over two decades into something that will hopefully result in more happiness, fulfillment and peace.

Last night I got to watch Creed 3 which is now available on Amazon Prime. I have been a fan of the prior two Creed films which are a continuation of the epic Rocky series. One cool part is they have included Rocky in the plot, tying Creed back to Rocky glory days. This was the first film that had Stallone MIA and it made a difference. I thought the story was sort of weak/dumb and the climactic fight at the end was just weird. I mean it was ok but for me, this was the weakest Rocky related film I ever saw. I’d give it a B.

Tonight is normally a volleyball night for me. Part of me doesn’t feel like going for various reasons. I guess I will flip a coin later.

I know that the last couple months my posting here has been erratic and mostly brief. It seems like ever since I moved a lot of things have been shuffled around on the priority list. I am looking to reestablish a quieter, simpler existence where I prefer to live.

This weekend was pretty light on the to do list standpoint. I got out the paint brush, sanding block and paint to address some small areas along the outside of the shower door. There were a couple small rust spots presumably from the metal corner bead. After sanding them down and carefully applying a couple coats of paint the blemish has disappeared.

Have you ever entered into a situation where you already knew the ending? Not only did you know the ending but you knew the ending would be hurtful or negative to/for you and you went forward anyway? It sounds like lunacy right?

I guess sometimes a second set of hard knocks is required to make an impression that is stamped in iron instead of sand.

Last night my objective was to get the mirror frame installed in the guest bathroom, despite missing the dovetail keys that are supposed to be used to secure the corners. I first went to Michael’s since they do custom framing. I thought there was an off chance they sold these keys, they did not. I did however buy some Gorilla wood glue as that is required.

I then went next door to Home Depot knowing the odds of them having dovetail keys was very slim, they did not either. However what they did have were slim corner L brackets. My thought was I could use them as replacements for the dovetails to lock the corners together. It was worth a shot.

When I got home I covered the dining room table with the bubble wrap the frame came in and grabbed the glue. I carefully applied it and then did my best to press the corners together as cleanly as possible. I knew this was risky as without the dovetails the pieces had the ability to move. After I glued the last joint I went around one last time to square everything up.

The Gorilla glue sets up pretty quick. By the time I finished off an episode of Narcos Mexico it felt solid enough for me to install the L brackets. I drilled small pilot holes for the wood screws and carefully turned them in by hand, making sure to not disturb the joint. It seemed to work well.

When I took the assembled frame into the guest bathroom I quickly discovered that the medicine cabinet would need to be pulled to slide the frame in. After doing so I carefully was able to position the frame over the faucet and onto it’s resting place on the rear backsplash.

The only remaining task was to pull the paper off the 15 or so pieces of double sided tape that are used to adhere the frame to the mirror. I then pressed the frame against the glass and applied pressure at various spots to make sure it stayed put. After reinstalling the medicine cabinet you can see the final product . It makes the plain and degraded mirror look modern and new once again. It looked good and felt good to once again find my way around an obstacle to a favorable outcome.

Yesterday after work I opened up the box that my mirror frame arrived in. I ordered this last week from the Home Depot web site. I had some time before I needed to leave to play volleyball so I opened the box up to take a look. I pulled out the 4 sections of the frame and the instructions. When I looked at the included parts list I hesitated. When I looked at the back of the frame I saw cutouts where dovetail keys are supposed to go. The only issue was I had no additional hardware.

I double and triple checked the box, looking to see if I somehow missed a hardware packet, nope. I was also supposed to get some wood glue included, that was MIA as well. I was more than mildly annoyed as you can imagine. So the instructions give a phone number and email address if there is something missing. I first called and got routed to a generic sounding voicemail, which was odd. I left a message. I also sent an email but I am very doubtful I will receive a reply.

So next I wanted to see if I could just buy the dovetail keys myself, that would be the quickest path towards resolution. Well evidently they are not as easy to buy as I hoped. Any place I found sold them in packs of like 1000, I need 4. I also am unsure of what size I need. So what I wound up doing in buying a few small L brackets. I am hoping using those and wood glue will substitute for the dovetail keys. I may go to a place like Michaels that sells framing materials to see if I might get lucky and find the keys there. I did place part of the frame around the mirror to just see how it will look. I think it will be great, as long as I can get it assembled cleanly.

When I left to play volleyball it was raining at my house pretty steadily. I still went, not knowing the weather on the courts. Although when we started it was ok rain did eventually sweep through. It was hard enough that we stood under a shelter for maybe 10 minutes. It eventually slowed enough for us to get out there. In total I bet we played at least 30 minutes in continuous rain.

Playing while it’s raining is not fun on many levels. The ball can get waterlogged and very sandy. Your body holds onto even more sand than normal as well in these conditions. Despite the weather I actually wound up having my best session of hitting since I started playing again for two reasons. First the rain has the side effect of making the sand slightly firmer, allowing me to jump slightly better. Second and more importantly, I had a guy on my team that was very good at giving me consistent sets that were where I like to hit. Knowing that a set is likely to be good allowed me to be more aggressive with my approach which I need to get out of the sand. It felt really good to be able to get some decent hitting in. I left the park sandy, wet, but pleased.

Yesterday when I got home I decided to take another whack at painting the spots that I patched. Instead of using the new paint that I got using the label from the original can I used the original paint, which there was not much of. When I applied it this time I put much more effort into feathering around the patched areas instead of just doing a few strokes on the patch. I think the end result is better. If you weren’t looking for it I don’t think your eyes would be drawn to the slight color variation now.

Today I have another item coming for the home, a mirror frame for the guest bathroom. It should dress up that mirror a bit which has some wear around the edges. I would still like to do something different with the light over the sink at some point but it’s a low priority.

Here is your deep thought for the day and it’s something I have been thinking about. Think of your sphere of existence being a lake. Think of people, situations and experiences as being rocks that are dropped into the water. Right after this happens the ripples closest to the rock are the biggest, the most significant, and impactful. As time passes those ripples lessen and lessen, making their impact fade away. I have had a lot of big rocks dropped in my lake recently. I am looking forward to the water becoming calm once again.

On Saturday I was motivated to tackle a project that was in my orbit since moving in. The previous owners evidently had a TON of things hanging on the walls. When I had my house painted I stripped the walls and had all the holes filled. This was not done at the new place so I had dozens of nail holes and drywall anchors marking the walls like a shotgun blast. I knew there were a bunch of cans of paint in the garage but I had not gone through the process of trying to figure out what rooms they went with and/or if the paint was any good. My task was to address these things on Saturday.

So I looked through the large collection of paint cans. Some were very old and the paint in them had turned to goo so they were out. Luckily those did not appear to be any of the current colors of the rooms. To assist me in color matching I grabbed a small section of 2 x 4 and painted small sections to use as a color matching aid, smart, if I do say so myself.

After doing so it appeared to me that I had found the color used in most of the kitchen, the guest bathroom and the main living space as well as the bedrooms. This can had the least amount of paint in it but I was confident in my findings, so much so that I ran to Lowe’s and got another quart of the paint using the color code on the old gallon.

After patching the numerous holes, letting them dry and then sanding them smooth I started painting. The greenish color in the kitchen was a perfect match although I discovered the paint around the counter/cabinets is some different shade that I do not appear to have. The guest bathroom paint was a match as well. I did not have any holes to patch in there but went over a number of scuff marks to clean it up. When I applied the paint I bought it looked like it matched well. I took pride in finally cleaning up the holes that littered the walls. Then, an hour or two later, I was not as happy.

As I walked the house I realized that the paint once dried was just a shade or two darker than what was already on the wall, making it look like I now had lightly colored liver spots anywhere I painted over a patch. I was annoyed. I had some paint that they bought in January that looked lighter so I tried some of that as well, it was too light but I did discover that is what was used in the master bathroom. So I now can either try to take a chip of the existing color to get color matched or live with it until I decide to get the inside of the house repainted. It is an annoying situation.

On Sunday I went out a ride. I shot a video based on a request I received regarding the process of moving to a small electric unicycle to one of the bigger, nearly 100 pound models. I think the video turned out well.

In the video I talked about a general feeling of blah that was hanging over me recently. I am hoping that feeling clears soon.