As the afternoon wore on yesterday the wound in the center of my forehead was more and more painful as the numbing wore off.  By the time I left the office it felt like I was smacked with a ball peen hammer so I was not in a great mood.  I hopped in my Model Y and started backing up.  I was parked in the spot right along the sidewalk so as I started backing up I looked left but then looked right to make sure there were no pedestrians or cyclists on the sidewalk, a normal hazard.  Well in a split second I hear a crunch…..

As I was checking right a woman in a minivan had slid in behind me.  I was angry both at myself for not double checking left and this woman for not noticing my car was moving.  When I got out she said she was stopped and I hit her.  I told her the rubber skid mark on my rear bumper would indicate that wasn’t true.  The rear camera video I viewed later revealed the same thing.

In a nutshell when I started moving backwards she was 10-20 feet away from me.  She did not notice I was moving at all, rolling behind me until impact was made. When I saw my formerly pristine car with rubber streaks and buckles in the rear trunk lid it made me sick to my stomach.  We exchanged info although in a situation like this I believe it is no fault and each insurance company would pay for the damage to it’s insured vehicle.  Her van had other pre-existing scrapes on it so I would suspect she won’t even fix her damage.

I couldn’t believe this just happened.  I took pictures of her vehicle, my car, her insurance card and we exchanged names/phone numbers even though as I said, I don’t think it will be needed in this scenario.  On my drive home I had a mental dark cloud that I could not shake.  It seemed appropriate that we had a summer style rain event last night to boot.

So despite knowing that ultimately it’s always the drivers responsibility to make sure their car does not impact others I also found myself annoyed with Tesla itself and it’s lack of a basic safety feature that has been in many automobiles for many years, rear cross traffic alert.  My Tacoma has this and it would have totally avoided the scenario.  Basically as soon as the vehicle is put in reverse it checks for any movement to the right and left of it whether it is a pedestrian, cyclist or another vehicle.  If motion is detected it sounds an alarm to get your attention.  It has saved me numerous times over the years while backing up when something suddenly appears when your view is obstructed.

The fact that the Tesla, one of the most technologically advanced vehicles on the planet does not do this is stupid, really stupid.  I was annoyed enough about it that I did a short video when I got home talking about the incident and the lunacy that no Tesla’s include this feature that is almost as common as power windows in cars today.  Man, I was pissed, at myself, at the car, at the other driver, and pretty much the world in general.

Today I had my last cardiac test, a vein test.  I was a little surprised when I entered the testing room and the guy said to remove my pants.  The test wasn’t very enjoyable.  I stood on a platform for 20 minutes while the guy ran an ultrasound wand down each leg from my crotch to my ankle.  I quickly found myself flush in the face and sweating, a common involuntary reaction I have with many medical tests.  What really got to me was when I would hear the audio that was being recorded of the veins.

When the tech got to my left leg he was a bit confused.  I told him that over 20 years ago I had a varicose vein removed from the leg.  That cleared things up for him because he was not seeing a vein he was expecting to find.  I was relieved when the test was done.  All that remains on the cardiac side of my current health reality is to talk to the doctor about what all these tests reveal.  I am hoping it’s nothing.  I am tired of eating sardine sandwich situations.

Randall arrived Friday evening.  We didn’t do anything thrilling, he agreed to join me in my Friday night frozen pizza tradition while we drank beer, talked and watched Moon Knight and Daredevil episodes on Disney +.  Randall is my first guest to officially try out the conventional gel foam mattress and queen size platform.  He said the combo was much improved over the blow up bed he slept on a couple months prior.  Randall also told me that he quit his job since I saw him last.  He took advantage of his one week off to go biking, paddle boarding and camping in the Ocala area.  He starts his new job on Monday.

Saturday morning I skipped weeding (gasp) and just cleaned up the chicken coop before we ran out for coffee with Elsa along.  We then walked the park with her.  They had some soccer tournament going on so there were a lot of people which made Elsa more nervous than normal.  She got over it, eventually she calmed down and we had a nice 1 mile walk around the park perimeter.

I suggested to Randall that we go down and catch the last day of the US Pickleball Open as he had never seen a pro event.  Since it was the last day the venue was even fuller that last Saturday when I went.  We grabbed some food, ate it and then settled in to watch some of the matches.  Almost on queue the skies opened up maybe 15 minutes later, halting all play and sending everyone under cover.  When we looked at our local weather apps it showed the rain was supposed to last for at least an hour with a high probability of more on the way.  Not only did the rain need to stop, the courts would need to be cleared/dried before play could resume.  It would have meant standing around for at least two hours which did not sound appealing to either of us so we said screw it and left.  At least there is no cost for admission.

When we got back out toward the house the weather was still holding.  We decided to grab our pickleball gear and go play at the park.  Randall was the first person I ever played pickleball with when he was last visiting.  I was curious how my skills have improved since then.  It was also my first opportunity to try out my new high end racquet.

Going into the match both of us were hurting, Randall from his week of mountain biking and paddle boarding and me from the same lower body IT band/knee pain that has been bothering me for a couple weeks.  However once I got warmed up the discomfort lessened.  The first couple games were pretty competitive with a lot of siding out and the customary trash talk that always goes on when Randall I do almost anything competitive.  I managed to win those early games, once coming back from being down 9-4 or 9-5.  After that things got pretty lopsided, I could tell Randall was out of gas.  We played a total of six games and I won them all.  The new racquet feels good to me.  We had the GoPro running for most of the match which gives a good feel for the silliness that was going on.

Saturday night we went to Brooks for dinner.  I thought I would show Randall one of my new solo drinking/eating spots.  Ironically the bar was much busier than my prior visits which was nice as we got to talk to more people near us.  We talked to one guy a lot, so much so that we exchanged numbers so we could get together to play pickleball.  He has wanted to learn but wasn’t sure how to get started.  I had their lasagna for the first time and it was really good.  By the time we got home I didn’t stay up real long as I was pretty worn out.

Sunday morning we again woke up ready to have another active day.  I threw my two one wheels in the trunk of the car and we headed down to the abandoned golf course to ride.  Randall had ridden my OneWheel years ago and he said he rode a friends OneWheel Pint recently so he was down to ride.

When he first got on the XR he was VERY unstable, dangerously so.  I wasn’t sure how we would be able to ride the golf cart trails which can be a little tricky at times.  Before hitting the trail we had him ride in a flat open area for awhile to get his feet under him.  He was still far from perfect but at least rolling and turning adequately.

Early on in the first lap he had a wobble that turned into a big wobble that sent him rolling to the ground.  Luckily he didn’t hurt himself seriously as the only gear he was wearing was a helmet.  As he put more time in he slowly got more stable and confident.  By the time we finished riding the first lap of the course he was ready to go ride another half loop.  He definitely appreciated the One Wheel “stoke” by the end of it.  I shot video of the ride but haven’t had a chance to edit it yet.

We went home and went back out in less than a half hour, this time to Ave Maria.  Randall had brought his frisbee golf set with.  I mentioned to him that they have a course out at Ave Maria.  I think I played the game once very casually with Alison when we were on vacation somewhere, 20 years ago maybe.  Elsa who normally runs and hides when I ask her if she wants to come with instead was at the door, ready to go which was surprising.  Perhaps she didn’t want to be left home again for the second time of the day.  She had never been to Ave Maria so I thought it would be fun to let her walk with us as we played.

As we drove east the horizon was filled with very ominous clouds.  I was wondering if we were setting up for a similar scenario as the US Open where it will downpour right after we arrive.  The course at Ave Maria was only 9 holes so we thought we may just be able to squeeze a game in.  I am a complete noob to the game.  I didn’t realize you had “driver”, “mid-range” and “putting” discs, each with their own characteristics.   Each hole was typically around 100 yards long, give or take 25 yards.  I quickly realized that throwing a frisbee far and accurately is not very easy.  As the holes went on I got a little more hang of it.  We finished up the last hole just as the rain and wind started in earnest.  Randall beat me by one but I didn’t care, it was a fun and simple way to spend an hour or so.  As a bonus he left one of his two sets of discs with me so I could play on my own if I wanted, which I am likely to do.

By the time we got back we were both beat, it was a very busy weekend.  We drank a little as we watched some F1 racing, which I never watch.  We then finished up Randall’s visit with some Mario Kart on the Switch which was fun of course. The trash talking was unavoidable.  After I claimed my two race to one victory Randall said he needed to shove off since he had the long drive back across the state to prep for his first day of the new gig.  It was a fun weekend for both of us which forced me to deviate from my norms, which is a good thing.

This morning I had my first skin cancer procedure, removing one of the two spots on my forehead.  Once I came back to get stitched up and was re-numbed I felt what I thought was water running into my eye.  I already had my eyes closed.  The nurse gasped and told me to stop, it was actually blood running from the wound, into my eye. I had already wiped my wet finger on my pants, getting blood on them as well.  They did a good job of getting me cleaned up.

This is the start of a week that will more or less be a chinese fire drill.  I will be on the run almost every day of the week.  By mid-May I am hoping for a return to a more normal daily grind.  These surgeries will keep me out of the gym as well which is never a great thing for my state of mind.

I had my second cardiologist test yesterday, an ECG.  They attach only a few electrical leads compared to the 7 or 8 that got attached for both the EKG and the stress test.  They then use an ultrasound machine that seems very similar to what they use on a pregnant woman to look at a baby. I laid on my side while he maneuvered the wand around the left side of my chest.  He would pause at certain spots.  The instrument also captures the sound of my heart which I could hear occasionally which I did not like.  For some reason the loud sound of my beating heart invoked a reaction similar to when I give blood.  Unlike the stress test where the tech gave me some immediate feedback, I got no feedback on the ECG.  I assumed the cardiologist needs to look at the results.

So for a month or two I have been loosely looking for an inexpensive used EUC.  My intent was to have something that I could use primarily as a “beater”.  This would be the wheel I would use if I was trying to teach someone to ride.  For example Clay has indicated he would like to try to ride.  I would prefer to not teach someone on one of my main stream wheels which cost as much as $3000.  Learning to ride always means the EUC is going to be hitting the ground at some point so I would rather this happen to a wheel I don’t care much about.

I inquired about a couple used wheels I saw on FB EUC sale groups.  One of them was a V10F that was in pretty rough shape.  It had 2000 miles, a banged up shell and slightly bent rim.  The guy wanted $900.  I offered him $700 which he initially agreed to but then he didn’t follow through on the transaction.  Another seller was also selling a V10F in better shape with less miles.  He wanted $1200.  I told him I was looking to spend less than $1000 including shipping which ended that conversation as well.

So for some reason the other day I entered “inmotion” into FB marketplace, expecting to not get any hits.  I was surprised when I saw ANOTHER Inmotion V10F come up for sale in Fort Myers, only 45 minutes away.  From the pictures it looked to be in good shape and the best part was it was only listed for $600!  I reached out to the seller but did not hear anything back for a day.  The listing was approximately a week old.

A day later I pinged him again and got a response.  He said he still had the wheel.  He said he bought it from a friend but then decided it was too much to learn to ride.  I asked him if he would take $500, as paying asking price on FB Marketplace is an extreme rarity. He agreed, sweet!  He gave me his address and I made arrangements to pick up the wheel last night.

When I got there he already had the garage open.  The guy had an impressive PEV collection going with two very expensive beach cruiser style e-bikes, regular e-bikes, and two Ninebot scooters.  He told me he was a pilot.  He said he got the wheel from a friend who claimed he rode it very little.  The seller said his riding time consisted of him turning the wheel on, stepping on to it while holding onto something and then almost immediately stepping off, determining it was not for him.  I told him some people do have that reaction.

I turned on the wheel and as the seller watched with amazement I hopped on and did a quick ride up and down his driveway to verify everything was working.  I also connected to the wheel with my phone to check the stats, including mileage.  I was blown away when I saw the mileage number, 9 miles….  This thing was practically brand new and I bought it for less than a third of what a new one costs.  I could hardly believe my stroke of good luck.  I drove home basking in the glow of the transaction.

So even though this model came out at least three years ago it’s new to me so I plan to do some basic testing with the wheel.  It has a top speed of roughly 25 MPH and a range of more than 30 miles so it is not bad spec-wise.  I look forward to putting it through it’s paces and using it to hopefully teach others the basics to perhaps get some more local riders into the community while possibly making a friend or two along the way.

Speaking of friends, Randall is going to be arriving tonight to hang this weekend.  It should be a good time as always.  I just hope my annoying left IT band pain subsides enough to not impact any possible physical activities we may want to do.  Monday the skin cancer cut-a-thon begins, I can hardly wait.

Yesterday my fake chicken finally arrived a week late but in one piece.  The “bird” is much smaller than I expected but upon double checking that is because of my lack of attention to detail.  I thought 18x12x24 was in inches, it was actually in centimeters.  It’s big enough to serve it’s purpose hopefully.  I felt the need to name the fake chicken.  After a very short period of time I landed on the name Helen.  I’m not sure why but that was the name.

I took Helen out with me to give Kathy her afternoon treats.  I sat the bird a few feet away.  Kathy looked at it but didn’t react one way or another.  Before I put Kathy to bed last night I put Helen up on the perch with her.  Helen was still on the perch this morning so at least I know Kathy didn’t attack her.  This morning I moved Helen out to the chicken run.  It will be very interesting to see if Kathy starts hanging out with her new inanimate friend.  Troy pointed out to me how his parakeet used to love the fake bird that was in it’s cage.  Maybe the same  thing will happen here, sort of like how children get attached to stuffed animals.

My replacement road bike tire showed up yesterday as well.  Randall is supposed to come over this weekend so I wanted to have my road bike in safe riding shape in case we ride.  Since I already changed the front tire several months ago it wasn’t a huge struggle to get the back tire on outside of a few little sticking points.

If you have read my blog for any period of time you know of some of my struggles mentally with dealing with some of the hurdles in life.  I have an inner critic that is constantly clashing with my desire to live a happy life.  This negative thought process can creep into so many parts of my life and in most situations the outcome is not good.

I have been working on sorting out this behavior and identifying why my thought processes chain together like they do.  The real key is to break that chain right at the onset before anything takes hold.  There are ways to do that but for anyone that says it is easy, especially for someone that has been around for over five decades, isn’t being realistic.  The first step in the process is being cognizant of the behavior.  The second step is trying to make changes to your thought patterns to reprogram your brain from following the well worn path into unhappy, negative thinking.  I need to apply the same mantra as I have used for physical activities where consistent effort results in slow and steady improvement.

Speaking of physical activity, doing the stress test yesterday which included running for several minutes on the treadmill was exactly what my sore left IT band did not need.  I was gimpy as hell once again last night and this morning.  I need to find that magic stretch that releases this tension that sends lightning bolts of pain down the side of my leg and across the top of the knee.  Today I have my heart ultrasound. Hopefully it doesn’t reveal that I am pregnant.

As the sun was setting last night I got the desire to go to the park.  The day was very hot but by the time I got there it felt quite pleasant.  I brought Elsa with and first got a walk in with her, doing a lap around the perimeter.  As usual she was very nervous at the beginning but calmed down within 5-10 minutes.

I then let her rest in the truck while I grabbed my original OneWheel and rode around for about a half hour.  There weren’t a lot of people there by that time of night so it was very chill.  Riding a One Wheel is more relaxing for me than an EUC for some odd reason.

This morning I had my first cardiac test, a stress test.  I had one of these back in 2019 when they were testing me for everything under the sun for my mystery fatigue I experienced for almost a year and a half.  Because of this I knew what to expect.  It was a 10 minute treadmill session that starts very slow but wound up being a steady run.  The run wasn’t taxing me terribly from a cardio perspective but it definitely did not feel good on my joints.  My left IT band has been tweaked for the last couple days, sending shots of pain up and down the side of my hip/leg regularly.  Running was not the activity that is ideal in this state.  Anyway the tech said I passed the stress test and described my performance as “very good”.  I would have been concerned with any other result.

Tomorrow I have the ECG.  It was described to me as basically taking an ultrasound of the heart.  The test is supposed to reveal if there is any damage to the heart which the EKG seemed to indicate.  If I get an all clear on this test I have a feeling the end result of all of this is going to be a shoulder shrug.

Yesterday afternoon there was a massive Comcast outage that they attributed to a single fiber cut.  It affected everything, tv, residential and commercial data services.  It makes you wonder how single points of failure still exist in a mega-network like Comcast.  It was a hard down that lasted several hours.  At home my cable internet came back up a little before 7PM.  It was funny I had already resigned myself to an offline type of night and in a weird way was looking forward to it.

I had the first of my two week marathon of appointments yesterday, the dentist.  Luckily I escaped without any cavities.  The hygienist who I have been seeing for at least 15 years and I traded stories about the joys of being 50 plus and how in some ways it was like a switch flipping, to the off position.  Next up on the appointment list is tomorrow where I get my cardiac stress test.  I expect to pass the test.  On Friday during the headwind hell bike ride I almost got up to 170 beats per minute and didn’t die.

I don’t think I mentioned my visit to the Pickleball US Open Sunday afternoon.  I met up with Rich to watch some high level matches.  It gave me a good appreciation for just how far away I am from being anything resembling a decent player.  We found some empty courts and actually played three games which was very unexpected.  My IT band was already hurting before we started to play so I knew it was going to be a rough go.  My lower body pain was still left over from the Tuesday night 3 hour plus pickleball session at Veterans Park.  To still be hurting that many days later is not great news.  I managed to win one of the three games and was a sweaty pig by the end of it.  After we finished we both headed out, Rich in his Tesla, me on my V11.

Here is a picture I took of the wood structure in the rock garden after a fresh coat of Thompsons along with the new solar shade and twinkle lights.  Thanks to the magic of modern iPhone night mode photography this picture came out cool despite it being almost completely dark when I took it.

It looks like the last entry I made was Friday morning.  Elsa and I went to the park again.  I walked her around but then loaded her up in the truck with the AC running while I pulled out my pickle ball gear.  I wanted to hit some balls around, specifically practice serving.

One of my problems while playing is a hesitancy to strike the ball aggressively because I don’t trust my accuracy.  Most of the time I can hit a ball much harder than I choose to.  I also tried to see if there was any way I could serve left handed since it is actually my throwing hand.  I had very poor results.  This all ties back to when I took tennis lessons as a child.  My coach did not want me to play left handed so I was taught as a righty.  I only recall having a few lessons but it was enough to make me play racquet sports right handed my entire life, it’s bizarre.

Friday afternoon I got on my bike to ride.  As I was pumping the tires I noticed the rear was unusually low.  As I focused on the tire I was amazed at just how worn it was, dangerously worn.  I am not quite sure how I did not notice this previously.  Of course it didn’t stop me from riding.  It was a BRUTAL ride containing some of the worst head wind I have dealt with.  My heart rate topped out close to 170 beats a minute.   When I got back I did make sure to buy a new tire.

Saturday was not horribly busy.  The most ambitious thing I did was redo the solar string lights on the wooden structure in the rock garden followed by installing the new solar shade.  I bought a bigger solar shade than I used to have out there.  Trying to get it in place with one person was a unique challenge.  I am not thrilled with the end result but it will shade the area I want which was the goal.

Saturday night I again went to a bar myself however this time it was a movie theater bar.  I went to the Prado theater in Bonita.  I got there well in advance of the movie I was seeing, Secrets of Dumbledore, so I could eat and drink.  The bar again was lightly populated but I enjoyed myself.

The movie was long at two hours and twenty minutes but I liked it.  There was a couple that brought their little boy to the movie.  He was talking loudly through about half of the film.  At one point people near them asked if they could try to keep it down.  The entitled couple instantly got angry and barked back that this was a children’s movie.  (it’s actually rated PG13)  I was far enough away that it didn’t bother me much but I still found it amazing that the parents made absolutely no effort to encourage the kid to be quiet.  I’d give the movie a B+, nothing will ever match the magic of the original Harry Potter cast.

Today I have a few disorganized things I’d like to do.  I have a massively busy roughly two week period coming up.  In addition to several work related projects I have four cardiologist related appointments, three skin cancer surgeries, a dentist appointment, Elsa’s annual vet visit, and a few other things I am forgetting.  I very much look forward to coming out the other end of this very busy tunnel that is filled with things I’d rather not have to deal with.

My day yesterday was pretty chill since my to do list was essentially done.  Elsa and I did our coffee run and 20 minute park walk which she is getting more accustomed to.  It sucks that once I go back to work it becomes much more difficult to do it.  Maybe I’ll have  to adapt and try to walk her around the backyard at night.  The park is typically busy at night which makes her more nervous.

I talked to Clay about meeting up to ride at the Greenway Thursday night.  I have never ridden there in the evening so I thought it would be fun.  Clay had gotten his new GT since I saw him last.  I also brought my XR with it’s new tire I just installed.  I got there a little early and took the XR out to get more of a feel for the new rubber which I actually really like at this point. Once Clay got there I switched over to my GT.

We had a great ride where we took the Greenway through Baker Park and then into downtown Naples.  Clay rides the area all the time so he knows back ways to get places that I had no clue about.  We snaked through traffic and pedestrians getting the double takes from people that you are used to when riding one wheeled PEVs.  Clay talked a lot about his other huge hobby, kite boarding.  He has repeatedly encouraged me to try it, which he did again last night and I have repeatedly declined.  It just doesn’t sound appealing to me, especially with how ocean water kicks off ear infections for me almost always.

We wound up at the beach, sitting on the benches and watching a complete sunset over the water, a rarity in my life. Clay let me have one of his Miller Lites he had in his backpack while we chilled out.  We then headed back.  On the way we went through the Bayfront area.  Clay suggested we could grab another beer at some outdoor bar called The Cabana.  It was packed with people, even on a Thursday night.  We again got a few questions about our boards.  There was some drunken woman that was trying to make conversation with me.  She was so drunk I could hardly make out what she was saying.  I just did a lot of smiling and head nodding.

After leaving the bar we went through this underpass.  Clay pointed out how there are footprints all over the walls and ceiling.  Evidently this is a thing.  He encouraged me to leave my own mark, which I did, removing my right shoe and leaving a mark on the wall.  Clay made his mark on the ceiling.  Clay said they have repainted this corridor three times, I guess someone thinks having it covered in shoe prints is un-Naples like.  Every time they do it, the public just foot prints it right back up, very funny.

Riding back through the Greenway later at night was a weird but cool experience.  We more or less had the entire place to ourselves.  The only noise was the sound of our boards with stillness all around.  Clay and I talked about meeting up over the weekend to go ride the abandoned golf course which he never got to do yet.  It was one of the most unique Thursday evenings I have had in a long time.  I hope to continue the trend of new experiences with new people as my future rolls out ahead of me.

Yesterday and today have been stuffed with things.  Yesterday morning I spent an  hour or two wire brushing the various wood structures in the yard to prep them for a new coat of waterproofing/stain.  In the afternoon I finally tackled replacing the tire on my original OneWheel.  I have been talking about doing this for at least two years, possibly closer to three.  I kept putting it off because of the potential hurdles of taking the board apart plus I sort of liked the stock Vega tire it comes with.  Well late last year the board started to develop a slow leak in the Vega.  Even though I had a new One Wheel GT on order I still wanted to change the tire on the XR so whomever gets the board after me has a solid tire under them.

I bought the tire and again it has sat, probably for at least two months as I tried to summon the motivation to dig into the project.  Yesterday was that day.  I followed a recommended YouTube video for the procedure as I filmed a video of my own.  There were several friction points that had me flustered a few times but I worked through it.  In about two hours I had successfully completed the swap.  The brief test ride I took afterward confirmed the new tire has a much different feel, more responsive similar to my old OneWheel Pint.  I hope to get out for a more extended ride on the board soon.

I talked to my friend/co-worker and arranged to meet him to play some pickle ball at Veterans Park Tuesday night. He had been going there for awhile at night.  It was a lot of fun although all of the games are doubles.  I really prefer playing singles but doubles is the de-facto standard.  I bet I played at least 10 games and lost every single one although a lot of them were very close.  My pickle ball reality is very odd.  When I was very young I took tennis lessons.  They taught me to play right handed because playing left handed was bad, for some reason.  I throw, bat and play most sports left handed.  So the end result is I play pickle ball right handed which is very weird.  I have much more whipping ability in my left arm.  I do occasionally switch hands when playing.

I think my biggest issue is a lack of confidence when playing.  The end result is making conservative plays instead of attacking the ball aggressively.  Playing against all of these different people was a good experience, despite losing to everyone. I need to keep playing/practicing.  I was pretty wiped out by the end of the night, both of my knees were sore.  I woke up this morning feeling even more sore, but I didn’t have time to be sore.

I designated today as waterproof/stain day.  After getting my coffee and walking Elsa around the park I started the work on all of the outdoor wood, there is a lot of it.  I redid both ramps for the sheds, the chicken coop/run, the bar park, and the stone garden area.  In total I bet I spent over 5 hours doing this.  It was physically grueling.  The ramps required me to be bent over for prolonged periods of time, the structure in the rock garden required me to working over my head for prolonged periods of time.  I was hurting but driven to get it done.  Everything looks much better after the work, I am hoping to not have to revisit it for a couple years, if I am lucky.

At 6PM I had the guy from the window company show up to give me an estimate on windows.  I immediately liked the guy and we talked about a ton of non-windows related things for a half hour before he started to measure.  I liked that his company offers a lifetime warranty on both accidental and hurricane related damage.  The price was a little steeper than what I expected but I was able to negotiate it down a couple grand more to get me to about 2k per window.  These windows are impact rated, insulated and tinted. The windows that came with the house are pretty much junk.   It’s a major improvement that should add to the already escalating value of my home.

At this point I only have one item left on my staycation to do list, wash the Tesla.  It will be a piece of cake compared to the tasks I have already crossed off.  I look forward to coasting through my remaining time off.

Yesterday I finally had the cardiologist appointment I had been waiting for for over a month and a half.  I had some anxiety about it most of the morning some of which almost felt like it was triggering phantom chest pain.  I think it is quite easy to fall into a psychosomatic response once you are told something like your heart may be f’d up.  So anyway I get in there and the assistant looks at my chart from my physical and suggests we do another EKG.  He said it is not abnormal to get a reading like mine due to the leads being placed incorrectly.  I did not mention to him that they ran the EKG twice, just to make sure, but hoped his hunch was indeed correct.

He hooked me up and within seconds  was able to see that he was seeing results almost identical to what I had in early March, fantastic…  He was still upbeat and said I certainly don’t seem like I am a typical person with cardiac problems based on my overall fitness level and the questions on the survey I filled out.  There were three things however that were not talked about which in retrospect I should have asked.  On the survey symptom list I circled yes on nausea, and stress/depression. Both of these things came on within the last 6 months and I am one of those people that absolutely believe your state of mind has a direct impact on your health.  The other thing was never asking about covid.  I am pretty certain I had Covid at least once, if not twice in the last two years.  I also had the Moderna vax (initial two doses).  There are tons of reports of heart issues suddenly developing as a result. (look up covid myocarditis)

The cardiologist came in and looked at my EKG results, while asking me some additional health questions, again seemingly using my physical condition and lack of other symptoms to fall on the side of there isn’t a significant problem, however, we need to make sure.  I walked out of there with appointments for a stress test, an ECG, and a vein test.  The ECG seems to be the most helpful test as it would identify if there is actually any heart damage consistent with the possible mini-heart attack the EKG could indicate.  I walked out of there not happy but glad that we are taking the next steps to figure out if I really have something to be concerned about.  I was surprised that when I told him my mom had a heart attack at 67 he was not concerned either.  The fact that she was a lifetime smoker and her age at death means there is not a genetic disposition towards heart disease, in his opinion.

Around dinner time last night I took the V11 out for a DD ride.  I stopped at the park and talked about my S20 saga, the wheel that I ordered last August that is still not in my hands.

This morning I took Elsa for another park walk after I grabbed coffee.  She is getting less and less fearful it seems each time we go.  My goal is to get here there every day of my staycation.  I just got done going around with a wire brush on all of the outdoor wood that is treated with Thompsons stain/waterseal.  It was an unfun job but something that really makes a difference in the longevity of the product when applied.  Some of the wood was really in bad shape despite being last done somewhere around a year ago.  If my mental plan holds I will do the brush work tomorrow.

This afternoon the task in my sights is changing the tire on my OneWheel XR.  It promises to be a unique challenge.