Archives April 2014

There has been much talk in recent years about how bad it is for human beings to be sitting down at their jobs 8-9 hours per day.  Human bodies are not designed to be sitting all the time.  There are studies that show office workers that spend the majority of their time on their asses have significantly more risks for various health problems.  Supposedly that was the case even if these people did exercise outside of the office environment.  Sitting that much just isn’t good.

My co-worker got a standing desk a year or so ago and has liked it.  The entire desk raises up and down, allowing him to switch between standing and sitting position throughout the day.  Last week I saw an ad for a product called Varidesk.  It allows you to transform any desk into a standing variety.  It’s an adjustable platform that your monitor, keyboard and mouse fits on.  When retracted it allows you to work in the conventional seated position.  When extended the equipment is at a level comfortable to work on from a standing position.

Ever since I got into the computer business I have done more sitting than standing.  My network admin job I have had for the last 14 years has been the most sedentary of all.  I literally can do almost everything I need throughout the day without leaving my desk.  I figured it’s time to shake that up.  I got the ok to order myself a Varidesk.  It will be interesting to see what stand up computing feels like.

I have some distinctive preferences in certain situations.  I thought I would cover a few of them here for no particular reason.

Coke or Pepsi

Coke, duh.  Pepsi always tasted overly sugary to me.  Add Mexican Coke into the equation and it is a slam dunk.  I officially do not endorse drinking soda and I typically drink very little beyond the couple I will have on Friday pizza night.  Still if I have to pick, it’s Coke every time.

McDonalds or Burger King

McDonalds again is an easy choice.  This is an even more silly choice since I eat fast food even less than I drink soda.  Burger King actually has some menu items that are more inline with my pescatarian diet including their veggie burger and a good fish sandwich.  Even so I am a McD’s guy at heart, perhaps it was all those feel good commercials of the 70’s and 80’s as I was growing up that brainwashed me.  All I know is if I am going to go the junk food route, I am looking for some golden arches.

Ford or Chevy (GM)

I am a General Motors guy, again not quite sure how I wound up that way.  My first vehicle was a 69 Buick that my mom bought for me, since then my vehicle ownership track record includes a very heavy GM tendency, owning at least 12 of them, including the current party van and my beloved SSR .  I have owned a few Ford products like my Probe GT turbo which was more Mazda than Ford.  My original party van was a 1993 Econoline.  Ford’s are fine but my brain is hard wired to prefer a Chevy.

Football – Baseball – Basketball – Hockey

This again is a no brainer, football (pro) is the only major sport I follow or watch with regularity.  I used to be a HUGE baseball fan as well aspiring to be a pro baseball player in my youth.  I used to watch a lot of Phillies games and when I couldn’t watch them I would be listening on the radio.  For whatever reason that love for the sport just went away.  I used to be into NBA basketball starting in the Dr J era and ending as Jordan faded away.  Now I could care less.  Hockey never caught my interest.  The only time I was vaguely familiar with the Flyer roster was when Eric Lindross was playing.

That is only a few of the this or thats are popping into my mind currently, I am sure others will follow.

I took a picture of the new solar lights I bought from Costco.  I told you they were cool.

Last night after work I had a number of packages to open that arrived.  Two of them were used in two “how to” videos I shot later.

One item was a fresh set of batteries for one of my Neatos.  Installing batteries in a Neato is a pretty simple and straightforward process hardly needing an instructional video.  Regardless, I saw it as an opportunity to suck dollars into my AdSense empire so I  recorded it.

The other item I bought was a special adapter to allow me to balance the props on my DJI Phantom.  The props on the new Phanton have an integrated hub which allow for very easy prop installation.  Unfortunately their design also makes them not fit on my Dubro prop balancer.  The lack of a center hole is the issue.

The adapter screws into the prop, eliminating the problem.  Balancing a prop is a pretty simple procedure.  After mounting it on the balancer you turn the prop so it is sideways.  If it is balanced it will hang in that position.  If it is not it will fall to whichever side is slightly heavy.

You then take some fine grit sandpaper and sand the back of the heavy side, removing small amounts of material.  You check balance and repeat the process until you can get the prop to hang.

The reason it is good to balance your props is because of vibration.  The less balance, the more vibration.  When you are using an aircraft to do stuff like shoot aerial video you want as little vibration as possible.

After balancing all four props I threw my GoPro on the copter and shot some test video.  To be honest I couldn’t really tell a difference although it was quite breezy outside, making stable flight tough anyway.  More rigid carbon fiber props are another recommendation to get the shakes out.  I may grab a set of them as well to test them out. Here is the prop balance video.

GAME OF THRONES SPOILER ALERT

Last night Cindy and I watched the most recent episode of Game of Thrones.  It was quite shocking, unexpected, yet very, very satisfying.  That little, annoying, evil, smarmy kid king died of poisoning.  Even though there are tons of hate-able characters on the show, Geoffrey was easily on the top of my “must die” list.  His actions from day one have been nothing but despicable.  The actor that portrays him deserves kudos for doing such a good job playing such a bad role.

So it was quite weird having a Friday night that was devoid of pizza and Mexican Coke.  I instead continued my bland meal plan I used most of the week which included items like toast, rice, applesauce, and boiled potatoes.  It was a bummer.

On Saturday I woke up feeling physically better.  My energy level was improved and the sweats/chills had left me alone since some time on Thursday.  My bathroom frequency had at least fallen back into the normal range.  By the time I went into the bathroom Saturday morning it had been almost a full 24 hours since the last time I did anything.  The end result was better but nothing close to what I would call normal.  I suppose with what I have been consuming that isn’t surprising.  At least I wasn’t getting blown off the seat.

So during the Saturday I needed to do SOMETHING productive.  I got outside and did the weeding.  Just something this simple felt fatiguing.  After I was done I saw one of the huge seed branches on the coconut tree needed to come down.  I was able to hack it down with the pole saw but the idea of picking it up and dragging it to the trench or pit sounded like it crossed the line of what I could hack.

While I was outside weeding I took a good look at the avocado tree.  I was quite happy to see what appears to be dozens of small avocados starting to form.  I only planted the tree post separation, I was surprised it would start bearing fruit already.  It would be AWESOME to have our own personal supply of the superfood in the front yard.

I also spent a lot of time backfilling numerous armadillo holes.  My yard has been plagued by these annoying animals for years.  I have tried unsuccessfully live trapping them but for the most part I have just been angrily undoing their work.  Well this time I was annoyed enough that I bought some armadillo repellent.  You basically spray this stuff with a hose end sprayer in areas armadillos are frequenting and it is supposed to make them move on.  I really hope it works.

After doing this minor yard work and feeling fatigued I found myself feeling angry.  I was annoyed my body had not yet recovered from whatever was going on after nearly a week.  I went over to the pull up bar and did 10 slow dead hang to neck pull ups just to prove to myself I still had some semblance of strength left.  After completing the reps for some reason the pressure in my head was further elevated.  As I walked by the corner of the shed I smashed the siding with a straight left jab.

I’m not sure what punching the shed accomplished but I did feel a bit of steam being released after impact.  The only other time I beat up the shed was after Google cancelled my AdSense account a couple years ago.

I moved inside and got some less physically demanding things done.  It at least felt good to be doing something worthwhile instead of laying/sitting around 90% of the day.  I also said goodbye to my much longer than normal hair on Saturday.  I imagined the piles of hair on floor contained whatever toxicity that has been in my body for the past week.  Of course I had to video the event since head shaving videos are among the most viewed on my YouTube channel for some weird reason.  I used the GoPro this time, my first time doing so.  It provided a different type of perspective.

Saturday night we watched my Netflix disc, Percy Jackson – Sea of Monsters.  Evidently this was the second installment, I hadn’t seen the first so there was some storyline that I was in the dark about.  I thought the movie was simply average.  There was too much stupid cheesiness wedged in and I found myself simply not caring for most of it.  It gets a B from me.

On Sunday morning my energy and wellness level felt like it crept up a couple more notches.  My bathroom effort was better than the day before which was encouraging.  I went and picked up the girls so they could spend the day at the house.  Ali had the vet give Nicki a cortisone shot last week to address the extreme itchiness that was causing her to go after her ears and eyes almost incessantly.

Even though receiving a cortisone shot is never a good thing, there was no arguing that it had at least a temporary major positive effect on how Nicki was feeling.  In addition to the itchiness it looks like the steroid helped her joint pain as well.  She seemed much more mobile than normal.  It was great seeing her feel less encumbered.

I did a decent amount of physical work yesterday including trimming up ALL the seed pods on the coconut tree while on the extension ladder.  The cordless sawzall is a great tool for this job.

Cindy positioned some of the seed pod casing to form a big crucifix, it was her tribute to it being Palm Sunday.  The rest of the day we kept busy while also taking time to enjoy the nice weather with the girls outside.

I also set up a set of 8 new solar lights I bought at Costco.  They are a much higher quality than the lights I had in place.  I think they look sharp during the day and even better at night, throwing an absolutely awesome light pattern on the ground.

On Sunday I gave my guts a couple tests.  I had a small cup of DD coffee and Sunday night I took in the pizza and Mexican Coke.  None of these items evoked a negative gastric reaction.  I can only hope the upswing continues.

So after my doctor office visit yesterday and all of the unpleasant testing and sampling, I was feeling better the rest of the day.  My energy level had a little upward movement, there was no debilitating, marathon gas, no sweats/chills and I was able to eat more food at dinner ( boiled potatoes, rice, green beans and applesauce).  I slept pretty much straight through the night which is the first time that had happened in 4 days.

I awoke today still feeling better.  For breakfast I had two pieces of toast with a little bit of peanut butter.  I also had a very small bowl of oatmeal.  The food went down fine, I didn’t feel any problems.  But then I started hearing them… My guts started making noises like a washing machine.  Still I didn’t feel awful but it sure sounded like something awful was going on inside.

I tried to be optimistic.  Perhaps it is just because there is so little food in my digestive system that this is a side effect.  I wasn’t feeling any urges to rush to the bathroom so I just waited it out.  Around 9-9:30 I went into the bathroom to see what would happen, again it wasn’t because I HAD to go.  I was quite disappointed when the big D once again invaded my day, making this the 5th day in a row.

So, I had to decide what to do.  The doctor told me that if I still had that going on today I should come back, although I wasn’t quite sure what she would do for me.    My own personal theory was the antibiotics could actually be contributing to extending the diarrhea symptoms since it is a common side effect.  The fact she has me on two antibiotics simultaneously makes that even more probable in my mind.  Gastroenteritis is viral by definition, meaning antibiotics don’t touch it.  She prescribed them to me to “cover my bases” just in case the problem is bacterial.  I decided I should go back to the doctor as she recommended to reevaluate.

I had a wild hope that I wouldn’t have to go through the same drudgery as the day before since I was just following up from yesterday.  Well that was wishful thinking.  I waited almost TWO full hours in a freezing waiting room of people coughing and sniffling just to talk to the doctor again for 5 minutes.  Before I talked to her one of the guys came and in told me she wanted him to draw blood.  I told him I just had a ton of blood drawn already the day before, I shouldn’t need another blood draw.  He checks with her and comes back.  He says she wants to do an additional test for mono, to rule that out.

“Mono??  What does that have to do with 5 days of diarrhea?”, I asked.  He said it had to do with some of the results from yesterday’s blood work but he didn’t have details.  I thought it was pretty dumb to be sticking me again and seemed to be more about being able to check another code on the insurance claim form submission.

After the blood draw the doctor finally came in.  She explained that the blood draw yesterday showed my liver enzymes were a bit high and that mono is one possible cause of that.  Even with the explanation, I thought it was stupid to draw blood without talking to me first to get an update on how I was feeling.  I haven’t had the massive fatigue since Wednesday.

So I related how the last 24 hours went, basically all positives except what was in the bowl this morning.  I mentioned the antibiotic possible side effect of diarrhea.  She said that was possible.  She then threw out a bunch of different ideas/suggestions, clear fluids for 12 hours, eat (even) smaller portions, or cut antibiotics to one a day instead of twice a day. She then got off onto tangents about mono and even the possibility of Hepatitis A, again related to the liver enzymes. (which I think is a non-issue) She must have asked me 3-4 times if I was out of the country, camping, swimming, or anywhere else out of the ordinary whee I could have picked something up.  I told her the most crazy thing I did was have take out pizza on Saturday. (while working at the branch)

So the game plan I left there with was something I could have easily come up with myself.  It felt like the object of the office was to do as many procedures/tests they could on me to maximize revenue, regardless of the probability of need.  Even the antibiotics that were prescribed are unlikely to be necessary and possibly detrimental if it is indeed gastroenteritis.  Plus most people know taking antibiotics unnecessarily is never a good thing. To think that I spent 6 hours of my time over two days getting what felt like a shotgun approach to wellness is very aggravating to me.

So these are my current plans.  Keep eating very bland and in small amounts, cut back/stop the antibiotics, keep hydrating, and if I can get two “movements” in a row that look normal I should be in the clear.

If I go through the weekend without being able to accomplish this I will need to search out higher levels of medical care.  I am worried it could be something more serious like diverticulitis.

So the last 24 hours or so has been in a word, miserable.  Yesterday morning I had been feeling better.  I was pretty sure I had finally cleared the last diarrhea hurdle and my energy level felt better.  Well somewhere around lunch time those positive feelings started to erode.

After eating my normal peanut butter wrap for lunch I started feeling very bloated and gassy.  Considering the very small amounts of food I have eaten the last 3 days it didn’t make much sense to me.  The amount of gas leaving my body seemed scientifically impossible, it was never ending.

The pressure in my abdomen was uncomfortable and despite trying to dispel whatever I could there was new pressure waiting to replace it.  In total this went on for around NINE hours.

My energy level again flat lined and I felt challenged to just sit upright.  The problem is after 3-4 days of mostly laying or sitting around, neither position feels comfortable.  My lower back is killing me making sleep nearly impossible, I instead just roll around with my eyes closed for periods of time.

When Cindy got home she did her best to try to help me.  She made some white rice and oatmeal but I couldn’t eat it.  I had no appetite, barely getting down a couple slices of plain toast and a spoonful or two of oatmeal.  I felt bad that she had to be present in my misery.  Any position I tried to get in was uncomfortable either from the gas pains or the sore pressure points on my back.

I told her I wanted to sleep in the guest bedroom so she didn’t have to be mired in my gassy, restless nightmare.  She didn’t want me to but eventually agreed sensing the “I just want to be left alone” tone in my voice.

Well last night may have been THE worst night of sleep I ever had in my life.  Between the gas and not being able to get comfortable for more than 5 minutes at a time, I bet I may have gotten a total of 1-2 hours of actual sleep.  When I got up the morning the bed looked like it was mangled with comforters, sheets and pillows strewn about as I desperately searched for a combination that would bring relief.

There were two positives though this morning, the gas had finally subsided and I hadn’t had any more diarrhea over night.  However I still felt weak, still wiped out and I was sweating most of the night so I got myself out of bed, showered and left for the doctor’s office.  They opened at 8 so I wanted to get there early.  I ate nothing before leaving as I did not want to add anything to the equation that could flare up while I was out.

So I pull into the parking lot and notice it is very empty.  I look at the front door and see all of the signage has been removed. What the fck?  This is the group I have seen since moving to Naples.  They built this building several years ago from scratch, where were they??  So I get on my phone and find out they relocated for some reason (later found out they couldn’t pay the bills),  about 5 miles south.  Ok I guess I’ll drive there.

Well on the way I was starting to feel things in my gut that were not good.  I hit a nearby Publix and was not happy to discover that diarrhea was once again one of my active symptoms, fantastic.

So after the bathroom detour and refreshing my shitty disposition (no pun intended) I find the office.  I took the elevator to the 5th floor, checked in and filled out the paperwork which is much more focused on how you are going to pay them then what is wrong with you.  As I waited I was annoyed that a guy that sat down after me got called before me but my low energy fog kept me from caring much.  About 20 minutes after I got there I was called.

I expected to be shuttled into one of the exam rooms.  Instead she tells me we were going to the second floor.  Evidently they have another exam area down there and supposedly they had more staff available.  So I get shuffled into a much smaller waiting room.  I again wait at least another 15-20 minutes before getting called back and again have people that showed up after me getting called back before me.  It made no sense but I was in almost pure zombie mode by now.

I get thrown in exam room 16 and am interviewed by one of the medical assistants.  He takes my temperature and then says he is going to test me for flu and strep, just to be safe.  I didn’t quite get the strep test since I have nothing going on in my throat.  Well the method for getting cultures for both of these things is uncomfortable.  For the strep test they stick what looks like a long Q-tip into the back of your throat.  As soon as he did my gag reflex kicked in.  For the flu they use another long Q-tip and shove it far up into your nostrils.  Whatever substance that is on the end burned and felt like it was up at my eyes.

After that unpleasant experience I sat in the room for a loong time before the PA came in, an attractive woman whose name I can’t remember.  I described what my last 4 days have been like.  She at least seemed like she was paying attention and interested in helping me. She said it sounds like gastroenteritis (stomach flu) but she wanted to do some more tests.  She said she wanted to have blood drawn, a urine test and possibly a stool sample and/or rectal exam.  When she mentioned the last part I could not hide my horror.  I asked exactly how do they collect a stool sample?  She laughed and said you use something called a “hat” and it is no big deal.  Ok, great.  She left and said she would be back in a little while.

So while she was gone another woman came in and pulled what seemed like a lot of vials of blood.  I’m not sure how many exactly were taken. If I look at my blood being drawn it makes me ill to the point of passing out.  I then went into the bathroom to give my urine sample.  There was no mention of stool samples so I was hoping I was in the clear.

After peeing in the cup I went back to the exam room and sat there for what seemed like forever.  I had arrived at 8:45 and it was now after 11.  Finally the PA comes back in.  She says the blood work will take some time, the strep/flu test was negative, and yes she wants to get a stool sample.  She said she was prescribing me Cipro and one other anti-biotic but I shouldn’t start taking them until I give a stool sample.

I told the PA I don’t know that I can do that on demand and that it might be better to collect it at home.  She said that’s fine but it also meant I would have to go home, perform what I am sure is an utterly disgusting task and then drive all the way back to the place, some 20+ miles away, to deliver the goods.  That didn’t sound very appealing either.

So the PA leaves and the same woman that drew my blood came in with the stool sample kit.  I wish I could have seen my face as she was describing the procedure to me.  The kit includes “the hat” which is basically a plastic container that straddles the toilet to collect the specimen and then three vials.  Each vial has a “shovel” built into the handle to put specimen into it.  There is a red line that you must reach.  As she was describing the details my mind was wandering, trying to picture the logistics of this event and how utterly disgusting it will be.

So after checking out and gauging my current intestinal feelings I decided I was going to just get this over with in one of the building’s public bathrooms.  Now I can’t get too descriptive with the process as it would vault over the TMI line (if I already haven’t), but let’s just say it was every bit as gross as I expected it to be.  I did feel some pangs of guilt throwing my now used “hat” in the trashcan in the bathroom but I had little other choice.  I certainly wasn’t going to carry it down the hall.

The PA said if I am not feeling better tomorrow she wants me to come back.  I picked up two prescriptions on the way home along with some applesauce.  I didn’t consume any food at all until 1:30 PM. That food was crackers, toast and the aforementioned applesauce.  I am hoping if I go ultra-bland on the food it will get me over the hump.  I think I did myself no favors by having Pop Tarts and milk for breakfast the prior two mornings.  I also stopped the Aleve which would be great for helping with my sore back, unfortunately it too can have negative digestive effects.

Be thankful I left out some of the truly disgusting parts….and at least I avoided the rectal exam.

I just need for this to end.

So yesterday was pretty damn miserable.  Sure getting chills followed by sweating through your shirt is annoying but not miserable.  What is miserable is the bathroom activity.  In total I had six hellish sessions, it was disgusting.  Even with eating very little yesterday my guts were making horrific noises that I knew meant another explosion was soon to come.  I downed nearly an entire bottle of Pepto yesterday trying to stem the flow.  Finally late afternoon things started to settle down and I have managed to not sit on the porcelain since then.

I did a LOT of laying around yesterday, sitting up felt ridiculously difficult at times.  I finished up watching “Jobs” in the bedroom during the day (B+) and fell asleep watching some Bermuda Triangle documentary later.

The problem with laying around so much is eventually even laying around gets uncomfortable.  I would wind up rotating regularly between laying on my back and two sides to try to reduce the discomfort but it didn’t help much.  I simply can not imagine being bed ridden for a prolonged period of time, what misery that must be.

Last night I did not sleep great, but compared to the night previously where my sphincter was on a hair trigger , it was an improvement. Today my intestines have quieted down although food does not sound appetizing and I don’t feel good after eating.  I just feel super weak from the last 48 hours of trial by fire.  I am hoping by this time tomorrow I will at least have some traction on the road to normalcy.

Simply trying to sit here feels like work so this wont be long.

Saturday morning was another race morning, meaning it started around 3:45 AM with the alarm.  I wanted to get on site by 5AM to get the registration area set up.  I was the first one on site by about 20 minutes.  I had some glitches to deal with while timing the race but none of a major variety.  I even managed to get my Phantom up in the air to shoot some video briefly.

I went straight from the race to one of our remote offices as it was getting it’s equipment upgraded.  I had a long day there not getting off site until 5PM.  One of the guys I was working with was sick.  My assistant network admin was sick on Friday as well.

Saturday night I was beat as you could imagine.  We stayed home and watched Prisoner, my latest Netflix rental.  It was a really involved, really emotional and really long movie.   I’d give it an A-.

Sunday morning I headed outside early to take care of the chores that were unaddressed.  During the tail end of the roughly 2 hours I started feeling odd.  I was feeling tired and weak.  My first thought was I was just dehydrated but even after downing a bunch of water the feeling didn’t go away, it actually got worse.  It was like someone pulled the plug.

Well we had made plans to go do see Captain America at 4:20, even though I knew something was not well I wasn’t going to miss it.  Simple tasks like driving the SSR and even walking sounded like challenges.

When we walked in the theater at 4:15 I could hardly believe it, it was 100% empty.  Sure they were showing the movie every half hour because it is opening weekend but I could not believe we were the only ones there.  After the previews started I think one other couple walked in, so there were 4 seats filled of the roughly 500 available, wow.

I thought the movie was really good, maintaining the standard we have come to expect of Marvel superhero films.  The only thing that kept coming to mind was why the rest of the Avengers weren’t there with something this big going down.  It gets a solid A.

Sunday evening my symptoms started ratcheting up. Diarrhea was added to the symptom list. I felt like I was burning up and then shortly afterward I would be freezing.  All I wanted to do was lay down. I had absolutely no energy.  This lead to a very unrestful night’s sleep Sunday where it felt like I was waking up constantly.  I went to bed with the covers pulled up to my neck and wound up later on top of them stripped down to just boxers because I was sweating.

Now normally I would have called off work on Monday feeling as I did.  Unfortunately the hardware project required someone to be there at the start of business to make sure everything was running smoothly.  The other guys in my department were at two other locations that were also upgraded so I really had no choice but to go in.  I talked to my boss and told her my ailments.  She didn’t really want me to have to go in at all but I told her I would make sure the branch was ok and then pack it in.

I took a couple Advil and got through the morning, leaving the branch around 11:30. I went directly home and into bed.  I felt awful.  What made things worse was I couldn’t really sleep, it was more like micro-sleep.  I might half doze off for a couple minutes but then I would wake up feeling hot, cold or like I needed to go sit on the toilet again.  Despite not being able to sleep, any other option like watching tv or getting on the computer just felt like monumental tasks.  So I just continued to lay in bed all afternoon long, not pulling myself out until damn near 6PM.

I ate a dinner of tomato soup and jello, both of which Cindy prepared for me.  No food really sounded appetizing at all, I just wasn’t hungry.

Despite being in bed a good portion of the day I found myself back in there before 9PM.  I desperately hoped I would pass out and after a good night of solid sleep wake up feeling better this morning.  Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.  Instead I had another night of micro-sleep dotted with several cases of hell spawn diarrhea.  I chugged some Pepto to get through the night but it didn’t help me sleep any better. I woke up today feeling just as awful if not more so than the day before.

Thankfully today I did not have to be at work.  It’s a good thing as I have already had four five absolutely awful bathroom visits in the two hours I have been awake. I’m still sweating, still feeling weak, and still feeling like walking all the way to the master bathroom to brush my teeth is just too much to ask right now.  Yes, this sucks.

So hopefully 36 hours from now I will be cleanly through this last race timing/office equipment upgrade combo that makes for  a less than fun weekend experience.  Cindy and I decided to move our Captain America viewing party to Sunday night instead of Saturday.  The last thing I want is to be taking in the movie while propping up my eye lids.

Speaking of propping up eyelids, that is exactly what I was doing last night to finish up Inferno, Dan Brown’s latest book.  I started reading the book when Cindy and I visited my dad and step mom in February.  I have read all of Dan’s books and have enjoyed all of them.  For some reason I felt the ending in Inferno was sort of anti-climactic.  My judgement could be clouded by the drowsiness I was suffering for a good portion of the time I spent reading the last third of the book.  It was a good book, just not great by my standards.

Cindy’s back is still bothering her.  It’s driving her nuts not being able to train and exercise like she would like to. I have to be her virtual bridle, trying to get her to pull back on the reins and heal up before jumping back in full force and hurting herself further.

That’s all I got for you, my mind is not flowing freely this fine Friday morning.

Cindy took this picture of the blackberries that are starting to come in.  The bush is located in the orchard which is in dire need of an overhaul.  There are 2 or 3 trees I should just rip out of the orchard since they either are not bearing fruit, look hideous or both.  I have been shying away from the large expenditure of physical labor it is going to take to make it happen. It would be cool to replace those trees with some new ones that I could try to do a better job of maintaining.

The landscaped area around the pool cage is looking quite ragged and piece meal as well.  Whatever plan I originally had for the plant layout around the pool was obliterated by frost damage and irregular pruning efforts.  It just looks unkempt.

Finally the pond area could use some TLC.  The liner is dried out and brittle and the wooden border that surrounds it is falling apart and looks like shit.  The pumps I have in the pond need to be replaced as well.  The trick there is pulling off the renovation without murdering the aquatic life that manages to survive in the small body of water.

Speaking of aquatic life, I have confirmed that at least 4 of the 11 or 12 goldfish that I scooped up from the foreclosed house down the street are still alive and kicking.  They like to stay real low in the water when I am around so unless I sneak up on them, it’s hard to get an accurate head count.

This weekend will be the last of a month long project which will once again require me putting in hours at a branch office on Saturday.  Unfortunately it is also the same weekend as one of our larger races of the year which I have to time first thing.   Also unfortunate is Cindy and I hope to go see Captain America Saturday night.  Since my day will probably start around 3:45 AM I am going to need to find some way to catch a nap or rely heavily on a 5 hour energy to prop me up.

I will be quite glad to have my weekends free and clear once again.

So last night Cindy made a salad to go with dinner.  The Lite Honey Mustard dressing I normally use was almost kicked so I opened the new bottle that she bought at Publix last week.  I immediately noticed it was not the same brand I normally get and wasn’t “lite” either.  I jokingly chastised her for adding 30 calories per serving to my salad.

So after emptying what was left of my lite dressing I added a little more of the new stuff.  After taking a few bites of salad I focused a little closer on the label of the new dressing.  “Sweet and Savory with BACON” is what I saw.  As a pescatarian (seafood only meat I eat), I immediately pointed this out to Cindy.  I told her she should start wearing her reading glasses when shopping.  She had no idea she grabbed the + meat version.

Even though I am quite vigilant with my no pork, poultry, beef beliefs, I didn’t do anything crazy like throw out the salad although the new dressing will be going in the trash.

Last night we watched the Walking Dead season finale.  Wow, there was some intense and disturbing shit going on there.  I can’t believe I have to wait months and months to find out exactly what the deal is with Terminus….