Archives November 2009

My Veterans Day was pretty mundane for most of it.  Ali had to work so it was just me and the “girls”.  I wanted to give the floor surfaces of the house a thorough cleaning after having Maggie and Clara running wild for a few days.  The floor/carpet was covered in dog hair, dog slobber and various other dog bodily fluids I’m sure.  So I swept it with the Dyson Animal and followed up with the steam cleaner.  Man was it ever dirty.  Even though I went over the high traffic areas repeatedly I was still pulling very dirty water.  If you have dogs tile with throw rugs may be a better option.

Wednesday night Ali and signed up to run in the Veterans Day Midpoint Bridge Run. This run is sort of special for us, it was the first 5K race we ever ran in a few years back.  It’s also a cool run because it happens at night and they close off a bridge that the run is held on.  You are running over a river for most of the race, pretty neat.  Before the race Ali and I agreed we would both run at our own pace.  She said she wasn’t going to try to break any speed records so I shouldn’t expect to see her just under the 30 minute mark like she turned in up in PA.

As we warmed up for the race I didn’t feel particularly good.  My legs felt stiff and my right knee felt less than stellar.  My overall energy level was rather low.  I have been sort of down because of the whole Spook situation.  I had no big expectations for how I would perform.  In fact I recall thinking shortly before the race that I may have been happier at home at that point and time.  I just wasn’t into it.

So the gun sounds and off we go.  After getting out of the initial quagmire of nearly 700 runners I had some room to run.  Instinctively I started passing people.  I have this weird mental thing that goes on during a race.  If I spot people ahead of me that look like they should not be ahead of me I try to catch them, it will bother me immensely otherwise.  All of a sudden the sluggishness I felt warming up was gone.  I utilized my long legs to lengthen my stride without greatly increasing the speed of my leg movement. 

When I got to the first person calling out times I was astonished when I heard 7:16.  I don’t run 7:16 miles, wow I must really be hauling ass.  Well I found out later that the woman was actually sitting at the 2 mile marker for the return trip.  Why she was calling out times I don’t know, I heard it confused a lot of people.  The bridge has a long gentle rise in the middle that we had to traverse twice, out and back.  The hill was enough to break a bunch of people as they stopped and walked.  The hill didn’t slow me down too much at all.

It wasn’t until the two mile mark that I realized Iwasn’t running 7:16 miles, more like 8 minute miles which is still good for me.  As I accelerated to the finish I was excited to see I broke the 25 minute mark for the first time EVER.  I finished with an official time of 24:56 which was really more like 24:45-50 based on the lag until I got to cross the start line.  I was amazed that I set a personal record (PR) based on how I felt before the race.  I guess it’s a testament to adrenalin.

After grabbing a bottle of water I waited for Ali, figuring she would come in after the 30 minute mark.  You can imagine my surprise when she came across the finish line at just over 29 minutes!  So much for taking it easy.  She shaved a full minute off her PA time running a course with inclines, wow.

We both did well in our age groups.  I finished 9th out of almost 30 and Ali was in the top 25% of the 60 or so women in her age category.   When I looked at the final results I noticed there were a few men in my age group that finished a few seconds earlier than me.  If I knew that I would have kicked it up a few notches and might have been able to get 5th or 6th.  Regardless I was proud of both of our efforts.

After the race we headed to the area where the refreshments are, both Ali and I were looking forward to a well earned post race snack.  I was shocked to see nothing on the table except orange quarters.  I asked if they had anything else, I never saw a race that had just orange quarters, not everyone likes to eat oranges (me).  That was all they had, they said the main sponsor which was a restaurant/bar had the rest of the food at their place, miles away at some mall.  Some genius thought it would be a great idea to force the runners to drive somewhere else for food.  “How stupid”, both Ali and I said to each other as we walked back to the car.  Over 700 signed up and you only have water and oranges at the end???  It really annoyed me.  Obviously whomever made that call is not a runner, else they would realize the lunacy of that arrangement.  Instead of driving business towards their doors just the opposite will happen in our situation, I’ll never go there now, not that I would have anyways.

Bed felt very good for both of us once we got home.

My dad, step mom and their two dogs head out this morning back to PA.  They basically just hung out yesterday since both Ali and I had to work.  I turned the pool heater on Sunday to get the water temp up a bit, the 75 degrees it was sitting at was a bit cool to hang out in very long.  When we got home my step mom was in the middle of cooking a fancy vegetarian dinner.  Although we told her she certainly did not need to cook for us she said she was happy to do it, she likes to cook and is very good at it.

Ali and I decided that we should jump in the pool a bit to enjoy the dollars we spent heating it.  By that time the water was hovering around 89 degrees.  The dogs of course came out to join in the fun, Maggie especially.  Maggie is the only dog out of the four that is willing go into the pool.  All you have to do is throw something in the pool for her to fetch and she will jump right in and get it.  She is a great swimmer, very fast.   I played with her for a good 20 minutes, she just never gets tired of fetching.

After our pool time supper was ready which we ate out on the lanai.  It was a real nice setting with candles lighting the table, the pool light on and mild, comfortable temperatures.  The food tasted as good as it looked.  After cleaning up from dinner we hung out and caught some of the MNF game.  This morning I said my goodbyes before heading out for work, they were going to be pulling out early and driving until 4pm, wherever that lands them.

We had a nice visit with dad and the crew.  Just watching the dogs interact provides hours of entertainment, getting the fence gate installed as well was an unexpected bonus.  I’m not sure when we will see them next but hopefully it is sooner rather than later.

Man the Spook situation is just plain gross at this point.  Last night we noticed that it almost looks like the skin around the base of her troublesome left ear is peeling back as well as excreting some sort of disgusting fluid.  I can’t imagine her recovering at this point.  She still is basically not eating. However she is still purring like mad and wanting to be interacted with at every opportunity.  I really wish I would come out one morning and find that she quietly passed away. But I fear it is going to come down to us having to take her down to the vet again.  I really dread the idea of being in the room as she is put to sleep.  I still have flashbacks of when we went through it with Buttons.  Death and I just don’t get along well at all.

My dad originally said he expected to pull into our place around 3 on Friday.  Things were slow at work so I was able to leave a bit early so I would be able to meet them.  Well on my way home after hearing from Ali that they weren’t there yet I called dad to see where they were.  He was only at mile marker 240 something (we are 111), evidently they got a late start because they had to wait for a dog bakery to open.  Dad has never been one to care about time, schedules or anything that would in some manner restrict his free will so it did not come to me as a surprise that instead he would be rolling in closer to 6:30.

As soon as they arrived with their two black lab mixes (Clara and Maggie) all hell broke loose as expected.  After a very brief reacquaintance period the dogs were full out nuts, running around and playing with each other like they didn’t skip a beat from our summer New Mexico trip.  Sadie and Clara are an especially good match, they both love to run and play fight.  We decided I would just run out and grab pizza for dinner, nothing fancy is normally required as far as eating arrangements go with dad.  We caught up on the latest and greatest before hitting the sack relatively early.  Everyone was sort of pooped.

Saturday morning I thought dad might enjoy going with me to pick up the stuff I needed to install an auxiliary gate where I cut the fence.  The place is called Jack & Ann’s Feed and Supply in Immokalee.  It is a run down, older than dirt place that is run by good ole Florida crackers.  Dad seems to enjoy interacting with people that march off the beaten path so this would be a great place for him.

We took my truck and initially I was concerned about getting everything into the back of it.  I needed four 8 foot corner posts, two smaller cross posts, wire and a 12 foot gate.  The bed of my truck is only 7-8 feet long max.  We put the posts in and then laid the gate on top.  After that we used a combination of bungee cords, ropes and careful driving to get the stuff back to the house.

I pulled the truck to the back and dumped the stuff on the ground.  That was all I wanted to get accomplished.  Well dad suggested that we work on getting the gate installed which I told him was not my intention.  I didn’t expect or necessarily need the help to do the project although of course it goes easier with an extra set of hands.  Well dad was into it so we dug into the project.

It seems this has been a recurring theme when dad and I get together.  We always wind up doing projects somehow. He helped me install the sprinkler system a couple years ago when he was down and when we went out to NM I helped him with various stuff as well.  He enjoys it and I guess I do too.  It’s rewarding to do some hard labor and accomplish something at the end of it.

So after deciding exactly how to situate the two H braces and 12 foot gate on the fence line best based on the location of the cut, we broke earth.  I tried to do most of the labor intensive parts of the job like the hole digging.  These 8 foot posts require a 42 inch hole.  Going down 42 inches with a post hole digger is not exactly a good time.  We worked until mid to late afternoon on the project with a break for lunch thrown in there.  Our stopping point was one H post up, with the gate attached to it.  It was the harder of the two H’s to complete so it was nice to have that part knocked out.

My step mom asked if we had any interest in seeing “Men That Stare at Goats”  the new comedy with an impressive sounding cast.  Although it wasn’t a movie that was on my must see list we figured it would be fun to go check out.  We stopped and had a quick but nice meal at Moe’s which we got to enjoy out on a deck in the warm evening air overlooking a lake with lighted fountains, it was very cool.

We went to Coconut Point once again, counting on it being relatively empty.  The theater was actually the fullest it ever has been for any of our visits but there were still tons of empty seats.  The stuff they show leading up to the actual film is downright annoying, at times I almost felt like I was watching a NFL broadcast with advertisements repeating several times in a short period of time.  Then during the incredibly long preview session I had something happen that never did before.  They showed the same movie preview TWICE.  Not back to back mind you like it was a mistake or something it seemed intentional.  Man I found that incredibly annoying.  After dropping nearly $10 a head to view a movie I think it is bullshit to subject viewers to 15 minutes of previews and commercials.

So the movie starts and right away you were hit up with several laugh out loud funny moments.  The chemistry between George Clooney and Ewan McGregor was good.  However as the film progressed the funny moments became increasingly scarce. By the end of the movie it was hard to not come out of it scratching your head if you tried to explain what exactly it was about. It could best be summarized as “stupid”.   I certainly would not recommend going to a theater to see it.  B- at best.  Everyone pretty much echoed my feelings although Ali actually seemed to like it the most of all of us.

On Sunday morning I was outside before 7:30 working on the rest of the gate install.  I wanted to get it knocked out.  Dad once again felt obligated to come out and assist, this time still wearing his pajama pants.  We ran into a few snags finishing up the project, the most annoying was trying to get the rear end of the truck into a position where I could winch the fence tight.  I had everything finished and put away by 10 am, talk about a productive start to the day.  We now have a nice 12 foot gate that should make entrance to the back of the property more feasible if a large object/vehicle needs to gain access. I’ll take some pictures later of the completed project.  The tendons and muscles in my hands are very stiff and sore from all of that gripping, twisting and pulling that comes with any fence installation project.

I had seen that this weekend they were holding the Fort Myers Sandsculpting Festival.  This has been going on for nearly 25 years yet we never checked it out.  I asked my dad and step mom if they were into it and they were. On the way to the beach we drove by the Delorean place again and this time I stopped.  They had almost a dozen Deloreans lined up outside.  Every single one of them was in need of some sort of TLC, I’m not quite sure what the function of this location is.  Perhaps they restore them and resell them to collectors?  Regardless it was quite cool to be in the immediate proximity of a dozen Deloreans, something that very few people in this world can lay claim to.  My dad said he actually rented a Delorean years ago, that would have been pretty cool.

So we continued on our trip to FMB.  I had read that the festival attracted upwards of 100,000 visitors during the 5 days it runs so I expected crowds.  I didn’t quite expect as much of a crowd as we got though.  Luckily we found a place to park that was relatively close.  We walked down the road up to the beach and were surprised by the mini-carnival type atmosphere with lots of tents, food and nick knacks. 

We came up quickly upon some of the amateur sculptures which were smaller in scale yet impressive.  It amazes me how they can transform plain old sand and water into something that looks like it was carved out of stone.  We then came to the professional sculptures.  In order to get to this area you had to pay $5 a head.  This pay-to-see concept immediately soured dad on the idea so he stayed outside the fence but myself, Ali and my step mom decided the 5 spot was worth it and it definitely was.  The scultures were simply amazing.  I would love to know how they manage to do this.  Every single piece was incredible, the detail and creativity was awesome.

Many of the professional sand sculptors were from around the country, some in areas you would not think would be conducive to their craft like Montana or Missouri.  The most annoying thing was there were a ton of people mulling around the sculptures.  You couldn’t really stand long to admire anything without getting caught up in the flow of people or being in the way of someone taking a picture.

After seeing everything there was to be seen we grabbed some ice cream and then walked up along the water line until we got back to the van.  I decided it would be more interesting to continue north through Ft Myers Beach so my dad and step mom could see some different sights on the way back.  In retrospect it was a really, really, bad move.  Fort Myers beach has one two lane road to get on and off the beach.  Well this can create very long lines of traffic.  Well the amount of people leaving the festival trying to get north created the longest back up I had ever seen.  In total I bet we spent nearly an hour just getting off the beach, it was pretty miserable as we sat there watching people walking on the sidewalk making better progress.  I apologized for the long delay, I’ll never make the suggestion to take that scenic route again.

Last night Ali made an awesome dinner with fresh salad, baked ziti and homemade banana/chocolate chip muffins.  It was AWESOME.  I made it to the third quarter of the Eagles game before I fell asleep with the Birds leading 13-10. I woke up this morning to see that they choked and lost the game 20-16.  I had a feeling it would end badly based on what I had saw before passing out.  Oh well whatever, I am trying to not get that bent out of shape over it. 

Let me just say that Donovan McNabb and the Eagles in general have on of THE worst track records at clock management and last minute come backs of any team in the NFL.  Sure the Eagles have won a lot of ballgames but they hardly ever are able to do if they are down late.  How many two minute drives at the end of a game do you remember this team pulling out?  The only one I can recall is the 4th and 26 game against the Packers in the playoffs a few years back.  If the pressure is turned up to high and the clock is winding down you can almost guarantee this team will fail every single time.

We have had a great time watching the dogs interact over the weekend.  They just have so much fun playing with each other.  Watching their personalities mesh is intriguing.  Sadie turns out to be the most aggressive of all of them.  If another dog has a toy she instinctively wants to steal it.  She also is the one that is least likely to back down in a confrontation.

Maggie wants to do nothing but fetch ________ (fill in the blank) all day long.  If you can throw it she will get it and bring it back for you to throw again until your arm falls off.  Clara is a little trouble maker and personality wise is similar to Sadie, very high energy and very active.  Nicki is the cautious participant, picking her spots when she wants to participate in the roughhousing yet enjoying it when she does.  However if push comes to shove she is still the queen if another dog would try to do something like move in on her food bowl.  She will instantly flip the switch into Cujo if provoked enough.

By the end of the day yesterday I was feeling pretty spent both physically and mentally.  I just had used up my allotment of energy for the weekend and was running on fumes.

Spook is continuing to slide downhill.  She still is basically not eating.  I hand fed her this morning and witnessed the problems up close and personal.  Basically she can not work her mouth correctly.  It’s almost how I feel if I get my mouth shot up with novocaine.  It’s an incredible struggle for her to chew and swallow, the food just drops out of her mouth. It has to be a horrible thing to be starving yet unable to do much about it.  I am pretty much giving it this week to see if there is any improvement after a week of meds. If not I think we need to put her down.  The only small improvement I have seen thus far is less of the sneezing fits.

The ironic thing is besides having an f’d up mouth, a head that is permanently cocked to the left, one pupil that is larger than the other, looking like an anorexic and hair that is falling out the cat seems content.  She seems to be purring almost all of the time and is constantly looking for human interaction.  My step mom held her for awhile last night just petting her.  She loves cats and feels very bad for poor old Spook.

Like everyone else I was very sad to see the tragedy that occurred at the military base where a soldier went berserk and opened fire killing a number of soldiers and injuring a bunch more.  Despite being shot four times, the mental case is still alive.  Once I saw the last name of the guy I immediately knew he was of arabic/muslim descent however I hoped that it just happened to be a coincidence.  The initial stories portrayed a guy that was about to be deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan that did not want to go.  However as the story is unraveling more disturbing details are coming out.

Yep apparently this guy had connections to some disturbing / terrorist / extremist postings on the internet as well as a track record that was less than stellar.  The immediate reaction I have heard most often is the outcry for racial profiling in the military.  Profiling in general is frowned upon on as not being politically correct.  Putting an individual through additional scrutiny, background checks and inspection based solely on their last name or physical appearance may be inconvenient or annoying for such people that match that profile. But you know what, in my opinion that is just tough shit.

  The world is filled with lunatics.  Lunatics typically don’t care much about being politically correct, collateral damage or tip toeing around people’s fragile feelings.  Sure it’s a sad statement about the world we live in that such steps are necessary in order to prevent extremists from slaughtering innocent individuals but hey, it’s reality.  Profile away, I’m fine with it.  If all of a sudden middle aged white men start blowing shit up, killing innocent bystanders and otherwise causing upheaval in society sure, stop me and ask a few extra questions, run my SS number, pat me down for explosives, I don’t give a shit.

This world is SUCH a f’d up place.

On a more personal depressing note Spook went back to the vet yesterday.  Her condition has been steadily deteriorating.  She has been eating very little, still having sneezing fits and started walking around carrying her head permanently tilted to the left.  The vet said that she found some sort of mass toward the rear left of Spook’s mouth, throat.  She was able to get a needle into it to get a few cells for testing.  She isn’t quite sure what it is, it could be a benign growth, swelling from infection or some sort of cancerous tumor.  Of course none of these possibilities are good.

The vet is sending the cells out for testing but whether it is cancer or not is pretty much a moot point.  The growth is in an area that is basically inoperable short of doing crazy brain surgery on the cat.  The vet said the location of the growth could cause the myriad of problems  we have been seeing.  It could make it hard for her to chew, swallow as well as causing fluid to leak into her nasal passages making her sneeze.  She said that one of Spook’s pupils also was dilated more than the other which again indicates more problems.

So after talking to the vet I asked if I could get some more of the antibiotics.  After we finished the two weeks of treatment last time her condition definitely was improved.  The only shot Spook has is if this is infection that we did not totally knock out last time.  If that is the case hopefully another prolonged session of medicine will kill it. I suffered through a very stinky ride home with the cat as she decided to piss on the towel in her cat carrier.  The cab of the truck smelled like I sprayed it with ammonia scented Febreeze.

Of course this means we have to go through the joy of giving the cat meds again which Ali absolutely hates.  Last night Ali was out so I decided to give Spook the meds myself.  It was not a pretty picture but I more or less got the stuff in her.  I’m also giving her the left over pain meds we have so if she is in pain it will help dull it.

It’s weird, even though the cat is obviously in severely failing health she is all about being with me.  She purrs as soon as you touch her and she welcomes any petting you can throw her way.  It’s almost like she knows the clock is winding down.  She has lost the mean edge that she had for most of her adult life.  This morning she was really struggling with her balance.  She had her head severely cocked to the left, almost like that is the only way she can keep shit from draining into her throat.  She did eat a bit more than she has recently.  I felt terrible for her when as she walked through the kitchen she simply fell over when she lost her balance.  This stuff sucks.

My dad, step mom and their two dogs will be pulling in this afternoon.  We are trying to talk them into becoming snowbirds.  The house next to is for sale for a ridiculously low price.  It would be an awesome thing to have them be our neighbors for a few months out of the year.  I’m certainly not holding my breath though.

We can’t wait to let all four dogs loose in the yard.  When we were out in New Mexico they had a BLAST playing with each other however Sadie was somewhat limited because she ripped the pads on her feet on the rocky ground.  This time there will be nothing like that to slow her down, it should be a lot of fun to witness the mayhem.

The Phillies went down in flames last night unfortunately.  Pedro did not have real good stuff as pointed out by Joe Buck time and again.  His velocity wasn’t much better than BP speed.  Ryan Howard actually made his first contribution to the offense late in the game, FINALLY hitting a home run but it was far too little too late.

Winning the series two years in a row would have been a hell of an accomplishment.  I think there were a few reasons the Phils fell short.  The biggest was pitching.  The inability of Cliff Lee to go on three days rest set up a domino effect where the Phils were going deep into their rotation while the Yankees were able to stick with their best three pitchers.  The Phillies staff in general, especially their relief staff just wasn’t good enough.  Having Lidge and Hamels performing nowhere close to their prior years performance really hurts.

  On offense there were a few chokers.  Jimmy Rollins did far less than a lead off hitter of his caliber should do. Ben Francisco??? Nice job on going 0-fer the post season.  And of course the biggest choke of all was clearly Ryan Howard who tied the all-time strike out record for a World Series, ouch.

Oh well in the big picture it’s all good.  I like the character of the Phillies team and if a few of their players get their heads screwed on straight and bounce back next year there is no reason they can’t be right back in the mix of things next season.

Witness the joy of fire ants.

So Ali got back last night from her trip to PA.  I took PV 2.0 loaded up with the dogs to pick her up.  After a typical lengthy wait for her bags at baggage claim she gave me the call that she was ready to be picked up.  Nicki was excited but confused at the same time when she saw Ali, I think the flurry of activity at the airport freaked her out a bit.

On the way home Ali told me about her trip.  It sounded like she had a great time, probably the best visit she has had to PA since we moved to Florida.  Our nieces are at just about the perfect age where they are full of questions, cuteness and energy.  Ali really enjoyed interacting with them.  Ali’s interaction with the kids prompted my sister-in-law calling me over the weekend drunkenly telling me how we HAD to have a kid because Ali is so good with them.

Ali ran her first Pennsylvania 5K while she was up there.  Despite the cool conditions she actually had a really good race, breaking 30 minutes for the first time in a long time.  She also got to see various friends and family members while she was up there.  She said she did a lot of crying  yesterday because she was going to miss everyone.

I was happy that she had such a great time.  It seems like it was a very positive experience for her.  I was equally happy to have her back home.  We didn’t get home until well after 10.  I quickly showed Ali our new shed which she thankfully approved of it’s location.  After that she quickly unpacked and tried to get things somewhat in order. 

 Ali went nuts buying me gifts while she was up there. She bought me a big Phillies and Eagles magnet for the truck, an official looking Cole Hamels Phillies jersey and most importantly SHOO FLY pie!   The stuff was all quite cool.

Since I was picking up Ali I missed the majority of the Phillies game but I was keeping up on the score on my Iphone.  I was psyched when I flipped on the tv at home and saw they had a commanding 8-2 lead going into the 8th.  Chase Utley once again was coming up huge belting two more homeruns, including a big 3 run shot in the first.  All of a sudden Chase has the opportunity to surpass the great Reggie Jackson as the all-time homerun king for a World Series, wow.

Anyway almost on cue, as soon as I started to watch the game the wheels started falling off.  In the space of 5 minutes the score was all of a sudden 8-5 and the Yankees were within striking distance.  In the 9th inning Brad Lidge was noticeably absent, obviously Charlie has lost faith in the guy.  Instead Ryan Madsen was tasked with closing out the Yankees.  The Yanks immediately get men on base and score a run on a double play to make the score 8-6.  So with two outs and two strikes Johnny Damon gets a single to bring the tying run to the plate.  Man I was stressing big time.  Finally a wave of relief came over me after Madsen manages to strike out the batter to end the game, whew. 

So the Phils are still alive but now face the daunting task of heading back to NYC and having to sweep the final two games.  It’s going to be a rough road to climb but maybe, just maybe they can pull it out.  Maybe Ryan Howard can get a hit sometime as well……

Friday night I went out with my buddy from work.  We hit a place called The Keg and The Pub.  The Keg is a steak house with a bar.  I expected it to be quite full on a Friday night. Surprisingly it was pretty dead.  After that we swung over to the latest and newest hot spot in Naples, Mercado. 

The Pub is a british style pub with lots of dark beer, english style food and a lot of drunks.  One of the first things we were treated to when walking in the door was some douchebag in a costume with a large red strap on penis.  He was encouraging patrons to try to throw plastic rings onto his plastic phallus. 

We didn’t stay very long, just long enough to do some people watching.  There were lots of women there dressed to impress, looking to snag that lonely millionaire.  I kept my drinking under control all evening as I was the driver.  In total I may have had 5 light beers, a far cry from the triple tavern towers I consumed a couple weeks prior.  Going out and seeing the nightlife typically makes me thankful that I don’t have to deal with it on a regular basis.  This time was no different. 

I got home around 11.  Mom was glad to see I got home in one piece.  She was also glad that my arrival meant she could once again have her bed to herself.  She was sharing it with the dogs prior to my arrival.

After going to the grocery store with mom Saturday morning, I was quite busy with work around the house.  With no Ali to help share the load I was on the go for the majority of the day.  The longest time consumer was mowing and weed whacking everything by myself.  Mom washed her car while I mowed.  After I was done mowing I waxed the top surfaces of her car and cleaned out the interior. Throw in weeding, palm trimming and several other small chores onto the “done” list.  I was pretty damn tired by the end of the day.

One of the nice things about having mom there was she likes to cook.  She made stuffed shells on Saturday night and London Broil last night.  Mom also did all of our dirty laundry and was on dishwasher duty too.  Mom likes to have something to do so I don’t try too hard to discourage her.

Late Saturday I found out that the guy that was going to help me move the shed would be available on Sunday afternoon.  So I called up the shed owner and made sure she was ok with the shed getting moved Sunday which she was.  The bad thing was doing it Sunday afternoon meant I would completely miss the Eagles game.  I wasn’t happy about that but I wanted to get the shed moved more so I bit the bullet.

Sunday morning I went over early to do the basic disassembly before my help arrived.  I disconnected the hurricane straps and the electric that was feeding into the shed.  I also loaded up the storage shelves the owner was donating to me and brought them back to the house awhile.  I was done in about an hour.  Then it was just waiting for my help to arrive.

Ok so this was the outline of how the shed transport was going to go.  My guy has a big trailer and a big tractor with a front bucket and a grading box blade.  The plan was to use the tractor to lift the the shed into a position where we could get it on the trailer.  after successfully loading the shed on the trailer he would use the tractor to smooth out a clear path to trailer the shed to the 12 foot gate in the back of our fence line.  Once inside the fence we would drive the shed into position and once again use the tractor to help us remove the shed from the trailer.  Well besides the fact that the shed is now sitting on our property, none of the in between steps went as planned.

The first problem we had was the back of the shed was flush up against a deck.  The deck prevented the tractor from being used behind the shed to lift and push.  Instead we utilized a come along attached to the front of the trailer to slowly and I mean SLOWLY winch the shed towards the trailer.  Early on during the process one of the woman’s neighbors showed up.  He was one of those types that likes to be involved in shit and loves to offer up opinions on how to do them.  Immediately he started throwing up ideas on how to accomplish our objective and immediately I did my best to demonstrate that we weren’t interested in them. Luckily when he went back over to his house to get some “tools” to help us, the shed owner called him and told him to  stay put, we didn’t want/need his help.

Bill brought two come alongs with him.  He managed to bend the first one, it wasn’t a very heavy duty variety.  Luckily I had my come along with as well which was a bit stronger.  Winching the shed up onto the trailer was extremely tedious.  We used pipes, dock pilings, cinder blocks and various other items along the way to slowly inch the shed into position.

The weather was not cooperating either.  Even though it was November 1st,  it was blazing hot with temps approaching 90 degrees.  Bill and I were drenched in sweat.  The shed also had a perimeter of fire ants which I was introduced to  multiple times as I crawled around in the sand.  It was in a word, miserable.

The job of loading the shed was considerably more challenging than Bill anticipated.  The shed was heavier than he expected and the inability to use the tractor to assist made the job a 100% manpower variety.  In total we spent around two and a half hours just getting the shed onto the trailer.

So we carted it back to our house and Bill did a survey of the route he would need to traverse.  Again, it was more difficult than he envisioned.  He didn’t realize that our rear gate was at the far rear corner.  To get to it he would need to smooth out a very long path that crossed several deep ditches he would need to fill.  He was also concerned that if he stripped to much of the grassy overgrowth the truck and trailer could easily become stuck in the soft sugar sand underneath.  Well he would give it a try.

So Bill got to work with the tractor and started the clearing process.  As I walked along the path he was clearing I had severe doubts about the viability of this plan.  Knowing how heavy the shed was and seeing the undulating terrain the truck, trailer and shed would have to navigate I had very little confidence in the success of the effort.  Bill came back towards the front of the property unexpectedly, pointing to his front tire.  He had a flat… wtf else can be go wrong? 

So Bill parked the tractor and we talked about our options.  He said he could try to trailer it back there with what he had cleared although he shared my dire outlook on the success of that option.  While he was trying to clear the path I was examining the fence.  I was considering just cutting the fence, pulling a fence post and driving through it.  Of course the idea of disturbing my beautiful intact fence line was not an ideal situation as it would require me to repair that section after the shed is driven through it.  However it seemed to me to be the lesser of two evils.  If the truck and trailer get stuck halfway back we were totally screwed.  I brought up the fence cutting plan to Bill and he was all for it.

I got some fence staples and hammered more in on the posts before and after the cut to try to maintain as much tension on the existing fence line as possible.  We cut the fence, removed the post and we instantly had a nice 20 foot wide entrance to enter the property.  We drove the truck and trailer on to the property and positioned it as close as possible to where I wanted it.  Then we begun the de-trailering process.

With the tractor sidelined with a flat tire we once again were forced to unload the shed by hand.  I drove my truck around and we used it as the stationary object to attach the come along to.  We had some hairy moments as the shed was being unloaded.  It wound up coming off at an angle that was rather precarious at times.  Once again we used various objects to stabilize the shed as it came off including a floor jack, landscape blocks, wood and the dock pilings.  I had visions of the shed falling off the trailer and breaking into pieces.  Luckily the shed is built very solidly and was able to withstand the abuse we were subjecting it to. 

Finally we got the shed off the trailer and after some more manipulation with the floor jack got it resting on it’s original cinder block pads. I caught my first break of the day when I put the level on the shed floor and saw that it was level without any additional manipulation.  Originally I had hopes of getting the shed reconnected to the hurricane straps but that was a battle I would fight another day.  I was beat.  I paid Bill for his time and worked right up until the fade of daylight putting all of the tools  away.

I was beat up.  Working in the hot sun all afternoon doing back breaking labor isn’t an ideal way to spend the weekend.  I was happy to hear the Eagles kicked the Giants ass in what may have been the best game of the year for the Birds so far.  I was sorry I missed it.  I wish instead I could have missed the Phillies game.

After losing on Saturday night the Phillies really needed to stop the bleeding and take game four.  Instead they once again collapsed down the stretch and are now down 3-1 in the series.  It seems like the Phillies have several problems in the series.  Certain key players are just not producing,  most notably Ryan Howard who has struck out an embarrassing amount of times.  He is one the verge of surpassing Willie Wilson as the biggest failure in World Series history.   When he is hot he is awesome, but when he is cold he is DREADFUL.  The World Series is a bad time for him to revert to NOT HOT status.

Jimmy Rollins also has done very little from the lead off spot, not nearly what the Phils need him to do.  The Phillies have hit a TON of homeruns during the series, however I think every single shot was with the bases empty.  When they have runners on base they have being going down quietly.  The Phillies relievers basically suck.  They simply do not get the job done.  Brad Lidge is the biggest surprise of all in the bullpen.  Last year he was Mr Automatic, not blowing a single save opportunity.  This season he has blown a ton of leads and once again last night  he fell apart, giving up 3 runs, giving the Yankees the win in the process.

The Phillies just seem to be missing that magic combination they had last year of clutch play with a sprinkle of good luck.  If they manage to dig themselves out of this hole it will be a comeback of monumental proportions.  Hey the Red Sox did it to the Yankees once before, maybe the Phils can wake up and do it once again.