Archives April 2005

Our normal routine is for us to carpool and then I pick up Ali after work. Yesterday was like any other day, except there was a brushfire near another nursing home in the area. As a precaution, they evacuated a few residents that had respiratory conditions to Ali’s place. She had to stay to help check them in so I had time to kill, a lot of time. So first I went back to Ali’s office and entertained Nicki for awhile. After that got boring, I hooked her up to the leash and walked her around outside. I took my time and collected some seed from trees that I fancied growing on my property someday. After coming back in, I was told it was going to take some time yet. So I plopped down in the lobby in a chair, right next to an elderly woman resident that was slipping in and out of sleep as she sat in her chair.

Thankfully there was a newspaper there, so I glanced at the main section and looked in more detail at the sports section. I had more time to kill so I went back over the paper again and again. Soon I had looked at every section in detail, something I would never do. I picked up some info I would normally never know. I sat the paper down. I looked around, at the clock, out the window, at the residents, anything to pass the time. I pick the paper back up to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Nope, read it all. So then I am just sitting in the lobby, slumped in the chair with Nicki sleeping at my feet, getting tired myself. As I sat there on the plastic covered furniture, I briefly thought about the possibility of this being a preview of life in 40 years, sitting in the lobby on a chair immune to my excrement, watching the world walk by. The ideas quickly got extremely depressing so I mentally changed the subject. Some entertainment was provided when the elderly woman got up from her chair and let loose a wet fart that made me smile and the dog look. Evidently noone else heard it and of course the woman acted like nothing unusual had occurred.

Eventually, Ali was cleared to leave. We stopped at Taco Bell for an unhealthy, messy dinner that we consumed on the ride home. We pulled into the driveway about 8pm.

Tomorrow morning we leave for a 4 day mini-vaca in the Keys. Nicki is coming along for the ride, something Ali is very excited about, something I could do without. I prefer to keep my vacations exclusive of canines. I’m sure we will have fun regardless. It will be good to go somewhere and do something different.

More cat puke last night, it is the non-diabetic one this time. Then she followed it up with some additional vomit this morning. I asked Ali if giving them a bit of arsenic would fix their stomach issues….

Last night as we were watching the Contender on Tivo, we saw Buttons come out of the one bedroom, she was meowing loudly which is something she normally does before she is about to vomit, great. She had vomited earlier in the day as we came home to several piles throughout the house. Well evidently she threw up enough that there wasn’t enough food in her to counteract the insulin shot she got earlier in the day. The meowing continued and Ali noticed that she was having trouble walking, the warning sign that a low blood sugar episode was oncoming. So we sprang into action. We take the cat into the bathroom and bring in the honey. Ali starts squirting honey into the cat’s mouth. A third went into the cat, a third went onto the cat, and the rest of it went on the floor. Soon we had a hairy, sticky mess on the floor. We decided the mess would be easier to manage if we just put her in the tub. She continued to meow, stagger and pant. Ali kept giving her shots of honey to get some sugar into her. This episode wasn’t as severe as some of the others where she lost control of her bodily functions and basically went blind. We give her less insulin now so it helped to keep the disaster level down. When she stopped panting we turned on the shower and gave her a quick mini-shower to get the honey out of her fur. Then we put her in the laundry room with her food and litter box to let her recover. Ali put in a plate of tuna with honey on it for her. By the time we got to bed she was still shaky but stable. Various times during this ordeal I reiterated how my dislike of cats grows daily. (I used to love them) I am real ready for them to move on to the litter box in the sky.

This morning when I got up I checked on her and she was better. She was weak but responsive. She was eating her food so that was a good sign. After I did my normal litter box duties, I went into the office to woof down my breakfast and was greeted by 2 huge piles of barfed up tuna on the floor. Evidently the other cat, Spook, inhaled the tuna (it didn’t even look chewed) and then proceeded to power vomit. I went on a mini-rant, telling Ali that death for the cats should be a viable option. Even though she is as annoyed by them as I am, she doesn’t agree with my ideas on how to solve the problem. I am so, so, sick of cats.

Like I said, last night we were watching the Contender, the best reality show on TV that noone is watching. It is such good stuff. Every single fight has been good and the stories that have been developing are equally good. Take an hour on Sunday nights at 8 and check out an episode.

I think this will be my first out of box experience. I was afraid to even go to the site because that would mean I was making the mental commitment to do it. The idea of stepping out of a plane at 13,000 feet is daunting but compelling at the same time. Someday within the next few months I will make the jump.

On Friday I was in an especially bad mood. Life pretty much sucked, nothing seemed ok. Then as I was grumpily walking Nicki that night I look up and see it is another god damn full moon. Was the talk I heard for years from my mom saying that my Dad would transform during the times the moon is full also affecting me? It sure seems it. It seems more and more when I feel the worst, the moon is the brightest. Damn the lunar cycle!

Saturday was my first volleyball tournament of the year. I had concerns of my ever increasingly brittle body not being able to hold up to a day of jumping, running and diving. Plus the fact that I have played zero volleyball in 4 months multiplied the possibility for a poor showing. The weather in Lauderdale was around 80 but the reflection off the dark sand made it feel quite warm as the day went on. This tour decided to go to rally scoring this year which meant missed serves would become quite costly, resulting in more conservative serving.

Our first match was against one of my least favorite combinations, two high school kids (high school = never getting tired) whom also wore matching shorts and visors. (another one of my pet peeves) They were indoor players whom only had played a few games of beach ball. Even with this handicap, we managed to get behind to these kids. We had tons of unforced errors which isn’t surprising. However we managed to creep back and win the match by a few points. It wasn’t a good showing but hey, it was a win.

Match 2 again was against two young kids, (17 & 21)great….. Again they were primarily indoor players. A number of times they gave us easy points by hand setting the serve which is allowed indoors but illegal outdoors. Later in the game, just as the one kid was about to handset yet another serve, he last second realized his error and instead headed the ball. Not only did he head it but he headed it well enough that his partner was able to set the ball, very impressive. He performed this trick again successfully later in the match. We were ahead the entire match but actually let them get close later in the game. Again our play was sloppy, but good enough to win.

Our third match was against a team we have played several times. Randall likes to give the one guy a hard time even though he is good guy. Last year we shut them out one match and Randall never let them forget it. Well this time they got the jump on us. More sloppy play by us gave them an early lead that we couldn’t make up. We lost by 4 or 5 points. It was sweet revenge for them. I didn’t really rant or rave about the loss. We didn’t play great and we lost, move on to the next match.

Match number 4 was against the undefeated team on our net. The situation was if we lost we were not going to the playoffs, if we win, we would force a playoff for the playoffs. This is the game we started playing better. I was hitting better, setting better and we made some nice defensive hustle points. We won the game by 5 or 6 points.

The way the point differential worked out, even though 3 teams were 3-1, we had to play the team we just beat again in order to make the playoffs. It was a quick game to 11 (rally) This time we handled them easier than the first time. My favorite moment of the day occured in this match. On match point we served to them, the stronger hitter of the two got the serve, made a nice pass and went up for the hit. He was frustrated by the way the match went and I could tell he was trying to relieve some of the frustration on this swing. He wound up and blasted away. However I happened to be blocking as well. The hit banged right off the palms of my hands and went straight down on their side, game over. It was the perfect punctuation mark for their match. He hit the shit out of the ball because both my hands were stinging. We made the playoffs.

Playoff game number one was pretty easy. The one player on the other team seemed rather tired so we went after him repeatedly. We won the game quickly by a score of somewhere around 25-12, 25-13. We had limited unforced errors and played well.

Our semi-final match was against the team that beat us in pool play. We now had a shot to return the revenge. The match started out tight at first but then we ran a bunch of points and wound up winning by double digits. We played much better than the first time around. I made no effort to rub it in because as I said, both of these guys are nice guys. However, it was nice to bump them off again.

The finals were against a guy we had played several times before, teamed with a diferent partner than he usually plays with. His new teammate was an upgrade. He could easily play (and win) in A ball. He had great control of his hits, his serves and set like a pro. The net we played on was a bit higher and the court was very uneven with a little uphill mound to the net. Most of the game they served Randall who was having a hard time converting on hits. The game wasn’t really very close and we lost by 7 or 8 points. I was bummed out a bit but nothing severe. My play had improved throughout the day. I had some nice hits, made some good saves and generally had a good time playing. Last year our first match resulted in being 1-2 and not making the playoffs so a 6-2, 2nd place finish is nothing to complain about. If things progress as I think they could, I think we will be playing in the A division later this season. We won’t win tournaments but I think we can at least be competitive, maybe even making the playoffs now and then. Saturday was a good way to rejuvenate my desire to keep playing ball until my body just says NO. No serious injuries to report. My vball site has been updated and a few new tips have been added.

Sunday I got up and spent the entire morning playing WoW. I had a big mental checklist of small things I wanted to get done. As each hour passed with me sitting at the desk I felt increasingly guilty about not getting started with my work. It is a common trap with WoW. You get involved in quests that require you to group with other players, then you invest time into hitting the objective that you feel compelled to see it out to the end, less you leave your teammates hung out to dry. That was the case Sunday when I wound up spending 3 hours longer on the puter than I originally had alotted.

Finally I got started. I did most of what I planned but there was plenty I skipped. I still was not in a good mood. I felt unmotivated, tired and achy. I actually laid down and took a nap which is something that I normally would never do. Hopefully the lunar shift is coming soon. I need to shake up my world somehow, I need to do something out of the box.

I was sent the latest CD from my nearly 40, ex-volleyball teammate of mine that also has been in bands for most of his adult life (well all of it I guess) After 20 years he is still trying to hit it big. Receiving his latest works inspired me to try my hand at writing a short song/prose.

Daylight breaks, the rush begins
The first cars on the road always win
Just five minutes late on departure is all it takes
To turn my commute from decent, into treading water, in a lake

The sun, the fun, it’s all outside the window
Yet my day to day seems the same
Wasn’t adult life supposed to be full of excitement
Instead of being chock full of the mundane?

Look for my new cd coming out soon……

I know it happened a few days ago but the Gary Sheffield incident really annoys me. To me, the video clearly depicts the fan trying to go for the ball initially and then realizing Sheffield was charging in like a bull, hurriedly pulled his arm out of there. Sheffield assumes the fan is trying to punch him and goes after the fan, twice. Even if the fan was trying something shady there is no excuse for Sheffield to do that. Take your millions of dollars, your roids and at least be a professional. Maybe he had some roid rage going on.

This pope election stuff really strikes me as comedic. I’m sure it is because of my non-religious upbringing along with the ridiculous over exposed media coverage of just about any newsworthy event. Yesterday at the gym I was on a cardio machine and notice the news channel had a small picture box in the corner of a chimney. What the hell is that? After a little squinting I figured out it was the chimney of the vatican. The camera was glued to the chimney to catch the first glimpse of white or black smoke, heheh so silly. Black smoke, oh no, no new pope today!

Then today, again cameras locked on the chimney. White smoke! No, wait a minute (as I am reading the teletype) Hmm is it white or gray, against the tile roof it looks gray but against the sky it looks white! What drama! Wait the bells are ringing! NEW POPE NEW POPE NEW POPE! Thousands of people packed shoulder to shoulder going mad like a rock concert crowd. It all made me laugh.

I finally got a chance to take pics of Nicki’s area with the sod and the pygmy palm in it. The page also has some pictures of when we went to the zoo with my in-laws.

When we went to our friends house on Friday we took Nicki with. They used to babysit her when she was smaller. They have a cat named Crash. In the past, Nicki was always curious about Crash and would chase him around a bit. Well since they were last together, Crash must have lost any fear of dogs. At first, Nicki was the aggressor. However that quickly changed, by the end of the night, the cat was chasing our dog around and she would cower under tables trying to find shelter. Ugh, how embarrassing. I told Ali she had babied the dog so much that she now fears cats. Time to buy Nicki a spiked collar.

On Friday after work we headed to our friends house for dinner. After we ate they brought out dominos. They said they would teach us how to play as the only thing I ever used dominos for was to build things that I would knock down shortly afterward. The game is simple enough but has some suprising strategy involved. I sucked at the game. Everyone else would immediately start planning out their “run”, matching like pieces. I just didn’t feel like doing that and instead made my decisions only when my turn came around. The object is to have the LEAST amount of points. Ali, with her analytical mind stomped everyone and I had a record setting poor performance, scoring more than double the points of the 3rd place player. I really sucked.

On Saturday and Sunday I spent the majority of the days helping my neighbor erect a 30′ by 40′ steel building. It looks like an airplane hangar. It is made of corrugated steel panels held together by bolts and nuts, lots and lots of them. The panels are put together to make arches and then each arch is hoisted into place and then bolted to the other panels. It was windy most of the weekend, causing problems, especially early on. When only 1 or 2 arches were up, they swayed in the wind in a manner that made me skeptical of this buildings capability to withstand 140 mph winds as advertised. However after we got a few more panels up the structure stiffened up and felt quite solid. He had a total of 8 or 9 people helping and we needed all of them. To attach the bolts was a two person operation. One on the inside of the building holding the nut while the other was outside tightening. My duties were outside the building mostly, turning in bolt after bolt.

My neighbor envisioned the job being done in a day. There were 20 arches that had to go up. However by 5 o’clock Saturday only 11 were up. That was as far as he went. I felt bad for him because he rented all this crap for the job and I knew how I was about projects. I would want to get it DONE. So even though most of his help that he had for Saturday was unavailable for Sunday, I told him I would come over again on Sunday to help. On Sunday we only had 4 people total so it was impossible to hoist the arches into place in one peice so he attempted to build the arch piece by piece which was extremely time consuming and frustrating. He conceded that it was going to get done this weekend. So we used the time to put all the remaining pieces together on the ground so when he did have enough help we could go back to lifting entire arches into place.

My neigbors son had his dog there on Saturday, a loveable female pit bull named “Vicious”, no lie. The weather, besides the wind was tolerable. being in the upper 70’s for most of the day. All my time on top of the steel, reflective building microwaved my face. I looked like I fell asleep at the beach for 8 hours. My fingers were raw from handling endless pieces of small hardware for 2 days. However it felt good to lend a hand, to bust your ass for no other reason than you know you would appreciate it if someone did the same for you. My neigbors 72 year old dad was there both days. He has a pace maker and a stint that was put in within the past year and he was out there busting ass as hard as anyone. It was something else. When I asked my neighbor about him he just said “He loves to work” I can only hope I am able to do the same if I make it to see my 72nd year. if I would be unable to work in some capacity to help make myself feel useful, my desire to stick around this planet would be next to nil.

Not much to report. Didn’t go to sleep until 1:30 am. Of course I was playing WoW. Ironically I am not horribly tired right now. I am in the middle of chugging my extra large coffee so that could be masking the exhaustion.

This weekend I volunteered to help my neighbor put up a huge bolt together storage building. This is the same guy that gave us the old fencing to do Nicki’s area so it is the least I can do to thank him.

Next weekend I am tentatively scheduled to launch my 05 volleyball campaign. It should be interesting. My feet haven’t left terra firma since December. I “practiced” for the tourney the other night by hitting a flat volleyball against the garage 20 times to see if it hurt or not. I’m sure things will be ugly and I am crossing my fingers that my body holds up. I know my vball career is quickly approaching it’s twilight. I can hardly do my normal gym routine without hurting myself nowadays. I can only imagine what new aches and pains will await me from a full day of doubles volleyball.

For the first time in my taxpaying life, I had to pay in to the system this year. Not a buck or two either, almost 900 bucks. Over the past few years we normally have been consistently receiving refunds between 1 and 2k. The big turnaround this year of course is because of something I did.

My 401k from my days at GE had just been sitting out there since I left the company. It didn’t have a huge amount of money in it. This past year I decided to cash it out to use to pay off some long term debt and some other things. When I withdrew the money I took an immediate up front 20% tax hit. I foolishly thought this was the extent of my tax burden. When our accountant returned the bad news he told me that there was another 10% tax penalty that I had to pay and the withdrawl got thrown on top of our taxable income, knocking us into a higher tax bracket, further increasing the pain. If I had it to do over again I would still cash it out but I would have made provisions for the tax consequences up front. At my job I have a 401k-like program as well as getting a pension so I felt pretty secure with liquidating the funds. Live and learn.

Things should start getting back to normal. Our company left this morning. Last night we went out for one last dinner at my favorite place, Carraba’s. As always the food was good. The waitress was a bit on the cold side, something that is very rare at Carraba’s. She had an eastern european accent. She got a little bitchy after my brother-in-law told her he no longer needed the beer that he had ordered 10-15 minutes ago. We were halfway through the meal by that time and it was happy hour so they gave you 2 for 1. Pounding 2 beers at that point would make for questionable driving ability. But after that little incident settled down we had a nice rest of the meal. Of course the kids took center stage. The 2 year old was playing musical chairs throughout, never happy to stay in one spot for very long.

After we got home we watched some TV and played with the kids. Throughout the 3 days, my niece desperately wanted to interact with Nicki, but her loud, aggressive attempts spooked Nicki out and she would do nothing but growl and hide. Last night she tried some more and got the same result. I gave my niece a hug goodbye as I wouldn’t see them this morning since I would be off to work before they got up. She is a cute little girl and enjoys her time with “Uncle Shawn”

My recent efforts to shave off extra pounds, combined with my cut back lifting sessions to allow things to heal has cut back my strength dramatically in a short period of time. I benched yesterday and was awestruck at how little I could do. It was like I hadn’t lifted in 6 months. I am unsure if I am happier being lighter, leaner and weaker or bigger, heavier and stronger. My mental makeup doesn’t handle not being able to do once I what could from a performance level very well. I am hoping the majority of it is from my little hiatus. Even though I never speak to the majority of other guys at the gym, there is a silent, never ending competition going on. If Joe Schmoe who looks to be about your size is pushing 225 eight times than you sure as hell don’t want to be huffing and puffing on rep 2. Is it pointless and stupid? Yea but so are lots of other things in life.