Last night after work I put my handyman skills to work, fixing a cabinet door that fell off and replacing a tub spout.  Although as I have gotten older I have had more inclination to just pay someone else to do repairs/upgrades if they go past a certain complexity or time allowance, if I am motivated I can take on a lot of things.

I had a less than ideal start to my day.  I woke up to no internet in the house which makes my “smart” home very, very dumb quickly.  It appeared to be a widespread outage.  Then when I was ready to hop in the shower the water valve just spun in my hand.  Apparently between last night and this morning something let loose which again was less than ideal.  I will need to try to address/fix that tonight.  I used to have that same type of fixture on the tub and I had to replace it several years back so I know it is in my wheelhouse.

The cherry on top of my shit show was a horrible commute into work that took 75 minutes.  Ever since the new year traffic has been increasingly terrible, giving me even more reason to want to relocate my life to a destination much closer to work.  I mean this morning it took me almost 10 minutes JUST to make the first turn off my street leaving a few minutes before 7AM. It’s nuts.

Speaking of new destinations, the other day Zillow sent me a new listing for a house that on paper at least seemed almost perfect.  It was maybe 5 miles from the office, mostly updated, about 1700 sq feet with a nice little fenced in yard which would be great for Elsa.  The price was also something I could totally work with.  In the span of an hour I got a follow up email from Zillow saying the property was already under contract.  It will be interesting to see how many times this pattern repeats itself as my search begins.

Yesterday I was talking to my buddy at work.  He told me how he was being offered a couple thousand dollars for a pickleball related domain name he registered awhile ago.  He actually registered a handful of names with the intent of possibly doing something with them down the road, he had no clue someone would want to buy one of them.  The conversation with him got the gears in my head going.

In pickleball if you shut somebody out it is called getting “pickled”.  It’s something you want to avoid having happen to you but it’s kind of fun when you do it to someone else.  I hopped on GoDaddy and just for the heck of it checked to see if pickledyou.com or pickledu.com were available, they both were.  In the span of 5 minutes I had claimed them both.

I then set up a simple web page on one of my other hosted sites as a landing point for the domain.  At this point all I have on there are a list of recent “pickles” just for fun.  I’m not quite sure what the eventual site will be, if anything at all.  Maybe I’ll get a buyout offer as well down the road.  In addition I added a fourth channel to my YouTube account, named Pickled You.  On there I have the two pickleball videos I currently have.  I think it would be interesting to do a satirical, comical spin of the sport in addition to more footage of play.  Again, we will see what happens down the road. With the explosion in popularity of pickleball it certainly can’t hurt to roll the dice. Feel free to be one of my ground level subscribers to the channel.  🙂

Last night I was looking forward to a night with absolutely no attention paid to anything house related, I just wanted to chill.  I made my dinner and then enjoyed it while watching the new HBO series, The Last of Us which features Pedro Pascal, the actor that plays the Mandalorian.  The series is a new spin on a zombie apocalypse.  I watched the first two episodes that have been released and am hooked.  It seems like a great series as long as images of creepy fungus zombie don’t keep you up at night.

One space in the house that really feels refreshed in the house since the painting is the master bedroom.  It just feels good in there.  Since this picture was taken I put two matching 100 watt equivalent Hue smart bulbs in there which makes the space feel even warmer and brighter.  The combination of improvements made over the last few weeks really make a difference.

Even though I am pleased with my space yesterday I still made arrangements to have my realtor come out so we can get the ball officially rolling on listing it for sale.  She has seen pictures of the improvements and seems to like them.  I want to talk to her more about potentially listing the house for more than the range she initially mentioned for a few reasons.

When she did the initial presentation she showed other homes in the area to determine a suitable price range.  A common mindset potential home sellers fall into is they look at other current listings around them and use them to gauge their home’s worth.  However what is really crucial are the homes that have actually sold as those sale prices are what actually dictate the market, not prices that sellers HOPE to get.  I understand that completely, but….

When my range was established it was prior to thousands of dollars of painting and other smaller improvements.  I also don’t think that the value of a full house solar system was being factored in at all, something no houses for sale in my area have.  From a realtor perspective it is to your advantage to have a client price a house very attractively to get it turned over quickly but for a seller that is my position where the need to sell is not pressing, I think I would like to ask for more.

I think I mentioned this realtor is someone I know from the running club.  She also was the realtor when Ali sold her townhouse.  During that transaction she recommended Ali list her house for almost 100k less than Ali wanted to.  Ali insisted on the higher asking price and in the end she netted 50k more than the realtors suggestion.  Granted the market was more aggressive then but still I am selling my house to benefit me first and nobody else.

I plan to have a good discussion with the realtor on Saturday where I will express my thoughts and see what she has to say about it.  With the opening of the new county park only a mile from my house and other conveniences being put in place over the last several years I think I can stretch a little bit and still find a suitable buyer, someone with a family that appreciates the opportunity a property like mine offers.

Here is the first post since taking the blog private today.  Yes it is a bit of an inconvenience but only a minor one.  Yes it could cause less people to read stuff but that’s fine too.  If you like this, you will put out the slightly extra effort to be here, that is the way the world works in many situations.

I have always been the type of person that is willing to reevaluate positions or ideas based on new information.  There are many individuals that see this as a weakness, once you lay down your boundaries they should un-moveable, period.  To me, that is just stupid but hey, live your life as you see fit.  I prefer to live mine with a a pencil instead of a permanent marker.

In my discussion yesterday I mentioned the possibility of making the blog a “private” site.  I am going to move forward with that change.  What does that mean for you if you are a regular reader of the content?  Basically you will be prompted to create an account, once doing so you will need to verify your email address.  You MAY need to check your spam or junk mail folder if you do not see the confirmation.  If all goes smoothly the entire process should take less than 60 seconds.  Once your account is created you use those credentials to log in, it’s pretty easy.

So the what and why of this is pretty simple.  What this will accomplish is taking my personal blog out of the public internet for just anyone to see.  The more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me for some of the reasons I discussed yesterday.  I can still exercise my creativity, I can still express feelings and thoughts that I may not do in other ways but I can do so without making it a public event.  Once I flip this switch you won’t be able to read this heads up either, without registering.  There may be a few bugs as I make the transition but I’ll work them out, be patient.

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Ali that her and Shugs both felt it was time for us to put Sadie to rest.  When I picked up Elsa in the morning Sadie was on her side looking exhausted and pretty non-responsive.  Ali said they were going to a vet that was close to their place in Babcock at 5PM.  I told her I would be there.

When Ali and Shugs arrived it was emotional for all of us.  We stood out in the parking lot for awhile petting and talking to Sadie as we waited for a tech to come out.  As we stood there we talked about some of the happy times we shared with Sadie, it helped make the sadness lighten, if only for a few moments.

When the tech came out she directed us to a side door we could enter.  I carefully pulled Sadie out of the back seat and carried her inside, laying her on a table.  The vet came in to talk to us, thoroughly explaining everything, she was very kind and sensitive to the situation.  As we stood there waiting for the procedure to start tears were flowing as we knew the end was coming.  Despite this knowledge we all had zero doubt that this was the right thing to do, the time had come. It almost felt like Sadie knew as well.

I had not participated in a pet euthanasia since we had cats put down probably some 15 years prior. Despite so much time passing I have pretty vivid memories of the experience.  The vet came in and gave Sadie a sedative first to make the process painless.  Once the drug was given to put her to sleep it happened very quickly, as I remembered.  In the matter of seconds she was gone, finally at peace.

Sadie has had a very rough last couple of years but she always had been a fighter, always emanating joy and love despite her body failing on her in various ways.  Ali and I had talked about the amazing time when we visited my dad and step mom who lived in New Mexico at the time.  We took a road trip out there with Nicki and Sadie.  They had their two young dogs, Maggie and Clara.  The four dogs played endlessly, running around the yard so much that Sadie actually ripped the pads on a couple of her paws.  That time capsule is one I will always cherish.  Sadie was the last survivor of the four dogs.  I can only hope she is once again running free….

When I got my big bag of replacement receptacle and switch covers the other day at Home Depot I noticed that all of the self check out stations were manned by employees.  I had noticed it my last few trips as well.  Self serve checkout is something that is being used more and more by various retailers to cut staffing costs and increase efficiency.  This is why I thought it odd that I saw none of the checkout stations were actually self service now.  When it was my turn I asked the clerk what was up.  She said that the store had a huge issue with theft where people would not actually scan all of their items or in some cases not at all.  Dishonest human beings resulted in the store reversing the self checkout feature because they found that people could not be trusted.

To me it seemed like it’s something that could have been kept in check through proper security and surveillance.  I mean hell if a giant retailer like Walmart can do it, so should Home Depot. I asked if this was all of the Home Depot locations or just this one.  She said right now it was just this one so perhaps additional measures are going to be put in place to stop the abuse/theft.  It was sad statement.  My natural tendency is to trust people although time and again it has proven to be a weakness, not a strength.

I have talked before about why I have more comfort with one way communication whether it be via writing or on video.  When I am able to just express my thoughts without the interaction of a second party some sort of mental barrier is released.  You are reading an example of that right now.  This has lead to me trying to answer another question, why is it that I feel the need to share as much as I do with the world?  Why do I lay out sometimes very real and raw feelings for the world to see?  Why do I share so much? Why do I not want my life to be more private? It’s a good question and another one of those things that you never really think about until you are asked to do so.

Sharing or oversharing nowadays is very commonplace.  Social media has made everyone into content creators.  Ironically one of the things that personally drives me nuts is when you see something happening and every Tom, Dick, and Harry has their phone out trying to record it, especially if it is a situation with one or more individuals are obviously in distress.  Don’t try to help but be sure to record it, it will be great on Tik Tok or Instagram!  I hate that mentality, yet when it comes to my own life I throw open the door and let you see many things that even my friends wouldn’t know unless they asked. It’s strange.

The blog started back at the end of 2002 and my involvement with YouTube started several years after that, both well before social media was ingrained in our daily lives.  But if I really think about where this tendency to share originated from it would be the BBS (bulletin board system) that I started in the 90’s.  A BBS was a place to exchange files and share thoughts with others.  That was the first time I embraced sharing from an online perspective.

When you have been doing something for so long you don’t even think about the why’s, it becomes part of your fabric as a person.  I think the writing I do in addition to the videos I create both serve the same role in my existence, it allows me to work through and evaluate my thoughts.  As you are typing something out you can’t help but think in depth about what you are trying to communicate.  I think over the years this has become sort of self medication and not necessarily an effective one at all times.  I have talked before about some of the dumb things I did with the blog and how I have learned from them.  There are many things that I used to share here that I never would do today.

I also feel that both YouTube and the blog allow me to exercise the creative portion of my being which I again feel is therapeutic in many ways when much of my world revolves around logic and numbers.  But with all that being said, does it serve me?  The best answer I can provide at the moment is “I don’t know”.

In every significant relationship I have had since the blog started it has come up as source of conflict for various reasons.  As these conflicts came up I tried my best to listen and understand the reasons behind the issue.  I modified what, if, when, and how I talk about certain things.  I tried to be more mindful across the board, early on I think I was much more mean and angry.  As I changed and grew over the years so did what I talked about.

Over two decades a lot of individuals have come to read the blog and almost without exception the feedback I get is normally positive.  People generally appreciate what I put out there, even if they may not necessarily agree with what I am saying.  I get comments about my ability to make what to many seem like boring, everyday interactions interesting by adding my personal filter to it.

The positive feedback I receive from the public perhaps has made me less receptive to thinking about how it affects myself and others in private.  If I look at it very simplistically,  I enjoy writing and producing videos, so why wouldn’t I want to do what I enjoy.  So even though I have spent this time pounding out these last few paragraphs trying to work towards a logical conclusion as to why I share my life as I do, I have failed to do so.  It won’t be the first or last time I have failed to figure shit out. Maybe I should make the blog invite only where you have to request to see the content instead of it being available for anyone and everyone.  If you appreciate what I put out there it would still be there for you but not for the other 7 billion people on the planet.

I picked up Elsa this morning from Ali and Shugs place.  Sadie has once again slid back downhill, hardly responding to my presence at all.  I talked to Ali recently and I am going to drive back up there shortly to met her at a vet to let her go.  It’s going to be emotionally devastating but also the right move.  She has lead a full, love filled life but it’s time to let her be at peace.  This is going to be rough, for all three of us.

Yesterday was a very long day.  I spent the day mostly at the house in case I was needed but I also popped out periodically for sanity breaks.  I was under the impression that the painting crew was going to be bigger than last week for the exterior painting.  I thought there could be 10 people inside the house.  Instead Frank had less than last week.  He was actually one person down from what he planned because someone could not make it.  With the amount of work to be done, it was a lot to ask for a crew of five or six.

They had to paint all of the ceilings, they had to patch the dozens of holes that I left from stripping the walls naked of any hardware.  Then, and only then could they start painting the walls. Oh and don’t forget the garage that was painted as well.  It was a tremendous amount of work.  As the day drug on I could tell they were trying to press to get it done that day.  As daylight faded it makes it very tough to accurately judge how the paint is applied.  I turned on every light I had available.

As the crew was feverishly trying to complete the master bedroom and bathroom I started trying to help clean up the main living area.  Despite drop cloths being used there was a lot of debris on the tile as well as a lot of small white paint splatters from painting the ceiling.  They were easy enough to clean up with a rag and alcohol but there was a bunch of spots.  The work finally wrapped up somewhere close to 7. I paid Frank with the understanding that there was a good chance that when daylight hits I could see some spots that need attention.  He said that was no problem and if I saw anything he will take care of it.

The transformation of the house was pretty dramatic. Having a lighter color on the walls changes the feel of the space, opening it up more.  I think it is a change that I like and a change that potential buyers will like as well.  After the crew left I had absolutely zero interest in starting the massive project of moving all of the shit I pulled out of the space, back in.  Nope, I already decided I was going to go to a bar to watch the Eagles playoff game against the Giants since I did not have a functioning TV in the house currently. However before doing that I had one stop to make.

Pulling some of the heavy pieces of the furniture out of the main living space revealed that when the color of the grout was changed from grey to black years ago it was not done in those spots under the furniture.  Well that would look like shit to a buyer so I knew it had to be addressed.  I also knew that I wanted to move everything back in Sunday so I really needed to fix this sooner rather than later.  There was black grout still left in the utility room but when I opened the container I found the grout had transformed into cement.  So I took a picture of the label and headed out to Home Depot to find some.  Luckily Home Depot still carries that brand and I was able to get the exact color that was used before.

With grout in hand I felt able to finally do something non-house related and headed to Brooks Burgers.  I got there a little after 8:30 and was shocked how empty the place was.  I figured a Saturday night with NFL playoffs going on would bring in a crowd, nope.  When I sat down at the bar it was me and three other people at the bar.  Well I wasn’t there to socialize, I was there to eat, drink and watch the game.

I did something for the first time ever, ordered an appetizer AFTER I ate my coconut shrimp meal.  I was still a bit hungry, was still watching the game, and it fell in line with my “bulking” strategy I have been doing the last few weeks.  Basically I have been trying to eat much more than I normally would to try to bring up the number on the scale that has sunk to right around my all time lows as an adult.  The scale has been moving up slowly so I keep eating, a lot. The Eagles dominated the game, crushing the Giants in every way imaginable.  The final score of 38-7 tells you all you need to know.  I can only hope this momentum carries through to next week.

So even though I did not get home until well after 11, I had committed mentally to getting the spots that needed to be grouted done.  It was the only thing that made sense, to me.  There were five total spots that needed to be addressed.  It was a slow and messy process that left me with two black stained hands.  It took longer than expected, I did not get into the shower until after 1AM, yes, 1AM.  I was exhausted.

Despite the stupid late grouting session I had my alarm set for 6:30.  I wanted the house back in some sort of order and I wanted it sooner rather than later.  I started working on the important things first, like getting the furniture in the main living space back in place and then getting the TV rewired and connected.  I was very fortunate that Kerri offered to help me move things back into the house.  Her help made what would have been another miserable chapter in the book of house painting, much, much better.  In a couple hours most of the big items were back in place which was fantastic.  I was extremely grateful for the help.

The rest of the day I tended to getting smaller things back in order, pulling back some but not all of the things that I moved to the small shed and old coop.  A LOT of the stuff is still out there and at this point I am thinking I may just leave it that way unless something that comes up where I would have to move some things back into the house.  Right now my mindset is if it’s in a box, leave it there if at all possible.  The end result of this is the house being backfilled with far less stuff than it had a couple weeks ago which is a good thing.  Even though the items I was dealing with were small, they were numerous.  I found myself feeling pretty wiped by 5PM.  Of course getting 5 hours of sleep could be partially responsible as well.  Despite being tired I truly felt like I was finally over the hump, and it felt, great…

I went and grabbed an evening coffee on my way to Home Depot where I bought a TON of new wall plates.  Most of the plates in the house look shitty with wear and marks from previous painting when the plates were not pulled off the wall.  In total I came home with something around 40 replacements.  Like the true genius I am, I did this without counting my actual need, instead estimating how many of each type I will need.  It will be interesting to see how close I am when I install them all tomorrow.

I still need to do some of my normal weekend tasks like paying my bills.  As of this morning my computer was not even set up so that, and several other things have gotten pushed off their normal time slot and you know what, it’s fine.  Tomorrow I will do something else that got pushed, grocery shopping, as well as going back up to pick up Elsa.  I think she will be happier to come to both the house and her dad being a little more stable.

As I said earlier, it feels like I just crested a mountain of this 2-3 week time period where so much focus was put on just how I was going to make this all work.  I truly feel like the worst is over, at least in the short term, and it feels damn good.  I now am sitting in a house that has transformed dramatically thanks to dollars and effort.  My hope is the end result is setting me up for the next chapter of my life, where ever that may be.

My day off yesterday was taken to try to get everything inside the house as ready as possible in preparation for the interior being painted this weekend.  When I got up in the morning I saw a bunch of grey, potentially menacing clouds.  When I looked at my weather app I saw that there was a 40% chance of rain.  When I came up with the plan to use the lanai as a storage dump there was no precipitation in the forecast.  As a result I had some things in the uncovered area which I then had to shove back underneath, just in case.  Luckily no rain fell and I was able to push things back out into the open, I had no choice.

I tried to be systematic, as much as possible, focusing on one room/area at a time.  When I could, I opted to move furniture outside if I could as less is more in this scenario.  Before very long the amount of things that were piled up outside were approaching hoarder like visuals.

I took a break around lunch time to go play pickleball with the gang which was a nice distraction from the chaos at home.  Since I was off I was able to stay longer than normal, playing a couple games of singles with Jeff. I was totally on fumes by the end.  By the time I got home I only had maybe 90 minutes of time to do more work before I had to take Elsa up to Babcock Ranch so she could stay with Ali and Shugs for the weekend.  I made a stupid decision and left the house about 4:20 which inserted me right into the absolute worst time of rush hour.  I sat in stop and go traffic on I-75 forever.  I was frustrated with myself for not planning my timing better.

Elsa was thrilled to see Ali and Shugs.  She has been stressed out by the upheaval in the house without a doubt.  Seeing familiar faces in a familiar surrounding was good for her.  Sadie came out when she heard me for a bit but then quickly returned to the bed where she spends most of her time.  She has made a slight rebound from the low point she had earlier in the week. It was good to see her.  Ali invited me to stay for pizza which would have been nice but I still had a bunch of stuff to do at the house so I had to reverse direction quickly.

The final push last night was grueling.  I just was tired both physically and mentally but I labored on as there was no other choice.  I made the commitment, I had to finish.  The pile of things on the lanai kept swelling to the point where I only had narrow pathways through it.  About 9:30 at night I called it.  There were a handful of things left to do but I set an early alarm to knock them out.  With no TV on the wall anymore my laptop and YouTube were my substitute.  Before I went to bed I did one walk through of the house with my phone to establish the BEFORE scenario.

I have a very long track record of taking on big projects solo fueled by determination or stupidity, depending on the scenario.  However as I walked throughout the house even I could hardly believe that this was done almost entirely by myself.  The amount of stupid determination just leveled up. Throughout this process there have been numerous times where I felt like I was tossed into the deep end, it’s a good thing I know how to swim.

Of course the fun has only begun.  Once the painting has completed I then have to bring everything back inside the house.  Taking stuff out was not a surgical process, it was blunt force.  Not much care was taken when I was ripping things out so setting things back up is likely going to take even longer than pulling it out.  I am already anticipating now taking Monday off as well to give me ample time to do the work.

Franks crew showed up on time again at 7 this morning.  He was impressed by how much I got cleared and his people started working immediately.  I am sort of in a weird place where I feel like I should be around but the inside of the house is basically uninhabitable right now as everything is covered in plastic and paint rollers are moving everywhere.  When I asked him if he thought this could once again be a one day job he wouldn’t say yes but he didn’t say no.

Since there is a good chance I will not have an operational TV tonight I am thinking about just going to the bar at Brooks to drink some of my stress away while I watch the Eagles/Giants game at 8:15.  I have a couple friends that have offered to come help me on Sunday bring the big stuff back into the house which will be a large help.  Asking for help is something I have never been good at, in any regard.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day.  They asked me what my Chinese zodiac sign was.  I had no clue, I only know my normal western zodiac sign is Sagittarius. I gave my birthday and year and was told that I am a Fire Goat. The Chinese Zodiac is a bit more specific where the year of your birth is significant and the day then adds additional detail.  When I looked at the description of a fire goat it was a bit scary how on point it was in regards to my strengths and weaknesses.  One of the things mentioned was a crazy level of determination when it comes to getting things done, imagine that.  It was interesting reading about the different animals in the Chinese Zodiac and how they relate to one another.  Do I believe this stuff is always true or accurate?  Who knows, it is as believable as much of the other things that mankind has subscribed to throughout history. Look up your sign and see what you think.

Back to work…..

Last night when I got home I wanted to do some more prep for the painting that starts bright and early Saturday morning.  Frank stressed to me that the less stuff that is in the living space, the better in terms of knocking everything out efficiently.  After looking at the weather forecast for the next few days that appear precipitation free I decided that one way I could clear space was by moving some furniture out to the covered part of the lanai. I moved furniture from the guest bedroom and office out there last night.  The stuff that remains in those spaces should be able to moved as needed without major hassle for the painters.

I plan to move more stuff out there between tonight and tomorrow, which I took off.  Of course moving furniture requires some grunt work.  I utilized furniture sliders for most of it.  With the few really heavy pieces that I will keep in the house I plan to put sliders under them so the painters can move things pretty easily. It’s taken some time to be drawn up on my mental whiteboard but I think I have a workable plan in place to get to the painting finish line.

During my last riding video I spoke about the house situation and how I feel like I am getting to the light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel in this case being the house painted and put back together.  I also talked about the longer term goal of finding/moving into a new home with less demands and more convenient geography which will add to my overall quality of life.

Much like I’ve experienced with the house prep, at this point there are a lot of question marks as to how I will get to the final goal.  I used an EUC riding analogy.  When learning to ride the advice I have given repeatedly is to look up, look forward towards where you are going.  When you look down at your feet it causes instability and a potential loss of control.  When you look ahead your body takes over and the mind takes the co-pilot seat.  At this point in regards to my future living situation I am focusing on the intent I have and less on the ins and outs of how I will arrive there.

I have been continuing to run scenarios in my head on how the interior painting is going to go this weekend.  To be proactive I took Friday off to allow me time to move whatever furniture that still needs it.  I will also be doing a last minute clearing out of the pantry and master closet.  I have not quite figured out where I will shove all that stuff yet.  I will also be taking Elsa to Ali’s place for the weekend so she will not be in the middle of what surely will be chaos.  I haven’t quite figured out what I am going to be doing while there is an army of painters in the house.  I am thinking I will have my laptop set up outside and get some yard work done as I need to be available as needed if something pops up.  When the painting wraps up I need to then reorient/refurnish the house, albeit a much more minimalist version of it.  Once that is done, I can finally sit down, take a deep breath and evaluate.

I have had conversations with friends about the house scenario.  In those conversations I have expressed some of my reservations about selling/moving, much of which centers around the unknown outcomes.  The saying, “a bird in hand is better than two in a bush” is famous for a reason.  In this case, I have a home that I love and know.  More than one of my friends have suggested that there is no reason I have to sell, and they are right.  Maybe a fresh face on the house and tremendously less amount of things in it should be enough of a change, for now.  Of course I have thought about that scenario.  However when I do I have equated it to someone fearful of jumping off the high dive climbing to the top of the platform, sticking their toes over the edge, look down, and then retreat back to the ladder, climbing down to the firm ground that they are familiar with.  I have come this far, it seems stupid to not jump at this point, to me.  One of my favorite sayings is “do the hard thing, the power will come”.  I am putting trust in those words.

I once again have rolled into a prolonged period of time where my quality of sleep has been lacking.  The simple act of falling asleep can be challenging unless I am absolutely exhausted.  The maddening scenario is when I wake up around 3-4 AM and my mind clicks on, refusing to quiet down no matter how much I want to go back to sleep.  I have always had a big focus on health and wellness.  Inadequate sleep is an anchor that can drag everything else down with it.  Sure I prop myself up artificially with caffeine during the day but that is certainly not treating the problem, just the symptoms.

I got a report from Ali that Sadie likely had another seizure and her ability to stand and support her own weight continues to go downhill.  I think we will have to make an emotionally crushing but necessary decision, soon.

My Monday had a lot of similarities to my Saturday and Sunday where the tedious process of deciding what does/doesn’t matter and then acting accordingly is repeated hundreds of time.  This process resulted in a huge pile of things by the street to be freely taken by whomever wanted them, a bunch of things that were not thrown being relocated to the small shed, and the garage and utility room having most of the stuff removed from them.  I also temporarily relocated all of my PEVs to the chicken coop until the painting is done.

The biggest hurdle I am going to have is trying to move furniture to enable them to paint certain rooms. I may try to temporarily stick some furniture on the covered part of the lanai to make it more workable. There will also be a last minute rush to empty the closet and pantry so those areas can be painted.  It’s weird but in some ways it feels like this part of the journey might be more bumpy than the move itself since I have already done a substantial amount of heavy lifting when it comes to simply getting rid of stuff, the hardest part of any move.

Late in the afternoon I went on another stress relieving ride, this time on my Begode T4.  It’s 16 inch form factor is a lot of fun to zip around on.  During the ride I talked about my incoming Sherman S and the state of the house prep work.  It felt good to get out of the house and just do something I enjoy.

I saw in my USPS informed delivery email that I have a citation coming from the city of Downey, one last annoying reminder of the shit show which was the AirBnB that we stayed at.  The citation is because the rental car was left on the street during the street cleaning day, something I was not made aware of by the AirBnB host until the day of the cleaning, after I was already out of the area.  I can hardly wait to pay my citation.

This past weekend was the Naples Half Marathon, for many years this was one of the most stressful times of the year when I was the race timer for the running club.  This was the most prestigious event we held with people coming from all over the country and world to participate.  It was a tremendous responsibility that I took very seriously.  Well one year I had an unmitigated disaster where I failed in upholding that responsibility.

Without getting too technical, the timing devices that were used have a unique code associated with them.  Each one of these devices is assigned to a runner bib number which is associated to a runner.  When setting up the timing system for a race there is a file that gets loaded that has all of these codes in them.  You get this file from the chip vendor when you buy chips.  It’s not a complicated process and I did it for every race before without issue which perhaps made me too complacent.

So as the first elite runner crossed the finish line I noticed a chip code for the runner popped up instead of the runners name, odd.  I also was running a manual timer as a back up where you hit a button as a runner crosses.  However once large amounts of runners start coming across simultaneously it becomes unreliable.  As more elite runners started crossing and all I saw was codes I felt sick to my stomach, something was screwed up.  This was my worst case scenario.

Distance runners care about how they did against their competition and the way they do that is via the official race timing, which I could not provide.  I had other club members shielding me from questions as I feverishly tried to figure out what happened, which I finally did.  The code file I got from the vendor was incorrect causing the mismatch.  I desperately tried getting someone from their support to see if they had the ability to send me the correct chip file which would have allowed me to correct the issue, they could not provide it to me.  I was dead in the water, I had failed.  So although the error was from the vendor, the cold truth was I could have scanned a few chips before the race just to verify everything looked ok.  I could have caught it.

So we did a half ass awards ceremony where we were only able to hand out a few awards based on the manual timing we captured at the finish.  I am the type of person that takes any responsibility I agree to take on seriously, failing that responsibility to thousands of runners hit me hard. The club got a letter from the mayor at the time, who was also a runner, complaining about how disappointed he was that the race results were not available.  Similar complaints rained in over the next several days and I deserved every one of them.  That feeling of failure ate at me and even though the race was over and the damage was done I was still trying to figure out a way to make things right.  I then came up with an idea.

There was a race photographer at the event that took a picture of every finisher.  I asked him if he would be willing to let me have those finish line shots.  He said I could but was curious what I wanted them for.  I told him I was going to use them to provide race results, manually. He was a bit shocked but sent me the thousands of pictures.  What followed was hours upon hours of work where I was cross referencing the timing data that I captured with the finish line photos which allowed me to associate a runner bib number with the chip code.  In the end I was able to formulate nearly complete results for every participant, albeit a week late.  It was one of my biggest failures but also turned out to be a one of my biggest triumphs as a race timer in the end.  I don’t give up.