Archives 2015

Recanting the events of the last 24 hours likely will not become easier at any point soon so I may as well tackle it now.

During the day yesterday I got an update from Ali on Nicki.  She said they had started on the next steps of the treatment plan, administering her steroids and inserting a nasal feeding tube, the mere thought of which made me feel discomfort on Nicki’s behalf.

When I stopped in to see her last night it was a rough visual for me.  Not only was she hooked to four or five lines she also had a soft cone around her neck to prevent her from pawing at the feeding tube.  I started petting her and got minimal response.  It was the first time I couldn’t even get a tail wag out of her.

Ali showed up towards the end of my visit.  She felt much more upbeat about the state of things than I did.  She reported to me later last night that Nicki woke up a bit more and seemed interested in some boiled chicken they stuck under her nose but she didn’t actually eat it. I went to bed hoping these baby steps would get bigger the next couple days as the feeding tube and steroids kicked in.

Well in the middle of the night I heard the house line ringing.  My assumption was it was the automated alert system we have from work which calls if an environmental sensor is tripped.  I let it ring since it would try the next number in the rotation.  I am the farthest away from the office so these things are normally handled by the people that live closer.

Well the phone rang again.  The house phone stopped just as Cindy got out to it but she saw my cell was ringing, it was Ali.  Cindy handed me the phone.  I knew something very bad was about to be said.  Ali choked back the emotion as she told me Nicki had passed away.  She told me she was heading down to the vet to see her (it was about 3:15 am) and said I could as well which of course I was going to do.  After hanging up the phone I just laid there for a few moments, stunned.

Cindy came with me.  For the most part I kept it together on the drive there.  When we got to the vet I at first went back myself to the room where they had Nicki laying in the middle of the floor between some blankets.  Ali was already there and was laying next to her,  petting her slowly.  I came over to the other side and sat down.  When I touched her head she felt cold.  That sensation was like throwing a bucket of water on me.  I lost all composure for a short while and cried uncontrollably.  It was so final.  I couldn’t believe the adorable little 3 month old puppy that we brought into the house nearly 13 years ago that has filled my life with so much happiness, love, and smiles was laying there, still.

My mind raced for stable footing but I had a difficult time finding any.  I hoped that maybe just maybe Nicki was hanging out with my mom somewhere at that moment in time.  Ali stepped out for a few minutes so Cindy could come say goodbye.  Of course seeing Cindy break down at the sight of Nicki brought on another wave of emotion.  I just couldn’t believe this time, the time I have dreaded for years had actually come.  After we were done Ali was going to go back in one last time so we embraced and began to prepare ourselves for the mountains of sorrow that come with losing a beloved pet. Despite Nicki having numerous health issues the last few years we all had held out hope it was not yet time to say goodbye.

When you are a childless adult your pets become your adopted children.  You love them intensely and the pain when you lose them is equally intense.

When I got home I knew sleep was pointless.  I instead ate breakfast, got dressed and drove into work to do some after hours work that I had been putting off.  I figured keeping my mind as busy as possible was the best course of action.  It’s something I will be leaning heavily upon for quite awhile.

I’ll always love you baby Nicki and will think of you often.  You were the definition of love.

Rest now.

Goodbye sweet baby Nicki…

I stopped by to see Nicki at lunch and after work.  When I stopped at lunch Ali was still there.  I didn’t get to interact much with Nicki during that visit as they spent most of the time unsuccessfully trying to insert a catheter in her leg.  Nicki was so tired/out of it that she was hardly reacting to the repeated stabs of the needle.  While the techs were working Ali and I talked more about the game plan.

The myriad of tests that the vet has ordered have basically revealed nothing.  Their only other thought was doing a liver biopsy to check on some liver numbers that were somewhat low however in Nicki’s current state that would be ridiculous to do and even if there is a liver problem it is not the immediate culprit for her condition.  The vet suggested that we could try a steroid shot to see if it gets Nicki up and moving again.  Awhile ago she had one and she did have some noticeable short term improvement.

I am still amazed that Nicki’s lack of any substantial food intake for 6 days has not been given more weight in the process.  The vet keeps saying that dogs can go long periods of time without eating without it having a significant impact on blood numbers and well being.  Although I have seen the same thing when I researched I also saw this is affected by the dogs age and health prior to the lack of food.  Neither of those factors are in Nicki’s favor.

When I came back after work I wound up sitting in an empty waiting room for almost a half hour.  Evidently my timing was bad.  The techs were unable to get a good catheter spot so they were in the middle of suturing one to Nicki’s leg.  They allowed me to go back as they were finishing up.

I walked in to Nicki up on the table, looking exhausted.  I went in front of her and pulled back her loose forehead skin so she could see me clearly.  She perked up for a few seconds and then laid her head back down.  I felt terrible as I saw her laying there.  It was the first time I wondered if this was really what Nicki wanted.

When they finished wrapping up the freshly sutured wound  we took Nicki outside briefly.  Nicki is far too weak to be able stand up on her own or walk without assistance.  The vet had this harness set up that they strapped on Nicki to offer support.  It has a handle in the front and back.   When we got her upright she could stand still without major help but any movement required a firm grip on the handles.  We took her outside maybe 40-50 feet from the door and walked her back.  It seemed surreal to me we just had Nicki out at the house the weekend prior and had a normal, fun time.  Seeing her in this state of dysfunction so shortly afterward is hard to wrap my mind around.

I left before they subjected Nicki to more discomfort as they were to hook up a urine catheter since Nicki is unable to go conventionally and is on constant IV fluids.  I felt absolutely miserable when I left.

Despite my criticism of some of the practices and staff of this vet, there have been a number of the staff I have dealt with back in the ICU that have been incredibly nice, accommodating, compassionate, and kind.  They understand what it is like.  I almost wish they could give me an off the record opinion of the situation.

On my way home last night I stopped in to visit Nicki.  The vet where she is at is literally right on my homeward route.  I had called for a status update on Nicki earlier in the day which didn’t sound like much changed.  However Ali told me when she had visited they actually had Nicki up and walking outside which was good news.  I was hoping to see her feeling more energetic.

When I walked in the ICU she saw me and wagged her tail but did not move from her laying position.  The excitement was not very long lived as she put her head down, doing slow, labored breathing.  The visual I saw did not seem any different than Sunday.  I felt terrible for her.  She had wet her pad so I asked the staff back there if we could change it.  I served as a human forklift as I lifted Nicki up as they tried to quickly swap out the bedding. She laid still in my arms as I held her, too wiped out to even really react.

Since Sunday they had completely wrapped Nicki’s right front and rear paw in elastic bandage.  For some reason they have an IV connected at both spots.  I saw that Ali brought in Nicki’s blue monkey toy, something she was fond of as a younger dog.  I just took turns kneeling/sitting on the floor petting her.  She kept moving her rear left leg, almost like she was trying to reposition herself.  I tried helping her move but she couldn’t really show me what position she wanted to be in.

I talked to the vet that was there (this place has a lot of them). He indicated that their main focus was something different than what the vet on Sunday told me.  (low blood sugar and low protein)  He said Nicki’s low blood pressure was the main thing they were trying to address.  He also said they are concerned about her getting mobile as soon as possible.  Much like an old person that breaks their hip, the longer Nicki goes without being able to get around herself the more difficult it is going to be to get her back to that point.  She just seemed so tired and weak to me at that moment I could hardly believe she was walking around earlier in the day.

I left the place not feeling the optimism I hoped for.

When I got home I jumped right into high speed chocolate cake making.  Over the weekend I realized I didn’t give Cindy an official birthday cake although we did enjoy some pretty good deserts at the Turtle Club.  I told her if she could make sure we had the ingredients I would make the cake last night.  I had to rush the process a little bit so it isn’t the best cake I ever made but based on the cupcakes we made out of the same batch I think it is still pretty good.

Last night I watched a good portion of the Eagles game until my sleep deprived eyes closed late in the third quarter.  I was happy to hear they held on to win easily 27-7.  It was an odd game, you would think beating the Giants by 20 points would really make you feel good about the Eagles future.  The reality is the Giants played AWFUL making mistake after mistake and turning the ball over like it was coated in butter.

The Eagles defense played well.  The Eagles offense was ok but Sam Bradford continued to display a pretty glaring lack of accuracy.  He just is not throwing the ball well, especially anything over 10 yards.  The Eagles at 3-3 are now leading the NFC East which is battling hard to be the worst division in football.  I’m happy for the win, I’m still not convinced it means the team is going anywhere this season.

Saturday morning I was out the door at 5AM to time a large cross country meet I have been doing for 5 or 6 years.  The difference this year was I was in a supporting role.  I rented the timing equipment I own to Chris, the guy that helps me at a lot of my other races.  He timed it with different software than I normally use.

You may recall the close call we had with a dying battery at the meet on Tuesday.  I made precautions against that happening again by bringing not one but two marine batteries that can be used to extend battery life.  Chris told me he charged the timing box fully the night before.  This fact made it very concerning when he turned on the box and the battery indicator was already firmly in the red, wtf???

I had replaced the internal batteries on this box several months ago so I knew the batteries should be fine.  I didn’t have time to figure out why it wasn’t getting a good charge so I hooked up one of my external batteries to the box using one of the cables I have used successfully in the past.  As soon as I connected the battery the box started making a clicking noise, just like it did when I connected the DC power supply on Tuesday.  I tried the other battery and another cable and had the same results. Son of a bitch.

For a few moments I stood there, flabbergasted, wondering how in the world we were going to get through four timed events with a box that was already showing a weak battery.  I then started to react, coming up with several plans.  First off we turned off the timing box and reconnected the charger.  We figured if we had to, we could just turn the box on shortly before the first finisher from each race crossed and then turn it off as soon as the last finisher crosses to minimize battery usage.

I then hopped on the Timers Forum I belong to on Facebook and described the symptoms I was seeing, hoping somebody with answers would be online at this very early time of day.  I got my answer very quickly, it had to do with the cable I was using.  As I mentioned, I had used these cables before successfully to power this model of timing box although it was the older model the running club owned.  I found out that the newer models, like what I have require a wire jumper in these cords to power the boxes correctly.  Well now I knew what the problem was but I did not have an immediate solution.

I described the problem to Chris.  He told me that the brand new timing system the school had bought to time future races was supposed to be brought on site by one of the cross country coaches.  With about 15 minutes to go before the first race we drove to her car and grabbed the new equipment that was still in boxes.  Inside of them was an external battery cable which I hooked up to my timing box with the battery.  The battery meter instantly jumped solidly into the green and there was no more clicking.  Crisis averted. I found that even the fast charging adapter on the newer systems has a jumper cable installed which mine was lacking, probably explaining the poor battery level even after being on the charger for hours. Later in the afternoon when I got home I installed a jumper in all 5 of my cables, avoiding this scenario from reoccurring in the future.

Saturday night I had made reservations to go to the Turtle Club for Cindy’s birthday.  On the way there I made a quick pit stop at Staples to snag a crazy cheap deal on a small laptop that I can use as a dedicated GMT workstation.  $149 was just too good to pass up.

The only seating available at the restaurant was indoors.  Outdoor seating anywhere around sunset requires reservations far, far in advance.  Our table was jammed a bit inconveniently back in a corner but it did not detract from our enjoyment of the meal.  Both of our entrees were great as were the deserts.

On Sunday morning I saw that Ali had sent me a number of texts regarding Nicki, she had taken her back to the emergency vet because Nicki was acting very lethargic, not even wanting to get up to drink.  I got further updates regarding what the vet was doing, performing numerous tests and was flabbergasted that a very simple connection was not being made.  The pain killers Nicki was prescribed had numerous side effects including nausea and extreme tiredness. Since she was given the drugs she ate very, very little as a result.  To me it seemed like the vet was totally ignoring the fact that Nicki had hardly eaten for three days when they identified  some blood work numbers that were a little low like blood sugar and protein level.  Instead they used those low numbers to subject Nicki to a barrage of additional testing, each of which has revealed nothing.

When I tried to express my discontent with how the vet was handling the situation it was met unfavorably by Ali who did not appreciate my suggestion that the vet is skipping over the simplest explanation first in order to instead administer expensive testing.  I had the been to this vet once before with Nicki and had a very similar experience where it seemed like their number one concern was getting authorization for extensive labs and testing to “rule out” items.  It felt like going to the doctor complaining of a back ache and them asking you to take an eye test.  I have a deep aversion to vets that prey on a pet owners love of their animals. I just get that feeling in spades from this place.

Those feelings did not improve when Cindy and I went there later in the afternoon to visit Nicki.  They made us wait almost a half hour to go back to see her even though there was nobody else in the waiting room and one other car in the parking lot.  We were told initially the delay was because there were other people visiting their pets and there was a lack of space in the ICU.  When I complained a second time, asking how much longer it would be we magically were allowed to go back a couple minutes later, despite nobody leaving the office.  When we got back to the ICU there was one other client in there and the huge room obviously had no space limitations, nice.

Nicki was asleep in one of high walled kennels.  It took more effort than normal to wake her up.  She was so lethargic I asked if they were giving her some sort of pain killer or sedative in the IV.  They said they weren’t.  She also was shivering, a probable side effect of the IV. Eventually she woke up and realized we were there which got a few tail wags.  I was on my knees rubbing her ears as I saw the various shaved parts of her body as a result of all the testing.  Nicki seemed very weak and made no effort to sit up at all.  Seeing her this way brought tears to my eyes, knowing she was just out at the house the weekend before and had fun, appearing as normal as she can be nowadays.

I asked to talk to the vet that was on duty.  I asked for a recap on what was going on.  The vet was very focused on the slightly low blood sugar and protein levels as being the reason for all of the testing.  She would not acknowledge that the lack of eating after the pain killers were prescribed was a viable reason for the low numbers.  She chose her words very carefully as if not to say anything that would indicate their prior actions could be involved.  When the vet said Nicki could potentially be there a couple more days as they wait for more test results to return it only deepened the black hole I felt I was standing in. I left there feeling depressed, angry, and frustrated.

At this point it is just a wait and see thing.  If Nicki does not perk up enough to be able to stand, eat and drink on her own they will just keep her there.  I just have a sick feeling in my stomach that won’t go away that kept me up a good portion of the night.  There are multiple facets to the emotions running through my head right now and none of them are pleasant.

I got a call yesterday from Ali.  She said that Nicki couldn’t get herself up. Her rear legs, which have been bothering her for a long time, just didn’t want to work.  She took Nicki to the emergency vet where they basically said it is just the progression of her arthritis.  It must have been especially painful yesterday for her.  I was hoping the vet would recommend upping Nicki’s Deramexx dosage (dog Advil) but instead they prescribed tramadol which is a pain killer.  Their logic was they didn’t want to risk the possible GI side effects of increasing the Deramexx dosage.  My logic is when your choice is the dog being able to walk or having diarhea, walking wins.

Ali’s living arrangements since we split have not been ideal for a dog with bad legs as they both have had stairs which Nicki has struggled up and down for the last few years.  The big 18″square tile in her main living area also makes it hard for Nicki to get up from the laying position because of the lack of traction.   Ali is taking steps to try to address both of these things.

She was able to get a bunch of left over carpet remnants from a local carpet store which she is using to create carpet runways on the tile which should be easier for Nicki to get up on.  She is also going to have her boyfriend carry Nicki between floors as needed to cut down on the wear and tear on her legs.  Hell I was even researching dog stair lifts yesterday.  I saw a couple DIY versions that were quite impressive.

Of course it makes my heart very heavy to see Nicki struggling like this.  I find it hard to believe this is the same dog that used to leap the sofa in a single bound as I chased her around the house.  All we can do at this point is try to make her quality of life as good as it can be.

I got some other sad pet news yesterday.  Cindy saw the woman that we gave Jaina, the huge cornish chicken, to.  She said that Jaina died from sort of disease that killed 10 or 11 of her other chickens.  I immediately felt guilt as I knew the living situation Jaina was moved into was definitely not close to the level of care or comfort we were providing.

During this week I have had to make two calls to get my costs for two entertainment services reduced, Sirius and Comcast.  I had received the ridiculous $273 bill from Sirius awhile ago and had been sitting on it, waiting until it was closer to it’s expiration date.  I got the cancellation department and gave them the normal song and dance, if I can’t pay what I did last year I am cancelling.  If for some reason they would call my bluff I would probably follow through on the cancellation since the Stern show schedule is so light nowadays it is barely worth paying the 50% discount I have been.  Well they once again agreed to my terms, the $273 bill morphed into $144 after a few minutes.

The call to Comcast did not go as well.  For years I have played the shell game with Comcast, calling up and getting put on whatever current promo packages they have which normally run for a term of anywhere of 6 months to a year.  When that term expires I call back up and repeat the process.

Well I haven’t been watching my bill that closely since I autopay it with my CC now.  My buddy at work was complaining about how high his bill was so I logged on to look at mine and saw all of my promos had run out and I was now paying roughly 150 a month for internet and tv service, time to call.

There have been tons of stories in the news about the big drop in subscriber numbers Comcast has been seeing, many of them going to streaming options instead.  My naive assumption was this would mean Comcast would be very agreeable to work with existing customers to keep their business.  On my first attempt on Wednesday I used their online agent portal, telling them I have received offers from one of their competitors, Century Link, and wanted to see what could be done to reduce the size of my bill.

Well I spent almost a half hour on the chat session during which there was a 14 minute period of no communication at all from the rep.  When they came back they said their computer locked up and had to be restarted.  They offered me no deals at all, all they offered was I reduce my features if I wanted to reduce my bill.  I explained I was not interested in losing features, I wanted to be put on a promotional deal to keep me from investigating what Century Link would do for me.  The virtual rep said I should call into one of their two “customer loyalty numbers” where they are authorized to offer long time customers special promotions.  Ok, fine.

So yesterday I call one of these numbers.  The phone menu did not sound any different than the normal Comcast phone menu and I wound up with someone on the Indian help desk.  I told him I was given this number by the online staff and explained I was looking for a reduction in my costs to prevent me from going to a competitor.  At first the heavily accented phone rep was stand offish, again going down the “if you want to pay less, you get less” road.  I got irritated as I realized this was not any sort of special retention department, just another annoying, outsourced phone bank that American companies have grown so found of.

I told the guy I was annoyed that he was just telling me the same thing the online rep did and that I would just look into cancellation of Comcast instead.  Well once the word cancellation comes out of a customers mouth they apparently are allowed to at least offer some sort of discount.  I wound up getting the $10 Showtime fee waived for the next 6 months and an additional $5 discount, hardly earth shattering but better than nothing.  The difference with this negotiation versus Sirius was I actually like the services I get from Comcast.  My internet is generally fast and reliable and I am a big fan of their X1 platform.  If push came to shove I don’t think I would cancel it.

This weekend I am helping to time a large CC meet Saturday morning followed by a nice birthday dinner for Cindy Saturday night.  Although the temperatures during the day are still high, the humidity dial has been slightly less and the constant precipitation has diminished to the point where standing water is no longer a feature on our property which is great.  I look forward to some winter weather where I can work outdoors without paying such a severe perspiration tax.

The egg production at home has really been ramping up.  Yesterday Cindy collected a half dozen eggs, a new record.  We will soon be running into storage issues so Cindy’s egg business needs to get off the ground soon.  It’s amazing that these big birds are the same creatures we held in the palms of our hands 6 months ago.  Both Cindy and I find simple enjoyment just watching the hens explore the yard.  They are so funny.

Since most of the birds are now laying they also have become much easier to hold and pet.  When you extend your hand out many of them immediately squat down and freeze, a reflex reaction they would normally do for a rooster.  Instead it allows Cindy to pet them pretty much endlessly.

In addition to the fresh egg business Cindy has been producing custom cool race belts for a few weeks.  She has given a few away but hopes to start selling them for a very small profit.  She has been having a lot of fun scoring incredible deals bidding on custom ribbon on Ebay to be used for the belts.

We also have been having fun with our new Ring doorbell.  Yesterday Cindy spotted the UPS guy on the device while she was out and was able to even thank him as he walked away, remotely.  Last night she intended to try to scare me using the Ring but was unsuccessful.  The good news is it was captured on video.

https://ring.com/share/58010694

So yesterday I burned up a vacation day in order to help time a local cross country meet.  The guy that helps me at GCR races was renting my Ipico timing equipment to do several county meets, this was the first one so I wanted to be on site to make sure everything went ok.  The meet started at 10AM, rather late considering it is still quite warm this time of year.  I was quite glad I brought my custom GMT shelter to keep the bright sun from beating on me the entire time.

The meet was held in a large, mostly unmowed field in the back of the high school that was next door to the track Cindy and I run at.  It was a small county meet with only 7 teams so I didn’t expect many problems.  Things were going great until the tail end of the girls varsity race where we started hearing THE beep.

The beep was coming from the timing box.  It was the low battery warning, shit.  This made no sense to me since I brought my DC power supply to power the timing box which should give virtually unlimited run time.  I had hooked up the power supply earlier and turned on the timing box.  The box had been up and running probably at least an hour before the race started. I instantly looked at my connections from the power supply and the timing box, they looked fine.  I then look at the on/off switch for the power supply and see it is dark, meaning it is turned off….. son of a bitch.

This meant the box has been draining the battery all this time.  Simply switching on the power supply was not a solution as the supply will hold a battery at it’s current voltage when the box is running, but since the battery was already on life support it would not help. I had no idea just how much time we had until the battery totally conked out.  Luckily it stayed up long enough for the last girl finisher to cross.

Now we had an even larger problem facing us, we still had the boys varsity race to run.  As soon as the last girl crossed the line we turned off the timing box and turned on the power supply, hoping to pump as much juice into the battery as possible.  We left the box off and charging until we were a few minutes away from the first boy crossing.  At first we tried to bring the box up with the power supply connected and it would not initialize correctly because the battery level was still low.  Our only option was to remove the power supply and cross our fingers the Ipico box made it through the race.

A few minutes after restarting the box the low battery beep returned.  Chris and I felt like we were listening to the beep of a bomb detonator counting down. We knew we had 47 boys on the course so each one that crossed was one step closer to success.  Finally the 47th and last finisher came into view as the beeping continued.  He crossed the mats and almost as if it was preordained, the timing box stopped beeping and instead went to the solid “I am now dead” tone.

We had pulled files prior to the death of the box so we only needed to get the last few finishers.  I just needed to get the box alive for a few more seconds to pull the final file. I managed to do so with some technical CPR.  I disconnected both timing mats to make power draw as minimal as possible.  I then turned the box on.  It reinitialized and stayed up long enough for us to pull the final times. Wow, that was exciting.

Now the bottom line was even if the timing box did die I had my security DVR up and running so we could have pieced together the results if we had to via video which would have been painful but possible.  However it was a wake up call as I originally assumed that I could have simply powered the box with the DC power supply, even if the battery was depleted.  That was not the case.

I felt bad for the kids running in the heat.  I saw a ton of them finish and collapse, it was pretty severe.  I didn’t get off site until shortly after noon because of the late start.  In the end everything turned out fine but it sure had a lot more drama than I expected.

Tuesday afternoon I gave the Tacoma a much needed bath.  When I was at the CC meet I realized I was actually embarrassed with how dirty it was. I also washed the SSR a little later after I finished my LED projector install project.

Finishing the LED project was not tough since I already did most of the mounting work over the weekend.  The only thing I needed to do was use better electrical tap connectors so I could utilize the wires for the rear back up lights.  Once I made the electrical connections I put the truck in reverse and saw the LED illuminate.  In the bright sunshine it was tough to see much but if I held my hand up closer to the projector I saw the SSR logo.  Once it got dark outside I went back out to get a real look at the end result which I was very happy with.  I think it looks very sweet having a 2-3 foot SSR logo displayed underneath.  I posted the work to the SSRFanatics forum and got similar approvals with relocating the projector from the normal door location to the rear of the truck.

Last night Cindy and I watched almost all of the democratic debate.  I literally never heard of three of the five candidates on the stage. The guy on the right, who impressed me so little I can’t even recall his name was the weakest of the five by a large margin.  O’Malley, the former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor seemed to have a decent resume but his mannerisms struck me as odd.  I suspect he may botox his face.

Jim Webb has an impressive military record and positions on some issues that were contrary to most of the other candidates. He seemed clearly to be the least progressive of the five. The two things I took away from his performance was he hates China and he was very pissed off that Anderson Cooper gave much more time and attention to Bernie and Hilary.  I can understand his grumpiness but come on, let’s be realistic, none of those three candidates have a chance in hell of making a dent in the presidential campaign.

So the debate was mostly the Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton show.  I honestly do not know how somebody could dislike Bernie Sanders, even if you do not agree with some of his self admittedly socialist positions.  You can tell that Bernie is not like most politicians that are simply regurgitating well rehearsed positions that are based on whatever consultants tell them to say.  Bernie is passionate about his beliefs and is beholden to nobody looking to influence them.  To me he is like a breath of fresh air, especially when compared to Hilary who is a classic politician that just happens to have female genitalia.

I think it would be a truly incredible thing to have somebody like Bernie running things but the reality is his continued ranting against the massive money that rules politics today will likely be his ultimate demise.  Even if somehow he could wake enough people up to get to the voting booth to be elected president, how he would be able to implement significant change in the White House when he would still be tasked with dealing with a congress that is filled with bought and paid for politicians whom ultimately do whatever they are paid (under the table) to do by corporate interests.

I can only hope Bernie continues to fight the good fight, refusing to dip into all too typical political mudslinging where the choice is who is the less dirty of the two candidates.  His steadfast, laser focus on issues, and specifically the four decade long descent into corporate control of the federal government that has resulted in the largest income inequality in nearly 100 years is admirable.  2016 is looking to be the most interesting presidential campaigns of my lifetime.

Saturday morning Cindy and I headed out for the nearby track to do some running.  Last week I logged 8 laps around the track, this week I increased it by 25% totaling a little more than 2.5 miles, big woop.  We got out a little later than normal meaning the temperatures were a little warmer than I would have preferred.

On the way back to the house I did a double take when I saw this sign by the side of the road on our street.  I stopped and backed up to take a picture of it.  Evidently somebody was really fed up with residents in our area using their car window as a trash can.   I too have always been annoyed by it but I never had the brilliant idea to post a public service announcement about it using some sharp language to punctuate the point.  I thought it was pretty hilarious.

It immediately made me think of a number of similar signs that would be appropriate on our street like, STOP SPEEDING ASSHOLE, STOP DRIVING ATVS ON THE ROAD ASSHOLE, KEEP YOUR DOGS IN YOUR YARD ASSHOLE,  and STOP HITTING MY MAILBOX ASSHOLE.  I think the signs could easily scale to a national level as well.  Imagine how effective GET A JOB ASSHOLE, LOSE WEIGHT ASSHOLE, or STOP TEXTING ASSHOLE campaigns could be.  I was disappointed that later in the day somebody had stomped the sign down.  I may have to fix/resurrect it.

Cindy and I took advantage of the couple rain free days we just had to get the entire yard mowed.  The front drainage ditches still had some water in them.  I got the tractor stuck in a particularly muddy section.  As I was trying to push it out solo some old guy towing a trailer stopped and helped me push, proving not everyone that lives around me is an asshole.  A lot of the ditch had too much water to mow so I had to knock down a large rectangle of high grass using the weed whacker which is never much fun.

After we got done outside and ate lunch we headed out to go pick up the dogs for a weekend visit. When we got back I had two projects I wanted to work on. The first one was installing my new Ring doorbell.  My existing doorbell, which I had replaced a couple years ago had already developed a hole in the button.

We had already played with the doorbell on Friday night to test it’s capabilities. It is basically a doorbell mated with a networked web cam and infrared sensor. It works like this, someone walks up and presses the big illuminated button.  Once they do an instant alert is sent to whatever devices you have tied into the service.  You are then taken to a live feed of the front door where you can see/hear whomever is there and they can hear you as well.  It allows you to be virtually home from anywhere in the world more or less, able to interact with front door visitors at anytime.

The Ring also has advanced motion detection capabilities which you can tune to your liking.  It not only tracks motion but also heat with it’s infrared sensor to differentiate between inanimate objects and living beings.  Of course cars throw heat so you need to make sure you adjust the set up so every vehicle is not setting off an alert.  If the Ring detects movement it sends you a different sounding alert.  If you accept it you are taken again to the live feed so you can see what is going on.  Even if you miss the notification, when you sign up for Ring’s dirt cheap cloud monitoring ($30 a year), you have recordings of any of these events which you can review whenever. The Ring has a very wide angle camera inside which offers you a GoPro sized field of view in HD resolution.  The two way sound quality has been very good so far in our testing as well.

Installing the Ring was not difficult.  I opted to use a left over piece of 1″ x 6″ as a mounting platform, the uneven surface of stucco wall would have been problematic.  You have two options for powering the Ring.  You can simply pull it off periodically and charge it’s battery via it’s USB port on the back.  You can also use your existing doorbell wiring to power the device which is the option I used.

Of course cool tech is rarely cheap and that is the case with the Ring which sells for $199.  Luckily I had $100 in Amazon bucks to help soften the sticker shock.  Even if I didn’t, for me, it’s worth the two Franklins if you have similar geek bloodlines as I do.

The other project I started was the LED projector in the SSR thing.  I totally was improvising the entire time I was out there.  I found a hole in a cross support that is not a perfect spot but the only workable one without cutting into the supports with industrial strength tools that I do not own.  The plan involved snipping out a small piece of sheet metal, drilling the proper size hole in it and then mounting the projector through that.   Before I finalized the physical install I wanted to verify that tapping into the back up light circuit would work.  The tap connector I bought earlier did not seem to work well for what I needed.  I was unable to get any juice to the projector.  I stopped the project until I could try a different splice connector, similar to what I used on the other side to fire up the back up camera.

Sunday morning we backed up our Saturday run with a Dunkin Donuts bike ride, the first time I paired a run/ride on a weekend in forever.  The westbound ride to DD was especially treacherous, the bike lane was filled with debris.  It was bad enough that when we got back I sent an email to the road maintenance department asking if they could use their street sweeper more regularly on that section of roadway.  Even with me staying back several feet from Cindy I still wound up hitting a couple things.  Luckily none of them hit the tire at the right angle to flat me.

As I watched the Eagles game Cindy was busy running a dog care salon.  She gave Nicki a pretty thorough hair cut with the pet trimmers we bought awhile back.  She then gave both dogs a bath.  It seems like both dogs actually fuss less when we give them a bath outdoors with the hose instead of throwing them into the bath tub.

I was surprised at the way the Eagles game turned out.  In the first half when Sam Bradford threw not one but two interceptions in the Saints end zone, I thought it was the perfect set up for yet another Eagles implosion.  Instead they came out in the second half and put a hurting on the Saints.  The offense all of a sudden seemed viable both on the ground and in the air.  The biggest difference I noticed was the team seemed to be working at a more normal pace, not the Chinese fire drill hurry up style that Chip has built his career on.  Maybe Kelly has realized that proper execution trumps time between plays in the long haul?   If the Birds can keep forward momentum against the Giants next week maybe I will start to believe that Chip actually is capable of changing up his style if circumstances demand it.

Yesterday I posted my first Vines since January.  You may recall when I started Vining a couple years ago I went on a tear, pumping out 7 second videos at a torrid pace.  For no particular reason I can recall I just simply stopped doing them.  Well I popped out a few yesterday.  I am now just short of 200 total Vines, a minuscule amount when compared to regular Viners but a decent number for an old fart.

Yesterday a new addition to my backyard predator deterrent arsenal arrived, an Airsoft gun.  I already have a conventional pump action air rifle which delivers bb’s at a high velocity but inflicts a physical toll on the shooter.  Pumping the gun for the recommended 8-10 times gets tiring pretty quickly.

The CO2 cartridge powered BB hand gun I bought Cindy doesn’t require pumping but the cartridges seem to get depleted pretty quickly and gave inconsistent accuracy.  One of the disadvantages of both guns in this situation is a metal BB shot at high velocity could potentially injure or even kill a smaller animal which is not my goal at all.

A couple people recommended the Airsoft guns as a good choice for this role.  It shoots larger, plastic bb’s at a lower velocity that may sting and annoy an animal but should not cause any permanent harm.  It’s spring loaded firing mechanism is a nice compromise between pump action and the Co2 cartridges.  You pull back a handle that cocks the spring once and you are ready to fire.  This morning before work I set the gun up and did a few test fires and showed Cindy the basics.  I think the Airsoft gun may be the exclamation point we need to convince chicken predators that they need to move elsewhere.

I left work early yesterday to get on site for race set up.  I came into an issue early on when I realized the cord that is used to connect the mic to the portable PA system we use for the start line was broken.  I racked my brain for a quick solution and realized I could use the wireless mic I had in the box if I could find a fresh set of batteries.  Luckily there was an Advance Auto a few doors down that I scored a pack of AA’s from, problem solved.

I spent over an hour and a half creating team packets for the event.  In each packet was the bibs for each team, the pins needed to attach them and a team roster list which had team member names and their assigned bib number.  Well before the race we had a bunch of people coming up with some issues.  Despite my work, more often than not these people were not wearing the bib number that was assigned to them, illustrating exactly why we stopped making this race chip timed.

In total there were over 900 people that signed up for the race, smashing the old record of around 650.  The layout was not ideal for that amount of people, especially before the race where you just had mobs of people blocking any direction you wanted to travel.  Since the race wasn’t chip timed, after we got done with the hectic pre-race scene things calmed down.  My main responsibility shifted to just producing a report of the the three largest team rosters and taping the finishers on my GoPro.

I even was able to enjoy a tofu burrito late in the festivities thanks to Cindy scoring us a couple.  More often than not in years past the food would be all gone by the time I got a chance to look for it.  We got off site a little after 8 o’clock which wasn’t bad.  I felt disgusting after sweating non-stop while the sun was out and not being able to wash my hands at all after handling tons of dirty race equipment.  A shower was very welcomed.

This weekend we have normal yard maintenance to handle but I have some ancillary side projects that I would like to get checked off the list, including hopefully install the LED projector on the SSR.  We also will be picking up the dogs on Saturday to hang for the rest of the weekend which is always a good way to add some smiles.  Exercise-wise I have an ambitious plan of running on Saturday and biking on Sunday.