Change of plans, running swimmer, fish farm, Anchorman, sad start

On New Years eve we went to see Anchorman 2 at Silverspot, the upscale theater located in Mercato.  Cindy and I were both sleepy so we thought we would be proactive and get two espressos to take into the theater with us.  We should have just gotten regular coffees.  The espresso filled like 25% of the small cup and tasted no different and had the same if not less than effect of a cup of joe. (and cost more)

I went into the movie feeling unsure, a Will Ferrel comedy is something I normally would be fine relegating to Netflix rental status.  Many of his movies have a bad habit of not being all that funny beyond the few clips you see in previews.  The only reason we were seeing Anchorman 2 was it was the only movie I could get non-front row seating for.

Well the movie was really funny, surprisingly so, until the last 20 minutes.  All of a sudden the viewer is presented with what may be the stupidest ending of any movie in the history of film making.  I was open mouthed several times, wondering what the hell happened.  All of a sudden what could have been an A- comedy was drug down to B status because of the idiotic finish.  Oh well.

Originally  the plan was to grab a drink after the movie somewhere to watch the ball drop.  However as we stepped out of the theater Cindy said she would have no issue just going home to watch the ball drop as we drank a beer.  She was very sleepy.  She didn’t have to ask me twice, when given a choice, I am always happy to avoid a big crowd, especially a big drunk, dumb, New Years Eve crowd.  Also our intention to get up early to participate in the New Years Day 5K race and Polar Plunge affected our decision.

We rung in the New Year  with the dogs, watching the Dick Clark-less, Dick Clark’s Rocking New Years Eve, which was sort of weird/sad.   It’s the first time I ever had a New Year’s Eve where I had not heard Dick’s voice counting down the final few seconds of the old year.  Despite my complaining about Dick pressing on post-stroke with doing the countdown, I still felt a definite void without him.  RIP Dick.

Despite my tame New Years Eve celebration, pulling myself out of bed on Wednesday morning still did not feel pleasant.  Bed felt like a magnet.  I managed to get myself upright and we pulled out of the driveway around 6:15 for the 7:30 race.

I NEVER race 5K’s anymore, I time a lot of them but never make an effort to run them.  The last time I did one was 365 days ago when I ran the same event last year.  Since it’s not chip timed it allows me the luxury of running it.  Last year at this race I somehow managed to smash all of my prior 5K bests as I averaged a 7:24 per mile pace.  This year there was no repeat performance.

My nagging knee problems have kept my running at a bare minimum the last several months.  The right knee was hurting with every stride for the first mile or so of the race as well which was not surprising.  Still, I tried to maintain a decent pace which I can normally judge by the amount of auxiliary talking Cindy does.  If she is able to talk a lot, I am not going all that hard.  Well she was quiet pretty much the entire 5K.

I was much slower than last year but I was happy to click in with a pace that started with a 7, barely.  My average pace of 7:59 was nothing to write home about but with my circumstances leading up to the race I really can’t complain.  Cindy was stride for stride with me and I’m sure she could have finished a few strides ahead of me if she wanted to.

Next up was the Polar Plunge, an event that is sort of funny considering we live in one of the most southern areas of the United States.  The “cold” water checked in at 72 degrees.   Submerging myself was an eye opening but not overly frigid experience.  The water actually was a few degrees warmer than the same event last year.  I was one of the last people out of the water.  After the brief acclimation process it wasn’t that bad at all. We didn’t stick around all that long afterward since the girls had not had breakfast yet.

I decided during the day I wanted to fix the screen section that Sadie was nice enough to rip for me.  I got all the tools out, removed the old screening and unrolled my super screen.  I was quite annoyed when I realized I had only a small amount of the 100 foot roll I bought a couple years ago, not enough to cover the panel I had to replace. Damn it.

So a trip to Home Depot was in order to grab some generic screen.  I have not been all that happy with the super screen investment I made anyway.  I have had sections I replaced rip along the spline just like regular screening.

By the time I got home the weather had soured.  I wound up finishing up the repair in a steady rain.  I thanked Sadie as I was on my knees, soaked, kneeling in mulch, trying to press in spline.

I also became the owner of a dozen or more goldfish yesterday. The house two doors down from me was foreclosed on.  The former owner moved out a week or two ago.  Before she did, she posted something on the neighborhood email list about a pond full of goldfish she had.  She was looking for someone to take them since she could not bring them to wherever she was going next.

I had asked about the fish at that time but when she described their numbers and the size of their existing pond I told her it sounded like too many for the pond set up I have.  I had goldfish in my pond for awhile after I built it but they disappeared one day, presumably to hungry birds.  I told the woman the fish would be better off somewhere else and I left it at that.

Well when they moved out, they left their recycling trash bin by the end of the driveway.  It was evidently hit or blown over, leaving various things strewn in the grass.  It looked like shit.

Well after seeing it that way for over a week I decided to do something about it.  I picked up the large items, threw them back in the can and drug it up to the garage of the now abandoned house.  While I was up there I saw the pond that was discussed in email, I was curious if she re-homed the fish or not.

As I got close the smell hit me, it wasn’t pleasant. In the stagnant, dirty water were a bunch of fish, left to fend for themselves.  Well my animal compassion immediately set in.  Despite my limited pond space, at least they would have a chance to survive, something they would not have once the unkempt small pond disappeared from evaporation.

I grabbed a bucket and my large fish net from my place and went on a rescue mission.  My first swipe into the pond revealed what the stench was from.  I netted no fish but pulled up a wet, disgusting, substance which evidently was mostly fish waste.  The bottom of the pond had to have at least a half a foot of it settled on the bottom.  I did nothing but mouth breathing through the rest of the rescue effort.

After filling the bucket with water from the scum pond I slowly netted the fish.  Most times I snagged fish I also snagged more fish shit.  I had to jostle the net in my hand to identify the fish from the shit so I could dump it into the bucket.  As I would scoop out the shit I would dump it onto the ground which several times would splatter, with much of it landing on my feet and legs.  I did my best to not think about just how incredibly disgusting this process was and concentrated on the fish.

The other problem was every time I tried to snag a fish I would be stirring up the bottom, making it hard to even see the remaining goldfish.  I would grab a fish and then have to wait for the sediment to settle a bit while I stared into the water looking for more movement.  I was dipping into the fish shit pond for a loong time.  I bet I spent close to a half hour down there.

I got almost all of them.  I know there is at least one remaining but the water was so murky that I couldn’t get a bead on it.  I’ll have to go back for it this weekend.  Cindy was just walking down to check on me as I began walking back up to the house with a bucket full of fish.  Before putting the fish in my pond I filled it to the max and then dumped the fish in there.

Some of them were looking pretty sickly and not moving much, others were swimming around happily.  I am hoping the lethargy was the result of being transferred.  When I checked on them later it seemed like all fish were moving and I didn’t see any floaters.

I have no idea if my actions will extend the fishes life or accelerate their demise.  The pond area is small in comparison to what they were in so that may be problematic.  On the good side, the areca palms that surround the pond area are really overgrown, providing some shelter for the fish from sky predators.  I hope they make it.

I received some extremely sad news that Alison’s sister-in-law passed away early New Years morning.  It was a very hard thing for my mind to process.  It just didn’t seem possible that she actually was gone.  She was too young to be gone, too much of a fighter to be gone, too loved by her children to be gone, yet, she was gone.  Alison was very close to her as well.  I can only hope for a 2014 filled with healing for her entire family.