Archives July 2006

It was quite the weekend.  You would figure having Mom over for a couple days of sitting by the pool relaxation would be rather subdued, which for the most part was.  Mom said she was coming over Saturday morning after she did a few things around her place.  So we were surprised when she pulled up around 9 ish.  We were still finishing up some last minute preparations.

I was very tired.  I was up until 2:30 am.  No I wasn’t playing WoW.  I was working on two projects.  The first one involved trying to fix my 2 satellite radios.  I bought an old, beatup, used unit off ebay for 6 dollars.  It looked like whomever owned it had very dirty fingers.  However it was the older model that had 2 of the antenna connectors that are defective on my radio.  One of the two was trashed terribly, the other one was in good shape.  So I tore into it and before long managed to remove the connector from the old unit.  Getting it installed into my radio was another story.

Removal of the connector and it’s corresponding cord meant popping it out of a weird connector on the circuit board that had a removable spring like top to it.  The piece was incredibly small, small enough that trying to manipulate it with your fingers was pointless, I had to use tweezers.  When I attempted to reinstall the pirated connector to my radio I literally spent an hour trying to snap this little piece back into place but I just couldn’t get it.  It would slide off, pop off and just would not go back on.  Finally I had enough and decided to try a rig job.  I squeezed the sides of the connector together so it would hold the antenna cord in place with pressure from the sides instead of the top.  It seemed to work.  I put the deal back together, snapped it into the car and viola, it works. 

The other radio repair was much easier. The back of that one looks like it was half melted so it never seated properly into the cradle.  So I just swapped the plastic back piece with my ebay unit.  Once again a successful operation.

The other project I had going was a hard drive upgrade for the server I have at home which also happens to be used as Ali’s workstation.  The 40 gig hard drive I had in it was filling up in the C partition.  Normally a hdd swap is a no brainer.  I have done hundreds of them over the years.  Well this one was not.

  The plan was to go to an 80 gig hdd I had laying around.  I had brought home my ghost boot disk from work. The disk had an older version of ghost on it, 7.5 but I figured I would give it a try.  The copy went along without error, I restarted the system off the 80 gig drive and it came up.  However there was a driver error on boot and after a little digging I noticed that all I had was a C partition and no D partition.  Hmmm odd, I thought.  Maybe I didn’t select both partitions?  So I shut it down and repeated the procedure again, making sure my drowsiness didn’t affect my selections.  Same deal. 

Well I was getting pissed now.  I theorized that maybe Ghost 7.5 wasn’t very compatible with Windows 2003 Server.  I VPN’d into work and grabbed the 8.0 version. Well then the really weird stuff started happening.  The system started acting like it had a hardware problem.  Any attempt to boot off a floppy or CD would result in the HDD light going on solid and just hanging there.  After seating and reseating every hard drive related cable several times it suddenly started to work. 

Well this getting a bit long winded so let me just wrap it up by saying the system is back up, however the C partition is on the 80 gig hard drive, the D partition is on the original 40 gig hard drive and no I didn’t intend it to be that way and no I’m not sure how it even got that way.  But by 2:30 in the morning I was too tired to give a shit. It works, good nuff.   While I was waiting for the multiple ghost operations to finish I spent most of the time going through this guy’s stuff on youtube.  Funny kid.

Well anyway, Mom hadn’t been out to our house since Christmas, yes Christmas.  We showed her the latest and greatest around the property.  She liked all of our new outdoor furniture and our landscape additions.  Within an hour or so we were out on the lanai relaxing by the pool.  Like I said I was very tired.  Tired enough to fall aslep while floating in the pool for a good hour or so. The reflective water helped bake me pretty well in that short period.  My chest got very red.

We pretty much just chilled all afternoon.  We invited the neighbors over for drinks that night.  Mom met Rick before but not Doug.  They came over right on time, bringing wine and some food.  They always bring stuff with them when they come over.  I always tell them it isn’t necessary.  Ali said that is the polite thing to do.  I guess I am not polite.

For some reason I had it in my head to drink that night.  I started out slow with 2 or 3 beers.  But then I pulled out the heavy artillery, the Goldschlager that had been sitting in our freezer forever.  I had had it once before.  It has a cinnamon taste that burns a bit as it goes down.  I did a shot.  Then I did a couple more within 15 minutes.  I was feeling happy but not horribly drunk.  The next 3 rounds of shots I gave Rick one as well.  He never had Goldschlager before.  By the time those 3 were done there was only a couple shots left in the bottle so I decided to finish them myself.

So I had about 7 or 8 shots of Goldschlager in me.  I now was acting more drunk but felt ok otherwise.  I felt good enough to hunt for my next source of alcohol which turned out to be orange vodka.  I made my own concotion which consisted of half vodka, half tangerine juice.  Normally the taste of it would not have been appealing but my taste buds were pretty much dead at that point.  I guzzled down two of these drinks. Now I was doing silly things like cannonballs in the pool, the second time while still wearing my baseball hat.  I did all my conversation from the pool while everyone else sat up on the deck.  Yep I was full bore drunk now.

I had to make several trips to the bathroom, on my final one I decided I was chilly so I would take a warm shower.  As I was in the shower my drunkedness became more apparent, I was feeling a bit woozy, and sleepy.  So after I stumbled out of the shower I dry off and then flop down on the bed. Big mistake.  As soon as I laid down the inferno started.  Even though my eyes were closed, everything was spinning.  The nausea started coming like water in a backed up toilet.  This was not going to be good…..

I went into the bathroom and stood over the sink.  I stood there for a long time.  Ali came in and asked if I was ok and I mumbled something indicating I was although obviously I was not.  The naseau was coming in waves.  I could feel the sweat forming on my back.  Why I chose to stand over the sink as opposed to the toilet is not clear.  I think it had something to do with the cleanliness of one versus the other.

Well I stood there haunched over for a long time, at least 10-15 minutes but nothing came up.  I decided to try laying back down.  Well that did the trick, this time the naseau came surging on.  I stumbled back in to the bathroom and let loose, once again in the sink.  My eyes were closed so I would not see the results but I had the quick thinking to turn on the water to help rinse down the vomit, yea right, smart move.

The act of vomiting is like a snowball.  You vomit and then the smell, taste and texture of the vomit makes you vomit more.  It’s horrible.  I did notice that when you are in the midst of such an episode your world becomes incredibly focused.  All of your worldly concerns, hang ups and problems dissolve.  All that matters is making the vomitting stop. 

Ali came in after the first go round and saw the mess in the sink.  By running the water I managed to fill the sink with vomit soup.  The solid food in the puke instantly clogged the drain.  She told me to move to the toilet which I did.  She was angry with me for drinking to this point, I have not puked from drinking since our honeymoon 8 years ago.

Once I was postioned on the toilet the vomitting continued for awhile.  My stomach ached from the convulsions.  I was covered in sweat and had some puke on my clothes.  Ali came in later and found me on the bathroom floor, barely conscious.  She told me later she was considering calling 911 because I wasn’t really responding to her. Well I laid on the bathroom floor for awhile.  Ali came in again I commanded me to get up.  My world was still hazy but I managed to crawl from the bathroom floor to the bedroom floor where I passed out.  Ali said I was on the floor when she went to sleep, sometime during the night I climbed into the bed but I don’t remember doing it.

The aftermath the next morning wasn’t good.  I felt tired and wiped.  I was afraid to walk into the bathroom.  Ali had left the door closed and the exhaust fan all night so I knew it had to be bad. It was like I was entering a crime scene.  The sink had drained most of the water and left all the dried residue all the way to the top.  There was remnants on the floor, on the toilet, it was horrible.  Of course this was my punishment, I had to clean it up.

Clean up was slow and nasty, I used mounds of paper towels to scoop what I could into a trash bag.  I had to breath through my mouth the entire time else I would have thrown up again.  After a lot of work I had the sink and toilet looking respectable.  I tried to laugh about the whole ordeal with Ali but she would have none of that.  She was mad that I let myself get that drunk.  I told her that wasn’t the plan and it was only the second time I threw up from drinking with her in 8 years so that isn’t too bad.

Considering how bad I felt, my Sunday hangover wasn’t bad.  I felt very drained and low energy but did not have a headache.  My mom asked how I was.  I just vegged out at the table on the lanai for awhile, I didn’t feel like doing much.  I was badly dehydrated. 

Mom shoved off for home around noon.  She could have stayed longer but I think she thought she was holding us up.  It was another great day for sitting by the pool.  Once she left Ali and I tackled the grass mowing, I certainly was not looking forward to it but by that time my condition had improved to the point where I was able to cope.

During the weekend I had to go pick up gas for the mower.  I decided to take Nicki with and take the party van, I hadn’t driven it since we got back from PA. So we hopped in.  As I went to pull out I immediately noticed the gas pedal felt like it was stuck, it didn’t seem to respond to my foot.  Once I got out onto the road, I responded how any man would with something that is stuck, you push harder.

Well now the van took off, and kept accelerating.  Whatever was making it not want to go down was also preventing it from releasing. So the accelerator was basically mashed to the floor.  I immediately smash the brakes to try to slow down.  The brakes were only marginally stronger than the power of the motor so I was only slowing down very gradually.  The stop sign was coming up so I had to quickly grab for the keys and turn the thing off, killing it instantly since it was still in DRIVE. WTF was going on?

So I pop the hood and jam my hand in to the accelerator mechanism and try to move it.  It is very sticky.  So I manually move it back to around idle speed, start the van back up and putt putt back to the driveway.  I am cursing the van as I remove the air cleaner box so I could get a better look at it.  Ali came out in the middle of the process and was my gas pedal girl, pressing and relasing it for me as I tried to see what was binding.  I didn’t see anything obvious besides the springs looked crusted and rusty.  So I figure, what the hell, let’s hit it with some WD-40.

So I grab the can from the garage and soak the accelrator arm while I have Ali repeatedly press the pedal.  Slowly the range of motion returns to the pedal.  What the hell?  I buttoned it all back up and took it for a road test and it was fine.  My theory is with all the rain over the past 3 weeks and the van just sitting there the springs got a light coating of rust on them.  It’s not very reassuring but it’s the only explanation I can come up with.  The incident further cemented the van’s fate. It will be going up on Auto Trader in the not too distant future. If I’m lucky I can get what I paid for it.  I am already writing off the nearly 3k I sunk into the damn thing.

This morning I had my knee doctor visit.  After xrays and a brief examination the doc said he thinks I tore the meniscus in my left knee (same thing I did to the right one years ago)  My right knee looked a bit beat up too but for that one he is prescribing injections of some sort of artificial knee fluid.  The left one is going to get MRI’d tomorrow and then depending on what that reveals, I may have to have that one scoped to fix the damage.  It’s a bummer.

In the continuing saga of growing old, I discovered after I got to my office today after the doctor visit, that I had my shirt on inside out.  Yes, inside out. I have no idea how I didn’t notice. So I was walking around the doc’s office with my damn shirt inside out.  I must of looked like an idiot.

So the lessons learned over the past 3 days:

1. Excessive drinking leads to excessive vomitting

2. When vomitting, the toilet is always a better option than the sink

3. Wear your clothes right side out

Ever since WoW has become my predominant hobby my time in front of the boob tube has been much lighter.  Right now I am watching Hell’s Kitchen and Big Brother All Star’s. 

Hell’s Kitchen is basically a show about a lunatic british chef screaming at wanna be cooks.  Hearing a brit swearing with an accent is just appealing I guess, I love the show.  Big Brother is a great show normally, having an all star cast makes it better.  Everyone knows how each other played the game last time so it makes strategy much more challenging to develop.   All of the people I hoped would be in the cast were selected.  It’s good stuff.

The other thing I watch on TV a lot is mixed martial arts fighting, namely the UFC and Pride Fighting.  I just can’t get enough of that stuff.  I remember when UFC was so taboo that you could only see it on pay per view.  Bringing it to Spike TV was BRILLIANT.  I was bummed that Hoyce Gracie got beat up by Matt Hughes.  I remember when Hoyce started the UFC by taking down guys that outweighed him by 100 pounds or more. It was amazing.  I think Ken Shamrock needs to hang it up, he is still in great shape but he just doesn’t have it anymore.  Tito has made him look very old. 

This weekend mom is coming out Saturday and staying over till Sunday to hang out.  We don’t see mom as much as we would like.  Mom thinks that the 16 or 17 miles from her house to ours is more like 100.  She doesn’t like driving much at all since she had her accident a few years back.  We are hoping to have lots of just relaxing by the pool time.

I’ve been talking to Ali about how we need to really make some concentrated efforts to be more mindful of where our dollars are going.  There are so many little things we can change that when added up can make a sizeable difference in our spending. 

Both of my Audiovox satellite radios are giving me problems.  The PNP2 model that I have is just a shitty design.  The antennae connector is not made to hold up to repeated connections to different docks (car/home/boombox) and after time the metal insulator starts to bend causing it to not seat properly.  In the car we constantly have to press the unit back into place because we lose connection.  I really want to get rid of them for different units but then again there comes that money thing again.

Monday is the knee doc.  I have sort of resigned myself to not expecting to take up volleyball or running again.  I want to get his opinion and possibly a MRI to see exactly what is f’d up.  I would prefer to not go under the knife again, however I trust this guy’s opinion so we’ll see what he says.  I can walk normally now although things like getting out of a chair are tough.  I actually did very limited, very light leg things at the gym yesterday.  Each rep brought an assortment of little twings, twitches and ouchies but nothing horrible. Of course I was doing less weight than I normally would warm up with.

If I do have to give up impact activities I will go full bore back into my supplementation to get bigger and stronger.  Hulk SMASH!

The full video is online now.  It is about 17 minutes long and around 44 megs so dial up people steer clear.  Enjoy the misery.   I will be doing an abbreviated version as well.

I forgot to mention at the 5k Ali ran on July 4th I saw a runner do something new.  A minute or so before the race, the pack is at the starting line.  One tall, younger guy trots out a couple dozen yards in front of the pack, kneels, genuflects, says a prayer, genuflects again and runs back.  I guess God helps 5k runners just like football players.

My hatred for insurance companies deepens.  Yesterday I got a letter from my credit union saying my escrow account was nearly $2000 negative.  I called them up and asked why it was so far negative.  The woman said they just sent a nearly $3500 dollar check in for home owners insurance!  WTF?  When we moved into the house my home owners was around 800 bucks a year.  How in the world can they justify a 400% increase in the span of 5 years????  It is ridiculous.  Insurance companies collect premiums nationwide for years and years, amassing huge profits and when they actually have to pay out for a couple disasters they respond by gouging their customers instead of dipping into the vaults of money they have stashed away.  I read an article while in PA that said that despite all of the disasters in 2005, it was the most profitable year EVER for insurance companies, raking in some 43 BILLION dollars.  It is absolute, total horseshit.  Between car and home insurance I will be dropping $5500 this year.  That is a HUGE amount of money.  All of that so that when I have hurricane damage I get the privilege of spending 7k out of my pocket.  Damn I am angry….

The weekend was ok.  My mood was not great.  I was in the “everything kinda sucks” state of mind.  It was Saturday night while I was waiting for our neighbors to come over till I realized that of course the moon was once again full.  I wish I had the logical, scientific explanation of how a moon phase can affect a person’s mood.

Originally my mom was going to come over Saturday night and hang out at our place Sunday to enjoy the new pool cage and outdoor furnishings we just bought.  But my mom being the avid WeatherChannehl watcher that she is, saw the forecast included a very high chance of rain.  So she called and rescheduled for next weekend.  She is taking Saturday off so she will be able to spend both days out at our place.  It should be fun.

This weekend had a lot of housework in it.  We missed doing June’s cleaning chore, the guest bedroom so we did it on Saturday.  The guest bedroom wasn’t very messy so it wasn’t a huge deal but there were some issues.  As we pulled the bed away from the wall we discovered that one of our guests at sometime must have spilled something.  The carpet was stained badly with splatters from some brown liquid.  The dried liquid was also on the baseboard and phone jack, oddly enough.  Repeated attempts to clean the stains proved fruitless.  I tried water, conventional carpet cleaning stuff, the steam cleaner, bleach and even WD-40, nothing worked.  Luckily the majority of the stain is under the bed out of view but the idea that someone spilled shit and didn’t tell us right away so we could clean it before it set annoys me.

Ali and I had some minor disagreements about the accessories in the room.  The guest room is where I keep my “old shit”.  I have stuff in there like an old rotary style phone, an old room to room intercom, an old radio, old video games, an old hideaway bar and few other nostalgic things that warm my heart.  These mostly sit on an old table that we got from my great aunt and uncle a few years back.  It was a custom table they had built in the 50’s.  Yea it isn’t the most fashionable stuff but it’s basically all in one corner.  Ali doesn’t like it and doesn’t appreciate the oldness of it.

It’s ironic to me that she objects to it because of her tendency to want to keep everything.  I bought a new digital thermometer for the pool to replace the plastic turtle thermometer that was 5 years old.  The sun and pool chemicals had done a job on the turtle.  He was faded and missing some paint from his head.  I called Ali out to show her the new thermometer, which she liked, but she immediately asked what I did with “Mr Turtle”.  “I put him in the trash” I said, drawing a face of distress from Ali as she said quietly, “You threw away Mr Turtle….”  Nothing else needed to be said, I retrieved Mr Turtle from the trash and set him loose to float around the pool as opposed to being tethered to the railing.  Ali was happy. After 10 years you just learn to deal.

Saturday night we had the neighbors over for drinks and snacks.  We get along with them well and enjoy their company.  It really is a blessing to have neighbors you like.  While Ali is away they are going to be letting Nicki out, saving me a trip home over lunch.

Ali left for Orlando for a three day training thing on Sunday morning.  I ripped into my remaining housework and then went outside to trim up some of the cabbage palms that hadn’t been touched since we moved in. The trees look much better now.  I made burgers for Nicki and I for lunch and ate them outside at the new table while I watched Celebrity Poker, pretty sweet.  I really was appreciating our new outdoor living accomodations.  But that was enough of fresh air and blue skies, the next 9 hours I was immersed in WoW.

Yep I spent the better part of the rest of the day in the game.  Most of it was spent trying to increase my reputation with the Stormpike Guard by doing Alterac Valley battlegrounds over and over.  Gaining reputation with them allows you to buy high end items for reasonable prices.  My warrior is at revered status (the highest), my priest and warlock are at honored status and my rogue is friendly with them.

I also mixed in a Scarlet Monastery run with my 38 Mage.  I two boxed him with my 60 warrior.  Two boxing is when you run 2 instances of the game at the same time.  The lower level character simply tags along with the higher level character collecting experience and money along the way.  It is an easy way to complete quests yourself that would normally require finding a group to do.

After 9 hours my eyes were hurting, the weight bearing points on my arms and wrists that made contact with the desk or arms on the chair were sore and I was just tired.  These marathon sessions are normally what trigger my reflection upon the game.  I stumbled across this video this morning that echoed close to home.  There are so many people addicted to this game and others like it, it’s staggering.   

I started the work in ripping off the video from the rain soaked Pottstown Rumble.  It will appear online soon.

I got my latest car insurance bill from Allstate, almost $1000 for 6 months.  To me, that is outrageous.  One of the side benefits of aging is supposed to be things like car insurance are supposed to go down in price. Not here in Florida.  Thanks largely in part to all of our Mexican and Haitian uninsured drivers, our rates climb yearly.  I finally had enough and decided to call Geico.  My Dad has them and is pleased.  So I call them up and give them all the info.  The woman representative kept chiming in with “Good, good…” to my answers, making me think like I was qualifying for a nice rate.  So after we are done she tells me the great news, Geico can cover me for 6 months for $1261!!!!   What the F?  I told her that was 300 more than All-State, thanked her for her time and hung up.  Damn that was discouraging. 

I bit the bullet and made the appointment for the knee doc.  4 years ago he told me I needed to cool it after looking at my right knee.  He’ll be thrilled to hear it’s both knees now.

Last night Ali did a long run, almost 6 miles.  She kept a good pace for most of it.  I lamely followed along on my bike, it makes me feel like a schlub.  Afterwards she was really wiped.  We got home and she crashed in bed.  I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for her as a pick me up.  She felt better by this morning.

I have been making some easy gold in WoW lately.  My latest scheme is buying Broken Blade of Heroes off the auction house, fixing them (since I am a blacksmith) and then reselling them on the AH for a tidy 20 gold profit. I’ve done it 4 times now.

I am actively leveling 3 characters in game, my Druid, my Mage and my Hunter.  Levelling isn’t going quite as fast as I would like.  I haven’t been playing as much and some of the time I do I am off on weird tangents doing things like griefing horde.  I spent several hours up in the horde capital city of Ogrimar raising hell with my rogue.

I’ve gone into a few high level instances with our guild recently.  These instances are the things that send players over the edge, into the deep abyss of WoW where you spend the majority of your waking hours in game as opposed to IRL. (wow acronym, In Real Life).  There is just so much wasted time.  These instances require either 20 or 40 people in a group.  Imagine the fun involved with trying to coordinate that many people to show up on time and follow orders.  It is a pain in the ass.  So much time is spent just standing around.  The payoff is these instances are where the ultra-leet equipment can be found.  The problem is when this loot drops, multiple people in the group have a shot at it so if you don’t have the high roll, you lose and you basically just spent several hours for nothing except to pay a large repair bill for your damaged equipment.  Many people live for this portion of the game, I could care less about it. 

The weekend is pegged for grass mowing, cleaning the one spare bedroom and hopefully having mom over to see the new stuff.  Ali leaves Sunday for 3 days for some dietary conference.

When Keener told me that they may be shutting down the casinos in Jersey I thought he was full of shit.  There was no way that would be allowed to happen, there is just way too much money involved.  Well yesterday I saw the story that it actually happened.  The Jersey government is so inept that they were unable to pass a budget in time to avoid it.  Not only did state employed casino monitors get laid off, so did a ton of other non-essential state service employees.  I mean how in the world could the state government know this would be the end result of inaction and still fail to act?  I would vote every single one of those f’in idiots out of office. It’s ridiculous. 

Last night after work I took the truck to get the matching dining table and chairs for the table we got on Tuesday.  I patiently waited while Bob, an older man with a slight stuttering problem helped 2 other customers, including some annoying older women who jumped in front of me.  The box I needed was on a shelf 12 feet high so a forklift was required.

It took a good 15 minutes until Bob was clear and I told him I knew exactly what I needed, I just needed the box brought down.  Bob grumbled how much of a pain in the ass it is to get that stuff down because they make him put up gates blocking the aisle and he has to have a flagman as well.  He wasn’t bitching at me, just at the situation.  So it took another 10 to 15 minutes for Bob to drag the gates into place, get the forklift and find another HD employee to be the flagger.  Bob used the forklift to get the skid off the shelf and lower it to the ground.  When the skid hit the floor I noticed how banged up the top box was, I asked Bob if we could open the box to make sure the contents weren’t damaged so I didn’t have to take it home only to find out I have to bring it back.  Bob said I could just take the middle box that was in much better shape.  So I helped him slide the top box off and then we picked up and slid the large box on top of the flat bed that already had the big boxes with chairs on it.

Bob wasn’t a big man or a tall man or a strong man so it was tough for him to get the box as high as it needed to be to slide on top of the others.  The cart started to roll so I side stepped in front to block it.  Eventually we managed to get it balanced on top.  I helped Bob put the damaged box back on the skid, he thanked me after saying how “…this place f’in sucks”  Bob is not a happy employee.

After paying for the stuff I loaded it all into the back of the truck myself.  It was not easy, especially with my knees in the shape they are, a couple times they got bent in a way that shot radiating pain up my leg.  The 3 boxes completely filled the bed of the truck.  Finally I was off to pick up Ali at work.  The process pf getting the furnitute took much longer than anticipated.  We didn’t get home until close to 7:30.

Yea it was late but there was no way I wasn’t going to unbox and set the stuff up.  So I pulled around the back and Ali and I ripped into it.  Assembly was easy and in about 20 minutes we had it all setup.  It really looks nice.  We celebrated by doing something we never do, eating at the table, outside.  It was a change not woofing down my dinner sitting at the computer while reading email, checking the news and logging into WoW to see if my auctions sold.  I had the radio going as we ate a peaceful dinner watching the sunset light up the clouds, listening to the birds and just enjoying the moment.  What a unique concept.  Our outside lanai improvements are basically complete besides finding a new outdoor clock/thermometer, a minor detail. I’ll snap some pics.

Yep the pool cage has been resurrected.  They did the entire thing in one day.  9 months and 17k waiting for something to be built that only took a day seems quite odd but we are thrilled to have it finally done.  After Ali ran in a 5k first thing Tuesday morning, we stopped at Home Depot and picked up a table, a new ceiling fan and a new grill.  When we unpacked the table at home we discovered it was only a short snack table instead of the taller dining type table we imagined.  The thought of packing it all up and returning it was not desirable so we decided to just keep it and go back and get the matching dining table.  The table looks good in the new layout anyway.  Just like the temporary pool fence I drug out front on Sunday, the old grill and table that I drug out front was gone within the hour.  People just love free stuff.  I installed the new ceiling fan to replace the old indoor fan that had blades that looked like they were melting.  The new one is an outdoor fan with plastic blades so it will hold up much better.  The new grill is sweet with stainless steel construction that will hold up much better.  I lugged the tv back out from the shed and hooked it up with the wireless transmitter I got at Radio Shack a few weeks back.

The process took much longer than I thought, I got done around 5pm.  The end result looks great though. You can see all the pics of the new stuff here.

I got around to posting the pictures from our trip up north to PA.  Enjoy.  Below is a pic of the entire clan at Vic’s.

Yep we made it back in one piece.  Boy 2400 miles is a long way to drive but doing it in the van was much more comfortable, albeit very expensive from a gas perspective.  We decided to pull out early Tuesday afternoon to get up there because Ali was concerned for Pop Pop’s health.  Luckily it turned out it wasn’t quite as serious as we thought.  Within the first few miles I could tell that the steering on the van was going to be a problem.  The 1600 dollars didn’t fix the issue.  The steering stuck, instead of returning to center when you would release the wheel, even going around turns, the wheel would not move.  So the end result was while on a highway you were constantly making steering corrections.  If you nudged it too far one way it would stay that way, then if you over corrected back too fast it would veer the other way suddenly.  I’m sure to other drivers it looked like I was drunk, it was that bad.  Eventually I got used to it enough to only have the occasional veer but it was a royal pain.  When Ali drove for a little while she really struggled with it.  While she drove I watched the second Matrix movie.  It was sort of weird, during the car chase scene in the movie I felt like I was in a simulator with the real life swerving and bouncing that was going on. 

We drove straight until 2 am Wednesday morning and stopped in upper South Carolina.  By that time coffee stopped working so I pulled over into a hotel parking lot and we got four not so restful hours of sleep in the back of the van.  Our original plan of Ali sleeping while I was driving didn’t work out well.  The sudden veering made it impossible to sleep. 

I drove the rest of the way to PA and we arrived somewhere around mid-afternoon Wednesday.  My Dad, stepmom, sister and brother-in-law were there.  I knew my sis was going to be in PA, I didn’t know they were also staying with my Dad.  My sister is 3 months pregnant.  I had not seen my brother-in-law since they got married 3 years ago.  My dad bought a townhouse in Flying Hills so they can do the snowbird thing.  He and my stepmom had been there for the past two months.  It was a cool little place.

One of the big things we were worried about was how Nicki would get along with my Dad’s dog, Maggie.  Maggie is a black lab / border collie mix.  Her and Nicki look like sisters.  Maggie is very friendly and immediately greeted us with dog licks.  Nicki was hesitant for a few minutes but almost immediately warmed up to Maggie.  By the time our stay was over they were best buddies.

The first night we stayed in the bedroom that is used by my other sister when she is home.  It is sparsely furnished with a bed, a shelf unit and little more.  There was really no space to unpack anything so we just sort of had stuff strewn across the room on the floor which looked like hell.  After the first night we relocated to the basement that had a fouton.  It wasn’t bad and that room had the computer so it worked out better.

On Thursday morning we all piled into the party van and went to Dempsey’s for breakfast.  Driving around the area was weird, especially the part of 222 near my old stomping grounds of Gouglersville.  They redid the highway and now I have a hard time figuring out where I am.  All the familiar landmarks are either gone or hidden by huge manmade hills or concrete sound barriers.  It makes travel faster but it sure is less appealing for someone like me that grew up there. After breakfast we drove up to my Dad’s old house to take a peek.  It was nostaligic driving by the house I called home for my first 18 years or so of life.  It looked pretty much the same as when my dad had it, although he said that they did some major upgrades to the inside.

Late Thursday morning I wanted to try to shake off some of the lethargy I was still feeling from the drive up so we went to the Flying Hills gym.  I used to go to this gym for the year we lived with my mom before moving to Florida.  Since we moved they did away with all of the racquetball courts and converted them to more space for fitness equipment and classes.  I forgot how old and crappy the free weight equipment was there, it made the stuff at Powerhouse look first rate.  I tried to do a few exercises for each body part.  I felt weak and unmotivated.  After an hour we left with me feeling no better than before.

Thursday evening we arranged to go up to Gary and Sue’s place.  Gary and Sue are friends of ours that used to run a casual volleyball league from their house that we played in.  They are great people, probably two of the most generous people I ever ran across.  Rich, Beth and Gail also showed up.  We drank beer, ate and had a nice time just shooting the shit.  Our friends in PA are the only thing we miss about the state.  We talked about coming back the following Wednesday for me to play in the league if I survived the Rumble, unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

Having the computer in our basement bedroom was nice.  We were able to check our email, read the news and surf.  I also was looking for some entertainment so I signed on to pogo.com, a website my neighbor is addicted to.  It is a website that combines hundreds of games with social interaction.  At one time when I signed on there were over a half million people in the site.  I tried several games on there like a simple balloon popping thing, bowling and baseball.  However I eventually settled into chess.  I have not played chess in years but I always have enjoyed it.  You had the option to play the computer or real people.  I did surprisingly well against both, winning much more than I lost.  Of course I was in the room for people with average to low skill.  As you play you can chat to your opponent, which I rarely did.  In most cases I would issue a “doh!” if my opponent or I did a dumb move.  Only 1 game got nasty when I lost on a stupid move and the guy shot me a “You are terrible…” message.  We had a short nasty exchange where I challenged him to a rematch that he declined.  The highlight of my online chess playing was when I three move checkmated a guy. He immediately left.

Friday I went with Ali to see my grandmother in the home and Pop Pop in the hospital. The grandma visit was very brief.  I had my Rumble facial hair so I don’t know if that threw her off but I had the feeling she didn’t really know who I was. She never said my name.  Her hearing is getting worse so we had to talk very loud.  Most attempts we made at starting some dialogue were met with YES or NO answers.  Several times I looked at Ali for help since she is used to old person talk but it didn’t help much.  After you talk about the facility cat and the weather, there just wasn’t much to say.  My sister and her husband came along reluctantly.  They were both very uncomfortable just being in there.  So after maybe 10-15 minutes I gave grandma a hug and said goodbye.  It was a tough visit. Next was Pop Pop.

 He looked tired but not too bad otherwise.  He was chatting away with us while he had the Price is Right on TV.  He will be 93 in a few days and all things considered has managed to do ok.  His condition was improving and although he still is unhappy about not being able to do whatever he wants he understands that it is necessary to get help at this point.

After the Pop Pop visit we met back up with my sis to see Nacho Libre at a matinee.  There were less than 10 people in the theater.  The theater itself seemed junky compared to what we have grown accustomed to down here.  The movie wasn’t good.  It got a few grins out of me but little more.  None of the four of us felt differently, a bad flick.  Thankfully it was only an hour and a half.  C- to D+ 

Friday night was our big dinner where everyone was going to be present, my dad, step mom and all of my siblings. We went to Victor Emmanuels, a members only big Italian restaurant that I always loved going to.  They had good, cheap food and had a bare bones atmosphere that I always found appealing.  Well evidently business had been good because the remodeled the entire place.  Gone is the 20 foot high drop ceiling with flags hung around the perimeter, the big TV’s in strategic locations and the atmosphere I enjoyed.  Now it looks more like a conventional restaurant, they lowered the ceiling, spruced up the bar and waiting areas and gave pretty much everything a facelift.  I preferred the old Vic’s but the food was still good.  It was good to see everyone together. My half brother and sister are all grown up.  Patrick just wound up his 2nd year at Pitt and is going for an engineering degree.  Meg just graduated Penn State with a marketing degree and is interning at some place in NYC. It’s weird seeing them as young adults since I saw them both as babies. Just another thing to make me feel old.

Saturday was the big day, the primary reason for the trip, the Pottstown Rumble.  The weather forecast was bad with a 90% chance of rain but so far the doppler radar showed most of the precipitation as being north of us although it had rained like hell Friday night.  So I hoped for the best, figuring the grass will be wet to start and hopefully dry if it doesn’t rain more.  Charlie picked me up and we got there a bit later than last year.  It was obvious there were less cars than last year, surely due to the dire forecast.  There were puddles on the road but I didn’t see standing water on the courts, maybe it won’t be so bad.  My left knee was aching before we even started, it had been feeling real stiff since the drive up from Florida.  I reluctantly decided to slap on a knee brace for the first time in 2 years, hoping keeping it warm would make it easier.  I also stayed doped up on Advil all day.

Our net was good, probably the best set of teams I ever had in my pool at the Rumble.  Normally you will have one or two weak teams on a net.  All of the teams were good.  Right before our first match the first rain came, a brief burst that was enough to make the grass slippery again.  The match had lots of slipping and sliding.  We lost the first game pretty badly but then came back to win the second as the field dried out a bit.  It’s so nice to play on a big court with side out scoring, it’s the only time I get to serve hard anymore.  Even though Charlie and I only play together at the Rumble, we clicked pretty well.  Our next match was wierd.  During the first game we were down 10-6 (game to 11) and we came back and won.  Our opponents were majorly pissed.  In the second game we were in control and had it at 10-7 or 10-8 and we choked and let them come back and win, another split. Then the real fun began.

The skies had looked ominous for most of the day but up to that point we only had a few quick showers.  Our luck ran out shortly before we were ready to start our third match.  It poured, for a long time.  Thank goodness Charlie brought a shelter.  A bunch of both our families came down to watch us and they all huddled underneath as the water steamed down.  The game we were watching continued on in the downpour even though huge puddles instantly formed on the court.  It was comedic.  The game ended and the young kids that we were scheduled to play immediately came over and asked if we were ready to play.  I told them we would wait a bit to see if it slows down.

We got a small break where the rain let up so we trudged out to the soppy court.  We wound up playing with Charlie’s $15, glow in the dark, plastic ball because it wouldn’t absorb water like a leather ball would.  That thing was heavy and hard, your arms hurt after bumping it only a few times.  The parts of the court that were puddles turned to mud in short order from the trampling.  It was horrible.  Just before the game began it started to pour again.  We were already we soaked so we just stayed out there and played.  The kids we were playing did remarkably well considering the conditions, they hit and served hard and seemed to almost enjoy playing mud volleyball.  We on the otherhand were not fairing well.  The muddy spots made movement very dangerous.  On numerous occassions we both took muddy spills.  Our best offense was just wailing on the serve, trying to drive them back.  We once again split the games, sitting at 3 and 3 with one match to go.  The field was a total mess now.

I was feeling like hell, most joints in my body hurt by this point and the cold rain amplified the misery.  The last match was a big one, if we won both we insured a playoff berth, if we lost both we were done.  The rain had stopped but the court was still a muddy disaster.  The team we played had one 30 something A player and a younger kid that wasn’t quite as good.  The A player had a killer jumpserve that hooked hard and fast across the net.  He ran off tons of points with it by hitting into the muddy areas where we could do little to pass it.  I bet between the two games he ran at least 12 points.  After we lost the first game we had the second in hand, ahead 9-6 or 10-5.  The A player got the serve and promptly served us off the court.  It was a dreary way to end the day.  It was the first time I didn’t make playoffs in BB at the Rumble.  Granted the weather had a ton to do with it.  Shortly after getting off the court it started raining once again, making me at least in a small way relieved that our playing day was done.  I just didn’t want to play anymore in the mud.  I have some video from our mud ball matches that I will get online sometime.

It didn’t take long for my body to start making me pay for pushing it when I shouldn’t have.  I hobbled in the front door like an 80 year old man, my left knee started to swell badly as soon as I pulled the knee brace off.  I threw some ice in a freezer bag and iced my knees.  My twice operated on, chronically sore right knee had now become my good knee.  Doing stairs was the worst part, I had to go one at a time and turn at an angle to minimize the bending of left leg.  The whole idea of having to go under the knife to fix yet another knee issue was on my mind.  I silently growled at myself for the entire creatine experiment and the foolishness of my thinking.  I just can’t take the stuff and do impact activities, yet I thought this time would be different.  Idiot.  I would be thrilled to trade a weaker bench press for pain free knees now.

Sunday was slow going.  Torrin had left on Saturday so things were a bit less crowded.  It was still raining, it had been raining since Friday.  Ali had the idea of going to Philly to run in a 5k around the Sports Complex.  We set the alarm and got up but after seeing Philadelphia surrounded by red blobs on the doppler Ali decided to bag it.  Running in rain just is no fun.  So we had a free morning that I spent with ice on my knee while playing more online chess.  Any upright movement I did looked ridiculously strained.  I tried taking Nicki for a walk but had to turn back.  I couldn’t stop her from pulling with my gimpy legs. 

Around 1 oclock we met Ali’s family for lunch at the country buffet.  Ali’s family love to eat so the buffet is high on their list of favorite places.  Originally we hoped to have Pop Pop there with us but instead after we finished eating we all went over to the hospital to see him for an early birthday party.  It was nice to see Pop Pop smiling and having a good time talking to everyone.

Right after that we wnt to our friends Cheryl and Dave’s place.  We hadn’t seen them in awhile.  It seems most times I am up my time is so limited that I always miss out on seeing them.  Now we had plenty of time to do so. They have lived  in the same house for many years and over that time period have completely transformed it.  Dave is incredibly handy, you name it he can do it.  I wish I had his skills.  They really have a nice little thing going.  He showed me his 03 Mach 1 Mustang to complement the 68 project Stang he has in the garage (along with the sport bike and Tundra pick up)  They recently put in a pool that looks great.  Unfortunately it was still raining and dreary.  We sat out on the patio, drank beer while Nascar was on TV and hung out there until 9 or 10.  It was great to see them.

Monday was a pretty low key day.  I went with my dad to walk the dogs.  At one point he let Maggie off the leash to play ball which she loves to do.  I still had Nicki leashed but she wanted to play along so I let her loose.  Soon they started up a game where Maggie would run and Nicki would chase her, they circled a big bush countless times.  It was so funny to see Nicki acting like a dog.  They were both exhausted by the time they finished.

Around lunchtime we picked up a pizza and stopped over at Rich and Beth’s place.  They too have put a lot of work into improving their house.  Beth is soon due to have their first kid, a boy.  Rich is in a different world than me that is full of responsibility and long term ideas about the family that is about to grow.  He seems to be handling it well. I still am more or less in the same spot mentally I was 10 years ago, just in a different geographic region. I brought along my HULK dvd which we watched on their sweet new tv.  They have two dogs that were as entertaining as the movie. 

Monday morning my step mom and Maggie pulled out for New Mexico, leaving just us and my dad in the house.  Dad took us out to eat at an Asian restaurant.  The waiter was very hard to understand but he got the order right.  The beef and broccoli was first class.  We had some nice conversation, something I don’t get to do with my dad very often.  That night I could tell he missed Maggie.  He was very happy when Nicki interacted with him to fill the void. 

On Tuesday (yes it was still raining) my dad and I planned to go to AC.  We figured 2 hours down, 2 hours back and 4 or 5 hours there.  Wrong.  There was a horrific backup on the Turnpike that turned our 2 hour drive down into 4 hours.  After eating lunch we had a rushed gambling session at the Sands. I played craps at first.  The table wasn’t hot at all.  There was very little excitement, even if things were going well.  At one point the guy next to me made two pints and then crapped out.  That was much better than anyone had did for awhile so I was trying to be positive and clapped my hands while saying “Nice rolling shooter..”  he mumbled back something like “2 points isn’t good shooting…”   F’in jerk.  So after fighting back to even on the craps table I decided to join my dad at blackjack.  I had miserable luck and blew through my hundred dollar mental limit in the span of 20 minutes.  My dad on the other hand had great luck and finished 225 bucks up.  He was running a system that went like this.  If you win a hand, the next hand you bet double, if you win the next one, you bet 3 times your original bet, if you win that you bet 5 times your original bet.  If you win that you go back to step one. Well he was completeing the cycle multiple times.  He was getting very lucky with the draws.  On one of the 5 times hands he had a 12 and the dealer was showing a 10, a terrible spot for the player.  He draws and pulls a 9 for 21!  He just could do no wrong.

The drive back was stressful.  I had to be back to get pictures with Ali’s family.  If we hit any delays like we did on the way down I would not make it.  Luckily we only hit a few snafu’s and I made it back with about 10 minutes to spare.  Ali, Nicki and I piled in and headed for the studio.  The picture taking session wasn’t bad and Nicki did very vell considering all of the action.  We did a group shot with everyone and then a picture of just Ali, Nicki and I, our first “family” picture.  After we were done we went to see Pop Pop one more time.  He was released from the hospital and was back at the assisted living facility.  I have to admit I was surprised at how nice that place was.  It could make being in a home almost enjoyable. Of course it costs you a small fortune to enjoy such accomodations.  We got the picture of Ali, Nicki and Pop Pop together that Alison wanted so badly.  We said goodbye to Ali’s family and went home to pack up for our departure early Wednesday morning. Of course it finally stopped raining on Wednesday, the day we left.

The drive back went smoothly.  We were both more adept at controlling the touchy steering in the van so there was less veering.  I watched the 2nd Underworld movie on the way back.  That was a sweet flick.  Vampire versus Werewolves, what a great concept.  B+  We drove until around 1am and made it to northern Florida even with stopping for a bit to visit Ali’s friend Sue in North Carolina.  Instead of sleeping in the van I stopped at a Red Roof Inn.  I figured getting a shower in the morning would help me feel renewed for the final leg of the journey.  Although we were in a normal bed, I still didn’t sleep much, I was up around 6.  We cleaned up and were back on the road by 8. During the last leg of the drive my Garmin Quest GPS died.  It was working fine when I turned off the van to get gas.  I turn the van back on a few minutes later and it was dead.  Weird stuff.  The cruise home was smooth and we pulled into our house right around 1. 

We were pleasantly surprised to see the neighbor had taken his tractor and mowed our grass, that was awesome.  Of course when you get back from a long trip there are a million things to do which we chipped away at for the next 3 days.  Actually later in the day Thursday we took the van right back to the garage so they could address the steering issue that plagued us for the last 2400 miles.  This time I could clearly explain exactly what it was doing.  It turns out the steering box that was replaced was defective. 

We got some good news that they were going to start on our pool cage on Monday.  In preparation I pulled down the temporary fence.  I took the two gates I made and used them on the garden instead to make for easier access to the area.  We then stripped the deck of items and I spent a couple hours pressure washing it off.  I didn’t really feel like doing it but I knew that pressure washing with no cage would be much easier than doing it with one.  I had a long list of things to get done over the weekend and managed to knock them all out.

On Friday morning we went with our neighbor to the Wellness Center.  It is a big gym run by the local hospital.  Ali has been going there on Friday’s with the neighbor to do classes.  Wow is that place nice.  They have tons of everything.  I wish it was more conveniently located.  It’s also very expensive, if I joined it would cost almost triple what I am paying now.  I tried to make up for my lack of gym time by doing a complete body work out, minus legs.  Again I felt weak and unmotivated.

On Saturday Ali made an appointment for us to use my gift certificate she gave me for a massage and facial.  She got one too.  The massage was great, I never had a full length (hour) massage before.  I could get used to that.  I was worried about inappropriate arousal occuring but I managed to keep things unhder control.  The facial was not much fun.  The woman puts a bunch of goop on your face and then goes after your clogged pores with a little torture device.  It felt like she was stabbing my face, repeatedly.  Pampering is quite expensive.  I tipped 20 bucks for each service and Ali did the same.  I only had twenties and would have felt dumb asking for change.  The massage lady deserved the twenty, the facial woman did not.  Between the two of us, another 300 bucks evaporated.  Ugh. 

I’ve found that since I got back I have been feeling extremely low on energy.  My motivation is not there.  I have been eating badly and just feel down.  I think part of it is the whole knee thing.  The swelling has reduced to the point where I can walk normally but my movement is limited.  The reality of middle age is staring at me and I don’t like it.  Another heavy weight is cash.  We spent close to 500 dollars just in gas on that trip alone.  The pool cage bill is now here and I can think of several other short term expenditures that will further stretch my wallet. It seems like a rash of things need to be addressed.  The GPS died ( still under warranty), the charger for the Roomba died while we were gone and the batteries I got to fix the UPS on my server didn’t fix the problem so I need another UPS.  It’s not like I can’t pay for the stuff but it will lop a big chunk out of our savings account.  I just need a period of time where that number is steadily increasing.   It’s not all bad.  It’s nice to be back home in our own bed, it’s nice to have days filled with more sun than rain and be able to get back into a more normal routine.  I will miss the walks with Dad, Maggie and Nicki.  I’m going to give the knee a week or two and see where it is at.  If it swells everytime I do some impact I will probably take the plunge and contact the knee doc.

I’m back at work for today and then off tomorrow only to come back for a quick 3 day week.  Not a bad deal.  I hope to go home to a partially completed pool cage and will be going to pick up a once again repaired party van in a few hours.  Life is back to normal, mostly.