Walking Dead is such a compelling show, I mean damn….. I just watched this week’s episode last night. Of course I won’t spoil it, although it was inadvertently spoiled for me (didn’t really matter) All I can say is if you are having trouble finding anything good to watch on TV, watch the show.
I just realized yesterday that I have a three day weekend coming up, that is a very nice feeling. I have a race to time Saturday morning, after that I plan to take advantage of the cooler temperatures in the forecast to get some work done outside.
The primary target is the annual dreaded chore of tree trimming. I pick this time of year to do it because of both weather conditions and the oncoming holidays. In the past I always figured nicely trimmed trees will look better when I hang holiday lights on them. However this year I haven’t decided what exactly I am going to do in regards to holiday decorations, if anything at all.
There is a part of me that enjoys coming home to a lit up house. I also feel (maybe incorrectly) that people in our neighborhood appreciate my efforts since my house is driven by by most all of them because of it’s location on the street. I always have imagined they enjoy the fruits of my effort.
Regardless, the trees are getting trimmed this weekend and it WILL suck, that is assured.
I am feeling down once again, part of the roller coaster of highs and lows that I have experienced since embarking on my trip as a single adult 7 + months ago. For some reason when I was on the outside, looking in, I didn’t think this would be nearly as challenging and landmine filled as it has proven to be. My response will be to just focus that energy into things and activities that have more assured returns on investment.
The clippers come out this weekend, I have found high and tight is most helpful when I get into this mode. When 2013 rolls around and my new path is clearly defined it might make more sense to put more weight into establishing new relationships.
Well at least have the Eagles game to look forward to. Hah.
It seems as though the internet yesterday was filled with Romney Rage, namely voters that were counting on Mitt to be our next president. Many of them feel dumbfounded, hurt, and frustrated that their guy got stomped on an electoral vote level and also lost the popular vote that some predicted he would win.
I understand what it’s like to have a man you dislike sitting in the White House, I dealt with it for nearly a decade myself with W, whom to me, was the worst president of my lifetime. Based on that experience, here is my advice to those despondent about the election results. Turn that energy inward.
Griping about the election results for a prolonged period of time isn’t going to do yourself or anyone else any good, unless you consider continuing to dig out the massive ditch between the two parties as productive.
Turn that energy towards doing what you can to make your personal situation as productive as possible. Put down the bag of Doritos, turn off Honey Boo Boo and walk around the block. Exercise some of your own personal fiscal responsibility to set the example for others around you.
If you are in a job that is low paying or sucks, make an effort to change it. If you have a problem and you make an honest and determined attempt to fix it, you may or may not be successful. If you decide to do nothing you ensure your chance of failure is 100%.
Government is there to help you when the chips are down, they are not there to be the chips. Have some pride, do the hard thing, set an example by your actions instead of your mouth.
So finally after a solid two years of rhetoric, threats, hate speech and prophecies of doom, the 2012 presidential election is finally in the books. To be honest I was a little worried that I would wake up today feeling like I did in 2004 when Bush got reelected, like the country literally just had a collective lobotomy. Instead I was happy that the country did prove, by a slim margin, that we have not quite reached Idiocracy levels just yet.
I managed to stay awake until the election was called for Obama after Ohio was checked in under the blue column. I heard the speeches by both candidates after the result was decided were good, too bad I missed them.
Once again Florida grabbed the spotlight as the voting idiots of the nation. You would think the utter embarrassment of the hanging chad 2000 election would have been enough to motivate state officials to fix the process. No, instead we had people waiting in line on election day for more than 6 hours in some cases because of horrible planning by various county election supervisors. Of course this election day problem was set up by our corrupt governor Rick Scott deciding to cut our early voting days nearly in half, something that was purely politically motivated.
Lee county which is right next door was one of the worst offenders. They had people waiting to vote at 11pm, 4 hours after the polls closed. The election supervisor in these counties should be absolutely crucified for their epic fail.
So now the question is what happens now? There are a lot of unhappy people today. Many people really believe that Obama is leading the country to an abyss. Although I am not pleased with where the country sits today overall, I think of the two choices, Obama was clearly the way to go.
It really amazed me that people could casually write off assuming the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, two pointless wars, and a collapsing automobile, housing and financial industry as something that could be easily and quickly corrected with a wave of the wand.
These people will come back at you and say, “Well he PROMISED he was going to have it all fixed”. Did you expect him to say at his 2008 acceptance speech, “Listen, I am inheriting the biggest cluster f any incoming president has ever been handed. I am going to do my best to fix it but it might take more than 4 years to do so.” Of course not, many voters in our quick fix, immediate gratification, take a pill to lose weight society don’t like solutions that take more than 20 minutes.
So now, with no more reelection worries on the horizon I only hope we can make some real progress, despite having the House still under republican control. I am hopeful that finally, the promise of letting the Bush tax cuts expire is actually carried out. Rolling with the rates during the Clinton era is not going to make or break anyone.
The fact that corporate profits are currently at 50 year highs while unemployment has been hanging around 8% is all the proof you need that trickle down economics (Reaganomincs) no longer is the formula for all around prosperity for our nation. That trickle has had a sponge placed under it which is now squeezed and placed back into the supersized cup of corporate profits.
I also am hopeful that some meaningful and intelligent budget cutting actually happens instead of the horseshit numbers where they predict what will happen 10 years down the road. I also look forward to the trend of more and more citizens requiring government assistance beings reversed as things continue to slowly improve. If anyone thinks I support a lazy, leeching, entitled society you are sorely mistaken.
If someone is not making the effort to improve their situation and is content to exist on the governments dime there needs to be better enforcement and policing of these programs. Unfortunately that is very easy to say and very hard to do. Some scumbags are very adept at working the system.
If I was to give Romney any credit, it would be that he managed to make the race closer than I first anticipated it would be. He tried to morph himself into a jack of all trades, absorbing any political position that was currently convenient. Of course the way he did this was pretty sleazy but still, he hung in there.
Please, please, dissolve the law that looks at corporations as people when it comes to political donations, get rid of SuperPacs and anything that resembles them. Their efforts to distort and deceive on both sides of the aisle are truly disgusting and corrupts the election process to it’s core.
Let’s get this thing out of the rut, everyone get behind and push, Obama has the wheel.
Yesterday my uncle, whom has taken on the role of family historian, sent me scans of a newspaper article from 1938.
It was an article about my grandfather and a friend of his. Evidently when they were younger they decided to stop conventional life for 8 months and canoe down to Florida. The article outlined what sounded like a pretty amazing journey which included them riding bike back from Florida as far as the Carolinas.
I had absolutely no idea that my grandfather ever did this.
When I was growing up I knew my grandfather as a guy that always had a smile on his face. I also remember as I was older how he would always greet me with a very enthusiastic handshake which almost always was accompanied by a reassuring smack on the arm with his other hand.
I actually find myself greeting people I like in a similar way from time to time. I have no doubt this comes from my years with him.
I knew that grandpa had a pretty interesting history including serving in the Air Force during World War II. In general though we never talked much in depth about what he had done as a younger man, something I regret now.
Reading about this adventure reopened my interest in what grandpa’s life was really like. Too bad he is long, long gone. This story did give me a little insight into perhaps why I find myself attracted to just picking up and going somewhere, seeing the country and appreciating all of the experiences along the way.
Well any hope of the Eagles picking themselves up by their bootstraps and showing they aren’t the awful team that showed up against Atlanta were dashed last night. They were once again awful.
The offense is back to being incredibly inept in the red zone, despite massing around 450 yards of total offense. I believe the stat I heard last night was 5 trips inside the opponents 20 yard line resulted in 6 total points. That is terrible.
Vick threw an interception that was run back 99 yards for a TD but it wasn’t really his fault as it bounced off Celek’s hands. However he also threw a couple would be int’s that the Saints fortunately dropped.
The Eagles offensive line, which has been destroyed by injury is horrible and is surely largely responsible for the incredible amount of hits and sacks that Vick takes. However Mike doesn’t help himself either. Vick seems very, very poor at reacting to pressure in an efficient way.
Teams keep using the same formula to beat the Eagles, blitz. A sharp QB makes a defense pay for this with quick decisions, passing to whomever is left open by the blitz. Effectively doing this stops the blitz. Vick isn’t effective in this manner, so the blitzing never stops.
Although it’s hard to believe, the defense actually was playing better under Juan Castillo. The two games under Todd Bowles have been an unmitigated disaster. The Saints were rated DEAD LAST in the league in rushing. They ran for over 160 yards, running through weak Eagle tackling all night long. It was embarrassing.
There is no consistent pressure on the QB and our “showcase” corners, Cromartie and Asomugha have in a word, sucked. Asomugha is the biggest disappointment of all because he was paid a fortune to bring his supposed upper tier skills to Philly. He is kind of a joke.
It’s pretty safe to say the team looks to be in free fall, losing 4 games in a row with the last two losses being absolute ass beatings. There have been seasons before where this was the case and somehow Andy pulled the nose up. I don’t think this is one of those years. I saw true desperation in Andy’s eyes last night, he had no answers. I think he is done.
Thankfully by this time tomorrow the elections will be over. It is too bad that electing a leader has evolved into such a bitter, moronic, corrupt and divisive process. In 2012, elections are catered to the minds that are easily swayed by snappy one-liners, fuzzy math, robo-calls and junk mail. Just like politicians are routinely bought, the voting public is as well. The amount of money spent on psychological welfare to influence the uninformed masses is simply obscene.
No matter who wins tomorrow, I am sure there will be inappropriate chest beating from the victor. To be clear, nobody should be proud of the state of our country at this time in history. To me it’s just a matter of which way we are going to keep the wheels pointed. I’m not a supporter of U-turns.
Regardless of your political beliefs, this is damn funny, you have to admit.
So originally I was going to go run with the club at 6am Saturday morning. Sometime Friday night I thought to myself that it would be nice if I didn’t force myself out of bed at 4:30 am. Sure it’s nice to have moral support doing a long 10 mile run but I don’t require it.
I knew I needed to get the mileage in though, it would probably be my last “long” run before the 12 mile Mudder race. I came up with a different way to do it, 400 meters at a time. I thought it would be an interesting experiment running the 10 miles around the track at the local middle school.
The weather Saturday morning was beautiful but on the chilly side. The thermometer was in the mid-50’s when I started. I actually ran the first three and a half miles in my hoody.
As I expected, it was mentally grueling going around the track so many times. Towards the end, after lap 34 I actually missed a lap so technically I only ran 39 laps. Still it added up to 10.20 miles. How do I know I missed a lap you ask? Because I had the Flip Cam running of course…
Even though I had nobody to push me I managed to cover the distance in an average pace right around 8:45 per mile, about the same clip I ran my PR half marathon at. It was an interesting way to cover 10 miles. Now I know how Nascar drivers feel.
When I got home I dove hard into my house chore duties. I was supposed to drop Ali off at the airport late in the afternoon so my goal was to have my chore slate basically clean by then. With the glorious cool temps and low humidity it was almost fun to work with the doors and windows wide open.
I asked Ali if she minded that we take the Volt to drop her off at the airport for two reasons. First, if I take the van I will spend somewhere around $15 in gas just to get there and back. Second, I wanted to drive the Volt, duh.
Driving the car is really sweet. It scratches every imaginable geek itch I have. The electric motor is smooth and powerful.
This was the first time the Volt has been on I-75. We discovered that maintaining 70+ mph will burn through your battery much quicker than around town driving. It looks like the Volt can maintain optimum battery usage at speeds of up to 55.
Ali wasn’t happy when I told her that by the time I got back to her place with the car I had used a whopping .2 gallons of gasoline. Right now her overall gas mileage with the car is 102 mpg and still rising.
When I was paying my bills this week I ran a report on my gas costs for the last 7 months. It averaged out to $458 a month. Depending on where I am financially and geographically in several months I would totally consider a Volt as my daily commuter.
When I took the dogs out to the house Nicki was acting a little weird. It seemed like she was looking for Ali. Eventually she chilled out a bit. It didn’t take long for her abnormal shedding left it’s mark on the carpet. Her hair is literally falling out in clumps. I am 99% convinced it is all because of the thyroid meds she has been on for the past few months.
My Sunday was very enjoyable. I took the dogs over to the swamp early in the morning. On the drive there we had an amazing sight. I saw a large bear by the side of the road. As I got closer it ran into the brush but I was happy to see he was just standing there watching us.
I stopped the van and took a couple pictures. The bear looked pretty much full grown. He seemed intrigued at Sadie perched out the window barking. He hung out for a good minute or so before jogging deeper into the woods. It was very cool.
The last time I was at the swamp the water levels were still low and the grass on the path was very, very high. Neither of those situations were the case on Sunday. Thanks to the frequent rain the last couple months the water levels were very high, as high as when we first discovered the swamp. I was happy to see that someone knocked down the grass as well.
The higher water meant I had to be more diligent with watching the dogs. They wanted to meander close to the water where a potential gator could be in wait. Eventually they understood I didn’t want them by the edge.
I thought more water would also equal more wildlife. Unfortunately it didn’t, I only saw one small gator during the 3-4 mile walk. We did see a potentially dangerous small snake on the path back to the parking lot.
The rest of my Sunday was very enjoyable. I spent some time out in my bar park, played with the dogs, did some minor to do’s and even took a brief nap. Not having the Eagles on the schedule cleared out a big block of time.
This morning I dropped off the girls at the dog daycare place. It is nice to not have to worry about Nicki’s bathroom issues at least and they both seem to actually like going there. When I handed them over to the girls inside neither of them made a fuss.
Tomorrow the madness ends, finally. The republicans are definitely in the lead as far as annoying the shit out of me goes. I would estimate the republican to democrat robocall ratio is somewhere around 5-1 and the junk mail has been overwhelmingly republican biased.
I read about SEVEN HOUR wait times to vote early in the Miami area. Part of this has to do with the totally ridiculous move by our slimy governor to reduce the amount of early voting days from 14 to 8. I mean what in the world could be the logical justification for such a move? Why would you want to make voting MORE difficult and less convenient unless it serves your personal political agenda? It’s sad just how manipulated our society has become.
When NBC announced the show Revolution I was kind of looking forward to it. The premise sounded interesting to me, sometime in the near future the world somehow loses electricity (they haven’t revealed why yet). As a result of the loss of power the planet is plunged back to a feudal times type of existence.
Well instead of being a quality addition to my tv rotation, Revolution has turned into this years Terra Nova. It basically sucks. The fact that a show with lots of hype and a big budget sucks is not a new event, it happens quite often. However in this particular case I am a bit surprised because of the names that are associated with the series like JJ Abrahms and Jon Faverau.
Revolution is weak on so many levels. The writing is awful with predictable scenarios and outcomes everywhere you look. I literally laugh out loud at times at just how ridiculous some of the round holes they try to jam square pegs into.
I find the young girl that is the female lead the most annoying of all. It’s not her fault, it’s more the fault of the bad writing that has her all over the road in terms of whom she really is.
Also annoying is the idiotic, random insertion of things into the show that are there strictly because of it’s later time slot. For example the use of the word “dick”. He’s a dick, don’t be a dick. I think they even used the word “crap” at one point. Gasp! How shocking.
Then last night they have a total soft porn scene with the annoying young female. For some reason they decide the best way to illustrate her tortured memories is when she is taking a bath. They were millimeters away from nip slip city and did have full side boobage at the end of the scene. I mean obviously I fully support naked women whole heartedly but in the context of the show it was just idiotic and an obvious attempt to titillate, perhaps because that was all they have to offer.
As another example of the show’s suckage, let me outline a scene from this weeks show. Yea I guess it is a spoiler but if you are still watching this show, you deserve to be spoiled.
So two of the good people were being held in a compound by about 30 bad ones, headed up by an extra nasty leader of course. The leader gave each of the good people a gun and said they had to shoot each other. Whomever shot first would live. This was the leaders idea of a fun time.
Well the two good people were a dumpy fat guy and a hot latin woman. The fat guy says he isnt going to shoot the hot woman (duh) so in an act of valor he points the gun to his chest, pulls the trigger and drops.
Evil leader guy comes over, all excited of course. Well all of a sudden, fat dude opens his eyes and uses the gun to shoot the evil leader dead. Fat guy had a metal whiskey flask in his pocket that stopped the bullet.
So now for some reason the 30 other armed men in the compound don’t immediately shoot the two good people. Instead fat guy basically says “listen, all we want to do is just leave, ok?” They cut to some guy that goes into deep thought and then says “ok get your stuff and get the hell out of here” I mean wtf is that?
The show sucks. All I want to know is why the damn power got turned off which is supposedly going to be revealed in the next episode. Once that happens, I’m out.
Man as we approach the election the ridiculous FB posts regarding it are multiplying like rabbits. I literally feel a little bit embarrassed for some of the people that post them. Many of the items are just so ignorant and low brow it makes me sad. I just want it all to be over.
So my buddy Troy loves to poke fun at my extreme concern for animals. I basically hate killing things. Really the only beings I don’t mind inflicting mass murder upon are fire ants which I am convinced came here straight from the depths of hell.
So anyway here is my latest story. This morning as I was in the bathroom getting ready I saw a small bug in the sink. It actually looked to be a baby cockroach. I just wasn’t feeling all that sympathetic so I took a cup of water to wash it down the drain since that is where it probably came from. I tried to make sure it was well down the drain system by following up with running the faucet for a few seconds.
Well a few seconds after I turned the faucet off I see the bug slowly climb out of the drain, obviously a little disoriented from the near drowning. Well now I felt bad. I grab a tissue and scoop it up. As I am walking towards the front of the house the baby roach climbed off the tissue and onto the middle of my forearm and stayed there.
I popped open the garage door and with one quick exhale blew the bug onto the yard where he will have a fighting chance to survive.
If you asked me to logically explain why I would feel compassion for a baby roach I don’t think I could. But I do know it does maybe explain some of my thoughts on other subjects that are up for debate in society.
I have no doubt if that bug was in Mitt’s gold plated sink he would have immediately called in the butler to smash it.
This weekend Ali leaves for PA so I take full time possession of the dogs for close to a week. No highlights planned, just the normal slog plus hopefully a 10 miler Saturday morning.
So once again my Halloween was uneventful. I had the porch light on and the bag of candy ready but had no visitors. Of course I didn’t expect any based on recent history but I always am prepared, just in case.
I got my Triple Gym yesterday. It is basically an Iron Gym on steroids. It’s main selling point is it includes a dip bar attachment that up to this point is something you could not get with a doorway bar system.
I was a bit worried about how sturdy it would all feel when it was assembled and hanging on the door frame. I was pleased when it actually felt quite useable for dips and every other movement I tried on it.
With it’s various bars and handles it could be used literally for dozens of body weight exercises. It feels like a good investment of my $79. I just wish it wasn’t made in f’ing China.
So now we will be entering the last few days before the election. By this time next week it will all be over with. Regardless of whom is the victor, I will be able to survive. Unfortunately I don’t think that statement applies universally. Hopefully more people vote with their heads and hearts and not their W-2’s. (and bibles)
Wow the pictures of the damage from Sandy are pretty horrific, especially the Atlantic City and NYC images.
The most serious of all the problems appears to be in NYC’s subway system. The 108 year old subterranean transit grid is flooded from floor to ceiling in many areas.
If the flood water was rain water that would be a pain in the ass and serious. However this is corrosive salt water which even after it is pumped away can have devastating effects on mechanical and electrical equipment. I simply can not imagine the scope of headaches facing those in charge of getting the system back up and running.
In related news, Ali decided to cancel her trip to NYC to run the marathon. Partly because of this disaster. The likelihood of them having mass transit functional in time for this weekends marathon seems impossible. I was very surprised that at least yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said the marathon is still a go. The good news is Ali will have automatic entry into next year’s race and will have plenty of time to make sure she is ready to perform at her best. Instead she will be using the planned time off to visit her family.
Early voting started in Florida on Saturday. The lines have been miles long with some people waiting upwards of an hour to vote. We have an early voting location right next door and the lines snaked out the door for the majority of the day yesterday.
Part of the reason for this is the stupid, stupid decision to go backwards and utilize paper ballots. The entire process is just slow. They only had two people checking voters in which is far too few in a presidential election year. Checking in requires you to hand over your drivers license while a volunteer senior citizen slowly enters your info. Then you sign your name and they hand you a ticket that allows you to vote.
Next you go into the actual voting room where you again wait while the long 3 page ballot is printed out. You then take that ballot to one of the flimsy tables with thin cardboard “walls” and start filling in circles like we did back in 1974. It just seems ridiculous that we still vote this way.
Anyway I went next door first thing this morning and voted so I managed to avoid the massive lines. I did my small part. Hopefully it makes a difference.
So during the nights last week I started doing the prep work for the painting of the master bedroom. That work included stripping the room and the walls as well as pulling large furniture items away from the walls. I took off from work Friday and Monday to make time for the actual painting process as the area I was painting was the largest I ever had tackled myself, by far.
Thursday night I went around the room and hit discolored spots on the white walls with Killz. The walk in closet was the worst spot where years of throwing shoes and bags left various scuff marks. Unfortunately Killz has some pretty serious fumes. I went to sleep in the midst of them.
On Friday morning I didn’t waste much time before getting started with the meat and potatoes project, I was getting busy by 8am. First up was the dreaded taping portion of the job.
Taping is a very important part of a painting project. If done well it can dramatically improve the end result of the painting as well as making it go faster when you are painting since you don’t have to try to paint an edge slowly by hand. Taping also is tedious as hell. It took me about two and a half hours to tape everything.
I then cracked open the paint can and got to work. First I painted by brush along all of the taped areas and then got out the roller to hit the wide expanses of wall real estate.
I have commented before on just how tough of a full body workout painting a room is. Pressing a roller hard into the wall from 6 inches above the floor to 8 feet high will hit your core from about every angle imaginable. I just barely had enough paint to cover everything with two coats, full two cans.
I was slopping paint on the walls until 5:30. By the time I was done removing tape, touching stuff up and doing basic clean up it was damn close to 8:30, twelve and a half hours after I started. I was beat but glad to have the damn thing knocked out in one long day.
The color looked good in the room although I already knew it would since it has been utilized in most areas of the house already. The bedroom feels classier and warmer, if that makes sense.
You can see all the pictures I took along the way here.
Saturday morning I took care of putting the shelving back in the master closet and the window hardware back on the walls. Ripping everything out of the closet was an opportunity for me to do some house cleaning of both clothing and things that were stuffed in the closet that I didn’t need. I had a large trash bag of stuff to donate when I was done as well as a pile for Ali to go through to see what she wanted. I also took the old pictures off the wall, figuring it would be therapeutic to replace them with something new and fresh.
Saturday afternoon I wanted to get my used Ebay radio installed into the Tacoma. After my experience installing another Pioneer radio in my SSR and it taking upwards of 20 hours of my time doing so, I was nervous about the install despite what I found on the internet, making it seem like it should be pretty easy. Imagine my surprise when it actually was easy.
Getting access to the radio just involved removing one panel. The adapter harness I bought worked perfectly and the wire connections were very straight forward. In the course of two hours I had it all done, a minor miracle.
The radio doesn’t have all the features the 930BT does which is in the SSR. The 310BT doesn’t support a back up camera, Bluetooth music streaming, direct Iphone integration and has a smaller screen but still it is a huge upgrade from what I had in there.
The menu system isn’t very intuitive either but with a brief glance in the manual I figured it all out in short order.
I videoed the install to add to my growing list of 99 Tacoma how to clips. Here it is.
Saturday night I wanted to go grab a new pair of flip flops, my old pair started to fall apart. I figured I would take a run up to the Miromar Outlets. I asked Ali if she felt like tagging along, she said she would, she hadn’t been to the outlets in a long time.
We grabbed some food as well while we were up there. I bought some sandals at Oakley, a couple $10 shirts at the Gap outlet and a pair of dirt cheap wide receiver gloves at the Under Armour outlet to be used for bar work.
There was a funny/awkward moment as we we were driving back into Ali’s complex. It is gated and after a certain time of day the gates close, requiring you to use an access card at a sensor. Well a car had just entered a hundred yards ahead of us so I hoped I could sneak through without flashing my card as well.
As I got close the the gate started to close. Ali blurted out “Honey!!” as a warning and then quickly corrected by saying, “I mean, Shawn.” I laughed and told her I knew who she meant.
Sunday morning I had a race to time. It went pretty well although the three distances at once (2 mile walk/5k/8k run) presented a few challenges. After the race I followed Ali back to her place. We talked about bringing the dogs out to the house with Ali so she could bird sit while I pressure washed Tuki’s cage, which hadn’t been done since Ali moved out.
Ali actually didn’t show up to the house until after noon, she took a nap since she was exhausted. When she got there I didn’t waste anytime pulling Tuki’s cage out in the driveway and blasting away.
Ali stayed to watch the Eagles game, lucky her.
That game was a complete ass beating from start to finish. Everyone’s hope was the defense would come alive with the insertion of Todd Bowles as coordinator. Instead it imploded, allowing the Falcons to drive up and down the field repeatedly. I think they allowed the Falcons to score the first SIX TIMES they touched the ball, just an incredibly inept stat. They were in a word, terrible.
Once again they could not generate any pressure on the QB, registering two oh by the way sacks (one was a fall down) later in the game. How a team that lead the league in sacks last year with basically the same core of players suddenly can’t get there this year is a mystery to me.
The offense was basically inept as well. Vick, although he actually didn’t turn the ball over (a minor miracle) was mediocre at best, just like he has been since the short streak in 2010 when he took the job away from Kolb. It is crazy that there is serious talk going on about replacing Vick, one of the most overpaid players in the NFL, with a third round pick rookie QB. Talk about desperation setting in.
This also was a rather historic loss in another way. For the last 14 years, Andy Reid had NEVER lost a game following a bye week, NEVER. Evidently having an extra week to prepare always meant the Eagles were prepped and ready to go. Well obviously that streak smashed into a brick wall Sunday. Not only did they lose, they were crushed. At no point during the game did the Eagles look like they even should be on the same field as the Falcons. It was that bad.
So what is wrong with this team? By all experts accounts they are one of the most talented teams in the NFC. Why can they not find a way to utilize all that talent in a consistent, effective manner? I don’t know the magic pill but I do know if this team flounders it’s way to another break even season or worse where it misses the playoffs, we all may finally get a belated Xmas gift when Fat Andy is finally set out to pasture.
Monday I had a pretty much clean slate since I busted it up to that point. The weather outside was pretty amazing with cool temps and low humidity, prompting me to open the front door and windows for the first time in roughly 6 months.
I did need to get something productive done so I weed whacked the property, something I avoided for the last 3 weeks. Luckily the grass has started to move into it’s slow growth period as we head into the holidays.
I headed out to run a number of errands, enjoying my new radio as I did. By the time I got back it was lunch time.
I decided to head outside to do some work on the bars. I started off well, setting a new personal best in weighted pull ups, managing to pull chin high with 90 extra pounds hanging on me.
I thought I would round it out doing a 90 pound weighted dip. I never had tried weighted dips at home before.
Because of the height of my parallel bars, when I do dips (unweighted) I sort of hop up and back to get into position. Well without thinking, I did the same thing with 90 pounds between my legs.
Well as I hopped I started a pendulum movement with the weights that kept amplifying. Within a second or two I lost control and came crashing forward. As I did my right upper arm crashed into the top of one of the 4×4 supports. When I landed I did a quick physical inventory and looked at my arm. It looked like a nasty brush burn but it felt superficial. I am very lucky I didn’t tear something.
At first I was going to bag it but I was now pissed off and decided to hop up there again after a couple minutes. I was able to hop up without crashing but stalled out trying to push back up.
If you would like to see the crash as it took place, look here.
As time passed the impact area got pretty nasty looking as you can see here.
The rest of my Sunday I just sort of chilled out, literally. With all the windows open the house literally got chilly at one point, enough so that I closed them.
It was a very productive weekend that started out high effort but ended coasting in gradually, just like I prefer.
Man the storm in the NE was horrible. Seeing some of those pictures of Atlantic City and NYC were shocking.
Last night after work I figured I would stop at Lowe’s and get the paint for the bedroom. What I expected to be a quick stop turned into a long, drawn out, annoying as shit affair.
When I painted the bathroom in July, the clerk at the paint counter convinced me to sign up for mylowes.com. He told me how this wonderful site would keep track of your Lowe purchases. He said in my particular case it would be beneficial because it would also keep my paint color code so I don’t have to worry about keeping old cans of paint around. Ok, sounds great, I signed up.
So when I walked in there last night I expected to utilize my mylowes account to pull back my paint code. I expected too much.
The first hassle was I didn’t remember my account password but I did have the little mylowes card with a bar code on it. I asked if they could access my account using that. He said he thought they could if they used their little hand held custom Apple Touch devices.
He walked me back to another counter and a woman that had one of these scanners. At first he asked her if she could do it but it became obvious quickly that she had no idea how to do it. She was fumbling around for awhile before the guy that was with me grabbed it and tried. He was unable to get my account to come up either.
Ok, I told him I would initiate a password reset so I could just get into the info via the website. After stepping outside and waiting for the email to show up, I completed the reset process and headed back to the paint counter.
The guy I was just dealing with had disappeared, I later found out he went to lunch. Also other customers had showed up so I had to wait until they were helped. In the meantime I went over to the public pc and logged into my account and brought up my past paint purchase, figuring that was all I would need.
So the woman that didn’t know how to work the handheld device was the one that was covering the paint counter. I told her I finally had my account up so she could get the paint code. She came over and looked. It was like she had never seen mylowes before. She said she didn’t see a paint code but I could tell that she didn’t even know where a paint code would be on the site.
She called over someone else and they said that the one number MIGHT be a paint code but he wasn’t sure. My patience expired. After more head scratching and confused looks I told the woman that I would just have to go dig out a paint can if I still have one. I told her I didn’t understand why Lowes would push customers into using their site if the employees aren’t trained on how to use it. Luckily I did have an old can of the paint in the utility room.
In the middle of the paint drama, I walked out and met Ali in the parking lot. She brought her Volt to show me.
It’s amazing how far the tech has advanced in the past 5 years. When we bought the Camry Hybrid it seemed like we were right on the cutting edge of cool tech. The Volt makes the Camry look like old school.
Ali was showing me some of what she learned about the car during the brief orientation at the dealership. The dual video screens, one for the dash and one for the AV system puts a huge amount of info at your fingertips. The OnStar connection teamed up with Iphone integration puts a ton of entertainment in front of you. Ali flipped through screens where you could check the local weather forecast, closest gas stations and what is playing in movie theaters (complete with plots and directions to closest theaters)
Of course all of this stuff is like crack to a techno-addict such as myself. It is like driving around in your own little gas free space ship. Ali was very excited about what will likely be her set of wheels for at least the next half decade.
With the back seat folded down Nicki actually has substantially more room to relax then she did in the Camry. The hatchback configuration will give Ali a lot more flexibility to haul stuff in general.
So since I spent so much time at Lowes I got home much later than I hoped. The game plan was to put another big dent in the paint prep for the bedroom. I was annoyed I was getting a late start. Well the start got delayed a lot longer.
My dad had called me a few days ago about some message he was getting on his laptop that he couldn’t get rid of. I told him at the time to call me when he was ready to get the laptop on the internet so I could remote control to it. Well last night he was ready.
I went through a very tedious process of walking dad through getting remote control software loaded on his laptop. This was further retarded by his slow internet connection which is via a 3G wireless adapter. Eventually after close to an hour on the phone I was able to rectify his problem.
By the time I was done with dad it was after 8PM. I was frustrated but wanted to at least get something productive done in the bedroom.
I patched a couple damaged areas around the window, swept the walls to remove any stray cobwebs and wiped down the baseboard area with a wet rag to ensure a good surface to tape onto. It’s far less than I hoped to get done but at least it was something.
I expect the next 4 days to be both physically and mentally grueling. In addition to the painting project I hope to get my Pioneer stereo installed in the Tacoma over the long weekend. I am quite sure that will have it’s own unique set of “challenges” as well.
Just to make things interesting I have another race to time on Sunday morning.
At least I should have no shortage of things to write about come Tuesday.
