Archives October 2011

So as I am leaving to go the gym I am accosted out in the parking lot by a blonde woman who seemed distraught.  She asked me if I had jumper cables, evidently she accidentally left the ignition in her SUV turned on and it drained the battery.  I told her I did and I could jump her.  She called her husband over who apparently was walking the lot looking for a jumper cable donor himself.  Both of these people were around my age.

So I pull up next to their vehicle, pop the hood and hook up the cables.  At first their car doesn’t quite start.  I pull on my throttle cable a bit to get the revs up and have them try again, success.  As we were unhooking everything the woman said how they HAVE to buy some jumper cables.  I agreed with her, telling her how I have a set in all of my vehicles which in retrospect is a lie.  I don’t think I have any in the party van.

So just like that the people thanked me again and were on their way.  I hopped back in my truck and started pulling out when it hit me.  These people were parked in a handicap spot!  Son of a BITCH.  I couldn’t believe that I just helped a set of handicap fraud bastards. Unreal.  I’d love to know what their claimed handicap is, perhaps forgetfulness….

So I went to the gym today for the first time this week.  My logic was I am not getting any better or any worse so I might as well get some exercise in.

I started off with some light squats with push ups in between.  After the first set I was sucking wind like I was repping out 315, it was pretty ridiculous.  After that I did 3 sets of 10 of alternating grip pull ups.  Those felt more difficult than normal as well.  My forearms felt very tight.

In between sets of reverse leg raises on my stomach I tried a couple muscle ups, paranoid that the lay off could cause me to “forget” how to do them.  I failed both times, getting my chest bar high but not just over the bar high.  Of course I had some excuses built in like doing the 30 pull ups first and my overall state of weakness.

Well right before I was ready to head out I tried one more time.  I swung just a little more and pulled with whatever I had left in the tank and just barely squeezed a rep out.  It put a nice little sunny exclamation point on what was overall a dreary sort of workout.

Last night I spent the better part of 3 hours doing prep work for the race that is being held this evening.  After entering the remaining paper entries I had to do some additional configuration in the timing software since this is an oddball race.  Instead of being based on individuals this race is based on teams.  Businesses bring their team to the event and then the top 3 finishers from each business accounts for that teams “time”.  It’s kind of fun but it also brings with it a unique set of challenges.

This race typically has a lot of participants that are not regular runners.  Because they are not runners that means they will not already be in our database.  Not being in our database means that there is much more data entry time involved with paper entries.  Thankfully this year we incorporated the option of online registration which helped some but even so we already have put in about 200 pieces of paper into the race.

Having non-runners at the race also means they aren’t familiar with the pre-race process.  For sure there will be a lot of people that will either have the wrong bib number or timing chip which leads to scoring errors on the back end.  These people also don’t necessarily understand that we need the timing chip back after the race.  Last year we didn’t get a bunch of chips back.

And of course this is the only race we do all year that is during the evening, on a weekday no less.  I have to cut out of work a couple hours early, not that I am complaining about that.

If I ever added up the total amount of hours Ali and I spend doing race/club related work I would probably shoot myself.  Sometimes it really equates to a part time job with an extremely low hourly wage. Hell I am not even thinking about the time and expense for things like the trip I made last week specifically to pick up paper entries.  This involved over an hour of drive time and the associated gas to travel 45 miles in the van, probably $10.

So last night I saw the news of Steve Jobs death flash across Facebook like wildfire.  It seemed pretty much everyone was posting about it along with their own little words of remembrance.  I didn’t feel like being a me too guy so I just commented on Homey’s post about it.

From what I know about Jobs, he was borderline maniacal to work for.  His dedication to his vision was so intense that it took special individuals to be able to weather his storm.  Noone however can argue with the end results of his obsessive pursuit of ultimate technology.

For years and years I steered away from anything and everything Apple, categorizing people that were Apple lovers as attention seekers or those that worked in a narrow market of graphic design/production.  I felt similarly when the first Iphone came out, more lemmings just drinking the Apple juice.

Well when I finally succumbed to the Apple fever and got my first Iphone 3G a few years back I understood.  Yea everyone and their mother was getting an Iphone but it wasn’t just to be a me too person, it was because the device was fantastic.  Tablet type devices had been around for a decade or more but Apple finally did it in a way that even the complete novice could understand. It was nothing short of brilliant.

Equally brilliant was their app store that made it insanely easy to get apps/music/movies/podcasts onto your phone without ever having to connect the phone to a PC.  Its is/was simply a great product.

Now who knows how much direct responsibility Jobs had in the vision of these products, I have no idea. Regardless, he excelled at promoting them at getting people excited about technology.  People fed off his energy and passion for what he was pitching.  If you don’t think that matters, watch Apple’s new guy pitching the 4S, what a difference.

Well Steve is now gone but his legacy will go on for decades.  Thanks bud.

Ironically, the day Steve Jobs died is the day my Iphone 4 did as well, sort of.  It didn’t die but every app and podcast that was on it was wiped out when I migrated my pc at work which is my main Itunes store.  At first glance I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, I can always download the apps again since Itunes knows I bought them.  What I didn’t think about was any local data/configuration for these apps is now toast.

That means anything that needs logon info needs to be reconfigured.  Even more troubling is any and all games I had on the phone that had my progress saved are now back to ground zero.  Well that f’ing sucks.  Oh well, it’s my bad in the end.  I am using the fopaw as an opportunity to clean house on the device, at least 50% of the apps I have on there have no reason to be at this point.

Yesterday after work I saw one of the more and more prevalent signs of our shitty job situation, a human sign.  Once things really started going in the shitter a half decade or so ago I started seeing more and more of these flesh and blood sign posts showing up.

I guess using a person as a sign holder allows businesses to get around local regulations that would prevent them from posting conventional signage on a street corner.  I suppose paying some poor dude $50 -$75 day to stand there holding a hunk of cardboard makes economic sense, I imagine they think they get some sort of business from it.  Personally I can’t say I ever frequented a business because I saw someone holding a sign.

Well anyway, this particular human sign was working as hard as I have ever seen a guy work.  He was basically dancing with the sign non-stop.  I was at a busy intersection for quite awhile and this guy never stopped.  As I passed the older, thin, black gentleman with a gray beard I saw his shirt was drenched with sweat.  I thought to myself “Damn, now that is a good human sign”

I have seen many poor human signs, the ones that just hold the sign in front of them while leaning on a pole or sitting in a chair.  I guess like any other profession, sign holding has people that are good and bad at their jobs.  You have to give the guy credit, at least he is out there earning some money instead of expecting others to earn it for him.

This malady I have been in this week is in a weird holding pattern.  My symptoms are neither worsening or getting any better.  Instead I feel like that guy in an arm wrestling match that gets bad start and is forced to just hold his arm at a negative angle, not giving any more ground but not making any up either.  I need to wrap the thumb.  I skipped the gym the all week but I am going back today, even if my routine is senior citizen-like.

Last night I watched the 2nd episode of Terra Nova.  Boy it was lame.  If this is an example of the ability of the writers for the show they are in big trouble.  I mean really, for the 2nd episode of this movie style series you are going to basically remake The Birds?  Two thumbs down.  If the next couple episodes are stinkers like that one was I will be checking out rather quickly, regardless of how many cool dinosaurs they show.  I have a certified mountain of good content I could watch instead.

Last night after watching a couple more Breaking Bads we turned off the light.  I have definitely slipped into some sort of illness following my epic bathroom episode Sunday night.  My nose has been running, I have a dry cough and my energy level is back in the dumps.  Well I started coughing as I laid in bed.  Well the last thing I felt like doing was coughing germs all over the room.  I certainly don’t want Ali to get ill this week considering she will be running 26.2 miles on Sunday.

I pulled myself out of bed and banished myself to the guest bedroom where I spent the night.  My alarm clock was Sadie jumping up on the bed and scaring me.

So I wonder if all of these Wall Street protests will amount to anything significant at all besides some press coverage.  If you dig into the financial atrocities that have been committed by Wall Street and the financial super powers it is surreal.  What is more incredible is not one individual, group or company had a single criminal charge filed against them for stealing literally trillions of dollars via fraud.

In many cases, these scum were actually rewarded for their treachery, receiving contracted bonuses paid for with bailout money.  Disgusting is far too mild of an adjective to describe the situation.

The lack of punishment for these acts should tell you all you need to know about who really runs this country.  It’s not the government, it’s the money that owns the government.  The same money that is used to brainwash the masses so they don’t see the trap door they are being walked across.

The world sucks, sorry.

For my day home sick yesterday we had nice weather.  For a good portion of the day we had all of the windows in the house open.  Not only did it let fresh air in, it helped to get the smell of the soup out of the house, the same smell that I now associate with explosive diarrhea.

Although I had no more severe toilet episodes on Monday, I definitely felt the aftermath of the night before, I was just wiped out.  All day long I just had no energy.  I spent the day living the life of many a welfare recipient,  rotating between laying down, watching tv, doing stuff on the computer and staring out the window.  How people are able to just sit home day after day without doing much is beyond my comprehension level.  One day of it is enough to drive me ape shit.

Ali, who’s work schedule has recently become less demanding, was home all day as well.  She spent pretty much the entire day in front of her computer doing “computer work” that can swallow up huge amounts of time without batting an eye.  It will be a good thing if she is able to work more 3 day work weeks consistently. It should help her and my levels of happiness.

I watched the first episode of Terra Nova yesterday, a new mega-costly series on Fox.  The premise of the show intrigues me and I liked the first episode.  However I am very hesitant to invest much  emotionally in the show.  Series like this are almost always doomed to an early grave.  Having epic, movie like effects means epic costs for each episode.  Unless the show becomes a SMASH hit and immediately vaults to  the top of the ratings the cost/benefit quickly swings the wrong way.  That being said, it is the type of show I definitely will enjoy.  Let’s see how long it sticks around.

Last night I plowed through 3 more Breaking Bad episodes.  Did I mention that the show is excellent? It is streamable on Netflix, add it to your queue now.

It looks like I may have to be making that call to DAS about the neighbors chihuahuas after all.  After I knocked on the door to complain about the dog a few weeks ago it seemed like they actually were making an effort to take the dogs inside more.  Well that effort appears to be fading.  I am once again regularly being treated to the shrill shriek of the one chihuahua when I venture out into our back yard.  I really would prefer to not have to go this route but we are now at the 10 month mark of this problem existing.  I think I have been as patient as can be expected.

I may actually skip the gym today.

Ali was away Friday evening and most of Saturday so that left me solo to do as I pleased.  I decided to make my Friday evening more productive than normal by heading outside and do the weeding awhile, one less chore for later.  Friday night I stayed up way too late watching Breaking Bad episodes, I think I turned the tv off around 12:30 am.  It’s such a good show.

Even with my jump start on the chores Friday I still found my Saturday pretty encumbered.  It was like 70 or 71 in the morning so I took advantage of it by opening up the front screen door, the first time I have done so since April probably.  The dogs were quite happy to have an unobstructed view into the front yard.

I headed outside with the weed whacker to complete the grass maintenance the I started on Thursday night.  It had been at least 3 weeks since I whacked weeds so I was overdue. We had a few dry days which allowed the majority of the water that was still above ground to soak in so I hopped on the tractor as well to knock down some areas that were previously submerged.

I then headed inside to continue.  After doing my normal robot assisted floor cleaning I decided to pull out the steam cleaner to go over the rugs.  As always it had been too far in between sessions and the carpet needed it.  The dogs hate when I do this chore and banish themselves outside on the lanai while it is done.

I had to go down to the running store to pick up entries for an upcoming race we have Thursday evening.  By the time I got back Ali was not far behind.  After having a Tivo and pizza session we dug into the pile of paper entries to get them in the system, we worked right up until bed time.

Sunday morning Ali got up early to go do her last long run (8 miles) before her marathon next week.  I told her my plan was to ride my bike down to the water park where she could meet me to do some swimming.  I decided to break my ride into two parts.  I first did the 10 miles to Dunkin Donuts where I enjoyed a small coffee and a donut.   I was quite surprised that I was able to pull off my fastest pace ever on a ride of that distance, averaging over 20 mph.

The reason I was surprised was I had not done any “hard” riding in quite awhile dating back to a couple weeks before the Ireland trip.  I had some favorable wind during the first 2-3 miles of the ride that allowed me to pace 22-23mph for a good chunk of it as well.  Make no doubt it though I was working hard once I saw that I had a shot to do the 10 miles in under a half hour.

For the last 9 miles of the ride after DD I didn’t push the pace quite as hard but I still wound up averaging 19+mph over the entire roughly 19 mile ride, I was quite pleased with my unexpected speed.

I arrived at the water park maybe 15-20 minutes before they normally open at 10, Ali wasn’t there yet.  I parked my bike near the playground and went inside, looking for something to try to muscle up on.  For some reason this playground and the entire park for that matter, has no plain old straight bar.  The closest thing I found was some rectangle shaped curvy tracks that some plastic things slide back and forth on.  The shape of the “bars” prevented me from either getting a false grip or being able to rotate my wrists around it so I got stuck at the top. Oh well.

So when I made my way back to the main parking lot it was a couple minutes after 10.  I saw the Camry was now parked out front.  The weird thing was the Camry was almost the only car parked out front, there were 2 or 3 more but this seemed very odd.  I know that by this time at the very least the vehicles of the waterpark staff will adorn the back rows of the lot.  They were not there.

I didn’t give it much thought right then, instead I loaded my bike on the car and changed my clothes.  I mentioned to Ali that it seemed odd that it was so empty.  Yea the October weekends last year were not very busy but nothing like this.  As we turned toward the park I was now aware something was up by the lack of the sound of flowing water.  As we got closer we saw the curtains at the admission window were pulled down, f me, it’s closed.

On the window was a sign saying the last date they were open was September 25th, last weekend.  DAMN IT. Evidently the water park determined that it was not cost efficient to stay open weekends during October anymore.  That really sucks.  I actually quite enjoyed having the park nearly to ourselves last year at this time.  Even though I can understand the financial reality that would have made this change necessary, for selfish reasons I was pissed off about it.  I mean we are in south Florida, the weather in October is still great for water activities.   Oh well.

Since swimming was now off the agenda Ali asked if I minded meeting Michelle at Wal-mart.  Her and Ali wanted to buy dirt cheap sweats they could wear the morning of the race since it was supposed to be cold in Chicago with temps in the 40’s.  They wanted to be able to just pull the sweats off and toss them when they didn’t them.  Michelle had her two little boys with who were acting like little boys, high energy and crazy.  It was funny.

Sunday afternoon was consumed by watching the Eagles implode once again.  Unbelievably for the 3rd game in a row they relinquished a large lead.  It was just an awful game.  The team just has no guts at all.  Juan Castillo seems like a great cheerleader but when it comes executing a defensive scheme and changing it up as game conditions change, he blows.  The team is in total disarray.

Now ironically the Eagles have a pretty established track record of being slow starters.  I can recall quite a few years where they came out like slugs but then would wind up the year stringing together a half a dozen wins or more together.  Well they are all set up to do that again I suppose.

There were a number of goats in yesterdays game.  That idiotic play at the goal line where Ronnie Brown runs into a pile and is in the middle of being tackled while stupidly trying to throw a pass was incredibly moronic and wound up being called a fumble.  At first I thought he ad libbed into that play but I later found it was designed to be a trick play, just not run quite that way.  A good team should not need to pull shit like that to punch the ball in the endzone, that is how bad the Eagles have been in the red zone.

The Eagles rookie kicker, whom I just had commented to Ali has been surprisingly good so far this year missed two easy field goals, either of which would have made a difference in the final outcome.

The vaunted Eagles secondary, the best that money can buy, has sucked, routinely getting beat for big play after play.  And of course the entire defense as a whole has been atrocious, unable to make stops when it matters the most.  Coming into the game the 49ers were the LAST rated offense in the league, DEAD LAST.  The Birds gave up 400 yards of offense to them.

This team is just a mess.  It seems like they are missing an emotional leader on both offense and defense.  Somebody on the field that can slap the team across the face and get them to bear down and focus instead of playing like brainless boobs.  Listening to Fat Andy talk after the game did nothing to make me feel any better.  What I came away with was “I don’t know what the F to do”

The only positive that could come out of continued struggles by this team of stars is Andy could actually finally be sent packing if he fails to make the playoffs with arguably one of the most talented rosters in the league.  His message is old and I never felt like he was good enough to take the Eagles all the way to the end (Like Donovan)  I really would love to have a coach in here with fire in his belly instead of just a belly, a large one.

After the game I had to go to the airport to pick up mom who was returning from a 4 day visit with my uncle who lives in the Washington DC area.  I took the van and brought the girls with as the official welcome home crew.  When I picked mom up I sort of expected her trip details to be negative, just because that is what I have come to expect in most situations from her.  However I was pleasantly surprised that her stories about the trip were all very positive, she had a great time, which I was very glad to hear.  It sounds like Randy really went out of his way to make the trip special for mom including arranging for an old high school friend of hers to join them for dinner the one night.

Sadie made herself right at home on mom, sitting on her lap for most of the ride back to her place.  I just dropped mom off since it was getting late and didn’t have the girls on leashes.

Ali had been cooking a monster soup in the crock pot for most of the afternoon.  It had a lot of stuff in it but the highlight were the huge collection of home grown black eyed peas some of which we have been accumulating for a year or two.  In addition Ali put a bunch of other vegetables in there like tomatoes, onions, carrots and more.  The soup was good, especially after I hit it with a bit of salt.  I had a bowl and a half.

I was quite tired Sunday night and had passed out after reading a few stories in Wired before Ali got out of the shower.

Well later I recalled having a weird dream.  I was watching some of my YouTube videos of muscle ups and they were making me nauseous.  Well eventually I woke up to realize I was actually nauseous.  I felt sick in my stomach.  I looked over at the clock which read 12:37 and moaned.

Well I laid there for awhile, trying to talk myself down.  I heard sounds emanating from my gut that were not good at all.  I tried different positions in bed but nothing helped.  I knew IT was coming.  I get out of bed and quietly head to the guest bathroom.  I took out my retainers to preemptively avoid them becoming vomit holders.

Well surprisingly I never vomited although I felt like all it would take was a quick finger down the throat to do so.  Instead I had a brutal session out the other end that went off and on for at least a couple hours.  It was pretty damn awful.  I would lay back down in the guest bedroom, exhausted only to urgently have to scramble back to the throne again and again and again.  It was right up there in my bad bathroom experiences of a lifetime.

Thankfully I eventually was able to pass out.  I slept until Ali came in around 5:30 when she heard my alarm clock and realized I wasn’t in bed.  I was out cold with the comforter wrapped around me burrito style.  The only thing I can attribute to the episode was something in the soup although Ali had no similar digestive issues.  Unfortunately the smell of the soup, specifically the onions, was still in the house last night.  The association of the smell with the bathroom nightmare will pretty much guarantee I will not be having any more of the soup, despite us having enough left to feed 20 people.

I fell back asleep until 8am and called off work.  The best word I can use to describe how I feel is “depleted”.