Archives August 2015

Last night Cindy and I took in the season 2 finale of True Detective. Although I enjoyed season one more, this year was good as well but a bit frustrating.  The story had too many facets to keep track of accurately. If you asked me to clearly explain how everything was connected now I would be unable to do so.  It didn’t help that I watched a couple episodes when I was half asleep meaning I missed out on a few details.

I thought it was quite interesting seeing Vince Vaughn play a bad guy.  Until now I associated him with solely playing the lead role in a string of average comedy films.  I think the only film of his that I really found funny was Dodgeball.   Anyway, it took some time for me to shed those past impressions of him as a silly/comedy guy but once I did I appreciated how well he took to the somewhat honorable villain role. Part of my comprehension problem had to do with Colin Farrel delivering a lot of his dialogue in a mumbly manner with a volume slightly above whisper level.  I guess it was part of the character but it made it hard to follow without cranking the volume way up.

The ending of the story was appropriately tragic, you don’t expect to come away from the show with a cute fuzzy bunny sense of the world.   If you don’t mind shows that capture the dark underside of humanity then True Detective should be on your dvr.

I still have been having the phantom smoke smell come and go although lately it has been a lot more come than go.  Yesterday I had the smell in my head for most of the day including all of last night.  I smell it somewhat right now.  If this continues into next week I will probably get the ball rolling to at least rule out anything significant going on.

So as I mentioned yesterday the big perch that the chickens sleep on was due for a retooling last night.  As soon as I got home I headed out to the coop to get started.  Cindy had already done some work during the day on it, flipping the perch on it’s side and removing sections of wood that we would reuse in it’s new orientation.

Having a large triangle for the birds definitely looked like a better option since they seem to all insist on being as high as possible.  We started tacking on additional perching accessories as well as a series of lower rungs to allow the chickens to hop up to the top floor.  As in most of our projects we sort of just played it by ear but by the time we were done it looks like we had a pretty good set up.

When dusk settled in we watched on the surveillance cam and saw all the birds had gotten into place and looked much less crowded which is what we hoped for.  The only snafu was Peaches, the chicken that hopped onto screening near the roof the other night, once again jumped onto the shelf area where all the electronics are.  Cindy scolded her as she put her back on the perch.  We hung some additional screen to block shelf access.  Unfortunately it also blocks the vision of the security dvr camera so there will be some further rearrangement necessary. After putting Peaches back in place the birds settled down and seemed to have a pleasant and less crowded night of rest. Today Cindy will be putting some final tweaks on the redesigned perch, including painting any unfinished wood and reconfiguring the area around it to maximize poop cleaning efficiency.

Yesterday I made a vet appointment for Nicki for next week.  She has had some masses on her belly for quite awhile.  A couple vets have looked at them in the past and their diagnosis was they were benign and if they aren’t causing Nicki any pain or problems it is best to leave them alone considering her age of 13 years.  Well the masses seem to keep getting larger and to me it seems like there are more side effects of them.  Nicki’s bark now is barely a whisper, it seems like she can’t get enough air in her lungs.  Also when she is laying down in an upright position she almost always is panting, again seeming to me like it is because lack of air.  My non-expert theory is these masses have gotten to the size where they are obstructing Nicki’s lungs from expanding.

So anyway, it has been nearly a year since a vet took a look at the masses.  I want to have her looked at again and express my concerns.  Based on what the vet says and the risk/reward formula in options for reducing or removing the masses we will decide what is the best path to follow.  If something can be done without putting Nicki at significant risk it makes sense to explore it.  My dad’s dog had a similar mass that was removed a year or so ago and it went well.  Maggie is a couple years younger however.

It’s hard to believe but I am a few days away from my 15th year anniversary at my job, meaning I also just crossed the 15 year Florida resident milestone.  To imagine a decade and a half has already passed seems impossible but a simple glance at a calendar confirms it’s validity.  I have never regretted my choice to relocate 1200 miles south of my Reading, PA roots.  Although life in Florida has not quite panned out the way I imagined it would be prior to the move, overall it has been a clear step up in my quality of life.  With that being said, I don’t know that Florida will be my final destination.  My cross country road trips have opened up my eyes to other areas of the country that may be a better fit down the road.  Any of those possibilities have a common thread, a scarcity of people.

I got out of work a little early on Friday, I put the time to good use.  After stopping at Sam’s to get a few bulk items I was still home before 5.  I immediately changed clothes and headed outside to get a jump start on the weekend chores.  I got all of the weeding done as Cindy was still finishing up mowing on the tractor. It gave me a nice mental head start on the weekend.

For the past week or two we have had a couple baby turtle doves living by the side of the house on the ground, they are a little larger than a parakeet.  At first when we saw them we assumed they fell out of a nest from the oak tree and were stuck on the ground. That theory changed when saw them sitting on top of a fence cross support and later saw them fly pretty capably short distances.  They seem pretty docile.  As long as I walk quietly I can pass them with only a couple feet leeway.

At one point over the weekend I saw the two baby birds on the ground flapping around, it almost looked like they were fighting.  As I got closer I noticed there was a third bird, an adult turtle dove who I assume is the mom.  The babies were just very excited and I assume mom was feeding them, explaining how they have survived on the ground. It was cute.

First thing Saturday morning Cindy and I worked on deworming the chickens.  Instead of trying to catch each one and shoot liquid down their throats we decided to inject the dewormer into blueberries which the chickens love.  For most of the birds it was pretty simple as they gobbled up the blueberry after which we set them loose in the yard.  Kristen and Pumpkin were the most challenging but eventually they downed the medicated berry as well.

After de-worming we picked up the dogs during a DD coffee run.  I hadn’t seen them in two weeks.  We kept them the rest of the weekend until I dropped them off this morning.

There was more coop tweaking on Saturday.  When we were cleaning the coop we noticed the floor near the automatic chicken door was quite wet.  I have had a problem with some water seeping down the wall of the shed where it meets up with the chicken run but I didn’t think it was that much.  When I built the run I filled in the small gap between the roof of the run and the side of the shed with a piece of plywood.  When I took a look at the wood it looked like it had developed a slight warp that resulted in a slightly downward tilt, directing any rainwater that fell on it against the shed wall.

I took my one leftover spare corrugated white plastic roof panel and cut it down so it would fit on top the area where the plywood resides.  I installed the piece at an angle sloping away from the shed to keep as much water away from the shed wall as possible.  I have to wait until the next good thunderstorm to see if my efforts were fruitful.

I also did some extensive yard maintenance on Saturday hopping on the tractor to mow down the back of the property.  Since we were in one of the dry spots during wet season I figured I better mow while the mowing was good.   Mowing the back is a slow process due to the height of the grass.  Certain spots require you to either go very slow or to back up over a second time to get the high stalked stuff. The canopy on the tractor makes the task so much better on a hot August day.  After I was finished mowing I still had some gas in my motivation gas tank.  I grabbed the weed whacker and started hacking away at the thick high grass that filled the ditch towards the back of the fenced in portion of the yard.  Getting through the stuff required max throttle and a gradual chopping strategy where you knock down the grass/weeds with multiple passes.  When it was all done the backyard matched the front of the property for one of the few times each year.

On Saturday night Cindy and I made our near weekly trip to the movie theater to see Fantastic Four. Both Cindy and I had read the bad reviews of the film ahead of time but we normally prefer to make our own judgements.  Once again we had issues with other theater patrons.  There were two presumably teenage girls that were about 3-4 seats down in the row behind us that had near continuous conversation going on.  It started doing the previews.  Cindy and I assumed they would have the common sense to shut up once the movie began.  Of course we were mistaken.  They got a couple looks from me and a lot more from Cindy, including a “Psshhht!” which did not appear to do anything.

When I weighed the options of getting up and making a scene versus simply moving to another section of the mostly empty theater the latter choice made more sense.  A couple young girls are not going to respond well to requests for common courtesy, a trait the majority of modern day youth are devoid of.  We relocated to the top left corner of the theater with nobody within spitting distance and had a much better experience.

I have had a long streak of having favorable reviews of every Marvel movie I have seen.  Even lesser known titles like Ant Man and Guardians of the Galaxy exceeded my expectations.  Well this latest Fantastic Four broke that streak.

To be honest the first 75% of the movie was ok, it kept my interest and portrayed an interesting background of how the FF 4 obtained their powers, something I did not know.  However once Dr. Doom emerged as the feature villain of the film things totally flew off the track.  The story all of a sudden got incredibly stupid, simplistic, and unimaginative.   It was like the writers walked off the film at this point and were replaced by 5th graders.  Dr Doom has unimaginable power, literally being able to just look at somebody and make them melt, or open cosmic black holes, yet somehow he winds up in a conventional hand to hand battle with Mr Fantastic, played by an actor no one cared about.  The ending of the film was just incredibly moronic.  It took what was possibly a B+ flick straight down into B- or even C+ territory, it was that dumb.

The movie also was animation feature film short, barely 90 minutes long.  Again it felt like they lopped out huge chunks of film towards the end and just threw whatever was left against the wall.  Hell it was so bad that even Stan Lee did not have an appearance in the movie.  Like true Marvel suckers we stayed till the end of the credits, hoping to at least catch something of interest.  Our reward for waiting was a blank screen and a closed curtain.  The movie certainly is not worth of spending movie theater dollars to see.  Sure rent it on Netflix but don’t expect to be impressed.

Sunday morning Cindy, who just got clearance to bike last week after her toe surgery, and I planned to get out on the road for a bike ride.  We were joined by Kerri whose son is going to be our chicken sitter during the road trip.  She lives close by and has just started road biking.  We decided to ride out to Ave Maria since it was on the way to Kerri’s place.

Prior to Sunday the longest ride Kerri did was about 3 miles, going all the way out to Ave Maria was about 25 miles for her and 30 miles for us so she was making a dramatic increase in mileage.  Kerri however is a good endurance athlete with several marathons under her belt.

I lead most of the ride keeping a pace that was around 16 mph on average, trying to account for the extra distance and Kerri’s lack of riding experience.  On the way back I picked up the speed a bit doing 17-18mph for a good portion of the distance and Kerri was able to hang.  By the time we got back to the entrance to her development both Cindy and I were pooped.  Neither of us had rode 30 miles in quite a long time.  The last 3 miles to the house were not enjoyable between a sore rear end and tired legs.

We still are having issues with chicken sleeping arrangements.  Saturday night we had to remove Peaches from the top of a barrier screen Cindy mounted in front of the electronics.  Every night all 11 birds try to jam on to the top perch area, despite there being three totally empty perches below.  As the birds continue to grow there is less and less space up top.  Cindy and I are considering yet another modification where we turn the big perch structure we made on it’s side so there is a large triangle of perching space all at the same height.  There are some design changes and proof of concept that need to be worked out but hopefully we can make it work.

I got my DJI quadcopter out for the first time in months to shoot some aerial video of the property.  Right after taking off for my first flight I saw something very odd on the horizon.  It was low, bright to the point where I could see it even behind clouds and appeared to be moving very slowly. I tried to position the copter so it was pointing in the direction of the object but on the video I can’t see what my eyes tracked.  My logical assumption is what I saw was a plane with a reflective exterior that was catching the high sun at just the right angle to reflect in my direction on the ground.  The copters higher vantage point may have erased that angle which is why I couldn’t see it when played back.

I burned through all three battery packs shooting my property from different perspectives.  I think the video turned out decent after a lot of cutting and trimming.  You do get a good aerial view of the new coop and chicken run from an overhead perspective.

Over the weekend I was watching several videos of what the first few hours of recruit basic training is like.  The drill instructors screaming repeatedly inches from the recruits face was disturbing for me and I wasn’t even there.  I don’t know for sure how I would react if I ever decided to enlist in the military but I presume it would not be good.  Sure you have to know going in what your role is going to be and that treating you like dirt is how they break you down to reshape you as a soldier.  I just wondered how many of those kids were thinking “What the fck did I get myself into…”

Sunday night Cindy and watched my current Netflix rental, McFarland, a movie about an unlikely cross country team coached by an unlikely coach in a very Hispanic town in California.  Even if you know nothing about cross country running I am confident you will find the film touching and inspirational.  It’s a solid A in my book.

So we are a few days away from the one year anniversary of my mom’s passing away.  To me, the 10th is really the day that mom left us as she was found unresponsive behind the wheel of her car only to be revived too late to save her brain.  The idea of mom feeling the heart attack coming on not being able to do anything about it is something that frustrates me and brings heavy feelings of sadness  and remorse.  I feel like somehow I should have been able to so something to prevent it, somehow.

Yesterday was my niece’s 11th birthday which seems beyond impossible. I clearly recall holding her in my arms when she was a tiny baby like it happened a couple months ago.  I talked to her briefly on the phone yesterday followed by a longer convo with my brother.  Unfortunately the reality of me living in Florida for the entire lives of my two nieces and  one nephew has meant that there just never has been much opportunity to cultivate the sort of uncle relationship that is plugged in or connected.  Another part of it is my inherent desire to just keep to myself, a trait I surely got from mom.

So yesterday on FB I posted about an odd issue I have been having off and on for maybe a couple weeks, a phantom cigarette smell.  Basically I get this sensation in my nose that is similar to what it feels like to emerge from a smoky room, a lingering faint smell.  At first I figured it was just something at my office I was smelling although it didn’t make sense since obviously there is no smoking allowed within 30 feet of the building.  I even went so far as to ask other co-workers if they smelled the same thing, nope.

So after mentioning it on FB I got some responses including some that have had the same sensation.Cindy found this link which I found both interesting and disturbing.  It describes the condition as “parosmia”.  When I read the details of it the possible causes ran a very wide spectrum from the minor (dry air) to the horrible (brain tumor, Alzheimers).   The link also had dozens of comments from other people that have experienced this same odd sensation.  There was even mention of it being a spiritual phenomenon called “Clairellience” where the smell is related to somebody from the spirit world trying to communicate with you.  I have to admit that it is odd this has popped as we are approaching the 1 year anniversary of my mom’s death. (a lifetime smoker).

So basically my take away from all of this was similar to how I treat most physical ailments, wait and see.  Hopefully it goes away just as it came.  In the meantime I will try to nail down anything different with my routine that could be a contributor to this weird problem.  I didn’t smell it when I woke up this morning but I can feel it ramping up again as I type.

Yesterday I went to my credit union and completed the process to open a DBA business account for the timing business.  It was maybe a 15-20 minute thing that was painless.  It now allows me to both accept and make payments under the business name which will remove a hurdle that was making things seem less professional.  I have been lucky to be able to get guidance on how to get things set up from my buddy John who also is an event timer.

I didn’t see any of the republican presidential debate but I did read about some of the highlights.  I have to admit, thanks to Donald Trump I am enjoying this run up to the election more so than I can ever recall before.  He has managed to add a professional wrestling type of aura to something that is normally dry and boring.  It’s entertaining, that is for sure.

This weekend shall contain the typical components of most of our weekends, some work, some rest, some exercise, and a movie.  We also will have the dogs at the house for the first time in a couple weekends which will add to the fun.

So I have found that potential clients for my race timing service may have an issue writing a check to an individual versus a business name.  I had avoided getting a business bank account until now because I made the assumption it would be a pain in the ass bridge that didn’t need to be crossed until things got rolling.  Well yesterday I found out I was wrong.

The type of account I would need is called a DBA (doing business as) account which allows me to accept payments under the business name.  Establishing this type of account has minimal requirements.  All I had to do was officially file a “Fictitious Name” on on a Florida state web site which costs $50.  Once the application is officially filed all I should need to do is take the form to a bank along with my drivers license. I was surprised it could be that simple.  Just like so many things, if you don’t dig below the surface you don’t get anywhere. (or learn anything)

The next thing I will need to do but not right away is get a LLC established which will allow me to create an invisible barrier between my personal and business assets. It’s a smart way to protect yourself.

So if you are part of the Facebook crowd you are familiar with what TBT means, Throw Back Thursday.  It has become an excuse for people to post old pictures of themselves which can be funny to varying degrees.  Well I thought I occasionally would use TBT as a tool to write about past chunks of my life.  Today’s chunk is the 16 months I spent as new/used car salesman at a Hyundai dealership in the late 80’s.

The job was my first that did not involve physical labor.  I was 20 or 21 years old and had been working at Weis Markets as a meat cutter for the last 2-3 years.  I thought it was odd that a car dealership was willing to hire a young kid with no sales experience but I later realized it was by design.  They were able to train/mold the new hire from scratch the way they wanted since the hire didn’t have any prior experience.

The job seemed incredibly exciting to a young dumb kid like me.  The sales manager and successful salesman talked of the six figure salaries that were within reach.  Of course that top end was weighted by the reality that your actual “salary” was $75 A WEEK.  So if you had a slow week and sold no vehicles you pocketed maybe 60 bucks.  I also got to wear fancy clothes to work instead of nasty garments that constantly had the stench of spoiled meat on them.  Finally, all salesman were also given a free loaner vehicle to drive which was “free”, as long as you sold 10 cars a month.  If you fell short of that goal you were charged for it.  I think it was either 100 or 200 bucks penalty. So of course all the focus up front in my naive mind was the highlights and not the potential pitfalls of the job.

The staff at the dealership had some of the most interesting collection of personalities I ever had been exposed to.  The general manger (who was fired a few months after I started) looked like he stepped right off the set of a soap opera.  He was classically handsome and smooth.  The sales manager, Jerry, was as slick as they came.  He knew every trick when it came to closing a deal and there was basically no line he would not cross in pursuit of making a sale.  Jerry was promoted to general manager. Jerry’s dad was the manager of the service department.

There were a couple other guys that were sales managers during my tenure, both of them lifetime car salesman.  Phil was a well dressed and likable Italian.  He was less aggressive than Jerry but still very polished in his TO skills. A TO was when you “turned over” a client that you could not close to the sales manager so he could take a shot at beating them into submission.

Butch who also was a lifetime car guy whose father owned a Ford dealership, (never quite knew why he was at a Hyundai joint) would sometimes fill in the closer role.  He looked like an average Joe with a big full beard.  His style was markedly different.  He talked to customers in a very quiet manner, a few ticks above a whisper.

The sales crew had a few memorable cast members on it as well.  Rich was a tall funny guy with nicely feathered hair. He was always cracking jokes and could make nearly anyone laugh.  He used his personality to his advantage as he was one of the top salesman at the dealership.  He always wore the best clothes and high end accessories.

Terry  was an overweight, classic car salesman who looked like he could be a cousin of Andy Reid.  He was a relatively mild mannered, low pressure type of salesman who really did not fit into the mold of what the sales managers wanted.  He never sold that many cars and his stint at Hyundai was probably less than 8 months.  He was the first person that ever took notice enough of my speech that he mentioned how I start running words together if I spoke too fast or was excited. It’s something I always knew I did to some degree but until Terry said something about it I never really focused on it much.  From that moment on I have always been very aware of it.

There was a young kid like me whose name is escaping me (we nicknamed him Eddie cause he looked like Eddie Munster) who seemed like a young Jerry, the slick sales manager.  He came from a boat dealership but easily slipped into the car sales genre since the skill set was basically the same.  He was Italian as well and dressed in a manner that looked appropriate for both the car dealership or the set of the Sopranos.

Jon was a skinny, middle aged, thick glasses wearing guy who looked more like a chemistry teacher than a car salesman.  He had a very quirky personality that was hard to figure out at times.  He was pretty successful during his brief tenure at the dealership but his personality also included an aspect of perpetual malcontent which expedited his departure.  He must have liked me because before he left he gave me all of his potential leads.

Bob was very interesting.  He was a cool dude in his late 20’s early 30’s that had an odd small patch of gray hair.  He was a high level, competitive skate boarder which always seemed like an odd fit to me with a car sales career.  He talked in a manner which seemed very 420.  He never seemed to get overly excited or angry.  I saw him show off some of his skateboard skills firsthand around the service garage, they were indeed impressive.

Then there was Mike, a red headed, motivated ball of fire.  He was almost always the top salesman each month and there was a reason, he was aggressive, relentless, and oppressively positive.   Quite often before he walked out on the lot to approach his “UP” he would declare to all of us how he was going to sell them a car.  More often than not he backed it up.

Mike was also one of the most polarizing salesman on the force, routinely stepping on the toes of the other salesman, cutting into the UP line or conveniently ignoring a “be back” (was in dealership before) customers work with another salesman and act like they were new.  If a customer worked with more than one salesman the commission was split between them.  If not the salesman gets it all.  Mike was one of those act first, apologize later type of people.  He figured if he got flagged for stealing someones b-back he could always just claim ignorance of the prior interaction with another salesman.  Mike had a few nervous ticks which included a head tilt coordinated with a half shoulder shrug.  When he was going in for the kill the ticks would increase.

About midway through my 16 months a decently attractive woman named Christy started whom was a slightly dialed down version of Mike.  An aggressive woman salesperson can do very well and she did just that.  She had a slight gap between her front teeth but her body was good enough that most men didn’t notice.

In the F&I office (finance and insurance) we had Todd who gave off an extremely polite and professional aura to anyone who first met him.  He used this to seduce customers into a false sense of comfort as he sold them loans packed full of profit bloating options like jacked finance rates, extended warranty packages and loan insurance.  All of these options were overpriced.  Anything he got over their actual cost to the dealer was what he got paid on.  It was funny watching him transform the second the customer walked out of the door where he would celebrate another “full boat” F&I deal which typically included a high five with the sales manager.

I was friendly with a few of the guys outside of work.  I used to play racquetball with the sales manager Jerry and F&I Todd.  Mike and I played a few intense games of one on one basketball followed by just hanging out from time to time.  Seeing him outside of the sales floor allowed me to get to know the non-prick side of him.

My sales style was pretty much in the middle.  I tried to follow the outline provided to me by the sales manager but I was never a slick talker, pressure applier, or adept liar.  I tried to instead focus on knowing the features of the car well and use that knowledge as a tool to educate potential customers.  After all at that time Hyundai was a brand new name so most people knew nothing about them.

Some of the tactics taught to me were pretty funny.  Whenever we listed used cars in the paper we never would include the price, instead there were directions to call for the low, low price.  When we got a call for the price we were supposed to make a lot of noise, bang on the desk for example, and then tell the customer that we were out in the service area.  You then tell them you can get the price as soon as you get back to your desk, all you need is their phone number to call them right back.  Just like that you have scored the persons phone number without them even realizing it.  From that point on they were in your lead book that you would go through on a regular basis, calling them to buy something until they either came in or bought somewhere else. There were a ton of little tricks like this we were instructed to use.

Sometimes things got really crazy.  I remember during one deal that did not involve me (one of Mike’s customers)a negotiation got very intense.  The customer said they had enough and got up to walk out the door.  As he approached the door the sales manager locked it, refusing to let the customer go until they worked out a deal.  Believe it or not they actually wound up getting the sale.

Early on in my car sales career I had some moderate success, letting friends and family know I was in the business brought in some sales, something I am sure the dealership counted on when they hired me.  I was having a good time.  Making a car sale was exciting, driving a new car for free was cool, and the cast of characters I was working with were stimulating.  Things started to get significantly less exciting as we entered the slow months of car sales.

There were days and even weeks where 95% of your day was spent staring out into the lot waiting for an “UP” (customer) to appear.  If you spent the entire day waiting and the one UP you got was someone just wasting time while the wife was shopping at K-mart it was incredibly frustrating.  I had quite a few of those no sales, salary only weeks which made you feel like an utter failure.

The times were tough for all the salesman as the newness of the Hyundai brand faded.  Pretty much every single sales person I listed earlier, except Christy, left the dealership before I did.  Turnover in the car sales business is pretty extreme.  By the time I left I was pretty beat down by months of meager sales and even more meager paychecks.  From there I moved on to an inside sales job for Donnelly Directory but that is a story for another TBT.

Equals few words.

A good portion of my evening last night was spent trying to address a work issue from home.  Thanks to the wonders of remote control these sort of issues can normally be handled from home instead of spending late hours in the office.  The issue was a challenging one to correct, the type that makes you feel proud afterward knowing there was nobody else that was going to figure it out.  Luckily after hours work is something rarely required at my job, a pretty rare situation in the IT industry.

It seems like the chickens are slowly working out their pecking order and living arrangements.  Although Cindy still goes out to check on them, most nights they are now able to all get up on the perch to their preferred sleeping spots without much squabbling.  By the time our road trip rolls around next month the chicks need to be good to go since we won’t be there to break up fights.

It seems like Lucy has clearly made a choice as far as her social group within the new chickens, the black ones.  Lucy is pretty much always with the black hens throughout the day and runs in formation with them.  Her light brown color sticks out like a sore thumb in the group. The four “babies” are normally their own little clique although most of the four are rather independent and will often venture out solo from time to time.

I slept like shit last night, I couldn’t tell you how many times I woke up.  Right around 4:30 I was almost ready to just pop out of bed in frustration but thankfully I was able to catch a few more minutes of Z’s before the alarm went off.

Cindy emerged from the operating room quickly on Thursday, around 9:30.  She did so in an extremely silly and loopy manner thanks to the propethol they used to sedate her for the procedure.  The doctor said they removed another large chunk of ingrown nail and then burned the area with acid as opposed to using a suture.  Despite the work only being done on her toenail, Cindy’s entire foot was wrapped all the way to the ankle.

While they got her ready to check out I was sent downstairs to get the supplies they prescribed to her including antibiotics, pain meds and bandages, lots and lots of bandages.  It was so much stuff that it filled a large shopping bag.  Just like the rest of the VA hospital the pharmacy area was big, modern and efficient.  They wheeled Cindy out as required and we loaded her into the Prius.

Once we got home I had to be vigilant in trying to make Cindy take it easy.  Despite just having surgery she wanted to do work around the house.  I had to basically strap her down to let me go out and clean the chicken coop and run.  She did rest some during the day but not as much as I think she should have.

During the afternoon I made a run to the local AutoZone store.  I was picking up front brake rotors and pads for Cindy’s daughters 2010 Mustang.  She said the brakes felt bad with pedal pulsation which means at a minimum the rotors are warped.  I have replaced the front brakes on three or four different vehicles at this point.  After watching a video briefly on YouTube it looked like doing the same on a Mustang should not be a big deal.  I figured I could knock it out Friday morning.

So before Katie showed up Friday morning I got the weeding done in the yard and prepared the garage for active work.  I pulled out all the tools I imagined I would need including my video camera.  Amateur auto mechanic videos are among the most popular on my YouTube channel.   Katie showed up around nine and I got started wrenching before 10 am.  The front brake pads were worn but not horribly so.  I started with the passenger side.  I didn’t see anything that would necessarily have caused the rotors to warp. However that changed when I got to the driver side.

When I pulled the caliper pins on that side I immediately noticed one of them was dry and sticking.  They are supposed to slide easily back and forth allowing the brake pads to move against and off the rotors.  I was pretty sure I identified why the pedal was pulsating.  The sticking bolt could cause the pad pressure to stay on the rotor even when not braking which would heat/warp it.  Cleaning the pin and applying caliper grease solved that problem.

After putting everything back together I took the car out for a road test.  The brake pedal pulsation was gone but the stopping power still didn’t seem as good as it should be.  I decided since I have all the tools out I should just replace the rear brake pads as well.  The Stang has rear disc brakes, something I never worked on before but I assumed it would be no different than doing the front brakes.  I jumped in the SSR and headed back to AutoZone for the second time in as many days.

I pulled a back wheel and got busy on what I thought would be a 30 minute pad swap.  When I popped out the old pads I saw it was a very good thing I decided to replace them.  There was a small fraction of an inch of braking material left.  No wonder the car wasn’t stopping well.  Things went fine until I got to the part of the procedure where you need to compress the caliper piston.    You compress the piston to make room to get around the new brake pads which will always be thicker than the worn pads you pull out.

The way I have always done this with front brakes is to use a C clamp and an old brake pad to push the piston in.  It is normally quite easy.  Well for some reason the rear piston would not retract.  At first I thought it was just stiff as I tried multiple times with  the C clamp at different positions.  It would not budge.  I then thought that possibly the rear caliper was defective which lead my mind down annoying scenarios where I would have to replace the entire caliper which was an area I was not comfortable with.

In total I bet I futzed around trying to compress that piston for close to an hour, getting continually more frustrated as each minute passed by.  I finally decided to take an additional step in trouble shooting.  I put the wheel back on the driver side and jacked up the opposite side of the car and pulled the wheel.  I then pulled the pads and caliper and again tried to compress the piston with the C clamp.  Again, it would not budge.  I then realized this was likely not a caliper problem  but a knowledge problem on my part.  I was missing something.  I went inside to my computer to do a search on rear caliper problems.

In less than 30 seconds I saw that many rear calipers require to be turned in and can not be pressed in.  This has something to do with the dual function rear brakes share being used for conventional braking and the emergency brake.  When I looked at the rear pistons I noticed they appeared different with two slots in them which I thought nothing of until I got on the computer.  Those slots are what are used to rotate the caliper using a special tool.  I realized I was going to have to make ANOTHER AutoZone trip to complete the job, something I was not happy about in the least.

I picked up a small ratchet attachment that looked like a dice cube.  Each of the 6 sides had a different configuration which worked with different styles of brakes. Once I got back home I slapped the cube on the ratchet and got busy.  Turning in the caliper required a considerable amount of strength as you had to apply major inward pressure while rotating the caliper clockwise.  The little nubs on the cube easily popped out of the slots on the piston if you did not keep it pressed very hard against it.  Finally after a lot of grunting, pressing and twisting I had the caliper fully retracted into the body.  After doing so I was able to finally proceed with the pad replacement which went ok.

So after putting everything back together I took the car out for another test drive.  It did not feel right, the pedal was too soft.  I knew why.  When I was originally fcking with the first rear caliper piston one of the things I tried was opening the bleeder screw, thinking it would relieve whatever pressure I was feeling.  (it didn’t)  I assumed that by doing so I sucked some air into the system.  At this point I had spent hours on the brake work and was very frustrated.  Obviously I needed to get it right despite my desire to jut call it quits for the day.  I hoped I could reach the bleeder screw with the wheel on but a quick glance confirmed I would need to jack the car up and pull the wheel AGAIN.

Once I got the car back up in the air I called Cindy out to help me with the bleeding process.  As I opened the bleeder screw with a tube attached I had her slowly apply brake pedal pressure.  As she did I instantly saw air bubbles filling the tube at first but it quickly turned to all fluid which is what I hoped.  If I wanted to be super thorough or had a hydraulic lift in my garage I would have pulled all four wheels and bled them.  I was hoping that bleeding the only caliper that was opened up would be sufficient.  A quick road test confirmed it was, the brakes felt firm and strong, finally.

I did not finish cleaning up and going back inside until around 6:30 PM. If I did the same job today, knowing about the pitfalls I fell into I could do the same work in probably a third of the time.  Cindy told Katie the car was done so she brought back the Tacoma which we let her borrow for the day.  She was very thankful for my efforts and equally happy Cindy and I gave the car a much needed quick cleaning both on the interior and exterior.

Friday night I really felt like I earned my pizza and Mexican Coke.  We enjoyed it while watching Chappie, my latest Netflix rental.  I really wanted to see this movie in the theater when it was out.  I was surprised when I saw it didn’t do great at the box office.  I was more surprised after watching it, I thought the movie was very good although it was odd seeing a mullet wearing Hugh Jackman play the bad guy.   I’d give the film a strong A- rating.

On Saturday I got up and outside early, starting weed whacking the grass shortly after 8AM.  I wanted to get the labor out of the way early if possible.  Cindy and I then headed out to grab even more sand for the chicken run as well as some more bags of rubber mulch to fill in various areas the chickens have been kicking out.  After spreading both after returning home my only other project for the day involved cutting up some plastic cutting boards to be used as a top shelf on the chickens perch.  Cindy had some thinner plastic up there but it was too flexible, allowing it to bend down and deposit poop along the wall.  Our hope is using cutting boards in that spot till make it more rigid and easier to clean.  I cut them on my portable table saw.

Over the weekend one of the things I did in between projects was upgrading both my computer and Cindy’s to Windows 10.  I was surprised just how smoothly the process went, I really had no issues at all.  The new OS combines the best features of Windows 7 and 8.  So far I am very happy with the upgrade and am still digging into some of the new features like Cortana and the Edge web browser. The system boot up and shut down speed seems even faster as well.  Thank goodness someone at Microsoft realized people actually like the Start Menu.  Taking it away was like forcing people to steer a car with their feet.

On Saturday night Cindy and I went to see the latest Mission Impossible movie.  I have liked every Mission Impossible film.  Hell I have enjoyed pretty much any movie Tom Cruise ever does.  The latest MI kept the streak alive.  It combined smart action, suspense, and story telling.  I have no problem giving it an A- rating all day long.

On Sunday morning Cindy was not able to consider biking with her toe surgery but I had hopes of getting out on the road.  When I looked out the window the skies looked gray and menacing so I scrapped the idea, despite knowing I would probably regret it.  If I don’t get some sort of significant exercise in over a weekend I feel like a bum.  Late in the morning I tried to fill that void by going in the bar park and doing four rounds of short circuit involving push ups, hanging knee raises, and pull ups.  I was surprised how low energy, uninspired and weak I felt during the mini-workout.  It shows on film.

The vast majority of my Sunday was spent geeking out in WoW, another thing that can bring on feelings of guilt.  Sure I had done significant amounts of work the prior 3 days but all it takes is one day filled with primarily screwing off to erase that in my mind and make me feel lazy.

Late in the day Cindy and I sat down to map out a day by day tentative schedule for the road trip.  It includes two days for both Yellowstone Park and Vegas.  Both destinations could easily demand more time but we have to work it in with 6100 miles of travel by road.  The way things are mapped now we would have 12 nights and 13 days of travel which allows us exactly one day of slack if something comes up.  My goal is to spend no more than we did last year on the road trip.  I’m not sure if that is possible or not since there are a couple extra days and more feature destinations this time around.