Archives 2012

I saw Peyton Manning’s news conference yesterday announcing he would indeed be waived by the Colts instead of them paying him a scheduled 28 million dollar bonus.  I thought Peyton handled it very well and was very genuine in his statement/answers.  I would expect no less from him based on the way his career has been.

In the big picture I can understand Irsay’s decision I guess.  If Manning’s health was not an issue then I don’t think paying the bonus would have been even discussed.  However there is a huge question mark on Peyton’s long term viability.  Spine/neck problems in a violent contact sport is not something to be taken lightly.  Rolling a 28 million dollar pair of dice is something not many people would do.

On the flip side, I am really surprised that year in and year out high ranking college QB’s are routinely touted as “can’t miss”.  NFL history is stuffed full of these can’t missers that turn out to be a big bucket of suck in the NFL.   Tim Couch, David Klingler, Akili Smith, Andre Ware, Rick Mirer, Heath Shuler, JaMarcus Russell, and of course the King of Suck, Ryan Leaf are some shining examples of this phenomenon.  To hang your hat on the idea that Andrew Luck is the next Joe Montana is just foolish in my eyes.

It will be quite interesting to see where Peyton winds up.  As long as he is healthy I am sure he has a solid half decade of ball left in him.  It would be kind of exciting if he came to Miami, right across the alley.

So yesterday after the gym I returned to my Tacoma, hopeful I would be able to turn the key and have the engine fire right up with hardly a stumble.  Instead I swore out loud as once again the fcking truck sputtered and wanted to shut off.  The new IAC made no difference.

So I did even more in depth research on the problem.  The more you dig the more confusing the possible solution becomes.  I have seen 6 or 7 different solutions for the symptoms I am experiencing.  One solution that sounded plausible was a defective engine coolant temperature sensor.  This sensor is what the truck computer utilizes to know if the engine is warm or cold and adjusts the intake accordingly.  If this sensor goes bad it can send a signal to the computer that the engine is cold when it actually is warm, causing it to dump too much fuel, which is what the truck acts like when the condition occurs.

The sensor was only $20 so I grabbed one on the way home and will be installing it as soon as I get a chance.  This problem is like a thorn that keeps growing as it is inserted into my side.  Every time I sputter away from my parking space I get more and more pissed off.

You may recall the big controversy that went down last year where the Florida legislature, acting on Rick Scott’s directive, passed a bill that started docking employees that were on the state pension system a mandatory 3% of their pay towards the pension system.  This decision came on the back of many state workers already suffering from a half decade of no salary increases.

At the time the tea party nut jobs, like Rick Scott, were riding high on their, “state workers are the cause of the problem” bandwagon.  Lots of “me too’rs” jumped on board.

Well the teacher’s union did not take this action sitting down and filed a lawsuit stating the state’s actions were unconstitutional.  The pension benefit was enacted in 1974 and was offered in lieu of pay raises.  The union claimed trying to flip back was basically a breach of contract since state employees typically trade lower salaries for steady employment with retirement benefits.  Yanking that rug out from under existing employees that signed on under those terms is shady.

Well yesterday a judge finally made a ruling on the case and guess what, she said it was shady too, ruling the mandatory 3% contribution was indeed a breach of contract.  It was a nice victory for employees but it will be likely appealed all the way to the Florida Supreme Court until a final resolution is reached.

The funny thing is originally this employee contribution was pitched by Tricky Rick as necessary to help balance out the state pension system which took a dip like everything else when the stock market took a dump a couple years back. However since then it has rebounded and remains one of the top 5 strongest state pension systems in the country.

But to me, the most outrageous part of all is the 3% that was skimmed from employees was not used to help fund the pension at all.  Instead it was just given back to the local governments to spend as they saw fit, a true indicator of just how much bullshit the entire situation was.

Anyway I will be thrilled if this holds up all the way up the court food chain, dealing Rick Scott yet another black eye.  His governorship has been an epic fail thus far.

So yesterday I got the call from the company contracted by my home insurance carrier to do a “quality assurance wind mitigation inspection” on Friday.  Several years ago the state offered free wind mitigation inspections to home owners.  If your home met certain requirements after the inspection your insurance carrier was required to offer you a discounted rate.  Well this is All State’s (Castle Key) attempt to reverse that discount.

The letter I received from them a couple weeks ago said that basically they didn’t trust that the original inspectors did a good job.  So they have gone out and paid for another company to do an “independent” inspection.  Yea right, that’s total bullshit.  I guarantee that these independent inspectors are getting a kick back for each and every house that they are able to disqualify for the discount.

Anyway when I made the appointment the woman asked me a couple questions like if anything was repaired on the house in the last 10 years.  She also asked if the front door was hurricane rated which I had no idea if it was or not. (I later found it is not)  She was obviously trying to lay the groundwork for possible red flags when this inspector shows up.  Of course I have a plywood ‘storm shutter” that goes over the front door anyway so the hurricane rating of the door itself should be a moot point. Our house has gone through a true Cat 3 storm and escaped with only pool cage damage.

Although Ali is off Friday, I made arrangements to make sure I will be home to meet this inspector.  I will be carefully making mental notes of what he does/says.  If they do indeed try to withdraw our home owners discount I will be using the info on my follow up call to my agent where I will tell them the discount better remain or I will be shopping my insurance needs for our home and four vehicles elsewhere.

Allstate has already filed for huge premium increases, they will not be getting a penny more from me.

 

The lower half of my body feels significantly better in the span of the last 24 hours.  I had a decent gym session yesterday and I am no longer limping.

Because I didn’t get a chance to install the new idle air control valve in the Tacoma yet I decided to take the SSR to work yesterday.  It gave me a good opportunity to give my radio install it’s best test yet.

As I was cruising to work, streaming Sirius via Bluetooth via my Iphone and using the GPS to estimate my arrival at work while watching the rear view of the road via my back up camera, I was quite pleased with the end result of all of my work getting the new system installed.  The SSR now has basically the same techno-geek coolness that I like in the new Camaros.

Hell I like the new radio so much it makes me want to put a similar head unit in my daily driver Tacoma.  The second time around I am sure the install would go much smoother.

The SSR has some more needs, the first of which will be replacing the bent panhard bar, the end result of some carelessness when the vehicle was lowered.  That actually is a potential hazard if I would try to corner hard.

I also need to get an upgraded radiator fan for the SSR.  The factory cooling system is underpowered, allowing the engine temps to hit 235 when stuck in traffic.  It should ideally never cross 210 or so. I may also add a front air dam to push more air over the radiator.

In addition I plan to get a Magnaflow muffler and some upgraded exhaust tips which should beef up the exhaust note considerably. After that the only other longer term item would be to replace the pitted, shitty chrome job wheels with factory chrome wheels that will hold up much better.

So last night I wanted to get the new IAC valve installed on the Tacoma, hoping this will be the final fix for my warm starting woes.  I had to work quickly since daylight was going to be at a premium, so after making the dogs dinner I hurried outside to begin.

My experience removing the original IAC for cleaning was a huge help in performing the swap this time around.  I knew exactly what I had to do.  I managed to have the job totally done in the span of 40 minutes.  I also swapped out the PCV valve while I was in there, something I don’t think has ever been done.  I read somewhere that could be another potential trouble spot.

I have a new set of spark plugs for the Tacoma as well, I figure the 13 year old plugs that have 135,000 miles on them are overdue to be replaced.  I will probably replace the spark plug wires as well but I didn’t have time to do that last night.

Unfortunately I will not know if the new IAC fixes my warm start problem until I leave the gym today, when it typically occurs.  I am crossing my fingers hard that I have squashed this issue once and for all.

Let’s start with the SSR audio upgrade project which at this point I am considering to be finally finished.

Those of you that are familiar with the project know I had the radio in the car but there were a number of warts with the install such as very low voice guidance volume as well as low overall radio volume, fit issues where the faceplate of the radio was causing the dash to bulge out just enough to cause the HVAC controls to bind, sound that was bouncing back and forth between the speakers and I hadn’t done any of the work to mount the rear view camera.

In my research regarding the volume problem the first step recommended was to tweak the potentiometer on the GMOS-04 adapter to increase the signal fed to the amp. Of course to do this I had to rip the entire dash apart again.  I actually went a step farther and removed the top dash cover.  The reason I did that was to allow me better access to the back of the radio, hoping to be able to better place/organize the huge collection of wire/connectors/modules that are associated with the install.

Turning up the dial on the GMOS-04 did indeed appear to address my volume issue.

In addition to the top dash pad I had the “waterfall” removed as well.  I read there was a fuse box behind there where I could splice in the reverse signal wire, the wire that flips the radio to rear camera view when the truck is put in reverse.  At one point I had the interior of the truck so ripped apart that I was feeling a bit despondent, I questioned my ability to get everything back together in an acceptable manner.

I then turned my attention to getting the rear camera installed.  I had scrapped my idea of getting my reverse signal from the waterfall fuse box.  The location of the wire I was supposed to tap into was really in a bad spot.  I instead decided to just tap into the back up light harness in the back of the truck and then just run that wire along with the camera wire back to the passenger compartment.

Based on a SSRFanatic’s advice I put both wires inside of a wire loom to protect them from the elements.  Routing them up to the front of the truck was a bit challenging, it was tough finding a route that did not get close to the exhaust system.    I used zip ties to hold the loom in place along the way.

Once I got up to the passenger compartment I needed a way to get into it.  I didn’t see any easy way to do so, so I made my own, drilling a small hole in the floor of the SSR under the passenger side sill cover.  I then fed the wire loom through that hole.  The camera wire went to the control box I had behind the passenger seat, the reverse signal wire was routed up to the radio harness.

Originally I had ideas of maybe soldering my wire connections in the harness instead of just relying on wires twisted and then crimped in bell caps.  I decided to not go that route, instead I used small wire ties around the wires to further provide stress relief.

So I finally thought I was in the home stretch, I had everything back together and was ready to call the job DONE.  I took the SSR out for a quick road test and was immediately annoyed.  I was annoyed by the distinctive sound of alternator whine coming through the speakers.  The sound followed the rpm’s of the truck.  I hadn’t heard this noise before because all of my testing was with the engine turned OFF. Well I knew this would drive me nuts so I had no choice but to rip the dash open AGAIN.

Upon reading on the internet about alternator whine it indicated this can often be caused by a faulty ground.  Well I tested my ground, it appeared rock solid.  I then took turns disconnecting one connection at a time on the harness to see if I could isolate one component causing the issue.  I spent a TON of time screwing with it but got nowhere.  I was really frustrated.

Well on a whim I decided to try backing the potentiometer on the GMOS-04 back down a bit.  When I had the volume problem initially I could turn the radio to max volume and not have things all that loud.  After my tweak at half volume it sounded like it was ready to blow the speakers.  So I backed the dial back about halfway between where I started and where I finished.

That seemed to help, I heard a faint whine but hardly discernible, I could only guess the GMOS-04 was just adding too much gain.  I put the damn thing back together one final time and called it good enough.

At one point when I was in the midst of installation hell I was mildly complaining to Ali about it.   She said to me, and correctly so “Well this is what you got it for right?”  I did indeed want a vehicle as my hobby.  Part of that hobby is getting your hands dirty.  This project certainly left me thoroughly cruddy.

Along with Ali’s lack of compassion for my plight she also seemed to lack any appreciation for what I navigated to get the truck back in one piece.  I can’t blame her I guess, it would be like her telling me the complex calculations she had to do with a tube feed at work I guess.

Anyway, if you would like to see all of the pictures I took along the way you can see them here.  I also shot some video of the mess I went through, the 24-25 minute adventure can be viewed below. Anyway, the moral of this story is in the big picture, although I learned a great deal about how to take my SSR interior apart, in a practical sense I would have been much better served just paying an installer to do the work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6x2qFblMh4

Saturday we timed a 5K, it went fine, let’s move along.

So the Hooters Half Marathon was Sunday morning.  I was feeling upbeat about the weather forecast when I first saw it with predicted lows on Sunday in the low 50’s, great temps to run in.  Those hopes were later dashed when I saw that low temp was not going to hit until Sunday NIGHT.  Sunday morning the temperature at 7Am was supposed to be a balmy 75 degrees, shit.

When I woke up Sunday morning it was extremely windy.  I saw there was actually a wind advisory for later in the day.  Oh boy this is going to be fun.

We arrived at the race site a little after 6AM, the race started at 7.  After getting our bib number and race packet we hooked up with some of our fellow GCR members to hang out.  Most of the talk was about how tough the conditions were going to be with the wind.  I had decided ahead of time I was going to run shirtless because of the higher temperatures.  It would help keep me cooler and eliminate the painful nipple chafe I had last year.

As daylight increased we got a better look at the skies overhead, they looked quite menacing with low gray clouds zipping overhead at a rapid rate.

The race actually started about 10 minutes late which is pretty bad.  They made some long winded announcements that no one could hear as well as playing both the national anthem and Gold Bless America.  Ali and I wished each other luck and off we went.

So despite my severe lack of serious training and assorted nagging injuries leading up to the race I took off with the idea of still breaking the two hour goal I set as one of 2012’s to do’s.   It didn’t take long until that goal seemed to be very much in question.

No more than a few minutes into the race the skies opened up, it started to rain very, very hard.  The cold rain was wind blown and actually stung my exposed face and chest.  In no time at all the roads were bodies of water.  Everybody was thoroughly soaked from head to toe.

One of my first thoughts was “oh man, this is going to just crush the spirits of Ali & Christy”, both of whom were less than enthusiastic going into the event anyway.  Ali generally hates getting wet I could only imagine what she was thinking as each stride splashed down beneath her.

I was quite surprised when I found out later that the rain really didn’t bother her at all.  She said in fact she sort of enjoyed it.

The running with sopping wet sneakers immediately flashed me back to the Tough Mudder experience.  Thinking of that race also helped me mentally, realizing that compared to what we went through in the TM, getting rained on wasn’t a big deal.

The rain continued for a good 15-20 minutes.  In a way it was a good thing as it helped pull the humidity out of the air somewhat, helping to keep my body temp down.

Early on I was trying to find a run pacer target. The guy on the left was my first potential pacer.  He looked like a serious runner and was checking his pace often on his watch. (something I didn’t do the entire race)  He also appeared to be somewhere around my age.

For maybe a mile or so I stayed just off his back shoulder but then he started to slow down a bit and I felt like I needed to go faster if I was going to hit my goal so I passed him for good very early on.

A little later on I spotted another potential pacer, a younger muscle bound guy with a t-shirt that seemed to indicate he was part of a fire department.  I wound up following him for even less distance before I determined his pace was also too slow.

During the downpour there were a few brave spectators that didn’t mind getting wet to cheer us on which was really appreciated.  The most noticeable of all was the guy wailing on his bag pipes in the middle of the deluge with absolutely no cover overhead.

So since I couldn’t find what felt like an adequate pacer I spent most of the first half of the race just using rear ends as my “carrot”.  I slowly but surely picked off one rear end at a time.  In general I did almost exclusively passing for the race.  I bet for every one person that passed me I passed 15 more.

So I was coming up on the most difficult part of the race, the up and back over the 1 mile long bridge.  This was made exponentially more difficult by the very strong wind from the west that was smacking you in the face on the run out.

Usually when you get to the top of the bridge and begin the descent on the other side your speed picks up considerably.  Well this was the hardest I ever worked running DOWNHILL in my life.  The wind was so strong it resisted every step.

Of course the good news was on the way back across the bridge this wind was now helping to push you along.  The wind also was at your back for a good portion of the remainder of the race.

Once I got off the bridge at around the 9 mile mark I knew my two hour goal was in reach.  I also happened to finally pick up pace partner on the bridge.  Once again like last year, it was a woman.  I realized all I had to do was stick with her after she told me how she did two ultra-marathons last year as well as qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

Being able to carry an off and on conversation with her during the last third of the race really helped making those tough miles fall off pretty easily.  I was physically uncomfortable of course but not dying.  The skies had remained overcast the entire race so this really helped keep the temperatures reasonable.

Like I mentioned I hadn’t hardly looked at my watch other than to check my time at certain mileage markers.  Patty was doing it for me, telling me that we were running a strong 8:30 pace and that hitting my two hour goal was basically assured.

With about a mile to go I ran into one of the other GCR board members who was taking it easy by running an easy for him 2 hour pace.  I thanked Patty for helping me along and accelerated some more leaving her a little behind me.

At first I was having a bit of a hard time keeping up with Craig, I now was feeling pretty damn beat, that last half mile or so felt very long.  Once the finish line was a few hundred yards away I kicked in what I had left, leaving Craig behind as well.  I was very excited when I saw I could finish almost a full 5 minutes ahead of my what seemed to be ambitious 2 hour goal.  I crossed in 1:55:17, more than 16 minutes faster than my time last year. Here are the official results.

After collecting my finisher medal from the good looking Hooters girl I leaned over on the railing and briefly took in my achievement.  To smash my goal even with those type of race conditions was really something special to me.  I have always preached that actions are much more impressive than words.  It felt good to back that up.

So after downing a finish area Snickers bar and chugging a bottle of water I started looking for Ali.  Like I said, with the weather conditions I had no idea when she would finish.  I started walking back out on to the course, hoping to intersect with her and then help run her into the finish line.

I back tracked somewhere between a quarter and a half mile before I saw her.  I turned around and started jogging in with her.  Ali said nothing, I could tell by her heavy breathing she was really trying to finish hard.  When we got close I saw we were actually close to her 1/2 marathon PR time.  She wound up finishing just 21 seconds beyond her PR, a disappointment for her but based on the conditions and the course it was a really strong effort.

Like I said, before I saw her at the end I was almost positive the early rain and wind was going to suck the motivation right out of her.  Surprisingly she said she felt quite good almost the entire race.

We then waited for Christy who finished about 12 minutes behind Ali, putting in a strong showing for her as well, again made more impressive by the elements.

Ali was stoked to hear how well I did.  I told her that it was quite weird, when I woke up Sunday morning the number 1:55 literally was the first thing in my head.  I kid you not.  I thought it was odd I would even think about a finish time in that neighborhood.  It was amazing it came to be.  Visualization is powerful I guess huh?

So after the race we hung out for awhile.  At this point the cold front was blowing in, temperatures had dropped a good 10 degrees from the start of the race.  We stayed until maybe 10:30 before heading out, we were both cold and exhausted.

On the way home we both talked about various aspects of the race.  We were both happy with the way things turned out although Ali wished she could have found a spare 22 seconds somewhere.  It is hard to believe that I was not even going to do the race as late as last week and still managed to put in that showing.  So much of endurance racing is in your head, although I still attribute my significantly higher overall fitness level compared to the year before as a major contributor to my final result.

As you can imagine the rest of our Sunday was pretty tame.  I laid down for a couple hours with Ali but couldn’t get any real solid zzzz’s.  I wound up spending the rest of the day mostly toiling on the SSR audio project.

When I woke up Monday my stomach was feeling pretty awful and I was limping around severely.  My IT band felt like it was a foot too short.  I called off work to give myself a recovery day.  I feel much more human today.

The new IAC for the Tacoma showed up yesterday so it looks like I will get no break from my automotive upgrade/repair follies.  I want to get the new IAC in ASAP.  My hope is to be able to do it after work tonight.  I am hoping since I have run through the process once I can do it quickly this time around.

 

Just for the hell of it I punched in my work address in the 930BT this morning to test out the navigation function of the radio.  I was pleased that my parking brake bypass evidently works, allowing me to use the navigation system when the truck is moving.  I however was not pleased that I couldn’t hear the voice NAV guidance.

I was getting annoyed when it sounded like the podcast I was listening to via wireless bluetooth seemed to be bouncing between the right and left speaker.  What I realized was this bouncing was when the navigation voice was speaking, it was just so low that I couldn’t hear it.

When I stopped to put air in a tire I verified that I have the voice volume option turned up to max volume.  However it almost sounded like the voice wasn’t coming through the speakers as all, it almost sounds like it is coming through the GMOS-04 adapter that is buried in the dash which has a small speaker used to replicate the factory chimes.

Why this would be the case is beyond me although it must mean I have something miswired in the harness.  I guess it is a good thing I plan to rip the entire thing apart again anyway.  I need a whole day to dedicate to nothing but getting this project cleaned up.

So I have been taking it a bit easy at the gym this week doing no running or leg weight work in anticipation of the extreme workload I will be placing upon them on Sunday in the half marathon.  Knock on wood my left knee/calf has felt ok for the last couple days.

Last night after work I filmed a video to introduce March’s BB challenge.  I am not quite sure how it wound up being over 8 minutes long.  For some reason in exercise videos where I am speaking to a camera I am far more chatty than I typically would be in most conversations with a flesh and blood human being.  Anyway, here is the video.

As I mentioned yesterday this weekend promises to be quite busy, trying to wedge in house chores and SSR audio work around timing one race and running another.  Oh well, it is better than sitting around collecting dust.

I was amazed when I saw the new pair of New Balance running sneakers Ali snagged for me were actually made in the USA, something that is simply unheard of anymore.

Now NB only manufactures about 25% of it’s sneakers in the US (7,000,000 or so) but that is 25% more than anybody else.  It definitely will make me lean towards buying New Balance for all my future athletic footwear.

 

So although I have the new Pioneer stereo is installed in the SSR and all functions working, except for the rear camera which is not hooked up yet, I will be ripping back into the car sometime soon.  There are several issues I am not happy with and want to address.

The first is the fact that the radio appears to be just a fraction of an inch too far forward, causing that area of the dash to not go back together as it should.  My plan to resolve this is to totally pull apart the dash AND the top dash cover so I can get a bird’s eye view of what is going on behind the radio.  This will also allow me to make sure I am not inadvertently pinching something that shouldn’t be.  After my car totaling electrical fire in the 71 Buick years ago I am a bit sensitive to this possibility.

I also want to enable the system to automatically flip to the rear camera view when the truck is put in reverse.  In order to do this I need to connect a wire in the radio harness to a supply wire that is hot when the truck is put in reverse.  I found out there is such a wire behind the fuse box that is located behind the passenger seat.  Unfortunately to gain access to it I have to remove the “waterfall” and the fuse box case.

Of course I also have to actually mount the rear view camera which I think will wind up going right above the license plate.  I also need to decide exactly how I want to route the cable from the camera to the control box.  Obviously it needs to be out of harm’s way with minimal exposure to the elements.

I am also considering removing all my crimped wire connections and soldering them since that is the best way to ensure nothing works it’s way loose long term.

Anyway it all adds up to a bunch of additional hours digging around inside the SSR.  I’d like to get to to work on it this weekend but free time will be a bit hard to come by since we have to time a race Saturday and then run a half marathon Sunday.  Plus the replacement IAC for the Tacoma should be showing up soon.  That needs to be replaced ASAP.  Driving the truck after a warm start is downright hazardous at this point.

Last night I made my final attempt at the February Bar-barian challenge.  This was my third video taped attempt.  I wanted to try something different.  For my other attempts I was doing larger numbers of reps early on with some small breaks in between the exercises. This time I was going to try a strategy I saw others use successfully, mini-sets.

Basically I did a decent sized first set with 15 pull ups and 30 push ups.  After that I just bounced back and forth between each exercise, trying to just do as many reps as I could without taking a long pause during the set.  It worked out well, netting me 5 extra pull ups over my previous attempts but a few less push ups.  Overall it worked out to my highest point total of the month.

I have started watching season two of 24. It has been entertaining so far but it sort of seems like Jack has absolutely lost touch with reality.  I mean how is he allowed to shoot, kill and behead a federally protected witness, even if they threw in the qualifier that the witness was into kiddie porn? It was pretty insane.  Regardless I am strapped in and ready to enjoy the ride.

 

 

So yesterday I finally signed up for this Sunday’s Hooter’s Half Marathon. I did so with some trepidation.  As I described previously I have had some issue with my left calf/knee although today was the first morning I woke up without feeling that cramping sensation which is a positive.

I also have not trained as much for the race as I did last year.  Last year I did a number of 10 mile training runs and even the full 13.1 distance once before doing the race.  This year I have run 10 miles a couple times and several 7 milers.  I am going to have to rely on my lighter body weight, higher overall fitness level and some mental toughness to pull me through the event.  I still have a less than two hour goal in my mind, I wish I had someone like Matt or Patrick doing the race so they could help keep me on point.

Last night we heated up the last of the spaghetti we had left over from the weekend.  There was a little left over so I decided to give the dogs their first taste of pasta.  I am not sure how we never gave them spaghetti before.  Anyway Nicki definitely approved, gobbling down a couple forkfuls in no time at all and was looking for more. Sadie was funny when she ate hers.  She sort of sucked it down like a little kid would do.

Today is leap day.  I don’t have anything witty or unique to say about this day that happens only once every four years.  Personally I plan to utilize the extra day to make one more attempt at the February Bar-barian challenge.

I checked in with both my brother Patrick and my dad yesterday  on their respective journeys home.  Pat said he got back to his place around 1Am (had to work the same day).  Dad’s drive north had an unexpected detour when all of the idiot lights on his brand new Subaru started flashing unexplainably. A trip to the dealer revealed the problem to be a defective gas cap which seemed odd to me.

I have heard of gas caps that aren’t on all the way throwing a check engine light but I have never heard of it causing a Christmas Tree of lights on the dash.  After he got a new cap he was on his way.

Dad also spent about an hour on the side of the road arguing on a conference call with reps from the insurance and drug company over some prescription snafu.  Dad evidently introduced obscenities into the stream of discussion which is never a good thing.  With as mad as I have gotten on the phone with various inept businesses I have never started swearing at them, it is outside the lines of reasonable behavior in that situation to me. It also will do very little to make your ultimate goal be realized and in fact may instead have the exact opposite effect.

 

 

So my family cleared out late morning yesterday.  Ali was off yesterday so she got to see them off.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got home last night after work to see that Ali had been busy getting the house cleaned back up.  Nearly a week of 2 additional dogs and 4 additional people can make things a bit chaotic as you can imagine.  I really appreciated that Ali took the initiative to do that,  I wasn’t looking forward to having to do it myself.

It felt sort of weird as I sat on the couch with Nicki and Sadie, the lack of noise/activity felt foreign.  For the past week or so the 4 dogs were a near constant source of entertainment.

Sadie definitely seems a bit mopey since her dog and human friends left.  She just LOVED having so many options to interact/play with.   I think she snuggled up to everyone at one point or another.

So I had committed to just doing the damn half marathon a couple days ago.  However I still have this weird left calf ailment going on.  Once I get up and going it feels ok but when I wake up first thing in the morning it feels like I have a strain right in the middle of it.  It would really suck to do something like tear a calf muscle during the race.

On the plus side, the pain each subsequent morning has been slightly less so I am hoping by race day (Sunday) it will be good to go.  I will probably bite the bullet and sign up today.

This morning I woke up when Ali got up to do her early AM swim practice.  It’s amazing how much you can get done before work if you get up at 4:30 AM.  Hell I even had time to shave my head.

The head shave timing served two purposes.  I have a dermatologist appointment this week. A shaved head makes it easier to examine my cranium since I have had 3 problem spots in my scalp so far.  Secondly a high and tight hair cut works out well for sweaty endurance events like a half marathon.  My hair will look the same at the finish as it does at the start.

Now that we have a number associated with my tax refund I can start pulling the trigger on a few items.  Unlike many years past where the refund went toward home projects or to pay off loans, this year we don’t have any big ticket intentions which is kind of nice.

The list of things I need to buy is pretty mild, including some maintenance items for the Scooba and the pool cleaner.  A replacement IAC for the Tacoma and the 90,000 dealer service for the Camry Hybrid.

The Camry service will be the biggest chunk but I will be doing some investigation/negotiation to get those costs down.  I think they try to steal close to $1000 from the average Joe for that service.  There are a lot of things they do and since we have no plans on getting rid of the car, which has been bullet proof so far, I figure it is smart to get the maintenance done.  I will be getting a list of what exactly is scheduled to be done and analyzing it line by line.  If a lot of it is “fluff” that I can easily do myself I might take the car somewhere else to get the more involved things done and still come out many dollars ahead.

As promised, here is my experience installing my Pioneer AVIC-X930BT radio in my 2005 6 speed Chevy SSR. DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional car audio installer.  In fact this was the first radio I have installed in a vehicle in at least 25 years.  I have some decent technical ability and didn’t feel like forking over $500 extra to an installer to put the radio in.

My SSR had the factory Bose Premium sound system in it.  Although this radio worked fine I wanted the techo-geek features like GPS, Bluetooth support, Iphone integration and a rear back up camera.

I did a lot of reading leading up to the purchase and install of the equipment, especially on SSRFanatics.  Some people advised to rip out the existing Bose amp/speakers since they don’t have the best sound quality.  Not being an audiophile, I thought the existing system sounded just fine so I decided to leave the amp/speakers intact.

So with that being the case, here is the list of items I purchased from SonixElectronix.

1. Pioneer AVIC-X930BT (head unit)
2. Axxess GMOS-04 (wiring harness adapter designed for systems that include the Bose amp)
3. Metra 95-2009 (generic mounting plate/adapter)
4. Metra 40-GM10 (antenna adpater)
5. Pioneer ND-BC20PA (rear back up camera with parking assist)
6. Axxess ASWC (universal steering wheel controls adapter)

I already had the Ipod interface cable for the 930BT which I received as a Xmas present.

Now in addition to this I purchased several other items for the install like a set of nylon prying tools to prevent damaging the trim as well as some connectors for the various wires that will need to be connected between the radio harness and the GMOS-04.

The first order of business was getting the old radio out of the truck.  The first thing I did was pull a few fuses.

The first two I pulled were the radio and amp fuses located in the fuse box behind the passenger seat.  The third fuse was the air bag fuse which is located in the fuse box in the engine compartment.

Next up was to start the front dash disassembly. I removed the center silver trim piece using my nylon tools, it simply snaps out.

Once that was off there are 5 screws that need to be removed, 4 on the right of the steering wheel, one on the left of it.  You don’t need to remove the screws that connect to the lower dash.  It is pretty easy to tell which is which by looking at them.

Now comes the fun part, getting the dash panel popped off from the passenger air bag area.  This quite simply is a large pain in the ass.  At first I tried using my prying tools to help me but I eventually relied on simple hand strength to bend the corners of the air bag cover in such a way that they would pop through the dash opening.  The corners of the cover are pretty flexible but it still takes some serious work to get them through the opening.

I have read some suggestions that once you get the dash cover off you shave down the lip that the air bag cover sits in front of to make future reassembly and disassembly much easier.  Unfortunately I didn’t read that suggestion until after I had it back together.

In the picture to the left you can see the dash with the front panel completely removed.  Once the air bag cover is popped through the dash the rest of the removal is pretty easy.  The only other part that was a bit difficult to get off was the area around the steering wheel.  Dropping the tilt steering all the way down helped here.

All that remains is to remove the three screws that hold the factory radio in, slide the radio out and disconnect the wiring harness and antenna cable from the back of it. You are left with a nice clean hole to slide your new radio into.

So next I gathered up my GMOS-04 wiring harness (already did the parking brake bypass mod) and my factory Pioneer harness and did some reading.  To be quite honest, I felt quite overwhelmed at first, don’t be surprised if you feel the same way.  Relax, it will get better.

I was particularly confused by the GMOS-04 harness, it had a total of 5 wire connectors on it but I could only figure out where three of them went.  At first I thought somehow I ordered the wrong thing.

Slowly I started to figure out what went where.  One of the connectors was indeed unused, the gray one that only has two pins in it.  I have no idea what it’s intended use was.  The other small black connector turns out to be a quick and easy way to tie in the Axxess ASWC steering wheel control module.  I was confused by this because the AWSC comes with it’s own connector harness which I realized I simply didn’t need.

So I started going through the connections between the GMOS-04 and the Pioneer harness one by one, twisting the wires together but not crimping them until I knew everything was working.

For a ground I used a bare metal spot with a screw to the left and below the radio mounting location on the dash.  It was relatively close.

Eventually I got everything that was supposed to be connected, connected, or so I hoped.  I had a huge mess of wire in my hand that looked like shit.  I was not quite sure how I was going to transform it into a more organized mess.

I plugged all the harnesses in, put the fuses back in and nervously turned the key.  I was happy to see the radio light up and hear static from the speakers.  I tuned the radio to a local station and heard music.  Ok well that meant that I had the basic functions working.

I further tested the unit by stretching the GPS antenna and laying it on the ground in front of the truck so I could see if it picked up satellites, it did.  I also sloppily connected the rear camera just to see if that worked as well.  It did although it didn’t seem to have any connection to the truck being put in reverse. Oh well I can figure that out later.

Programming the AWSC was pretty easy once I realized I could use the built in connector on the GMOS-o4 to tie it in.  You basically just keep hitting the up volume button while turning on the car until the light stops flashing on the AWSC.  After that there are a series of flashes and if all goes well a solid red light at the end of the sequence, indicating the unit is now synched to your car and the new radio.

Ok so now I knew that everything more or less worked.  I took the harness back out and worked on securing the connections and cleaning up the wires the best that I could.  I read that some places recommend soldering the wire connections together.  I didn’t go this route, I just twisted the wires together and crimped them together securely with my bell connectors.

Even with a considerable amount of time spent cleaning everything up I wasn’t all that pleased with the end result.  You are shoving a lot more junk into the dash than what was in there originally.  I would be curious to see what a “pro” installation looks like in comparison.

So finally I was ready to put the radio in for “real”.  I mounted the GPS antenna up under the dash on top of a metallic cross brace that the magnetic antenna snapped on to securely.  I had read elsewhere this was a nice out of the way to do it instead of slapping it somewhere on the exterior of the truck.

I also fed up all of the various external connections that would connect to the radio from the floor up through the radio opening.  These included the wires for the back up camera, Bluetooth mic, and the Ipod interface cable.

I connected the GMOS-04 harness to the factory harness, the antenna to the antenna adapter, slid the AWSC onto a piece of metal that looked like a good resting place and tried to slide the 930BT back into the slot.  Oh I forgot to mention that of course I had already attached the generic mounting plate to the new radio so the tabs line up with the factory mounting holes.

Well I felt resistance as I tried to steer the radio in place.  Of course I knew the resistance was from the huge collection of stuff that is behind it.  I jammed my hand uncomfortably into the hole where the right air vent is normally located and got my fingers under the wires behind the radio to lift them up and out of the way so they aren’t pinned behind the radio.  It took a lot of frustrating manipulation but eventually I got the radio fully seated.

Ok so now I needed to make sure the radio still works with it mounted in place.  Guess what? It didn’t.  The thing was dead a s a doornail, I was pissed.  At first I just hoped I simply didn’t push one of the fuses back in but they were all snugly inserted.

Out came the multimeter and I started to troubleshoot where I was losing juice.  It took me a long time to figure out the problem and I was getting increasingly despondent before I did.  On the GMOS-04 the pin for the yellow wire, which is used for accessory power was pushed back a bit for some reason.  I pushed it from behind so it snapped firmly back in place.  Imagine my relief when everything fired up normally, whew.

Ok I thought the hardest part was behind me, putting the dash back together shouldn’t be that bad, right? Wrong.

If I did that little mod I mentioned around the air bag opening I am sure this would have went better.  I determined the air bag going back through the hole was the first step in getting everything else back together.  Doing so again was tough as hell, requiring even more vigorous hand manipulation than required to remove it.  I was quite frustrated but eventually persistence won out and I forced the cover back through the hole in the dash.  I wasn’t out of the woods yet.

In addition to getting the air bag cover back through the hole, you also have the difficult task of getting the dash air vents lined up with the ducts behind them.  It was tough as well.

Then I ran into another issue, the dash didn’t seem to want to snap back together a 100%.  Eventually with some vigorous pounding with the heel of my hand it did appear to snap into place but then I noticed the radio was sitting oddly.  Well of course I couldn’t have this and was dejected knowing that it meant I had to pull the dash cover all the way off again.

Once I did I saw that my pounding had snapped one of the plastic mounting tabs on the mounting kit, shit. I also realized that I must have had the radio mounted more forward than the factory radio, causing the tight fit.  The sides of the 930 BT have a number of mounting holes with different letters next to them but I just used what looked right.

So I had to run off to Best Buy to get another mount kit.  Putting it on meant I had to slide the radio out and then repeat the incredibly annoying process of getting everything shoved back in there.  I was pretty damn miserable at this point.

After some more futzing around I got the radio and dash back on albeit not perfectly.  There is still some slight issues with the fit and finish.  The radio still seems to protrude a fraction of an inch too far, causing the silver trim piece to be shifted down just enough that it causes some drag on the climate controls which will need to be addressed.

To the casual observer/rider they won’t notice the wart but I know it’s there.

I didn’t mount the camera in the license plate area yet, that shouldn’t be too tough to handle.

I didn’t try to be very fancy with my Ipod cable routing.  I have seen some guys modify their ash tray or glove box so it can house their Iphone.  I simply ran the wire along the passenger side of the center console and ended it in the parking brake area so I can just plop my phone there.  Since the radio supports Bluetooth streaming the cable isn’t really needed for a lot of stuff anyway.

I decided to mount the mic for my Bluetooth up to the driver side visor.  I have seen some guys mount the mic on the steering column but I think up on the visor is less obtrusive while being more effective since it is closer to your mouth.

There are some outstanding bug/question/issues I have with the radio which I have yet to address.

They are the following.

The rear backup camera does not flip over to the rear view automatically when the truck is put into reverse. (six speed manual) I triple checked that I had the correct wires connected between the GMOS-04 and the Pioneer wiring harness to support this but it still doesn’t work.

The voice guidance volume level seems too low even with having it configured to max volume.  It also doesn’t seem to cut out the music source when it gives guidance which makes no sense.  I will need to play with it some more I suppose.  The cabin noise in an SSR could make hearing the voice guidance tough I guess.

I think it’s weird that the standard map display does not have an option to display vehicle speed.  That is kind of annoying.

When I first tried the radio on a test drive I noticed my tach was “sticking”, reading about 1500 rpm’s higher than normal.  Luckily that problem seemed to fix itself.  I can only guess it was related to the banging to get the dash back together.

Be careful when banging on the dash.  I inadvertently knocked out some fins on the air vents.  I didn’t find all of them.

Other than those few items I am very pleased overall with the radio.  The GPS works well, the Iphone integration is pretty damn slick and I find the overall radio user interface visually pleasing and easy to use.  In fact it makes me want another one to put in my daily driving 99 Tacoma but that would be too financially painful at the moment.

As I address my remaining issues and complete my camera installation I will report back with more results.  I hope you found this somewhat helpful.  I may look into removing the top dash pad to make guiding the harness and wires back into the mounting location cleaner.

If you would like to see all of the pictures I took during the install you can see them here.

 

 

 

 

So Dad and I left late on Thursday morning to go pick up Patrick and his girlfriend Maureen at the Fort Lauderdale airport.  He was able to save nearly 50% off his fare flying there instead of the Fort Myers airport.  I didn’t mind doing the drive to go get him.

On the drive over Dad and I got to shoot the breeze about a number of topics.  Many of them revolved around the state of the world and just how exquisitely f’d up it all is.  Even though my dad’s financial situation would make most people assume he would be cast in the conservative, me first mold, he actually has a lot of similar thoughts about what is actually going on as I do.

Despite despising freeloading scum that waste countless taxpayer dollars due to nothing more then unabashed laziness, he too does not see throwing out the baby with the bathwater as an intelligent solution or just praying to something/someone that it gets better.

We arrived around 45 minutes early at the airport so instead of sitting in the car at the cell phone lot dad suggested we just go inside and wait.  We went to a Chile’s where dad had a beer while I sucked down a Diet Coke, anticipating I would be doing the driving back across the alley.

Pat and Maureen’s flight arrived on time and we greeted them as they exited the security screening area. They both traveled extremely light. Maureen had a small rolling piece of luggage and Pat only had something that looked like a slightly oversized gym bag.

After getting Maureen’s bag we headed back up to Chile’s to eat lunch since everyone had varying degrees of hunger.  After the meal I followed up with a cup of DD coffee to help me stay alert for the trek back across the state.

On the ride back I asked if anyone was interested in seeing Catholic Town (Ave Maria) since we were literally driving right past it.  I got lukewarm response from Pat and Maureen but dad was interested in seeing this monstrous ghost town in the middle of nowhere.

As we navigated the long 2 mile winding entrance to the town I gave some background on this (to this point) failed attempt to create a town around old school religious values.  At this point the founders of the town expected to have roughly 5100 residences occupied, instead they have 374.

We drove by the monster church in the middle of the town and then parked so dad could grab coffee at the only coffee shop in town.  I was surprised there were actually a decent amount of bodies in the shop, maybe 15 or so.  As dad enjoyed his coffee out outside in the nice sitting area he engaged a young girl that walked by carrying her laptop, he was curious about how many students were actually enrolled at Ave Maria.

The girl, who we found out was a freshman, was happy to engage us and told us they have around 700 students right now but they only had 200 last year.  The 500 student bump in one year, tripling the enrollment, seems a bit odd/unbelievable.

We noticed this girl’s friend was playing an instrument which we found was a dulcimer. The friend came over and told us a little bit about it which was interesting.  Dad found the whole Ave Maria thing intriguing and I think he may stop there to show my step mom on their way back across the state this afternoon.

Thursday evening was laid back.  We caught up on stuff with Pat and Maureen and enjoyed warming up some of the food that was left over from the meal my step mom made the night before.  We enjoyed it out on the lanai.  Ali was away at a meeting.

Later that night I flipped on Netflix looking for a movie we could watch.  Maureen suggested a documentary called Buck.  She had actually seen it before but liked it enough that she didn’t mind seeing it again.  To be honest I was a bit skeptical if I would find the movie interesting since it is about a guy that trains horses.  Buck is the name of the trainer.

Well I found the movie actually to be quite good.  The methods he utilizes to train horses have applications beyond the world of equines.  On top of that he is just an interesting person with a background that you would think would preclude him from being what he is today.  If you like animals I am confident you will like this film, add it to your queue. I’d give it an A.

So we were trying to loosely formulate a game plan for my family’s visit.  Quite often when you have visitors you wind up in that no man’s land where no one is quite sure what they do and don’t want to do. As the host you always feel the need to steer the group out of that quagmire. We came up with several action items, a visit to the beach, going to the swamp with the dogs, going to the Naples Art Festival, and maybe a visit to the water park.

Initially we were thinking about doing the swamp on Friday and the beach on Saturday but after viewing the weather forecast it seemed clear that Friday would be a better beach day.

Friday morning Patrick, who is very fit and a great athlete,  indicated he would be into trying this month’s Bar-barian 5150 challenge.   Pat had a few form issues but still put together a very solid effort, especially considering this isn’t the type of work out he focuses on normally.  He was well spent by the end of the 5 minutes. I did an attempt after him but didn’t best last week’s effort so I didn’t bother to post it.

Ali got up and did her early AM swim and then picked up groceries on the way home.  By the time we got out the door it was around 11AM which I didn’t really give much consideration to.  Even though we are in the midst of snowbird season I thought a a mid-day Friday trip to the beach wouldn’t be too horribly crowded.  Wow, was I wrong.

As we swung into the Lowdermilk Park parking lot we became the caboose on a several person train of vehicles that were mongering for a parking spot, a practice I simply refuse to participate in.  After our first loop I headed back out on Gulfshore heading south and north, hoping to spot a spare space relatively nearby.  Well it seemed any space I had in mind was already being patrolled by other eager parking space seekers.

I was in no mood to keep circling, it drives me insane to have to be a parking spot lemming.  I told the crew I would simply drop them and the beach gear off.  I would then park farther away and walk back.  Well farther away turned out to be a mile and a half away back up at route 41.  Oh well , I would wind up with 3 miles of extra cardio time although I wish I wasn’t doing it in my flip flops, my left knee was aching by the time I got back to the beach.

Before I walked to the beach I had to piss like crazy thanks to the cup of coffee I slammed on the way there.  I was desperately looking for a place to relieve myself.  The bright daylight and vehicles motoring by from all directions made a hedge or bush an unwise option.

Luckily I discovered that the Office Depot in the shopping center had public restrooms.  I was about ready to explode by the time I made it to the urinal.

The beach was packed with people.  It was wall to wall tourists and snowbirds.  By the time I got back the gang had the chairs, towels and umbrellas set up, including the brand new one I bought on the way there.  Both my step mom and I needed to not sit in the sun any more directly than necessary.

We ate lunch at the snack shack in the pavilion at the beach.  I found it odd that this stand is manned by one person considering the amount of people this food window could potentially service.  At first I thought he just happened to be short handed that day.  It turns out this is the way he likes to roll.  I am sure it helps his bottom line but having one guy take orders and do all the cooking on the grill is obviously not all that efficient.  We were lucky the line wasn’t very long when we got to it.

The gulf water was still “chilly” by Florida standards, clicking in at 71 or 72 degrees.  This was no obstacle of course to Patrick, who braved water temps in the 50’s over in Ireland to all of our disbelief.  Maureen had no issue going in either.

I later decided to join them even though I don’t believe I have ever submerged myself in the gulf in February.  The water felt a bit severe for the first minute or so but I quickly adjusted.  All I had to do was remind myself of the Chernobyl Jacuzzi obstacle at the Tough Mudder to convince myself that hitting 72 degree water was chicken shit in comparison.

Something incredible happened, Ali actually went into the water and dove in.  If you know Ali’s background with water temp you would know why this is incredible.  This is the same person that used to tell me our pool at 84 degrees was just too cold.

I would attribute the change to Ali’s experiences with swimming through the winter months where some of the mornings included air temps in the 40’s when she was jumping in the pool.  Ali stayed out there with me for a little while and even did a little test swim in the gulf.

We hung out at the beach for maybe two and a half hours before I made the long walk back to retrieve the van. Dad, who doesn’t “believe” in sunblock, was red as a lobster from lying in the sun just for a couple hours.  He said he wanted to make sure he returned to gray and gloomy western PA with proof he had been vacationing in Florida.

Friday evening we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, a place nobody else had been to before.  I was worried that on a Friday evening it would be just mobbed.  It was indeed quite busy but we were able to find a table to accommodate the six of us easily.

Evidently I wasn’t clear explaining to my dad that Sweet Tomatoes was more than a salad bar, he thought that was all the food they had.  As a result he created a MASSIVE salad, unaware there was a large selection of other food items as well.

Dining at Sweet Tomatoes has some pluses and minuses.  On the plus side, as long as you can find an empty table, them being busy does not really affect you since you are serving yourself.  The food as well is always good, everyone at our table seemed to enjoy what they picked out.

On the downside, it doesn’t have much of a restaurant atmosphere, it is more of a feeding trough feel as you shuffle around the other bodies all with plates in their hands.  Because of the good prices at ST there are also a lot of families that choose to dine there.  Families often equal lots of loud kids.  At times it was borderline impossible to hear what anyone was saying at our table.

I guess the best comparison would be it is a cafeteria-like atmosphere.  It gets the job done and the food is good but don’t expect much beyond that.  By the time we got home we were all pretty damn tired from stuffing ourselves and our day of activities, everyone retreated to bed relatively early.

Pat and his girlfriend indicated they would be interested in going with Ali and I to the 6AM GCR training run Saturday morning.  As I have documented here before, Pat is a great runner, turning in an unbelievable time of 3:08 in last year’s Pittsburgh Marathon. When we arrived I introduced him to a few of the club members.

Ali had plans to run with Christy, who was running late, so Pat, Maureen and I took off together.  We were running at a fast pace for me, 8 minute something miles, it was probably just coasting for Pat.  Before long we were joined by my sometime run pacer, Matt who did the majority of the 7 mile run with us.

I was surprised Maureen kept up with us as she doesn’t do much running during the Pittsburgh winters. Hell when she saw we were approaching the end of the run she said she wanted to finish strong and sped up, requiring me to really stretch things out to stay ahead of her.

It was a good run.  I was sort of using it as a litmus test to see how my left knee felt which was bothering me after the 8.5 mile run from hell the week before.  It felt ok during the run although once again afterward I had some pain.  I think at this point I am just going to throw caution to the wind and run the half marathon, despite my several concerns.  The bottom line is if I don’t do it I will feel like a pussy.

So we had a busy day planned for Saturday.  The overcast sky meant a swamp walk with the dogs would work out better.  We headed over there mid-morning.  Our visit got off to a cool start when we spotted a bunch of deer to the right of the parking lot when we arrived, our first swamp deer sighting ever.

As expected the dogs were all very excited for their adventure. I am sure our group of 6 humans and 4 canines looked funny to the other people we ran into during our hike.  I had Sadie’s leash for the walk out and of course that meant we had to be in the lead the majority of the time, she just hates when other dogs are in front.

We had a decent amount of wildlife sightings during the picnic table and back walk including three or four snakes and about the same amount of gators, a couple of which were only a foot off the path.  Luckily they were smaller sized gators, the longest of which may have been 5 or 6 feet.

I think my family enjoyed the hike but we didn’t go real deep.  Dad was hobbling along on his two aching knees so it didn’t make much sense to go nuts since we had more walking scheduled down at the Naples Art Festival.

Ali and I were really, REALLY tired since we got up at 4:30 for the run.  Heading right back down to Naples did not sound like a good idea.  So after lunch we all agreed that we would lay down for a quick hour long power nap before heading to the festival.

The nap helped clear the cob webs a bit but I was still quite pooped when I hopped behind the wheel to resume my tour bus driver duties.  As was the case repeatedly during the visit, Dunkin Donuts was called into action to supplement my energy level.

We arrived mid-afternoon, a time I thought maybe the crowd for the show would have died down a bit since it only ran until 5PM.  Once again my hopes were dashed as I slowly climbed a nearby parking garage and was rewarded with nothing except idiotic drivers/mongers.  Luckily I didn’t have to park a mile and a half away this time, finding a spot in a nearby school parking lot.

I had been to this art thing once before a few years back when Ali’s ballet group was doing a performance there.  Generally speaking, my interest in such an event is pretty minimal however I knew my dad, Teresa and Ali were into it.   I think Maureen, who has a lot of interest in fashion was pretty into it as well.

There were a few exhibits that caught my eye. Even though I find looking at art generally boring I still appreciate the talent that goes into creating the objects.  The patience, creativity and detail in some of what we saw was very impressive.

My dad has this weird thing where he like to buy cd’s he hears when he is out at these sort of things.  My step mom said often these cd’s just join the collection but are never really listened to.  The funniest addition on Saturday was from some guy that sung exclusively in french.  Why dad would buy it I have no idea.

Ali and I saw one piece that we were seriously considering for our house.  It was a combination of painting/woodwork where the artist uses a router to create the image and then paints it.  The piece was a sea turtle utilizing colors that would match in with our decor.

I told Ali I was fine with getting it and left the decision up to her.  In the end she balked at the purchase, saying she liked it but didn’t like it enough to be on a wall of the house she looks at every single day.  Oh well, if she wasn’t sold then I had no problem walking away.

Dad then got the idea in his head that he wanted to have a beer at the Irish themed restaurant in the downtown area.  Well this wasn’t the place where you just grabbed a beer, you had to sit at a table which none of us were all that into.

We were lead to a table outside and sat down.  The predicted cold front had started to roll in and everyone was cold.  So after sitting there for maybe 60 seconds we all got up and walked off.  Dad still had this idea in his head about just enjoying a beer but didn’t know where he wanted to do it.

I suggested that we stop at South Street, the place we had our GCR Xmas party at.  I knew they had a very large beer selection that should satisfy his desire.  We got there right around 5 and decided it made sense to just have dinner while we were there.  I had a grouper sandwich that was quite good and we all had a decent time there.

I forgot that during the day Saturday Patrick had a big accomplishment, getting his first ever muscle up. He had tried a few times before and just missed, getting stuck at the transition point.  I told him he should try moving his hands closer together on the bar to force his elbows to be more in front of his body.  That small tip did the trick, he got up and over pretty easily, even stringing a couple reps together.  I was proud of him.

Saturday night we watched Moneyball, my latest Netflix mail dvd.  It was a good flick, I enjoyed it quite a bit, despite being drop dead tired, I’d give it an A-.  I am not sure if there has ever been a Brad Pitt movie that I didn’t enjoy.

Sunday I originally had pegged as the day we could go hang at the water park.  I thought it would be a fun way to spend some time.  Imagine going back to PA in February and telling people you were just on water slides a couple days ago.  Well for some reason there wasn’t much interest in going there from my step mom, Pat or Maureen.  Part of the reason was because despite a predicted high in the low 80’s, early in the morning it was still somewhat chilly, overcast with high winds.

I didn’t have a Plan B immediately available so we were stuck in one of those indecision snafus where no one is sure what we wanted to do.  Ali had taken her bike out to go ride so that left me alone to be the rudder.  Eventually we came up with a plan of action, we went to Pet Supermarket so dad could grab some dog food for his girls.  The pet store was nearby a miniature golf course, something Patrick had talked about doing earlier in the visit, ok great.

So after grabbing the dog supplies we pulled up to the miniature golf place which wasn’t super busy.  I hadn’t played mini-golf in a while, I wasn’t sure what the going rate was.  I got a bit of sticker shock when I saw $10.50 a head, obviously their snowbird price gouging rate.  I bet it costs half that or less during the summer.  Oh well, we all swallowed hard and forked over the money.

The course for the most part was too easy with many of the holes being far too simple.  The very nicely done landscaping that was embedded into the course helped to make up for the less than challenging play.  I wound up being the mini-golf champion by 3 or 4 strokes.  Patrick, who is not found of losing, wound up tied for last but took it well.

Ali met up with us at the course just as we were finishing up so she could join us for lunch which we had at the near by Mel’s Diner.  Once again the snowbird scourge reared it’s ugly head when we were told there would be a 15 minute wait for LUNCH, sigh.

Oh well this is the reality if you try to go out in public during this time of year, complaining about it does little.  We at least got to enjoy a good meal, everybody’s food was quite good and the prices were very reasonable.  Everybody was STUFFED.

I wanted to offset the gluttony a bit so shortly after I got home I asked Pat if he wanted to try a another challenge, this time the February 20 by 12 variety.  He was game and Maureen said she would come out as well and do a modified version of the circuit. Of course we were joined bu the dogs.

What ensued was 15-20 minutes of non-stop work out action with all three of us rotating through the exercises taking small time outs to throw the ball for Maggie. It’s pretty funny to watch.

Having Patrick doing the challenge with me definitely helped push me even with my feeling sort of weak going into it.  I did the circuit in a little over 15 minutes, a good 3 minutes plus faster than my first attempt.  Pat did quite well too, finishing about 30 seconds after me.

Patrick and I had more fun playing with the Xbox Kinect, specifically the sports game.  Pat beat me pretty easily in track and field.  The most amazing feat was his throw of 111 meters in the javelin which was clear off the field.

We really had fun playing doubles volleyball, especially when we hooked up with another pair of human beings via Xbox Live.   The guy we were playing had a rating of 11 and I was rated 2.  Well despite the disparity in skill rating we gave them some good matches, in fact I believe we wound up winning more games against them than we lost.

Of course the best part of the games were the few seconds you get to taunt the other team after each point you win.  Pat and I were laughing our asses off at some of the insulting gestures we got our on screen avatars to perform.  Of course the other team returned the favor whenever they scored a point.  It was good fun.

Sunday night Ali prepared a pasta meal that was quite good.  Too bad most of us were still sort of full from the big Mel’s meal earlier.  After dinner Ali, Maureen, Teresa and Patrick watched the Oscars while I edited the footage from our 20by12 work out.  I watched a little of the end of the show but really could care less about it.

This morning Patrick and dad woke up before I had to head out to work.  They were heading out later in the day to take Pat back to the airport before dad and Teresa start their return trip home.  I thanked Pat for being my running, workout and video game partner and encouraged him to come back anytime.  I honestly can’t recall anytime in my life that I did not enjoy Patrick’s company.  He is such a good kid.

I wished dad a safe journey.  It seemed to me that he enjoyed his time in the sun and warmth of Florida which I was happy about.  Ali, who is off today, said they pulled out around 11 to go sight see a little bit around olde Naples before they hit the highway.

I know I am going to have two depressed dogs when I get home.  They had so much fun playing with Maggie and Clara, especially Sadie, who also took turns snuggling with pretty much every one of our guests.  I have a feeling they will be walking over to the guest bedrooms repeatedly over the next few days wondering where their buddies went.

From my perspective I thought the visit went well.  Sometimes playing the role of tour director can get difficult but I think all in all we filled their time here with a good variety of fun activities without spending an arm and a leg to do so.  Hopefully it won’t be another two years until they decide to come back.