Archives 2013

When the time changed this weekend I did my normal rounds around the house changing the clocks I have that don’t update themselves.  One of these clocks was the one that is above the 73incher in the entertainment nook.  I moved the time back an hour, put it back and moved on.  A little while later I noticed the hands had not moved, weird.

I assumed the battery must also have just died, ok I’ll throw another one in.  I slap in a used AA that was in my battery holder and reset the time once again.  Once again when I looked back in a few minutes I saw the clock was still not advancing.  Well shit, maybe that used battery is bad too?

I crack open my brand new Duracells, throw one in and still the clock is dead. How can changing the time kill a clock? Damn it.  I had ideas of just popping out the generic clock movement assembly but I couldn’t figure out how to separate the hands from the assembly without breaking it.  So I guess it was time for a new clock.

After work I stopped at World Market and found this one.  I liked the old rustic look and the colors compliment the earthy tones that are already in the great room.  I also did a Vine documenting the process, believe it or not.

Sticking with the time keeping theme, I have had my Casio G-Shock MT-G watch for a LOOOONG time, somewhere around 8 or 9 years if I were to guess.  The watch is good looking, solar charged and atomic clock synched, or at least it used to be.

I always used to rely on my watch for providing up to the second accurate times to both myself and anyone that asked.  It is this watch that I use to synchronize all of the timing equipment on race days.  Well a couple months ago I realized that my watch had somehow become very inaccurate, a full three minutes ahead of real time.

When I looked at my last time synch screen it showed the watch had not been able to synch atomically since March!!! This can’t be??!!  My G-Shock has always been rock solid reliable, having the time wrong on it bothered me.  Several times I tried moving my watch to the window overnight when they say the atomic signal is stronger, I still couldn’t get it to lock in a correct time.  This morning as soon as I got up I sat the watch by the window, kicked off a manual synch attempt and was rewarded with success!

For whatever reason, my morning felt a little better with the G-shock synched up with the rest of the world.

Friday night Cindy and I pulled out for Sebring, the spot we were staying to be closer to the Tough Mudder, which was held in River Ranch, about an hour further away.  The La Quinta we stayed in was surprisingly nice, it looked/smelled almost brand new.  The room was very nice as well with a big huge bed.  Unfortunately for whatever reason the nice accommodations did not translate into a good nights sleep.  I tossed and turned quite a bit and probably woke up at least dozen times throughout the night.  The 4:30 alarm was not welcomed.

We fueled up with Pop Tarts and chocolate milk that we grabbed the night before.  I also tried to learn from my mistakes from last year where the only pre-race hydration I did was a single 5 hour energy. I drank a good amount of water both the night before and on the way to the race.

The GPS in the truck seems to purposely give you a worst case time estimate.  Every destination I punched in I wound up arriving around 33% faster than first predicted.  I actually prefer that to an overly optimistic figure.  This tendency was once again the case for the trip to the Mudder site, we arrived somewhere around 6:30, nice and early for our 7:45 am scheduled start.  We parked in our PREMIUM $25 parking location, at least it was close as promised.

I had never had a start time this early, the 7:45 time was the first wave of the weekend.  It was so early that registration check in wasn’t even open.  We stood in a line for a good 20 minutes until they started shuffling bodies through about 7:05.  Because we were on the last day before DST ends it was still quite dark as we got checked in.

I was surprised this year they didn’t require your race number be scribed across your forehead, it was only put on my right arm.  A few minutes later I went back and asked a volunteer to write it on my forehead as well, I felt naked without it.

As I expected, we did not actually start at 7:45, it was closer to 8:05 when we took off.  Cindy, due to adrenalin and a desire to get out of the colored smoke bomb they set off at the start, took off like a rabbit.  I did not, immediately taking on my preferred Tough Mudder run pace, slow and steady.

The first thing I noticed was the open field running was not as treacherous as last year where I destroyed my right knee.  You still wanted to watch your foot placement but it wasn’t nearly as rutty and uneven.  The next thing I noticed was the course was not laid out as the online map indicated.  I wasn’t sure if this was on purpose, to throw a wrench in the Mudders psyche or just a screw up.

I won’t go obstacle by obstacle as some were pretty routine after three years of Mudder races.  You know, stuff like climbing dirt hills separated by mini-moats is old hat by now.  Yes they are still annoying and tiring, running with wet, mud covered sneakers just is not much fun.

One of the first really annoying obstacles was called Sack Up.  You picked up a pretty heavy bag of sand and had to carry it around the circumference of a large lake.  Part of the walk was through mid-thigh high disgusting smelling water with uneven footing down below.  Every Mudder has some sort of carry obstacle but this by far was the longest I ever had to do.  There were no “girl” bags of sand, Cindy carried the same bags us macho men did and carried it well.

Cindy again surprised me (and others) with her carrying skills at the wounded warrior carry.  In this obstacle you pick up someone and carry them maybe 50 yards (last year this was longer).  Of course having Cindy hop on my back and walk was not a tough task for me however I really didn’t feel it was a great idea for Cindy to try to carry my lanky 180 pounds down the course.  Cindy however had different ideas and wanted me to hop on her back.  I did as she asked, feeling pretty sure it was going to be a fail.

It felt like we were on the verge of tipping backward but Cindy kept moving forward with my long limbs wrapped around her.  She carried me the entire required distance, surprising me and other Mudder competitors that congratulated her.  It was impressive.

I had my first ever obstacle fail this year on a new challenge called Hang Tough.  It was a series of gymnast rings hung over a water pit.  The goal is to swing from ring to ring to the other side.  In normal conditions I would expect I could do this obstacle no problem however we were just coming off a obstacle that covered my gloves in wet sand.  The rings themselves were thick plastic, thicker than the bars you grab on the funky monkey.  The rings were also spaced quite far apart, they seemed to widen towards the end.  As I reached for the fourth ring my hand slipped off because of slickness not fatigue.  Plopping down in the water was not a feeling of failure I enjoyed and I considered going back and trying again.  If I would have I would have pulled off the gloves beforehand.  Cindy also dropped into the water on this one.  I accepted my fail and moved on.

Another new obstacle this year was call The Phoenix.  In last years race fire was noticeably missing from the course.  In the Phoenix you belly crawled through an area of “ashes” and then emerged from the other side where you jumped a sizable wall of flames 2-3 feet high and landed in water on the other side.  Although you only were in the flames for a fraction of a second you could feel the heat enough to get an idea of how a hamburger feels.

They had a wall type obstacle I never did before called Glory Blades.  Imagine a Berlin Wall (but shorter) leaning towards you.  The angle meant using your legs for assist was not happening.  Cindy used the side support frame to get herself started but pulled herself over the rest of the way.  I was able to use my muscle up training to get me over the blades without major problems.

The Jesus Walk that was outlined several spots on the course turned out to be nothing.  When you looked this obstacle up online it showed shallow water with multiple holes dug out which are hidden, causing people repeated wet face plants.  All of our Jesus Walks were basically just walks through shin high water with no holes.

The Electric Eel was a lot more difficult this year.  In this obstacle you belly crawl in shallow water with electrified cords hanging down.  Last year the wires were in straight lines so as long as you stayed straight and low you could avoid electrocution.   This year the wires were staggered all over the place.  I was sure I was going to get tagged.

Some people threw caution to the wind and just plowed straight ahead, taking multiple jolts along the way.  I acted like I was crawling through a minefield and somehow managed to snake my 6′ 3″ body through the maze of wires without getting zapped once.  Cindy was not so lucky, she took a good snap to the calf towards the end which caused an expletive to immediately fly out of her mouth.

As we were running the course Cindy and I noticed that the race organizers seem to not be very good at marking distance, some of the miles seemed to be very short while others seemed slightly long.  The course was very winding so it is possible that my sense of distance was distorted but it couldn’t have been that far off.  At one point Cindy, who was wearing her watch in chrono mode said we only had 7 minutes between two mile markers which obviously could not be the case if the distance was correct.

Another new obstacle was the Cage Crawl which Cindy said was her favorite.  There again was a body of water (you got very wet in this course) with a low chain link fence on top of it.  You flipped on your back and used the fence to pull yourself along.  It was kind of fun.

Another staple obstacle of the Tough Mudder is the Funky Monkey which are greased monkey bars that first angle up and then down.  I have always cleared this obstacle and I did once again this year sticking to the safer one rung at a time technique to ensure a solid grip.  Cindy was worried about this obstacle going in.  I don’t think I ever saw a woman complete it in person.

I went first and Cindy followed.  I heard a woman drop behind me and I assumed it was her.  When I reached the final rung I spun around and assumed I would see Cindy swimming towards the platform.  Nope, she was on the downward part of the bars, holy shit.  I went to the side and encouraged her, she was almost to the end.  Just as I stepped back onto the exit platform, hoping I could pull her in, her grip failed, only a couple rungs from completing it.  I couldn’t believe she got that far.  She was both disappointed and proud at the same time as I hoisted her up.  I told her she had nothing to be disappointed about as I watched multiple men drop in the water far behind where she got to.

This year the dreaded Arctic Enema was much further into the course than previously, not coming up until mile 9.  This was the obstacle that Cindy feared the most due to her fear of water, asthma and extremely low tolerance to cold.  I advised her going into it to just to not think and go, fast.  We got up on top of the tank side by side.  I immediately jumped, far, landing right next to the wall you have to go under.  I stayed under and pulled myself under the wall and quickly got out of the frigid water that was somewhere around 35 degrees.  I looked back assuming Cindy would be either out or almost out as well.

Instead she was still on the far side, shivering and panicked.  The icy water hit her really hard.  She was apologizing to me, saying she was sorry.  She then pushed herself up on the side of the tank, leaving her lower body frozen.  I told her it was ok if she got out and the volunteer was ready to hoist her out.  I was pretty sure she was going to just hop out, she was obviously not in good shape.  However she changed her mind and said she didn’t want to quit.

The TM guy said she could just drop under the water and he would pull her under the wall.  Cindy dropped off the wall and he did just that.  Myself and others were at the far end of the tank to help pull her out since her lower body at this point had been in the water for over a minute.  She was crying when we got her back onto dry land.  Her breathing was all whacked out from the cold but she was just scared from it all.  She expected the ice bath to be hard but not make her almost black out. After a short while she had calmed down enough for her to continue.  We walked a little bit and then resumed our slow but steady run.

Even though I was obviously tired from the long course and obstacles I felt pretty intact other than some bruises, cuts and scrapes.  We were in the home stretch with only two obstacles to go, the Everest 1/4 pipe and Electroshock Therapy.  For the second year in a row I cleared Everest easily, getting up and over with no outside assistance.  I’m quite sure why I had so many problems the first year I did it.  Either it was significantly more slippery or I didn’t run into it hard enough.

After I got up I knelt down to give Cindy a hand.  It just so worked out that Cindy and I were the only ones on the obstacle at the time.  The loud crowd of spectators gave Cindy loud cheers of encouragement which was very cool.  She ran hard at the pipe and got her hand up to the top where I grabbed it just to make sure she didn’t slide back down.  She pulled herself up triumphantly.

So to get down the other side of Everest you have to scale down a “ladder” of 2×4’s, spaced about a foot apart.  Somehow as I was coming down my left foot slipped.  Instinctively I shifted my weight to my right side.  I awkwardly pinned my leg under me, and in doing so fully compressed my right knee, something that it normally will not do because of the scar tissue from years of abuse.  As it compressed I heard a sickening SNAP that along with shooting pain made me think I really f’d something up.

I was pissed off that I hurt myself not only so close to the end but on something as dumb as coming off of an obstacle.  When I got to the bottom at first I could hardly put weight on the leg.  I just limped along for a period of time.  As I walked on it it felt slightly better, good enough that I resumed a slow jog up to the mouth of the shock obstacle.

Once again they made this final obstacle annoying, putting two large mounds in the chute which both slow you down and trip you up.  I went first and didn’t even think about my knee as I tried to get through as quickly as possible.  I actually stumbled and fell at the first mound and then got up and hauled ass over the second one.  I only felt a couple tingles, nothing nearly as severe as the body immobilizing jolts I got last year.

I looked back and Cindy was mid obstacle, looking like she fell as well.  Once again she had the crowd behind her, she got up and hauled ass through the rest of it and ran quickly to the finish line,  passing me easily as I was trying to run without hurting my knee further.  We both snagged our t-shirt, headband and one free beer. We finished the course in right around two and a half hours, a very good time.  We ran the entire time between obstacles.

Before we even had the beers down Cindy was doing the Under Armour challenge station.  You flipped a big tire 6 times, did 15 box jumps and 3 pull ups (for girls) as fast as you can.  She did well, especially considering she just finished the race.  I would have tried it as well but my tweaked knee made me reconsider that option.

We walked around the main area.  Our “lunch” was splitting a funnel cake and downing a bowl of free Wheaties in chocolate milk that they were giving away.  Of course we walked through the overpriced Tough Mudder gear tent but bought nothing but a small sticker for the back of Cindy’s Miata.

I was disappointed to see the Air Force pull up bar was a no show this year meaning my post-Mudder tradition of doing 20 pull ups met an unexpected end. Oh well.

We didn’t stick around all that long after “showering” with a garden hose.  The skies were looking pretty foreboding as rain was in the forecast.  During the drive home that rain arrived.  I was glad we cleared out when we did.   Being in an early wave is so much better for so many reasons, better parking, course is in better shape, less wait at obstacles.  If you are doing a Mudder, do it early.

The drive home went quickly thank goodness, I was beat, even with downing a DD coffee along the way.  We originally had ideas  of going out to see Enders Game Saturday night.  We wisely reconsidered and instead just crashed at the house and watched No Country for Old Men instead. I was beat. My knee, although painful, did not blow up like the year before which is a good thing.  I laid around with an ice pack strapped to the knee to try to minimize any long term effects from whatever I did.

Saturday night I was awakened by the phone around 4AM.  The first time through I didn’t answer it but when it started again I drug myself out of bed, seeing it was PA number.  It was my grandmothers nursing home.  The woman said they were trying to reach my mom but her phone was busy.  I told them that mom takes her phone off the hook at night.  They said they were only authorized to tell my mom details about my grandmother but the nurse told me there has been a change in grandma’s health.

I talked to mom later.  She said that my grandmothers blood sugar levels are sky high and insulin is doing nothing to bring them down.  More than likely she is on the last part of a tragic last decade where Alzeheimers/senility has robbed her of any memories of her past.  I sincerely wish her suffering would have ended a long time ago.  The only people that feel differently are the nursing home bookkeepers.  Old age can  be such a horrible, horrible prison.  I have no desire to become incarcerated within my own withered mind.  I hope grandma’s suffering ends, soon.

Sunday morning I had to catch up on all of the chores which with Cindy’s help went pretty well.  The weather was BEAUTIFUL with dry. mild air pushed around with decent wind.  All the windows in the house were open most of the day.

We decided to do something different and catch Enders Game as a matinee since the Eagles didn’t play until 4PM.  We saw it at Silverspot which is always a treat with it’s luxurious accommodations.  I thought the movie was decent for most of it but sort of fell apart at the end.  I think the last time I can recall thinking Harrison Ford had a strong acting performance was Airforce 1.  Everything since then has just been sort of shitty…

I could see how Enders would make a better book than a movie.  The shortcuts required to make a movie meant certain pivot points in the movie had to be rushed along, resulting in an overall dissatisfying experience.  I left the theater feeling somewhat disappointed. Overall I’d give it a B to a low end B+.

That Eagles game was crazy.  How does a team that scored ZERO touchdown the last two games go on the road, to the west coast, and tack on 49 points against once of the top 10 statistical defense in the league???  I have no idea either but I certainly enjoyed it.  All of a sudden Nick Foles, whom looked totally lost against the Cowboys two games ago now looked like Peyton Manning, picking apart the Raiders for an NFL record tying 7 touchdown passes.  It was just insane and like I was in an alternate universe compared to the drudgery I just witnessed the two prior games.

Foles performance surely has firmly planted him in the starter position for the foreseeable future.  Vick will have a lot of time to rest that tweaked hammy.

Do I think this game signified some sort of remarkable turnaround for the team where they are going to soar to a playoff run?  I highly doubt it but I would LOVE to be flat out wrong.

Wow last night was very filled with a diverse menu.  Cindy was nice enough to come over to keep me company Halloween night since I surely was not going to be joined by any trick or treaters.

I snagged groceries on the way home as planned.  However before I even got in the door I had made my first Vine, highlighting my now totally deflated “happy pumpkin”.  Somehow two more vines sprung up doing something as simple as unpacking the groceries. It’s crazy how easily these 6 second clips flow into my head.

Once unpacking was done I headed into the guest bedroom for a quick head shave which morphed into one of my popular YouTube head shaving series as well as ANOTHER Vine. As we waited for the invisible trick or treaters we took in this weeks Biggest Loser and caught the last half of the Charlie Brown Halloween special live.

I got to bed later than I hoped as a good nights rest would have been helpful leading up to Saturdays Tough Mudder.  After work today we will be pulling out for Sebring which is close to a 2 hour hike.  Tomorrow we will be “springing” out of bed early to get to the race site at least an hour before our 7:45 wave time. I have my death waiver signed, overpriced $25 parking pass packed and directions in hand.

Tomorrow is sure to bring many stories of pain, suffering and ultimately, triumph.

So I read the Red Sox won the World Series last night.  Not only did they win it, they won it at home, the first time that has happened since 1918. I was happy for both Shane Victorino (ex-Phillie) and the city of Boston as a whole after the tragedy that went down at the marathon earlier this year.

However this World Series and most recent playoff seasons that did not involve the Phillies confirmed that I am just really not a baseball fan anymore.  I did not watch one pitch, not one second of the World Series or any of this years playoff games for that matter.  I just don’t have interest in major league baseball for whatever reason.  It’s an odd thing since much of my childhood revolved around baseball and my dream to make it to the big leagues some day.

Although I missed the game, I did see the highlights from it which spotlighted a recent trend that annoys the shit out of me, ski goggles in baseball.  David Ortiz had his largely branded Oakely helmet and ski goggles on before the game was even over.  He is out there on the field hugging everyone looking like he is ready for the Winter Olympics, it was stupid as hell.

Then in the post game locker room celebration every person in the room is handed Oakley ski goggles/helmets as well to “protect” themselves from the horrible, acidic champagne that is splashed around the room.  I mean what the fck?  How did professional athletes from the past 75 years manage to have champagne celebrations without Oakley ski goggles? What a hardship that must have been….

Of course this is all just a sell out to Oakley who surely has thrown down a nice pile of cash in order to have their equipment used in this unnecessary and unconventional manner.  It certainly doesn’t make me want to run out and buy any of their gear and makes my alienation from baseball an even smaller bump in the road than it already is.

I think that they need to include a surgeon general style warning next to the Vine app. – VINE MAY BE EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE AND COULD BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

Last night was crazy.  After doing an in costume, BB challenge attempt, the majority of my evening was entangled in Vine, both making my own and watching others.  I now have 20+ Vines, all created in less than 48 hours.  By the end of the night I had a headache and eyestrain. I ended my evening watching YouTube Vine compilations through the new tv’s built in YouTube app.

I even took the time to make my first compilation video. Unfortunately there are another 5 or 6 Vines that have already been produced since it’s creation. Warning, there is some extreme and random strangeness included.

I remember when I first started seeing Vines come out months ago and clearly thinking, what a stupid, stupid idea.  Six second videos, I mean yea I know we live in an increasingly ADD world but what exactly can you get out of a 6 six second video?  Well as has been the case many times in my life, I was wrong.  It turns out 6 seconds is plenty of time to pull out many, many laughs.  With a video that short there is no time for boredom, it’s straight to the punch line.

What is truly addicting is when you tie a bunch of Vines together, instead of a long set up you are getting jolted with one funny scene after another.  When I watch a Vine compilation on YouTube I use viewing habits opposite of the norm.  Typically the longer a YouTube video is, the less likely I am to want to view it.  However with Vine comps, I want them long, the longer the better.

The phone app for Vine is equally addicting.  From the touch/release – start/stop recording UI to the scroll to play viewing window the app makes it ridiculously easy to get lost in an endless stream of 6 second fixes.   And it really is fix, last night I literally felt like an addict, putting off various chores until late in the night just so I could watch/make just one more Vine.

Generally speaking, I have a routine oriented but not addictive personality.  When something grabs me hard I am typically aware of it and will always work my way back towards a more balanced state.  However right now, it’s all Vine, all the time.

Today/tonight is Halloween.  I have my bag of candy that noone will get by the door on the remote chance a trick or treater happens to shuffle up my driveway.  The odds are very slim.  I think the last time it happened I was in my 30’s.  At least I was thinking ahead, buying mini-bags of MM’s that can be utilized for future movie theater sessions.

Tonight I am acting like it is Friday, stopping for groceries after work and attending to other matters typically reserved for a Friday, like Vines…..

In the span of 24 hours I have created 14 Vines.  For whatever reason Vine ideas seem to flow pretty freely into my brain.  As Jeremy accurately pointed out, I am definitely far outside the age range for a normal Vine content producer, whom typically would be 20-30 years behind me in birthdays.  This may be one of those situations where my inner 13 year old that refuses to die serves me well.  The easiest way for you to check out my growing collection is on Twitter or by following me on the Vine app, if you are an iPerson.  I dare you not to laugh.

I typically am looking to monetize any internet content I can.  Although I can not directly monetize individual Vine videos, I certainly can monetize the Vine compilation videos that are sure to be forthcoming.

Because of doing the Tough Mudder on Saturday, my normal week routine needs to get shifted around a bit.  Cindy and I are driving up the night before since the race location this year is so far away.  That means tonight I will find myself doing fun things like cleaning Tuki’s cage and writing out a grocery list.

Speaking of the Mudder, I took my first look at this years race course, it is not looking fun.  It appears to be just shy of 12 miles long with lots of long runs in between obstacles.  The order of certain things is a lot different, including not hitting the dreaded Arctic Enema until mile 8.  In my first two years this obstacle always was in the first 3rd of the race.  There are several new obstacles I never did before as well.  I am sure it will add up to quite a challenging Saturday morning.

My spinning application of WD-40 on the Tacoma driveshaft was an epic fail.  It is back to full on squeal mode.  I want to drop the shaft and take a closer look.  There has to be some sort of visible evidence of the nails on a chalkboard noise somewhere.

You may recall my funny, embarrassing incident a couple weeks back where I got stung in the face after telling Cindy how harmless the wasp nest was that was hanging in front of the garage.  Despite the attack, I left the nest in place. Some odd part of me just felt guilty knocking down the nest I have watched the wasps construct for months. The nest had continued to grow in size after I was attacked.  It was probably the size of a baseball cut in half and populated by at least a dozen wasps.

When I got home Friday I immediately noticed the nest had disappeared. Wow, my first thought was it got too heavy and had fallen down.  I surveyed the ground, assuming I would see it pretty easily.  Nothing was there.  I increased my search area to a 10 foot circle even though it would make no sense for the nest to wind up so far away.  Still, no sign of the wasp nest.

I asked Cindy if she knocked down the nest, she swore she did not, although she wanted to. Well where the F did it go?

Yes I realize it is an odd thing to be so concerned with the absence of a wasp nest, especially one that was home to wasps that sting your face.  Still I wonder where it is.  Could a dozen wasps fly away with a nest? Maybe.

So last night I created my first Vine.

What is a Vine you ask?  It is a video clip no longer than 6 seconds that is designed to make you laugh.  I have watched a number of Vine compilation videos and they make me LOL every time.

Anyway I didn’t expect to create a Vine when I shot a video of me zapping my face but once I played it back the light bulb went on, “Hey this could make a good Vine”   Unfortunately I had to rig that first Vine as it is intended to be created entirely on your Iphone through a pretty slick touch/release start/stop interface. I had to chop my minute long video down, edit it in Movie Maker and then shoot video of the video playing on my PC.

However this morning I was off to the races.  A number of ideas popped into my head, 6 seconds at a time.  If you want to see the 6 I have made so far or follow me on Vine – load the app and click here – vine://user/1000547825983348736

Or just watch my Twitter feed and grab them there.  If you don’t laugh at least once I will eat my hat, for 6 seconds.

I also happened to shoot two more BB challenge videos last night, you can check them out on my YT channel.

So Friday after work was one of those lotsa stops nights.  After work I stopped at 4 different places before getting home.   One of those places was Sam’s.   As I was passing through the front of the store I saw one of those LG sound bars that I noticed a few weeks prior.    They had it on special, $30 off it’s normal already discounted SC price.  I had thoughts of adding a sound bar to my new kick ass bedroom LG 3D tv.  I submitted to the impulse and threw it in my cart.  I guess I will write it off as my first ever self Halloween gift to myself.

I got around to setting it up late that night.  It’s a pretty awesome set up.  Not only do you get the sound bar which includes 6 small speakers you also get a remote subwoofer that connects to the bar via Bluetooth, meaning you can stick it anywhere.  I opted to put it in the corner next to the laundry unit with the opening facing the side wall, allowing thumping bass to bounce off the wall and back into the room. The bar has two optical inputs, a conventional audio headphone input jack, a usb port and the ability to connect to your phone via BT to stream audio.  It also integrates directly with the TV, meaning when I hit the volume on the original TV remote it automatically controls the sound bar instead. It’s pretty awesome.

The one thing that is not awesome is how crowded the top of my dresser is getting.  With the tv, cable box, Xbox 360, sound bar, white noise fan, and Blu-Ray player I have now consumed pretty much all available space.  I am considering if I want to take on wall mounting the TV.  The sound bar can be wall mounted as well.  It would really clean up the look and let me reclaim some dresser real estate.  I always get a bit nervous cutting into walls but I am sure with a “measure twice cut once” attitude I could get the stuff on the wall and looking good.

The weather on Saturday morning was GLORIOUS with temps in the low 60’s and not a hint of humidity.  It was actually enjoyable to go out and weed the property in the crisp air.  It makes me think that eventually I will land in some place where this kind of weather is more prevalent.  90/90 for 6 months a year gets to be a drag.

After I got done with that I turned my attention to my two trucks.  First I wanted to try to isolate where in the driveshaft my Tacoma was squeaking.  My method for doing so looked a bit dangerous.  I backed the truck down to the flat portion of the driveway.  I then drug down my big floor jack and the rubber tire stop.  After putting the stop in front of the driver side tire I put the floor jack under the rear differential and jacked the back end of the truck into the air.  I then reached into the truck and put it in DRIVE so the rear wheels (and driveshaft) would spin.

Yes, I realized this had some potential danger.  I had already envisioned my course of action if the truck somehow came down with the wheels spinning and the wheel stop didn’t hold.  The truck was facing towards the house, meaning any forward movement would be slowed by the hill.  I also left the driver door open for quick access to the brake pedal.

So I engaged the shifter with some trepidation.  The rear wheels started to turn and the truck seemed stable.  I got down beside the Tacoma and looked/ listened.  I could not see or hear anything unusual of course.  I had Cindy tap the gas while I was down low observing to see if I could get any trace of the maddening squeal, nothing.

I turned the truck off and brought down my jackstands.  I thought that maybe if I supported the rear end with jack stands on the rear end instead of the differential it could yield different results.  It didn’t, I still heard nothing unusual.    I did use the spinning wheels as an opportunity to shoot the spinning driveshaft with copious amounts of WD-40 on the joints, hoping this would do at least something to relieve the symptoms.

I then turned my attention to the SSR.  For quite awhile there has been a noticeable clunk in the front end, especially noticeable when making left turns at a decent speed.  I sort of ignored it and sort of babied the truck when turning left.  I have very little experience with suspension/steering issues but it didn’t stop me from jacking up the front end and peeking around.

Just jacking the truck up is a bit of a chore.  Because of it’s lowered profile, I can’t get my heavy duty floor jack under the frame.  I actually have to put my light weight floor jack under there first.  It has a slightly lower profile. I used it to get the truck up an inch or two and then switched back to the 7500 pound Big Red jack.

So I first did a visual inspection, nothing looked particularly unusual or damaged.  I then started tugging on things, tight, tight, tight, loose….  Hmmm, I found a short rod that I later saw identified as a “stabilizer bar”  The bottom nut on this was loose, loose enough that I could easily move the bar back and forth.  I went to the passenger side and pulled on the same bar, rock solid.   Hmmmm, did I just find the problem?

I thought back to when Cindy and I took the SSR up to Seaworld.  During the trip I hit a MONSTER pothole on the way to Universal.  I remember thinking at the time “that had to screw something up”, well I think I just confirmed it did.

The fitting that was loose was an odd set up.  The bolt the nut was threaded onto had an allen wrench fitting inside of it.  I assume it was to allow for adjustment.  I didn’t really adjust anything, I just held the bolt in place with an allen wrench and tightened up the nut with a 7/8″ crescent wrench.  As I lowered the SSR back to the ground I thought I could not possibly get this lucky, could that be all that was wrong?

I took the truck out for a quick road test which included several hard left turns, no clunks! I pulled back into the garage quite pleased that I appeared to at least have addressed a problem with one of the two trucks.

Saturday afternoon Cindy and I attended the running clubs Oktoberfest.  I was technically “working” the event as I was stationed at the registration table checking guests in and working the Ipad to take credit card payments from walk up guests.

As mentioned Friday, I was not expecting to have a great time at the event.  I am not a big fan of anything German, especially Germans blabbing away when I am hiking the grand Canyon. 🙂  Well I was wrong, I had a great time.

Now of course this experience was greatly enhanced by the free refills I was receiving in my Oktoberfest beer stein.  I am not quite sure how many Michelob Ultras I had but it was enough to certainly keep me smiling all afternoon long.

The event had poor pre-registration numbers but a strong walk up crowd.  I would estimate in total there were 200 people that attended the event.  I am pretty sure everyone that showed up had a good time.

Sunday was another 4:15 AM alarm, this time to go time a rare Sunday 8K.  The event was not well attended unfortunately but the costumed runners that did show up were quite entertaining to see.  Despite the small turnout there were news crews from two of the local network affiliates covering the race.  Must have been a slow news day. Cindy ran the race and did quite well, winning her age group.  I don’t know if I could currently maintain the 8:07 pace she did for the full 5 miles.

On the way home from the race we stopped at Ali’s place to pick up Nicki, Sadie and Zoe.  Who is Zoe you ask?  Zoe (a Jack Russel)is the dog of our old neighbor whom moved away and recently back to the Naples area.  Zoe was Nicki’s first dog friend years and years ago.  Zoe used to be a regular visitor to the house. Rick is away on a cruise so Ali has been dogsitting her.  We thought it would be nice to take Zoe back to where she lived for many years.

Unfortunately Zoe is not doing very well health-wise nowadays.  She is 13 or 14 years old and is nearly blind and deaf.  Despite these handicaps she still seemed quite interested in exploring the yard.  She was out there with Nicki and Sadie for a long time.  Of course we could not leave her unattended with her limited sight.  A couple times we had to redirect her but for the most part Zoe seemed to be quite content just walking unencumbered around the large fenced in area.

Even with her problems I found it funny that she still begs for treats.  She always used to do that by rubbing a cabinet with her paw accompanied with a tireless bark.  The barking has stopped and she sometimes winds up pawing a door, wall or dishwasher but you still get the idea.  Having all three dogs together in the back yard was like being in a 10 year ago time machine for a short while.  It was great just to see them all hanging out and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Well it appears the NFL has totally figured out Chip Kelly’s offense.  The Eagles limped to yet another home loss against the dreadful Giants.  The loss extended the clubs record setting consecutive streak of losses at home, yay! The team looked like shit, plain and simple.  Once again the defense played ok but the offense that seemed to be so dynamic and explosive early in the season, failed to produce a single touchdown for the second game in a row, ouch.

I was surprised when they took Vick out although his play was pretty awful.  Evidently when Vick can’t run, he can’t play.  I knew the game was done at that point although Matt Barkely is kind of fun to watch.  I like his fact pace and quick release.  He seems to really  put everything he has into every throw.  In fact his QB style remains me a little bit of Dan Marino, except for one thing, he turns the ball over like mad.  In his roughly three quarters of play I think he has turned the ball over 5 or 6 times?

Even better news is it looks like both Vick and Foles are questionable for next weeks game at Oakland so Barkley might be our new starter.  Yes, I think the season is pretty much done at this point.  Oh well, I really kind of expected it anyway.

Last night I watched the most recent Die Hard in the bedroom with the freshly installed sound bar.  The movie was ridiculously unbelievable but hey, it’s Die Hard it is supposed to be that way.  The movie was also non-stop action and destroyed more vehicles than ethanol gas.  It was also the perfect film to test the sound bar with.

The smaller enclosed space of the bedroom was a great fitt for the new system.  The endless gunfire and explosions rocked the walls of the bedroom.  It really felt like a theater experience.  Although I give the movie a solid B rating the LG sound bar gets a shiny A+!

This week I will be easing off the gas pedal in regards to my normal exercise routine.  This upcoming weekend is the Tough Mudder, I don’t want to do anything that could hinder my ability to survive it.

Last night was an atypical Thursday evening.  After work Cindy and I went to dinner at Snook Inn with a friend of ours.  I came up with the idea the day before out of nowhere.  I just realized that I hadn’t been to Snook Inn forever, probably at least two years and I felt like going.  I thought going on a weeknight would be a wise choice since weekends there can be a madhouse.

My plan was effective, the place was only half full.  While we waited for our friend to show up we had a couple beers at the bar to pass the time.

Cindy had never been to Snook Inn before which surprised me.  I told her it has always been a “go to” place for me to take guests of mine that visit.  It’s open air, right on the water venue has a Key West type of feel that is very relaxing. I had grouper fingers as my meal which were quite good.  Cindy and Alfred enjoyed what they ordered as well.

The only negative about Snook is it is a looooong ways from my house.  By the time I got home it was well after 9.

Recently you may have noticed a number of these type of cartoon strips showing up on Facebook.  They are produced with a FB app called Bitstrips.  Basically you go through about a 5 minute process where you design a cartoon version of yourself and then that avatar can be plugged into an endless array of situations where you control the dialogue and can tweak the scene.

Based on my experience with the 35 episodes of Jmo’s World I have produced, making 1 cell comic strips seems very easy.  I made a couple quick cartoons dealing with one of my favorite subjects, Jeremy.  I also used them to help promote his new blog which I am sure he appreciates.

This weekend is going to be rather fragmented.  Tomorrow afternoon I am attending/working an Oktoberfest that the running club is putting on.  I have never had a desire to attend an Oktoberfest and to be honest, that feeling has not changed.  However I am going to help support the cause (running club youth scholarship fund) and to accept credit cards at the door via our Ipad/Square CC account.

Sunday morning I have another race to time, a Halloween style race where participants are encouraged to run in costume.  You would think a themed race like this would draw a lot of people but this race has historically done poorly partially due to the venue, day and other factors.  By the time I get home and cleaned up from the race it will be time for the Eagles /Giants game.

Fall weekends for me typically fly by very, very quickly.

Yesterday I was treated to this image by my friend Jeremy.  You may wonder exactly wtf it is?  It is a cropped version of his Chrome browser, the top area to be exact, where the tabs are kept.    Once you realize this, you also realize that he had around 100 different internet pages open simultaneously. Wow.

I immediately formed my own ideas about what would drive someone to do something like this however I first posted the image to FB to get other opinions.  Some of the commentary that came back where things like ADDHD, hoarder, fear of commitment, spread too thin(inside joke) and even Illuminati, which made me laugh.  I would certainly throw OCD into that barrel of possible diagnosis as well.

When compared to my own personal surfing preference, once I hit 4 or 5 tabs, it means it’s time to close the ones I no longer need or perhaps open another browser window to separate and organize my internet activity.  The tab hoarder takes a different approach, instead opening tab after tab until he needs a magnifying glass to see what each window contains or Chrome crashes, whichever comes first.

Because of my generally organized tendencies and aversion to procrastination, I find tab hoarding as illogical and borderline manic behavior. However to the tab addict this behavior must feel totally normal and insignificant.  It’s all about perspective.

Last night after work I headed outside to make an attempt at hard mode of this month’s BB challenge, a one arm dead hang.  Holding all of your bodyweight with one hand gets pretty uncomfortable quickly.  I managed to hold on for 1:09, only 2 seconds less than I held last year when I weighed around 10 pounds less.  I was ok with the effort.

I went to bed early last night, I was tired, which is pretty much status quo for me most nights once the clock passes 9 pm. (love being old)  After taking my shower I barely made it through two articles in Wired before I was out like a light.