Archives 2012

Since my separation I have adopted an attitude where I was going to be very open to stepping outside my box of comfort, doing things I have never done before.  Basically if an opportunity presents itself to me and I have never done it before, that is the indicator that I need to do it.  Some of these ventures out of my safe zone have been good, some have been bad, but they all have provided learning opportunities.

Well last night’s outside the box experience was taking my first legit yoga class.  My buddy at work had started going to yoga over the past year and has sung it’s praises regarding how it has helped his overall wellness.  He encouraged me to go to try it out.  So last night I did.

Now I have done some yoga poses on the Wii Fit so I was not a total noob.  I also do a few stretches on a regular basis for my running, primarily stuff for my quads and hamstrings.  Of course neither of these things prepared me for what was to come.

The first thing I noticed was the yoga studio was warm.  Before we did our first stretch I was already breaking into a sweat just because of the temperature of the room.  Once the class got underway I quickly realized I was going to be in for a rough hour.

I was the only first timer in the class so the instructor really couldn’t worry about my inexperience, she started into the holds rapid fire.  I was very surprised with the quick pace between the holds.  Not only did she call out the holds, she also called out if you should be inhaling or exhaling during them.  I discarded any breathing instructions, I was just trying to keep up with the poses/holds, many of which had names I was not familiar with from my Wii Yoga world.  I used the other people in the room as a visual reference.

Well as you can imagine, if I was sweating before we even got started, once we got actively rolling into non-stop movement the sweat output was increased, I was soaked in no time.

Movements that relied on flexibility in the hamstrings I could do relatively well.  Anything that focused on hip, shoulder or knee flexibility was extremely tough for me.  My swollen right knee made it even touchier in certain holds.

I was surprised that there was some hand balancing in the class, something I already work on with my calisthenics training.  People were surprised I could hold a frogstand with relative ease.  They also did wall handstands which I made sure to hold longer than anyone in my vicinity just because I am a competitive jerk.

I was quite glad when we finally arrived at the last section of the class where you basically just lay flat on your back while the instructor talks you through various visualizations to calm your inner self.  To be honest I had a hard time doing the visualizations, I was just glad to be able to lay there for a bit.

After cleaning off my sweat covered yoga mat I stood up, thoroughly spent from the session.  I was tired but in a good way.  My appreciation of yoga went to a new level.

I enjoyed the class enough to consider possibly working it into my routine once a week.  Yoga would compliment all of the other fitness activities I already participate in.

This was one of those out of the box steps that definitely is chalked up in the “win” column.

Both Nicki and Sadie are having some health issues lately, seemingly GI related.  Ali is taking them both to the vet today.  I felt bad since I didn’t get to see them this weekend.  I stopped by Ali’s place on my way to work this morning to say hi to the girls. Both of them seemed pretty subdued. It will be the first time Ali gets to try out the new comprehensive pet insurance plan we are now paying for.

Last night after another one hand handstand attempt, I headed out to the steamy garage to do a couple things to the SSR.  First I wanted to replace the clutch spring that broke way back in April or May.  I read it was ok to not replace it as there are two springs involved in clutch return but it seemed like the safe thing to minimize clutch wear was to replace it.

Replacing the spring was not much fun.  Because of it’s location and the narrow footwell in the SSR, I had to contort myself in an uncomfortable manner to access the clutch pedal.  I eventually got my arm wedged up there and after some confusion on how to both orient the spring and get it snapped in place, I was successful.

Project number 2 was to find out what code was being thrown to the check engine light.  I hooked up my kick ass code reader and pulled a P0420 code which has something to do with the catalytic convertor system.

When I had all that work done on the SSR in Plant City, one of the things done was to replace both catalytic convertors.  I can’t help but think the problem is related.

Even before the check engine light came on, the truck felt like it had less power than normal and there was a different type of engine sound.  If it is something with the cats, I am not sure if my new bumper to bumper warranty will cover it or not.  I guess I will find out.

I have been feeling like I am falling behind the curve lately.  As hard as I work at keeping things up to snuff I seem to be at a time deficit.  When Ali and I split, for some reason I assumed my free time would actually go up, although looking back I am not quite sure what brought me to that conclusion.  I need to do a thorough analysis of my time management.

Yesterday was my first day of using aluminum free deodorant.  It was uneventful and odor free.  It always feels good to live smarter, one step at a time.

I neglected to mention that on Friday I got word back that I had won my battle regarding flood insurance. I will not be required to purchase it. I was dealing with a guy from Fiserv-Lereta, the company that provided my credit union with the erroneous info regarding my flood zone status.  Last week I told him if he could get this mess straightened out I would be happy to send him a case of beer. Well he delivered on his end so I intend to deliver on mine.  I just need to find some Florida branded beer to ship out to his office in California.

My right knee is in pretty bad shape after this weekend’s volleyball action.  As a result I dusted off my trusty knee ice wrap, something I haven’t had to use in a very long time.  I strapped it on last night and left it there for a long time as I was editing more volleyball video.  Speaking of that…

So when I posted my volleyball video from Siesta Key I just dumped the raw uncut video on YouTube which is very easy for me but results in a big, long video that has way too much dead time in it.

So with the video from this weekend’s King of the Beach event I have been doing the tedious job of cutting out the footage between plays.

Last night I was working on the longest file I had.  It was 43 minutes uncut and less than 16 minutes edited.  I spent upwards of 90 minutes cleaning it up.

So I go to publish the file and MovieMaker hangs….  I groaned out loud, knowing I had not done any intermediate saves and that all that work was just flushed.. FCK!  Now I should know better.  I have had MovieMaker barf before when editing big files.  I should have saved along the way based on past experience.  Oh well, hopefully I will have some time to get the remaining 3 or 4 games on tape out there.

I did snip out one funny moment I forgot about after I hit a ball into the net.  Sometimes I get really frustrated when I mishit a ball.  Over the years I have found all sorts of ways of expressing my frustration when this occurs, here is the latest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5-gQuWksrQ

I also posted the awards ceremony.  Jeremy (and Mandy) actually took the time to make awards for the event which was a funny way to end the festivities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya5n3pCn8g4

Last night I received my new anti-deodorant.  It actually is a brand I heard Howard raving about on his show.  It contains no aluminum which a quick Google search will reveal as a very bad substance to have interact with your body.  I have known about this for eons but never acted upon it.  That is no longer the case.

So last night I watched some of the Eagles pre-season game.  When I tuned in Vick was already out of the game.  I could not believe when I heard for the second game in a row he was knocked out, this time taking a shot to the ribs.

The good news is the ribs aren’t broken.  The bad news is this is a very bad sign for the upcoming season.  Mike Vick has a history of getting injured, largely in part to the way he plays the game, running and scrambling to try to extend plays which opens him up to take additional shots.  Well he is no spring chicken anymore.  When you get older, you get hurt more, not less.  Unless they find a way to keep him on the field the Eagles offense could have problems this year.

Although with that being said, the Eagles rookie QB had a very strong showing against the Patriots, throwing for over 200 yards and a couple of touchdowns.  Still, that was a preseason game.  If the Eagles are going to return to their past success they are going to need to keep Vick upright somehow.

So I left work a bit early on Friday so I could get everything packed up and ready to go for my weekend trip to visit Randall and Tracy.  I was out on the road with the SSR shortly after 5.

The drive across Alligator Alley went ok.  I had the top down for the first 40 miles or so of the trip before storms forced me to pull over and hit the transformer button.  The remainder of the trip was through storms of various intensity.

I pulled into Tracy’s place a few minutes after 7.  Tracy had actually just gotten home herself a few minutes prior. Randal actually was not back yet.  He rode his bike to work on Friday and the storms had slowed him down during the ride home.  He pulled up no more than 10 minutes after I got there, wet but intact.

Tracy gave me a tour of her place which is very cute.  It is an older place that had a number of renovations on it including a beautiful kitchen and the epic backyard with a beautiful pool.  The back yard literally looks like a tropical oasis with plush tropical landscaping bordering the fence line.  There also is a sweet outdoor covered bar area.

I also got to meet Tracy’s roommate and her girlfriend, they both seemed very nice.

Originally Randall was going to grill salmon for us for dinner but because of the wet weather the plans changed. Instead we went out to the local California Pizza Kitchen.

By the time we got there it was pretty late, something like 8:45.  In Naples if you go to dinner at the time of night you are going to be hitting the clear downhill of the dinner crowd.  Well the east coast is a bit different, the place was still packed at that time.  I was surprised.

We had a good dinner with each of us getting a different pizza variety.  Tracy is very easy to hang with, she always has something to talk about which works perfectly for me.  By the time we got back to their place it was getting pretty late, and we were supposed to start our King of the Beach volleyball tournament the next day at 8, so we hit the sack somewhere between 11-12.

I slept on an air mattress in their spare room.  It wasn’t too uncomfortable but I had a restless nights sleep.  I utilized my Iphone to provide the white noise I need to fall asleep.

Randall and I were up on time and after powering up with Pop Tart breakfasts we were off in the SSR to the beach.  We pulled into 16 th street sans top.  We were the first ones there.

As we walked up to the beach I was impressed what a nice area it was.  Down the beach a way was a beautiful lighthouse, it was a very scenic backdrop to play against.  Tabby arrived on site a few minutes after Randall and I did.  All we needed now was Jeremy.

Randall and I saw that Jeremy was up and posting on Facebook at 6AM so we knew oversleeping couldn’t be the excuse.  Probably about 10 after 8 I got a call from him asking for clarification on where to go.  I handed the phone over to Randall for directions.  Jeremy was still probably 10-15 minutes away.

So Randall and I started bumping around as Tabby grabbed an onsite rake used to smooth out the courts. Jeremy came shuffling in somewhere close to 8:25, already knowing he was going to get his ass busted for once again being late.  At this point we assume he will always be late so any ass busting was good natured.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlje7YMn1bs

You can hear his official excuse in the video above.  Something about smoothies and the kids.

So we finally got underway.  I immediately was mindful of the heat.  Even though it was still early in the morning, it felt stifling hot.  My skin was drenched before the first point was even played.

We went through a total of three rounds of play, to be honest I was ready to call it quits after two rounds.  Everyone had won a total of 3 games so it was virtually a tie which was fine with me.  Beside the searing heat my knee was hurting.

The sand at this beach was much tougher to navigate than the nice packed sand that adorns Siesta Keys, the only place I have played beach vball the last couple years.  Not only was the softer, deeper sand harder to jump out of, it made any movement more difficult.

My knee actually had been hurting a bit before Saturday for the better part of two weeks.  It was odd because I had not done any serious impact activities over that time period, yet the pain/swelling was there.  The combination of trudging through the sand and a number of awkward  impacts that put the knee in bad positions multiplied the problem.

I had a good time playing with the guys but overall I wasn’t very happy with my play.  I had two or three games where I was involved in losing leads towards the end of games, a scenario that always irritates me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcZqVMGLIb0

The irritation came to a head in the last game we played where Randall swung wildly at a low ball that wound up somehow rolling over the net and costing us a point.  After I retrieved the ball I slammed it angrily into the boiling sand.  The anger dissipated quickly though, for the most part I had a casual attitude about the whole thing, I was just happy to be out there playing with the guys.

In the middle of the tourney Tabby and I wound up playing one extra game against some of the locals that normally play there on Saturday.  I certainly didn’t need the extra court time but neither Randall or Jeremy seemed very excited about the prospect of playing.  We were all really wilting from the intense heat.

It was a pretty intense volleyball session when all things are considered.  Tabby and I played a total of 10 games, at least twice what you would play in a normal Florida vball tournament.  The majority of the games were back to back with minimal breaks,  instead of the 45-60 minutes break you will get in normal tournaments between games.  Throw in the temps/humidity along with deep sand and it is no wonder I felt like shit by the time it was all over with.

If you take all 3 rounds into consideration, Jeremy actually won the most games, something he was proud of.  Overall the level of play that we put on the court was not really all that impressive, except for Tabby’s setting.

After the tourney we headed out to grab some lunch.  Jeremy came walking in the restaurant with a grocery bag of stuff.  He actually had made some awards (with his wife’s help).  Tabby got an Olympic style medal and Randall and I were presented with StB (shit the bed) certificates for our part in losing a couple big leads in games. Randall also was given the “Story Book Ending Award”, which looked like a Xmas tree topper, for his game ending block in the final match of the day.  It was a funny way to end up the event and we appreciated Jeremy’s efforts.

By the time we got back to Tracy’s place I was beat, I could already feel my knee swelling up.  We had plans to go to the movies later that night.  I was glad to be able to sneak in a close to 90 minute nap before we left.  I really needed it.

The movie we were seeing was Expendables 2.  Randall and I had seen the original at Silverspot a year or two back.  We went to see it at a very high end theater in Boca.  It had a layout that was new to me.  On the first level was the regular theater for “common folk”.  Randall splurged for seats in an upper balcony.  They were expensive, $20 a pop, but for that you had a perfect vantage point in huge, comfortable chairs.  They even threw in a complimentary small popcorn with the price of admission.  It was similar to Silverspot in that you had a full menu/bar at your disposal which you could enjoy at your seat.

I had to laugh when I saw a text message on my phone about 15 minutes from the start of the movie.  It was from Jeremy, asking what the plan was (for the movies).  When I first mentioned to Jeremy about seeing Expendables 2 on Friday he had no interest.  Then at lunch I asked him again and he said MAYBE he would go.  Well evidently I was supposed to ask him a third time if he wanted to go and didn’t realize it.

I told him we were already at the theater.  He acted like he was offended that we made plans without him but I reminded him he didn’t commit to going, maybe is different than yes.  We made arrangements to stop by his place after the movie.

Another thing I liked about this movie theater was not only did it advise people to silence their cellphones, it also warned them to not text, else face being asked to leave the theater.  That’s awesome.  I had first hand experience with this when I saw Batman.  A few seats away from me there was a girl that was literally texting through out  80% of the movie, it was ridiculous.

Expendables 2 was great as long as you take it for what it is supposed to be, brainless, violent, fun with lots of action.  It relies on the characters and good old pyrotechnics to provide the entertainment instead of CGI effects.  The only CGI I saw in the movie were the obvious enhanced blood spurts.

They upped the ante in this film adding more old school action heroes like Chuck Norris and Claude Van Damme.  Arnold and Bruce Willis also had larger roles than they did in the first film which was a good thing.  I enjoyed the film through out.  If you like action movies you absolutely need to see it. I give it an A.  Sorry if that makes you think less of me.

After the movie we headed to Jeremy’s place which was very close by to visit him, Mandy and the kids.  I realized just how long it has been since I have been to Jeremy’s place when I saw how big their youngest daughter, Ainsley has gotten.  The last time I saw her she was a little baby.

Ainsley was scared of me initially for some reason but later warmed up.  By the end of the visit she was sitting on my lap as we flipped through a super hero pop up book.  Their son Connor was as outgoing as ever, wanting to show me one thing after another.  He’s very funny.

We still had not eaten dinner at this point.  Jeremy was ok to come join us while Mandy stayed home with the kids.  We went to a restaurant I was at with Jeremy and Randall once before although the name is escaping me at the moment. Once again, even though it was getting late in the evening, there were a lot of people there.  We actually had to wait a few minutes to be seated.  We all enjoyed some of their in house brewed beer and had good dinners to go along with it.

After dinner Jeremy headed one direction and we the other.  It was nice to be able to spend some non-virtual time with Jmo.

Once we got back to Tracy’s house I almost immediately went to bed, I was BEAT.

Saturday night I did not sleep soundly at all.  I woke up on a regular basis not only because of my stiff and painful knee but also a painful left shoulder that came out of nowhere.  I didn’t have any “oh shit that hurts” moments with my shoulder playing volleyball so I am not sure where it originated from.  So even though I didn’t roll out of bed until 8:30 am on Sunday, I definitely was not well rested.

Even though I jammed my bike in the back of the SSR for the trip my feelings would not have been hurt at all if Randall said he didn’t feel like going for a bike ride.  My right knee looked like someone pumped it up with air and I had very limited mobility in it.

Well we eventually decided to go out on two wheels, albeit a shorter route than the 25 miler Randall was originally thinking about.  The route we took went up A1A, the main drag in Fort Lauderdale along the beach.  Wow that was definitely a road I would not look to go riding on again anytime soon.

You literally had to keep your head on a swivel and your brakes on a hair trigger.  There were constant hazards from space cadet drivers, no look pedestrians, veering runners and casual beach cruiser riders.  I didn’t enjoy that segment of the ride much at all.  Luckily there was also some time spent in residential areas that allowed you to actually enjoy the scenery.  In total we did a little more than 15 miles in an hour.

When we got back we were dripping wet so we hopped in Tracy’s pool to cool off.  As I have said before her pool area is incredibly nice, a perfect place for get togethers.  Unfortunately Tracy had to head off to work a little after noon.  I thanked her for her hospitality.

After she left Randall put his grilling skills on display, preparing an extremely good tasting and healthy lunch of grilled salmon, asparagus and zucchini.  I watched the entire process, trying to absorb some of the technique.

After lunch I packed up and got ready to head out for the long drive back.  I thanked Randall for the invite.  It was a very busy but fun couple of days and a nice break from my normal weekend routines.  I reminded Randall he and Tracy are always welcome to visit me.

The drive back across the alley was smooth and enjoyable in the SSR.  The truck is just great for road trips, as long as you only have two people and limited luggage of course.  The enjoyment faded a bit when the check engine light came on during the last 20 miles of the drive.  I can hardly wait to figure out what is wrong this time.

Last night was spent mostly just tying up a few loose ends at home, doing the bills, laundry and whatever else needed tending to.  I was was very tired from two nights of spotty sleep and collapsed into bed before 10pm.

A couple years ago I had a problem with an armadillo that got into the yard.  It was a huge pain in the ass, literally digging dozens of holes around the back yard.  The dogs actually pinned it down one time and soon afterwards it moved on to somewhere else.

Well apparently my property has once again become an armadillo hotel.  I first noticed the holes showing up a couple weeks ago.  There weren’t a ton of them and they weren’t that big, at first.

Well this week the armadillo has stepped up his excavation.  He dug a HUGE hole under the landscape border next to the garage.  I filled the hole back up and put a brick on top of it, thinking it would be enough of a deterrent to more excavation.

Well the next day I come out and see the little bastard just pulled the brick out of the way and dug some more!  I found an equally big and deep hole under the large gate on the front fence line.  I think after refilling the holes the next time I will pour some bleach in the area.  Hopefully the smell will convince him to move on.

Armadillos are primarily nocturnal creatures (why you see so many as roadkill down here), so it is difficult to catch them in the act.  I hope I get lucky and see the armadillo in broad daylight so I can catch him and set him loose somewhere remote and far away.

Last night I was hauling some major ass.  After work I went to the bank, got groceries, mowed the grass, watered the plants, cleaned the bird cage, set up the pool cleaner, ran the dishwasher and did some laundry.  This wasn’t because I was feeling particularly motivated, it was because I am going to be gone all weekend on the East coast.

I will be pulling out in the SSR tonight, destination, Tracy’s place to hang with her and Randall for the weekend.  I started getting stuff ready for the trip last night.  I thought it might be a good idea to throw my spare tire for the SSR in the bed, just in case I would develop a flat. (SSR does not come with a spare)  Unfortunately there was no way I could get the wheel and my bike in there at the same time.  Oh well let’s hope for no nails in the road.

We have a fun weekend planned which will include a King of the Beach style vball tournament Saturday morning including myself, Randall, Jeremy and Tabby.  Saturday night we are going to see Expendables 2, which I am very excited about.  Sunday I will be doing my first ever road biking on the right side of Florida with Randall.

I am sure there will be plenty of alcohol consumed and laughs exchanged as well.  Should be fun.

Last night was the monthly running club board meeting.  For the first time in quite awhile I didn’t follow it up with a trip to South Street for beers.  I have a bunch of stuff to get done at home since I will be on the east coast for most of the upcoming weekend.

One of those things I needed to do was unbox my Neato. I used a big chunk of my Amazon spiff points to score one.

My house already is well staffed by a large collection of cleaning robots.  I have 3 currently functioning Roombas along with several more in need of some TLC.  I also have two Scoobas to handle the hard surface washing duties.  I love my robots.

The Neato is my first non-Irobot unit.  It utilizes some interesting tech to get the job done.

Roombas sort of use a brute force attack to clean a room.  It has a bumper in the front and some sensors underneath that give it some feedback but even so it is akin to putting a blindfold on and walking around.  You bump into something, you stop, you turn and then you walk again until you bump into something else.  Now thanks to some algorithms that randomize a Roomba’s movement it still manages to normally cover an entire room, albeit in a scattered manner.  Some spots may be swept multiple times, some spots once and some spots possibly not at all.

A Neato takes a much different approach and uses much more tech in doing so.  In addition to a front bumper that will let the robot know it ran into something, it has a laser, yes a laser.  No the laser is not used to attack pets or burn holes in your walls, it is used for navigation.

When the Neato starts in a room you will see it pause, turn and pause again.  During this time it is using it’s laser to complete a map of the room and the obstacles within that room.  Once it obtains that information it goes about the room systematically, hitting every area thanks to it’s tracking data.  It handles sweeping in a similar manner as you would take mowing a yard, it is actually quite fascinating to watch, at least for someone like me.

The other thing I immediately noticed about the Neato in comparison to the Roomba is it has a MUCH stronger vacuum.  It sounded like a mini-jet as the impeller spun up.  Even though I ran the Roombas the day before, the Neato pulled a bunch of debris out of the carpet during the roughly 45 minutes it was running.

Scheduling the robot is very easy via the easy to use LCD screen.  I also like that it is software upgradeable via a USB cable to fix bugs and/or add features.  If the Neato has a large house to clean it actually is smart enough to drive itself back home, gas up and go back out to finish where it left off.  I watched it drive from the back slider to the front corner of the house to it’s charging dock without a hitch.  When a Roomba runs out of juice it is done, plain and simple.

The Neato also supposedly doesn’t suffer from the same maintenance issues as a Roomba.  The brushes in the Roomba are famous for getting all wrapped up in shit, especially out by the bearings which can cause big issues if it isn’t cleaned regularly.  The Roombas also inadvertently deposit tons of dirt, lint, and scuzz up into the body of the robot due to it’s design.

The Neato doesn’t have a bristle brush and from all reports has very little issue with the debris getting wrapped around the beater bar.   I took a look last night after it was done and didn’t see anything wrapped around it at all.

The high power vacuum and increased tech require more juice.  The Neato actually has two separate battery packs as opposed to the single battery that powers a Roomba.  It will be interesting to see how long the factory battery lasts as the battery costs are always the biggest expense to cleaning robots.

So anyway, so far, I am quite happy with the Neato.  It has definitely taken the top spot as far as geekiest item in the house.  It really sucks!

Tonight I have a jam packed night ahead of me.  The hope is to quickly grab groceries on the way home and then hop on the mower to do a bare bones speed mowing session.  Then I want to try to get all my ducks lined up so I can shove off for Tracy’s place as quickly as possible after work tomorrow.

Well I wasn’t happy when I looked at last night’s election results.  The guy that spent 150k won by a 2-1 margin and the guy that attached signs to my truck won as well.  One result illustrated the power of money and the other the iron grasp of the local good ole boy network (and an old, uninformed voting public that just votes for whomever they voted for last time)

I really wish I could time warp to January 2013 (if the world still exists) to bypass what is sure to be just a horribly negative presidential campaign that will do more to divide the country than anything else, regardless of who wins.

It’s all about redirecting the focus of the masses.  You get them fighting each other and then the people that are truly in control are able to play their games without anyone noticing.  It is satanically brilliant.

I am already so tired of seeing all the political fodder fly about.  My conservative friends seem to solely focus on the leeching aspect of society.  The people that simply work the system and spend their lives feeding off of programs that allow them to exist without working for it. I have equal disdain for this practice and think this element of society should not exist.

I am also a realist.  The quick and easy answer that conservatives will give you for people that are receiving some sort of assistance from state or local government is “get a job!”  I have to laugh at how easily that rolls of their tongue and it is a clear clue that they don’t have any first hand experience of what the job market today actually is.

The white picket fence mentality really bothers me here.  “everything is ok in my little world so if it isn’t ok in your world, too bad”  Even though I have been gainfully employed my entire life and not received any sort of government financial support I still have compassion for others not as fortunate.

I am not willing to tell old people that if they can’t afford to pay their living expenses or medical bills, “tough shit, guess you should hurry up and die.”  If a long time employee of a company is cut loose through no fault of his own in a move to pad corporate bottom lines I wouldn’t tell him “too bad, so sad, I heard Wal-mart is looking for greeters”

Yes I expect anyone that is down on their luck to attempt to stand back up, and keep doing so.  Government assistance should not be looked at as a permanent solution to anything.  Yes I know there are plenty out there that view government as their “parent” that hands out an allowance as a reward for doing nothing.  These people suck, plain and simple.

But I am not willing to cut out the legs of the millions that are in true need of help because I hate the leeches.  Many of my conservative counterparts think that is exactly the course of action we should take and then we just deal with the consequences.  Hopefully they don’t mind shoveling the bodies off the street in front of their pretty white fence.  It would obstruct their view.

Moveon.org always does a nice job of breaking things down into easily digestable chunks.  Here are some Paul Ryan blurbs that may further illustrate why his selection is so disturbing. Click the link at the bottom if you want more info.

But to be clear, no matter whom is president we are all f’d until money is removed as the primary decider in the electoral and legislative process.  The odds of that happening, nill.

When I walked out to the parking lot last night my annoyance meter instantly shot up when I saw a politician jammed a paddle into the side window crevice of my vehicle and every other vehicle in the lot.  I don’t get it.

The other day on Facebook I commented how one of the local candidates had successfully annoyed me out of casting a vote for him purely because of the ridiculous inundation of junk mail I have received from the guy.  Literally I have seen at least 15 mailings from him.  When paired up with his signage that is literally everywhere it long ago crossed the line from informative to suspicious.

I read this guy has spent upwards of $150,000 on his campaign to take one of the county commissioner seats.  When a guy spends more than double the amount of the salary for the job he is running for it gives me pause.  Obviously there are some big dollars wielding big amounts of influence behind this campaign.

Of course nothing touches Rick Scott spending 60 million plus of his own personal fortune to brainwash the sheeple in the Florida governor’s race in 2010.  Dollars rule the world.

Last night I decided to do an unconventional quick workout, a 500 foot death crawl.  If you are wondering what a death crawl is, click here.

I still receive my free Newsweek subscription that I never asked for.  The magazine has a definite liberal lean so I find a lot of the opinions more or less in step with my general ideas about the world, both good and bad.

This month there was an article talking about the true state of the middle class in America.  As you can imagine, the picture is not rosy in the least.  The article talks about many aspects of the problem including the tremendous and accelerating wealth disparity between the 1% and everyone else.  It even goes as far as breaking down the 1%r’s .

In 2010, the average 1 percenters had their earnings increase 11.6% however the top .01 percent of the one percenters had their earnings jump by nearly double that, 21.5%, in ONE year.  Please keep in mind these are 2010 numbers while the country was still in horrible financial shape (as opposed to just really bad now)

I find hard numbers like this pretty eye opening as they appeal to the logical side of me.  However this number was the most shocking of all, 70 percent, when used in this context.

“Families headed by people under 35 are almost 70 percent poorer today, adjusting for inflation, than they were in 1984.”  HOLY SHIT.

If you can read this line and shrug it off, then you shouldn’t be reading my blog.  That is a staggering stat.  The curve for the rich is the exact inverse of this trend, skyrocketing upward to the point today where the country’s billionaires have the most favorable conditions in history and if you haven’t noticed, they are keeping it all to themselves. Corporate profits are at all time highs, yet the economic conditions for the masses are still pretty awful.  There is no “trickle down”.  Someone fixed that leaky faucet long ago.

First take a look at the official spin on Ryan from the Obama camp.  Obviously it is slanted but not inaccurate.

This article rolls right into my thoughts on Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s new running mate.  Ryan is a Tea Party favorite and is a pretty obvious attempt by Mitt to appease the new extreme right of the Republican Party.  Ryan has some pretty radical ideas when it comes to how dollars should be allocated moving forward including gutting Medicare as we know now it.  He also was a big proponent of allowing people to funnel social security dollars into the hopelessly corrupt and rigged financial markets. Seen this yet?

I think picking Ryan as the VP just further cements Mitt as being one of the most spineless presidential candidates ever.  He hasn’t flip flopped, he has somersaulted back from his positions and policies on abortion, health care and economics to whatever his advisers have told him was the most convenient stance to take at the time.

The guy, to me, represents exactly what we don’t need in a presidential candidate, a rich puppet that is having his strings pulled by someone else.  Plus the guy lost to John McCain for cripes sake.  Nothing like throwing a retread out there.

There is a theory that despite appearances, the monarchs of this country would actually be quite content to see Romney lose.  After all, even under Obama, they have flourished thanks to many reasons, including Obama being unwilling to follow through on his campaign promise to kill the Bush tax breaks.  If Obama stays in office the rich will continue to do fantastic while being able to blame the continuing middle class quagmire on Obama, a win/win for them.

If you have a history of blog readership, you know I am not an Obama fanboy either, I am not pleased with a whole bunch of things that have gone down during his first four years in office. Most recently, I am furious that the government decided to not push criminal prosecution of Goldman Sach’s for their deliberate role in the financial implosion.

However in this situation I think there is a very clear lesser of two evils.  Unfortunately with the way our political system is, those are the only two viable choices available.

I had another weird dream last night.

I was in my garage and suddenly found myself confronting a couple that wanted to steal my Cadillac STS (I don’t actually own one).  There was a physical altercation before the couple hopped back in their vehicle, drove towards the back of my property, realized that was the wrong way and spun around.  They headed back towards the front fence line and smashed through it.

I got a partial plate number and was in the process of calling 911 when another car pulled up in the driveway.  In the car was a man, a woman and two teenage looking girls. I was annoyed because I was just dialing the call in to police.  I hung up, walked over to the car and asked what they wanted.

The woman said she heard I was selling my Cadillac.  I told her no I wasn’t and became instantly suspicious that she even knew I had a STS, she had to be connected with the people I just chased off.  I tell her to get the fck off my property.  She flipped the switch into bitch mode and started screaming at me.  I went full Hulk Smash mode on her and told her if she didn’t leave I would drag her out to the street.

The entire time this was going on, the man was just sitting there in the passenger seat.  He sort of looked like he had some sort of mental disability.  However as the screaming continued I noticed the two girls got out of the car and tried to go around me into the garage. I stop my scream fest with the woman to intercept the girls.

I ask them what they think they are doing.  They say they need to use my bathroom and start walking past me. I snag both of them by the arm and pull them back out to the car and tell them to get in.  I again turn my attention to the woman and tell her this was her last chance to leave on her own before I make her leave.

That is when I woke up, I felt like I was ready to fight.  It took quite awhile before I was able to calm down and fall back asleep.

Friday night I had a triple header post work grocery shopping experience, stopping at Trader Joe’s, Publix and Sam’s in rapid fire fashion.  After grabbing my goods I stopped at Ali’s to help her with getting a refreshed version of the Run for the Paws website up and running.  The new site utilizes WordPress and looks much cleaner as well as being more functional.

My Saturday was once again stuffed full of to do’s.  I did the full load of chores as well as pulling out the new pressure washer to clean both storage sheds.  The larger shed I actually had blasted quickly maybe a month ago but it already was starting to regain some of it’s green tint.

The smaller shed was a mess as well, especially the back of it which receives no direct sun.  In addition to the green algae, it was also filled with black circles of mildew.  I actually blasted the area twice, the first time quickly to blow off the green, the second time, I went slower with the washer head a few inches from the siding to blast off the black mildew which is very stubborn.

The new washer definitely makes pressure cleaning easier. It is 3000 PSI, almost 30% stronger than the 2300 PSI unit I have used up until now.  The extra power makes the work go faster and easier.

On Sunday my brick training plans morphed a couple times.  Originally I was going to ride my bike the 16 miles to the water park, swim and then ride back.  Well once I got up I instead decided I would do the 20 mile Dunkin Donuts ride and then drive to the water park to swim.  That way I could  pick up the dogs on the way back to take them out to the house.

I hadn’t done the Dunkin Donuts ride in a long time, I think the last time was with Randall.  I pulled a good pace, averaging a little under 20 mph.  I was working hard to keep it at that speed.

So I got home, stripped off my dripping wet bike gear and headed out for the water park.  The skies, which looked overcast during the bike ride now looked stormy and ominous.  I hoped that it was just an isolated problem and the weather around the water park would be ok.

Well I arrived at the park a few minutes after 10 and the gates were closed.  I walked up to the counter where a girl said they were closed because of the storms for now, they had no idea if/when they would open. Damn it.

So I wound up picking up the dogs earlier than planned after a brief stop at Wal-mart.  I grabbed a replacement clock for the master bathroom (I dropped the old one) and a new bike water bottle to replace the one I somehow lost.

All day yesterday the stormy weather hung around.  I had a very lazy day and was feeling quite tired.  I should have taken a nap at some point.

Last night was the closing of the London Olympic games and as usual I was somewhat sad to see it all come to a close.  I watched some of the Olympics almost every day of the 17 that it took place over.  I never ever get tired of watching people compete for the ultimate prize.  The successes and failures can be equally compelling in different ways.  It just grabs me.

I was unable to prop my eyelids open to watch the entire closing ceremony but I saw a bunch.  They were better than the bizarre opening festivities for sure.  The most impressive thing to me was the thousands of LED’s that were installed throughout the stadium to make the entire building one big A/V orgasm. The musical acts last night were entertaining as well.

As a whole the US did really well in the Olympics this time around, topping the medal winners count.  Overall, these games were good but could not keep pace with the Beijing games four years prior, which for me were just amazing.

Also amazing is just how fast four years of my life passes at this point, and I mean in a really scary way.

Of course I have some thoughts on Romney’s VP choice but I’ll save them for a fresh day.