I entered the final weekend before Christmas with lots to do but I wanted to get my ass back on the road bike again. It had been somewhere around a month since I had been able to do my 10 mile darkness ride.  This was the first time I got to use my new handlebar mounted headlight.  It worked great, throwing a sizeable circle of light far enough ahead of me that I felt able to go at my normal 16-17 MPH pace without much trouble.  I could definitely tell my body was re acclimating itself to the activity but my numbers at the end were decent, despite the break.

On Saturday my main focus was to get the property cleaned up.  Even though the grass has grown very little in the last month it was looking pretty ratty.  I spent all afternoon out there, weed whacking followed by mowing.  The visual was much improved afterward and I felt good knowing I should be good to go until the new year rolls around at least.

I sat out a very late addition to my Christmas decorations, LED color pucks.  These were an impulse buy I did off a FB ad several weeks ago.  I was skeptical if they would even show up.  They are solar powered and have a cool looking ring of multicolor LEDS that you can change as you see fit.  For Xmas I made alternating red and green of course but once the holiday is over I can deploy these elsewhere using whatever color scheme I prefer.  I like them.

My Saturday evening was uneventful.  I had minimal appetite and no motivation to do conventional food prep.  My dinner consisted of a PB sandwich and not much else.  I still am getting nauseous doing my egg prep as well in the mornings.  It’s getting to the point that I might just stop eating them altogether.

I got to lose myself in WoW for awhile Saturday evening.  I have accomplished my first goal of getting all of my characters on my first account to max level.  I am now working getting the three additional characters on my second account to that same level as well.  This has been a dumb goal of mine I have accomplished in every WoW expansion that has come out since 2005.  For some reason I feel obligated to get these bits and bytes to their virtual pinnacle. Not doing so would feel like shirking of responsibility, something that I have a hard time doing in real or virtual situations.  I am hoping that within a month the task will be completed.

On Sunday morning I started a HUGE print on the Chiron that if successful will take over a week to complete.  This is basically a torture test to see just how effective the new wiring harness I bought is at solving the random lock up issue.  I have a camera on the print doing a time lapse which should look pretty cool if it completes.

I have fallen off of doing 3D printing for fun, for me.  The overwhelming majority of my printing has been stuff for the store for a long time.  Since the order flow on the store has really slowed I have printers just sitting there doing nothing.  I might as well make something fun for me.  This Chiron print is a Christmas village that I have printed before but never in this massive scale.

I bought a ticket for a 12:00 matinee to see the new Spiderman movie.  This is only the second movie I have seen in a theater since covid became a household word and the first time I have gone to a movie alone since I was last single as Cindy actually went with me to see The Eternals.  I decided to go back to our old stomping grounds, the Prado in Bonita.  There was a time when we were going to the movies almost every week.

The last time I was there, the building I was parked in front of was getting ready to open as another Beef o Brady’s restaurant.  I was surprised to see a For Lease sign in the window.  I was even more surprised to see the remnant stickers on the window indicate it was most recently some sort of other business.  So in the span of less than two years two businesses started and failed in that spot, wow.

I had not had lunch so I ordered a flat bread pizza that I ate in my seat in the top corner of the theater.  There may have been 20ish people there, not many at all for a new Spiderman but they were also showing the film every 30 minutes.  I am a huge Spiderman fan and had seen all of the movies, enjoying some more than others but I would never miss one.  Seeing all of the previous films made me appreciate this version even more, I loved it.  It hit all of the action quota you could want with the normal amounts of comedic relief as well as some real emotional moments that hit hard.  Despite enjoying the hell out of the movie I found myself instinctively looking to my side, what I would always do to see Cindy’s reaction at certain moments.  When I saw the empty seat it made me sad, repeatedly.  I won’t spoil anything for you but just trust me, if you saw the other Spidermans, you must see this one, A+ for me.  The better news is the new Matrix releases this week on HBO Max, another film I am really looking forward to.

When I got home I wasted little time before I threw on my gear and headed out for a short ride.  There were some big things announced in the EUC world this week and in general I just needed to clear my head.  Being out on a ride is a good way to realign perspective although I still have a lot of things I am trying to deal with right now, none of which have a quick or easy solution.

I have officially concluded my Christmas shopping for 2021.  It has been a very different sort of holiday season and I expect that trend to continue in spades in 2022.

I remember when my parents split up, I don’t recall if the divorce was final or if still in the works when this incident occurred.  It was Christmas and we had just finished up with our visit with my dad.  Back then I don’t think any of the kids looked forward to visits with dad, he was very up and down as a result of the split which was due to infidelity, according to my mom.  There were times when he was just so sad it was unbearable to be around him.  As a 12 or 13 year old it was tough to fully understand the depth of feeling/hurt involved when two people end a long relationship.

So anyway we had just gotten in my mom’s car.  My dad signaled for us to wait.  He suddenly grabbed some additional presents from his car and handed them to us through the window.  When asked, he said they were from the woman he was seeing, she evidently bought us presents.  Without a moment’s hesitation my mom grabbed the wrapped gifts and threw them in the street. As she sped away I recall looking back at my dad picking up the discarded presents from the ground.  That moment in time and the emotion surrounding it has been burned into my mind ever since, obviously.

As an adult I have had opportunities to deal with both sides of this scenario which have given me a greater understanding of the dynamics involved in failed relationships. Unfortunately that experience still does not dull the edge when you get cut upon repeatedly. Only the passing of time and transitioning to the next chapter in life can do that.

Yes today is my birthday but the only thing BIG about it is the number, 54.  It certainly has no correlation to my personal feelings about my birthday as I typically lament the passing of each and every year instead of celebrating it.  I know I probably say this every year in the blog but only because it is true.

It just seems so weird to be saying out loud that I am this age, an age I can very clearly remember my parents being and recalling that it did not seem all that long ago.   I remember thinking someone in their 50s was basically a senior citizen in my youth.  I remember 15 years ago a guy doing service at my house saying that once you turn 50, every year is a dog year.  I remember thinking that was a funny statement at that time.  I have now discovered that it is also a very truthful statement.

Obviously this has been a very different year for me, the most different in nearly a decade.  I am anticipating the next revolution around the sun to bring with it more change than I have experienced in quite awhile.

Yesterday I got a text from my brother in law that I could not believe, it was their cat, Higgins, in a live trap.  You may recall my mentioning that the got out of the yard a few days before I visited them in Texas.  They did tons of searching for him, posted signs on poles and in social media but had no luck.  Everyone pretty much resigned themselves that Higgins was gone, not knowing his fate weighed heavily on everyone, even me.  Whenever I was out with them in the neighborhood I was scanning, hoping to see a tabby cat.

So seeing the picture of Higgins alive in a cage nearly a month later was pretty amazing.  The story goes that an old man was in front of their house, saw the lost cat sign on the post and told my brother-in-law that he thought he saw this cat in a storm culvert nearby.  Damon and the family headed there and Higgins was indeed there but scared and would not come.  A friend of theirs had a live trap so they baited it with chicken and came back a little later to find the cat took the bait.  I couldn’t believe it.

I wondered how he scraped by for a month being he is a domestic cat with no roughing it skills.  Torrin said he lost weight as you would expect.  They gave him a bath and were taking him to the vet to make sure he is ok.  I was so happy for both Higgins and my sisters family, it was truly a Christmas Miracle.

Yesterday I was at our new office which is massive and beautiful.  I was getting it attached to our network so it can communicate with our back end systems.  This location is less than 10 miles from my house so I am trying to schedule the visits in the afternoon if possible so I can just shoot home afterward.  The location is due to be open in less than a month so my tasks are going to ramp up massively until this happens.

Today is my last day as a 53 year old man.  Just reading that sentence makes me cringe. It will be quite interesting to see how my 54th year on the planet works out.

Yesterday I took a nice sized chunk out of the remaining Christmas shopping I had to do.  At this point I should be able to wrap it up easily this weekend without spending a ton of time.  That’s a good thing because I need to give the yard a cut and trim this weekend to get the property to the end of the year without looking too ratty.

I have had a weird thing going on since last week.  The sight and smell of the eggs I normally make each and every morning has been making me feel nauseous for some odd reason.  I don’t get nauseous for any reason normally so for this to start out of the blue is odd.  Some mornings it was bad enough that I stopped making eggs and just had PB toast or Pop Tarts because I felt dangerously close to throwing up.    Why this would start out of the blue is a mystery that I will likely just write off to more of the wonders of aging.  I am hoping it will simply fade away over time, my general approach to the majority of ailments I come across.

Starting Thursday night Elsa and Sadie switched roles, with Elsa being the one that developed uncontrollable diarrhea.  It was pretty bad.  I hoped like Sadie, the passing of time would help but there was one difference, in the pools of brown liquid there were also some bundles of grass/organic matter.  I wondered just how much grass she had eaten, something she will do on the down low if I leave her unsupervised in the yard too long.

So when I got home Friday night there were more accidents on the pool deck, at least for the most part she would let loose out there.  I was concerned but still hoped she just had to get it all out of her system, she wasn’t eating but she was still drinking water.  Well an hour or so after I got home I saw Elsa walking in a way I recognize, it was a precursor to throwing up.  I tried to get her out to the pool deck but she let loose en route, throwing up a ton of mostly water by the slider and then more outside.  It was at that moment I became officially concerned.

I had scenarios in my head where potentially she ate so much organic matter that she had a GI obstruction that would not only cause the diarrhea but throwing up as well.  I called Cindy to fill her in.  I decided that I wanted to take her the the 24 hour vet, to be safe.  If something serious would happen as a result of me being passive about the problem I would not ever be able to forgive myself.  Elsa is basically my child, the reason I am able to still maintain basic life functionality at this point and time.  I called the vet and told them I would be there within the hour. This was definitely not the way I anticipated my Friday night to go.

We pulled up to the vet a little after 8.  I was happy to see the waiting room was empty.  Cindy and I actually had been here once before a few years ago after Elsa got stung in the face and started to swell up.  I described her symptoms to both the counter staff and again to a vet tech before the actual vet came in, a younger woman who seemed very nice.  Despite being in a foreign environment Elsa was relatively calm and I could tell she was comfortable with the vet, which was great.  After describing all the background the vet said they would take her back for an exam, Elsa went with her without a huge fuss, again somewhat surprising but welcomed.

After maybe 15 minutes the vet returned, saying the physical exam was not bad, they said she had a slightly elevated temperature and heart rate but that was likely just from being nervous.  She gave me several options, one of which included doing an xray to ensure there is no blockage.  I told the vet that was the primary reason I brought her in, to make sure she did not have a GI obstruction, so I authorized her to take x-rays which again, took less time than I expected.

I was relieved when the x-rays showed no blockage.  The vet suggested a few outgoing treatment things she could do, a shot to control nausea for 24 hours, a subdermal fluids injection to make sure Elsa was hydrated and a few cans of GI specific dog food, all of which I agreed to.  I got home a little before 10, relieved that the news was mostly good.  By Saturday morning Elsa’s appetite had returned and she hungrily devoured the canned GI food, she seems to be a big fan of it.  There were no more unplanned “deposits” on the floor or pool deck either.

My Saturday was pretty busy, I did a bunch of small tasks which can add up to a good chunk of time.  I got groceries, wrapped presents, and went about addressing, signing, and stamping christmas cards that I am sending out to family and friends.  I used to always offload this task, this may be the first time I have done it myself, I am not quite sure.  Saturday night I live streamed, which I was supposed to do originally on Friday but obviously that got postponed.  I was feeling sort of tired and low energy but felt obligated to do it since I had announced the stream earlier in the week on social media. I gave away a lot of stuff which I thought was appropriate since it was two weeks from Christmas.  In retrospect I probably gave away too much. I bet a third of the stream was just me managing the logistics of the giveaways.

My Sunday was relatively slow paced.  I spent a lot of time at my computer desk in the morning.  After doing my weekly bill paying session I then moved straight into packing/shipping all of the stuff I gave away on the stream. It took awhile, I wasn’t ready to head out for coffee until nearly 11AM.

In the middle of the afternoon I found myself outside doing a couple chicken things.  Sadie and Elsa were outside with me.  I took a seat in the shade on the hill by the pool cage.  In short order Sadie came and laid down to the right of me and Elsa to my left.  We just sat there, doing nothing but observing the scene in front of us for a good 10 to 15 minutes.  I do not sit quietly in contemplation very often but in that moment I appreciated the stillness.

Ali and Shugs were coming back later in the afternoon.  Sadie had been bull rushing the garage door every time I would go out it for a few days in the hope I was taking her back home.  She really misses Ali when she is away for more than a few days.  I loaded up Sadie and Elsa for the trip, Elsa loves Shuggs and Ali and always gets very excited to see them.  We got a recap of their trip, the primary reason for it being for Ali to attend the graduation ceremony for her masters which she recently completed.  They also visited New Orleans but it sounded like they had a pretty tame experience compared to what can go down on Bourbon Street.  I recanted my various tales of dog diarrhea, a great conversation starter.

Last night I ignored the large volume of DVR content I was building up and just spent most of my night hanging in WoW, because I felt like it.  This week is my birthday, hooray.  I am not quite sure if there will be anything at all significant to mark to occasion, I may just go ride an EUC and grab dinner at a bar.

I am now in the point of December where I need to get serious about crossing names off my Xmas buying list.  According to my calculations I have 10 people I still need to buy for.  I am hoping by end of the weekend that list is considerably shorter.

I am walking around like an 85 year old man, the end result of squatting on Wednesday for the first time in probably three weeks.  It’s crazy how severe the soreness can be after squatting if I don’t do it weekly.  I am only using light weight, 135LBS.  I keep the weight light to ensure I get my ROM as deep as I comfortably can which gives you the best overall benefit but also brings the pain as you are using muscles in ways they aren’t taxed in many everyday scenarios.

Last night I got around to editing the footage from my Tuesday night ride in downtown Naples.  I think it turned out half decent even though a GoPro is pretty lousy normally in shooting in low light conditions.

I am doing a holiday live stream tonight where I will be giving away some surplus items, acting as a virtual Santa.  I have Xmas and non-Xmas related tasks to get done over the weekend but nothing overly oppressive at this point which is fine by me.

As I hoped I left a little early yesterday to get home to deal with the end result of Sadie’s GI issues.  On the way home I stopped at Target to buy boneless chicken breast, rice, and a rice cooker since I didn’t have one.  After picking up that stuff I stopped at DD to get my afternoon coffee and had another shitty experience.

This location for years used to be my favorite DD.  I knew a lot of the staff, they were friendly, relatively speedy and got your order right.  Every single person from that crew has moved on, the last couple years it has been a revolving door that has resulted in the place dropping from first to worst in terms of customer experience.

Extreme slowness has been the norm and yesterday was another example.  Despite only four vehicles being in the drive thru line it took me 15 minutes to get to the window.  People were at the menu for minutes with no communication from the staff inside.  Once I was handed my large “hot” coffee and drove out of the lot the first sip revealed it was room temperature and they got the cream and sugar wrong.  I didn’t have the time or energy to go inside to get a new drink so I just forced it down on the drive home.  The caffeine was the most important thing I needed anyway since I got so little sleep the night before.

When I got home I cautiously stepped foot in the door, worried I would instantly smell dog shit.  I didn’t.  I surveyed the rooms and the lanai as well, no signs of defecation revealed themselves which was a big relief.  I theorized that Sadie had emptied her tank the night before.  Whatever the reason I was glad to not walk into a shit show, literally.

So believe it or not, despite being on the planet for nearly 54 years I do not believe I ever have cooked rice before.  My introduction to it was pretty painless.  The instructions for the cooker were simple, measure out the rice and then add the appropriate amount of water based on how much rice you added.  The rice took somewhere around 45 minutes.  The chicken breast prep was pretty simple too, just boil for around 15 minutes.  Once both things were done I combined them in Sadie’s food dish.  I took her rapid cleaning of her plate as a stamp of approval on my chicken/rice preparation skills.

Last night was a much calmer one for all involved.  Once I fell asleep I stayed that way until the 5:35 AM alarm, thank goodness. Tonight I am considering throwing a wheel in the truck and riding the Greenway into Naples proper to do some Xmas light gazing.  Never did it before which is a good indicator that I should do it now.

Ali and Shugs dropped off Sadie last night after work and hung around a bit to talk which was nice.  When I was at Ali’s party they had mentioned that Sadie just started up with some GI issues as in explosive diarrhea.  When they dropped her off last night they said it was a “little better”.  Well that was not my experience.

Sadie has always had a sensitive stomach which has resulted in runny results randomly but this was not that.  This was akin to what I experienced during colonoscopy prep, liquid and at regular intervals, fantastic.  Sadie does let me know when she has to go which is a good thing, as long as you don’t require any sustained sleep to function that is.  I may have gotten three hours of sleep last night with me taking her out every couple hours it seemed.  When I would return to bed each time I couldn’t fall back asleep as my mind was thinking about how long it would be until she was waking me up again.  It was pretty miserable.

After the last go round between 3-4 AM I left the bedroom door open and cracked the door on the lanai so she could get out and do her business unassisted if needed which she did not take advantage of.  Instead I was startled out of my brief sleep by the sound of around a 5 second wet fart that was followed by a smell so rancid I had to hold the pillow over my face like I was trying to suffocate myself, just to insulate my nose from the stench.  I did mention it was a miserable night?

Normally when Sadie’s BMs get “loose” we switch her to a rice and boiled chicken diet, neither of which I have.  I don’t think I even have a rice steamer at this point.  I am hoping I can get out a little early and grab rice/chicken on the way home to make this workable.  I have her until Sunday night so I can’t have this be a groudhogs day scenario as I need at least some sleep to function at a base level at work.

I did not get to resume my Friday night road bike workout because I had not received the new mount for the headlight which will go on the handlebars.  Having the light on my head was an absolute fail and I did not want to experience that again. Friday night I did a cliff notes versions of watching some of the DVR content that had built up while I was gone.  I basically watched the first 5 minutes and last 5 minutes of several shows.  It was during this exercise that I decided certain shows I have been watching for awhile are going to be cut from my viewing menu in the future.  There are other things I would rather do with that time.

My Saturday was pretty open since I already weeded Wednesday and no yard work was required.  Elsa and I went on a big errands run that took all of three hours to complete.  The stops included Costco, which is asking for frustration if you are dumb enough to go on a Saturday.  Even the far reaches of the parking lot where I normally chose to park were stuffed with vehicles.  As I grabbed needed grocery items I also snagged a couple Xmas gifts.

Saturday afternoon I had a number of smallish things to take care of but nothing that took more than 15 minutes each.  Later in the afternoon I tool my wheel and camera for a ride to Dunkin Donuts.  Evidently I had something screwed up with the mic and did not catch it.  The end result was audio free footage that was more or less useless.  I tried to salvage it by just posting some B-roll footage with a music bed.  It was frustrating.

Sunday morning I had to run to Home Depot to grab a couple things.  The last time I was there with Elsa she unceremoniously shit in the store.  Of course I was conscious of this and I made sure she did a two at home before we headed out.  So as we were walking the store I made sure she was in front of me so I could see what was going on.  When she shit the last time she was lagging behind.  I noticed she was sort of fast walking, which made me a bit nervous but I was pretty confident we were in the clear since she emptied prior.  Imagine how my heart swelled with Xmas spirit as she suddenly started dropping logs, again.

I couldn’t believe it.  I scolded her but the damage was clearly already done.  I had no employee assistance this time.  I went up to the self checkout register, grabbed a plastic bag, and returned to the scene of the crime.  The bag actually worked out better than the paper towels used during the accident last visit.  I was also glad to see no patrons stepped in the land mine while I was getting the bag.  At this point I am afraid Elsa has now made the connection that Home Depot = bathroom time, this is the third time she has done this.  I don’t think I will have her walking the aisles there anytime again soon.

When we checked out we saw Sandy, the dog loving older lady that always gives Elsa treats when she sees her.  Cindy and I always would have nice interactions with Sandy when we would do our near weekly Home Depot runs.  Since the split my visits there have been less frequent.  I had seen Sandy a couple times soon after.  She asked where Cindy was but I made up some excuse for her absence, not wanting to get into it.  The last few times I have gone to the store Sandy wasn’t there but this time I decided it was finally time to let her know the situation.

After giving Elsa her treat she once again asked about Cindy.  I blurted out that we had split up several months ago which surprised Sandy in a major way.  For some reason telling her this sent an instant wave of emotion through my body, making me pause awkwardly for a few moments while I pushed it back below the surface.  Sandy said she was very sorry to hear that and that she has gone though it herself, twice.  I turned the attention back to Elsa to exit the conversation.  I walked away sad but feeling better that I didn’t need to be disingenuous with Sandy any longer.

Early Sunday afternoon I headed to Fort Myers to attend a luncheon/party for Ali.  She is completing her Master’s degree, which she did entirely online over the course of almost three years.  It was a relatively small gathering of 12-13 people, some of them I knew and had not seen for a very long time.  It was held in a back room of some higher end Mexican restaurant.  It was really a nice time, I enjoyed hanging, drinking and eating with those in attendance.  Having the desire and commitment to reenter the higher education system at this point of life is something I would not consider, even remotely.  It’s quite the accomplishment for Ali and hopefully will open up more doors for her down the road.

On the way to the party I was listening to the Eagles/Jets game.  When I turned it off it was a back and forth affair.  The thing that surprised me was the Eagles were starting a QB I never heard of, Gardner Minshew.  Evidently he used to be on Jacksonville and became the Eagles backup when they traded Joe Flaco. Evidently Jalen Hurts is hurt, a sprained ankle.  Well regardless of my lack of recognition of who the guy was, he had a great game, amassing passing statistics that were better than the vast majority of Jalen’s performances. It was cool having a pass first instead of run first QB in there although Hurts will be back after the bye week.  Minshew directed the team to a convincing victory after a close start.  I still don’t think the Eagles have a chance to do anything significant this year, regardless of who is taking snaps.

Tonight Ali and Shugs are dropping off Sadie for nearly a week long visit.  They are going to Mississippi for Ali’s official graduation ceremony.  Ali has been taking Sadie to physical therapy sessions every week and evidently they have been surprisingly helpful for her mobility.  I look forward to seeing how she does walking around the property during her visit.

When I got home last night I set up a late addition to my 2021 Xmas decorations, another LED tree.  I have always liked the smaller white tree I already have but it is in rough shape.  The new tree is bigger, 6 feet versus 4 feet, and has full color LEDs instead of all white.  I am starting to appreciate decorations that don’t require inflation for various reasons.

Last night I watched 8 Bit Christmas on HBO Max.  I loved it.  It was sort of a more modern take on A Christmas Story.  I thought it was really well done and instantly injected itself into my stable of Xmas specials I could watch repeatedly, A+.