Archives January 2013

Let me take a deep breath and begin….

I left work early on Tuesday so I could knock out the myriad of trip related details without having to rush around.  Later I picked up the dogs, figuring since I planned to leave very early in the morning, hopefully 5AM, it made sense to have them sleep at the house Tuesday night.  I packed the van with as much as I could ahead of time and laid down early to sleep since the alarm was set for 3:45AM. Nicki did a number two right before bed so I figured we were good to go.

Several hours  later I found myself awake.  I noticed the room smelled.  At first I laid there with my eyes closed thinking that what I smelled was just Nicki’s old dog smell.  After looking at the clock and seeing it was 1:30 am I wondered if I should get up and give her a bath before we left.  Who wants a stinky dog in a van for 4 days?

So after debating if I really wanted to drag myself out of bed at this ridiculous time, the persistent smell convinced me.  So I get up and flip on the bathroom light to pee.  The true source of the smell comes into focus, a pile of muddy shit on one of the bathroom mats.  Great…..

So while holding my breath and averting my gaze from the excrement, I carried the mat out to the hose by the driveway in my underwear and blasted the shit off into the grass.  I then carried the mat inside and immediately tossed it in the washing machine to de-defecate it.  I grabbed a scented candle and carried it back to the bathroom so it could burn up the residual stench.

I stopped dead in my tracks when my eyes focused on ANOTHER fresh pile of diarrhea on another mat. Oh my GOD. While I was cleaning the first pile, Nicki had created a second.  I asked Nicki, like I expected her to answer me “Why???”  The question wasn’t why she had diarrhea, it was why she no longer makes an effort to let me know that she needs to go outside ASAP.  No, instead she just finds the closest grass-like substance and lets loose.  I was shocked and just repeated the same hose and washing machine path for the second mat.  I just could not believe of all times for this to be happening it was the morning I was supposed to be shoving off for PA.

Well if I am nothing else, I am determined and I was going to find a way to still carry out the trip as planned.  The optimist in me hoped that this was just an isolated incident.  There was no way I was going to be able to fall back asleep after this fiasco so I sat down in front of my computer and ate Pop Tarts at 2:15 am while I flipped through my email and FB feed.  I figured I would turn this into a positive, allowing us to get on the road even earlier.

I loaded up the final components in the van and piled both dogs in the back.  We pulled out of the driveway at 3:30 AM, before my alarm was supposed to actually go off.

The drive was going fine, obviously at that time of morning there isn’t going to be much traffic on the road.  I had gotten a few miles onto I-4 by around 6AM.  Nicki had just been sleeping in the bed the entire time like I hoped she would.

Well all of a sudden I hear Nicki make a slight crying noise.  I glance back in the rear view mirror and see she is standing up and starting to circle.  I knew what was going to happen.  I yelled back to Nicki to LAY DOWN as I tried to figure out how close I was to an exit.  I was a couple miles from the next one.  Well a few moments later the stench hit me and I knew it was too late. Nicki had shit in the van.  She hadn’t shit in a vehicle since she was a young pup when she let loose in the back of the Sentra when Ali and I were on the way to work.

I rolled down the windows and got off the next available exit.  I had brought a roll of paper towels with just in case but I needed some additional supplies to address the toxic waste pile.  I found a 24 hour CVS and parked the van off in a far corner by some bushes, not wanting to expose other patrons to the spectacle of cleaning up dog shit.

I enter the store and locate a bottle of Resolve carpet cleaner and anti-bacterial Febreeze.  I am sure the clerk was wondering that the fck I was up to at 6AM buying cleaning products.  I head back out to the van and open the back doors.  Both Nicki and Sadie are on the bed laying on a clean area of the bed.  They had a front row seat as I began the disgusting clean up process.

I first used the paper towels to remove as much as I could.  There was no trash can nearby so I stuffed the brown paper towels in the bushes, hey it is biodegradable and at that point I just wanted to finish the clean up process.  After removing the “solids” I soaked the spot with Resolve and then followed up with a generous application of Febreeze.  The spot looked better.

Despite the latest incident I still was holding onto the idea that Nicki would still be able to make the trip, after all her gut had to be empty at this point.  Well that hope finally evaporated when I opened the side door of the van.  ANOTHER pile of shit was waiting for me.  Evidently while I was inside CVS Nicki hopped down and dumped again.

I blurted out, “Nicki you HAVE to be kidding me!” but as soon as I saw her with her ears down and trembling I instantly lost any desire to scold her, obviously there was something seriously wrong and obviously I just could not take her on a 1300 mile drive to Western PA. So now my mind was racing to decide what to do.

After cleaning up the second pile from the rug I tried calling Ali.  It was right around 6:30 so I knew that more than likely Ali would be asleep.  I also knew that she almost always has her cell phone on silence so the odds of my call waking her up were slim to none.  I got no answer as expected and left a message outlining the situation and my plan which was to turn around, head south and hopefully meet Ali somewhere in between.

After leaving the message I continued trying to call, hoping the repeated vibration sound may wake Ali up.  I hopped back in the van and headed south, continuing to call every few minutes until she finally answered.  I told her what went down and that I was heading south.  Ali agreed there was no way Nicki could make the trip and agreed to hop in her car and head north to meet me.

As we headed towards each other we would send quick updates at what exit we were at.  At one point Ali called me and asked if maybe I should just cancel the trip altogether.  This incident was complicated by the fact that Ali was supposed to fly up to PA the next day.  She thought it would be simpler (for her) if I just bagged the trip, which it would have been obviously.  I told her I still wanted to do the trip, not just because I had already started it but because Patrick had made arrangements to come and see me as well as my Dad making and paying for both a hotel and plane ticket for his trip back.  She wasn’t thrilled but I really wanted to still go.

So we met up at exit 179, a full 80 or 85 mile back track for me and did the transfer.  It was very sad for both of us.  Sad for me to leave Nicki behind and sad for Ali to see Sadie pull away.  At Nicki’s age and physical condition, who knows how many more opportunities I will have to take her on a road trip.  Thinking about that brought several tears to my eyes as I once again headed northward.

As I was driving I got updates from Ali about Nicki and they weren’t good.  She had more shitting incidents in Ali’s car, at her apartment and then in the office of the emergency vet.  I was really worried about her.  Ali made arrangements to fly up one day later which allowed her to tend to Nicki as well as get caught up at work on some things that needed to be attended to.

After a long and very expensive day ($1100 bill) at the emergency vet she was released with a diagnosis of canine irritable bowel syndrome, something you hear with humans pretty regularly.  It can be brought on by stress.  Well the sight of suitcases always stressed Nicki out and heading out on the road without Alison probably piled on to Nicki’s stress levels, she always has been very emotionally sensitive.

The vet prescribed some very bland dog food that Nicki was supposed to eat exclusively for 4-6 weeks.  That meant NO treats.  Nicki LOVES treats, denying her those is going to be filled with many confused and disappointed dog stares.  The good news was that since the new food the problem has subsided and Nicki’s demeanor and energy level definitely seems better.  Ali got some more good news when she found out the pet insurance her and I split the cost of was covering almost the entire vet bill.

So anyway, the 160 mile back track totally erased the benefit of pulling out at 3:30 am.  I was now behind schedule.  I dropped the hammer and settled in for what I knew was going to be a VERY long day.  Although I had a ton of miles to cover I made a number of quick stops for bathroom breaks, lunch and gas stops, trying to combine functions wherever possible. I also wanted to get Sadie out of the van to walk around as much as possible.  Riding shotgun in a van for endless hours is not fun for a dog.

I stopped for gas approximately every 300 miles or so.  At that mileage the van gas gauge was reading half full.  It meant to fill the van would require 18-19 gallons of fuel which would keep the credit card charge under the limit that some pumps enforce of either $75 or $100.

I decided I was going to track the gas mileage I was getting during the trip, something Ali used to do during our various western road trips.

At each stop I would jot down the total trip mileage, the gallons used and the mpg calculated quickly on my Iphone.  My mileage during each segment varied based on the terrain I was traveling, the outside temperature and the speed I was trying to maintain.  I definitely noticed that my mileage got better the colder the air outside became.

The drive northward became one mind numbing mile after mile.  You literally zone out and stop thinking about the many hours you spent behind the wheel and the hours you have yet to go.

I passed the time by listening to the full 5 hour stern show and then switching over to podcasts.

The auxiliary speaker system I rigged for my phone was pretty funny. I plugged my AC/DC inverter into the 12 volt plug in the rear of the van.  I then used an extension cord to the driver area where I had a pair of Sony computer speakers which I plugged into the cord.  I then ran the input cord of the speakers to the headphone jack of my Iphone.  It looked ridiculous and trashy but it allowed me to clearly hear my podcasts over the road noise.  Sadie didn’t appear to mind my rig job at all.

Considering my day started at 1:30 AM, staying alert while driving was challenging at times. I utilized a combination of coffee and a 5 hour energy to keep dangerous road drowsiness at bay.

As we headed north the temps were steadily declining.  I got my first glimpse of snow in northern North Carolina while I was walking Sadie.  In the shade was a tiny, fist sized pile of snow that had not melted yet. As we continued we ran into larger and larger piles of snow which Sadie was interested in exploring.

I finally stopped around 10 pm in northern North Carolina at a Comfort Inn in Jonesville.  They took pets although they slap $15 bucks on top of the regular room rate to do so.

You could tell this was an old hotel that they gave a face lift to with a coat of paint and new furnishings in the room.  However the bathroom door that would not stay closed revealed the true identity of the place.

Neither Sadie or I cared at that point.  After 19 hours on the road all we wanted was a place to lay down.  I slept fine although I set the alarm to make sure I was up and back out on the road by a little after 6am.

I had made arrangements to stop by my sister’s place on the ride up, she lives about two hours from my dad in State College.  She had moved back to PA after many years of living in Arizona.  Wow, what a change for her.  Her yard was covered under a layer of snow as I pulled into the driveway.

I hadn’t seen Torrin or the kids since our family trip to Ireland in August of 2011.  The house they bought in State College was a fixer upper that is still in the process of being fixed.  As Torrin described all of the things that were done since October I was amazed my brother-in-law found the time to do all of it while holding down a full time job as well.  It sounded pretty grueling.

Emily and Griffin presented me with some artwork they made for me when I walked in the door, it was very cute.  Unfortunately both of them had been sick all week.  I was doing my best to avoid any sort of contact that could spread illness to me as that was the last thing I needed.

Torrin was walking around with a horrible limp.  She had knee surgery in October to repair a meniscus problem, something I have had done twice.  Well her recovery has not gone well and the knee remains swollen and inflexible, possibly in worse shape than when she started.  I had similar issues after my first knee surgery, luckily my second surgery went better.

Sadie was quite interested in checking out Torrin’s place, she was roaming around sniffing everything she could get her nose on. I spent a couple hours at Torrin’s place catching up before I headed out since my step mom was preparing dinner.

The drive as I got close to my dad’s place became pretty treacherous.  It was now dark and the two lane road I was traveling seemed narrow because of the plowed snow lining either side.  In addition the road was twisting and was up and down hilly, wooded terrain.  I found myself going at least 5 mph under the posted 55mph speed limit in many spots because it felt unsafe to go much faster.

The driving was made worse by the large trucks that apparently use this road as a shortcut between two major highways.  The oncoming headlights of the fast moving tractor trailers made the road feel even more narrow and I found myself looking for room on the right that didn’t exist.

I was quite glad to finally pull into dad’s place.  Dad’s driveway was coated in ice and the cold air bit into my exposed skin.  Sadie didn’t seem to mind at all and immediately started investigating the surroundings.  When I went to the door Clara and Sadie came running out, in no time the three of them were running around the snow covered property having a blast. They seemed to have no conerns for the icy spots as they sprinted across them without hesitation.

After bringing in all my stuff and letting the dogs burn off some energy we retreated to the warmth of the house, heated by the wood stove in the middle of the living space.  It felt good.

Teresa made a really nice vegetable pie for dinner.  After the meal we sung happy birthday to dad (his 66th) and enjoyed the chocolate cup cakes that were also home made.  Teresa made a TON of food for the visit, she loves to cook/bake for guests. It’s a good thing because I love to eat her food. 🙂

We spent the remainder of Thursday night catching up.  Sadie quickly reacclimated herself to my dad’s place, digging into Maggie and Clara’s toys as well as staking claim to her favorite chair.  When dad went to bed and I was taking my shower all three dogs were up in his bed at one point. It was cute.

There were quite a few moments where I felt bad that was Nicki was not along to take part in the fun although I am not sure how actively she could have participated.

On Friday Patrick was supposed to show up around lunch.  Dad and I started the day walking around his property, following the path he plowed out with the tractor.  There was dense fog everywhere, the end result of the warming temperatures.

The dogs could care less, they had tons of fun running around and playing.  There was a funny moment went Clara got run over by Sadie.  Sadie hit her in the side and sent Clara into a barrel roll.

The weather forecast called for substantial rain to be moving in along with warmer temperatures.  We decided to head to a near by wilderness area to hike with the dogs before Pat showed up.  The park looked like a winter wonderland with the ground still covered in a thick layer of snow.

Despite never stepping foot in the place before, Sadie took the lead dog role, normally trotting a good 20-25 yards ahead of us.  The trail had a number of small snow covered bridges that cris-crossed the small creek that runs along the path.  Sadie found these bridges a lot of fun for some reason.  She would run across them even if we weren’t going that direction and then coming running back to us with a big dog smile on her face.

We got back to the house shortly before Patrick pulled in.  By the time he arrived the rain had started and the great melt off began in earnest.  In the span of 36 hours  practically all the snow would be gone.

Friday afternoon Pat, Dad and I headed to the local Marienville bar to shoot some longboard, otherwise known as table top shuffleboard.  The place was empty except for the three of us at first.  I guess mid-day on Fridays isn’t a big drinking time.

I hadn’t played longboard in years, we did a double elimination tournament.  Patrick beat my dad and I.  He killed me, I just had no sense of how hard I needed to be pushing at first.  My dad and I then played to see whom would go on to face Pat.  I found my touch and beat my dad and then almost came back and beat Patrick after making a huge comeback, scoring 9 points in a single round.  I wound up losing 16-14.  It was a lot of fun.

Patrick’s girlfriend Maureen showed up later Friday evening, we were already involved in a game of Risk.  I thought I had played Risk before but when Patrick explained the game to me I realized I had it confused with Stratego.  Patrick was playing for both himself and Maureen until she arrived. Evidently Pat takes his Risk very seriously, there was a knock em down drag it out game over Christmas that I heard stories about.

I loosely understood the rules based on the explanation Pat gave me but once the invading started in earnest I realized I didn’t have a solid layout of armies.  I was the second person eliminated although I took pleasure in helping to coach Maureen whom had a big lead when I stepped into the shower.  In the span of 10-15 minutes Patrick had turned things around and was stomping on the remaining players.  When the time limit was reached he was the victor.

We had hoped to get some sledding in on Saturday down the big hills in the back of the property.  The rain and warm temps had consumed all but an inch or two of snow and what remained was dripping wet.  We would have been muddy and soaked in no time so we bagged the sledding idea.

Later in the morning I came up with the idea of going to the movies.  At first we were thinking about going to see The Hobbit but the start time and location would have made making our 6pm dinner reservation difficult to do. We instead decided to go see Lincoln, a movie I heard from multiple people was very good.

The theater we went to was located in the Seneca Mall.  I had to laugh when we stepped inside.  It literally felt like I just stepped through a time warp and had entered the Berkshire Mall in 1978.  It looked like the place opened decades ago and never underwent any update in the decor.  I found it endearing in a way.

The movie theater was also old school with a total of 5 screens.  I was surprised that the theater for Lincoln was pretty full for a film that had been out for several weeks.  This was the first theater I could recall that was hot.  As soon as I sat down I ripped off my coat and rolled up the sleeves of my long sleeve shirt.  The floor of the aisles had a very old school feel, so sticky that it felt like your shoe was going to get ripped off with each step. We sat down literally seconds before the movie started.

I found the movie interesting and educational.  I learned some details about the Civil War that cleared up some fuzzy spots about what went down.  Daniel Day Lewis did a fantastic job portraying Lincoln and overall I liked the film.  I’d give it a B+.  The opinions of our group were mixed afterward.  Teresa and Maureen liked the movie, my dad and Patrick didn’t, oh well.

The driving all day Saturday was very treacherous due to the horrible fog created by all of the snow melting.  It may have been the worst fog I ever have driven in.  I had a very tight grip on the wheel and did not feel any guilt for driving 5-10 under the speed limit at times.  When we left for dinner it was even worse because of the darkness.  At times you literally could only see maybe 25 feet in front of the vehicle.

Dinner was at a place called the Gateway Lodge.  Inside it looked and felt just like a rustic ski lodge, minus the ski slopes.  It was warm, cozy and inviting.  We all enjoyed large meals followed by incredibly rich and calorie packed deserts.  We all felt like pretty large pigs by the end of the meal.

The fog blinded ride back was again treacherous.  I was very happy to arrive safely back at the house without putting a dent in the party van’s exterior.

When we got back we flipped on the dramatic end to the Ravens/Broncos game and then flipped over to the 49ers game.  Patrick is a big Niners fan.  I made it to the end of the first half before packing it in.  I was happy for Pat when I saw the next morning that they won rather easily with a strong second half.

Sunday morning I decided I needed some exercise.  The combination of food over indulgence and a lack of bodyweight training had me feeling fat and lazy.  I told Patrick I was going to go for a run, despite only having his very old running sneakers along, he said he would join me.

I have talked before about how good of a runner Pat is, he actually qualified for the Boston Marathon a couple years ago and once ran a 5K in a blistering 18 minutes.  I knew I was going to have my work cut out running with him.

My plan was to run the length of Gilfoyle Road, where the house is located.  It is situated between two major roadways, route 66 and 899.  I would run to the one end, turn around, run to the other end and then back track to dad’s driveway.

The area dad lives in is very, very hilly. Gilfoyle road has a lot of ups and downs, one in particular that is pretty f’ing huge.  I decided to head to the right first which took us up some smaller hills and down the massive one.  I kept a pace that was manageable but fast for me.  I am sure for Pat it was cruise control pace.

As we approached the bottom of the big hill it felt like we stepped into a refrigerator.  In the valley there was still a decent amount of snow on the ground due to the shade.  As we ran through the accompanying fog the temps felt like they were at least 10 degrees colder.

So we reached the turn around and headed back towards the massive hill.  I just am not used to this sort of running from my ultra-flat Florida training back ground.  Despite this I did my best to keep moving along.  It was even difficult for Pat but not difficult enough that he couldn’t keep carrying on a conversation.

As we ascended the hill I was unable to blurt out more than a one or two word response as I was struggling mightily.  As we were about 50-75 yards from the crest I told Pat I had to walk a bit, I was just sucking wind too hard.  It annoyed the shit out of me to walk, especially when the crest was so close but I just had run out of steam.  After reaching the crest we immediately started running again.  I was able to handle the remaining hills which all felt small in comparison.

It felt good to get some exercise in and  I appreciated Pat running with me.  He is such a good kid.  I always enjoy his company.

Pat and Maureen headed back to Pittsburgh a little after lunch.  It was great to see both of them.  There is an outside chance Pat might come down to run the Hooters Half Marathon with me in March.  That would be a blast.

On Sunday afternoon we headed out for another hike to another forest trail.  It was much different than our first hike as now the snow was almost completely gone, leaving behind a wet muddy mess.    Of course the dogs didn’t mind and once again had a great time exploring and playing.

They were all relegated to the back of the Subaru as they all were a mess.  Mud was a common theme once the snow melted.  Each time we would bring the dogs in through the garage we made a pit stop to try to wipe down the lower half of their bodies as much as possible so they wouldn’t track dirt into the house.  We were only moderately successful in our efforts.

The rest of our Sunday was low key.  We watched football and hung out.  We planned to head out for Florida very early Monday morning.  I said my goodbyes to Teresa, Maggie and Clara before going to bed since they wouldn’t be getting up to see us off.  I always feel sad saying goodbye to the dogs and Teresa, I enjoy their company so much, I wish they didn’t live so far away. Sadie was definitely depressed when we pulled out without her friends.

I got out of bed at 4AM Monday morning and did the final prep work.  By the time dad came out of the bedroom at 4:30 I had the van packed and pretty much ready to go.  I had the GPS programmed and ready to go, depite dad’s dislike of the devices.  He particularly dislikes the robotic voice used for turn by turn directions.  As a compromise I muted the voice.

Dad does have a pretty amazing sense of direction which I guess was developed during his years as a salesman.  I remember his work vehicles always had maps in them.  He can remember how to get to places after only visiting them once or twice, a skill that definitely was not passed down to me.  He views GPS’s as cheating in some way.

The first 2/3 of the drive on Monday was pretty awful.  It was a combination of cold, windy, rainy and foggy that made driving treacherous.  Once again I found just doing the speed limit at certain times to be a risky decision.

Sadie wasted no time utilizing dad’s lap as a bed.  She spent hours up front sprawled across his legs.

Originally dad and I had talked about splitting the driving duties between us, I would drive a couple hundred miles and then he could do the same.  However once we got underway I felt better about staying behind the wheel full time.

The shitty weather and shitty traffic at times and dad’s recent driving history made my driving feel necessary.  I supplemented with coffee and another 5 hour energy so I felt fine.  I am accustomed to logging long miles in the drivers seat, something dad gave up years ago.

Finally the weather started to break and I was able to make some decent time.  Dad had thought we might not pull into our Pooler, GA stop until around 10PM.  Instead we wound up walking in a little after 7.  It was a long 14 hour day of driving but that is a lot better than the 19 hours I put in driving up on day one.

Before we arrived at the La Quinta dad told me when we arrived I should just stay in the van with Sadie.  I asked why.  He said we could bring Sadie in a side door, he didn’t want to tell the front desk we had a dog.  I was even more dumbfounded.  La Quinta welcomes dogs and they don’t charge an extra fee for bringing one.  I asked dad why he would want to hide the fact that we had a dog?

He said he didn’t like the idea of us being forced to a dog only room.  I had to laugh.  I told dad that I had absolutely no issue staying in a dog only room and that in fact I thought it was pretty inconsiderate to do what he proposed.  I am sure the hotel likes to keep certain rooms animal free for guests that may have something like pet allergies.  It is a very reasonable practice.

Dad has a long and glorious track record of getting offended/annoyed by things that if you pause and think them through, have little to no merit.  In this particular situation I could already see how the scenario would potentially play out.  Dad doesn’t reveal we have a dog.  We get put in a non-pet room.  Hotel staff sees we have a dog and then tells dad he has to pay an extra cleaning fee for not revealing we had a dog.  Then dad would fly off the handle ranting about being charged a fee and then declare he would never stay in a La Quinta again, all over an issue that he totally manufactured himself.

I went in to the front desk with him to make sure this scenario did not have a chance to play out.  Despite his many years on the planet, Dad still seems to have a hard time determining exactly what battles are worth fighting and which are not.  Not to mention manufacturing conflict when none needs to exist.

Personally, I am very much a counter puncher.  I am normally laid back but if you take the first swing or give me a a good reason to be pissed off then game on.  However I do not go looking for problems. Dad seems to look for them.

If dad tried to persist with this ruse I had already planned to compare it to asking for a non-smoking room and then smoking a pack in bed once you are in it.  It would be a pure a-hole move.  Moral of the story, don’t be an a-hole for no good reason.

Our pet room turned out to be quite nice with two queen beds.  For dinner I offered to run to Cracker Barrel for take out, something I didn’t know they offered until I called and checked.

I was amazed at how nice the waitress was that helped me was.  I told her I was a vegetarian so she suggested I make a plate out of various sides.  She went down the sides and marked all of them that were made with beef/chicken stock so I could skip those.

While I was waiting for the food she brought out my diet soda in a cup.  When she came back out with the food she brought out another soda, saying she figured I finished the first one while I was waiting (I hadn’t) but what a nice thing to do.

She went through the order and identified everything in the bag and made sure I had adequate cornbread and biscuits as well as spoons, knives and forks.  She was so nice I gave her a 5 buck tip on the $14 bill.  I almost felt like I should give her 10.

On the way back into the hotel lobby I flashed the bag of food at the cute young girl behind the counter, saying I didn’t know Cracker Barrel did take out.  She rubbed her stomach and said I was making her hungry.  I thought I would surprise her by coming back down with cornbread and biscuits we didn’t need.  I held up the bag and said they were all hers if she wanted them.  She said it was ok but thanked me for offering.  She actually got my attention later when I was coming in with Sadie to tell me again it was really nice of me to offer. She had huge boobs, just saying.

Dad and I were up and back on the road after enjoying an early 6AM breakfast. I made some seriously good time on day 2 of driving, the weather was good and the roads were clear.  We wound up pulling into the house by 3PM even with the food, pee, gas and dog walk stops.  I again did all the driving that day.

Dad and I got to do a lot of talking on the trip, sometime that conversation got difficult.  For a good portion of the ride dad was in the second row of seats.  He would be talking to me but when I would say something back 95% of the time he couldn’t hear me.  Dad’s hearing is not good anymore but he has not invested in a hearing aid. The combo of the road noise and me having to talk with my head facing the road made two way conversation very difficult even with me talking at a high volume level.

It felt good to get home.  As we got close to home dad had a wave of tiredness hit him.  When we got home I walked in with just the mail in my hand.  Dad asked if there was anything else that had to come in yet.  I said of course, I just had the mail.  I could tell he was in Walking Dead mode so I encouraged him to just go into the bedroom and take a nap which he did.

I spent the next few hours bringing stuff in, putting stuff away, doing laundry and attending to other things that pop up when you are out of the house for nearly a week.  A little after 6 we loaded Sadie back in the van and took her to Ali’s to be reunited.  Nicki was quite glad to see us all.  She looked to be doing much better compared to the “shitty” state I last saw her in, pun intended.

This was the first time my dad saw Ali since the split so I am sure it was a bit weird for him.  Still we all caught up while chowing down on some pizza.

Yesterday the majority of my day was spent doing prep for the half marathon I am timing this weekend.  I had a lot of things to handle and will continue to have a lot to do until the race goes down.  I feel a bit bad that dad has to kind of entertain himself for the most part but he said he is fine just chilling.  He has a couple books to read, he went out for coffee and even got a much needed hair cut yesterday.

The total mileage logged on the trip was 3,062, quite a chunk for 4 days of driving.  If you want to see all 96 pictures I took from the trip you can take a look here.

Overall it turned out to an enjoyable adventure although with the way things started I was not quite sure it would ever get off the ground.  We touched base on everything I wanted to do and then some, I’d call it a win.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Either my house is haunted or someone/thing is f’ing with me.  Over the past few weeks I have had a couple weird moments where something seemed out of place, clearly where I did not leave it.  I have written it off as perhaps just memory failure on my part, until last night.

When I got home I headed to the bedroom and flopped my backpack on the bed as I always do.  I look down at my nightstand and notice it is pulled away at an angle from the wall, a good 8-10 inches.  Now I KNOW I did not move my nightstand.  The only moving object in the house yesterday was the Neato which cleaned the entire house.

The nightstand table is not heavy by itself but it does have my Sony Dash web appliance on it as well as a number of magazines.  Plus it’s feet sit in little indentations on the carpet, making it even harder to move by something operating a few inches off the ground.  I can hardly believe the Neato has the necessary torque to do this, plus it has a bumper on the front which would normally cause it to avoid the obstacle all together in addition to it’s laser tracking.

I stood there for several moments, dumbfounded.  I walked around the rest of the house to see if anything looked odd or out of place.  Nope, all seemed well.  I have no idea what the fck is going on but I will be paying close attention from here on out. (and turning my web cam back on)

So today I will be attending to all the final details before my early AM launch northward tomorrow morning.  I hope to have the dogs loaded up and ready to roll around 5AM.  I’ll be picking them up tonight.

I am debating how I want to handle my sleeping arrangements on Wednesday night.  I am considering just crawling on the bed in the back of the van and catching a couple hours of zz’s.  I have tried sleeping in that bed before without much success, it is just too short to accommodate my dimensions comfortably.  It would be nice to save the the 75-100 bucks on a hotel room and put that towards the enormous gas bills I will be generating instead.

It should be a fun trip.  I am actually a little bummed out that the temperatures while I am up there are predicted to be on the mild side (for a PA winter).

 

Saturday morning I left the house at 5:20 AM to go do the club run.  I was a bit nervous leaving Nicki home that early in the morning even though she took a dump before I left.  The morning is Nicki’s witching hour when it comes to defecation.

Even though the purpose of the club run is to run with other people, I actually ran the first half of the 7 miles by myself.  After my fastest ever 5K I wanted to try to keep pushing the pace.  As I was approaching the 3.5 mile halfway water stop I passed a big pack of people (mostly speedy women) that are all typically faster than me.  I never passed any of them before, ever, in any situation.

Of course in order to do so I had to be doing my all out race pace, while the pack of people I passed were firmly in their training pace, able to hold casual conversation among them.  I on the other hand was barely able to grunt out a word as I passed them.  Still, it felt good to actually “beat” them for once.

I covered the first 3.5 miles in 29 minutes. I had pretty much blown myself out and was looking for someone to run back with at a slower pace.  After a drink and stretching I hadn’t seen a suitable candidate so I started heading back again on my own.  I just happened to emerge out on the road the same time as another guy was passing by.  I didn’t recognize him from a distance but he yelled back to me “You coming?” like he knew me. I quickly caught up to him and said hi.

This was actually some guy I never met before named Bob.  Bob was just an avid runner that would rather run with someone than alone.  It also just happened Bob was getting over a cold and running at a more casual 9 minute mile pace which was about perfect for me for the return trip.

Bob was an older guy in his early 60’s but he still is very, very active.  He has run 10 marathons and even was in an Ironman triathlon although he had to drop mid-race due to injury.  Despite his age he isn’t slowing down, something I obviously admire.  He is signed up to the Disney Goofy, a very appropriate name for a race since you have to be goofy to do it.  You do a half marathon one day and then do a full marathon the next.

I enjoyed my time running with Bob and thanked him as we pulled back into the parking lot.  The conversation made the last 3.5 miles go by quickly.

I pulled back into the driveway worried I was going to be entering a house smelling ripe with dog shit.  I was quite happy Nicki held it.  It’s funny as I walked the house going room to room Nicki followed me around with a smile on her face that seems like she is saying “look I was a good girl! I didn’t shit in the house!”

Once I got home I ripped into housework.  In order to keep me on point I brought back “the list”.  For years, every weekend I would create myself a to do list of things I wanted to get done.  I found it was a great way to keep me motivated plus the act of scratching an item off the list gave a nice little shot of satisfaction.

Alison HATED my lists.  She felt they put undue pressure on her opportunity to enjoy weekends.  I eventually stopped making the lists to appease her, instead trying to rely on mental checklists which I found to be less effective.  There is something about drawing a line through a list item that scratches an itch.

Well anyway, I have been complaining about feeling like I am behind the curve in things I want to get done.  I figured reviving the list is one step in getting that feeling alleviated.  When the list is done I can officially relax.

So after scribbling out the list I got busy on completing it.  The house needed a thorough cleaning.  Since being on my own and having the dogs under a new roof most of the time I have found the old every other week cleaning schedule not all that crucial.  If I stretch it to 3 weeks or even 4 most people would not be able to tell.  My Neato running 3 times a week keeps the floor surfaces looking fresh and I do daily minor upkeep that keeps things looking decent.

It had been a long time since I did a full cleaning which included the bathrooms, counters, dusting, full house sweeping and Scooba hard surface follow up. I figured since my Dad would be accompanying me back from PA it made sense to give the house a thorough once over now.

After the cleaning was done I pulled the van up to the garage to give it a bath.  I am not sure why I do this since the van is sure to get quite cruddy after a 2400 mile trek to the cold north and back.   The inside is what really needed attention.  The seats and carpet had bushels of dog hair.  I spent a good 20 minutes with the shop vac de-hairing the interior.

I did a couple other things like top off the coolant and windshield washer fluid reservoir.  I’ll check the oil disptick and tire pressure before pulling out as well.  I am crossing my fingers the trip is void of mechanical issues, I have not been very lucky with that with my last few road trips.

Ali is nervous about the trip, worried about me trekking that distance by myself with the dogs.  It will be my first major road trip solo.  Doing so while wrangling the two dogs will be a challenge for sure but nothing I can’t handle.

My last list item involved doing some additional testing of the Ipico bib chips we are using for this year’s half marathon.  I am a bit nervous since we never have used the tags officially in a race before.

I turned the pool deck into a makeshift finish line complete with both timing boxes, a laptop and two timing mats.  I had to laugh when both girls decided to use the one timing mat as a resting spot.  They remained there for awhile as I walked bibs across the mats.

I tested over 100 bibs and got a read every time except when I had 4 of them piled on top of each other which wouldn’t happen in a race anyway.   The test made me feel better about using the bib devices for the race.  Here is a video of some of the testing.

My Sunday was pretty chore free thanks to my efforts on Saturday.  I still managed to keep busy and spent some of the afternoon helping my boss set up a cable modem and wireless router at her condo.  She signed up for the Blast internet package which is SUPER fast.

It made me want to upgrade my service.  As a cost cutting measure when we separated I downgraded my Comcast internet down to a slower, less expensive speed.  The utilities budget column has enough of a pad in it that I should be able to bump back up to faster service without feeling much of a pinch.

I spent a good portion of the day working on various computer related tasks like updating websites, doing half marathon related things and some work on another web site I am revamping.

As I was plodding away I was thinking about how odd it is that I feel like I have such sparse time to do brainless entertainment items like playing WoW or the Xbox. I imagined that once I was on my own I would have tons of time to indulge any and all entertainment my heart desired.  It just has not been the case.  I haven’t logged into WoW for at least 2 or 3 weeks and the way the rest of my January is shaping up it may be February until I get to drop into my virtual home once again.

I will have a very busy two days ahead of me until the party van leaves the dock in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

 

 

 

 

 

A friend of mine asked me if I could help her with problems she was having with her Apple Macbook Pro.  Beside my Iphone/Ipad usage I am a total Wintel guy.  However despite that, I figured that depending on the problem, I may be able to address it using my above average trouble shooting/winging it skills.

Well it didn’t take long till I saw the first issue, the laptop had absolutely no free space on it’s internal hard drive.  When a computer runs out of hard drive space all sorts of bad things happen.  One of those things is the system becomes extremely slow and unresponsive.  The first order was I had to clear up some space so the computer would stop choking.

This was more difficult than it sounds since the external drive that is normally hooked up to the laptop had crashed.  Luckily I brought an external 2 TB drive along.  I somehow figured out how to get it formatted with the HFS file system so I could write to it.  I then started copying off music files, over 125 gig of music files to the external drive.

I found getting around in the Apple OS to be very frustrating.  It seemed very difficult to do things I can do simply in Windows like copy and paste files.  I felt like I was in a foreign country where nobody spoke english.

When I saw the estimated completion time of 2 hours I was not happy.  Well I then turned my attention to the crashed external drive, which according to my friend, had valuable pictures on it.  I could tell as soon as I powered it up there was a problem, as I could feel the drive keep trying to initialize.

I tried everything I could to get the data off the drive.  The best I could do was being able to see the directories on the drive.  However when I tried to copy anything the drive would just die again.  To say it was frustrating would be an understatement.

I wound up taking the laptop and external drive home to screw with more.  I didn’t get to bed until 12:30 🙁

This weekend I again feel like I have a tidal wave in front of me.  Besides chores and computer problems I need to do the prep for the upcoming road trip next week.  I really need to unplug, I am feeling steamrolled and I hate the sensation.

I am still feeling behind the curve physically, more than likely due to the scarcity of sleep on New Year’s Eve.  Plus I haven’t gotten to the gym yet this week so I am feeling like a lazy slob.

Yesterday before work I dropped Lucky off at my buddy’s place.  He wasn’t getting back from his trip until last night so I went back over during my lunch hour to let Lucky out.

Lucky was thrilled to see me of course.  We hung out in the back yard and lanai.  I felt bad that there was no available radio to turn on for Lucky.  Whenever I leave the house I leave the radio on for Tuki and the dogs if they are there.  For whatever reason the idea of leaving them home in total silence seems harsh.

Lucky gave me such a mopey sad face as I left. He’s a good boy.

Tonight I pick up the girls for another extended visit.  Dog sitting them is more challenging now since Nicki has been on thy”roids”.  She literally will take 6 or 7 dumps a day.  Letting her unattended in the house for more than a couple hours, especially in the morning is almost a surefire recipe for a stinky welcome home present.

Luckily for Ali, she has the ability to close off rooms to the point where only hard surfaces are exposed which makes clean up pretty simple.  I don’t have that option unless I am going to pin the dogs in the kitchen/utility room.

I STILL am feeling like I am behind on things to be done.  I think it is a by product of the holiday season where lots of unique items consume time.  I am hoping once I get through the trip to my dads place and the rest of the month (two big races to time) I can then resume cruising altitude.

 

Wow this 4 days actually felt quite a bit longer, it seems that my brain has far too many things spilling out of it for a relatively small time period.  I had picked up Lucky, my buddy’s dog on Friday.  I also had to pick up Nicki and Sadie so I took the van to work.

When I first picked up Lucky he didn’t quite remember me and was scared.  I knelt down and he cautiously approached.  Within about 10 seconds his tail was wagging, he was happy his buddy was here to pick him up.

It was tough getting him in the van since Nicki and Sadie were already there, both of the girls were excited to see Lucky and didn’t want to unblock the door.

On the way home I heard Lucky making unpleasant sounds followed by the smell of dog food.  He has a history of getting car sick but when I had him last time he was in the van multiple times with no incidents.  Luckily of the three vehicles I own, the party van is the best one to vomit in.

The dogs had fun playing in the back yard but unfortunately Sadie has something going with her foot/leg that is making her limp.  She wasn’t able to sprint around the yard as much as she normally would but her and Lucky still had fun playing.

Late Friday I did a quick weed whacking/mow session of the property, it was looking pretty ragged, despite the minimal rain of the last few weeks.

On Saturday morning I drug myself out of bed to go do the 6:30 AM club run, something I haven’t done in quite awhile.  I wound up running 7 miles with the running club president, the farthest I have run uninterrupted (except a brief water stop) for at least a couple months.    I spent the majority of the day working on things around the house, trying to clear up the to do’s.  I didn’t feel as successful at getting things done as I normally would be.

On Sunday Ali had asked if I could go to Ikea with her in the truck.  She was interested in some Ikea items but not in the big shipping charges.  There is an Ikea on the other side of Alligator Alley.  I had only been inside Ikea once before in my life, the store in the Philadelphia area.  I had distinct recollections of how crowded the place was.  Well it didn’t take long to have flashbacks.

We pulled into the parking area somewhere around 11.  There was a large two story parking garage that evidently was exclusively used by Ikea.  There were so much traffic flowing into the parking garage that there was a series of people directing traffic.  I knew I was about to be immersed into one of my least favorite things, masses of humanity.

Once we got into the store it felt like pure chaos, with bodies in any direction you turned.  I was just amazed that this many people needed furniture/home accessories.  Once you got into the showroom area it was like a sea of people with a definitive current.  If you were in the main walkways you were swept along.  You had to make sure to clearly step out of the flow if you didn’t want to get pushed along.

Ikea has some cool stuff and I have some of it in the house but I just didn’t get how the store could be THIS full.

Ali had picked out what she was looking for online, it took us a little while to find it.  Plus Ali wanted to take her time to see what else the store had to offer.  I did my best to just go with the flow and not get get overly irritated.  Ali jotted down the item numbers of what we would need.  You actually pick the stuff up physically downstairs in the warehouse area.

Before venturing down there we actually had a decent lunch at the store cafeteria.  As I sat there I had a clear view of the up escalator that took people to the start of the showroom area.  The entire time I was sitting there was never a moment when more than 4 or 5 steps were unoccupied by another person entering the store.  So many people…..

We entered the big warehouse and grabbed a large cart suitable for moving the unassembled furniture.  The items Ali picked out were several bookcases and a hutch type piece.  The boxes they came in were long and heavy, the bookcase boxes weighed almost 90 pounds each.  They were not easy to handle at all.  Eventually we loaded up the cart with 5 heavy boxes and slowly pushed them towards the checkout area.

Getting the boxes into the truck was more fun.  I was aggravated that I forgot to throw my box of straps/fasteners in the back.  I wound up utilizing my jumper cables to tie around the boxes and the one short bungee cord I had in the back to sloppily secure the boxes.

Between driving to Ikea and the time we spent there, I missed the first half of the Eagles game.  By the time I flipped on the game on Sirius, they were already down a ridiculous 35-7 to the Giants at halftime.  It sounded like the defense was trying to end the year setting the awfulness bar to new heights.  The return of Mike Vick to the line up appeared to make no difference, he had a lackluster performance before the Eagles raised the white flag in the second half and put Trent Edwards in.

Outside of his hot 8 or 9 games in 2010, Mike Vick has been average at best as the Eagles QB, nowhere close to earning the massive salary they bestowed upon him.  That is why he will be sent packing and partially why Andy Reid is now looking for a new job as well since it was his call to roll with Vick.

Nobody was surprised when the team announced Andy was being left go.  The past two years, the Eagles were billed as legit Super Bowl contenders and both years they underperformed.  Well to call this year underperforming would be a huge understatement. The team imploded, losing 11 of it’s last 12 games with most of the losses being of the embarrassing nature.  Andy just had no answers.

I do appreciate what Andy has given us over the years.  Yes it was frustrating as hell to go to the NFC championship 5 times and win only once.  Yes I found his dry, boring and repetitive statements at press conferences very unsatisfying as a fan.  I will be quite glad to have a coach that says more than “I have to do a better job” following a loss.

I look forward to a new coach getting put in place, it was time for a change.  I wish Andy good luck in the future but I have a sneaky suspicion that his future coaching success might parallel Donovan’s post Eagles career, downhill.

So we arrived back at Ali’s place and then had the fun task of getting the big, long and heavy boxes up two flights of stairs.  We slid them up the carpeted stairs, would stand them upright at the landing to make the turn and then repeat until we got into the living space.  For now the boxes are just leaning in an unused corner.  Once Alison gets her Christmas decorations put away I am sure I will be involved in the assembly process.

On New Year’s Eve I really wanted to get the feeling of being behind out of my head, I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to get done, a lot of it involved my sitting in front of the computer.  I plugged away the best I could for most of the day as well as heading out to do several errands.

On New Years Eve I actually left the house, something I typically prefer not to do since the road is filled with drunks.  I ventured down to see the fireworks over the gulf for the first time in quite a few years.  The beach was packed as expected but the show was very cool.  I had my latest NYE in a long time, not closing my eyes until somewhere around 2:30.

I had made a mental commitment to drag my ass out of bed and go do the New Years Day 5K as well as the 2nd Annual Polar Plunge, a chilly dip into the gulf.  When my alarm went off a scant 3 hours after I laid down in bed I was not a happy camper. I considered bailing on my exercise intentions but my internal taskmaster would not allow it and drug me out of bed.

This is an informal 5K, there is no entry fee and no chip timing.  It is basically just a race for hard core runners, crazy enough to get up early on New Years Day to go run.  Well this year there was a lot more people that were crazy.  Most years there are less than 100 people that show up.  This year I would estimate 150 to 200 people toed the line.

I knew I had not raced a 5K in a very long time, I didn’t realize just how long until I thought about it.  My last 5K race was in November of 2011, the night time 5K where I gave myself gout.  Wow.  2012 in general was almost entirely race free, I did no 5K’s and no triathlons, instead only participating in the Hooter’s Half Marathon and the Tough Mudder.

At that last 5K I recall that I set a personal best with the distance finishing right at or slightly under 24 minutes although the distance on my GPS showed slightly less than the official 3.12 mile 5K distance.  I haven’t done any real speed work since then, the fastest pace I have maintained is the 8:40-8:45 pace I can pull doing the 7 mile club run.  I had no aspirations of doing particularly well New Years Day.

When the race started my legs didn’t feel particularly well, they felt kind of tired and heavy.  This isn’t new for me though, I have had my legs feel bad early in a race but come around as time elapsed.  When I passed the one mile marker and saw 7:44 on my GPS I was surprised, that is very fast for me.

Well shortly before I passed the marker I was passed by an old guy that I am familiar with.  Despite being 75 years old, he is still quite the adept runner, adept enough to pass me.  Well this is where my competitive nature really helps me.  If I get passed by someone that I don’t think should pass me or I see someone ahead that seems inappropriate it fuels my fire.

I locked on to the old guy and would not let him get more than 20 yards ahead of me.  His pace was quick and consistent.  By keeping up with him I was passing a lot of others. As I passed George who was directing traffic around the two mile mark he made a comment about the old guy being ahead of me.  I told George I was going to get him.  It took awhile but I finally chased him down, passing him sometime shortly after the two mile mark.

Once I passed him I was now into “less than a mile” to go mode.  I lengthened my stride and ignored my discomfort, knowing the end was near.  I passed a number of people in the last mile, including two young high school age kids with about 1/4 mile to go.  The pride in doing so was short lived as their youthful energy reserves allowed them to pass me with about 25 yards to go.

When I stopped my watch I was pretty amazed.  I SMASHED my prior best, maintaining a pace at least 30 seconds per mile faster than I ever pulled on a 5K course.  Despite the course being nearly a tenth of a mile too long I still finished in 23:45 which was better than any 3.12 mile race I ever did.

To pull this off with next to no training on three hours sleep added to the mystery of the accomplishment.  It really comes down to what is between the ears, and not wanting to get beat by a 75 year old.

About an hour after the race ended we did the Polar Plunge.  Having a polar plunge in Florida is a bit of an aberration but the water in the mid 60’s does feel quite chilly to Floridians.  I was surprised that Ali did the plunge as well since she HATES water that is below 80 degrees.

I was not all that worked up about taking the plunge.  I walked out at a normal pace until the water got to mid-thigh in depth.  I then dove in, swam a bit underwater and emerged unscathed.  Yes it felt cold but compared to what I experienced at the Tough Mudder Arctic Enema obstacle, it was practically a hot tub.

I left the site feeling tired but proud that I started off my new year in this manner.

I picked up Nicki and Sadie on the way home so they could continue the play fest with Lucky.  I spent the rest of the day around the house working on various items.  One of those things was putting away the indoor Xmas decorations.  Putting away the tree was nearly as depressing as putting it up, the normal “Christmas is over” cloud amplified by pulling off shared destination ornaments Ali and I accumulated over the years.   The tree saw very “light” use this year.  I think I may have had the lights on it turned on maybe a half dozen times in the month plus it was up.  Oh well.

I like to leave the outside lights up for a while longer.

I dropped Lucky back off at my buddy’s place this morning.  He is such a good boy.  I really enjoy his company.

I have a brief, but busy three day week.  I also will be back on dog sitting duty as Ali is going to be out of town for a few days starting tomorrow.  I have to get ready for the northern road trip that begins in one scant week.