Pain in pics, BRB, Mailificent, Mustang Makeover

So on Monday I continued to find things to keep me busy.  In the morning I headed out in the yard to redo the roof on the chicken run.  The pvc coated wire that was in place was starting to rust and tear.  I bought a roll of thick plastic chicken “wire” to replace it, figuring it will be immune to rust.  I did the roof swap in a steady light rain.  Thanks to the good design by the chicken tractor guy it wasn’t too hard of a job. I used a technique similar to installing pool cage screens to make sure the new roof section was taut and straight, attaching the new stuff at a corner and then pulling and securing small sections as I went.  The chickens were quite curious what I was doing as they watched from the main coop.

While I was out there I attached a small treat ball of seed that Cindy and I got at Rural King.  I attached it to the inside of the coop with a wire.  I was disgusted, amazed and annoyed when later that day I was back out there and saw that in the span of a few hours fire ants had discovered the treat and engulfed it, climbing up and down the chicken fence with ease.  Lesson learned, don’t hang treats from the sides of the pen.

During my 5 days off I found myself doing several organizational/cleaning tasks.  I cleaned up the workbench in the garage and my desk in the hobby room.  Well on Monday afternoon I took on another unexpected task, going through the massive collection of pictures in the great room cabinet.  This has been something I have thought about doing for fleeting moments since Ali and I separated but it was back burnered due to the scope of the job and the obvious pain something like that brings with it.

There were numerous albums and boxes of photos to go through.  At first I thought about just turning them all over to Ali and tell her to keep whatever she wants.  However I knew this would be equally painful for her so I figured I would try to do the majority of the dirty work, eliminating all the “us” pictures, keeping stuff that I wanted, and then giving Ali what remains which would primarily be pictures of her, her friends and family members.

Just opening up some of the boxes brought some sadness, without looking at a single picture.  Years ago Ali had taken the time to sort and categorize a number of the pictures so that they potentially could be used for some sort of future photo albums or scrap booking project.  Seeing that effort on what now can be categorized as wasted was depressing.

Of course those feelings did not improve as I flipped through hundreds of pictures of Ali and I together.  It was like a stroll down 15+ years of history.  Despite many of the pictures depicting happy times, for the most part I couldn’t shake the overall cloud of failure that hovered over the picture purging process.

Of course there were other old pictures that were from my glory days of volleyball that were fun to see again as some of the older pictures of my family.  Some of the pictures that stood out I shot with my phone and posted to an “Old Pictures” album on Facebook.  In total I spent more than two hours going through picture after picture.  It was very memory invoking, reflective, and a recap of the long and winding road I have traveled to this point and time.  Having the recycling box filled with pictures of my past is an image that will stick in my mind for awhile. After I was done I had probably cut down on the amount of pictures to give to Ali by two thirds or more.  I dropped the pictures and a box of Ali’s Peanuts collectibles off.   Ali was still working so while I was there I said a quick “Hi” to the girls and let them out to pee.

On Tuesday Cindy was off from work.  We decided to start our morning off early with a bike run bike brick.  I suggested we ride our road bikes to the nearby track which is about 3 miles away, run 3 miles and then ride back.  Cindy was into it.  We got out the door early to try to beat some of the heat, we were on our bikes by 7AM.  Unfortunately no matter what time of day it is, during a Florida summer there is no beating the humidity.

Despite only riding three miles to the track, when we started running I felt the same awkward sensation I do during a triathlon after riding 12-13 miles and then running.  My legs just did not feel comfortable.  The rising sun paired with the thick wet air quickly turned my body into a sweat factory, I was drenched.  After fighting through the initial 2-3 lap discomfort Cindy and I completed our 12 laps at a decent pace somewhere around 8:45, the fastest 3 mile pace I have held in awhile. After a brief cool down we were back on the bikes heading east to the house.  At least the 18-19 mph wind felt good when combined with the sweat pouring off our bodies.  We were back at the house and jumping in the pool by 8AM, a short but challenging work out.

After cleaning up we made arrangements to meet Cindy’s daughter at a local tire place.  Her 2010 Mustang had some badly worn tires on the front and the other two weren’t great either.  With Florida downpours, worn tires are a recipe for hydroplaning.  We met Katie there, dropped off the Mustang and then headed to the movies, an incredibly early 10:05 showing of Mailificent.  I had heard many people say the movie, which I originally had no interest in seeing from the previews was really, really good.  I was willing to give it a try.  We saw the movie at the local Naples megaplex, a place I had not stepped foot in for several years since Cindy and I watch all of our movies either at Coconut Pointe or Silverspot.

I thought the movie was GREAT.  It had everything you could really want, a great story, well acted, fantastic visuals and an emotional ending.  My opinion was shared by Katie and Cindy whom were both looking for tissues towards the end.  It’s a solid A flick.

After the movie we stopped at Autozone.  Katie said her wipers were bad and her AC wasn’t blowing very cold so I figured we could take care of those issues at the same time as the tires.  While I was under the hood recharging the AC I saw how corroded and nasty the battery was looking.  Surely it was going to die sometime soon.  I told Cindy we should just replace it while we were there.

It was hades hot outside at this point, I quickly sweated through my t-shirt as I futzed around trying to get the new battery in place which was slightly larger than the factory unit it replaced.  Eventually I got everything done.  Katie was very thankful for the work I did.  She reported the car was driving better than it ever has later in the day which was good to hear.

On Tuesday afternoon Cindy and I let the chickens out to roam for a little while.  As usual they had a lot of fun checking out the yard.  Cindy was able to lead them pied piper style over to the orchard area by shaking a container of meal worms.  We figured the large mulched square of the orchard would make for a good play area.

We have been trying to get the chickens to be less fearful of us.  Cindy has been feeding them out of her hand randomly since we got them and has been petting them as they will let her.  Normally they are more open to this when you provide them with treats to pick at.  Yesterday I picked one of the chickens up twice to hold them.  Other than a little fussing when I first grabbed them, they were ok once I had them secure and close to my body.  I was able to pet them and even got Wilma to take a few meal worms from my flat palm while I was holding her.  We are hoping that the more we do this sort of stuff, the more tame the chickens will become around us.

Last night Cindy and I wrapped up the weekend catching up on some X1 recordings.  All in all my 5 day mini-vacation was a little heavy on to do’s than I would have liked.  Normally I like to work like a nut up front to afford me the luxury of being a bum on the back end.  I never seemed to get to that point this time but maybe it is just as good.  Typically when I have a day of total slack I wind up feeling lazy and malcontent anyway.