Archives 2013

So yesterday the USPS announced that they are planning to discontinue Saturday delivery of mail in August.  (packages would still be delivered)  Reaction to the announcement has ranged from “who cares” to outrage.  My reaction is somewhere in the middle.

I think what annoys me the most is this problem is not solely because of the decline in mail volume in our new digital age where “letters” are electronically delivered across thousands of miles in milliseconds.  Actually it’s root cause is because of another wonderful edict issued during the W administration (2006) where the Post Office was required to pre-fund 80% of it’s retirement benefits, something no other government or private business is required to do.

If you would like to read more about this, look here.

So anyway, cutting back Saturday mail delivery isn’t going shake my world however I am concerned for what it means in the big picture.  The estimated cost savings of 2 billion dollars is only a small percentage of the huge operating loss the PO has been operating under since the change in retirement funding was ordered.

I have to laugh when lightly informed people are dismissive of the post office, acting like it is no big deal if they go out of business.  They are the second largest employer in the country for cripes sake.  Just like most Tea Party stances, as long as the job that is lost is not theirs, they don’t give a fck.

These same people often like to throw their catch all fix to the problem, privatize the PO, or let UPS and FedEx take over.  Have you shipped anything recently through either of these carriers in the past couple years?  Prices have skyrocketed.  Just this week It cost me $14 to ship a small 6 pound package to northern Florida.  Yea privatization would be great, for UPS/FedEx stockholders.

I have now had my new Iphone 5 for a a few days.  I really am digging the phone although it is mostly just because it more of what was already a good thing.  I like the larger, better screen, faster hardware, better camera and LTE wireless connection.  Despite the hassle of retooling my phone accessories, I like the smaller “rocket” USB connector too.

At first I was going to sell my old Iphone 4 but I might keep it and jailbreak it to use for whatever floats my boat.

Last night I made my first ever kale chips, a great healthy alternative to potato chips.  They are very easy to make.  I took 4 branches of kale, you pull the leaves off the stem and lay them out on a cookie sheet.  Then spray them with some sort of healthy oil like coconut oil or olive oil and then sprinkle the “chips” with sea salt or whatever spices you like.

You throw them into a 400 degree oven for around 10 minutes and you are done.  They will shrink dramatically from baking and might look a little disfigured but they taste great.  Try it.

So this week I tried to do another squatting followed by running brick.  My three rounds of light but deep squats were going well.  As I was coming up on my final rep I did it with a little extra thrust.  Well as I racked the bar I felt a bad stabbing pain by my left scalpula.

I felt like I could hardly move, any attempts to move my arms to stretch it out were met with some serious pain.  I just walked around slowly and kept trying to stretch.  I assume somehow I pinched a nerve.

I was skeptical I would even be able to run.  Eventually the pain level started to go down although the first mile or so on the treadmill was still painful.  However by the time the 2+ mile mark was reached the pain had disappeared.  I am hoping it stays that way.  It was pretty severe.

There was a woman at the gym today that was drawing a lot of stares, surely as she hoped.  She was decent looking but had a very fit body.  However the reason she was getting stares was her choice of outfit.  She was wearing white, thin, short shorts along with a top made out of similar material.

She chose to pair this with dark thong underwear that was clear as day.  There was absolutely nothing left to the imagination.  I had to laugh as I saw pretty much every man in the gym walk by her as she was on the prone leg curl machine, which put her rear end front and center.

It just so happened that the machine she was on was right in front of my treadmill. 🙂

Last night when Ali came out to pick up the girls she brought along the final piece of tax documentation that was needed to send to the accountant.  This will be an interesting tax return since it will include the huge tax credit for Ali’s Volt purchase.  As I mentioned before, I already have 3 or 4 potential uses for my portion of the refund, depending on how sizable it is.  The 1099’s we both get from the running club for what we do eats into that figure a bit.

I have had a small hole in one of the pool screens for awhile.  It was done via sloppy ladder work during the tree trimming in November.  Since the hole is small I haven’t felt a huge need to address it quickly, obviously.

Well last night I walked out to let the girls outside and saw a nice huge rip in one of the bottom screens.  I recognized the handy work immediately as Sadie’s.  Several times she has gotten very excited about something and pawed at the pool screen, tearing it with her nails.  The odd thing is in the past when she did this, she always used the tear to let herself out into the back yard.  She didn’t do that this time although it looks like she probably stuck her head through the tear.

So anyway, this hole IS large so it looks like screen repair has just gotten moved to the top of the chore list.

Yesterday after work before picking up the dogs I stopped by Best Buy to grab some audio connectors I may need if I get a chance to work on my stereo during the SSR meet up.  So I walk to the front to pay for the stuff.  They have one of those portable rope systems set up to divert people down and around a display of items that they hope you will pick up as a throw in purchase.

So I follow the intended flow and am 6 feet from joining the line of 5 or 6 people.  All of a sudden a nerdy looking older guy pulls the rope aside and inserts himself into the line in front of me.  Very quickly there is an internal mental discussion that takes place.  Of course my immediate desire was to blurt out “Uh, you didn’t just jump in line ahead of me did you?”  However for that statement to be effective it needed to be said immediately as the moron committed the act.

The more rational part of me stepped in, offering up that perhaps he simply did not see me approaching or questioning the worth/benefit of berating/embarrassing the man.  My aggravation subsided pretty quickly and I actually wound up getting out of the store faster than he did because they opened up additional registers.

I have to admit though there was that small smoldering part of me that still had a desire to deliver an elbow to his forehead as I walked out.  Logical? No.  Would it have been briefly satisfying? Yes.

For the past month or two I have been working behind the scenes with Rick from the Bar-barians on redoing their website. The old site was getting stale and had mostly static information in it. I made the suggestion of using WordPress to do the new site since it is flexible, powerful, yet relatively easy to work with.

Rick is a photographer and has background in working with pictures digitally. He worked on a lot of the images/graphics used in the site as well as migrating over information from the old site to the new one.  I worked more on the back end, adding features, a message forum, connections to external content like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and more.

On Sunday I redirected the domain name to it’s new location, virtually opening the doors of the new site for business.  So far the reaction from everyone has been very positive.  Visually, the site looks 100% better. The functionality, interactivity and information available have all been greatly enhanced as well.

I had a bit of a freak out moment yesterday when Rick told me the site was offline.  I confirmed it indeed was and I contacted my web host.  They told me that it was taken offline because it was spiking traffic.  Evidently so many people were hitting the site that it was using too many of the web server cpu cycles.

I found out a couple plug ins I was running on the site were the primary cause of the overload so I disabled them.  Hopefully the web traffic the new site creates will level out.  Otherwise I would have to look into getting the site out of a shared server environment.

Anyway, it’s exciting to be involved in the site relaunch.  If you want to see the fruits of our labor, go here.

Last night I quickly gave the SSR  a bath for my trip this weekend to the central east coast of Florida for a SSR Fanatics get together.  A bunch of SSR owners are getting together with tool boxes in hand to work on their trucks.

I am planning to install an upgraded radiator support that helps stiffen the front end and LED brake/tail lights.  I also would like to possibly work on fixing the ground on my radio that is causing engine whine noise in the speakers and maybe install an amplified antenna I have had hanging on my workbench for a few months.

I also want to get some opinions on a couple other nagging issues I have had with the truck.  The group has a combined encyclopedic knowledge of the SSR so I can’t imagine a better source of advice.

It’s going to be interesting meeting the group members.  From what I can tell, most of them are at least 20 years older than I am.  I am pretty sure I will be the “kid” of the bunch.

Friday night I was at Ali’s place until almost 10 o’clock.  I wanted to get a head start on the various handyman duties I had to do there, the biggest of which was assembling her four pieces of Ikea furniture, which were three book shelves and one glass door cabinet.

We actually got more done than I expected, completing the assembly of three of the book shelves.  After doing the first one, each subsequent unit took less time.  The biggest time sink is hammering in the 500 nails in the rear that hold the press board backing in place.

Despite getting to bed after 11 Friday night I had it in my head that I wanted to run 10 miles Saturday morning at the 6am club run.  I drug myself out of bed and into the cold air.  The temp was right around 50, cold if you are standing around but great to run in.

I ran most of the 10 miles by myself, only hooking up with a nice woman for the last 3.5 miles, that I found out later is friends with Alison.  My average pace for the run was right around 9:15, not fast, but at this point I just want to get my legs/knees ok with carrying me for that period of time.  I’d like to get one or two more 10 milers under my belt if I am going to do the Hooters half marathon.

I went straight from running, back to Ali’s apartment to resume the projects.  Assembling the cabinet was very similar to constructing the bookshelves, the biggest challenge was adjusting the hinges so the doors closed well.

So before buying the furniture Ali had done some measurements and determined that the cabinet and two bookshelves would fit on the wall in front of the staircase.  I did some quick eyeballing of the furniture and realized the three units would consume far too much real estate to fit.  A new layout was needed.

Alison had a hair appointment at 11 so before she left we talked about various arrangements but didn’t firmly decide on one.  I told her I would work on the arrangement and other tasks that were left while she was gone.  I first attended to the other, non-furniture related tasks which were hanging an overhead light in the office and hanging a drying rack in the small utility room.

I then returned to the main living space to sort it out.  I wound up relocating a large chest to the office where it barely fit underneath the sewing table.  I then centered the remaining bookshelf on the shorter wall, put the dog eating tables where the chest was and moved the old existing book shelf to the top of the stairs.  I even got rid of the mountain of empty cardboard boxes, put the bedroom furniture back in order (we had started moving that around too), and even swept the steps with the Dyson.

Ali returned to her place surprised to find I had made order out of the mild chaos she left in a little more than 2 hours.  It’s a skill I have always been good at.

She was appreciative of my efforts as she checked out the end result of the labor.  Unfortunately I was not done, we wanted to head to the Apple store and upgrade both of our Iphones.  I had plans for Saturday night so I was worried that the Apple store would be SWAMPED on a Saturday afternoon.

Alison and I could hardly believe when we turned the corner and saw all the blue shirts.  They had a TON of staff on the floor, I didn’t count but I bet there were at least 30 employees on the floor.  Despite there being a large amount of customers on the floor as well, we had an Apple guy immediately available to help us.

We already knew what we wanted, Iphone 5’s, the only thing to be determined was how much memory we wanted in the new phones and the color (black or white).  Ali went with a 32 gig white phone and I did the same thing in black.

The efficiency of the store is pretty damn amazing.   By using a wireless iTouch device the entire transaction for two phones was completed in minutes.  In total I am not sure if we were in the store for even 20 minutes.  I seriously expected to be in there at least an hour and a half.

We got done so fast that we had time to stop in Best Buy to pick up cases for the phones.  Ali likes the Lifeproof cases that are very expensive but are like encasing your phone in a big bulletproof condom.  I went with a simpler but effective silicon case that protects the phone from impact.  I got a high end screen protector as well although I felt disgusted with myself for forking over 25 bucks for it, more than I paid for the case.

I didn’t have a lot of time to play with the phone before heading out but I did like the larger screen, the faster performance of not only the hardware but also the LTE network the phone can hook into and the talk to text feature which is pretty damn handy for on the go communication.  I also asked Siri a couple questions and I liked the answers she gave me.

Since my Friday night and Saturday were eaten up I didn’t get started on stuff around the house till Sunday.  Since I am going to be gone a good chunk of this upcoming weekend it was important that I get some stuff done.  I picked up the dogs and had them hang out with me while I worked.

The weather at least was awesome while I toiled, the cool morning temps evolved into pretty much perfect temps as the day went on.  I had almost every opening in the house wide open to take advantage of it.

Late in the afternoon I had my immediate list done so I turned to ancillary items.  One of those items was installing some hooks onto my pull up station.

This idea came into my head last week for some reason.  I thought that if I mounted some sort of anchoring system on either pull up bar support I would be able to utilize rubber resistance bands to add a new dimension to my work outs.

The hooks I installed were bought at Home Depot.  The only challenging part of the install was using a tape measure to ensure both hooks were mounted more or less parallel to each other.  Once the hooks were mounted I simply strung one of my bands across, slapped it over my shoulders and did a few reps.  It worked just as I hoped.  If you want to see my two minute explanation you can see it here.

So since Ali was coming out to pick up the dogs anyway I suggested she just stays and watches the Super Bowl.  She stopped at the grocery store and picked up some food that we always would generally reserve for the big game, stuff to make pigs in a blanket (veggie dogs of course), spanikopita and bagel bites. Food that is wonderfully awful for you but is that is totally in bounds by Super Bowl standards.

Regular blog readers will know that for most of the last 6 or 7 years we would host a small party at the house with the famous betting board which would be stacked with dozens of quarters.  Obviously there was none of that fun this year.  It felt both familiar and awkward to have Ali and the dogs hanging out in our new situation as we watched the game.

The game itself was very, very good.  One of the best I can recall with a big comeback by the Niners falling short with less than two minutes to go in the game.  Despite the excitement I was so tired I found my eyes drifting closed time and again.

The 35 minute power outage was pretty interesting.  Since I was watching the game time shifted on the Tivo I was able to thankfully fast forward past a lot of the filler CBS had to do until the lights were back on.

The half time show I guess was ok, if you really like Beyonce.  For me however I thought it was kind of blah.  I told Ali I always like when a Super Bowl halftime show has a bunch of performers you never see performing together, performing together.

I thought the commercials this year had the normal amount of laugh out loud moments along with the spots that leave you scratching your head.   I don’t really have any specific commentary about them although the Clydesdale being reunited with his trainer was very touching.

By the time Ali and the dogs left it was after 11.  I woke up this morning REALLY wishing the day after the Super Bowl was a national holiday.

Last night I was very busy between stopping at Home Depot, getting in a last minute BB challenge attempt, cooking dinner, doing laundry and cleaning Tuki’s cage.  Before I knew it 9pm was staring me in the face.  My weeknights just seem to evaporate more often than not.

I am now up to date on Catfish episodes, in case you were wondering.  If you are considering using Facebook to nurture new romantic relationships, I advise strongly against it.  Evidently FB profile deception is quite commonplace.

This weekend I am hoping to get all of the stuff that needs to be hung, installed and put together at Ali’s place taken care of.   Once it is all done she should pretty much have everything she needs furniture wise to be able to take ownership of various things of hers that are still out at the house.  The only thing that could use more attention is some storage organization down in her garage.

I’d like to get a 10 mile run in tomorrow too but the idea of getting up at 4:45 am to do it sounds really, really shitty.

Yesterday I filled out a brief questionnaire for the Mars One project, letting them know why I would want to be part of the team that is making the one way trip to Mars in a decade or so.  I would do it, seriously.

This was forwarded to me from a friend.  It is an actual profile from a guy on a dating site. and no it isn’t me.  🙂

Begin quote:
I am hoping to meet someone outgoing and with an easy going, go with the flow personality and a very good sense of humor. I am shy sometimes, but warm up quickly to nice people. I love to laugh and, I’m not easily offended. I enjoy finding fun and new things to do. I am a working professional with goals and ambitions and look for the same in the people I meet and hang out with.

I take care of myself, love going to gym and living a healthy life, and would like to meet someone like minded. However; I am not a gym freak (someone who talks about protein shakes and workout routines all day), and I don’t like angry people who get in unnecessary conflicts where ever they go. I’m definitely more of a lover than a fighter 🙂

If you would like to chat sometime and maybe meet, please send me a message. I love making new friends and meeting cool people. I like going out for drinks from time to time, or staying in and watching a good movie, especially comedies.

I actually got a message from a woman over 7’’ tall. So, now I have to say the following:

I never really dated anyone over 5’9’’. I guess I just prefer shorter more petite women. Really tall girls seem like they have man hands. I’ve seen beautiful tall women, but it’s just not my cup of tea… As far as age goes, I will say I generally date younger women, but it’s not a prerequisite, it’s just a preference… I see beautiful women that are older than me all the time. It usually depends on how well they take care of themselves…

Favorite Quote’s:

Sex without love is like food without taste…

I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.

As shallow at it may seem… This has to be addressed: Plus size = Minus interest

What exactly is plus size:

(plus-size (plus’siz?)

Noun:
1. An extra large or oversize women. One containing a midriff bulge, middle age spread, or a muffin top.
2. Your description says: A few extra pounds…
3. Your waist or hips look like a car tire that’s low on air.
4. You have 10 face shots that were taken from a downward angle. (This is popular among heavy set women with large breasts). They hold their camera phone above their head, and look up at it with their lips pursed and their cleavage showing. It’s interesting, because these same women usually title their profile with “I’m tired of the games…”
5. You look like you should be serving food in a high school cafeteria.
6. I’m not interested…

I can’t believe I have to say this:

If your fat, and your profile says average, but your fat, and on your profile, you have pictures of yourself on your plaid couch with your Chihuahua and a box of KFC, or Burger King Wrappers on your coffee table. Please!!! Don’t send me any messages good or bad. I don’t need or want to see that…

I received a message from a women so hideous today, that I was literally so scared, that I considered deleting my profile, changing my name, and driving to Canada to find a deep cave to hide in!!! Ewwwwwwwwwwww!!! She was bad…

Also:

Please don’t start chatting with me, if your ultimate intention is to force me to adopt “YOUR” hobbies.
For example: If I loved playing cards (I don’t), I would never post a comment like: Anyone I date “MUST” play cards or learn to play cards with me… Some girl I chatted with had a mandate for any man she dates to take up ballroom dancing…Obviously we will want to find common ground and do things together, but that doesn’t mean we should do “EVERYTHING” together! For a relationship to last, it’s important to give each other a little space and accept our differences 🙂

And… A word of advice on our first date, please don’t back the station wagon up, drive in the tent stakes, and break out the baby bassinet…

If you’re the kind of girl who likes to go out on your porch, sit on your aluminum fold out chair, light up your GPC or Magnum 305 cigarette, crack open a can of Natty Ice, and watch your 6 kids play that your collecting child support from 7 men on. Please, take a hike!!!!! As far as photo’s go, please include at least one full body shot and face shot and not from 50 yards away or 10 years ago. I will gladly send my picture/s via email, since POF has quality issues when it comes to the clarity of pictures. No sense in having someone running towards the back exit door on a first date 🙂

If you’re 42 and you look like 102 from over tanning, or you’re simply lying, don’t bother me… A catcher’s mitt with fake boobs attached doesn’t cut it!!! Sorry 🙁

The Hooters Half Marathon is quickly approaching and I haven’t firmly mentally committed myself to doing it yet, which is much the same situation as last year.  Yesterday I took a step towards it by doing some running at the gym.

My running program is ridiculously light compared to “real” runners.  If I am not training for a race I’ll try to run maybe 3 or 4 times a month, normally doing a middle distance run sometime on a weekend. (4-7 miles)  If I am training for a race, I will try to back that up with one shorter run on the treadmill during the week during one of my lunch gym sessions. I also will try to stretch that weekend run to 10 miles.

My short run yesterday was more difficult than it normally would be because I did three sets of deep squats beforehand.  My legs felt stiff, tired and heavy when I got on the treadmill and felt like stopping after the first 1/4 mile.  I struggled along and managed to put in two miles.  I am hoping to get 10 miles in on Saturday.  I never know how my knees are going to react to increasing their workload.

Last night before heading to yoga class I had some time to kill so I stopped at Lowes.  I wanted to grab a couple more LED bulbs to replace some CFL’s that are used in the house.  I prefer the clean, cooler color of the LED bulbs and like the fact that they don’t contain mercury or throw off huge amounts of EMF (electro magnetic field) like CFL’s do.  They do cost a lot more money up front but they are also much more durable than CFL’s.

Yoga class was good.  It was me and 7 or 8 very fit women.  I sweated my ass off as normal and struggled trying to get close to where I should be with certain holds.  Some movements are impossible for me with my flexibility limitations.

I came away from the class feeling more content and peaceful.  I find the owners voice and demeanor very relaxing.  Although most of the spiritual aspects of the class floats right by me I still appreciate the calm it provides others in the group.

I need to get all of the tax info together and sent off to the accountant.  I have several things I am hoping to get done depending on what my share of the tax refund is.  They include having Rhinoshield fix/paint the pool deck, replace the worn to shit tires on the Tacoma and buy the materials to replace the border around the small decorative pond in the backyard.

Today is my step mom Teresa’s birthday.  She has had a rough past 12 months.  I hope this upcoming year is much better for her.

Last night I dipped into the garden again for dinner, grabbing more kale and a head of broccoli.  This is the first broccoli I have actually  cooked out of the garden.  I noticed a big difference in the color and taste versus what I have been buying in the grocery store.  Both were appreciably better coming from the back yard.

Last night I spent some time reading a journal that my uncle sent to me.  He took the time to digitize and OCR the journal my grandfather kept during his canoe trip from PA to Florida when he was a young man.

It appears to be a day to day account of the trip.  I spent about 45 minutes reading and hardly made a dent, it’s very long.  Reading grandpa’s words made me feel like I was back in a time machine in a weird way.

Grandpa’s writing style was not eloquent, it was more simple and upbeat as he described what sounded to be some harsh situations with an adjective or two before moving on to the next topic.

Food is a recurring topic in each days entries with a full description of whatever they consumed for the day.  I found some of the creativity that was used to prepare things like “johnny cakes” to be very interesting.

I wish he would have gone into some more detail about exactly how day to day things like hygiene were handled.  He mentions washing clothes and cleaning up but not exactly how it was done.

His nightly battle with “mussies”, a slang term I never heard of for mosquitoes, was a part of almost every entry I read.  I was surprised that many nights he and his buddy he was traveling with would sleep out in the open with not even a tent around them.  The tent only came out when rain was in the picture.

I read other things that surprised me, like the fact that he was a regular smoker and an instance when he referred to black people with the “n” word, a word that instantly disgusts me when used by anyone in a racist manner.  To be fair, at that time period (1930’s), the word was a normal part of the vernacular.  Still, to read grandpa use it was odd, especially based on the man I knew as a child growing up that seemed to not have an ounce of dislike for anyone.

I have a long way to go until I complete the journal of the 1300 mile trip.  It is pretty fascinating to look through a window that I never knew existed.

After my long reading session Nicki and Sadie were on either side of my computer chair, seated, staring at me.  Nicki was hungry, despite me giving her a small plate of dry food a little earlier.  I figured I would distract them by going out into the dark back yard.

After walking around I went over to the dog deck and sat there.  As I did I just started observing the night sky and the surrounding environment.  I scanned the stars, locking in on the few constellations that I can easily spot like Orion and the Dippers.  I looked with awe at the HUGE full moon that was low on the horizon.  I looked out across the property under the shadow of night and just reflected. I was out there for a long time, at least 45 minutes.

As Sadie sat pressed against me on the deck I thought about how my grandfather laid out under the bare night sky.  I looked at the dog deck and determined I could easily fit one of my inflatable mattresses on it’s surface.  I thought it would be interesting and a unique experience to sleep out there on a quiet, cool, “mussie” free night.  I’d just need to make sure to turn off the sprinklers and motion detector.  I think I’m going to do it.

Tonight I am making my return to yoga class.  I haven’t been there since November I think.  My Wednesday evenings became cluttered with both things to do and apathy for quite awhile.  I am hoping to be able to hit class at least a couple times a month to keep working on my flexibility and to quiet my mind.  Sometimes it just won’t shut up.

I now have seen a few episodes of Catfish, the show about people and virtual relationships.  So far there has been one very consistent theme,  the person that refuses to meet the other has always been a fat mess without fail.  It seems like Facebook has been the primary delivery system for all of this deception.  I am glad I haven’t utilized FB for date prospecting.  I have had enough issues with truth stretching using more conventional cyber dating tools.

Last night I tried to embark again on my normal healthy routine, doing some work in the bar park .

I followed up with a healthy dinner starting with a salad which included red lettuce and kale from the garden.  Desert was a bowl of almond milk thickened up with chia seeds.  I added blueberries and shelled hemp seed for more taste and nutritional punch.

My main entree was broccoli, lots and lots of broccoli.

I haven’t talked at all about a show on my Tivo season pass list that I just wrapped up last night, Last Resort, on ABC.  It was a really well done show.  The premise is a US nuclear sub is told to fire a nuke at Pakistan but it is told to do so through suspicious channels.  They refuse the order and all sorts of hell breaks loose.  If you can find the show on Hulu I would definitely recommend it. I plowed through the final 3 episodes last night despite the clock getting quite late, compelling stuff.