Archives July 2010

Last night I decided to take a bite out of what would otherwise be weekend work and get the weed whacking done.  There were some very ominous clouds to the east with distant thunder but luckily they remained to the east.  I hadn’t trimmed in at least two weeks, maybe three.  As a result it took a long time, I didn’t finish up until around 8.

Today after work I am hoping to participate in my first NATS swim in the gulf.  It will be my first time trying to do distance swimming in an open body of water. I really have no idea what to expect.

The Phillies traded for Roy Oswald, a good pitcher even though his win – loss record this year doesn’t show it.  I guess they haven’t given up on this season yet afterall.

I did a few sets of dragonflags at the gym yesterday.  I am getting better at being able to hold them as well as return to the upright position after going deeper.

I have a busy day ahead of me, a busy weekend as well I’m sure.  Don’t feel much like talking.

Since I wear a lot of Eagles gear I have found that I am asked quite often, even by strangers,  what I think of the Eagles chance this season since they dumped McNabb. (and 13 other players) Everyone seems to act like McNabb was the only big change the Birds made this off season but in fact they dumped a ton of players and in the process are now the youngest team in the league.  They only have one non-kicker over 30. The average age on the team is 24 years old.

It may look odd to read this but I am probably more excited this season than any in at least a half a decade.  To me, the unknown that a team of talented young players brings is more exciting than what I was looking at otherwise.

Yep if they kept McNabb I could expect the Eagles to finish above .500, make the playoffs and then have McNabb ultimately fall apart when the chips are down.  McNabb has always been a gifted athlete but when push comes to shove and the pressure was high I just had no confidence in him delivering.  To be fair, sometimes he did deliver in high pressure situations but those were few and far between.  The sloppy, slow, way he ran the Eagles towards the end of the Super Bowl will never get out of my head.

Anyway, with Kolb I have no idea how he will do.  Maybe he will suck, the Eagles will finish 4-12 and I will be wishing for number 5 to be back.  But, he may do GREAT.  It will be such a pleasure to see a QB that doesn’t throw half a dozen balls in the dirt every game or one that artificially inflates his completion percentage by throwing tons of 3 yards passes.

I’m ready for something different and that is one thing that I am guaranteed to see this year.  I’m pumped for it.

Yesterday at lunch I decided to try do a small training brick at the gym.  I hopped on a stationary bike and put in 5 miles at a good pace.  I then jumped on a treadmill and ran two miles at an 8:34 clip.  I felt pretty good through out and had a thoroughly sweat soaked shirt as testament to my effort.  I am hoping as I continue the training that I am able to stretch the run to 3 miles and still get the brick done under the time constraints of my lunch break.

As I was going at it I was watching The Longest Yard in the cardio theater, the newer one.  I forgot how much I enjoyed that movie, a total man flick.

I was surprised when I got home from work and saw a box from Gamestop by my front door.  It was my copy of Starcraft 2.  The game was just officially released on Tuesday, I expected to get my copy toward the end of the week.  It was a pleasant surprise.

I also got a surprise email yesterday morning from Blizzard, the makers of WoW.  They said I was selected as one of the few beta testers for the new expansion, Cataclysm.  Basically they give you access to the new game so you can check it out and report any bugs you find along the way.

I spent a good chunk of last night installing both games.  Both installations took a very long time.  Finally I got to play a bit of Starcraft 2 shortly before heading back to bed.  As expected the graphics for the game are fantastic.  The detail in the various buildings and units is awesome.  They also have maintained the basic control scheme which is a huge plus.  Even without playing Starcraft for at least 5 years I was able to step right back into it and have a base comfort with the controls.

I only played the first couple missions of single player mode so far.  I will surely offer up more opinions as I get deeper into the game.

I didn’t get a chance to play Cataclysm yet, it didn’t get finished downloading/installing until right before I went to sleep.  I told Ali that one of the new things in the games is a new race that can be selected, Worgen.

A Worgen is basically a werewolf.  With my reaction to full moons, Ali thought it would be quite appropriate for me to create a Worgen.

With my copy of Starcraft 2 I got some codes that allow someone to play either Starcraft 2 or WoW for 10 days for free to check them out.

If you have any interest in the codes let me know, first come, first serve.

So last night I am watching episode 14 of the 1984 version of V.  In it there is a fight to the death match lined up between two of the V mega bitches, Lydia and Diana.  Both women sport incredibly huge 80’s hair with hips to match.

Before their match Lydia says to Diana menacingly, “I have NEVER been bested in mortal combat”  Diana instantly fires back, “Idiot, if you had you would be dead…”

It made me laugh out loud and was good enough that I rewound it to show Ali.

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across an Iron Gym on Woot.  It was cheap, only $20 shipped, but had positive reviews from others that bought it in the past.  An Iron Gym is an ultra-portable workout station that allows you to turn any conventional doorway into a pull up station.

I was somewhat worried about the quality of it based on the low price.  However after I put it together last night and tried it out my concerns were set at ease, it felt quite sturdy.

The device allows me to do pull ups with three different hand positions, including a parallel grip that I can’t do on my outdoor pull up station.  Attaching the bar to the door is a 2 second process, it uses your own body weight as leverage to keep it firmly attached.  I did pull ups on all three grips and even was able to do front and back tuck levers on it without difficulty.

I put the Iron Gym on the floor and used it to do deep push ups as well as a brief L sit.  If that isn’t cool enough it ALSO comes with a set of ab straps.  You attach the straps to the bar and then you can do various leg raise exercises.  It’s a pretty damn great piece of equipment for $20.  The only negative I saw was that it was made in China of course.

I had to laugh as I went through the small manual which included the Iron Gym nutrition guide.  I was surprised that the dietary advice would be that hard core, surely not to be followed by the typical tv gym equipment purchaser.  Hell I don’t even follow that strict of an eating regimen.

So Ali took the bikes in on Monday, hers to get fitted and my free Trek to get tuned/cleaned.  She called me mid-day with a status report that she assumed I would be yelling about.

The guys at the bike shop said the Trek needed a new rear cassette, chain and two new tires.  They said both the cassette and chain were worn which didn’t surprise me knowing how hard the bike was ridden.  The quote I got to fix it made me sit up a little straight, $375. The price got adjusted down a bit once our NATS discount was applied.

The fact that I got the bike for free tempered what might be my normal reaction, “that is a f’ing rip off, I’ll do it myself”  Instead I told Ali to go ahead and have them do the work.  I figured after this maintenance I should have a pretty high quality road bike that will be good to go for years to come.  It should be done in  a week or so.

There was a story in the Naples News the other day about how the Collier Tourism board is applying to BP to get $750,000 dollars for advertising.  Their justification was they needed the money to tell people that we don’t have oil on the beach in Naples.

I find myself being annoyed with this.  Believe me, I want BP to pay for everything that is f’d up as a result of the oil spill.  But I also can’t stand when people hop in line to get a free handout if they don’t deserve it.  I want the billions of dollars that BP has set aside to go first to those that are directly and immediately impacted by this mess, not those that view it as just as an opportunity to skim some dollars off the top just because they can do it.

It reminds me of those famous stories of people in Louisiana after Katrina blowing their pre-paid, government provided credit cards in strip clubs.  It was just fun money for them.  Of course BP doesn’t have the luxury to verify the validity of the thousands of claims pouring in.  People know this and use it to obtain cash that they really don’t deserve.

It’s sad human behavior that repeats whenever disaster hits and/or any sort of hand out is available.

Yesterday after work I tried doing both front and rear tuck levers on my bar station in the back yard. (not as good as the picture which is a partial tuck)  A full lever is a static bar hold where your body is more or less parallel to the ground while your arms are fully extended.  The amount of torque this move puts on your core is extreme.

I am trying to progress into at least doing partial tuck levers.  A full lever with my dimensions would be a pipe dream but you never know.

Today is the official release of Starcraft 2.  I was a HUGE fan of the original Starcraft game and played it to death.  The original came out at least a decade ago if not longer.  The new version of course has graphics that are light years ahead of the original.  I can only hope it has the same compelling action, strategy and game play as well.  Starcraft is sort of high tech chess.

I pre-ordered my copy a couple months ago so I expect to have it in my hands late this week.  I am sure I will get pwned regularly in multi-player competition but the good thing about Starcraft is single player mode is very enjoyable.

I lost my lifting gloves but I was sort of happy about it.  The gloves were too big and offered no wrist support.  I just wish I realized I lost them while I was at Dick’s.

I started feeling sick AGAIN late yesterday afternoon.  However after eating dinner I felt somewhat better and again this morning I feel about the same.  I better update my will.

Bonnie was supposed to be a real drenching storm.  The day before she arrived there were predictions of anywhere from 2″ to 6″ of rain in our area along with some decent wind.  Well they totally muffed that forecast.  I don’t think we got even a quarter inch of rain.  Our normal summertime thunderstorms pack much more punch.  It almost felt like a letdown although in the big picture I was happy to not have a small lake around the house.

Since between the new neighbor and my efforts on Thursday the grass didn’t need to be mowed this weekend.  My plan for the weekend was to bust ass on Saturday and more or less “relax” (chore-wise) on Sunday.

I had to work on the tractor some more.  Like I said, by the end of my Thursday mow session the Cub Cadet was crawling up hills, a sure sign that the drive belt I installed was too big and loose.  I took the deck off Saturday and crawled underneath to take a look.  There was no real tension on the belt, great.

Like I mentioned last week, there were two options.  Buy ANOTHER belt and go through the hassle of gaining access to change it or utilize some of my McGyver rigging skills.  I opted for the latter.

The drive belt goes around a tension pulley that is attached to an arm with a spring.  The spring creates the tension.  Since the belt is too big, even fully retracted the spring wasn’t really doing anything.  At first I thought I might be able to bend the spring in a way to shorten it to create more tension.  After fiddling around with it a bit I realized that wasn’t going to make enough of a difference.

I devised a new plan, come up with something farther away to attach the other end of the spring to.  After surveying the bottom of the mower I came up with a good spot.  There were two open holes on the outside of the frame that were maybe three or four inches away.  I found a nut and bolt that fit through the hole (with a little drilling) and mounted them.  After that I stretched the spring with a needle nose pliers to the new bolt and clipped it on.

The stretched spring now was putting some decent tension on the belt.  I crawled out from under the tractor and gave it a quick test drive.  The response felt normal once again. Cool, hopefully it holds up.

Next I had to level the mowing deck after reattaching it.  I noticed when I mowed on Thursday that the cut had a definite lean to it.  Half of the grass was visibly higher.  Leveling the deck was basically a trial and error process.  I moved the tractor down to a flat spot on the driveway, loosened a bolt, moved the deck up or down a bit and then laid down behind the tractor to eyeball it.  It took a few attempts but eventually I got the deck looking pretty straight.

At this point I think I have the tractor about as ready as it can be to mow again.  I can only hope the nearly $600 we spent in parts buys us at least another year or two of use.

After I was done I lugged the old, beat up, patched half a dozen times mower deck down to the end of the driveway for the trash guys to hopefully take this week.  I was amazed when I saw later in the day that the deck was gone, someone actually stopped and grabbed it.  I am not quite sure what they are going to use it for.  At least it isn’t my problem.

Ali went running with her girlfriends Saturday morning and was wiped out.  She was walking around like a zombie.  I encouraged her to lay down and take a nap while I continued on.  I had plans to shampoo the carpet.  My army of floor cleaning robots made me even more efficient.  As I ran the carpet cleaner I had the newly refurbished Scooba cleaning the kitchen floor and my Dirt Dog out sweeping up the pool deck.

Everytime I shampoo the rug I wish I had the motivation/time to do it more often.  The dogs track in so much dirt that a regular shampooing is really a good idea.   The gallons of nasty dirty water that I pour down the sink reinforce that notion.

Saturday night we watched a documentary I snagged via Netflix streaming. It was about marathon running and specifically a bunch of people preparing to run the Chicago marathon in 2005. it’s called The Spirit of the Marathon.  It was quite interesting watching a diverse group of people prepare ranging from the old, the novice, to the professional prepare for the race.  Ali especially was into it because of her experience training for the half marathons.  Good stuff.

Sunday morning I had pegged as a bike riding morning.  I have done very little biking in recent months.  I can’t recall the last time I did the full Publix ride.  Ali was in a similar boat.  Even with her triathlon aspirations she has ignored her biking and hadn’t ridden since the Naples Tri in early June.

The ride got off to a bad start.  Ali is still a bit baffled by basic bike operations like shifting.  Specifically, changing the front sprocket to go between the various gear sets. She inadvertently had done the entire Naples Tri ride in 7th gear instead of 14th.

Well as we started down the road I told her she needed to change onto the large sprocket, she was still in 7th.  She turned onto a side street to make the change.  She moved the front shifter too far and in the process steered the chain completely off the gears.

She became instantly frustrated and barked at me after I said ‘What happened?” , telling me to just go without her.  I instantly became frustrated with her frustration and told her to bring the bike to me and I would fix it.  I admittedly was frustrated that Ali struggled so much with something that seems so simple as shifting a bike.  I had to remind myself that she didn’t know how to even ride a bike until I taught her in her early 20’s.

After I got the chain back on I told her I would get it in the right gear.  I hopped on her flashy pink bike and went down the other side street.  No matter which gear I tried it didn’t feel quite right.  You felt the chain to varying degrees no matter what gear I used.  Considering we spent some bucks having the local bike shop adjust it “correctly” this annoyed me.  It was better before we let them touch it.

Eventually I got it into 13th gear and it felt more or less normal.  I gave the bike back to Ali who had calmed down a bit at this point.  We headed back out on the road.

Ali had never done a full Publix ride with me.  Well yesterday she did.  On the way back we hit the typical increased headwind.  I took the lead on the return trip, trying to act like a windbreaker for Ali.  Having the shoe clips enabled me to power through the wind.  If Ali stayed right on my tail I was able to break the wind for her.  Unfortunately it was a delicate balance.  I was trying to maintain a certain speed but then I would look back and see Ali dropped back out of drafting range.  Ali was getting frustrated by my looking back periodically to see her position, she said it made her feel like she was holding me back.  I told her I didn’t mind it, I was just trying to go at a speed she could maintain.

Eventually I realized her angst wasn’t worth my effort so with about 2 or 3 miles to go I just pedaled normally.  I finished up a couple minutes ahead of her.  I encouraged Ali as she pulled in the driveway.  She completed the 17.25 mile Publix ride for the first time, good for her.

Ali is taking her bike and my Trek freebie to the bike shop today.  She is going to tell them about her poorly adjusted bike and get the Trek all cleaned and tuned.  I am looking forward to getting the Trek bike back and putting it through it’s paces.

I had it in my head I wanted to do a brick.  A brick is a triathlon term meaning you are putting various training together like an actual triathlon.  So shortly after getting back I hopped on our treadmill and did 2 miles at a 9:13 pace.  I had never run after a bike ride before, surprisingly it didn’t feel all that bad.

After my run I hopped in the pool and did some swimming.  The swim is hard for me.  Swimming a full 400 meters is going to be a challenge.  My biggest struggle is breathing.  When I bring my head to the side to take my breath it always feels inadequate.  I also seem to get too much water splashing in my mouth which is annoying.  As a result before long I feel like I need to totally pull my head out of the water to make up for my oxygen deficit.  Obviously it isn’t supposed to be that way.  I need to work a lot harder on the swim.

So I did my brick, a scaled down brick but I did the three things in succession.  It’s a starting point.  Now the key is to not hurt myself along the way as my training continues.

Our neighbors asked for a ride to the airport later in the day.  We decided to coordinate that with a trip to the movies to finally see Toy Story 3.  After dropping them off we had some time to kill so we went into Dick’s Sporting Goods and Bass Pro Shop.  We didn’t buy anything but just looked around.  One of my favorite items was the big stuffed marlin.

We had an early dinner/late lunch at Carraba’s. I hadn’t been there for awhile so it was nice to check in at one of my favorite restaurant chains.

Ali had checked the movie schedule ahead of time and saw that Toy Story 3 was showing in Imax at 5pm.  I was surprised that it would still be playing in Imax going on 4 weeks after it’s release.  Well, it wasn’t.  I’m not sure why there was a discrepancy.  Luckily we arrived early enough to catch the regular 3D showing at 4:40.

I have been a big fan of the Toy Story series.  It set the gold standard as far as just how good computer animated movies can be. As always there is a risk when a movie starts spinning off into sequels that it won’t hold up to the original.  In fact, sequels rarely match up.  Well I am glad to report Toy Story 3 maintains that high standard.  It’s a great flick that both Ali and I enjoyed from start to finish.  There is absolutely nothing to not like about it except maybe the fact that is appears to be the definitive end to the series.

I had heard there were some tear jerking moments in the flick.  I didn’t have rivers running down my face but I certainly had some moisture accumulating towards the end.  Great flick, I’d give it an A.

For the past several days I have been feeling generally annoyed, inpatient, dissatisfied and just angry at most things.  Last night I looked up and saw the bright full moon shining down on me ominously.  No further explanation needed.

So after work the first thing I did was go out in the back yard to see if I could find the dead baby bird to bury it.  I tossed it right outside the fence line so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Well my neighbor apparently did some more mowing yesterday, including the strip of ground outside the fence line.  I saw pieces of paper towel and a few feathers scattered around.  I felt badly that I didn’t even get to bury the poor thing.  Instead it was more or less cremated by a John Deere.

Last night I tackled putting the rest of the mower deck together.  I was happy to see the replacement spindle I was sent had both dust caps installed and turned freely.

After getting all the parts back in place I reinstalled the deck onto the mower, started it up and cautiously pulled the PTO knob, ready to turn it off immediately if I heard something weird.

There was no smoke, no horrible noises, the blades started turning as they should have.  I figured I might as well start mowing, that is the real test.  Since Bonnie is going to drench the property it was a good thing to get the grass mowed anyway.

I was able to get the back yard mowed although the longer I went I saw a couple things that still aren’t right.  I need to level the mower deck, it wasn’t cutting evenly which meant I was going over some spots more than once.

More annoying and potentially more troublesome is the new drive belt I installed appears to be too loose.  By the end of the mowing session I was crawling up any incline.  When I ordered the belt there were two sizes available based on serial number.  I ordered the model that was BEFORE the cutoff, figuring the mower was 7 years old, certainly it was before that cut off. Now I’m not sure.

My short term plan is to see if I can somehow increase the tension applied by idler pulley.  If that is not workable then I would have to see if I actually need to get a different, shorter belt.  I am hoping to avoid that option as it would mean another aggravating, engine unbolting affair.

Tropical storm Bonnie is supposed to be passing over South Florida today.  The wind shouldn’t be any worse than what we see in thunderstorms but I am sure we will get dumped on with a bunch of rain.  I expect to come home to a house surrounded by a moat tonight.

This weekend hopefully won’t be quite so work filled.  I would like to get out to see Toy Story 3 in 3d before it leaves the theaters.

So last night I let the dogs out for their last bathroom run of the night.  After 10 minutes or so I let them back in.  I noticed Sadie over by the chaise lounge had dropped something.  It sort of looked like a big piece of mulch.

I went over to pick it up and throw it outside and was shocked to see it was a baby bird.  At first I wondered if it was already dead and Sadie just happened to stumble across it.  My surface autopsy indicated the baby still felt warm, I’m pretty sure Sadie killed it.  I scolded Sadie as she went inside.

I observed the little bird carefully, looking for any signs of life.  There was none to be found.  I felt terrible as I held the dead bird in a paper towel in my hand.  Sadie was just doing what dogs do, chase things smaller than them that run away.  Unfortunately for the baby bird it wasn’t fast enough to escape.

Outside of mosquitoes and fire ants there is very little that you will ever see me kill.  I felt partially responsible for the baby biting the dust.  If I was out there with a flash light observing the dogs perhaps I could have spotted the danger and stopped it before Sadie got a hold of the bird.

I said “I’m sorry” as I unceremoniously tossed the bird over the fence line.  If it was still light out I would have buried it.  Who knows, maybe after work I will go retrieve it and do a proper burial.  It’s the least I can do.

Wednesday morning I got up early and was Tire Choice at 7am with the Camry.  The Camry has roughly 65,000 miles on it and we on our second set of factory Bridgestone tires. These tires have in a word SUCKED.  Within the first 10,000 miles both sets developed very bad road noise.  When we got the second set I made sure to rotate them more often but they developed the exact same problem.  You would drive down smooth road and it would sound like you were rolling on monster truck tires.

I came to the conclusion the tires are just junk.  My conclusion was backed up by a quick Google search that showed other Camry hybrid owners getting very poor life out of these tires.

Originally I had planned to buy the tires off Tirerack.com.  Their site is great for researching tires and picking out a model that is high quality but fairly priced. I had decided upon a set of Kumho tires that supposedly were very quiet and held up for a long time with a 60,000 mile tread wear warranty.

Well before I triggered the purchase I just happened to jump on www.thetirechoice.com.  I bought the tires for my Tacoma there and was generally pleased.  Well with a little searching I found another type of tire that actually seemed a little better, Yokohama AVID-S.  They had a 65,000 mile tread wear warranty and had equally good reviews.  The best part of all was they were less expensive.  I could get all 4 installed for less than $400 (before state tax), a sweet deal.  Basically all I had to do was print out the quote and take it to the store and they honor the price which is lower than what you would get quoted walking in the door.  Oh, and the Yokohoma tires are actually made in the USA believe it or not, another nice perk.

Anyway I took the Camry in and a little over an hour later I was ready to go.  The new tires quiet and hopefully will last us well after the odometer flips over to 6 digits.  The best part of all was it only cost us $68 out of pocket thanks to our appliance rebate.  I handed over the American Express gift card to pay for most of it, sweet!

Yesterday at the gym I officially started my triathlon training by hitting the treadmill.  Two weeks ago I tried running on the treadmill and failed pretty miserably, having to stop at mile 2 of a planned 3 mile session.  Well unfortunately yesterday didn’t go any better.

The plan was 3 miles at an 8:34 pace.  This had been my standard base run for awhile.  Well once again I struggled.  About a mile in I slowed down the treadmill to a 9:13 pace and still stopped at the two mile mark.  The only difference was I walked a 1/4 mile and then ran the third mile at the slower 9:13 pace.

Generally, I am pretty mentally tough when it comes to accomplishing my pre-workout goals.  To not be able to do that during my last two running sessions is very odd for me.  At least I did run 3 miles total and at least I don’t feel like I am physically drained the next day like last time.  I am hoping it is just the end result of minimal running over the last few months.  Over the weekend I want to get a biking session in with Ali as well as some swimming.

Last night I stood in for Ali at the running club board meeting.  I actually had something to say at this meeting.

We have been chip timing races for the club for over two years.  We also have had an issue with the registration process not morphing along with the electronic timing change.  There has been resistance in the club to making significant changes to the way we register runners.

As a timer, I want as many people as possible to sign up early and to do so electronically.  Unfortunately the club hasn’t done much to encourage that.  Many of our races allow/encourage late registration by charging a runner the same entry fee if they sign up the day before a race versus a month before.  Also the only way these last minute people are allowed to sign up is on paper.

This creates a big hassle for Ali and I.  Race after race we have to make a 45 mile round trip the night before a race to pick up all of the last minute paper registrations.  Then we spend a good chunk of that evening punching them in by hand, trying to do our best with what is often illegible and/or incomplete forms.

Ali and I have complained about this forever.  Well last night I handed out a paper that broke down our fee structure for various races as well as what I thought was wrong and what we could do to address it.  For the most part my suggestions were supported except by a couple board members.  The discussion on both sides got a little heated as I expected.

In the end my point was made, now it’s just matter of seeing if the talk translates into action. The bottom line is Ali and are the ones that have been dealing with all of the hassle that these antiquated policies have presented.  I have no plans on dealing with it indefinitely.

I received my replacement spindle for the mower deck yesterday.  Tonight I hope to install it and have the tractor back up and running in 100% mow ready condition.  We had a nice surprise when we got home last night.  The new neighbor’s boyfriend was out mowing the front of our yard on his new John Deere.  It was totally dark and he was mowing via tractor headlights.  I thanked him for his generosity.  Ali had mowed their yard which was a jungle when they first moved in so he was repaying the favor.

Ali and I are both glad that we have decent folk next door again.