Archives July 2013

Last night after work I was at a meeting at the running club president’s house to talk about club business.  The last time I was at his place was Christmas night for a party he held.  At the party I met the dog he had recently adopted, Diesel.    Well in the 6 months since I last saw Diesel he looked like he doubled in size, he was huge, nearly great dane size.

Diesel is super friendly and was instantly all over me, something that some people might mind but of course I welcomed his friendliness.  He doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp on just how big of a dog he is.   When he bumps into you, you wind up getting propelled the other direction.

Diesel is also a canine wood chipper.  He has an incredible skill for destroying items with his powerful jaws.  He is only around a year old so he hasn’t gotten out of the chewing stage yet.  As we were meeting I watched the dog turn a large foam covered bat into shrapnel in the space of 5 minutes.   Despite his destructive tendencies you can’t help but love him.

After the meeting I had to head right home to put a large pile of paper entries for tomorrow’s 4th of July race into the system, which is shaping up to be the largest 5K ever put on by the club.

Keeping with the dog theme, however in a much sadder and tragic manner, I saw the story about the LA cop that shot a guys Rottweiler  on video.  The shooting was completely unnecessary and a prime example of shoot first mentality that plagues law enforcement.

The circumstances leading up to the shooting make the dog’s death even more tragic.  The dog’s owner was accosted by police for playing loud music and being a nuisance while they were investigating a robbery.  The guy put his dog, which was on a leash, in his car, albeit with the windows down.  He then willingly returned to the officers and allowed them to handcuff him.

Well the dog didn’t like what was going on and started barking.  It then jumped out of the window, with it’s leash dragging behind it and ran over towards it’s owner.  So there are now 3 officers standing there, two “restraining” the man that poses no threat and then a third, the asshole that decided trying to restrain the dog safely was too much trouble.  It was far more convenient to simply shoot the innocent animal that was just trying to come to it’s owner because it sensed the trouble.

I saw many stills from the video and that was upsetting enough for me.  I didn’t watch the gruesome video, I just don’t need that visual imprinted on my brain.

Of course there has been an uproar regarding the shooting and rightfully so.   Shooting the dog should have been a last resort, not the first choice.  I hope the officer that pulled the trigger is punished in the fullest manner possible.

I took off Friday as well so I am hoping after what is going to be a very hectic next 24 hours I can settle in for an enjoyable extended weekend.

Oh, last night I had fire ants swarming in my mailbox.  It’s the end result of the days of rain that has saturated the ground.  The bastard ants head for high ground when this happens, I never have seen them head this high however.

Last night I wanted to do something productive.  I was feeling too beat up to bother with a mini-workout at home so I decided I would focus on tractor maintenance instead.   On Sunday I wanted to change the oil and sharpen the blades on the tractor but the rain washed away those plans.  Yesterday was wet as well but there was  a small break in the precipitation when I headed outside.

When I went in the backyard I scratched my head.  One of the shitty plasticAdirondack chairs was at least 200 feet away from the deck it normally sits.   These things get blown off the deck all the time but to get that far would require VERY strong sustained wind.

If you click on the picture to see it full size and look to the left of the well plumbing and the right of bird feeders you will see the chair off in the distance.

Both of these chairs are basically junk and need to be replaced anyway.  Perhaps I can get something a little heavier to take their place.

So I mentioned that I had just sharpened the blades on the tractor using my dremel a couple weeks ago however the results from using a small grinding wheel are spotty at best.  At Sears I bought a tool specifically made for sharpening mower blades.  It’s a a beveled grinding stone combined with a flat guide.  It does a much better than my tiny dremel.  It will be interesting to see how the sharpened blades perform whenever the grass dries out enough to be cut again.

Changing the oil was overdue, the oil I drained was super dirty.  The foam wrap that goes around the air filter is falling apart, something else for me to pick up I guess.

Getting these two things done made my Monday evening feel productive enough.  It’s a good thing because the rest of my night totally lacked productivity as I watched the premiere of Dexter, watched more Soprano episodes and played a little bit of Skyrim on the Xbox.

Friday night I threw in my Netflix DVD, a movie named Primer.  This was an 8 or 9 year old low budget movie.  I am pretty sure I added it to my rental queue based on a recommendation of one of the hosts of a WoW podcast I listen to.   They said it was excellent but you had to pay attention.

Well when I hit the play button I was already drowsy.  I was drifting in and out throughout the movie.  As a result I basically I had no fcking idea what was going on.  The movie is very dialogue heavy and since I missed tons of it I was just lost.  I can tell you the movie involves time travel created in a garage and the complications that arise from it.  Other than that, I got nothing.  I can’t even give it an accurate rating but unless you are going to be laser focused on what is going on through out the flick you may want to take a pass.

On Saturday I met Ali early to go buy hardware to hang her three bikes in her garage.  I needed some stuff at Lowes myself so it worked out.  Of course hanging the bike racks had complications as most projects I am involved with do.  The tapcon screws I bought were nice and long to ensure a secure attachment to the cinder blocks.  The problem is the threads on the screw only extend halfway up the screw itself.

Since the cinderblock of the garage walls was not filled with poured concrete, once the wall of the block was punched through there was nothing but air waiting behind.  So if I turned the Tapcon all the way in the threads had nothing left to grab onto.  Luckily I had brought some of my shorter concrete screws that saved the day.

Ali thanked me for the work and I loaded up the girls to hang out at the house while I worked outside, working with the stuff I bought at Lowes.  I was basically doing a lot of reshuffling, the intense humidity and heat made it not much fun.

First I moved the boring ornamental grass that was in two boring/beat up pots in the front of the house. For a couple years I thought these things were an eye sore but I never got around to doing anything about it.  I wasn’t quite sure where to repurpose them but wound up putting one on either side of the small shed ramp.

I was utilizing similar procrastination with two small trees that had been wasting away in pots by the house for at least 3-4 years.  Ali and I never could decide exactly where to put them and I just didn’t give any further thought to it once I started running things solo.  Finally, after much walking around, trying to decide what spots would be visually acceptable while remaining in the sprinkler zone, I put both trees in the ground, one to the left of the small shed and another to the left of the big one.

In front of the house I replaced the boring grass with some new pots with colorful plants.  That area needed something visually interesting to counter the native, but very boring green bushy things that inhabit the small strip between the sidewalk and house.

I also put two new plants in front of the main supports by the front door.  That area had been barren for several months after I ripped out plants that spread unevenly and looked ratty.  The replacement won’t spread and if it thrives will add additional color with it’s dark purplish “leaves”.

I also did some work in the garden.  I amended 4 or 5 beds with fresh bags of garden soil and then planted 7 or 8 rows of different seeds.  Summer is a rough time to get much garden productivity in Florida, at least for me.  I figured I had nothing to lose by throwing some seeds in to see if I get lucky. I planted, spinach, carrot, beet, bush beans, and broccoli.

I even addressed some indoor plant issues, dumping the one big pot and filling it with a much healthier and colorful plant.  I didn’t drink much during all the of the body melting labor besides chugging a beer.  I felt thirsty most of the rest of the day.  It was so damn hot out there, I was spent.

You can see all the pictures from the day here.

Saturday night I did something I had not done in years, went bowling.  Growing up I was an avid bowler, bowling in a Saturday morning league as a kid and even bowling for my team in high school although I was pretty much regulated to JV.

I also bowled in adult leagues for a good part of my 20’s and even bowled in a league down here in Florida for one year back in the early 2000’s.  Since then I can count the times I have bowled on one hand, probably two fingers actually.  Bowling, despite the added bonus of the lanes no longer being smoke choked, just fell out of the the circle of things I would do regularly.

So the alley we bowled at was the one I had not been to before, it was not huge but cozy.  I was a bit taken back when I saw the per game prices, a pretty ridiculous in my mind $4.75 a pop per person.  However I also saw the alley had a flat rate deal where you could rent a lane for a period of time.  Since we were having 5 people bowl this was the obvious way to go.  $37 for two hours of lane time seemed like a good value.

We were put in a lane to the right of what seemed like a big family group utilizing two lanes.  The family included one very old man although I had no idea just how old.  It turns out he was 94.

I was wondering what the big metal ramp thing was that was straddling the ball return.  When it was the old dudes turn I quickly figured it out.  You take this contraption up to the lane, point it and then push the ball down the ramp.  It is evidently something designed to help both ends of the human age group, the very young and the very old.

The ramp turns bowling into more like a big game of skee ball but hey, if it lets the old guy get out for a night of fun with the family, great.

Now of course when you are right next to gramps when he is bowling it is distracting.  The problem was made worse by some rather  oblivious females in the family that were helping him.  They would bring the ramp up to the line and place the ball for the old guy, which was fine.  But what wasn’t fine was after placing the ball they would stand to his right, in our approach lane, the entire time his ball slowly rolled towards the pins.  Several times the women noticed their bad positioning yet they continued to do it.

After pulling this bonehead move time and time again a young guy in their party that was actually paying attention helped out grandpa and stayed to the left.  If someone was really thinking, since the two lanes the group were occupying were the two left most lanes, they would have simply set up gramps on the left lane instead of the right. No one in our group made a big stink about it.  Everyone realized that above all it was great he was out there trying to participate.

I was not very happy with my bowling performance.  Early on my 1o year old bowling shoes were sticking like mad, making almost every shot veer to the right.  I didn’t start really feeling comfortable until game 2.  Then just as the old bowling muscle memory was kicking in the lanes went into Saturday night party mode.

They turned off the lights, turned on the video screens playing music videos and filled the lanes with various color lights shooting patterns all over the floor.  Well once they did that my game once again went south.  Not being able to see the floor removed the normal visual reference I use.  I was all over the place once disco mode was initiated.

I did manage to roll a few of those satisfying strikes where the pins are obliterated into the pit.  I always enjoyed that feeling. It is right up there with a called strike 3 when a fastball cracks into the catcher’s glove.

The scoring of bowling has come a long way from my hey day.  Gone are the clear score sheets on a projector that you filled in with a wax pencil.  Everything is computerized with video screens that keep score, give you visual feedback on your efforts, advice on shooting spares and even a radar gun telling you how fast your ball is heading towards the pins.  Others in my party were impressed I was consistently clocking in at 19mph + on a typical roll.

In total we spent 3 hours at the bowling alley.  It was a lot of fun, assisted by a steady flow of beer.

On Sunday morning I got up for a running/swimming brick.  I only ran 4 miles but it was one of the most uncomfortable 4 miles I can recall .  Early on everything felt tight and rigid.  My legs just were not interested in running.  Even my breathing, which is normally not an issue was labored, amplified again by the very sticky air and hot temps.

I really felt like bailing after the first 2 mile loop, I was that miserable.  I continued on anyway, knowing the disappointment in myself for quitting would be greater than the physical discomfort in the run.  The overall pace was actually on the quick side for me, just under a 9 minute mile but I felt every single stride of it.  I was REALLY beat at the end of it.  Of course running the morning after a late night of bowling/drinking typically is not a blue print for success, at least not for me.

The run, after a sizable breather, was followed up with 1200 yards in the water park lap pool.  By the time I was done I was a click over zombie mode. I was really beat.

I had plans to get some more stuff done outdoors during the day Sunday but the weather did not cooperate.  It was a bizarre rain pattern.  At least a dozen times the weather swung between blue sky and hard rain.  By the time I woke up this morning there was standing water adorning the yard, very early on the calendar for this to be happening already.  It could mean I am in for a very swampy summer.

This will be a short but busy week for me.