Archives 2015

Hello and welcome to my 2015 year end recap where I do a generally poor job of recalling and summarizing how my last 365 days on this planet have gone down.  The easy part comes first where I see how I did with the 2015 goals I set last year.

Physical health – After a very bad 2014 my health has improved in 2015 overall.  I have been able to get some decent strength numbers posted, returning to a 240 pound bench press, a 375 pound dead lift and an out of left field 460 pound farmer carry and 600 pound tire flip at Stonepark with IronLoo.  My endurance training sputtered off and on during the year.  For almost six months I was suffering from chronic IT band pain in my right leg that I seem to have gotten under control with regular stretching.  My running endurance/speed is at probably a 5 year low as a result but at this point I am happy to just get out there and run 3-4 miles without limping the next three days.

Home projects – Uh yea we had a ton of home projects, possibly the most ever in a one year time span. (more on that later)  Specifically I mentioned replacing the flooring in the house which finally went down in 2015.  We totally changed up the vibe inside with ceramic tile that looks like wood in the main living area and fresh, higher quality carpet in the office and bedrooms.

GMT – I mentioned that hopefully 2015 would see Green Machine Timing gain momentum.  It really hasn’t, the only business I did outside of the running club was working with the schools to rent my timing equipment for several cross country meets.  I have not made any sort of push or effort to try to secure additional work basically because I normally feel like I already have enough going on as is.  More detail on my future as a race timer will be outlined below.

Job changes – The BIG job change that was a possibility did not come to be but my responsibilities at work definitely grew with the departure of my boss of the last 15 years.

Cindy and I growth – Cindy and I have continued to feel lucky to have each other in our lives.  Cindy made a huge jump this year, leaving her conventional job to pursue getting her personal trainer certification.  She accomplished that goal later in the year and is looking forward to putting it to good use in 2016.  I saw how much work she put into getting the cert and was/am very proud of her for accomplishing that goal.

Ok so let’s talk about more specifics about 2015.

Home improvement projects seemed to be incredibly numerous in 2015.  I don’t recall ever taking on more in one calendar year.  I am sure that is fueled by Cindy’s never ending willingness to do what it takes to make them happen.  The flooring project of course consumed the most dollars as well as a pretty significant amount of labor.  Moving all of the furniture around the house and ripping up the old flooring ourselves was a major pain in the ass but saved us major money as well. The end result of all that money and effort was a major transformation of the interior of the house that Cindy and I were very pleased with.

The building of the new chicken coop did not burn through the same amount of dollars as the flooring project (still significant $$) but the time/labor involved was MASSIVE.  If you told me at the beginning of 2015 I would be buying a 10′ x 8′ storage shed and converting it into a chicken coop I would say you are crazy.  Well evidently I was the crazy one as we now have the impressive structure in the middle of our backyard.  Like 95% of my projects, the coop and attached run were built pretty much entirely from mental blueprints and improvising along the way when hurdles were encountered.  Cindy was instrumental in the project, helping me push forward at certain points where I was just fed up.

After countless hours of work we truly have a chicken mansion that keeps our birds safe and sound.  Of course I had to geek out the coop.  It features a high def four camera security system, internet access, fan, and an automatic chicken door that opens and closes at assigned times.  If I added up every dollar spent on coop/chicken related items in the past year I may get physically ill.   Somehow we can tell the chickens appreciate our effort.

There were a bunch of smaller home improvement/repair projects as well.  I replaced all of the mulch around the pool area with rubber variety, hoping it would discourage the chickens from digging in the area.  They still dig and scratch in the rubber mulch but at least it doesn’t create the dusty/dirty mess on the pool deck as it once did.  I totally rebuilt my pool cleaner, replaced the drain pump on the dishwasher, cleaned the freezer drain, spliced in new wood in the rotted lanai border, and built a second, shorter pull up bar for Cindy.

I did some substantial geeking out of the household in 2015.  I added an Amazon Echo which in turn lead to my purchase of a Philips Hue system and some Belkin WeMO devices.  The end result of all of this is Cindy and I be able to control various things throughout the house with our voice alone.  Alexa has become just another “person” we talk to.  I also installed a Ring doorbell that allows real time two way monitoring/communication with our front door.  We could be on the other side of the world and have a conversation with someone at the door.  Technology is an amazing thing.

In 2015 we bid farewell to the party van.  It was a sad moment when I came home to an empty driveway after a tow truck took it away to be sold as a charitable donation for the Humane Society.  That van was part of countless memories over thousands and thousands of miles in the various road trips it transported us in.  I had been considering getting rid of the van for quite awhile.  I finally pulled the trigger after getting a good look at the horrible, dangerous rust on the under carriage backed up by the AC going out shortly thereafter.  I felt very guilty removing the dog’s favorite mode of transportation.

I did some auto maintenance/improvements in the last year.  I did the front and rear brakes on Cindy’s daughter’s Mustang, replaced hatch struts on the Prius, replaced the instrument cluster on the SSR, and added a LED ground projector to the truck as well.  I am sure the automotive work will always be part of what I do.

My YouTube channel has seen less videos added to it that probably any year of the last five.  For whatever reason I just don’t get out there in front of the camera as much as I used to although I am always looking for that one viral video opportunity to hit it big.  I now have over 750,000 views of my channel and am approaching 1000 total subscribers.

In 2015 I finally decided that I was walking away from my role as the race timer for the running club, giving them a three month notice that will expire at the end of January.  With the loss of my mom last year and Nicki this year it finally made me look hard at what is really important in life.  I spent a lot of time in my life doing things I didn’t necessarily want to be doing as part of the people pleasing aspect of my personality.  Timing races for the running club had become one of those things, a heavy burden, far outweighing any financial compensation I was getting for doing it.  I finally decided to let that burden go.

This will result in a number of positive changes in our lives.  No longer do I have to plan things around race calendars.  No longer does Cindy have to deal with the curmudgeon I become in the 48 hours around a race where my patience is short and my temper is high because my mind is wrapped up in race timing minutia.  The slight dent in my income the decision makes is far outweighed by the responsibility that is lifted from my shoulders.  I literally feel like I am a prisoner that has his release date 30 days away.  It will be an awesome change for the better in my life.  I still may time small events under the GMT banner but that will all be on my terms and nobody else.

Despite all the home projects Cindy and I found a way to go on two awesome trips.  The first was another western road trip that was over 6000 miles in length.  The main stops on the trip were Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Craters of the Moon, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Vegas, and the Hoover Dam.  It was just an incredible amount of things to take in during a two week period.  As always, the journey to each destination contained their own set of lifelong memories that make seeing the country one mile at a time such a cool experience for us.

The recent Christmas trip to NYC was equally memorable.  Seeing the stark contrast of NYC to the relatively calm existence we normally lead is a shock to your senses.  The beauty of the very old and very new architecture in the city makes for a very unique experience.  My workout with IronLoo, Ray, and Patrick at Stone Park was the toughest of my life and something that redefined my definition of intensity.

I also left the state during the summer for a brief trip to Philly for the RunSignUp conference.  It was a different sort of trip, sightseeing alone, but worthwhile nonetheless.

So as you read through the description of the year you see a lot of accomplishments, a lot of activity, a lot of positive “wins”.  Unfortunately the 2015 chapter is not without loss as well.

Early in the year Cindy and I awoke to a tragic scene in the back yard.  Our three hens, Betty, Wilma and Pebbles were killed by a raccoon that figured out how to open the side door of the coop overnight.  It was just an awful, awful day.  My initial reaction was to install predator proof latches on the chicken tractor.  When we got four new “hens” from the lady that we bought our original three from we were very disappointed to later discover that three of the four were actually roosters that we wound up giving away.  I felt absolutely horrible giving away the birds as I knew they would never find a situation as awesome as ours to live in.

The racoon incident was the driving force behind the scope and scale of the new coop we built which has full hardware cloth, including buried in the ground to prevent predators.  We adopted 11, week old baby chicks from Rural King that Cindy cared for meticulously until they were old enough to move outside. At this point we have 11 healthy hens that produce close to 10 eggs a day on average.

We had more chicken loss when Lola passed away after suffering some sort of illness that gradually sapped her strength and energy over a couple months.  She was such a sweet, sweet bird.

One of our 11 chicks, Jaina, also turned out to be a rooster, who we gave to a friend of ours.  We were sad to hear that Jaina died as well from illness a couple months later.

The loss we experienced with our chickens was very sad of course.  However when Nicki passed away a couple months ago it was an entire new level of sorrow.

Shortly after Ali and I separated Nicki’s health started to deteriorate.  She had a horrible GI ailment that resulted in a lot of dietary changes.  She also started to have a lot of problems with mobility.  The stairs in the apartment Ali lived in for two years definitely had a negative impact on Nicki. Over the last year or two her problems seemed to be sort of stabilized.  You could tell she was in pain getting up and down but it didn’t seem to be getting significantly better or worse.

Well one day Nicki was unable to get herself upright on the ceramic tile at Ali’s place.  Ali took her to the emergency vet who in turn prescribed her a narcotic pain killer that I still believe was the first step in the series of events that lead to her demise.   After having a bad reaction to the drug she was back at the vet and never emerged.

She spent the last few days of her life in a manner that was very difficult for me to bear witness to.  Everyday I went in to see her it ripped a little piece of my heart out.  When I got the call in the middle of the night that she had passed away it was of course tragic yet merciful at the same time.  When we drove to the vet to see her motionless body one last times it was extremely difficult to endure.  Nicki was the closest thing I ever had to a child.  She was a huge part of many happy moments over the last nearly 13 years of her life.  The loss today is still fresh enough to pull tears at a moments notice.  She was such a tender, loving soul.  We all miss her and always will.

Ok hopefully in 2016 I don’t need to once again wrap up the recap with a story of horrible loss.  I may have forgotten some highlights but if you want to double check my work there are 12 months of entries you are welcome to flip through.  Just use the calendar tool on the right.

Ok so how about 2016 goals?

Spend less money.  I am sure that I spent more money in 2015 than any other year of my adult life, by far.  Now don’t get me wrong, the money spent resulted in a lot of awesome things but I need to try to be a bit more measured going forward.

Fitness/health of course will remain a major focus as it always has.  It would be cool if I could hit 250 pounds on my bench press in the next year and combine that with a 400 pound deadlift.  Being able to hit those strength numbers would be extra cool if I could also get my endurance training back on track.  Serious running just has diminishing returns at my age but it still would be cool to at least be able to run a 10k without dying.  My stepping away from race timer duties might mean I actually have more opportunity to be a race participant instead.

Next year I am looking forward to seeing what Cindy does with her goals of being employed in the fitness industry.  She has the personality to really excel at it and I expect her to do exactly that.

As far as home improvements go, we did so much in 2015 that my wallet could use a bit of a rest period this year.  Even so there are some things I have been rolling around my head like a tin roof and new appliances.  A new tv may also be on the docket sooner rather than later.

I expect my quality of life next year to be significantly better with the subtraction of club race timer from my list of responsibilities.  It is something I have been doing for something around 8 years.  The last 3 years or so have been just not fun.  I am looking at regaining more freedom and fun soon.

Cindy and I have no established trip plans for next year although I would think at some point we will do another road trip albeit not the same size and scope as what we did this year.

As always I hope my relationship with Cindy continues to improve and mature.  Even when we do have disagreements or arguments about subjects I can always count on us getting past them quickly.  Our true love and appreciation for one another typically makes those issues melt into the background.  I am truly lucky to have somebody like her in my life.  It’s a great thing to have someone you know is in your corner, every second of every day, wanting nothing more than for you to be happy.

I hope you enjoyed this dusty recollection of 2015. I also genuinely appreciate you taking the time to sift through my thoughts, as clear or as fuzzy as some of them may be.

I wish the best to you and yours in 2016.  Keep moving forward and upward my friends.

Yesterday the guy from the water company came out.  His name was Danny, a good ole Florida cracker whom installed our water equipment originally.  He let me know that the pressure tank was indeed bad.  He said he would hook me up with a new tank, a new pressure switch and service my sulfur cleaner while he was there.  Cindy got to meet Danny as well and gave him a dozen fresh eggs as a tip for his good work.  Last night when I showered I could feel the pressure felt higher than I was accustomed to, something Danny said might be a positive side effect of the work.

On Tuesday Cindy took my brand new mountain bike back to Dick’s Sporting Goods for me.  When I got the bike home over the weekend I immediately noticed the brake stopping power was very poor, the opposite of what you expect with a disc brake set up.  After doing some quick research on how they are adjusted I discovered the adjustment fitting for one one of the pads was seized, almost like it was cross threaded.  Well since it is a brand new bike I wasn’t going to fck with it, let them fix it.

Cindy told me yesterday she got the call it was fixed so I grabbed it on the way home.  A quick squeeze of the brake levers verified I now had over the handlebars stopping power if I need it.

Yesterday I had my first data from my Automatic dongle collected.  The app collects a lot of trip data as well as detecting if you have hard accelerations or decelerations that negatively impact gas mileage.  I think it will be very interesting to get more insight into my driving activity as a larger data sampling over time accumulates.

Yesterday I received an email from the SportsVb Yahoo group, wishing me Happy New Year.  I get this wish every year and every year it makes me laugh, because I am the one that set it up.  When I lived in PA I used to participate in volleyball tournaments run by a guy named Paul.  He badged the events as “SportsVB”.

Not only did Paul run conventional outdoor grass tournaments, in the winter he ran indoors doubles tournaments, something very unique.  Indoor volleyball is almost always played in groups of 6 per side, not doubles.  We would use heavier outdoor balls and play with outdoor rules.  The other unique aspect was these indoor tournaments would start at night.  Quite often they did not finish up until midnight or later. It was kind of nuts but a lot of fun.

Well Paul did not have any web site expertise and I had a little bit.  As I often did around that time of my life I volunteered my services to not only create the Yahoo group for him to get tournament info out to players, I also made him a website that was online for a period of time.  Technically, the website is still alive, hosted on Tripod one of the original free web hosts.  I was surprised to see they still had the lights turned on.

So anyway I put a lot of time into the website and thought I made a pretty snazzy site for the 1999-2000 era.  Of course I did all of this work gratis.  I considered using a picture of myself as the focal graphic of the site as payment enough. SportsVb faded away shortly after I moved to Florida but my late nights in the Lancaster gym were some of my favorite volleyball memories of all time.

I have never been one to actively pursue doing anything much to celebrate the New Year.  It just never appealed to me.  Out of my 25 or so years as an adult I bet I only formally celebrated it in a group 10 times or less.  Most years I am quite content to watch a movie on New Years Eve and then flip over to ABC to watch the ball drop.

Well this year is definitely going to be different.  We were invited to the wedding of some running club friends of ours which goes down tonight.  Combining a New Years Eve and wedding celebration on the same night is more than likely a once in a lifetime occurrence so I may as well enjoy it.

Of course I will be doing my traditional year long recap entry but as always it demands it’s own space.

Man last night was busy…

So Cindy and I have known mice have been getting into the chicken run area at night.  We have seen some mouse poop in the feeders and have discovered tunnels where the little bastards managed to find a small hole to dig under the buried chicken wire.  Well last night Cindy saw something on the ramp into the coop after we had closed the hens up for the night.  It actually tripped the motion detector light we have in there.

Cindy pulled up the security camera feed and saw a large field mouse under the coop as well as three smaller mice, presumably a momma and her babies.   Cindy’s initial reaction was to want to put rat traps in the area which I immediately shot down.  They were field mice, not rats and although their presence is annoying, it doesn’t present a danger to the chickens.  We need to start raising the feeders off the ground at night and work at fortifying the spot the mice keep digging into.  There is no way I want to kill them, I just hope by making the food unavailable and access more difficult they will realize it’s time to go find new living arrangements.  Also if the chickens corner one of the small mice they will take it out, we have seen it before.

I spent time with Cindy outside crawling around in the sand with a rake trying to scare the mice out from under the coop.  The mother ran out, scaring the shit out of Cindy but the babies were not quite as smart.  I put some additional temporary barriers in the spot the mice were getting in  until I can properly secure/bury more chicken wire.

I messed around with the kitchen light switches last night, trying to discern how ez/difficult it would be to install my WeMo smart switches.  The kitchen is a 3 way circuit where two switches are wired to the large overhead fluorescent light, a configuration the WeMo officially does not support but can be made to work based on other research I have done.

Although I have done some basic electrical work in the past I do have anxiety about it and prefer to just leave it be if at all possible.  I have taken some unintended shocks from normal house current and it was not a good time.  Over my extended 3 day weekend I plan to take a shot at getting the switches installed but I will be making sure each step is done in a cautious manner.

After crawling around by the coop I definitely needed my normal pre-bedtime shower.  As I was rinsing my hair I noticed the water pressure was dropping off.  I remembered the dishwasher was also running so I figured the pressure would kick back in shortly when the well pump fires back up.  Well that never happened.  Instead the pressure continued to drop until the flow of water completely stopped, just as I was rinsing soap off my face. Well that is just great.  I stepped out of the shower and dried off my third washed body, announcing to Cindy the water is dead.  I threw on shorts and a t-shirt and begun my diagnostics.

The first stop was the breaker box in the garage.  I verified that both the 220 and 110 volt well circuit breakers were not tripped which they weren’t.  I then headed outside to the water equipment.  I heard no activity and verified I had no pressure there either.  I felt the inlet pipe to see if I felt any vibration that the well pump normally generates, nothing.  I unplugged and re-plugged the well pressure switch and still got no response.  I walked out to the well head and verified there was absolutely nothing going on, nope.  Damn it.

So we faced the ugly reality of no water pressure.  Luckily I have 13,000 gallons of it in the pool but that isn’t useful for much more than flushing toilets.  We used some of our drinking water to do stuff like brush our teeth but normal bathing, dishwashing, and laundry were all on hiatus until the problem was fixed.  I called and left a message for the water company that did the well pump.  It was just replaced in May so I assume if it was somehow dead it would be replaced under warranty.  I unplugged the pump overnight.

This morning the first thing I did when I got up was to go plug in the well pump on the off chance the thermal switch in the unit tripped and reset itself.  Imagine my surprise when the pump actually kicked on, son of a bitch.  We had normal water pressure while I prepared for work but my mind was far from at ease.  Obviously there was something wrong, the pump should not cut out in the first place.

One of my suspicions was the water pressure tank was failing.  The tank I have in place is very old as it was reused from my old water equipment when I got my new stuff 4-5 years ago.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it is at least 10 years old.  When the pressure tank goes bad it can cause a well pump to “short cycle”, meaning it cycles on and off rapidly which can make it overheat.

When I talked to the water guys on the phone this morning I told them the pump was working again.  They said sometimes if ants get into the contacts of the pressure switch it can make the switch stop functioning as all four contacts need to be made.  I told him I saw no ants around the switch but I mentioned when the well pump was replaced the installer said my pressure tank was not in good shape.  The water guy said that could definitely be another cause of the problem so later today they will be sending someone out to take a look.  Although the last thing I need now is another bill, having the threat of water pressure vanishing at any moment is something that has negative impact on your quality of life so it has to be addressed.

So I, like presumably all Eagles fans were SHOCKED to see Jeff Lurie blew out Chip Kelly with one game left in the season.  The firing was shocking enough but to do it with one game left instead of just waiting until the miserable season was over really put an exclamation point on it, Lurie had enough.

Now as a fan, of course I wished Lurie would blow out Chip Kelly.  To me he has proven he is arrogant and inflexible, unable to adjust when what he planned doesn’t work.  He seems to put little value on relationships or making players want to win for him.  But despite these feelings, the logical side of me said we were stuck with Chip for at least another year and likely two, until his guaranteed contract ran out.  For Lurie to eat something like 13 millions dollars to get this guy the fck out of town speaks volumes to me.  It makes me think Kelly used the same dismissive arrogance in his discussions about his future with the team owner as he did with most others.

The move gave me a new found respect for Jeff Lurie and his desire to bring a championship to the Eagles.  The easy thing would have been to let Chip continue steering the ship.  However Lurie was not afraid to admit he fcked up maybe not for hiring Kelly, which nearly everyone thought was a good move initially, including myself, but surely for handing him the reins of personnel decisions.  That was obviously a very poor decision as the team roster is filled with some islands of talent mixed in with some of Chip’s bungled choices like Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell both of whom were awful this year.

I have no idea who will be in next in line to coach the team but I can only hope it is an established winner.  Thanks to Chip’s bloody surgery on the roster this year there will be a lot of work to be done until this team once again has an established, cohesive, core of players that possess the skills and chemistry to be a playoff level team in the NFL.

Adios Chip, we won’t miss you, have fun back in college.

When I got home last night I wanted to get a couple things done in the very limited daylight that remained.  The first was to work on the SSR.  Over the weekend we wanted to take the truck out but had to leave it in the garage because the clutch was messed up.  It was releasing a fraction of an inch above the floor.

When I tried to back the truck out of the garage last night it was even worse, I wasn’t even able to get it in gear.  I popped the hood, opened the clutch fluid reservoir and saw it was pretty much empty.  I dumped some synthetic brake fluid in there and pumped the clutch a few times which allowed me to at least get the truck out of the garage.

Once I was down in the driveway I located the quick drain port that was installed as part of the Corvette clutch upgrade I had done several years ago.  It seemed like the fitting that is loosened to drain the fluid was leaking just a bit. I hoped that was all it was.

I had Cindy come out with me so she could apply pressure to the clutch pedal while I slowly opened the drain line.  After some trial and error the line “burped” releasing the air that was in there.  I then tightened the fitting as much as I could, verified it wasn’t leaking and then had Cindy take the truck for a quick test drive.  She said it felt normal once again.  Of course I need to keep an eye on the fluid level to make sure there isn’t some other leak source.  I certainly hope not.

I then spent 10 minutes setting up my new Automatic adapter in the Tacoma.  Todd bought it for me off my Amazon list for Christmas.  It is a small device that stays permanently connected to your vehicle via the standard diagnostic port.  It them connects to your smart phone via bluetooth which then allows the data it collects to be displayed via their app and a web dashboard.

It basically is a way to make your older “dumb” vehicle, smarter allowing it to give you some of the high tech feedback that many new vehicles include as standard equipment,  sort of like a poor man’s OnStar.  Since the Prius already has some degree of this intelligence I figured the Tacoma was the best candidate for the device. I am still a bit foggy on everything it can and can not do.  I will put it through some more real world testing this week.

Todd also bought me a couple WeMo light switches.  I have to decide what spots in the house their intelligence would be best utilized.  I was originally hoping to use one for the big overhead light in the kitchen but found out the smart switch can not be used in situations where a light is controlled by more than one switch as is the case in the kitchen.

Yesterday would have been Nicki’s 13th birthday.  Facebook gave me a sad reminder of it yesterday by flashing up the picture from last year where she was enjoying her normal birthday vanilla cupcakes.  It still stings badly whenever I make myself focus on the loss of the closest thing I will ever have to a child.  We miss her so much.

So our flight back from New York on Wednesday evening was long, very long.  The 3 hour flight was stretched further by the plane arriving almost 30 minutes late combined with a 45 minute wait on the runway because of the huge amount of planes trying to get into the air.  Once we were in the air we hit a lot of turbulence.  I assume the turbulence is what made the air crew wait incredibly long until they started the drink/snack service.  I bet we were 90 minutes into it by the time we got our drinks.  We hadn’t eaten any formal dinner so we actually paid for a healthy snack box up front.  With as long as it took to get the regular food service we were glad we paid the extra 5 bucks.

As soon as we landed in Florida we were immersed into the crazy for December levels of heat and humidity.  It was not welcome.  When we approached the baggage area Cindy and I got very nervous when they called my name to go to the luggage counter.  I was afraid they lost/destroyed my bag.  Instead they had the bag sitting in the office.  Since we arrived at JFK so early we actually were there when the previous Fort Myers flight took off.  My bag got thrown onto that plane instead, funny.

Cindy’s mom was picking us up from the airport.  I felt bad that our delayed flight made her have to wait until after 10 to pick us up.  We were exhausted by the time we got home so we did little else than pile up our bags in the laundry room to be sorted out the next day.  It felt good to fall asleep in our own bed without a serenade of honking horns waking us up through out the night.  It felt surreal that just earlier that morning we were walking through Central Park.  Various scenes from our memorable trip passed through my brain as I fell off to sleep. It was a great, great time.

We woke up Christmas Eve with a long list of things to tackle.  Not only did we have to “untrip” the house, which involves a lot of washing, cleaning, and putting away, we also had last minute Christmas stuff to  attend to.  I also spent a bunch of time processing the various video footage we shot in NYC, the majority of which was at Stonepark with Lou.  All of that footage is here, all of the stuff we shot with our phones is here.

Cindy ran out early to get some stuff for the Christmas meal we were hosting for her family.  Later in the afternoon I went out to do some last minute shopping. Yes, I was going to go out shopping, in brick and mortar stores, on Christmas Eve.  Although I had bought Cindy a number of Christmas gifts and the NYC trip was the real present to ourselves, I felt some bizarre need to get her just a couple more things.  I wasn’t locked in to exactly what I was getting but I did have a loose idea to perhaps get her a low end mountain bike that we could use to ride around the nearby Rookery Swamp area.

My first stop was Sam’s Club.  It was crowded but not crazy busy.  I walked in there just walking around, wondering if something would strike me as a good gift for Cindy.  I didn’t really expect much luck but then I walked down the small appliance area.  I spotted a small induction cooking system.  It included one “burner” which is not a good term since induction surfaces actually create no heat.  They create heat in the pan through magnetism.  The kit also included three induction cooking pots/pans.  Induction units heat up super fast and use less power than a conventional stove top.  I thought with as much cooking as Cindy does it would be a really helpful addition to her kitchen arsenal.

I then started on my mountain bike quest.  Like I said I wasn’t looking for anything high end but I didn’t want junk that would fall apart in short order.  When I first stopped at Wal-mart all I saw were bikes that fell into the junk category.  I then hopped in the car and headed over to Target.  They had junk bikes but also had some that were a step up in both quality and price level.  I was debating between two bikes.  One was a Schwinn that was tagged as a woman’s bike.  The other was a brand I never heard of that had no gender designation so I assumed it was a man’s bike.  This bike also had a fully independent suspension with shocks up front and the spring/trailer arm set up for the back.  Even with the suspension it was like 40 bucks less than the Schwinn.

I was torn on what to do.  I wound up walking up front with the cheaper bike with no gender designation.  I loaded it in the car. pulled out of the lot and immediately had buyers remorse.  The Schwinn was nicer looking and had more quality components.  I turned right onto Immokalee Road and made an immediate U-turn.  I marched the bike I just bought into the store, returned it and walked back out with the Schwinn.  I felt much more at ease with the decision.  Of course when I got home I had to tell Cindy she had to hide for a bit so I could hide stuff.  The induction cooking system got wrapped and I hid the bike on the far side of the SSR.

During the day I also took some time to address the rear bumper on the Prius which got banged up when I stupidly backed into Cindy’s daughters (boyfriends) car when I was rushing to get out of the driveway when we left for NYC.  The impact area had a few spots where the paint was scraped to the plastic but most of it was just surface scraping.  I generously applied Scratch X to the damaged area and was able to get a good amount of the scratching to fade away.  Sure you can still tell something went on in that corner but it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb as it did.  I doubt we will invest in getting the bumper professionally repaired since we have a goal to “dip” the Prius sometime in 2016.  This week I am having Cindy go with Katie to get an estimate on what it will cost to get the door on the Nissan repaired.

We spent Christmas Eve watching content on the dvr while enjoying  our normal Friday meal of pizza.  Not exactly the template for a Christmas Eve but we enjoyed it which is all that matters.

Our Christmas gift opening got the latest start of my entire life.  Cindy wanted to get the chicken maintenance out of the way before we started which was fine by me.  The end result was us not starting to tear paper until close to 8.  Hell years and years ago I remember finishing up before 7.

Despite us giving each other the trip to NYC we still had a huge mountain of packages around the tree.  Each year we proclaim how neither of us having a primal need to receive a lot of presents and each year we still get each other a lot of stuff, odd.  Cindy got me a nice variety of things including several books which I need to make the time to read, clothing, workout gear, geeky things, and new office chair which I sorely needed.  Cindy seemed to like what I got her as well.

Later in the morning we had a Skype session with my sister.  I bought my niece and nephew kid Kindles for Christmas which evidently were a big hit.  When we got connected both of them were very busily playing with them.  It made me feel good to be the “fun gift” uncle.  We had a good session catching up and being able to do so via video call makes it a different type of experience.

Cindy had to start digging into prep for the the Christmas brunch she was preparing for her family.  As usual Cindy made big plans for the meal.  I contributed by trying to get the post gift opening carnage cleaned up and organized the best I could. The first people started showing up between 12 and 12:30.

Cindy’s brother and nephew, Owen were among the first to arrive.  Owen is very shy by nature but each time I see him he opens up to me a little bit more.  He and I spent a lot of time talking/playing with his Minecraft toys as well as him explaining the Mario game he was playing on his Nintendo 3DS.

We hoped to wait to eat until Cindy’s daughter and boyfriend got there.  They were coming from the east coast where they were visiting Katie’s dad and his family.  They weren’t going to get there for awhile so we eventually just dug into the food.  As usual Cindy did a fantastic job with the spread of food, it was all delicious.

Eventually Katie and Daniel got there.  It was nice having Cindy’s family under one roof.  It seemed like everyone enjoyed each other’s company, not always an easy thing to accomplish.  I had several moments during the day I thought about my mom not being around to enjoy Christmas with us.  I also thought a lot about Nicki not being part of my Christmas for the first time in over a decade.  Even after the separation I think I had the dogs with me every Christmas because Ali was away.  This was the first year that wasn’t the case.  I did my best to quickly fast forward my brain to another thought before the wetness in my eyes reached critical mass.

Cindy’s family headed out late afternoon, allowing us to get stuff cleaned up and spend some time “playing” with our stuff.  One of the things I got from my dad was a Belkin Wemo, a smart switch that can be tied into our Amazon Echo.  The end result was me being able to do stuff like this.

On Saturday I had no desire to attempt any endurance training.  My lower body was still trashed from the workout with Lou nearly a week later.  Cindy’s back was hurting her as well.  I got my exercise from doing stuff around the house.  We also decided to head out into the day after Christmas madness which equals if not surpasses the Christmas Eve crowds I experienced.  Luckily since we didn’t go out until closer to noon the initial rush of gift return mania had subsided.  Cindy wanted me to find my own bike so we could ride together.  I had planned to get a bike of course but was willing to wait a little bit until the big tab for the last 30 days of spending had been handled.

After not seeing anything I was nuts about at Target we wound up stopping at Dick’s Sporting Goods.  The had a nice selection of bikes, most of which were a step up from what Target had.  We found a 29 inch Diamond Back mountain bike that was on clearance.  It was more than I was looking to spend initially but it was a high quality bike with quality accessories and disc brakes, I decided to get it.

While we were there we also developed another idea as far as Cindy’s bike goes.  She actually liked the bikes at Dick’s a little more.  They were a little more money but not prohibitively so.  We decided to put a bike on hold for her with the intention to make our second bike return at Target on Sunday.  I wanted to make sure Cindy liked what she was riding so letting her be involved in the process made more sense to me. Ironically over the weekend the plan flipped once more as we found a bike on Amazon she liked even more that would actually cost me less out of pocket because of Amazon spiff dollars and a gift card I had.  Once it arrives we will finally be ready to hit the trails.

On our way back we picked up Sadie for a weekend visit.  When we got home I wanted to get more stuff done.  One of those things was repairing the hole in the pool screen Sadie created during her last stay at the house.  It was the first section of screen I have replaced since I had the entire cage re-screened.  With Cindy’s help I think I did a decent job of getting the new section straight and tight.  Being on my swollen and stiff knees for that long was not much fun however.

On Saturday night Cindy and I watched our latest Netflix rental, The Age of Adeline.  This was a movie I never heard of that Cindy picked out.  It was an interesting premise and my dream scenario.  A woman has a freakish series of events occur that halt the aging process.  Even though she was something like 110 years old she remained physically in her late 20’s.   The movie even had Harrison Ford in it which was an unexpected surprise.  I found it a very solid rental worthy of a B+ rating all day long.

Saturday night I watched the Eagles efficiently complete the flushing of this season, losing at home to the Redskins with a playoff berth  on the line.  I was confident they would lose as I have no confidence in Chip Kelly’s ability to change in a manner significant enough to make a difference.  It is now established that he totally bungled the personnel decisions he was handed responsibility for in the off season.  He has now missed the playoffs two years in a row and if you factor in the losing streak at the end of last year his win/loss record for the past 20 games is atrocious.  I would be fine kicking him to the curb.  Hey flashy college coaches fail in the NFL all the time, this is just the latest example of it.  For Jeff Lurie to give a third year NFL coach personnel control was just asinine in my opinion.  That is a responsibility that is normally only given to coaches with proven track records, something Chip Kelly definitely does not possess.

On Sunday morning I still had no inclination to try to do supplemental exercise.  Instead after tending to stuff around the house we combined a coffee run with returning the Schwinn bike.  I think Cindy felt a little bad about returning the gift I bought her but it really didn’t bother me at all.  I would much prefer she gets what she wants instead of what I think she wants. We actually made two trips to Dunkin Donuts.  Once to get coffee and a second time to get Cindy’s replaced when she said it tasted like a taco.

The rest of our Sunday was pretty low key.  We kept busy but I encouraged Cindy to just take a break and relax, something she is worse at than I am.  She did take my advice at least a little bit, taking the time to finish the book she started while we were in NYC.  I combined work and play for most of the day.

Despite this being a relatively slow week at work I have a decent amount of things to get handled both at work and at home.  I am now looking forward to the end of the next 30 days after which my life responsibilities will change dramatically for the better.

It gets dark earlier significantly earlier in NYC than it does in Naples, meaning heading over to the Empire State building around 5:15 meant we had complete darkness to view the NYC nighttime skyline.  We were glad that 5:15 on a Tuesday is apparently a good time to go, we had very minimal lines to deal with.  This was the first attraction on our “Explorer Pass” that didn’t work smoothly.  You were supposed to just scan it at the turnstile and walk in.  Instead we had to get walked over to the regular ticket window to get conventional tickets.

The view up top was cold, windy and awesome.  I was glad that we did the Top of the Rock tour during the day to contrast what we saw at night.  Even though the daytime view gives a better scope of the immensity of the greater NYC area, the nighttime view is definitely visually more interesting.  A number of the buildings, including Empire State were lit up in a holiday appropriate way which was very cool to see.

There are two observation decks in the building, one at floor 86 and another at 110.  After seeing all of the stuff at 86 we figured we would hop on the elevator to go up to 110.  I was a bit annoyed to find out that the 30 bucks plus per head you pay does not include a ride up to 110, that costs extra.  I thought it was sort of bullshit. It is also something that is not well communicated.  I saw numerous people like us, assuming their ticket got them all the way to top, only to be told they would need to open their wallets again to get there.  Cindy and I agreed we saw what we wanted to see and headed back downstairs.

They had a lot of displays regarding the recent retrofitting they did to the building to make it dramatically more energy efficient.  They actually removed every single window in the structure and replaced the glass with a variety that is 4 x more energy efficient.  They made a ton of other changes that add up to energy savings of over a million dollars a year, impressive. The entire building is impressive.  Everywhere you look there are expensive surfaces and intricate attention to detail.  There was much more marble on the walls than paint.

I got the idea to head up to the Bryant Park area which was only 4 blocks north of us.  I recalled they transformed the park for Christmas the last time I was there and it was very cool.  I was happy to see the transformation was once again in place.

They fill the park with a bunch of temporary structures that are filled with unique food and crafts vendors.  They also construct a giant ice skating rink in the middle of the park that is heavily utilized, even when the temps are up in the 50’s.

Cindy and grabbed some very tasty veggie burgers from one of the stands for dinner.  I also showed Cindy the two outdoor ping pong tables that I found so intriguing in my past trips to NYC.  We were sitting there watching a game when a nice black guy came over named David who filled us in on how it works.  He said after a certain point in the calendar they don’t have free paddles available for people to borrow to play with, you have to bring your own.  Cindy and I were both surprised when he offered to let Cindy borrow one of his to play with.

I told Cindy I was in no shape to play with my painful, swollen knees but she should play anyway.  David and her got to play once the in progress game finished up.

The outdoor tables are funny with a metal “net” that is suitable to outdoor conditions.  The lighting also is not fantastic so I imagine it makes play a bit tougher.  David was surely a very good player but Cindy did well once she adjusted a little bit to the conditions.  She lost but they had a lot of good rallies that were entertaining to watch.

We thanked David for his generosity and for playing a game with Cindy.  He was just one of the examples of the bizarre dichotomy I find in New York.  When you are on the subway or walking the congested sidewalks it seems like the city is filled with nothing but stoic sour pusses.  However when you actually open up a line of communication with most people they are actually some of the friendliest and interesting you can find anywhere.

I also commented to Cindy how the obesity rate in NYC has to be incredibly below the national average.  Nearly everyone you see appears to be walking around at a healthy weight.  I can only assume the hustle and bustle of New York which requires copious amounts of walking is the major factor in this healthy trend.  It is really a dramatic difference from most places I have been.

I stumbled across an impromptu juggling lesson they also had at the park.  There was a decent rectangular plot of grass filled with juggling balls and clubs along with lots of people juggling them.  I did a couple quick standard juggling sessions while Cindy recorded it.  It was totally random, totally unexpected, and totally cool. We walked around Bryant park some more before calling it a night.  Cindy and I still were feeling  pretty beat up from the Sunday workout compiled with all the walking we had done the last few days.

This morning we grabbed breakfast at a different cafe on the other side of the street.  Just like every dining experience we had during the trip, it was great.  When we got back to the room we worked on getting all of our luggage consolidated and ready to go.  We had a couple hours to kill so I thought it would be neat to take Cindy to the southern end of Central Park, we only saw a small portion of the northern section the other day.

The temperature was very pleasant for walking, right around the mid-50’s.  We saw just a small portion of the numerous awesome treasures housed inside the park.  The coolest was the the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace. Wow.

The ornate architecture in every square inch of this area is amazing.  Cindy was open mouthed at just how beautiful it all was.  I never saw this area myself.  I felt quite lucky that we just happened to stumble across it as we walked along, what luck.  You could easily spend an entire day doing nothing but exploring the park, there is just so much beauty in there.

It was also cool seeing all the runners and bikers snaking through the park.  We actually packed stuff to run but there was just no way I could do it with the swelling going on in both of my knees.  I felt bad because I know Cindy would have loved to get a couple miles in around the park.

We kept an eye on the clock, making sure we got back to the room before the noon checkout time. We made it with time to spare since at this point we were more adept at utilizing the subway system effectively.  After checking out we took advantage of the hotels bag hold service where they will keep an eye on your bags until you are actually ready to leave.

We walked up 35th street in a different direction than we had so far.  We wound up eating lunch at a very cool chain called Pret A Manger.  The staff there was incredibly nice and the place does an incredible thing.  Each and every night they use any of their left over food to provide free meals for others instead of reusing it or throwing it out.  They even gave Cindy a free desert, just because they felt like giving it to her.

We decided to make one more trip up to Bryant Park to see whatever we missed the night before.  Despite the constant light rain we circled around checking stuff out.  We watched the people skating for a little while.  Cindy and I both zoomed in on an older guy in a full suit that was circling the ice with ease.  Cindy said she bet the guy used to be a hockey player.

About 15 minutes later we decided to head back.  Who did we happen to run into but the old guy in the suit with his skates in a bag.  Cindy told him he was a great skater and asked if he played hockey.  The guy smiled and said he did indeed play hockey.  He was quite appreciative that we noticed his skill out on the ice.

When we got back it was time to start the long haul back to the airport.  My large, soft sided duffel bag with wheels is great for stuffing shit into but a royal pain in the ass to pull for long distances.  I had to switch arms repeatedly on our way to the Herald Square station.  To get back to the JFK airport required two subway rides and a trip on the Airtrain.  The contrast in difficulty level to make this commute between when we arrived and when we left was dramatic.  Unlike the first time, we had no confusion or anxiety at all, we knew exactly how to get there.

When we got off our last subway ride Cindy offered our unlimited 7 day MTA passes to another couple that was headed into the city.  The passes still were good for unlimited subway rides until Christmas day so we figured somebody could get use out of them.

We got to the airport super early which is fine.  It is allowing mt to do stuff like get this blog entry completed.  Cindy had an embarrassing incident where she accidentally walked into the toilet stall side of the MENS room while no other men were in the area.  She only realized her mistake after coming out of the stall and seeing a man looking at her awkwardly.  Oops.

Our flight takes off  in an hour, returning us to our comfortable and familiar south Florida home base.  As always it will be great to get back home but Cindy and I both really enjoyed putting a distinctly different spin on our holiday season this year, giving ourselves a truly meaningful gift.   Clothing wears out, electronics break, and alcohol is consumed, memories like this last forever.

Adios NYC, we will be back.

Our first stop this morning was the Today Show outside spectator area.  We grabbed coffee and a bagel on the way there instead of doing a formal breakfast arrangement.  When we first got there we were trying to get a picture into the studio from the sidewalk that is right next to it.  There was a very persistent police officer that insisted you were not allowed to stop in front of the window at all.  I guess they don’t want somebody flashing a moon to a national morning show audience.  We stepped across the street and used the camera zoom to at least get a half decent picture.

We then decided to try to get into the formal crowd around the outside area where the cast shoots various spots from.  We had to walk up and around the block to the far side to get into the entrance where they give you a quick wanding to make sure you aren’t carrying any weapons.  When we first got in there the back section of gated area was pretty empty which is where we stood for a little while.  It was pretty far away from the action however.

It started to rain at a decent clip.  About half of the people that were packed around the other side, close to the studio, left the area.  Cindy used it as her opportunity to get us close.  We made our way to the closer fencing and Cindy actually managed to get herself right up front.  We were there too late to catch any of the cast back out on the street but we were clearly on the crowd pan shot that went down right around 9AM.  We have the DVR running at home recording the Today Show so we can check it. After the 9AM pan shot they close down the spectator area for the rest of the show.

We went in the NBC gift shop briefly next door so Cindy could pose with cardboard cut outs of her favorite morning show.  We decided to do the Top of the Rock tour since we were right there.  We sat for a few minutes in a common area.  My lower body and lower back just feel all kinds of tight after Sunday’s IronLoo workout.  I just can’t stay upright for that long without being in a lot of discomfort.

The light rain and overcast skies dampened the view from the top of the Rockefeller Building but it still was very impressive.  Looking down on the huge expanse of urban engineering is something you really have to see first hand to appreciate.  It can realign your perspective on things and give you more appreciation for the quiet and simple things, if that is what you value.

After thoroughly checking out the view from the building from every perspective we had to decide what we wanted to do next.  The shitty weather made the idea of doing a lot of walking outside not sound like a great idea.  Cindy suggested we should catch an early Star Wars showing, something I dismissed earlier in the trip but now made good sense.  The weather sucked, I was looking to sit, and going around lunch time on a Tuesday, even in NYC meant we could probably see the movie without being overly crowded.  We made out way to the AMC theater in Time Square who was playing the movie every half hour in 2D or 3D all day long.

This was a multi-level theater, we rode the elevator to the 5th floor to get to our showing.  We got in shortly after the previews started and had no problem finding a seat up high in a row by ourselves.  We seemed all ready to have an enjoyable movie experience, until THEY showed up.  They, (a black guy and girl) walked in front of us with their phone light on full force, illuminating the row so they could take a seat on the left side of the theater, maybe 3 rows down from us and a total of maybe 20 feet away.  They were talking as they walked by us and they continued to talk, non-stop, once they sat down.  It was still the previews so I held out hope they had the common sense to shut the fck up.  Of course, they didn’t.

For the first 15 minutes of the movie I just sat there annoyed before I commented to Cindy about it.  She thought that maybe if she asked them “nicely” they would realize they were being inconsiderate.  She asked them to please be quiet.  She told me later she got a look from the girl like she wanted to kill her.  Cindy’s nice request was of course ignored and they continued to talk non-stop.

So now I had to decide how I wanted to handle it.  I could ask them to shut up in a not nice manner, make a scene, and if that didn’t work I would have to track down theater personnel to tell them to either shut up or get out.  But I really just wanted to just watch the damn movie and not miss a big chunk of it dealing with inconsiderate assholes.  Cindy and I looked around the far side of the theater for alternative seating out of earshot of these idiots.  We got up and headed down the steps.  I stopped and told the irritating couple I didn’t appreciate them talking the entire time and it was extremely rude of them.   They said nothing in return, I almost wish they did.  We found lower seating on the opposite side that was at least less irritating.  Nobody around was talking much but the people behind Cindy had a hard time not bumping the seat.  Why are people such assholes….

So finally we could turn our attention back to the movie.  I have to say I thought it was nearly impossible for Star Wars to live up to all the hype.  People have been dying for redemption for the generally shitty prequel trilogy that Lucas made in the 90’s.  Well they finally got it.  I thought the movie was great.  It finally delivered the same feel of movie as the originals.  I thought they did a great job of tying the old characters together with the newcomers in such a way that felt natural and as it should be.  I can hardly wait for the next installment.  Kudos to JJ Abrams for knocking it out of the park.  Hell I would go see it again if I could guarantee to do it without a symphony of morons surrounding me.  A+ all day, see it.

After the movie we found a tiny little place to eat lunch.  I enjoyed my first falafel sandwich while Cindy and I sat by the window, watching NYC happen outside.  We decided to head back to the room to give us a much needed breather.  Once it gets dark out I think we will do our Empire State tour we already paid for to see the high view at night and contrast it with what we saw this morning.

The temps today have been MUCH better than the first two days. It has been 50+ degrees all day, requiring no extensive clothing precautions.  Tomorrow we have a good chunk of the day left to explore before we take public transportation back to JFK, where we fly back tomorrow evening.

This trip has been awesome as we expected but it will also be one of those vacations that a few days to recover from will be a good thing.

Oh I forgot, on one of the video boards they were playing an ad encouraging people to vacation in the Naples area.  It seemed incredibly ironic we stumbled upon it at just the right time.

So our first destination of the morning was the Battery Park area.  My original intent was for us to just take Staten Island Ferry which gives you a pretty solid view of statue.  We prepaid  for the tickets (or so I thought) as part of a New York “Explorer” pass.  When we went to redeem our internet tickets for real ones I realized what we actually paid for was the tourist ferry out to statue island which was fine, I never did it before.

Getting on the ferry required an airport style security scan. The only difference was we got to keep our shoes on.  When we boarded the ferry it felt cold, despite the forecast highs in the 50’s.  As we chugged across the open water Cindy and I were both pretty frozen.

It was cool seeing the statue up close and personal.  We walked the perimeter of the island, taking pictures along the way.  We didn’t spend an extraordinary amount of time walking the island and were anxious to step into the gift shop for a few minutes to warm up.

We hopped back on the return ferry which also made a stop at Ellis Island.  I have to be honest, before today I thought the Statue of Liberty resided on Ellis Island.  Today I realized they are two different locations.  Cindy and I were content to skip the Ellis Island part of the trip and just stayed on the boat to get back to Battery Park.  On the last leg of the ride a nice asian family had their two young boys sitting next to us for most of the ride.  They were both very cute.  The 5 year old was talking to Cindy most of the way.

Once we got on solid ground we decided we would walk up to the 9/11 site.  We discovered an awesome bike/walking lane in the middle of the automotive traffic.  It made the walk up to the site very enjoyable, despite the cold wind that was still annoying us.

The 9/11 Memorial visit was a somber one.  Seeing the massive footprints where the Trade Center buildings once stood seemed a bit surreal.  I personally thought it was in poor taste to see people with selfie sticks happily snapping photos at the spot thousands of people died horrible deaths.  We decided to skip the 911 museum, the line was freaking ridiculous.

We ate lunch at a nearby small deli style place where Cindy and I both had a cup of soup and split a “gozlene”, some Turkish panini looking thing that was quite delicious.

We decided to go check out the incredible church, St John of the Divine.  I suspected Cindy would find it fascinating.  I was right. Even though I had been there once before I was happy to visit again.  The beauty, size and architecture in the church literally takes your breath away.  I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of skill, engineering, and patience involved in building the church.  It is just an amazing testament to what man can do when motivated by higher powers.  We spent a lot of time there, checking out every room we had access to.

Since we were close to the northwest corner of Central Park we decided to walk over there as well.  I had never been in the northern end of the park.

We walked around the park for close to an hour, getting out just as the sun was setting.  We located another subway entrance and mapped out a course to get us to the Times Square area.  The subway cars were ridiculously full, since it was around 5 I assume it was work commuters.  At one point we were shoulder to shoulder with people and had 5 different hands grabbing onto the same pole.  I don’t enjoy those type of situations.  i have no idea how a germaphobe would exist in a place like New York.  I am sure when the next pandemic breaks out NYC will go down very quickly.  The amount of cross contamination that goes on is off the charts.

When we got into the Times Square area it was a freaking mess with rivers of human beings flowing in both directions.  We walked it just long enough for Cindy to see the area where the ball drops and little else.  We ducked down a side street and ate at an Irish restaurant.  Both Cindy and I were hurting big time from the Stonepark workout marathon the day before.  We just wanted to get off our feet for awhile.  We both had fish and chips which were tasty.

We decided to make one last push for the day to see the Rockefeller Center tree.  Although I didn’t think it was possible there were even more people jammed into the streets in that direction.  Both Cindy and I were getting very frustrated and annoyed with dealing with so many people.  It just isn’t what we enjoy.  After a wrong turn we finally found our way to the tree.  My sense of direction in the city is awful since I have no bearing as to what is north or south.  I was using Google Maps on my phone and proceeded to kill the battery in the process from all the gps work.  I was pissed.

Finally we got to the tree and actually got much closer than I expected, within a few feet.  The tree was impressive as hell, looking too big to be real but it was.  We took a few pictures with Cindy’s phone.  Cindy also was excited to be able to stand right outside the Today Show studio and meander in the plaza the show shoots out of all the time.  We grabbed some hot apple cider and a delicious chocolate chip cookie that we split before we headed out.

Before we made the long walk back to the hotel we watched the awesome light show that takes place on the side of the Saks building.  It was worth fighting the crowds for.  The 15 block walk back to the hotel was not fun between the crowds and the overall body soreness we both were feeling.  Finally our hotel came into view.  It felt good to get back into our tiny room so we could unwind for yet another busy day tomorrow.

I hope my typical second day soreness doesn’t kick in like it normally does.  I could be hobbling around the city if it hits hard.

Saturday night was a rough one from a sleep perspective.  It was cold out so we had the in room air conditioner on heat mode.  It ran until the room got up to 75 degrees, providing the white noise I usually need to sleep.  Unfortunately once it hit that temp it’s thermostat would shut it down, removing the white noise.  Once the temp would drop a couple degrees it would cycle back on.  This all night cycle meant I never truly felt like I fell asleep all night long.

In addition to the AC unit I heard a ton of street noise.  Our room at the hotel is only on the 3rd floor, making it susceptible to hearing pretty much everything going on down there.  Cindy also still was having issues with her coughing from illness.  I got up at 7 AM feeling absolutely exhausted.  I had no time to be tired since it was IronLoo day.

We got up and ate breakfast at a place called the Oxford Cafe which was right next to our hotel which was convenient.  They had a great selection of food however I stuck with something simple, ordering oatmeal, not wanting anything that would get in the way of what I knew was going to be a very tough day physically.  For most of our breakfast Cindy and I were the only ones in the cafe which felt odd.

When we got back to the room I tried to map out our plan.  We needed to catch a 10:22 train out of Penn Station which looked to easily be walking distance from our hotel.  I had some instructions from Lou as far as which train to get on.  As we walked I mentioned how it was dumb of me to not have brought a knit beanie for head warmth.  We just happened to be approaching Macy’s so we went inside to try to quickly find one.

Cindy was immediately impressed with the size and grandeur of the store, a throwback to when store shopping was actually a thing.  It was very busy with the holiday decorations looking amazing.  It took some trial and error but eventually we found knit hats on the 4th floor.  I was excited that we got to ride a few sets of the ancient wood escalators that I had told Cindy about in the past.  They are so awesome.  Cindy also found it very interesting that as we were exiting we arrived at floor 1 1/2, the only store I know of that has such a thing.

We found our way out of the store and continued our way towards Penn Station.  We saw a small sidewalk entrance that was labeled as Penn Station so we figured we could get to the train there.  A transit worker informed us that the trains were a block away at the actual station that was inside of Madison Square Garden.

When we got there it was an instant beehive of activity, the station was packed.  We saw a lot of people with Giants jerseys on, presumably heading to the game later in the day.  Cindy and I were very confused as to where exactly to go.  Thanks to some direction from a cop we discovered we needed the LIRR and not Amtrak in order to reach the Oyster Bay line.  We headed downstairs and managed to buy two tickets via the self service kiosk.  We had around 15 minutes to kill so we grabbed ourselves our first NYC DD coffee of the trip, it was much needed.  I didn’t like the feeling of being so clueless in regards to how to get where I wanted to go.  It was frustrating.

So we found the track for our train and found a seat on the nearly empty car.  We had more confusion in regards to if/where we needed to transfer to get to our end destination.  The ticket taker woman told us we needed to get off at the Jamaica station to catch the Oyster Bay line.  The ride out of the city was cool.  It was interesting seeing the landscape transform from skyscrapers to neighborhoods.

Once we got off at Jamaica we only had a short wait until our next train showed up.  It was a bigger train with two levels.  I told Cindy we should head up top where better views were to be had.  The ride to the Seacliff depot was very scenic and calm, the calm before the storm.  When we got off the train we saw a huge white van which we knew was Lou’s work vehicle.  The time had come.

I have known Lou for years but only from a distance.  We met via our shared interest in calisthenics and my involvement with the Bar-barians.  We never had spoken but we have chatted extensively over the years about both things exercise and life related.  As we descended the stairs Lou pulled the van up and got out.  Of course Cindy ran up and gave him a big hug which I did as well.  It was so nice to see Lou in person.

Despite our lack of face to face contact we interacted like we just talked the other day.  Lou is very outgoing and funny.  When teamed up with Cindy and her talkative personality I could just do a lot of listening and laughing which was fine by me.  In the back of Lou’s van were a huge collection of strongman gear including weight plates, farmer carry handles, and a log press.  Every time we would hit a bump they would clang loudly.

Lou drive through a Starbucks to grab us some coffee.  He normally works a night shift and drinks coffee like others drink water.  His ON switch is permanently welded in place.  We then unexpectedly got to meet Lou’s grandfather.  We were picking up an atlas stone Lou had made that was sitting in the backyard.  In the yard were a number of broken tools.  Lou said he broke most of them, he just has a way of doing that.

Lou’s grandfather was actually born in Italy.  When he came out he was giving Lou shit for breaking stuff, especially his garage door.  It was funny how he could switch between yelling and laughing so quickly.  He was very funny, I could see where Lou gets it from.  So the plan was to get the 365 pound atlas stone into the back of the van meaning we had to get it out of the backyard that has a downhill slope to it.  Lou brought out a very old looking handtruck of his grandfathers to use but was worried about breaking it as well.

We used the cart for the first and last part of the transport but I told Lou I would roll the stone up the steep, wet part of the climb.  Sure it was a nearly 400 pound stone ball but I figured rolling it up the short hill shouldn’t be bad.  Well I was wrong.  I barely managed to get the stone to the flat patio above.  It’s weight combined with the wet grass made it very difficult.

When we got to the van we were debating how to get the stone in the back.  At first Lou thought about using the hand truck to pull it in but again fear of breaking it killed that idea.  Lou then decided he would lift it up himself.  That seemed like a really bad idea to me.  He grabbed an old sleeve from a piece of clothing to use as a strap and proceeded to hoist the stone cleanly into the van, resting it inside the wheel of the spare tire.  I couldn’t believe he could lift it.

We all piled back in the van, we had more supplies to grab for the workout.  First we stopped at GNC where Lou grabbed pre-workout drinks which are kind of like supercharged coffee, supposedly to give you more energy.  We then went to a Rite Aid where Lou bought some of that rubberized medical tape normally used to keep large bandaged areas in place.  He uses the tape as arm wraps for lifting atlas stones.  Before we got to Stone Park Lou gave us a quick tour of the some of the areas I had only seen in the past via his numerous exercise videos.  It was cool seeing first hand where all of this stuff went down over the years.

So finally we had made it to the park.  I had seen this park dozens of time on video but being there in person was surreal.  There is the parking lot he has walked bare foot across, there are the monkey bars he has lifted stones over, there is the pull up bar I saw him muscle up over, it was so cool.

Well there was now work to be done to get all of the equipment set up.  Not only did we have to unload the van we had to retrieve items from the park itself.  Lou keeps monster tires and atlas stones there full time.  The tires are kept back in the brush, chained together for safekeeping.  The stones are in a big hole Lou and his friends dug by hand.  It almost looked like a huge dinosaur laid round stone eggs in there.  By the time all of the stuff was set up/rolled out I was already breathing heavy.

Just as we were getting the last stones out a car pulled up.  It was Ray (the inventor of Ray’s Way), another calisthenic friend I met in the same way I knew Lou.  He had come with his girlfriend which was very cool.  He had been to Stonepark once before over a year ago.  It was so great having both Lou and Ray there.  A little later another friend of Lou’s showed up, Patrick.  Patrick actually owns a gym and has been working out with Lou for a little while.  He brought with him a special deadlift bar along with more weights.

So finally the fun could begin.  Lou has a total of 5 atlas stones there of varying weight ranging from 185 pounds to the massive 365 pounder we brought with us.  We alternated between the stones and deadlifting at first.  I have deadlifted before at the gym for awhile.  I was surprised that Lou said my form looked decent as it never has felt great.  I worked all the way up to 375 on the dead lifts with Lou which was the most I have gotten in the last year.  Ray and I were very close strength wise.  Despite not looking it, he only weighed 5 pounds less than me.  Of course everyone there was at least 20 years younger than me.

The atlas stone lifting was much, much harder than I expected.  I figured with my extremely long arms lifting these should not be horrible.  I was able to get the 185 pound stone onto my lap and up without huge difficulty.  I next tried the 205 pound stone that despite being only 20 pounds heavier had a much larger diameter.  This combination made it feel tremendously more difficult.  I barely got it on my lap and when I tried to stand with it I felt a tremendous strain across my abs as I tried to extend upwards.  It felt “you just gave yourself a hernia” bad.  I was officially worried about really hurting myself but I had to continue on.

I had never done real farmer carries before where you have two independent handles loaded down with massive weight that you walk forward with, as fast and as far as you can go.  With my high center of gravity it felt odd trying to balance and move at the same time.  Lou started us off “light” with only 140 pounds of weight in each hand.  Each time we successfully handled a weight that meant it was time to add more.

At my top end Lou threw 230 pounds on each handle which before yesterday I would have told you I had absolutely no shot getting off the ground.   Hell just last week I failed getting 400 pounds off the ground at the gym with a hex bar.  With Lou screaming at me to pump me up I  somehow managed to get 460 pounds up in the air and walk 20-25 feet with it.  It was nuts.

Lou had two monster tires on the lot, a 600 pounder and an 800 pounder.  Early on in the workout I tried getting the 600 flipped a couple times and failed miserably. Later in the workout Ray tried it and failed but then after some form tips from Lou actually got the thing flipped up and over.  Well that convinced me I needed to try again.

I spread out my arms to widen my grip.  I moved my feet further away from the tire, allowing me to get my shoulders lower, pressed against the rubber.  I then just pushed with all I had.  The 600 pound tire moved slowly but it continued to rise upward until it was upright.  I shoved it back down on it’s side triumphantly.  I did it once again a few minutes later to prove it wasn’t a fluke.

At one point Cindy tried to budge the 185 pound stone which I knew wasn’t a great idea.  She couldn’t quite get it off the ground but got close.  Of course her back was feeling all out of whack afterward.  She spent most of the afternoon watching/filming the action.  I felt badly as the day went on because I could tell she was very cold.  She didn’t realize just how long Lou’s workouts go.

Ray and my last major achievement of the day was with the 70 pound log press bar.  After some failures at a higher weight we both managed to get the awkward bar overhead with 35 pound plates on each side.  It was a tough movement.

For most of the afternoon we just cycled between the various lifts. Of course Lou and Patricks lifts were far more impressive.  They both walked around with 600 pounds on the farmer carry with relative ease and Lou lifted the 350 pound atlas stone repeatedly.  I was honestly surprised I was able to keep going that long, especially after the pain I felt with the 205 pound atlas stone early on.  We wrapped things up as darkness was setting in.  Putting all the stuff away was a good workout on it’s on.

We bid farewell to Patrick, Ray and his fiance Natalie.  I really appreciated them making the effort to come out and share the Stonepark experience with us.  Cindy and I got in the van and enjoyed the heat pouring out of the vents.  Even with all the exercise my extremities were feeling quite cold.

Lou was our ride back to the city but we first want to relax and eat.  Lou stopped at his place to change while I changed out of dirt covered sweats and into some spare clothes.  We found a nearby pizza place and had a great time chowing down while enjoying a couple beers.  Lou has had some very interesting life experiences and shared some more of them with us at dinner.

Finally it was time for the drive back to Manhattan.  Despite it being Sunday night the traffic was substantial.  Lou delivers stuff for a living in his extended van.  I just could not stand dealing with that sort of traffic day in and day out.  It was nuts.

Lou got us back to our hotel in one piece and swung to the side of 5th avenue to drop us off, bringing a chorus of horns from annoyed drivers.  Lou answered back with his own prolonged horn symphony.  We both hugged him again, thanking him for a great day.  We told him we hoped to see him in Florida someday.  It was quite a day.

I could already feel the repercussions from the workout settling into my muscles and joints.  After a lengthy shower I collapsed into bed and flipped on the Eagles game.  Thankfully I didn’t even stay awake until halftime, I was so exhausted.  It looks like I avoided watching them get blown out by the Cardinals, reaffirming my feeling the last two wins were an anomaly and not a trend.

I slept better last night and we are now ready to limp around NYC in full tourist mode.  It should be a great day.

So the flight to JFK was annoying to some degree as most flights are to me.  Not only did we have young children behind us but we also had small dogs in the passenger cabin that barked off and on.  The air at times was very rough, throwing the plane around in ways that did not feel reassuring.

Once we got out of the plane we got our first cold blasts of air.  Since at that point I still just had a t-shirt on they felt especially icy.  As has always been the case each time I have flown into JFK the luggage comes out lightning fast.  Our only delay on the way to baggage claim was a quick pee stop.  That was all it took for our bags to be almost the last ones left on the carousel.

Once we got the bags we enjoyed our “dinner” splitting a tuna sandwich and root beer.  We followed the signs until we located the AirTrain.  The first train we got on was the one that simply looped continuously around the airport terminal.  We soon realized our mistake and got on the Howard Beach train that headed towards Manhattan.

The train ride was fine.  Once we got off MTA staff walked me through getting one MTA card to pay for the airport train and then two unlimited 7 day passes for Cindy and I to use to get around the city the next few days.  I dropped 31 bucks for each pass.  I’m not sure if I would have came out ahead just paying as we go instead. Time will tell.

Waiting at the outdoor station waiting for the A train was our first extended exposure to the air temps in the upper 30’s.  It did not feel great.  Cindy and I stood there shivering for 15-20 minutes waiting for the train to show up.  One man tried to deal with the cold by periodically hitting the elevator button and standing inside it for a few moments.

The A train ride was interesting.  It was lengthy, taking something like 17 stops to get to 4th st west where we got off.  There were some interesting individuals on board, including the guy that went car to car giving a lengthy diatribe about his poor situation followed by requests for money.  Most of the people in the car acted like the guy was invisible, not even looking up from their smart phones to acknowledge him.  I listened but did not make eye contact which I figured would identify me as an easy target.  If Cindy wasn’t with me I may have flipped him a few bucks.

Once we got to our transfer point more confusion came our way.  The D train line that the MTA app indicated we should take next was out of commission.  After reading some signs and verifying with a construction worker, we discovered we could take the F train to get to the 34th street area.  Once we exited the station out onto the street we got out first real in your face NYC experience.

People were everywhere, making it difficult to drag 3 rolling luggage bags behind us.  Our path to the hotel took us right past the Empire State Building which was very cool, just like the air temperature.  We spotted our hotel and were very happy to step inside into some warmer air.  The hotel seemed very quaint.  When we traveled to the third floor and snaked down the narrow hall we found our room.

The first adjective that came to our minds was SMALL.  The room was extremely tight, smaller than a cabin on a cruise ship.  It is clean, nicely furnished and modern.  You just have to make sure you watch where you are walking else risk kicking something or knocking something over.  I am typing this at a tiny desk that is wedged behind the air conditioner. We went downstairs briefly to score an apple cider type of drink from the attached Starbucks.  We are winding down, hoping to get a solid night of sleep to fuel us for a very busy Sunday ahead.